each year I do a Facts of Bos post, below is the most current and even further below that are the previous entries. Enjoy…

Today I write these:

- sisters are not pregnant, but I have a nephew now.
- no more school classes, i’ve graduated.
- weather is terrible…cold, windy and snowy. (same as last year)
- the last movie i saw in the theaters was Avatar.
- the wolfman opens next week in theaters. 
- current song: Kanye West - Good Life
- still using the iPhone 3G… it’s still working and jailbroken, but still not unlocked.
- my phone bill is still outrageously high and minutes are no longer such a problem since everyone has an iPhone now and mobile2mobile minutes are wonderful.
- i’ve canceled my flickr pro account. I never started taking photos and posting them really.
- i’m sure if i called my sister right now, she’d ask me what time i was going to be there.
- last week my hand went through my office window.
- this weekend is the super bowl between the colts and saints, my two least favorite teams. i could care less who wins, i’ll be cheering for the refs hoping they make some good calls.
- recording the Super Terrific Talk Show tonight.
- March 27th, 2010 will be the first Super Terrific Live Show.
- January 23, 2010 was the first Super Terrific Film Festival.
- i got a job as a web production artist… fulltime.
- i’m making this blog post while a my new fulltime job.
- helloBos.com expires today, renewing it right after this post.

January 23, 2009:

- sister is pregnant, again.
- online project management class hasn’t begun yet. but i’m sure it’ll suck.
- weather is terrible…cold, windy and snowy.
- i still want to go see slumdog millionaire
- notorious just released in theaters here.
- current song: Brazilian Girls - Good Time
- iPhone 3G now, still working. jailbroken, but not unlocked.
- my phone bill has never been hire and i can never seem to have enough minutes.
- i’m still not taking a lot of photos, but i did buy a flickr pro account for some reason.
- i’m sure if i called my sister right now, the baby talk would still be happening.
- the other night i dreamt that i beat the crap out of this kid.
- this monday i have classes for 9 hours. i hope it’s not too cold.
- goal for the rest of the month: get a job.

Read 2008’s version of the facts of Bos

this big city has it’s ups and downs. the good the bad. but life is what you make of it and sometimes we don’t make the best decisions every single time. but the city is great. the people may have a bad reputation and come off mean. we’ve all got an agenda. it’s the people that forgive and move forward and are accepting that I want to thank. you make this world go round. if not for you, there would never be an opportunity or a second chance and greatness wouldn’t flourish. happiness wouldn’t be. so thanks for you from me.

You probably love the classic birthday with hats, and a cake with candles. There is something to say for tradition. Tradition is something that you can count on that is not going away. It is a constant in a world with few constants. Stick to the traditions through the end of the year and they will bring you financial opportunity. People trust other people with traditional values because they don’t change and, therefore, they know what to expect from them. By the end of the year, the possibilities that your traditional values have brought should begin to manifest and you will begin to see more and more people attracted to your traditional ideas as the year goes on.

when you pause a tape, you go from hearing a full fledge of audio, to a silent hum that for some reason can fill up an entire room and seem louder than the audio itself. but why do you pause the tape? why not just continue to let it play and get to the end of the song?

there’s always a reason. and although that uncomfortable, hindering, hum may not be pleasing for it’s duration, when you press play again, you can go back to enjoying what you were listening to.

just hope that your tape doesn’t get eaten in the process.

such a lonely day and about to pour it all out like the first day of spring. here on my only outlet today…

to be continued.

almost a year ago i made a blog post listing a bunch of things. here they are…

January 17, 2008 i wrote these:

- sister still pregnant, expecting end of month delivery.
- online Audio course is crap.
- weather is beautiful, but a bit windy.
- can’t wait for Cloverfield to get released here.
- darjeeling limited just released in theaters here.
- maybe i should just rent the DVD of Cloverfield when I get back to Chicago.
- current song: Ozzy - Goodbye to Romance.
- iPhone still working; unlocked and on a prepay sim. fantastic.
- i don’t get charged for incoming calls or incoming text messages (SMS). brilliant.
- not taking enough photos. that should change in the coming days, possibly hours.
- my sister just said she has to go “pee pee”. baby talk has begun.
- my dreams have been crazy as of late.
- planning on a sailing trip for monday in the indian ocean. hopefully some sharks will come out.
- goal for the rest of the month: see a shark in the wild…from a safe distance. :)

today i write these:

- sister is pregnant, again.
- online project management class hasn’t begun yet. but i’m sure it’ll suck.
- weather is terrible…cold, windy and snowy.
- i still want to go see slumdog millionaire
- notorious just released in theaters here.
- current song: Brazilian Girls - Good Time
- iPhone 3G now, still working. jailbroken, but not unlocked.
- my phone bill has never been hire and i can never seem to have enough minutes.
- i’m still not taking a lot of photos, but i did buy a flickr pro account for some reason.
- i’m sure if i called my sister right now, the baby talk would still be happening.
- the other night i dreamt that i beat the crap out of this kid.
- this monday i have classes for 9 hours. i hope it’s not too cold.
- goal for the rest of the month: get a job.

