Fix it Friday #81 - I Heart Faces

Another Fix-it-Friday, another late entry.

This week's Fix-it-Friday challenge over at iHeartFaces was this lovely couple, enjoying each other's company in a nice woodsy setting. I have to admit, I'm a little jealous of them as I'd much rather be hanging out with them instead of suffering through this New Year's Day cold, staring out the window at the windblown rain. However, since my terrible plight won't help anyone learn any Photoshop tricks, let's move on to the photo...

The original image looked a little cold to me. She looks as though she's clinging to him not in affection, but instead she's looking for a little warmth since she decided to opt for the light-weight but pretty jacket instead of the sensible and warm wool jacket that he's wearing. Let's see if we can take her chill away and perhaps impart more of a sense of passion instead of a slight chill.

Here's the "fixed" image. Now, instead of "I feel so cold. Hold me to the end," it imparts more of a "I'm sorry Steve, I should have realized that it was your last beer before I drank it. I can't afford to lose you. Please forgive me. I'll never do it again." (I figure that it has to be an apology, since she's clinging to passionately to him while he's apparently weighing his options.)

Now, to take the goose bumps out of the equation and let Steve decide if she's worth keeping, or if the beer was the last straw.

First and foremost, copy the background into a new layer by dragging the "background" layer onto the "new layer" icon in the layers panel and hide the bottom-most layer. This will protect your original image in case you really screw things up, or if you need an un-doctored copy for a new layer later on. I consider this step number one for every image that I work with. If I could make Photoshop automatically do this every time I start a new project, I would. Now that I think about it, I'm not even going to consider this "step one" since it should be required.

Keeping that in mind, the first thing I did was create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to desaturate the image some and give it a sepia overtone. I set the Hue at 44 (for a light brown color) the Saturation at 25 and left the lightness at 0. I took the opacity of the adjustment layer down to 62% to bring some of the original colors back into the image since I wanted more of a colorization instead of a monotone.

Desaturating the image took away some of the contrast between the subjects and the background as it was the green of the foliage that separated the two in the original. To counteract that, I added a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and set the Brightness to -21 and the Contrast too 100. This layer was then put between the image and the Hue/Sat layer.

The background seemed to be a little too distracting with all the busy branches and leaves, so I gaussian blurred the entire image with a radius of 10 pixels. "Wait, the entire image?" you ask. Yep. "Doesn't that give you blurry people too?" Yep. Remember how we're working on a copy of the image, and how we saved the untouched original background image? Something like that would come in pretty handy right about now, wouldn't it? See where I'm going with this..?

I made another copy of the bottom-most (hidden) layer and dragged it to the top of the layer stack. Presto, un-blurred people. Now to cut them out so we can see the magic that I previously worked on the background. Knowing that I was going to reduce the image size by 80% after I was done, I wasn't too worried about the absolute precision of the cut-out since any roughness would be lost when I shrunk the image. I used the pen tool to outline the couple, switched from the "Layers" panel to the "Paths" panel by clicking the tab at the top of the panel, then right clicked "Work Path" thumbnail and chose "Make Selection." Switching back to the "Layers" panel, I clicked the "Add Layer Mask" icon at the bottom of the panel. This hid the background and left our subjects, un-blurred and untouched by the adjustment layers below them. I renamed this layer "people" by double clicking the layer name.

Unfortunately, we now have a cold couple, sticking out like sore thumbs on a nice background. To remedy this, I added another Hue/Saturation adjustment layer on top of the couple and clicking "Ok." Since I didn't want this adjustment to effect the background layers, I linked it to the "people" layer by Alt-Clicking the line between the adjustment layer and the "people" layer. Double clicking the black and white circle on the newest Hue/Sat layer will bring up the adjustment options. I set the Hue at 44 to bring the couple into the color range of the background and left Saturation at 50 and Lightness at 0.

I still wasn't happy with how distracting the background was, so I added a vignette. "Adding a vignette" sounds difficult, but in reality, it's just darkening the edges of an image. Sounds fancy, looks good and easy to do. Nice. I selected the blurred background image, clicked the "Filter" menu at the top of the screen, and went to Distort>Lens Correction. I set the Vignette amount to about -74 and the Midpoint to about +34. Wanting to pull the background just a bit farther in to the, well, background, I added a linked Hue/Saturation layer to the background image and set the Saturation to -72. Now, I know that I could have probably tweaked the other Hue/Sat layer for a while to get the same look, but I found it easier to just add this additional adjustment layer to focus on getting the background saturation just right.

