Recap: NCIS 19x01 Blood in the Water

Original airdate: September 20, 2021

NCIS agents investigate an attempt on Gibbs’ life while facing the reality of losing one of their own.

9/11/2021: What's Different?

 I’ve been thinking a lot about what I wanted to say today, 20 years on from the worst terrorist attack on our nation, a year during the worst pandemic in our nation’s history. Should I connect them? Is it worth saying, if it's probably been said already, with interest?

The one commonality in all of it is that indifference is the cause of all of it. Indifference to those who are left suffering the consequences.

20 years ago, we were united in our grief, and for that time, we were all Americans. Why, 20 years later, in the face of another situation resulting in thousands upon thousands of deaths, do we hate each other so much?

Huckabee's Jaws Reference: Revised

A quick note: I very much admire the original article I wrote in 2016, and during Trump's first term, I've wanted to update it with more information. However, I found there to be almost too much content to truly condense into the article and make a complete comparison.

As we head into the 2020 election, though, I decided to make some slight revisions to the article to make it more clear and professional, although the content is largely the same.

On Monday, October 10, 2016, Mike Huckabee made an effort to defend Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump by comparing him to Quint (Robert Shaw) from the 1975 movie Jaws.

 

"He’s vulgar, he’s salty. He might even get drunk. But hold on, here! He’s the guy who’s gonna save your butt and save your family. And so at the end of the day, when he kills the shark, you’re happy about it," he said on the program.

Opinion: 2020 and the War for America's Soul

The world is a different place than it was five years ago. I'm a different person than I was five years ago, as I'm sure we all are. I see the world differently. My views and perspectives, once fresh and open to possibility, have been hardened and jaded with the cold, ugly truth of reality.

I had a faith in our government -- that the United States would be better than the worst of its people in the overall grand scheme of things.

Then the 2016 election happened. Donald Trump won handily. It doesn't matter whether there was foreign interference in the election. It doesn't matter that he now faces an impeachment inquiry. It doesn't matter that his approval ratings have never really broken 50% in national polls. Hillary Clinton's emails don't matter.

He is in office. He is President of the United States. Enough people decided he deserved that position that they voted for him.

September 11, 2001 - In Hindsight, 18 Years Later

I wish I had a powerful, beautiful statement I could make in tribute to today. I wish I could say something that hasn't already been said probably hundreds of times today, or over the 18 years passed.

Why There Isn't Much from 2018 & 2019

An important think you might notice coming here is that I have several stories listed from 2016, 2017, and 2019, but very little for 2018.

The answer for that is actually very simple.

In 2018, I started my second and final year at Penn State. At the time, I wanted to challenge myself and expand and properly understand my skill sets. I can take good photos and work with graphic design software, but I don't take it to mean it makes me a total expert at these fields.

Because of that, over the course of the year, a majority of my work was directed away from writing assignments. Instead, during the early and latter months of the year, I had to focus my effort and attention into courses on photography, graphic design and video/film production. My summer was devoted to working an intense part-time third shift job that left me physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted.

Because of all this, writing was a reduced priority for me in 2018 than other years. I wrote, yes, but I feel the quality of my work, while still on par with my other work, doesn't quite meet the standards I strive to.

When 2019 came around, things changed. I lost the drive, the motivation... the spark, if you will, that made me truly take pride in things I wrote. Did I write and work on anything during this time? Absolutely. But other things in my life took precedent -- certain things that, for personal reasons, I don't feel compelled to share. But it has been an active, physical and at times, stressful year for me.

To sum this up, the reason for the lack of posts from 2018 and 2019 was for both quantity and quality. But I have rediscovered that spark and it's born fruit for me, so I intend to post more often as the year continues.

Baudrillard and Simulated Reality in 2017

For this, I was assigned to read and analyze an excerpt of postmodernist writer and theorist Jean Baudrillard's writings on simulacra. I then had to summarize his theory and find a relevant argument to make about them.

Admittedly, this was a difficult read, since Baudrillard's points aren't always entirely clear. Still, I found his points about simulations and reality to be fairly relevant in 2017. Below I explain why.