Scrambling Eggs Is Easy

I haven't posted in forever, but I keep thinking about things that I'd actually like to post. For example, I meant to post after Prop 8 passed, on the theme of "life may suck now, but life is long." I've been glad to see the nationwide protests and the court challenges, and I'm still optimistic that gay marriage will be legal in California in the next few years. In the meantime, I've adopted a simple credo - gay marriage is valid and recognized in my book. I have a few gay friends and coworkers who got married recently, and as far as I'm concerned they're as married as I am. This may seem like an obvious statement to other gay marriage supporters, but as I see it it's a critical statement to make. If we, as members of our society, recognize explicitly that gay marriage is valid, then eventually the law will have to follow.

Anyway, I also wanted to post about what I've been reading lately. It's mostly centered on politics, which admittedly surprises me post-election. I guess this year I'm finally not burned out. The book I'm in the middle of is actually Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope. I'm a little embarrassed not to have read this before the election, but the farther I get into it, the more excited I am for the man who we elected. He's not only smart, but in this book shows a true sense of honesty, humility, and a recognition that politics should be more than just horse races and gamesmanship. I'm halfway through, but highly recommended.

On the less serious side, I just reread RA Candide's Articles of Federation. This is basically The West Wing set in the Star Trek universe after the events of Nemesis and some subsequent books. It's a fun read, although most of the non-human characters seem to sound like the same Aaron Sorkin characters as the human ones do. But the author does a pretty good job of creating a plausible political system from what we've seen of the Federation government in tv and movies.

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I first heard of Barack Obama when he gave a speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention.  He was described as an up-and-coming star of the party, someone who might be a strong presidential candidate...in 2012 or 2016.  I guess he got started a little earlier than that.

Anyway...when I heard that speech, I was pretty inspired.  He spoke about the fact that our country isn't as divided as the pundits like to imply -- the fact is, we are one country, one nation, and we fundamentally care about one another, and that's how the United States manages to hang together.  This vision really spoke to me, and I did what any budding musician would do with that inspiration -- I did a remix.  For some reason, I never felt like I "finished" it, so I never posted it publicly before.  Truth is, it's pretty well finished, and I think now is exactly the right time to put it out there and hope that somebody else finds it inspirational.  So, without further ado, here's my remix of Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention:

Red States and Blue States.

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