Six Degrees to President Obama

When dealing with six degrees of separation it is hard to think of yourself as connected to someone you have never met. This idea though fascinating also sounds like a person’s boredom getting the better of them. So six degrees of separation, is it legit or is it not? Could it be less than six degrees or is it just the luck of the draw and whom you know? If you know people who are famous it is easier to make connections because celebrities have a wide network of relationships. Or is it that the people celebrities know are in the public eye and more people know about them so it easier to connect to them? I can connect myself to more than a couple of sixties and seventies famous musicians such as The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, The Doors, The Turtles, even Elvis. But that is all through one person that I know making my connections much smaller in degree than others.
When my brother moved to Berkeley to attend college, I had an idea of the eclectic characters he would meet over the years. Though it never struck me that I would be able to connect myself to President Obama through one of his acquaintances he met while living in the dorms. Most people know who William Hung is if they are familiar with the show American Idol. He is an upbeat student from Berkeley that auditioned for the show a few years back, and though he did not make it to the finals, he touched the hearts of millions of Americans with his wacky singing style, and his loveable personality. He got to know the judges on the show Paula Abdule, Randy Jackson, and Simon Cowell. These three famous musical personnel have hundreds of connections to famous actors, musicians, and even politician.
Paula Abdule—a singer and dancer from the eighties and nineties—spend much of her time in the spotlight rubbing elbows with all sorts of famous people. Madonna, perhaps the most famous of all women singers knew Paula, which in terms of six degrees of separation connects William Hung to Madonna through Paula Abdule.
Madonna toured the world forming relationships with people in every country. She preformed countless times, and made guest appearance on many television shows. One connection she has is Oprah. Oprah the talk show host, and one of the riches people in the world had Madonna on her talk show in September of this year. Their ideas on politics were discussed and through now through the idea of six degrees of separation Oprah knows Madonna, who has knows Paula Abdule for years, who knows William Hung from his audition on American Idol making William connected to Oprah.
Oprah is a major supporter of Barack Obama, and made her voice heard though out the race for presidency. She introduced herself to Senator Obama and quickly became a large help in his campaign. And yes once again through six degrees of separation Obama knows Oprah through her help on his campaign trail, who knows Madonna when she was on her talk show in September, who knows Paula Abdule from their careers as musicians in the eighties and nineties, who knows William Hung from his audition for American Idol in 2003.
Now how is this all connected to me? Well my brother lived in the dorms at Berkeley. There he met a girl who invited him over to a party at her house. There she introduced my brother to one of her friends a Mr. William Hung. They both hung out and became acquaintances of one another socializing at their friend’s house and singing karaoke. So in the end I know my brother from being siblings, who knows William Hung from school, who knows Paula Abdule from his audition on American Idol, who knows Madonna though their music careers in the eighties and nineties, who knows Oprah and being a guest on her talk show, who knows President Obama from her support of his race for the presidency making me connected to our new and first African American President!
The idea that this could work for everyone makes it mind-boggling. Once one connection is made it is hard to stop. There are connections everywhere. The people you know might just know more than you think or know they know. And with a little bit of conversation and time taken out to make a connection with someone, the connections will soon become endless.

Dreaming of Reality

Four weeks ago I was letting my dogs out in the morning, barefooted and a little groggy, when all of a sudden my foot started to burn. I sat down and looked at the bottom of it and there was a juicy yellow and black smudge which resembled a bee. I quickly wiped away the residue of the now deceased bee and pulled out the venomous stinger. I've never been allergic to bee's or anything really, and I thought that this would just be an extremely annoying itchy bump on the bottom of my foot. Well that would have been nice, but it didn't happen that was, and I became allergic, and then blah blah blah long story short, it messed me up pretty good for the past month.
So where this story is going is; last night while dreaming I was enjoying a sunny day at the beach, the wind was light, the waves were lulling, and the sand was soft as silk. Then BAM something happened and I literally woke up with the worst pain in my foot as if I had been stung again. I panicked sitting straight up, and holding on to my foot like it was about to fall off. My foot was burning again in the same spot, but quickly subsided so that I could fall back asleep and enjoy the rest of my time at the ocean.
What a cruel joke my mind and foot were playing on me! It was as if my subconscious was using my pain against me. I wonder what I did to up set it so?

It's a Mad Mad Chapter, But NOT the Mad Hatter's Chapter

My favorite chapter in Alice and Wonderland is Pig and Pepper. And simply because it is MAD!!! So the title doesn't have MAD in it, and doesn't have the Mad Hatter, it is still so curious. Alice doesn't want to be mad, or have others consider her mad, but she just can't help but feel mad because of the incredible vivid dream she is creating as she speaks to the Cheshire Cat of not being mad. In fact that is curious, because she is saying she is not mad, and she is dreaming others are saying she is mad, and she has this ability to control what these other characters are saying,and yet she is still convinced she is mad! It is as if she is in a nightmare with colors, love, hate, desire, knowledge, passion, adulthood, and childhood. Even though she cannot accept herself as ALICE. She is who she is, but does not feel that.

dreaming gave me a headache

As I started to drift off into dreamland, I had no idea what was going to take place in my subconscious in the passing hours.

