Trying It Again

Friday, October 31, 2008

Hey all! Despite Eric and I being “burned” from giving candy on Halloween (it only takes ONE kid to ruin it for you), we’ve decided to pass out some this year. Instead of doing just candy I made these little cards to print out. I thought about doing tracts or something similar, but it just seems so cheesy. These are super kid friendly and colorful and best of all they have God’s message of LOVE on them :). I’m printing mine on some thick card stock and they look sharp. You can download these printable cards here. Let me know how they worked!

Fall Cards

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By Lauren in Design, Faith

Weekend “Adventure.”

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

I went camping this weekend with some friends; we likely won’t forget that trip any time soon. Here are some selected quotes that probably will only be funny to a few of you.

“I can’t think of any scenario where staying at the Knight’s Inn would be the best option.” - Eric

“What was that animal behind the Reindeer pen?!” - Michael, Robert and Eric in unison.

“RESPECT PERRY COUNTY” - Road Sign

“So Robert, you’re not going to eat that bun? Can I have it?” - Eric

“Did you guys just hear somebody yelling?” - Eric

“So which side of this am I supposed to be able to see through?” - Michael

“I don’t know about you guys, but that Sonic we passed on the way to the hospital is sounding pretty good right about now.” - Michael

“HE DIDN’T EVEN KNOCK!!!” - Nurse

“Would you ever have guessed this morning that this is where we’d end our day today?” - Eric
“If you knew this is where we were going to end the day, I wish you would have called and warned me.” - Stroube

“It should scare you that Stroube is officially listed as your emergency contact.” - Eric

“WASH YOUR HANDS BOYS.” - Eric to everyone.

“Do you want some jerky?” - Stroube to Robert

“WE FORGOT TO BUCKLE HIM IN!” - Michael

“Do we need to just stop at the Knight’s Inn?” - Eric and Michael

Let me know if I left something off fellas. What a weekend.

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By Eric in Funny, Life

The Elephant (and Donkey!) in the Room.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

This is a post about why I’m voting for who I’m voting for in this presidential election. If you don’t care to read it (and I don’t blame you - I’m about worn out over politics right now), then please move along.

This election aggravates me quite a bit. To be honest, I don’t think either of the major party candidates are great choices. I have no idea how John McCain ended up winning all of the republican primaries to become their candidate, and Obama seems to have won his party’s nomination on charm alone (more on this below).

To begin, I’ll explain a little about my political views. Growing up, we didn’t discuss politics too much. Maybe I just wasn’t listening or don’t remember, but I never felt really indoctrinated with the beliefs of either major party (for the record, I believe my parents are both registered Republicans). I prefer not to align myself with a political party, but describe my political beliefs as conservative. I would rather vote along with those convictions rather than party lines any day (both major parties have some serious issues in my mind).

There are several issues that are important to me, besides the obvious issues as they relate to God’s commands. I’ve long said that in this election, the deciding issue for me is our economy. Our nation’s spending, along with all of the entitlement programs, are completely out of control and that has to stop. In addition, our currency is being wrecked by the Fed creating more and more money out of no where, which will likely make this current economic crisis look like a walk in the park down the road.

We’ve also got to do something about immigration; illegal immigration is exploiting these entitlement programs even further and is a huge security issue. Another big issue to me, both as an employee and an owner of a small business, is taxes. Our country is punishing folks more and more for succeeding, which is pushing jobs, money and business overseas. Did you know that the top 5% of earners ALREADY PAY MORE taxes than the other 95% combined? Ridiculous.

Perhaps what scares me the most about our country right now is the continued slide down the slope toward a bigger, more controlling government. Look, we know our country can’t manage money or make a budget and stick to it (when I want something I can’t afford, I have to plan, save and wait. When the government wants something, it either raises taxes even more or makes up money out of thin air). Social Security is getting close to bankruptcy and medicare is a growing money hole that is exploited by almost everyone. So how is it that many of the idiots in Washington now want to take over health care, raise taxes during a potential depression and discourage business growth (and jobs) even more?

We’ve got some crazy people in government right now that want to push us more and more to a socialistic “the government should take care of me” society. They, along with the media, are somehow convincing the American public that we should trust the government with more and rely on Uncle Sam for our well-being rather than God and our own ingenuity. What ever happened to a strong work ethic and the American Dream?

