i was there
it was around seven o’clock in the evening on an unusually warm election night in november. polls were going to close soon. still feeling sick, i was sitting on my couch in my office awaiting the results. this historic election was going to be over in just a few hours and i was going to be there watching it on television live…by myself. meanwhile across town in grant park, where Obama was holding his post election party, there were thousands of people gathering to watch this historic event. i wanted to be part of this so i went to my computer, logged onto CNN.com and pulled the live stream of grant park. now i had the coverage of the election on my TV and the live video stream of the huge party in grant park on my computer.
seven twenty rolls by and something is itching at me. am i going to live history and be there or am i going to watch history live on tv? so few times can we ever experience something on such a grand scale as a presidential election, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that i had to be in grant park. sick with a fever the night before, i logged off CNN, shut off my TV, grabbed my iPhone, keys, threw on my shoes and a jacket and drove downtown. i was expecting crazy amounts of traffic, but there were so few people on the road that i was able to make it downtown in just fifteen minutes. great timing.
it’s almost eight o’clock now and as i leave the parking garage and step onto michigan avenue, i see crowds of people walking together towards grant park. it was like lollapalooza all over again, except there were more people and there was a completely different feeling. i thought to myself, there are thousands of people here. they’re all very passionate about Obama. what is it going to be like after the election if he loses?
after arriving to grant park and becoming one of the thousands waiting in anticipation, alongside a very good friend of mine and some of his friends, it felt like i was at a sporting event. cheering and chanting each time Obama won another state. Booing and feeling disappointed each time McCain scored some electoral votes. This game wasn’t close though. Obama was winning and by a large margin. And as soon as Ohio went to Obama, you could feel the excitement grow because this dream, this hope, was about to become a reality!
i remember when CNN came back from their commercial break and and the west coast polls were about to close. they had a countdown that we all counted down and as soon as that ticker reach double zero, it meant that the polls in california, oregon and washington had close, it mean that Obama was now the president elect of our united state of america. and at that time, i just felt myself floating in the air. people carrying me as we all jumped and yelled in unison. it was an amazing feeling. everyone there, cheering and celebrating for the same reason. for hope, for opportunity, for each other, for our futures. this meant so much to all of us.
there was a sea of people around me and camera crews filming us. at one point during this celebratory chaos, i felt an arm wrap around me and pull me in. it was an elderly black couple, man and wife and they were crying as they pulled me in and hugged me. and we lived that moment together, in person, live. not on my couch, in my office, by myself, on two screens. no. i was there.
i was there when Barack Obama became the 44th president of the united states of america.
electronic voting, a personal experience
earlier this afternoon i crawled out of bed, still feeling a bit ill, and walked out to the bowling alley, my polling place for this year’s election. all morning i had been hearing about these massive queues and last week i heard about the electronic voting machines not working properly. so i was gearing myself up for a not so pleasant experience. heck the only other time i had voted in a presidential election was back in ‘04 when Kerry lost to George Bush. And I vaguely remember there being a long line and the butterfly ballot controversy all day and it was just a mess i remember.
so anyway, as i walk in these two high school kids greet me, we get to talking, i remember when i was in high school they offered us the opportunity to go work at a polling site. anyhow, they asked me if i wanted to vote on the electronic machine. this was new to me, i was excited, but i remembered all the videos i saw on youtube about the machines casting the wrong vote. i was unsure, so i asked what should i do if there’s a malfunction? these two high school kids just looked at me like i was a moron. and i felt like a very paranoid, old person that felt like his vote wasn’t going to count. anyway, they gave me this little card that i put into a machine, told me not to pull out until i was finished, i laughed, and then went and voted.
the electronic voting machine was a thing of beauty my friends! i loved it. i could sit there all day and vote for people. no glitches, no mistakes, i was able to review all my votes, go back and change my votes, it was wonderful. such a pleasure. so much nicer than those god forsaken butterfly ballots.
even though i had such a great experience with the electronic voting machine, i am still skeptical for those folk who are unsure how to use this technology. yes i know it’s just a matter of taking a finger and pushing who you want to vote for, but at the same time, i doubt my grandparents would understand or get the concept of a touch screen. anyhow, i hope everything works out. i’d hate to hear tomorrow morning that obama…i mean any candidate lost because of voting malfunctions.
go out there and vote if you haven’t already…
oh and one more thing…black panthers, please don’t cause any trouble at the polling places. just let the people vote.
podcasts, trading cards and teas...oh my
We’ve all answered an online questionnaire asking what our hobbies were right? I don’t know about you, but at least for me, I’ve always had the hardest time figuring out what my hobbies were. I’d alway put film, music, soccer, web design as my defaults. a good list, but honestly, how many of those hobbies require me to do anything, one..maybe two?
I finally feel like there are actually hobbies in my life right now. If you’ve kept up with my tweets, you’ll know that I’m in the process of setting up a Podcast. The Super Terrific Show. This is something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and finally it’s happening. I’m actually really excited to be doing this. In fact tomorrow evening I am going in to do the first official show. Stay tuned.
