Searching for the Truth
Archive for Stuff
October 31, 2009 at 4:58 am · Filed under Stuff
When you are growing up, people (and by people I mean adults) always ask you want you want to be when you grow up. Kids give kid answers like starting second baseman for the New York Mets or a lawyer or whatever it takes to quiet that adult who’s decided to feign interest in the life of a youth.
Seriously, it’s a stupid question in its premise. Adults should ask and encourage kids to do what they love to do. What you want, what you need and what you love rarely link and sync up. But when they do, it’s a beautiful thing.
I’ve wanted to be involved in sports all my life. At some time when I was at Boston University, I found a need to express myself on the written page and soon found that I loved writing about sports as much as I loved watching and playing them.
When I was walking around the second semester of my senior year at BU, people (and my people I mean any and everyone from well-minded adults to random classmates that you barely spoke with but happened to be by the keg when you walked up for your next drink) would find a way to ask “What are you going to do when you graduate?”
This question is about as dumb as the first one I mentioned. Just because I was able to get through this stage of my life, why should I know exactly what I’m doing next? Why should I tell you? Do you really care or are you just trying to fill “dead air” by feigning interest in someone you barely know?
Well, those were the questions tha raced through my mind and just to help fill the space and end the conversation, I told people I was moving to Portland, Oregon. You would be surprised how many people that shut up.
Looking back, this is one of those life-changing moments that I didn’t take full realization of at the time. But don’t get me wrong. To quote the great bard Curtis Jackson…
If I die today, I’m happy the way my life turned out.
All the shootouts, I done been in them by myself
Locked up, I was in the box by myself
I done made myself a millionaire by myself
Now s**t changed muthaf***a, I can hire some help
OK, so maybe I’m just talking about the first couple of lines of that, but it tastes so good once it hits your mouth…
Through the power of Facebook, an ex-girlfriend from a long time ago, long long time ago, befriended me and asked what I had been doing for the past decade. I was a big fan of my response so I’ll reprint it here, mostly cuz it’s all true.
So how things are going? Let’s see…I once tried and failed to eat a 12-egg omelet in New Hampshire. Hung out on Fisher Island in the middle of Miami for a week. Watched the sun rise in the middle of Montana. Put my cat on a leash to see Mt. Rushmore. Was left by a state university employee in a Cancun airport with $300. Partied at a Daytona Beach club, hit a Waffle House and drove half-asleep across the state. Went from Kansas City to Raliegh, NC and back to pick up two cats. Cut my shoulder-length dreadlocks before my best friend’s mother’s wedding on a whim. Was offered a job to eventually work at the New York Times and turned it down to move sight unseen to Mississippi. Secretly regretted that decision for five years. Visited New Orleans weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit and haven’t been back since and will celebrate two years of Naomi Jessica Kester on September 21.
Throughout all that mess, I was happy with my life because I my employment was based around a passion, around something I loved whether it be sports, writing or a combination of the two. And yes, I secretly did regret not taking a job that would have kept me in Florida, but then I would have never met my wife…
So what’s the point behind all this babble? Similar to Kris’ point from long ago, I’m at a crossroads. Only difference is I’ve been at this crossroads for more than a year, I’m still standing in the middle of the road and the paths in any direction seem to be taking me away from familiar ground, from things I love and enjoy to things to just help pay the bills.
I’m proud to say that I haven’t worked a job that was just to help pay the bills since college, since I was a lackey in the Admissions Office, a cook/counter person for caf’s Late Night menu, a paid peer advisor coordinator working as a secretary for the summer. I mean, even when I was waiting tables, it was at the best sports bar in the city so that didn’t really count as work.
Now I’m looking at a mindless grunt moving an filing medical records or applying to try to become a police officer or a teacher. The final one has the most potential, the most appeal but the hoops necessary to leap through is silly. One would think a qualified black man trying to teach would be snatched up right away in this politically correct climate as someone “who could relate to the urban population”, but I guess I’m not the only one…
Now what or what now, either way I don’t know what to do next. What I want to do next, I’ll relate next time which will be sooner than later.
