Focus ~ Carpe diem ~ Contributing

Stay In Focus By Michael Charles Messineo
Stay in focus on your goal, don’t let the outside win.
If your center tends to move, your focus surely spins.
One look back can’t change the past, but lets you twist the now.
March past doubters who are wrong, and show them closely how.

Interruptions come and go, distractions are the norm.
Stop and regroup, bend the course, create your special storm.
All around you moving slow, the influence looks real.
Marching forward stay ahead just break the rules then heal.

–
Today I have had a lot of trouble staying focused on what I need to do, but in the end I was able to get things done that I wanted to do, so this is good. I have a ton of stuff to do tomorrow, so I will have to be up for the challenge again.

My day wasn’t helped by the fact that I had a student text me pretty much begging for financial help because they were running short on cash and might be on the verge of losing their vehicle and apartment. I wanted so badly to help but I just can’t. The last few months I have been trying desperately not to spend excess money since I end up getting down to my last $100 in my checking account every month. I end up putting some stuff on the credit card since I have to keep taking care of my car and eating. I should get a big pay check at the end of the year along with a two percent raise which should help get me out of this current problem. Now, it’s true, I do have a little in savings, but I am pretending it is not there and have been putting money in there all year in hopes to either put it as a down payment on a house, a reserve for a new car if needed or to use some of it to travel across the world somewhere. It is not connected to my checking account and the only way I can get money out is to go to the bank so I don’t ever take money out and I pretend it’s not there at all. But, I felt bad for having to say I can’t since it may mean they have problems. I also feel strongly against lending money to students unless it’s for advancement in their careers in theatre.

In other news, I am an official contributor to a great website called Political Theatrics. The website tends to focus on the middle east, but will venture off into other political topics. This site recently was relaunched as a self-hosted wordpress blog and has a great new layout. The author tries to collect news & information from around the globe so that we are exposed to the truth rather than just what our western media tries to present to us. As I get further into my studies next semester in International Relations, I will likely have more writings to contribute to the site beyond what I write for this blog. But, if you are interested in politics, check out the site and you may see my work occasionally on there (I hope it will increase as I grow more comfortable with this idea..lol) (http://www.politicaltheatrics.net).

Peace and Love

Twitter: The CIA is following you.

Recently reported by Wired Magazine, the CIA has secured a stake in Visible Technologies, which is is social media monitoring & information software company. Visible is currently working with Microsoft as they are interested in the instant social media information related to the release of their new Windows 7 operating system.

This new technology would give the CIA easy streaming access to keywords & information found on blogs, twitter, amazon and soon to be facebook status updates. The CIA will claim publicly that they are planning to use this technology to observe foreigners that are not US citizens and likely claim that they are only looking at those who seek to incite violence through the social media website.

However, I would wager a bet that the CIA will do more. Just like we never thought the CIA would be involved with torture, or that when we allowed the Patriot Act to be passed, we didn’t think the governmental agencies would use it to spy on people having phone sex or normal everyday conversations with family members.

Now, I have nothing to hide from the CIA, so I say bring them on. However, anyone who does not want the US government to spy on them is advised to either stop tweeting, blogging and facebooking or start utilizing the website’s privacy features that block outside access to your information. (This is also something you should do if you don’t want google, yahoo or Microsoft’s Bing search engines from reading your tweets and blogs.)

My challenge to the CIA is to actually find information that is credible, seek a warrant to search the content of the suspects computer & actually follow our federal laws laid out by the US Constitution. You have easily accessible information in front of you, do not go around the courts to get a “secret” warrant from a “secret” court because this violates my rights and anyone else’s rights.

For more information, check out Wired Magazine’s article here: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/10/exclusive-us-spies-buy-stake-in-twitter-blog-monitoring-firm/

See information on Visible Technologies here: http://www.visibletechnologies.com/

Democracy Now did an interview with the Wired writer which can be found here: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/22/cia_invests_in_software_firm_monitoring

Have fun reading my blog CIA.

I am a dissident, I am for freedom & if you ever feel you want to suffocate my freedom – you will have to suffocate me because I will not be silent out of fear. I will not be silent when the truth is all I say. I will not be silenced by anyone. Freedom at all costs.

How do you get here?

