Thursday, October 16, 2008

Renovating Joe's (Joey's) Website Again

Almost a year has passed since Joe's Website was reopened with a new style. It was very refreshing from the old, dull style that I introduced a year before. I really enjoyed the new style, as it used a template, which organized things very nicely and had a much better color scheme than anything I could have done myself. I still had some work to do to get the website completely up and running, but for the time being, the website looked nice.

In March 2008, I started to get back to work on Joe's Website and started to edit information on my interests and opinions and other such things. However, I got discouraged from working on the site when a picture I uploaded didn't appear and when the template didn't look exactly the same from one page to the other. I would have liked to use the template as a frame - so that I can go from the home page to the opinions page, etc. without having to make multiple copies of the template. Unfortunately, I do not know much programming, and I have heard some bad things about frames anyway, so right now, I am in the middle of trying to take the formatting mess that is now my website and shape it into an appealing, organized website. I don't know what I am going to do now exactly - I have looked through several free templates but can't find one that I like a whole lot. I really like the style of the template I'm using now, but as I said, I don't like how I have to copy it to multiple pages. I wish I could edit that one template so that if I change something on the template on one page, I don't have to go back to all the other pages and change it there.

Oh, and I put "Joey's" in parentheses because as of today, I am renaming Joe's Website as Joey's Website.

The Upcoming Election: McCain or Obama?

Well, on November 4th, 2008, the big Presidential election is scheduled to take place, and I am quite excited. I am planning to vote for the one man I never thought I'd vote for in a million years: Barack Obama. Honestly, I can't stand the guy for the most part, but I despise McCain because if he gets elected, we're never going to get out of Iraq, and our economy is going to continue to deteriorate. I would much rather vote for a third party candidate, but people have been telling me that I'd be wasting a vote, so I figure what the heck. My friend persuaded me to vote for McCain at one point about a month ago. He said he didn't like him either, but it was better than putting Obama - the potential Anti-Christ, in office. I agreed with him to some extent, but only a few weeks later, I had second thoughts. I couldn't bear the thought of having McCain in office. His presidency would mean just more of the same: a crumbling economy, an ongoing war, and so many more problems. Even though I hate Obama, I feel that he needs to be in office right now.

Ever since the beginning of this year when I took Government and when I registered to vote, I have been eager to vote for whom I thought would best represent our country. However, when I finally decided on somebody that I liked the best, it turned out to be none of the main contenders. The man that I wanted for President was none other than Ron Paul.

I hated a lot of the other candidates. Huckabee, Romney, Giuliani, and many other Republicans supported the ongoing and disasterous war, while candidates like Clinton and Obama had certain quirks about them that I didn't like. Obama in particular I hated greatly. I didn't understand why everybody was so cukoo over him. He got elected to the Senate in '04, big deal, but guess what? I remember seeing on TV how there was this HUGE celebration about it. When I first heard of him, I never really hated him, although as I said, I didn't understand why everyone was clamoring over him. People seemed to think of him as some god or something, but I didn't see how he was any different than most politicians and how he compared to some of our country's "heroic" ones (i.e. Ronald Reagan, Abe Lincoln, etc.) As time passed, I began to dislike him.

When I took Government earlier in the year, we were to research the candidates and learn about their viewpoints on key issues. When I looked through Obama's viewpoints, I found that not many of them particularly stood out from other politicians. However, one of his stances I found absolutely appalling. On one site, he was reported to have said regarding abortion that if one of his children got an unplanned pregnancy, he would not want them to bear a child as punishment. I couldn't believe my eyes - that was just plain sickening! The man didn't just support a woman's right to get an abortion - he actually supported abortion itself it seemed! Don't get me wrong, I 100% support the woman's right to have abortions, but I feel that they are still quite gruesome and in a sense disrespectful to life and should be prevented as much as possible. Many abortions appear to come about as a result of irresponsibility. Hillary Clinton said that she wanted to make sure that abortions were legal, safe, and RARE in the next century. THAT'S the kind of attitude we need - not, "Oh, I got pregnant as a result of irresponsibility, I'm just gonna kill a potential sweet, loving child" - primarily in regard to late term abortions. The earlier abortions I don't think are as bad because the fetus has not really formed into a complete human yet, but one has to agree without a shadow of a doubt that a baby in the third trimester is pretty much a human on its way out. Anyway, I couldn't believe what Obama said. It wasn't just that, but I thought of him as a possible Anti-Christ. Rumors circulated about him being a terrorist and a Muslim, and while I didn't exactly believe those things, I still felt that Obama could betray us. To me, he also seemed arrogant. The guy was in Atlanta a few months back, and he charged about $10,000 for a picture with him - for his fundraiser! Come on! The guy has got TONS of support - he does not need to charge $10,000!

