Oil and Water

Global vs. Local. (One or the other)

2010-03-01T09:55:00.005-06:00

Isn’t it funny how so many people seem to have a preconceived notion as to which one is more important than the other. Today I was in my Literature class and made a comment about my experiences in South Africa when the topic of Foreign Aid came up. Immediately I became the new target of the conversation.

Now I could care less if they think I’m some socialist that hates America. But what really bothered me was that after my comment the classroom seemed to split into three groups:

1= Those for local help only.

2= Those for global help only.

3= And those that just didn’t care.

This really bothered me. Somehow in showing support for the help of those that are starving 9200 miles away, I discounted those starving just around the corner. I can’t lie, I was a little taken back…how did they take that out of what I said?

Then I realized that this is a extremely common belief… So many of us think that in some way one is more important than the other.

The Nationalists would say, “There are people here that need help. Take care of OURS before someone else.”

The more Globally minded would say, “NO WAY! There is plenty of help here for those that want it. We must focus on those that don’t have this luxury.”

Both arguments each hold some merit…and I must admit that upon returning from Africa, I was very much a member of the last group for quite some time. But I would like to raise the question. Why does one life have to be more important than the other? Why can’t the drunk under the American overpass be just as important as the orphan? Regardless of your citizenship or location, isn’t life just as precious?

I just wanted to throw this idea out there and ask each of you who somehow stumble upon it to think about where you stand on the issue. Think about if you harbor some sort of favoritism towards a group of people in need. But I beg you to see that they are BOTH in need, and we (humanity) are responsible. Either way, I would rather you have some active opinion on the issue than be the group in the back of the classroom that just doesn’t care.

Creation

2009-09-20T20:06:00.002-05:00

This is a movie about Darwin and his struggle through the writing of his theory of Natural Selection and Evolution. It is currently playing all over the world.....everywhere but the US. And it looks like there is a good amount of people fighting to keep it out. Read up on the story....

Is this a religious based sensory of art? Or just some publicity stunt?

what are your thoughts?

What Im listening to this morning....

2009-09-06T07:38:00.000-05:00

Why I Love This Band!!!

2009-02-09T11:00:00.004-06:00

This is a widget playing a song for a 12 month project that the band "Mae" began in January. Since then they have already raised enough for Habitat for Humanity to build a home and each month they will post a new song available for download upon donation.

Be The Change......

MaeWidget

2009-02-09T10:58:00.001-06:00

Kurt Vonnegut & the re-reading of a great book!

2009-01-27T21:54:00.003-06:00

So about a year ago I was given a fantastic book called "A man Without A Country" by my friend Tiff. I found this to be such a great quick read that the other day I felt like it was time to read it again! I'm kinda cheating on this post, because she posted this exact same quote on her blog about a year ago, but it remains one of my favorite quotes from any book.....

If you ever get your hands on it, its a really quick read but will leave a lasting impression on you I'm sure.

Here is what Vonnegut had to say on such things as music:

No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media and our religious and charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful.If I should die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music.Now, during our catastrophically idiotic war in Vietnam, the music kept getting better and better and better. We lost that war, by the way. Order couldn't be restored in Indochina until the people kicked us out.That war only made billionaires out of millionaires. Today's war is making trillionaires out of billionaires. Now I call that progress.And how come the people in countries we invade can't fight like ladies and gentlemen, in uniform and with tanks and helicopter gunships?Back to music. It makes practically everybody fonder of life than he or she would be without it. Even military bands, although I am a pacifist, always cheer me up. And I really like Strauss and Mozart and all that, but the priceless gift that African Americans gave the whole world when they were still in slavery was a gift so great that it is now almost the only reason many foreigners still like us at least a little bit. That specific remedy for the worldwide epidemic of depression is a gift called the blues. All pop music today - jazz, swing, be-bop, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Stones, rock-and-roll, hip-hop, and on and on - is derived from the blues.A gift to the world? One of the best rhythm-and-blues combos I ever heard was three guys and a girl from Finland playing in a club in Krakow, Poland.The wonderful writer Albert Murray, who is a jazz historian and a friend of mine amoung things, told me that during the era of slavery in this country - an atrocity from which we can never fully recover - the suicide rate per capita among slave owners was much higher than the suicide rate among slaves.Murray says he things this was because slaves had a way of dealing with depression, which their white owners did not: They could shoo away Old Man Suicide by playing and singing the Blues. He says something else which also sounds right to me. He says the blues can't drive depression clear out of a house, but it can drive it into the corners of any room where it's being played. So please remember that.Foreigners love us for our jazz. And they don't hate us for our purported liberty and justice for all. They hate us for our arrogance.

Socrates

2009-01-25T01:57:00.002-06:00

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

Stevie and Sesame Street

2008-12-20T10:09:00.002-06:00

Today's learning lesson brought to you in part by Stevie Wonder!!

DONE!!! (for now)

2008-12-13T02:15:00.004-06:00

So to all those who just finished this semesters FINALS with me.....deep breath, relax, and join me in a 7 day coma.

5 HOUR ENERGY??!!!! PLEASE GOD NO MORE!!!!!!!
I sincerely think i was one bottle away from heart failure!! ...or some serious health condition.

