Times Are A'changing...

Forget the first 100 days of office. Obama has been President for less than twelve hours and already the world is changing. The proof? I can blog again!

Yesterday my local IT guy came over (he climbed one floor up) and showed me how to blog. I'm not gonna reveal the secret of how I'm avoiding the new anti-blogging laws but lets just say my server is no longer in Vietnam.

We're beating the system!!!
(PHOTO: My IT guy -- Ryan "Yes We Can" Tharp.)

As everyone knows, last night (or this afternoon for those in America) Obama was inaugurated. Ryan, my boss Jim and I watched the swearing in at 12:30 AM here (that's with the half hour Vietnam news delay). I was filled with emotion last night and despite the gigantic obstacles our country has to overcome, I think Obama can do it. Hell, if I can blog again we can do anything!

A few things I found interesting about the ceremony:

1. Ryan said it best about Cheney being in a wheelchair: "It's symbolic of how he left our country."

2. It's fitting that a Bush appointee, Chief Justice Roberts, fumbled over his lines.

3. Uh, how big was Joe Biden's bible?

4. My friend Jennifer in LA emailed me a question that I'd like to know the answer to: "Do you think Michelle had to write her kids a note to skip school?"

5. Lots of talk was about Obama seeing Bush off in the chopper. However, I thought the best part was that Bush's Dad and Mom were in the chopper. It was like the kid had finished playing president with his buddies and his parents picked him up to take him home.

6. I thought the most touching part of the whole ceremony was the benediction. I had never heard any parts of the "Negro National Anthem" before and thought it was really touching. Here's the lyrics to the full anthem:

Lift every voice and sing,

'Til earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chast'ning rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,

Out from the gloomy past,

'Til now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,

Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who has by Thy might

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,

Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,

May we forever stand,

True to our God,

True to our native land.

I'm glad to be blogging again. I've got A LOT to catch up on: Laos, Tet, Vietnamese roller skating.... Stay Tuned!