Photo Finds

While I love this photo, I can see why some people might not: it isn’t very president-elect-ish. But does it need to be (him being Barack Obama and all)?

If there was a picture of Bush wearing this, well, there wouldn’t be. This is Barack Obama, and as John McCain would say it, “the one.” He’s a celebrity, so he gets these paparazzi shots.

This photo: Like it? Love it? Hate it? Or is Barack Obama too overrated?

Newspaper headlines are shouting job cuts, big company bankruptcies… “biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression” “BAILOUT” “RECESSION”

But say I was the kind of person that doesn’t read the paper, doesn’t watch the news, doesn’t get those headlines.

I wouldn’t know what’s going on, because I can’t feel this so-called recession.

Maybe it’s because I’m a full-time student with no worries of losing a job, but my mental image of “recession” wasn’t just a bunch of big companies going bankrupt. I thought it included us all being a little bit more financially conscious and whatnot.

For the past two months, I’ve noticed a heavy increase in cars buzzing in and out of the local shopping plaza. The local mall (that usually doesn’t have many people buying things) now has a parking lot that’s always packed, with cars circling endlessly around it for an empty slot. Stores that once had more employees than customers now actually have lines at the cashier register. Everyone is shopping like everything is free. Recessions don’t seem to affect buying a new flat screen at Best Buy…

Yes, I realize this phenomenon is known as “holiday season.” Well, this phenomenon wasn’t so intense last year. This intense-shopping-craze started in early November this year, at least where I live. Seriously, why so early?

Essentially, it’s because we are a consumerist society. We love to shop. We shop to make ourselves feel better. Why worry about a recession and paying for outrageous bailouts when you can just SHOP? Especially with the super-low prices going on.

And since gas is priced relatively low right now, you don’t even need to feel bad about driving everywhere.

At least around here, everyone is shopping like there is no tomorrow. The headlines in the papers  don’t correlate at all with the huge crowds at the mall. This “Recession? Who cares. Let’s go shopping” mindset highly disturbs me.

Is this “crisis” not really a crisis at all, or are we just not taking it seriously?

Taken from the front page of Huffington Post at 10:25pm on Dec. 11. Aka as of writing.

Photo is linked to a New York Times article about a study that says white-collar unemployment is spreading in New York, and it goes beyond Wall Street. Damn it, these are people with impressive university degrees and tons of experience, and that not all of them are corrupt and overpaid. God, help us. Or more like, God, help Obama. It’s going to be quite a bit of a task to make our economy booming and happy again.

I am happy.

I am ready for change in America.

And I am hoping that people will stop making unfunny jokes about Obama getting assassinated.

Here’s a funny picture, of people from “Obama, Japan.” Apparently, Obama means “Little Beach” in Japanese. What a coincidence, a Japanese town and the American president-to-be having the same name.

Fans from Obama, Japan

The election hype that has built up over the past two years will begin to die down now, and the political-news-obsessed (like myself) will need to find way to fill in for procrastination.

Congratulations, Barack Obama.

I was doing even more StumbleUpon-ing and found this. By Andrew Moore . Taken in Bosnia.

It love it. I love how intense and bright the colors are. It’s just so real, yet pretty, yet unfortunate.