The iPhone OS 3.0 event is going on right now and is being live-blogged all over. I’ve been checking in here: http://live.gdgt.com/2009/03/17/live-iphone-os-3-0-event-coverage/

Greatest announcements so far?

• Copy/Paste
• Push email
• Search
• MMS

It’s about time. And for fun: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=copy+paste

Thought it won’t be pushed to auto updates right away, you can get your copy from Microsoft’s site around Noon EST.

Here’s to hoping I get the opportunity to bad-mouth it far less than I have for their last two versions.

It is now time for IE6 to go away forever. Hear that corporate America? That’s death knocking on your technological door.

Even with all the hoopla of a new browser, I can confirm that you will always browse happier running a certain open-source web viewer.

We have been Netflix customers for a while now and have no complaints about the service whatsoever. The wife and I have discussed it before noting that package design and the timeliness of each order must be due to the fact that they are automated in some way or another. Boy was I off.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/08/23/netflix/

46 warehouses with approximately 50 employees in each. At an average of 700 DVD’s an hour the sum total of DVD’s sorted and delivered daily is about 1.6 million. Wow. I’m not all for cutting those jobs but surely someone could help them with a better system.

Slightly related:

The Netflix DVD sorter/re-packager job reminds me slightly of a story my buddy Rob told me a while ago.

When he was a kid, he moved to a small Texas town and attempted to make friends. On one occasion he asked a local boy what his father did and the response was something along the following…

Rob: What does your dad do?
Kid: You know how some nails are silver?
Rob: Yeah
Kid: Well, you know how some nails are gold?
Rob: Yeah
Kid: My dad paints the silver ones gold

Umm, as much as I hate having students loans still, I am slightly thankful for them just in the fact that I’m not painting nails for a living.

I can admit that I still have a lot to learn about what I do. One of the areas I need to improve my knowledge in is accessibility of my sites for those with disabilities. The following is an impressive 9 minute video demonstration by Aaron Cannon who among other things is blind since birth.

Aaron takes the time to walk a user through how he “sees” a website. Through the use of a screen reader, he can navigate the web and surprisingly to me, do so very quickly.

For my non-developer readers, the H1 tags that he mentions are the most heavily weighted section of a web page in terms of code. By using semantically sound coding practices, I can benefit my clients in how their web pages are displayed, in how their pages are index by search engines, and in how those who visit the site unconventionally (ie. Aaron, mobile users, RSS Readers) can be accommodated.

One of the first and easiest things that could be implemented right away is getting information like this to my clients and how they handle their page titles and subtitles. While using ‘About Us’ for a page heading is somewhat helpful, a person entering a website from a side door (instead of the home page) would probably find it more useful if the heading was something more like ‘About Company X.’ As an added bonus it would help their visibility to search engines as well.

Feel free to learn from Aaron on your own.

In many ways, I view Search Engine Optimization and its “experts” as modern day snake oil and snake oil salesman, respectively. There are far too many people out there that express that they are experts that end up duping gullible clients into thinking that they will score the world for them.

Clients should know that there are practical steps that can be taken to potentially help their site rank better but there aren’t any guarantees and should never be signed up for if guarantees are offered. There are practical things that can be done to make your site look its best for search engines and users alike but they aren’t anything that a client couldn’t research and/or do themselves. I offer my clients the service of SEO but never at a price that many “experts” claim to get and never any guarantees of positioning.

My services include: helping to draft quality content, searching and targeting good keywords, educating the client on the positive aspects of quality inbound/outbound links and helping them to understand how to use social media for positive results and not just wasting time or spamming potential clients.

Other than that, there’s not too much more that Google or any other search engine cares to see. There as open about it as they can be without giving too much away for people to figure out ways to scam them into high rankings.

Which leads me to this, a nice little infographic from SEOmoz today portraying most of what I already thought and outlined above. This SEO oil is a cure all.

Sometimes I make things up just to see if you’ll believe me. In some circles it’s called lying but I like to think of it as a little game between us.

When it comes to browser usage, I don’t make things up. Unless I have to.

According to my latest stats, too many of you still use IE. Corporate restrictions aside, maybe this infographic will help remind you that you should be browsing happier.

Unit Interactive out of Plano just launched a pretty nifty tool today called Unify that offers the ability for me to take your static HTML website and give you some functionality into editing it down the road. For the cost of some tacos plus my hourly rate to install, you could be rocking the updates on your own site in no time at all.