What else? Trading cards. As a child, I relied on my cousin to give me all his doubles. That was the extent of my trading card collection. Rarely was I able to go and buy myself a pack of trading cards. But I still loved them. In fact I still have all my old baseball, football, basketball and hockey cards. And it’s really exciting for me to look back at them and see the old players, look at the stats and occasionally find that one gem lost in the sea of cards. Now I’m older though and I’m able to buy these cards and yes it may seem childish but for some reason, I get this feeling of excitement every time I open up a new pack of cards. Maybe it’s me reliving part of my childhood, or actually acting out a piece of my childhood that I wish was there, but there’s something that really gets me excited about opening up a new pack of cards.
And teas…I love my teas and just recently my sister in South Africa has sent me a nice shipment of Afro Tea. 7 individual containers. All different flavors. Surely they’ll last me for some time. There was a time, back in April and May right around the time of my surgery that I would sit outside each morning, drink my tea, have my cigarette and speak to my girlfriend who was, at the time, in west Africa. Since then my tea collection has diminished, but now, thanks to my sister, I have a bunch of new flavors to try out and get really excited about. I cannot wait to start trying them.
So those are my hobbies. And it’s good because without those my days would really revolve around just work and school. And although I enjoy those both very much as of late, it’s still important to be able to escape the norm and treat yourself to something that you like sometimes. And it doesn’t have to be expensive or exotic, it can be as simple as tea and trading cards. Whatever it is, be happy with it. And if you don’t have a hobby, go find something out there that gets you excited and invest some time into it. I guarantee you that it will bring some sort of joy or happiness to your every day life.
be good.
Can't You Tell I'm Excited!?
First order of business…the site doesn’t style well in Internet Explorer. Yes, the number one browser in the world. I could care less. I know it’s terrible, but get yourself off that lousy web browser and onto something that doesn’t crash or render web site wrong. Safari & Firefox are both valid choices here. Both are free and both work on mac & pc.
Three posts in one day! All text posts and the day hasn’t even begun yet… something has to be going on. Well one, I cannot sleep. Two, I feel like I haven’t written in here for a while, a while by my standards. Three, this place needs a lot of content. Four, the images in the right hand corner… I LOVE’EM!
Also, let me give you my quick run down as to what’s been going on. If you follow my tweets, you’ll know that I started my new internship at a design studio here in Chicago. My first day was this past Friday and I really enjoyed it. Like the work that I’m doing, really like the atmosphere and the people seem to be easy to get along with. What more can I ask for… pay? Yeah that’s nice too.
But since Friday I’ve been wanting to just design and create and keep moving forward. Such a good thing. No complaints, none at all. My portfolio site was thrown together just days before starting the internship, just so that I could show the company some of my work. It was a design that I was working with but didn’t have time to actually complete it the way that I had wanted to. I’ve got new design ideas already in my head, ones that match the new business cards that I printed out. It’s all good. I just want to keep this ball rolling.
Let me tell you another thing, quickly because I do need to get some rest before my long day tomorrow.
I was so freaking nervous before my interview for this company but as soon as I walked in and sat down and started the interview, I felt such a rush of excitement and all I wanted to do was continue to talk about myself, only kidding, but I just felt so good. I loved the feeling, the rush it brought me to interview. For a while now I have been told my numerous people that I need to just start interviewing at places. Places I’m not even interested in working at really. Reason being, is I need to figure out this interview process but more importantly I need to figure out what people are looking for. So true. Love the advice. I expect to be interviewing at a lot more places, just for that rush feeling in the coming months.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still be looking to land jobs, but that interview process is amazing.
If You're Not Watching...You're Losing Out
A few months ago, maybe almost a year ago I found this podcast called Wine Library TV. A few weeks ago I posted a video of his here on helloBos. I’m not quite sure how I stumbled upon the actual podcast, but I did and I remember watching it and seeing this very animated host talk about Wine as if it were a sports show. That type of energy and enthusiasm. It took me by surprise.
The host I’m talking about is Gary Vaynerchuk (Vay-ner-chuk). That link is to his blog which also links to his video podcast and some other interesting videos. And those other interesting videos are the ones I’m going to focus on here. But please do check out the Wine Library TV podcast, it’s entertaining and if you know nothing about wine, a little about wine, or are a wine expert, you need to be watching this podcast.
Gary’s other videos on the blog are quick clips of him speaking directly to the viewer and usually has something to do with motivation. He’s not a motivational speaker by any means, I think he’s just a truth speaker and likes to tell it how it is, but he does so in a very honest way. A way that has me wanting to sit down and just watch all these 2 minute videos of him telling me that I’m missing the opportunity by not creating content and community. He speaks about creating brand identity and while I embark on a new podcast and try getting this blog up and going, his messages hit at home with me and they’ve been really positive and also entertaining.
Give it shot. Take a look at what he has to say. It’s two minutes of your life. So instead of stalking somebody on facebook, watch a Gary V video and see what he’s all about. Especially if you’re following this blog because I might be posting his videos and also speaking about him quite a bit more. He’s the real deal folks. Listen up!