Cornel West vs. Obama

My professor showed this video of Cornel West, a professor at Princeton, in my International Development class the other day. President Obama was inaugurated on Monday and he swore the oath on the same bible that Abraham Lincoln did and on the personal bible of Martin Luther King Jr. To give you some background, in 2009 the government of Haiti passed a law that raised the wages of workers from 24 cents an hour to 61 cents an hour or 5 dollars a day. Because the companies that have factories in Haiti like Levi Strauss, Haynes, and Fruit of The Loom are American companies that are not willing to pay that amount to the workers of Haiti. So, the Obama administration pressured the President of Haiti not to increase the minimum wage, they eventually came up with 3 dollars a day, which is about a 7 cent increase per hour. This is the example my professor used to help explain to us how President Obama is clearly not trying to rid the world of extreme poverty. In this video Cornel West provides more examples of how President Obama has not supported the beliefs of Martin Luther King Jr. and therefore does not deserve to use his personal bible according to Cornel West. And I must say that I do agree with West that Obama has made a point to use Martin's bible, but he does not follow the morals and beliefs that Martin Luther King Jr. did. He is known widely for standing up against racism and dying for it, but he also stood up against war crimes and especially poverty and poverty in America. I do not do it justice in trying to explain it myself so you must listen to Cornel West because he explains it very well and is clearly a very good speaker.

A day in the life of a dog (if he could speak)

My name is Cuddles and I am a dog. If I could speak the first thing I would say is Cuddles is a crappy name. I am a dog not a gerbil. Why not Paul? Petey? or even Barney? Since I can speak for only a limited time, my name for now will be Ralph... and this is a day in my life...
The first thing I usually do is wake up, sometimes to the first sound of people or just to yell through the window at the less superior animals making a mess in my backyard. On this particular day lets just say that I woke up to my humans walking around up stairs. So of course I race up stairs as fast as I can and get a good scratch from every person I come in contact with. I know I don't really have a full understanding of people, but to me it seems that in the morning (or anytime during the day for that matter) everyone is so busy and is always rushing, nobody just sits and takes the time to enjoy the beautiful day. I don't understand it, but myself on the other hand, I do take the time to relax, might have a quick snooze before the female lets me roam outside for the day where I, unlike people, will enjoy this wonderful morning. I usually do a few laps around my fence chasing a few birds, maybe even a plane or two, then once I know everyone has left the house I relax again and stop pretending like I am actually guarding the house. Then I will do my daily butt cleaning and give it a good scrub, yes, with my tongue, it's a natural part of life, just accept it. After that I might do a little more running and then sleep and sleep and sleep... Then I usually wake up to the sound of my people arriving back home where I am then allowed to come back inside. At this time of day I get a much more thorough and longer belly rub, which makes me quite happy. Once everyone has arrived back home and given me a good scratch or two I go back to sleeping and they go back to being busy where they come and go and are running by me not realising how beautiful the sunset is. They spend most of their time on funny looking gadgets and very little of it interacting with each other or playing with me (which is very important). Then night time comes and each person eventually goes off by themselves until there is one person left, usually the man of the house, this is my favourite part of the day because throughout it nobody really has time for me or for anyone and in this last moment of the day the man will lay down beside me and give me a really nice scratch and he will even talk to me. I have no idea what he is saying, probably about his day and why he was in such a hurry and what everyone in the family is up to these days, but I am still a good listener, maybe that's just what he needed, a good listener. But then he goes to bed seeming a little happier and I go off to my bed knowing I did my job (man's best friend). If I could speak to a person and tell them something, I would tell them to slow down. I would say slow down and relax, don't take your time in this life for granted. I would also say to enjoy the little things of this world, the beautiful sunny days, the bright green grass, the singing birds (which I find extremely annoying, but you guys seem to enjoy it for some reason), the hot summer days, the rare time of the day you get to be with your family (dogs included), and even your lonesome dog who all he wants is to play with you. I think people could learn a lot from dogs, we might not have the best values or exciting lives, but we certainly know how to enjoy life.

Superman's "Bucket List"

