Alright, that’s it, I’ve had it! I cannot take one more awful, sensationalized, CAPITALIZED headline from you HuffPo.

I held out as long as I could. I even held on when you cashed out to the tune of $315 million on the backs of mostly unpaid, grassroots, local bloggers.

Ultimately it was your painful lack of copyediting, lack of pertinent details on important stories, and your sensationalized headlines that pushed me over the edge. Goodbye Huffington Post.

For anyone else looking to take the leap and find Huffington Post alternatives, here are the sites where I have ended up, in no particular order:

• Truthdig

• Salon.com

• BuzzFlash

• Mother Jones

• The Nation

• The Raw Story

• Media Matters for America

• The Daily Beast

• Truthout

• AlterNet

• The New Republic

• Talking Points Memo

• AMERICAblog

• Crooks and Liars

Well, it’s that time again.  Election time!  I think that the excitement I feel for major elections is very close to what I felt as a kid for Christmas.  Yeah, seriously.

So, in my past life I gave lots of money to causes that I now detest (Focus on the Family, American Family Association, etc.) and over the last 4 or 5 years I’ve tried to make up for my previous mistakes.  I had my misguided Ron Paul phase back in 2007 and inexplicably gave enough money to his campaign to actually show up in donor searches.

Now that I’m on the right (Left) side of the issues for good, and after giving everything I had to the Obama campaign back in 2008, I’m supporting our 2010 candidates where I can.  I’ve been wanting to see exactly how my giving breaks down so I created this pie chart.  It’s probably only interesting to me, but since I worked on it for so long I thought I’d post it anyway.  I recommend clicking on the image to see a sharper, easier to read full size version.

(View Full Size)

As for who I’ve chosen to support (and there are so many more I wish I could support), here’s a bit about them and why I support them.  Clicking on their name will take you to their campaign web site.

