For as long as I can remember I’ve had complete freedom when it comes with what I can do with my life. My parents have rarely, if ever, said I can’t do something or hang out with certain people. For as long as I can also remember, I’ve never met parents that are anywhere near as lenient as my parents; many of my friends parents hover over them in one way or another.
My parents didn’t think twice letting me drive and take my friends to play paintball
If you ask my parents why they give me such freedoms, their answer will be that they trust me completely. I’ve never given them a reason to not. I don’t come home drunk or on some drug(s), do reckless things, hang out with the wrong crowd, or be a total numb skull. This trust is what lets me leave late at night, come home even later, have my own car, promote for clubs, sleep over a girlfriends house and hang out with friends they have never met.
Now you may think my parents aren’t involved much in my life if they give me such freedom but, that would be wrong. I love hanging out with my mom and though I can be seen as a tougher kid, I’m not ashamed to say that. Sure me and my dad may get on each other nerves sometimes but, we still have a lot in common that keeps us close. I really do enjoy being around my parents and hanging out with them both.
I was trusted with a car as soon as I got my license
On the other side of the spectrum, most of my friends parents still have a tendency to hover over them as if they’re twelve years old. Their parents control who they hang out with, don’t trust them when they’re out, check in on them constantly, to sum it up they baby their teenage son or daughter. They seem to shelter their kid from the world as much as they possibly can, the same world they’ll one day be on their own to live in.
Ask these teens if they can’t wait to get away from their parents thanks to college or to just be able to move out one day and they will all say “yes!” These same teens usually go totally rebellious once they are free of their parents since they can finally choose their own life to live.
I am not a parent nor am I claiming to be one in anyway. I’ve never raised a kid and don’t plan to for many years to come. I am only a product of how I was raised by my parents; I was raised in a way that I believe every kid should be as well. We all need to be able to experience the world when we’re young, the world we will one day be on our own to live in.
The Great Gatsby by R. Scott Fitzgerald was a required book to have read in my high school sophomore year; I enjoyed the book so much I read it three times start to finish that year. Think of my excitement when I heard they were making The Great Gatsby movie. Luckily, I was able to go see the movie last night with a group of friends. I walked in expecting to be amazed and love it. I didn’t.
With Leonardo Dicaprio as Jay Gatsby I expected an amazing performance
As the title states, this is a short review, thus I shall touch on my main “likes” and “dislikes”.
What I Liked:
Dicaprio as Jay Gatsby, he fits the character perfectly and plays this mysterious, nervous, but luxurious man very well.
The sense of how grand some scenes were such as Gatsby’s infamous parties as you could just see that every walk of New York City life came to them
The historical accuracy of the movie down to every small detail
What I Disliked:
The soundtrack was quite possibly the worst part of this movie. The parties had a band playing, but you never would hear them since their music was covered by Jay Z or Kanye. I’d prefer hearing 1920’s swing music in a movie based in that time period over Kanye West.
Some scenes were poorly designed as you could easily tell it was some cheap green screen or made entirely on a computer
The constant narrating by Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) and odd scenes were it his words being written on screen.
A lack of details compared to the book, granted this a movie.
The surrounding cast. I never felt drawn to them as they were just simple characters thrown into the movie to accompany Gatsby and very few were given any explanation as to who they were.
The movie as a whole just felt poorly made and had a “cheap” vibe surrounding it.
Overall, I left the theater very disappointed. I’ve always heard that books were always better than the movies based on them and never did I believe the people who told me that. This one time though, the book has the movie beat by light years.
Call it “fake”, call it whatever you’d like; I use to love to watch wrestling and have known Dwayne Johnson before he hit the silver screen as one of the all time greats, “The Rock”. From the start of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1996 to the Attitude Era in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a wrestling superstar. Every time he’d enter and make his way to the ring the crowds would be cheering and going crazy. Throughout his Wrestling career he’d gain such nicknames as “The People’s Champion” , rack up 17 championship reigns, and win the 2000 Royal Rumble. Sadly though The Rock would take a prolonged hiatus from wrestling in 2004 to break onto the big screen.