This blog is getting old enough with enough posts on it that I’m starting to get more hits from search engines and it’s always fun to see what phrases brought them to my blog. So here are a few from the last month. The number one search term to my blog is still “Palestine” which is just fantastic because I love Palestine

miss you sad alone

I miss you too, stop being sad

moonstar porn

Sorry, no porn here, I only take off my clothes for myself & for my future spouse.

smart arse answers to do you have a boyfriend

LOL.. I would love to know a few of these. Do share? I would suggest that you go ahead and get away from using arse. If you are looking for smart ass answers, then you have to be willing to tell someone off

why do you wait for someone who will never come

Because you feel within your heart that they are the right person. Or, you could just be an idiot who believes in fantasies. Just ask yourself, are they worth it?

thing to do with your girlfriend

I don’t even want to know….

i am happy alone

That’s fantastic.. so..why are you searching the internet?

dating a college professor

hmm.. let me tell you – this is not an easy question to find the answer to. What if you are the college professor trying to find love. If you are their student, it becomes very touchy and really taboo, especially if there is a big age difference. However, I know a few professors who ended up marrying their former students, but I’ve seen more people marry other professors. However, if you are not their student – snatch them up, cause they are likely brilliant men or women who love to teach & would make a wonderful spouse – believe me. :hint hint:

gitmo bay collect valuable information

You must be naive or stupid. Gitmo Bay and every US Concentration Camp (Prison) that exists today is nothing but a place where law and order cease to exist. We have tortured people, locked them out without indicating what their charge was or allowing them to seek legal counsel. We assume they are guilty. These have nothing to do with the legal framework set up in the constitution of this United States. I don’t give two shits what information was gained through doing this. No amount of information is worth destroying our system of laws over.

can someone tell me why i matter

I think you’re asking in the wrong place. The internet is not going to give you that answer.

husband is the provider of the family

Are you trying to prove this point? Because deep down I think there is not definite answer to this question. Our world now educates women to a point where they could easily provide for the family and sometimes the husband must take a backseat to allow his wife to succeed in her job. However, in our world it is also easier for a man to provide due to unequal and unfair treatment & pay of women.

naked and sacred

Why are you reading my blog when you are naked and scared..

swine flu got my sared

First, be sure to spell and phrase your sentences correctly. I believe you mean “swine flu is scaring me” or “swine flu has me scared” or ” I’m scared of getting swine flu”.. Second. Swine Flu is no different than any other flu, just take the moment to realize that perhaps sharing drinks, not washing your hands when using the bathroom would not be good ideas. Try to keep your work station clean, wash your hands a few times a day, especially if you are a political figure or someone who shakes a lot of hands & be respectful to others by coughing into your elbow rather than into your hands.

do the united states and Iran have the same government?

Hmm.. they are not the same no. There are parts that you could compare and see their similarities, yes. Both governments have their flaws & both have their strengths. No country is perfect.

i have a problem with people being smarter than me

Then go back to school and educate yourself.

Updates

I have made some edits to my “About the Author” page and my “FAQs” page to better reflect some of the changes that have happened in my life, although it will not reveal as much as you might wish it to.

Goodnight & Sweet Dreams

Here I am awake at 2am in the morning. Why? because I really want to get my work done and not have it haunt me every day. I also really want to be able to take Friday’s off because I really need it..like bad. You have no idea.

Tonight’s work and most of what I was doing today was related to my student’s first assignment. They all have to post a biography of themselves on a discussion board. With two classes of 40 students and two classes of 12 and each of them are posting a bio, it’s starting to get to be a lot. And, then I have to go and be a good professor and respond to each and everyone of them. Yeah, why do I do this to myself? Oh that’s right, because I love them

I’m about to head to bed soon, it’s been a rather interesting day to say the least, full of some ups and downs but overall it’s been great, it even ended on a good note, despite the crazy uncertainty.

Tomorrow will be a long day, but not as long as I’m sure it could be. My biggest challenge is that I need to type up something for my student staff members so I can have a quick meeting with them in the afternoon.

I wish I had more time to read, I really want to get into my book, it’s exciting to finally learn something. Although I feel I should be reading something else for work, that crap can wait .

Goodnight & Sweet Dreams, see you all in the morning.