So I’m going to be writing some articles for The Tennessee Journalist at www.tnjn.com during the month of June and maybe longer. I’ll let you know when the first one’s are up. The site is currently under maintenance if the link still doesn’t work. Enjoy your Summer!
Faith for the Future
I find it amusing that I always have the urge to write exactly when I need to be doing more important things, however sometimes you just got to do what you got to do. So I know I haven’t posted in awhile…I apologize but its amazing how hard it is to find time for this confounded thing. ; ) So thoughts for today. Life is hard. God’s always bigger. That about sums it up. I know it’s not earth shattering but sometimes we forget. So whatever trials you currenttly face, remember there is always something bigger going on.
Still Proud, Still American
So as many people today watched President Obama’s speech, I just couldn’t bring myself to watch. Now I could tell you a wonderful story of why I missed it because I was captured by the mafia and tortured to give up the Colonel’s spices, but that would be lame. I didn’t watch because I don’t like the way the country is going and that speech would have served as a painful reminder. After I knew it was finished I was disheartened, and the America I once knew seemed far far away. But then I remembered why I’m still here, and I saw something from three years ago that just made me swell up with pride. My closest friends know I end every night with the company of Craig Ferguson. He consistently makes me proud to be an American because sometimes it takes someone who chooses to join us in our fight for freedom than someone who is born here and takes it for granted to show us how truly privileged we are. It should be noted that this video was in 2006 however, Craig became a citizen of our great country on February 1, 2008 scoring perfect on his citizenship test. Not many can say that. This video just sums up what I think many of us need to hear in these hard times. I hope you enjoy him as much as I do.
People do silly things…
I can’t tell you how many times I’m walking down the street, or around campus, and people are like, “Hey! I know you! Your that blogger guy, that knowledge affecionado, that crossroads where stunning intelligence meets overwhelming suave and class!” Well they’d be right. I am all those things and more. If fact, if I had the money, I’d fly Steven Hawking over to my house for a chess game, just to prove my point. Luckily for you I don’t have that kind of cash on hand at the moment, so your own egos are intact for one more day. Now at this point your going, “How pompous, what a jerk, how come I can’t be famous like that?” Well little people, its because people in general aren’t really that bright. They’ll pretty much do anything to matter. Like be insulted by a person like me….for no real reason. People do silly things….ha ha silly people, ha ha.
Yours truly,
Master C. Bale
but you can call me, “Na na na na na na Batman!”
Coming soon….
I’m in the process of re-formatting. I know there are SOOO many of you who are just dying to hear more. Be patient, change is coming. You might like the new stuff, you might not. Oh well. Se la vi. In the mean time enjoy some hilarity. Cheers!
Iraq Elections
Just wanted to point out that even though the battles far from over, Iraq had successful, peaceful elections for over 440 seats with over 14,000 candidates and no reports of attacks or violence during the day. That kind of sounds like something we did recently….hmmmm. Just a thought. Maybe we aren’t that crazy after all….
The Greatest Show on Earth
So have you ever had one of those moments that will stick in your mind forever? Not necessarily a “defining” moment but one of those were your just like, “this is really cool!” Well its 1:17am eastern time and I’ve just had one of those moments. I don’t know what kind of childhood you had, but when I was growing up, whether in literature or film, there was always something special about going to see a real circus. Not the kind of experience you get at your state fair, I mean an actual circus. Well I got to go see the Ringley Bros and Barnum&Bailey Circus once when I was a kid, and finally got that childhood experience. But tonight I topped it. I happen to live besides a five rail lines and the gentle rumble of trains happens to help me sleep at night(no joke). So I’m sitting in my apartment watching television and I look out my window and what do I see? The mythical Barnum & Bailey Train rolling into town. It was almost completely silent, gliding along the tracks inciting that kind of dream like state that one experiences when they wake from sleep in the middle of the night to get some water. Anyway it was really cool. I know this is beginning to be rambling, its late…give me a break. Das fe dania.
Movers and Shakers
Hmm, so here I am again trying to come up with something clever to say. Maybe give you hope for desperate times, or discuss our current political system and its relevancy, maybe we should analyze Hollywood’s influence on pop culture in recent years, but somehow, that just seems cliche. Movers and shakers, that’s what I want to talk about. Remember those lectures we all had in high school about how we could make a difference or do anything we set our minds to? Well for most of us that may have been a lie in the broad spectrum of things. Most of us will never cure cancer, solve world hunger, or bring peace to the world. We won’t be “rich” or powerful, nor will we be superstars. Not a great outlook huh? However I have a theory (go figure). I think that our generation has grown up being told they can do anything, making us ideological and forces for change to a point. Then we reach that point where we start to pursue our dreams and something happens to us as it gets hard or we find out we just can’t cut it in the rat race because maybe we just aren’t willing to give up our souls. So we quit. We give up on dreaming big and settle into “our place” in society where we are insulated by the excuses that we tell everyone for how we ended up in “that” situation. Just look at your high school yearbook. Those superlatives that everyone voted on. Did the class clown become a comedian? How about the most likely to be a sports superstar, did he even make the bench of that college team he was “always” going to play for? My guess is no. That may be the problem with our country. Not that we don’t follow our dreams, but rather, when the going gets tough, we bail. Granted that one big dream may be unattainable, but when we stop dreaming all together, stop innovating, what more do we have? This country pulled itself out of the Great Depression in a matter of months, went to the moon in a few years, and has been a ideological and technological powerhouse that stood as an example for almost two centuries! We aren’t losing jobs oversees because its cheaper labor, we are losing jobs because they want it more, THEY have become the innovators, THEY have started dictating ideologues. All I’m asking is that if you have an idea: PURSUE IT! Yeah your going to fail…a lot. But when Thomas Edison was asked about all of his 1000 failed experiments while pursuing the light bulb, he didn’t say that he failed 1000 times, he said he found 1000 ways NOT to make a light bulb. Moral of the story: He eventually found a way, because he kept at it, and you should do the same.
The Leap
Fear is like a poison to the human soul. Inside we have hopes, and we have dreams. Maybe its a dream of peace, or stardom, riches, or to make an impact, but at the end of the day we often never find out what could have been if we had just gone that one extra step, that little leap of faith, that tempting of chance. Fear keeps God-given desires and motivations at bay. However, if we are aware that these elements of our lives are God given and fight the urge to pull our heads back into our shells, then think of what could be accomplished. If you are given a gift, use it, for it will not be of use to anyone if it is kept behind the wall that everyone puts up as a masquerade of what they are on the inside. Take that leap. It may be more fun than you think.
The Tale of Desperate
So lately our country has started to sound a little desperate, and no I’m not talking politics. I’m talking EVERYTHING. We desperately need cheaper gas and…we desperately need those new cell phones from the Consumer Electronics Show that will just make our lives AWESOME! We are desperate for love, AND we are desperate for chocalate. Some say they go hand in hand. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. But if you’ve been able to follow so far you can see our measure of what is absolutely necessary to our lives and what is not. I think when things get a little tough in life, we have a tendency to latch on to the little things and let those control our lives so we don’t have to face realities of what the underlying problem is. We are content to let others decide our fate in the big things while we spend our time deciding whether or not Crock’s are still in style. (They aren’t by the way) Its a defense mechanism I know, but sometimes we have to fight the urge to retreat or better yet actually step into the fight and do something instead of ignoring issues until its to late to really change a thing. Life is what God gives us, but we do have the freedom of choice. We can choose to be IN the story or just merely the ones who read it at the end of the day saying they are going to be in a story like THAT when they grow up!
