[Vlog] Today, I'm Grateful for Vision. What about you?

Vlog: Today, I'm Grateful for Vision. What about you? from Ankit Shah on Vimeo.

Chock full of "um"s and "so, yeah"s and bad hair/droopy eyes. Recorded at 3:50a this morning, and I was totally not feeling a rerecording, so this is my thanks for your understanding of that. There will be a most substantial thank you post tomorrow night or Friday morning in text form.

Thank you for being you.

• Jason Mraz: Gratitude is Good for Your Health

P.S. I think my slight lisp becomes less and less "slight" as I listen to myself. I never know whether to actually care about that or not.

[My first vlog] What are you doing right now? Living.

Vlog: What are you doing right now? Living. from Ankit Shah on Vimeo.

By the way, tell me that hat is not the best ever.
Also - I don't edit videos (nor do I know how to.) This is completely on the spot. Sorry that it's eleven minutes, but to be honest, I think 11 minutes of video is certainly more entertaining than 5 minutes of reading.

I'm comin' in when I feel like, so turn this thang up only if it feels right.

Gratuitous Self-Image Wednesday. Yes, it's 3:34a on Friday. ¿Es un problema? I'd hope not :)

Funnily enough, I was trying to get a picture of myself in the reflection but I was blending in with the reflection of the trees. Total fail.

Update (11/10/08): Just realized these "GSIWs" totally take away from the purpose of this blog. The fun, meaningless (but sometimes, meaningful) stuff will now emigrate to my tumblr.

History in the Making

You know, as wild as all of this is, I’m really just trying to absorb it all right now. The implications of today are just so immense. It makes me appreciate Martin Luther King Junior to such a great extent. What he did for this present moment in history was so key, and look at us now. 2008, and in 76 short days, we will have a Black&White House. It’s weird shifting from the “imagine” and “hope” mentality to the “oh shiz, it’s here” mentality. Most of my conscious life has been spent under a president I haven’t really appreciated much, so this is going to be something new. This is going to be something I tell my kids. This is going to be something special. This is something special.

A civil war that, in many ways, began at Bull Run, Virginia, on July 21, 1861, ended 147 years later via a ballot box in the very same state. For nothing more symbolically illustrated the final chapter of America’s Civil War than the fact that the Commonwealth of Virginia — the state that once exalted slavery and whose secession from the Union in 1861 gave the Confederacy both strategic weight and its commanding general — voted Democratic, thus assuring that Barack Obama would become the 44th president of the United States.

- “Finishing Our Work,” by Thomas L. Friedman, November 4, 2008

What boggles me most is Obama’s family history. His parents have been dead since before his 2004 DNC Address. His grandmother passed just before not only his greatest moment, but also quite possibly the country’s. We haven’t seen any of his siblings (or maybe we have and I haven’t followed well enough) throughout his campaign trail. His drive has got to be coming from the heart because there’s so few other outlets. Who’s he fighting to impress? There’s no, “Look ma, I did it!” I can’t imagine having moments like the one he just had tonight without the family I grew up with there with me. I don’t know what to make of it, but I think that makes him so much more impressive.

Congratulations, Barack. Please don’t stop sending me emails (even if David Plouffe is writing them). It makes me feel like we’re bros. We’d pound it if I ever met you.

Looking forward to enjoying the next four years.

My gut tells me that of all the changes that will be ushered in by an Obama presidency, breaking with our racial past may turn out to be the least of them. There is just so much work to be done. The Civil War is over. Let reconstruction begin.

- Thomas L. Friedman

Tumblr looks like tummy.

I'm now running a tumblelog site. It's where I'll share music, photos, videos, conversations, and brief notes on a much more frequent basis than I do anything on this blog. I'll still put up random stuff here, but this will be more dedicated to my thoughts (but that's not to say my thoughts won't be interspersed with music/photos/videos/conversations/briefnotes).

Check it out: http://ankittt.tumblr.com

Letters of Gratitude

You know what's a really cool idea?

Writing informal letters to friends about how much you like them, why you're thankful for them, and why your life wouldn't be the same without them and mailing the letters to their homes. Even if you see them every day in school and could hand it to them. Getting things in the mail is really exciting (especially when you're not the homeowner at home and everything that ever has your name on it in the mailbox is either from "Herricks High School" or "______ University.") I think I'm going to send letters of gratitude to people. It really takes maybe 15-20 minutes to write letters and another 30 seconds to envelope and stamp them. I'm excited to see what I write and who I write to. I'm so lost right now.

It's 3:28a and I don't know WHAT I'm doing. Except maybe this:

My green smoothie matches my walls. I painted these walls before I knew half my diet could be vomited on the wall and it wouldn't even make a difference because it'd all blend in. I love it.

I need to touch up my ceiling paint. There's still bits and pieces of green paint that somehow found their way onto the ceiling despite the tape we put on the corners to prevent that. Whatever. You should paint your own room in the middle of the night. It's a really fun experience (especially when no one's home and you can blast music from midnight to 6:00am.)