Remember Prohibition? It Still Doesn’t Work.

The Obama administration, following through on a campaign pledge, issued a memo to select United States Attorneys providing clarification and guidance to federal prosecutors in states that have enacted laws authorizing the medical use of marijuana. This memo basically stated that it will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana. But they will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal. This is a huge step forward for all medical marijuana patients. Even though medical marijuana is legal under state law in certain places, it is still totally illegal under federal law. So basically the law system has been doing a huge circle within itself and wasting millions of tax dollars in the process.

Almost every voter under 65 in this country has either smoked cannabis or grew up with people who did. Among its erstwhile users are the last three presidents, one Supreme Court justice and the mayor of the nation’s largest city. The pot leaf’s image pervades popular culture, from Bob Marley T-shirts to billboards for Showtime’s “Weeds”. These are also the same people who may have an urgent need for the medicine. In a way I think that the popularity of cannabis has also hurt its users. Take for example, regular prescription drugs: There is absolutely “NOTHING” cool about these drugs at all. They aren’t glorified through mainstream media like radio, television, and the Internet. Therefore they are talked about much less and the users of these drugs are usually older people who don’t set off red flags anyway. The thing about regular prescription drugs is that they have side effects. These side effects can be very dramatic at times depending on what the drug is. Has anybody really stopped to pay attention to some of these prescription drug commercials on television lately? It is amazing how the list of side effects they must address sometimes takes up more time than the actual advertisement for the drug! I was watching a commercial for a drug that was supposed to help patients with depression. But, the possible side effects were loss of sleep, explosive diarrhea, and loss of appetite, erection difficulties, and psychotic breaks! Now you tell me, who in their right mind would want to take a prescription drug that had the possibility of making them have a psychotic break or explosive diarrhea??? If you were depressed before taking this, just wait till some of these side effects kick in!

Marijuana is a plant that comes from the earth put here for anybody to enjoy how they see fit. Fortunately marijuana also has many medicinal uses. Patients who suffer from everything from depression, glaucoma, insomnia, cancer, muscle pains, and many other sicknesses can get a prescription for marijuana instead of the typical prescription drug. Marijuana is all-natural; regular prescription drugs are made in factories and have all kinds of different substances in them. Nobody knows everything that is in that pill and, if they did they probably wouldn’t take it. Medical marijuana is usually used the same way that the majority of the world uses it, by being smoked or inhaled in some kind of way. This is one of the biggest reasons why many critics think it’s so dangerous. They compare it to smoking cigarettes. There can be some complications due to actually smoking cannabis. But there are a wide variety of ways to take cannabis other than just smoking it.

Medical Marijuana users with the proper documentation from a doctor can go to marijuana dispensaries located in the states where medical marijuana is legal. In these dispensaries they have a wide variety of cannabis to choose from that can be smoked, and access to other forms of cannabis that aren’t smoked. For example, a patient suffering from lung cancer probably wouldn’t want to smoke anything else since that’s probably how they got cancer in the first place. They sell products with medical marijuana in cookies, brownies, truffles, chocolate, seasonings for cooking, dressings for salad, even drinks! The variety is mind boggling and for anybody that chooses to go this route I’m sure they can find something that will fancy them. The other wonderful thing about medical marijuana is that it is much cheaper than regular prescription drugs. If a patient doesn’t have the proper insurance, the cost of his medicine can be easily in the hundreds and maybe thousands of dollars. Marijuana products are cheaper, more user friendly side effect-wise, and aren’t as dangerous and addicting as some regular prescription drugs.

Many states aren’t making medical marijuana legal due to the fact that it is so popular with young people. The people most likely to get busted for cannabis are the ones who “don’t have a political voice” — basically young people of color from poor neighborhoods. And for the majority this is true. But everybody takes cannabis. It’s just that law enforcement only looks for it in these places so the chances of finding it are very high. It is really hard to have a strong political voice about something that isn’t legal or very taboo. It can lead to you getting into a lot of trouble. People are justifiably fearful about writing a letter, showing up on a mailing list or even sending an email with the word “marijuana” in it. They have to be very careful about their jobs, their driver’s licenses and the kids in school whose parents will talk. But put them in the privacy of a voting booth, and stand back! So many people would love to have access to medical marijuana. It doesn’t really make sense to keep something away from the people that you want to vote for you, that can make them not only happy but physically and emotionally better.

