Which candidate I support...

Which candidate I support is not as important as the fact that I'll be out there supporting a candidate and voting.

I support the American way, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I don't believe happiness needs to be handed to everyone, nor that everyone deserves a chance to be rich, only that no undeserved obstacles be placed in the path of people. I believe that all men are created equal and it is how you live your life from then on that determines where you stand in this world. I believe that capitalism is a good thing and socialism is the absolute worst evil ever created by greedy people trying to take what they did not earn.

I am a very vocal person and will stand up and state my beliefs about philosophy, god, religions. I will answer any controversial topic with a personal one on one conversation about what I believe and why I have come to that belief.

I don't believe that anyone should believe something simply because that's what they were told. Each person should consider what they hear and weigh those facts with the rest of the knowledge that they have to determine if it is plausible even. Nothing should be believed blindly...Nothing.

I don't mind that there are thousands of people coming out and stating who they are voting for. The sad and disappointing fact is that a majority of the reason I see people supporting a candidate is that the candidate is running for the party they have always supported, or because of the person's race. I have sadly seen too many people claim to be voting in this election based on race for both sides.

What I believe most of all though, is that each of us, all American citizens, have a great priviledge living in this country. We have freedoms of speech and religion. We have rights to bear arms, and to drink (which was once taken from us). But we also have responsibilities. We owe it to the world to lead in all ways that make a great capitalism democracy great. We owe it to ourselves to not spend more than we make, individually or as a nation. We owe it to those companies that do offer us money when we don't have it to pay them back when we have taken advantage of their benefits beyond our means. Not repaying our debts is part of what causes those companies to need to move their operations overseas in order to cut costs. Our national debt may soon cause some of the same problems at a much larger scale.

As Americans we have great prosperity. We have computers, and TVs and fast food, and cars, and so many ways to entertain ourselves that it's bizarre to think about.

We owe our country a debt. We need to pay our taxes. And we need to vote. I have a feeling that this election will be the one with the most participation in American history. That's great, but it's only a start. All elections should be that way.

Every year you should take the time to know what's going on in your local community and support it, or vote againt it, but you should vote every year. It takes a small investment of your time to have your say in this country that provides so many great things for you. You owe it that.

Washington Redskins predict Obama Wins

With the bizarre presidential prediction of the Washington Redskins final home game before an election, they have lost indicating that Barak Obama will indeed win the race for the white house. Considering that he's been leading by as much as he has been for the past few weeks it won't be a shock when he wins, what will be a shock is that 18 out of the last 19 elections have been predicted correctly by the Redskins play.

This finally begs the question. Are the Redskins throwing games when the polls show the other party is leading?

Book Review: Benjamin Franklin

I've read a few biographies of the founders of our nation, as I continue to read these I find myself somewhat disenfranchised by the truth of what these people were and did from the romanticised versions of them that I had in my mind. These men were not the demi-gods that even Thomas Jefferson claimed that they were, yet the same small group of men had the biggest impact on the history of the nation.

Now I'm more pragmatic than I was in my younger days, it's the actual details of things that they did and the struggles that they faced that I admire over the romantic views that I held of them as a younger man.

Benjamin Franklin is a pragmatist, like myself, an extremely inventive and scientific person, and probably the biggest single influence on the structure of the government with which we live in today. He is the only individual to have signed and worked on The Declaration of Independence. The Treaty with France which won us the Revolutionary War, the Peace treaty with Britain to end the war, and the Constitution of the United States. I believe that the reason that our country has done so well since it's founding is that these documents and all that they stand for were shaped by this man who was born poor in Boston and ran away from home at the age of 17 to Philadelphia. This man who started and ran his own printing shop, and started with nothing, yet he dined with Kings.

Benjamin Franklin is not the person I want to be like as a family man, or even with his friendships in general, since they were shallow and short in most cases. However, he was very passionate about helping people in general and in giving the common man power in government. It's that passion that has made America strong and keeps it strong.

I definitely recommend this book. I hope you read and enjoy it.

Expectations

What do you expect of yourself, of your co-workers, of your boss?

I have come up with a list that has worked well for me for the past several years.

Things I expect of myself and my co-workers:

1. Work hard to get the job completed in a timely manner.
2. Self improvement. Continue learning and educating myself on things I am using and those that I will need to use.
3. Offer ideas to improve anything I can think of for either in the team or outside the team.
4. Learn from past mistakes
5. Communicate status, issues, and successes in a timely manner.
   

Things I expect of my boss:

1. Honest feedback and open communication.
2. Career development and guidance.
3. Balanced assignments. I should always have work to do, but not be overloaded.
4. Support me. Stick up for me.
5. Offer opportunities for me to grow.
6. Be prepared.

You cannot control the things that you expect of your boss. You can communicate those thoughts and let her know what you expect.

Book Review: Sun Certified Programmer for Java 5

Sun Certified Programmers for Java 5 is a good book that covers all of the topics that are on the test. I both took the class from Sun and I read the book. The book covers everything the class covers but for a lot less. I definitely suggest buying the book as your study guide for certification if you plan on taking the class.