August 20, 2009 at 9:56 pm · Filed under Stuff
Trying to post this without any help…
Hey, it is a rough draft anyway. So let’s see if this works.
www.makkid.com/podcast
May 29, 2007 at 12:42 pm · Filed under Stuff
I’ll bore today about the latest book I’ve read, a small list no doubt, but I started this blog with a mention to Dexter, so I could talk about finishing Dearly Devoted Dexter, the follow up to Darkly Dreaming Dexter.
OK, quick review. The second book is darkly humorous like the first. Dexter moves on and deals with a new serial killer and the one cop who sees him as the monster he is, sneaking off at night as The Dark Passenger and killing those who deserve to die.
Anyway, it’s a quick read. I flew threw in less than a week, and that’s with a healthy TV and Mets addiction, plus spending time with the Mrs. The ending, like the first book, seems a little sloppy, in that for all the build up it just ends.
Happened the same way in the first book and maybe it doesn’t help that when you’re reading, you can tell the end is coming when the pages are lacking numbers in your right hand…
But still a quality read, something I put down The Day of the Jackal to get into and finish. Now I’ll try to get back to work at that thick paperbck…
May 2, 2007 at 7:34 am · Filed under Stuff, Idiot Box Musings, Sports
I record “The Tony Kornheiser Show” on my XM radio every morning because the 30 minutes of “Pardon the Interruption” just isn’t enough for me.
Anyway, I listen and at the end of the show, he reads emails over the air. I’ve always wanted to join the fun, but was waiting to add something funny to the conversation.
I think this is it:
I’ll start with Idol, which my wife forces me to watch. But after catching George W. and Laura do a PSA, do we have an “American Dreams” parody playing in real life?
Is Phil the lemur/alien going to reach the final two with a surge of votes from his home planet, only to rip off his mask from the ears when Bush shows up to congratulate the winner?
- It’s been a while, but you were talking about the lack of quality Keifer Sutherland movies and mentioned “Phone Booth“. The reason that movie sucks was because it was done before. Linda Fiorentino and Wesley Snipes starred in “Liberty Stands Still“. Same premise, but much better and released about six months ealier for home consumption.
- Lastly, you haven’t been as bad as most national pundits about bashing Barry Bonds during this whole steroids fiasco, but I’ve got one question, which might work better on PTI: What happens when Bonds breaks the record six weeks from now, then goes on to hit 55 out this year? Do we continue to think he was juiced or that he was juiced this year, after being tested by everyone from Selig to Mother Superior?
I’m under the belief that Bonds was one of hundreds of major leagues that used “performance-enhancers” (see Brady Anderson, but unless you throw everyone under the bus, you can’t just run over Bonds.
April 25, 2007 at 4:16 pm · Filed under Stuff
I should have known it was going to be a bad day when my soon-to-be six year old wandered towards me as I finished work at the computer.
When I got home around 8:30 p.m., she was asleep on the love seat and I moved her to bed, starting “Finding Nemo” and leaving her alone. However here she was and I led her back to bed, starting the VCR with the six-hour tape featuring The Cheetah Girls.
It was a little past 1 p.m. when I finally slumped into bed, avoiding my wife’s attempts to hit me. Whether it was a natural reaction or part of a bad dream is up for debate, but I couldn’t have been down for more than five minutes before the 5-year old was next to me, asking some question I really didn’t understand.
Usually I carry her, but since she was clearly more awake than me at the moment, I walked with her back to her room. The TV screen was fuzzy, so I switched channels, got Nemo back on the screen and returned to bed.
Time doesn’t move fast enough when a soon-to-be six-year-old child is up and she was back way too soon for me to catch anything resembling sleep. She complained about something, then returned to her room, expecting me to follow. I did and was told to give her “something to drink” to ease her back to sleep.
I could continue, but she ended up sleeping on the end of my wife’s side, interrupting her already unsettling sleep. I woke up before the alarm and eventually got her dressed and off to school.
Upon my return, I was set to jog around the block twice, work out on the Bowflex, take a shower, eat breakfast and go to work. The only thing I accomplished was watching 15 minutes of Sportscenter.