Now of course there will be people that will break the rules and use cannabis that do not really have any medical illness at all. But America has been doing that with regular prescription drugs forever. Just like regular people want to get high on cannabis, regular people also want to get high on regular prescription drugs. Prescription drugs have been killing people since there very beginning. But there is not “ONE” case of anybody overdosing on cannabis. The worst thing that will happen to a person who takes too much cannabis is they will probably just fall asleep, eat all the food in your fridge, or have slow reflexes and a bit of a scattered memory. I would take that over explosive diarrhea or psychotic breaks anytime!

The point is medical marijuana will continue to be a very touchy subject due to the fact it plays both sides of the fence. It’s glorified in pop culture and by terminally ill patients as well. Often when something gets the best of both worlds it is usually not accepted by the masses. Popular things are loved by the youth and the youth love edgy things. Just the way the hippies loved cannabis in the 60s we love cannabis now too and even more actually. Those same bare-foot hippies that were smoking like freight trains are now older, productive members of society and I feel that they should be trying to help us more than hurt us. Those hippies may now even be politicians! It’s wrong that they deny us our right to take cannabis if we really need it, and I feel we “ALL” need cannabis. Sick or not sick, rich or poor, black or white, cannabis is right. Stop wasting time harassing and jailing consumers of medical marijuana while they are abiding by the laws and regulations of their state. There are a lot more important things to worry about than busting the guy holding three joints for medicinal use. Why not target real criminals and stop taking the easy way out by harassing happy stoners and sick people holding cannabis. The end of prohibition and discrimination on medical marijuana will be the fall of America’s Berlin Wall. If the government would just legalize medical marijuana throughout the entire country, America would be a much better place. LEGALIZE IT AND STOP CRITICIZING IT!!!!

“Killin Em with Love” - Review Of Ghostface Killah’s Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry In Emerald City.

Ghostface Killah, a legendary member of the world famous “Wu Tang Clan” has had his feet planted firmly in the Shaolin slums doing his solo thing for over a decade now. He has supplied the streets with hip hop classic albums such as Ironman, Supreme Clientele and Fishscale. Ghostface has no problem with painting vivid pictures in the minds of his listeners by recounting his escapades with honesty and razor sharp detail. We should have all been seeing an album like this coming from Ghostface one day. His latest project, Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry in Emerald City is an R&B seasoned album that special Ghostface twist to it.

To be quite honest I was shocked when I first heard the record. I hadn’t heard any reviews for the project so I was expecting the usual raw Tony Starks swagger that I’m use to getting on every Ghost album that I have ever purchased. This was not that record. If you are looking for that same ole Ghostface style then this is not the album for you. Every song, (and I do mean EVERY single song is about women and relationships). The whole album is R&B hip hop. I put the record in for the first time and was actually very disappointed. Ghostface has had R&B singles that have been amazing don’t get me wrong, songs like, “All that I got is you”, “Big girl”, and “Back like that”, have all been slower more R&B feeling songs. But, these were the only songs like that on the whole album and the rest of the tracks on the album were all head banging Ghostface style anthems. This album has no songs like that at all.