1. Climb Everest within a minute.

2. Beat every strong man record.

3. Show Lois the view of the world from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

4. Witness a miracle rather than always creating them.

5. Kill Chuck Norris.

6. Have a family.

7. Have a normal life.

8. Beat Usain Bolt's world record (only by a split second of course).

9. Build a house on the moon.

10. Actually dig to China.

11. Change the world.

Stranger Than Fiction

In my mind, the movie Stranger Than Fiction is one of those rare masterpieces. It isn't an Oscar winning film or a box-office hit, not an amazing true story or a political statement about a global issue, but for some reason this movie breaks my heart and makes a special list of movies for me. I just watched this film and I absolutely love it because I think that this is a movie about everyone and is completely true. It is about a man who continues to just go through the motions in his life. Every day he wakes up and does the exact same thing and takes the exact same bus at the exact same time every day to his job as an IRS agent and goes home at the exact same time and goes to sleep at the exact same time by himself every day. He doesn't actually live his life, he is simply following a path that would allow him to live a normal life and die at an old age of a normal cause as a normal person. However, that is simply not good enough, at least it isn't for me and it shouldn't be for anybody else. Life is much too short to be going through the motions and not actually getting to live. In the words of Braveheart, "every man dies, but not every man really lives". And that is just so true because it is inevitable that you will die, but you do not know when and you do not where and you certainly do not know how. Some people will die young which is horrible and incredibly sad but they will have lived their lives to the fullest and had no regrets because they didn't just go with the flow or along the easiest path, they went against it and perhaps a little off course and they lived and they loved and they enjoyed their life. And some people will die extremely old and they will not have lived at all. They will have had more literal and realistic experience but truthfully that young teenager who really lived their life had more experience than this elderly person could ever imagine and they will die alone and unhappy and full of regrets. They may have been successful with lots of money and a great job living what they think is a great life and been with lots of beautiful women or men in their life but when it comes down to those last few breaths and you suddenly realize that death is knockin on your freaken door, none of that matters. The only thing that will matter are your memories and your experiences and the people that surround you that love you. It sounds cheezy but that's what life is, that's all it is and until you realize that you will be stuck going through the motions.

The reason that I show the lyrics before I show the video is because when I heard this song my initial reaction was; this is a really catchy tune and sounds like a pretty good song and clearly it has a good meaning because of the chorus. But, sometimes people, such as myself, forget that a song that is upbeat or not completely mellow can also have an impacting message and be very powerful, possibly more impacting than a slow song based on the listener.

Jumper by Third Eye Blind
I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend,
You could cut ties with all the lies,
That you've been living in,
And if you do not want to see me again,
I would understand.
I would understand.

The angry boy,
A bit too insane,
Icing over a secret pain
You know you don't belong.

You're the first to fight,
You're way too loud,
You're The flash of light,
On a burial shroud,
I know something's wrong

Well everyone I know has got a reason,
To say,
Put the past away

I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend,
You could cut ties with all the lies,
That you've been living in,
And if you do not want to see me again,
I would understand,
I would understand.
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/third+eye+blind/jumper_20136738.html ]
And well he's on the table,
And he's gone to code,
And I do not think anyone knows,
What they are doing here,

And your friends have left you,
You've been dismissed.
I never thought it would come to this,
And I, I want you to know

Everyone's got to face down the demons,
Maybe today,
We can put the past away,

I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend.
You could cut ties with all the lies,
That you've been living in,
And if you do not want to see me again,
I would understand,
I would understand,
I would understand...

(I would understand)
(I would understand)
(Understand)

Ya ya ya ya ya...

Can you put the past away?

I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend,
I would understand

(I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend, )
I would understand
(I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend, )
And I would understand
(X2)

Seconds

My dad and I every now and then will watch a you tube video, which leads to another and another and before we know it we have been watching videos for hours. It may not seem that interesting, but it really is, it's amazing what kind of videos you can find. Many people only use you tube to find hilarious videos, but there are actually some very powerful videos on you tube. One of which is this one. This was one of the videos that my father and I came across and we both agreed that it was very impacting. You never really think that one simple action can change your whole life, like deciding whether or not to make a move on a girl. This video makes you think about the chances that you don't take that you may regret. We have all had that moment; trying to decide whether or not to do something and then you finally decide not take a chance and in the end you regret and you missed your opportunity. I believe this video is saying; don't over think stuff, I personally have a lot of trouble with this idea, I over think stuff incredibly to the point where I just confuse myself. Now I do take risks and chances, however, I think through those choices before doing them. Sometimes you just need to take a leap of faith and take a chance, because you never know, that chance may change your whole life. Or, you can decide not to take that chance and go on the safer path and possibly wonder the rest of your life; what if?

Some good in this world...

I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy. One of the things that I love about these movies is the tragedy in it. I really like movies that have an end-of-the-world theme or apocalyptic. These type of movies seem to bring the best out of the characters in the worst situations. As you can see in this clip, that the world seems to be falling apart around Froto and Sam. As this has brought the worst out of Frodo, it brings the best out of Sam. Sam gives one of the best speeches about humanity that I ever seen in a movie and I have seen quite a few. Amongst all of this tragedy Sam is still able to see that "there is some good in the world and it's worth fighting for" and I think this is a moral that civilisation should follow. This is a fantasy story, but the lessons and morals are useful in real life, it's your simple story of good vs. evil. In our world there is tragedy all around us; we have war, natural disasters destroying homes and lives, mass poverty and hunger, people killing other people, diseases taking lives, mass slaughterings of human beings... However, in all of this catastrophe I truly believe there is still some good in this world. I believe that there are aspects of our screwed up world that are still worth fighting for.