Bottom Feeders and Barrack

-Online contribution to Barack Obama, $5.
-Dinner for five with Senator Obama and the opportunity to ask him anything under the sun, priceless.

No I didn't win this latest fundraising gimmick run by the Obama '08 campaign, but the mere thought of winning threw me for a loop. What would I say if the senator sat across from me and wanted to hear what was on my mind, what pressing issues do we need to tackle in the here and now? The truth is that I don't know, and that scares me. Not because I can't formulate positions and prioritize needs (because for the most part I'd like to think I have), but because aside from the mainstream political agenda, I don't have My Own agenda. That is to say, aside from the media-driven socially-reinforced jaugernaught agendas of Iraq, immigration, and (finally) climate change, among select others, I don't know what's good for ME. There are a plethora of issues that impact my life much more so than these vote-getting hot button issues, but what are they? In a string theory driven parallel universe where poltics really is micro and really is untainted by carefully scripted messages, what would I ask for? The fact of the matter is that most of us are bottom feeders who rake in news long after it has floated down through the many layers of social and poltical filters. In many ways this isn't such a bad thing for our globalized world - a well informed fishy that knows the tides is probably gonna get along better with other schools of fishy in the long run. But what this fundraising gimmick reminded me of is that in this unprecedented era of pre-campaigning for the actual pre-election year campaign (whew) we need to be careful not to be so quickly herded into the nicely pre-packaged campaign corners that the polticos want us in, rather, take a step back, breathe, and think about what really matters to You. I'm happy to discuss what matters to Me offline, but not here in China:).

FYI-"Americans in China for Obama" gathering tonight at the Bookworm, 7pm.

March 2007 Trip to Hanoi, Vietnam

Sorry it's taken me so long to get these pics out, classes ended last week and I'm just now starting to find the time to work on my travel pics. I had such an amazing time with everyone in this video and I wish I could still be there now.
*Video was made with Studio 10 Mediasuite, first time using it.