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A while back, I mentioned I was turned off by Obama, particularly for his vote against the Coburn Amendment against the Bridge to Nowhere which would have avoided building a useless bridge and instead using the money for New Orleans.

I called it a bellweather vote, but recently I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about Obama. Listen to a speech he gave today:

Unity is the great need of the hour – the great need of this hour. Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it’s the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country. I’m not talking about a budget deficit. I’m not talking about a trade deficit. I’m not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans.

I’m talking about a moral deficit. I’m talking about an empathy deficit. I’m taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother’s keeper; we are our sister’s keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.

We have an empathy deficit when we’re still sending our children down corridors of shame – schools in the forgotten corners of America where the color of your skin still affects the content of your education.

We have a deficit when CEOs are making more in ten minutes than some workers make in ten months; when families lose their homes so that lenders make a profit; when mothers can’t afford a doctor when their children get sick.

We have a deficit in this country when there is Scooter Libby justice for some and Jena justice for others; when our children see nooses hanging from a schoolyard tree today, in the present, in the twenty-first century.

We have a deficit when homeless veterans sleep on the streets of our cities; when innocents are slaughtered in the deserts of Darfur; when young Americans serve tour after tour of duty in a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged.

And we have a deficit when it takes a breach in our levees to reveal a breach in our compassion; when it takes a terrible storm to reveal the hungry that God calls on us to feed; the sick He calls on us to care for; the least of these He commands that we treat as our own.

So we have a deficit to close. We have walls – barriers to justice and equality – that must come down. And to do this, we know that unity is the great need of this hour.

It's a pretty good speech, with certain passages appropriately reminiscent of MLK Jr., and this is how he closed:

But it is where we begin. It is why the walls in that room began to crack and shake. And if they can shake in that room, they can shake in Atlanta. And if they can shake in Atlanta, they can shake in Georgia. And if they can shake in Georgia, they can shake all across America. And if enough of our voices join together; we can bring those walls tumbling down. The walls of Jericho can finally come tumbling down. That is our hope – but only if we pray together, and work together, and march together. Brothers and sisters, we cannot walk alone. In the struggle for peace and justice, we cannot walk alone. In the struggle for opportunity and equality, we cannot walk alone In the struggle to heal this nation and repair this world, we cannot walk alone. So I ask you to walk with me, and march with me, and join your voice with mine, and together we will sing the song that tears down the walls that divide us, and lift up an America that is truly indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all.

If this is the politics of change, the Executive is only the start of the equation. We need better legislators too. Bill Clinton's administration was optimistic and idealistic too, and then the curmudgeons in Congress derailed much of what they hoped to change.

or I know what my next laptop is going to be.

In either case, all doubt will be removed in a few hours when Steve takes the stage.

I'm speaking of the "MacBook Air" which supposedly features a 2.8Ghz Intel Core Duo (40% faster than this laptop), a 60 or 80GB Solid State (!) hard drive, starting at under $2K!

The biggest problem I'd have with that is the 80GB drive, but aside from that, it looks like Apple's got another hit on their hands.

Oh, and one more thing? Supposedly it ships today. We'll see.

I was reading an article written a few days ago about HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray. One of their premises was that the "format war" was moot because "If the market and industry is moving toward HD downloads to a growing number of consumers with broadband Internet access, the outcome for Blu-ray and HD DVD doesn't look particularly sunny."

Clearly this idea is plausible only to someone who hasn't ever downloaded HD content over "broadband Internet access".

I'm told by Comcast that I have a 12Mbps connection to the Internet (sometimes it appears to perform better than that, if the tests at speedtest.net are any indication). Considering that most standard definition DVDs can push up to 5GB of data, it would take, at a very charitable 100% throughput calculation, a full hour for me to download 5GB of data. More likely, because of shared bandwidth, not to mention Internet congestion and that the throughput is likely to be a fraction of what the peak burst capacity of my Internet connection can push, it would take 4-8 hours or more to download a single standard-definition DVD.

When you consider that a high definition disc can hold nearly 10 times the data that a standard DVD can, we're talking four to eight days to download a single HD movie over the Internet. The time to beat "sneakernet" (i.e. shipping the discs from Netflix) stands at about four days, and they can deliver as many movies during that time that you're willing to pay for (and return)-- not just one.