Since the final use of this image was for the web, I wanted to save space and speed up the loading for my viewers. I reduced the image size to 20% and made sure that it was at 72 dpi. This is a step that I notice that a lot of bloggers don't consider when they upload their pictures. Unfortunately, this leads to extremely long load-times for their pages as they're usually pretty picture-heavy. Leaving pictures at full size and full resolution can easily lead to pictured that are 3 megabytes or larger. Multiply that times however many pictures there are per page and all the sudden it takes a blog post several minutes to load instead of just a few seconds. For example, the original image that I downloaded, at full size was over 5 megabytes which could take up to seven minutes to download over an average internet connection like you might have at your home. Resizing the image brought that down to just under 2Mb, instantly cutting that download time in half.

Reducing the image size also hid the cruddy job I did when I cut out the subjects to separate them from the background. This was pre-planned and intentional.

To save the image for posting to the web, I went to File>Save for Web and Devices and used the following compression settings: JPEG, Optimized, High and Quality 60. Looking at the side-by side comparison of the original and compressed images, the compressed image didn't show enough artifacting to degrade the image, even though it reduced the file size to 68kb and download time to about six seconds.

Now with the chill gone, focus brought back to our couple and everything shrunk down to a more manageable size, our buddy Steve has been able to make his decision. After all, even though she drank his last good beer, she was wise enough to check the weather and see that the weather would warm up enough that she didn't need a heavy wool jacket to keep comfortable. Besides, he's never found a girl that's willing to put up with his buddies and let him watch football without complaining. Who knew that a little Photoshopping could save a relationship?

Fix It Friday #71

Back again with another Fix-It-Friday from iheartfaces.

Today's subject: a guy and his truck.

First, the original:

And here's the "There, I fixed it" version:

To fake the depth of field, I used two masks to blend two blurred layers into the original image. All three layers got a yellow-orange color overlay adjustment layer set to "color burn" which added contrast while pulling out the reds to warm the image some. For a top layer, I added a photo filter adjustment layer to warm things up even more.

Fix-It-Friday (Honestly! It was still Friday when I fixed it!)

I found out about Fix-It-Friday on I Heart Faces tonight while reading a friend's FaceBook post and decided to go check it out. All in all, it's pretty simple. They provide a picture, you "fix" it, post it in your blog then link back to their site. It sounded fun and I'm always looking for a way to stay in touch with Photoshop.

Not wanting to taint any creative juices, I opted to not view anyone else's submissions until mine was complete. The few I've had a chance to look through since all seemed to trend toward the vintage, desaturated look and honestly, that was the direction I headed at first too. Apparently this photo says "make me vintage-esque." In the end however, I went the other direction and pushed the saturation, added some glow and warmed the whole thing up a touch.

Original image:

My "fixed" version:

I opted to just stick with the tools native to CS3 since they suggested including a tutorial. Photoshop has so much available right within the program, I think that a lot of people overlook what is possible without the use of third party plugins. This was just a couple copies of the original image and a couple quick blending mode and transparency changes with a free brush texture over top of it to created the vignette. In total, there are three image layers and three adjustment layers.

On the bottom of the layer stack is the untouched original image. (It's always best to keep the original and screw up... I mean "work on" copies.)

Above that is a copy of the image that I added a gaussian blur to, with a radius of 3.9 pixels (different values will be needed for different pictures). This will be the base of our glow effect. The blending mode was changed to "Overlay" and the transparency set at 70% (again, different picture, different settings. the technique is the same though).

Above the copy layer is where the glow magic really happens. I added a "Levels" layer style and linked it so that it affects only the blurred layer. On the adjustment layer, I tweaked only the right-most slider, pulling it down to 207 to bring in a bit of a glow to the highlights of the image. (To link the layers, I used a trick that I didn't learn until years into my Photoshopping forays. Make sure that the adjustment layer is directly above the layer that you want to be effected by it, then hold down ALT and click on the line in between those two layers in the layer window. Voila! The upper adjustment layer now ignores all the other layers in your project and only changes what's on the layer that it's linked to.)