My next door neighbor, yes the same one with the riding lawn mower, recently brought his tractor and parked it in the back yard.
He used this bad boy to haul a rotting pile of two cut trees from the side of my house to a burn pile on county property. With said tractor, he also pulled two tree stumps from the ground and basically made my backyard a better place for everyone involved…
After seeing my glee from riding the mower, he offered to teach me to drive the tractor and that brings me to my newest rule to live by:
IF YOU’RE NOT FROM A FARM, KEEP YOUR ARSE OFF THE SEAT OF A TRACTOR
I had to learn this rule the hard way.
His tractor had a lawn cutting feature and he suggested I use it to cut the grass in my backyard, which was getting a little high.
So of course I said yes, hung off the side as he explained how it worked, then switched places and cut my backyard.
Reader, I would love to say this is the end of our long and arduous tale. Oh how I would love to type how the Baudelaire children were now safe, that the evil Count Olaf was defeated and the grass was cut without anything of any further interest.
But then I wouldn’t be telling the whole tale. I wouldn’t tell how I managed to back the tractor up to cut grass around a tree and felt empowered. Empowered enough to believe I could cut the grass between my home and our alternate neighbor’s 8-foot wooden fence.
Driving the tractor into the space wasn’t a problem, but coming in reverse was a different matter altogether and in an attempt to avoid the neighbor’s fence, the newly built fence surrounding the concrete slab off my back door was driven into.
There are no pictures to retell this portion of our tale, no link to add because with the help of my extremely generous neighbor, I attempted to replace the fence before my wife returned home to witness the damage to said fence.
Oh, how I would love to tell you that I went to Lowe’s and got the right fence, got the power drill from Flash and put it back in place.
Alas, I went to Home Depot and got the wrong panel. So of course as this was noted and I turned towards the back door to think of an alternate plan, who was in the door but…
So kids, the morale of this story is…
IF YOU’RE NOT FROM A FARM, KEEP YOUR ARSE OFF THE SEAT OF A TRACTOR
April 18, 2007 at 10:02 pm · Filed under Stuff
Just the other day, I was questioned what was the biggest change moving from my origins on the East Coast to the ‘Dirty South’, and I thought about it for a moment…
My answer was the urban lifestyle, a prevelent urban lifestyle, which means, more than anything, the ability to sit down and be served by a waiter after 10 p.m. AND not have that place be a national franchise chain.
It’s funny because it’s not like Tampa Bay is much better, but there is more variety and things are open somewhat late, especially with Ybor City, but that is another post entirely…
Jack town is what it is and that basically means that Chilli’s, Appleby’s and Logan’s all stop serving around 10 p.m., which is really about the time when I know for sure exactly what I want to eat…
At least it was back in the day. Maybe I should be happy about the changes that have happened in my life, forcing me to plan earlier, heading to bed earlier and getting up earlier to…
What am I saying?!?!? I hate it, but there are moments when my opinion has its foundation rocked a bit.
My association with Magnolia legendary baseball coach D.M. Howie has led me to sitting down for meals at some of the classic establishments in the Capital City. I wish I could remember names and exact locations, but what do you want from me.
I’m surprised I was able to find them in the first place.
Last night, I traveled on Highway 220 to Route 80, which rolls from Clinton through south Jackson and the Jackson State campus before funneling out into Rankin county.
For those of you not familiar with the area, let me explain. No, there isn’t enough time, let me sum up.
Middle class suburb to “Black” school in the “Black” part of town to a touch of the country with suburban traits.
Crechele’s (I’m positive about a speeling mistake there) is less than a quarter-mile east of the Metro Center Mall, the original mall in Jck before it got too black or people didn’t like getting stabbed and shot at while they shoped at Sears.
Long story short, the strip around it has felt the same abandonment issues, but spots like Crechele’s wouldn’t have felt the change anyway.
It’s clear that the patrons know about the place and the prices, which aren’t close to cheap. I could have got a Prime Filet steak at “Market Price”, which means more than the $22.95 they wanted for the Prime Rib steak.
