Watching The Presidential Inauguration

Did you guys know that 'inauguration' is 'assermentation' in French? Well dig it. Now you do.
I'm in my apartment in Bangkok. It's after midnight, early Wednesday the 21st of January, and I just finished watching Barack Hussein Obama's inauguration.
Some good quotes:
From Barack: "...but we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." (I forget exactly to whom that was addressed, but you get the picture. It's a nice image.)

Poet Elizabeth Alexander, sadly, seems to be one of those poets who reads her own poetry pretty badly. I thought she was pretty bland, anyway.

The benediction by Rev. Joseph E. Lowery was pretty awesome.
"...I'm equally certain that we will continue to pray for justice to roll down as waters, and for that day when there will be peace in the valley, and for that day when every man and every woman will sit under his or her own vine and fig tree and none will be afraid, and for that day when black will not be asked to get back, brown can stick around, yellow will be mellow, the red man can get ahead, man, and white will embrace what is right!"

Hahaha. I liked him a lot. Happy inauguration day, United States of America.

I was surprised when one of the commentators of Fox News (that's right, I watched it on Fox. MSNBC also, but their video was less smooth) anyway, when he said that Obama was actually going into the White House directly after the inauguration to continue working. It made me think of this Onion article: Black Man Given The Nation's Worst Job. Seriously. Ouch, Barack.

In musical news, I've decided to do an entire inauguration-themed week over at the Rise Up Singing Project. Today's offering is here.

Just Hanging... Blogging Elsewhere

I'm sorry I haven't been posting here more than once a week, but I'm just that into my new blog: riseupsingingproject.blogspot.com

I know it's not personal enough for those of you who don't like singing or playing guitar and just want to know where I am in the world and what I'm doing, but... well, no excuses. I understand. But that's the way it is. It's taking up a lot of my blogging time. I do ramble about personal stuff over there once in a while too. It's not like you couldn't stalk me a little from those videos. You'd just learn songs too.

For those to whom that's a really undesireable prospect, here's a simple update. I'm still in Bangkok. I live here. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. So there's no need for messages being all "Where in the world are you these days??" I'm in Bangkok.
1414/257 floor 9, tower B, Sukhumvit Plus, Sukhumvit Road, Prakhanong, Klong Toei, Bangkok 10110 Thailand
Just hanging at home. Being a homebody. Learning songs in Rise Up Singing.... riseupsingingproject.blogspot.com

I'll be around here from time to time. In the meantime, guys, seriously? 2009 is going to be the best year ever. Remember that.

Christmas Present: The Frog

I didn't get many Christmas presents this year, but what I did get was more than enough. Here's a favourite, from David, in Santa Barbara: the grows-in-water frog.