Another "Levels" adjustment layer went on top of that, left unlinked so as to affect the entire image. The left-most slider (the black point) was brought up to 61, the mid-point was brought up to 0.48 and the right-most slider (the white point) was brought down to 250. This really richened the green of the grass and pushed the whites to be a bit brighter.

At this point, the image felt a little too cold. I added a "Photo Filter" adjustment layer (again, unlinked) with the Warming Filter 85 setting at a density of 82%. No more frostbite!

Finally, I added a vignette with a simple click of a paint brush. I a brush from the collection "Old Paper Brushes III" by lailomeiel over at deviantart.com. I resized the brush to encompass the entire page, flipped it on the "Y" axis and clicked once. I set the opacity to 58% and called the whole thing done.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with my first Fix-It-Friday, even though the actual submission isn't happening until about 4am on Saturday. Maybe next week I'll have a chance to start sooner and make it all happen on Friday like it's supposed to!

Whoa, where have I been?

I just realized that it's been 14 months since I last posted. I've had little to say during that time, and less to write. I'm still unemployed and my unemployment has run out. Beth has joined me in the ranks, having been laid off two weeks ago now.

As bad as that is, we're looking for the silver lining on the grey cloud that's hanging over us. We've been talking off and on about moving out of the area, out of the state. We're now at the point that we have no obligations holding us here. Now's the time to do it, and why not? California's currently hanging at the bottom of the barrel as far as the unemployment rate is concerned and frankly, it's freaking expensive to live here in the Bay Area. If you ask me, that's just some bad math, no matter how you look at it.

Our solution? Let's look north. Way north. Portland, Oregon north. Maybe even farther, who knows? If all goes according to plan, I'll be heading to Oregon to look for employment and possibly a place to live.

Why Oregon? Ready for a random list?
It's not too far away so that Nick will still get to see his grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins on occasion.

Christmas visits with the families will still be very doable.

The cost of living is better than here.

We might actually be able to afford to buy a house some day.

Oregon has some really beautiful country.

Honestly, I'm a little tired of the Bay Area. I've been here all but a year of my life and I'd like to experience something new and different.

My biggest concern is how much Nick is going to miss going over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Right now, he can (and does) invite himself over to spend the night at least once ever other week. We've started talking about moving, finding a new apartment, him getting a new room, meeting new friends... I've yet to bring up the fact that he'll have to leave things behind; the kids downstairs, weekly trips to Grandma's pool... That's going to be hard and frankly, I'm not looking forward to it.

Keep us in your prayers as we look for new jobs and a new place to live in a new part of the country.

We'll call it an adventure. That sounds more fun than "hauling all our junk a long ways away and trying to sort it out on the other side in hopes that something better is there waiting for us." :)

Zilch safe!

After many harrowing hours, Andrew Zilch has reported in safe and sound. Not willing to release any details, Zilch posted this on Twitter:

I'm happy to report, Rob, that I managed to live thru the night.

After several years of counseling, the terrible night may fade into a distant, even happy memory.

Unsubstantiated reports include a possible mission of mercy to rescue a tribe of Ewoks held captive by television host Stephen Colbert and a related favor being called in by Billy D. "Lando Calrissian" Williams and excessive use of a power known only as "the Force."

Web star Andrew Zilch missing!

Rising web star, Andrew Zilch went missing this evening around 9 p.m., shortly after posting the following message via twitter:

Homeless "prophet" just told me to "watch it, there's going to be trouble tonight." If this is my last ever tweet, I loved you all.

Several attempts were made to contact the unnamed homeless "prophet," but after interviewing no less than ten messiahs, three reincarnations of Ghandi and one naked hippie, no leads were uncovered.

Zilch gained his fame portraying several characters on several webseries shows including runawaybox's "Elevator," "Man in the box" and his own YouTube channel "ZilchZone." Investigations are rapidly closing in on suspects, including some cast members of the runawaybox troupe and television host Stephen Colbert whom Zilch has recently publicly admonished for unethical treatment of Ewoks.

Andrew... Marty... We've loved you too and pray foryour safe return.

