great link...

A Christian author by the name of Brian McLaren who I have come to respect over the past 5 or 6 years has been posting some good reasons why he supports Obama over the past few weeks. I found this post about abortion very well written. It voices a lot of the thoughts I've had that I can't quite articulate as well as he can.

correction...

I need to amend my previous post. After further thought, I really think I should change my title from Peter the Teacher to Pete the Teacher. It has more of a down-to-earth feel to it. Sounds a little more like Ed the Electrician or Tito the Builder (which I actually heard Palin say). Thanks for considering my correction.

Peter the Teacher for Obama...

I kind of find this "Joe the Plumber" bit rather silly. Some guy asks a presidential candidate a few questions about a tax plan and suddenly he's the backbone of the opponent's campaign. The poor guy got hounded by the media and now the word is out he hasn't paid up on his taxes. That'll teach you to ask questions! :)

At any rate, I'll be the first one to tell you that I don't understand much about taxes, but I know taxes have been on the forefront of the election. I found this tax calculator online and found it interesting. It tells me that I'll get $1200 more in tax breaks under Obama than McCAin. You can take it for what it's worth. I don't even begin to understand how it's being calculated. I got the feeling, though, way before this calculator, that I'd be in much better shape with taxes under Obama. I also feel like I might be able to afford health care for my wife and kids under Obama. Who knows, maybe I'll even get a little more as a teacher. These are just a few of the reason Peter the Teacher supports Obama. I understand, however, that Preston the Executive, Earl the Oil Mogul, and maybe even Joe the Plumber may not agree.

Anyway, here's the calculator.

not quite 100%...

In the last debate, Obama said that 100% of McCain's ads had been negative. I have a hard time believing that it is 100%, and I'm not quite sure why he was so sure of that, but I must say it has to be close to that. In my own little survey completed in my house, I have calculated a 100% negative advertising rate by McCain. I have received 3 mailings from the RNC or McCain in recent days and all 3 have been attack ads against Obama. Not a single one mentioned why I should vote for McCain.

Anytime I hear a radio ad for McCain, it tells me why not to vote for Obama. I rarely watch TV, so I've missed most of the TV ads. And I've heard the tales of the fear-driven Robo calls making their way around the country. The few people McCain supporters I've talked to have all told me why I shouldn't vote for Obama.

And I've been quite frankly scared of the tone of the rallies for McCain and Palin. They don't seem too concerned about keeping their supporters focused on the positive. Some horrible things have been yelled and nothing has been said during the rallies to address the bitterness and hatred. I just read that a Republican congressman here in NC said at a McCain rally today that "liberals hate real Americans." What is going on here? I have seen Obama several times stop the booing and taunting from the overly-excited and tell his supporters to just go out and vote because we don't need to do that kind of stuff.

I know that attacking your opponent is part of the political game, but even if I wanted to vote for McCain, I'm not sure I would know why other than the apparent fact (according to the ads and stump speeches) that Obama is a palling-around-with-terrorists, real-American hating, elitist, anti-plummer socialist (which, by the way, could have been, but was not intentionally, a direct quote from the Limbaugh show).

I keep telling myself, "two more weeks...two more weeks..."

endorsement...

I guess I was a little surprised when I read about Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama.
I was, however, thinking that he would go towards Obama since it took him so long to make a statement about it. To me, that seems like a huge endorsement. Colin Powell is someone who is incredibly respected all across the board despite his involvement in the debacle that was the lead up to the Iraq War. I know there is a lot swirling around out there, but here is a good explanation of the objections to the endorsement...enjoy!

weddings...

The past two weekends have been full!! Last Saturday, Sarah and I headed down to Asheville, NC for a little getaway. We stayed just a little north in Johnson City, TN and drove to Abingdon, VA the next morning for our friend Molly's wedding. She asked us to photograph her wedding a few months ago and we were so excited to do it! A huge thanks to Sarah's parents and the Creehans who watched our kids so we could go. It was a beautiful day as you can see below.