• John Flerlage – John is running for Congress in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District.  I have worked with John since the early days of his campaign serving primarily as his Internet social networking guy.  John is an incredible man, a proven leader, and has the sort of character we all wish our elected officials had.  If you have the means, please support John.
• Betsy Markey – This is an easy one.  Betsy defeated the awful, despicable, hate-filled Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District back in 2008 in what I considered to be one of Colorado’s and the country’s gay community’s greatest victories.  Marilyn Musgrave was known for such discriminatory legislation as the Federal Marriage Amendment which she repeatedly introduced.  I also have a special place in my heart for CD4, since I spent my first year and a half in CO in the city of Fort Collins.  Would really hate to see this seat fall back into Republican hands.
• Tarryl Clark – Two terrifying words: Michelle Bachmann.  I don’t think I need to say anymore, but Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District really, really needs to do the right thing and stop subjecting the nation to Bachmann’s special brand of crazy.  Oh, and just for fun check out michelebachmannsaidwhat.com.
• Joe Sestak – I started donating to Joe Sestak back when he jumped into the race to challenge fake Democrat Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Senate primary.  Thankfully he defeated Specter and now he’s got a tough fight to beat tea bagger Pat Toomey.  Really hoping he pulls this one out.
• DCCC – The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, committed to electing and keeping a Democratic house.  I trust them to put my money where it will be useful.
• Rob Miller – Remember that jerk Joe Wilson yelling “You lie!” at the president during his speech to a joint session of Congress?  Well, Rob Miller is the guy who is going to take his job and the first candidate I signed up for monthly contributions to.  Joe Wilson is bad for South Carolina’s 2nd District and he’s bad for America.
• Charlie Melancon – Charlie Melancon is a pretty moderate Democrat, but compared to the destructive right winger he’s running against, he’s beautiful!  David Vitter represents my home state of Louisiana in the U.S. Senate and does an extremely poor job at it.  Does an affair with a prostitute make an individual unfit for office?  No.  If that individual gets elected on a hypocritical “family values” platform, should he be re-elected?  No.
• Stan Garnett – Back when Congress passed and the President signed historic legislation to prevent insurance companies from dropping your coverage because you got sick, or from making being a woman a pre-existing condition, etc. our Attorney General here in Colorado decided to sign us all on to a wasteful, misguided lawsuit against the federal government in opposition to the healthcare legislation.  Immediately Democrats started looking for a candidate to take him out in what would have otherwise been an easily re-election.  Buzz started that Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett would make a great candidate and I actually started a “Draft Stan Garnett” Facebook group.  A week or so later he was in the race.  Can’t wait for him to win this one!
• Mary Jo Kilroy – Mary Jo Kilroy won Ohio’s 15th District narrowly back in 2008 and is a major target for Republicans this year in a rematch with her 2008 polling.  This is one where the Republicans see a real opportunity and losing Representative Kilroy would be a real blow.
• Paul Hodes – Representative Paul Hodes is running against anti-gay, pro-life, tea bagger Kelly Ayotte for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire in what is considered a toss-up race.  I love the state of New Hampshire’s independence, but there really is no question as to what the right thing to do is here.
• Jerry Brown – California is the country’s most populated state and is currently in financial crisis after 8 years of being represented by a celebrity Republican Governor.  Now Californians are given the choice between Jerry Brown and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman.  Aside from being a hypocrite on illegal immigration and employment, Whitman is now nearing the $150 million mark of dollars she has spent on her own campaign.  She bought the primary and now she’s trying to buy the Governorship.  Jerry Brown, while sometimes eccentric, is a good ol’ liberal and I have no doubt would lead California in the right direction.  During his first stint as Governor he appointed more women and minorities to office than any other previous California governor.  That’s someone I can get behind.
• Jack Conway – This is a very clear example of me trying to make up for past mistakes.  Ron Paul’s son, Rand Paul, is running against Jack Conway for U.S. Senate in Kentucky and I fear the havoc would attempt to wreak if he were let loose in the Senate with his tea bagger ways.  Jack Conway supports the health care overhaul and is pro-labor.  He’s exactly what Kentucky needs after being stuck with Jim Bunning.
• Bill White – Let’s be honest here, politically Texas is an embarrassment to the nation.  After screwing us with 8 years of George W. Bush, I’m hoping that the time has come to turn the state around.  Rick Perry is the longest serving governor in Texas history and has done everything in his power to keep it closed-minded, gay-hating and very, very red.  Bill White is the former mayor of Houston and has the opportunity to take Texas in the right direction.
• Bernie Buescher – I donated to Bernie Buescher’s campaign for re-election as Colorado’s Secretary of State because for a while there he looked like he might be in trouble.  Things seemed to have evened out now and it’s looking like Bernie will be re-elected.
• ActBlue PAC – ActBlue is an organization that raises money for Democratic candidates.  Through it’s website it has raised over 150 million dollars for many Democratic candidates who would otherwise not have a Web fundraising presence.  My donations to ActBlue come from a percentage tip for the site that I agreed to add on to other donations.

I do not have the words yet.  This will have to do for now.  Dustin, I love you, so very much.

We’re gonna miss your song and dance

The way you made us laugh

And we’re so glad we had the pleasure for a while

But on the other side you’ll find a better audience

Just be yourself and you can’t help but make the angels smile

Baby all the world’s a stage

Playwright pens your final page

And then he brings your curtain down

So blow us your kisses and drench our eyes

We’ll rise to our feet to wave goodbye for now

So baby take a bow

The world is lovelier because you had your moment here

And we could see a friend of heaven in your face

And in your song we heard the longing for a distant shore

Now your time has come to go

And so be on your way

Baby all the world’s a stage

Playwright pens your final page

And then he brings your curtain down

So blow us your kisses and drench our eyes

We’ll rise to our feet to wave goodbye for now

So baby take a bow

Your show is over now

It’s time to lay your burdens down

So baby take your bow

“Baby Take Your Bow” ~ Chris Rice

Dustin Council
November 20, 1984 – May 4, 2010

First off, this post has nothing to do with that title.  I just felt like saying it.

I think it would be fascinating to know what percentage of blog posts around the world involve the author talking about or apologizing for how long it has been since their last post.  Usually those posts are the last posts for 8 months or so.  Considering this phenomenon, I won’t do the same.  We’ll just pretend this is my third post this week.

Looking back over my last several posts I’ve realized I like to talk about heavy stuff.  So, I’ll break with tradition and post the music video for the song I’m listening to on repeat right now:

Alright, so I do admit that I had not actually watched that video before I just found it to post.  The video is trippy, but it’s a good song.  I’ll probably hate it in a week, but for now we’ll enjoy it together.

