Progress

Well here it is, after all this time.

A great promise will be fulfilled today when Barack Obama takes the oath of office and is sworn in a as the President of the great nation. And the country is abuzz with the energy of change. Today, we are filled with hope, excitement, anticipation, and gratitude. After so many years of living under the political and media dominance of a group of people who fight tooth and nail for laws and policies which diminish the individual rights and civil liberties for citizens of our nation, as they transfer public treasure into corporate coffers, to see the dawn of this new day fills my heart with joy … and hope!

This day was not inevitable. It has arrived on the backs of the work and sacrifices of countless souls,  from political and spiritual leaders to the unsung volunteers and civil servants, to the parents and grandparents who quietly sacrificed so that their children and grandchildren could have a chance at a better life. Upon their, and our, collective efforts, we have achieved this day: A landmark day in the eternal struggle towards the dream of a world of equal opportunity, of shared sacrifice towards the greater good, and most of all, towards justice.

We are all the beneficiaries of the work and sacrifice of others who’ve led the way here. I can sit here and type some keystrokes into this powerful machine, in the warmth and comfort of my humble abode, only thanks to years of work, discomfort, sacrifice, and the deferred gratification of my elders, and of generations past.

So as I sit here and attempt to grasp the profundity of this day, of the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama, of the changing of the collective direction of our nation and the world, and look forward to the immense challenges and opportunities that lay ahead, I give my profound thanks and eternal gratitude to my forbears. We all stand upon their shoulders. And, with this debt of gratitude, we owe it to them to continue that spirit of sacrifice for our collective future and for the futures of all who shall follow us in this world.

Fired up, ready to go!

One more year in the history books and what have I got to show for it?

A few more wrinkles, a few *less* pounds (!!) and some wonderful memories. 2008  was a very quiet year for me. Very little in the way of dramatic developments or epic experiences. Lots of quiet nights and weekends. Lots of hours in the gym.

Perhaps most notable for me was the time I spent with my family. The entire month of January was spent in sandy eggo, an experience for which I am truly grateful, since it allowed me to “be there” for the birth of my niece, and to be around for a few weeks afterwards to welcome a beautiful new life into our family. A couple of visit north from the ‘rents and the ‘xachos, a couple of trips south in the fall, and the epic week in Cambria rounded out a particularly family oriented travel/vacation schedule.

Socially, there was very little of note. The political calendar kept me very busy for a while, and I did enjoy a lively spring and summer at many politically-oriented events, including attending the Netroots Nation blogger convention, which was a great experience. But once summer season wound down, and aside from campaign related things, I just didn’t seem to get out a lot. I dated a little, but mostly I was rolling solo. That topic probably deserves a post or eight of it’s own, but for now suffice it to say that this trend cannot be allowed to continue, lest I one day find myself turning into a cat lady. Blargh.

Aside from one somewhat exciting project early last spring, work was like a giant vat of vegetable broth on very low simmer: full of potential, very promising, but as it stands not very filling, devoid of any flavor, and quite forgettable. Meh.

The best development, personally, was my decision in late April to quit drinking for 45 days. Special thanks to my blogging potna, without whom that moratorium would certainly not have held, but since she joined in and stood strong in solidarity, we did it! It was a desperately needed, timely, and wonderful experience. It utterly refreshed my outlook on my eating and drinking habits, re-introduced to my life some badly needed self discipline, and set the stage for an ongoing series of additional moratoriums and other self-improvement efforts. It also set the stage for some of my goals I am now formulating for the oh-nine… to be revealed soon.

So that’s it. I still have the same dog, the same job, the same car, the same apartment. I’m still single. I still write in this blog sporadically. I still have a great relationship with my family. I’m in waaayyyy better shape physically.

