Bum deedee bum

I've always been a fan of November- it has a great holiday, the first good cold weather, great tree colors, and lots of great football. Now it is coming to a close. That means we're only 2 months away the baby- INSANE. 2 months away from being a daddy. G-Money threw us a baby shower this past weekend and it was flippin' sweet. We had about 15 people over and much fun and frivolity was had by all. We had some really surprising gifts that we definitely weren't expecting people to get us because of the prices. I mean.. we're talking about college students here. We are very thankful for our friends. Everyone has been very giving, and it's not even the holidays!

Right now I'm on kind of a weird musical kick. I'm really digging covers. And I'm also really digging the TalkBox. So combine the two and you get this.

That is freaking sweet. I want one. Okay, not really- I'd never use it. But it would be fun to play around with. I'm not borrowing someone else's either. Cause that's gross.

I got Fable 2, and beat it. I enjoyed the game, but it kind of started to drag towards the final parts of the adventure. The combat was enjoyable, the voice acting was really great, and the game was really pretty. But man.. it was way too easy. I never even came CLOSE to dying. And the final ending- please. That really ranks up there in the Top 5 of Crappiest Game Endings ever. In fact, right now, I can't think of anything that is worse. So... congrats Fable 2! You've got that going for you!

Xmas and birthday coming up. Games on the list include: Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty: World at War, and Boom Blox. I'm also really hoping to get a few months of Gamefly. Lots of great, quality games have come out recently, and I'm itching to try some of them out.


Oh yeah, and this:

History

Ever since middle school, I had found the study of the past to be incredibly intriguing and engaging. I loved looking at maps of old countries. I was absorbed with learning about kings, queens, emperors, warriors and the like. I would pour over military documents for hours, envisioning ancient battles and heroic charges. I took great pleasure in looking at the big picture of history- how certain events impacted other events, seeing the cascading effect of one particular action upon the rest of history. It is incredibly sobering to think of how one act or movement can have such incredibly important impact on the future.

Which is why, I believe, regardless of political beliefs, everyone should recognize what a historic event just happened. The people of the United States of America elected a black man as its leader. The leader of a country which, for nearly 100 years after its creation, practiced slavery. A country which, for over a 100 years after the abolition of slavery, segregated blacks to the outside of society, keeping them away from success and achievement with the help of Jim Crow. If it weren't for a group of civil rights leaders in the 1960s, who knows when blacks would have finally begun to break through the barrier separating them from their white countrymen. If it weren't for those civil rights leaders, the people of America would most certainly not have voted in a black president on November 4th, 2008.

I saw this posting, and wanted to share it here:

"I have a confession to make.

I did not vote for Barack Obama today.

I've openly supported Obama since March. But I didn't vote for him today.

I wanted to vote for Ronald Woods. He was my algebra teacher at Clark Junior High in East St. Louis, IL. He died 15 years ago when his truck skidded head-first into a utility pole. He spent many a day teaching us many things besides the Pythagorean Theorem. He taught us about Medgar Evers, Ralph Abernathy, John Lewis and many other civil rights figures who get lost in the shadow cast by Martin Luther King, Jr.

But I didn't vote for Mr. Woods.

I wanted to vote for Willie Mae Cross. She owned and operated Crossroads Preparatory Academy for almost 30 years, educating and empowering thousands of kids before her death in 2003. I was her first student. She gave me my first job, teaching chess and math concepts to kids in grades K-4 in her summer program. She was always there for advice, cheer and consolation. Ms. Cross, in her own way, taught me more about walking in faith than anyone else I ever knew.

But I didn't vote for Ms. Cross.

I wanted to vote for Arthur Mells Jackson, Sr. and Jr. Jackson Senior was a Latin professor. He has a gifted school named for him in my hometown. Jackson Junior was the pre-eminent physician in my hometown for over 30 years. He has a heliport named for him at a hospital in my hometown. They were my great-grandfather and great-uncle, respectively.

But I didn't vote for Prof. Jackson or Dr. Jackson.

I wanted to vote for A.B. Palmer. She was a leading civil rights figure in Shreveport, Louisiana, where my mother grew up and where I still have dozens of family members. She was a strong-willed woman who earned the grudging respect of the town's leaders because she never, ever backed down from anyone and always gave better than she got. She lived to the ripe old age of 99, and has a community center named for her in Shreveport.

But I didn't vote for Mrs. Palmer.

I wanted to vote for these people, who did not live to see a day where a Black man would appear on their ballots on a crisp November morning.

In the end, though, I realized that I could not vote for them any more than I could vote for Obama himself.

So who did I vote for?

No one.

I didn't vote. Not for President, anyway.

Oh, I went to the voting booth. I signed, was given my stub, and was walked over to a voting machine. I cast votes for statewide races and a state referendum on water and sewer improvements.

I stood there, and I thought about all of these people, who influenced my life so greatly. But I didn't vote for who would be the 44th President of the United States.

When my ballot was complete, except for the top line, I finally decided who I was going to vote for - and then decided to let him vote for me. I reached down, picked him up, and told him to find Obama's name on the screen and touch it.

And so it came to pass that Alexander Reed, age 5, read the voting screen, found the right candidate, touched his name, and actually cast a vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Oh, the vote will be recorded as mine. But I didn't cast it.

Then again, the person who actually pressed the Obama box and the red "vote" button was the person I was really voting for all along.

It made the months of donating, phonebanking, canvassing, door hanger distributing, sign posting, blogging, arguing and persuading so much sweeter.

So, no, I didn't vote for Barack Obama. I voted for a boy who now has every reason to believe he, too, can grow up to be anything he wants...even President."