For online delivery of feature-length HD content to become a reality, average household broadband rates would have to double more than twice, and that's unlikely to happen any time soon if recent history is any indicator. Broadband speed has been doubling every 3-5 years, at best, so my bet is that Blu-Ray* (and/or HD-DVD) will be very well established by 2011 to 2013.

(For readers interested in my previous thoughts on Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD, see my blog post from December 2006 called the Format War Myth)

(* I'm bullish on Blu-Ray because I think as PS3 prices drop, it will become the largest single installed high definition disc player, giving Blu-Ray a definite advantage in the marketplace. Recent news from CES, namely that New Line and Warner Bros. are both going exclusively Blu-Ray, do little to diminish my confidence. I also predict that Apple will begin shipping Blu-Ray reader/writers over the next 12 months, and they often followed by commodity PC manufacturers shortly thereafter, just like they were with USB, FireWire, Bluetooth and WiFi)

Have you ever noticed that people who press crosswalk light buttons hit them more than once, and with more force than is probably required? Why?

Well because the button is poorly designed, that's why. You don't know how much force you need to apply to "register" a click, and can't be sure your first push did the trick.

The only thing I find more of a pet peeve "IRL" are poorly designed doors. I'm speaking of push bars installed on doors that need to be pulled, and handles (rather than push bars or a steel push panel) on doors that are designed to be pushed. It's like putting "save" on the button that deletes all your files.

So, gentle reader, considering my pseudo-fanatical stance on crosswalk buttons and door handles, it won't surprise you that once I found the first intelligently designed crosswalk button I'd ever seen, I had to take a picture of it. (Note the LED that lights up when you press the button)

This has been hard news to sit on for so long, but we simply had to share the news with our family and close friends first, in person, when it was feasible.

In late October, we decided it was time. We had heard stories that it takes months to get pregnant, so we were happily surprised when our suspicions were confirmed by a home test. That was November 24th, and for up to a month, we kept the news from our parents and most of our friends.

(This also explains why we didn't send Christmas cards this year-- it's hard to think about what to write when the one thing on the top of your mind is the one thing you can't talk about!)

In no particular order, here are some random trivia about this event:

• "Morning" Sickness strikes at any time of day
• I've never bought so much Diet Hansen's ginger ale in my life
• I'm gleeful that I won't have to be asked any more "when are you going to have kids" questions from nosy relatives
• Christine now has an AMAZING sense of smell
• Her appetite has shifted from gourmet snob to 8 year old PB&J, olives and pasta
• She's lost six pounds, but her pants don't fit anymore

With that out of the way, let me provide, quick-hit-style, a few of the tidbits I was planning to share in our Christmas cards:

• Retirements: Dad has finally retired after forty years of teaching, and now lives in his retirement home on Camano Island
• Deaths: We learned the sad news that my high school class president, co-editor of the HS yearbook, wrestling team manager, good friend, loving wife and mother, Donna Lawson succumbed to complications arising from breast cancer after fighting it for nearly a decade.
• Births: (Pregnancies) My brother in law is also expecting, so our baby will have a cousin of the same age to play with
• Weddings: My good friend and former business partner Gavin Shearer to his lovely wife Elaine Chu, in September.
• Notable Purchases: A Canon Digital SLR camera, which I should have bought long ago. Amateur photography, if it hasn't become obvious, is one of my favorite hobbies now!
• Memorable Sojourns: Wine Tasting in the Yakima Valley in April, our amazing Disney Cruise to the Mediterranean in June
• Memorable Events: Concerts to see Chris Cornell and Johnette Napolitano (separate events/venues), and a Halloween Party/Pumpkin Carving with our friends
• Home Improvement Projects: Hardwood Floors in the spring (entire downstairs-- approx 1000 sq. ft.) and back yard landscaping (31 8' arborvitae trees and brick edging)

Clearly, we will have a lot to look forward to in 2008. During this sentimental time, we're thinking fondly of friends and family. May 2008 be as special and magical to you as 2007 has been for us!