No! Not Whitney!

Image via Wikipedia

You were the first Diva.  Surrounded by a sturdy and respected family. You carried yourself with poise and with your Midas touch, everything around you turned to gold.  Whitney, who could have seen it coming that you would choose the path you took? Certainly not me.

I followed you as best I could as there were no Twitter or Facebook.  I read about your demise.  First in the National Enquirer which I was loath to believe at  first.  Whitney a drug addict? No way! Not the Whitney Houston I know. Your mom is the famous and clean Cissy Houston, and Dionne Warwick is your cousin.  Your God Mother is Aretha Franklin!   Not you.  Not my Whitney.

Then I read it in more reputable news media.  Indeed it was so. You were down the path of self ruin.  Some blamed it on your union with bad boy Bobby Brown.    I missed you then.

I heard of your comeback and was ecstatic! You had beaten your demons! Or so I thought.  Little did I know it was just a temporary moment of sanity.  Whitney, you even went live and professed to have been rehabilitated! How could you Whitney? How could you?  Your concerts were embarrassing, or so I heard.  People walked out on my Whitney.  The Diva.  The sadness, the pain.  To see you reduced to this…I never thought it could get any worse.

Then it did.  News broke on Saturday, February 11 2012 that you had finally found eternal peace.  The elusive peace you sought out with Crack Cocaine.  I was in disbelief. Again.  No! Not My Whitney!  She can’t die! Too young, too good.

I was never a CSI junkie but I was sure that your demise was the product of your addiction. I thought of MJ, Elvis, Amy Winehouse and others just like you who sought out drugs to hide their anguish, only to succumb to its power.  My Poor Whitney…Gone too soon.

And I will always love you.

Related articles

• Did Whitney Houston’s Mix Of Xanax & Alcohol Cause Her Death? (hellobeautiful.com)
• R.I.P. Whitney (writerfighter.wordpress.com)
• Whitney Houston Death – Dionne Warwick, Cissy Houston Say Whitney Seemed Fine Just Before Death (mzrocklanta.com)
• Whitney Houston Was “The Voice!” (wwwclara54.wordpress.com)
• Jennifer Hudson Delivers Emotional Whitney Houston Tribute at the Grammys (popsugar.com)
• Dionne Warwick & Cissy Houston Spoke To Whitney Moments Before Her Death (hellobeautiful.com)

Google This, Wiki That!

Hi, my name is Carlos and I am a Googler.  No, not an ogler, a Googler! It has nothing to do with looking at someone with googly eyes either. Never mind, just let me explain. I like to use the search engine Google maybe a tad too much. Have I Googled myself? Old news buddy, been there done that. If I knew your name, I probably would have Googled you too by now.  The thing is, I have an insatiable appetite for information. I have to, need to, know stuff. I want the DL, (for the not so hip, that’s Down Low). Google provides me unlimited access to ‘stuff’.  I am an information junkie trying to score a hit or two.

You don’t have to remind me that I should not trust every result I get from Googling. Duh, I know that and that’s why I have my trusted backup, Wiki! So now I am really not a Googler, more like a Gooki. (Got it? Goo from Google and Ki from Wiki).  Almost sounds like Geeky eh? Some days that’s exactly how I feel when I spend all my time mentally commuting between Google and Wikipedia.

Seriously though, I do love to Google and Wiki things maybe more than most people. When I see something on TV that I know nothing about, I run to my computer and ask my trusted friends.  They usually come through for me. Last week I was about to fall asleep while watching ‘An Idiot Abroad’, they were showing the Great Wall Of China and I realized my knowledge of The Great Wall was very limited. When was it built? Why and by whom? I couldn’t sleep with all this on my mind so I reached for my Ipad and asked Google to wake up his buddy Wiki and find out what he knows about The Great Wall of China.  Hmmm…so it could be seen from outer space huh? NOT! (Thanks Wiki).  After I was done with that topic, I figured I might as well brush up on The Pharaohs, The Sphinx, Stonehenge, The Pyramids and The Sargasso Sea.  I finally felt asleep much smarter than I was when I first went to bed.

Move over Facebook and Twitter. What have you done for me lately? Google has helped me to make some very important decisions in my life. Like should I take that vaccine my doctor is prescribing? Google said enough tests weren’t done on it so No! Remedies, Recipes, you name it, my buddies provide it.  Sometimes I feel like an information pusher. I can get you whatever info you seek. Shhh…just step into this alley and we can do business.  Oh wait a minute, I just had a thought, maybe I could write a book with all the info I gather from Wiki and sell it…  I could call it WIKILEAKS.

