Wave of the future

I've had CNN on for most of the weekend; I've wished that Inauguration Day fell on Martin Luther King Day, not only for the symbolism, but for the more selfish reason that I could witness history, unfettered by the trappings of the workplace.

Yesterday I watched CNN's broadcast of "Normalcy, Never Again" also known as the "I Have a Dream" speech for it's most famous last quarter in which Martin Luther King Jr. improvised a finale to his plea for economic parity, at the urging of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson to "tell them about the dream," with the language he usually reserved for his sermons, declaring famously that he had a dream that people would be judged by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin. The speech itself ran for roughly seventeen minutes.

This was roughly the length of Barack Obama's speech today.

I came to work hoping to get there early to make sure I could get a live video stream of the Inauguration from CNN on my computer. Unfortunately the computers at work are starting to get a little old. They work perfectly fine for what they do, but streaming software upgrades trot past the time-capsuled system requirements of a few years ago. I can no longer watch The Daily Show on the official site, but for some reason I can watch it through IMDB.

So, I had settled on MSNBC's coverage, exactly counter to the FOX News programming on the TV when I got there (my office clearly supported Obama but FOX just happened to be what was on). It being the internet, my computer was lagging behind the television, especially because it would occasionally hiccup until I decided to click refresh. When I did things only got worse as the intermittent audio was supplemented by what was effectively a slide show.

My connection was worst during the oath and the speech. So, I put down the work I had and justified working in the front office (with the view of the waiting room television, now turned to ABC), by using the time to go through the faxes and scan documents. I managed to take the full amount of time in order to watch history live.

Almost everything stopped in the office as the speech started. My eyes welled up as two of the doctors on duty walked in. They came in just after the oath, which they watched in their office, under similar circumstances as mine. I didn't catch all of the speech, but it wasn't because I wasn't paying attention. I was after all at work, so there were still patients calling into the office, there were still patients waiting for apppointments, and there was still the whirr of office equipment. I did catch mention of the sacrifices made at Concord during the Revolutionary War, which reminded me of the museum where MB works, and I heard mention of the wonderful diversity of religious belief, including non-believers. But much of the speech blended into that whirr of immediate activity.

So, soon after the speech, I found the transcript, and the YouTube video (Part I and Part II), which I'll review later in the sober quiet of my apartment.

My first blog here

Okay, I'm starting a blog here too. Because why not? I might as well conquer the universe by going viral and strewing my words about aimlessly on my own. This way I don't have to rely on people actually reading this thing and I can just deliver this to every site I can, strewing the breadcrumbs for the pigeony public.

If this entry is tinged with a bit of cynicism I guess it's because I wonder if I'm too old for more and more social networking sites. I can't wait to embrace my curmudgeony attitude fully in my old age.

See you in the blogosphere.