On Friday, Sarah left at about 6:30 to be with her first Doula client (she became a doula - a labor assistant about two months ago) who was in labor. She did a fantastic job (at least I believe she did since I obviously wasn't there) and helped the mom deliver her first son that night. On Saturday afternoon, we headed Southeast into the far reaches of southern North Carolina. We passed through Monroe, Marshville, Peachland, and Polkton, passed over the bridge and turned right onto Old Prison Camp Dr. to head down into Wadesboro to shoot another wedding. It was a small wedding in an old Baptist Church. We had a good time and got to eat some good food in the end. We tried to leave without eating (it's my own personal view that I shouldn't eat while I'm being paid to work), but the mother of the groom wouldn't hear it! Southern hospitality at its best! Anyway, here are a few shots of the weddings. To see more, head to peterdavisphotography.com. I'll post more up there later, but for now I have about 2200 images to go through from the 2 weddings! If you're looking for some shots of our trip to Asheville, look here. Enjoy!

show your work!

If I've said it once on this blog, I've said it at least twice...getting old is getting old.

I teach 6th grade math to special ed kids. I was going nuts this morning trying to teach them how to put decimals in order (i.e. 3.001, 3.01, 3.1). They kept coming to me with wrong answer after wrong answer. It's not that they couldn't understand it, it was just that they were trying to cram their work into the tiny little space in their workbooks and they were writing so small they couldn't even read it...I've become pretty much able to decipher the most intricate hieroglyphics, but it was getting ridiculous.

So finally, after about the 10th time saying "show your work neatly on another sheet of paper," I flipped my lid. I made everyone clear their desks and I gave them all a giant (and we're talking giant) sheet of paper. I gave them a new problem to work on and told them they had to use rulers and write big enough that the entire paper was covered.

Once we were done and they got my point, and as I was delivering the ever-inspiring "you have to show your work" lecture, I got a flashback to my childhood. I envisioned a younger Peter sitting at the dining room table with his dad. His dad had grown a little irritated with young Peter because he was not writing his work to his math problems legibly. He was taking shortcuts and getting problems wrong. So I ended the lecture with that little story of my childhood and I mentioned how I should probably call my dad and apologize for all I put him through because now I realize he was right...I felt pretty old just saying those words...Dad was right.

One of my favorite kids, J, looked at me and said, "Why don't you call him now?" First, I laughed it off, but quickly reconsidered. Why not now? So I whipped out the cell phone and called my dad in front of the class. As it was ringing, the kids eyes opened wider and wider and J blurted out, "put it on speaker phone!"

My dad answered with, "what are you doing calling me at this time of day?" I asked him if I could put him on speaker phone with my class and he gladly obliged...he's a brave soul! I proceeded to remind him of the days around the dining room table and he quickly remembered! I then, to the applause of my students, apologized for all the heartache I had caused him in regards to the math. No wonder my high school students used to call me Dr. Phil. I ended the call and wrapped up class. I jokingly told them their homework for the weekend was to consider apologizing to me on Monday.

It is mornings like today that make me love my job even if it makes me feel old and makes me have to go back and apologize for being a stubborn teenager!

too funny, and too true...

severe weather alert...

If you haven't seen this, you'll love it!

Son, this here is Canon Town...

I'm getting ready to shoot two weddings in the next two weeks and I'm pumped! This weekend, Sarah and I are headed up to Abingdon, VA via an overnight trip to Asheville without the girls! So, as I'm preparing for the weddings, I'm thinking about some gear I'd love to rent...nothing I really need, it would just be fun to have with me and would give me a few more options.

So I search for camera rental stores around, and I find one place...Biggs Camera! Well, it seems that Mr. Biggs must be a Canon man. The only problem with that is that I shoot Nikon. I talked to a friend who has a coworker with the license plate "NIKONFAN" or something like that. She told him that there is nowhere in town to rent Nikon! Craziness! In LA, there were rental places on every corner that rented any piece of equipment one could ever need. Oh, Sammy's Camera, where are you in my time of need???? I guess I was a little spoiled.

