Catfished....?

Hello everyone! Today's blog is going to be about an interesting topic that is just now becoming widely discussed in the forefront of popular culture... getting catfished!

Just in case you have never heard of this term catfish, according to Urban Dictionary, "A catfish is someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances." Therefore, if you are someone who has been deceived by a false online identity, you now join the ranks of the many disappointed people in the world that can label themselves as being catfished.

So one might ask, why does this deserve an entire blog today? For one, I myself was the victim of forming a relationship with someone fake that I met online. Don't worry, i'll share the details later. Secondly, it's becoming a big topic in the wake of the Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax, if you haven't heard about that just google it. Last but not least, to shine a light on the many sneaky impostors that still roam the webs today and may be deceiving you or someone you love!

So yes back to me and my experiences with "catfishing". Throughout my teenage years I was among the few socially challenged individuals who instead of going to public school, chose to receive my entire education at home. Yes you read correctly, at home; that means there were no proms, no jocks, no crowd of friends or bullies to impress. Just me, my family, and unique coursework designed by my scarily intelligent mother.

This made me turn to many social media outlets for friends as my super social personality could not handle being alone. Well one day after my family decided to move to Oklahoma,  I was bored and even more alone than usual (you'd have to go to Oklahoma to understand the boredom I felt..) I met a girl online by the name of Renee (Yes, that is the actual picture of the girl I believed I was talking to below).

Me and Renee had an on and off relationship, we talked on the phone, exchanged stories, provided support for each other through personal problems in life. Basically we became best-friends.. or so I thought. After four years of talking to this girl, one day (I don't know if it was guilt, drugs, or wanting to do the right thing) she texted me a message that turned my world upside down. She told me that she was using fake pictures online, and that this was her real picture (I don't have her real photo any more but lets just say she was 'slighty' heavier set than the girl above).

I always had my suspicions about her, whenever I would ask her to text me a picture she said "oh my phone doesn't send pictures." Looking back, I was pretty stupid to believe her many excuses for not validating her identity. But I really wanted this person to be real, after all the moments and conversations we shared, I could only hope that someone I considered a friend would be honest to me. Unfortunately that was not the case.

Needless to say I broke off all contact with this girl, not only because of her picture which played a 'huge' part (no pun intended), but because she betrayed my trust for so long... and as a result of that breach in trust I lost a really close friend that day. It took me a while before I recovered from her deception and it completely shattered my confidence in online relationships. To this day I have a very low level of trust for people that I meet on the internet and instead of being "innocent until proven guilty" they are "fake until proven real."

Hopefully after reading this blog and my story you now have a greater understanding of "catfishing" and how harmful it can be to a persons psychological and emotional state. If you or someone that you know is in a relationship online and experiencing similar issues to the one I had with Renee, please don't continue to be deceived. Look into learning their true identity because honesty matters in a relationship. If someone can't even tell the truth about who they are, what else will they lie about?

One motto that I will use to define whether an online relationship is real or not is "If it seems too good to be true, then it usually is!"... Time to put those dirty catfish to shame!

Until next time, Adios!

G.I. Jane!

How's it going everybody? This blog post is going to be a little bit more controversial than most.. Following the MLK holiday which represents the celebration of "equal rights," there has been something very interesting going on in the media. Apparently the Secretary of Defense has lifted the ban on women being able to serve in direct combat roles in the military!

The reason I feel the need to address this today is I feel it can directly impact people I know and care about. My stepfather is an Army infantry man, I have many friends, men and women, that serve in the military, and I have even given the idea of joining myself some decent consideration. So this current bit of news is rather shocking to me.

Women going onto the front-lines, with heavy guns, and bullets spraying in their direction. Who else does not see the harm that this drastic change in culture can expose many women to? I am an advocate for equal rights for all mankind and if there is an injustice I myself will support people who take action to correct that wrong. But in what way does going against the traditions passed down for centuries in protecting this countries female soldiers from additional harm help strengthen our military forces?

In no way is my disagreement with this decision related to the notions that "a woman can't do a mans job" or they are not capable of doing the same roles as a man. In fact I am convinced there are many women today that are overall stronger than a large majority of men, physically and mentally. 

What I just can't understand is how we are suggesting that mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, the people that help keep our civilization thriving with the many contributions they make, be allowed to now go running into fire fights. This means that not only will the male to female ratio decline even further, but there will also be more cases of women coming home in wheelchairs, suffering from PTSD, and the many other terrible side affects of war that men had been willing to sacrifice and take on these burdens for themselves. 

If you are a woman that wants to go into a direct combat role, I'd love to hear why. I'd love to know why someone who has the benefit of additional safety would fight for a position in which they have a higher possibility to die in. I'd love to know the reason why you would fight to open up positions for your daughters and many other daughters of our nation, to decide that they would rather go into the battlefield, instead of use the exceptionally gifted brain they were given towards more tactically supporting roles. 

