Media of the Day #2

MUSIC OF THE DAY
"The Light" by Common. Here's a little hip-hop for you n me. Even though it's a pretty old song, today marked my first time listening to it. It's quite the laid-back kind of song. Fo sho. Izz dope yo.

PHOTO ESSAY OF THE DAY
Marlboro Marine. A three part photo essay with narration told by the U.S. marine himself. Photojournalist Luis Sinco was assigned to Iraq, and one the photos he took was of U.S. marine Blake Miller. Sinco's photo has since been called to be one of the most iconic images of the war in Iraq. This photo essay is of how Miller struggled through depression after returning to the U.S. as an Iraq war veteran.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY
www.FreeRice.com. I found out about this site through my cousin Dani. You can expand your vocabulary while helping feed the hungry. Tah

VIDEO OF THE DAY
On Dec. 6, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas hosted "the dream match" of boxing with champions Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya. Pacquiao won by a mile. It was nearly 60 dollars to see the match live on HBO, so we didn't watch it that night. A week later, HBO aired it (for free). I didn't see it, but my uncle recorded it, so my family as yet to borrow the dvd from him and watch the whole thing. Yeeee!! Here's a video, wonderfully edited by Youtube user Othe12sid3, that displays several highlights from the match.


Video is entitled "Golden No More"

Grown-Up Christmas List - Amy Grant

Originally sung by Natalie Cole. Music by David Foster, lyrics by Linda Thompson.
Amy Grant later did a cover of this song for one of her Christmas albums but with alternate lyrics.

This song is also known as "My Grown-Up Christmas List." Now, I don't mean to suppress this song or its contributing composers... but who are we to claim that that's our wish list? In reminiscence of the true reason for the season, this list analogically reflects the reason why we have Christmas. It's why God sent Jesus Christ to earth as one of us (John 3:16-17) -- to suffer with and for us.

A few unrealistic aspects removed from the song before coming to my conclusion:
Until Jesus returns and the world as we know it comes to an end, wars will always be present on this planet as long as humans live in it. And with a list of real-life situations that are addressed to a fictional Santa Clause, I'm going to pretend this list is written to God. Because this is my blog and I can do that. So I think it's safe to also assume that nobody sits on God's knee. Not even Jesus.

Aside from these references in the song, it shows that the world has problems bigger than what can be humanly fixable. And the world knows it. God saw it coming, so that's almost why Jesus came. His birth is why we have Christmas. But those who call themselves Christians should know as well that we were called to love (I Corinthians 13). God won't fix all of our mess-ups, but He definitely gives us the strength to do what needs to be done when we choose to do it (I'd attempt to explain the process, but that's a whole other blog post). So when someone needs a friend... or when right needs to win... who is going to make that happen?

With that said, I ask again... who am I to say that this is my Christmas list when it's actually God's?

Grown-Up Christmas List
Do you remember me
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you
With childhood fantasies
Well, I'm all grown up now
Can you still help somehow
I'm not a child
But my heart still can dream
So here's my lifelong wish
My grown-up Christmas list
Not for myself
But for a world in need
No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
Every man would have a friend
That right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown-up
Christmas list
What is this illusion called
The innocence of youth
Maybe only in their blind belief
Can we ever find the truth
There'd be no more lives torn apart
And wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
Every man would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown-up Christmas list
This is my only lifelong wish
This is my grown-up Christmas list

Shoe thrower & Jingle Bells

SHOE THROWER...

I know many people hate Pres. Bush, but come on. Let's at least be civil about it. A few days ago during a Baghdad news conference with Pres. Bush, an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes (with pretty good aim I might add. Probably from all those rock-throwing practices) at the president. Here's an article following Mr. Muntader al-Zaidi's predicament and the recording of the act. It is kinda funny. Just a teensy-eensy, tiny litte bit.

JINGLE BELLS...

This has NOTHING to do with the material above, except for maybe shoes. I'm one of those normal individuals who aren't passionate shoppers, but when I do go out to "shop" -- usually with absolutely no intentions of making a purchase -- I like to go to Gap and create a mental wish list from their stuff. Cuz I'm frugal and Gap's awesome. (The latter being true more often than the other).

I found this commercial on iMeem's homepage the other day, and I really liked it. It's something I'd actually add to my music playlist. It's a remix of "Jingle Bells" with an all star cast including Flo Rida, Trey Songz, Jon Heder, Janelle Monae, Selma Blair, Rainn Wilson, Jason Biggs, Romany Malco, Freddy Rodriguez, Sandra Bernhard and the Dixie Chicks (Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines and Emily Robison).

If you go to their website, you can remix your own version of this video and send it as an online Christmas card.
... And if you act now within the next 30 minutes, we'll even throw in a bonus reverse seam scarf. Absolutely free.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Bootleg Trailer

Dood... I just found this bootleg copy of the trailer (it takes a few moments to load up). Normally, this find would throw me into fits of giddiness and an obsession for finding more info on this movie that I just found out about. But my front nasal capacities (?) are absolutely clogged, I'm just not in the mood to celebrate anything right now, and I have a 3-day final starting tomorrow. Then I find myself asking how I stumbled upon this video while preparing for my final.


