You think too much...

2003-07-30T09:04:00.000-04:00

Clapdown

I guess everyone has their quirks. My cousin, Corn, prides himself on being the fastest clapper in the world. For some reason I have yet to figure out he thinks that fast clapping is a skill that warrants the respect and admiration of all his peers. The sad truth is that he's really fast. I mean, this guy can clap! He's practiced this for years.

This week he believed he was being challenged by a coworker. Though there was never an official gaunlet laid down the coworker, Craig, just went with the flow and they had a showdown in the office. Corn made up rules and even had a promoter secure a room and audience. Corn won the showdown and it was hilarious. What was even funnier was that when he got back to his desk Craig had sent him an email that had "The Clapdown" scheduled in Corn's calendar for later that day. If you can believe it, it was a rematch at fast clapping. Corn is an intelligent guy so it's hard to understand how he takes this so seriously. Anyway, the Clapdown was held yesterday at 2:30.

This is one of those stories that people don't believe unless there is some evidence. I was completely aware of that as the saga was unfolding. So for all of the unbelievers out there.

Watch this.

Clip one is a portion (there were many rounds) of the competition. Clip two is "the winning clap". I'm sure you'll watch in disbelief like everyone else. My, the things we take seriously....

2003-07-14T15:49:00.000-04:00

Why can't I hate the player?

I can't remember a more idiotic phrase ever being created than "Don't hate the player, hate the game". What is saying this supposed to accomplish. Is it supposed to absolve the sayer of any responisibility for whatever messed up thing they did?! And what "game"?! What kind of drooling, retarded person blames things on an imaginary game? I think the same person who invented this is the same person that thought saying "shields" protected them from anything. Here are a couple of scenarios where you might hear this stupid phrase.

1) A woman catches her man at a restaurant with another woman. She confronts him and he responds with
"Don't hate the player, hate the game."

2) Street hustler fast talks you into buying a piece of crap that you don't figure out its a piece of crap until he's gone. You see him on the next block two days later and he responds with
"Don't hate the player, hate the game."

How far does this actually go? It seems that people have managed to start using this phrase to get over in every situation. There has never been a phrase with so much potential to incite anarchy than this. Why do people think it just, magically, gets them off of the hook? If somebody breaks in my house and steals my stuff, "don't hate the player, hate the game" will not illicit a "oh, I suppose you're right" response from me. My response might sound more like a Red Foxx record.

We're not in elementary school anymore. When I was in elementary school I got sent to the principal's office because a kid on the bus, that I didn't know, hit me in the arm and said "Punch buggy, no punch back." I hit him in the nose and he bled for the rest of the ride to school. I never quite understood why he thought I had no right to return the favor. Why wouldn't I hate the player especially if the player is willingly playing the game I hate? I don't see what the big deal is about hating both. Were it not for the fact that I'm a grown, adult man I would be going around punching players in the mouth with a roll of quarters and saying "Don't hate the player, hate the game."

2003-07-08T16:09:00.000-04:00

Perhaps New York City should be the nations capital instead of Washington D.C. I mean, sure we have Capitol Hill, memorials, monuments, the House and the Senate but what good is all of that if New York (and a few other places) have a better fireworks display than we do. First of all, I surfed the major channels looking for the event. I saw the Macy's thing on one channel but the D.C. fireworks were nowhere to be found. That is, until I turned to public access television (WETA). The fireworks here only lasted about 15 minutes and most of the time they were showing the band play and occasionally showing images of the fireworks display. Meanwhile, the other channel had the New York party with Beyonce, Sheryl Crow and Justin. In between commercials they had Arnold Schwarzenegger, Angela Bassett, and Reese Witherspoon giving inspiring naratives. All we had was people like Peabo Bryson. The fireworks display in NY was about 30 minutes and all of it was amazing! Our little, raggedy 15 minute show was fuzzy because nobody gets that channel clearly. Now you tell me why, on the most patriotic day of the year, the nation's capital can't go all out? I don't live in D.C. so I don't pay taxes there and I vote to boost the funding for the 4th of July fireworks because it doesn't make any sense that the University of Maryland and Six Flags all have better displays than the District. New York had Beyonce and we had the National Symphony Orchestra. What sense does that make?! It's a shame that Macy's can put on a better display than the nation's capital.

2003-07-07T07:14:00.000-04:00

Ok, here's the thing I don't get. R. Kelly is the, self-dubbed, Pied Piper of R&B. I completly understand the parallel between his ability to woo with music and the Pied Piper's ability to do the same. I got that part. The part that confuses me is that he picked this particular story as a reference for his 'charm'.

The town of Hamlin had a rat problem and they hired the Pied Piper to use his skills to dispose of the rats. The Piper played his flute and all of the rats followed him out of the town and into the river to drown. When he had disposed of all of the rats and returned for his payment the town council didn't pay him what was promised and challenged him to do something about it. So the Pied Piper, with his gypsy like charm, stood in the street and begin to play again. This time it was the children he was after. All of the little children gleefully followed him out of town and were never seen again.

Now, if I were R. Kelly and I was picking a new moniker, with current court cases pending, why would I pick one that ends with the guy taking away little children to do who knows what in the side of a mountain?! It just makes no sense. Maybe that move wasn't thought all the way through. lol

2003-06-16T15:04:00.000-04:00

I moved to a nice neighborhood for a reason! Yesterday I came home to the sound of the ice cream truck on my street. To be honest I'd rather not have an ice cream truck on my street because kids only know how to throw wrappers in the grass instead of the trash can but I resigned to deal with it...for the kids. What I won't deal with is the fact that the music the truck was playing had a drum track. What kind of ice cream truck has a drum track with snares, bass and Sean Paul claps?! And this truck must've had Bose speakers or something because I could hear the music very clearly even after my door was closed. Now I have kids hanging around the ice cream truck, dancing. It's their new club!! That was NOT the reason I moved into the neighborhood. I'm calling my HOA. lol

2003-06-11T15:14:00.000-04:00

Dollar readers are too sensitive these days. The only ones that aren't are fare card machines at the metro. You could put a crumpled dollar in any of those machines and they'll take it. Even if the dollar is folded over, faded from the wash and in the shape of a ball. But when you need the machines most, when the guy just delivered that snack that you didn't know you wanted until you saw it and just had to have it, that's when they decide to get all sensitive. It's like the dollar has to come straight from the mint, uncreased, for the machine to read it. I just stood at the machine for 5 minutes trying to get my dollar in. I really wasn't that hungry but after the dollar got spit out the 5th time it was personal. I was determined to get that dollar (or any of the ones in my pocket) into that machine. I'm straightening it out on my leg, rubbing it on the corner of the machine, trying to force then finesse it into the vending machine and the reader was treating me like my dollar had SARS.

I remember we used to put tape on the dollars (in high school) so we could pull them back out again and get our sodas without paying AND get back change. Since then then the machines have had many upgrades. That taped dollar business stopped around the T-1000 series of machines, I guess. But now it's like they don't even want the dollar...like the snack machine is much happier holding on to the snacks. Fine! They can keep their snacks! The only reason I was comfortable sitting through Terminator 2 and the Matrix was because it wasn't real but it looks like the snack machines are trying to make it happen. I won't stand for it. I'm the friggin' "one". I'm about to go stand in front of the machine and weave in bullet time. Who's with me?

2003-05-28T13:38:00.000-04:00

Its the end of May 2003 and its rained everyday except 5 days. That's 23 days of rain. Its funny to hear people complain about everything. Last year it was the drought. This year it's the rain. Later this summer it will probably be the mosquitos (that we missed out on last year because of the drought). People are going to always find something to complain about but next year they're going to have plenty of ammunition. Get ready, the cicadas are coming back next summer!

2003-05-20T09:38:00.000-04:00

Last week McDonald's introduced the McGriddle, its new breakfast sandwich series. The company's stock has been dropping sharply in recent years due to lack of innovations, nutritional concerns, and bad customer service. This new series is one of the many measures that will be taken to boost the fast food giants dismal earnings. The sandwich concept is pretty well thought out. Its just like the McMuffin's and biscuits but the bread is a couple of pancakes with the syrup already inside. It's actually pretty good and my fingers didn't get sticky like I thought they would. There is one thing that is suspiciously missing. The friggin' prices. You'll see this huge blue sign enticing you to buy but prices are nowhere to be found. Not on the menu. Not on the sign. You actually have to ask before you find out that the meals cost just over $3.50 which is much more than the other meals. I guess not having an introductory price is one of those things we deal with when a company is trying to bounce back and get in the public's good graces again.

2003-05-12T13:16:00.000-04:00

I don't understand why so many married people refuse to change. Change is the nature of marriage. The only reasonable guess I can venture about the rationale of people who don't see it this way is that they believe they are "straight" before they get married. If they figure the way they are is the way they'll always be and that's good enough then I guess they wouldn't see the need for change. There is a problem with the ideology that suggests "I was this way when we got married and they knew it." It assumes that the way we are is good enough. Even if we marry at 21, it assumes we've learned everything there is to know about marriage by that age. It's silly when we look at it like that. The couples I've seen often run into problems because one or both of the persons like the way they are and don't want to change. If it weren't marriage we were talking about that might be ok but we're talking about the institution God designed to change us into better people. The necessity to change shouldn't be an unwelcomed surprise but should be viewed as the opportunity to become better.

For instance, when you have a child you soon become more patient than you ever have been or ever believed you would be through the process of raising that child. There's really no option. If we get tired of getting up at night or answering a million "why's?" we don't divorce the child. For some reason we see this relationship correctly. We don't see getting out of it as an option. We just see that we need to adapt to the child and whether we agree or not we simply do it because that's what needs to happen. People want to divorce their spouses so quickly because they don't see the changes that need to be made as something that needs to happen. Instead its an intrusion on their already "perfect" personality. People who raise children ultimately become much better people than they were before the child. The same is true for marriages. People who work through marriages become much better people than the person they were when they married. Marriage is the crucible designed to improve us. It's a wonderful tool to get us to the place we need to be and it works, providing we don't quit along the way. In short...marriage rocks!

2003-05-06T12:29:00.000-04:00

Old school, basic rhymes always make me laugh.

"My name is Mike and I'm here to say..."

Has anything good EVER followed that line? "I'm here to say..." is one sure sign that something bad is about to happen. lol

2003-05-01T08:15:00.000-04:00

My father used to tell me exaggerated truths about his youth so I was getting my list together so I'm ready when I have kids of my own. So far its not that impressive.

"You don't need a cell phone! When I was growing up nobody had a cell phone. Everybody used the same, dirty public phone. If your car broke down you didn't have a cell phone to call for help with. You had to walk 30 miles to the next raggedy, filthy public phone and put a quarter in just so you can use it. And hope it didn't take your money!!!"

"Email?! People survived for hundreds of years without email. We didn't have no email. We just had regular mail. We had to put our tongues on our mail and walk all the way to a box to put it in. And we didn't get any instant replies. Everybody knew that regular mail took '5 to 7 business days' to get there. And it cost money!!"

"When I was your age we didn't have different shoes all the time. We didn't have to get 5 and 6 pair a year. Everybody wore the same shoe and that shoe was a BOOT. Timberlands were all you needed. When your shoes got old. We didn't run to the store to get a new pair. We had to use the erasers off of our pencils to clean our shoes. If they were really dirty we'd use sandpaper but we did what we had to to make those Timberlands last. Go get that eraser, let me show you how to clean a shoe, son!"

"Get away from that HDTV!! All you kids do is play video games. They make the games too easy these days. Video games were just starting out when I was young and we didn't have all these fancy graphics and stuff. All we had was some blocks and circles. You had to play a whole game with one button!! And you were lucky if your button didn't stick. And we had, what you call, a joystick that didn't respond to nothing. I would pull it as hard as I could to the left and put it on the floor and kick it to the right and my rectangle still wouldn't move from the middle of the screen."

"You kids are so spoiled. You get hot in the car...you push a button and the window goes down. It used to be you had to manually roll the window down. If it was hot you'd start rolling and you better hope your arm was in shape. If you were like everybody else and had an old car you had to plan ahead because it took 5 minutes to get the window down. You had to roll in shifts!! And while you were switching you just prayed to God that you didn't burn your arm on the seat belt buckle. Ya'll just don't know how good you got it."

Maybe I'll be a better father than I thought. lol

2003-04-30T11:41:00.000-04:00

So I'm working on a new marketing slogan because Jamaica shouldn't have all the fun. All I've come up with so far is:

"Come to Maryland. We have crabs."

It's a work in progress.

2003-04-29T06:49:00.000-04:00

The funny thing about getting up early is that you would think I would be used to it by now. I've been getting up at 5:15am for years but I'm always tired when the alarm goes off. When I think about it even when I get up at 9:30 I'm still tired. I think it's the alarm. The fact that I have to get up before I naturally wake up is probably what makes me tired. If the alarm isn't set and I wake up, on my own, at 6:00 I'm fine but anytime the alarm wakes me up I find myself praying to God for one more hour. Why can't we just get up when we wake up instead of being forced up?

2003-04-24T06:58:00.000-04:00

I've had so much to write but everytime I sit down I forget what it was. Like now....???

2003-04-10T16:19:00.000-04:00

It's kinda weird that if you eat something strong like onions or tuna or Cap'n Crunch people don't really want you to talk directly at them. They'd probably prefer that you use sign language. But if you eat Cool Ranch Doritos most people really don't mind. In fact, they'll probably go looking for a bag themselves. Go figure.

2003-04-08T13:30:00.000-04:00

There are few things in life that will put a smile on my face quicker than someone singing Sir-Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back". That is just one hysterical piece of comedy. I learned all the words when I was younger and that was "my song" but now when I hear it I can't help but laugh at the fact that that song actually caught on. People were actually using words like "Juicy Double" and "that butt was stuffed." When someone starts rattling off
"when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in yo' face you get sprung!"

That's just hilarious. lol

2003-04-03T07:32:00.000-05:00

I'm in a good mood today. How about playing some elevator games? The rules are just pick one of the following, do it, and enjoy the laugh you'll have when it's over.

1) Walk in the elevator and stand about 3 inches from one of the people in there. For best results, it helps if there's only one other person in the elevator. You must stand in direct violation of the that persons "personal space".

2) Walk in the crowded elevator humming ("My country tis of thee"). Just hum (or whistle) that phrase over and over again. Whatever you do, don't continue with the rest of the song, just that one phrase.

3) When the elevator door opens start dancing like a boxer. Jog in and stand about four feet from the oldest man in there. Throw 15 quick jabs towards his head. Don't hit him (of course) but once you get to 15 say "Come on, make it look good."

4) Stand next to anyone in the elevator and say "That Saddam. What a character, huh?....huh?" Raise your eyebrows repeatedly and give them the chicken wing elbow.

5) As you walk in blink once really hard, then open your eyes as wide as you can, blink a lot of times (like you have something in your eye) and say "Whoa! Did somebody pass gas? Somebody owes me an apology!"

Trust me. They'll laugh with their co-workers about the story and that one little random act of kindness will brighten both of your days.

2003-03-26T12:53:00.000-05:00

I guess in the overall scheme of things pigeons could've been a little smarter. Like bats. As it stands a pigeon will fly right into you. At least bats have a desire to miss. Pigeons don't care. They don't understand that they would be a lot more likeable if they would just fly in the opposite direction sometimes. You walk by a cluster of pigeons, eating pebbles, and they'll all fly away but they fly away in YOUR direction before they turn and go the other way! You'd think a bird that's smaller than you would not want to run into you the same way you wouldn't think you could run into a bus and move it. I've never actually collided with one but that's only because of my cat like reflexes. lol

God sure gave pigeons the short end of the stick.