Now that the in-blog entertainment is complete I’m supposed to ramble about what is going on in my life.  I personally feel that this sort of blog post is incredibly boring, but people keep telling me to talk about myself.

So, let’s see, the spring semester is nearing it’s end and I couldn’t be happier.  I’m in Human Biology, English 1010 (yeah, I know, don’t ask), Social Work – Intro to Agency Experience, Intro to Music (I attended the Colorado Symphony Orchestra last week, great time), and World Wide Web, Internet & Beyond (There’s nothing wrong with wanting an easy A).

I’m still a Sophomore, which is just embarrassing.  Even more embarrassing is that spell check has to correct “embarrassing” every time that I type it, including in this sentence.  Two R’s, two R’s, two R’s.

In other news, I’m moving to a new apartment at the end of the month.  How exciting is that to anyone reading this blog?  Not at all.

In other, other news, I’m looking for a job.  Anything really.  I currently get paid in styrofoam peanuts and jelly beans at my current job at Metropolitan State College of Denver.  My new landlord won’t accept either of those as payment for my rent.  So, if you know of anyone hiring, especially if it will make me rich and famous, please let me know.

There you go, that’s about as much ridiculously self-important, narcissistic posting as I can handle for one night.  See you next year.  Just kidding.  Probably.

Many of my friends have heard me talk about the surgery I had on my skull when I was a baby, some have seen my scar or felt my lumpy head.  Well, my Mom scanned some photos and sent them to me tonight.  Sagittal Synostosis is a condition in infants where the “soft spot” closes early and keeps the skull from growing side to side.  The head can only grow front to back, giving the baby an elongated head.

Surgery is performed to remove a part of the skull and essentially create a new soft spot, allowing the head to grow properly.  I was about 6 months old when I had my surgery.

Here are a few photos taken after my surgery, during my recovery:

  My Mom has told me that after the surgery she was too afraid to hold me for fear of hurting me so my Aunt Sheryl, a nurse, held me first in the photo above.

Here I am being held by my pretty concerned Mother.

A month or so later, my hair had started to grow back and my scar had healed.

Sagittal Synostosis has no lasting side effects and it’s not something that really has any impact on my life.  I had follow-up Doctor visits to make sure everything went smoothly but then that was it.  I was too young to have any memories from this time, thankfully.

I do however have very vivid memories of dealing with Perthes Disease.  You can find info on Perthes Disease on Wikipedia.  To put it simply, Perthes Disease is degenerative disease where the hip joint starts to fall apart and lose mass.  When I was a kid the treatment was a leg brace.  I was 4 years old and wore it for a year, and Mom just sent me some photos today:

I don’t remember any pain, even though I apparently did experience some, but I do remember the frustration.  I remember not being able to run or jump or play with the other kids on the McDonald’s playground.  I remember walking like a penguin, hobbling side to side to get to my destination.  I’ve heard the story many times of how my Grandfather cried when he first saw me in my brace.  He’s told me the story many times, and it still seems to get to him all these years later.

I remember the day I finally got to take off my brace.  My Doctor’s office was in a building that had a big open lobby, that went up several floors.  It had this wide spiral staircase in the middle and after confirming with my Doctor I could indeed run and jump, I ran out of the office, jumped, skipped and headed for the stairs.  I dragged my Mom up and down those stairs several times that day.

Well, there you go.  I know more photos exist from both my surgery and my leg brace, but these are all that I have for now.

Well, here I am, back on the Interwebs.  After 4 long months away I’m thrilled to be back in touch with the outside world.  For my fellow geeks, I’m running a 20Gb DSL connection and am really happy with the speeds I’m getting.

On a further geeky note, I added some additional login options for my comments.  You can now just login with Facebook or Twitter, so you have no excuses not to leave comments.

Now, on to the good stuff.  Excuse me while I turn into a shrieking 12 year old girl…OMGSH ARE YOU WATCHING GLEE!!?!!??!1  I’ve fallen in love with this show.  The pilot was excellent, the second episode was underwhelming, but since then they’ve recovered nicely.  Jane Lynch alone made me interested in the show; I loved her on the short-lived Lovespring International and she’s just laugh out loud funny.  Jane Lynch aside, there’s a really sweet gay character and my favorite of all, a fiercely fabulous black woman.

