it just keeps comin, folks...

My Beyonce and I were driving to the pharmacy this evening and I had my iPod on and we were jammin to some tunes, when lo and behold, I found another song. Yes. Another song that mentions my employer.

I was busy doing my thug thizzle when Huey - in the remix to Pop, Lock, and Drop It with T Pain and Bow Wow - says:

It's H-U-E-Y, who flies G-V...

BALLIN.

i love youtube.

ahahahaha. Thank you Lauren.

i just had a realization.

In a mere 13 days, I am going to be


22 years old.

Oh, and by the way...

We have a new car. :)





I heart it.


RIP busted white car. You were a good car for 5 years.

Without music life would be a mistake. ~ Nietzsche

True, Nietzsche, true.

I recently (like...tonight) purchased the Beatles: Love cd. This is the project of George Martin and his son, Giles, for the Beatles' Cirque de Soleil show. It's wonderful.


Anyway..

On my trip last weekend, I also wrote down some lyrics that I thought were pretty good. Some of them I'll share with you here:

I'm afraid not of more of you cowards, but of my own strength. - NAS

Elenor Rigby waits at the window wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door. Who is it for? - Beatles

Oh God, under the weight of life, things seem brighter on the other side. - Dave Matthews

Now I'm trippin on MC's cliches, shot that ricochets, start trouble bust bubbles.. - Method Man

I ain't, I ain't, I ain't getting out of bed today, 9 to 5 to survive, theres gotta be a better way, Waking up early to punch in the clock, How I look, a grown man with my lunch in a box, But my kids need socks and shoes... - Murs

I annihilate as I articulate, Words of power your rhymes are unconfounding so death's your fate.. - Jeru the Damaja

Make a sound, fake it enough. - Circa Survive

High stakes, I got more at stake than Philly. - Jay-Z

Could this be out of line? To say you're the only one breaking me down like this,
You're the only one I would take a shot on, Keep me hanging on so contagiously. - Acceptance

And the people who love me still ask me, "When are you coming back to town? And I answer, "Quite frankly, when they stop building roads, and all God needs is gravity to hold me down.." - Allison Krauss



These are just a few lyrics I liked for one reason or another. Just thought I'd share... :0)

it's all in the music.

I have been meaning to update this thing with some thoughts from last weekend, but this week has been insane. Getting used to a 7am-3:30pm shift has been kicking my BUTT this week. Anyway.

Today at work I was sitting there...wasting time until 3:30 (because there was nothing for me to do, bah) and I realized that Nelly Furtado and Courtney Cox basically are twins. I don't know if I am the last person on the face of the earth to realize it or not, but they are. See for yourself.




Creepy.

Now on to the main thing I wanted to post about. I was driving down the road, headed to NC last weekend and I was listening to the new Timbaland CD. Track 5 held a great surprise for me. I was just driving, listening to Tony Yayo do his thug thizzle, and I heard him say:

I'm In a G 500, G 450, G550, that's airplane talk
I'm the Aviator Man...

I almost drove off the road. As most of you know, I recently started a job at Gulfstream Aerospace and all I hear about all day long is which GIII is in the hanger now, or what G500 is coming in this afternoon. I was like, "TONY I KNOW THAT'S AIRPLANE TALK!" Freaking awesome.

Then, today, I was listening to the recent pop hit "Umbrella" by Rihanna feat. Jay-Z. At the beginning of the track, Jay-Z says:

When the clouds come we gone, we Rocafella
We fly higher than weather, and G5's are better..

GV's ARE better. One of the top models. Young Hov, I know exactly what you mean.

SO.

Be on the lookout for Gulfstream reppin it in the rap lyrics. Let me know if you know of any more.

I work for the dopest company EVA.

i wish i could meet...

the person who wrote this article.

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0711,harvilla,76021,22.html

how funny. :)

dove, i haven't told you how i really feel about you...

I love you.

I honestly love you.

yeah, shake it up, giggle it shawty.

I love my sister. :0)

i now pronounce you, "mr. and mrs. screamin gumbo davis."

Yes, I - Jailhouse Boy McGee - will soon be Mrs. Screamin' Gumbo Davis. 50 days, as a matter of fact. Last night, Billy and I ate at Sticky Fingers for the first time (and probably last time...but that's another blog.) The best part of the night was that I learned what my blues name is and what my married blues name will be. I think I can live with it.

Also yesterday, Billy and I went to see Ratatouille. I must say, this movie is the best Pixar has ever created. If anyone knows my family's love affair with cooking, you can understand why I thought it was WONderful. everyone should see it.



