Spectagirl in a Spectacular World

running in the rain

2009-10-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

Stress doesn't know if it's sunny or pouring rain outside. So what do you do to relieve it when it's raining? You don the waterproof gear and run in the rain. I haven't run in the rain since my marathon and that was residual morning dew. In my mind, rain usually delays any sort of exercise. Snoozing seems more appropriate than becoming drenched.

It was misting at the onset of my run, and increasingly became heavier. I'm sure people thought I was crazy, just as I think people are insane for running in the middle of a hot day. My concerns were put to rest as my path crossed another rain runner. We exchanged smiles and continued pounding the pavement. Was she running to relieve stress, too?

I came home drenched, my shoes and socks were sopping wet. After popping some vitamin C and enjoying a warm bath, I sit bundled up and a little bit relieved of stress.

doing without

2009-10-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

I had another breakdown a couple of weeks ago. After talking with friends, I calmed down. Their suggestion was to watch a movie. I watched Out of Africa. I know, not a brilliant choice for a movie given the situation, and although it was sad, it was what I needed.

No, I don't have anything as romantic as a farm in Africa or a boyfriend who does safari work, but what I do have is a life in Los Angeles, a life that I love and a life that I've worked hard to achieve. As I pack up each box and gauge whether or not things have enough meaning for me to take with me, I'm reminded of a line in the movie: If we are tested at all, it is for patience or doing without.

Doing without. I'm conflicted between things I've acquired and mementos I cherish. Life is not about material things, I know that, but I hope these things that I'm selling or giving away bring as much joy to their future owners as much they have brought to me. My little apt will have another tenant and probably more than I can imagine. I hope that the five years I occupied it are some of the more memorable ones. There are little stories captured in the details which remind me that there were others before me: the Mezuzah at the entry door, the carving in the back of my closet, or the security system that I never activated.

I had an apartment in Los Angeles at the foot of the Hollywood Hills. Santa Monica Blvd runs across these lowlands, two blocks to the north, and the apartment lay at an altitude of over 200 feet. In the day-time you feel the warmth of the sun from every direction, but the early mornings and evenings were filled with a cool breeze, and the nights were cold.

I'm not sure where this next journey will take me: the earth was made round so we would not see too far down the road.

willy-nilly

2009-10-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

When I have an idea everyone says that it's wonderful and they've never heard of anything like it before: yada, yada, yada. I start working on it and it never fails, another idea pops into my head. I have a journal filled with ideas, because I want to document all my thoughts on it before I forget. At some point, I have to revisit these other ideas. For now I just need to focus on the four that are on my plate. Some are more tempting than others to pursue, but I must restrain myself.

Right now, I need to be focusing on my websites. But no, now my willy-nilly mind is off hitting on this newcomer. Now I'll have to spend at least an hour jotting down the main ideas.

"Next Year" 2009 NFL Predictions

2009-09-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

The mantra of many sport fans is "Next Year."
Here are my predictions for the 2009 Season!! woooohoooo!!!

AFC East
1. New England Patriots
2. Miami Dolphins
3. Buffalo Bills
4. New York Jets

AFC North
1. Baltimore Ravens
2. Pittsburgh Steelers
3. Cleveland Browns
4. Cincinnati Bengals

AFC South
1. Indianapolis Colts
2. Houston Texans
3. Tennessee Titans
4. Jacksonville Jaguars

AFC West
1. San Diego Chargers
2. Denver Broncos
3. Kansas City Chiefs
4. Oakland Raiders

NFC East
1. New York Giants
2. Philadelphia Eagles
3. Dallas Cowboys
4. Washington Redskins

NFC North
1. Minnesota Vikings
2. Green Bay Packers
3. Chicago Bears
4. Detroit Lions

NFC South
1. New Orleans Saints
2. Atlanta Falcons
3. Carolina Panthers
4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFC West
1. Arizona Cardinals
2. San Francisco 49ers
3. Seattle Seahawks
4. St. Louis Rams

AFC Seeds
1. New England Patriots
2. Baltimore Ravens
3. Indianapolis Colts
4. San Diego Chargers
5. Pittsburgh Steelers
6. Denver Broncos

AFC Wild Card: Denver Broncos defeat Indianapolis Colts. Pittsburgh Steelers defeat San Diego Chargers

AFC Divisional: Denver Broncos defeat New England Patriots. Baltimore Ravens defeat Pittsburgh Steelers.

AFC Championship: Denver Broncos defeat Baltimore Ravens.

NFC Seeds
1. New York Giants
2. Minnesota Vikings
3. New Orleans Saints
4. Arizona Cardinals
5. Philadelphia Eagles
6. Green Bay Packers

NFC Wild Card: New Orleans Saints defeat Green Bay Packers. Arizona Cardinals defeat Philadelphia Eagles.