Warning: If you’re a straight male who watches football, hunts, drives a pickup truck, or thought Sarah Palin was a good idea and/or should hold any elected office then you probably won’t like Glee.

If you haven’t watched the show yet, do it before Hulu decides to pull it down.

There’s the light stuff.  I’ll get to what’s really been going on in my life in a future post.

So, I’ve heard from more than one person in the last week that I need to update my blog more often, so I felt I should explain my absence.  I do not have Internet at home currently, so it’s pretty difficult to update my blog.  Hopefully in the next couple of months I will have it back, so see you then!

The plan was to get a good night’s rest the night before the Inauguration, but Huey, Dewey, and Louie thought it’s be fun to go out to meet up with other Arapahoe Obama folks.  I was against the idea; I really wanted to go to the National Mall and see the Lincoln Memorial seeing as it was MLK day.  They insisted on going out, so I begrudgingly tagged along with almost total certainty that the night wouldn’t go well. 

We were dirty from our work with Barack Obama’s National Day of Service so we had to head back to Maryland where we were staying to get showered and changed.  By the time we got home and got dressed to go out it was almost 11:00.  Normally that wouldn’t be an issue except for the fact that we were under the impression that the Metro stopped running at midnight. 

  Steve (Huey), Matthew (Dewey), and Matt (Louie) naively thinking they are in for a great night of partying.

Well, we finally got off the Metro near where we thought our friends were and Matt gave them a call.  “What’s that Matt??  They left the bar we’re supposed to be meeting them at!?”  Yes, they had left and were headed to a different bar.  We paid for a cab to the new bar and waited in line outside for half an hour in 8 degree weather with really strong wind.  FINALLY, we got in!  We searched everywhere in the bar for them, and they were absolutely not there.  NOT THERE!  Matt called up his contact and she informed him that the line had been too long and it had been too cold outside so everyone left.  Yeah, you read that right.  They just didn’t bother to tell us until AFTER we waited in the awful, frigid line.  Matthew and Steve quickly drank a couple of beers as we stood near the doorway looking and feeling like idiots. 

The good news?  We found out the Metro was actually going to run until 2:00am so we at least wouldn’t be stranded.  We did however get home so late that we only got about an hour and a half of sleep before it was time to wake up.  Why don’t people just listen to me?

Immediately after arriving at our hosts’ home on Monday morning we all took showers (YES!) and got ready to head to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium for the National Day of Service that President-Elect Barack Obama called for.  We met up with our hosts Lori & Dallas, who have been amazing and have shared their home so generously with us.  The objective of the day was to create care packages for our military.  With thousands of volunteers there to put the packages together, our job was to keep the items stocked and the lines flowing.

Here some photos from the day, including our first ride on the Metro.  They don’t do the event justice, but there were thousands and thousands of people there putting toothpaste, sunscreen, energy drinks, pens & paper, etc. into bags for our military personnel around the world.  It was a phenomenal and inspirational event.

Monday, January 19th, 8:00 AM EST – We Made It!  Gaithersburg, Maryland
Well, this update is coming several days late, but we did make it to our destination!  I drove the final 4 hours or so and we arrived at about 8:00 on Monday morning.

 
We made it!

We’ve had a lot of great experiences since arriving on Monday and I will cover those in their own posts.  This post will be retired now that the drive is over.

Monday, January 19th, 4:30 AM EST – Beau Street, Pennsylvania
We’re currently in Pennsylvania after briefly traveling through West Virginia.  So far, so good.  The weather has calmed down and it’s clear and cold.  We happened to pass a Beau St., which I was very surprised to see.  We tried to get a photo, if any of them came out okay I’ll post it

I’m going to keep this post short because I’m about to get behind the wheel.  We have 200 miles to go, about 3 and a half hours!  We’re gonna make it!!!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. day everyone.  One of my favorite days of the year, and I cannot imagine a better place and time to celebrate it than in D.C. for Barack Obama’s Inauguration!

