Today we must pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking Dan Tobin.
Okay, I would never really compare myself and my own personal challenges to those now facing America, or to the transcendent moment of Obama’s inauguration. No, my search for career satisfaction is much, much bigger than either of those, and CNN’s best political team on television will be glad to confirm this. But I found our new Prexy’s speech yesterday predictably brilliant and expectedly inspirational. Ho-hum. I mean seriously, enough with the sublime oratory already! We get it, you’re a political genius, and we’ve got to sit through 4-8 more years of this unbelievable awesomeness. You want a cookie?
So yes, a lot to love in that speech, so many right notes, so much evocative language, and a really clever reframing of the issues that lie ahead. On a personal note, the passage I paraphrased (stole) above resonated with me in particular. I’ve been licking my wounds and biding my time for all too long, and now I’m ready… for change. Yes I can. Yes I can!
Sorry. I’m just still so proud of myself for not crying once yesterday. In fact, I haven’t cried since our celebratory dinner the Friday after the election, when I tried to thank Meaghan for pushing us to volunteer for Obama, and she kept it together while I choked back sobs at the restaurant. Today I kept it together, and I expect to keep that going for a while, barring a very nasty toe-stubbing incident.
But the whole point of this post is not to wax poetic about our brand new funky president. No, like I said, this is about something much bigger than Barack Obama, bigger than America, bigger than life itself. It’s about reinventing myself through my latest act of self-promotion:

Illustrated by the wonderful and talented Lovisa Loiselle, once known ’round the blogosphere as Tot (of Totcetera fame), and written by your friendly neighborhood dantobin, it’s a webcomic. What’s a webcomic? A comic strip on the web, silly. But what’s this webcomic? Well, if you’ve been reading here over any of the past 3952 posts, the voice should be pretty familiar. In fact, a few of the comics have been ripped straight from the headlines of this very blog! It’s my standard-issue quiet, deadpan humor, about life, work, and spilling coffee on yourself. But it comes to life in a new and exciting ways courtesy of Lovisa’s really visionary illustrating. The collaboration has wildly exceeded my hopes, and it’s only getting better as we find our way though the Blah world.
So please, I urge you to check out The Urban Blah. We’ve got four up to start, and we’ll be updating every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Some in black-and-white, some in full-scale Technicolor. Bookmark it, link us (we’ll link you back), tell your friends, visit constantly… and enjoy!