"Looking Back On The 2009"

I've just arrived back in Cincinnati after a little ski vacation to bring in the new decade, so sorry for the late updating of this blog. There have been quite a lot of stories to come out of 2009, especially in the media.

One thing that has really taken the nation, and much of the world by storm is the presence of social media. The two main players in this skyrocketing category are Facebook and Twitter. It seems that 2009 brought the old school (and creepy) Myspace down a path that will be difficult for the company to recover from. Twitter has grown so quickly it is unreal, while it has many downsides it also can reveal a lot about a variety of interesting people without the interference of a PR officer being in the middle.

Charlie Sheen's Christmas tirade will go down as another story that will define 2009. It seems that the Two and a Half Men star, who makes a handy $825,000 per episode, couldn't quite handle the constant bitching of his drunken wife, so did what most Hollywood stars seemed to do this year, freaked out. Another example is the exploits of Rihanna and Chris Brown, dude, do you really think you are going to get away with doing that to her? We won't even get started on Lindsay Lohan and her lesbian outings into the world.

Horrible, and I mean HORRIBLE television ruled much of the airwaves this year. How in the world do people watch John and Kate, how can you care about their lives? Jersey Shore was beyond belief, those guys and girls are absolutely ridiculous. It is like the Real World only way worse, and way more STD's. Why MTV did gross me out with Jersey Shore and made me want to throw a chair into the TV with the Hills, they did provide me with some great entertainment in the form of Nitro Circus. Epic show, Travis Pastrana is absolutely out of his mind, but I love to watch it. I am also disappointed that Jeopardy changed their set layout in 2009, the old one was too classic to change.

I think tragedy also played a prevalent role in defining 2009. My first instinct is the recent passing of Brittany Murphy. There were also the passing of Michael Jackson, remembered as much for his downfall as his brilliance. The massively talented DJAM also fell to the drugs he so wanted to get off of. For many Walter Cronkite was the news media, and with his death in 2009 aspiring journos lost a legend to look up to. There was also the death of Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett, Steve McNair and Ted Kennedy. Let's hope that 2010 brings much more health and prosperity to the world.

Finally, it was the year of Barack Hussein Obama. The man has changed how the United States and its politics will forever be looked at. It was a really exciting time to be alive for, seeing a changing in guard that rivaled that of the Kennedy's. To say he has been thrown into the deep end would be the understatement of a lifetime. He has so much work ahead of his, much like our nation's people and it will be interesting how everybody deals with it. I have a lot of faith in President Obama so here is to the hope that the new year brings him a great deal of success in all of our country's ordeals.

Happy 2010 to all those reading this.