The Legend Reborn?

I had not heard anything about this, but I just came across this clip on a friend's Facebook page. I guess the original members of Journey found a Filipino kid on youTube and hired him as their new lead singer. Check out this clip. It is incredibly freaky how much he sounds like Steve Perry. I have watched it three times now and have chills.

Cuidate.

No Points for Second Place

It is always a pleasure to watch both the Summer and the Winter Olympic Games as they come around every four years. People from all over the world gathering for the love of sport and competition while (hopefully) leaving politics behind. Though this is never accomplished completely, it is a worthy goal to have.

Alright, so by now you know I have an issue. Bitter, bitter on the wall, who's the bitterest of them all? ME. My issue is the American push for dominance. Just competing at the Olympic Games is an enormous honor and makes one an Olympian. If you are fortunate enough to win a medal, I would consider it icing on the cake. But the press makes it seem as though it is a gold medal or nothing. In the women's gymnastic team finals, it was a battle of nerves. All of the favored teams, the Americans, the Chinese, and the Russians were falling left and right under the pressure of the competition. In the end, the Chinese delivered on the last event and claimed the gold medal. The press was acting like there was a funeral going on and then began a campaign the next day accusing the Chinese of having athletes below the age of sixteen. Why is it so hard to celebrate the success of a silver medal? No matter what color the medal, winning one is an honor that will stay with the athlete until they die. Do we really need a moment to moment medals count by color? Is it really gold or nothing? Does it really matter which country takes home the most medals? It stands to reason that the countries with larger populations (ie. China, Brazil, India, the U.S., Indonesia) would be more likely to earn medals for their countries. Obviously countries like Vatican City or Togo are going to have less likelihood of winning medals than the larger countries.

In the true spirit of the Olympics, it would be nice to see the Americans be happy with the medals we bring home and not be so focused on dominating everything. If the U.S. government wanted to steer our foreign and domestic policy in this direction also, I would not be complaining.

Hope you are all doing well. Cuidate.

Summertime

MTV's The Real World had a big role in my life early on. Growing up, my parents were adamant that we not have cable TV in the house. "Why pay for something you can get for free?" grumbled my Dad. When I was 18, I finally convinced my mother to let me pay the cable bill and have it installed. Considering that we lived in rural New England, channels like Fox and MTV were not accessible any other way. One of the first shows that caught my eye was The Real World San Francisco. This was my first real look at reality TV and I was transfixed. Not only was it slickly edited with great camera angles and cool music, but San Francisco became this place that I had to visit. I emotionally fell hard for HIV-positive cast member Pedro, but did not quite have the vocabulary or self-awareness to see that. (I would not come out of the closet until four years later.) In effect, the show gave definition to and inspired the life that would become mine.

Throughout its nineteen incarnations, the show has continued to entertain. Still, the Las Vegas cast set a precedent of sex, drinking, and partying that has carried through each season that has followed. This year's Hollywood cast was no exception and none of them proved to be very interesting character studies. One of the cast members, Brianna Taylor, has aspirations of a singing career and has released a CD on iTunes. I downloaded the single Summertime and was very impressed. She has some good chops and the song is a good first effort. The other songs did not move me nearly as much, but she definitely has a future in the music business. If you are looking for a decent song to download, check it out. I keep trying to convince myself that I will not watch when each new season pops up, but it is a hard thing to give up.

I have been keeping busy this summer. I have about a week's break before my next online course starts. I received 2 A's for my summer session courses, so I have a 4.0 average thus far in my coursework! Being a bit of a perfectionist, it is very satisfying to be doing good work in school. I was fairly bored, distracted, and unhappy in my high school years and this was definitely reflected in my grades. The online general education courses are pretty simple overall, but I am sure some of the upper level courses that I will have to take in person will prove to be more of a challenge.

My Mini Cooper Hector passed the 50K mile mark today. He is such a fun car to have and drive. I hope to keep the car throughout my life and keep it up for use as a retirement vehicle. I will have to see how feasible that is as time passes. He is due for a set of tires this week.

Alright, I am off. I have to be up early for work.

Cuidate.