I had nothing at all
Had to knuckle and brawl
They swore I’d fall
Be another brick in the wall
Another life
Full of love
That lost
That’s silly
This Philly
Y’all really ain’t stoppin
The boy with the pen

As of the 2005-2007 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S Census Bureau for Philadelphia:

—

Article: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/Philly-Police-Make-13M-Heroin-Bust.html

Last January, there was a 1.12 Million Dollar Heroin Bust at 1421 Alcott Street, across the street  from the house I lived in from 6th grade until college (1418 Alcott Street),

while I was up in NYU being a Peer Educator for Alcohol & Other Drugs.

Sometimes I feel I should move back to Philly and work there in my old neighborhood,

but part of me sees it as this chaotic hopeless mess, especially when you take into account all the racism, on both sides.

It’s not just the old Irish Catholic men spewing racism. It’s also different racial groups mad at one another for truckloads of things.  One of my best friends from Philly is Puerto Rican and many of her family members hated on blacks, while many of my brother’s friends have been beaten up by black kids for being white. It is sad, because there are a lot of good people too. I babysat for a black family on my block and we always talked about the tension in my neighborhood. The mother of the kids would even tease me that I was fine since I had that “black girl booty anyway”.  That mother and my mother sold American flag pins together after 9/11 to fundraise.

The same thing that is happening in Philly happened in Detroit first, and look how Detroit is now: grim.

I know I am not doing a very good job of synthesizing all this information right now, but I just want to store it all somewhere to come back to later.

What makes me most upset is the comments after another article on the same drug bust. I wish people would stop blaming people for the things they do based on the color of their skin, and think about the socioeconomic reasons that drive people to a life of crime. If you can only afford a lousy education, you are told by people you aren’t going anywhere, and you see your friends making a lot of money selling weed or heroin or whatever, it might look appealing to you too. I know I am idealistic, but all the energy we spend hating could be spent so much more productively.

Here is a sample:

These are  good short videos. In the section about economics in the second video, the woman mentions literacy issues, which is very true, especially because of the drastic decision to dramatically cut library hours and library programs and the threats to close many of the libraries completely in the near future. I remember waiting in line to use one of the six computers in my local library when I was doing applications for high school because my family didn’t have a computer yet. This is true for so many kids, even today. I volunteered at the library during high school and because of the high demand, students could only stay on the computer for twenty-five minutes. Imagine trying to type a good book report in twenty-five minutes and do any type of research. Many people would get aggressive and angry about the time limits. Sometimes, people wouldn’t want to leave the computer, and you would need to confront them or “tattle” by getting a librarian’s attention.

I agree with one commenter who said, “I’m just glad Ben Franklin isn’t alive to see this.”

The first public library in America with circulating materials,

The Library Company of Philadelphia, was chartered in 1732 on the initiative of Benjamin Franklin.

I haven’t had an actual post in a while!

Haha. : )

Well, I guess I should say what’s been happening…

So…my last real post was my Creative Writing story? Yes, well, I got an amazing 98% on that story, but that teacher is still being a right bitch. She hates me, haha. Oh well, at least I have four other teachers who like me!

Uhm…so I got my senior pictures in and everything, and they look amazing.

I saw the Vampire’s Assistant last Saturday. And I must say, it was AWESOME. I’m totally buying it the day it comes out on DVD. The vampire guy totally almost bitch slaps the little boy and calls him “soft”. Haha.

I have to take Spanish at MCC cause my mom forced me to take German instead of Spanish, and now has changed her mind because I’d need Spanish more then German in a hospital. But then again, this is America, and we speak English, so I pretty much think that if you’re going to live here at least learn the basic “Help! I accidentally shot him in a gang war and now he’s dying come save him!” phrase.

Uhm…I picked out the University I am dead-set on going to and visited it. I must saw it is pretty much awesome. The dorms are cool, they have an amazing (and competitive) nursing program, and their mascot is NOT REAL. How cool is that? Seriously, I’ll be a Griffon next year. And NO, it is not a real animal! Christ. How dumb can we get here, people?