I love the reaction of the audience when Gambit took over the screen. On behalf of X-Men fans everywhere: We have been waiting for you.

Who gives an effing rip #1

It was given the main headline. I found it placed on the homepage of one of the most popular email servers in the U.S.
Subject of this article? Oprah Winfrey's weight.
For those of you who care for a more educated and intellectual world: Please don't give these tabloid articles the satisfaction of another hit from your clicking on their links. It adds to the webpage's ____{degrading adjective here}___ visitor counter and thus encouraging the unfortunate notion that the general public do, indeed, care about how many pounds Oprah has packed on (or off).

Sometimes I wonder what outer-space aliens would think if they were to come and observe our society.

Photo project & Random Youtube

I know I haven't posted anything here for a while. Last semester projects/finals and Nathan, my cousin's son, have been occupying a lot of my energy and time lately. Alotta bloggy subjects have crossed my mind, buts I's jus lehzzay enn dun wanna talk bout em. N I's feelin sick.
Oh but my list of links on this blog has been growing. Things that interest me but maybe not you.

This is a Youtube video of a fan's tribute to Dreamwork's "Spirit" movie. But I only wanted to listen to the music. It's Teddy Greiger's cover of Phil Collins's "You'll be in my Heart." Yes, yes w.e. mannn everyone's heard it so many times. But I like Teddy Greiger's guitar playing. Too bad this cover sounds so much like the original one. hhhhaha...

Prof. Reed Estabrook named our final photo project "Big Brother" after a fictional character. I brrrieeeeefffly read the Wikipedia version of the novel's description, but I still don't fully understand it. It's like "V for Vendetta" but without any real protagonist/antagonist characters to follow. So anyways we had to take our photos in such a way that conveyed the feeling or attitude of surveillance. The examples he showed in class looked to me more like they were taken from a photostalker's SD card. After a few unsatisfactory attempts, my final (and procrastinated) project is now finished, printed and over with. Don't get me wrong or anything... learning to take better pictures is so much fun for me. I just don't like paying $40 for each print job. Without compensation at least.

If I had a Nintendo DS Lite

During this cold and drab Saturday afternoon, I wasted a good two hours of my life, voluntarily confined to my brother's desk, surfing the Internet and copying/pasting URL's. What for, you wonder? (or more like, why am I reading this blog, I wonder?) Drum role please ...

MY ULTIMATE NINTENDO DS WISHLIST

I don't have my own DS, but my brother and cousins do. So talk about feeling left out when 2 and 4 player games are being organized in the living room and finding myself peering over my six-year-old cousin's shoulder. At least I can say that I'd rather spend the money on something else. (... right)



GAMES
Ninjatown
Guitar Hero: World Tour
My Chinese Coach
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Dr. Mario Online Rx
Tetris Party
Unsolved Crimes
Simcity Creator
NHL 2K9
Trauma Center: Under the Kife 2
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Spelling Challenges
Drawn to Life
The New York Times Crosswords
Brain Age
Bust-a-Move
Mario Kart

ACCESSORIES _{... Mwuahaha}
Stitch Cover or Alumor Metal Case
SD Card adapter
Screen protectors
Lightsaber Styluses
Retractable AC/DC Retractable Charger

Latin music is bomb

There are many things I can't go through a week without. Two of them are my camera and music, and I have been recently listening to indie and Latin music. Here's a playlist I put together that consists of songs originally composed in English that were reproduced in Spanish by the original singers. (So you should be able to recognize at least A FEW of these songs).

Headlines Quiz

I have a quiz on headlines today. Surprisingly, there is a lot of stuff that goes into assigning an article's headline: capitalization (proper nouns and decks), punctuation (quotation marks, semicolon or en dash?), accuracy (Live Dinosaur Captured! A gecko was caught on camera by Hawaii tourist Joe the Plumber. Boooooo), abbreviations, splits, ... etc.

Which reminds me ...
Early in the semester, Professor Stoll (prefers to be called by his first name, Michael) once mentioned one of the front pages of the San Fransisco Examiner. It was their Sept. 12, 2001 paper -- the day after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; It was one the most memorable of all the other national newspapers for that day. They kept the front page simple yet armed with a strong one-line hed and picture. With a vertical image of the skyscraper engulfed in flames and smoke, the headline above read "Bastards!" in bold, capitalized letters.

Here's an image archive of newspapers' front pages that were published in Sept. 12, 2001.

Have fun. Or not. OK back to work/school/studyingbleh

When dreams come true

For the past few months, I haven't been able to find one of my class textbooks. Big Deal? BIG DEAL!! It's the main book for my most vital class, and I can't find it :( Several pages from the book have been formatted into pdf files and posted online as sample images to promote the book -- as if taunting me that I can read only one or two pages out of the dozens required for class.

