Monday, March 19, 2012

Just One of Those Days

Today is just one of those days that brings so much nostalgia back.

When I was younger, this type of weather was the perfect setting to watch Saturday morning cartoons, play video games, and pig out on snacks while doing so with the blinds and windows open. They say nostalgia is triggered by smell. I believe so. As soon as I stepped out into my balcony, I got trucked with nostalgia. Good times.

Days like this would be perfect for after school football or basketball at the park. Afterwards we'd go to a friends house and play games, have bonfires, and cookouts. High school was a place full of drama and stress. Nowadays, I laugh at it. Nonetheless good company and good memories were created in that phase of my life.

Just last year, it was spring break around this time. I remember going to turning stone and making like $40. I remember vividly how beautiful the weather was that week of spring break. Campus felt so nice and empty. There was a mysterious yet welcoming atmosphere in the student-deserted place. Just a handful of people walking on by disrupted the near perfect Syracuse spring scenery.

Today is another wonderful day. Waking up with the sun shining on my face (literally). Wasn't pleasant at that instant but positivity always triumphs over negativity (sooner or later). Just one of those days where I feel blessed to breathe this nostalgic air again. 

(Insert sigh here), its a nice day to turn 23. Minus the sigh, no sarcasm intended.

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Bible Progress - 1 Sam 27

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

#Kony2012 #StopKony

Most recently I have seen the potential that social media has in the world. I've known for a while that social media can cause and uproar in the world but I never knew how fast word can travel via internet. As most of you know there is the whole #kony2012 movement going on and if you haven't heard of it, you need to check out this video. I first heard of it two days ago because it showed up on my youtube channel as a recommended video. Honestly though I didn't click it then simply because it had a youtube defying length of 30 min. However yesterday it started to appear here and there on my facebook newsfeed with comments like "OMG you HAVE to see this", "damn powerful stuff", "Speechless...". My rule of thumb is (probably everyone elses' rule as well), if at least 3 people share the same video, and they have no knowledge of each other, and post a "must see" tagline as well, then I watch. I ended up watching all 30minutes of it.

What'd I do next, I tweeted, facebook statused, and now I'm blogging about it. Interesting fact though is that when I saw the video on youtube, it had roughly about 50,000 views. This was like 1am last night. I wake up and its nearing 2 mil. Its true, a simple idea can go a long way to change the world. I have great respect for the Kony2012 team who gave many years of dedication, hardwork, and basically let everyone know that this world is not what the mainstream media says it is. There are good people in this world doing great things, not just your regular news con-artist or murderer. Its a whole other story of how much I can't stand mainstream news for broadcasting 90% negative, 5% propaganda, and 5% positive things in the world. My hats off to you Kony team for basically taking an idea and bringing it into fruition.

Like many others, I'm sitting here wondering wthail I can do. Honestly though, the fact that you tweeted, shared, statused, linked, pinned?, reblogged, blah blah blah, its already got the news spreading like wild fire. I know people you don't know and vice versa. Odds are at least one of your friends are gonna share it as well. I'm always happy to hear stories of people who do whatever they can to make the world a better place. It doesn't necessarily have to be on a global scale, maybe even as small as your community or even smaller, in your classroom. In the video, the father wants to leave behind a better world for his son to grow up in. Admirable, but even more admirable is he actually gets up and does something about it. I mentioned something like this in a post many a time back but, I won't believe you until you can walk while talking. Too many times I hear people complaining about the world being a crumby place, how evil it is, how much hatred exists, and how much human beings don't care for each other. I don't care if you don't start the next #kony2012 like movement, at least change yourself. How can you expect a better world when you're the one that exemplifies all the negativity of the world. Doesn't mean be a perfect human, means at make an honest attempt to bring joy and happiness to other people. It could simple as holding a door for a stranger or if you want to take it a step further, you can try DTD (Drive-Thru-Difference). A simple idea can shake the world. I've always loved Ghandi's one simple idea: "Be the change you want to see in the world".

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Bible Progress - Judges 12