This isn’t the first system to market in this light CMS category but it certainly easier for me to translate than having to figure out how much 35 Euros would cost me.

At first this seems like it could put a hurt in my business but really after studying them a little more, they are just what they say, a lightweight inline editor. It still doesn’t give you full control over your site like a WordPress or CompleteSite can but in a pinch and a very small budget it might do the trick.

Congrats and thanks to Andy and the Unit crew on the launch of a nice little tool to add to the arsenal.

Clients? Ready to step up?

If you’re not using Vimeo for your video hosting needs, you’re existence on this planet should be questioned. Not only did they just launch the ability to view videos in full-screen 1080p HD but they have also just made my life eight-hundred times easier by allowing me to upload the files directly from my camera to the site. This will save hours of time.

Vimeo, you can have my $70 every year.

Of course I’ll reserve a feet first bandwagon jump on the emerging device called The Bloom box at this point but I am curious to see where it goes. The box – about the size of a kid’s shoe box – is a fuel-cell driven, mini-power plant that is touted to be able to power your house. Wirelessly, at that. The current client list is impressive and the technology wows me but the long-term effects are yet to be determined. Can it run for more than three years? Is it a brain tumor waiting to happen?

I’ll be watching how this one progresses as well as waiting to see who will be the first to try and either buy them out or destroy it. And if somehow they get it down to $3k for a personal use box, I’ll be the first in line.

60 Minutes coverage ~ 14 minutes
(RSS readers click through to watch it)

The Select tag in HTML is the code used to create a simple drop-down list on the web. In its simplest form, its usage is for organizing a long list of options and allowing a user to click one item from the list. One of the most common usages of it can be found as you fill out a web form and have the ability to select your state from one.

I had that exact need arise this week and can’t actually count on two hands over the years how many times it has come up. The code is easy but with 50 states + options like Washington DC and Canadian provinces it gets a bit tedious to re-type it all. And what’s more, sometimes you just need abbreviations of states and not the full name.

Posting mostly for my future self but in case you need a quick copy/paste down the road I’ve gone through and done up three versions:

US states + DC (full titles)

US states + DC (abbreviations)

US states + DC + Canadian provinces (full titles)

Each includes an id and a class name so you can style to your liking and a tabindex number to remind you that keyboard accessibility is useful.

Text file of all three to copy/paste or save to your computer

Feel free to save to your folder of code snippets or steal directly from here when needed.

Update:

This post has seen a bit of traffic so I figured I’d throw a few more here that I’ve had to do once or twice.

HTML Select codes for Month, Date & Year

Month

Date

Year

Text file of all three to copy/paste or save to your computer

If you have kid’s and/or a soul, I’m sure you are as well.

Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (New Hampshire) performs Katy Perry’s ‘Roar‘

*For those tl;dr folks, there’s some pictures down below.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of being in my house, you know that we’re a little cozy and limited on space. Most days I like it that way, helps me to keep my material possession desires in check. We’ve had the boys in the same room for a while now but were just working off of two Ikea Malm twin beds in different corners of the room. It was functional but not necessarily practical. Discussions of bunk beds were had on several occasions but neither myself or my wife could come to agreement on what those would actually be.

I’m not actually sure what the final straw was that made me really decide to make a change but sometime a month and a half or so ago, I finally decided it was time. Instead of going the standard Rooms-to-Go/Ikea/pressed laminate or particle board route, I wanted to do something a little more custom for them and after a bit of just Google-ing ideas, I felt like I found the right solution. Once again, discussions were had due to past examples of my “handi-work,” but I finally won over the person in charge of the house and she agreed to let me move forward.

It was a random Sunday evening when I sent my business partner Ryan a text message to let him know we were closing up shop on the following Monday; once he found out why, it didn’t take much to convince him. He was at the house around 8 or 9 that next morning and we quickly loaded up for the closest big box hardware store here in town.

The Build

We spent an entire day (with multiple Lowe’s trips), 30 some-odd pieces of standard 2″ x 4″ x 8′, lots of screws/bolts/anchors, and about 50′ of nylon rope to end up hanging two custom, twin-sized beds from the wall in our boys’ room. They’re quite heavy, more than I anticipated. They’re each anchored 5 or 6 times into wall studs and the ropes are anchored as well. My wife was pleasantly surprised when she got home to see that we both accomplished the task and they turned out decently as well. She still had concerns about them purely hanging so I added the steel pipe, corner stands under the free-hanging corner to ease her (and my) concerns.