Dwayne Johnson’s first major role
Dwayne Johnson’s first major role came as the Scorpion King in 2002; continuing on from his initial success from there he had a lead role in The Game Plan (2007),a part in Get Smart (2008), the lead in The Tooth Fairy (2010), a part in The Race To Witch Mountain (2009), a role in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012), Snitch (2013), and G.I Joe: Retaliation (2013). Probably Johnson’s most popular role has been his appearance in the famed Fast and Furious film series, as he appeared in Fast Five and has been confirmed for Fast and Furious 7. Off the silver screen, he has also had plenty of success on television judging by his numerous appearances on shows from Cory in the House to his newest reality/game show on TNT, The Hero. To say he’s been successful in pursing acting is a drastic understatement. Yet, Dwayne returned to where he started…wrestling.
“If ya smell…What The Rock, is cooking!”
The Rock made his long-awaited return to wrestling as the host of WrestleMania XXVII, appearing on the show Raw for the first time in seven years. From that one return The Rock would soon return to the ring and headline WrestleMaina XXVIII and the following one as well. Adding to his much hyped return from his long absence, The Rock won the WWE Championship and would reign for 70 days until he lost it again. This past April 7th, The Rock wrestled what may have been his last match, as he as yet to return to the ring citing an injury he suffered from WrestleMania. While I do love seeing him perform on the silver screen and on my TV, perhaps it is best now that The Rock retires for good from wrestling. There is no need to risk any further injury as he legacy has been engraved in stone.
I’d just like to say now though; Thank you Dwayne Johnson for entertaining me when I went to the movies. Lastly, Thank you The Rock for entertaining me and the wrestling world and for more importantly living up to your nickname, “The Most Eletrifiying Man in All of Entertainment.“
Tracy McGrady during his tenure with the Houston Rockets
Tracy McGrady, at one time he was probably the best player in the NBA and once the poster player on every kids wall. That’s saying something considering the league was full of superstars ranging from Allen Iverson, Vince Carter and Kobe Bryant during McGrady’s reign. T-Mac, as is his best known nickname, played 14 years in the NBA playing with the: Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, Houston Rockets, New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, Atlanta Hawks, the Chinese League Qingdao Eagles and now with the San Antonio Spurs. During his career McGrady has made the All Star Team 7 times, was a two-time NBA Scoring Leader, the Most Improved Player in 2001, and has made the All NBA First Team twice. The one thing missing from T-Mac’s career accomplishments is a NBA Championship.
“T-Mac to the rack!!”
Tracy McGrady was an awe to watch him play, as he was just so explosive in his drives to the basket. It became normal to hear “T-Mac to the rack!” followed by the loud cheer and applause from the crowd watching a true superstar perform on a level above anyone else. His best known performance came from his time in Houston as he scored thirteen points in a mere thirty-three seconds. This man could score on a level well beyond any player during his prime, the game of basketball came too easy to T-Mac during his greatest years. It’s a shame then to have seen Tracy McGrady slowly decline in his later years due to injuries and just the miles of playing catching up to him. At the end of the 2012 season with his contract with the Atlanta Hawks done, it looked like Tracy McGrady had no where else to go in the NBA; McGrady signed overseas to the Qingdao Eagles in the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association).
McGrady played in China for their leagues 2012-2013 season where his numbers were respectable to say the least
Two days ago on April 16th, T-Mac was signed to join the playoff bound San Antonio Spurs to help bolster their team. While Tracy McGrady is past his prime and his body is hampered by nagging injuries, he still has shown to still be able to play on a high level accompanied by flashbacks of his earlier dominance. While I doubt T-Mac will make that much of a difference to the Spurs overall playoff success or failure, I am happy enough to see T-Mac back in the NBA. Maybe..just maybe I will hear the words “T-Mac to the rack!” echo through my television one last time.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I please ask for a moment of silence to remember a once great gaming publisher, Lucas Arts.