2008 was a quiet year for me. I have a great feeling that 2009 will be a year of building on some of the solid foundation I have spent so many quiet evenings developing in 2008.  In a few short months I’ll be turning 35. I have some very significant goals … and hopes for the coming year. As I am sure you do! So, here is a humble but heartfelt toast to me, to you, and to all of our loved ones that 2009 will be a year full of achievement and positive growth.

¡Salud!

About 4 weeks ago, a writer named Theresa Duncan reportedly killed herself in New York. She had a blog of some acclaim that until her death she updated daily. Her death was not widely reported even by by NY and LA papers and blogs — she’d recently moved from Venice Beach to the East Village — until after the disappearance of her longtime companion and collaborator, the artist Jeremy Blake. He walked into the ocean a week or so after finding her body in their apartment and was at that time presumed dead. Reports assert that a body was eventually recovered and identified as his through dental records. An ongoing investigation is presumedly underway, but as of this time no further information has been released nor have the texts of either of their last notes been released.

I read of Duncan’s demise most randomly on Valleywag, a website I rarely visit, on the morning of my 35th birthday. I felt some shock because her website had become a staple of my blog diet and I felt certain I had just read an update, but no her last obscure post dated July 10th, the date of her passing, was the last instance of my remote interaction with her web presence. Some personal websites or blogs offer a portrait, often a self-portrait, of a narrow portion of life focused on crafting, geekery, or parenting while other websites offer vistas or wide landscapes that showcase a certain portion of society. The ‘Wit of the Staircase’ offered a different kind of view that in my opinion made it stand out from the crowd and made it a memorable experience that took one out of the mundane. I reveled in the juxtaposition of the unusual images she used to illustrate her nebulous links and abstruse interests, but in the two years she blogged she revealed very little personal drama. Occasionally she asserted perplexing accusations and one could deduce she had more than a passing interest in what is demeaningly referred to as ‘conspiracy theory‘. One could not say they ‘knew‘ Theresa Duncan from her blog, but still her passing was very shocking.

There is something to this ‘story‘ that captures the imagination. There are so many questions left…Were they really harassed? (Probably.) Were they ‘mentally ill’? (Who isn’t as it all depends on who is giving the diagnosis.) And the answers will not be given by either of the two doomed lovers. Many are trying to put the pieces together, some are going for easy and cheap analysis while others are looking into the depths of the internet for meaning. I grieve for their families. There are no answers. My feeling is perhaps the meaning lies somewhere in the middle.

Something has been lost. Two lives are over and their deaths will resonate for the family and friends left behind. I will miss her sharp wit, her endless links that took me on an adventure far from the quotidian, and her superbly curated images that opened worlds before me.

May the elements of the rainbow colors not rise up as enemies;
May it come that all the Realms of the Buddhas will be seen.
May it come that all Sounds will be known as one’s own sounds;
May it come that all the Radiances will be known as one’s own radiances…

Whatever you two are smoking, please send me two tons as a sales starter package. I think that there is a lot more profit potential in whatever you are smoking than in converting ’58 Chevies into tri5s. I think that we would be better off converting these ’58s into tanks and selling them to GWB for his next attack on humanity. No, lets not do that, we might be next on his hit list.

It was then, as I considered the levity and content of his joking reference to our Dear Leader, that I realized something sad: how often I sensor myself, out of fear that something that I write or say might be surveiled and, should the wrong combination of words align, I might be subject to a) firing or b) imprisonment (possibly without right to trial).

Get it straight: I don’t have deviant or evil impulses. But the random nefarious thought occasionally passes through my head and the worst thing about it is that I hesitate to give voice to them – not because I am worried about the direct consequences of my thoughts (there would never be any) but rather because of this sense that pretty much anything I say or write (in email or IM) is potentially monitored by some government agency.

So this is modern Merka. It seems that the freedoms we are paying so dearly to protect from the Islamofascists has already been swiped from us by our rulers. The shame.

-Guillermo Gomez Peña

We have trained and equipped a largely Shiite internal security force. Now we are being asked to stay to prevent that force from committing atrocities.