Put Your Faith In Modesty

Again, ANOTHER STORY - amidst the thousands of regurgitated news stories out there - that makes me proud of companies like Google.

Granted, this story is nothing short of an amazing press release, but is a fantastic idea for how to reach out to and improve the quality of life among our nation's homeless community.

To paraphrase the story, Google is providing a local phone number and voicemailbox for every homeless person in San Francisco for as long as they choose to use it. This provides a way for people to be reached by potential employers, doctors offices, family and friends. The hope is that this will boost the quality of life in the city and boost the physical, mental, emotional and financial well-being of the homeless in the city.

If the plan proves successful, Google will look to expand the project into other US cities.

This entire idea is fantastic. Such a well-thought idea and a practical solution for improvement. Well done Google.

Until You're Gone

Looks like the St Louis Cardinals finally made the cut. The released Scott Spiezio - the Cards former utility man - not for his slipping performance in 2007, but because he has six warrants out for his arrest. Among those warrants are DUI (or DWI depending on what state you're in), Hit and Run and Assault with a weapon that is not a firearm.

Seriously? Who does that? Well...save the DUI, because that is all the rage in professional sports these days (sadly a lot in the Cardinals organization), but hit and run and assault? What is going on. When you make over $2 million a year and you're getting yourself involved in these things, then I can only hope the worst for you. I'm sorry. I cannot bite my tongue on this. This is asinine and unacceptable in the world in general, but *especially* in the world of US professional sports. I really don't know what else to say, except I hope justice is served.

In My Steamer Trunk

[In my opinion] The news has been so boring, mundane, monotonous as of late. Every headline I see reads, "Obama..." "Clinton Slipping" "Steriods" "Iraq" "Housing Slump" "Recession." Blah Blah Blah. Every day the news is regurgitated from the day and week before. Only new people are being quoted and new charts to show the same old dips in NASDAQ.

However, in the midst of all of this there are little news gems like this one. The New York Philharmonic was honored to perform in North Korea, a monumental statement in the diplomacy between our two nations. The story outlines how the Philharmonic played a traditional Korean folk song and impressed attendees with a stunning rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner."

There's nothing dramatic about this story, but is extremely exciting to read when recent headlines across the world have been as dreary as the rain in Nashville today.

Speed Up! Speed Up.

This weekend I was in Chicago (a fantastic city that I will recommend to anyone for a visit). I was unlucky enough to stumble into the AMC movie theater with some down time just in time to catch the latest comic book flick, "Jumper." It was the lesser of five evils. Come on...what was I going to do? Go see "27 Dresses?"

"Jumper" as a whole was pretty horrible. Hayden Christiansen, Rachel Bilson (of The OC fame) and Sam Jackson were the cast and were surprisingly boring, dull, dry and lacked any sense of personality. The script was pretty poor as well. The dialog was slow. I mean slow. The plot never developed. The characters turned from weak to weaker as the movie progressed. And the general idea of teleporting or "jumping" (see, you get it now), although interesting, is extremely gratuitous in this film.

The movie was left with a MASSIVE (note a tone of sarcasm here) cliffhanger. Literally, Sam Jackson's character was left standing on the edge of a cliff. It left the option of a sequel or a three-quel. Not recommended.

Personal recommendation: Do *not* go see this movie. Don't even rent it. Seriously.

I Need a Dream

I'm still trying to make myself like Jimmy Eat World's new record, "Chase This Light." I'm having a hard time. The low-key songs are kind of (too) sappy and the upbeat songs are a little too poppy. None of the record is horrible, or even bad for that matter, but I'm just not sold on it. In my mind, it's possibly my least favorite Jimmy Eat World record. I'm just sayin'....

You Don't Need An Illusion

A lot of stuff is going on right now. First (and possibly the most exciting) is the writer's strike of 2007/2008 is officially over. The writers and "Hollywood" have made amends and now the shows we love that involve writers can come back on air (like The Office) and reality shows can dwindle. If I have to see one more ad for Big Brother 11 or 12 or whatever, I may throw up. Literally barf.

Other shows, like LOST, can extend beyond the eight episodes they had planned for this season. I haven't talked much about LOST, because I was left a little disapointed after last season ended, but I'm starting to see the show answer a lot of questions that were lingering and the character development is a lot better. I recently read an amazing theory of the overall idea of what the Island is and where they are. It can be read HERE.

Also in the world today (or yesterday) was the Grammys. Typically I watch the big awards shows, just to know what movies and TV shows I *should* be watching and what music I *should* be listening to. And typically the events are not really that excited. But last night's Grammys was fantastically done. And it was particularly refreshing to see Herbie Hancock win Album of the Year. That is one talented and deserving man. Not to say that the other nominees are not deserving or talented, but Hancock is a neck above the rest.

Amy Winehouse is also a deserving winner. Aside from her public antics and clearly fragile state, her record "Back to Black" is seriously amazing.

Also in the world - er....the US - the Presidential race is getting extremely interesting. Hilary has fired her campaign manager. Oops...I mean she "stepped down." After Clinton getting crushed by Obama this weekend, I'm sure she just "stepped down."
More like she got tossed to the curb.

CNBC made me laugh with their quote that Hilary is "pimping out" her daughter, Chelsea to help garner votes in states where votes are needed. Simply funny.

There's much more to discuss. Huckabee winning more states, Ron Paul raising insane amounts of money independently and how Stephen Colbert is the funniest TV pundit ever. But I lack the energy. Let's discuss sometime in person, shall we?

I Can't Speak For Myself

Apple's done it again. Done something fantastic, that's going to utterly frustrate the market. They upped the iPod touch from only 8GB and 16GB to include the new 32GB model. And for the same price they were charging for the 16GB previously.

I do understand these moves in technology, but it is slightly frustrating. It's just a good thing that I've come to expect this. I am completely sold on the iPod touch. It's the most amazing multimedia player ever created. But I knew that I needed to wait until they increased storage. And now they have. But, should I wait now for prices to decrease? Because they're going to. $500 is a bit steep for an iPod. Even an awesome one. I think I need to wait for the next step before fully committing. I just know if I buy now then I will be one of the millions of frustrated consumers.

But don't waste your time listening to me rant about this. Go watch the demo video on apple.com. The iPod touch is fantastic.

That's Just Communication

It's Super Tuesday! It's been interesting so far. McCain and Romney are swapping words, which is ridiculous. Let's focus on the issues here, people.

Apparently the pundits are predicting that a vote for Huckabee is a vote for McCain, but way of Huckabee is pulling votes from Romney. It's all very entertaining.

On the Democratic side, there are a lot of X factors. It's assumed that many democratic women are voting for Clinton. But what about black women? Will they vote for Obama? Exit polls are saying "yes." I call that one the O factor since Oprah is pushing Obama to no end. Well, Oprah and Tatiana Ali (Ashley Banks) from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

What's more interesting than this race, you ask? Well the fact that the court in Aruba has allowed new video and audio evidence to be admitted in the Natalee Holloway case. This new evidence is going to hopefully put the nail in Van der Sloot's proverbial coffin. That guy has lied since the beginning of this case.

You're Sleeping In A Bed of Shame

This Story from the AP is extremely disheartening and makes me realize that this world is not me-centric or US-centric.

For people to strap remote explosive to women with Down Syndrome is utterly deplorable. This is something that really makes me realize that I need to step outside of myself for a moment and pray for that area of our world.