This is the first of my series on how each of the canidates needs to run his/her campaign in order to be president in 2008.

We first look at who is the probably the most exciting, and in my opinion the most intresting canidate, Barack Obama.

Obama is that guy who came out of nowhere and gave the Keynote Address at the DNC Convention. He was running for Senator of Illinois, aganist uber-conservative Alan Keyes. This was no race from the start, as Keyes was replacing another canidate. Obama won election on a 75/25 percentage. This was the only win the Democrats had in 2004, where they got owned otherwise. So, Obama, a black man, is thrown in as the future hope of the Democratic party.

I figured that Obama was the Vice President canidate in 2008 for the Democrats, and I am sticking by that. Still, he is making a very spirited run here early at the Presidential bid for 2008. In fact, the media is obsessed with Obama. Why not? Obama has so much charisma, is such as nice guy, that even most Republicans like him (including yours truely). When you ask people why they love Obama through, they can give you no reason why. This is because Obama has not done anything yet, he is a 2 yr Senator. He has no record, but is all image .

So what must Obama do to win? He needs to not make positions on anything, and just go about grabbing all this attention with this great personality. I believe that Obama already made a mistake in stateing a postition on Universal Health Care, which he is for. This is too radical of a position too early for a canidate who has the ability to morph into many things in order to win. Now that he has stated that, he must stick to that.

Obama the early in 2008 must make positions on issues, and his positions need to be whatever the American people want at that time. For example, if the war in Iraq turns around, he needs tpo be for the war. If it is going badly, he needs to be aganist the war. He needs to be the populist canidate, the canidate that is for the people. He then needs to attack his opponets who disagree with him, but do so in a mannor than makes him look like a man of the people.

So basically, Obama needs to hold back on positions as late that he can, then pick some, and run on those. He needs a campaign of style not substance, cause he dont want people remembering that he is a 2 yr senator.

Most people have welcomed my changed attitude toward my desire towards finding a girlfriend. Still, others critize me for being too worried about finding a girlfriend. I have heard, as Tommy Nelson says in the "Song of Solomon" series, you are ready to date at the time when you can accept being single. I think this is a very valid point, as one who is obsessed with finding a partner for marriage (that is where this dating leads anyway) has an unhealthy relationship with God. I would also out that God calls us to be strategic in our approach to life. The real clincher is that as he calls on us to be strategic, he also calls on us to completly trust in him.

Through this, I would claim that the proper attitude is one where you prepare , but be ready for anything God throws at you. As far as I can tell, God is calling me into a life of politics. I believe that he also has someone for me to marry. He may not, and I may be single my whole life, and that is fine, but as of right now, I would think the life partner route is the route I will be lead. Knowing this, I ought to be strategic in the crazy world we call dating. I ought not sit around in the corner all day and expect a girl to come to me. God expects me to make myself presentable, and to even to "woo", as the term so goes.

People may say that I am becoming fake, and I would say that they are wrong. I would say that I am deciding to focus more on differant parts of my personality with the change. So, I am not becoming something I am not through this change. I am still Nic Shayko, your College Conservative on a Christian Campus you all know and love. I am just being more strategic on my pursuit of the 4 G's (see my comment on 1/27 post for a description of the 4 G's)

Today is the day of a new Nic Shayko. One with style, or so I hope. I just underwent a style change, which has been being planned for over a month now, but comes about fully after shopping today for new clothes and going to the Salon (not the multiculutral one, sorry Annie). Hopefully I look better, and we we see what results I get on the dating front. I bought 11 new shirts (not counting undershirts) , 3 pairs of paints all for the price of $160. I am in the process of deciding on exactly what to keep from the old wardrobe, and what to get rid of. Expect to see almost all of the t-shirts go, most of the jerseys to go (which will be reserved for going to or watching sporting events). Also, hats will be out of the picture for the most part, but not always.

Look for the new "messy" look with the hair, or as I would say, organized chaos. Of course, the contacts are not new anymore, but they were part of this switch as well. Anyway, we will see if I can change from being a white boy in the innercity to being something that looks more like surban America.