But the funny thing about is, you can charge that price if the steak is worth it and while my steak only costs $14, it was cooked to perfection.
So good was the steak that although they gave us each a steak knife, I was adviced by the waiter that it wouldn’t be necessary.
With the high school lunchroom cutlery provided, I easily pushed through one of the better cooked pieces of meat I’ve had in a while, and you can ask my wife - If we go out, I usually order steak because Hey, why not?
The foursome I sat with should adjourn again in roughly a month’s time, and I can’t wait to see where I’m taken next.
April 11, 2007 at 5:59 am · Filed under News of the Day, Stuff
The New York Mets flagship station is WFAN, 660 AM in New York City. You can call me a band wagon jumper, but in 1986 I jumped on a signpost to watch the ticker tape parade as they celebrated the World Series championship.
I own a copy of the Let’s Go Mets music video (Don’t ask why) and at the end, there’s a promo for Imus in the Morning.
From that point until I graduated high school, I listened to the FAN at night, either to catch late Mets games or fall asleep to sports talk radio (Rob, you were there). That would mean I would wake up to Imus, who’s show runs from 5:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.
I think anyone can see where this is going, but I’ll start with this comment - I’m not defending Imus or his calling the Rutgers’ women’s basketball team a bunch of “Nappy-headed ho’s”.
It’s a racist (For those of you who don’t know, nappy-headed is associated with the tight, uncombed locks of an black person’s hair) and sexist (Imus is not a rapper, so he can’t get away with degrading women as such) remark, made without any thought because that’s what he does.
You can read more about Imus at
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Imus_in_the_Morning&oldid=121912122
Imus is a racist, sexist, homophobic morning radio show host who used to concentrate on impersonating voices like Richard Nixon and Wilfred Brimley, making fun of the news of the day with racist, sexist and homophobic comments.
Towards the end of my listening time, he had grown more political, pulling guests like, "John Kerry, Dick Cheney, J.D. Hayworth and Harold Ford, Jr., as well as reporters and columnists from Newsweek, NBC, MSNBC, and other media outlets," according to Wikipedia.
They put him on MSNBC and despite doing a voice of Bill Clinton, I believe the former president was another guest on the show and even invited him to the Congressional Correspondent's dinner, basically the sign that a comedian has made the ultimate crossover jump.
Imus is good and bad and all that I've said before. What bothers me the most about this is the fact that the show has said and done SO MUCH WORSE than call a bunch of well-educated college girls from Rutgers "Nappy-headed ho's".
I listened to C. Vivian Stringer, the coach of the team, and the best point she made was that due to Imus, her girls which includes five freshman and will return the entire team, have been forgotten. The fact they reached the championship game, losing to Tennessee has been completely overshadowed by this "controversy".
And honestly, what was so wrong about this? You're going to tell me that Rush, Bill O'Reilly, Dr. Laura, Opie and Anthony and Howard Stern don't say stupid racist or sexist or homophobic things on a daily basis?
At least Stern and O & A are currently on satillite radio, so their 'filth' isn't polluting the national air waves.
It's just dumb, is all. I could recall back to Chris Rock's last special on HBO, where he started about the Jackson family and Kobe Bryant and a bunch of other unimportant crap, then reminded everyone...
IT'S ALL TO MAKE YOU FORGET ABOUT THE WAR!!!
We're at war, people. Right now, there are American soliders with weapons off safety, killing brown people (Thanks, George Carlin) for whatever reason you'd like to believe, whether that's for oil (which is strange since the price of gas keeps going up), or for Bush to get rich (He's already a multi-millionaire, but I guess more money can't hurt), to avenge his father, because Chaney was bored or to combat terrorism (HA!).
So instead of marches on Washington and sit-ins on college campuses, organizations like the National Organization of Women, the NAACP and the National Association of Black Journalists are spending their time trying to get Don Imus fired for a very stupid comment.
Why is it the only time I hear about the NAACP, it's for things like this?
It's all silly and Reecie said it best, just like Carlin before her and just like thousands of millions of people before and after them all.
