W.W.

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE ENTIRE SERIES OF BREAKING BAD.

Whenever you get through an entire television series, its always bittersweet. And in this case, I feel like I came down off of a Bad high… a Breaking Bad high. I think I mentioned before that this show has captivated so many people, like myself. And why are so many people interested in watching someone cook methamphetamine? Beats me. But, the action and drama surrounding the drug industry is nothing to dismiss.

I found myself quite often in Skylar's shoes. What if I was a mother and a wife? What would I do if I found out my husband had two cell phones? The head games that would come from that... Whoa. And then to find out the truth, that your husband, the father of your children is a meth cook. Yikes! First thought, why? Money. Second thought, why this? Because Walter White is damn good at chemistry, my friends. Third thought, what about the children? This is where I become uneasy. The entire situation was irresponsible and he put his children under a lot of risk and danger. 

Did I mention that Walt White is damn good at chemistry? Ya. The devil on the other side of my shoulder was rooting for him. I think we all want to be great at something in this life and with his cancer, he wanted to feel alive. Wouldn't we all? What if we all lived everyday like it's our last? Not a care in the world, just you and whatever makes you happy. However, I don't think I would have the heart to forget about my family, if doing something without them made me the most happy.

Something that the show does not even come close to touching on into detail is the effects that the drug has on users and their families. These mass quantities of the drug, any drug, are even worse than what Walter White's family went through, IMO. I recently watched a documentary (on Netflix, of course) that addressed methamphetamine, its users, its effects, the cost, etc. One hit of meth can make someone high for up to 12 hours!! That can't be serious. And its very cheap to make, so you can imagine the amount of users it touches. There is also another perspective in the "functional users" group. These people use the drug when working low-income jobs to stay awake. Pretty wild if you ask me.

Season 4's finale blew my mind. I couldn't even comprehend that Walt blew Gus up. WOW! Mr. White  was really a smart guy and that is what made this show awesome. Great movies and action packed shows are great because of the little ingenious things that they leave out until later. I mean, he literally melted part of his face off. Never thought I'd see that on TV. I thought that Mr. White kept pushing and pushing Gus to make him eliminate him for cooking. If it were me, Gus had a great thing going with Walt and Jesse, why would you want to ruin that?

Once Hank put the pieces together that W.W. meant Walter White, he flipped a paranoid switch. I was shocked that Skylar stayed by Walt's side. She hated what he had done. "For better or for worse", I suppose. I couldn't believe Jesse gave a fully detailed account of what Walt and him had done the past year. He didn't even ask for immunity. I mean. c'mon... Hank was housing you at his own residence. Dumb. The scene where Hank and Gomez "arrest" Mr. White had me yelling at the TV. Hank read him his rights, but never told him what he was being arrested for.

As the last eight episodes unraveled, the tension kept building. I think a turning point for me was when Hank was killed. Action packed scene. To me, I felt like there wasn't a threat anymore. The last episodes were for tying up loose ends, smaller players that deserved revenge. I wasn't on the edge of my seat as much, but still wanted to know what would happen to the infamous Heisnenberg aka Walt White. 

The showdown between Jesse and Mr. White was intense. I knew that he could never pull the trigger on Jesse... However, I was surprised Jesse didn't pull it on him. Deep down, the two had a unique bond. And in the end, Mr. White was Heisenberg and did what he liked doing best... Hashing out the chemistry with a final cook.

"Its all in the Chemistry. Thanks to everyone for making Bad so good."

Amazing show. I would recommend it to anyone out there looking for an action and drama filled BAD time. 

Craigslist Joe

I will tell you what, Netflix is such a great tool. Recently, I came upon a few gems because of it. Craigslist Joe, in one word, is inspiring. This documentary illustrates how Joe Gardner relied solely on Craigslist for a month.

As most may know, the site offers free advertising space to buy, sell, giveaway, etc., just about anything you can think of. I actually got my first job out of college off of a job posting on Craigslist. Each ad is broken up into category and location.

Joe uses the site to find meals, shelter, entertainment, transportation, exercise, and friendship. 

The things we see in the media these days makes me wonder, but Joe's documentary made me feel like there is still good, even great... among the evil. He restored my views on humanity as a whole. Not that my views were entirely bad to begin with, of course.

It was amazing how people were opening up their homes to a complete stranger. I think it helped that he had a camera man with him, but still. I couldn't believe all of the stuff that people post on Craigslist either. Joe was able to road trip across the United States and BACK by finding people who just wanted companionship on a long drive. He was able to seek out free meal postings or "work for food" ads. He even tried a free breakdancing class in Chicago. Got a free haircut. Helped out at a homeless kitchen. Etc., etc.

 For all you PR majors out there, if you are having some type of fundraiser (I know because we did a lot of these at UNI), throw an ad up on Craigslist because it will be seen by someone. Who knows what could happen. It obviously won't be your main strategy, but it could draw in a few people that wouldn't have heard of it otherwise. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising, as we all know.

One man that he encountered was of Iraqi descent. He recalled growing up in poverty and experiencing starvation, but stood proud of his family's perseverance in accomplishing their American Dream. This family opened their arms up to Joe when he needed a place to stay for the night. I was left with an interesting thought after this leg of Joe's journey. This Iraqi man and his family receive negative comments because of 9/11. "Go back to where you came from." The thing is, they weren't part of it and if they were to go back to Iraq, they would be told the same thing. Why? Because they are Americans. Most importantly, they are people. We are all humans and need to help each other out every once in a while.

Always remember that the little things, the little acts of kindness go a long way. Craigslist Joe was a great example of how even in a time of economic hardship, kindness and helping out go a long way. Worth an hour or so of your time.

Carolina Blue

This weekend was my first experience at a University of North Carolina Tarheels football game. Believe me, I walked into this knowing that they are awful. However, some very special little girls were in town and I was invited to go with them! I've wanted to tailgate for a while now, but have yet to follow through for one reason or another.

BTW. For it being homecoming, I was very disappointed in the half-time performance. No formations, no great tunes, nothing. They announced that one of their songs was from the "Snakes on a Plane" soundtrack... Are you serious? Out of all the themes and songs to choose from, you landed upon this one?

She is such a character!

Handstands on campus!

^ Some of the Minooka Wrestling Family.

Great extended weekend. If you couldn't tell by my lack of a post yesterday, I definitely "Sunday-Funday'd."

The New Girl

I've come to another one of those moments in my life where I ask, "Why am I JUST starting to watch The New Girl?" Have you heard of it? Watched it before? Tune in each week, faithfully? I've seen commercials for the show before and kept thinking that I need to start watching, but I'm the type that always needs to start things from the beginning. Luckily, some awesome individual came up with the whole Netflix idea and I was able to start from the pilot. 

Corky, hilarious, and beautiful describes the main character, Jess perfectly. Zooey Deschanel plays Jess and she is fabulous at it. You can't help but love her corkiness, while being completely gorgeous in her brown curled locks. Jess was cheated on by her less than impressive boyfriend of six years, leaving her homeless and alone. Thankfully for modern technology, she found a place to crash… with three male roommates. They are a little skeptical, but welcome her with open arms. The series captures their experiences living together, while dealing with normal issues and conflicts that normal 20-somethings encounter. Some of these situations are too funny. You know you have landed on something good when you actually lol laugh out loud during an episode. The way the four characters bounce pure wit off of each other is hysterical.

Such a cute and hilarious series. The New Girl is in its third season on FOX, every Tuesday at 9/8c.