Some news today

Don't know how to start this post except to take a deep breath and commence typing.

Andrew Breitbart, a commentator for the Washington Times, is on my sh*t list for two reasons. More broadly, I'm feelin angry and upset about shit going down in Washington (and all over). First, Breitbart blames my U.S. representative for being called the n-word last weekend. Speaking of John Lewis and Jim Clyburn, after they were harassed between their office and the capitol, Breitbart says "they should be the objects of ridicule [for walking through the crowd]."

Secondly, Breitbart has now issued a reward offer of $10,000 for video of the harassment Congressman Lewis and colleagues experienced. If anyone has video that the N-word was thrown at the Congressmen, Breitbart will cut a check to the UNCF. By the way, countless news sources have reported the N-word was yelled. Raising his profile seems to be Breitbart's intent here.

By now, there are critics of members of congress even responding to requests for comment. Its all of a sudden a partisan act when one states the facts of an incident... I'm upset this is all so fucking hateful - or is it anymore hateful than usual, only now just coming to the surface?

Good for the creative loafing for having a sense of humor - at least humor is somewhat constructive, as opposed to the Tea Party who have done little except tear people down. So what can Congressman Lewis do - or anyone else concerned about the issue of health insurance reform but also decency and positivity? Respond to the demand for video? Ignore it and leave the hateful activists to roast in the light of day?

Recap

The weather has turned fairly sour so its time to take a look at what made 2009 what it was...

January - new year's celebration in new york and inauguration in the nation's capitol (i picked out the post i wrote from the car because i was so excited about what the weekend might be like. and i joined twitter the week i got back from the trip)

February - why i travel alot helps me deal with the emotional hangover and close out the inauguration series. not having the resources for alumni weekend 2010 makes me sad. lily's here

March - a difficult month emotionally. I took these pictures during a visit to DC but had my mind on sad news. The gray sky, unintentionally, represents that.

April - its almost ultimate season and the emotions from March remind me to tell some stories, get feelings out. got to seattle later this year.

May - one week of vacation and one week of work in DC, two weddings and lots of traveling deserves a post and a mention in the recap.

June - the world's economy experiences ups and downs. here's my rant on the whole ordeal

July - this is what inspired me to write a recap. Who knew, back in the summer and its miserable heat, that Chain would finish the year national champions? i don't think i even thought about nationals until August. all the travel, training, and teamwork paid off.

August - the post about my Seattle trip that didn't focus on ultimate and instead has a picture of teammate Dave B post-double flip

September - cause I mention Swine Flu, not at all cause of the picture, inside this post

October - its ultimate season.

November - Lily is worth mentioning again because of all the time I've been spending with her. And did I mention Chain won the national championship?

December - check back

Clearer pictures from CBC

Friday night happy hour in Dupont Circle with Jack and Shed.

Saturday night Coke reception with Jesse, Jamila, and Tom.

Accounts from the CBC Annual Legislative Conference Awards Dinner

I was invited to join my colleagues boss at this year's Legislative Conference put on by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. The whole weekend is meant to be a learning, networking event. But the Awards Dinner, at which I was taking notes of the cool people around, is a fundraiser. I was very lucky to be at the event and at the table - very close to the stage.

Saw danny glover outside the cbc dinner :)

Just met charlie rangel inside the cbc awards dinner area! Weak handshake

Sat at same table as majority leader Steny Hoyer

Wyclef presented with award

Met rep elijah cummings

Shook rev Sharpton's hand

Met tavis smiley :)

Saw Yolanda Adams up close

Wishing I could meet US Ambassador (to the UN) Susan Rice - here she receives an award as first African American woman in her position

Saw Obama speak. He and the First Lady kissed on the stage and he talked about injustices, health care, and received a Phoenix Award - low resolution picture below

Current Events

Swine flu persists in the news. Here in Atlanta, Emory students with the virus are being isolated. According to the university, the isolation is voluntary. Speaking of isolation because of flu virus, just got saw on Jen's blog that she's stuck in her room cause of the flu. Jeez!

In other news, Chain Lightning won the Chesapeake Open in Poolesville, Maryland, for the second year in a row. Check out Chain's home page for a short summary - and to buy some team merchandise. Also, there are a couple dozen videos of Chain from the weekend (dubbed Chesterpeake in honor of our biggest fan). Visit MattandKat's youtube page for those videos and to catch a glimpse of Chesterpeake. One of my personal highlights from play this weekend was captured in this shot (smaller version below). The rest of the gallery is really good, too.

Heads up: in only four and a half weeks, Chain will host Regionals for the first time in a long time (maybe the first time this millenium). So we need lots of local folks - decked out in Chain gear - cheering for us at the Georgia Soccer Park. The top teams from that tournament qualify for Nationals in Sarasota, which is in exactly eight weeks.

Happy Labor Day everyone. Good luck to Ozone in Santa Cruz this weekend! And get better for all those swine flu sufferers...

