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Last year, I read some lyrics to an Ani song that I thought I’d like. It wasn’t on an album yet, so I couldn’t procure it and then I forgot what the lyrics were, just that it had something to do with motherhood. But today as I scoped out the freebies on iTunes, I noticed Ani had a new release and something about the title “Present/Infant” looked familiar and yay, it’s that song!

Present/Infant

lately i’ve been glaring into mirrors
picking myself apart
you’d think at my age i’d of thought
of something better to do
than making insecurity into a full-time job
making insecurity into art
and i fear my life will be over
and i will have never lived unfettered
always glaring into mirrors
mad i don’t look better

but now here is this tiny baby
and they say she looks just like me
and she is smiling at me
with that present infant glee
and yes i will defend
to the ends of the earth
her perfect right to be

so i’m beginning to see some problems
with the ongoing work of my mind
and i’ve got myself a new mantra
it says: “don’t forget to have a good time”
don’t let the sellers of stuff power enough
to rob you of your grace
love is all over the place

there’s nothing wrong with your face
love is all over the place
there’s nothing wrong with your face

lately i’ve been glaring into mirrors
picking myself apart

Also, how come nobody told me that a volume 4 of Enter the Worship Circle was released over the summer?

(Yes, I know that in WebTime, a week after an event is a bit long for this type of gushing day-after post, but I actually wrote this last Saturday and was waiting to post it because I wanted to add links and quotes and such…)

When Carol and Nicole told me the Nerdfighting Tour was coming to Gadsden, I knew I didn’t need to know exactly what the Nerdfighting Tour was to know I’d feel at home. As a card-carrying Nerd, I felt an obligation to attend. I am so glad I did.

I tried to discern what the Tour was about from the website, but it’s an entire community and the simple entry pages such as About and the FAQ weren’t working. So I showed up on Friday knowing only that one guy writes young adult novels and the other guy sings songs and that maybe they are brothers.

The songs were great, the reading was great and even though I know nothing about them, even the Q & A was good. Adding to all the awesomeness was sitting next to Cookie, who totally lost it when John said “Vampires in Suburbia or Wizard School.”

But the absolute best was Accio Deathly Hallows, a song Hank wrote three days before the book’s release. He made the crowd sing along if they knew the words and oh, they did. It’s rare for me, outside of church, to sit in a room full of people singing a song. Maybe that’s why I felt like it was a spiritual moment. This community of nerds has found one another online and traveled to meet in person. When he sang “I couldn’t care more about Harry Potter if Hogwarts was my Alma Mater,” you could feel that we all felt the same way.

And I smiled, and yes, this nerd is such a softie, because I teared up, too. They don’t know what it was like for us thirtysomething nerds, drifting through adolescene without the anchor of fellow geeks. Or how when you did find somebody who geeks out over the same things, it was monumental. (Jaimie and I forged our friendship over quoting lines from Monty Python.)

Here endeth the gushfest. Check out Hank’s song about Helen Hunt:

Helen Hunt, I’m Mad About You

The Gadsden Times had some complaints today for not running a large picture of Obama on the front page like a lot of other papers did. It was a logistics thing — our press time was so early that Obama hadn’t made his victory speech yet.

I went to check out Newseum today to see how other papers handled the big story. My favorite page one was that of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat (coincidentally, a sister paper).

I love that the photo is practically the whole cover, the election logo header, the head, the subhead, all of it.

Speaking of Obama and design, I mean, of course I think it’s genius that he has a signature font and his own cool campaign logo, but I am impressed by the cleverness he inspired in so many designers. My two, somewhat obscure favorites are the Voldemort Can’t Stop Barack motif from Harry and the Potters and this Mavis Beacon of Hope poster.

One final Obama-related artwork is this postcard from PostSecret, which is a fear I’m sure has been felt by his family. FA touched on it in his blog, too.