Friday, August 29, 2008

McCain Chooses V.P.

In an attempt to go after women voters and going on and on about the fact that Obama did not choose Hillary Clinton.. McCain apparently has chosen Sarah Palin - a Governor from Alaska (yeah, I know pretty much nothing about her either). All the major channel news reports are reporting that McCain will use this to advantage and bring home the point that Obama did not choose a women.. and I did - look what that says about me.

McCain will officially reveal/introduce his V.P. pick at a rally later this afternoon (12 noon ET).

And how about the fact that the republicans are considering pushing back the convention? Talk about a convenient excuse.

More to follow after he officially reveals his V.P. candidate...

Edit at 10:44 A.M.: CNN confirms McCain picks Palin as his running mate.
Major news reporters are reporting that just one day after Obama makes history of being the first African American candidate, Palin makes history of being the first Alaskan to be on the candidate... hm, one seems more important. :) Palin is NOT the first women to appear on a major ticket since in 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale chose then-U.S. Rep. Geraldine Ferraro as the Democratic V.P. nominee. I don't think McCain got the memo that choosing just any women would do the job, especially a woman he has only met once!

Either way, it's history in the making. Come this November, we will have either our first African American President or first female Vice President.

Sims 2 Apartment Life

I've had the newly released Sims 2 Apartment Life for about two days now, and I have to say that even though I haven't had a lot of time to play, I like the concepts of apartments a lot. Most, if not all, of the Sims 2 players have been waiting for this forever, but finally it's here.

I am definitely a fan of the Sims as it is, but the new concept is a really nice change.

I guess now its time to wait for the release of the Sims 3 February 20, 2009! From the sound of it, the Sims 3 is supposed to be even better and I love its new concepts of being allowed to roam freely through the town and the fact that the other Sims will now age and continue to "live" their lives even when you are not actively playing them.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

DNC

The Democratic National Convention at its best in review:

Monday, Day One:

Jesse Jackson Jr. (from Illinois): He was great! His speech was great and so was his delivery. My favorite part was right at the beginning of his speech:

"On the day President Johnson submitted the Voting Rights Act to Congress, he said, “At times, history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom.”


So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was at Appomattox. So it was in Selma, Alabama. Tonight, I would like to add: and so it shall be in Denver, Colorado, with the nomination of Barack Obama to be President of the United States."
Caroline Kennedy: She's a Kennedy - what can I say? That alone makes her a favorite.

Senator Edward Kennedy's appearance was a great part of tonight's events. A quote to remember from him tonight: "This November the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans... The work begins anew. The hope rises again and the dream lives on". We all wish him well in his recovery.

Michelle Obama being the eloquent speaker she is, was absolutely amazing. She spoke passionately and portrayed her story well. Her energy, enthusiasm and just the way she presents her self says so much about the type of person she is.

She stressed her and Barack Obama's middle-class backgrounds, saying they both:
“were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them and even if you don’t agree with them.”
Click here to read her whole speech.

Tuesday, Day Two:

Dennis Kucinich's theme : WAKE UP AMERICA! Kucinich slammed the Bush administration, saying, "If there were an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating, this administration would take the gold. ... We cannot afford another Republican administration." He definitely was energetic and his speech definitely got the crowd going.

Janet Napolitano: The quote to remember from her speech:

"Arizonans are also proud of their political tradition, from Barry Goldwater to Mo Udall to Bruce Babbitt. There’s a pattern here. Barry Goldwater ran for president and he lost. Mo Udall ran for president. He lost. Bruce Babbitt ran for president. And he lost. Speaking for myself, and for at least this coming election, this is one Arizona tradition I’d like to see continue!"
Hillary Clinton: It was of course the anniversary of when women were allowed to vote, so it was historic in more than one way. "No way. No how. No McCain." She did well and her enthusiasm was greatly presented...whether it was real or not. In the end, you do have to give her credit for her campaign as she did amazing. Click here to read what she said.

Wednesday, Day Three:

As the roll call was continuing and came to the State of New York, Hillary Clinton asked to cut the roll call short saying,

"With eyes firmly fixed on the future, and in the spirit of unity with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country, let's declare together with one voice right here, right now that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president."
To which, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California asked the crowd which consisted of more than 4400 delegates: "Is there a second?" ... which of course resulted in a roar of approval. Pelosi officially adopted the motion which of course officially ended the competition between Clinton and Obama.

Bill Clinton: Whatever his personal opinion is for real, all that really matters is that he let on his approval for Obama in his speech. He got the crowd going and highlighted some of Obama's positive points and that's all that was really expected of him. Click here to read the transcript of his speech.