This is one of the downsides to freedom, while many have the freedom to choose life, there is also the option to choose death. If we now have women in our armed forces that no longer want men to take on the sacrifice of putting their lives directly in harms way, then so be it. But before we just celebrate this decision to lift this ban, let's just step back and consider what we are giving up. In a fight for justice and equality sometimes we can find literally anything to argue about and this is just another case of people just not knowing which battle to fight for...

All we can do is have hope that this decision will not damage society or our armed forces in the ways that many of us predict that it can... God bless our troops! 

Until next time, Adios.  

I have a dream...

Hey everyone, Happy Marthin Luther King Jr. day! Today's blog will just pay homage to Dr. MLK, recognizing what it is he stood for, and how he helped to make everything I do a possibility.

How many people know what it's like to have a dream? I'm sure 99% of you reading this has had a dream in one point of time. Most of us do our dreaming while we are young because "everything is possible" when we aren't old enough to understand limits. If you are over the age of 16 and you still have a dream that you follow (not just because society tells you to do it, or your parents force you to have it), but because its something burning in your heart to achieve; you are one of the rare few.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. receives recognition on this day, not because he was a modern day Messiah or Moses, but because of the ideas that were burning from deep within him, beyond what many people could comprehend at his day and age. As Abraham was the father of faith because be believed God, Dr. King was the father of dreams.

He had no way of seeing the impact his dreams would have on the world, but because he trusted his "gut," he was able to follow after notions that were not only controversial in his day, but worthy of costing him his life. But that's the thing about dreams, they aren't limited to life or death, sleep or awake, slave or free, they stretch far beyond the limits we humans create for ourselves in every day life.

Whether you are rich or poor, white or black, hispanic or asian, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. should set a standard for the way you approach your goals, relationships, and interactions with fellow mankind. If you will just ignore your limitations on what "society" tells you that you can achieve, and follow after the dreams that God has placed in your heart, you can be more than just another spec of sand waiting to be washed away along the shores of our finite mortality.

Today I challenge you to pursue your dreams; to stand up for justice, peace, love, and equality. Because you never know, maybe you are the next big change that this world has been waiting to see. If someone tells you that something you hope to achieve is impossible, just tell them, yes but aren't all dreams impossible until they come true?

Thanks for reading this...

Until next time, Adios!

What the Meme?!

Hey Guys! I'm back with another exciting blog post... Today I have an interesting topic that most everyone will enjoy, that's right MEME's! So yeah, recently i've been getting into meme's a bit. I know I'm kind of late, but I'm just fascinated at what it is about a meme that allows it to catch on. Is it ridiculousness?..cleverness?..rudeness? Maybe it's a combination of all three.

So I decided. Hey why not see if I can get a meme to go viral. So introducing for the first time two new characters of my own.

The Fail Owl!

Don't you just love those menacing eyes of contempt? This owl is always watching and ready to call someone out on a fail! 

And one inspired from a photo featured in my video 70's flow... Swagged Out Larry!

So much swag, Soulja boy would be proud... He represents that guy in the party/club that looks so ridiculous but for some reason the ladies just can't resist!

So yeah if you like these characters feel free to re-post the captions that I have created or make up your own. I'll post the photos without the words below. If it catches on, we will all know who originally thought of the fail owl and larry...! ;)

So yeah that's all the fun for today haha..

Until next time, Adios! 

FAIL OWL (top)

SWAGGED OUT LARRY (bottom)

Im Back! Happy New Year...

Hey guys! First blog of the year... Wow time really fly's when your having fun.. or being chased by a stampede of buffalo! So much has happened in my life since my last post its insane. *No I wasn't chased by buffalo*.. but i'll catch you guys up as well as I can. 

So as you all may know I released my mix-tape in November on Datpiff.com... 

Here's a link in case you haven't downloaded it yet -> http://www.datpiff.com/CocoFuego-For-Better-Or-Worse-Vol-1-mixtape.424280.html

I also got the chance to perform quite a bit towards the end of November and early December at Washtenaw Community College. I was able to craft my stage presence and learn a few harsh lessons about technical difficulties. 

Here's a video of one performance I did at a Talent Show there, please excuse my over abundance of energy, I chugged a red bull prior to stepping on stage and this is what you get...

I brought in the new year with a lyrical bash and a trip to the past in my song 70's Flow...

And now I'm just waiting to release my next song tentatively titled "R.S.V.P".. special prize if you can figure out what it stands for ;-)..

So yeah that about catches you up to whats going on in CocoFuego's world... I appreciate everyone that has supported me throughout the humble beginnings of my music career. One day we are all going to look back and say wow.. look where God took you from.. it could be tomorrow, or maybe a few years. All I can do is be patient, keep writing, and continue to put forth the best effort and quality of music that I possibly can.

Until next time... Adios!