NFC Divisional: New York Giants defeat New Orleans Saints. Arizona Cardinals defeat Minnesota Vikings.

NFC Championship: New York Giants defeat Arizona Cardinals.

Super Bowl XLIV Miami, Florida on February 7, 2010: Denver Broncos defeat New York Giants 34-31.

I know it's a rebuilding year for the Broncos, but I have to pick them.
(Jon, I know you'll love this match up. If it happens we're going to Miami. hahaha)

Personas

2009-08-19T23:18:00.000-07:00

Personas is a new project by the Sociable Media Group from MIT Media Lab and is currently showing at the MIT Museum and online.

It uses sophisticated natural language processing (PDF link) and the Internet to create a data portrait of one’s aggregated online identity. In short, Personas shows you how the Internet sees you.

To create a 'portrait,' you enter your first and last name. The site searches the web for content related to you. The animation of the search process is well-designed, but some of the content is not relevant. I do like the "A roystering noisy university engagement she had made no small ... worn by his with my lord obnoxious printers and a man of the admirable Prudence Brady and it only shows how..." WHAT? shows how....what? ahhhhh, oh well. It reads as if it's mad libs on crack. I must find this website.:) I'm not sure how many Prudence Brady's are out there or for that matter Prue Brady's (I usually never have a problem registering an account with my name). I imagine if you have a more common name your persona would be a combination of a few different people. The project creators acknowledge this in the description of their philosophy:

In a world where fortunes are sought through data-mining vast information repositories, the computer is our indispensable but far from infallible assistant. Personas demonstrates the computer’s uncanny insights and its inadvertent errors, such as the mischaracterizations caused by the inability to separate data from multiple owners of the same name. It is meant for the viewer to reflect on our current and future world, where digital histories are as important if not more important than oral histories, and computational methods of condensing our digital traces are opaque and socially ignorant.

Try your own web content portrait at Personas.

JOB OPP: How do you stay connected? Paid interviews (San Francisco)

2009-07-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

For my SF Bay friends:

via SF Craigslist

How do you stay connected? Paid interviews (San Francisco)
Reply to: dorinda@ideo.com
Date: 2009-07-08, 2:15PM PDT

International design firm IDEO (www.ideo.com) is seeking people to talk about CONNECTING with others in small groups or one-on-one. All interviews will take place in the Bay Area the week of July 13th and July 20th . These in-home interviews will be 90 minutes and the compensation is $150.

For some of the interviews we would like to meet both of you and your partner/friends/children/mentor.

Type of people we seek:
* You and your spouse have been married for over 15 years
* You are in high school and belong to a small and very close group of friends
* You are part of AA and have a good relationship with your sponsor (we would like to meet you both!)
* You are a pre-school teacher
* You are a busy working parent of small children who has to coordinate many schedules
* Your family is located all around the globe but stay connected through multiple communication channels
* You are in a long distance relationship and have been for the past 2+ years
* You are an experienced marriage counselor
* You own or are a follower of a meal cart that updates its location on Twitter
* You are part of a program developer group that also meets live
* You are an unusual user of Twitter, Facebook, iPhone, or Skype (you define “unusual”)
* You are a heavy user video conferencing systems
* You organize/host small meetup.com group meetings
* Your job highly depends on informants (investigative reporter, corporate/private/police detective, paparazzo, etc)
* Your job often relies on precise silent/gestural communication (police, military, hearing impaired communicator, airport ground controller, etc)
* You were part of a group that organized a real world event via Twitter
* You are an active member of a church or support group
* You are a sports team coach

If you are interested, please describe which of the above scenarios may apply to you and why. In addition, tell us a bit more about yourself and answer the questions below.
1. Name
2. Address
3. Age
4. Occupation
5. Phone Number
6. Marital status
7. Ethnicity
8. How many children do you have and what are their ages?
9. Tell us in detail how you fit into the above criteria (the more detailed you are the better we can understand how you fit into our study)

10. What are the different means of communication you have/use to stay connected to people and information that are important to you? (calendars, google groups, social networks, e-mail, in-person meetings, over lunch, etc)

11. What is the best day/time to meet on the week of July 13th – July 20th?

Thanks in advance,
Dorinda
dorinda@ideo.com

Location: San Francisco
Compensation: $150
Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
Please, no phone calls about this job!
Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

my afternoons with ellen

2009-04-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

The one pleasure I get from working at home (being unemployed) is watching Ellen. She recently had a bathroom concert series, and here she joins Jennifer Hudson to sing And I Am Telling You.

Awesome.

