I need to know, who made up the lie that money does not bring happiness?? I am not the betting type, but if I was I would put all one hundred dollars I have in my bank account in favor that it was somebody with money who made up this ridiculous claim!! Okay, maybe I have a little bit more than a hundred dollars in my bank account, but I admit I am a terrible money saver. Part of the problem in America is that we hold money and wants so high on our priority lists, that we confuse our wants for needs. This is where the problem occurs.
Honestly, if money did not bring happiness why would people major in actuary mathematics? The only time math was fun was when I learned how to add and multiply, ever since division it has been downhill. Or even accounting; when was the last time someone got pumped up to do a financial audit? I do not mean to be offensive, but as people we have to make decisions on what type of quality of living we would like to have and if this includes sacrificing forty plus hours a week for it...the paycheck makes the wait worthwhile.
For my adversaries that are still saying money does not bring happiness, answer this question, what can you do without money? You can be homeless, stand in train stations and ask for change every day, and catch shut eye at local park benches. Let’s say you have a little bit more money than that and you have enough to afford for an apartment, but not enough to afford basic necessities. You can pay bills late, take the best walks in the park, and make critical decisions like do you want your heat or electricity this month. These situations may appear amusing, but they are some people’s realities.
I really just want to write for the rest of my life, but I like to party and take hot showers with all my lights on. I like going to the bar, getting wasted, yelling at the top of my lungs and dancing like a fool. I enjoy traveling, going to restaurants, and dressing nice. Unfortunately, I could not do any of these things if I do not make enough money to do them. I spend money like it’s going to run away from me and this is probably due to me knowing what it feels like to be without. I do not praise it, but I sure do have a good time spending it!!
Monday, November 16, 2009
I stole these pics from some photographer that was at the Galaxy 2020 Fashion Show...I'm sorry...whoever you are
My Sister is pretty ill!! BRRRRRR
(I was going to post a couple more...but this sight is messing up)
(I was going to post a couple more...but this sight is messing up)
BLACKROC... DOPE!! THIS IS THE SHIT THAT KEEPS ME FROM DOING MY SCHOOL WORK!!
PLEASE WATCH!! A project I had no clue existed…all I ask is that you remember who put you on!!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Are Grades Important?
Answer: YES!! I hope you did not think I was going to lie and tell you otherwise. As people become more educated talent evaluation becomes more difficult. Particular requirements serve as the hammer and chisel to sculpt the “perfect” employee!! Is it fair to say a particular cumulative grade point average is enough to assess talent? My humble opinion says it not and here’s why: higher education is not close to replicating “the real world”; a great transition period into the workforce is much more suiting. This article will discuss why I do not like grades in general, and how I think it is more absurd to use grades as a critical component to determine employment directly out of college.
Professors are a major reason why I do not think grades serve as a fair factor. Just because a person has a PhD, has written a book, and is outright brilliant does not qualify them as a good teacher. I have been in too many classes when the professors are gloating about their former employers and talking about their personal lives, coupled with their boring lectures leaving me with no choice but to fall asleep!! Classes with mandatory attendance should not exist, it is like they are holding people hostage. Class is a forum that should be beneficial to a person, and every class is a platform for a professor to add perspective and knowledge to students. Students along with professors should look forward to class; I know many students dread certain classes and some professors make me wonder if they too dread class.
Quizzes, exams, assignments, projects, and presentations should be more of a measure of how well the professor is transferring the material to students and how well students are receiving this information. Instead grades are solely attached to students and hold the same if not more conviction to how a person is perceived than their actual character and experience when it comes to applying for careers. Who grades professors? What profession gets graded semiannually is the better question. Off the top of my head I cannot think of any. People in careers are measured on results and bringing value to a particular company.
Why should higher education be any different? School is so curriculum driven students are self educating themselves and surviving. Making it from one quiz to the next exam, cramming information for a test today to forget it tomorrow. Striding from one semester to the next, so many clashing classes it is difficult to retain anything in memory. Leaving college remembering rough weekends more vivid than that 400 level course you took your senior year.
A GPA does not account for extracurricular activities, family problems, bad professors, and personal issues. A resume should hold more weight and a five hour interview by 6 different people should. But many people can’t make it that far because of a minimum GPA requirement. My advice to students is: work hard and party hard, but also get good professors (THEY ARE OUT THERE). Because all these excuses will not get you far…just jobless.
