Yesterday was my graduation!

• I woke up
• Took a shower
• Bought my snowboard and bindings
• Got dressed and met up with my friends to eat at Triple Rock Brewery
• Went to my Graduation Prereception where they awarded us with gold stoles
• Nolan picked me up because I forgot my graduation tickets. He was wearing shorts under his robe.
• Had May Commencement 2008 where I got to sit on stage with the Chancellor, Mr. Craigslist, Justin Forsett, and the Valedictorian who had a 3.99 GPA and basically no life but she got to speak in front of all the graduating seniors as if she had something valuable to say as our class hermit, took crazy pictures with Ici and Krizz
  
• Went to the Reception and jacked my food
• Changed and then went to the Kate Nash concert with AJ. Please check out this phenomenal talent.
• Ended the night eating at Lucky Chances
• Slept
  

Today's my Graduation

It's the first one of three. And looking back at my college career, I'm very proud of the things that I accomplished. But if there's one thing that gives me some disappointment, it's that I did not garner enough respect. And this has been the most ungentlemanly side of me. Frankly, I do not think much of being nice. I walk down the street, I'm a man of my word, I'm good to the people who are good to me, and I don't really care about what anyone else does. I ask myself, why do I have to approach any freshmen if I'm a senior? If they were that dope, I would know them already. To me, there was a balance in this process. Why be nice to anyone if they're just going to take advantage of your kindness? Plus, I feel fake as sh*t when I'm forcing myself to be nice. "You need to give respect to get respect." is what people say. But you can't respect people you think you're better than. And I'm not going to say I'm better than everyone. I like to think I achieved more than some people and less than others, and I can give out my respect accordingly. And also, the thing about being not nice, people know where you stand. If you're nice, you want something. If you give change to a bum, you think somehow karma will pay it back to you. If you're not nice, then you're not asking anything from anyone.

In the end, this line of thinking will not get me far.

"If you're not nice, then you get shorted in the long run." - Ici

Actually this is a lot more Accurate!

Lil Boosie

This is what my haircut looks like.



Suffice it to say that I wasn't happy when the Asian lady was getting liberal w/ the buzzer.

The Wire's Last Episode was Yesterday

Copied and pasted from the HBO Website

http://www.hbo.com/thewire/finaleletter/index.html



It wasn't for everyone. We proved that rather quickly.

But episode to episode, you began to understand that we were committed to creating something careful and ornate, something that might resonate. You took Lester Freamon at his word: That we were building something here and all the pieces matter.

When we took a chainsaw to the first season, choosing to begin the second-story arc with an entirely different theme and different characters, you followed us to the port and our elegy for America's working class. When we shifted again, taking up the political culture of our mythical city in season three, you remained loyal. And when we ended the Barksdale arc and began an exploration of public education, you were, by that time, we hope, elated to understand that whatever else might happen, The Wire would not waste your time telling the same story twice.

This year, our drama asked its last thematic question: Why, if there is any truth to anything presented in The Wire over the last four seasons, does that truth go unaddressed by our political culture, by most of our mass media, and by our society in general?

We've given our answer:

We are a culture without the will to seriously examine our own problems. We eschew that which is complex, contradictory or confusing. As a culture, we seek simple solutions. We enjoy being provoked and titillated, but resist the rigorous, painstaking examination of issues that might, in the end, bring us to the point of recognizing our problems, which is the essential first step to solving any of them.

The Wire is fiction. Many of the events depicted over the last five seasons did not, to our knowledge, happen. Fewer happened in the exact manner described. Fiction is fiction, and it should in no way be confused with journalism.

But it is also fair to note that the problems themselves — politicians cooking crime stats for higher office, school administrators teaching test questions to vindicate No Child Left Behind, sensitive prosecutions and investigations being undercut for political motives, brutal drug wars fought amid a police department's ignorance of and indifference to the forces involved -- were indeed problems in the recent history of the actual Baltimore, Maryland.

Few of these matters received the serious attention — or, in some cases — any attention from the media. These problems exist in plain sight, ready to be addressed by anyone seriously committed to doing so. For those of us writing The Wire, a television drama, story research involved dragging the right police lieutenants or school teachers, prosecutors and political functionaries to neighborhood diners and bars and taking story notes down on cocktail napkins and paper placemats. To be more precise with their tales? To record it and relay it in a manner that can stand as non-fiction truthtelling? Yes, that's harder to do. But there was a time when journalism regarded that kind of coverage as its highest mission. The true stories that The Wire traded in are out there, waiting for anyone willing to take the time. And it is, of course, vaguely disturbing to us that our unlikely little television drama is making arguments that were once the prerogative of more serious mediums.