Oh. I saw Bolt and Up! the other day, and they were equally amazing. Yay Disney for coming out with a movie thats actually pretty awesome. I’ve also decided that I’m going on a mission to get the thirty-odd movies on DVD from my past childhood, like Cinderella and Pocahontas so that when I have kids, they’ll know the true awesomeness of the Early Amazing Disney times. I’m also on a quest to find the two-disc Special Edition 1957 version of Alice in Wonderland. I found it on Ebay for $10, but sadly, I didn’t have $10.

OH! GUESS WHAT GOES ON SALE MONDAY???? Bon Jovi tickets for their March 9th show!!! If you love me, you’ll get me some tickets! Haha. Just kidding. But seriously, that’d be amazing.

So anyways, I’m going to go do the dishes before I have to go to work, so bye!

(CFD.net.au – Contract for Difference, Share, Forex, ETFs, Commodities Traders) – The Australian Medical Association says the issue of a deadly parasite common in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities has been blown out of proportion.

Strongyloides is a small parasitic worm that burrows under people’s skin and into the heart, lungs and gut and can cause serious illness or death.

Doctors and Aboriginal groups have raised concerns that the parasite is being ignored.

But the AMA’s Northern Territory president, Dr Paul Bauert, says medical professionals have been aware of the parasite for a long time now and routinely treat people who have it.

“People who have been here a long time who are aware of the parasite and have been not only treating the parasite but using prophylactic medications to prevent infection are a little bit bemused by all the hype about it at the moment because we are aware of it, we do treat it,” he said.

Source: Deadly parasite 'hype' bemuses AMA

Shaggy – Long Time

Red Foxx – Bounce

Chris Martin- Vibe Is Right

Cecile – Nah Stress

Vybz Kartel – Slow Motion

Anybody from Detroit knows this is the CD! Shout outs to the DeBarge family!

hey everybody, it has been a long long time since ive posted something on here. i have been busy with everything. i will try and start posting new videos again shortly.

-AS

Shakira’s new album She Wolf is her first album in four years (since 2005’s Oral Fixation volumes 1 & 2, which represented her best work to date, especially on the Spanish-language vol. 1) and represents a similar transformation to Jewel’s 0304 – Shakira has made an almost-purely danceable, modern album.  Unlike Jewel’s efforts prior to 0304, Shakira has made addictive up-tempo music before: see “Whenever, Wherever”, “Objection (Tango)”, “La Tortura”, “Hips Don’t Lie”.  But never before has she devoted an entire album to the stuff; gone are the tender, thoughtful ballads such as “Underneath Your Clothes” or “Illegal”.  The question nevertheless remains – is Shakira, whose image is now more sexually potent than ever (straight blonde hair, dancing in a half-catsuit in her “She Wolf” video), cashing in, or does she still remain herself?

Mainly, I argue for the latter.  Once the initial shock of the dense production and pounding bass subsides, the melding of cultures and instruments that has always been evident in Shakira’s work is here too.  Listen to “Long Time”, and its reggae beat which gives way to an instrumental bridge that prominently features what sounds like a gypsy saxophone; “Mon Amour” employs a rocky half-time clap that is reminscent of Shakira’s spunkier moments such as Fijación Oral vol. 1’s “Escondite Inglés”; the only semi-slow moment on the album is to be found in “Gypsy”, where Shakira employs an island feel with a plucked guitar, Caribbean-esque drums and Eastern-European string accents on the chorus.  Not to forget “Why Wait”, which is 2009’s update of “Ojos Así / Eyes Like Yours” with its Middle-East-meets-West instrumentation and production over a storming 4/4 bassline (which becomes positively incendiary in the bridge).  Musically, although it’s a little bit of a readjustment to our expectations of what Shakira’s music sounds like, it is still definitely her, and her claims of wanting to make a “bassy, beat-driven record that maintains experimentation with sounds from other parts of the world” ring true.