Summer Plans

A la the olden days, when I would post about out of town travels or family/friends' visits, here's a little rundown of the remaining summer days (mainly the ultimate tournament weekends Chain is attending plus a couple things):

• July 18-19 Heatout in Baton Rouge
• July 25 dad's 60th birthday party (missing wildwood)
• Aug 8-9 summer league end of season tournament (missing a memorial service)
• Aug 12-17 Emerald City Classic in Seattle
• Aug 29-30 Chesapeake Open in Poolesville, Maryland
• Oct 3-4 Regionals in Atlanta
• Oct 29-Nov 1 Nationals in Sarasota, Florida

Otherwise, I'll be in Atlanta. Possibly moving out of my current apartment...

Bocce

Sitting in training, I felt like reliving the other night. Friends' bocce ball team, sponsored by DC legendary restaurant Ben's Chili Bowl, had a game on capital hill.

Here's a pic of Tim and me between bocce tosses, Good Stuff burgers and beers. Sorry for the blurry picture. Cell phones...

lessons post-college

One thing I heard often in college was "just show up and you'll do fine." Teachers preached that presence was 90% of success. If you know me well you've heard me talk about falling asleep in every chair, row, whatever in most of my classes. Still - and I bought into it - with my intelligence, I thought making it to class was all I had to do and the rest would work itself out.

Well now, in the work world, I realize its not so easy. And more importantly, in the world in general, just showing up doesn't yield a high quality of life. Life takes hard work and struggle; to get things done and influence people takes a real presence of mind, not just body. So I'm upset at the college mantra of "you'll do fine - just bring yo ass to class."

DC Stay

My greatest motivation for taking pictures is sharing then saving them. And because this blog provides a seemingly endless repository for everyone's pictures, I often think while I'm taking pictures to post 'em up here. So here's three separate photos from my hotel room last month in the L'Enfant district of DC. Lastly is a Photoshop composite of all three put together.

Inauguration Good Night

With all the drama and major legislation marking up the beginning of Obama's administration, its now a certainty that he's in office. So I should really close out the whole series of posts from Inauguration. I did the final picture purge yesterday; today's a little emotional additive.

Here's what I recorded the evening I got back to Atlanta after inauguration weekend. Setting is I'm in my rocking chair for the first time in a week, about to close my eyes for the night, and wanting to grasp the moment just a little longer. I'll let it speak for itself...

I'm resisting the temptation to get in bed and let the weekend slip into a memory. Now the inauguration,t he people and closeness of humanity, and the weary feeling of travel there/back... these sensations are still frseh in my heart and body.

The ten hour drive from dc today went well though I could feel the distance before I had even departed. Instead of visiting friends latel ast night I chose to retire early (if 1am is early). And my regret for things undone, people underconnected with, and... just rambling now.

The point is that this weekend made world history and surpassed most, if not all, weekends in personal history. My strong love for GW ultimate and the friends from there continues to give me strength when we're together. But when we're apart my pride mixes with sadness at the separation between us.

I believe I saw Obama's silhouette last night (in his pimp limo) and the motorcade of Joe Biden, both times only a few yards away. I'm looking forward to developing the pictures and framing some of the weekend's memorobilia. 

Inauguration Closing

Got some pictures I've decided to wrap up into one big post. Inauguration season on this blog is almost over...

On the way to DC, Mitch spilled coffee all over the back seat mat :)

After the 10.5 hour car ride up to DC, the four of us were still all smiles 

Saturday party preparation: the jello shot chef admiring his work 

Getting the job done out in the cold

Packing the car with two laundry baskets full of jello shots

Late night Sunday three of us get into some serious shenanigans 

Making we sure we returned all the cans of beer, just like we found them a couple hours earlier

Beer makes people do stupid things, like fight

(Dave's looking to tap out as) Ashley is rendered incapacitated with laughter

The car ride back - done completely in daylight on Wednesday - with this group of folk

Why I Travel Alot

Talking with hippo-friend, Christina, I had a kind of emotional moment this morning. She and I are emailing back and forth, and this thread is about favorite foods. I mentioned I plan to be home this weekend and may be able to cook some of those delicious things we were talking about (banana nut pancakes).

And I had this immediate, wrenching, sad sensation when I wrote that I plan to be home. I am going to be here in Atlanta this weekend, alone in the house, cooking brunch for myself -- before going to play goaltimate or something else Saturday afternoon. 

And my realization was that I want to be back in DC, where I was a couple weeks ago -- enjoying meals and parties with the best friends in the world. And I want to be hanging out with them some more, seeing them and sleeping on the same pull-out couch mattress-on-the-basement floor with them, etc.

If I can't hang out with these friends, then at least I want to be traveling -- not stuck at home without anybody, ya know. So that's Why I Travel      Alot.

Inauguration is Over but the Blogs Continue

Here's my fourth entry (of five) from Inauguration morning. Before recording the entry, I ran into a couple friends in the crowd, fellow Atlanta dems. The picture above is of Leslie, (what's the friend's name?), Nikema, Katie and me.