Artists have been known to do projects like this all the time. Usually when artists have reached great success, they tend to do projects that are different from their usual style. With success comes the luxury of being able to do projects without having to worry about selling records since the artist may have already proved themselves in the past by selling millions of records. These projects are usually hit or miss records. Either the people love it or hate it. Kanye West’s last album, “808s & Heartbreak”, and Lil Wayne’s, “Rebirth” all rock album, are examples of such projects. The new Ghostface album features heavyweight R&B hitters such as Estelle, Raheem DeVaughn, John Legend, and Ne-Yo. The rhymes on the album are still intense and razor-sharp like Ghost always provides, it’s just the things he is rhyming about on every song that might steer people away from this album, women and relationships. This is not the album to sit up with your friends and rock out to in usual Ghostface fashion. I tried to do that and was looked at by my homeboys like I put in a Maxwell CD. This is an album for you if you’re on that softer tip. If you want the dope rhymes about girls and sex and relationship ups and downs, then this album you will love from beginning to end. It is also a great album if you are with your girl, or a group of girls. The ladies will love this project for sure.

All in all, Ghostdini: The Wizard of Poetry is a project that has taken Tony Starks to that next level. Ghostface is constantly improving his craft and exploring the different chambers of hip hop. This is Ghostfaces’s most eclectic project yet and will be getting many mixed feelings and reviews. Some will love it, and some will hate it wish a passion. Depending on what you’re expecting will justify how you feel about the project. I hated it at first, but then it grew on me a little, but I still can’t sit and listen to it for too long. R&B hip hop just isn’t my thin, especially coming from one of my favorite long time favorite Shaolin shadowboxing mc’s like Ghostface Killah.

Free Time, Me Time, Good Time!

Do your friends often tell you that they are board? I hear that very often from people these days. It got me to thinking about what could be causing so much boredom. I started to realize that the majority of the people saying that they were board were people that had to spend time alone as well. Then the pattern became clear that people get dissatisfied with free time easier when they are alone compared to when they are with other people. Spending free time alone and enjoying it is very important and can also be very fun. Just because you are not hanging out with other people should not mean that you have to be board or unhappy.

A big problem with the world today is that people depend on others too much to make them happy. I am a strong believer that if you can’t make yourself happy, than you should not depend on other people to make you happy either. There are many things you can do by yourself that can be fun and good for you at the same time. One very important way to spend your free time is to rest. Some people think that when they have free time that they should always use it by having to do something to do like going out with friends or cleaning, and etc. Resting is a very comforting and important feature of life that may people do not get to enjoy enough of because they do not think of it as something to do. We all need sleep and rest to survive so how can doing it when you do not have to be a bad thing? Some of us live very hectic and fast pace lives anyway, so if there is a chance to get some extra rest it could only be a good thing.

I’ve also noticed the lack of people that have hobbies. Having hobbies are such a crucial and importantly overlooked area in many people’s lives. Hobbies can be a very good way to spend free time alone because most hobbies do not require you to be with other people. There are thousands of different things you can do for hobbies such as playing an instrument, reading, arts and crafts, building things, listening to music, cooking, and etc. When selecting hobbies you should do things that make you happy and you alone. Do not do things just because they make other people happy. Impressing others does not matter when you are trying to make yourself happy while you are alone. Hobbies are usually things that spark your interest. Things that you think about doing that will give you a sense of satisfaction. The better you spend your time alone the better, because being self sufficient is something that many people lack and is a wonderful attribute to have.

Another good way to spend your free time alone is by just sitting around and thinking. People do not understand the importance of just doing absolutely nothing but sitting and letting your brain just roam freely. Some people will call this daydreaming, and that is alright too. Sometimes life can get so busy and confusing with work, school, family life, and other things that you need to sit down and organize your thoughts. I like to think of it like hitting the reset button on your brain and giving it time to get back on track. This could be the time you troubleshoot things in your life like problems and things that are not quite right that need some special attention maybe. People forget to do many things because they do not take time to think enough.

I am not saying that people should spend all their free time alone. I am not trying to turn people into anti-social homebodies or anything. It is just that I think more people need to make themselves happier while being alone. The good thing about this is that if you can make yourself happy, then it will be much easier to make someone else happy if that is what you choose to do at any given time. For example, have you ever been with someone who didn’t really have any hobbies or special interests? They do not bring anything to the table when it is time to do things. If these people had things that they did alone then maybe they could have suggested that and you guys would have had something to do. People that do cool things alone do cooler things with other people. And even the things that you do alone that you might think are boring or stupid, just may be the coolest thing in the world to someone else.