Monday, January 19th, 1:00 AM EST – Columbus, Ohio
After lunch in St. Louis we hit the road with me behind the wheel again.  Everything was going splendidly: birds were singing, the car was handling well, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie were all sleeping peacefully.  Well, that didn’t last long.  It started raining in freezing temperatures and the Interstate turned into an ice rink.  It took me about a hundred yards to come to a stop when traffic in front of me stopped due to a car going into the ditch.  Within the same half mile stretch two others also went off the road, but we fortunately kept our tires on the road.

I woke Steve up and he took over driving until a few minutes ago when Matt jumped behind the wheel.  We’re currently at 389 miles remaining until our destination!  Woohoo!

Sunday, January 18th, 2:00 PM EST – St. Louis, Missouri
Great news; the laptop is back in action!  We finally stopped at RadioShack and found a power inverter that works, so blogging can resume and I can start loading up my pictures.

Lewis, Clark, Fido, Huey, Dewey, Louie and Beau

The arch was absolutely stunning and we all really enjoyed ourselves.  The museum was great and the scale of the arch from outside is just overwhelming, much less going inside and riding to the top.  Here are the photos I have from the amazing experience.

[View As Slideshow]

Sunday, January 18th, 9:36 AM EST – Danville, Missouri
Well, Matt made the right decision to relinquish his crown as driver; he was just too tired and the vehicle on the road was starting to behave eerily similar to a game of pong.  We pulled into this lovely rest area in Danville to make the swap.

I’m pretty sure you forfeit your soul when you do something like this.

Missouri is a pretty state.

The tell-tale signs of the stresses of a never-ending road trip are starting to show.

I’ve been awake for 28 hours at this point but am feeling fine, so I’ll be taking over the driving from here.  We’re headed to St. Louis, this should be great!

Sunday, January 18th, 8:00 AM EST – Odessa, Missouri
So much for buying all of the geekware we needed to fix everything. I bought a $100 power cord for my laptop and Steve bought a $50 power inverter. Well, the computer takes too much juice and shuts off the inverter, so until we figure something out or can get to a RadioShack I’ll be blogging by phone. I’ll add pictures in later.

We’ve finally switched drivers, now Matt Hirsch is driving and Steve is getting some much needed rest. He was getting louder and crazier the longer he stayed awake, so this is a good move. Missouri is pretty so far, I’ll update when we get to the arch!

Sunday, January 18th, 3:35 AM EST – Hayes, Kansas
Well, it wouldn’t be a road trip without a few bumps along the road. Very shortly after my first blog post my laptop battery died. I expected this, but we have a power inverter onboard so at our first pit stop (Hayes, Kansas) I took apart our delicately constructed mountain of luggage to get to my suitcase at the bottom.

Problem: I apparently didn’t pack my power cord. PAUSE for momentary freak out.

What?!? Forgot the power cord, the number one item on my “Do Not Forget” list?!? Yes, that would appear to be the case. PAUSE for second freak out.

Problem 2: Amid my anger over my rookie mistake Matthew decided to charge his mp3 player. What’s wrong with that you ask? Oh nothing except the power inverter worked for a glorious two seconds.

Apparently Steve decided that it would be a good idea to try to use it to run a vacuum cleaner earlier today. It apparently only had moments of glory that time too. PAUSE for helpful tip of the post: Don’t do that!

Good News: My irritation at myself for forgetting the power cord is softened a bit by the knowledge that even with my power cord I’d be without a power source.

We’ll be stopping in the morning to stock up on necessary geek gear. Once that happens I will being adding photos to the posts.

Unrelated Unfortunate News: Steve decided to buy and rapidly consume a foot long super, mega, ultra, platinum edition convenience store burrito. Focus on the prize Beau, just focus on the prize.

God help us.

Oblivion is bliss.

Sunday, January 18th, 12:53 AM EST – Bennett, Colorado
Well, our long journey to President Obama’s Inauguration in Washington D.C. is finally underway. I’m making the trek with my friends Matthew Farrell, Matt Hirschinger, and Steve Hulsberg! We all worked together on the campaign turning Arapahoe County, Colorado bright, bright blue!

We’re in Steve’s Hybrid Toyota Highlander and so far the trip is going well. Steve, the IT geek, set the car up to be it’s own WiFi Hotspot. I will post updates and pictures as we go!