#finalsprocrastinating

It's Finals time and you know what that means: increased usage of social media!!! (if you thought studying was the answer, shame on you. Who actually studies on study days?)In my great usage of time, I wanted to take some time to talk about something near and dear to my heart, gay social media. Yes, that's right. Gay.Social.Media. What does this entail? Well for starters, most college students know about Sassy Gay Friend (or at least I overhear A LOT of people saying "WHAT? *snap* WHAT? *snap* WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"). They know him by as this flamboyant gay man running around "saving" doomed Shakespearean characters. Best example:

Ah when Sassy Gay Friend used to be funny. With over 4 million views on YouTube, his comedic videos have [had] earned a following. I myself remember the times when I used to dream that Sassy Gay Friend keep making more videos. Now, I really wish I hadn't asked for that. Not only is Sassy Gay Friend back. But Sassy Gay Friend SOLD.OUT. Being one who is fascinated with advertising, product placement has had it's ups and downs. When it's subtle, it's fine. You notice it, you move on. But when it's shoved in your face like in the case of the "Hold It Against Me" Britney Spears video or the following Sassy Gay Friend, revamped...well it's just plain irritating.

I think that the most irritating thing about it, is that every video after this has a spot about the new Mio flavor for water. I can respect Sassy Gay Friend for wanting to make money off of his character. It's what he does best. But ever since he started earning money, his videos have gotten increasingly horrendous. Not to mention, viewings of his videos have dropped from the initial more than 4 million to less than 500,000. He's lost everything that made him unique. Even his acting has gotten far worse. You can visibly tell that he is trying too hard to be himself, a gay man.

Anyways, enough about Sassy Gay Friend. I want to introduce Ryan James Yezak, a brilliant director, producer, editor, etc. He is on my rising gay star list (if I had one, he'd be at the top). Not only are his parodies of Pop songs by famous female artists hilarious, they are also artistic in the sense that every small detail, from the choreography to the placement of the actors, is so uniquely planned. His videos keep getting infinitely better and I hope that in time, he becomes more well-known for his brilliant videos. (did I mention his Peacock video has over 6 million views?!)

***warning...lots of gay boys prancing around half naked. if that makes you uncomfortable, well this is your heads up***

I leave you with one thought...Girls, bisexuals and lesbians alike. Where you at? We really need to step it up!!!

That's all for now!

Signing off,

-T

Celebrating Death

So as we all know by now, Osama Bin Laden has been declared dead and the United States has taken custody of his body. The speech given by President Obama will forever be ingrained in my memory; a man I help put into office and a small victory for the United States.

Why do I say small? For two reasons. One, because this is only the beginning. Osama served as a figurehead. Although I agree that his plotting against the United States was awful and the damage he caused is irreparable, in the last few years, he only served as the head of al Qaeda but, correct me if I'm wrong, functionally had dropped out of the picture. In killing him, we've opened a huge can of worms. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have done it, my opinion in regards to that is irrelevant, but I think retaliatory acts that will come of this might turn out worse than 9/11. There are obviously people second, third, fourth, etc in command. Just because one is gone, doesn't mean the others will disappear, especially not with the network that al Qaeda has established. It scares me that within a month I will be moving to New York City and I can't seem to shake the feeling that something else will happen while I'm there. God willing, everything will be okay.

The second reason is because of the response that I saw not only on TV, but at Our Lady's University as well. On TV, I saw hoardes of people gathering outside the White House and others at the World Trade Center site in NYC chanting "USA, USA" loudly and proudly. Is this how you celebrate someone being killed? Yes, I know the man has killed many people but chanting patriotically because he is now dead goes against human decency. What kind of country are we that this is our reaction? If anything, people around the world will see these reactions, especially al Qaeda, and look at us with disdain and disgust. We are already disliked as a nation around the world, do we really need to fuel the fire? I remember even when Saddam Hussein was killed, everyone was watching the leaked video that came from someone's mobile phone. Everyone was talking about it and laughing. LAUGHING. How can you laugh when you see someone being hanged? I'm sure the same thing would have happened if Osama's death had been taped. Are we that desensitized as a culture that our citizens find human suffering and death entertaining? Can we truly justify that just because these men were undeniably cruel and evil that we must do the same to them?

So bros of Notre Dame, please take a second to actually educate yourselves at our fine university before you go running around campus screaming "USA, USA." It bothered me last night and will continue to bother me for years to come. It was appalling to see (apart from the more bro types who were celebrating by running around chugging beer and screaming). I can understand your sense of patriotism and that's great. Good for you that in killing someone, you finally take a moment to say "Yes, I am an American." But for the sake of our university, please do that in the comforts of your own dorm room rather than running around like buffoons in LaFortune. Oh and as for those of you having parties tonight in honor of his death, all I have to say to you is: Really?

But I also want to take a minute to address something that bothered me last night. A friend of mine posted a Facebook status (who has since removed said status) that mentioned that two of his friends had walked away from him when he expressed his views on Osama Bin Laden's death. He did not understand why it was such a monumental moment for the American people and found it to be unimportant. I am under the impression that I was one of these two. I briefly tried to explain that it was important because of what he did that shook the American people to the core. And as the head of al Qaeda, even if he had no direct functional benefit at the end, I think his death was symbolic but important nonetheless. His death brings about a sense of closure for those affected by 9/11. So while it might not be historic for you, it's historic for me. The reason i walked away? Not because I disagreed with you, I was in no mental state at the time to make a practical argument, but merely because in hearing the news, I left all of my personal belongings in the library and wanted to get back to them as quickly as possible in fear of having anything stolen. So please, don't use me as one of your examples of someone who doesn't understand what's going on. Because on one level, I do understand your point. I merely just see it in a different way.

Anyways, that's just my opinion. Feel free to disagree with me if you wish. But I think opening the dialogue lends itself to learning more about the issue and what we can improve as a society to see that reactions such as last night really aren't okay for the human race.

One Nation. Under God. Indivisible. With Liberty and Justice For All.


Signing out,

-T


p.s. Here's an article from the huffington post that really got me writing this post, definitely an interesting read:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-gerloff/the-psychology-of-revenge_b_856184.html?ref=fb&src=sp#sb=1655083,b=facebook