more birdman!

wordpress 1.5 was released today, so I’ll most likely be upgrading tonight. 1.5 is bigger than 1.22, so it must be better, right? anyway, this means the main site may be down anywhere from an hour to a few days, depending on how lazy I am in getting everything done.

the photo section will still be open, if you just can’t get enough of people you may not actually know. I’m not sure who’s been poking around, but there’s been over 700 new views since I last updated the photo gallery in early december. guess someone must really like karen’s cleavage.

don’t call it a comeback, I been here for years. the dems elected howard dean as democratic committee chair on saturday, which could be bad news for the next presidential candidate. if there was any hope for a democratic win in the white house for 2008, it would be by swaying all the centrists/moderate types. instead, here comes the guy who they see as a screaming liberal.

As he prepared to become the official face of the Democratic Party, Dean let fly several blistering attacks on Republicans, essentially accusing them of hypocrisy and a false commitment to diversity.

“I think of the Republicans, with all their moral values, as the Pharisees and the Sadducees,” Dean said, in what an aide described as a biblical metaphor for saying one thing and doing another. Dean also said Democrats had the real claim on religious values because of their commitment to help the poor and the afflicted.

whoa. way to appeal to the south there, buddy.

on the plus side, dean’s “outsider looking in” mentality will hopefully shake things up in the party. maybe now there won’t be so much of a “could’ve been” mentality still stuck in 1970’s politics. and maybe – just maybe – we’ll get a candidate that doesn’t seem exactly like the other guy.

I tried to work through some of the photos this weekend, and realized I really, really hate the generic layout for the photo gallery. it’s one of the default styles, and I wanted to change it, but never found the time. so instead, as a special treat, I present to you: tales of the birdman part I (wmv format).

5 days, 920 miles, 700 pictures.

aside from the 14-hour drive, we all had a great time, thanks in no small part to the berg family for taking great care of us. it’s a close race between them and the hamiltons for best family ever.

the photos from the past few days were all taken with a cellphone and instantly uploaded via the magic of the web. this is called moblogging for those of you out of the loop.

the real photos (via digital cameras) will be up soon in work-safe (and fiance-safe) form – 700+ of them from myself, scott, george, and harmon (with amanda and kris possibly later).