Time to talk about something a bit more serious as I am looking to begin another degree soon myself. If you are like me you probably aren’t all that close to a university anywhere, so driving to school for 2 hours everyday isn’t the greatest use of your time. That is why the online degree programs at at an online university probably make a lot more sense.

Western Governors University is one of the better online universities I have seen based on the programs I have looked into. Basically I want to expand my business degree to a Master’s by adding in some tech expertise, and they have the programs that I am interested in. A Master’s in Information Technology.

Western Governors University is nationally accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). WGU is also regionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, one of the major accrediting commissions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

Finally, the day is here. The Inauguration of the first African American President, Barack Obama (Inauguration Schedule). Love him, didn’t vote for him, or maybe even hate him, this is a great day for America. Whether you believe he is going to wave a magic wand and take care of all your problems (you are an idiot), or you just love the fact that the world will start to see us in a whole new light (no clever pun here), this is a day that should be remembered for the rest of our lives. Soak it in, and feel proud of America today.

Sure, many think he isn’t qualified. Many think that he is nothing more than a great speaker with a few catch phrases (“Hope”, “Change”, “Yes We Can”). I agree with them to an extent, but at the same time I can’t help but feeling excited. I still believe that we need him. We need him to be a real Man of the People. I can’t help but be happy for the country. For the African Americans, for all of us that voted for him, and mostly for the significance it has on the greatest country in human history. We see men as men. Our children will see that we can get along. We are in this together.

We have a long ways to go to dig ourselves out of this hole we are in. Economically floundering, a country in a war most don’t agree with (even though most did when it started), a country that is trying to find itself again. This country is in trouble, but we will persevere. We will come out stronger than ever. It is up to us, not Barack Obama. President Obama is the spokesperson for where we need to go, but in the end it is us that will get us where we need to go. It is up to us to make our voices heard, build ourselves back up, and to become the country we want it to be.

Relax today, enjoy the moment. Celebrate the historical significance of electing this man. After the celebrations are over, we still need to get to work.

We still need to pay our bills, and we still need to do more.

Applaud our troops when they come home. They didn’t start the war. They fought it though. For us. Give them the respect they deserve.

Americans… still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.
~Barack Obama

Get involved. Do what you have to do to get yourself out of the hole you are in. I know that worrying about anyone else is nearly impossible for us when we are barely surviving ourselves. I know that it is easy to wish for a free pass. This isn’t reality. President Obama is not going to do it all for you. We still need to do it ourselves and for each other. This is a new beginning. This is OUR America. This is OUR time.

But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about me. It’s been about you.

~Barack Obama, Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 08:00 PM, DNC Nomination Acceptance Speech

Barack Obama DNC Nomination Acceptance Speech for Presidential Candidacy

This was one of the great memories from the Airplane! movie series. A headline in the “Enquirer” stating that “Boy Trapped in Refrigerator Eats Own Foot”. Based on his medical diagnostics he survived by doing so apparently.

Why the hell am I writing about this? In part because I love that headline, but in full is that I am trying to find an image of that headline and paper from the movie. I haven’t tried anything to find it, and I’m all out of ideas. Well…that isn’t technically true. I have used my amazing skills of search engine dominance to find such an image, but I have yet to find one.

So…if anyone wants to be a nice guy/girl and find it for me and post it in the comments I would be happy. Of course I’m not going to pay you anything to find such a thing for me, but I will give you some props if you do it. You spammin’ bastards may actually get me to release a comment from you for once if you come up with the goods.

I have been keeping up with the sale for the Buy.com weekly deals (bookmark this page!) lately because I had been looking for a digital camera. Advances in technology have come so fast with these I figured eventually that they would put one up that I could get a cheap deal on. I remember when a 1 mega-pixel digital camera used to cost upwards of $200, so imagine my surprise when I saw this DCS-1050 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera for only $79.99 with FREE shipping. Can you imagine paying $200 for a 1 mega-pixel camera a few years ago and being able to get this LCD digital camera for less than $100 now?

Of course this isn’t exactly a price you are going to pay everyday. Buy.com has made this one a special deal as part of their weekly deals program. In fact, this camera is only in limited quantity, so you will have to get there ASAP to even have a chance at this glorious offer.

Not only that, but they have some other nice deals this week as well. There is an XBox 360 wireless controller on the list for under 40 bucks that usually costs around $50. A $450 Magellan Maestro selling for only $229.99 that is surely a monster deal. Definitely a lot to look at this time. I’d be really surprised if you didn’t find anything you could use this week.

Once in a while I like to mention a couple of the stores I enjoy here simply because they need more recognition than most give them credit for. This time it is probably my favorite online store, Buy.com. You have probably seen some of their banners on my site before, but I feel that they need a post to really tell you how great of an online store it is.

Their prices are just as good as the other more well known electronics counter-parts online, and they even work in some much better deals than any of those do. Their Weekly Deals section has some of the best deals on the net. Many useful products that are so cheap you can’t pass them up.

One of the major features they have for these weekly deals tends to focus on portable media players, computer peripherals, and just great accessories for laptops, .p3 players, and computer hardware add ons.

Looking at the Weekly Deals this week I decided to focus a bit on .mp3 players. This is one thing in my life that I can’t live with out. I use my .mp3 player more than probably any other thing I own. When I first got my .mp3 player I went for the big iPod name and spent $400 for one. Although I get a lot of use out of it, I probably would never make the mistake again with everything else that is available from the .mp3 market. Why do I need to spend an extra $100-200 for what boils down to just a name? I wouldn’t do it again. I also didn’t even need all the disc space that I got with the one I bought either (60 GB). I don’t even use 1/10 of that space and the only reason I do is because I have it and I just keep a bunch of stuff I don’t even care for on it.

So now I see something like this 2 GB SanDisk Sansa m250 that works just as well, but costs virtually nothing in comparison. In fact this thing actually can use regular AAA batteries. It also has a ready made FM Tuner and and a built-in microphone for voice recording. Way more than my iPod does. the FM tuner alone is something I would have expected from the iPod, but no dice.

On Buy.com they have weekly deals for these all the time so these cheap .mp3 players are such a better bargain when they do what you want, and cost about 1/5 of what an iPod does. In this case they have that SanDisk player selling for only $24.99 with FREE shipping after a $30 rebate. A comparable iPod is going to cost over $100. This one actually retails for around $90, but Buy.com sells things a lot cheaper than most places so you would be getting a huge deal on this. Just look at the reviews for it on the site. Almost every single person gave it 5/5 stars because it is such a bargain.