Another reason to keep my HBO subscription: the network is ordering a pilot based on “Game of Thrones”, the first book in George R.R. Martin’s epic “A Song of Ice & Fire” fantasy series. I’ve discussed my enthusiasm for these books in previous entries and I’m anxiously awaiting the fifth installment. While many familiar tropes of the fantasy genre can be found in the books (swords, feudal societies, dragons), their tone is quite dark. Combine that with healthy doses of explicit sex and the material seems like a perfect fit for HBO’s sensibilities. The books’ cast of thousands might have to be pared down to accommodate the realities of a television series budget, but Peter Jackson has already demonstrated that it’s possible to adapt a literary work without slavish adherence to the text.

Just one request: please don’t film it in British Columbia. It seems like every genre series uses BC for exterior shots and it’s getting old. When I imagine the land of Westeros, I don’t get a Pacific Northwest kind of vibe.

Living with a disability sometimes requires a little homespun ingenuity. For example, I use a foam pillow to support the back of my neck, which gives me the balance I need to use my computer. Over the years, the pillow developed a groove where my neck rests, gradually reducing the amount of support. I finally got fed up with the situation today and my nurse came up with a solution involving a couple foam sponges placed over said groove. The act of typing feels much easier now, which tells me this jury-rigged is working. But I’m not sure the judicious application is going to save my bookstand, which is beginning to crumble. That thing is almost twenty years old and has an imminent appointment with a dumpster, as soon as I can find a replacement.

My equipment is getting old, just like me.

An article at Slate looks at the data showing that atheists are less happy than religious people and theorizes that we unbelievers are not unhappy because we don’t believe in God, but because we feel excluded from the larger community. In a highly religious nation, those without faith find themselves on the outside, looking in.

The validity of that argument probably depends on the context of the individual atheist. An atheist living in a rural Texas town is probably going to feel more isolated than an atheist living in a major city like Chicago or Boston. But the inherent appeal of a communitarian faith life is strong. Nobody likes to feel alone and American churches–especially the big ones–excel at welcoming strangers into a large community that doesn’t ask many questions about where they’re from, what they do for a living, and so on. The only thing required for membership is belief.

Human happiness is a fluid thing and I’m always a little suspicious of efforts to measure it. So much of life is spent somewhere in between the polar extremes of bliss and misery. And there’s a fine line between unhappiness and melancholy. For me, this life is the only chance I’ll get and the implications can seem overwhelming. I have only one life to fill with experiences and there simply isn’t time for everything. That awareness leads to sadness only if it’s accompanied by passivity.

This video from The Onion describes me all too well:

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

No doubt. I mean, what the hell do I blog about now? It was so easy just to repeat all the stuff I read on Daily Kos. And it helped me stay in denial about my obsessive computer use and nagging sense of loneliness. Time to develop a World of Warcraft addiction and give myself a renewed sense of purpose.

America, for all its many and well-documented flaws, can be pretty great. Only a few decades ago, the circumstances that made this photo possible would not have existed. There’s no way that someone like me would have gone to law school, found a job, and traveled to Washington, D.C. as part of a leadership training. And there’s no way that a black man with an exotic-sounding name would have been elected senator from a Midwestern state. But in this country, things are impossible until, one day, they’re not. Separate paths of hard work and serendipity led us to this brief encounter: two somewhat geeky lawyers who don’t look like most of the people around us. Two guys who could not have gotten to this moment in time without the support of so many others.

In President-elect Obama, I see elements of my own story writ much larger. His election also reminds me that I shouldn’t spend so much time believing the myth of my own outsider status. The future is here and I’m so excited to discover my place in it.

Image description: a February 2005 photo of me and then-Senator Obama taken in the tunnels under the Capitol building in Washington, DC. Obama is standing to my left in a charcoal suit, leaning forward slightly and smiling at the camera. I’m wearing a leather jacket over a shirt and tie, my facial expression entirely too serious.