Review: New Facebook-Change is Good

2009-03-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

Since I’m unemployed, I’ve joined more social networking sites and have had time to explore them. A few years ago, it was Friendster and then Myspace (MS). When Facebook (FB) allowed non-college students to join, it surged to the top of my list. Where MS lost me was in the user design: graphics, blinking banners, music plays when you open someone’s profile. A bunch of items clogging up the information super highway. FB simplified that, but still allowed for user tailoring by allowing apps (applications). I then used MS for music information only, along with last.fm. But, now, I love Twitter. As I dive deeper into Twitter, oh, it’s so beautiful in it’s simplicity. And Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of FB) knows this. He tried to buy Twitter. Notice that the "is" was taken off of the status update field and replaced with "what's on your mind?"

Twitter is simple status updates, known as tweets. You can tweet pictures, but it only shows them as a link, you can retweet (RT), reply to someone (@username) and add hash tags (#review). The only thing is trying to convince people to join, which was also the case when I joined FB. :)

Concerning the new FB design, I like it. I’ve waited a few days to really sink my social networking fingers into it, but there are some good things there. Twitter was the next thing to come, and maybe still is. FB had to adapt, or it would be left in the dust like MS and Friendster. Change is good, but it always comes with some opposition.

First of all you should have friends categorized into groups. They won’t know how you group them unless you blog about it like me. I have home (friends from my hometown), unm (undergraduate friends), places I’ve worked, etc. News feed, it’s like the live feed from the old FB, but it’s genius. You can look at the default news feed or click on the groupings of friends to see what they’re doing. You can hide friends. Yes, if someone sends out a bunch of gifts, it dominates the news, but hey they’re generous. Don’t worry in an hour they will no longer be in the news feed. You didn’t get a gift? Maybe you need to send one. hahaha All kidding aside, I think I’ve found the solution to this. I spent some time going through my application settings and changing if it was posted or not. But you can also click on inbox==> notifications tab ==> applications you've authorized.

I love the new and improved news feed. Recent photos are on the same page, not a separate tab. If some one is not very active on FB, then they’re not going to show up. If they’re a close friend, who is lost in the activity of other friends who embellish in social networking, add them to a group. Then you will always see their updates. I think if someone has their privacy settings to not show anything they’re doing on FB, I don’t understand why they’re on. It comes back to that question about superpowers, “If you had the ability to fly or to be invisible, which would you choose?” Flying, because invisibility allows people to have voyeuristic capability…kinda strange. I didn’t join a social networking site to be left alone. :) hahaha

I for, one, love seeing what you’re doing and looking at your cute pictures of your kids/family. If you take a quiz, well, I know a little more about you. I apologize if I have dominated your news feed, and I take no offense if you hide me. :) I hope you enjoy reading what I'm doing or what is on my mind. :)

This post is getting longer than I thought. I still have some items/recommendations for FB settings. My friends say I should have a tutorial course for using networking sites.

Simple recommendations:
In FB, look at Application settings and Settings on your profile page:

Other recommendations:
Use Google Reader, flickr and Twitter. Digg and last.fm are kinda cool, too. AND Import your activity into FB. That may be asking too much. :)

MM 2009: Mr. President, you can suck it. :)

2009-03-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yes, I voted for Barack Obama and he has my full support politically, but in sports we are on opposite sides of the table. He was not very kind to the Pac-10 or UCLA, he picked VCU over UCLA. (wtf?) And yes, we only won by one point, but a win is a win. In this game it grants you the right to proceed to the next round. So after day one, this is how the brackets look:
and where is Obama? oh, at the bottom. JK hahaha (I entered Obama's picks) The UCLA defense screwed everyone. I'm telling you, this year has not been consistent for anyone. This is the facebook bracket:
Between the Brackets on facebook (CBS Sports) and ESPN, I prefer the ESPN bracket. It's easier to see everyone's stats and picks. This year they have real time scoring on the bracket, very awesome. I wish they had the commenting capability as facebook, but ..oh well. The commenting on ESPN is clunky. I love that you can see how you fair overall. I don't have many upsets picked for today, but I always welcome a 16 over 1 upset. :) I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!!

Wordle

2009-03-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

I spent part of today playing with Wordle, I used my other blog Spectagirl 365 for the data. Wordle creates word clouds from text, blogs, or websites and allows you to change the font, colors, layout, and other elements.

TAL: Bad Bank

2009-03-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

This post is difficult to write. This American Life (TAL), whom I have recommended that you add to your podcasts, recently reported on the economic crisis and the banks. I correct myself, they are the ones who brought the two brilliant reports on the current economic crisis: Giant Pool of Money and Another Frightening Show About The Economy. A couple of weeks ago NPR collaborated with TAL for Bad Bank. Click on "Full Episode"

It's difficult to write, because I don't have a mortgage nor did I vote for George W. Bush, but I'm out of work, and I'm pissed. It actually took me a while to listen to this episode, as well as the following episode Human Resources, but the program is brilliant. I recently met another person who was unemployed and we unloaded our frustrations to each other, and this episode was our connection (other than both being unemployed) Thank you, TAL.

Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer

2009-03-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Since being laid off I've come to miss certain shows: The Daily Show and Sports Center being two of them. At my gym I'm able to catch SC. I've only caught Mad Money, because my gym switches from SportsCenter to CNBC. There is no audio, they only have the closed caption running. This show is nothing, but camera tomfoolery. I think I counted a minimum of four cameras and it's filmed similar to Iron Chef crossed with Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Zoom in and zoom out, cut to camera 1, camera 2, camera 3 all in 30 seconds...talk about mass media as a distraction and manipulation of the masses...

"I want the Jim Cramer on CNBC to protect me from that Jim Cramer"

"You can draw a straight line from [your] shenanigans to the stuff that was being pulled at Bear to AIG and this weird Wall Street side bet… you knew what the banks were doing, so as to pretend that this was a once in a lifetime tsunami that no one could have predicted was at best ingenuous and at worst was criminal."

LAPD Crime Map

2009-02-27T00:08:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how accurate this is, considering I'm on the border of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, and those are not covered by LAPD. (as I found out when I tried to call WeHo police when I had the man standing in my driveway looking for his lost daughter at 11pm at night...thank you, Nate)

I feel like I live in a rather safe neighborhood, well I have to remember that I do live in Los Angeles. This is a 7 day, 2 mile radius LAPD Crime map of my apartment. It kinda brings things into perspective.

Maybe I should carry that pepper spray that Ceci bought for me.

Let's look at the Farmer's Market Mapplet instead. :)

or Chris, Rhianna and Their Powder Blue Dot of Shame :O

job: Audience Development Administrator

2009-02-20T18:24:00.000-08:00

This sounds perfect, now I just have to convince them that I'm perfect.

Position is responsible for managing multiple assignments at once. Fulfill marketing campaign elements and assets, as assigned. Management of internal assets and logos. Assist with development and brainstorming of Word of Mouth Marketing approach campaigns. Assist in drafting staff for implementation of Word of Mouth Marketing campaigns and management of assignment and results tracker. Prepare program recaps, as assigned. Weekly reports for each assigned project to show performance against project objectives as well as manage independent contractor reports for same assignment to compile a complete weekly report with measurable gauge of implementation. Liaison with Digital Research team to provide weekly insights report to assist team with current and forecasting knowledge. Identify new areas for viral marketing as well as develop/maintain relationship with active bloggers and social media site/page owners. Other projects as assigned.

College Degree. Web Skills – HTML; embed player distribution; photo and video posting and creation (imovie/final cut); email newsletter program management and active member of social media and newsfeed sites. 6 months to one year in a digital media company in a marketing support role; Advertising Agency experience (in digital media) a plus. Web trends, entertainment blogs specific to TV and WB destination genres, and social media platforms beyond MySpace and Facebook. Knowledge and hands on experience managing and downloading from FTP sites. Good communication skills, excellent interpersonal skills – both verbal and written. Strong attention to detail are required. Experience in a support role for the execution team on large projects, some marketing and online media support experience. Excellent organizational skills. Ability to balance, multi-task and prioritize requests and still meet deadlines. Keen interest in digital marketing. Active Facebook profile, interest in gaming sites.

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote

2009-02-17T22:45:00.000-08:00

this is cool. Thanks, Joe, for the link.

The Uninvited Guest.

2009-02-16T12:16:00.000-08:00

It sounds quite innocent enough: “Friend Request” You click on it and it could be a dear close friend, or a lost childhood friend. Sometimes it’s people you can’t quite remember, but when you place them you’re filled with elation. Then you have the occasional and very rare person you barely knew in Secondary School, High School, College, or Grad School, and you think why not? You hit accept. 99% of the time, it's fine and it's wonderful to see how people have changed and that they have cute kids. It's the 1% that is the problem: The Uninvited Guest.

Facebook allows you to stay in touch with friends and their kids. You can see that they’re watching the game, out with their family or enjoying time alone. It’s a wonderful place to stay connected with friends. I love it, and I love reading about my friends.

Now I’m a product of my love for FB and the Internet. The comments from the Uninvited Guest begin and they are all innocent enough. I don’t want to toot my own horn or take them inappropriately, so I let them roll off my back. More and more comments come some more inappropriate then the one before. I start to realize that when I take a stupid test he’s the first person to take the test. “Uninvited Guest matched you 78%” followed by a comment, “I always knew we had a lot in common.” OOOKay.

So ignoring the comments is not helping, being passive aggressive has no place in FB. I’ll message him.

“I took a look at your profile today, and I realized that I was the only person…or the only person I could see on your "Likeness Unrated." While I understand Facebook is all for fun. I don’t feel comfortable when you’re married. So I’m deleting your results from my page. I hope there is no harm.”