It all started out in a home, which looked nothing like my parents home in California, but it felt as though it was. I was not me, but a little girl jumping rope in the living room with hardwood floors and big open windows. The television was on, and I paying little attention to the breaking news. As I skipped to the side door to go out into the driveway to continue jumping rope, I hear from the news caster "Killer on the loose, please take precaution and make sure all children are in your site at all times." This was interesting, I remember thinking, but jumping rope was just that much more entertaining at the time. I stepped outside and looked down the driveway. To my surprise a man in dark clothing was walking up the driveway that was exactly the same driveway at my parents home. I got scared and tried to run inside the house, but he grabbed my shoulder with icy hands and turned my around. He had a knife in his hand that I wrestled away from him and started to stab him in his mouth that was wide open as if he was a snake dislocating his jaw to swallow me whole. But the knife transformed into a butter knife, and became limb causing no damage to the man holding me. He finally grabbed my hand with the impotent knife and said, "Now it's your turn." Lifting the knife above his head, I woke up! My head was pounding, and I felt very sick. I took myself to the bathroom got a glass of water, and decided to fall back asleep.

Then poof! I was back in the same dream, but this time I wasn't the little girl, but the mother, seeing my daughter dead outside the door. I quickly grabbed for the phone and dialed 911. The voice on the other end told me to lock the door, and turn on the TV. She said that there would be information that I needed to fallow, because the police would not be able to get to the house for a little while due to the fact that this family lived a significant way outside of town. I quickly reached for the remote turned on the TV and the only thing to show up with a blue screen with the number 75 white. I picked up my son, and placed him in a back room with a windows everywhere and a one door. "Now stay in here, and you know the way out if you have to leave." I told him as I locked the door behind me leaving him in the room. I ran to lock the door when it opened and the killer was there. "Now it's your turn," he said again. And I woke up! again with a splitting headache. So I got some Advil this time and drank another glass of water, and tried to go back to sleep.

It took a while this time to fall back asleep, due to the fact of the vivid images in my head from my nightmare. But finally I fell back asleep, and POOF! I was in the dream again! But this time I was the son in the glass room. In my mind I had the images of my mother being murdered and me shutting the door. I remembered she told me I knew the way out if I needed to leave, and I opened a trap door in the floor and crawled down under a porch with very cold and fine dirt, that I started to cover my body in. Then I had a sickening feeling that the killer would fine me there and I crawled to yet another porch that had the same dirt that I covered myself in again. As I got close to being fully covered, I had the same feeling that the killer would fine me and that I needed to run down the hill to the neighbors. As I started to run, the land opened up and it was a beautiful meadow, with butterflies, wildflowers, and blossoming trees. I remember feeling very peaceful as I made my way to the neighbors house just in sight. Then I felt a cold hand on my shoulder, and I was whipped around. He was the most hideous looking demon with dim yellow eyes, and gray skin that wrinkled, his breath was sticky on my face as he said, "Now it's your turn to die." Right as he lifted his hand he transformed into a man with a feeling of holiness, that was in my sight for a split second and then I woke up again! And this time my eyes were cramped shut, and my headache was worse than ever. I felt my forehead and it was burning and actually pulsing. My eyes finally stopped cramping and I could see again.

I didn't fall back asleep, I opted to stay away because of the concerned of what might happen next. It was such a strange and in depth dream that I was not sure what to make of it. The whole day it consumed my thoughts with the headache lingering in my third eye, and by the next night, I was still worried to fall asleep, but curious as to what might happen. I let myself drift away into dreamland once more. The next morning I woke up with a blank slate, no recollection of a dream, and just the painful memory of my headache.

The Struggles of Growing Up

Throughout Alice in Wonderland there is a constant struggle internally as well as externally with Alice and growing up. She has the idea in her head that growing up is wonderful and the older one aquires more knowledge. But then fights the idea of growing up because she doesn't want to miss out on her childhood. Her complex thoughts about the whole ordeal is quite intelegent in itself and yet she doesn't see the intellegence she already possesses.
Than there's the whole struggle she is gowing through with her physical size. One minute she's too big then she's too small and then she's perfect and then she's entirely too big even to be in a house. Her struggle with her size Alice associates with adulthood as well as the mind and knowledge. In Alice's mind size is just as much a part of growing up as knowledge.
We all might have thought this way when we were children. Once we surpassed someone in height that meant superioroty over their small stature. Perhaps it's becaise we can physically see and experience the body growing easier than seeing the internal mental growth of our peer's minds. It's a battle between sizes that adulthood and childhood are associated with in poor little Alice's mind-or could it be poor old Alice?

my book and heart shall never part

We "answered" the question, "what is a child?" And even though everyone came up with a different answer, there is no right answer as we all know. And after seeing the movie on Thursday it only provoked more questions, for me as least. This may seem a bit demented or perhaps uncalled for, and before asking this I have to make clear that it's all based around the question "what is a child?" And not meaning the physical younger human being, but the idea of a "child."

Ok now that I've explained myself here's my question: "Is a child expendable?" Are children just figments of our imagination? Creating a hope in the adult mind of innocence, and guilt free conscience? Are children a one time only thing, that is tainted after their first experience outside the mothers womb? And is a child even a child inside the mother or is it just a soul-anima-of the mother that is carring it, waiting to bring a miniture human into an adult world?

Whatever the answer may be, it is hard to grasp the concept of a child outside of what I have grown up thinking. Or maybe it is just that I haven't thought outside of my prior knowlegde of a child, and doven deeper into the quesiton more psychologically, or methophorically, rather than physically.

Even Munchkins are Faking it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYSPIZk1egc

I don't know how to make the video actually appear in the blog. it might do it once i hit publish but i don't know! if anyone can help me that would be nice.

anywho! this commercial is great. it is the Munchkins of The Wizard of Oz, faking their voices.