May 7th

Today is my first official Monday off work. I won't have to work any Monday or Tuesday until I change my availability again. I'm very excited about this fact. I got to sleep in and then I went to the post office, got my hair cut, worked on Ascendio, picked up some stuff at the store, and I'm ready to write my 750 words much earlier than usual. I could get used to this.

I decided to make Monday's words all about current events, but I feel like I should explain this a bit more. I'm not the type of person who knows all about what's happening all over the world. I understand that a lot of people view this as an issue, but I firmly believe that everyone has a talent and a place in the world. Keeping up with what is happening in the world works for some people, writing works for other people, watching TV works for other people, and just keeping up with friends works for some people. I firmly believe that people should pay attention to things that make them happy because their happiness will in turn make other people happy and that will in turn make the world a better place. Just because you aren't aware of things that are happening all over the world doesn't mean that you can't affect things for the better.

Which is a long winded way of saying that what I write about on Mondays might not be what most people consider "current events". It might be "real" news, or it might be an internet trend, or it might be entertainment news, or it might be a story that I find fascinating.  It could be something happening in my life, or in Florida, or in the US, or something that affects the entire world. Nothing is out of the realm of possibility. No rules, just writing.

Today, I decided to start by pulling up the top article on Google News. The article they chose is from cbsnews.com, although a quick internet search showed this to be the top article on most news sites. "CIA Thwarts New al Qaeda Underwear Bomb Plot" That's right folks, the top "real" news story across all channels is about a bomb in someone's underwear. Of course, technically, the story is about how the CIA managed to find out about the underwear bomber and stop the scheme before anyone was even in danger. I find it both fascinating and terrifying that bombs on planes are still a real and present danger. The fascinating thing is that people will say that this proves that the TSA is a necessary evil, yet the threat came from an airport outside the US, where they don't have the TSA.

I think it's crazy that terrorist organizations are still trying things like underwear bombs on planes. This is something that has failed time and time again, yet they keep trying. I also find it crazy how obsessed the world has become with terrorist bombing in the US. People are actually dying all over the world from lack of clean water, or gang warfare, or warlord oppression, but the top article is about a FAILED attempt to put a bomb in someone's underwear. I'm not saying it's not an important piece of information, but I'm just not sure it warrants the top spot on every single news outlet.

The other interesting thing is that the details of what happened are rather sparse and vague. Basically the title reveals it all. The CIA found out about this bomber and intercepted the bomb. It was never a danger to public safety, no plane ticket was ever purchased, and they are studying the bomb itself (obviously to figure out how to better search for it). That's it. That's all we know about the entirety of this underwear bomber. Well, at least that's all the press knows.

With that being the top news story on most sites maybe you can see why I might prefer things like the YouTube Voice contest. Which is a contest being held by some of the more popular YouTubers to find an undiscovered musical talent and award them money and a chance to collab on a song. Or perhaps the article I read about the UX which is an underground "cultural guerrilla" group in Paris. They do things like set up secret underground film festivals and restore cultural artifacts and landmarks behind the authorities backs. Sort of like if Robin Hood fixed things for the poor rather than stole money for them. I think the group is actually pretty admirable, but naturally the authorities aren't as happy about it as I am. In fact, they even broke one thing the UX fixed because they were upset that the UX had gotten past their security. It's a strange strange world we live in.