2003-03-25T06:56:00.000-05:00

The Cologne Zone

If you're ever in a mood to simultaneously smell as many different scents as humanly possible the best place I can think of is an office elevator before 9:00am. Because of cologne and perfume's time dependent effectiveness I guess piling it on early in the day so you can at least have a hint of it by quitting time is par for the course. It's just that for the less than one minute ride to my floor my senses are bombarded by musks and florals until I'm borderline euphoric. The women 30 and under I can deal with but it's those 30 plusers that hurt the most. They've already made the switch to "old lady perfume" and old lady perfume is not one of my favorite scents. Even though the women can be divided into categories based on age men are a little more complex. Most men wear musk based colognes. Since I prefer citris and floral based colognes this poses a problem for me so early in the morning. Aside from that musks just don't mix well. You get a guy with Eternity in the same place as someone who has on Lagerfeld you better get out quick or you'll pass out. It seems like the older the guy the more cologne he has on. And it's all old-school cologne. It was already pass my limit to be smelling 6 women, all with different scents on, at one time but this guy stood next to me and he must've had on like 14 magazines of Royal Copenhagen. Thank goodness I was standing next to a wall to support me.

2003-03-24T09:54:00.000-05:00

I wasted $9 on Willard. I don't get why a good portion of hollywood likes this movie. I understand that it's Crispin Glover's biggest and best leading role but that doesn't really make it that good. I still can't see him as anything else other than George McFly. If I were scared of rats I guess this movie would move me but I really don't mind them that much. I wouldn't want them in my house or my neighborhood but I wouldn't scream 3 octaves higher and jump in a chair if I did.

I'm in a movie mood because I just found out that I'm going to officially start reviewing for B-Girl.net. I'm excited!

P.S. - The reviews will be much more detailed than this. lol

2003-03-18T10:07:00.000-05:00

They were announcing that this war will be televised. Because of new technological advancements we will see unprecedented coverage of this scrap with Saddam. The news industry is abuzz concerning how coverage will be different compared to Vietnam and the Gulf War. More cameras. More journalists. More access. And I'm sitting at home considering how our desire for human drama...the same ideology that's making reality television more popular than scripted entertainment...I can't help but wonder. Is the quality of the coverage and gravity of the situation going make us watch it or is it that we've been primed for reality tv and to some this will appear no more "real" than the next show?

2003-03-17T08:20:00.000-05:00

Yeah, yeah, my blog is down. I'm just dealing with it. We (GMG World Media) switched over our server and I've been to lazy to 1) transfer the data and 2) try my hand at moveable type. Don't worry. It won't be forever.

I was this close to shutting down my blog. Sometimes I just don't feel like it. But then I realized that if I did that who would answer my millions of questions and psychological observations concerning everyday life? I need this. lol

Who told Pizza Hut and Domino's Pizza that people like the taste of cinnamon as a pizza chaser? I'm trying to figure out how their focus group was for this goofy notion. The last thing I want after I've downed a few slices of swine topped deliciousness is an icing covered cinnamon stick. It's hard to imagine people who ordered pizza being one slice away from being full and thinking "I better save some room for my cinnamon dessert." If I ordered pizza I'm opting to eat the pizza until I'm full every time. Domino's went from the CinnaSticks to the "new and improved" Domino's Dots. What?!?! Is a clumpy ball of cinnamon supposed to be better? I'd like to think of myself as an educated man but Cinnamon and Pizza I just don't get. That's like McDonald's abandoning the French Fries (Freedom Fries is a topic I don't even care to waste words on) and offering a Filet-O-Fish with the "new and improved" Chocolate Mousse. It just doesn't match. Am I the only one who's CinnaCrap is getting cold and hard on the counter while I'm downing my slices?

2003-02-24T07:08:00.000-05:00

For everyone who happened to miss the Jay-Z concert before the Tyson fight, let me recap...

Jay-Z came out and walked.
The stage was big.
He walked some more.
Then Memphis Bleek came out walking.
Beanie Siegel walked too.
Damian Dash did "the Damian Dash" dance while the others kept walking.
Missy came out with dancers who danced while everyone else stood in the back drinking water.
When Missy left it was walking time again.
They walked over here.
Oooh...then I saw them walk over there.
The violin chick played (very well).
Then, yep-you guessed it...time to walk.
Biggie, Tupac tribute...yada, yada,walk.
Walk some more aaaannd cut!

What do you take away from a concert like that?
"Those guys sure can walk good." ??!?!?!

2003-02-19T08:25:00.000-05:00

Snow Smalltalk

I guess my first question is "Why?!" but I guess I can muster a little leniency. I guess my running theory is "if people don't try so hard why should I?" It's sorta weird. It's like they do try hard enough to begin smalltalk but they don't try hard enough to think about the validity of what they're saying. Some of the stuff makes absolutely no sense at all. You can tell they didn't think about it before they said it. So if they didn't try hard to consider their conversation why should I try hard to continue it? The leading intro, with 3 occurrences, that I've heard today is..."Did you survive the snow?" That's works as a question about as good as "No, actually I'm still dead." works as an answer.

2003-02-19T07:02:00.000-05:00

"Call Mr. Plow.
That's my name.
That name again
is Mr. Plow."

Why don't people actually use catchy, albeit silly, jingles like this to sell their products? If there really were a Mr. Plow I would've called him this weekend. Where is Homer Simpson when you need him. Even the Plow King would've been ok. I was singing that stupid song all weekend but who could blame me? That is one of the funniest Simpsons episodes and one heckuva commercial. Even the wise man can learn from a fool. Ad executives should take note. This is how you write a jingle. It doesn't have to be great or wordy. Just have a catchy melody and be as easy to remember (and fun to talk about) as possible. It doesn't even matter if people laugh at it. They'll remember and you'll sell your product. Don't ask why I'm on this ad kick. I just couldn't get that song out of my head. Sue me.

2003-02-13T16:45:00.000-05:00

Here's the thing...everybody's making a huge deal about Frenchie Davis being kicked off of American Idol. The more talk I hear about it the more I realize I'm listening to the same story which basically amounts to no story at all. The chief defense is the "you didn't say nothing to them" defense. Yes, yes I understand that Nikki McKibbin used to be a stripper and made it to the top three and that Sara from Joe Millionaire did a fully clothed fetish and bondage film and she hasn't been kicked off. Does that mean that everybody should be able to be as risque as possible and still not suffer the consequences? There are certain things you just can not do and without understanding that there will be fall out. For instance, I can't be a two time felon and cry foul when the FBI doesn't hire me. I can't be a known pedophile and try to take parents to court for discrimination because they wouldn't let me babysit their children. I also can't pose for an adult website and expect a network (even one with such loose morals as Fox) to allow me to represent a role model to the American public. It really doesn't matter who they let do it before. That race card is quick to come out. It could possibly be racial but the probability is just as high that someone in the network wised up and realized "yeah, this happened before but we can't allow this to go on." People do sometimes recognize mistakes and stop committing them. The race card should be held on to a little longer until the next white stripper, turned porn-star, with a fetish for feet becomes the next American Idol. Then I'll join in with everyone else and say "But Frenchie...."

2003-02-11T17:22:00.000-05:00

This is what's called a Blog Break. Please bear with me as I take this break so I can figure out why anybody would consider bowties fashionable.

2003-02-04T11:53:00.000-05:00

I don't like the way the motion picture industry preys on our weaknesses. I remember when dvd's first appeared they had special features and both screen versions. I went to buy The Bourne Identity yesterday and I asked the saleswoman for it. She responded with "full or widescreen". Of course that threw me off because "back in my day" they both came on the same disc. The same thing happened a couple months ago when I bought Spider-Man but I dismissed it as an anomaly. It's not that I would buy two dvd's just to have both versions it's just nice to have them on the one disc. I wonder who's genius idea this was.

"Let's split them up so people who want both will be forced to buy them separately."

I don't see that many people actually doing that so it would cost the company more money. They have to print and send two versions of the cover art (Fullscreen and Widescreen). They end up sending double the units and making pretty much the same profit. The only logical explaination is that the disc is so chocked full of extras that they could only afford space for one version. If any geek has the time to watch a two hour movie and still hang around for 2-3 hours of extras more power to them. I'd much rather have both versions of the movie.

2003-01-30T10:28:00.000-05:00

I'm just reflecting on how hot a song "Luchini" was. Camp Lo is just one group in a pile of many that should've been great. When they first dropped they had the style, balance, they even made up their own brand of confusing slang and mangled names. Everybody was "sippin' Armere-DA" and half of those people still didn't know what "Ameretto" was. It bothers me when groups don't realize their potential and end up dropping out because of label disputes, group squabbles or terrible marketing. People's careers just have a way of falling off and we don't give it a second thought until years later when we're thinking "what ever happened to..." Special Ed just fell off. He came out with another wack album years later but he failed to ride that "I Got It Made" wave. Lisa Stansfield, Tevin Campbell, Chubb Rock...they all just disappeared. Not everyone was great but there is a long line of people, whose songs made us turn our radios up, that just...stopped. That really sucks.

2003-01-28T13:04:00.000-05:00

I just came back from getting my lunch and it occurred to me that they really should have some signs in the elevator. I'm not one for elevator talk but I elevator signage would be welcome. There's something insulting about people staring up at the floor numbers as if they're eagerly anticipating their floor. If you get in an elevator and 7 people are in there (not talking) at least 6 of them are staring at the lights. There's nothing interesting up there!! It's just a not so clever device to avoid talking to people. I'm even guilty of this one from time to time but that's only because I'd much rather look stupid for looking at floor lights than engaging in a mindless elevator conversation. Someone should really alleviate a lot of the dumbness and give people something else to stare at so your staring at least makes sense to someone else watching you.

2003-01-27T10:47:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I noticed an unusally high number of middle aged men and women driving luxury cars. I initially thought that they were old people trying to be young but as soon as I formed the thought the internal debate started. I have always thought like that that. Like part of the reason older people get flashier vehicles is in attempt to gain attention from younger people. I was conditioned that way. I don't know how or when this occurred but that's just the way it was. But when I thought about it again I realized who stupid I'd been. This society portrays affluence in a very limited number of ways. We think that younger people with nicer houses and more expensive cars are "ballers". It occurred to me that the 27 year old that makes $32,000 a year, driving a Benz is not balling nearly as well as the 49 year old, making $72,000 a year, driving the exact same car. Once the car notes are paid one person has much more left over than the other. It doesn't really matter that both can afford the car. The 49 year old is probably enjoying his money a lot more because he has more freedom to do the things he enjoys.

It's really a silly way we measure success. We look at the expenses that have the largest recurring bills and think that the person is "doing their thing". The reality is that the person working a decent job, driving a paid-for Fiero is "doing their thing" better than most people still paying a car note. Cars aren't worth anything. Houses are. But even in the house department, how much room do you really need before you start wasting your money? If you can manage well in a smaller home paying $1,200 a month why make the jump to paying $2,200 a month for a larger, nicer house just because your "lender" (what a deceitfully, disarming way of putting it) says you can afford it?

The "ballers" are the people who are smart enough to keep their money instead of using it to get larger amounts of credit to place themselves in debt for years. The 40+ year olds aren't getting cars to impress younger people or to feel younger. They're getting the cars because it's the 40 year olds that make enough to comfortably afford them. Those high price tag cars are made for 40 year olds. The 20 somethings are the ones maxing out their money trying to act older. How did I have it wrong all these years?

2003-01-23T10:30:00.000-05:00

Why is My Wife and Kids the most slept on sitcom on television? Sure everybody loves Raymond and King of Queens is good for a laugh or two. Friends is still the best available but My Wife and Kids is a consistent winner. It has yet to receive a Golden Globe, Emmy or any other nomination and it probably will be cancelled soon but I hope it makes it to syndication because the sitcom industry has been really dry in the last 4 years. But no matter how many kooky reality shows they throw at me I'll always be a sitcom guy.

2003-01-22T07:59:00.000-05:00

"Big Mac, McDLT, a Quarter Pounder with some cheese.
Filet-o-Fish, a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a happy meal.
McNuggets, tasty, golden french fries. Regular or larger sizes.
Salads, chef and garden or a chicken salad oriental.
Big, Big breakfast, Egg McMuffin, hot Hotcakes and sausage,
maybe biscuits, bacon, egg and cheese or sausage, danish, hashbrown too.
And for dessert, hot apple pies and sundaes, three varieties.
A softserve cone, three kinds of shakes and chocolatey chip cookies.
And to drink a Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, a orange drink. A Sprite.
Or coffee, decaf too and lowfat milk and also orange juice.
I love McDonald's good time, great taste and I get this all at one place."

Don't ask why I still know that commercial or even memorized it in the first place. Some things are just plain sad without explaination. lol

2003-01-21T08:08:00.000-05:00

No complaints...

- Friday morning I drove the band to New Jersey for a studio session. We left at 3:45am.
- Friday afternoon 2 of us drove to Virginia for the Nichole Nordeman concert.
- Friday night, at 11:15pm, the six of us that went to the concert slept in the parking lot at IHOP waiting until 12:00am when our week long fast was over.
- Saturday morning I got home at 2:00am
- Saturday morning I got up at 3:30 am to drive back to NJ to finish the studio session. We left at 3:45 again.
- Saturday morning we arrived in NJ and continued with the session.
- Sunday morning we finally finished the session at 2:30am and got on the road.
- Sunday morning at 4:00am I awoke in the van to the realization that the driver ended up on the Pennsylvania turnpike instead of staying on the NJ turnpike and it would take longer to get home.
- Sunday morning we arrived home at 5:30am
- Sunday morning between 5:30am and 8:00am I studied to prepare to teach the teens at church which started at 9:00am
- Sunday morning at 9:00am I had to play for the service.
- 9:45am...teaching the teens.
- Sunday afternoon after church my wife and I went out for lunch and had a good time.
- Sunday...2:00pm I finally arrived home to my bed and crashed like Stevie Wonder in rush hour but it was all worth it. Wait until these songs are released! The concert was well worth the drive and I was really happy to be home with my wife when it was all over.
I give this weekend a 9 out of 10.

2003-01-16T14:01:00.000-05:00

Writers block sucks. Enjoy your weekend.

2003-01-14T08:54:00.000-05:00

For some reason telling other people about Jesus Christ is so difficult for many Christians. It's just one of those illogical things that I hope doesn't last too long. These days we're so worried about what James, the guy we met on the flight to Orlando, will think about us even though we'll probably never see him again. We've gotten much to comfortable with hiding in the shadows. We blame our inability to tell other people about Him on the fact that they'll look at us funny or think badly about us. Then when we finally work up the courage to say something and we get anything other than a warm, welcoming reaction we believe our initial position is validated not realizing the even mention of His name is supposed to have an effect.

Outside this country people are killed for possessing a bible or for gathering together. Christians can't even meet without facing execution and somehow they still gather together. Sometimes they get caught but they never stop meeting. In this country we remain silent about the most important thing. We don't fear death here. We simply don't want to risk a raised eyebrow.

When I was in Texas last month I walked into a Church of Scientology to talk to some of the people about Christ. I ended up speaking with one of their teachers and I asked him what does he usually say to all of the Christians that come in their to tell them how much Jesus loves them. His answer should've been our answer. He said "if you believe Jesus to be the best thing there is I would expect you to tell everyone about it. Why wouldn't you?" If that's what other people think about us why don't we think that about ourselves? Why is the raised eyebrow too much of a risk? If you truly understand the stakes why would anything matter? Because of the way we are hell is the default. If we, or anyone else, makes any choice other than the right one...or even no choice at all (like my Scientology friend) we default.

It's really simple. We carry a disease called sin. We can't get rid of it no matter how hard we try. God loves us so much. But even He can't bring us into His home while we carry the disease because His nature is Holy. The only way we can avoid quarantine is for somebody capable enough to clothe us in holiness so we can be with God. God can't live with us like we are but He's provided a way for us to be covered so we can live together. He's done all the work. All we have to do is acknowledge that we want it. It can't be any simpler. Why don't we tell other people of this wonderful cure?

Someone put it like this:
"Other people are dying of thirst and we don't help because we're afraid to impose our water on them."

