Just about anyone who works on documents long enough ends up with a favorite font. I just took a fun quiz lets you find out what font you really are. And, the font that represents me is …

You are Helvetica

You fit in well to most situations. You're not flashy, and prefer clarity to knocking people over with your style. A tad quiet perhaps, but not stuffy, and you've got very strong opinions under there somewhere. When you get drunk, you start looking more like Impact.

Take the quiz on BuzzFeed.com

JimmyBuffetPoster

Originally uploaded by Shawn Christian (New Mexico)

While visting Gruene, Texas, we stopped by a general store that had this lovely poster in the window. I couldn’t resist a quick snapshot.

This is a series of videos taken from an interview with Barack Obama somewhere around 1995 after his book Dreams from my Father was published. He was interviewed by Connie Martinson on what seems to be a local access or university channel. If you’ve payed attention during the recent campaigning, you’ll find that Obama has remained a very consistent voice for the strengthening of communities and uniting of people from different backgrounds.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Newsvine is a user-run newsite. You can post your own news articles or seed links to existing articles for community discussion. The community dialog is at a very high level — not a lot of brainless spam.

Here are a couple of articles that are examples of the best of newsvine:

Celestina’s article “Digging Dirt on Obama”

Discussion on Neil Turok’s assertion that there wasn’t a Big Bang

 Do we still need PBS?

Albuquerque, New Mexico was the site today of an economic summit organized by the Obama campaign and attended by Senator Barack Obama and a panel of economy experts. I was at the event and left with an even greater appreciation for Senator Obama and his ability to lead our country. Here’s an excellent article in the NY Times that covers Obama’s message.

And here’s another interesting article, related more toward getting college education for as many people as possible while simultaneously expanding service to the community through Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, etc.: philanthropy.com article. Also, in case you’re interested, here is Senator Obama’s plan for the economy, straight from his campaign website: Obama’s economy plan.

There are many, many things that could be improved with our political system these days. If I had to pick just one thing that I could change about it, it would not take me a second to decide that I’d want everyone involved (voters, media, candidates — you name it) to realize one thing:

Character matters.

In my opinion, that one characteristic trumps nearly everything else when it comes to how a candidate impresses me.

Now, I’m not saying that our elected officials have to be boy scouts or goody two-shoes. I’m saying that our candidates have to be able to tell people with honest conviction what they stand for and who they are at the core of their being. They have to be able to tell us what motivates them, and in turn motivate us to come along with them. We need officials who are genuine and honest, with both themselves and with other people. We need officials who say what they mean and mean what they say, and who have a certain level of depth and thoughtfulness to their words and actions.

Since this is a democracy (well, a democratic republic to be more specific), we also need voters with character. Our population needs to be, as a corporate being, endowed with some level of genuineness, with some level of depth of character. How this is achieved is certainly too complex for this blog post, but at some point it has to do with slowing things down a bit, as a culture, and coming to some kind of consensus about what is really important to us. For Americans, there is surely some common thread that unites us all, that gives us a character and a depth of being that is more than just the quest for the almighty dollar. Certainly one thing that we can all get behind are the personal freedoms that our founding fathers set out in our Constitution. I think we, as a population, can go even further than that, and truly evolve as a corporate force of good in this world.

To go to that next level of character as a population, we are going to require leaders who can push us to be better than what we have been in recent history. We need leaders to help promote a vision for the future and a desire to sacrifice for the better future of our children and for a better present for our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than ourselves. To develop the kind of character we need as a nation, we will have to be ready to face risks head on, to go into a more open and human relationship with ourselves and the world that is scary and exciting, and in the end the only way that our world will become a better place.

I’m supporting Senator Barack Obama for President in 2008 because I believe that he has the character that will propel our country in the right direction. After reading his book The Audacity of Hope and watching his speeches and other public events, Sen. Obama jumps out at me as a unique candidate with a potential to unite our country that no one else has had in many years. I am excited and proud that our country owns a son with as much promise and character as Sen. Obama. I always go out with pride and optimism and a big smile on my face when representing Barack Obama to the my friends and neighbors, because he will be one of the best President’s to ever lead our great nation!

Hey Everyone,

Here is a website to help you pick a candidate. You answer several questions about where you stand on issues, and then the server calculates how closely the candidates match your opinions. Pretty cool!