Anyway, when it finally came down to McCain, Obama, or Hillary, who did I choose? None of the above. I chose Mr. Ron Paul, as I really felt he was exactly the kind of guy we needed in the White House. His political viewpoints were almost exactly like mine. He was against the Iraq War and abortion, yet he supported gay rights for the most part and small government. He had a strong moral fiber that I really liked, and he seemed like a warm, caring man. The drawback to Ron Paul, though, was that although he was running as a Republican, he was more or less like a third party candidate. Ron Paul did not carry nearly enough delegates to be the nominee unfortunately.

For a great portion of the year, I still supported Ron Paul for President despite the fact that he had little support in the main polls and he dropped out of the race sometime in March. Around August or September, however, after my friend "ridiculed" me for planning to write in somebody who wasn't even running, I decided to vote for someone who was running and for someone who had a much better chance of getting elected than Ron Paul: Ralph Nader. I don't agree with Nader on issues like gun control and abortion, but I set those differences in opinions aside. The thing I like about Nader is that he seems like the kind of guy that would get things done in office and not play politics - just the kind of guy we need. However, my friend kept insisting that Nader wouldn't get elected and said I shouldn't waste my vote. To me, however, it wasn't a matter of voting for the winner - it was voting for the person that I felt would best represent the country.

Nonetheless, I decided against voting for third party candidates a few weeks later, and my friend convinced me to vote for McCain. However, only a few weeks passed, and I was having second thoughts about planning to vote for McCain. Finally, I decided enough was enough - I was going to vote for Obama - despite how much I hate him and how much I don't understand why the guy is so popular. As I've said before, it's either elect a man who's surely going to put us through the same misery as Bush or elect somebody who's at least got a shot at making things better. As one of my friends said, even if Obama screws us over, our country's already in Hell, so it wouldn't matter anyway. As much as I hate to say it, I feel that our country needs Barack Obama, so that is why I plan to vote for him in the upcoming election.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Ignore the Previous Post

On July 15th, I voted in the primaries, and my voting information turned up. After writing a letter explaining the situation with my voter's registration, I was finally mailed a card with my name on it. Later, I checked the internet, and as it turned out, there apparently was a record of my registration that had been entered. I guess in that case all it took was a simple letter to straighten things out. I can be quite crazy at times.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

You can't do anything in this country anymore

I registered to vote on January 29th, and since then, I never got a voter registration/precinct card. Last Friday, I called the voter's office, and they said they'd send me a new card. So today, I found a card in the mail, but unfortunately, it was not my card. I decided to go online and check to see if my state had a search feature that would allow me to see if I was registered to vote. Fortunately, they did. I typed in my information, but nothing turned up!!!

The search site said that voter information was updated monthly, so if your information doesn't turn up, it could be because you just recently registered. I registered to vote over two months ago, and I am still not listed in the database! I swear, you can't do anything in this country anymore. You can't even do something as simple as register to vote!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

2008 Presidential Election

Since about late 2007, I have been a supporter of Ron Paul, primarily because some of my online friends liked him, which influenced me to support him as well. I thought Ron Paul seemed like a very nice, warm man who would hopefully do many good things for our country. I liked his conservative nature, and I liked how he considered himself a true conservative as opposed to neocons like George W. Bush.

Unfortunately, I found out yesterday that Ron Paul had "dropped out" of the race. I figured it would happen eventually. Although Ron Paul was popular online, he didn't seem to have much support elsewhere. About a week ago, I decided that I would probably just vote for John McCain anyway because I really would not like Obama to be president. I just can't believe how popular Obama is. He seems to have very little experience, and he seems very untrustworthy. I think he very well could be one of the anti-Christs we will see in the future. He is very popular, which is frightening, considering that he hasn't really done much to get so popular. I first heard about him in 2004 when he became a senator for Illinois. People were making such a huge deal over him, and afterwards, people were talking about him becoming president. I was baffled because I didn't know much about him and why people were making so much of a big deal over him. I think Obama could possibly trying to lure people into supporting him, and then, once he becomes president, he may turn on America and not fulfill his promises. But then again, it may not happen, and Obama could turn out to be a great president. Even so, I am not going to vote for Obama, and I feel safer casting my vote for McCain.