2003-01-09T07:15:00.000-05:00

I've always found it funny when people try to impress other people with their dated accomplishments. But they talk about them as if they're current happenings not realizing that whether its a current accomplishment or an older one resurrected to impress, it still leaves me with that confused feeling inside that materializes into a smile. For example, when people talk to me about music they will work it in that their cousin is really big in the industry. In fact he produces Young M.C. and was very instrumental in the radio success of "Bust a Move". Then I'm informed that I should give him a call because he's looking for new acts.

I've heard a few hundred of these over the years. I've met family members of people who used to write for Yo-Yo, sing background for Billy Ocean, were related to "the tall one" from Silk, worked with Tony Terry, this list just keeps growing. I was asked to go into the studio to rhyme over a track produced by the same guy who produced for The Mighty Clouds of Joy. The Mighty Clouds of Joy?! lol

It never fails to catch me off-guard and I don't understand why people don't realize that acts like All-4-One, Jade, and Tag Team aren't the best showcases for their entertainment mettle in 2003. I always make a mental note and add them to list of funny events I replay when I need a mental diversion. But who knows maybe one day the guy that was "the assistant producer on the second M.C. Brains record" will make a comeback and you'll see my name on the next big project from Biv 10 Records.

2003-01-08T10:34:00.000-05:00

Either I've been completely clueless to the biggest functional fashion fact the world has ever known or women are lying! Whenever I've asked a woman, wearing a skirt in below freezing temperatures, if she's cold and how does she do it the answer has always been..."I have on stockings." Stockings?!?! I'm thinking "I have on longjohns and I'm still cold". How, in the world, do stockings (and in some cases...SHEER) protect anything from the elements? It's one of the thinest pieces of fabric in existence. You can see through them!! I just don't get it. But like I said before...maybe it's just me.

2003-01-06T10:08:00.000-05:00

Hola! Bonus Nachos Como Senor Pasa. I never took Spanish but most people can hardly tell. lol

It's a new year and I'm excited. It's been snowing quite a bit and I had a wonderful break (I just got back to work today). My wife bought me the special edition dvd of my favorite movie. I have a $100 gift certificate to my favorite store burning a hole in my pocket. AND Joe Millionaire comes on tonight. But what I'm really excited about is the gig we played this past weekend with the Cross Movement. I was really surprised at the ministry and heart these guys displayed. It really changed my perspective on a lot of things. Oh yeah. I also just bought tickets to a concert my favorite artist is having next week. Life is great!

2002-12-23T16:27:00.000-05:00

We may not always feel like it but that's ok. Feelings change. Somedays we're inclined to feel better than others. The more I consider it the more I'm convinced that someone sold us all a lie. If we do anything by our feelings we have the tendency to fluctuate like the S&P 500. Somehow we picked up this misconception about love. We've been tricked into believing love is something you feel. That puts us into a position where we say things like "I'm in love". It also gives us a convient out when we don't "feel" like doing it anymore or just don't "feel" up to it that day. I guess that's why so many people get hurt where love is concerned.

We think love is something you feel.
God thinks love is something you do.

Somebody is right and somebody is wrong. Any guesses?

2002-12-18T14:10:00.000-05:00

I wouldn't necessarily call this "homesickness". I'm really ready to come home but it's not because Texas is so boring and everything is spread out. Its not even because the cab ride downtown costs $40 each way and I was shorted on my per diem. Its also not because in a conference dominated by hydrologist and hydraulic engineers I happen to be the only one here with a degree in psychology (and have developed a prototype beyond most of these peoples FY 2003 plans). I just really want to come home because I miss my wife. Call it "wifesickness" or whatever you like. King-sized beds only serve as a reminder that I'm sleeping by myself for another night.

On a completely unrelated matter why would anyone opt for the latin version of a word that could be translated into english? I understand some words from other languages have no english equivalent or are proper names that shouldn't be translated, blah blah. "Per diem"?! Why? What's so great about leaving that phrase in an ancient, unspoken language?

Some things I just don't get. Like why don't people go Christmas Caroling anymore? What ever happened to people taking an hour or two, getting together with a group of friends and making the holidays that much better? I suppose people are too busy shopping and focused on the material aspects of Christmas to consider this. Or maybe they hated caroling as much as I did when my parents forced me to go. Believe me, there's nothing like caroling inside of a Southeast apartment building. But even though it sucked, I did it. Over the years people have become more and more self absorbed to even consider something as "radical" as caroling. It's even becoming kinda difficult for me to imagine someone even getting charged up to go sing Christmas Carols. I don't buy that crap about not wanting to offend anyone. People act like their childhood didn't exist. They used to listen to Christmas music, wrap Christmas presents and kiss under the mistletoe. Now everyone acts like they didn't grow up on the stuff and opt out of anything that "excludes" anybody else. Most people don't consider the long term results of all this homogeny. It's simple. The letters "P.C." are steadily starting to resemble the letters "B.S."

As you can tell by the seemingly unrelated train of thought I was overdue for a blog. Hope I didn't make it too hard to keep up but in case you're lost I'll save you the reread and tell you the secret. I have a super short attention span. shhhh. don't tell anyone.

See you next week.

2002-12-12T12:07:00.000-05:00

I'll be in Austin, TX next week for my job. It's really close to Christmas and I have a lot of things to take care of so I volunteered to go on this trip. What was I thinking?!?! lol

2002-12-11T06:48:00.000-05:00

Ice storm. Who'da thought? I'm working from home which isn't quite as good as working from work but at least I can make bacon whenever I feel like it. The thing that sucks is that when you work from home you have to turn in a list of what you're going to complete. Then you have to turn all of it in. So much pressure. Last week when I did this I ending up working all day which, I understand, is what you're supposed to do anyway. At work I actually do work all day but my breaks are a bit more...um...breaky?? There's more to do when I'm there and I don't have the all the pressure of delivering an unusually long list of deliverables. So, long story short, I'm iced in but at least Kia's here too;-)

2002-12-09T13:22:00.000-05:00

The Unadulterated Truth

The Devil must have hand stitched Longjohn's. That's the only conclusion that justifiably explains the wretchedness of the whole thing. I pretty much assume they were made for men. Women don't have the same difficulties. For the man there can be no discovery more horrid than walking into a restroom and realizing that you decided to don the Fort Knox of undergarments. Longjohns are the equivalent of standing outside of the club in Corniches and a party shirt. They're impossible to get in! Try as you might, there's no getting in with these things. Of course, for me, it seemed like a good idea at the time because its so cold outside. But I quickly recognized my folly this morning. It's much more simple for women. Just pull them down and sit. Men can't really do the pull down anymore. I think once you're 4 or 5 years old the pull down is sorta frowned upon in public restrooms. Nobody wants to walk in and see a grown man standing up with his pants around his ankles. The longjohns just add another, complicated layer to the ordeal. I might as well have had a combination lock on. Trying to maneuver through an extra layer of tricky clothing is like trying to find the light switch in a room you're not too familiar with. There's a lot of fumbling, trial and error, misdirection...its not pretty. Lord knows what the guy standing next to me thought I was doing. Thank God it wasn't an emergency. By the time I successfully navigated the labyrinth of entrances I was just in time for what started off as a mild prompting by my bladder and had grown into an unstoppable rebel force. I was this close to resorting to the "pull down". I'm sure glad I'm a child of the late 20th century. I don't think I could've survived the early part of it where they had to wear those butt flap pajamas.

2002-12-06T08:33:00.000-05:00

Aaahh. Snow. And lots of it!

Aren't snow days the coolest days? And I don't mean "coolest" because they're cold because I really hate puns but snow days rock. We haven't had a big storm in a few years and since we're in a rainfall deficit I was sure God wasn't going to let us down this year. I'm looking outside my window now at the snow covered buildings and sidewalks and...uh oh...and the snow covered briefcase of the man who just fell. I'm sure he'll get up and dust himself off and smile because, after all, it is a snow day.

There is something that bothers me inspite of this wonderful weather. It's been around for years. My father did it and his father and his father before him. Somehow it seems to be lost on this generation of hypnotized video gamers. I'm sure you've figured out by now that I'm talking about Snow Football. These kids today may never know the joy of tackling another kid face down in the snow and using the back of his head as support to help you back to your feet. They'll never know the feeling of frigid finger jams from footballs that feel like bricks. Or witness the trickle a bloody nose makes in the snow during a huddle. The elation when you come inside after 2 hours of frostbite to a hot drink or what it feels like to finally get out of those clothes, into the shower and pajamas and right into bed to watch tv for the rest of the day. No sir, these button mashing jerks never even look up to see all the potential new adventures that await outside in the snow. I love video games as much as the next guy but video games will be there all year round. Snow should be praised when it arrives. It's like your favorite uncle that comes to visit once every few years. I need to hurry up and have kids so I can pass on that legacy. I can picture it just like a Norman Rockwell painting. I'll start them out early...maybe 5 or 6. Wake them up on a snow day and rejoice with them that school is closed and after a few minutes of jumping around look them lovingly in the face and smile as I slap a shovel in their chest and say "Now, get out there and hit that driveway, son!"

Snow rocks.

2002-12-04T06:56:00.000-05:00

Finally! It's finally cold and it looks like we're getting snow tomorrow. This type of weather used to be the norm. About 5 years ago I spent close to $400 on my Eddie Bauer coat and was finally ready for the usual weather. El Nino decided to pay us a visit and it's been hot in the winter ever since. Even the few times it snowed it only snowed to the north and south of here. We never got any! La Nina followed and maintained the winterless weather pattern. I love the cold. I love the snow but it was so frustrating to get missed by the storms year after year. They're finally back! The Bear is out of the closet and still remains the warmest coat on the planet (to -70). The Navigator has the 4WD I've been dying to try out. Just think. It's not even winter yet. I might be kinda rusty but I can't wait to get outside and get my snow angel on. lol

2002-11-27T10:32:00.000-05:00

Random Thought:
You know I probably wouldn't ever join the Navy. I could handle the Army or the Marines but I don't think I could ever see myself in the Navy. I mean...I'm sure it's a noble, valiant rank n'all. It's just that there's something unnerving about the rank Seaman. No sir, the Navy is not for me.

On a completely related note...
Does this conversation sound familiar?

Person: Ready for the holidays?
Other Person: Yeah, I'm making the rounds again this year.
Person: Lots of dinners?
Other Person: Yeah, I probably shouldn't be eating some of the stuff but...you know.
Person: Well they say "anything in moderation..."

Ok. Here's my problem with that. Well, first things first. What's the rest of the saying? And who are "they?" The 'they' of it kinda makes a difference. If they is the American Medical Association I would think they have a bit more to say about it than if the 'they' were a counsel that included Marlon Brando, Robert Downey Jr, and Limp Bizkit. More importantly how can anyone believe such an incorrect statement? What boob really thinks that "anything in moderation..." is ok? Maybe some things but definitely not all things. "Anything" is clearly a gross overstatement. How about heroine? Is heroine in moderation ok? What about arsenic? How about that? Is that ok in moderation? Bullets?? Could you survive on a moderate amount of daily gunshots? Or how about AIDS? Surely a moderate amount of AIDS can't be bad.

Maybe I'm being too hard on 'they'. Maybe they just mean food. Does that make this true? "Any [food] in moderation..."? I remember I once ate some popcorn and my friends and we were thirsty. Long story short, we chased it with some pickle juice. We paid the price later. They were all moderate amounts. They were all edible. Some things, no matter how moderate just don't go together. Beef and milk. Pork chunks cereal. Think of whatever you like...it only takes one example to make this absolute statement false.

I guess the truth of the matter is people just use it to be gluttons for a day. We'll find anything to satiate our desires no matter how insane it is. The natural inclination is to find anything that agrees with what we desire to do and somehow that makes it ok. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to ruin anyone's holiday and don't be confused like everyone else I'll be eating. Perhaps more than I need but I've learned something over the past few months. My body needs food. I don't eat because I desire to eat. I eat because my body need fuel so I have to eat the things that will help it run properly. That means that everytime I desire ice cream or bacon it occurs to me that those aren't to fuel my body. They're just to satisfy my desire. If I put in the correct fuel first I find there is little room for desired tastes. It may sound boring but to me it just sounds more responsible seeing as how its those desired things that kill us...no matter how moderate. You have a better chance of dying from eating a moderate amount of bacon and sweets than you do from being shot. "Anything in moderation...." is an excuse that takes us on a slower, longer path that leads to heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and all the other complicated medical terms that simply mean "you didn't take care of your body." Don't believe lies just because they make the present pleasant. It might be pleasant now but sometimes futures happen. And they collect debts.

Have fun with your families. Enjoy the food (like I will). Have a Happy Thanksgiving...and don't believe lies.

2002-11-26T06:58:00.000-05:00

If I don't want to see something I have the luxury of closing my eyes. Though this doesn't happen often its good to know I have that option when the need arises. What I really want for Christmas are some eyelids for my memory. All morning long I've been singing Kriss Kross' "I missed the bus". I don't even ride the bus. I actually hate the bus. Every time I've ridden the bus I always choose the seat next to the empty seat and eventually the fattest person on the east coast comes to sit there. I soon learn that there are no limits to how far into your torso your arms can be pressed.

No matter what I try to think of this stupid, stupid song keeps playing in my head. And why are they so excited?! Why would you sing a song like that and be excited?! What can be gained by being excited about hypothetically missing the bus?? I'll tell you why they're so excited. They really didn't miss the bus. They were just making a song so they didn't have to worry about running behind the missed bus like Rerun. And they were making a "hit" song from a completely random idea. But what I'm really frustrated about is because this song won't go away I'm forced to analyze it like this. It's a silly song! It doesn't deserve this much attention but I can't tune it out.

"That's something I will never, ever, ever do again"

So if you're getting me something for Christmas I sure could use those memory eyelids. Extra Large and a gift receipt just in case they're too small.

2002-11-21T13:06:00.000-05:00

Here's the thing about the Bachelor...

I don't understand what the big deal is. I watched a few of the episodes but, of course, not all of the practically neverending story ABC strung together. It just seems like a "good time to be had before divorce court." On what basis do these people believe they're going to have a successful marriage? They've known each other for six weeks and of those six the better portion of the time was spent one of two ways. For the guy, he dated, kissed (and God knows what else) other women attempting to narrow the field for one choice. For the woman, a few dates but mostly just waiting on her potential husbands dates to return home so she could hear how it went. It wasn't a full six weeks at all. It was just a competition and because they were competing certain things that need to happen before marriage couldn't. For instance, do you really think if the woman found herself in an argument with the guy that she would be around for the end?? Absolutely not but if you're looking forward to spending the rest of your life with someone it's really important to understand how the two of you handle conflict. NOBODY has a conflict free marriage. And most people have to deal with conflict on a regular basis which makes this a pretty important piece of information to know.

I also don't understand how the psychology of the whole thing is ignored. As a woman "winning" the guy no matter how solid of a security rock you believe yourself to be something must be said for the fact that this guy just picked you out of over a dozen other women. AND as it got to the end the choices were tougher. It's not a self-esteem issue at all. This guy just spent a few weeks agonizing over who to pick. The woman wasn't picked as his wife because she obliterated the competition. She won by a hair. The guy was this close to marrying (not dating) another woman!! That would have an adverse affect on anyone. For the guy, he also realizes he was one decision away from marrying another person. The life-long question he's stuck with is "did I make a mistake?" Guess what's gonna happen. First argument: "did I make a mistake?". Second argument: "did I make a mistake?". Bad habits: "did I make a mistake?" It's not that he's a bad guy for asking these questions. They're natural. He put them there by conditioning himself for variety by picking his wife from the bunch.

Despite what they say I can't imagine these people considering marriage a lifelong commitment. Most people say they do but if you say it and in the back of your mind you still believe divorce to be an option you unequivocably do not understand what marriage is and do NOT consider it a lifelong commitment. This show is stupid and further illustrates this society's problem with marriage, commitment and family. Who Wants to Marry a Millionare and the Bachelor both do their part to add to the distortion of our view of marriage. I'm with the grandmother, I hope they have a long engagement.