Alas this once mighty game developer and publisher has been shuttered a few months after being acquired by The Walt Disney Company. While their more recent of games, I’m looking at your Kinect Star Wars, showed this companies complete and total disconnection from their gaming community; Lucas Arts was once at the forefront of the gaming world and continually pushing out great games for one of the best known franchises in the world.
The Knights of the Old Republic quickly became a favorite amongst gamers
Lucas Arts was created by George Lucas in 1982 to serve as the video game development arm of his original company, Lucas Film. At first Lucas Arts developed games outside of Star Wars such as the Monkey Island series and numerous military based simulators. Though Star Wars wasn’t licensed by Lucas Arts until the 1990’s, it soon became the cash cow for the developer. This became the case so much that during the late 90’s and very early 2000’s, there were so many Star Wars games being put onto shelves. Though soon the age-old rule of “quality over quantity” began to kick in and by 2002 Star Wars game started to get hit hard with poor reviews throughout the gaming community. This all started to change though when in 2003 Lucas Arts worked with video game developer Bioware to create the amazingly well review Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This game was the launching point for not only a sequel but the new wave of modern 3D graphics combined with perfect story telling within a game and lastly a very intelligent role-playing game.
In 2004 Lucas Arts was given a new president, Jim Ward, who did a total reconstruction of the company’s infrastructure. Behind Jim Ward Lucas Arts produced some of it’s most well-known and best games to date. Leading this charge would be the great Star Wars Battlefront, which became the best-selling Star Wars game of all time at that point. Battlefront quickly spawned Star Wars Battlefront II in 2005 which was also met very positively by critics and gamers, such as myself, alike. From 2005 to 2008 the Lucas Arts continued to pump out successful games such as Star Wars Republic Commando, Star Wars Empire at War, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Between these amazing years for the Star Wars franchise, Lucas Arts continually scaled down its in-house developing and started to rely heavily on 3rd party developers, their relation with such companies was…unprofessional to say the least.
One of their best known release, Republic Commando never spawned a sequel though the community demanded it
Jim Ward left Lucas Arts citing personal reasons in 2008 and this marked the increasing decline of the once powerhouse publisher. A month before Jim Ward stepped down, Lucas Arts released Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II which was given mediocre reviews by most critics. Continuing this downward spiral, Star Wars: The Clone Wars-Republic Heroes was launched in late 2009 and once again was met with a barrage of negative reviews. In their darkest of years a small glimmer of hope appeared in the form of a big budget game and resurrection of a classic tag; In late 2008 Star Wars: The Old Republic was announced and in production at Bioware studios. This game was supposed to be a big boost to the failing Lucas Arts, sadly The Old Republic did not give the lift needed for them. On the day of it’s launched the game faced horrific installation problems on its first day out coupled with game crashing bugs and glitches; This was the final nail in the coffin for Lucas Arts. Between 2010 and 2012 numerous key people left and layoffs hammered the company to a shell of its former glory. On October 30, 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucas Arts for a sum of $4.05 billion. At first rumors spread of current in-house and under development games, such as the eye brow raising Star Wars 1313, were put on hold and moved behind other more important projects. Sadly on April 3, 2013, Disney confirmed the shuttering and immediate closure of Lucas Arts and the cancellation or exporting of any current projects.
The beautiful Star Wars 1313 trailer was shown once and soon after the project was cancelled
I am saddened by the news of Lucas Arts and it’s closure to say the least. The games they produced during their glory days were some of the best I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Perhaps though they had it coming to them. Sadly they never did listen to the gaming community on what we wanted, as we never saw Star Wars: Republic Commando 2 and the much beloved Star Wars Battlefront III never did see the light of day. On top of that Lucas Arts continually bullied 3rd party developers into releasing poor games or making poor financial decisions. Maybe then, it’s best a company that’s last Star Wars game was entitled Kinect Star Wars is buried and laid to rest.