I hate the sensationalistic media

I am currently being reminded why I don't waste my money on cable television, or even a TV antenna for that matter.

I'm at my parents' house, borrowing their washing machine while they're out of town. (Hi Mom and Dad!). While the washing machine is running, I'm watching TV and have landed on "Weird, True and Freaky" on Animal Planet.

I was thinking that it would be an informative program about uncommon animals. Not in the least bit, at least not this episode. This is about wild animals who have wandered into human inhabited areas, cities, towns, etc. 'The most astonishing animal intruders."

The first segment showed a coyote who had found his way into downtown Chicago and took refuge in the beverage cooler in a Quizno's sandwich shop. While it was an odd situation, the way that the program portrayed the incident leads only to further misconceptions about wildlife.

Yes, it was odd that the animal would behave in such a way, and that the animal may have been ill and that illness may have caused it to behave in a way abnormal to its typical behavior. It is also true that any wild animal should be considered dangerous and should not be handled. However, this coyote is obviously NOT the bloodthirsty killer that the show portrayed it as.

What annoyed me was the repeated reminders that the coyote has "four inch long, razor sharp teeth capable of the same biting pressure of a leopard," and pointing out that the animal "loses control and goes into a rampage" as the animal control officer looped the catch pole loop around its head, the shortened video clips that have had added effects to make them more scary and the ominous music playing in the background.

The same held true for the next segment about some bats that had gotten stuck in an office building. "Who would want to share a cubicle with blood-sucking vampires?" Liberal use of three video clips add to the horror, especially the one of the lady swinging an umbrella and letting out a shriek as a bat flies around her office. What they don't show as often is the end of the clip where she ducks down under her desk with the umbrella above her head. Why not? Because she's obviously NOT terrified... She's - get this - laughing.

Another terrifying moment was the kangaroo running rampant in an Australian neighborhood. The 'roo escapes an attempt to net him "and when we slow down the footage you can see the moment of impact" when the terrified animal "sends an innocent child crashing to the ground." An innocent child, mind you, that should have been kept out of the way of the animal control officers so they could to their jobs. After all, if you watch close, the officer almost tripped over the kid and that's most likely what let the kangaroo escape in the first place, "shredding the officer's clothes" (read, tore the back of his shirt open).

So, basically this show may convince me to completely avoid watching Animal Planet ever again. Why such a firm stand on something that seems so trivial? This is just one example of the direction that our media has gone. Sensationalism is so much the norm now that it's becoming the "truth." If it's not sensational, the media will not cover it. There's nothing "exciting" about soldiers in the Middle East bring running water, electricity and sewage systems to communities who have never had such modern conveniences before. Nor is a truckload of books being delivered to a school that is now allowing girls to attend for the first time. Watch the news for a moment, however and you will be inundated with the number of attacks that have occurred agains our soldiers and the body count of innocent people who were killed in a suicide bombing of a local bazaar.

I believe that there HAS to be more good things happening throughout the wolrd every day that sould be reported. Wouldn't it be awesome if more people were exposed to good deeds than bad? What sort of impact would that have on the world if we were fed positive images, ideas and thoughts than negative ones? Could it not get more people thinking "hey, what could I could do make a difference?"

So stop for a moment and think: shouldn't it be newsworthy that little Jimmy helped Mrs. Jones cross the street or that the Smiths just baked a cake to welcome the new family into the neighborhood? How can we take back the media and create something positive?

Up

Beth and I had a date-day on Saturday. Grandma kidnapped Nick after taking us to the Farmer's Market (and buying us all kinds of goodies!) and I decided that we'd take advantage of it... A movie... dinner... shopping... She deserved it. I think that she enjoyed it just a little bit too. :) I know I did.

We went to see Pixar's new film, "Up" in "Disney 3-D" (which to me looks a LOT like everyone else's 3-D, but who am I to judge?). I decided that no matter how cool it was to have things flying off of the screen and land in your lap, it was extremely UNcool for them to make you wear glasses and then make you cry in them at least three times.

Yeah, I know I'm a softie and I cry at movies, but if you don't sniffle at least twice, you're heart is at least ten sizes too small. The worst part of it was that just as you get dird up and your glasses cleaned off, they started back into the sniffle-inducing stuff again.

