One thing about being a Twitter addict and having the feeds of numerous news organizations going directly to your iPhone text inbox is that you are always constantly reading articles throughout the day. As one of these addicts myself, I have my face glued to my phone much more than I should. Usually I will breeze through an article and move on. Sometimes, if I find an article particularly interesting, ridiculous, or appalling, I will pass it along through my own Twitter account. Well wouldn’t you know it? Today I set a record and tweeted out three news articles, one that represents each criterion I just mentioned. For tonight’s post I would simply like to share each article with you and add a little bit of my terrible commentary.
There is something that interests me about people who keep exotic animals. I find it a little fascinating the attitudes that some of these people have that tells them it is okay to take a creature outside of its natural and geographical habitat and raise it inside their humble home.
Jose Canseco is a nut. If you follow his Twitter account (@JoseCanseco) you would be more than surprised to hear some of the outlandish, self-serving, uncensored “gems” that he pounds out. Spelling errors, exaggerations, threats, innuendo, and curse words make up the gist of his account. He for no reason at all implied that Al Gore had died. He claimed he could hit a golf ball 380 yards. He said that global warming could have saved the Titanic. The sad part? His Twitter account only describes about half of how psychotic he actually is.
When Curtis asks Canseco how he wants to die, he responds, “Hopefully having sex in bed.” Go on, give the article a read.
UPDATE: Please read the comments from the Sandpoint students at the conclusion of this post. I must be fair in this blog and give them their chance to respond. It seems as if the facts were exaggerated a little bit. I will keep what I initally wrote below as a testament to my ignorance of not knowing the whole story.
The Spokesman-Review reported on a senior “prank” carried out by the Sandpoint High School Class of 2012. I put quotes around prank because it really was not a prank at all…it was just destruction.
I am all for a good senior prank but I appreciate one that is funny and clever. Vandalism is vandalism and totally misses the mark of pulling off something memorable that people will be able to look back on and laugh about years down the road. Way to tarnish any respect or fondness that your class will ever have at that school.
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Actually…I happen to be a Senior at Sandpoint High and as much as the rumors are about urinating in the hallways, I have asked every single person that was involved in the prank, and not a single one of them says there was any urinating! There was apple juice in a blow-up pool that had a sign saying “piss on your potential”. I believe that it was mistaken as urine. Since I am not an official there would be no reason for my classmates to lie about urinating. I honestly believe that is a malicious rumor.
Thank you for commenting! Very interesting to know. For me, the urinating part of the story is the absolute worst part of this whole thing so it would lessen the blow a little bit if it was just apple juice. But to insinuate that it was urine by displaying the sign saying “piss on your potential” is still pretty classless. Should be interesting to see the follow up articles by the Spokesman and what more students like you have to say. Thanks again for the comment.
I was actually involved. One student who was intoxicated unbeknownst to us due to his mask and quiet nature peed in a corner somewhere. He is paying the consequences. As for the vandalism, There were thirty of us and only about 3 or 4 of the boys got rowdy and ended up merely writing in sharpie on one wall and a few tables needed repair. The costs were mainly to compensate for the custodians that had to come in early. We raised $650 to repay them before they even asked us to. We took irresponsibility. And none of us were even disguised very well purposely because we knew we would be caught, but we just did not take into account that a few kids would take it to a whole new level and ruin the “fun.” Everyone came in on their own account the next day and fessed up and turned in money a few days later. We negotiated the hours and cleanup in exchange to go to prom. I think that giving back to the community, apologizing to many adults and collecting money without any instruction to do so is not “getting off easy.” I think the situation spun out of hand and what were initially innocent pranks were ruined by a few kids involved. That means about 25 of us have had to read endless disapproving articles written about us and have had to brave a slew of rumors because THREE kids took it way too far. The school knew it was not urine in the pool as well because they saw us on camera pouring the juice in. It was harmless. The cameras don’t lie; the admin and school cop have discussed this with me that many of us did nothing harmless. Please take it easy on highs school kids that just messed up. We are not felons or crazy stupid kids. We did a prank that turned bad and immediately took action to recover our mistakes. I’d appreciate for you to account for this, because even news sources I have read have been extremely wrong on the facts. There were many types of kids involved, from student council members to kids like myself, who are extremely involved academically. It’s pretty upsetting that many of the kids have been very good all through high school, abstaining from inappropriate activities and keeping on the admin’s good side, yet we do one thing that turns sour and suddenly we are on the news with people shaming us for something that they don’t even know about…it’s appalling.
*we took RESPONSIBILITY
Very well written.
It sounds like a very tough situation going on right now at your high school and I feel bad for your class. I am going to make a note in this blog that points to your comments, note it on my Twitter account (@BrentR7), and give you a mention on my Facebook page.
You seem to have a very good grasp on the lesson in all of this…one or two people can bring down and tarnish a whole group of people. When this happens the news media is not going to care/listen to the facts. Instead, they are going to run with the negative and magnify it. I am in total agreement with you, this is completely wrong.
But as you probably know just as well as me, the media, and especially newspapers (a dying breed) have to do whatever they can to survive and sell their product.
Thanks again for the thoughtful comments. I wish your class the best. Enjoy your end of the year activities and keep your head up!
~ Brent
PS – Please make sure to send the same response to the Spokesman and other papers who picked up on this story…I wish my blog had the same readership that those publications do, but unfortunately it doesn’t.