But that's not what engagements are for...to see the stuff you should've seen before you became engaged. That's what dating is for!!

...it's lunchtime. Time to step off of the soapbox.

2002-11-20T10:37:00.000-05:00

A Haiku Moment

winding road
the triple double
"it's in the game"

I love haikus. There's no rules to this stuff. There were when I was growing up but I've learned to not be so rigid. Haikus rock.

Neo-Soul Haiku:
rose bud
still crashing up
don't call me

Elementary School Style Haiku:
two days
since she came
she broke my heart
swept away my perfect life
bye Transformers

Riddle Haiku:
wash away
with crimson green
Apple Slurpee

My Average Haiku:
outside the window
a homeless man
I sure could go for a Whopper.

Try it. It's fun. lol

2002-11-19T13:17:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to fight it but I can't win. It's impossible. I don't think I will ever like neo-soul. The music is fine even the atmosphere is cool. My problem lies in the literary imagery used. In many cases it's just plain stupid. It's almost like someone is experimenting with unusual word combinations just to garner a "that's deep" from the listeners. I've really given this stuff a fair shot but there is something that burns me up about hearing a phrase like "cataclysmic, cascading synapses ignite in a chain reaction caused by your infinite liquid love." What makes it worse is that other people are actually considering the imagery as if it were worth it. Everybody will be in a jaw dropped stupor amazed by someones "chocolote coated hatred" that "won't melt in your mouth or hand" but only in "the pocket of your heart." What?!!?! I know I'm exaggerating the ridiculousness of it all but not by much. While everyone seriously considers what's been said I'm at a lost because I can't believe these people are really devoting even an ounce of concentration to this crap.
"I’m an orange moon
I’m brighter than before, brighter
Reflecting the light of the sun
Smile at me" - Erykah Badu

Even in the context of the song this orange moon crap means absolutely nothing. But even this is better than Jill Scott's narcissistic One is the Magic Number. I like Jill Scott. She's an excellent vocalist but these lyrics...
"If I add myself unto myself multiplied times
You and yours and you again
There's just me
And if I divide 8 billion, 48 trillion, 98 zillion
There is, there is just me
If I subtract one plus me to the 5th degree,
Use any theorem
There's just me"

...these lyrics...I'd prefer to listen to Homer Simpson's mindless musings than these. What's so artsy about not getting to the point? If I want to go to the house next door and I decide to travel around the world and come back on the other side of the house that's not creative, artistic, or "deep". It's just dumb. I could've just did the intelligent thing and walk in the shortest direction to get there. This neo-soul stuff is not good songwriting at all. Not all the songs are bad but songs that go around the world and end up nowhere are gigantic waste of time. Why can't people just be honest and say "its stupid" and stop trying to act like it's not just so they aren't looked at as the only one who doesn't get it. NOBODY GETS IT!!! There's nothing to get!! They just hope you think that it actually means something long enough to buy their cd or listen to their insane poem. I can't be silent anymore. Somebody has to speak up.

I have a short attention span but I'm not dyslexic. I can understand and interpret just fine. These songs are just mindless. They should just have a warning label on the cds that say "Warning: If you care to consider the lyrics of this product your time would be better spent gargling with arsenic." At least they would save people some time.

And why does everything sound the friggin' same?!?!!

2002-11-18T09:21:00.000-05:00

Black people are funny. There's no way around it. It's particularly funny the way we retell a story with an uncalled for amount of embellishments. We'll take a pretty uneventful exchange and make it seem like we we're the star.

The Original:
Co-Worker: You're leaving already?! You just got here.
Star: They told me to go home early because it was slow.
CW: Must be nice. I wish I could go home.
Star: Yeah but I kinda need the hours. Day care is killing me. I'll see you tomorrow.
CW: Ok. See ya.

The ~~Hollywood~~ Hoodywood Version:
Different Co-Worker: Where were you yesterday?
Star: *lip smack* It wasn't nothing goin' on around here and I was like "I'm not wasting my day. I'm gone!" I told them I was leaving, like 'what?'. They not gon' take up my whole day for nothing.
DCW: They didn't say anything to you?!
Star: What were they gonna say? "Stay here and work."?! I don't need this job. I'm just here wasting time until my accident check comes in. I wish they would say something. I'd be like "What?!!" You know how I roll.
DCW: You so stupid. lol

Why can't people just tell the truth? There's no shame in telling the story the way it really went. Why do we have to be "the whole show" in every story? lol

2002-11-14T13:47:00.000-05:00

I've given it a lot of thought and have still don't know of any parents that would like for their teenage children to have sex. I know a lot of parents that have taken a defeated attitude and accepted the position that if they're going to do it anyway just make sure they are protected. Still if they had it their way they would prefer if the child didn't engage in sex. Maybe there are some out there but I'm pretty convinced that the majority of parents would prefer that their teenagers abstain from sex.

If this is the case (I could be wrong) why are our laws, media and entertainment not geared more towards abstinence? Many parents are included in these key areas and are present when decisions are made. How come parents have remained so ineffective in instilling these values in children? When I was growing up my parents would tell me not to do something and sometimes I would ignore them but there were some things that couldn't be ignored. It wasn't because the subject was so serious. My parents were just comfortable (and correct) in believing they were my authority and what they say goes whether I agree or disagree. Some of this stuff that goes on today with parents and kids in stores is completely new to me. You couldn't act crazy and make a big production in the store. You'd get beat right there in the aisle. Now it's like a game of freeze tag and the store is "base". Kids do whatever they want in the store because the laws are set up (or people just think they are) to prohibit parents from public discipline. Suddenly discipline is a private matter. Parents have lost control and maybe that's why once responsible adults are not exercising their authority over kids who just don't know any better.

Or maybe it's the fact that whether people admit it or not when you remove God from the equation there still needs to be a standard. The problem is when you remove God what would qualify any set of values as the standard? If God's weren't good enough who's is? The tricky part is the way people remove the standard. It's self defeating.

"There's no one group that's correct. We're all right so you can't say yours is any better than mine."

If that were true then we've also effectively removed any hope of having any standard. How can something be a "standard" if you follow yours and I follow mine? That is the anti-standard. Relativity. One person thinks stealing is wrong so they don't. Another thinks it's wrong but can be justified. Another thinks there's absolutely nothing wrong with stealing as long as nobody gets physically hurt. Others just steal and don't think twice. Who can determine if any of these stances is right or wrong? The absence of a standard will always yield a disorganized setting.

So what's the standard? Is it the laws that are made? It could be but it gets kind of difficult with laws constantly ~~contradicting~~ changing. Laws adapt to the people in the society. That's about as backwards as it can be. It gets worse every year.

Don't have any idea on the source or even direction of this rant. I just felt like typing and this is what came out.

2002-11-13T06:54:00.000-05:00

I don't have time to blog today. I have a high school student shadowing me all day and I want to give him something "sciencey" to talk about instead of having to report that he watched me ramble all day. lol

Be back tomorrow

2002-11-12T11:39:00.000-05:00

It's beginning to be Christmas time again. They just so happen to be remodelling the grocery store across the street from my job and some genius decides that Giant should sell Christmas cds. Ok, so I was hooked. There I am browsing through cd after cd in the usual "hey, I have that one!" fashion. Then I got to "the section". You know the section...the one where all of the artist who had no business making Christmas cds decided to make them anyway and now they're on sale for under $5?! Misplaced in that section was Luther Vandross which I am getting. I did a search on amazon and cd now and couldn't find this cd. I guess its out of print (maybe it was those misplaced Burt Bachrach songs). Next up was LaFace Family Christmas They had A Few Good Men on there. Remember them?! lol

I didn't know Marylin McCoo made a Christmas album. She shouldn't have. And who could forget Christmas with The Jets? Wait. What was I talking about again?

I wonder if anyone ever sat around the fireplace and wondered what it would be like if Mahalia Jackson screamed Christmas. Some people just shouldn't wonder.

In the New Releases section I saw the must have B2K - Santa Hooked Me Up I bet that's climbing the chart like a limbless goat. I guess that's why it's in the grocery store. That and 3LW's Naughty or Nice.

I don't know about you but I'm definitely waiting for that John Tesh Christmas to go on sale. $4.99 is a bit steep.

But of all the Christmas cds that shouldn't have been made I'm confident in saying Christmas on Death Row is the champion. If you ever have to put out a clean version of a Christmas cd I'm pretty sure that's the least of your company's concerns.

I can't wait until next years deals when I can get Macy Gray's Christmas for free when I purchase SpongeBob Squarepants' Holiday, Christmas at the ~~f@#$&@~~ Osbournes, and Pootie Tang's Sada Tay with the Bammies.

2002-11-07T09:37:00.000-05:00

Bad Parenting

**WARNING** This blog is not for everybody. If you think you're going to be upset with anything I say by the end DO NOT read this. You've been warned.

I'm convinced that bad parenting begins at the very beginning. There are many things parents do early on to ensure the destruction of their children. One of these irresponsible acts is the naming of the child. Every parent has lived through elementary school and the unrelenting, life destroying humor that's callously traded in the first of many battlefields. Elementary school is the defining point in a persons life. Your esteem, self worth, people skills, confidence are all developed here. You have to always have your game face on and you can't show any sign of weakness. All parents have been there so I don't understand why they refuse to equip their kids by giving them the stupidest names they can think of. Last names aren't something that can be controlled but some parents use the last name as a spring board to an even more idiotic moniker. There was a kid in my middle school and his last name unfortunately was Bonaparte. Ok. That's not so bad as long as you don't pick the one name to make this an utterly foolish disaster. There was only ONE!!! Poor guy. Yes, his name ended up being Napoleon Bonaparte. In high school a kid got stuck with London Fogg. The sad part is I'm not making this up. London Fogg still works at Giant in Largo. Go check it out for yourself! Parents just should not do that. If your last name is Martin you have thousands of names to choose from. You don't have to name your kid Remy. That's just stupid!

Which brings me to my next point. Black people name their kids the dumbest things! I think this came from parents trying to be different which I never understood. You want to be different so you set your kid up with foolish name that they'll have to live with for the rest of their lives?!

"I don't want my child to have the same name as everybody else. 'Brian.' Everybody has that name. I'm naming my son Courvoisier."

It sounds funny but I guarantee you there was a little boy born around 3 months ago that got stuck with that stupid, stupid name. And I'm sure you're not surprised one bit. I'm hardly surprised anymore except this one time...a high school friend of my sister had twin boys. One of them is named Christopher. I shudder to say that the other one...(God help me)...got stuck with "Fistopher." ~~wtf~~?! Fistopher?!?!? Somebody needs to call "the people" on those parents. I said it before and I'll say it again and again, the absolute worst example of terrible parenting is Dick Butkis. What kind of parents name there kid Dick "Butt-kiss"? They knew Richard would be shortened and the kid would be called Dick. It's a sinister, 3-fold error that can't be overlooked. The father knew how he got teased in elementary school for carrying the Butkis name. Why would you give your kid a terrible first name to match and double the humiliation you lived through?!

Poor kids.

2002-11-06T15:58:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a nightmare. I tried to vote in the morning, before I went to work, but the polls didn't open until 7:00am and I was on the road at 6:00. That meant that I would have to vote during voting rush hour after I got off but the problem was that I had a lesson to teach at 7:00pm and I don't usually get home until around 6:00pm. I knew I would be cutting it close but I tried to make it. I got down to the polls after 6:00 and it was my first time in my new district so I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as crowded as I thought. I breathed a sigh of relief that I would be able to vote and have my lesson on time. Kia and I got in line and she got checked off of the list and proceeded to the other lines (they have more lines than loose leaf and make the DMV look like single file in elementary school) but when I got to the end of the first line they didn't have my name on the friggin' list!!! They had my wife but not me?!?! So I had to wait 40 minutes for Kia to finish voting, get home and head back out to my old precinct, in the rain, before the polls closed. I ended up cancelling the lesson even though I didn't want to. I knew that my old precinct looked like the club 30 minutes before the doors open so I was not excited about standing in a line that doesn't move, in the rain, in a place where I'm not even supposed to be. Long story short, I made it. It wasn't as bad as I thought and I got home in time to do some quality relaxing. Voting night is so funny because I always watch the news updates like I'm waiting for my horse to cross the finish line. I don't know why that part is so fun but it just is.

2002-11-05T10:19:00.000-05:00

This is no good. They switched us off of the network to change us over to the Ethernet ports they plan on using. Long story short, it didn't go as smoothly as they would've liked so we're basically dead in the water with sporadic internet connectivity and no network connections. Without the proper object of focus I'm stuck trying to concentrate on something...anything! I can't work. I can't focus. I feel like the David Banner just before the Hulk surfaces. My attention span is starting to decay and the randomness is taking over.

Is Macy Gray serious?! I would give an insanely irresponsible amount of money to see her on American Idol with Simon.

Irv Gotti is the worst thing to happen to music since Jennifer Love Hewitt. He doesn't make hits. He RE-makes hits and he's worse than Puffy. The stuff he's pulling isn't even 10 years old yet. Craig Mack, Geto Boys, Biggie...all he's doing is recycling hot tracks from 8 years ago that DJ's remember and love to get back in the rotation. Even if that means they have to listen to Ashanti over them.

Is there anything better than sitting in a ski lodge, in front of the fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate and whipped cream?
(perphaps doing all those things with a PS2 controller in your hand would make it slightly better)

How come nobody came up with the idea for Netflix.com sooner?!

Am I the only one sick of the mud-slinging campaign ads ran this year?! It makes it so difficult to vote when everybody is acting like elementary school kids.
"Bob Ehrlich voted to kill senior citizens who don't move fast enough in the checkout line."
"Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said she was going to build a bridge but she didn't. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is a liar."
"Ehrlich hates people who wash their cars on Sunday"
"Townsend has the doo-doo touch"
"Ehrlich says he supports these things but research shows that Bob Ehrlich is in fact the Devil."

Come on!!! Grow up.

2002-11-04T11:29:00.000-05:00

This weekend was good. We played in Greensboro, NC Friday night and it was great. I love going to NC. Everybody is so hospitable. I was supposed to take pictures but I left the disks at home and was too interested in making good time on the way there to stop and pick some up. I'll try to take some this weekend in Conneticut.

Feeling kinda blah today. Maybe it's the sleep I didn't get last night or the after work activities that will monopolize the rest of my time this week. Whenever I have a busy week ahead and accept the fact that I can't skip to the end it kinda makes all the other things suck. But on the bright side, I got my wife back. She was out of town last week at a conference. The funny thing is that I didn't get the chance to play any of my new games while she was gone. Well, let me take that back. It's not funny "ha ha"...more funny "that sucks". The only day I wasn't busy where it looked like I could get some gaming in was the first day she was gone. I didn't feel like sitting in the house so Mike called and we went to see The Ring. The first time I saw it it was pretty disturbing. They didn't go for the cheap scares. There were no 'open the refridgerator door, close the refridgerator door and see a killer staring at you' type of scares. It was a pretty well crafted flick that was scary more for the content than for the cinematography and cliches. But the first time I saw it I walked away with comfort that my money was well spent on a good movie. That's it. So when Mike and I went to see it I had the same feeling. I went home, played Vice City for about thirty minutes. I got sleepy so I cut the game off. Then the tv. Then the theatre system and suddenly I realized I was in the pitch black basement with my hands stretched out in front of me feeling for the walls. Then I realized Kia wasn't coming home and for the first time since I've been married I was going to be alone that night. Then I thought "wow, it's really dark in here and I have to do this for three levels until I get upstairs. Sure wish I hadn't watched that movie tonight." Suddenly it hit me just like it did when I was a kid and I found myself break into a 6 year old, imaginary race for my life sprint up the stairs. lol

I thought I'd outgrown such simplistic joys.

