Truce!

I picked up this picture (left) from a Reuters slide-show on reactions around the world about Obama's election. This one was shot in Athens, Greece. By birth Greeks support Democrats, as far as I can remember. Even the right-wing Conservatives do. No surprises there... as the 1967 colonels are all dead by now!

Also, I wanted to use this posting as a farewell to my numerous comments in the last year about the Bush clan, the economy and the election campaigns. Now that we all won, it's better to forgive and forget and move on. For those of you who want to still find out some more about Obama, da man, there's a few series of Videocasts in iTunes that were maintained by his own campaign staff and worth watching. Also, for laughs, don't miss the Rachel Maddow show (Rachel's my brand new 'love') and above all the Jon Stewart Daily Show and the Colbert Report, both on Comedy Channel, with downloadable full episodes.

I'm returning to my favorite subjects which I have always known well as they were pretty close to my entire career too... like technology and software. There's lot happened in the meantime in the areas of new products, technologies, software, photography (remember the September Photokina that nobody had the time to look at because of the 'crash'?) and I could go on and on... I rather deal with those... much more fun... than going on bitching about how stupid McCain was to pick that miserable Palin and how George W. can still be life threatening to all of us even as a lame duck in the last 10 weeks of his Presidency. And about how many dogs Obama will buy his daughters before they move to the White House. These are things for the 'Sun' and 'Hello' and alike tabloid papers and gossip magazines. I'll be pretty 'apolitical' from this day onwards... Bavo rejoice!

Happy days are here again!

My very special thanks to my dear friend Scott Ponik from Portland, OR who sent me this response (screen capture shown here on the right) in the early morning hours... I am darn sure he's celebrating this huge victory as I'm writing this. He's a trained typographer and graphic designer and I am sure he maintains the copyright on the shot (nooot?).

Anyways, I watched live da man declare victory in front of a sea of supporters in the largest brotherhood of man in all shades and colors I ever witnessed in my lifetime. I am lucky to be alive and live the day, today! History on the making.

I also feel a bit sad for McCain despite my own despise of all things Republican in American Politics ever since the Bush clan came to power. The 72 year old man better go retire and enjoy the rest of his life in peace. He paid his dues in Vietnam as a POW, and needs nothing else to prove to the Nation... certainly not by implementing more of the 'John the fixer' style of GOP policies and ways. Two things I blame him in this campaign for, though. His choice of that appalling broad as a running mate (thank God she'll disappear from our TV monitors for good now) and changing for electoral purpose his beliefs to be closer to the neocons who since recent years seem to be pulling the strings in the Great Old Party. How wrong was he not? In fairness, he took all the blame personally in his concession speech, God Bless'm.

It was quite moving to see so many people gathered in Chicago at the Obama HQ glowing with huge smiles and tears of happiness. I was particularly moved by the tears in Rev. Jesse Jackson's face, a fighter for equal rights in America since the days of Dr. King! What must this victory mean to him and all those Afro-American fighters that have grown from their slavery 100 years ago into what we've come to witness today! Oprah was there among the crowds with tears in her face too, but that's how women are... they cry easy. It's a different story when a man weeps though! Way stronger, way deeper... Always felt controversial about Jackson until I saw the human factor in his face this morning. Like Socrates said: People are born good!

I am the happiest of men to see that the average Joe in America (and not that dickhead hooligan type Joe the plumber that McCain surfaced out of the woodwork) is far smarter than I ever credited him for... Probably I was biased as I have many Republican friends and acquaintances, and I just couldn't get it that they were still voting for GOP after 8 yrs of such an apocalyptic disaster... nevertheless, today's result will definitely put the US back in the world's driver's seat. We won't see the cure too soon just yet, as it usually takes much longer to build than to destroy, and one can't rebuild in a year, not even in four the damage George the President and Dick the hawk Vice President (the worst in living memory) did to this world in the last eight years. But the world is gonna get a better place and the Bush regime and dynasty will fade for ever in our memories as a bad dream of the past...

A TV commentator in Athens, Greece remarked that this election had more of a World Referendum about fundamental changes we urgently need to wash out the evils of the Bush clan (don't you just luv 'em Greeks?). Somebody on MSNBC also mentioned that Obama emerged from this as the President of the World, not just the USA. I strongly second that... I mean, the man can talk. I watched his Grand Park pitch over and over, following the actual text of his speech on the side as the clip was running (a nice gimmick by the NYT online version). Yes sir! The man has got such a brilliant way, as a pure blood evangelist, to put so much meaning into simple English words and write history every time he pitches. It's a breath of fresh air compared to eight years of George W. Bush public appearance horse-shit, especially his presumably 'funny' jokes (makes you puke) that he often used to relax the audience. Reminds me of the colonel pitches between 1967 and 1974 we were forced to listen to by the military junta in Greece. We've now come to the other extreme of quality rhetoric that we haven't seen since JFK. There's a God after all!

Windows (00)7

This site is not for Windows lovers... you must have known it by now. Nevertheless, I know many of my readers have no other choice than use Windows, and some of my best friends work for Microsoft, so I gotta show you this. It's a sneak-peek on the next Windows (disaster) after the cataclysmic success of Longhorn Vista. It's gonna be called Windows 7, don't know why, couldn't care less either...

First reports talk about clattered desktops (will they ever learn?) and larger buttons (especially done for those of the Gates and Ballmer generation who increasingly need reading spectacles.)

In any case, as always, the Ars Technica article is pretty comprehensive and fun to read. If your destiny forces you to stick to the Monkey-Boy camp, then, go have a read... you can decide then whether it'd be better to start saving some dough and go buy a MacBook by the time they retire XP and Vista and come out with the next big thing... sounds like retiring Bush and getting McCain instead! Oh me, Oh my!

Creative typography... an hommage to my eldest jr...

I came across this weird site this morning... I paraphrased it a bit to make this picture shown above... Click on it for sharper view... it's pretty big and if you download it you can make an awful wallpaper...

I got to admit... very creative. I'd print a small book with it if I were them...

Oliver's Ministry of Food

I've been watching this lad since his days of 'The Naked Chef'. He was a kiddo then and he's grown to a mature man these days... but still with loads of clever British humor. He's got a lot of business initiatives and often he offers his trade to help young people become cooks and find a meaning in their otherwise miserable life. I discovered the latest that he offers in a series of 7:30 min long recipes that can be enjoyed via the regular iTunes Podcast distribution. If you click on that hyperlink right now you'll end up on a hugely tasty recipe that I tried earlier at noon today. Chicken breast (Dolly Parton a-la Parmesan, I call it) with Parmesan cheese and Parma ham. With some great autumn salad and stuff. Yummie yummie! Especially cooked for my pal John Mecke in Atlanta Georgia for his voting Obama today! He seems to be twitting about food all the time, so this is to his honor!

Click the shot above and compare to Jamie's video to see if I'm doing well.

Bon appetit!