My Dog Holly's Death

I regret to say that yesterday, on March 14, 2008, my dog Holly was put to sleep at a very young age as a result of an accident she got into while she was on her way to the vet's for a routine checkup.

From April 1997 to February 2007, I had a really great dog named Ginger. Unfortunately, her health was in decline, and she soon suffered massive bleeding attacks. Eventually, we had to put her to sleep. Losing her was very sad because she had been in our family for such a long time, and she was a really nice dog. Things did not seem the same without her for a while.

In December, I happened to come across some free puppies that were offered. They happened to be part Beagle and part Labrador Retriever. Concidentally, I had been talking about how I liked the appearance of Beagles, so it was funny that I found some puppies that were both Beagle and Labrador Retriever (the breed we were initially looking for). The dogs weren't exactly what we were looking for, but I thought it would be a great opportunity to jump on. Free dogs that were part Beagle and part Lab. What a strange coincidence! We were initially looking for a yellow lab, but eventually, we decided that one of these dogs would be nice.

I picked out one of the dogs, and we took her home. Her original name was Ashley, but with time, we eventually renamed her to Holly. We had no idea how much of a nightmare she would turn out to be. Upon arriving home, the dog whined and bayed very loudly. It was extremely annoying, and it seemed no matter what we did to try to get her to calm down, she wouldn't stop. We assumed that she was just scared and nervous that she was in a new place, but by the next day, she was still doing it as loudly and frequently as ever. By the third day, I had gotten so fed up with her that I almost wanted to take her back to her old owners. She wasn't even the type of dog we were initially looking for anyway. Unfortunately, I didn't want to "discriminate" against a dog. I felt that every dog needed a loving home. I realize that eventually, someone would come along and give her a good home, but the point is, if someone else could put up with her constant screeching and baying, we could too. Fortunately, things did get better on the third day. She did seem to whine a little less, but she was still pretty bad about it. About a month later, she rarely screeched to the extent that she did when we first got her. I was glad that I decided to keep her.

Indeed, she really was a nice dog. She was quite different from Ginger, though. Ginger, for one thing, was a little more particular about the things she ate, whereas Holly would eat just about anything - even feces! Holly also seemed a lot more stubborn than Ginger and was determined to chew up whatever she wanted. This was one of the things we didn't like about Holly. She also got into the garbage a lot and spread everything out. She was also bad at nipping at peoples' clothes, which got to be very annoying. Also for a while, she was not housebroken and would have accidents in the house. With time, though, she got much better about it and did not have accidents as often. But with the exception of the negative things, Holly was a good dog. I liked how she seemed really excited to see me when I came home. She'd jump up on me and made cute sounds. Also, she was a cute, small puppy and how she acted feminine. Sometimes, she would put her front paws together while sitting upright, and it looked really cute. What I thought was also cute was that she leaned against the wall often. It looked adorable! She also had a cute face and looked innocent and meek. Sometimes, though, she was a troublemaker, and in order to avoid "punishment," she ran away and had a sneaky expression on her face while doing so. Even so, I think she was a great dog.

Everything went well until just yesterday. Holly had broken her leg - apparently from falling - and after taking her to the emergency clinic, it was determined that it would cost thousands of dollars to have her treated. Her broken leg was serious and was above the growth plate. As much as we hated to do it, we just couldn't afford spending money to treat Holly. We decided, as much as it was painful to us, to have her euthanized. Just before she was euthanized, I saw her one last time. I didn't even see her face-to-face, but I stroked her back and then left. Upon returning home, I was really sad about what had happened and wished that the treatment for Holly wouldn't be so expensive. She was really a great dog, and it was a shame to cut a young life so short. She was cute, innocent, and adorable. After thinking about an adorable picture of Holly, I realized that what had happened was extremely saddening. I was really sad, and like Ginger's death, things haven't been the same without Holly.

I would just like to say that I really miss Holly and wish that nothing bad had happened to her. I wish that she hadn't been put to sleep and that she would remain perfectly healthy and could live many long years. Holly is in a better place now, hopefully where she will be very happy and never again feel pain. I love you, Holly. May you rest in peace.