I have been accepted to George Washington University into the Graduate School of Political Management

I am so excited! It feels good to have been accepted to one of the best schools in the school in regards to politics.

Here is the e-mail in its entire form:

Mr. Nicolas Shayko

xxx Colony Manor Dr.
Rochester, New York xxxxx

Dear Mr. Shayko:

We are pleased to inform you that you have been admitted to the College of Professional Studies' Political Management M.P.S. program for the Fall 2007 semester. Your Offer of Admission packet will be mailed. On behalf of the College of Professional Studies, we would like to offer you our congratulations.

Your offer of admission is under conditional student status. Such status will remain until you have fulfilled the following condition: You should submit your official transcript showing that your undergraduate degree has been conferred from Rochester Institute of Technology. Once you have fulfilled the above requirement, your status will be changed.

To finalize the admissions process, please state in a return e-mail that you are accepting the offer of admission to the Political Management M.P.S. program for the Fall 2007 semester. If you need to defer your admission, please indicate that in the return e-mail. Upon receipt of your e-mail, we will process your name into the GW Information System .

Once again, congratulations and welcome to The George Washington University.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us via phone (xxx-xxx-xxxx) or e-mail (xxx@gwu.edu).

Sincerely,

Maria Escoto
Manager of Admissions
The George Washington University
College of Professional Studies

Now 2 more schools to go! Thanks to God for giving me this oppertunity, and I pray that he will help me make this hard choice. To see the schools that I have applied to, look at the websites of the departments under my links.

The quick summary, 75% of people hate Bush. They think that Iraq is going horrible, and they think that the economy is doing bad. Then, with presented with facts, they say that the facts dont matter. The War, despite it flaws, is still a sucessful operation. Saddam is dead, there are no WMDs in Iraq and a Democracy is being set up in the Middle East. Also, there has not been another terrorist attack since 9/11, since the terrorist have focused in on Iraq because they cannot have a democracy in the middle east. The sad truth is that the Americans are sooo impatient. They look at this war, they look at the 4 years we have been in it and they just see people dying and they dont think anything is getting better. On the 24 hour news cycle, people think this war is going so horrible. The truth is that Iraq is much better, and there are hotspots, and it is a hard battle there, but it is a battle worth fighting.

I am not saying that Bush did not make mistakes, because he has. The biggest on, in my mind was in 2003 when he got on the aircraft carrier and said "mission accomplished" just 6 weeks after then war began. This told the people that the war was over, but it was far from that. Bush should have said "We only just begun" but of course that aint as good of a photo-op.

In terms of the economy, it is doing great, the stock market is at its highest, unemployment and poverty are at their lowest, and peoples lives are improving. People are just trying to misrepresent what is happening with the economy. Still, I dont want to give too much credit to Bush for these sucesses though, as I have said that I do not believe that the President effects the economy as much as people believe he does.

Even with all this sucess, we are going to be pulling out of Iraq soon. Guess why? Because the American People are impatient, go figure.

In the 21st century, noting seems to be private. The time person of the year was "You", meaning you, yourself, basically anyone who post anything on the internet. This website is a small representation of that very fact. I like what Time magazine said of the statement made about the future by Andy Warhol. Warhol said that in the future, everyone would be famous for 15 min. Well, though, the internet, everyone is famous by about 15 people.

Still, the drive towards web 2.0 (youtube.com, myspace.com, blogs, ect) is this breakdown of the public vs the private. Some guy tapes Sadams execution on a cell, and sticks it up on youtube. A guy puts up pictures of himself drunk at a frat party. I post on this blog about how I got rejected by certain people. We have taken something that was typically private and made it public. Normally, you hide the fact that you are a drunk, but not people flaunt it through their website.

I feel bad because I post things on this blog that may hurt people, and things they wanted kept private. Still, me, growing up in the 2000s have no qualms sharing anything. You want to know my GRE score, anyone in the world can see that on here. You want to know if I went on a hot date (which I have not been on in years, Champions on Ice with Matt Campbell aint one), you can see it on here.

