Brothers and Keepers

At an early page in the story, there was a quote that had caught my attention..
“The songs had stirred me, flooded me with memories and sensations to the point of bursting. I had to talk to someone. Not anyone close, not anyone who had been living through what I’d been experiencing the past three years in the West. A stranger’s ear would be better than a friend’s, a stranger who wouldn’t interrupt with questions, with alternate versions of events. I needed to do most of the talking. I wanted a listener, an intimate stranger…”
I just wanted to take the time to comment on the quote because when I read it I could relate. I can’t even count all the times i’ve had a bad day or a bad situation going on, and all you want is someone to just listen to you, and see things how you see them. Chances are if you’re going to go to a friend, they’re going to just be straight forward with you and tell you what they think about the entire thing. Sometimes it’s not what you want, but you don’t have another choice. Obviously we can’t all be like Forrest Gump and just sit down somewhere and tell our entire life story. Don’t get me wrong, it’d be really nice. The likelyhood, however, of it actually happening like that are very slim. The top part where John was talking about the songs that had caught him up also was easy for me to relate to. There’s always certain songs you hear on the radio or a cd, wherever you might be, that remind you of certain situations in your life, or certain people who have come and gone that have impacted you in some way.  I love music, it’s a huge part of my life. I’m not exactly good at it myself, but I can strum a few chords on the guitar and I love to sing, scary or not. I’m always listening to it, while i’m writing or sitting on the computer, obviously always in the car, etc. So naturally, for me, it’s easy for me to relate.
I picked the quote because it was real to me. I could relate and I think that there’s alot of other people who have either read it, or if they have read it, would be able to relate to it as well. Coming from a story, most of the time you don’t exactly find quotes like that, that you can really really relate to. This one I could, so it really caught my attention.

Current Events-Pablo Santos

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/18/tv.mexico.obit.santos.ap/index.html

 Cnn had a bunch of interesting news articles up, I thought this one was a good one though. The article talks about a teenage actor (Pablo Santos) who’s killed in a plane crash. It’s pretty sad that stuff like this happens. It’s especially sad that he didn’t make it. If you read the article, at one point it tells you that his plane crashed during an emergency landing at an airport. That means that the plane was basically about to land. He was so close to surviving. Not only is it depressing that he was only 19 years of age, but another one of his friends who he was flying with, also 19 years old, passed away in the hospital. Pablo was flying to Acapulco with five other friends. The article doesn’t say why they were all going there, but I would assume it’d be just for some fun. What a let down for probably a pretty pumped up group of kids. I don’t recognize the name, or the picture of the actor, so I’m not sure I’ve ever watched him in any television shows or anything, but considering the list of shows that he has participated in, he was probably a pretty well known young star.
It seems like I’ve been reading or hearing about a lot of plane crashes lately. Maybe not. I guess I tend to pay more attention to plane related articles and news because I have an uncle who is a pilot and an old friend that is going to school now to be a pilot. It makes me fairly nervous to hear about plane crashes and people dying because of them.
So anyway, I read the article and it made me sad for a few minutes. That’s like me losing a friend of mine. (Although, I can’t say I have very many actors/actresses as friends) We all think that we have so much time ahead of us, but I guess some of us don’t get so lucky.

Current Events-Pablo Santos

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/18/tv.mexico.obit.santos.ap/index.html

 Cnn had a bunch of interesting news articles up, I thought this one was a good one though. The article talks about a teenage actor (Pablo Santos) who’s killed in a plane crash. It’s pretty sad that stuff like this happens. It’s especially sad that he didn’t make it. If you read the article, at one point it tells you that his plane crashed during an emergency landing at an airport. That means that the plane was basically about to land. He was so close to surviving. Not only is it depressing that he was only 19 years of age, but another one of his friends who he was flying with, also 19 years old, passed away in the hospital. Pablo was flying to Acapulco with five other friends. The article doesn’t say why they were all going there, but I would assume it’d be just for some fun. What a let down for probably a pretty pumped up group of kids. I don’t recognize the name, or the picture of the actor, so I’m not sure I’ve ever watched him in any television shows or anything, but considering the list of shows that he has participated in, he was probably a pretty well known young star.
It seems like I’ve been reading or hearing about a lot of plane crashes lately. Maybe not. I guess I tend to pay more attention to plane related articles and news because I have an uncle who is a pilot and an old friend that is going to school now to be a pilot. It makes me fairly nervous to hear about plane crashes and people dying because of them.
So anyway, I read the article and it made me sad for a few minutes. That’s like me losing a friend of mine. (Although, I can’t say I have very many actors/actresses as friends) We all think that we have so much time ahead of us, but I guess some of us don’t get so lucky.