I came out 87% matched with Rep. Kucinich and 83% matched with Sen. Obama. I’m supporting Obama based on a few other factors, mainly because I think he will be an excellent leader and an inspirational figure for the American people to rally behind as we prepare to make America a better place for the next generation.

 Anyway, here’s the link:

http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

Leave a comment here if you want with your results. It’ll be interesting to learn where we all line up!

This is a repost of some information I received from a fellow Obama supporter in New Mexico. Thanks for putting this together, Vicki!

1. Visit Barack Obama on the internet: http://www.barackobama.com. Donate money to the campaign, learn about the issues, organize your own supporting event or blog, join a local support group.  
2. Act Locally!  Join Grassroots Obama New Mexico (GO- NM).  Meetings are held every Tuesday at 7 PM at Democratic Party State Office: 1308 San Pedro Ave. NE, Albuquerque.   Sign up at: http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/GrassrootsNewMexico. 
3. Register to vote in New Mexico as a Democrat no later than January 4, 2008.  (Only registered Democrats can vote for Barack Obama in the New Mexico “Presidential Preference Caucus” on 2/5/08). New to the state? Change of address or name? Never registered? Need to change your Party to vote in the Presidential Preference Caucus?  Call the Bureau of Elections (505) 827-3621 or (800) 477-3632 to start the easy process. 
4. Vote in the New Mexico Democratic Presidential Preference Caucus February 5, 2008, 12 Noon-7 PM at the polling site designated by the Democratic Party.  You can request an absentee ballot from the NM Democratic Party between December 17, 2007 and January 21, 2008 and return your request postmarked on or before January 28, 2008.  See the New Mexico State Democratic Party website (after 12/14/07) http://www.nmdemocrats.org for polling sites or to obtain the form to request a mail-in ballot.  You may request a form for an absentee ballot from the NM Democratic Party: Democratic Party of New Mexico, 1301 San Pedro NE, Albuquerque, NM  87110. Tel:   505-830-3650 (main) or   800-624-2457 (toll-free), 505-830-3645 (fax) or info@nmdemocrats.org.        IMPORTANT: You do not vote at your regular polling place nor do you obtain an absentee ballot from the County Clerk.  The Presidential Preference Caucus is conducted solely by the NM Democratic Party and will be your only opportunity to elect the Democratic Candidate for 2008.  
5. Help get the vote out for Barack Obama on February 5th.  Any candidate winning at least 15% of votes cast at the New Mexico Democratic Presidential Preference Caucus on February 5, 2008 will get delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August, 2008.  Contact Brad Lyau in Albuquerque bradlyau@aol.com, Nancy Gage in Los Lunas nancygage@aol.com, or Vicki Farrar in the East Mountains  vickfarrar@comcast.net for more information on what you can do to help get the vote out in your area on February 5th.

Last night, my wife and I were flipping through the TV channels and stopped to see a chunk of C-SPAN’s broadcast of the annual Jefferson Jackson dinner in Iowa. Several of the democratic presidential candidates were giving speeches to potential democratic voters, making their case for why voters should vote for them as the Democratic nominee. All of the speeches I watched were good, but Senator Obama’s speech was really on another level. His integrity seems deep and true, and his passion for leading our nation to a better place is plainly evident.

“I am not in this race to fulfill some long-held ambition, or because I believe it is somehow owed to me. I never expected to be here. I always knew this journey was improbable. I’ve never been on a journey that wasn’t . I am running in this race because of what Dr. King called the ‘fierce urgency of now’. Because I believe that there is such a thing as being too late, and that hour is almost upon us.”

Senator Obama’s speech inspired both me and my wife to pray for him and his effort to bring principle and vision to the White House. Senator Obama’s speech was visionary, timely and yet pragmatic and realistic. After watching his speech, it struck me that his desire to reach out to people of all backgrounds and bring a unity to America is very sincere and personal to him.

“I don’t wanna pit Red America against Blue America; I want to be the president of the United States of America.”

I think Obama may be the best candidate to rebuild the American reputation around the world, to bring ethical reform to Washington, and to set the United States as a light on a hilltop to lead the rest of the world to a better place.

“This party — of Jefferson and Jackson, of Roosevelt and Kennedy — has made the most difference in people’s lives when we’ve led, not by polls, but by principle; not by calculation, but by conviction.”

If you haven’t already, do listen to this speech and see if it doesn’t inspire you. Just click on the image at the top to take you to a posting of the video on YouTube.

Related Articles:

• NY Time Article
• Baltimore Sun Blog Post