I think they planned for it though. I noticed that the shots that most of the audience would be busy wiping down their lenses were relatively flat, meaning that you were able to see just fine without the glasses. I doubt that was a coinsidense. Thank you Pixar for that at least.

Was the movie good? Of course it was. Pixar has done nothing if they've not produced excellent films. Every one raising the bar just that much higher. Beth pointed out that there was about 10 minutes early in the film with no dialog at all. What was amazing was that the audience was so enraptured by the performance on the screen that even the kids in the theatre were absolutely silent. Awesome.

As for our date: Mushy movie, dinner at a salad restaraunt (yes, that's all they make), time spent shopping (or zoning in the chair waiting, as the case was for me)... I'm glad we got to do it, salad and all.

An update of sorts

So, I've decided that since not much has been happening, I'll share it with you. Boy, aren't you the lucky one?

On the job front:
I'm still unemployed. I applied with Antioch PD for the position of Police Dispatcher 1, passed the POST test and moved into the second phase of hiring, the oral board. In the same letter that I received that information, they notified me that though I had done good up to that point, they were unfortunately no longer hiring due to the budget crisis. Thanks and have a nice day.

I applied with the local plumbers' union and took their aptitude test. I've gotten word back from them informing me that I've passed and they will be contacting me for an interview. Eventually. Word I got from my wife yesterday was that one of her student's fathers works for the union... or did when there was work. He's not working right now either.

Oh, and Beth's job is tenuous as well. If business doesn't pick up, they may be closing their doors. Wonderful news, no? :/

On the home front:
Nick turned 4 just over a week ago and boy, is he proud of it. He tells everybody. Everybody. We were in the store earlier today and as we were walking away from the cashier he ran back just to let her know, "I'm four!" What's funny is that not thirty seconds ago when she was talking to him, asking him his name, he was too shy to respond to her. Apparently it doesn't matter who he is, but he's four!

We moved to Brentwood about two months ago. No, not OJ's Brentwood. That's actually just a subdivision in Los Angeles. We're in the real Brentwood, CA. Right about here. It's hot, there's no Mercedes parked in any of the driveways and nobody has a gardener... Definately not OJ's Brentwood.

So, what's next?
Prayer, and lots of it. We're praying for work and a vehicle for me, continued work for Beth and a good daycare for Nick when we need it.

Here again

Last post, January 6th? Wow. I know that I've not been blogging, but I didn't realize that it's been that long since my last post.

I'm still looking for work, but there are a couple opportunities on the horizon. Next week, I'm going to start filling in for a friend who is going out of town for a couple of months and needs someone to keep his business running while he's away. Unfortunately, he and his wife just found out that she has the chance of getting laid off on the 17th. Fortunately for them, if that's the case, they still have his business to fall back on. Unfortunately for me, that means that opportunity will be gone.

The other thing that's coming up for me is the plumber's union. I went in a couple of weeks ago to apply for an apprenticeship with them and have an aptitude test scheduled this Saturday, the 4th. While it comes at a rather inconvenient time (we need to be completely out of our apartment by the 6th) it gives me hope of becoming gainfully employed in the not-too-distant future. It, however, poses a problem of its own. I'll also need to find a vehicle rather quickly. That wouldn't pose as much of a problem if I were already employed and could afford one. I'm thinking that a truck would be best, since I'm most likely going to need to be carrying tools and other large/heavy objects with me on a day-to-day basis.

All in all though, things are starting to look up. We have a new apartment and hopefully, I'll be employed again. I'll probably not be making as much as I was before I got laid off, but our new apartment is substantially less expensive. We're looking at getting caught up on bills and getting some money back into a savings account.

Now, all we need to do is get that lingering odor out of our new apartment. The people who lived there before us were obviously smokers. We've cleaned the carpet, but I'm thinking that we need to get a couple gallons of Febreeze... Any other suggestions?

No life... no inspiration. :(

< /random >
I've been wanting to redo my blog for a while. I want to design it myself, not use someone else's template. No matter how cool the template is, it's still someone else's.

The problem is that I'm still unemployed and am in a real slump right now. I spend my days hanging out with Nick, looking for work and playing World of Warcraft. We're down to only one car and Beth needs that for work. I've tried dropping her off and picking her up but that doesn't really leave time to do anything. Basically it's drop Beth of by 12, get some lunch, get Nick down for a nap, snacks after nap, then leave by 6:15 to fight the commute traffic to pick Beth up from work at 7. Not to mention that we end up spending twice as much on gas for little to no return.