Beau Biden: He's the son of Joe Biden, and he was an amazing speaker. He talked a lot about losing his mom and baby sister and what type of father Joe Biden is and about Joe's second wife, Jill. My favorite part from his speech, even though it was all great was after he explained about the deaths and then said:
I was just short of 4 years old. One of my earliest memories was being in that hospital, Dad always at our side. We, not the Senate, were all he cared about.


He decided not to take the oath of office. He said, “Delaware can get another senator, but my boys can’t get another father.” ...So he was sworn in, in the hospital, at my bedside. As a single parent, he decided to be there to put us to bed, to be there when we woke from a bad dream, to make us breakfast, so he’d travel to and from Washington, four hours a day.


Five years later, we married my mom, Jill. They together rebuilt our family. And 36 years later, he still makes that trip. So even though Dad worked in Washington, he’s never been part of Washington. He always sounded like the kid from Scranton, Pennsylvania, he is. And even that is a story of overcoming.
I know I am big on sentimental things, but come on.. anyone with a heart felt how real their family is.

Joseph Biden: I was wary of Biden when I first heard of Biden as the V.P. pick because I didn't know a lot about him and because of his comments (very derogatory .. and even some towards Obama) earlier, but I am definitely warming up to him. Either way, he's a part of the ticket for the democrats back into the White House, so I'll take it.

Anyhow, from Joe Biden's speech at the convention, my favorite part was:

These are common stories among middle-class people who worked hard and played by the rules on the promise that their tomorrows would be better than their yesterdays.


That promise is the bedrock of America. It defines who we are as a people. And now it’s in jeopardy. I know it. You know it. But John McCain doesn’t get it.


Barack Obama gets it. Like many of us, Barack worked his way up. His is a great American story.
At the end of Biden's speech.. Obama surprised us by showing up.. which like never happens (as the candidate usually waits until the fourth and final day to address the crowd). Too bad the surprise was ruined for me earlier because news reports spoiled it.

Thursday, Day Four:

Al Gore: Gore did his part to talk about the dangers of global warming and I firmly believe Obama needs to pay more attention to that factor as well.. both candidates do actually.

My favorite part of Gore's speech:
Today, we face essentially the same choice we faced in 2000, though it may be even more obvious now, because John McCain, a man who has earned our respect on many levels, is now openly endorsing the policies of the Bush-Cheney White House and promising to actually continue them. The same policies all over again?


Hey, I believe in recycling, but that’s ridiculous.
Barack Obama: It was the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. There were like over 90,000 people packed into the Invesco Field to watch Obama's speech. He is such a great speaker and brings people to awe.. and I keep hoping he'll be able to deliver as well.

I don't even know what to use as my favorite part, so I'll do what I thought was the most powerful part in his delivery:

Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough! This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
What an amazing week! Actually what a month - first 16 days of Olympics and then to top it off, the DNC.. too bad it's all downhill from here with school starting on Tuesday.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Summer '08 Olympics Medal Count


Olympic Medal winners at NBC Olympics.com!

U.S. has more medals overall, but China has a lot more gold medals in the end.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Obama Officially Announces His V.P Candidate

The long awaited day FINALLY (and I stress on the finally) arrived as Obama officially (and personally) revealed his Vice President candidate: Joe Biden from Delaware.

We definitely didn't first hear the news from his campaign.. even though I did get the news from a text message - but I got it from CNN.

I am not sure what to think of Biden as the V.P. candidate yet, so I definitely have to read up on him before I make an impression. From the looks of it from their first joint rally earlier this afternoon, Biden's enthusiasm definitely matches that of Obama's.

Apparently Biden found out on Thursday that he was picked to be the V.P, so the secret was held for... not even 24 hours.

Anyhow, here are some excerpts from today's rally:

Barack Obama formally announcing Joe Biden as his running mate:

"I’ve searched for a leader to finish this journey alongside me, and to join in me in making Washington work for the American people. I searched for a leader who understands the rising costs confronting working people, and who will always put their dreams first," Obama said. "A leader who sees clearly the challenges facing America in a changing world, with our security and standing set back by eight years of a failed foreign policy. A leader who shares my vision of an open government that calls all citizens – Democrats, Republicans and Independents – to a common purpose. Above all, I searched for a leader who is ready to step in and be President."

"Today, I have come back to Springfield to tell you that I’ve found that leader – a man with a distinguished record and a fundamental decency – Joe Biden. "
Biden:

"President Lincoln once instructed us to be sure to put your feet in the right place and then stand firm," said Biden, a native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, whose working-class roots and foreign policy experience Democrats hope will help Obama. "Today in Springfield I know my feet are in the right place and I'm proud to stand firm with the next president of the United States of America, Barack Obama."
Biden taking a shot at McCain's house gaffe (and a good one, I might add):

Ladies and gentlemen, your kitchen table is like mine. You sit there at night before you put the kids -- after you put the kids to bed and you talk, you talk about what you need. You talk about how much you are worried about being able to pay the bills. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It's a pretty hard experience. He'll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.
Click here to read the whole transcript of what Obama said at the rally and click here to read Biden's remarks.