If you don't like what you hear, you can just change the channel, turn the dial or turn it off and concentrate on more important things, like the dead-end conflict or the immense homeless problem in the country or the fact that the gap between the have's and the have not's only increases every day or that black people make up 12 percent of the population, but over 30 percent of the prision population.
If the NAACP looked into that, maybe I would join.
April 5, 2007 at 11:21 pm · Filed under Stuff, Sports
I was thinking about it. Any MLB preview is pretty boring, except for absolute seamheads like myself. And since there are very few seamheads, and even fewer who know what that means, I’ll quickly get through this preview so I can feel better about myself…
AL Central - This is musical chairs with the Twins, White Sox and Tigers looking to sit down before the September tunes stop. I can see the loser being the wild card, but then again…
AL East - The Yanks and the Sox will battle as they usually do, but Dice-K is for real. Just like Bugs Bunny doesn’t have a pitch that gets three swings on one ball, there is no gyroball. Listening to the KC radio announcers, they made the greatest points about this stupidity. A) it’s a great story, especially with all the Japanese press following him, 14 papers and that number will grow next week when he faced Ichiro AND 2) Baseball has been played professionally for over 100 years. There are countless minor leagues, semi-pro leagues, college leagues, high school leagues, Little Leagues and back yard leagues. Men and women have played catch for decades and you’re telling me that THIS IS THE FIRST TIME ANYONE HAS EVER THROWN A BALL THAT MOVES THAT WAY!?!?!?
Calm it down, please?
OK, back to the boring. Just like last year, it will be five teams for three spots in the postseason with the Angels…
NL West - I like the Dodgers pitching staff. Unlike the Flithies, I’m acutally afraid of Jason Schmidt, Brad Penny and Derek Lowe. The Giants will be better than people think because Barry Bonds is the best player I’ll see in my lifetime. The only person that rivals him is Rickey Henderson and if you don’t believe me, take a look at Rickey’s numbers and realize that there’s really been no one better for a long time…
Oh yeah, I’m willing to bet Bonds breaks the record before the All-Star break. He’s healthy and remember, he didn’t need the ‘flaxeed oil’ to be one of the best in the game. He was already going to Cooperstown.
NL Central - I mentioned Kool-Aid before and here’s where I’m taking my big swig. The Brewers have youth, they have quality bats and Prince Fielder is ready to break out. Jeff Suppan should help and if Ben Sheets stays healthy and that’s a BIG IF, I think the Brewers can win this pathetic division. The Cards are overrated. The Cubs can’t pitch. The Reds? Are you for real and the Pirates are a nice young team that will lose a lot of games.
NL East - I’m going to talk about the Mets enough with this blog, so I’ll keep it short. The Flithies are Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and a bunch of average role players. Thier pitching staff is over rated and their bullpen, which will most certainly be needed, is horrible.
I’m not wasting any space, besides this, with the Nationals.
The Marlins will annoy. They’re young and spunky, but I can’t see them battling down the stretch.
This is coming down to the Mets and the Braves, with the loser likely the wild card and the series starts on Friday. The first of 19 and we’ll see exactly what we’ll see.
I’ll come back and bore with awards and playoffs predictions later.
March 30, 2007 at 1:47 pm · Filed under Stuff
While pondering what it’s gonna be like to host my first party since…well, I don’t really think I hosted that party in Portland, so that would take me back to the basement on Highgate in Allston…
- I think Redman looked at the music scene today and…
No, let me start over.
I think the last album I purchased was Fiona Apple’s “When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight And He’ll Win the Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters the Ring There’s No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand And Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights And If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land And If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right”
On the cover, it just lists “When the Pawn Hits….” and I got it because I had a copy on casette when I lived in Portland. I really like a couple of the songs and when given the choice of either downloading a copy on iTunes or buying a used copy on Amazon for about 6 bucks, I chose the latter.
What does this have to do with Redman and “Red Gone Wild”? I think the lack of acutal album sales has forced artists to do things differently. Mix tapes and selling out the back of the car trunk was the way to be discovered about a decade ago. Now it’s different and the entire game has changed up.
If you’ve noticed, I’m not saying anything specific because as deep into Hip Hop that I was when I grew up.
