Through the Eyes of Elena

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

My Former Governor Blagojevich Challenges the Gov't to Disclose All Tapes

Look at that head of hair, people. It's gorgeous. How can you not be in awe of that beautiful hair?

And let me tell you something... It's real!

I know this for a fact. A few years ago, I was at O'Hare Airport, back in my hometown of Chicago, waiting to catch a flight out to Aruba or Hawai'i with my best friend and her parents for our annual vacation. My best friend, Jamila and I decide we need a deck of cards to entertain ourselves with on the plane... As though the portable DVD player + all the DVDs we brought + the movies United showed on the flight really weren't going to be enough for us.

So we venture over to one of those in-airport newsstands. As we're ruffling through the magazines and candy... She and I both get a very eerie feeling. We glance over at eachother. Quickly look around the newsstand and notice, several black-suited men sporting security earpierces.

We both look at eachother again, and say almost simultaneously, "I feel like something is about to go down." So we decide to truck it out of there and go back to the gate where her parents were. Just as we step right outside the newsstand, low and behold... That beautiful shiny hair! Governor Blagojevich is standing not even a foot in front of us. So naturally, we strike up a conversation, shake his hand, give him hugs. He knows her father of course. Who doesn't?

This all happened FAR before the whole selling Obama's Senate seat scandal came about of course. However, I'm still a bit fond of him. He was a great governor and did provide all women and children in the state of Illinois with free healthcare as well as many other things. He was most recently on Celebrity Apprentice.

All that plus my encounter with him... He's still good in my book.

Especially because I watched C-SPAN EVERYDAY while they impeached him as well as read the newspaper about it and there was no real display of ALL the evidence to the public, therefore I was not able to form my own opinion about the case. Now his criminal trial proceedings are beginning and the prosecution is still not allowing full disclosure of all said wiretap tapes. For shame.

CNN recently posted a video of the former Governor Rod Blagojevich challenging the government to explain in court why they will not allow full disclosure of said tapes. He also displayed aggravation with the court's pursuit of his wife Patti Blagojevich on criminal charges as well.

Check it out:

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Prepare For 2012 With A Luxury Sub

I finally saw the movie 2012 this past spring break during my visit in Texas... And though there was some terrible acting, it still made me think and put a bit of a chill down my spine.

I'll admit it, I thought about drawing up blueprints for an arch.

Then I realized how inadequate my engineering skills are and tossed that idea out of the window along with my sketch paper.

However, thanks to Gizmodo... I could just get this guy (in the picture) to build me one of those bulletproof luxury submarines.

The full article on Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5516470/you-too-can-own-a-bulletproof-luxury-sub

I would prefer mine to be HUGE (I have a very large family) and not lime green. That's just never a cute color. And as for the bulletproof part, I would like to keep that because you never know who may be jealous and tear to blow holes into my cool new luxury sub right?

This one would be nice to take a spin in, but I hope this guy has bigger and better things in the works. But for now, I'd gladly take this tiny little sub out for a nice 007 adventure as Gizmodo so graciously suggests it could be used for.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Apple: Old School Technology & Fashion Statements

Apparently there is some new dock device for the iPhone to turn the mobile device into a desk phone.

Kind of ironic.

We've spent so much time getting away from cords and traditional phones... Yet one of the most advanced cellular phones could now possibly be reverted back to that traditional technology.

I won't lie though... I want one.

Gizmodo's iPhone dock article: http://gizmodo.com/5505908/theres-finally-a-dock-to-turn-iphones-into-corded-desk-phones

Next...

So I know the iPad is new, fun, cool, etc... Blah blah blah. But Gizmodo has a point, it can't fit in your pocket, but doesn't need a laptop bag.

So the question becomes, does the iPad really make this acceptable?

That's right ladies and gentlemen, the murse (man purse) is back. Well, it could be anyway.

Personally, this is NEVER okay in my opinion but who am I separate a man and his future iPad?

I know Gizmodo raises the question of people even removing their iPads from their homes frequently when an iPhone does all the same things. But the fact is people take all sorts of unnecessary things with them simply because they are attached and... Because they can.