And the V.P is...

"CNN confirms Sen. Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to be his vice-presidential running mate."

Friday, August 22, 2008

The Wait is About to be Over.. Finally!

We will finally know tomorrow morning who Obama has chosen for his V.P. ... and it's about time - considering he has been scheduled to rally with his V.P tomorrow for at least the last few weeks!

Over the last few hours it's been confirmed that it is not Evan Baye, Tim Kane, and just a few minutes ago that it is not Hillary Clinton. Not only has Joe Biden not said anything in the last 24 or so hours, but his daughter, son and wife have apparently just arrived where he currently resides.. gee.. I wonder what that is hinting at. I mean unless Obama totally goes out of the loop and surprises us, I am now pretty sure his V.P. choice is Joe Biden. Which is weird because from the sound of it in the last few days, it sounded like it wasn't going to be Biden after all.

I guess we'll know in the morning for sure who it is. Finally.. the wait is about to be over!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

McCain... At His Best

McCain owns so many properties apparently that he is unsure of how many!

When asked in an interview - what should have been a really simple question - how many houses his wife Cindy and he owns, he responded: "I think — I'll have my staff get to you,"

Here's what Tim Kaine (Governor from Virginia - and possible VP candidate for Obama) said in response:


“I understand Senator McCain was asked yesterday this question: ‘how many houses do you own?’ And he couldn't answer that question,” Virginia Governor and VP contender Tim Kaine told CNN’s John Roberts in an interview on American Morning. “He couldn't count high enough to know how many houses he owns.

“We have Americans struggling, with foreclosures skyrocketing in Virginia and elsewhere, gas prices, jobs slowing down and the deficit at a record level. We have to have somebody who can change the direction of this economy. John McCain won't do it, but Barack Obama understands the new economy and he will.”

This of course comes right after McCain asserted that to be considered rich in America, one would need to make over 5 million dollars in a year.

Sources:
CNN Political Ticker
Politico.com

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

As the V.P. Announcement Nears...

On a funny note: In light of all the attention and speculation on who would be Obama's V.P pick, I read on CNN this morning ago that:

[Because] Everyday seems to be "the day," the day the guessing game will finally end.

In a poke at all of the VP buzz, the Obama campaign sent an e-mail to reporters Wednesday with the subject line "Vice presidential ..."

The first line of the e-mail: "Just kidding."

The e-mail contained details about Obama's schedule with no mention of any of the potential vice presidential candidates.
McCain is expected to announce his V.P candidate on August 29th, which is also his birthday apparently.

Click here to read the original article.

For the republican convention: Rudy Giuliani is giving the keynote address; on Thursday, a video will introduce McCain before he delivers his acceptance speech... which I find weird... a person should do it!

Sims 3 Release Date Announced

The Sims 3 will be in stores on February 20th, 2009! I can't believe the release date is now MONTHS earlier than it was originally (December '09), especially since most of the games have always been delayed past their original release dates.

Click here to read the original press release.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Another Side of Obama

Here's an Excerpt from an article I read just now about what Barack Obama said at a fundraiser:

Obama told the group - which included many Indian and Pakistani immigrants - that he is not only familiar with their cultures - but also proud of his lifelong association with them.

"Not only do I think I'm a desi, but I'm a desi," he said, using a colloquial term that describes South Asian immigrants. The remark was greeted with laughs. "I'm a homeboy."

He said that when he went to Occidental College, his first roommate was Pakistani. And in his dorm, he said with a laugh, "Indians and Pakistanis came together under one roof ... to cause havoc in the university."

To applause, he said he became an expert at cooking dal and other ethnic dishes, though "somebody else made the naan," the trademark Indian bread.

"Those are friendships which have lasted ... for years, and continue until this day," he said. "I have an enormous personal affection for the people of South Asia."
Pretty interesting... and a different side of Obama, but I wonder how this will be twisted into something terribly negating?

Source: Thanks Shakil Bhai for sending me the original article from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Olympic Highlights

The highlights of the Olympics from my point of view so far:

Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Final in swimming: in what was a very exciting race, Jason Lezak helped secure another gold medal at the end of the race. According to the Yahoo! Sports Blog (I know - I can't believe I was on it either!),

"When he dove into the pool as the anchor of France's 4x100-meter relay team, [Alain] Bernard had a .60 second lead over American Jason Lezak. Even though the 32-year old Lezak is one of the best sprint freestylers in the world, the .60 lead held by Bernard should have been insurmountable. Bernard held the world record in the event. A world record holder with a sizable lead... you do the math."
And of course in my favorite sport - gymnastics:

In the women's team final, the U.S team finished with a silver medal as the Chinese dominated the game throughout. My favorite was undoubtedly the Chinese performance on the last rotation in the floor exercise as it was incredibly great and they had so much fun with it. It was absolutely amazing to watch. In the Women's Individual All-Around Final: American Nastia Liukin won the gold, American Shawn Johnson won the silver and Chinese Yang Yilin won the bronze.