Being board an unhappy all the time because you have to be alone is very immature and unnecessary. Kids get board because they do not have the brainpower to realize all the many options they may have to make themselves happy while alone. Actually there are some kids who do better with their free time alone than adults because some parents train their kids to play by themselves often. As we get older some of us lose that ability to be happy alone. It is time that everyone try to make a better effort to achieve this so there can be more happy people in the world that are not depending on others for entertainment. If you can’t make yourself happy, then why should you always expect others people to make you happy? And above all it gives you a chance to get closer and get to know the person who matters the most…Yourself.

Death of a Phoenix

There she goes again

Flying in the sky

The inferno's out now

She knows it's her time to die

Lived a long fiery life yeah

Without any other bird friends

So she is flying into the sun

To be with the fire again

It has been a lonely life for this Phoenix

Regular birds are afraid of fire

She never wanted to ignite

It was never her desire

Have you ever seen a Phoenix cry

The teardrops are bright red

Well they do not have to fear much longer

This phoenix will soon be dead

She just left planet earth

Now she is gliding through the cosmos

If she were a regular bird

This would be a place that she could not go

The sun is getting closer

So she turns and looks behind

Waves back at the other birds

Goodbye...

The System

We put our trust in the system

So when in time of need they will lend a hand

But the system continuously lets the people down

And nobody seems to understand

The system is not there to comfort

It is only there to be in control

Filling the people with lies and broken promises

Leaving the people with empty feeling souls

They want us to look up and admire them

As if they were a father or a mother

But the only thing the system accomplishes

Is looking over the people like big brother

Put all your faith in Jah

Live life in peace and enjoy di riddim

Have absolutely no trust in Babylon

Because another word for Babylon is the system

Giving Credit When It’s Due and Taking It Away when it’s not

It was the year 1999 when all hell was supposed to break loose. The Y2K scare had everyone thinking that computers were going to crash and the world was going to be over due to panic over money, jobs, houses, even running water. It was also the year that Prince would finally get to have the biggest concert of his life. He actually got to see the night when people could really party like it was 1999 because it was! It was basically goodbye to a lot of unimportant things and hello to the new millennium. But 1999 brought us something very special. 1999 gave birth to something that will be forever recognized as a symbol of sexiness, longevity, strength, and downright awesomeness. 1999 gave birth to The MILF! For those people who do not know what the word MILF stands for please, allow me to shed some much needed light for you. MILF stands for – “mother I’d like to f#@k.” I will let your mind wander on what that F word is. It rhymes with truck.

Now the MILF has always been a vision in every young man’s dreams for many years before 1999 of course, but it just never had a universal name that everyone recognized. This did not occur until the movie American Pie was released in theatres around the country in the summer of 1999. There is a famous scene in the movie when one of the characters, (Stifler) has a typical high school house party with all his friends. As the party is going on there are some people upstairs admiring a picture of Stifler’s mom. They are yelling the word “MILF” at the picture and smiling and getting all excited. Someone notices this and asks the guys, “What does MILF mean?” The guys replied “mom I’d like to f@#k” and it has been history ever since. MILFS have been popping up all over the world due to this amazing word and appreciation for older sexy women. Unfortunelty, there has also been a lot of confusion surrounding the topic of the MILF. Confusion about things such as qualifications have led to there being a lot of “imposter MILFS” running around wrongfully accepting the MILF title. I am here to shed a little light on this problem and hopefully give the true MILFS a chance to shine the way that they are supposed to. Becoming a MILF is no easy task, just as it is no easy task becoming a Hall of Famer in professional sports. The MILF title is a very prestigious thing and I am here to make sure that it is not tainted with phonies and wannabe MILFS.