Live on Death Row

Alright, so I just got done reading “live on death row.” What a reading, huh. It was definitely a story that I didn’t find very difficult to stay focused on. It held my attention through most of it, and I guess I can say that I actually found it to be pretty interesting.  As I started reading it, I wrote down certain things that I found to be interesting, or that really caught my attention, but as I got to about the third or fourth page, I realized that almost everything I was reading was catching my attention. Funny. Anyway, I figure I’ll give my opinion on a few of the quotes I had written down.
The first thing that I had marked from the beginning of the story was just a certain fact that I found to be, crazy, for a lack of better words. “African Americans, a mere 11 percent of the national population, compose about 40 percent of the death row population.” It caught my attention because you find this sort of fact to be everywhere. Anything that has to do with criminals, or jailing, etc. you notice that the facts always state that African Americans make up most of the population. Now, I can’t say that I don’t agree, obviously, since it is a fact. However, the first thing I think about when I read something like this is, “why?.” Is it because of how they were raised, their bringing up, environment? Could it be because most racism is indeed directed towards their race itself? hmmm…
The next thing: “For several years now I have been assigned DC (disciplinary custody) status for daring to abide by my faith, the teachings of John Africa, and, in particular, for refusing to cut my hair. For this I have been denied family phone calls, and on occasion I have been shackled for refusing to violate my beliefs.” What?! I can’t even believe something like that. How is it even possible for someone to discipline you for not giving up your beliefs? Don’t we learn that (directed to those who do believe in religion) religion is the one thing that we will always have on our side? Aren’t we taught that we should turn to our religious beliefs in times of despair and need? yet again, hmmm..
Last but not least, before I sum this entry up, want to just comment on one other thing. It’s mentioned in the reading that television, radios, and sports are the only form of entertainment allowed. NO TYPEWRITERS ALLOWED DUE TO SECURITY RISKS. hahaha. Basically, I guess because these people are sentenced to death, they are not allowed to type up their thoughts or ideas because it’s far too dangerous. If you ask me, a pencil or a pen and a piece of paper can be just as dangerous.
So anyway, to conclude, really interesting reading. I wish I had the time to go through and comment on all of the things that caught my attention through the reading, but unfortunately, off to class I go…..
 

Current Events Blog

ROCKSTAR SUPERNOVA

The current event that I picked is the article on the Rockstar-Supernova show which I got off of CBS news site. I picked it because I absolutely love the show. I’ve followed almost every week now and I think that it totally rocks. I give the people so much credit for getting out there and competing with eachother and against eachother. Not only are they out there trying to live their dreams, but I give them so much credit for not just competing against eachother, but becoming friends as well, with the risk that they might be the next one to leave. It’s really cool that on this show they all develop decent relationships with eachother, unlike most reality, competitive television shows where everyone just does what they have to do to win, even when that does consist of stabbing other contestants in the back, etc. The article on CBS also talks about last weeks show. I agree with the article that last week was probably one of the best shows when they all sang their originals. It also goes on to talk about what songs they all sang, and finally it talks about how Storm is chosen out of the bottom three after her performance to be sent home.  I think it’ll be interesting to see how many of the performers who are sent home actually go out and try and do something themselves with their music, now that they’ve had their “break.” It’s a really neat show for people who are into reality television, as well as rock music. I’d recommend checking out the article and then maybe even the television show. But hurry! the seasons almost over….

Someone elses Blog

http://shoutsinthepiazza.blogspot.com/

I picked this guys blog site while I was searching for a site because it talks about the world trade centers, and his opinion on calling it “ground zero” still after 5 years. I also picked it because it’d be really cool if the trade centers were actually rebuilt to look like they do in the picture.

http://calorielab.com/news/2006/09/12/diet-blogs-muscle-madness/

This is a site off of technorati that is all about food and dieting. I picked the dieting page because i’m interested in how people lose weight. Even though I don’t really have the ambition or control to go on a diet (because lets face it, I do love food) I like to think that I might find it in me someday to actually try.

If I’m just bad news, then you’re a liar.

We have our secrets and our needs to confess. We may remember how, in childhood, adults were able at first to look right through us, and into us, and what an accomplishment it was when we, in fear and trembling, could tell our first lie, and make, for ourselves, the discovery that we are irredeemably alone in certain respects, and know that within the territory of ourselves, there can be only footprints.

- R.D. Laing

 The Divided Self

To me, lying almost isn’t even an option. I suppose sometimes we get ourselves into situations that we clearly shouldn’t be in, and maybe we panic and the first thing we do is try to save our own backs by telling anything but what really happened. I guess to some, It would be called just simply stretching the truth. Me, I call it a lie.

Sure, I’ve done my share of lying, starting from a very young age, as we all have, but It’s not ok and as we get older it’s important to start taking responsibility for our actions. Even when I have lied, I’ve found it almost impossible to not actually tell the truth, even as time goes on. You almost get that feeling that people look at you, strangers even, and know that you’ve lied, you feel so guilty that it doesn’t matter who you see- everyone knows. As I’ve done my share of lying, I’ve had my share of liars in my life too. It’s funny when you think about it all. We would generally say that the smaller the lie, the less importance it really has, the easier it is to forgive, or the less matter it really holds. It’s the big lies that count. Having experienced both, I’ve decided that I’m not really sure that’s how it works. It could very possibly be the little things that count the most- If you have to lie about the little things, I can only imagine what would happen if something big were to arise. So, I guess it’s not just at the beginning that people can look right through us, people look right through us no matter the age or size. Although is seems at an early age that lying is an accomplishment, it’s clearly not. Secrets are one thing entire different that lies. To me, if you have something you’d prefer not to share with others, that’s your prerogative. Lying affects everyone around you, including yourself. There shouldn’t be a need to confess, unless it’s positive.

So, those are my thoughts on lying. I might’ve gotten off track a little bit from the quote, but it’s all relative.

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