As I said before, I grew up on Funk Doctor Spot and I think, at least I’m hoping this is the case, I think he’s gotten older, gotten lazier and seen things like Mobb Deep go from one of the hungriest duos, one of the best all time to a shadow of their former selfs…
Before I get to that, let me finish with Doc…
OK, here’s my thought. The landscape of today’s hip hop scene doesn’t have a place for the former Reggie Noble. An album like Doc’s the Name 2000 wouldn’t sell much. He’s not a guy that makes many videos, nor does he write songs with catchy hooks and little else…Although lyrically, he is slipping a bit, sticking with methaphors and similies and little else.
Not that he had tons of topics to deal with, but there was always something more. How to Roll a Blunt and another track on What!?!? the Album that dealt with him and Erick Sermon sexing up the same girl and one catching Aids because he didnt’ wear a hat. Wrongful arrest on Doc’s the Name…
Like I said, it wasn’t much but it was something and on this, it’s not much.
I haven’t even reached Supaman Luva yet, but after learning of Hurricane G’s presence, i’m nervous to the point I don’t want to deal with it at all.
I’m saddened by this album, just like Joan of Arcadia is saddened to start the second season that her visions of God in human form are actually real.
Makes me yearn for the days when Def Squad and Hit Squad were facing off…
March 28, 2007 at 8:31 pm · Filed under Stuff
“Sitting on the toilet, waiting for my bowels to move…”
One of the major selling points of my house was the backyard. The elevated ceilings are nice, but the first time i went outside and saw the former owners built a fence 20-25 feet away from the home just for their youngins’ and there was still another ACRE of land left, it was just a matter of time before it was mine.
I’m a big fan of land because they’re not making any more of it and if you own it, you have some form of wealth and a pretty cool asset.
However it’s not like we’ve done much with our land. It’s enough space to build a duplicate of the house I’m currently in and most of the time, the complaint is about having to cut the grass (of which there’s a ton).
Most of the landscapers that frequent our neighborhood will charge me $40 for my front yard and the enclosed backyard space, but they want $60 just to cut the extended back yard.
Needless to say, it looked like a forrest out there most of last summer and when fall swung around, it was left alone to fester…
Did I mention that during a rain storm, a tree limb (cause there’s no other way to describe it) fell from one of the many large trees back there.
Since it was too heavy to move all at once and I don’t have many friends, not nearly enough to gather them all together and move a branch to the street. Then again, even if we did, I don’t think they would have carried away what they couldn’t pick up.
So with all that running through my mind, the limb stayed and quickly and surely, it left my thoughts as a necessary point on the To-Do list.
Days turned to weeks, weeks to months and for 300 days, the limb stayed hidden within the quick growning weeds in the deep.
Until one day, the limb betrayed…
Sorry, too much Frodo and not enough sunlight.
OK, the house next door was filled by a friendly couple from Philadelphia. Some of you are probably thinking like I was at first, that they hailed from the City of Brotherly Love that booed Santa Claus.
Instead, they were from the rural city northeast of Jackson, stating they were moving to the “big city”.
We met when I noticed them moving a sofa into their place and I helped out. Shannon helped me out when we both stepped out back and he mentioned how he liked to keep his yard nice and was building a fence and would be more than happy to help move the cut tree parts on the side of my house with his front-end loader and use his chainsaw to cut the limb into moveable pieces and would be using his Riding Mower to cut his grass and wouldn’t mind doing ours as well…
He’s so kind that he let me borrow the Mower and this afternoon, I took it out for a spin in my back yard.
(Yes, I purchased gas at $2.45 and filled the tank when I was done, thank you very much)
When we moved here, I told my wife that I hate garden work (Thanks, Mom) and really didn’t want to do anything. She said she would take care of it, but that was before I had access to a riding mower.
I mean, it’s like a go-kart, except you’re acutally doing something productive…
Unlike i’m doing right now, but needless to say, it was fun. I was grateful and hope I can find a way to correctly repay the favor my new next-door neighbors have shown me…
And with that, I’ll show myself the door