Before I get started on the MILFS, I have been asked by women to recognize the DILFS as well. The word DILF stands for – dad I’d like to f#*k. This is all I am going to say about this for one major reason. When it comes to the issue of older men doing anything sexually with underage women it is frowned upon in a major way. It just is not funny to hear about it. Most of the time it is even dangerous to speak or even think of such a thing. But, when the topic is about younger men doing things sexually with older women it is not as bad a thing in the public eye. For the most part it is something that a young man can be congratulated on for accomplishing. Plus it is funny. So if this article seems a bit one sided that is because it is. I am protecting my neck. I would not talk about grown men doing anything with young girls if my life depended on it. You are not going to catch me on that “How to Catch a Predator” show on CNBC, NOPE NOPE NOPE!!! Anyways, that is that, let’s return to these MILFS.

Firstly, I would like to discuss the main reason why the MILF is such an amazing thing to a young man. The MILF is ultimately a taboo. As a young man, it is not really all that common for you to be having sex with super hot girls as it is, so having sex with an older woman is definitely out of the question. The fact that this woman you are fantasizing about is in fact a mother too, well that just adds bonus points to the already amazing prize. Being able to score with a woman who has a kid your age or even older is just an awesome feeling because you are not suppose to be able to pull that off - especially not in junior high, or high school! I threw out those two time periods because of the importance that they have in the overall qualifications of the MILF. Women can only be deemed a true MILF if her children’s friends make jokes about having sex with her AND CAN ACTUALLY DO IT IF THE MOMENT PRESENTS ITSELF! This means that the young men must at least be in the 8^th grade.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but there are no teenage MILFS or MILFS in their 20’s. That is just too young. Being a MILF is all about maturity and at these ages girls are not mature enough yet. I hear it all the time, friends trying to cheer their friends up that are newly pregnant and still in high school or just young and were not ready to have a child. The friend will tell them things like, “at least you will be a MILF when you have the baby.” Or they will tell them “that they will be a MILF in the future.” Please stop lying to these girls and giving them false hope. I understand comfort in rough situations is important in friendship, but leading your friend a stray is just as bad. You cannot tell them they will be a MILF because you do not know what they will look like after that baby. You know just as I do that sometimes having a baby can have dramatic effects on the female body and sometimes they are irreversible. What makes MILFS so awesome is that they withstood the hands of time and overcame the odds that were not in their favor. Most people assume that when a woman has a baby that her time is over for being desired in the same sexual way as she was prior to the baby. WROOOOONG!!!! If a women has that baby and over time keeps her desirability through those rough times, then that must be recognized and appreciated! Just like the Air Force has the longevity ribbon, the MILF title is like her longevity ribbon but way better!

The deeming of MILF should not be given at the younger ages because that is the way it was presented to us in the movie American Pie. I think it is important that we stick to these rules because it keeps the humor, and makes it nicer for the women. Guys 30 and up can still call women MILFS but it would be better to check with a youth first since ultimately it is our call. The taboo flies farther and farther out the window for having sex with mature women the older men get. It is okay for older men to have sex with older women because you are the same age anyway, big deal. Plus I think the women will like to hear that they are being desired sexually by a 25-year-old man compared to a 45-year-old man. Oh and women cannot deem other women MILFS, at all, period. It must be by a man. I understand that there are women who desire other women, I have no problem with that. But, what I do have a problem with is when there is a conflict of interest. They are both women, so I feel that the overall rating may be tainted by favoritism because they are the same sex. And I think there may be some pity in there as well. So to keep it nice, fair, and pure all MILF deeming will be done only by men. Women you guys have DILFS, go deem them.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about the other qualities MILFS have besides just having sex. Being that she is much older than you that means there is much she can teach you. Ask her questions about life since she has lived a bit more than you, or in some cases a lot more than you. Maybe she can teach you some secrets on how you can catch girls your own age in the future. Ask the MILF for advice about your day to day life and make her feel worth more than just a sexual outlet. She is a person too, remember. Do not think of her as a mother figure because that would be gross, think of her as a kind of mother figure but one that you could ask questions that you would not usually ask. These are not regular women by any means. If these women were apples on a tree they would have a different shine than the others. You must give them supreme credit because they deserve it. They are the elite, they are the marvelous, they are the MILFS.

