Obama’s inauguration

It’s not often that a moment in history unfolds before you – enabling you to watch ‘history in the making’ sorry to flog a dead horse in ‘pun’ land there. *lol* as I throw in a double pun!

I’m off to get an early night so I can set my alarm to get up at about 2am to see Barack Obama’s inauguration. Whilst my friend commented that it will be repeated at lunchtime later that day – I explained that it wasn’t the same as watching it live. Those snippets of his hand on the bible etc will be played over and over in news broadcasts for the next week probably. But to see it live for the first time whilst it’s ‘really’ happening, it is a once in a life time experience.

In the lead up to this event I watched various interviews with people who have gathered in Washington DC to be there in the flesh to watch this event. One lady had purchased a t-shirt, with some sort of slogan along with a picture of Barack Obama’s face on it, explaining to the news reporter who was interviewing her that this would be given to her grandchildren so that in the future they will be able to say that their grandmother was there to witness the first African American president to be sworn into office. The look of joy and hope on this woman’s face was such an uplifting feeling. I think the majority of Americans are once again proud to call themselves American after years of embarrassment from Bush.

It also made me think of a program I watched on white supremacist groups in America which aired just before Hilary Clinton stepped down from the race against Barack Obama. This troubled individual made a huge statement saying ‘If a black man was to become the president of the ‘free world’ I’ll shoot myself in the face.’ I’m looking forward to that live cross once Obama has been made ‘official’ just to know that one less racist moron is no longer breathing or worse still possibly breeding!

If you’re watching this historic event, all I can say is enjoy the moment.


That’s all I’ve got.

History unfolding before me

I was fortunate enough to finish work early yesterday to make it home in time to see Barack Obama’s full acceptance speech. It was history in the making and even though I’m not a citizen of America – I am a citizen of the world. I for one am happy America voted for Obama. He was the right candidate for the job, and I feel he will do his utmost to assist not only his country, but the world in getting back on track. Come to think of it, if you want to be really simplistic – it will be nice to see the leader of the ‘free world’ with a brain!

Whilst I sat and watched Obama speak to the world, and watch history unfold, it made me stop and think what other milestones I’ve witnessed, not all first hand and live, but I remember thinking at the time – this will be a historic event.

I’ve compiled a list of things that I’ve experienced in my lifetime i.e the ones I remember! I’ll be showing just how ‘old’ I am from this list!

VHS outdoes BETA in VCR technology
Cassette tapes, and ‘walkmans!’
Commodore 64 computers
Atari’s
Rainbow Warrior Sunk
Soviets nuclear disaster at Chernobyl
Halley's comet
Compact Disk technology
Nasa’s Challenger shuttle explodes
Berlin wall comes down
Pro- Democracy rallies in Tiananmen Square
Exxon Valdez runs aground
Hillsborough disaster
Personal computers for ‘home’ use released
The internet made available for public use
Iraq attacks Kurds in Northern Iraq
Gulf war begins
Hubble Telescope launched
Microsoft releases Windows 3.1 (This was the OS on my parents first PC – it had 4mb of RAM!!!)
Mobile phone technology
Search engine Google is founded.
DVD technology
Nelson Mandela is elected President of South Africa
Duke Nukem 3D Shareware released to public (I loved this game!)
Bill Clinton becomes the 42nd President of the United States
Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Mother Teresa dies in Calcutta
Diana Princess of Wales is killed in a car crash
Nelson Mandela retires
September 11 attacks
United States invasion of Iraq due to an imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction
Columbine high school shootings
The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon re-entry
Human Genome Project
Saddam Hussein is captured by U.S. forces
London bombings
Virginia Tech Campus shootings
Terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport
Kevin Rudd becomes Prime minister of Australia (Thank god!)
Australia’s new PM says ‘sorry’ to the stolen generation
World financial crisis
Barrack Obama becomes 44th president of the United States