Friday Aug 29, 2008

I don't have much time, but I wanted to hit on a couple of things...

The Colorado Springs Hot Air Balloon Classic is this weekend, with mass launches of 150+ hot air balloons Saturday, Sunday, and Monday mornings at 7:00am. This is one of the largest events in the Colorado and surrounding states each year. It takes place two blocks west of us at Memorial Park. We are setting up a tent and giving out free coffee, as well as fliers and coupons. Thousands of people walk to Memorial Park from the surrounding neighborhoods, and we will be in place to put our coffee in their hands all three mornings. It should be a good thing for us to reach some of the local residents that do not know we are here...

I booked several senior photo sessions, a family portrait session, and I just completed a three day video event. I documented owner training for the commissioning of six buildings at Fort Carson. The training covered system overview, operation, and maintenance of all building systems (HVAC, Domestic Water, Hydronic, Digital Controls, etc). Several of the sessions were in depth training courses on specific equipment such as boilers, make-up air units, rooftop HVAC units, exhaust fans, split system air conditioning equipment, hydronic heating equipment, pumps, building management systems, etc. I now have to convert the hours of footage into DVD's... I also created an agreement with a local establishment to be their house photographer. They have about eight weddings a year at their facility.

I tried to watch a little of the DNC Convention the other night, but Hillary Clinton's speech was more than I could take. I think she is a very smart woman and has many talents, but her speaking voice gets to near maniacal levels at times. Her speaking voice might be the most annoying sound on the planet! I noticed on the TV Guide channel that "The World's Funniest Commercials" was on the next channel. I really tried to listen, just to have first hand knowledge of what she had to say, but I couldn't take it. I watched funny commercials for a half hour instead.

However, I did watch Obama's speech last night. I admit that he is a very charismatic speaker, and he draws you in with his personality. However, if you try to listen for substance, there just isn't anything there. His speech was thematic and based on high level ideas, with no details on how he plans to accomplish any of it. Anyone can get up and promise the moon, but if you can't deliver, then what? I would suspect that after both conventions are over, many TV and radio ads will come out that will factualize Obama's ties to far left radical people and ideas. People who think for themselves will evaluate the info, and maybe do some research of their own to validate it. I think those people will choose not to support Obama. Others will discount the information as character assassination politics. It will be interesting to see how things turn out...

I think it is quite intriguing that McCain chose a woman to be his running mate. I'm sure Hillary is fuming somewhere right now... A Republican woman has stolen her thunder. Interesting...

Gotta run.
JD