2002-10-31T11:08:00.000-05:00

I just got Grand Theft Auto: Vice City yesterday for PS2 and I'm thinking about how early I can leave work today to play it. Someone asked me how a grown man could still play video games. First I laughed to myself because of the grown man thing. I pay for my own house, work everyday, am married and have plenty of bills...I never thought of it in those words before but I guess I am a grown man. After I finished musing over that I took a stab at the question. I guess the answer would be "Why not?" Video games aren't created, designed and programmed by kids. Fully grown men and women design the things and they put in them all sorts of concepts they would like to see in a game. Why wouldn't it be appealing to an adult? It seems that an adult would appreciate it more than a kid would. An adult can appreciate what it took to make the game. Take, for example, GTA: Vice City. The game is based in the 80's so all the clothes, cars, and the 10 radio stations are all straight out of the era but who would appreciate that more? A 15 year old kid or a twenty something adult who was actually born when the 80's were here. No detail was missed. I cut the game on and one of the first things I saw was a blue screen that looked like a computer monitor and had a blinking white square. After a millisecond perusal through my mental index it struck me that what I was looking at was the old Commodore 64 computer screen. Imagine the rush of watching the words to execute the game being typed.

Load "VICE CITY"
Ok

Press Play on Tape

80's nostalgia aside, Vice City is hands down the best game I've ever played and I don't see what's so bad about a grown man playing video games. That's not something you outgrow. We were born in an era that saw the birth and development of video games. We grew up together. Why would we part ways now?

(I'm having a Brown Sugar flashback. lol)

Check out these clips and you tell me if I'm crazy or not. Click "Movies" and get a bib.

2002-10-30T13:08:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love this weather! It's finally raining and it's cold. The commute sucks but I'm looking out my window anticipating when I walk in the house, kick my shoes off and recline in front of a television with the playstation lights glowing. Gray days are the best. They make me feel so lazy and lethargic. I can't go outside and do any work so I have no recourse but to stay inside and find something to do. It's slightly cooler in the house and the heat cuts the air just right. I shake off the last bit of water and enjoy as the rest of it air dries sticking me with that cool, damp feeling. And at the end of it all I can climb into a comfortable bed and enjoy finding every new cool spot until the bed temperature is perfectly set so I can fall asleep. Ahhh....lazy days. Gotta love 'em.

2002-10-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's the Same Thing!

Can parents really be that correct? Only recently have I gotten over many of the emotional scars that were the effects of childish jokes combined with frugal parents. I remember when the Patrick Ewing Adidas came out and almost half the class had them. The other half were girls and then there was me pitifully trying to keep my feet under the desk because although my shoes had pretty much the exact same design they lacked that one quality...you know, the Adidas stripes. Because my parents couldn't fathom spending $60 on shoes that I would outgrow in a few months they opted to get "the same thing." That same thing just happened to be the Patrick Ewing replica Stadias from Kennys Shoes. I begged and pleaded for them to go next door to foot locker and get the Ewings. I knew they had the money but what did I get instead? Stadias and even more opportunity to develop this sarcasm, that won't go away, to stave off all the jokes I had coming my way. This happened repeatedly through my adolescent years. Remember the Transformers sneakers with the velcro straps?? Of course you don't because I was the only one who had them!!

I remember fighting the losing battle for Fruit Loops only to end up with Fruit Rings and sometimes Toastee O's if they were on sale. I have less than fond memories of begging to spend the night over my best friend's house because he had Nintendo and all I had was an Atari with a joystick button that jammed Tuesday through Sunday. One year Sega Genesis was at the top of my Christmas list and all my friends knew I was getting it...that is until I ended up getting a Sega Game Gear because it was "the same thing."

This string of embarassments could fill an dictionary sized memoir but in all fairness my parents didn't skimp on everything. I did have a nice assortment of Transformers and G.I. Joe's even though I had quite a few imitation Joe's mingled in that I learned were "the same thing". But now I'm older and buy my own stuff. I went through that phase where you get your first job and buy everything you always wanted with your paychecks. That got old really quick as I would end up saving 2 and 3 paychecks to get an Iceberg sweater and not having any money to eat. Everybody would sit in McDonald's with their regular priced clothes sharing sweet n' sour sauce and I would be sitting with a Snoopy sweater and dry lips. Eventually I learned not to spend my money on dumb stuff. I soon discovered the folly of spending $120 on DKNY jeans when I could get "the same thing" for $25 and just wait until I caught the good quality stuff on sale. Over the past few years I've become accustomed to having "the same thing" and a few extra dollars in my pocket. My kids won't have to worry about the other kids talking about their Jox shoes but I'm pretty sure they're going to be fighting some of the same battles I fought.

The truth is my parents were wrong. It's not "the same thing". It's a much cheaper thing and kids don't appreciate stuff anyway. They bought me a few pair of name brand shoes. I couldn't tell you what they were but I'll always remember the cheap ones. Slowly but surely I'm changing into my parents and as I sit here sipping on my 99 cent bottle of Super G Spring Water it's comforting to know I didn't have to spend the extra $.50 on the Dasani. I spent less money and got "the same thing." lol

2002-10-28T07:02:00.000-05:00

I'm back and fresh off a week of rantless living which has me kinda backed up so here goes...

I'm thinking it really has to suck for the family members of the victims of the sniper shootings. This time last week everyone was together and there was this feeling of unity. The "we gotta get this guy" attitude was evident from the law enforcement agencies to the media to Liquor Store Stan. Everybody's focus was half on the case and half on their new "bob and weave" they'd been working on for that next trip to the gas station.

Now, one week later things have changed. Returned? Maybe. Have we returned to our selfish, "it's all about me" attitudes? Not that there's anything that can be done to return what was lost but I can imagine what it must feel like to one week have everyone on a united front and the to have everyone simply relieved. We're so relieved that it's over but for some people it's over in a completely different way. While our life has returned to normal their lives, as they knew it, never will. I must remember that even though there is a collective sigh of relief happening in the area there also is a collective, steady cry of pain and loss simultaneously growing for some people who don't have the luxury of exhaling as we do. A lot of people were praying last week for the guy to be caught. More people should be praying this week that those who need it most receive the comfort and consolation that's available to them. It can't be getting any easier for them.

2002-10-21T06:13:00.000-04:00

I'm taking the week off. See you Monday 10/28. Have a good week!

2002-10-17T08:32:00.000-04:00

You Know How Purple Sounds, Right?

I recently found out that a friend of mine has synesthesia. It's a pretty interesting departure from conventional perception. I remember it from one of my pathology classes (the one I stayed awake in). I'm not putting anyone's business in the street (or as the Real Worlders may say "putting her on shout." lol) I found out through an interview she did for a magazine.

Synesthesia is a very rare condition where more than one sense is joined with another. It's left brained associated and predominately found in women. It's hereditary and the majority of those who have it are left handed. My friend told a story about how she found out she had it. She was touring and during her sound checks she would convey to the sound engineers that her "guitar sounds too orange...can you make it more brown?" Synesthetes don't really know that people perceive things completely different than they do. They assume everyone hears in colors or tastes in actions (i.e. "spirally or round") the same way we assume that everyone sees the color red the same way we do. As a kid I sometimes wondered if everybody saw things differently how would we know? If one person saw in infrared, another in ultraviolet but we were all so used to it that no one ever noticed the diffences who could tell? I wondered if my blue was equivalent to another persons orange that they just called blue. Synesthesia is like that but different. They'll know your phone number is 555-1234 because "2 is white".

This condition lends itself to certain advantages and disadvantages. Memory and recall are enhanced while math and directional abilities are hampered. It's argued whether the better than average memory is due to the associations or not but the fact remains that their memory and recall are significantly better.

Here's what we see:
synesthesia

Here's what they see:
synesthesia

Here's what they might think:

Everybody is different so it varies from person to person.

People wonder how can something "taste curvy" or "smell square". In all fairness I do it to a much lesser degree. On a cool day if I smell the wood from a fireplace burning it smells like fall. If you think about it it's really impossible to describe certain experiences without association with other experiences. How does coffee smell? What does pain feel like? If everything tastes like chicken how does chicken taste? We constantly convey our sensory experiences through other, more familiar experiences. It's impossible to do it any other way. Synesthetes just perceive using 2 or more senses to do it. It's a really intriging concept...you know, to "hear purple." I can't help but wonder what that's like.

2002-10-16T16:49:00.000-04:00

I don't think my jaw could drop any further. In one week probably the best looking/sounding game I've ever heard hit's the shelves

Check it out

2002-10-16T10:07:00.000-04:00

Move Over

It never fails. Sometimes I don't understand people. I don't understand why some people adhere to bathroom etiquette while others willfully ignore it. I guess the thing that's currently bothering me is stall selection. From what I hear it's the same for men and women. The rule is "when you see feet move over a couple seats." I thought that's what everybody thought. Alternate! If there are 3 or more stalls what is the point of sitting right next to the person when all of them are open? Some people know how to ruin an experience. I'm in there doing the Happy Feet like normal and some guy who obviously ate breakfaLAX plops down next to me and commences to giving his best Dizzy Gillespie impersonation. The rule supposes that you actually look for feet! You don't just run in there and hop on the throne. Be considerate. If you're warping the doors what makes you think I want to be as close as possible to you? We're not going to have a conversation. Move over!! Guys don't hand toilet paper under the stall. We don't share anything. There's absolutely no reason to use that as a time to get as close as you can to another human being. You're supposed to skip a stall. It's not that difficult. Is nothing sacred?? lol

2002-10-15T12:58:00.000-04:00

I just came back from Club 2K9 for 65 and up (or as it's more commonly referred to...Giant Food) and I passed a lady with a wood grain wheel chair. You draw your own conclusions. lol

2002-10-15T11:13:00.000-04:00

Ok so it wasn't so bad. I find that I work best when I plan for the worst. Planning for the worst allows me to be less disappointed less frequently. Thanks to Kia my birthday turned out great! I had this crazy plan to stay up all night Thursday so I could sleep later during the day and stay up later Friday night allowing me to make the drive. Like it said it was "crazy". I won't do that again but I gave it a good shot. I stayed up playing NBA 2K3 and dosing off on Brotherhood of the Wolf until about 4am. Then I slept in the basement bedroom because it doesn't have any windows and I would be able to sleep without being aware of the ever increasing daylight. The funny part is I didn't mind. On the logical side of things it does kinda suck to spend my birthday night sleeping away from my wife in the same house but I would rather do that than fall asleep on the drive back from NY and be responsible for the people I'm driving to be hurt or worse so I didn't mind so much.

The plan was going along great until the doorbell rang at 10:30. The doorbell upstairs is a normal pleasant doorbell. The one downstairs screams with every intent of bursting my inner ear, destroying my equilibrium in an attempt to keep me wobbling around unable to stand up. There was no sleeping through it. By the time I came back downstairs I noticed the phone ringing off the hook with birthday well wishers that I couldn't possibly be upset with so that was the end of the plan.

Kia got home from work early and took care of me until it was time to leave and she was even able to go on the trip. I love road trips with her so I knew if she went I'd be fine. We got to Jamaica around 11pm because we somehow forgot it was a holiday weekend and traffic sucked for the first 3 hours. We didn't play until 1am and didn't leave until 2:30! There was the usual hanging around at the end of the event because some people thrive on being the last person to leave the party. To this point I had been pleasantly surprised all day long with two more to go. Most of the band stayed awake for the better part of the ride home and it seemed that the drenching rain was limited to the boros of NY. Once we left the city the roads were noticably wet but drying. By the time we got home (7:30am) I wasn't really tired at all. In fact, I wanted to go to Walmart to buy some PS2 gear but Kia was tired so we went home and crashed hard.

The next day was the rest of the birthday festivities which turned out to be the perfect exclaimation point to a birthday that didn't turn out bad after all. I even got the chance to do some "shopping" in Best Buy and tomorrow X-Men:Next Dimension comes out which is the whole and only reason I wanted PS2 in the first place. 26 is shaping up to be a great year!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! :-)

2002-10-10T09:30:00.000-04:00

Time to vent

Sometimes you just have to get something off of your chest. I dare not call it complaining...ah well, what the heck. I might as well do it here and get it over with so I can put on a happy face in real life.

Tomorrow is my birthday and plans were all set to relax and enjoy it with my wife. It was going to be a truly marvelous day chocked full of gifts, pampering, loafing, and enjoying each other. Yesterday I found out my plans just got kicked in the ~~@$$~~ and now I'll be completely tied up on the only 26th birthday I'll ever have. See, my problem is I don't take a lot of time to myself. I love doing "nothing" but I always have something that impedes on my otherwise uneventful fantasy of a life. I'm in love with sleep but we don't see each other much so in my spare time I like to fall asleep to movies, laugh to sleep with sitcoms, or just relax myself to sleep by just blinking and breathing as slow as I can. Sleep rocks. (only because I never get to do it)
So what will I be doing tomorrow you ask? I'll be driving to NY to play a gig in Jamaica Queens and the show starts at 10:00pm. We'll be leaving at 5. Now it gets even more complicated because on this trip I'm the only one insured to drive the van so out of 10+ people that usually share the driving responsibilites they fall squarely on one person. Sucks right? Oh yeah, did I mention we're coming back the same night so after the gig and sales, autographs, meet and greet and the other trappings of artistdom we'll probably be leaving around 12:30am but at least I get to sleep in the van. Oh, I forgot I have to drive back too. Have you figured out what that means yet? That means that the better portion of the hours between when I get up and departure time (5:00pm) I need to force some sleep in there and whatever plans I could've condensed into that time are completely hampered by forced rest that's almost impossible to do with this short attention span and daylight staring me in the face. Usually my wife goes with us to help out but because the travel accommodations were scaled back for this trip it looks like there will be no room. So I'll just have to see her the next day. You know...the one that's not my birthday. And I'm 100% sure that on the way back EVERYONE will fall asleep and rub it in my face with the snoring while I'm blinking my eyes trying to regenerate some form of moisture inspite of the fatigue, while I drive back on the morning after my birthday smelling a van full of morning breath while I'm forced to keep the radio volume down so everyone can sleep.

happy birthday to me

And the worst part is no one will notice because I've decided not to show them. I'll get over it before I get there and treat it like any other day that's not my birthday. All because I got it all out here. Thanks for listening. On to the happy face:-)

2002-10-09T08:10:00.000-04:00

Purgeury

There are a lot of good people in this world. There are so many people that approach life with the wide eyed gaze of a child as they soak up experiences like a sponge. Everything is exciting to them. Everything inspires awe and wonder. Life is the most beautiful adventure. I'm sure there are a lot of people like that.

There are others of us who are not so different. We admire life and all it has to teach us. We look forward to the next day...and the next. That is, until we hit that bump. This group happens on a bump in the road that seems to change everything. That bump is usually unexpected and very unpleasurable. In many cases the bump comes in the form of people in the third group.

The third group are people who started off in the first group, moved to the second group and because of how they responded to the bump ended up in this third group off-shoot. These people, although just as good and wide eyed as the first group, don't exhibit any of the behaviors of that group and on the outside you could never tell they were in that group at all. Perhaps they become the boss that seems to have a gripe with the world or the jaded lover turned player, or perhaps they move from the innocent explorer to the introverted cynic. It doesn't matter in what state they end up because they all have one thing in common. Their response to the bump was to protect themselves the best way they know how.

I don't mean to be cryptic or fanciful about the matter. I just need to paint a picture. The people in the second group only have two options. They could end up in the third group or graduate back to the first group but no matter who you are one day you will find yourself in the second group. Or perhaps you've already hit your bump and made your choice. In which group did you end up? The truth is that more people end up in the third. Think about it. How many adults do you know that behave like they've made it back to group one? It's easier to take the alternative. It's easier to say "never again!" and brick by brick construct your own walls until you've finally completed your masterpiece. An impenetrable fortress that doesn't allow anything in or out. Whether that's through seething sarcasm, inability to see through compassionate eyes, sabotaging of relationships that get too close to getting inside your walls or adopting an "I'll hurt them before they have a chance to hurt me." approach to life, third groupers are infinitely creative at trying to avoid the bumps.

