Do What You Gotta Do for the New Year

So I was on Twitter and someone tweeted a superstition I had never heard of: "Don't wash on the first. If you need to wash, do it NOW!"

I didn't quite understand it, so I Google searched "New Year's Superstitions" and came across a list full of them. Apparently, the tweet stems from the belief that NOTHING should leave the house on the first day of the year. I'm assuming that doing so would be a representation of things lost during the year.

There were several other things on the list that I did not know were superstitions at all. For example, black eyed peas on New Year's day represents good luck for each pea eaten. Another example is all the noise that's made at the stroke of midnight. The noises are supposed to scare away evil spirits.

There are plenty of other things you can do if you are "conscious" about having a good year. Please consult this list if you wish to know more. Do what you gotta do to make 2011 your year!

In Related News...

Okay, now I feel like I'm perpetuating this situation. But there's a final aspect of it that deserves just as much attention as the original ignorance.

I just posted about the whole Chris Brown/RazB thing. Now, RazB's brother, known as Ricky Romance (pictured above), has jumped in the situation with DEATH THREATS to Chris Brown!

Okay. It's nice and all that dude wants to protect his brother from "bullies". But it was not his fight... at all. Especially not his fight to jump in with guns involved... Beyond uneccessary.

Annnnd.... it's a little hard to take this guy serious with holiday commercials playing in the background. I'm just saying...
*Sigh* This situation is making me tired. I'm done.

Really? You're Gonna Do This To Yourself Again?

*sigh* In the headlines again: Mr. Christopher Maurice Brown, who is probably now known more for being a violent "woman beater" than the R&B singer and dancer that he is.

"Oh gosh, what'd he do this time?!"

Well, yesterday, he was involved in a heated "Twitter Beef" with the above-pictured RazB, who was once known as a member of the boy band B2K. Now he gets attention for apparently being sodomized (I really don't know the details behind that, and I can certainly go without knowing).

The argument started with RazB, making advances towards Chris's ex-girlfriend, Rihanna. After several tweets to her, RazB said something to the effect of "I don't know how Chris Brown could be so disrespectful to someone like Rihanna". That's when Chris lost it, responding with numerous homophobe-esque tweets, which have all since been deleted from his account.

Today, Chris Brown offered an apology via TMZ for the homophobic comments.

Here's my thing: Why, with all the success he has, and with all it took to return to the limelight, would Chris even decide to acknowledge that nonsense? Chris gets talked about on a regular basis. When one has-been decides to talk down about him (out of the many nobodies that do it everyday), Chris let his mouth go ahead of his mind and now he's created another mess. Although he has apologized and stated that he loves his homosexual fans, people won't be as forgiving of him this time around. Again, it took a lot for him to get his fan base back. Granted, Chris didn't start all of this. But he should have been the bigger person. He can't keep messing up and expect for people to flock right back to him.

Okay, So Sue Me

Alright, so I didn't get the chance to make my holiday post. I've been busy (I know right, I actually have a LIFE!) I spent the two days before Christmas making dinner and such. Then the day of, I spent the day with my boyfriend and his family.

But of course, you all aren't interested in MY life, so I hope you all had a very Merry Chrstmas, and to whom this may apply, Joyous Kwanzaa! :)

I'm Gonna Do This...

Alright, so I am DETERMINED to make a holiday post... but Picnik.com is currently not working, and I kinda need it. So once that's up, my post will be too.

Sorry for the Delay...?

For whatever loyal readers I happen to have out there, I've been busy putting together this video for my EDM class. Now that it's done, I ask that you watch it and share your thoughts about it. I will now continue to kill myself studying for finals...

You Can't Mean Billy Ray's Little Girl...

I completely wanted to avoid blogging about celebrities, but this recent story caught my attention. And since this blog is to share the things on my mind, here you go.

Recently, 18-year-old Disney Channel Pop Star Miley Cyrus, was caught on tape smoking a bong containing the herb Salvia. I did a little research on the drug, and in most places I looked, Saliva is legal in most states and is said to be both part of spiritual rituals of Native Americans and helpful to common ailments such as headaches and diarrhea.

Billy Ray Cyrus, country star and Miley's father, recently tweeted his reaction to the video, stating that he was "so sad" about it.

Most people argue that since it's legal, it's no big deal. Here's my thing: alcohol is legal, too. But you wouldn't want to be seen abusing it, ESPECIALLY if you were a role model to younger kids. This was just a terrible situation to be caught in, and I think Miley's career will suffer for it.

Support Our Troops

So as suggested by my EDM teacher, I decided to support our troops and say thanks to them by sending them a card. I visited the site and saw all the amazing artwork to choose from and decided that YOU ALL should see them and send one too. So go click on the link I provided and follow the directions on the home page. It's really quite simple!

What an 8th Grade Education Used to Mean

Last night, I had a heated, yet dignified, discussion with my roommate about the use of a SmartBoard in a classroom. I was for them because they keep up with the world of technology that a student is being brought up in, and helps to keep them focused on the lesson at hand. She was against them because there are already elements in the 21st century classroom that fulfill the addition of technology in the classroom (i.e. projectors and computers). I explained to her that technology is making advances that need to be reflected in the classroom, otherwise, students lose interest. I brought up the innovative Dry-Erase board (that she was so adamant about), and how that wasn't always in the classroom.

Anyway, the point of that was, it made me think: what exactly was in a classroom 50 years ago? So I did a Google search and came across something totally irrelevant, yet relevant at the same time. It was a blog called Classroom as a Microcosm by Siobhan Curious. On it, he has a post called What an 8th Grade Education Used to Mean.

On the post, Curious had a copy of a final exam for 8th graders in 1895. I took a look at it and realized: I did not recognize half of the stuff that was there. Seriously... did YOU learn about "trigraphs" and "subvocals" in the 8th grade?? I know I didn't.

So after looking at all of that, I began to wonder: these 8th graders learned all of this WITHOUT the fancy technology we have today. Meanwhile, their final exam looks like a foreign language to us. So what are we doing wrong? Are we really so caught up in "new age-ness" that we don't have time to learn what we really need to know?

Your thoughts?

New Blog

As my adventures in my EDM310 class come to a close, I realize that I will no longer have a duty to blog every week. In a way, it saddened me. But then I thought: "It doesn't have to end." So I created this blog as sort of a public diary-- a place to post my thoughts about the happenings in the world (much like my lady friend Samone). My hope for this is to spark discussion , make people think, and change the WORLD! ...okay, the latter probably won't happen, but I still have high hopes for this blog. I hope you enjoy your journey inside my mind. :)

P.S. As a result of taking sociology, some of my cognitive processes will result as such.