Professors are a major reason why I do not think grades serve as a fair factor. Just because a person has a PhD, has written a book, and is outright brilliant does not qualify them as a good teacher. I have been in too many classes when the professors are gloating about their former employers and talking about their personal lives, coupled with their boring lectures leaving me with no choice but to fall asleep!! Classes with mandatory attendance should not exist, it is like they are holding people hostage. Class is a forum that should be beneficial to a person, and every class is a platform for a professor to add perspective and knowledge to students. Students along with professors should look forward to class; I know many students dread certain classes and some professors make me wonder if they too dread class.
Quizzes, exams, assignments, projects, and presentations should be more of a measure of how well the professor is transferring the material to students and how well students are receiving this information. Instead grades are solely attached to students and hold the same if not more conviction to how a person is perceived than their actual character and experience when it comes to applying for careers. Who grades professors? What profession gets graded semiannually is the better question. Off the top of my head I cannot think of any. People in careers are measured on results and bringing value to a particular company.
Why should higher education be any different? School is so curriculum driven students are self educating themselves and surviving. Making it from one quiz to the next exam, cramming information for a test today to forget it tomorrow. Striding from one semester to the next, so many clashing classes it is difficult to retain anything in memory. Leaving college remembering rough weekends more vivid than that 400 level course you took your senior year.
A GPA does not account for extracurricular activities, family problems, bad professors, and personal issues. A resume should hold more weight and a five hour interview by 6 different people should. But many people can’t make it that far because of a minimum GPA requirement. My advice to students is: work hard and party hard, but also get good professors (THEY ARE OUT THERE). Because all these excuses will not get you far…just jobless.
STARTING MY RAP CAREER!! HAHA...like I said jus starting...I'll get better!! Don't Hate!!
And I did it in one take!! Coulda tried to perfect it...a few mistakes...but I'm just having fun...I'll post more videos of me...most won't be this serious...Happy Birthday Bro!!
A white teacher says the word "Niggah"...this is really funny (happened a few years back...fairly recent though)
This video is to get your attention…if this clip from the Boondocks doesn’t make you laugh…you lack a sense of humor
This is a video where a teacher actually says the word “niggah” (this is really funny too)
Additional Boondocks, clowning around with this real life issue
This is a video where a teacher actually says the word “niggah” (this is really funny too)
Additional Boondocks, clowning around with this real life issue
Thursday, October 15, 2009
We should feel responsible?
Feel free to look up these accounts yourself to hold me accountable. In 1999, 23 year old Amadou Diallo, a black immigrant was shot at 41 times to his death on his doorstep, because his wallet was mistaken for a gun. In 2006, 23 year old Sean Bell, a black man was shot at 50 times to his death in his car on his wedding day; the defendants claimed self defense, but no gun was found in the car. In 2008, 22 year old Oscar Grant, was killed execution like, one shot to his back while he was face down on the ground. September 24, 2009, Derrion Albert, a sixteen year old black boy was caught in a brawl and was brutally beat to death with kicks and wooden planks. There are a lot of commonalities in each situation. The first three killings were committed by officers, the officers in Diallo and Bell’s case were acquitted, and the second two are videos on YouTube. Before you look at the videos please prepare yourself to watch these brute acts and to feel responsible for these situations as a human being, because you should.
I do and it is extremely difficult not to let my emotions overpower me and sensibly write an article. I too have lost a friend and a cousin to violence. Growing up in what everyone calls “the hood”; I have a special relation to these situations. My appearance and presentation of myself makes it very hard to tell, but with slight variation I have been in each of the situations that are presented in this article. I have been in countless negative interactions with the police, countless fights, and a few brawls. I never thought about them being life and death situations, especially in fights; being harassed by police and getting into fights were normal. Was it normal for you? Whether it was or was not normal you should feel responsible as a human being for the police abuse and violent streets flooding the major cities of your United States of America.
The reason you should feel responsible is that your tax dollars employ police and fund violence prevention initiatives or the lack there of. It is easy to chalk it up and say the parents need to do a better job at home. Which I do feel is very valid, but a parent and their household are completely out of the realm of a single person’s control. Also in a perfect world parents are supposed to be at work from nine to five, which means eight to ten of those hours (depending upon the commute of the parent from their workplace to home) is spent away from their children. Leaving the child in school for six hours, and either in an after school program or unsupervised for two to four hours. These precious moments can be used for the progression or the destruction of a child and we have a responsibility to every child at the very least within this country. Because education and after school programs are dually funded by tax dollars and private donations. I can only speak for myself, but I think it also applies to the vast majority when I say most of the negativity that occurred in my life happened out of the supervision of an adult.