In addition, I created some birch wood rails that slide under the edge of each mattress so they don’t come tumbling down in the middle of the night. The color of the birch matches the color of the 2 x 4’s pretty well. Finally, I created a solid, yet removable ladder to get up and down from the top bunk. It’s made out of some of the leftover 2 x 4’s from the project and is a nice replacement to the metal folding ladder I offered them for the first few days.

Final Thoughts

The boys love them and have been put on a scheduled rotation of who gets the top bunk, changing out each time we wash their sheets. It’s created more play space for them in their room and allowed us to free up the other bedroom in our house purely for guests and/or a nice open space for us to make the boys go play when they’re being a little too noisy!

Since I don’t normally get to work with my hands, it was a nice change of pace. I was able to create something custom for my family, keep the cost well below what we might have paid for a nice set of bunk beds, and possibly even restored a little confidence in my wife that might allow me to try another project down the road.

I’m sure there’s much more to say about the craftsmanship, the process, the tools, the legacy, etc but I’ll leave that for another day or possibly another writer.

Here’s a few shots of the finished pieces. If you want more details about our process or the plans for the beds, hit me up.

The US Thanksgiving holiday has passed which means it’s time for an updated Christmas playlist. As per the norm, it extends a little further than the standard Andy Williams and Bing Crosby (though those are classics and good in their own right) which you can find on most local, AM/FM Christmas stations.

If you’ve been around for any of the years past, you might notice that the last track is the same one I’ve closed with on multiple occasions… this is on purpose as I’ve convinced myself that it should probably close every Christmas compilation ever made. I’m not ready to call it the greatest Christmas track ever but I think its as solid of a piece of music you can get to finish an album.

New to this game and want to catch up? Hit the archives for past compilations. My apologies for the creepy Santa pictures, I’m not really sure how it all got started.

Click the image above or link below to download.

CreepySanta 2013

Project7 has been a client of ours for going on probably 4-5 years now, we can’t get enough of them and hopefully they haven’t grown tired of us either. Their mission is ‘Products for Good’ and they are pioneers in the social entrepreneurship arena with a passion for making a difference. They’ve figured out a way to let you be a blessing to others just by making purchases you’re probably already making – gum, mints, water, etc.

We’re pretty stoked about their newest partnership just announced yesterday that will allow them to make an even greater impact on this world. From a marketer’s standpoint, I can’t think of a much easier partner brands with! Starting today, you can now purchase specially marked Project7 bottles of 7UP/Diet 7UP/Cherry 7UP/Diet Cherry 7UP and under the cap you will find a code that allows you to help make a difference in 3 easy steps:

• Visit 7UP’s site at http://www.7up.com/project7/
• Enter your cap code
• Pick your favorite from any of Project7’s seven causes

Boom. Done. You just made an impact on this world.

To announce the partnership, they’ve created a pretty awesome stop motion video hand-drawn by one of my good buddies and all around talented guy, Darren Dunham. We’re really working hard to spread the word and would love it if you’d take 2.5 minutes to watch it and possibly even help spread the word about it! Would love to see this thing actually go viral and bring more attention to Project7 and all that they’re doing to bring change in this world. Shareable links below the video.

Make Your Bottle Count

Like it enough to share it?

If you’re the kind to post on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or any of the other places you reside on the net, the best link to use is probably: http://project7.com/7up

The video is on both Vimeo and YouTube so whatever tickles your fancy.

Dear Cohen,

I yelled at you today and of course, I shouldn’t have. You didn’t deserve it. 6-year-olds surely don’t. I’ll admit, I was frustrated with you but you were only the straw; I’m not exactly sure where the build up began but sadly the pressure released on you.

I love you. I have high expectations of you. And to be honest, they’re unrealistically high expectations. You’re advanced in so many areas that I often fail to remember that you only have six years or so under your belt. Wisdom doesn’t come overnight yet I often lay that burden on you like it should.

One of the most important things to me is that you turn out to be a better man than I am. That you make better decisions, that you relate better to people, that you set better examples. When I watch you stumble, I see patterns of my life which could potentially be where some of the unleashing stems from. I potentially get upset because I see you only mimicking my bad behavior.

Without turning this on you, here’s a few of areas that I’d love to get better about teaching you but for you to learn them, I know I have to model them.