You can’t make this stuff up. A new USA Today/Gallop poll finds that almost 40% of Americans have doubts as to whether Donald Trump is a natural born citizen.
The poll, which questioned 1,013 adults finds that “not everyone is convinced Trump was born in the USA either: 43% say he definitely was born here, and 20% say he probably was; 7% say he definitely or probably was born in another country. Nearly three in 10 say they don’t know enough to say.” That’s 37% who cannot say with conviction that they believe Donald Trump was born in America.
Simply put: Because the party that was once crucial in the emancipation of African Americans, has turned into one that promotes hate, lies, and intolerance.
During the 1860’s, when Lincoln was President, the Republican party was considered the liberal party that was against slavery. Blacks mostly voted Republican after the Civil War and through the early part of the 20th century, not surprisingly, since Lincoln was Republican and the white segregationist politicians who governed Southern states in those days were Democrats who didn’t want anything to do with Blacks. From then on Blacks continued to stick with the party that promoted their causes in the United States.
The tide began to turn much later when Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt got 71 percent of the black vote for president in 1936 after meeting with black leaders to push for specific programs that helped regain the grounds lost, due to four centuries of servitude in the United State. Then Harry Truman grabbed 77 percent of the black vote in 1948, thanks to his issuing an order of desegregation to the armed services and an executive order setting up regulations against racial bias in federal employment.
John F. Kennedy used the civil rights movement to define the Democratic party as a liberal party for decades to come. Kennedy began pushing for the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and after he was killed, Lyndon B. Johnson pushed it through.
Johnson then got 94 percent of the black vote that year, then, a record for any presidential election. The following year he signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Ever since, no Republican presidential candidate has gotten more than 15 percent of the black vote.
Members of the Black GOP like to harp on the fact that Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican. But on April 4, 1968 Reverend Dr. King, at 39, was shot and killed in Memphis Tennessee, while supporting striking sanitation workers. You could best believe that today, Dr. King would be considered–just as he was in the 60’s thru the changing attitude of the Republican Party–as a dangerous troublemaker by the GOP. Today, King would have joined the ranks of union protesters in Wisconsin and other states whose Republican governors look to dismantle union bargaining rights across the country.
Democrats have done a lot more for blacks in the last 50 years or so, while Republicans have been behind every kind of intolerance, not just racism but sexism, homophobia, nativism…you name it.
African-Americans have a unique history in America not shared by any other race. To say that we have no choice and no voice in how we draw our party lines and choose our political candidates just shows how much you don’t know of our history here. Surely those who have criticized the need for government sponsored programs, assistance, and services–created in the 60’s –as “handouts” and “special favors” are now beginning to see just how much we all have benefited from a Democratic government in the face of a Republican party that seeks to take all from the ‘haves-nots’ to give to the ‘haves’.
The majority of Blacks in America have made the consensual choice to vote as Democrats. And that will continue to be the our choice as long as that party serves our causes.
President Bill Clinton, one of the 43 previous men who carried the banner of President of the United States, who was never accused of being born anywhere else other than the US during his tenure, expressed his displeasure of criticism, by some, of the 44th man to carry the torch – President Barack Obama. One criticism that Mr. Clinton referred to, was the suggestion that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya. Mr. Clinton calls this “ludicrous.”
“If I were them, I’d be really careful riding that birther horse too much. Everyone knows it’s ludicrous.”
Appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America, the ex President then suggests to Bianna Golodgrya the reason why President Obama is not giving in to the wishes of the Birthers, by putting out a version of his birth certificate to satisfy their needs, instead of the version his native Hawaii government allows:
“I think one of the elementary rules of combat is you don’t want to get in your opponent’s way if he’s shooting himself in the foot.”
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