Thoughts for a Wednesday

Well, it's time for this week's edition of "Thoughts for a Wednesday" since I only seem to post on Wednesdays lately. And so with no further ado, hear some things I've run across/been kicking around in my head.

1 - Money can bring out the worst in people. The new facts that have come to light about the whole salmonella/peanut butter scandal are absolutely disgusting. When the bottom line becomes more important than doing the right thing, like protecting our food supply from easily preventable diseases, then a price should be paid by those that perpetrated this crime. In a way, this is just as much a form of terrorism as seizing airplanes and crashing them into buildings.

Then you have the whole $50 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernie Madoff. Now it seems that his wife withdrew $15 million of real cash right before he turned himself in. It is unbelievable what some people can get away with. And don't even get me started with the members of Congress - whoops, I mean the elected members of the Tax Dodgers club. It kills me that half of my hard-earned paycheck goes to someplace in DC, while these people get away without paying their due.

2 - Last night I saw the premiere of "T.I.'s Road to Redemption: 45 Days to Go" on MTV. Wow. If you judge from a premiere of a show, this is one chilling, amazing docu-reality show. For those who don't know, T.I. is a rapper who was convicted last year by the federal government of possessing firearms, which he was not allowed to have since he was a convicted felon at the time. You might know him from his current hit song with Rihanna, "Live Your Life". This show is as much about him explaining where he has come from and why he did what he did and the 1000 hours of community service that he must perform, as it is about his mission to go to 7 strangers and help them turn their lives away from "the streets" to a more stable and full life. Last night's episode focused on this kid that he knew named Lil' Pee Wee who was a hustler. Talk about intensity. I don't want to give too much away because I want people to see it for themselves. But let me just say that it opened my eyes and broke my heart to actually see the reality of this way of life that I am sheltered from in my little small town. Much like my trip to Nicaragua back in 2004 threw real third world poverty in my face, this showed me a side of American life that was hard to see.

T.I.'s Road to Redemption - MTV Shows

3 - I maintain that The Dark Knight was robbed. There is no way that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button should have 13 nominations, except maybe in the makeup category. And if you need any further proof, check out this video that my friend Rebekah pointed out to me.

4 - I feel really sad about the whole Chris Brown/Rihanna situation. They seemed like such a cute couple, two really good, cool, and immensely talented people. It makes you wonder what in the world happened that it would make Chris Brown do what it seems that he did? It makes me wonder if he will be able to bounce back from this. I sort of hope so, because it again just makes me so sad to see such a talent go to waste because of a really, really, really stupid decision. But what he is being accused of is pretty serious stuff. I guess we will just have to wait and see, but again, what a real, real shame.

5 - Lost is on tonight!!!! Hallelujah and holler-ation - cannot flippin' wait. This must be the real reason why I have subconsciously only been posting on Wednesdays, just so that I can continue to promote the best television show on TV. Also, no lie, Rebekah and I literally spent probably 3 of our 4 hour drive to Wilmington/Carolina Beach this past weekend theorizing about all the different loose ends and mysteries of the show. If you want a semi-spoiler of where this show will be going this season, check out this latest story on www.ew.com, the best site to find whacked out theories and recaps of my favorite show.

6 - My love affair with ABDC still continues. I literally could and do watch the reruns of this show over and over and over again and I am continuously amazed by these kids' talent. I wish I had some sense of rhythm like they do. But alas, my role seems to be relegated to just appreciating their off-the-charts talent. I believe that the final two is going to come down to Beat Freaks and Qwest crew - they are both just ridiculously awesome.

America's Best Dance Crew (Season 3) - MTV Shows

Post 100

This is my 100th posting on this blog experiment that I started a year and half ago. I find it kind of crazy that I am writing my 100th post. I also have been hesitating to write this post for over a week because I feel as if it should be some kind of momentous thing, like the 100th episode of a TV show or something. But the reality is, this is just another post - post 100 will come and go and life will go on and I will continue writing or posting videos about things that I find interesting in the world.

I think that when you reach any kind of milestone, you take a moment to reflect back on where you have come from, where you are now, and where you think you should be going. It's kind of serendipitous that I am reaching my 100th blog post and my 27th birthday at virtually the same time, give or take a couple of days. I look at my life and wonder, how did I get to be 27 already? How did time fly by so quickly? I also never imagined that I would be where I am at 27; where I am at my 100th blog post.

I had the most amazing opportunity to get to spend time with my dearest and bestest friends in the world this past weekend, and we talked a lot about our lives and how five years ago when we left college, we did not picture having the lives that we all have. Yet, as I look back over the past five years of my life, there is not much that I would change - at all. The past and the things that have or have not happened have shaped me into the person I am, and I like her for the most part. I will always be in process, but at this point in time, I can say that I am content for the most part, and I am grateful for that.

And I am content with this blog. It has given me the opportunity to explore a portion of the world wide web that I never knew about and it has given me a new base of knowledge of techie stuff, which the nerd in me loves. It has also been great getting to dabble in html code, learn how to embed videos, what a "widget" is and how to post it to my blog, how to sort of use RSS feed. It has been both a creative and analytical outlet and opened up a new door of learning to me. It has also allowed me the ability to process through different world, political, religious, and economic events in new kind of forum - a forum that has been lacking since I left college. I am grateful for the way that blogging forces me to actually think and process through my thoughts before committing them to the scrutiny of the world wide web.

So all in all, this is my 100th blog post. I never thought I would get this far with this experiment, but I am glad that I have. And I am content with it and with my life at this point in time. I feel filled with expectation that something is on the horizon, yet again, and life is about to dip into an uncontrollable spiral. So I am glad to have an outlet such as this blog to digest it all. The journey is continuing onward; the road goes ever on.

Good Music Video

I like to watch music videos from time to time, and saw N.E.R.D.'s new video for their song, Sooner or Later and thought they did a good job of commenting on current events while making a good video for a good song.

N.E.R.D. - New Music - More Music Videos

I also want to give a shout out for their album, Seeing Sounds, which came out last year. I find it to be really original stuff, with beats and arrangements that stimulated my eardrums.

What We Take For Granted...

After reading this story by one of my all-time favorite journalists, Kevin Sites, it just brings to light all the freedoms that we take for granted, that others in this world do not have.

http://www.parade.com/news/2009/02/they-can-kill-me-but-they-cant-kill-my-ideas.html