Oil Spill, The Economist, N'awlins, and Me

So, this blog was originally supposed to be a motivation for me to keep up with the news and what's going on in the world around me, yet it has somehow transformed into something a bit more philosophical at times, or better yet, just random excuses about why I'm not blogging. Whatever. That's life. To be quite honest, I've been enamored with everything pertaining to starting med school and grad school, and making the big move down to New Orleans - I have truly loved every minute of it (aside from the packing). As a result, I have no idea what is going on in the world around me. Shame. I refuse to be the doctor/med student that is ignorant to the latest news due to overindulgence in the medical realm of life. Tunnel vision is great for achieving your goals and getting to where you want to be at in life. However, if it excludes other important things from your vision such as friends, family, and important developments, how beneficial, as opposed to detrimental, is it? I propose tunnel vision is good in the short-term, but bad in the long-run...that is if you desire to have any type of a social life. Well, since I do, I am slowly trying to incorporate real world developments into my daily life. It's a slow, arduous process, but I believe the effort and energy will pay off in the end.

That being said, I am very up-to-date on this mess of an oil spill. BP, you should hang your head low. Just what are you doing?!? All the lies and nondisclosure...come, come now...do better. BP's oil spill is about to do more damage to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast than Katrina did. Seriously. While not killing people like Katrina did, BP is killing people's incomes in an already depressed economy. Many of these people rely on fishing as their primary source of income. Well guess what? As much as seafood is the #1 staple down here, these items are now being imported in. People who have already invested loads of money for the shrimping and other fishing seasons, are now out of that money since their supply is now dead/unusable. On the end of BP there have been no developments save for increased knowledge on how bad this really is. Our ecosystem is about to be devastated, the effects of which probably won't fully be felt for a few years. And what happens when hurricane season hits full force? That oil is about to be spread even further. I heard talks of someone proposing burning off the oil...riiight, because that's what our ecosystem needs... [insert side eye]. This is the main news story I've been keeping up with and it is just depressing.

On a related note, under the tutelage of a good friend, I have gone ahead an acquired a recent issue of The Economist (ummm, readers beware, one issue is like 7 bucks and only covers 1 week...in other words, it's expensive). Anywho, the purpose of reading The Economist is two-fold. First, it truly covers a wealth of topics both nationally and internationally, and thus, will serve to broaden my knowledge in foreign affairs, economics, and politics. If you know me, you know I'm a closeted nerd who just loves acquiring more knowledge. We know the average human uses ~10% of their brain power (or so we've been told in school...wouldn't be surprised if this was an educated lie to get us to study more), but I'm trying to up that percentage. Plus, I like to be able to talk to a random person on the street about anything. Since I know where my weaker areas are, it makes perfect sense to target those now. My second reason is to better pick up a white boy. Yes, I said it. I was talking to this same friend who made the recommendation, and she said how she's been over black guys for a while (even though she's still dated a few here and there) and she was talking about how she's perfecting the art of picking up a good white guy. She's like, " what you need to do is go to some fairly high foot trafficked area, grab yourself an issue of The Economist and maybe a Vitamin Water, and sit and read. Make sure you don't have headphones or sunglasses on, and slowly scan your surroundings every now and then. When you find one you want, briefly make eye contact, smile a little, and go back to reading. They will come." lol - this girl has a game plan! She has other strategies too, but this one seemed the easiest for me to start with. Granted, now that I'm down South, I don't see many types that look like they'd be into The Economist, but let me know judge a book by the cover. Even if Southerners innately look simpler, a few might surprise me.

You know, people hate on Southerners, but I think they're onto something. They definitely know how to enjoy life and put an emphasis on spending time with people - the same time that we see as such a rare commodity up North is amply doled out down here. Even though I can't really indulge in eating or drinking, I absolutely love Love LOVE New Orleans! Honestly, if I can adapt to the heat and humidity, and survive the bugs and hurricanes, I might never leave - dead serious. Come visit!