Random

Have you guys been catching the weekly addresses that President-elect Barack Obama has made and distributed over the 'net via YouTube? He's most definitely going to do things differently. The transition team has also set up a website documenting its work including mini-dossiers on Cabinet nominees via the GSA website. I've really enjoyed having more than standard-media information on how the preparations are going. Inaugural revelers, take note: Obama's website will also be an outlet for additional requests for event tickets. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland announced today that they anticipate recieving 400 tickets for the swearing in and they've already received requests for 55,000.

Speaking of Inaugural revelry, around here there's a lot of buzz about the economic implications (for the better this time): There are *no* available hotel rooms during the inaugural period for a 150 mile radius of DC... wow. Wish I had some good GIS data and I'd figure out how many gazillions rooms that must be. But it looks like we're gearing up for an influx of millions of visitors. So yoo-hoo, all you guys who think this isn't a big historic event? Suck that.

Homecoming
Yesterday I spent the morning with my posse of surveillance peeps--it was GREAT. I was very very happy to be with them, to be contributing my ideas and continuing to improve our mousetraps. AWESOME. Better still, on the drive home, I phoned my epidemiology colleague from my County days and she said, I kid you NOT, "You are my Captain. You will always be my Captain." So, uh, yeah...my ego was a little over-inflated yesterday. Can you imagine? "Oh Captain, my Captain..!" Yay! Fantastic. Obviously one of my better professional accomplishments was campaigning heavily for her hire.

I totally can't wait to dig in on the project. I'm TOTALLY over-stimulated.

I really enjoyed the Ryan Adams tracks but I now am unable to get SNL's Finanacial Expert Oscar Rogers's "FIX IT!" out of my head....


Jon Stewart cracked himself (and me) up on Monday night. Did you enjoy the riff on "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"? (After the commercial, you can slide over to 3:00)