Look, I’m not saying things aren’t broken. Something needs to be done to help lower health expenses and make insurance honest and affordable. We need to care for our homeless, helpless and poor (maybe the church will actually step in?). Read up on the fair tax too, there are a lot of smart people that think that’s where we need to go.

So what about the candidates?

Barack Obama

Look, this guy is all sorts of charming. He speaks clearly and confidently and can get folks energized and fired up like nobody’s business. He comes off as an electrifying, unifying leader, and I respect his seemingly positive outlook and emphasis on hope. Unfortunately, I believe he’s much more style than substance.

For starters, he has very little experience. It seems like the second he was elected into the senate, he started campaigning for president. The people he associates with scare me; not the obvious ones like Ayers or Rev. Wright, but other nut-jobs in his party like Nancy Pelosi and folks like Barny Frank. Those folks are continually “wussifying” our nation and encouraging the growth of weak, dependent citizens instead productive contributors.

He wants to repeal existing tax cuts and punish success with even more tax hikes. This will discourage small business growth and make existing corporate tax rates even less attractive, pushing more jobs and wealth overseas.

One of his largest campaign issues is the development of a universal health care system that would cost us about $1 Trillion in new spending. This will add yet another entitlement program that cost taxpayers dearly and be exploited and broken in no time. I also don’t believe that Obama’s proposed new tax plan (new taxes on only the wealthiest 5%) can remotely pay for this.

He’s consistently voted in favor of abortion and even infanticide for babies that somehow survive the abortion process.

There’s just no way I can support this man. I like his image, but just don’t agree with what he stands for.

John McCain

It may or may not surprise you to hear that I don’t like John McCain very much either. I respect him as a hero and for getting things done in Washington, but his policies skew to be more moderate than I would like. He’s in favor of amnesty for illegal immigrants (which I oppose). Like Obama, he voted in favor of that ridiculous economic bailout package, which just happens to go against one of his biggest campaign promises of cutting pork barrel spending.

What I do like about McCain is that he’s proud of our country and has served it for years upon years. This dude was tortured out of his mind, but still refused to leave prison when his fellow soldiers weren’t yet released. He still believes in capitalism and believes in less government and more freedom.  He wants to freeze government spending, cut programs that aren’t working and KEEP TAXES LOW. He’s consistently voted in favor of life and supports our troops instead of undercutting them.

Look, I’m not happy with having to vote for the lesser of two evils. I wish the Libertarian party or any third party would be given the light of day in a debate. For the record, if something like runoff voting was implemented, I would vote for Bob Barr if I wasn’t throwing away my vote.

I think the direction that Barack Obama and his potential cabinet wants to take our country is wrong, and frankly quite scary.

For that reason, I’ll be voting for John McCain.

Get Out and Vote!

Whoever you’re considering voting for, please get out there and research them outside of what you’re hearing from the media on both sides of the fence. You might also enjoy checking out something like glassbooth.org that will match you up with a candidate based off of what you believe in.

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By Eric in Life, Politics

Is it just me…

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Or is this email campaign in bad taste? I’m no expert on the subject, but I do design emails for a living, and this campaign seems pretty out of touch. It’s not political in a partisan way (considering the bill was passed by the majority of liberals and conservatives), but there were a TON of people against it (including myself). Am I thinking too much into this? For some reason it really bothers me.

Restoration Hardware Email Blast

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By Lauren in Design, Interesting, Politics

Mildly Enjoyable Moment

Monday, October 6, 2008

It doesn’t take a lot to amuse me. In fact I’ll laugh at pretty much anything, but every so often you come across something like this. The first two SNLs this season haven’t really impressed me (I think Eric would agree), but then this aired Saturday night and changed my mind.

 

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By Lauren in Funny

Pumpkin Carve-a-thon!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

In celebration of the Fall, we got together with Dustin and Morgan Finn to try our hands at a little pumpkin carving. I have to admit, we’re all pretty proud of the results!

Lauren did the logo from our freelance business, Volacious. I did the Dharma logo from LOST (of course!). Dustin did a diamond logo from his fraternity, and Morgan did some good ole polka-dots! Check out the photos of our hard work in this gallery, or take a pick at the pumpkins all lit up in the youtube clip below.

For those of you reading this on facebook, you can view the youtube clip here.

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By Eric in Geek Stuff, LOST, Life