Random Bulls*it

It’s official, the world is ending. How do I know? Lil Wayne got EIGHT, count them EIGHT (use your toes if you have to) Grammy nominations! How the f*ck does Lil Wayne get EIGHT Grammy nominations?! That’s like Treach from Naughty by Nature getting 4 Oscar Nominations! Lil Wayne cant wrap a gift, let alone rap! He is no lyricist, by any stretch. Hell, Shaq could take him down with Sometimes I rhyme slow/Sometimes I rhyme quick/Wake up every morning /Shave my head with Bic! Are you serious! I thought the Latin Grammys was a train wreck, the regular Grammys is like a plane crashing into the train wreck next to the dynamite factory! The Grammys is now for the teeny boppers (Jonas Brothers, Myley Cyrus) and the untalented. There are no good music award shows anymore. American Music Awards may just be called the poor man’s Grammys, the public votes for that! And if the public loves Lil Wayne, you know the AMA’s will vote for anybody as Artist of the Year!

Does anyone find Sarah Silverman funny? I know there are people who do, she has a show on Comedy Central and it appears to be popular. There are comedians who take you to the edge, dangle you and pull you back, this chick jumps off the cliff, takes you with her and hopes she doesn’t bust her ass and yours in the process! I have tried to like her but she is outrageous with the crazy ass s*it that she says. I wonder what is the appeal of her comedy?

You can file this under “Couldn’t give a frog’s fat ass” but it appears that Al Reynolds (you know, formerly married to Star “I didn’t get my stomach stapled” Jones) is in a new relationship. Awww…boo who gives a s*it! Let me ask you, before his marriage did you know who the f*ck this guy was? If you did, let me know because the fact of his new relationship is in the news is continued proof that the world revolves around insignificant people and their insignificant lives talking about stuff that we can’t and probably don’t want to relate to.

You could file this one as well, I follow golf from time to time. I like watching the major tournaments, Ryder Cup (when the US plays against Europe) and I am trying to get back into some sort of playing shape. I was reading about Michelle Wie, the 19 year old phenom who’s career has hit a LONG skid. It is unfortunate when someone so young is pushed into the spotlight and they are not ready to deliver on their promise. She attended Stanford for a year before turning pro. After that, it was all a downhill series of royal blunders and f*ck ups. Most can be attributed to decision making by her as a player and some by bad advice from her parents. You have to wonder about kids in situations like this, they are getting pushed to be the best, sometimes before their appointed time. Add to that parents who want to remain in control, so much so that they don’t give their child good advice. This is probably due to being so caught up in the moment, thinking about all that paper the kid could make by hitting a small white ball while wearing REALLY loud clothing.

You ever meet someone on your job that you may not know so well and ask them what they do and they reply “Special Projects”. What the hell does that really mean? For all you know, they probably sit at their desk on the internet all day, chronically masturbating. Or worse, that person is like a trained assassin or something. What does a realty need an assassin for? Oh whatever, that was clearly off the top of my head via my ass. The “Special Projects” person is the one you really need to keep your eye on….don’t set your drink down near them at the company party. You don’t know where their hands have been or their new special project is to eliminate you….

Now that was REALLY random!!!

Are You Old School?

Who remembers that slogan a few years back when Classic Sports debuted on cable? I think that is a very applicable slogan in this day and age when so much is way different than one remembers. As of late, I have been spending a lot of time on YouTube since I can’t find a lot of old school music on iTunes. Talk about a walk down memory lane, some of those songs and videos took me BACK!!!

What qualifies you to be or what makes you old school? What does it mean to you to be old school?

Pimps? Damn, it's Hard Out Here For Everybody!

Good morning all, thought I would hit you with a blog rewind. I wrote this one on June 7, 2006 when the economy was crazy but not as hellish as it is now. Enjoy, hit you with some fresh out the oven blogs later...

No disrespect to pimps (shout outs to Pimpin Ken and Bishop Magic Don Juan) but I went to Wal-Mart last night and I observed people shopping as I was and I saw the faces of sticker shock. I mean wages are flat (ain't nobody getting a raise and some of us work all the time!) and everything is steadily going up! Even the prospect of education which is supposed to mean a better standard of living is out of reach. We have to incur massive debt just to work hard enough to get by, in the words of Johnny "Guitar" Watson..."Aint that a Bitch"! But really, if you think about the song and I know you saw "Pimps up, Hos Down" is it really hard out here for a pimp? Technically, they ain't doing shit!!! I guess it is hard out here for a pimp to give orders! It is hard out here for the poor man!

Submitted for your disapproval:

1. The last couple of weeks, I was noticing that gas had got down to aroung 2.60 a gallon. I got excited, my heart started beating wildly in my chest, I started to sweat and I got a bit lightheaded. Could we see gas under 2.00 a gallon soon I thought? Actually, I was under the influence of the fumes of the 10% Ethanol in the gas as I pumped $25 into my 4 cylinder Sentra. So I guess I was high for once in my life. Those oil company executives should be shot...yet another example of pimpery at it's finest. As soon as we all make the money, we go running to the pumps for gas so it's like payout to the oil pimps.

2. I haven't seen this many bank robberies in the news since I was a child. I thought bank robbery was played out considering the technology that aids police in catching the thieves (ask the cell phone bandit about that...dumbass!!) and CSI has us believing we can extract DNA from anything and voila...I GOT YO ASS!! It's got to be pretty tight out here when you walk into a bank in the middle of summer with a gun, a sweatshirt and pantyhose on your head looking to run off with a sack of dough!

