In That Case . . . . .

There is nothing as simple as sitting on a bench and talking it out. Just be honest.

500 Days of Summer

Tom: I guess I should say congratulations.

Summer: Only if you mean it.

Tom: In that case . . . . .

Hold Up

I wrote a check today. I'm still in my twenties. It was a strange feeling, but the parking structure only took cash or check and all my cash was in the bank where it belongs.

Today, I learned to always have a back up plan when you have to interact with folks that are not in touch with the rest of the world.

Moving to Park Place

No man is perfect. This morning I ate breakfast at McDonald's. I felt good because I knew my debit card was going to be approved. Regardless of how cheap the product is, a man always feels good when his finances are approved.

I ate my McGriddle, I drank my soda, I chewed my hash brown, and last but not least I peeled off my McDonald's game pieces.

Most game pieces lead to more calories, but there are some that have cash value. I got a game piece for Park Place and although the chances of my winning the 1,000,000 dollars is 1 in 273,825,959 I kept it.

If you hold on to the good things that come your way and remain patient, you will get your million dollars. Who knows, I might find the Boardwalk game piece I need after someone loses faith and throws it down on the asphalt.

Keep working folks. Keep growing. Keep your eyes and those game pieces peeled.

What Were They Thinking?

Before I say anything more, there is a lot of talent involved in HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" and NBC's "Outsourced". With that said, I can't see what the creators were thinking when these shows were put together. I can't see how the creators thought these shows would be relevant or popular or successful.

I will start with "Outsourced". Every joke told in that show is attached to a thousand American job applications someone sent out because a job was shipped overseas. Not all shows compliment the intelligence of their audience. Honestly, there are very few shows that discover the intelligence level of their audience. With that being said, "Outsourced" wants Americans to laugh at their job loss situation and on a lesser note a lot of their customer service frustrations.

America was never supposed to be about loss and gain. America was always supposed to be about gain. For NBC to see that America has loss jobs and now they want to gain a laugh based on a tragic situation is insane.

America's stance on immigration is a great example of how we are always expecting a valuable import when we open our borders or in this case television set. Instead of getting a valuable import, NBC is highlighting the fact that greed and bad policy are making jobs America's number one export.

"Boardwalk Empire" is everything "Outsourced" is not. HBO's latest venture is based on a time America cannot identify with at all. White musicians playing the trombone in black face, cars without radios, and women fighting for the right to vote seems like it happened the day after Adam bit the apple. I watched the first two episodes of the show and both times I questioned, "was alcohol ever illegal?". Am I wrong for asking that question when marijuana, prostitution, and guns are legal in various parts of America? I think not.

On top of being boring, "Boardwalk Empire" reminds us that often times politicians misappropriate funds and live lavish lifestyles while snickering at the fact we believed any of their campaign promises. Prohibition may have marked the second chapter in this country's book on greed (the first chapter being the Transatlantic Slave Trade), but greed has evolved to the point where what we see now isn't a reflection of what HBO is showing us. The difference is as drastic as an egg and chicken. I'm not sure about you, but I'm not watching an egg waiting for a chicken to hatch.

If I had to give an answer on the goal of the shows, I would say "Outsourced" is hoping we relate to Indians the same way we would relate to friends whenever we come in contact with them over the phone. I cannot give an answer for "Boardwalk Empire"
and while I try to figure it out, I will wear the same blank stare I wear Sunday at 9pm.

Instead of watching "Boardwalk Empire" I will spend my HBO hour with "Eastbound and Down" and "Bored to Death".

Work Tyler Paul, Work

I wrote this as if I wasn't myself, as if I was talking to myself about myself.

It seems like a lot of work, but if you don't do the work, you will be left with nothing. All the things before you seem close and somewhat impossible and that means you have have to dwell on the closeness or the impossibility of your goal or your dream or anything you are working towards.

Tyler Paul, anything that can be thought of is not impossible. Work Tyler Paul, work. Make time your companion and love her. The face she shows you is a reflection of how you treated her.

Look, write, and work Tyler Paul, work.

Charley & Terry and Michael & Fredo

We have a loyalty to each other as human beings, but we expect the family that shares our blood to have the deepest loyalty. I looked at the movies "Godfather II" and "On the Waterfront" recently. Terry Malloy and Michael Corleone were betrayed by their brothers in separate ways. Terry's brother Charley was killed by gangsters and Michael was a gangster himself, so he arranged for his brother Fredo to get killed. Fredo's crime was giving Michael's rival gangsters information about his business dealings that motivated a failed attempt on his life. Charley arranged Terry in his gang's business dealings, and when Terry eventually wanted out, Charley was killed.

I wondered why brothers would betray each other in two very different ways that eventually led to their death. Right behind that thought, came the question of why people betray themselves only to end up in debt, pregnant, sick, or dead behind the decisions they made.

In my opinion, most of us have the same thought as Fredo and Charley before they died, "I never thought it would come to this."

For you and I it has not come to that, and that is more real than Charley and Fredo's fate. We are real, they are imagined.

Talk About It First

"To run where the brave dare not go". When I hear Roberta Flack sing those lyrics from "The Impossible Dream" I think about people like David, Harriet Tubman, Ghandi, Dr. King, and President Obama. These people had a vision of what seemed to be an impossible dream and very little means to make that dream come to fruition, but they were successful because they spoke what they dreamed into existence. If everyone in the world kept their dreams to themselves, they would all be chalked up as "weird thoughts" If the Wright brothers never told each other they wanted to put a machine in the sky that would transport people, the highways would be more packed than they already are. And there would have never been a need for those highways if Henry Ford would have listened to the people's demand for faster horses instead of automobiles.

More than ever before, our world is dependent on breakthroughs made possible by people who were once told their dreams were impossible.

If there is something you want to do, tell someone, anyone (including yourself). But you are the only person that can't tell yourself "no", because that will be the end of that dream.

PEACE.