Now, for the real reason behind this post. I have started reading the book Freakonomics by Stephen D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. It's a pretty interesting book [so far] and I think that I would like it more if I had not sat through Philosophy of Business with Dr. Yonai. That class taught me to think in a very "out of the box" thought pattern and so I find myself nodding a lot. However, there are a couple of points I would like to bring forward.

First of all, I couldn't agree more with the discussion of incentives that is in chapter one.

There are three basic flavors of incentive: economic, social, and moral.

It was interesting to read the discussion on incentives on blood donation. For those who don't know, the authors discussed how the incentive behind donating blood is a moral incentive. If people get paid to donate blood, then the total number of those who donate decreases. However, if they get paid an extreme amount, people would kill others to give blood. It's a delicate balance that must be found in all situations when dealing with incentives. What you think might work could strongly backfire.

The second thing I would like to note is the theory on management brought up in chapter one. Paul Feldman stated that

morale is a big factor - that an office is more honest when the employees like their boss and their work.


I have seen this several times within my short job history, but it is a very true statement. The interesting thing is that even though business students are taught this truth, very few apply it within their own management style. Why? I don't know. But the previous statement is very true.

Lastly, there is this intriguing statement by economist Adam Smith.

How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.

Food for thought. It hints at the soul of man...the nature of man, as does the following story from Plato's Republic:

There was a shephard named Gyges who stumbled upon a secret cavern with a corpse inside that wore a ring. When Gyges put on the ring, he found that it made him invisible. With no one able to monitor his behavior, Gyges proceeded to do woeful things - seduce the queen, murder the king, and so on.

The story poses the following question: could any man resist the temptation of evil if he knew his acts could not be witnessed? Glaucon, the student of Socrates, believed that the answer was no. Adam Smith and Socrates both agree that it is possible to resist. It is, nonetheless, an interesting scenario to contemplate.

So, that's all for now...I have to go return some baseball movies for my Beyonce, but there will be more later. Stay classy, Planet Earth.

if you had been a fly on the wall...

you would have heard:

me: sit your cute little booty down here. (on the sofa)
my beyonce: awww, don't say little booty!
me: why? it's not like that's a bad thing...
my beyonce: i've got dumps like a truck!



yeah bay-bee.

it's so cliche..

Ignorance is bliss. I'm sure of it. But when you aren't the ignorant one in the situation...you want to kill people. I think the character Scar from the Lion King said it best when he said, "I'm surrounded by idiots."

Sorry...just needed to rant. That is all.

Don't you think it's strange that I've been reading?

I'm almost finished The Castaway Kid by Rob Mitchell and very soon I will start Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. It's been so interesting reading a book where I actually know the author. It's been a good read, but I am also looking forward to reading Freakonomics.

hey [HEY] you [YOU].

OH Avril...bless your heart. Just when you thought the song "Girlfriend" couldn't get any worse...it does.

In an open letter on her official Web site, Lavigne, 22, responds to allegations that her hit single "Girlfriend," from her latest album The Best Damn Thing, was plagiarized from a 1979 song called "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" by a new wave outfit called the Rubinoos. The group's songwriters, Tommy Dunbar and James Gangwer, have filed a federal lawsuit against the singer.

"I had never heard this song in my life and their claim is based on 5 words," Lavigne blogs. "All songs share similar lyrics and emotions. As humans we speak one language."

Amazing.

But I know every rock and tree and creature, has a life, has a spirit, has a name...

The series of 9 Live Earth global concerts on 07-07-07 kicked off in Sydney, Australia to raise global awareness of environmental issues. CNN states that:

Tribal leaders with white-painted bodies and shaking eucalyptus fronds were the first of more than 150 performers at the nine, concert, 24-hour series to raise awareness about climate change.

Artists such as The Police, Fergie, Kanye West, and the Pussycat Dolls graced the stages to show their support and send a message to their fans about the environmental cause.

The drummers from Queen, the Foo Fighters and the Red Hot Chili Peppers began the London concert, leading a battery of percussion set to flashing images of endangered animals, landfill heaps, wind farms and the Earth seen from space. They performed against a map of the world made from the painted tops of oil barrels.

