Hello, Mr. President

To this day, it astounds me how much power a school like the University of Washington has. Next Tuesday, November 2nd, are the primary elections. President Barack Obama made it a point to come to our UW campus to rally votes for the incumbent democrat senator, Patty Murray.

Now I'm not here to talk politics. And to even attend the really, you could be conservative, liberal, green, whatever. The leader of our great nation was at my campus speaking. And speak, he did.

A group of my friends, some who consider themselves democrat, some republican, woke up at 6:00am on October 20th to see our president speak at the Hec Ed Pavillion, where our beloved Huskies play their basketball games. Upon our arrival, there were about 500-800 people in front of us, and we began to worry about getting a seat. If you're familiar with campus, our place in line was right by the entrance to the IMA building. By 9:00am, the line wrapped completely around the IMA fields, coming close to the Washington Aquatic Center, from what I heard. Over 13,000 people lined up. Luckily we got seats instead of having to stand on the general floor for four hours, which was quite a relief after standing in line for three hours.


Regardless of people's left or rightist views, it's hard to deny president Obama's spectacular public speaking skills and charisma. He certainly targeted his speech to a younger audience, but certainly didn't dumb it down. He spoke to everyone. A couple lines, in particular, that stand our were him saying, "I am proud to be a democrat. But more than anything, I am proud to be an American." The crowd went wild. I went wild. Though the speech was politically charged, the patriotism was overwhelming.

I know decades down the road, I am going to be able to boast to younger generations that the first non-white president came to my university to speak to us in hopes of getting the youth vote back for a senator.


If you'd like to view the transcript from his speech, it can be found here.

Mini's huge mobile splash

When I think back on my childhood, some of my most fond memories were playing games, of course. Being an outdoorsy kid, I played a lot on the playground during recess. Tag was my game. Now, as a young adult, I can't remember the last time I got to play. But what If I got to play a elaborated game of tag in an entire city, competing to win a car... in Sweden? Sign me up!

Mini has created a tremendously creative and fun campaign using an iPhone app, harnessing the phone's GPS to track other users in Stockholm. While I wonder how some of the technicalities work, such as what happens if you lose service, I applaude them on this fun, engaging concept. Can we have a Seattle version soon?

55th and Brooklyn

As I've discussed in previous posts, blogging/social media is a great way for aspiring musicians to be heard, discovered, or just share their music with the world. More and more artists are being "found" online by random producers- in fact, MySpace originated as a site for musicians, not for friends to share embarrassing pictures of one another. Since then, more and more sites are popping up allowing users to share what music they like, or want others to see. Apple just released their social music network, Ping, just recently, as a matter of fact, which encompasses the iTunes store, and your iPod/iPhone, as well.

Two good friends of mine just started their first blog, 55th and Brooklyn, to share their music into cyberspace. David Boman and Peter Muller are two talented musicians I have known throughout college. I have been fortunate enough to have seen them perform in a number of settings, both together and with their previous groups. Each time they have blown me away with their talent and energy, so I was naturally excited to hear that they would be releasing some of the stuff they've been working on, online. Be sure to check them out at 55thandbrooklyn.blogspot.com and give them some feedback!