Texting Bride

Video of a texting bride went viral today, as Web watchers take a moment to see the woman tap through her own wedding ceremony.

In these times, have we become so technology-driven that checking Facebook or Twitter is now a necessity, even during special occasions?

While the video was posted online back in 2009, its popularity took off only recently. The YouTube clip – published by user jimcostafilms1 and originally shot in 2008 in San Diego, Calif. – shows the bride discreetly pulling out her cellphone from under her veil and texting with one hand. Her other hand was being held by her father as they walked down the aisle.

With the bride and her father’s back to everyone in attendance, the minister continues with his opening remarks while the photographer catches this funny moment on film. “At one point, I noticed her doing it through my lens and I had to pull away from the camera to make certain I was seeing what I thought I was seeing,” he writes. Her father is seen trying to hold back a laugh and allow his daughter to do what she wants on her special day.

Maybe the text went something like, “Getting married LOL.”

Related articles

• Texting Bride Texts During Ceremony (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)

Selfish Christians

Is there such a thing as a Selfish Christian? Isn’t that an example of an oxymoron?  I think it is.  You see, to me a Christian is one who not only follows Christ but also his teachings.  A Christian is then supposed to share their faith with others so they can also become a part of God’s family.  So in reality, we cannot be selfish and call ourselves Christians.  Right? For my blog’s sake, we’ll pretend it’s an acceptable term.

Junko furuta

I came across the following article on the weekend, posted on a friend’s Facebook status.  It is another example of gross miscarriage of the justice system and also a disgusting and sick example of how disgusting and sick we humans can be.  This crime is unimaginable.  Be warned, the content is very graphic and detailed.  Do not read if you are sensitive.  Here is a summary.

Facebook Privacy

So apparently, Facebook is not as private as we would like and all our most intimate information is liable to be shared by a third party.  WOW!!  Some breaking news!  Who would have thunk it?  Someone better alert the authorities to this major breach of trust.  I for one never thought they would do such a think (prepare for sarcasm) and that’s why I had all my bedroom stories, complete with pictures, on Facebook for only my 600 plus friends to see.   (I am shy and a bit of an introvert).  My status updates regularly mirror my soul as I bare it to just my friends, well and maybe friends of my friends and their friends also but they are sort of my friends still as they are connected to my friends, right?   I would never share that kind of information with ANYONE else so Facebook doesn’t have the right to do this either.   When my status says, “Woohoo!! Carlos is leaving today for a month long vacation in Europe!!”,  I would hate to know that someone outside my 600  friends (and their friends) circle can also see it.  I heard that’s how people’s homes get burglarized but I trust my friends and their friends and their… never mind, you get the idea.

Now how about my other personal information like address etc?  Well I have filled out the form like they asked me and I wrote my name, age, address, phone number, etc. Heck, just so they don’t ask me later, I even tossed in my credit card and social insurance numbers.  ( In the box that says ‘sex’, I put ‘depends on the wife’s mood’   Who asks that anyways??).  I don’t think I left anything out.  Oh,  I also checked the box that says ‘share all with friends’.  I really don’t have a problem with my friends seeing anything on my page.  They are my friends and friends trust each other.

In regards to my photos.  I have to confess that I have uploaded some very questionable ones on Facebook BUT only my 600 plus friends are allowed to see them. NO ONE ELSE!  ( There was this one with me wearing my wife’s dress. Too funny.  Got a lot of comments on that one).  I don’t want to even THINK of other people I don’t know seeing these photos.   I can kiss my chance of ever running for public office goodbye.

My friend who considers herself ‘smart’, is not at all worried about Facebook’s breach.  She is not concerned about ‘other’ people seeing her personal stuff since according to her,  she does not put anything on Facebook or any other social network for that matter, that she would be worried about the wrong people seeing.  She says she views such sites as entertainment only and people like me, who takes it too seriously, have a problem.  I think SHE is the one with a problem if she cannot even trust her friends.  Why are they your friends if you can’t even trust them? No wonder she has only 135 friends on Facebook. (I would like to crack the thousand mark ).  My friend does not have even one photo album and barely updates her status.  Why even bother being a Facebook member?  What sort of entertainment is that??

Last week, the electricity went off in my part of town and I had to load the kids up in the van and drove for half an hour to my mom’s so I could get access to Facebook and keep abreast on how my friends were doing.  Now that’s proof right there that I’m being entertained and enjoying all the benefits of Facebook.

Or maybe my friend is really the smart one and I do have a problem…

Just my take.