This comment worked for a while. It came to a head where he found one of my status updates inappropriate, and proceeded to write a multi-paragraph tirade about how he knows me and is disappointed in me. Insert the sound of a record scratching. Wait. What? You don’t know me and you’ve never known me. You think that because we’re friends on FB that you know me? Ok, this has gone too far. My comfort level was getting wary. I eventually had to delete him from my Facebook and Myspace. That was about a month ago and I thought I was finished with that little drama.

On Friday, I received a message from my new blog where I’m taking a photo-a-day. “You have a new comment” oooh goody. Then the realization sets in that it’s from him. It sent a shock to my stomach. How did he find? Why would he comment? Dude, I deleted you from Facebook and Myspace. That doesn’t mean “come find my blog and comment on it.” I scoured my email and looked for any message I may have sent him: nothing. Whew! I’m so glad my address and phone number are not posted on Facebook. Now, I may move my blog, yes move my blog to a new address. That’s why I haven’t posted anything in a few days. I thought of stopping all together, but I love blogging and sharing news with friends and family. If you're a friend on Facebook, don't worry this is not directed at you. I want you to visit my blog and comment.

This post is to him. You are not my friend, you have never been my friend, and you will never be my friend. Please stop visiting my blog, delete the subscription, and the RSS feeds, nothing. I don't want you to know anything about my life. The great thing about the internet is that "Big Brother" is watching. Your IP address showed up on my tracker, I can see that you’ve visited and the duration of your visit. Please stop. I don’t want any further communication with you and I’m freaked out. Do you hear that? FREAKED OUT. Please stop, and don’t comment on this post. Just stop, please.

Sense of Humor

2009-02-04T13:12:00.000-08:00

I’m catching up on NPR’s Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me. At the end of December, they arranged a medley of shows geared toward the political frenzy of this past year and the past eight years. Good Stuff.

NPR: 12-28-2008 Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Sun, Dec 28, 2008 3:06 PM
Stories: 1) A Quick Review Of The Bush Years ... Starting In Florida 2) The 2008 Election 3) And The White House Goes To ... Barack Obama

I love when Obama talks about the carvings in the Senate’s desks and “taking a spray can... as (he is) the only African American...” hahaha
I love his sense of humor.

Good Days & Bad Days

2009-01-25T14:19:00.000-08:00

What constitutes a good day?

It starts with waking up early and not by the alarm clock. It’s a turn of the torso and an arching of the back. Arms extend above my head and a body stretch extends down to the t i p s of my toes. My eyes slowly come into focus. A hot bowl of oatmeal with raisins and soy milk warms the throat and fills the belly. It’s accompanied by a cup of white or green tea. An engaging article is found and explored. The gym is inviting and all of ‘my’ machines are waiting for me. The challenge is at hand and I up the ante: speed, level and time. Focused and determined, sweat beads down my face, neck and back, but I don’t wipe it away. As soon as I realize it I’m on my cool down. Water is cold, crisp and fresh.

The shower is cold then warm. Soap lathers up. My skin and hair run clean. The perfect outfit presents itself and I’m out the door 45 minutes early. NPR’s Morning Edition is intriguing and captivating.

At work, I’m finding answers before they’re questions. Alignments are found. Phone calls are brief and informative. Email responses are efficient. The ebbs and flows of work allow me to intently listen to This American Life, Democracy Now!, and RadioLab. Lunch welcomes conversation filled with mirth or solitary time reading/writing. Ideas are creative, insightful and witty. Weighing and considering each sentence and every word, I lose myself. Stimulated by the growth of individual imagination, literature and words speak to me as much as I bring to it. 6 o’clock rings and I’ve accomplished the day’s goals. An enticing dinner, the entertaining cinema or an imaginative gallery feeds the appetite. And an engaging conversation fills the mind. I am free of time’s tyranny.

On a bad day, the piercing alarm will come too soon, and the snooze button will be my only friend. They gym is smelly and musty. ‘My’ machines are having an affair with someone else. My concentration is lost on the rogue squeak coming from the treadmill. Music does not help with keeping my rhythm. The workout is long and with my attentive eye on the clock, every second is an eternity.

I jump in the shower and quickly wash down. Four of the five outfits are ill-fitted, but I settle on the loosest. I pour a bowl of cereal and rush out the door. Traffic is a bitch. I’m behind the 704 bus. Shit.

At work, the watchful eye of the light on voicemail is blinking. I'm behind before I even start. Email is hefty. ‘O, return, .5, return’, is repetitiously typed. A long mid-morning meeting discloses that a ¾” reveal is preferred. Shit. Ctrl-Z is now my friend along with his best friend ‘e, return, click, click, click, click… return.’ Lunch? What lunch? The 10 mins at my desk to eat a bowl of soup is my sole nourishment. Opening my journal, a quick review of yesterday’s ideas renders them trite, cant and useless. No new ideas propagate. Words escape me. I close my notebook. The afternoon is long and 6 o’clock seems further and further away. A late 5:30 meeting/phone call reveals a late night. Shit.

