Shining Down On You

Random thoughts on this gloomy Thursday morning:

1. I can't get Lupe's new single "Shining Down" out of my head. The man is a lyrical genius; no if's, and's or maybe's. There's not a more complete rapper out there in terms of lyrical substance, flow, and sheer creativity. Simply put: 98% of the shit he puts out is excellent. He could be on a song with Clay Aiken, and I would stop and listen. The guy even manages to sound cool using the autotune (beginning of verse 2). Add the fact that the version I have doesn't even sound completely finished, and I'm pretty damn excited. My only hope is that half a million people don't end up illegally downloading his next album, which could possibly piss him off enough to make him quit the game early like Barry Sanders. The Lions haven't been the same since...

What's G? Here's the answer.

2. Well, we still have a very long way to go here in America in terms of equal treatment of people. Obama's victory doesn't mean America is suddenly gonna transform into Sesame Street, where minorities and whites live in a color-blind society, and noone thinks it's strange that there's a 9-foot tall talking yellow bird walking around the place holding hands with small children. I remember reading a story a few months back about how some white boys here in the lovely state of Pennsylvania ganged up on a Mexican immigrant named Luis Ramirez and beat him to death. Now yesterday night, I found out that two of the culprits got their punishment: a max of 23 months for both of them.

This is what I don't understand: how in the world does Michael Vick get the same sentence, and a hell of a lot more flak for killing dogs? Not humans. Motherfucking dogs. Now I'm obviously not absolving Vick of all the blame, as what he did was extremely cruel. But hearing how two punks got 6-23 months for a brutal hate crime against a human being just makes me sick. It makes me sick because a good, hardworking young man is dead, his family is grieving, and a bunch of racist pieces of shit are still walking around laughing because they got away with murder. Actually, this seems like deja vu:

Vincent Chin anyone?

RIP

3. Now that I'm 21, I feel like I've finally crossed into a zone from which I can't escape. When I graduated high school at 18, I felt like I was reaching the ends of my childhood. But I knew that there were still 4 years of college ahead of me. When I turned 20, the fact that there was a fucking "2" at the front of my age blew my mind. But I still knew that I couldn't legally drink (but could get myself shot up in Afghanistan of course). Now that I'm finally the big two-one, I know that I'm officially a young adult. I don't feel like an adult, but I guess I'm part of that club now. It's definitely the last cool age to turn...noone gets their friends piss drunk when they turn 50.

4. That leads me to my next point: cherish thy youth! I remember back in high school all I wanted was for it to end so I could start college. And now that I'm about to embark on my senior year of college, do I still think that?

Yes.

But that's because my high school sucked balls...but for the sake of conversation, I think that people should take the days as they come and not wish for the future to come too soon. I know that's throw-up-in-your-mouth cliche, but it stands true. Here's a nice metaphor (or analogy...I still can't tell the difference, can you?): when you're driving in your car in intermittent rain, and you really begin to appreciate how every swipe of the wipers makes your view so much clearer. You then begin to think about how much you take sunny weather and clear visibility for granted. Same thing here: don't take shit for granted.