Robots Don’t Sleep

This is a defining moment in our country. I don’t care whether you’re democrat or republican or conservative or liberal or moderate or independent… your children will look back on this moment and remember that President Barack Obama was the underdog in this race. He was the one that was counted out against Hillary Clinton and John Edwards… He was the one counted out against the combined force of John McCain and Sarah “Hockey Mom” Palin. Whether or not you think you are are too good enough to vote, or that your vote doesn’t count, or that you are unwilling to elect a “lesser of two evils”, I beg you to look at elections past and the great distance that this nation has come. I beg you to believe in President Barack Obama.

I believe in him. Even if I may be considered a “fan boy” by some, I don’t care! I support him and I believe that he will be an historical president that will unite this country over the course of the next four years. I am of the belief that there are candidates out there that can ignite the feelings of our voters. I truly believe, from the bottom of my heart, that Barack Obama will serve this country to the best of his ability just as John McCain or John Edwards or Hillary Clinton or Ron Paul would have. I believe, as Barack Obama does, that this is not a red or blue or indifferent America… nor is this a liberal or conservative or moderate America… nor is this an idealogical or agnostic America… this is the United States of America.

And fuck me if I’m wrong, but I am a firm believer in this America.

I believe that our children will ask us about this moment. They will ask us what we were doing in this moment in our country’s history. Were we celebrating? Were we mourning? Were we full of excitement? Were we filled with hopelessness? Or, were we hopeful?

I will feel that we felt truly United. Our first black president… an underdog candidate… was elected to the highest office that the American political system can acknowledge… Barack Obama was elected, by majority and by the college, to be the 44th President of these United States of America, and I, for one, couldn’t be more excited.

Today was the beginning of my third week straight of going to the gym and my attempt to sustain an active lifestyle. Between weightlifting, running, and biking on the weekend, I’ve been surprised at how little effort it has taken. It seems to have fallen into my every day routine, and it’s very refreshing to know that I haven’t met any real challenges in trying to meet my goal. This isn’t very fitting, but a lyric just came on iTunes that says “Pain is only a pulse if you just stop feeling it.” I thought it was kind of interesting.

I’m kind of anxious for the presidential elections to be over. I think almost everyone can agree that it’s turned into a bit of a circus. I guess I’m generally tired of political strategy getting in the way of real issues, and the use of gimmicks and distractions by both presidential candidates. I have no doubt in my mind that Obama will be our next president come election day, but I feel like I’ve been following this 20-month road only for it to turn into a round-about discussion about nothing at the very end. I know who I’m voting for, and I’m tired of hearing about it all.

On a side note, I’ve also been getting back into playing guitar recently. My playing has been sparse at best in the past couple years, and I feel like I have a renewed interest in learning new songs and trying to improve myself. Maybe it’s a trend in life - when you try to improve yourself in one area, you start developing a want to improve in other areas as well. The only downside is that I haven’t had much time outside of work and the gym to explore other opportunities, like making friends and meeting girls. Oh well.

I noticed an interesting thing while biking these past two weekends. I used to take a lot of time out of my days in the past to reflect on things, and over the last year or so I’ve digressed a bit from that. I used to sit and listen to music while writing; I used to write music; I used to walk places and spend time alone in preparation for what I thought my soon-to-be future would be. Now, in riding 20-plus miles a week, I’ve had time to really be on my own, alone in my environment and I’ve had time to really think. It’s refreshing, but I have found myself thinking where hours of my time have gone. Whereas I would usually attribute this loss in time to surfing the internet or something as time-consuming and relatively pointless, I now can be proud that I’m actually moving toward a positive goal that I’ve set. A week from now, I hope that I can say that I’m starting my fourth week of bettering myself - in discipline and in persistence.

I knew that when I promised myself that I’d keep up with yet another blog I wasn’t going to keep that promise. As with my others, I made a few posts at a fairly decent frequency and then my mind started wandering on to other things. But, it’s ok. I am going to try to figure out a way to keep myself writing and convince myself that I’ll keep it going.

I started working on a new project at work two weeks ago and now it is coming to a close tomorrow. Work has been going great and I’ve really started to find my groove. I realized the other day, however, that some of my skills in certain areas have been dwindling because I’ve been focusing on other things for a bit. I found myself making dumb mistakes that I remember making when learning these skills, and I came to a realization about how important it is to revisit these sorts of things. I need to keep myself from straying, which should be getting easier as I’m becoming more and more comfortable with where I am in my life. Good luck with that, self.

Another thing that’s been on my mind recently is politics, but I won’t get into that too much here. I will say that I am finally a registered voter in California, which is a great feeling. I’ve known who I was going to vote for since at least last year, so the only thing that’s really kept me interested is the way that things are playing out as November 4th gets closer and closer. I’d say that it’s kind of like a bad soap opera, but I think it’s becoming more and more like a freaking circus. I will just say that I am a fervent supporter of Obama and I have no doubts that the McCain/Palin charade will turn out to be all for nothing.

Well, my thoughts are starting to become more and more jumbled, so I continue this another time. It’s actually a bit of a struggle for me to figure out what to talk about on here, especially since right now I am at a point where things are going great. I need to take my bike out for some fresh air a bit more frequently, though. I put some road tires on it last weekend and so far I’ve only used it once. I’m hoping that after tomorrow, when this project is over and done with, I’ll have a small window where I can dedicate a little more time to writing and biking.

Until then, here’s a trailer for what will surely be the greatest Disney movie of the year!!! Sarah Palin in… “Head of Skate”!