ok, so when i decided to do this, i didn’t think it’d be as terrible as it is. well you know by now, you read it. my how things are different. dammit this better not effect the rest of my day.

it’s been just about a year since helloBos began as a simple blog that provided some sort of microscopic view of my travels, experiences, photos, friends, et ecetera. today i looked at my google analytics to see where in the world has helloBos been viewed and it’s exciting for me to say that it’s been viewed on every conteninent except for antartica. which isn’t really that much of a continent if you ask me. it’s cool, no pun intended, but continent, come on, lets get serious, i’m barely giving australia a pass here…

but the fact is, helloBos has stretched the globe, whether it was the one his from Laos or Chile, to the hundreds of hits from tinsle town, lala land, hollywood…it’s pretty cool that my life has been broadcast to you through this medium. (sidenote: whoever it is in hollywood that’s reading helloBos, i’m easy to reach, let’s talk. make me famous.)

life has definitely changed in this past year or so. it’s hard to look back and pick out specific examples of what has been change for the better and what has been difficult, but i know i have this feeling right now that things are completely different than what they were a year ago. i do feel older, more mature. i would say my maturity level is probably still at the third grade level but furthur into the school year, like after parent teacher confrences.

it’s funny though. life that is, i’m still on that subject. i guess i could’ve predicted what today would be like a year ago when i started this blog… minus the whole black president thing. i don’t think any of us saw that coming, but thank goodness it did… i hope.

but even so, i can tell you this much… i have no idea what to expect a year from now. and i don’t know if that’s exciting or scary for me yet. right now, a bit more scary…but this is only the beginning; again.

i’m not going to be speaking about monitor or television resolutions, but rather, the more popular type of resolution at this time of year, new year’s resolutions.

now normally people discuss this the day of new years, january first, however i have decided that today, sunday january fourth, would be an appropriate date.

so without any further delay, here we go:

• make cash money: school is soon over, which means that student loans are going to become payable soon. also, life has it’s expenses, which are not always cheap. there’s only so much free stuff you can get online or at the grocery store on the weekends. so i want to make sure i set myself up for the next year or few with a good job, preferably within my field of study, web and interactive media. this means working for another design firm, or possibly creating and establishing my own. but also, i’d like to research google ad-words and see what it can do for me. small, achievable goals.
• create beautiful things: i’m a designer. this shouldn’t be a surprise. i want to recreate my portfolio, which needs a major facelift. i also want to create an application. whether it be for the web or for mobile interface. i want my mark to be felt and i want to have people use my creation. i’ve got ideas, more so for the web, but i’ll start jotting down notes for an iPhone application of sorts and then possibly read up on how to create iPhone apps.
• read/listen more: recently for Christmas I got the Artie Lange book, Too Fat To Fish. A few weeks ago I downloaded the audiobook from iTunes which was great up until Artie Lange himself stopped reading, which happened around chapter six, so it’s a good thing i have this book in hand now. not only this book, i think there’s a lot of other books out there that might be worth looking at. i’m focused more on the web and design type books, but i wouldn’t be opposed to a good biography or comedy book. as for fiction, forget about it. i love movies too much… too much to even consider reading a book. i’ll say this as well, i want to keep reading the newspaper on a more frequent basis and maybe subscribe to a few magazines while i’m at it.
• watch more flicks: this past year i canceled my netflix account. i don’t feel bad about, considering i had the same movie for months at a time that i ended up never watching. whatever i’m over it. but i’m not over my fixation with cinema. i love it. so in 2009, i want to access the movie theatre more. but under a few conditions… 1)AMC brings back student rates 2)better movies are made 3)michael bay never makes another film that i successful. ok maybe not that last one, but i want better films and i want them to be cheaper. AMC you really suck for taking away student rates.
• make a film: also for Christmas, i received a camcorder from my girlfriend. it’s awesome. i love it. i took it with up to wisconsin for new years. i pulled so much footage on that trip…i couldn’t turn it off. this was the perfect gift for me though. i really have been wanting to get back into my old hobbies. one of them being radio/podcasting which i was able to do earlier in the year. but now i want to start creating mini films again. i’m thinking a documentary/podcast. something that is reoccurring but contains a story/purpose.
• graduate: that’s it. i finally feel ready and want to finish this stage of my life. school is amazing. i love it, and maybe i’ll end up going to graduate school to advance in my field even more, who knows. but i do know that i want this to be my final year of under-grad. it’s been long enough, i realize this, and i’ve really enjoyed it, but i think it’s time to continue moving forward. 

that’s my list so far. i don’t know that i’ll add to it. maybe offline. but i want to revisit this next year and see where i’m at. have a good year everybody.

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.

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.