I realize it takes a lot of nerve to ask for your patience with me as I get better with these things on a day where I potentially made you feel lower than low. I’m a work in progress.

Be others-centered.
I’m sure by now, you’ve seen me in action – I’m a classic one-upper. Many of my interactions with people in life go on while a good majority of my brain is working through what to say next. I’m a weak listener and I dish advice like a street-prophet. Even if I haven’t been there or seen that, I’ve got a story to match it. I’m prideful, vengeful, inwardly focused, and outwardly cynical. I’m like a mixed cocktail of the characteristics that most people avoid all stirred up into one.

Help me and join me in working each day to become less self-centered. Winning is fun but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. You know what matters? Building your brother up instead of tearing him down or repeatedly putting him in second place. Likewise, your mother has constantly traversed the waters of a husband that has all too often put his own interests first for almost 15 years. They both deserve better of us.

When I – and hopefully you by watching my modeled behavior – quit worrying about how we’re perceived, most of the following areas we need to work on should automatically resolve themselves…

Speak truth.
We’ve had this conversation on more than one occasion. It’s the primary reason I yelled tonight. In the greatest sermon ever preached, a pretty smart man let us know that our word is our bond. I have no idea how many relationships I’ve harmed over the years; how many circles of trust I’ve broken; or how many seeds of doubt I’ve planted just by taking the easy road out in situations but it’s far more than any man should, I know that.

I’m still working on the right way to get you to understand this simple, yet profound concept of ‘let your yes be yes, and your no be no,’ but 3 hours after the fact, I know that tonight’s teaching method isn’t a tool I hope to keep in my tool-belt any longer.

Telling the truth is hard. It’s accepting responsibility for ones actions, it’s acknowledging that you’ve done wrong, it’s heart-breaking when you realize that you’ve hurt others; and yet, it’s the only way I want you to live your life.

You will break things. You will get out of line. You will make poor choices. You will hurt others. You will be rewarded for things you should not have received credit for. It all occurs, often daily. But what I pray that you will do, is take responsibility in any situation and own up to what is right. Break people’s possessions and they will forgive quickly, break people’s trust and you can look forward to years of rebuilding.

Speak truth in love.

“The words of the reckless pierce like swords…” Prov 12:18a

It’s always right to tell the truth. It’s also always right to show respect to others in how you tell them truth. I fail miserably at this. As a self-centered individual that believes in truth-telling, many-many people have been slaughtered by my tongue. It’s not right and it’s not called for.

Build others up. Make sure they’re built up higher than yourself. And then build them some more.

Humble yourself.
You’re phenomenal. You’re intelligent beyond your years. You’ve got a steel trap for a brain. You have a gift of athleticism at six that I’ve never had. Your ability to make and foster relationships is great. Your respectfulness of both young and old is admirable. Your love of an unseen God is inspiring. We love all of this about you and more.

Let your mother and I (and others) handle the commendations. We speak highly about you to each other; to others both when you’re around and when you’re not; and even directly to you when it is needed. Be confident in who you are but remember that humbleness is both a gift and a desire of God.

“For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down.” Psalms 18:27

——

At six, you’re already leaps and bounds ahead of me. At thirty-six, it shouldn’t take an event like this evening to bring reality back into perspective – but it does. I continually allow a pride-filled version of myself to make decisions about the direction of my/our lives. You most definitely deserve better, and for that I apologize. You’re stuck with me for a little while longer, and in that short time that I still get to hold you, I’m still working to be a better man/husband/dad.

I’m sorry for yelling tonight. I’m sorry for making you feel like I’m not proud of you because I most certainly am. I’m thankful that at your age, it’s pretty likely that tomorrow you’ll have let all of this roll off your back but I’m also pretty sure that I’ll still be kicking myself over it.

Tomorrow is about ‘others.’ You included.

I love you.

dad

I’ve only checked out one of these Pleasureable Troublemakers so far but I’m throwing this here as a reminder for me to visit them all. Love the concept of the Keymoment, the keychain rack that subtly encourages you to bike instead of drive.

In short, if you grab your car key it spits your bike key out on the ground giving you an extra moment and action to think about your decision. Clever. I’d love to see it developed further to not need electricity to operate.

http://www.pleasurabletroublemakers.com/

I’m a bit stressed. It’s been a busy 2015 and the last few weeks have been particularly rough. I’ve found in the past that writing can be a bit cathartic for me and of course there’s only so much space for it on my social network of choice. Chris is blogging again so I figure I might as well. The following is probably going to be in a depressing tone, feel free move along if you don’t want to be brought down.

