13Apr 2011 by CJ

Jersey Shore cast is paid way too much for nothing

Life & Living
Shaking my head. That’s what I was left doing after hearing word that the cast of characters on “Jersey Shore,” that ridiculous reality series about a bunch of talentless idiots, will be earning $100,000 per episode in the upcoming 4th season.  Amazing. I tuned in once just for argument’s sake and within the first five minutes wasn’t sure if I was tuning in to anything more than a repeat of The Jerry Springer Show. We’re talking riveting television here folks. Our society is so ass backwards. I mean we’re paying a group of young adults (and I use the word “adults” very loosely) who haven’t contributed a single positive thing towards society, hundreds of thousands of dollars, while millions of families struggle to put food on the table - struggle…
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11Apr 2011 by CJ

Memories to happiness provide us with a reason to smile

Love & Relationships
Set in 1968, the popular television dramedy “The Wonder Years” followed young Kevin Arnold as he struggled through the awkwardness of puberty - narrated by his much older and wiser self.  When the series wrapped up in the early 1990’s, the final narration went something like this: “Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house, like a lot of houses. A yard like a lot of other yards. On a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back...with wonder.” Today I might not be able to figure out simple algebraic equations,…
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08Apr 2011 by CJ

High school behaviors often carrying over into adulthood

Life & Living, Youth
I used to think that once you graduated from high school, you were forever set free from the catty, judgmental world of pubescence. But as a friend of mine recently reminded me, there’s no escaping it. Just look around your neighborhoods or the places you work and you’ll find the same populous hierarchy, the same backstabbing chatter and gossip and even bullying from teenage jocks whose mentality hasn’t changed even though they’re twenty-years older. I hated high school for this very reason, and now having been around the business block long enough, I find myself sometimes feeling like a teenager all over again. I guess adulthood is not exempt from the same BS that went on in crowded hallways and classrooms so many years ago. It’s easy to forget that…
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07Apr 2011 by CJ

Are you looking for a “real man”?

Life & Living, Love & Relationships
Yesterday while riding up a crowded elevator, I heard a girl in her 20’s say, “I’m looking for a real man to marry.” A real man, huh? As opposed to what, one of those mannequins you see in the men’s department of your local JCPenny with some stupid grin on their face? I’m so tired of society measuring the male species by a set of archaic standards commonly known as being a “real man”. Last time I checked, there’s nothing in the Constitution of the United States or any other official documentation for that matter stating what a “man” should or should not be in society. And yet the morons of the world who are obsessed with how other people perceive them have adopted a set of criteria that we…
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04Apr 2011 by CJ

Sometimes the best you can do with what you have is enough

Generosity & Kindness, Life & Living
Some days, you simply have to do the best you can with what you have. Today we place too much pressure on one another to succeed in every facet of our lives – causing undo stress and often broken relationships. We measure and define ourselves against others instead of being proud of who and what we have become in the present. We allow the insignificant and unimportant to become our priorities rather than setting boundaries and enjoying that which truly matters. Perceived failures discourage our spirit instead of teaching us some of the most valuable lessons life has to offer. To do the best you can. We link happiness with possessions and fortune - forgetting how doing the very best for those who deserve our attention will provide us ultimate…
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