Shakira’s lyrics have always been put under a microscope – a fact that has irritated me immensely through the years.  Not only is Shakira an incredibly intelligent woman, but her lyrics are far and away of a much higher quality than those of the majority of traditional pop made by native-English-speaking artists.  The criticism she has gained from reviewers and comedy sketches alike (see MADTV’s parodies of “Whenever, Wherever” and “Objection (Tango)” on youtube – they’re funny, but they’re also unwarranted) is totally unfair and disrespectful of an artist who has mastered a complex language (once you get past the basics, English is a complicated language to speak fluently – I should know, since I have taught it) when I wager that the majority of these critics can’t speak more than a few basic sentences of phrase-book Spanish.  Because Shakira dared to say “Lucky that my breasts are small and humble” in her first English hit does not make her nonsensical.  Listen to “Octavo Día” and “Timor”, songs in both Spanish and English that express criticism with the way that the world is run and our own media-obsessed culture, and you’ll understand that Shakira is very well-aware of what she sings and what she has written.  On She Wolf, there is nothing as incisive as “Timor” or “How Do You Do” (both from Oral Fixation vol. 2) but its opening salvo of “A domesticated girl, that’s all you ask of me / Darling it is no joke, this is lycanthropy” is certainly more sophisticated than “I think you wanna come over, yeah I heard it through the grapevine / Are you drunk, are you sober? Think about it, doesn’t matter” from Madonna’s current hit “Celebration”.  ”Mon Amour” delivers a fantastic kiss-off to a boyfriend who has gone to Paris with another woman, while “Men In This Town” ruminates on where are all the good men who can appreciate what Shakira has to offer?  (I feel her on that one.)

I suppose that a certain amount of lyrical straightforwardness is to be expected on an album which is almost purely uptempo and flirts specifically with the electro-pop genre – I can’t get too mad that some of Shakira’s more insightful and wittier metaphors have been sacrificed.  But the three Spanish tracks that round out the album – “Lo Hecho Está Hecho” (“Did It Again”), “Años Luz” (“Why Wait”) and “Loba” (“She Wolf”) – are lyrically superior to any of the album’s English tracks.  For example, “Años Luz”’s “Esperar es un mar que aún no sé navegar / No te quedes años luz, ya estoy decidida y quiero saber si lo estás tú” translates as “Waiting is a sea that I don’t know how to navigate / You haven’t got light years, I’ve already made my mind up and I want to know whether you have too”.  The English version, “Why Wait”, says “One more night with you, I won’t think it through / Time’s money, but you knew / There’s nothing in the world you can think of that I won’t do to you”.  It’s the same thought, but in Spanish it just comes across as much more elegant and sophisticated.  Not to mention that “Loba” in particular seems to flow much more naturally in Spanish than in English, and the lyrics are perhaps more comprehensible.  In any case, the Spanish tracks add to the album, even though they are retakes of English songs from its first half – it serves to reinforce the fact that Shakira is a bilingual artist who refuses to neglect either her Spanish or English audiences, but instead (as on the Oral Fixation era) seeks to satisfy them both.  This is laudable, and I hope that Shakira comes out with a full Spanish album next year (as has been rumoured).

So it all sounds good so far.  Well, the album is a consistent listen, and its brevity means that each song gets you moving but doesn’t outstay its welcome.  The dense production, in the main courtesy of Pharrell and John Hill, flows throughout (except for the break provided by the relatively lightweight “Gypsy”).  Because of this, there are no really weak tracks, although surprisingly, the Wyclef Jean collaboration “Spy” seems the most rote and uninspired song on the set – its straightforward 4/4 beat has nothing extra to catch the listener’s ear, and sounds lazy compared to Pharrell’s musically adventurous soundscapes in “Why Wait” and “Long Time”.  ”Gypsy” sounds like nothing else on the album, but its dip in tempo serves as a break which can sometimes be appreciated by the listener, but at other times seem like an interruption of the party, so depending on your mood, it could be a help or a hindrance.  Other than that, all the tracks are solid, but none of them are immediate standouts save the last track, “Mon Amour”.  With its decidedly rocky, guitar-led music and handclap-driven beat that intensify into a crunchy, heady chorus, it’s the kind of track that you can’t help but get wrapped up in.  Shakira’s vitriolic lyrics, snarling vocals and cutesy airline announcement closing out the song are the icing on the cake, and perfectly embody a girl’s anger with her straying lover’s neglect of her (perhaps similar to 2005’s “Don’t Bother”).  With repeated plays, the appeal of “Did It Again”, “Why Wait” and “Men In This Town” reveals itself, but the songs are certainly not immediate hits like “Hips Don’t Lie”, “La Tortura” or “Objection (Tango)”.