Tweets from Twitterville!

Is there anybody else out there a bit tired of social networks like MySpace and Facebook? I mean don’t get me wrong I love these sites, but the shenanigans that come with the package these days is getting out of hand. Lots of drama like causing break ups, getting people arrested, and getting people fired from their jobs, and just a lot of things that nobody wants to have happen. Thankfully there is an alternative to all the madness and it is called Twitter! Twitter is also a social network too but it just works in a different way. A February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranks Twitter as the third largest social network (Facebook being the largest, followed by MySpace), and puts the number of unique monthly visitors at roughly 6 million and the number of monthly visits at 55 million.

Twitter is a micro-blogging service that enables it’s users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Think of tweets like the “status” of your facebook account. For those of you, who do not know what micro-blogging is; allow me to fill you in. Micro-blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micro media such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. So it is basically a shortened form of blogging. Regular blogging is often long and boring. Some bloggers tell their life stories because some blogs have no limit on text. I do not have time to read a whole person’s life story on the internet. Twitter forces simplicity; 140 characters is the limit per tweet. That way Bloggers cannot get out of hand, rambling nonsense like many do.

Twitter is unique because it is so user friendly. Answer one simple question, “What are you doing”? Now it may seem silly to have a site just dedicated to people telling each other what they are doing all day, but isn’t that what most people do on all the other social networks anyway? I find it amazing how many people do not even really talk on their MySpace and facebook accounts. They will just check to see if they received any comments or messages. How many times have you wanted to know something about a friend’s personal life and got no reply? Twitter solves that problem from the start. Every entry is personal because it is what they are doing and thinking!

One of the biggest problems with social networks is that they have become just photo galleries. Some people do not even put any information at all about themselves personally. These people obviously do not want you to know who they really are because chances are they are probably lame. All you have to work with are a bunch of pictures that you have to make a determination of this person’s personality with. This by the way can be very difficult because when doing this you are judging the book by its cover, and we all know how dangerous that can be! Twitter does not have space for you to upload hundreds of fake modeling pictures and pictures of you and your friends partying on the weekends. Yes I said fake modeling pictures. How can you tell if a modeling picture is fake you may ask yourself, here is how you do it. If the person in the picture is not a model than it is a FAKE modeling picture. That was easy right? Once again Twitter brings simplicity to the table by only allowing one profile photo to be uploaded.

The fact that Twitter is so user friendly is probably the main reason for its huge success. Finding cool people right away is simple with twitter. When you start your account you can start to follow other users. This is just like requesting to be someone’s friend on MySpace. The huge difference is that unlike on MySpace where you can be denied, Twitter allows you to follow whoever you want instantly all the time. It is like always being accepted by everyone you send a friend request to! There are people who tweet every hour just to keep their followers up to date with what is going on in their lives. This makes Twitter such a more personal site. Other social networks you have people creating these identities that are just out of this world. Sometimes you just have to ask yourself when you are on some of these pages, “Is this person really this cool???” The answer that is, probably not LOL! I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are doing the world a disservice by faking the funk and lying to us.

People from all walks of life are getting there tweet on from celebrities, to astronauts, to students, to parents, to politicians! Twitter can be accessed in many different ways making it simple to stay in touch with all your fellow tweeters. You can accept and reply to tweets from sms, your computer, and from your cell phone. The days of just scrolling through endless galleries of photos and getting no dialogue from your “so called friends” are over. It is time you got down with the new generation of social networking, get your Tweet on!

International Connections

One of the best things in life to have is good friends. Some people are very social and they acquire large amounts of friends. Others are a bit more exclusive and just have a tight knit set of friends. Either way it goes, having people in your life that care about you and share the same interests as you, is truly a wonderful feeling that everyone should share. In most cases the friends we have are usually geographically close to us. This makes it easier to interact in ways like talking on the phone, visiting in person, and just keeping in contact. What many people do not realize is that you can make some amazing friends in places that are far away too. Places that you may have never even heard of before can have people living there that would blow your mind! Sometimes the best things in life you have to go searching for. In this case you can make some friends that are on the other side of the planet that are even better than the ones you have here that are close in proximity to. Making international connections with other people is something that everybody should take full advantage of.

