Category Archives: Education

By Chrissy the Hyphenated

Click on graphics to embiggen for easier reading

I was given undue credit (again … blush) for someone else’s fabulous photoshop. I also received a request for permission to pass my “great work on to others” (still blushing).  Methinks it’s a sign that I should yap at all y’all about what I think I’m doing and why.

After HB, I spent 4 months hibernating, catching up on stuff I’d let slide, and pondering how to address my personal weakness for obsessing about and over-doing one thing at the expense of all the rest. I also spent a good deal of time with the Lord about His priorities for my political work.

I’m in my fifth week here at PoliNation and, yay me, Very Happy to Announce that the changes I made seem to be sticking. I’m slowly mastering the art of doing … and more importantly, being satisfied about doing … a little bit of a lot of different things each day.

On March 11^th, I started applying my new regime to the inside of my 90-gallon cichlid “show tank” which was more of a “There are fish in there? Oh wait … I thought I saw something move” glass box full of algae soup. It’s amazing to me what no more than 5 to 10 minutes a day can accomplish. Of course, this is in contrast to my former life when I did nothing whatsoever unless I felt well enough to do the whole thing … which was ummm … let’s not go there.

My other big change has been to stop photoshopping politically pithy graphics and focus my time and attention on Chrissy’s Site Bites style work. Why? Well, first of all, a lot of talented people are already doing wonderful work with political graphics, but nobody I know does the “bite-sized factoids packaged up pretty” thing I do.

And second, I have a problem with repetitive motion muscle fatigue and clicker finger tendonitis … up to my elbow! One good photoshop job would take me anywhere from a day to a week to finish and as often as not put my hands out of commission for days after. This past month, I’ve been producing multiple Site Bites every day without ever pushing my hands to the point where I needed an ice pack or couldn’t hold on to my toothbrush.

I did take one day off to play at photoshopping, just because I love doing it and I needed a break from politics.

But I digress. My fundamental motivation in focusing on Site Bites style graphics work (besides that I’m good at it) is that I believe every voter has at least one rock solid belief or special interest about which the Leftist media can’t snow them.

Like, for example, do you remember when Kevin DuJan talked about how he cleans house on Sundays for AIDS patients, most of who were drooly over Obama and had their apartments festooned with his face and logo? Then one day, at one of these places, all that stuff was gone and when Kevin asked about it, the fellow talked about those two gate crashers that got into Obama’s first big White House dinner party. This fellow had been a professional party planner. For him, letting gate crashers through the door of the White House was a failure titanic enough to kill his faith in the entire administration. In his words, “If he can’t even run a party, how can he run a country?”

I read another guy commenting on-line that Obama lost his support when he threw Jeremiah Wright under the bus. For this guy, it was loyalty that was paramount and he couldn’t abide what Obama had done to the man who had been his spiritual mentor and surrogate father for twenty years.

For me, it was having kids in Iraq telling me first hand about the war and being completely gob smacked that the news media was reporting something 180 degrees different. Obviously, I believed my kids. And since then I’ve watched my own journey Right-ward with great interest.

Much of what I do with my blogging is informed by having caught that critical “maybe the media lies” idea that I call a “brain splinter.” It’s like when you get a tiny shard of glass under your skin and you know it’s there, because it hurts, but you can’t seem to get it out. Ideas that violate your comfortable world view can be like that in your brain or, more properly, in your mind. They hurt and are hard to remove.

I was born and raised in a deep blue, ultra liberal town where being a Democrat was a no-brainer. But about the time I became old enough to vote, Democrats shifted from pro-life to pro-abortion. I couldn’t buy their arguments, so I left the Party of the People Who Only Care About Air-Breathers.  But I did NOT register Republican; the very idea made me itch. Basically, I hunkered down in the Right to Life Party that never elected anybody and quietly did nothing political but vote. I thought of myself as a Pro-Life Liberal … because, of course, “Liberals are the NICE people” and I wanted to be NICE.

I now call that place the Mushy Middle.

It took my kids going to war to open my mind and heart to the Right-wing. There I learned that nice isn’t the same as good and that if you try too hard to keep an open mind, you end up believing in little and accomplishing less. There I discovered not only that all my core values were represented by the Right, but also that the policies the Left has been promoting for half a century or more are destroying all that was ever great about America.

