There are quite a few parodies of James Blunt's "Beautiful" on YouTube.
I heard this one first on C95 FM.

The only thing that gives me pause is ...

Why would he EVER sit in his cubicle NUDE?

Somebody got tired of trying to find words that rhyme!

Natasha e-mailed me a very funny joke today, and I wanted to share:

Two boys were walking home from Sunday school after hearing a strong preaching on the devil. One said to the other, "What do you think about all this Satan stuff?"

The other boy replied, "Well, you know how Santa Claus turned out. It's probably just your Dad".

In the September/October 2006 issue of RELEVANT magazine, there was an article about a website and t-shirt campaign called "To Write Love On Her Arms" begun by a 26-year-old man named Jaime Tworkowski.

"To Write Love On Her Arms" was inspired by a girl named Renee with issues of sexual abuse, drug addiction, self-mutilation, depression, and suicide. Jaime and some friends helped her get into rehab, and stayed with her around the clock for the five days until she could enter. They started "To Write Love On Her Arms" to inspire honest conversations about issues that are often misunderstood and kept quiet. The money from the t-shirt sales goes to paying for Renee's treatment. Renee has been sober for six months, and Jaime is in the process of making "To Write Love On Her Arms" a non-profit organization.

This really resonated with me, because I see countless people with these same issues through my work. I urge you to check out their website, and read more about "To Write Love On Her Arms".

"To Write Love On Her Arms" is about cutting, and it's about depression, and addiction, and suicide, and it's about meeting those needs, and it's about talking about things that haven't been discussed, and saying that people are not alone, and that we're called to live together, and we're called to love each other, and that we have something to say about pain, and there's hope for people.

"To Write Love on Her Arms" is a work in progress. It is a story, and the response to a story. It is Renee's story, but it's also your story and it's my story, and it is an attempt at an honest conversation, and it's an attempt at meeting a need, and it is about pain, and it's about failure, and regret, and brokenness, and it is about broken people. And I'm a broken person.

And it is about hope more than anything else, it's about community, and it's about the possibility of healing, and it's about the possibility of freedom and redemption, and "To Write Love On Her Arms" is an idea, and it's a dream, and it's a prayer, and a song, and a fire, and maybe, it's a movement. - Jaime Tworkowski

www.twloha.com

www.myspace.com/towriteloveonherarms

I read today that it has been ten years since Tupac Shakur died.

Why has Tupac stayed popular for ten years?

Would Tupac still be popular if he had not died tragically?
When I think of Tupac, I think of my friend, Shallen. Shallen loved Tupac. Tupac died about a week after I met Shallen. She had Tupac posters all over her dorm room. She owned the movie Poetic Justice. We used to blast "Smoke Weed All Day" in her car, and go the the Blind Tiger and dance to "California Love". I think she still loves Tupac.

She just can't crank him up in the car anymore since she started cruising with her five-year-old daughter.

Amazingly, I am still seeing the same Tupac posters my friend had up ten years ago in the rooms of teenage girls today. Several years ago, I was transporting a bunch of clients in the company van. They asked to listen to a mixed tape one of them had, and, to my total surprise, what came on the stereo?

"Smoke Weed All Day" by Tupac.

Let me tell you ... nothing kills a bunch of teenage girls good time like listening to a Ukrainian woman driving a green Dodge van singing these words off key ...

I'd ratha be ya N-I-G-G-A!
So we can get drunk and smoke weed all day!
It don't matta if you lonely baby!
You need a thug in ya life!
Cuz bustas ain't lovin ya right!

The thing that baffles me the most is that death has not stopped Tupac from releasing CDs. Most live people don't put out as many albums as Tupac does. He released six albums when he was alive, and seven after he died.

Seven???

Maybe one that was on it's way to being released, some remixes, a tribute album, or a greatest hits album.

Maybe all of the above.

But SEVEN?

I'm not making any judgement on whether or not the guy had talent. As Tupac himself said, "Only God can judge me now ... and the rest of you can buy the live album of it for $14.99 at your local HMV".



TUPAC A LEGEND TEN YEARS AFTER DEATH

Associated Press
Published: Wednesday, September 13, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- In the years since hip-hop lost its most dynamic figure, several superstars have embodied the qualities that made Tupac Shakur such a legend.

50 Cent's vicious raps and bullet-scarred body recall Shakur's reckless, dangerous side. Eminem's tortured lyrics remind us of Shakur's dark and depressing images of life. Jay-Z's many hits are reminiscent of Shakur's prolific output.