Making friends in other countries can open your eyes to so many different cool things. You can get to learn a foreign culture that you may have never even thought of before. And at the same time, you can teach them about your culture and shed some light on things that they may have not yet known. For example, being American, we are constantly being watched by other countries all over the world. Always, in magazines, newspapers, and television shows all over the world. But these images often paint a false image of us. The sad human nature is that people believe everything they see and hear. This is a great opportunity to share important things with them about America that they cannot get from the media. One on one conversation is the best ways of passing information to others because it does not get misinterpreted by things like the media and TV, which are usually out to portray nonsense. It is also an opportunity for them to shed some light on some stereotypes about their country. The media has pretty much screwed everyone when it comes to painting an accurate picture of cultures around the world.

You can even have specific reasons for making friends in other countries. Maybe you want to connect with others with the same interests as you. If you are a student then you can make friends with other students studying the same things that you do. You guys can exchange ideas about your studies, or maybe just talk about the frustrations of student life. You would be amazed on the way people feel the same way you do in a places that are so far away. Some of my best friends are in places like Serbia, Romania, Russia, Iceland, Bulgaria, Germany, and the Caribbean.

The more friends you have internationally, the more well rounded of a person you will become. Not to mention the brownie points you will get for being such a cultured being. It looks really good when you can speak of foreign lands like you have been there. These friends like you for who you are and nothing else. All the materialism sort of fades away the when you branch out to foreign lands. Then who knows, maybe one day you will get to travel to these places and experience the culture first hand. Even if you cannot do that it is okay. Technology makes it easy to keep in touch with people just fine. So what are you waiting for??? Start making those international connections ASAP! I promise you that you will not be disappointed in what you find.

Excuse me as I kiss the Sky!

When is the last time you heard somebody saying something good about daydreaming? It is almost as rare as hearing someone saying how much they enjoy going to the dentist. Calling someone a daydreamer is just like calling someone a slacker, a space cadet, a flake, or a time waster. One of the main reasons why daydreaming gets such a bad rap is because usually when people are daydreaming they are not being very productive. Not being productive in a society such as ours is largely frowned upon. We are always being constantly pushed and urged to succeed, achieve, and produce results all the time. The thing that many people do not realize is that daydreaming is not that bad of a thing. Daydreaming can even boost productivity sometimes in situations when it seems like being productive is just not an option.

The workplace is probably the main place where daydreaming gets the most bad publicity. When you are at work you are suppose to be doing a job. You are not supposed to be thinking about unicorns running up the pyramids of Egypt and then jumping off the top and descending slowly with military parachutes! That just may affect your productivity. Another bad thing about daydreaming is that some people have a certain look when they daydream. That spaced out dazed and confused look if you will. Some even take it to extremes like smiling into the sky or even drooling on themselves. If you are an offender of these actions you need to stop this. You are making daydreaming hard for those of us who do it in a professional and incognito fashion. My daydreaming is more stealth than the Navy Seals!

Daydreaming can also be a problem in places like school. In a way it is more damaging to do it at school because you’re not hurting anyone but yourself. Some teachers’ lectures are boring to the point that daydreaming is unavoidable though. It is either daydream or go to sleep. I am going to roll with daydreaming since that cannot get me kicked out of class or put on the spot in front of all my classmates for nodding off or worst case scenario, snoring out loud.