Then, in the individual competitions:

U.S. gymnast Nastia Liukin and her rival He Kexin get the same exact score on the uneven bars, but of course this is like the one sport that only awards one gold. With the IOC tiebreaker rules, Kexin won the gold medal, leaving Liukin with the silver medal. I read in an article that the reasoning was that: "Both scored 16.725, but He got the nod because her execution marks were closer to a perfect 10 than Liukin’s." I found that pretty unfair - if they both got the same score, they both should have received the gold medal, like in most of the other sports. What is even more wrong is that Kexin had more visible mistakes!

Throughout the gymnastic competition, there was talk if He Kexin was even old enough to participate and it'll be neat to see what comes out of that report. Several reports have He being as young as 12 years old.

And now onto specific people:

Michael Phelps: Outrageous. Wow. Incredible. I don't even know where to begin with him. 8 gold medals, 7 world records.. what a week for him! With the eighth gold, Phelps eclipses Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals and seven world records set at the 1972 Munich Games.

Earlier this week I read something on the Yahoo! Sports blog (I know - I STILL can't believe I was on it either!) that I found to be so true:

The biggest accomplishment for Phelps might not be the eight golds, or the seven world records or the $1 million bonus from Speedo. The greatest feat for Phelps was that, for one week, he turned everyone in America into a swim fan. People who couldn't tell you the breaststroke from the butterfly were hanging on each of his races, cheering on Phelps like they were lifelong fans.
I mean I am definitely not a sports fan in general, except for watching Rutgers Football games and the Red Sox here and there, but I got really into swimming this week. The excitement was incredible.

Usain Bolt: Jamaica's 21-year-old Bolt breaks own world record to win the gold medal in the 100m dash without even trying finishing at 9.69 seconds.

Constantina Tomescu: a 38-year-old Romanian runner, won the marathon with like no competition. Her closest competitor at the end of the race was 22 seconds behind her as she held a steady and large lead for a good part of the marathon-- and for sometime in the race she was even leading by over a minute. At 38, she is the oldest Olympic marathon winner.

Dara Torres: Proving that age is but a number, 41-year-old Dara Torres, lost the gold medal and won the silver medal by one-hundredth of a second — the same margin that helped keep possible for Michael Phelps to break Mark Spitz’s record. Torres won the silver medal in each of her three races this week.

And finally, Bob Costas himself as the host. He is incredibly funny and such a great host. I've definitely enjoyed his remarks throughout.

The idea of the Olympics is so incredible: to watch the best of the best from each country compete with one another. Even people like myself, who aren't into sports at all, get so into it.. it's amazing.

What I love even more is how for two weeks it's like a bonding time. With each of our increasingly busy schedules, it's been neat to make time to sit as a family every night to watch the Olympic events together.

Pervez Musharraf Resigns

In the midst of facing impeachment, Pervez Musharraf resigned today as Pakistan's President.

We'll see what this move does for the future of Pakistan.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

And Now You Know: Why Divers Always Shower

As we have watched the Olympics, we've all wondered why the divers always take a quick shower with their clothes in tact (in front of oh so many people) immediately after getting out of the water. Like many, I had come to the conclusion that they do so because of the chlorine in the swimming pool. I just read an article, however, on Yahoo! that informed me that the divers do so:


"to keep their muscles warm after getting out of the pool. The temperature of the pool water and the air are usually different (the pool is usually around 80 degrees, with the air temperature between 68 and 72 degrees). This difference can cause muscle tightness. To combat this, divers warm up in either the showers or a hot tub."

And so now you know.

Click here to read the original article.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Summer '08 Olympics

The Olympics have began! It is mostly only during the Olympics that I actually find myself enjoying watching sports... and it's definitely the one time every two years that I look forward to sports. They are just a lot of fun and carry a lot of excitement. My favorite part is gymnastics, hands down, but Michael Phelps going for eight gold medal has me interested as well, so it'll be neat to follow that.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Internship Ends

So yesterday was my last day at my internship at "Manhattan Legal Services" and I can't believe how fast it flew by. Of course just as I was finally beginning to enjoy it a bit, it was ending. Doesn't it always seem to work that way?

I guess that means my three weeks of summer vacation starts today... and basically all I want to do is NOTHING. As soon as classes starts, I know I am not going to have any free time so it's best to take advantage of that now.

Where has this summer gone?

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