• Work is kicking my tail. It’s a constant struggle of feeling behind while wondering what’s next. Deadlines have been missed. Projects have gone awry. Not all of them but enough to stress me out. I’ve got things I want to do. Some of them don’t pay money. I’ve got things we should be doing but they get trumped by projects that have money. It’s a weird position of being so busy it would be nice to have more help but not really sure we can pay for it/sustain it long term. I would venture to guess most small businesses go through it.
• I see others in similar situations work wise and from the outside it looks like they’re killing it. I’d like to be a fly on the wall. Do they stress like we do? Maybe they just keep their mess together a bit better.
• I’ve got a buddy who in just a couple of weeks’ time found out his wife was pregnant and then found out shortly after she no longer is. I have few words to console him. He’s tough but that’s got to wreck you.
• Our internet essentially died for almost a week at the office. It’s never been super-fast but it went to an unusable state for too long and it cost us some tenants in the co-working space we started. I’ll mostly miss Addison, he was a good chap. At the same time, our landlord stopped by and told us she was raising our rent. We’ve started the process of looking for a new space.
• Office space in this town is limited and expensive. At least in the areas we want to be. I could lower my standards I suppose and just go get a box somewhere, I’d rather not. We like our building and the space we’ve created, it fits us. Our clients like it too. It’s not worth what she’s wanting to charge us though.
• Yesterday we blew up one of our clients’ sites for a couple of hours during one of their peak traffic spikes. Go us!
• I haven’t been at church in several weeks. I think it’s showing.

A view from the other side
It isn’t all bad. My family is well. Melanie is supportive when she can be (read: when I allow her to be). The boys are healthy and active. They’re smart. They’re caring. They behave almost all of the time. I’m proud of my family.

My parents came to visit last week and that was nice. Mel’s family gets a turn this week.

We bought some chickens (4). They live in the laundry room right now but they’re about to be relocated to the garage. A few more weeks and then they’ll find a home in the backyard. Speaking of which, I need to build them a home in the backyard.

Spring time brings allergies for my son (which thankfully we’ve turned a corner on this week) but it also brings freshness of life. The trees are green, my lawn is mostly back, and baseball season is well underway. We’ve had some rain which is badly needed.

I feel a bit better. I’m at my desk and there’s still a lot of work to get done so I should probably quit writing. I think it helped.

I started coaching baseball to introduce my boys to the greatness that is America’s pastime and to be able to connect to them through something that we could participate in together. Little did I know how much other good could come from it. Through baseball we’ve been able to minister to others, form new/lasting relationships, test our own faith, learn (more) patience, hone our parenting skills, learn to communicate better, and to navigate the murky waters of organizational politics; I’m sure there’s plenty more.

I’ve also had the ability to connect with a bunch of boys who at 4-8 years old may or may not be sure about themselves, their abilities, their desire for playing a team sport, or even have much confidence in general. We’ve won titles and had seasons where we came in somewhere close to last place and yet every season we walk off with our heads held high and smiles on our faces.

I’ve coached with some great guys – guys who I’d go to battle for every day. I’ve coached with some crazies as well; they’ve all taught me something.

Seasons Change
Many times you don’t realize what you’ve learned until you take a moment to step away and examine; while I’m not ready to step away from baseball yet, our situation will probably change a little going forward. This fall will most likely be the first time our baseball family we call the Grapevine Horn Frogs will not field a team in something like 6 or 7 seasons. Most of us already new it but I hadn’t really taken the time to process it properly yet. It’s very bittersweet.

My goal has always been to teach respect, good character, and integrity to some young folks (and sometimes their parents) through the game of baseball. Little did I know what all I might learn from them.

This weekend I was rewarded with a gift much more fulfilling than a gift card or a night out on the town. My Frog family got together without my knowledge and put together a small token of their appreciation for me, they did a great job. Feel free to take 5 minutes and enjoy a few of the knuckleheads I’ve had the pleasure of being around the last 4 years.

Go Frogs.

Even more than the question of, “why should I vote for you?” I get asked about my reasoning for running in this election. I’ve given any number of different answers depending on my mood and the situation. As I sit here on the eve of Election Day, I am reflecting back on the last six weeks and all of the highs and lows that have come with it. Since I may never have the chance to speak to everyone directly here in town, I thought I’d list out a few of the reasons why I saddled up for this ride. The following list is probably not exclusive but it feels right for tonight.