Despite all the negative attention that daydreaming gets, I feel that daydreaming is an essential piece to the creative puzzle. Daydreaming is kind of like brainstorming without writing it down or saying it out loud. Letting your mind just wander and go off into uncharted places can lead to surprising outcomes. Take simple inventions for example, a majority of these inventions did not require any physics classes to come up with. Things like the toilet paper roll, the Post It, the clothes hangar, or the hacky sack. These things were probably thought of while daydreaming. Even things that many would think were invented in laboratories for medical purposes I think were first daydreamed about. I think the condom was invented in a daydream. Somebody was sitting around probably with some unwanted kids, or even worse maybe an STD. I think he was daydreaming to himself and thought, “Ya know, maybe if I put this bag over my private area during sex I can eliminate a lot of problems for myself in the future.” It worked out great! He probably stopped burning and stopped making so many kids he could not support. He killed two birds with one stone! Daydreaming might also be able to help you prepare for events that may occur in your life that need practice. For example, say you are going on a date in a few days. That means you have two days to daydream and walk through every event that you can think of that may happen while you are on that date. Everything from the conversations you may want to have, the way you are going to dance with them, all the way to how you think the night is going to turn out. I do not know about you, but I daydream about scoring before I go on dates. But that is just me, maybe, I do not know. Those daydreams can help you organize and come up with a good strategy for things you are going to do rather than just going into them blind with no plan.

Above all I think that daydreaming is good because it gives you a break from reality without actually having to step through a time portal or be hypnotized, or some other weird thing. Daydreaming is like a mini vacation that you get to take whenever you want. It is a very important thing to do because let’s face it; the real world can be very boring and uneventful at times. Unless you have a super cool life you are probably daydreaming a whole lot! I daydream about 70% of the time I think. The world in my head is much more fun than this one. I cannot even tell you how many exotic women come visit me on an hourly basis. Or how many secret passageways I have flowing through the planet to my secret night clubs underground. But I have noticed that the more outlandish ideas I come up with in my head, the more realistic ideas I come up with in the real world. I guess daydreaming is kind of like exercise for your brain. If that is true than I am sure there are many brains out there that are in tip top shape.

The musical guessing game...Do they like what you think they like???

When is the last time you witnessed somebody in full rock out mode listening to their iPod? I mean really feeling that music that they were listening to? It is truly a sight to see for the most part. Many people even take it to the next level and try to guess what that person may be listening to. Usually these assumptions are made from just having a good look at that person and going just off of the physical features. Age, sex, race, and other things that immediately jump out are looked at to make a guess on what that person is jamming to usually. The funny thing is that people would be shocked a large majority of the time to find out what people really are actually listening to. The way a person looks and acts do not necessarily dictate what type of music they like.

Music can be a gateway for people to get close to a certain way of life that they may not have access to. Almost like living that life while the record is playing. Think of the Mercedes Benz sedan that pulls up on the side of you full of clean cut suburban looking white teenagers. The windows are rolled up so you can’t hear what they all seem to be really enjoying. One of them rolls the window down to flick a cigarette and what do yak know...Their listening to N.W.A!!!!Bet you weren’t expecting that one were you! NOOOOO YOU WEREN’T! Or what about the foreign exchange student from Malaysia who doesn’t even speak English? She listens to Sublime everyday while walking to school! They obviously do not appear to identify with these types of music but they do love them. When artists make music they do not have disclaimers on their albums that say “this music is for these people who look like this and have been threw this as well so if you do not fit this mold put our music back thank you”. It’s all open season for everybody when it comes to musical taste.

Many people are familiar with the phrase “can’t judge a book by its cover”, but what if you have a look at somebody’s cod book and then making an assumption about them? Some interesting ideas come up. The more diverse and well rounded a persons music collection is the better rounded and open minded that person is most likely going to be. If someone’s collection is ninety percent of just one style of music then that person is probably a little more conservative and less likely to be very open minded. Don’t believe that? Go out and compare a person with a collection of music ranging from The Beatles to Eazy E and compare that person to someone whose collection is all r & b and jazz. Music is the universal language to us all. Music and appearance do relate on certain levels of course, but it’s the way that they do not relate that makes it unique and fun. So the next time you see somebody rocking out to their favorite song in their headphones instead of guessing what they are listening to just go up and ask them. You may find that you have more in common with that person than you thought and could possibly, hopefully make a new friend.