And here's what I wrote while exiting the Mall area: 

Standing in a crowd of exiting inauguration goers. 

People climbed the fences to our right and are congregating outside the road we're on (see photo below) next to the American Indian museum. 

Bush's helicopter flew out from the capital a minute ago; met with middle fingers and some waves. Slow going towards the exit. Next Katie and I are going to her place to watch the parade.

Not in the original memo: as was apparent to everyone witnessing the inauguration and reading this blog, the crowd last Tuesday was packed. So we had the obligation, sometimes the pleasure, of getting to know some strangers around us. One woman was a GW student from Moorestown, NJ (E! A! G! L! E! S!). During the inauguration, I concurred with her that it was useless to boo McCain and others on the inaugural stage, even those we might disagree with. This came up again when Bush's helicopter flew him away from Pennsylvania Ave for hopefully the last time. I've wanted to see that moment for a long time; but I wouldn't have felt any better if I had saluted him with my middle finger. 

Its funny that I write that because, to be completely honest, I was the supreme culprit of giving Bush the middle finger when I played ultimate on the Ellipse.

ps Good to see Bert, Ed, Faust, and House this weekend. Where are the inauguration recaps homies?

Inauguration 3

My third 'memo' (of five) from last week's Presidential Inauguration, with accompanying pictures: 

(looking west towards the Washington Monument as the crowd listens to Joe Biden take the oath of office)

12:05 Joe Biden just took the oath of office. I have been crying and snotting or having my breath taken away by this, this, I don't know what to call it. I feel that the music, the speaking, and surprisingly the prayer by Rick Warren, is all so much to bear. 

The crowd is as tight now as at any point today. And with the exception of a couple people bickering nearby, these millions of citizens of the world are united. The unity and focus, resolve and support, seem true, good and well. Yo Yo Ma and accompianists are playing.

(Obviously, view of the Capitol as music plays and we edge closer to Obama's swearing-in and address)

inauguration 2

This is a relatively unedited version of my second post of the day last Tuesday. Katie and I have just made it through security and are debating where to stand for the swearing-in.

Were in a really tightly packed crowd right under the shade of a jumbotron. People are much warmer this close together. But we are no longer with the good spirited teacher doing trivia.
A couple people nearby complained when the two of us walked up that there was no room. And they were pretty right. But the lead cynic was kind of bitchy.
Music just started; I haven't cried yet but the emotion of the moment comes at short intervals.
For now we have to be content to visit with our neighbors very intimately. (Katie laughs as I write 'intimately')
This was a mobile post; don't know how to insert pictured this way. More coming soon.

On the Road

The Obamaration overnight car just entered North Carolina!

So far the fun moments include Bird Walk, latrinology at the gas station (also had the world's slowest clerk), and learning the lyrics to 'Half Brick'http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb7JLO2lWlQ&client=mv-google&gl=US&hl=en

This is probably the one time I would use somethin like Twitter... an overnight car trip.

Nationals

Thinking about Nationals recently has made me a little upset. Maybe even a little sad. But I wanted to celebrate the best parts about the tournament (when there's good competition, spirit, and when underdogs win) even if Monster's not playing in it.

Considering Chain placed 3/4 (arguably 3 because they beat the other '3/4' team at the same tournament already) at last year's Nationals, it was hard to believe that they didn't earn a spot higher than 13 going in this year.

Regardless, they and Truck Stop (the DC/Baltimore up and coming team) just both beat the teams seeded way higher than them (the 12th seed beat the 4th seed and the 13th seed beat the 5th seed). I didn't think Truck Stop had it in 'em. Everyone felt that Atlanta was capable of more than 13th place; so that's not much of a surprise.

I'm headed to Kennesaw for a short weekend visit with Kyle. This post will be old news by the time I return to post some more. But its how I'm connecting with Nationals and I just wanted to share that quickly.

Click here for the Score Reporter on the men's side of the tournament and here for the women's (Fury and new addition Kate Wilson are pitted against her former team, Atlanta's Ozone, in the third round today).

Organizing

Next week I am visiting Washington, DC, for my first business-related trip ever to the nation's capital. The New Organizing Institute is hosting training, workshops, and talks for online organizers from across the non-profit and progressive worlds.

Along these lines, I want to know your thoughts (yes, you, the reader of this) on online communication. If you have spent any time emailing, blogging, e-networking, or using other online communication, please share your thoughts on the experience here. A couple questions to jumpstart it:

1. Can you trust the people you email with, chat with, meet on myspace, and other sites?
2. What do you like to do online - political talk, meeting friends, sharing news, researching?
3. How do you think we can use the internet better as we promote a social justice agenda?
   

(I want to see your thoughts -- this means you, Lisa; you too, Liz; all that g-chatting applies, Kate; your facebook time counts, Kyle -- everyone, share your thoughts).

I'll post more about this, with resources for bloggers and other users of web-communication tools, soon. I need your thoughts.


Ben

p.s. Thanks to Liz for feedback on the self-interest topic and 'love as social philosophy' posts.