My public approach to life is not just reflected in my website, but also in my daily life. I told someone the wage of one of my friends, sothing I basically regard as public info without thinking twice about it (I make 9.50 an hr at the Stat Lab, btw). Still, he was upset that I gave that info out, as he gave it to me as private info. It used to be that info was considered private unless you ask it to be public, not it is exactly the opposite.

When anyone one can say anything, everything is revealed. In some respects this is a good thing, yet it is also troubling. It can be a good things cause important things can be communicated. Still, it is a bad thing cause certain people ought not know certain things. Should we really care what Bush has on his iPod? We do not need to know. When everyhing is public, the private life goes away, and you have no place for retreat.

This, very much, is a tradegy.

2006 was the year before the storm. It was the year where I had the most freedom ever in my life. I have had the least amount of work, the least amount of expenses and lots of places I wanted to visit. My roommates have joked that I am a bum, and this year, I was basically a bum, except I was a bum who whet to Vegas twice, Puerto Rico, Washington DC, 4 Major League baseball stadiums, 2 Sport Halls of Fame, 1 NHL Arena, dozens of casinos, the Adirondacks and the Hoover Dam. Unless I get a traveling job, I don’t think I will travel this much again (funny, still without a drivers license).

Even with all that travel, I had a lot of down time. The most of it can be attributed to the summer, where I was supposed to do research, but never was able to do it due to problems obtaining the data from the US government. Since I did no research, I worked in the Gosnell Computer Lab for 20 hours a week, nothing else. While at worked, I just played on the computer. The amount of downtime did not decrease dramatically in the fall though, because my classes were a joke. In the fall I took, Casino Management I, History of Baseball and Technical Writing. IT was by far my easiest quarter ever at RIT. Still, I am not complaining, as I expect a ton of work next year at graduate school. That is why this year is the “year of relaxation”, cause next year and the years after will not be.

The Nicolas Shayko Person of the year for 2006 was Dr. Cliff Houston, the pastor of my church, Pittsford Baptist. Pastor Cliff is by far the most accessible pastor I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He really seems to care about every person in his congregation. I have invited him over to dinner at the apartment, and he has had me over his place. Pastor Cliff wins the award not specifically for his work in 2006, but rather from 2003-06, where he has been a great resource. His sermons are great, and he has me with certain issue, especially with an opinion on gambling, which is the most controversial of my regular actions.

Gambling has been one of my regular actions for sure. 2006 was almost called the “year of gambling.” I took not 1, but 2 trips to Vegas, along with 6 trips to the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY and 2 trips to Casino Niagara Fallsview. The first trip to Vegas won event of the year, as I just loved the place, even though I lost $250 in the State of Nevada on my first trip out there. I actually lost nothing in Vegas, rather in Laughlin, NV on a bad night in Harrah’s Laughlin. Still, loved it so much that Ben and I went out there for Thanksgiving Break, where I quickly lost $450 in 4 days. Even through losing $700 in Nevada, I made $800 at the Turning Stone in Verona, NY. I lost $100 at Casino Niagara in Canada, making me break even in my first year at land based casinos.

The casino was not, as mentioned earlier, the only place I went though. In January, I bought tickets to Champions on Ice, intending to go with a girl to the event. Matt Campbell was my backup, going if I could not find a girl. I did not find a girl, and went to Champions on Ice on my 21^st Birthday, May 2^nd with Matt and had a great time.

My girl woes continued in 2006, as I just have no luck or something like that. There was a girl I was infatuated with for 6 whole months though. It was an experience I never had before, getting so caught up in someone. Still, I eventually faced the music and seen that while she was a friend, she was not interested in anything further. After that ended in July, I have been on the lookout, but have had no luck. There was another girl that I liked, but she was not single (and still is not), while I tried to make it clear I had no intentions, I still received more questions on the matter than I would have liked.