I therefore think that this is a solid Shakira album, and definitely stronger than her breakthrough Laundry Service which contained some fantastic songs but also some uninspired, pedestrian ones (here, the only track I recommend skipping is “Spy”).  However, for me it falls just short of Oral Fixation Vol. 2, because She Wolf is a tiny bit too one-note in its electro-pop approach, and slightly diminishes Shakira’s lyrical mastery in the process.  In terms of her entire catalogue, Dónde Están Los Ladrones? and particularly Fijación Oral Vol. 1 (the Freudian / Eve in the garden of Eden / Madonna and child symbolism were inspired and have yet to be matched in this album’s artwork and photography) are still Shakira’s crowning glories, but the Spanish-language tracks on She Wolf are lyrically more adept than their English counterparts and a worthy addition to both the album itself and to Shakira’s Spanish-music legacy as a whole.  In short, Shakira has far from sold out, and has made a pop album that other artists should be humbled by, such as it melds other cultures and quirky wordplay more than most radio-oriented pop.  And perhaps it is a compliment to Shakira herself that this album still falls somewhat short of her best work, and what I know she is capable of.

(CFD.net.au – Contract for Difference, Share, Forex, ETFs, Commodities Traders) – There are expectations that official figures out later this morning will show a rise in the unemployment rate in September.

The majority of economists are predicting a loss of 10,000 jobs in September, which will take the unemployment rate from 5.8 per cent in August to 6 per cent.

The unemployment rate has been unchanged for three months in a row, but a rise today would put it at its highest level in about six years.

ANZ senior economist Julie Toth says she predicts it will continue to increase over the next 12 months and peak at 6.75 per cent at the end of next year.

“We’re actually still looking at unemployment drifting up to about 6.75 per cent by the end of next year,” she said.

“That’s opposed to 7.25 and 7.5 per cent that we were thinking it might reach when we were looking at it from late last year.”

The Reserve Bank declared this week that the risk of a recession has passed and measures of confidence have recovered.

But Ms Toth says it will take some time and strong jobs growth to bring unemployment down.

“We need jobs growth of around 0.5 per cent per quarter and above to really bring the unemployment rate down again,” she said.

“The labour market does take quite a long time to catch up with other indicators across the economy.

“So even though profits and activity and production are turning up, we are still expecting to see the unemployment rate drift up from here, because it does take quite a while for that growth to filter through into the labour market.”

Source: Jobless rate tipped to rise

AHHH!  It’s been so damn long!  I missed this, I was busy.  Anyways…

I have been reading about that typhoon in Philippines, that was hardcore.  In some ways it was worse than hurricane Katrina.  It makes me so sad to read about it.  Here’s the story:

(CNN) — Downpours subsided temporarily in the Philippines on Sunday, a day after Tropical Storm Ketsana pummeled the capital Manila with its heaviest rainfall in more than 40 years.

//

Flood spawned by the rainfall killed at least 75 people with at least 21 others missing, the government said.

More than 80 percent of the capital was under water that swallowed whole houses and buses.

Manila, in the island of Luzon, and the nearby province of Rizal bore the brunt of the storm. People huddled on rooftops Sunday waiting on army helicopters to pluck them to safety. Others used ropes to wade through waist-deep muddy waters.

Power and water supply failed in some areas. Roads were rendered impassable, making rescue efforts challenging.