Hunger and Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T16:25:00.007-06:00

Thanksgiving is a beautiful and happy time for most Americans. It is a time when we can forget about work, school, and eat our freaking hearts out. If your family is anything like mine, thanksgiving is also the annual gossip party of the year. "Who's divorcing who?...." "She's living with him?..." And all of my life, this is what i understood Thanksgiving to be. Food, Family, Football, and beer. Did i mention LOTS of beer.

But last year something happened. I did something crazy....something that upset alot of my family. Most of them still don't understand why I went. I'm sure my name was involved in much of the gossip last year at this time. Many relatives wondering what could possibly be important enough to pass up my acceptance into the UTSA music program, and take a semester off of school. I did it so i could travel to Johannesburg, South Africa to serve. I did it because I knew it was what I was supposed to do. And it was a decision that absolutely changed my life.

While I was there the trip fell on Thanksgiving. But, after a few days of working in the squatter camps and seeing the children I had completely forgot the holiday. Out of nowhere Mr. Kyle Burkholder announced the idea of a Thanksgiving feast, assuring us that it would be a unforgettable one.

A majority of the people in poverty live on less than a dollar a day. So on Thanksgiving all 6 of us sat down to a feast worth six dollars total. No turkey, no pie, just bland porridge and a chicken bone that kinda had meat on it, for six people. This is how people live everyday of there life. Holiday or not!!

So this year as i sit down to eat a very bittersweet American Thanksgiving feast. Today I will pray for those who will not have a home cooked turkey this year. The people who might not ever be able to say the words, "I'm full."

Today may we all remember what to really be thankful for..........

CD Review: John Legend "Evolver"

2008-11-23T02:21:00.004-06:00

So one thing that i wanted to do on this blog is periodically post CD reviews of some of the music that i buy.

Today's post is the latest CD of John Legend.

I bought it about a month ago and hated it...........at first.

You see, I dislike change when it comes to artists that I like. I still don't like MAE's new CD and i think "Make yourself" was the greatest Incubus CD that will ever be released. -anyways-

In my opinion this CD was very Kanye West influenced, which kinda makes sense since that's his producer. What upset me probably more than anything was that on most of these songs there was very little piano, and alot of synthetic beats. But as I continued to listened to the CD the music grew on me. It is very well written and very catchy. His lyrics are still very smooth and well thought out, and on a few songs you can catch some major reggae influenced which i loved.

All in all i definitely recommend this CD if your a former John Legend fan, and encourage you....if you have no idea who I'm talking about, look him up. I doubt you will regret it.

Stars 4/5

Twilight

2008-11-20T11:24:00.005-06:00

So I have not read this book. I will most likely never read this book. But I will be standing in line for about two hours, so Jerika can see the movie based of the book series she finished reading in about a week 1/2. I have never seen her read that fast.....ever. Actually I don't think I have ever seen her finish a book....ever!!! It wasn't until one early Summer morning at the airport on the way to New Orleans she picked it up, and never put it down.

So with much excitement tonight we will be waiting too catch the midnight showing. Waiting with high expectations for the vampire plot to unfold and deep, dark secrets to be revealed.

I thought in the meantime, while your waiting for the movie to come out to, I would give you a little history on the writing of the book that I found from the author, Stephanie Meyers. I don't know why but the story behind the writting always intrests me more.

The Writing: I know the exact date that I began writing Twilight, because it was also the first day of swim lessons for my kids. So I can say with certainty that it all started on June 2, 2003. Up to this point, I had not written anything besides a few chapters (of other stories) that I never got very far on, and nothing at all since the birth of my first son, six years earlier.
I woke up (on that June 2nd) from a very vivid dream. In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire. They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately. For what is essentially a transcript of my dream, please see Chapter 13 ("Confessions") of the book.
Though I had a million things to do (i.e. making breakfast for hungry children, dressing and changing the diapers of said children, finding the swimsuits that no one ever puts away in the right place, etc.), I stayed in bed, thinking about the dream. I was so intrigued by the nameless couple's story that I hated the idea of forgetting it; it was the kind of dream that makes you want to call your friend and bore her with a detailed description. (Also, the vampire was just so darned good-looking, that I didn't want to lose the mental image.) Unwillingly, I eventually got up and did the immediate necessities, and then put everything that I possibly could on the back burner and sat down at the computer to write—something I hadn't done in so long that I wondered why I was bothering. But I didn't want to lose the dream, so I typed out as much as I could remember, calling the characters "he" and "she."
From that point on, not one day passed that I did not write something. On bad days, I would only type out a page or two; on good days, I would finish a chapter and then some. I mostly wrote at night, after the kids were asleep so that I could concentrate for longer than five minutes without being interrupted. I started from the scene in the meadow and wrote through to the end.

For more of the story check out http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight.html

O Sweet Beginning

2008-11-19T20:51:00.007-06:00

So this will be the first post of hopefully more to come.

I am very new to this blogging thing as I'm sure you can tell by the template I have going for me right now. I can't necessarily promise quality input on my end. Honestly I cant even promise input at all. But I figure what the hell.....why not? It might actually force me into some quiet time to write. It might force me to question things, to look a little deeper into life....or I could just give me a excuse to post some good music videos. Either way here goes nothin.................

let it begin.