I'm so Square.I Like my Guilty Pleasure: AI

It's hip to be square. Man, I can't help it. Call me square if you like. it just draws me every time to the telly screen. Last week I had a one liner blog about American Idol. Yep not in 140 character or less type. Twittered though. Last night was musically entertaining. No yawns for me. Almost 3 a.m now, wanted to blog because I keep humming the songs.

And yeah, I'm such a square. Three more weeks. He he.

Economic Woes, Debts, Depression Triggered a Man to Kill His Family

Depressing news. It's graphic it's gory it's sad. The reality of life comes in to play here. Still I know it does not excuse what the man did.

This story from Washington Post

The man who killed his wife and three young children and then himself in a tiny town in northwest Maryland last week was at least $460,000 in debt and owned a Florida house that was in foreclosure, according to property records and police.

Christopher Wood, 34, described his financial hardships and his struggle with depression and anxiety -- factors that investigators believe contributed to the killings.

According to investigators, Francie Billotti-Wood, 33, and the couple's 5-year-old son, Chandler, were each shot twice in the head with a .25-caliber handgun. Chandler's younger brother, 4-year-old Gavin, was shot three times; daughter Fiona, 2, was shot once. After they were shot, their throats were slashed almost to the point of decapitation, officials said. Wood killed himself with a shotgun.

Several experts said slayings of entire families by fathers and husbands are often associated with economic hardship. Some men get to the point where it becomes impossible to tell family members that they're going to lose the house or that the kids can't go to college, said Richard J. Gelles, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice and an expert on family violence.

"If you have built your identity around that you're the breadwinner, you're the backbone, and that becomes unglued, it undermines your sense of self," Gelles said.

A tragic and story and especially knowing the reason that the husband did it because of economic hard times. I once blogged about 12 year old girl who committed suicide because of poverty and what drives people to to things like that.

We always say that money is nothing and family is everything but. Money is causing all these anxiety and depression and and driving people to kill others, commit suicide and end lives to spare one's self or the others of the hardships. It's wrong. It shouldn't be like that. But that is reality.

The harsh realities of life is drives people in the brink of madness. Financial problems and the difficulty of where to get money, how to raise kids and put them to through school and then losing a job. All this adds up the pressures of providing the daily needs for the family in this economic hardships we're facing. Meanwhile the situation becomes a constant reminder and in turn depression sets in and it becomes too much. The end result is to eliminate the problem and not fix the cause. It's not right. Not right all.

Nature Gves Us Peace and Hope

But I look out at the open window too, over the large area of Amsterdam, over all the roofs and onto the horizon, as long as this exists, I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this last I cannot be unhappy. God wishes to see people happy amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, I know that there will always be comfort for every sorrow. I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all our trouble" - Anne Frank

Good Morning. Happy Earth Day.

Susan Boyle Showed Us What Human Grace is All About

If you're a news junkie..pop culture or otherwise, chances are you've probably read or seen or heard about Susan Boyle. Already 50 million views on You Tube, she appeared in Britain's Got Talent and made everyone cry and take a long good look at themselves.

From BBC article .. (long one so click the link to read everything)

Last Saturday, viewers saw Boyle, with double chin, unkempt hair, frumpy appearance and eccentric demeanour, step onto the talent show stage and proclaim her dream of being a professional singer.

The judges rolled their eyes and the audience pulled incredulous faces. Onlookers, on set and at home, were rubbing their hands at the prospect of another hopeless, deluded loser being crushed by a withering Simon Cowell insult.

Then she opened her mouth and sang I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables.
Her voice confounded all expectations - the judges' eyes bulged, the crowd went wild and Boyle became an instant star.

Boyle has shattered prejudices about the connection between age, appearance and talent. She has proved that you don't have to be young and glamorous to be talented, and recognised as such

Lisa Schwarzbaum, writer for US celebrity magazine Entertainment Weekly, said the performance was a powerful reality check.

She wrote: "In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging - the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts - the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace.

"She pierced my defences. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective."

It is such a fairytale story for a spinster who from the physical appearance outside one would never think that she she would have the beauty and grace from the inside. Her voice carried the inner beauty that the outside look belied.

This is the story where we should all just pause and think why we should never ever think that we are far more better than the others. That we look much superior, that we have that pretty face face, dressed in fancy clothes and no can make fun us. Susan Boyle showed us all that when you have that inner grace and beauty inside, it will show on the outside.

It's painful to lose a wife, it's harder to to lose a mother

Broadcaster Ted Failon's wife passed away at around 8:50 due gun shot wound in the head. The news said there signs of if improvement but she didn't make it. (abs cbn)

What I'm more concerned about is the effect on the younger child. It must be be very hard especially for a 12 year old to learn of what happened to her mom. At a time like this, it's important that she gets surrounded by family and relatives.