“Right now the challenge is to find out how many people have actually died and how many people we have to take care of in terms of people who’ve been displaced,” said Richard Gordon, the chairman of the Philippines National Red Cross.

“We’re really talking about maybe hundreds of thousands of people,” with about 280,000 to 300,000 displaced in the island of Luzon alone, he said.

Though the Philippines is no stranger to floods, Saturday’s downpours approached a record, with a month’s worth of rain falling within six hours.

The average rainfall for the entire month of September is 391 mm (15.4 inches), said Gilberto Teodoro, secretary of national defense and chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council.

The capital experienced 341 mm (13.4 inches) between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m., he said.

Officials worried that if the rains return, they could bring more floods if reservoirs burst.

“We’re hoping that there will be no more breaching of the dams,” Gordon said. “That’s one of the things that are very disconcerting to many people right now.”

Mike Anthony Catuira spent Sunday retrieving valuable belongings and seeking cover on higher ground. Overflowing rivers in the municipality of Tanay in Rizal province had inundated shops and homes, he said.

“The storm’s local name ‘Ondoy’ is really a powerful storm, and this is the most severe storm in my whole life,” he said in a report to iReport, the CNN Web site that allows people to submit pictures and videos.

I just read a post by Jim over at Bargaineering about CNN Money’s report on the average American commute. Pardon me if I don’t feel bad that the citizens of East Stroudsburg, PA spend an average of 40.6  minutes commuting.I do realize it’s an average, but I just want to elaborate on my own commute for a sec.

I take the MBTA’s Commuter Rail into North Station, Boston every morning. From there, I switch to the Green Line to Park Street, then switch to the Red Line to South Station, then walk another 0.4 mile from South Station to my office. On average, it takes me 75 minutes either way. This could get down to an hour if the stars align and the wind’s at my back and the trains are ready and waiting as I arrive at the station, and it can get up to over 2 hours if I miss the Commuter Rail train or have a delay at one of the stations.

Jim makes a point that the poor souls in PA spend 8.85 days in their cars commuting. Admittedly, there is no sitting in a car for my commute, but I sit on a train (or sit waiting for the damn train) for… wait for it… 26.04 days. As I said in my comment on Jim’s post, I spend almost the entire month of February in transit to or from work. That’s 26.04 days I can’t get back every year. I spend most of it reading, which isn’t bad at all, but you have to factor in the smelly/crazy/inconsiderate/whatever-else clientele that takes the T in Boston.

So you say I should just drive and avoid all the hassle of the train? Well, it would probably take just as long (with even less predictability thanks to Route 93 traffic) and it costs $10 a day to park in a garage near my office. That calculates out to $2,500/year just to park as opposed to $1,812/year for the train pass that I can also use on the weekends to go into the city to hang out.

The argument that “time is money” haunts me every day, let me tell you.

I have news! Oh, I’m so excited even though it isn’t much. In my last blog post I told you about the girl who I share similarities with, right? Well, my friend Antoinette introduced me to her! Even though we haven’t spoken much, I would love, love, love it if I could be considered one of her close friends eventually. I have this plan in my head that I will go to the All Time Low concert with her in November.

I asked her about her Babycakes shirt one morning. Then I asked if she met the Babycakes guy at Warped Tour and she said, “Oh you mean Paul Griffiths? No, I wish. I bought that shirt at Warped Tour.” Then I told her I was there and gushed how cute Paul Griffiths is. As we made our way to her locker I asked who her favorite band she saw at Warped was and guess what she said… ALL TIME LOW!! You don’t even now how excited I was then and there! (Gosh, I haven’t typed this many exclamation points in such a long time. Nor have been this excited about a new friend.)

I wrote my first Science Current Event article yesterday which I turned in today. I feel pretty proud of it. It’s about how black patients seem less likely to survive cardiac arrest than white patients. I also finished my geography “exam” today.

