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Barack Obama: The Next President of the United States
Barack Obama: Confirmed to be 44th President of the United States
I'm sure all of you have heard the news about Barack Obama winning the presidential election. On November 4 in a historic moment, he became the first African American to be the president of the United States. In just one night, he went from being a presidential hopeful to being the actual presidential elect.
I may not be old enough to vote, but even I can't help but feel excited over the news. There's been quite a bit of discussion over at OtakuBoards as members are gathering to talk about what they think of the recent election. Some members are giddy with excitement while others are more cautious.
Regardless, I know I'm not the only one who is looking forward to when he's sworn into office in January. I think it’s going to be an interesting term to watch unfold. How about the rest of you? What do you think?
Signature of the Week
The winners of the latest bi-weekly Signature of the Week challenge are announced! This week’s theme was the theme of ‘‘War’’, to give the participants something to work with. It was nice to see that there were quite a bunch of entries.
However, even though your mother will tell you otherwise; not everybody can actually be the winner. So, after the official voting was done, member jigglyness came out as the winner with 60% of the votes – thus winning a nice medal – and SaiyanPrincessX was the runner-up with 33% of the votes.
Both their banners are now up in the Hall of Fame thread, in the Art Studio for everyone to drool at. Have a look yourself, and go take a peek at other entries of other weeks too! 
Of course, with the one week over, the next one sets in, taking a new Signature of the Week theme with it! Go check it out!
This week is a bit more special, because there are two themes that can be worked with: Heaven(ly) and Luck(y). Let us see what our artists can come up with this time! Or well, if you read this and you think “See? Heck, I want to join in myself!” then feel free to do so, because it is open to everyone of any level of skill!
And don’t forget to vote once the time is there! 
Thread of the Week
Another week, another great thread!
This time I've got a slightly different choice to present.
OtakuBoards has an excellent tradition of creative writing and RPGs. The above is one of the latest gems that is about to start (it's still in the auditions stage - I'll get to that in a moment).
Vicky is one of OB's more prominent RPG creators. She's been around for a while and she's gone from strength to strength. Her latest creation is based on a popular documentary that looks at what Earth would be like after human beings have become extinct.
I won't ruin anything for you here, but if you click on the link above you'll be taken to the Audition thread for this RPG. All the details are there. I think there are great possibilities here for talented writers to join in and have a lot of fun.
If you're new to RPGs, it's probably worth explaining that most RPGs on OtakuBoards have an Auditions thread and a Theater thread.
In the Auditions thread, the creator basically lays out what the RPG will be (basic premise, setting, etc). Then any OB member can sign up. When you sign up, you usually fill out a character bio, based on whatever criteria the creator wants.
So you might be asked to provide a character name, age, background, etc...
The character you create is the one you will primarily control/write during the RPG. However, RPGs on OB are really like ongoing collaborative stories - usually writers involve multiple characters in scenes at once. It's just that you really primarily control one specific character and you can decide what that character should be.
RPGs are wonderful for budding fan fiction writers, because they give you some exposure to creative writing without needing to be an expert. Also, you can collaborate with others and you'll often have to react to sudden story developments that other participants throw in - so you'll have to be imaginative, if an unexpected scenario arises.
I personally love RPGs and I still participate to this day. Many of our RPGs are beautifully written, contain fascinating characters and weave together in clever and unique ways.
So if you've never tried an OB RPG, I strongly encourage you to give it a go. It's refreshing, fun and most importantly, it helps to improve your writing skills. Plus I think there's something really interesting about being involved in a collaborative story where nobody can easily predict the next turn.
National Novel Writing Month!
National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short) proves to be a challenge to writers every November. The idea is to start writing a novel at the beginning of the month and reach a whopping 50,000 words by the end of November. A couple years ago I attempted to do this and I will tell you it's no easy task!
Amphitheater moderator Clurr has created a thread for NaNoWriMo on OtakuBoards (click: here). I won't be participating this year but I definitely look forward to reading everyones stories!
If you have any questions about how NaNoWriMo works you can direct yourself to their website. If you plan on writing you'd better start right away! 
Ads that make you cry.
I was surfing around today and I remembered those early PlayStation 3 commercials - you know, the slightly odd ones.
I think this is probably my favourite of the bunch:
It's probably my favourite because it's just so, well...bizarre. This reminds me a little of the David Lynch PS2 commercials from back in the day. Did you ever see those? One of them involved a car hitting a deer. The scene goes into slow-motion and the car kind of crumples up around the perfectly-unharmed deer.
Those ads were pretty cool I thought, considering their theme was all about warping reality and such. I'm not quite sure about this baby though...
What are the weirdest TV commercials you've seen? Post your YouTube links below!
