the Plauge

It's amazing how the flu has just run rampant this winter season. It basically seems that everyone is sick and it doesn't seem that you can become resistant either. Getting sick the first time doesn't give you a free pass for any infections following. I was able to fight it off twice before the flu gang up on me and hit me with Bronchitis.

I'm not on the road to recovery with some prescribed cough medicine and anti-viral pills. The past couple weeks have been nothing but staying indoors watching tv, dvds, reading, and video games. I'm kinda going nuts, but can't do much since I can't control my cough to the point where I can be comfortable in a social environment.

"le sigh"

Another thing is that I've been drinking nothing but tea and water for the past two weeks. I've never drank this much tea in my life, but in the end it's all for the best and its not like the tea is bad. Twinings English Afternoon, China Oolong, and Irish Breakfast are all good, and I plan on adding Lady Grey and Earl Grey to the mix.

It doesn't seem that you can do anything from being sick since everyone is sick. You could stop going outside and breathing but then you'll just have a whole other set of problems to deal with.

BEWARE!!!

What Americans have been Waiting for

So John McCain has released his first general election ad and there's some interesting hidden messages in this commercial. The ad hints that nationality the the next president should be or it implies the new commander-and-chief should display a certain level of patriotism.

That's not all! The ad's narrator is the actor from 24 who plays the evil vice president who tries to steal Presidency from the President (a black guy). Very sneaky Mr. McCain, very sneaky indeed.

Gang Leader for a Day

The book Freakonomics is by far my favorite book of all time and for those of you who have read it you would know that the Stephen's (as I like to call them) have a friend by the name of Sudhir Venkatesh, a professor at Columbia University. A trained sociologist, Sudhir lived in the Robert Taylor projects in Chicago to document how poor people lived.

This is an area where many researchers have failed since these areas are usually too dangerous to outsiders, and many studies are performed from the outside looking in using theories to fill in the gaps.

Sudhir, on the other hand, actually lived with people and temporarily became part of a gang for 6 years. While the chapter in Freakonomics gives excellent detail of his findings from an Economics point of view, Sudhir's book "Gang Leader for a Day" gives a lot more detail into his every day life in the projects. Since I have yet to read this book I can't honestly say go out and get it, based on the fact that I have only seen the cover. However, you have read the chapter in Freakonomics like I have then you already know this is a must read.

Below is a clip from his visit to the Colbert Report. ~Enjoy

Some Changes

Hot on the heels of my boi Moesef, I've decided to take control of my digital life by deleting online accounts that I no longer use or want. In a few days my MySpace will be gone, but with one down another was bound to take it's place. I currently have Facebook account and I keep it mainly cause most if not all my college friends are on it.

After cleaning up my online life I revisited Pownce. It's a social networking site that is a mix between blogger and facebook. I originally joined at a friend's request but quickly grew tired. It was disappointing since I wanted it to work for me, and it was created by the same guys who brought us Digg and Revision3. It had that same quality but there was nowhere in my digital life for it. :sigh:

Maybe someday.

One new and maybe temporary addition to the blog is the youtube element on the bottom right. It shows the most recently featured videos on youtube. We'll see how long it lasts. I'm still experimenting with this thing.