My next thought was to look for camera stores that might sell a few little things I need to pick up. So I search for camera stores near me. Biggs is a little too far away. My other options are about 20 Wolf Cameras (the twin brother of over-priced retailer Ritz...bleh), Best Buy, and Circuit City. Not exactly my idea of places I'd like to shop. I guess if I need equipment ever again, I've got to think way ahead and buy it online.

my two interests combined...

I get to write one post about photography and politics. I caught the end of the debate tonight and managed to stay awake. The thing that caught my eye the most was after the debate ended.

The candidates and their wives began working the room and shaking hands. One guy caught my eye because he whipped out a Kodak disposable camera. I thought, "I wonder if he snuck that in or if he's allowed to have it." Then a minute later I noticed another disposable camera being used by someone else. Then another and another. It might just be my nerdy photographer self, but I had to laugh. The whole stinking room was using Kodak disposable cameras. I guess Kodak must have been sponsoring the night. I didn't even know they still made those things any more.

Kung Fu Politics...

I saw this site and had two immediate thoughts:

1. Wow, this is pretty funny.
b. Someone has too much time on his hands.

At any rate, if you're up for a little kung fu politics and want to see some real blood drawn from the candidates...have at it! Click on the picture below to check it out.

changing candidates...

I've been an Obama supporter until this morning. I came across this video and the following ad convinced me to change my mind. I hope you'll do the same!


Just in case you didn't pick up on the sarcasm, I'm not actually changing my mind. I just found this spoof ad to be a hilarious parody of the ridiculous political ads that are out right now. I hope you enjoyed it too!

my take...

I just finished watching the VP debate and I'm sure you won't be surprised that I would like to offer my opinion for whatever it's worth. I didn't comment on the presidential debate because I didn't catch most of it and what I did catch was pretty boring. This debate, however, was extremely interesting!

Overall, I think we'll hear both sides claiming victory as usual. Republicans will be glad Palin held her own and had a few shining moments. Democrats will appreciate Biden's presidential-ness and the fact that he didn't say anything gaffe-like.

I must say that I am now a huge fan of Biden. I didn't know much about him before, but man, is that guy impressive. He has such an amazing background and experience. He speaks with such passion and he has the ability to connect with real . I was certainly impressed with his desire to work towards an end to the genocide in Darfur. He effectively cut the "Maverick legs" out from under Palin which I was glad to see because that whole Maverick stance rubs me the wrong way anyway. I now firmly believe he would be an amazing legislative connection for the administration as well as a solid negotiator in foreign affairs. I think he would command respect from foreign powers and effectively and comfortably communicate with our allies and enemies.

I also think Palin pulled through just fine and won't make any major headlines, which had to be a major goal. She was obviously out of her league and steered away from some foreign policy questions. At times, she appeared to me to be rehearsing lines and trying to cram as much as possible into 90 seconds. By the end of the night, I was quite tired of hearing about the connection between raising taxes and job losses. I don't feel like that point really connected with much of anything, but she was determined to drive it home.

In my opinion, I'd certainly chalk the victory up to Biden, but I think Palin did well enough to keep her relevant and in the game.

faster than a 12-year-old girl...

Getting old is getting old. Three examples:

1 - I found myself having to join the young men's small group at our church simply because this is the last year I can be considered a twenty-something.

The other two examples are from my day at school today...

2 - I was having a difficult time today having my kids understand that line graphs show how data changes over time. So I was put on the spot to come up with an example that was less-boring than the ones in the book. What did I come up with? The number of gray hairs on Mr. Davis' head from 2002 - 2008. They walked away understanding the concept. I walked away depressed.

3 - During activity time with my sixth graders today, I made an exciting discovery. One girl wanted to race me and I kindly obliged. I smoked her! I mean, it wasn't even close. So I still have a little speed - at least enough to beat a 12-year-old girl. So why is this an example of getting old sucking? Well, I pulled my left quad while I was running and spent the rest of the day hobbling around.