Being stuck at home, watching Transformers or Herbie Fully Loaded for the seven hundredth time gives little in the way of inspiration. Maybe Nicky and Daddy can use old BART tickets and ride the train sometime this week. There's no place in particular to go, and we don't really have any money to do anything when we get there, but who knows... At least Nick will get to ride the train.

The only thing that would put a damper on an outing like that is the weather. Unlike New York and places back east where it's freezing cold and iced over, California winters are wet. It's not just bundling up in somethin warm, but you have to make sure that you're dry. Maybe we'll go to San Francisco to get an umbrella for Nick. It might not be the most sensible of outings, but at least it's a reason and a destination. I think I'll take the video camera and see what I get.

< /random >

News from the front lines

So, I'm still unemployed. Nothing new there yet.

I went down and took a test recently that may change that though. I've kicked around the idea of being a police dispatcher a couple of times and had even gone into the Sheriff's dispatch center for the good portion of a shift and shadowed a couple of the dispatchers. (Some departments allow you to shadow an officer for a shift. It's known as a "ride along." Does that make what I did in dispatch a "sit in"?)

I went down on Thursday and took the California Dispatcher 1 POST (Police Officer Standards and Training) test. I feel like I did pretty good, even in the section that I felt weakest on.

A couple words of advice if you ever find yourself about to take this test: Before going in to the test, make sure that you're well fed and caffineted. The test is three hours long. No matter if you take tests fast or if you use every last minute, you're there for three hours. Also, if you have even the slightest hint of a headache before you start, make sure that you take something for it. I'd advise taking something for a headache even if you don't have one, because by the time it's over, you will.

Test results will be back and letters sent out the second week of January. If I scored 50 or higher on the test, I will move on to the oral board portion of the hiring process. I'm not worried about oral boards as I've done them twice already; once for the Search and Rescue team, the other when I had applied for Animal Control with the county. Both times I scored very high among the group of interviewees. Everyone who passes oral boards goes through background checks (again, no problem) and put on an eligibility list and remain eligible for a year. The top two get hired. Hopefully, I'm one of those two.

guysforlife.org

I just received an email from a YouTube member, requesting that I be their "friend." I've received a couple of these requests from members in the past who were obviously just going through subscriber names using the "friends" request as a promotional tool to get more people to view their videos. While I don't think it's the best way to promote yourself on YouTube, I guess it works for some.

So far, I've ignored the requests, but this time, for some reason, I followed the links to their YouTube page. Turns out that they're using YouTube as a ministry tool to reach out to guys that have just learned that their wife or girlfriend or even daughter (if she's old enough) is unexpectedly pregnant.

I watched the "welcome" video and read the channel biography and was amazed. This is an awesome idea that has the potential to reach millions of guys who are probably scared and don't know what to do or where to go for help. I've not had a chance to watch all the videos yet, but plan to soon.

If you are a guy who's in that same situation, please go check out the videos. Chances are, that there are answers there that may help you through the difficult choices that you now need to make. If you know of a guy who just found out that he's to become father, share this with him. Chances are that you'll both be glad that you did.

http://www.youtube.com/user/guysforlifeorg
www.guysforlife.org

God bless.

Election 2008, an Essay

This was passed along to me by a friend of mine. The author has been a lifelong friend of his. Though you might not agree with everything that he says, please take into consideration what he is saying, what he is asking you to do.

Election 2008

by

Robert W. Sweet, Jr

Commonwealth of Virginia

October 27, 2008

Far too many Americans take the position that all “politicians” are crooks, and therefore there is no reason to vote at all. I do understand that sentiment, but let me offer another perspective. This comes from nearly 40 years of being in elected and appointed, in local, state and federal government positions of public trust.

First, only human beings are elected to public office. NONE of them are perfect, NONE. Those who promote the idea that we will have the Kingdom of God on Earth if we only elect the "right President" have been "smoking something."

Second, governments are ordained of God, and we are to be subject to them, that is the Bible way.