I have so much new music to share with you, but I guess I will save some of it. First of all, I was listening to old You Me At Six demo songs on YouTube and I think I like their old sound better. Listen to “Promise, Promise” compared to “Finders Keepers”. They have changed immensely. Secondly, I like a guy who calls himself Owl City. I get to go to one of his free shows in October. Lastly, I finally bought All Time Low’s new album, Nothing Personal Wednesday night when I was supposed to be doing my homework. Oh well, music is better. Wait – one last thing. I have enough money to go see The Used and Brand New! I should celebrate. All of this makes me wonder if anyone has noticed my mood change.

Song Of The Day – “Lights Out” by Santigold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwNkuw-YTVo

Haven’t been here in a long time and thing have gone from bad to worse to kill me now and back. Since the last time I was here not too much his changed I am still working the job at the hotel, still trapped at home. The good thing is that I finally started college, ya I know about time.  We have moved to a piece of crap house, the dam thing looks like it will fall down if you sneeze.  All in all my life still sucks.

I hoping to get a part time job for the month with a friend at the trail or terror, when there last year with the family it was fun, so looking to get a job there. I am in my first quarter college and so far so good. I am a little scared about future classes, like college algebra, Makes my nauseous just thinking about it.

Tell I write, later

Hey!

Wow, it has been so long since I last posted A whole week! I am very sorry…there has been so much other stuff.

Well, this blog probably won’t be a very long one. But I want to know:

Should I Move To Blogger?

The pros of Blogger are that I can follow all you others, which is good, and I can use cool backgrounds and have better widgets in the sidebar.

The cons are that I wouldn’t be able to have all the different pages I have with WordPress. Also, I am more comfortable with the WordPress layout.

If  I did change to Blogger, I could still keep this site updated with crafts and iSonali, but not blog so regularly. That could be a good compromise I suppose…

Please vote!

TTYL  

… since I posted something on this faithful blog of mine. Initially only my random thoughts disguised as poetry found their way to this blog. Later came rants about various aspects of life interspiced with views on Raaja’s music and now come posts saying that I don’t know what to say. Sigh! what a transformation.

When i read the old posts that i have written i burst into laughter and even feel embarassed at a few posts. But reading them is fun for sure and it is for this good reason everyone should have a blog and not really worry about what they write because i write nothing sensical but still keep writing as always.

Keep writing (to me and to everyone reading this!)

Cheers!

So, it’s been a long time since we have put pictures up here!  I kept telling Mommy, but she said the Internet was down and there was nothing she could do!  Since I have last talked, we have moved!  I helped Mommy and Daddy pack, and it was  FUN!!!

My favorite thing to do was play with the bubble wrap!  It was awesome!!

Then I learned that I could play in the boxes!  It was so much fun!

A few days before the Big move, my Gramps came to see me!  We had all kinds of fun!

This is my Gramps, after his 16 hour drive!  He was really tired, but not too tired to play with me!

Daddy, Gramps and I down on the river walk!

 Gramps even let me wear his hat!!..I make one cute COWGIRL!!

Gramps letting me chew on the remote!

Gramps, I enjoyed your visit and I need you to come and see me again!

Ok, yes, I’ve been away. And the next week isn’t going to be any better. But in the meantime, FIND THIS SONG. I think it’s a cover of a Johnny Cash song and (curse my hypocrisy) I haven’t heard the original, but this one is sooo crazy awesome. It might just be based on the Cash song, because it’s quite similar, but very different. ha.

I found it. It’s by Moby and it’s called “Afterlife,” though Cash’s version was called “God’ll Cut You Down.” Doesn’t sound too uplifting, but WOW. Look it up.

*****CORRECTION*****

The song is “Run On For A Long Time,” and it was originally done by the Blind Boys of Alabama. I’m pretty sure the group that covers it is Bill Landford and the Landfordaires. I must say, though, that the lyrics are extremely similar to the ones in the Johnny Cash song. Maybe Johnny Cash changed some words, made it more monotonous, and retitled it. ha.

This guy is amazing! His cover of the Boston song Foreplay / Long Time is right on.