3. How about Lay and Skilling at Enron? Now you either have to be a heartless SOB or just plain greedy to do what they did to those people. The working man don't stand a chance. You make better time keeping your nest egg in a Mason jar under your mattress with a pit bull standing guard instead of investing. The man will find a way to get his and get yours. And after the verdict was read, how about one of them still insisted he was innocent and plans to appeal? If I was a member of the press corps and I heard that ignant ass shit (yes, not ignornant...ignant) I would have taken my microphone and knocked the cowboy shit out of him!

MC Hammer said it best, We got to pray just to make it today. Which makes me wonder...is it hard out here for Hammer too?

Athletes Behaving Badly

They say that death occurs in threes, how about ignorant ass actions by overpaid athletes? Well the only prominent things that had happened recently was Stephon Marbury acting like a pure ass so he can get the hell out of New York. I guess he wants to join his career and game where ever the hell they relocated to! Of course the main talk out of the Big Apple has been Plaxico Burress (AKA: Big Billy Bad Ass) shooting himself in a Manhattan club. Manhattan? Really? I didn’t know it was that serious in Manhattan. What was he protecting himself from, getting mugged by Real Estate Brokers? I am sure he was thinking “This is bulls*it” after he got out of the hospital to go turn himself in.

The last person that I was thinking about was Adam Jones (AKA: Pacman) who is on his LAST chance in the NFL to not be thuggish when he is not playing football. He came out of college with so much potential, he was super talented but damn I guess no one outside of West Virginia University knew he secretly wanted to be a gangsta. Pacman is now back with the Cowboys and I know everyone who loves that team is praying he doesn’t f*ck up this time or its LIFETIME BAN!!!

What I find interesting about all of these stories can be summed up in one saying; “Money Talks, Baloney Walks”. Stephon Marbury will more than likely get traded to another team, but why don’t you try going on your job tomorrow, talk s*it about your co-workers and tell your boss what you ain’t going to do. Chances are you will be unemployed for a while as opposed to Marbury who will get signed by another team almost immediately and get a nice check to boot. The little man doesn’t have a chance and the ones with money and means don’t know how to act. Maybe being broke and working has some advantages! Happy Tuesday!

A Trip to Haterville

I was having drinks with a friend the other evening and we got to talking about work. I told her that I like my job, don’t love it but it is much better than my last job which I hated with a passion. It wasn’t the job so much, just a couple of people and the bulls*it I had to put up with from them.  She told me why she no longer worked for the organization that I worked for. We both began there almost a year ago in different departments. Within several months due to turnover, she was promoted to a better position, more pay and more responsibility. She went from being at the beck and call of doctors and nurses to more or less calling shots.  That caused tension from some of the nurses and it began a big game of he said, she said. Unfortunately in the process of trying to vindicate herself, she broke a company rule and her boss had to let her go.

I do not believe that anyone’s job is better than anyone else’s. However, I don’t understand how a person with a college degree, professional licensing and the ability to control life or death through their actions can HATE on someone who is trying to better themselves and just happen to be in the right place at the right time and inherits a promotion.

Her situation sounded like what I went through before I went back to school. I was hired at a “prominent” HBCU as a researcher in 2003. I had expressed an interest in teaching and within my first few months, an opportunity presented itself. I received the endorsement of my boss to teach and do lab work and things went along fine. At the beginning of our work relationship, things were cordial and fine. I shared work that I had done with my students and I felt like I had a good repoire with them.  As I think back over the things the then chair of our department said to me, it appears that my boss and her co-investigator who are both PhD educated somehow felt threatened by a man with a Master’s degree who had goals of being professionally educated as well. 

By year 2, they isolated me and made me look like I was the dead weight in the lab. Instead of talking to me about what they perceived to be a problem, they just decided to can me at my next evaluation. Now dont get me wrong, I admit I was not a perfect employee, but some of the accusations were downright outrageous. I had the backing of the Chair and the Dean although they were poweless to do anything about the situation. Out of all of this, it hurt that my own people did this to me. We are hateful and hurtful to each other as African-Americans at all levels of society; academia is much, much worse. It makes NO sense that someone at the top of the ladder should feel like that guy climbing the ladder, who took advantage of a great opportunity is a threat to their standing. How does that work?

It has taken me some time to get over that situation and for my friend I am sure that some aspects of her experience will take some time to get past. I have always believed that Karma is a b*tch, what you reap is what you sow.  I believe that we both gave our best on our jobs only to get railroaded by hateful people. If you treat others with respect, that will go so much further in the long run. All I know is that somewhere down the line, karma is ready to jump up and beat down some punk ass haters. As the beat down commences, you will hear Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” in the background. We are still here and despite the circumstances of the past, we are here standing stronger and smarter than ever.

Class Dismissed…

Oh No! Look At Who They Let In the Backdoor...

It’s official…Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State! Just when you thought it was safe to venture the streets of DC again, now she’s back in the picture. I really don’t know how to feel about this pick, she is qualified but is she the MOST qualified for this position at this time? Obama seems to think so, he has stated that he has the utmost confidence in her abilities and feels that this selection shows his commitment to having members of his cabinet who are allies and those who may give opposing viewpoints.

Hillary does have the experience to reach out and work with others and that will work highly in her favor. What about the Middle East? How well will she be received there, especially in this crucial junction where the balance is so delicate these days? It would appear that Condolezza Rice was received well so maybe Hillary will get a heroes welcome. This pick will play itself out over the next few weeks leading up to the inauguration and into the first 100 days of the Obama administration. All I can see and hear until then will be all of the Conservative windbags bitching, moaning and stirring the pot behind this. As I like to say, stay tuned because as I write this blog I am scratching my head and wondering what the hell…