Man purse on Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5505431/does-the-ipad-make-man-purses-okay-now

Let's face it, people do not need to bring these things everywhere they go:

1. Dave and Buster's cards.... Unless you have some sort of addiction, it's just not acceptable.

2. Illegal substances... Need I say more?

3. That old prom photo... What could you possibly ever need that for in life?

4. Breath mints... If it's not something for flavorful purposes, you should be taking some sort of medication anyway to help your problem.

5. Newspaper... After you've read through it, you really have absolutely no business carrying that thing around for the next 18 hours of your life. (Let the record show: I like hyperboles.)

However, I do encourage you to recycle.

I would also like to state:

I disapprove of the murse just as much as a disapprove of mandles (man sandles... Strappy and typically an ugly shade of brown which also show off the man's feet, especially toes in a particularly even more unattractive manner). Men, please do not show up anywhere in those things, because no one will take you or your mandles seriously.

You are, however, permitted to wear one strap flip flops (no thong ones!!). Typically acceptable ones are produced by NIKE, Jordan, Adidas, and Reebok.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

New Health Care Bill Signed With 22 Pens & Then Sued

News about the new health care plan finally being passed spread like wildfire late Sunday night/early Monday morning. I actually watched President Obama's speech on CNN Live after the Senate passed the bill and his words never cease to inspire me.

After checking up on the latest reactions to the bill, I came across a TIME Magazine article describing how and why the President used 22 pens to sign it... That's right. 22 pens.

Why, you ask? Well thanks attentive reader for asking. I'll tell you.

Apparently signing historic documents with many pens is a white house tradition. More pens means more historical memorabilia. It's as simple as that. These pens are often given out as tokens of appreciation to those who may have helped in the process.

Time article: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1974490,00.html?hpt=C2

According to TIME, President Lyndon Johnson used more than 75 pens to sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and gave one of the first pens to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Video of President Johnson signing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK2GdOxz3s0

On to more pressing issues...

I'm sure you're wondering about the whole suing part. Well, I'll get right to it.

CNN posted a story describing how 14 states' attorney generals are taking legal action, 13 in federal court against the new health care reform bill. CNN says, "Thirteen of those officials filed suit in a federal court in Pensacola, Florida, minutes after Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act."

CNN article & video of press conference: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/23/health.care.lawsuit/index.html?hpt=T1

Reportedly, 12 of those thirteen officials are republicans and one is a democrat. Including attorney generals from the States of Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Washington. The governor of Washington, Chris Gregoire (democrat), criticized the state's Attorney General Rob McKenna(republican) for adding the her state to the lawsuit.

Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum deems the bill as "unconstitutional." And the lawsuit states, "The Constitution nowhere authorizes the United States to mandate, either directly or under threat of penalty, that all citizens and legal residents have qualifying health care coverage."

Now does that even sound right?

I have 4 responses to the lawsuit:

1. Nor does the United States Constitution anywhere prohibit such a mandate.

2. Federal law always overrides state law.

3. This is a waste of tax payers money.

4. Are you retarded?

I'll leave it at that.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Edited Photos: Spring Break 2010

I had to edit the photos from my spring break trip to Texas for class... So here they are:

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Could Twitter Be Your Career Counselor?

Everyone knows about Twitter, right? Even my mom has one... Though she probably forgot about it already. I think the last time she logged on was in the summer.

We use Twitter for all sorts of things and sometimes it's actually the best way to reach me throughout the day through my one of my favorite apps, TweetDeck. Often I hit "Close" on text messages that pop up just because I don't feel like exiting from my Twitter application. I constantly shake my iPhone to reload my timeline so it will display the latest tweets from my friends.

I would definitely say Twitter comes in handy, but I never would have thought to use twitter to search for a job. In this economy and these dire times... Anything is possible though so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the article I read on the Chicago Sun-Times website about TweetMyJobs.com (http://tweetmyjobs.com/)

Sun-Times article: http://www.suntimes.com/business/currency/2104901,CST-NWS-mTweet16.article

Apparently Twitter presents a cheap alternative for companies to display job postings and thus TweetMyJobs exists where you can receive text message alerts on job updates. Some major corporations have already signed up for this service such as McDonald's, Motorola, and most recently Sears has been added to the list.

I don't know how popular this will become, but then again... I said the same thing about Twitter when I first created my account. It seemed pretty weird to me at the time, but now... I don't know what I would do in class without it. Lbs. (Lbs = Laughing but serious... For those who don't know.)