Third, in the case of the United States of America, we did have Godly men who drew up our Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution. They based these documents on the principles of the Bible, and Old Testament Jewish law. The Ten Commandments are prominently displayed on our buildings in Washington, including the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Congress. In addition, there many federal buildings that have quotes from the Bible that remind us that the Founders of our Republic recognized that to remain a free people, government should be strictly limited. That is what our Constitution does, and we depart from those principles at our peril.

Old Ben Franklin, who was a key player in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, is quoted as saying the following. When he was leaving Constitution Hall in Philadelphia in 1778 a woman asked him what they had produced. He said: "A Republic, Madam, IF you can keep it."

He was referring in part to the Preamble of the Constitution which states:

"We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Every official of government must "swear or affirm" to uphold the Constitution in every public office they hold. I have had to take this oath many times in my various Government positions. For me, it was, and is a sacred oath. I took that oath with my hand on the Bible...it brings tears to my eyes as I write this when I think back over the more that 25 years I spent in Washington, DC, and the many jobs I have held, from the White House, to the U.S. Department of Justice, to the U.S. Department of Education, to the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services, to the U.S. Congress as a staff member. Each and every time that oath was administered I felt the obligation to uphold it, and always "under God."

I know that there are many "politicians" (elected and appointed) to positions of trust who do not execute their responsibilities wisely, or even honestly. But I can also say with certainty, that there are many, many elected officials with whom I have worked at the local, state and federal level who do. I attended Bibles studies with them in the White House, the U.S. Senate that U.S House of Representatives and the Federal Agencies where I worked. We had fervent prayer for our leaders, for both parties, and for the preservation of our Republic.

It is more than the President and Vice President we are electing next Tuesday. We will elect a President and a Vice President true enough, but "WE THE PEOPLE" also will be electing ALL of the U.S. House of Representatives, one third of the United States Senate, at least half of the Governors of our States, and a large percentage of our State Legislators. And will be electing Mayors, Judges, and "dog catchers" too.

When we elect our President and Vice President, as imperfect as they are, we will be giving them the authority to appoint, without any approval from the electorate, more than 3,000 political appointees of their choosing. Those individuals will be the members of their Cabinet who will run the U.S.

Justice Department, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Energy, a total of 13 major agencies and myriads of sub agencies that literally control our daily life right down to our pocket books and our heath care and our courts. Not the least of which is the probable appointment of several Supreme Court Justices who can forever change the nature of how we deal with marriage, abortion, child abuse, pornography, home schooling, prayer, tax policy, national defense, and security, immigration policy, and the protection of erosion of the Bill of Rights that guarantee us the freedoms our nation has cherished and preserved for more than 220 years. When we elect the Members of the House and Senate we will be giving them the authority to appoint or hire more than 25,000 staff members who will run the U.S. Congress. These staffers will write the laws, advise Members of Congress and although unelected themselves will have a profound impact on the everyday life of all Americans.

It is "We the People" who determine our destiny...all Under God...but nevertheless we have our part to play in "keeping the Republic" that has made us the freest nation on earth, or we will authorize our elected officials and their appointees to place us in bondage like much of the rest of the world.

Many, many elections are won or lost by a single vote...democracies rise of fall by the will and the vote of the people.

In the election of 2008 we have choice between Obama/Biden who believe very strongly that government is the answer to all or most of our problems, whether health care, or financial, or social, or our national security. McCain/Palin believes that it is "We the People" who should decide our destiny. In my opinion, McCain/Palin is much more likely to appoint men and women who will preserve our Republic rather than destroy it.

All of these individuals are human. They are imperfect, just as we are, but it is our opportunity, our collective decision as voters to decide which candidates should have such power. It will make the difference between a socialistic nation and one that will continue to uphold the Constitutional principles that this nation was founded on more than 200 years ago. The American Republic has lasted longer than any other Republic in the history of the world, and as Ben Franklin said: "....if we can keep it."

The Oath of Office and the Constitution

Oath

I (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

That Oath for me was more than my allegiance to the United States of America….to “defend” her from “all enemies foreign and domestic. It was my solemn charge to pray and exemplify Jesus Christ in all my duties in public office.