1. I am running for myself.
This could come off sounding a little selfish but that isn’t my intention. I am running because far too many (including myself) live with an impostor syndrome that is really hard to shake. “You’re not smart enough.” “You don’t have enough training.” “You didn’t go through the right channels.” “You don’t know the right people.” These are the tricks we allow our brains to play on us to create self-doubt and often limit ourselves in terms of what we think we can accomplish. You aren’t alone, many people deal with it regularly. The best way I’ve found to shake the impostor syndrome? Push yourself into territories you never thought you could.

2. I am running for my city.
We chose Grapevine. Our decision to call it home was intentional. We plan on being here for a long time. It’s in our best interest to get involved and help Keep Grapevine Great.

3. I am running because I believe we are all called to serve.
You don’t have to be on the city council to serve. You can serve your neighbor, your family, your church, your co-workers, people living in distress, the less fortunate, or any number of other causes. When you serve, you get outside of yourself and gain perspective. The opportunities are endless, where do you find yourself feeling the desire to help out?

4. I am running for folks I don’t know.
I’ve noted several times during this campaign that there’s a disconnect between the average age of the current city council and the median age of the Grapevine resident. Almost thirty years. That’s a big deal to me. Families in this town deserve to be represented by somebody that understands them and their needs. I am running for my family and I am running for yours.

5. I am running because some people said I shouldn’t.
Who doesn’t love a little external motivation?

6. I am running because there’s a few things I’d like to see change.
An elected, representative government should listen to – and be held accountable by – the people that elected them. I believe we can do better. If you continue to allow the same folks to be elected, you will continue to get the same results. We can do better.

7. I am running to hear your story.
This wasn’t an original reason for me deciding to run but during this campaign I have had the privilege of meeting so many of you and hearing your great stories. Sitting down for meals, coffee, phone calls, emails, I’ve enjoyed them all.

8. I am running for my boys.
It’s a little counter-intuitive to think that taking on more responsibility is a good way to teach a lesson to my boys but hear me out. I want them to understand that they can do anything they want in life if they put their mind and efforts to it. The first step will be putting themselves out there and setting a goal. If I can’t model that, I don’t imagine they’ll pick it up all that well.

9. I am running for my business.
As a small business owner, it makes sense that I have a vested interest in the future of the city my business resides in. If Grapevine stays strong, my business has a better opportunity to stay strong. In addition, I have a vision for what the next Grapevine can look like business-wise and I’d love to be involved to help put that plan in action.

So there you have it, nine things that have motivated me at different points throughout this election season. I’m guessing if you ask me tomorrow, I could probably list out nine more.

Tomorrow you have one more chance to help direct the future of your city. Usually the voter turnout in Grapevine is less than ten percent of the population. Will you sit idly by and let others decide your future or would you be willing to take up a challenge from me and get out and make your voice heard?

If any of the above has resonated with you, I’d appreciate your support at the polls.

I went to bed last night with a pretty bad taste in my mouth. And unsurprisingly, it wasn’t gone this morning when I arose. If you watched any of the debacle called a Republican Debate last night then you already know that I’m not talking about a literal taste, one that comes from onions or pickles.

I endured the mess that was 2.5 hours of adult males (notice I didn’t say grown men) shouting, arguing, and belittling each other at the request of my business partner yesterday who asked me to hold off one more day before venturing down to our local rec center and casting my early vote for the Texas primary. His desire is that by watching one more of the 9 (nine!) debates I would have a clearer picture of who I should be casting a ballot for and hopefully advancing the cause of moving America forward in the coming years.

The taste in my mouth this morning should be clear that I do not. 

I am fortunate. I’ve written before about the opportunities I’ve been afforded by my skin color, my upbringing, my surroundings; I am prosperous, affluent, and comfortable. This physical life of mine could be much worse. I have no desire to ‘move to Canada’ or any other typical rhetoric that you might hear when going through a process like this. Yet, I can’t help shake the (oft-entertaining) internet meme that keeps running through my mind today: 

I recognize that we are a fairly young nation in the grand scheme of things. If my math is correct, we’re working towards a completion of year 240 this July. But within that 200+ years, we’ve done some pretty cool things. We’ve been innovators. We’ve been leaders. We’ve been peacemakers (and sadly, war-makers). We’ve been care givers. We’ve been invitors of people. We’ve raised up men and women who have done great things and who have set even better examples. We’ve ushered in change, though sometimes slower than some would have like to have seen. Nations have looked to us for guidance, assistance, example, help, protection, and yes, sometimes they’ve looked at us in disgust.

