As I was about to have dinner this past Wednesday night, I remembered it was presidential election time in the US, so I turned the TV on to CNN and immediately found that the official results were already in and Obama won. I called my housemate from the kitchen, told her the news and asked her to come and watch with me, and we were both getting shivers from seeing and hearing snippets of Obama’s victory speech and all the info and stats on the results (we were also so amazed by how fast the whole elections passed). I was even getting a little teary-eyed from all of it and I got a bit Obama-obsessed afterwards: stuck to CNN, then Indecision 2008: America’s Choice, then back to CNN for Obama’s victory speech in full, then the day after that night, still scoured the channels for more on Obama’s win as well as for news on transition developments...I don’t think I’ve ever been so interested in watching the news! Which is really funny considering I almost forgot about the elections and I wasn’t really paying attention to it except for knowing that Obama and McCain were the presidential candidates and Tina Fey looks a lot like Sarah Palin that she portrayed Palin twice on SNL (though sadly I haven’t seen those sketches in full :b).

I guess what makes it so emotional and inspiring is because, simply and truly, history was made. It’s such a new, progressive twist to a big and important aspect of world affairs that it offers so much optimism not only in terms of the hope that things may start looking up, but also for individuals on a personal level to believe anything is possible, people are given chances regardless of who they are, and the world is finally willing to try real fresh ideas and actions.

Of course, Obama’s quality of leadership remains to be seen. But it’s still overall a very happy occasion that things feel awesome for now. ;)

Sometime at the beginning of this month, while I was bored, procrastinating and in front of the computer (as in, the usual), I discovered I had banked a number of unfinished and unused layouts months ago...and I discovered these layouts while I was coding yet another one...! <-- Ha ha, such a shocker! XD So I told myself I should go finalize and share at least one of them soon, and that I finally did today, so there’s some new stylesheets for the Smooth Sailing layout over at grafikitty...



Click on the thumbnails for full previews, which are pretty large so warning for that. And their stylesheets are located here.

They’re very simple layouts because I made them just to get to know the Smooth Sailing style so that maybe later on, I can come up with more interesting stuff. And thus the name of the template, ta~daah! I also thought it was about time I learned something else other than Flexible Squares.

Now I’d love to stay and chat some more, but I’ve already spent most of my energy and brainpower for today and there are other things I’d rather do, so maybe some other time. ;)

I know it’s already pretty late to write about the finale episode of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 10 as it’s been more than week now since it aired and I’m sure the news about the winner has been everywhere. But because this will probably be my last post on anything ANTM for a while until maybe the next cycle, and because I already started writing it and it’d be such a waste not to, I might as well finish and post it.

( And so, the winner is... )

Also last week, I caught the episode of Tyra’s talk show with them Fiercee Awards and I honestly enjoyed it regardless of how corny it really was because I just love seeing past ANTM contestants again and a lot of them were present in the show, like Caridee, Nicole (who was a real surprise to see considering she’s been completely MIA after Cycle 5), Heather and Jenah. Even Jade was there. Joanie was there, too, which made me very happy that I was squeeing lots like I always do whenever I see Joanie. I think it’s about time I formally proclaim Joanie as my top all-time favorite ANTM alum.

The only one missing that I would’ve really loved to have seen was Kahlen, another all-time fave. Lately I’ve been really curious about whatever happened with Kahlen post-ANTM and what she’s currently up to because I kept seeing this Max Factor commercial plenty of times on TV and one of the models in it looks so much like Kahlen that it made me think it’s very possible that it is her. But that notion was quickly dispelled when I finally did some research on the matter and read Kahlen’s Wikipedia page. Even though I’m disappointed that it’s not Kahlen, I was amused and somewhat relieved to find the answer so fast, the resemblance has already been noticed and my imagination wasn’t just playing tricks on me.

More recently, I’ve been focusing on the US version of Make Me A Supermodel because I’ve developed a crush on Casey after that gay sexual chemistry photo shoot he had with Perry and well, I’m just really such a sucker for pretty boys. 8D ( I already finished the show yesterday and here lie spoilers... )

I’ve updated grafikitty with a small batch of old CLAMP icons over here. Most of these icons were my entries to clamp_lims last year, finally got around to posting them after all this time.

The update also marks the start of my changing the way I format grafikitty posts, particularly the way I title them, and I know this is a totally trivial thing to say, but it’s important to me for my own personal reference. This is how obsessive-compulsive I am.

( Spoilers! )

Then on Saturday night, watched Tyra’s talk show because ANTM judges Paulina Porizkova and Nigel Barker were the guests. Paulina talked about how she warned Tyra before signing on to ANTM that she was going to be brutally honest with her judging. I thought that was a little funny because, although she was pretty frank with Dominique looking like a transvestite, Paulina is all in all nice and harmless in ANTM unlike how she was during Tyra’s show to those guest aspiring models, and she’s definitely not on Janice Dickinson’s level of scathing bluntness. Unless of course Paulina’s just buffered by ANTM’s editing or maybe she’s just warming up.

At another point in the show, Nigel Barker shared a really strange anecdote about his visit to the Philippines...was it just last year or was it already two years ago? I can’t remember. Anyway, I wonder if the story is true because what was so strange about it was that it mainly involved a male fan...Weird.

Lastly, on a totally unrelated-to-ANTM note, Chae Rim’s latest drama Formidable Rivals (or just plain Rivals) premiered on KBS World last night. The first episode was only so-so that I’m a little disappointed. I don’t think the show will offer anything really different and unique from other K-dramas (or at least the ones I’ve seen), and it’s looking to be more drama and action than quirky romantic comedy like Dalja’s Spring which I would prefer. Plus, Chae Rim isn’t particularly cute in this drama. But I guess at least I’d have something to kill time with when there’s nothing else to watch during Monday and Tuesday nights before the other shows I’ve been following...if I’m correct about the airtime, that is. KBS World has yet to update their site with more info about the show.