We tried to be entertaining, but in no way did we want to be mistaken for entertainment. We tried to provoke, to critique and debate and rant a bit. We wanted an argument. We think a few good arguments are needed still, that there is much more to be said and it is entirely likely that there are better ideas than the ones we offered. But nothing happens unless the shit is stirred. That, for us, was job one.

If you followed us for sixty hours, and you find yourself caring about these issues more than you thought you would, then perhaps the next step is to engage and to demand, where possible, a more sophisticated and meaningful response from authority when it comes to such things as the drug war, educational reform or responsible political leadership. The Wire is about the America we pay for and tolerate. Perhaps it is possible to pay for, and demand, something more.

Again, accept our sincere thanks for making the commitment to watch a show as improbable and problematic as ours and for considering the arguments and issues seriously. We are surprised as you are to be here at the end, on our own terms, still standing. As a cast and crew, we're proud. But the credit is not all ours. It's yours as well for believing, year after year, in this story.

David Simon
Baltimore, Md.
March 10, 2008

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I think anyone who watches The Wire has a certain disappointment for anyone who hasn't seen it and continuously finds an excuse not to see it. Iciwici told me that Wire fans are pretentious after citing a blog commenter who claimed that she cannot take anyone seriously if they haven't seen The Wire. And I would have to agree and disagree. It seems to be an exaggeration when EVERYONE is constantly clamoring The Wire is "the best show on television." Yes, that would sound pretentious, but that sort of claim is the truth. The Wire IS currently the best television show ever made in the history of television. It is a tragedy that more people do not know about this show that has attempted to do/and has done more for American society (not just American television) than anything television has ever done. Personally, I get butt-hurt when I think of the people who don't know the stories of Stringer Bell, Omar Little, Bodie Broadus, and pretty much all the characters on the show. The best we can do as fans is let people know that they are missing the best show on television. But I wonder, how many times are non-viewers going to hear that they are missing THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION until they actually watch it?

R.I.P The Wire

Fun fact: The caption on top of my blog "The game remains the same." is from the The Wire.

The War on Iraq Will Cost $2 Trillion

The War on Iraq Will Cost $2 Trillion

It will cost two trillion
To kill little children
Taking taxpayers
For fools to use tools
And hammers with hollow points
Just so we can make a point
“we won’t let tourists terrorize our territories”
While we mass murder Medicare
Slaughter social security
But the TV shoots reality
Shows to show how far we’d go
For nothing close to two trillion
To mediate Middle East hiccups
We create killers who stick-up
The liquor stores when before they
No longer needed more than
Allowance from adults and
Activities for afterschool and
Scholarships to acknowledge
All that they accomplished
But here have my money clip
Though there’s nothing in it
Because they took two trillion from me too
To turn troops
Into veterans when they should have never been
Spending sending somber bombs not surrendering
Tax cuts it adds up on shoulders
Like boulders rolling over the poor it’s colder
When two trill don’t pay for heating
Bills or wheels or meals
Or keeping it real

-Cas Ruffin

We Are Not Supposed To Be Friends

We Are Not Supposed to Be Friends

We are not supposed to be friends
Because together is a car in reverse
Because there’s no convo without a curse
Because we can’t put each other first

Because 1 plus 1
Does not equal 2
1 plus 1 is
I hate you

We are not supposed to be friends
Because you fucked up
Because I fucked up
Because we’re fucked up

We are not supposed to be friends
Because you’re my friend’s girl
Or so and so’s girl
Or his girl
Or her girl
You need stop being someone’s girl

We are not supposed to be friends
At least not like that
You’re part of the group
You’re part of the guys
It’s not hugs
It’s high fives
What is up with that?!?!

Or you’re my friend’s ex-girl
I’m not mad
But my friend is
So I hate you
for him

We are not supposed to be friends
Because you are a stripper!
Just kidding
We can be best friends!

We are not supposed to be friends
It’s probably in the stars
I only get to look at you from far
Because we can’t have conservations that never end
If the conversations never begin

I guess we’re not supposed to be friends