Today, I’m pretty sure they’re looking at us quite bewildered. Confused to the fact that what we now have to offer as direction for our nation has been boiled down to a sideshow of clownism, supposed ‘leaders’ who yell at each other and demean each other on national stages in an attempt at a power grab. 

The mess that is reality TV has now become reality.

https://twitter.com/rabihalameddine/status/703064538476736512

I’ve got to assume that the rest of the world — if they watched that mess last night — understood it in the same way that closed captioning did on CNN, as unintelligible yelling. And what they see today is that America is truly drunk, a laughing stock. And frustratingly for me, what appears to be a stock on it’s way down.

As sad as the fact is that these are what have arisen as our best choices, the worst part about the entire thing is that we are egging this mess on. Donald Trump is an absolute mess of a human being and he is polling higher and winning by even greater margins than he ever has. This is a man who is demeaning, misogynistic, racist, crass, rude, filled with very few moral standards (if any at all), quick to lie, and what appears to be full of hatred in his heart; and here we sit supporting him more and more! 

In states like Iowa and South Carolina, he has actually won the majority of votes of evangelical Christian voters — the ones who should see through his mess more than anyone!

This man — one who opens casinos and strip clubs; one who has defaulted on multiple loans and put as many out of jobs as he claims to have given jobs to; one who has broken the law in high-profile ways several times; one who blatantly discriminates; who seems to belittle every person that disagrees with him; that uses wildly inappropriate language while shaming others for doing so — is the man that the church has now decided to rally behind. The same church that was established by Christ, the man who embodies everything Donald Trump is not. The same church that claims to show love, and grace, and mercy to all. The same church that should stand up and be defenders of all those Donald has taken advantage of for the last 60+ years. Shame.

Sadly, as bad as it seems with Donald poised to come out on top of this primary season, I’m not in love with anything else that’s still on the table. It’s true, I’d take any of the other four Republican candidates up right now over Donald Trump but that’s like saying I’d take the least moldy piece of bread in the bag. It’s still smells bad and has the potential to make me sick. 

On the other side of the aisle, my choices are an even-more-corrupt-than-Donald candidate that should probably be spending time in jail for her numerous offenses or an 800-year old kook that would drive our country so much further into debt that we’d end up under the rule of whatever country that decided to call our note in a very short period of time.

We’re hosed.

I’ve always remembered a specific conversation I was a part of in college, one where embarrassingly I got a little heated, one that caused me to think outside of my little bubble, if nothing else.

We were in a Bible class and somehow got on to the subject of America as a nation. As a proud American, I was happy to stand firm in my understanding of the greatness of the nation that raised me. We were powerful. We were strong. We were like no nation that had ever come before us. I was 19.

Another student in that class — an instigator in my mind at the time — had surely just finished reading Nietzsche or some other philosophy book pointed to the strength and size, and ultimately the fall of the Roman empire. He made arguments that we as a nation were in a similar situation to Rome in their heyday. As I recall it, I quickly jumped into a debate with him to let him know he was most definitely wrong and I’m sure I pointed out to him that if he didn’t like America, he was free to leave. I’m also fairly certain it wasn’t my finest moment. Go ‘merica.

I left class that day feeling puffed up for shutting him down but what I didn’t recognize is that I’d remember our conversation and his argument almost 20 years later. (If I’m not mistaken, he was dismissed from school for hacking into the computers and gaining access to school financials and student information but what he said has always stuck with me.)

Twenty years later, I’m not sure he was totally wrong. Maybe a 240-year run is a good one but now we’re on the doorstep of change. Maybe history does repeat itself and America is the new Rome. Maybe. Maybe not. 

What it does look like in the short term is that come November, Americans will have the choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to ‘lead’ our nation for the next four years. If those are our choices, I choose neither. Neither one of those two candidates represent me. Sadly, as backed by current polling and election results, maybe I’m not the representation of America anymore. Maybe America is getting a representation of who they really are, what they deserve.

Congrats America, you’ve gotten Idiocracy. Life is most decidedly imitating art.