Funny thing is people in this group unknowingly trade their ultimate happiness for the illusion of ultimate protection. Truth is those walls keep the hurt out. They serve their purpose where that is concerned but they also keep the love out. That thing you need most to survive. Third groupers, in an attempt to keep the bad guys out, cut off their supply route and eventually there's nothing left to do but die inside those walls from malnourishment. Bumps or death? Which hurts more?

I've been in the third group. Sometimes I even go back and visit because sometimes it just seems easier. But no matter how much easier it will be it will never be happier and the easyness is short lived. I'd much rather take my chances out here with the bumps. If it's impossible to escape hurt altogether I might as well take the chance on being happy. I don't know where we get this idea that being vulnerable is not a good way to live. Being vulnerable is the only way to live and be happy. If you don't take the risk you will always and only have what you have right now. But if you seriously consider what you have now you'd be depressed because deep down you know there's so much more out there.

The first groupers are on to something. They've ventured out, been hurt and been able to return to that childlike recklessness that allows them to take the chances. It's not about avoiding hurt it's about living life and loving it. There is more out there. And it's wonderful! Many people don't make it there because they don't know how. There's really only one way. It's not by pressing your way through and forging on. Intestinal fortitude doesn't get you back to the innocence you once enjoyed. It's not something that's regained through the brute force of determination. It requires some finesse. You can't reason your way to this one and rationale has no power. The only way to get back is to forgive the bumps. How do you overcome emotional scars? With emotion. Compassion. That's what children do. They fall down, other kids treat them badly. The kids that have the most fun on the playground are the ones who don't worry about who they need to steer clear of or which parts are off limits. They've forgiven and they've regained free reign. It's not the end of the world when you get hurt and sometimes people really do just have bad days. The decision not to forgive happens at the same time you decide to get out your bricks and mortar.

Love is not found in the tangible things we control. It's in the intangible, wonderful things that we don't. That out of control feeling that could change at anytime but that's ok because right now you're vulnerable and you're living life...and it's great! Which group would you prefer?

"The Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times but seventy times seven." (Matt 18:21-22)

Ain't purging grand?:-)

2002-10-08T07:02:00.000-04:00

It really bothers me the way many newscasters report the news. I am not nor have ever been a newscaster so maybe I'm not qualified to make this assessment. So what? I'm a person so that kinda makes me qualified where this is concerned and I'm also their customer. The way some of them report stories is sometimes inappropriate.

Yesterday, a 13 year old boy was shot outside my old middle school, Benjamin Tasker. The shooting was later linked to the other shootings that occured in this region last week. Keep in mind I listen to the news everyday so I'm sort of accustomed to the way they report. They sounded a little too excited yesterday. Almost like something good had happened. Why do they do that? I know the news office is buzzing as new details come in but when they report them why do they make it sound so...exciting? The day before they were reporting in unbiased, monotone voices about mosquitos, west nile virus and President Bush's attempts at war. There was nothing unusal about it. Yesterday, you would've thought the emails were true and Bill Gates was indeed giving away his millions to those intelligent, trusting, helpful Joes who forwarded the email to everyone in their address book.

"Again updating our top story. The shooting of a 13 year old boy today is linked to the sniper shootings last week in Montgomery County!"
"That 13 year old boy is in critical condition at Children's Hospital and the doctors are monitoring his condition by the hour!"

Really? "By the hour!" exclaimation point?! The little boy was shot heading inside the school building. What's so exciting? Somber is an appropriate reaction. Regret, remorse, reluctance all apply but excitement with exclaimation points are hardly the correct response. They kinda show their human sides with this type of journalism. There are a few emotions that could be exhibited when a tragedy occurs. On Sept 11 some newscasters had a tone similar to "I really hate to be reporting this and really wish I didn't have to but it's our job to give you the news so even though it's difficult for me to discuss here is the information as we have it." You could feel the humanity in their voices. Some were inappropriately excited as if they were just happy to have something to report, happy to be covering the story hoping to add it to their resume, or excited for some other reason that I can't fathom.

Maybe the problem is me. Maybe I just haven't gotten over my disdain for the way the news rushes to cover negative press and politely shrugs off positive events with a blurb about them at the end of the last segment, right before commercial. But the truth is yesterday I felt like I was listening to my family relay the story. They can be impartial. It's ok for them to be biased but I expect more from my newscasters. They don't have to present it in monotone voices but if they display emotion they shouldn't do it as if this story is their "big break" or the most exciting thing since ...(excuse me. I'm having some difficulty remembering a time when they reported something really great and positive). And for God's sake at least report the correct information. Just like my family they were "adding". You can't add. You're in the news. Other people can add and overemphasize and distort it anyway they please but the newscasters job is to report the facts. They said the boy went through "several hours of surgery". I listened to the live press conference the doctor gave on their station!! He said the boy was in surgery for two hours. Maybe I'm old school but when I was young 2 = couple, 3 or more = few or several. Somebody let me know now because if 2 now equals several then I'll feel better about paying "several" bills next month. They reported that the doctors were monitoring the boy on an hour by hour basis to determine if he'll survive. The doctor said "the next 8 hours are important. Hopefully we'll know something by then." Why lie? Of course the doctors will be monitoring him during the 8 hours but that doesn't mean they're doing it on an "hour to hour" basis anymore than it means they're doing it on a "second to second" basis. Why can't they just report the facts of the story without "adding"?! They said the doctor made a special heroic effort to remove a fragment of the bullet from the boy. "The doctor took great pains to obtain a small fragment from the boy". The doctor said that he did, indeed, remove a fragment but he said that he only got what he could. He didn't make any extra attempts and only obtained the fragment because it didn't put the boy in jeopardy. "Great pains"?! I guess they did that for the people who didn't hear the press conference because I heard different.

Kids getting shot is news but it hardly qualifies as exciting news and shouldn't be presented any other way. It definitely shouldn't be embellished upon or made more "exciting" by the people who are supposed to be the most objective. It's sickening.

2002-10-07T06:20:00.000-04:00

Taking the day off.

2002-10-03T07:21:00.000-04:00

No blog yesterday because I was in a meeting all day! Funny thing about meetings...you can't get any work done while you're there. The people I work with are pretty intelligent or at least their PhD's attest to their stick-to-itiveness so I wonder why they never figured out this little jewel of information. Day after day, week after week it's nothing but meetings. I sit in there attenuating to whoever's speaking but my mind is gone. I'm back at my desk figuring out a problem but the sucky part is that my body is still stuck in the meeting. All I want to do is finish my work because these people aren't sensitive enough to float deadlines inspite of the fact that all they've done is have meetings. I'm dying in there trying to figure out a way to get back to my desk and finish my work but that's the impossible task. What compounds the problem is my short attention span. I try. I really do but sometimes the current happenings in river sediment transport and flood forecasts are secondary to what I think is going to happen on the next Real World, or wondering what Seinfeld episode is going to be in syndication tonight, or what I'm going to do this weekend. I have a problem. I daydream in fast foward so it's kinda difficult to hold focus on anything for more than a few seconds. I don't understand it. I switch subjects quicker than Nas and it's completely random stuff. From Diff'rent Strokes to Noni Juice, to frosted mugs and reindeer then it's the Simpsons and staplers, scriptures and yogurt it's just a big garbled mess but its so much more exciting than whatever is going on in the meeting

["an analysis of the river channel indicates a backwater effect that leads to...."]

"They're still talking so at least I can plan out how I'm going to maximize the money when it comes it. It's the end of the year and my birthday is next week. I wonder what I'm getting. Then Thanksgiving. I'm not sure who's coming over or where we're going, who's cooking or what food we're buying. Better put aside some money for that. Then Christmas. Again, already? I was just thinking about the whole holiday party thing where they try to include all people and celebrate all holidays but really none of them are celebrated. It's just this big ambiguous gumbo of a party where no one is really invited. It's that time again already?! Christmas shopping is going to be special this year. What am I getting Kia and who else do I want to buy gifts for? Better put aside some money for that too. Wow. It's October...better put aside a lot of money."

["at 6 hours the upstream boundary's flow is double what is was 2 hours ago so the downstream effects..."]

"They're not talking to me. If I could only get to a keyboard and get this idea out of my head.... Try to remember the key. The progressions. 1,6,3 over D (music is math to me.). But how is it best to go about upgrading my desktop at home. I've been using the laptop so much my desktop is probably feeling a little neglected and since that PCI card is fried I need to get it fixed but Survivor comes on tonight AND CSI. I don't have to play this weekend but I have rehearsal. My frosted mug in the freezer is probably ready now. If I go to the bathroom I could probably check on it and I gotta remember to call UPS to check on that thing."

["Mike what's the status of...?"]

"huh?! The status? Oh well...the status of the...I think the status is...yeah, I'm sorry what did you ask me again? I was still thinking about the sediment forecast problem."

I hate when that happens.

2002-10-01T08:21:00.000-04:00

Best and Worst Sidekicks

I don't know which of these made me think about this but they all are deserving
10 Worst
10) Charlie Baltimore - went from riding the wave of Biggie's death to stardom to playing "girlfriend" to Ashanti. Life sucks.
9) Tupac - not too many people remember him singing background for Digital Underground in the movie Nothing But Trouble before his career took off. How embarrassing.
8) Cherie from Punky Brewster - Punky made her dress weird and everything...and what she get out of the deal? 3 lines and a career that's "done".
7) Marky Mark's The Funky Bunch - nuff said
6) Boner from Growing Pains - awful name, awful acting, all around loser cast. This guy had no chance.
5) Robin from Batman - Batman had the cool blue and gray and sometimes black batsuit. Robin had the "come punch me" orange, yellow and green short shorts with the matching elf shoes. Anytime someone tricks you into wearing a cape and shorts you deserve every "Kapow!!", "Blorrff", and "Scrunch" you get.
4) Robin from the Howard Stern show - She sucks at cohosting but she's great at surfing...or at least riding Howard's fame wave until retirement. No E! Hollywood story for you. You do NOTHING.
3) The Busta Rhymes guy - You know, the light, bald guy that jumps around and uses all his energy just like Busta but without the hair, fame, money, or dignity.
2) This duo of Kimberly Reese and Ron Johnson from A Different World had it bad from the beginning. The writers completely ignored their character development and left Kim working at the Pit her entire college career and Ron with bad haircuts and party shirts doing the Roger Rabbit. Oy.
1) This one is easy. Dick Cheney. What does he do? Get sick and hide in "a secured location". Way to suck up my tax dollars Dick.

10 Best
10) Rerun - boy, that guy fueled an entire show with is poplocking and endless appetite. Roger and Dwayne would be nobody if it wasn't for rerun "Oooh you dirty rat." and "jackass meat" jingle.
9) David Spade - before Chris Farley died they did two excellent movies together. Spade's sarcasm is the perfect compliment to his size. It's just too funny.
8) The two little boys in The Wood - Roland and I can't remember the other boy's name but that movie would've been a great sleeping pill if it weren't for them.
7) Salma Hayek in Desperado - would you turn down her application for sidekick? Who wouldn't want a sidekick that's a Spanish bookstore owner. C'mon, that's valuable. isn't it?
6) Martin Lawrence - from What's Happening Now to Boomerang to Bad Boys he's proven to be mediocre in lead roles but his sidekick work is superb.
5) Cedric the Entertainer - I could never tell why he was the sidekick. He was always funnier. But he's officially graduated from sidekick status with his new show. It isn't the funniest thing in the world and it probably will be cancelled next season but it's good for a laugh or two.
4) Mike Epps - Nobody thought anyone could fill Chris Tucker's Friday shoes but Epps is undeniably hilarious. He didn't try to be Chris. Instead, he brought his own material to the table and now, I'm sorry to say,it looks like we'll have Friday movies forever. Just because Friday the 13th never stopped doesn't mean this Friday series has to follow the same formula.
3) Chris Tucker - with one role in one movie he left America drooling for more work. We ended up with a less ghetto Rush Hour series, a mildly amusing movie with Charlie Sheen and promises to clean up his act. What act? Do a movie. We still want more Smokey or Smokey like humor. C'mon Chris. Give us something!!
2) R2D2 - not one line in his entire career but still the little droid is more popular than Princess Lea. How does he do it?
1) This one was kinda hard. I'll let you decide. Should it be...?
Snoopy - the smartest beagle to ever fly a WWII fighter dog house. A sidekick with his own sidekick, Woodstock. No sidekick ever pulled that off before.
or
Penny from Inspector Gadget - the one who solved every case in the history of the show. She was the epitome of sidekickdom. The perfect assist to the star. She did all the work and let him take all the credit.

2002-09-30T08:10:00.000-04:00

The Difference

This past weekend I went on a shopping trip to Woodbury Common in upstate New York. Let me first say that I do not like shopping. I like buying things but "shopping" as I've found women to understand it mainly consist of walking around to every store especially those that you know you're not going to buy anything from. That's what I don't like. If I know I need to buy shoes I'm just going to go to the shoe stores. By going to Iceberg or better yet Lerner (which absolutely doesn't have anything for me) is just wasting time and valuable feet energy that could be better used for something else.

I do not understand the logic behind having to go into Nine West every time you go in a mall, gallery, or other shopping arena. If you're not buying shoes that day why do you go? It's not like they're serving refreshments or giving away any free shoes. It's like this is the preliminary to any trip. A trip to the shoe store is, in some cases, equivalent to opening prayer or the Star Spangled banner. No trip starts without it. I don't know about anyone else but my feet energy is important to me. It helps me get through the day. I can't see wasting it on useless trips. The way I see it, if I'm not buying shoes it's imperative that I don't go to the shoe store because there's a possibility that I may see something I really like for a really good deal but because I'm not buying shoes or don't have the money I'm not going to be able to get it. That will infinitely frustrate the rest of my day because I'll be either trying to devise a way to get them or upset that I can't. The way that issue is solved is to just not go in the first place. That way I don't find ways to spend money I never intended on spending. There's always a sale going on, that doesn't mean you have to spend your money on it. Women, however, don't seem to take the "ignorance is bliss" approach and would much rather see what's on sale so they can spend money, already allotted to other - more important things, on a sale they "can't miss." I don't see why they can't miss it. If they never knew about it their lives would've been fine anyway.

So like I said before...I do not like "shopping". Technically it's not really shopping at all. It's just "looking and wasting time". And what even compounds the problem is that after a certain point clothes aren't even a necessity. That certain point is...pay attention...ONE outfit. That's all you need to survive. You can wear it everyday and as long as you have a washing machine and plenty of detergent (and no qualms about what people think about you wearing the same clothes everyday like the Jetsons) you'll be fine. Now most of us feel some angst about the idea of wearing the same thing everyday so let's up the minimum to a weeks worth of clothes. In fact, let's be a little liberal and say 3 weeks of outfits is enough. But is it? A lot of women have more than a months worth of outfits available to them but they'll try to trick you by saying (about their walkin closet full of clothes) "I can't wear most of that stuff."

...!?!!!??!?

At some point we have to call it what it is...frivolous spending on unnecessary things just for the sake of doing it. Now we've opened up a can of worms. I'm not going to go into any great detail but I'll state the facts. Follow this progression very closely.
1) In the beginning the man and the woman were naked and everything was grand.
2) The woman decided to disobey God and eat the fruit. Then she gave it to the man who ate it too.
3) The result was the realization they were naked and the first thing they did was hide and try to make clothes out of leaves.
4) They got in big trouble.
5) God made better clothes out of animal skin.
6) Women continually shop and waste all the money on clothes that they already have enough of but they have to keep buying more and more, better and better until and even after all the money is spent up, for no good reason or at least any reason they can articulate that would hold weight in a court of law or any other court including Night Court and the basketball court down the street from me, so they keep buying and buying never realizing that if they would've never eaten the fruit in the beginning everyone would still be naked and the men would be cool with that but because they didn't want the men to be cool with that they hit us with a double whammy and took away the nakedness and spend all the money in a never ending cycle of self indulgence that rockets off the cliff of sanity into the perpetual abyss that is Chapter 11...but they look good in court.

whew...

