I felt much more emotional about the passing of Steve Jobs this evening than I expected to feel.  I am an avid Apple product user, and I seem to be one of the few people genuinely excited by the new iPhone 4S.  I have to wait until November 27 to qualify for the lower upgrade price, but I’m already chomping at the bit to start my relationship with Siri.  However, I’d never really contemplated Steve Jobs or his legacy.  Yes, I like his products, but his scope of influence only really hit me this evening as I watched the tribute to him on the 11 o’clock news.  I found myself tearing up a bit as the newscaster spoke about him.  I’m not sure that I ever fully realized that Jobs was the brainchild behind the products.  I knew that he started Apple in his parents’ garage, but I had never identified him as being the one to come up with all of these newerproducts.  Until tonight.

I attended a preview performance of The Submission by Jeff Talbott on Saturday, September 24.  Produced by MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel, the production was directed by Walter Bobbie and starred Jonathan Groff, Will Rogers, Eddie Kaye Thomas, and Rutina Wesley.

Five years ago today, my then partner, Craig Hamrick, passed away after a long battle with colon cancer.  He passed early in the morning, around 7:30am, following ten days in hospice.

Craig fought his cancer valiantly for almost four years after his diagnosis.  He survived a colon resection, a liver resection, the removal of a brain tumor, and rounds and rounds of chemotherapy.  He had an incredible will to live, and I learned after he passed that his doctors hadn’t really expected him to survive much beyond a year. 

Fourteen-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer took his own life on Sunday after years of bullying.  Ironically, Jamey recorded a video for the “It Gets Better” campaign back in May of this year.  Anderson Cooper recaps Jamey’s story in the video below, and he reveals several politicians and organization leaders who believe that bullying isn’t a problem.

With the emphasis on “attempting.”

Barack Obama revealed his deficit plan today in a speech in the White House Rose Garden.  The New York Times reports that Obama is seeking $1.5 trillion in tax increases on the wealthy and corporations.  Of course, Republicans screamed “class warfare” which sounds like a white person yelling “reverse racism.”  I love how these people in positions of power appropriate the language of the oppressed to describe their positions.  Makes absolutely no sense at all.