An innocent question quickly turns into a little spat. I'm sorry. It's been a long day, and making any more decisions is difficult. I want to be have all decisions made for me. Please no more questions.

The bed is the only solace from the day. I fall asleep and hope that tomorrow is better.

Obama's eloquence

2009-01-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

With my recent goal to read all of Shakespeare’s works, you can imagine how delighted I was to read this NYT's article.

January 19, 2009
Books
From Books, New President Found Voice
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI

WASHINGTON — In college, as he was getting involved in protests against the apartheid government in South Africa, Barack Obama noticed, he has written, “that people had begun to listen to my opinions.” Words, the young Mr. Obama realized, had the power “to transform”: “with the right words everything could change -— South Africa, the lives of ghetto kids just a few miles away, my own tenuous place in the world.”

Much has been made of Mr. Obama’s eloquence — his ability to use words in his speeches to persuade and uplift and inspire. But his appreciation of the magic of language and his ardent love of reading have not only endowed him with a rare ability to communicate his ideas to millions of Americans while contextualizing complex ideas about race and religion, they have also shaped his sense of who he is and his apprehension of the world.

Mr. Obama’s first book, “Dreams From My Father” (which surely stands as the most evocative, lyrical and candid autobiography written by a future president), suggests that throughout his life he has turned to books as a way of acquiring insights and information from others — as a means of breaking out of the bubble of self-hood and, more recently, the bubble of power and fame. He recalls that he read James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and W. E. B. Du Bois when he was an adolescent in an effort to come to terms with his racial identity and that later, during an ascetic phase in college, he immersed himself in the works of thinkers like Nietzsche and St. Augustine in a spiritual-intellectual search to figure out what he truly believed.

As a boy growing up in Indonesia, Mr. Obama learned about the American civil rights movement through books his mother gave him. Later, as a fledgling community organizer in Chicago, he found inspiration in “Parting the Waters,” the first installment of Taylor Branch’s multivolume biography of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

More recently, books have supplied Mr. Obama with some concrete ideas about governance: it’s been widely reported that “Team of Rivals,” Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book about Abraham Lincoln’s decision to include former opponents in his cabinet, informed Mr. Obama’s decision to name his chief Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, as Secretary of State. In other cases, books about F. D. R.’s first hundred days in office and Steve Coll’s “Ghost Wars,“ about Afghanistan and the C.I.A., have provided useful background material on some of the myriad challenges Mr. Obama will face upon taking office.

Mr. Obama tends to take a magpie approach to reading — ruminating upon writers’ ideas and picking and choosing those that flesh out his vision of the world or open promising new avenues of inquiry.

His predecessor, George W. Bush, in contrast, tended to race through books in competitions with Karl Rove (who recently boasted that he beat the president by reading 110 books to Mr. Bush’s 95 in 2006), or passionately embrace an author’s thesis as an idée fixe. Mr. Bush and many of his aides favored prescriptive books — Natan Sharansky’s “Case for Democracy,” which pressed the case for promoting democracy around the world, say, or Eliot A. Cohen’s “Supreme Command,” which argued that political strategy should drive military strategy. Mr. Obama, on the other hand, has tended to look to non-ideological histories and philosophical works that address complex problems without any easy solutions, like Reinhold Niebuhr’s writings, which emphasize the ambivalent nature of human beings and the dangers of willful innocence and infallibility.

What’s more, Mr. Obama’s love of fiction and poetry — Shakespeare’s plays, Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” and Marilynne Robinson‘s “Gilead” are mentioned on his Facebook page, along with the Bible, Lincoln’s collected writings and Emerson’s “Self Reliance“ — has not only given him a heightened awareness of language. It has also imbued him with a tragic sense of history and a sense of the ambiguities of the human condition quite unlike the Manichean view of the world so often invoked by Mr. Bush.

Mr. Obama has said that he wrote “very bad poetry” in college and his biographer David Mendell suggests that he once “harbored some thoughts of writing fiction as an avocation.” For that matter, “Dreams From My Father” evinces an instinctive storytelling talent (which would later serve the author well on the campaign trail) and that odd combination of empathy and detachment gifted novelists possess. In that memoir, Mr. Obama seamlessly managed to convey points of view different from his own (a harbinger, perhaps, of his promises to bridge partisan divides and his ability to channel voters’ hopes and dreams) while conjuring the many places he lived during his peripatetic childhood. He is at once the solitary outsider who learns to stop pressing his nose to the glass and the coolly omniscient observer providing us with a choral view of his past.

As Baldwin once observed, language is both “a political instrument, means, and proof of power,” and “the most vivid and crucial key to identity: it reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity.”