On the God front, I went on another missions trip in 2006, this one to Puerto Rico. I spent a week helping fix up a seminary, and it was an amazing experience. I kept teaching Sunday School all year, alternating week to week with Nate Haseley. I became leader of Small Groups of BCM, trying to make sure that they are working to their intended purpose. I led a small group with Matt Campbell, and then this year with John McIntyre. I actually met with John for accountability, which was a big step for me. I made a vow to read the whole Bible over the summer, which I failed with, even with all my free time. Nevertheless, I feel that I have greatly in Christ this last year.

My hobbies have changed a somewhat this year, probably the most radical being the amount of movies that I watch. I went from being a movie-hater to a movie-lover. I have NetFlix and have went though movie in that route. The best more was the Drama/Thriller by Woody Allen “Match Point” I have went away from playing poker online, as the congress passed a law not allowing funding from US bank accounts into gambling sites. So I have switched from online poker more to land based casinos. Near the end of the year, I started a website, www.NicShayko.com. It is a lot of fun, and a huge upgrade from my livejournal. It features my blog, book/movie reviews, sports reports, political predictions and more. I still read a lot of books, the best being “Mere Christianity” by CS Lewis, a book I think everyone should read before they die. I took up a little photography, as I bought a digital camera on read a few books on photography.

In Sports, it was an up and down year. OSU basketball was a #2 in the tourney, only to lose to Georgetown in Rd2. The most exciting was the Cavs who made the playoffs, and lost to the Pistons in an epic 7 game series. The Indians were a disappointment, finishing below 500 when expected to make the playoffs. OSU had a great year, going 12-0, finishing 2006 looking for a championship vs Florida in the BCS championship game on January 8^th, 2007 (they lost). Still, the biggest Surprise had to be the RIT Hockey team. This was RIT first year in Atlantic Hockey, and they have been doing great. They have played ranked teams tough, even beating a few. In the weak Atlantic Hockey conference, they are right in the thick of things for a regular season title. The game of the year was when Yi Fan and I went to Ithaca, NY to watch the RIT/Cornell game. That was the most hostile crowd ever, and it was amazing, as we were taunted so badly and it was great. ¼ of the arena at one time was chanting at us “These guys suck”

The website I visited most often near the election was www.realclearpolitics.com , which is a site that gives you all the polls, as I followed the 2006 midterm elections very closely, as being a pollster is what I want to do after graduate school. The celebrity of the year was Dick Morris, who is basically the guy I would like to be when I grow up. Pat McDermott wins personal website of the year, with his great beats about the tramcar and head on stick. The TV I got hooked in was the Twilight Zone, which is an awesome show. So awesome that I taped 99 episodes from a marathon so I could watch them anytime.

The Song of the Year was “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin for a two fold purpose. One, it reminds me on the year as a whole, as I end my journey here at RIT. Second, it was the last song I danced to with Camille at the Winter Gala, which for some reason is embedded in my memory. I think it is because it parallels when I danced with Elisha Unger at prom to “A Moment Like This”, where I talked to her about how amazing it is we were leaving High School and how hard it would get. I basically had that same conversation with Camille during that song, 4 years later. The Walk to Remember Soundtrack won album of the year, as for a while I was trying to learn to sing the song only hope off that album. Switchfoot was the artist of the year, as I have become a huge fan, and I went to a Switchfoot concert with Elliot in the Spring, which was a great time.

2006 was still a great year, one I will look back on with fond memories. I look forward to 2007, which, much like 2003, will be a year of transition. Life wont be easy in GraduateSchool, and with my pursuit of women in full force, things will probably be stressful. Still I leave you with my most embarrassing moment: I made this awesome carrot cake for when Pastor Cliff and Karen came over. It was done, and I started making the rest of dinner. After I got using the burners for dinner, I moved the cake over to the burners where I was cooking, thinking they were off. The fact is they were not. While we were eating, Lance asked me “Is you cake supposed to be bubbling”, and I had “Twice Baked Carrot Cake”

God Bless in 2007