Now, I understand the importance of being environmentally conscious - don't litter, turn the water off when you are brushing your teeth, etc. - but the thing that kills me in this scenario is the the example shown by celebrities when it comes to environmental issues. Now, I could name issues such the "lack of clear-cut, achievable goals, and for lauding rock stars whose jet-setting, high-consumption lifestyles can often send a different, less environmentally friendly message" (foxnews.com). Billy told me today that he heard on talk radio that one of the concerts could power 10 homes for a year. And mind you...I think that those reasons are amazingly good at pointing out the pitiful example set out by celebrities...but my main gripe comes in this area.

The Live Earth global concert series kicked off Saturday with a digeridoo-backed Aboriginal group dancing and singing a traditional welcome at the first venue in Sydney. Tribal leaders with white-painted bodies and shaking eucalyptus fronds were the first of more than 150 performers at the nine, concert, 24-hour series to raise awareness about climate change.

Hmmmm...sound familiar to you? Does this remind you of the countless examples of celebrity exploitation of people groups to you? I'm sorry, but you're going to have to bear with me on this soapbox. Back before my trip to South Africa last summer, I thought it was great when celebrities used their "power" for good. Things like Oprah's leadership school for girls in Africa...I would think to myself, "It's so good that people like that actually care and use their money and celebrity status to bring awareness to problems in the world today." However, when I went to SA, I realized how MANY there were to help, I realized that a school for 40 girls really is a very small speck in the bucket of need. Now, I'm not saying that Oprah shouldn't have done what she did, but I saw a school on my trip that Oprah had started and heard of many more that she "starts" then never gives them funding for the upkeep. In essence, it turns into just another building. Why could Oprah, rather than spend money making one school...one opportunity for a few children...spread her money out to improve the overall quality of things in SA? With the exchange rate there the way it is...if she took a million dollars and spread it out among a hundred schools...how much further would her help go? Does Oprah REALLY care about the people of SA? Or does Oprah care about Oprah? The rational choice economist comes out in me saying, "What are the motivations behind this action? Where do the incentives lie?" The same goes for these pointless concerts. Why does Madonna and the Pussycat Dolls not save the electricity for their amps and give it to the people who are lesser than they are? Hey, here's an idea. Take the energy savings you make by turning off the lights in empty rooms and give it to an AIDS orphanage in Africa? Don't tell anyone, just do it. Basically, I'm tired of people parading around ethnic groups to get sympathy. I think it's degrading.

The Material Girl was flaunting her eco-friendly side as the headliner of an eclectic show at London’s newly rebuilt Wembley Stadium that included the Beastie Boys, the Pussycat Dolls and the Black Eyed Peas.

The drummers from Queen, the Foo Fighters and the Red Hot Chili Peppers began the London concert, leading a battery of percussion set to flashing images of endangered animals, landfill heaps, wind farms and the Earth seen from space. They performed against a map of the world made from the painted tops of oil barrels.

...

Rob Hirst, drummer for Midnight Oil and performing at Live Earth in his new band the Ghostwriters, said at the launch of the Sydney concert lineup that the traditional rock star lifestyle was not eco-friendly.

"Any of the musicians here who've spent 24-to-30 years roaming the globe on planes, trains and automobiles should have a mighty guilt complex about what they've done to the environment," Hirst was quoted as saying by local media.

"But it's not too late to change."

But will you Rob? REALLY CHANGE? I'm sorry, but this whole thing just gripes me. And if that wasn't enough...I saw this article on my RSS reader this morning.

Madonna, who seems to be on top of all her many business endeavors, has actually invested about $2.7 million dollars in companies that are creating the destruction that Live Earth is trying to raise awareness about. She has invested in several companies named as the biggest corporate polluters in the world.

It's a cruel irony that Madonna's Ray of Light Foundation owns blocks of shares in companies that folks like Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio would like to see punished and rehabilitated for their attitudes toward global warming, climate control and basic pollution.

GRRRRRRRRRR. Seriously. In the electronic age of blackberrys, palm pilots, and ... the internet (WHICH, by the way, Al Gore invented) WHY WHY WHY would celebrities take the risk of looking like that much of an idiot to the whole world. I just do not understand it. How hard is it to take a look at your stocks in your morning email BEFORE you plan a 9 concert series. I am tired of celebrity awe and obsession. Maybe if I walk around in a pointy bra, people will start taking cues from me?


Madonna, I would like to leave you with the challenge that Al Gore left with me.

The former vice president called on members of the crowd to commit themselves to a seven-point pledge to combat global warming, including steps such as demanding a moratorium on building new coal-powered plants and fighting for more renewable energy.

“I would like to ask each and every one of you to answer the call,” Gore said.