I have been battered, bruised, criticized, ridiculed, fired, shouted at, scorned…because of stands I have taken for Christ and for the Constitution. I do not regret one moment of it, and I consider it an honor to have been able to serve. No one likes to be always on the offensive, but that seems to be the way it has been for me over the decades I have been fighting for the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution.

One of my good friends during my White House years was a colleague of John McCain when he was in the Hanoi Hilton. Jim Warner spent 7.5 years imprisoned in the Hanoi Hilton. During the years I knew him he walked with a cane because of the torture and abuse he took while he was in prison. He used to come to my White House office to talk quite often, and when he would leave he would always say “Cheer up” because that is what he would say to his prison colleagues who day after day languished without hope of ever being free. I have never forgotten that, and when the times are tough, and the fight is difficult, and even overwhelming I say “Cheer UP!” We have a God who is watching, who has our best interests at heart, and who said he would “NEVER LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US.”

Now, for the sake of our beloved America…VOTE!!

The history of coffe as told on ThinkGeek.com

ThinkGeek (stuff for smart masses) has a cool product for the caffeine affectionado: The Handpresso Portable Espresso Maker.

On the item's page, there is the complete, if brief history of coffee. I've shamelessly ripped it off and posted it here for your enjoyment:

It used to be that people would travel for thousands of miles to get good coffee. As the story goes, the plant originated in what is now Yemen. It was popular with the Sufis there for its ability to drive away sleep. Coffee didn’t make it to Europe until 1600 when Pope Clement VIII, despite appeals to ban it. The habit spread across Europe, until the Dutch, sick and tired of paying out the nose to import the stuff from Ethiopia and the Ottoman Empire, illegally smuggled live plants and cultivated them in hothouses in Holland.

Then, in 1720, the French brought the first vines to the Americas. The following weekend, the first Starbucks opened [citation needed].

Check out their site, buy stuff and then tell them that you heard of them here. Then they can consider it free advertisement instead of copyright infringement. (Hopefully that will be enough to keep me from getting sued!)

Thanksgiving plans...?

Beth: "So, for Thanksgiving, we're going to Lake Tahoe..."

Nick: "Del Taco?" (link for those of you who don't live in CA)

Interesting video

Now, I'm not one to get into heated political debates, but I do have my opinions on who is the best candidate to be our next president.

Here's something to think of when you cast your ballot: Video Link

It's a long video and could have done without the "Post this everywhere" at the end, but the meat is still there and it's still important.

Let me also say this: I understand that it's not solely Obama's fault. Blame is shared through the whole Democratic Party...

Pic of me on our website, explained

In the picture of me on our family website, I'm wearing the CPAP mask that I sleep in. It's hard to really see in that pic, but it's solid plastic and covers both my mouth and nose and has a double strap that connects in the back. As cumbersome as it sounds and looks, it's actually not that bad to wear.

The part that touches my face is a super-thin silicone skirt. The idea is similar to the skirt of a hovercraft in that the air pressure creates the cushion and therefore also the seal. So basically, I sleep with a tiny hovercraft on my face all night.

Of course, since it's made of silicone and is soft and squishy, it's also similar to a fake boob.

While one description will make people scratch their heads in puzzlement, the other will win me the admiration of men the world around. Take your pick. Just don't blame me for your choice.

Tinier still...

http://tiny.cc/davis

I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with TinyURL. TinyURL is a free service that will allow you to take a long, ugly and/or complicated URL like the real one for my web page and shorten it down to something easy to remember, like the one I have above. When people click the TinyURL, they are taken to your website (or specific web page). You are able to track the number of people who click through your "Tiny" and see how many people are checking out your website. The "Tiny" will stay active as long as it is clicked on at least once a year. Oh, and did I mention all of this is free?

The really impressive part is this: When I was setting my "Tiny" up, I goofed. (No that's not the impressive part, this is:) I sent an email to the TinyURL people letting them know that I messed up and was wondering if there was any way we could correct it. I sent the email late last night and was surprised to have received an email from them this morning letting me know that it has been corrected and giving me the link to the tracking page as well.

If only more people could provide this level of customer service. I mean, if a place that provides a service for free can support its "customers" like this, don't you think that places that I give money to could step up and be at least courteous enough to offer the same?

Short URL, same fruity goodness

http://tiny.cc/davis510

It's a little easier to remember that way.