But if I take a minute to realize the whole of the situation I realize there is one tiny crack in their seemingly impervious rationale concerning shopping. See, they like it. We don't. But they really don't like it like they want us to believe they do. It's just that we don't usually catch it when it happens. Ever took your woman "shopping" at Best Buy? Oh, they're ready to go QUICK!! Like there's something wrong with walking around looking at expensive electronics for hours and hours even though we're not going to buy anything. Best Buy is the perfect Kryptonite to their shopping fetish. They have Playstation 2, XBox, and GameCube hooked up so you can play for free, as long as you like. Go ahead. Give it a shot. Ask her to go shopping and end up at Best Buy playing an entire season of Madden and see how much she likes that. Then really start to get to her and ask her all those questions we get about shoes and outfits. "Don't you like this game?" And feel free to do like she does and get upset when the response is anything less than sheer and utter excitement. Walk around and look at every video game, cd and DVD title in the store. Read the back of the covers out loud and say "That sounds good. Wouldn't you want to see this?" Check out the DVD players and turn up the stereo systems to hear how they sound. And above all relish in your opportunity to "shop" while at the same time illustrating the torture we men go through on a biweekly basis.

So the next time she wants to go shopping don't put up a fuss. Don't make a face or exhibit negative body language. Jump at the chance. Get to the car first and just when you start the engine look at her and say "can we stop by Best Buy real quick first? They have a sale going on."

Sincerely,
Wyle E. Coyote - super genius

2002-09-26T08:26:00.000-04:00

I'm confused. Actually I've always been confused about this matter. I always thought I was a reasonably intelligent person so it bothers me that I can't figure this out. Maybe you can help me see what I'm not seeing.

When someone says (let's use Sharon for this example) "Sharon told me to tell you she said 'hi'." what are you supposed to say? I never quite got the hang of that odd, third party social interaction. People say it after they've hung up the phone. "Sharon said hi." what's exactly supposed to happen after that? Even though it happens on a consistent basis it catches me off guard every time and usually I end up saying something mindless like "oh, tell her I said hi." How can that possibly happen?! What am I thinking? The phone call is already over. Do I really expect someone to redial the number and say "Mike says hi." Absolutely not. So what's it all for? More recently I just settled on a defeated "oh, ok." It's so unfair. Why wait until the conversation is over or the hi-sayer is nowhere to be found to tell me? I, like any good natured guy, would like to return the greeting but when it's impossible it just makes the situation unresolvable. And why do people say "tell him I said hi." if they know by the time I get the message I won't be able to respond? Its a contradiction to give off the caring sentiment by saying hello but aren't you at all interested in the reply? It just seems like sorta a contrived thing to say, "tell him I said hi." but maybe there's an ingenius response out there that I just haven't thought of.

Any suggestions?

2002-09-25T09:36:00.000-04:00

Quick survey:

What drives you to better yourself?

2002-09-24T10:38:00.000-04:00

It's getting much tougher to resist. It almost hurts. I'm sitting here diligently working, checking off task after task. With each new triumph that thought recurs again and again. It's almost unbearable now. I can't wait until today is over....

I bought Madden 2003 for my laptop for 3 reasons:
1) Because I take my laptop everywhere so I'm not confined to just playing at home.
2) I preferred the look of the game on PC than to on PS2 because the players look slightly different plus it's easier to play online.
3) Because when I looked at the $50 price tag of the PS2 version it just looked silly next to the $34 price tag of the superior PC version.

I never expected the game to be this good. Madden 2003 is absolutely the best of the franchise. Finally, a game that's not arcade at all. I have to scrap for every yard and it's not because the game is harder. They just made the game a lot smarter. No more "bread and butter" plays that always get you a touchdown. There are a few that would get you a first down but because of the way they beefed up the AI (Artificial Intelligence) they'll only work for a few series until it's time to find another. Sure, I'm still at work working but I'm also thinking about free agent acquisitions, salary cap loopholes, and possible trades...anything to make my team better so it can compete with the other teams. The preseason helped tremendously because this is the first football game, ever, where the preseason actually affects the play. Players stats change as they navigate the first 4 games on their way to the regular season start. And even if they don't I have the option of sending the players to mini-camp to boost their play by running basic football drills. But who has time to hang around in mini-camp when there's an entire league to loose to. I think I've bought Madden every year since it started on Sega Genesis in 1992 and this is by far the most improved version. When I played NCAA 2003 I thought I was hooked and Madden couldn't do anything that good. Now I'm sitting here at my desk rocking and scratching the back of my hand waiting for the day to be over so I can get a game or two in. I remember Dave Coulier had a show called Out of Control where you could mail them a letter and get a "hurry up" so your day would be over really quick..so I'm writing a letter. Is that real or is the delirium taking over?

2002-09-23T11:05:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was officially one year. Kia and I successfully made it through one year of marriage and it was a wonderful thing. So far it's been great and the things that people told us we should look out for in our first year didn't even happen. It's a funny thing to always be on alert subconsciously thinking "they said this should happen but when". I'm through thinking about the things I should be looking out for. Instead I'll be happy just looking at my wife. People ask me how married life is and my response is the truth. "It's great!". So that's when they decide to throw in "Aww...you're still in the honeymoon stage." I hope that's not the case. I hope it's this way all the time. God did some amazing things in this first year and He's still working in and through us so it's been a pretty exciting ride so far and I'm looking forward to what's next. People are scared of marriage but the only thing thats really scary about marriage is the part when you're scared to face the reflection of yourself that marriage provides. It shows you everything about who you really are...the great things and the not so great things. When you see that image you can either change or not. Marriage gets really bad when either or both persons learn things about themselves and their mates and are too... to change. The "I'm not changing for nobody" attitude is the death of marriage. "I was like this when we got married" is no excuse to continue to be wack until you die. Jobs change, family structure, income, emotions...everything changes but people fight it like changing was the devil himself. As long as you're humble and honest enough about yourself to understand that you are bringing some unnecessary baggage to the deal that should be done away with sooner than later you'll be on the road to a successful marriage. God created marriage. The bible begins and ends with marriage. He knows how it works best and how to get the best results. Let Him use your marriage to make you a better person for your mate. A successful marriage is worth more than anything on this planet because sometimes that's all you have but then again, that's all you need.

I've learned a lot about marriage and I'm still a student but this is the best class I've ever taken.

2002-09-19T11:11:00.000-04:00

Matthew 6:28-34

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

It's a beautiful thing to not be in control. Control is an illusion we so desperately cling to so we can feel better about our lives and ourselves. It's how people reconcile bad things that happen to them. It helps people cope with the surprises in life. But no matter how in control we believe ourselves to be we haven't managed to stop those surprises from occurring. We still get upset when we're blindsided by financial obligations, relationship fiascos, and everyday mishaps. No matter how much we fight, whether through positive thinking, confession, stockpiling, or other preventative measures, we'll constantly be shaken by unsuspected events.

I don't look at it as a fight anymore. I see it as a privilege. To understand that somebody is in control other than me is the epitome of liberation. It takes the burden off of me. I no longer have to fight the losing battle to maintain some semblance of control that I never had in the first place. Now that doesn't mean that I don't save, work towards a goal or prepare for rainy days. It just means that I do these things AND understand that bad stuff will happen from time to time.

(All of this is based out of a belief that God is Sovereign. If He created all of this from nothing He is the one who oversees it. If He doesn't exist and all of this came to be by cosmic random chance then this argument falls flat and we're relegated to living purposeless lives where nothing we do means anything because we're only here by happenstance.)

So since He's controlling it that means I can rest easy knowing that He knows what He's doing better than me. It would be a different story if we were talking about Rose from the Golden Girls or Inspector Gadget controlling everything. We're talking about God. The same God who designed all of this. Who knows how to get the most out of the creation than the creator? And by His own words (Matt 6:28-34) He assures us that this stuff we're worrying about is a waste of time. All sorts of animals survive just fine without worrying about getting a loan, finding a job, and what they're going to eat. They know they go out, catch the food and eat it. It's routine and everytime God provides the food for them to catch. It's a complex system that we often pass on the chance to analyze.

3 years ago Hurricane Floyd hit the east coast. People were crying because property was lost and lots of money had to be spent to rebuild. 3 years later we're crying about drought conditions not realizing that were it not for the hurricane the water received would be significantly less (in D.C. 10 in...in NC feet). So no one realizes that the drought is bad but not as bad as it would've been without the water the hurricane gave us. Sure we put our water hoses out and spend on fertilizer but God waters His plants and He knows better than anyone else what's "needed" and when. No matter how much we worry we can't make rain and we just have to wait until some comes. For the control freak this mentality is hell but for the person who understands control this situation is just normal. I guarantee the ground will get water when it's time and life will resume as normal and millions of people will miss the marvelous complexity of what God did.

It's a symphony that God is conducting. All these things are planned. Death, life, good, bad, all equally out of our hands yet all completely in control....

...a coworker just came in my office because someone close to her just died so I'll wrap this up. Have a good weekend.

...and the symphony continues

2002-09-18T09:37:00.000-04:00

The Classics

Musing over those timeless jokes that really weren't that funny but they got us through elementary school. Kids can be so mean:

- Your mothers so bald I can see what she's thinking
- Your mother ain't got no eyes, talking about "see what I mean"
- Your father got one tooth and they call him Uno
- Your mothers so short you can see her feet on her drivers license
- Your fathers so short he has to cuff his underwear
- Your mothers so cross-eyed she thinks her only child is a twin
- Your mothers so old her social security number is in Roman numerals
- Your mother got one leg and used to kick for the Cincinnati Bengals
- Your mother so black when she opens her eyes it looks like the subway is coming.
- Your mothers breath stinks so bad people on the phone hang up.
- Your mothers cornrows look like stitches.
- Your fathers glasses look like ice.

Now keep in mind now that I'm 25 these are not funny but for some reason we used to use them in school like we were at the Improv. Everybody would be laughing. Even though they're just silly now it's good to remember where you came from. So...what'd I miss?

2002-09-18T09:21:00.000-04:00

"It's the most wonderful tiiiimmeee of the yeeeaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!"

What more could you ask for. Football season begins, kids go back to school and stop hanging around the malls all day, the new prime time seasons begin on all the networks and....REAL WORLD!

I don't have a lot of time to watch television but for some reason I get to see a lot of stuff. Real World has had a lot of making up to do after the hum drum Real World:Chicago and that oh so wretched scam Real World:The Movie. A friend of mine who works at MTV designing the sites told me not to fear because Real World:Las Vegas would make up for all of that. She was right (so far). Maybe it's because its Real World, maybe it's because of the previews but for whatever reason I'm hooked again into the lives of "Seven strangers picked to live together ...." With my anniversary, birthday, Christmas and 4 govt. holidays around the corner this is just the beginning of the best part of the year!

Congrats to Jay and Jai on their upcoming nuptuals later today!

2002-09-17T10:09:00.000-04:00

What ever happened to discrimination.

I must admit I'm somewhat partial. Some things I'm really interested in knowing while others couldn't matter less to me. I often wonder "what ever happened to..." but my tastes are too sporadic. I can't pin down why certain inquiries are more important than others. For instance what ever happened to Six from Blossom? I have absolutely no interest in what happened to Skip from Family Ties, Dexter and JT from Silver Spoons, or anybody from Battlestar Galactica. But if you had some interesting facts on Lee Majors, the guy who played Alf or Punky Brewster I'm all ears. You can keep those Nell Carter facts to yourself. I don't really have time to hear about the casts of Benson, M*A*S*H*, or Starsky and Hutch. I always wondered what happened to Carrie Fisher and the guy who played in the Beastmaster and I'm actually kinda upset that I don't know what happened to James Evans. But Rose from 227 can always remain a mystery as far as I'm concerned. I wonder where Art Monk went when he left the Redskins or what happened to Christopher Lloyd from Taxi and Back to the Future. Dennis Rodman??...I don't even have to address that but I wish I knew what Parker Lewis and his little sister were doing now. Dee from What's Happening, Cole from Martin, The Duke Boys, the rest of N.W.A, Eddie Haskell from Leave it to Beaver, Kwame, Wesley from Mr. Belvedere, Linda Carter (Wonder Woman), The white lady from In Living Color, The Canadian kids from "You Can't Do that on Television"...the list of people I wonder about is almost close to the same length of the people I could care less about.

Malik Yoba, Billy Ray Cyrus, Natalie from the Facts of Life, Mr. Popadoplis, Marc Dorsey, Nia Peebles, Arsenio Hall, Chuck (the wack drummer from the Arsenio Hall show), The Head of the Class class, Carla from Cheers, The A-Team, Dabney Coleman, The entire Cannonball Run cast, Timmy from Lassie, My Three Sons, Spike Lee, Terry McMillan's books, Mokenstef, Jade and Brownstone...on and on and on

I don't know why I discriminate but how about I not call it discrimination and instead call it "preference" and just call it a day?

2002-09-16T13:16:00.000-04:00

I didn't think it was possible for a sitcom to effectively copy another sitcom. Spinoffs are one thing but I would figure a direct copy wouldn't have a chance at success. Most likely it would probably upset me beyond words. I thought that all my life until I saw Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's identical to Seinfeld in everyway except the 4 characters in Seinfeld are rolled into one, hilarious goof of a man that defys all odds and actually makes this show work. I guess I would be really upset for another show to use the same format as Seinfeld (my favorite sitcom of all time) but Larry David, creator of Seinfeld, sorta has liberty to do it since the events on Seinfeld we often loosely based on his life (ex. The Contest). So he's the only one that could pull this off.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is just plain hysterical. There's no laugh track (a la Bernie Mac, Watching Ellie, etc.) but I definitely don't need one. My own guffaws provide all the laughter needed. In light of Seinfeld's absence from prime time television, allowing Friends to move in as current sitcom champ, CYE definitely fills the Seinfeld hole in my life. The weird part is that I should hate it because it's no different from the show (except it's based more on improv) but I can't help but love it. Larry David is just knock down, drag out funny and there's no denying it. HBO had their premieres last night and I missed the Sopranos just in time to catch CYE. Thank God it's autumn again!

2002-09-12T09:52:00.000-04:00

Dare or Dumb?

I was in the grocery store yesterday and was tricked into reading an article in Sister 2 Sister. The cover had Trina on it and said something like "From church girl to realtor to rapper" or something like that. So anyway I started reading and found out that for 2 months she was a stripper. So when Jamie asked her how did that happen her story was a few friends were sitting around watching movies having a "waiting to exhale party" and there was a stripper in the movie. Someone jokingly suggested that they should try it then I guess they went through the motions, maybe a "Triple Dog Dare" was handed out, perhaps not. In any event she was dared to do it and so she did it for two months because it was just topless so "it wasn't that bad".

My question is "why?" Admittedly this is just one of a million other peoples stories of things they did on a dare simply because they were dared to do it. It's almost like the dare is cause to do anything. "I never back down from a dare." is a phrase often touted to instill honor and esteem. It's as if the boundaries of a dare exceed far beyond those of rationale, reasoning and common sense and anything, no matter how insane, is fair game as long as it falls under the guise of a dare.

This couldn't be further from the truth. I believe I would be hard pressed to find someone who would kill themselves just to satisfy a dare. If it were this easy I'm sure I would be rich because I would dare someone like Trina to do something more beneficial than stripping. "I dare you to empty your account and give it all to me." Do you think she would take that dare?? The fact of the matter is people don't generally perform dares because they have something to prove. They don't exercise lunacy to gain credibility with their friends. I'm sure that's a part of it but that should by no means be used as a shield for questionable behavior. People succumb to dares because it's something they kinda want to do. True, they wouldn't normally do it. They may have never done it were it not brought up by their friends but now that it's arisen there is something compelling about it. Added to that is the fact that now they have an excuse because the opportunity is now in dare form. So maybe they're off the hook where judgement is concerned? Imagine standing in a court of law where the judge asks "How do you plead to the charge of grand theft auto?" and you saying, with complete confidence "Your honor, I plead not guilty. It was a dare." My friend, you're going to jail! I dare you to drop the soap.