What can we do? Instead of ignoring, being oblivious, and/or ignorant to the Amadou Diallo’s, Sean Bell’s, Oscar Grant’s, and Derrion Albert’s: we can pay closer attention to where we are putting our money and what it is going towards, we can fund programs, sit on boards, and enforce better practices for the police; so we do not have the guilt as a human being for these frequent occurrences.
I do and it is extremely difficult not to let my emotions overpower me and sensibly write an article. I too have lost a friend and a cousin to violence. Growing up in what everyone calls “the hood”; I have a special relation to these situations. My appearance and presentation of myself makes it very hard to tell, but with slight variation I have been in each of the situations that are presented in this article. I have been in countless negative interactions with the police, countless fights, and a few brawls. I never thought about them being life and death situations, especially in fights; being harassed by police and getting into fights were normal. Was it normal for you? Whether it was or was not normal you should feel responsible as a human being for the police abuse and violent streets flooding the major cities of your United States of America.
The reason you should feel responsible is that your tax dollars employ police and fund violence prevention initiatives or the lack there of. It is easy to chalk it up and say the parents need to do a better job at home. Which I do feel is very valid, but a parent and their household are completely out of the realm of a single person’s control. Also in a perfect world parents are supposed to be at work from nine to five, which means eight to ten of those hours (depending upon the commute of the parent from their workplace to home) is spent away from their children. Leaving the child in school for six hours, and either in an after school program or unsupervised for two to four hours. These precious moments can be used for the progression or the destruction of a child and we have a responsibility to every child at the very least within this country. Because education and after school programs are dually funded by tax dollars and private donations. I can only speak for myself, but I think it also applies to the vast majority when I say most of the negativity that occurred in my life happened out of the supervision of an adult.
What can we do? Instead of ignoring, being oblivious, and/or ignorant to the Amadou Diallo’s, Sean Bell’s, Oscar Grant’s, and Derrion Albert’s: we can pay closer attention to where we are putting our money and what it is going towards, we can fund programs, sit on boards, and enforce better practices for the police; so we do not have the guilt as a human being for these frequent occurrences.
My friend Anokhee's pics from when she went to India...I love things that are different...
Where in America will you find a Monkey, Elephant, or a Cow...just chillin on the block?!?!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Is it a turnoff when women pursue men?
For the sake of “the new millennium” and independent women, let us imagine a world with the roles of male and female reversed!! A woman approaches a man trying to muster up her confidence and craftiness of words, only to get completely ignored by the guy. A woman trying to get “the bang for her buck” chugging beer from the draft, but finding a guy who catches her eye, digs a whole in her tab, only to get the ole “I’m sorry I have a girlfriend” excuse. Even something more simple like a girl losing brownie points because she did not hold the door for the guy when they went out on a date. The point I am driving at is although roles in the workforce are slowly changing; roles in relationships are not. The day my girlfriend gets on one knee and proposes to me, I am not only saying no, but our relationship is over.
On a more serious note a tasteful amount of aggression from females is always attractive for me. The happy medium is a plus, like let me pay for our first date, and thereafter I encourage being graced by the perks of the “new” format of relationships. Things such as going half on the bill are nice, and when a lady says she is going to pay for the bill IS SEXY!!
In our new age relationships it is harder for guys and girls to find their appropriate roles. Females being the breadwinners of the households were unheard of as little as fifty years ago, but it is not that unusual now. This alone brings up security issues with the male being that our role was supposed to be completely dominant until now. While males must forfeit some of their power, they also must have a good amount of it, because to completely forfeit you dominance is not respected by females. Although some ladies may not admit it, they like to be with a “man’s man”, not walk around with his backbone letting him borrow it only to walk.
I got this week’s topic, from a book group that is on campus titled “Can we talk here?” The book group will use “He’s Just Not That Into You?” by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, to probe relationship discussions. It is a very interesting book not only to me, but it received best seller honors, was featured on Oprah, and there is even a movie about it. Behrendt and Tuccillo are very creative with thinking of brief letters sent to them from females in need of relationship advice and also responding back with a succinct reason why the guy they are wracking their brains about is “just not that into her”.
On this subject matter, Behrendt and Tuccillo advise females that if a guy is not willing to pursue her than she should recognize her worth and move on. As defended before, I think it is more complicated than that, because a female recognizing what she wants and letting it be known can many times be a turn on. Behrendt, Tuccillo, and I agree that relationships are very much still a game when the guy is a chaser and likes this role and the female is flattered and empowered by being chased.