Do you get what I mean? I didn’t stop being a devout Christian who believes in truth and charity and all those other good things that the Left claims for their arrogant selves. And I certainly didn’t go from being a Smart, Well-educated Liberal to being a Stupid, Deceived Conservative.  Quite the opposite, in fact; I moved to the Right only AFTER I became aware of fact after fact after fact that demonstrated to me conclusively that the Left had been lying to me for decades and that MY values, my true values, were Conservative values.

Meanwhile, I was turning all Grizzly Mama over the appallingly negative news about the Iraq War, so Dearest and I started publishing a 4-page insert to a local monthly newspaper. It cost $250 a month. I put the copy together, mostly pro-military news articles I found on the internet, and Dearest hit up local friends and businesses for the money.

We did the “Progress In Iraq Report” for about a year. It got me used to researching and writing, plus I developed a little pro-military e-mail list that eventually grew to become my current bloggy mail group. Kevin DuJan discovered me via that venue and brought me on board HillBuzz, taught me bunches about how to blog and encouraged me to hone my photoshopping skills.

Occasionally, I’d have someone ask me for information about a specific topic to help them defend or explain something to a neighbor or co-worker, which made me realize that Conservatives really needed a resource for talking points and easily digested evidence.

It all fit in very nicely with what I’d always wanted to do anyway.  My original career path was educational communications. I’d envisioned myself teaching teachers how to use media more effectively in the classroom, but my illness cut those plans off at the knees six months short of a Master’s degree in Communication Arts.

But back to my ponderings and praying about my political activities. At some point, I realized my mostly-my-crafts Webshots account could be turned into a library where Conservatives could access info to help them educate others and where Sheeple who had caught a brain splinter could surf and learn.

I deleted all the crafty stuff, upgraded my membership to get more space and began organizing and uploading stuff I’d made before, during and since my time at HillBuzz. I think I’m close to having 2,500 graphics uploaded and I’m getting about 4,500 hits per week. I had one week when I hit 6,500, which was very exciting!

My mission is to educate voters like I was … the nice, good-hearted, Mushy Middle types that politicos justifiably call Sheeple. I figure if a weenie like me can go from Mushy Middle to Ultra-Conservative Loud-Mouth, heck … there’s hope for all those other Sheeple, right? Especially since we don’t need them to get brave enough to wave signs or get arrested like some of our very own Conservative heroes do. We just need them to get smart enough to vote Right.

The Left has nothing going for it besides a politico-media machine that works primarily at keeping voters stupidly loyal to some vague idea that Liberal Equals Nice. WE, however, have TRUTH on our side. And we have the freedom of the INTERNET to spread it. But we need to use BOTH if we’re going to save our great nation from becoming a god-forsaken Nanny State filled with millions of serfs whose lives are controlled by a small, elite class of powerful, ultra-rich Leftists.

So please … by all means … forward my bloggy mails. Cross-post my blogs. Send e-postcards from Chrissy’s Site Bites. Download my graphics and use them any way you think might be effective. I don’t need credit. I love getting an occasional Atta Girl, but other than that, I prefer a low profile. It’s enough that my bestest buds and God of course know what I do.

About e-postcards: Go to the graphic at CSB and look on the right side of the screen for the “send an e-card” menu option. You will be allowed to fill in the address and write a message if you want. It’s very easy. N.b., they won’t let you put a URL in the text, but if you format the addresses properly, you can send to multiple addresses at once.

About downloading bloggy mail attachments: I attach print-quality files to my bloggy mails, which are mostly variations on what I put here, but with printable attachments. If you’re not on my list and want to be, just ask.

About downloading graphics from PoliNation: I upload print-quality files, but since the site knows my computer and I can’t go anywhere to use another one, I can’t be certain how it behaves for others with respect to download quality. If you want a best quality file, email me.

About downloading images at Chrissy’s Site Bites: I upload print-quality files, but Webshots will only allow you to download a monitor-quality file. I’m happy to email you a print-quality file, but please keep in mind that I have more than 2,000 graphics in my archives. I have the files organized on my hard drive by which albums they’re in at Webshots, so probably the easiest way to ask is to send me an e-postcard of the image you want and put “please send print quality file” on the text side.

My public email addy is Chrissy@ChrissyOriginals.com. If you have my private email, you’re welcome to use it. I just don’t want to publish it here. Thanks for understanding.