Keep in mind I'm talking about those larger scale dares like "I dare you to strip" or "I dare you to punch/kiss that stranger over there." Are dares a sufficient excuse for stupidity and bad judgement?

2002-09-11T10:28:00.000-04:00

Silence

2002-09-10T10:02:00.000-04:00

Is it just me or is the importance of this election getting lost in the Sept 11th anniversary? I remembered that today was election day and only starting seriously thinking about who to vote for this morning. I know it's important but somehow it just seems that there are bigger things to think about right now. Maybe I'm crazy. A year ago tomorrow the country's heart was crushed and since then the "war on terrorism" hasn't yielded any tangible results. We're left with that unsatisfied feeling that justice was not served.

Ground zero took almost a year to clean and the final death toll was over 3,000. Bigger than Pearl Harbor. But even in that conflict there was a clear resolution. True, dropping that bomb on all of those people including mostly innocents wasn't the most ethical decision but that killing a fly with a sledgehammer approach did at least "kill the fly".

Still I'm cramming like I'm in college again trying to learn all the in's and out's of the different candidates positions in order to make an "informed" decision. This sucks.

2002-09-09T14:54:00.000-04:00

I'm too happy today to go on and on about the difficulties of spelling slang. Maybe it's just this D.C. area slang that's difficult but somebody, somewhere needs to come out with a book or some type of spelling aid. How many times have you felt stupid spelling slang?! How many times have you wanted to use it in typed communique because it perfectly conveyed your thoughts but you stopped short because you weren't sure if the other person spelled it the same way you do? Slang spelling sucks. But I'm too happy to deal with that today.

2002-09-05T08:26:00.000-04:00

Pessimist, Realist, or Way off?

Some friends and I were having a conversation yesterday. We wanted to switch careers. We were trying to figure out a way we could do nothing, get paid and not have to worry about money. None of us had Trust Funds so that was out. We couldn't think of a job that would allow us to make money while doing nothing. This enigma has plagued men for thousands of years. Why can't we just make money and not have to work. That would be ideal. The theory that developed was this...

Adam and Eve messed it up for everybody. In the beginning they sinned and broke their fellowship with God. The man's punishment was that the ground he worked would produce but only through "painful toil" which we now call "work" and that "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken" (Gen 3:17-18). The woman's punishment was that God greatly increased her pains in childbearing (which suggest the labor pain was never God's original intent). (Gen 3:16). Their mutual punishment was that they were barred (by a fiery sword) from eating of the tree of life which would've allowed them to live forever in God's perfect world. So the punishment was death. That was a long, long time ago.

Fast foward to today when we were having the conversation about getting paid without working. Is it really a valid hope in light of the punishments God handed out? Women still have labor pains, Men and women still have a 100% death rate, snakes even still crawl on their belly (Gen 3:14). If all of those punishments are still in place it makes sense that the man's punishment is still there. We will have to work. It'll be difficult but in order to eat we'll have to work. There would be no free ride where I can sit at home, play Playstation and get paid because that's not how God set it up. Is it too much of a pessimistic view to accept those punishments? Is it reasonable for a woman to expect not to have labor pains or for anyone to expect to live forever. It makes sense that as long as those two are in place the man's punishment will always remain. Work sucks but it's because that's the punishment that God handed out. So I just have to deal with it. At least I won't waste time thinking up a way to circumvent something that won't change.

But that brings up another provocative point. Women are crazy!!! The work punishment was never attributed to them. They had the childbirth thing. They have a chance to sit back and be taken care of without working. They can do what we dream to do but can't. But they don't!!! If I was a woman and I knew I had no choice but to go through the labor pains I sure wouldn't be trying to take on the man's punishment too! Can you imagine me saying "This is hard work. I wish I didn't have to do it. I have an idea. How about if I figure out a way I can add some labor pains to my work. I need some labor pains in my life or else I wouldn't feel "equal"." Imagine if I started a Men's Labor Pain movement. We would protest, have sit-ins, and make a big deal over something that's really just "optional" to us. Maybe I'm just crazy but I wouldn't care one bit if someone took away my labor pain option. Discriminate. Go ahead!! I already have enough work to do.

Sorry. That was a tangent of magnanimous proportions but it's still true. Why fight for two when one is more than sufficient? I wish I didn't have to work like I'm sure women wish they didn't have the pains of labor. I wouldn't trade with a woman but there is a part of me that's envious of the fact that they don't have my punishment like I don't have theirs. If I could get rid of mine I would but I can't and I don't see the rationale behind anyone else wanting what I have. Nevertheless we, as men, just have to suck it up and go to work. Everyday. And it'll be difficult and the moment we want to quit that's when our stomachs remind us "you need to get out there and get me some food." Don't talk to me about childbirth until you're forcefully pimped by a stomach, forever.

2002-09-04T11:38:00.000-04:00

I really feel sorry for telemarketers. Those poor college kids have no idea what they're in for. They just want a job where they can make some extra money. The telemarketer boss is the real bad guy. They goad the unsuspecting college students in for an interview on a job that pays well above minimum wage. But nobody tells them that the job is going to be the most psychologically damaging experience they'll have in the workforce. Nobody tells them that they're going to get hung up on, interrupted and cursed at day in and day out until they finally quit and go to therapy. A guy called me yesterday offering some MCI something or other. He sounded like he couldn't have been more than 20 years old. Poor guy. They should've told him I was going to cut him off. Maybe he wouldn't have sounded so hurt. Somebody should've warned him I was going to make him feel like crap for even calling my number. Someone should've informed him not to call my house and sell us something if they don't have it themselves. See, people hate telemarketers but I'm sure the people that call are actually nice guys. It's those ~~d@mn~~ telemarketer employers who sit back, never take a call, never get cursed out and never feel the writhing anger of 100 people called during dinnertime that are really the unlikeable ones. We should call them direct the heat their way for subjecting those poor kids to all of the mental anguish.

I'll still do the interrupt, cut off thing because if I don't it'll be like talking to a dial tone. I'll be waiting and waiting just to get a word in and it'll be next Monday before it happens.
"Good-evening-sir-I-was-calling-from-AT&T-and-we'redoingaspecialoffertoallofourvaluedcustomersforfree
longdistanceYou'llgetallofthebenefitsyoucurrently
havebutwe'reofferinganadditional..."
aaarrggghh!!

friggin jerks.

2002-09-03T11:16:00.000-04:00

I'm so thankful for this week. Last week was unbelievably hectic. I had rehearsal every night of the week, taught piano lessons, performed, went out of town, and still found time to fit some reading and Madden/Gran Turismo in. This week is a short week and most of my evenings are free so I'm really happy.

I think I'm going to stop living in the past. Don't get me wrong. I don't wear Etonics with the matching Champion short set or African medallions and belt packs but I happen to love the euphoria associated with nostalgia. I don't ever want to be "that guy". I don't want to be that guy that says "ya'll don't know music. Anita Baker. Now THAT was real music." or "that ain't nuthin' but Biz Markie. He ain't doin' nuthin' different." It's just not beneficial to have an historical outlook on life. It's good to remember history, what you've been through, the things you loved but there is so much more to life. Maybe it's the student in me or maybe I just have this insatiable urge to learn all I can while I can but whatever it is it's causing me to look forward more often than back. Until recently I longed for simpler days when Billy Ocean and Luther Vandross monopolized the radio airwaves because it kinda made me feel like I was back in a time when I had far less responsibility. But even then I didn't live there. I didn't live in that time because I always wished I had more. I wished I had a driver's license or didn't have to act like I left my id at home at rated 'R' movies. I longed for those times when I really didn't want them back then. I only wanted the thing I didn't have. No more. I'm starting to appreciate the things I do have and the things I look forward to. Not Depends and acid reflux but you get the idea.

But don't worry. I'm not completely rehabilitated. I still love a good stroll down memory lane and I think I'll always be available to watch Good Times, What's Happening, The Jeffersons, Sanford & Son, The Facts of Life, Perfect Strangers, Benson, Diff'rent Strokes, Dukes of Hazard, Martin, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Who's The Boss, Seinfeld, The Simpsons, Head of the Class, MacGyver, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Mad About You, A Different World, Punky Brewster, Webster, Growing Pains, Family Ties, Alf, The Golden Girls, Fall Guy, Night Court, Married...with Children, Roseanne, Mr. Belvedere, Silver Spoons, Three's Company...well...in light of my new credo maybe this list could use some trimming....nah, never

Quick sitcom trivia:
What two sitcoms both had families who's last name was Tanner?

2002-08-29T10:17:00.000-04:00

You know, my biggest problem with Monster's Ball was not that it sucked and I paid money to see it. The biggest problem was the Halle's "Make me feel good" scene. There was all this talk about the scene and there was a geniune curiosity to see what all the fuss was about. So Kia and I went to the theatre to see this acclaimed movie that didn't really seem to be heading in any particular direction as the movie progressed. When the scene came up there was this eerie silence in the theatre. Silence is one thing. I can deal with silence. But what made it eerie was that, except for the Greco-Roman sex scene, everything was completely quiet. They could've at least put some music in it!! Camera shots from all over the room, in the mirror, birds going crazy in the cage. I felt like a pervert hiding in the room watching Storm have sex with a prison guard turned gas station owner (???). Somebody should've warned me. They could've cut one of the previews short to inform me that "You will feel like a peeping tom towards the middle of this feature". Music always takes the edge off. It makes it feel more like a movie and less like I'm hiding under the bed. That did NOT "make me feel good".

2002-08-28T07:58:00.000-04:00

Ever been inspired? A couple of weeks ago I came across an artist named Nichole Nordeman who has completely revolutionized the way I write. She somehow came up with an entire cd that is intricately woven into the most fascinating lyrical and musical tapestry I've witnessed in the past few years. Her approach is so unique but everything about it seems flawless. If you're a part of the broadband, firewall-less, soundcard world check out my current favorite (it changes from day to day).

download here

Why
Nichole Nordeman

We rode into town the other day
Just me and my daddy
He said I’d finally reached that age
And I could ride next to him on a horse
That of course was not quite as wild

We heard a crowd of people shouting
And so we stopped to find out why
There was that Man who my dad said he loved
But today there was fear in his eyes

So I said “Daddy, why are they screaming?
Why are the faces of some of them beaming?
Why is He dressed in that bright purple robe
I bet that crown hurts Him more than He shows
Daddy please, can’t you do something?
He looks as though He’s gonna cry
You said He was stronger than all of those guys
Daddy, please tell me why
Why does everyone want Him to die?”

Later that day, the sky grew cloudy
And daddy said I should go inside
Somehow he knew things would get stormy
Boy was he right, but I could not keep from wondering
If there was something he had to hide

So after he left, I had to find out
I was not afraid of getting lost
So I followed the crowds to a hill
Where I knew men had been killed
And I heard a voice come from the cross

And it said, “Father, why are they screaming?
Why are the faces of some of them beaming?
Why are they casting their lots for my robe?
This crown of thorns hurts me more than it shows
Father please, can’t you do something?
I know that You must hear my cry
I thought I could handle a cross of this size
Father, remind me why
Why does everyone want me to die?
Oh, when will I understand why?”

My precious son, I hear them screaming
I’m watching the face of the enemy beaming
But soon I will clothe you in robes of my own
Jesus, this hurts me much more than you know
But this dark hour, I must do nothing
Though I’ve heard your unbearable cry
The power in your blood destroys all of the lies
Soon you’ll see past their unmerciful eyes
Look there below, see the child trembling by her father’s side
Now I can tell you why
She is why you must die

2002-08-27T14:02:00.000-04:00

If I want to strangle Old Navy's Rugby Bunch is that bad or good?

2002-08-27T13:42:00.000-04:00

I was going to blog about this diversity training I just came from that was extremely interesting. It was 4 hours and they showed one of the most hilarious and well written episodes of Murphy Brown that dealt with cultural sensitivity. It's funny how people get offended by different things. Someone could call me black and I wouldn't say "i prefer African American". It really doesn't matter to me. The truth is that I wouldn't move to Africa if you paid me but to some people it's vitally important that you say the right thing. I'll get offended at some other things that other people might not care about but after a while it just gets silly. I never understood the term "big boned" or why people pronounce it "big bone-ded". Only a fraction of the population actually have bones that are abnormally big. The rest of us are just overweight. Deal with it. A lady in the episode wanted to be called a "person of size". Someone else didn't wear glasses they were visually challenged and they didn't get "fired" they were vocationally dislocated. We should really stop being so silly about everything. Different things offend different people. Each one is different. Learn from the people you interact with. What offends them doesn't apply to everyone else of that same category.

But I decided not to blog about that. I just wanted to say how great life is. It's a gray day outside (off and on) and a few years ago my mood was heavily dictated by the type of day it was but as I was walking back from the training I realized that somehow I'm not that way anymore. Whether it's gray outside, raining, sunny, windy, or muggy life is wonderful! I don't have all the money I would like, still haven't gotten my Playstation 2 or my 2 ferrets. Don't know if I'll ever be able to stop working completely, there are still some lingering bills but I'm extremely happily married, I have a career and more than a few pretty good options should something drastically change. I've finished school to the point where if I want to go back I can go for what I want. I have a purpose in life and I'm starting to see those things bear fruit. AND if I ever need to I have episodes of every season of MacGyver that I could watch just to relax. lol

Paul was right. Being content is a learned skill but it's one of the best to have. If you're that then you can't help but also be happy.

--this blog has nothing to do with the fact that I have a stack of comics just itchin' for me to read them waiting for me at home.

Life rocks.

2002-08-26T09:16:00.000-04:00

I only got to see a little of the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards Friday night but if you had the displeasure of catching a glimpse you probably noticed the same thing I did. No one was there to receive their awards. Soul Train accepted for everyone all night. The only people I saw that were in attendance to receive their awards were Ashanti (of course), Angela Bassett and Kelly from Destiny's Child (accepting for the whole group). I'm sure there were others because I missed most of the show but that still doesn't discount the fact that I'll never watch that ~~crap~~ again. Even the people presenting awards weren't there. When Angela Bassett got her award they played two video tapes from Robert Deniro and Samuel Jackson. Arsenio Hall was the host along with Shemar Moore and Jill Scott. They would say things like "Here to present the award for best female duo or group single of the year are Arista recording artist Jamie Reynolds and Charlotte Hornets Brian Wilson" and I'm like "WHO?!!?" At first is was comical but it very quickly became sad and degrading. Not because they had no support for a black awards show that aired on WB close to midnight but because I was up trying to see if it would get better. We just played at Howard and I was exhausted (and upset I couldn't make it to a friend's reception). I should've been sleep but instead I got to watch yet another female group named LovHer perform in white suits, Temptations moves, and vocals that sound like they were arranged by Helen Keller. The only highlight was getting to hear Don Cornelius do sponsor spots in between commercial breaks. Who could tire of Don announcing that "the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards are being brought to you by African Pride, Bojangles and Just For Me no lye relaxer"?

2002-08-22T06:46:00.000-04:00

Do I really need to say anything?! I'm done watching American Idol. I thought the Christina Christian thing was a bad decision but last nights Tamyra decision was the last straw. There's no way she should've gotten voted off! I'm not bent on some race deal. I just think it was a terrible decision and looks more than a little suspicious. I'm mad.

By the way. Am I the only one who catches this comparison?

2002-08-21T14:38:00.000-04:00

Mario's cd is the truth. I was completely shocked but it's earned it's spot in heavy rotation.

2002-08-21T12:13:00.000-04:00

Two men stand at a fork in the road. One fork leads to Maryland; the other fork leads to Virginia. One of these people always answers the truth to any yes/no question which is asked of him. The other always lies when asked any yes/no question. By asking one yes/no question, can you determine the road to Maryland?

What's the question?