“without struggle there is no progress” ~ Frederick DouglassFriends who have never registered to vote, peers who have never spoken up on anything related to current events or politics, and those with political perspectives the opposite of my own have all spoken up in some manner against enshrining hate in our state’s constitution.

So that is why I believe the passing of this proposition was a good thing, sure I would give anything to have seen the proposition defeated and I honestly weeped at it’s passage, at least something positive has grown out of something so wrong.

We have seen marches in all corners of this state and marches in other states. Young, old, gay, straight, republican and democrat and independent alike have all marched in the days after this election to denounce this proposition’s passage.

In the aftermath of something so wrong, this movement for equality and yes change, has dusted itself off and only grown larger, you see I was complacent, possibly like you were. I looked at the polls and looked inwards at myself and believed the rejection of proposition 8 was only days away. I watched the exit polls showing an Obama victory on election night and assumed to have a huge victory at hand.

That was until just after Obama’s speech and I saw the results start to flow in and reality began to set in. While some exulted in the glow of the election of the first black president, others simply could not, while the nation took one gigantic step forward, my state also took a bigger step back.

Even with this step back though, my hope for the future only grows. I look at the exit polling, and I see hope. I compare the results of proposition 22 in 2000, a similarly themed proposition tossed out by the courts, and the results of proposition 8, and I see the tide slowly turning. Most of all however I look at the youth vote, a segment I still call my own and I see true change. Just over 60% of those under 29 voted against the marriage ban, a number we can only hope to see increase.

Change never comes easy in this country, but change is coming to this state and eventually in this country. In my grandmothers lifetime she has seen a world war, the end of segregation, and the fall of a superpower, and now the first black president, so don’t tell her we can’t change.

There is no legally or morally justifiable reason to not extend the right of marriage to all couples, hate and intolerance has a short life span in this country, it is only a matter of time.

That right there is the crux of our election.

The original tweet is right here.

After seeing various internet celebs play with the service I decided to put it through its paces tonight and it really is a fun little toy that is a joy to use and actually quite a sophisticated web app as well.

After supplying your gender and a relatively clear photo of your face yearbook yourself goes to work. It slaps your mug onto a generic b&w yearbook photo for every two years spanning 1950 to 2000.

It is here where the sophistication comes into play. They could have just simply slapped your face onto these photos and called it a day but instead you are given control over every image’s size, placement, tilt and zoom level so you can create a semi believable and hopefully hillarious yearbook photo of yourself.

So if you haven’t seen it around the net, take yearbookyourself.com for a test drive, it may not serve any real purpose other than the cure for a few minutes of boredom, but hey that’s what most of the net is, isn’t it?

Also if you’re wondering where the pics from 1982 on are of me, truth be told they all looked horrible, well worse than what I posted.