Just freaking vote on Aug. 5...

I wrote this post back in 2010 (midterms!), but I think it might be good to re-post during each election cycle. I won't be working my usual election day job as a judge since I will be on baby-duty in the evening. BUT DEMOCRACY MARCHES ON! 

What is troubling, though is that our Missouri Secretary of State has predicted that less than 20%.
Anyway, I don't usually hide my politics. If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, I am sure you know where I come down on some of the issues.

But who I support probably does not matter to you. Just get your ass to a voting booth on Tuesday.

Aug. 5, 2014 - VOTE

Political endorsements are stupid. They are stupid for newspapers to do and they are stupid for blogs to probably do to.

So, instead of an endorsement I am going to implore you to just vote.

Vote smart.

Vote for the person who you think will bolster education initiatives in your community and state.

Vote for the person who sees the department of education at the state and national level as a vital part of what government can do right sometimes.

Vote for the person who will stop cutting away at higher education funding.

Vote for someone who isn't going to use their office as a pulpit to fire professors, discredit instructors or eliminate entire departments because they perceive them to be controversial.

Vote for the person that will fight to ensure that grants, scholarships and loans will still send millions of kids to college across the country.

Vote for someone who supports smart sex education that is based on mentoring and leadership not religious writing that makes you fear your body.

Vote for the person who who is not afraid of science, but embraces its nuances and challenges.

Vote for the person that will realize free and reduced lunches are a big part of a successful education policy AND that those programs should not stop after a student's senior year.

Vote for someone who sees education as a pathway to citizenship.

Other than that, I really don't care who the hell you vote for.

10 years of blogging and 1 million strong

10 years ago I sat down at the computer in my basement apartment (yes, the one with the subtle gas-leak) and decided to start an experiment that became a dumping ground for some of best and worst writing I have done.

For a decade I used this awful excuse for a website as a place to show off and play around thinking no one was going to actually read anything or care about what I was doing.

Well, you all proved me wrong.

In 10 years more than 1 million of you have visited, read and commented on the stories and tall tales I have posted on this site. In the grand scheme of things that is not really an impressive stat for those websites that attract more than 1 million people in an hour each day. But for a no-named schmuck from the middle of fly-over country — that's kind of cool.

I know there have been a lot of lapses in consistency when it comes to how often I maintained and checked in with this site. But that was because I got a little busy with graduating college (and grad school) getting a job, moving, growing up, getting married, getting another job, moving again, becoming a father and so, so much more that makes that last 10 years seem like a blur.

While the posts were never consistent and the themes of this blog varied wildly, the one thing you know you can count on is terrible, terrible spelling mistakes - so you got that going for you as a reader.

So, here we are writing about our 10 year anniversary and planning for my daughter's first birthday. My hope is to get back into blogging with you fine folks more often. I want to get back into the daily and weekly rhythm of not just posting for vanity's sake, but to get back into writing and being ridiculous on a regular basis.

However, as you can see from above, I have my hands a little full at the moment.

So begins the year of 30: a decade of blogging like a madman.

It dawned on me way to late in the evening on New Year's Eve to make a big deal. But once I realized the insanity of it all, I think I kind of just sat and stared into the distance for a while.

My mind was attempting to bend and flip over the fact that this year marks a huge turning point in my life. Even now I am not quite sure how to properly celebrate 2014.

You see, 2014 marks an incredibly big year for me and my family:

My youngest brother is playing in the Big 10.
My middle brother is getting married.
My daughter turns One.
My wife and I will celebrate our second anniversary.
I even turn 30 this year.

But all of that does not quite hold a candle to the fact that...

The Wednesday Weekly turns 10 this year.

Holy. Hell. Batman!

That means that I have been sipping whiskey and banging out some truly awful writing for you bastards for 10 years. Some of you have even been around since the beginning as you came slogging along with me on some incredible adventures.

It all started one evening in the basement apartment in Columbia, Missouri, where a small undetected gas leak would keep me and my roommate a little loopy all summer. That might explain why I started the blog. It might also explain why gas stoves terrify me to this day. Of course, after 10 years, you would think I would be able to maintain this place a little better. Back then I thought this blog would be something like a rogue news site for all the news that never made it into the weekly paper I working for at the time.

After that it just became kind of an online journal for one college kid who had no idea what he was doing. Then a travel blog, then photo blog, then a space for wedding updates, home hunting, the birth of my daughter and now... well, if I give it another 10 years I might finally figure out what the hell I'm doing here.

A decade, people!

My old journalism roommate used to say, "Real writers only get to use an exclamation point three times in their lives."

Well, Andy, here goes all three.

10 years old!

I have been blogging for more than a decade in this spot and while I might take some time off here and there, I have no intention of ever stopping. I just renewed the Wednesday Weekly domain for another year and hopefully we will keep renewing it for another decade or so.

Happy Halloween from the Cubicle Farm

When The Empire has a casual dress policy, this Storm Trooper takes it seriously...

"Droids? Let me tell you a story about some droids I was looking for once..."

You're still here?

Oh, hey. I did not know anyone had stuck around. I guess I kind of left you all in a lurch seeing as my last post was just a giant GIF vomit before we headed to the hospital.

Yep. The Librarian and I had a baby. And she is most awesome thing ever.

Notice how she radiated awesome from Day One.

The photo of me holding my daughter in the hospital seems like an eternity ago, but it just happened back in August. Now two-and-half months into this whole Fatherhood gambit and I feel like we are starting to get into a rhythm.

Granted, I keep saying that and then my daughter will throw us a curveball that makes The Librarian and I question everything we have been doing as parents.

Still, like everything else in my life, I am perfectly comfortable just blundering my way through parenthood making things up as I go and pretending that all the good things that happen are planned that way.

At least this is what I will tell my daughter when she gets older.

IT'S GO TIME!!!!!!!!

#BabyEkey is on the move!

#BABYEKEY!

MCC: leading the community college revolution.

MCC this was not so much a marketing department idea. Rather, this was conceived and written by MCC-Penn Valley student Bro.

It really drives home the well-worn idea that success is not something that is won by a single action or single person. Success is won by entire cities, families and people who are committed to the idea that education is the key to lifting any community.

The newest Lee's Summit Arts Council member

That's right, cats and kittens!

Lee's Summit Mayor Randy Rhodes and the City Council appointed me to the Lee's Summit Arts Council. Above, you can see Rob The Lobster—one of my many artistic talents.

All joking aside, I am honored and excited to work with this group. It is my first big step into working with Lee's Summit and City Hall. In talking with my friend who helped me submit my name for consideration, he says this council is incredibly diverse and very active in the activities and programs they oversee throughout the city. In working with MCC I have seen the council's work first-hand as they have been long-time supporters of the MCC-Longview Kite Festival, Longview Arts Festival and Longview Literary Festival.

Along with many sponsored events, the council also works with artists and art organizations to advocate for their work in the many different venues around Lee's Summit.

This week I will be sitting down with Parks and Rec. folks to get my official orientation into my first major board appointment and what my one-year term will entail.

Aug. 13 is our first meeting and hopefully, if we are sans baby, I will be able to make the meeting and start working with this group.

GAH! We are getting so freaking close.

At this point, the doctor says it's all about waiting for the baby.

Let's get this show on the road!

Testing the Ergobaby

Cat tested. Father approved.

Swayer seemed to enjoy the perch and only jumped out when the dog started getting jealous and whining.

I'm 6'4" and nearly 300 lbs. and the Ergobaby fits nicely around my body. Even with the cat I felt pretty secure and he did not move at all.