For Mr. Obama, whose improbable life story many voters regard as the embodiment of the American Dream, identity and the relationship between the personal and the public remain crucial issues. Indeed, “Dreams From My Father,” written before he entered politics, was both a searching bildungsroman and an autobiographical quest to understand his roots — a quest in which he cast himself as both a Telemachus in search of his father and an Odysseus in search of a home.

Barack Obama's Inaugural Address

2009-01-21T12:01:00.000-08:00

BTW, it was Thomas Paine’s December 1776 first American Crisis essay that George Washington ordered read to his troops at Valley Forge before Battle of Trenton. It begins: “These are the times that try men’s souls….”

I'm impressed, Mr. President. Thank you.

January 20, 2009
Transcript
Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address

Following is the transcript of President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions:

PRESIDENT BARACK Thank you. Thank you.

CROWD: Obama! Obama! Obama! Obama!

My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.

I thank President Bush for his service to our nation...

(APPLAUSE)

... as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.

The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.

Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met.

(APPLAUSE)

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

(APPLAUSE)

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less.

It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died in places Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed.

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

(APPLAUSE)

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.

The state of our economy calls for action: bold and swift. And we will act not only to create new jobs but to lay a new foundation for growth.

We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.

We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality...

(APPLAUSE)

... and lower its costs.

We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.

All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply.

MR. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.

Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.

And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched.

But this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control. The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.

The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart -- not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

(APPLAUSE)

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.

Our founding fathers faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations.

Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.

And so, to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.

(APPLAUSE)

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.

They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use. Our security emanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy, guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort, even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We'll begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard- earned peace in Afghanistan.

With old friends and former foes, we'll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet.

We will not apologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense.

And for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that, "Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."

(APPLAUSE)

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.

We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.

And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.

To those...

(APPLAUSE)

To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

(APPLAUSE)

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.

And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.

We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service: a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.

And yet, at this moment, a moment that will define a generation, it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.

It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break; the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.

It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old.

These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.

What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence: the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed, why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall. And why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

(APPLAUSE)

So let us mark this day in remembrance of who we are and how far we have traveled.

In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river.

The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood.

At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you.

(APPLAUSE)

And God bless the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

What's your pledge?

2009-01-20T01:53:00.000-08:00

Today is the stuff dreams are made of. I still can’t believe that I am so fortunate to be living it. I’m envious of any baby born today, because they’re born during so much hope. My dream is that they take all this change that is about to happen and build on it and not take it for granted. It’s taken so long to get to this point…so much perseverance.

I’ve been crying for four days straight. Every time I hear God Bless America, The National Anthem, or if I just see the American Flag flying, a tear wells up in my eye.

Today the sky is bluer, the sun is warmer and people are better. This is our chance to make a difference.

I pledge to keep inspiring my family and friends to get involved until each one of them takes the opportunity to participate in this change.

What’s your pledge?

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge

Buh –bye

2009-01-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

I’m sure you’ve all been to game where it’s the fourth quarter and the crowd starts chanting, “Nuhna-Na-Na, Nuhna-Na-NA, HEY, hey, hey, Goood Byyye!” That’s exactly how I feel today. I’m so happy to see this administration leave office. It has been a loooong eight years. Eight years where all my hope got lost in the fear tactics of weapons of mass destruction and many other lies. These eight years will be recounted as the worst in American history. When I’m old I will be able to retell my stories of the Bush Years and proudly say that I did not vote for him either time. I will tell how hard it was to speak out when it was very unpopular to do so. I have been so pessimistic of government that I don’t know what to do with all of this HOPE. Tomorrow is the first day of a new beginning and I’m happy to be here. I’m so proud to be an American.

Please listen to this week's episode of Wait, wait don't tell me.

What are you doing on 01.19?

2009-01-18T22:16:00.000-08:00

What are you doing tomorrow? I received the following email from David Plouffe and I thought I would share it with you.

Please volunteer, donate blood or donate canned goods to a local Food Bank. Please encourage your family and friends to take part in the Day of Service. Thank you.

Prudence --

In your neighborhood and in thousands of communities across the country, Americans are answering President-elect Obama's call to service.

Tomorrow, January 19th, our nation will come together in a shared spirit of community. And I wanted to make sure you know how to participate.

Monday is not only the eve of an inauguration that brings all of us so much hope, it's also Martin Luther King Jr. Day -- when we recognize the power of one man to bring about change by serving his country.

Help kick off an ongoing commitment to serve our communities by taking part in this extraordinary day of service.

Sign up to attend or host an event in your community and help rebuild America one neighborhood at a time.

The grassroots movement you helped build was always about more than an election. It's about bringing much needed change to Washington and our communities.

