pogoism

…and Nevada Day, which means I get the day off!

But I need costume ideas – I have 8 hours to put one together. 

Eep! So, any good suggestions, comment them!

UPDATE (11/1/2008): After ages walking around a Halloween store, I found a cheap King fancy dress costume – pretty lame, but whatever. Had a fun night anywho!

Photo via Flickr user peasap.

Firstly, sorry to keep going on about Obama. Don’t worry, this time next week, it’ll all be over, and he’ll (hopefully) be President-elect.

But anyway… tonight saw the airing of Obama’s “closing statements” to the country. Basically, he paid around $1 million to each of the major networks to show his 30 minute documentary outlining why he should be President. 

Content-wise, there wasn’t much we didn’t already know – energy independence, lowering taxes for the middle classes, etc, but overall provided a great opportunity for Obama to use one of his last chances to get American’s votes. The infomercial focussed maninly on the economy, and told the stories of four people, a white, married mother, a Hispanic widow, mother and teacher, a black retired railroad worker and a factory worker.

But the main theme, as with the rest of the campaign, was change and unity – selling an Obama who will unite the country.

But did it work?

I think it did – many Americans can’t get enough of Obama. He has such skill in rallying people and inspiring. He has a very broad appeal, in fact, theres not a lot to fault him on. He’s run a flawless campaign, from beginning to end.

I guess we’ll know the answer this time next week.

Watch the full video below…

I’ll admit it. I thought Paris Hilton’s first attempt at music making was pretty good.

But her new song, Paris for President is dreadful.

Ugh. Have a listen. And if you make it all the way through, I’ll send you a prize. Maybe.

With only 10 days to go until the most important US Presidential election since the Depression, Barack Obama made his return to Reno, NV. 

He appeared at UNR once again, but this time opted for a larger venue, the William Pecolle Baseball Park. However, turnout wasn’t a big as his appearance a few weeks ago at UNR, with about 1,000 less this time.

Obama delivered his stump speech to the crowd, focussing on what has become the hottest topic in this race – the economy, and even managed to mock McCain a few times. He said

John McCain has been really angry about George Bush’s economic policies – except during the primaries, when he said we’ve made ‘great progress economically’ under George Bush,” Obama said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “In fact, John McCain is so opposed to George Bush’s policies, that he voted with him 90 percent of the time for the first eight years. That’s right, he decided to really stick it to George Bush – 10 percent of the time.

Somewhat embarassingly, the power went off about half way through the speech, during which time Obama did some hand-shaking, while the energised crown chanted “Yes we can”. When power was restored, Obama joked

I told you folks were having trouble making their electricity bills. Either that or somebody from the McCain campaign kicked our plug out of the socket. That was just a joke, there’s no evidence of foul play.

So, overall, another impressive Obama speech. Its fascinating to see this man talk – there’s something about the way he can relate to and rally up such a variety of people. Looking around there were people of all ages, all socio-economic backgrounds and races, all of whom had come to see the guy who is becoming more and more likely the next President of the United States.

Looking forward to November 4th!

After the jump, a great video from MC Yogi…

Read the rest of this entry »

Photo via Flickr user Jiffy Cat

So I’m going to buy a pumpkin tomorrow and make some stuff with it.

Did a quick search of the BBC website, and found these, all of which look rather delicious!

Pumpkin pie

Pumpkin risotto with crispy sage

Spiced pumpkin tart with stem ginger cream

Pumpkin and apple soup

I’ll let you know how it all goes.

Nom!

Update (10/26/2008): Over the last few days I made the pumpkin pie and the risotto with sage. I wasn’t sure what pumpkin pie was supposed to taste like, having not had much pumpkin before, but my American mate assures me that it tasted like it was meant to, and gave it the thumbs up. And the risotto was possibly one of the tastiest things I’d made in a long time! Hopefully going to give the soup a go this week…

So this week I got a second-hand iPhone from my mates boss, which I pretty much immediately fell in love with. However, one thing was annoying me – the rubbish battery life. I’d be lucky if I could get more than a few hours use out of it. Fair enough, I thought, it was more than a year old.

I did a bit of research, and it turns out Apple were willing to replace the battery out-of-warranty for $70. Great, I didn’t pay much for the phone initially anyways. So, off Craig and I go to the Apple store to see if the Geniuses can do it while I wait. Get there, straight to to the Genius Bar and he says I won’t have to pay for it. Yay! But then he gets a whole new phone out of the cupboard and puts my SIM card in it.

And now it’s official.

I love Apple.

Oh, and thanks Craig :)

Yay! The snow started yesterday, and it was apparently very early this year.

It’s really weird that just on Wednesday the weather was sunny and 30 deg C, and only a day later it’s around freezing. It’s great when it snows here in Reno, it covers the Sierra mountains that surround the biggest little city, making them even more jaw-dropping. I’ll make sure I get a picture next time, for sure.

Also, *really* looking forward to the weekend, if it snows some more, I’m off to Mt Rose for a tubing party, which basically involves sitting on a rubber ring and sliding down a snow covered hill. Promises to be lots of fun!

Today Obama came to UNR to give a rousing speech, mainly about the economy.

Seriously, if this guy doesn’t win come Nov. 4th, I don’t know what’s wrong with this place…

When I arrived on campus at 9am, the queue (for those familiar with UNR) was from the Quad, at the very south of campus, to the Mackay Stadium (at almost the very north end of campus). It was a great sight to see so many people, especially young people, getting excited about the upcoming election. I only wish it were like that in the UK…

UNR News

Associated Press

Photo via Flickr user Arranging Matches.