So as I studied one of these pages from the author's website, an excerpt from The Kansas City Star is given to provide an example for integrating quotes and dialogues into profiles. Although short, it's very touching. It makes me want to read the rest of the profile.

Here's the excerpt from a profile on baseball player Tony Pena:

They drove around a beautiful community near Santiago. "Isn’t this nice?" he asked his mother.
"Yes," she said. "It is beautiful."
They then drove through a neighborhood they had driven through before, many times. "I love these homes," Rosalia said.
"I know," Tony said. "I know."
And they pulled up to the nicest home.
"What do you think of this one?" he asked her.
"It is the home of my dreams," she said.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a key, gave it to her.
"It is yours," he said. They both cried for a long time.
— Joe Posnanski, The Kansas City Star

Tony Pena made his MLB debut at age 24.

I don't know if being able to buy his parents their dream home signified the pinnacle of Pena's life dream, but it's pretty high up there in my mind. I know that when my dreams come true (yes, I have more than one ... in case I don't reach the other eight), they'll come true when my family and friends are blessed through and through from it. What other kind of dream would there be?

Media of the Day #1

MUSIC OF THE DAY

I still haven't watched "The Wedding Singer."

PHOTO ESSAY OF THE DAY
National Geographic's "Spirit of the Wild".
It won first place in NPPA's Best of Photojournalism: Magazine Illustrative Story in 2006.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY
Wordle. A word cloud generator! Oh the wonderful world of the Internet :)

VIDEO OF THE DAY
I think this is one of my church's funniest skits -- a feat when you consider that the message was on financial struggles.

Shoutout to Bill Nye, Ms. Frizzle, Carmen and LeVar

- What do you think of broadcast television?
- What kind of good/bad impact did television have on you as a teenager? As a child?

In my communications law class, our professor had us split into groups to discuss these questions. One of the topics that came up was the difference between today’s children t.v. shows and the ones that aired in the early ‘90s – ones that we, as a class, grew up watching. From my classmates’ varied inputs, it seems like today’s kids’ shows are produced with more aspiration for entertainment value than for educational value. And I totally agree. Strawberry Shortcake’s got nothing on Ms. Frizzle. Nothing. I bet even little Ralphie could score higher on a biology test than most kids these days. And Carmen Sandiego has been to far more places than Dora. She would know what to do if a purple fox stopped listening to her, and she wouldn’t use a compass to cross the meadow. She’d use a freakin sextant.
Okay, maybe not.

But for a college student ranting on today’s educational t.v. programs, I realize this is only hot air (hot font?). I don’t pay much attention to today’s kids’ t.v. shows, so my comparisons are limited to only what I see. Dora the Explorer’s targeted age group is much younger than the educational geography t.v. program, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? If there IS a show (airing today) comparable to the likes of Carmen Sandiego and Bill Nye the Science Guy – Myth Busters doesn’t count – that’s being produced for kids, why aren’t my little cousins watching it? And don’t be sayin it’s because it's just MY family. … yo. What? What?? Yea, you know it. You’re little cousins are probably watchin iCarly too. Foo.
Okay, refocus.

All I'm saying is that we need more educational t.v. shows that are available for kids to watch. I enjoyed these kinds of shows as a kid. Physics? Biology? Literature? Even super heroes aren't a big deal in daily cartoon shows anymore. With their lack of interest in these subjects, it'll be even harder to get kids interested in learning these subjects in school.


There are plenty of youtube videos that can get a few of us a bit nostalgic with the television shows of our childhood. Here's one I picked out just for fun.

First blog post

In 1851, the New York Times began with an article on elections in France. A few decades later, an investigative article on South African blood diamonds covered the front page of the brand new L.A. Times, and details of a controversial trial made front page on the Washington Post's debut.

On MY blog's first post, a memorable highlight of the day is described in detail -- complete with pictures :]

Arriving from school, I spotted a lump of dark matter as I drove up the driveway. When I realized the string of who-knows-what at the time was actually the tail of a rat, I immediately told my brother to get out of the car and throw it away. I immediately told him not because of the gross factor but for the sake of our neighbors not having to spot a dead rat sprawled on our driveway in broad daylight. In addition, I was worried that our ghastly crooked and unpainted fence would attract trick-or-treaters with the dead rat in front of the garage door as if we planted it there on purpose to add some minuscule detail for a sadly unintentional Halloween decked-out house.

After taking a few pics, my dear little brother still did not come back outside to throw little Fievel away. I assumed the task, and used a plastic bag to dump him into the trash bin.

Now I'm wondering how he got there. Or she. Yea... maybe little Tanya got poisoned or something. Because why would a nocturnal rodent come out into the open during the day? It wasn't there this morning. Whatever the reason, its death added a little excitement to our day. Or to mine at least.