If you are interested in discussing more about relationships and being a part of the “Can We Talk Here?” book group email jwargo@bryant.edu. (For now the group prefers females in the future they are looking to incorporate males).
On a more serious note a tasteful amount of aggression from females is always attractive for me. The happy medium is a plus, like let me pay for our first date, and thereafter I encourage being graced by the perks of the “new” format of relationships. Things such as going half on the bill are nice, and when a lady says she is going to pay for the bill IS SEXY!!
In our new age relationships it is harder for guys and girls to find their appropriate roles. Females being the breadwinners of the households were unheard of as little as fifty years ago, but it is not that unusual now. This alone brings up security issues with the male being that our role was supposed to be completely dominant until now. While males must forfeit some of their power, they also must have a good amount of it, because to completely forfeit you dominance is not respected by females. Although some ladies may not admit it, they like to be with a “man’s man”, not walk around with his backbone letting him borrow it only to walk.
I got this week’s topic, from a book group that is on campus titled “Can we talk here?” The book group will use “He’s Just Not That Into You?” by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, to probe relationship discussions. It is a very interesting book not only to me, but it received best seller honors, was featured on Oprah, and there is even a movie about it. Behrendt and Tuccillo are very creative with thinking of brief letters sent to them from females in need of relationship advice and also responding back with a succinct reason why the guy they are wracking their brains about is “just not that into her”.
On this subject matter, Behrendt and Tuccillo advise females that if a guy is not willing to pursue her than she should recognize her worth and move on. As defended before, I think it is more complicated than that, because a female recognizing what she wants and letting it be known can many times be a turn on. Behrendt, Tuccillo, and I agree that relationships are very much still a game when the guy is a chaser and likes this role and the female is flattered and empowered by being chased.
If you are interested in discussing more about relationships and being a part of the “Can We Talk Here?” book group email jwargo@bryant.edu. (For now the group prefers females in the future they are looking to incorporate males).
Think Before You Speak
Kanye West, Taylor Swift, VMA’s. Simply put: hilarious. I almost cried laughing at it on YouTube. Once again, Mr. West has proven that he cannot hold his childish tantrums. Do I feel sorry for the girl? Not at all; she won a MTV Video Music Award and no one can take that away from her. Furthermore, millions of people who had no clue she existed, including myself, now know who she is and she will benefit from the new publicity. Although I appreciated the laugh (I could care less about the situation), it is the reactions from people that really bother me, specifically those on the internet. Due to technological advances, people are now given the opportunity to “comment” on articles, photos, and video clips. In the “comment” boxes people over exercise their “freedom of speech” spewing out as many slurs as they please because no face or repercussion is behind what he or she is saying.
Just to have an objective view on the subject matter, I searched all types of video sites, news and information sites, and I visited various blogs. Fortunately, I found that there was a tremendous intelligence gap in favor of news and information sites opposed to bloggers. The common theme from the variety of sites I looked up is that the vast majority of comments are extremely negative. The brash comments make me wonder, is life really that bad for these people?
Being a computer thug, a computer racist, and/or a computer bigot is not cool. These people need serious help and the scary thing is that we never know if we cross paths with them in our everyday life. Someone is probably reading this article right now wishing they had a comment box so they could tear me to shreds!!
If you are that person, GROW UP!! Arguing with someone who may be in a completely different time zone than you is not cool and arguing with someone that will never have to reveal their face is not cool. When leaving a comment, do not get so upset that you just toss thoughtless lackluster insults that do not do anything but discredit your objections.
Just to have an objective view on the subject matter, I searched all types of video sites, news and information sites, and I visited various blogs. Fortunately, I found that there was a tremendous intelligence gap in favor of news and information sites opposed to bloggers. The common theme from the variety of sites I looked up is that the vast majority of comments are extremely negative. The brash comments make me wonder, is life really that bad for these people?
Being a computer thug, a computer racist, and/or a computer bigot is not cool. These people need serious help and the scary thing is that we never know if we cross paths with them in our everyday life. Someone is probably reading this article right now wishing they had a comment box so they could tear me to shreds!!
If you are that person, GROW UP!! Arguing with someone who may be in a completely different time zone than you is not cool and arguing with someone that will never have to reveal their face is not cool. When leaving a comment, do not get so upset that you just toss thoughtless lackluster insults that do not do anything but discredit your objections.
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