Barack is calling on us to help rebuild our country. He knows what can happen when ordinary people turn their hopes into real action.

Take the first step this Monday, January 19th, by joining a service event near you. Sign up now:

http://www.USAservice.org/content/home

Thanks,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

Summer in January

2009-01-14T20:24:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not down under...I'm in LA, but we're experiencing the Santa Ana winds right now and it reminded me of a passage I read about Los Angeles the other day. Although it rings true, I still love this warm, sunny pool of randomness.

from Los Angeles: People, Places, and the Castle on the Hill

It's something about the weather. What was once the stuff of the farmer's almanac is now a television channel all its own, a subject that requires constant monitoring, anxiety, and anticipation. The chance of rain, the allergy index, the brush fire equation, the rise and fall of the tides, El Niño/La Niña, brush fires, mud slides, apocalyptic disaster, indexes for humidity, for wind chill. Add to the weirdness that these phenomena bring the notion that people choose to live in Los Angeles because of the weather. The weather is one of the city's selling points, one of the prime quality-of-life advertisements for living here. The weather is described as perfect, consistently sunny and bright. Furthering the mixed message is the psychological fact that a lot of people who live in L.A. are obsessed with repetition, dependability, the sameness of their routines. They are creatures of habit who can't bear it when things are out of their control, when they have to adjust. When you stop to look carefully, a lot of people in Los Angeles are prone to temper tantrums when they don't get their way. Despite their age and or seeming success, they behave like children. A certain tolerance for this behavior appears one to be one of the underlying organizational factors, one of the personality principles of the city. It occurs to me that these folks might look at weather phenomena as the temper tantrums of the gods, as something they relate to on a primal level (given that they aspire to one day become one of the gods), and so when weather happens, it in fact impresses them, stuns them, and then calms them. The potential scale of a disaster is one of the few things that makes an impression - Los Angeles is very much about size and comparison.

Can this be said about any metropolitan city?

2008: Hope

2008-12-30T00:01:00.000-08:00

Since I will be unable to write tomorrow, I will do my year-end wrap-up today. After a terrible 2007, I thought that 2008 would fare better, and it did. Not to say it was a stellar year, but in comparison it was better. If I were to choose one word to describe 2008, it would be: Hope.

The beginning was filled with so much sadness left over from 2007; those first few months are a blur. Work, sleep, exercise: That was my life. By May, I had turned one eighty and was in better spirits. Unsure of what the future may hold, but sure of myself.

My health was a concern in 2008. From spraining my wrist (which took me off my bike) to my numerous ER visits, I was a mess. So many days lying in bed wishing I could stand up, well that will soon be remedied, so it’s not as much of a concern as it was, but has its place in my blog. It did serve to give me some perspective. All the worries of life do not matter unless you have your health.

The other night NBC rebroadcast the Opening Ceremony to the Summer Olympics. This time the commentary reminded us of the little girl lip syncing and the animated opening sequence of the fireworks. Nothing is as it appears. And we would soon get that lesson two fold. My initial watching of the ceremony was in a crowded bar with Chris, followed by two weeks of the late night Olympic television watching extravaganza. Doesn’t that seem like a lifetime ago? Within a month, the economy would take a turn, and everything would turn out to be different than it had appeared.

In November, we were reminded of the greatness of this country when we elected the first black President to office: Barack Obama. I have never been more proud to be an American. Surrounded by friends we were wary of the announcement, as I’m sure many of you were. In fact, it took the announcement that the west coast was going to Obama that we broke out the bubbly. Seven years in California, I’ve only lived under the Bush administration. I cannot wait for January 20, 2009, to take this step with all of you. The resilience of the people in this country gives me hope. I know that the economy is not going to bounce back quickly, but I know that we will not let this country falter. That was evident on Christmas day when I saw so many people giving their Christmas morning to help others. It was filled with so much selflessness and laughter. I had a recent conversation with my dear friend, Clara, and she reminded me, "everyone (the news media) is talking about slumping holiday sales, but that's not what Christmas is about. It's not about giving gifts. maybe we need to refocus on what is important in our lives." Yes, maybe in 2009 we need to put that hope into action. Have a Happy New Year!

Here are a few of the good memories from 2008
05.11, 05.24, pumpkin pie fiasco that produced 5 pies instead of 2, Joanna & Bianca’s wedding, Steven & Kristy, the melting cake, realizing you’re a superhero, tailgating at UCLA/USC game, daily check up from the Bubble Boy, The Edison “I’m 33…”, late night talks on the phone, debate watching parties, inaugural Fantasy League party, girls’ night, early morning rides, spinning, rides to Long Beach/Malibu/up and down Sepulveda, Solvang, Family Reunion, blue gill crew, txt-ing from the port-a-potty, kids laughter in the woods, finding old friends, visiting with family, and having your love and support. Happy New Year!!