But 10 years after Shakur died on Sept. 13, 1996, the victim of a drive-by shooting, no rapper is as complex, as multifaceted, as challenging.

A handsome and charismatic actor, a violent felon, a brilliant songwriter, a reckless celebrity, a misogynist and a visionary -- Shakur still fascinates from the grave.

"I want to be, in the future, known as somebody," Shakur once said. "I want people to be talking about me, like, 'Remember when he was real bad?'". They're still talking. Unlike so many other rap stars, Shakur represented an actual character, instead of a caricature.

Though just 25 when an assailant sprayed his car with bullets as he rode shotgun down a Las Vegas street, Shakur has been the subject of numerous books, films and stage productions that have explored his colourful life, and college courses have dissected his songs.

But why? Though some have anointed Shakur as the greatest rapper ever, largely due to his passion that could stir even casual listeners, the assessment is hardly universal. Others would give that title to The Notorious B.I.G., Shakur's foil who was killed months after Shakur. Others say Jay-Z reigns supreme.

As an actor in films like Juice and Poetic Justice, it was clear Shakur was an explosive, raw talent -- but one that needed refinement.

And his personal life exposed perhaps his most troubling personal traits -- in 1994, he was convicted of sexual assault and though he espoused black empowerment, he spent the last months of his life inciting a rap war through hateful rhymes. Yet Shakur's fallibility may ultimately explain why he remains so beloved.

"Nothing that I can answer is really going to get at it, or it's going to sound emotional and corny, but the fact of the matter is he was just a very special human being," said Vibe magazine editor-in-chief Danyel Smith, who knew Shakur before he became a superstar.

"He was the kind of heroic figure -- very flawed, very passionate, very handsome, very outspoken, very talented -- who comes along once in a lifetime," she said.

Tupac Amaru Shakur was born to former Black Panther Afeni Shakur in 1971. His father wasn't around. Afeni was pregnant and incarcerated while she and other Panthers faced conspiracy charges that were later dismissed.

His mother's revolutionary qualities infused many of Shakur's raps, like the angry "Souljah's Revenge" or "Words of Wisdom". But Shakur's lyrics also reflect his unstable childhood -- his mother battled drug addiction and he and his sister lived in poverty. That pain, frustration, anger and bewilderment became the inspiration for some of his most poignant, searing songs.

© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2006

These past few days, I have been obsessed with playing in the trivia tournament that Natasha's friend has set up at Global Fun Trivia. When she first posted this a few months ago, I didn't want to participate, out of a fear of spam and because I thought it was a one time only thing. There is a ten question quiz every day, and you can earn points. I am pretty excited that I was the top player the last three days. I get on to play as soon as it begins, and I am back a few times a day to check the stats ... but I'm not competitive or anything!

Click here to get in on the fun!!!

This past month, I have been noticing commericials quite a bit. I've seen a few that I really like ... and one that is particularly weird, in my opinion.

This first one stars Nick Lachey in an ad for Clix, the new frangrance by Axe. I had a big crush on Nick Lachey when he was a member of 98 Degrees, and I still think he's really handsome. Also, I think the ad is pretty funny.



This next one, for the Nissan X-Trail Bonavista, is sort of a tribute to my boss and the company that I work for. Before I got my job with the Salvation Army, I had never met anyone from Newfoundland. I still haven't met anyone who talks like this! When this ad came on, I could not understand the salesman at all. After watching it a few times, I can now almost make out what he is saying.



Another car ad that I really liked, which was airing a few months ago, was the "Then and Now" GM ad. Part of the appeal was that the background music is a song I already like: "AM Radio" by Everclear.



I am still looking for the Salvation Army ad which I saw today, where a real estate agent describes living on the street as if she was showing a house. I know that the point is irony, but they can make anything sound good, can't they? Once example is "gaze up at the enormous skylight as you lay on your heated bed" (the "heated bed" being a grate on the sidewalk).

The ad that I find weird and disturbing is the myGodPod.com commercial that has been airing on The Christian Channel. It is advertising daily devotions that you can download to your I-Pod, which I think is a good idea - but, the ad seems downright creepy. It features a man who stalking around in a trenchcoat, distributing I-Pods to unsuspecting people in the process of their morning commute. There is also a woman, who appears to be fleeing something more than hurrying somewhere, and at one point, she wipes out - hard - possibly after tripping over a free I-Pod on the stairs. I wasn't able to imbed this video, but you can see it here.