Heads Up

1. If you ever get the urge to try expensive ass POM Wonderful, 100% Pomegranate Juice. Don't. You'll be very mad at yourself.
2. If you ever find yourself in a city you've never been to before, it probably doesn't make sense to have 3 or 4 drinks by yourself, and then try to find your way back to the hotel intoxicated. On public transportation. At night.
3. If you're talking on the phone to someone you're interested in, don't drink alcohol.

Kindred Spirits 2

"In general, the world is a rational place where winners on the whole deserve to win and losers deserve to lose. It is only for the exceptions, the lives that are strikingly unfair, that we maintain the mediating devices of social welfare. "

--William A. Henry III

"From the beginnin to the end, Losers lose, winners win; This is real we ain't got to pretend"

--50 Cent

True Rap Lyrics: 1.3

this flow = foolish

"I'm trapped in the mind of a madman literally, its not a metaphor kid pay attention; reporting to you live from this 1st dimension in a real crowded room i just want some attention; its pitch black with bright, like high beams at night, the silence of the noise is deafening to hear; my lifelong mission is to jockey for position but i can't tell if i'm in the front or the rear;
formless, i don't know if i'm a circle or square; let alone solid, liquid or air, i'm competing myself, but can't confirm or deny if i'm actually here, that's right quite the predicament yeah...

...i feel at home, but i got to escape, this paradox in a box, im intent to solvin' this mystery
i'm made up of dreams and nightmares, soliloquies, dialouges, arguments, fantasies, memories, imagery, symmetry, alcohol, history, love, life, death, joy, remorse and sympathy, action, wishes, reactin' and hoping "

j-live

Guiltiest Pleasure

Unfortunately, I confess. I confess that I am a consumer of some of the most worthless trash our culture produces... That trash is daytime television.

As I’ve been on the road for a good little minute, I’ve had the opportunity to catch up on my day-time TV Trash. Now I know folks are gonna turn up there noses at this topic, but who cares. If you can't talk about hot trash, what can you talk about. And here is my all-time day-time ranking.

5. Jenny Jones – I know ya’ll forgot about Jenny Jones. Don’t sleep. She was the queen for a while. "My daughter dresses to sexy, and You Said I Had No Skills, But Now My Looks & Talent Pays The Bills! " classic.
4. Maury Povich (cause he says the phrase that no man wants to hear…. “you are the father”)
3. Jerry Springer – classic kiddies. Seriously, this show may never go off the air. Why? Because there is an unlimited supply of trailer park trash, that’s why…
2. Judge Mathis (not a typo. this show is so good he needs two spots. damn, i forgot about this on my tivo schedule. thank you blog)
1. Judge Mathis - the no nonsense king, give em hell mathis. the next snapper jones...

April 15th

Conventionally known as "Tax Day." While my co-contributor stated that getting out of debt was the worst activity of all time, I luckily/thankfully have never engaged the experience.

My equivalent = taxes. I dread the process even though it has always resulted in more money for me. It's my weakness in the realm of processes because I always think I might be doing something wrong or that I could be giving up money here or there. I also think that by now the government should have a way of automatically computing taxes as you go - yes, I know that's obviously not realistic and that would make things too simple in an overly complex world but still...

Still what??? - Make the process work that I get my money in the first place!

kindred spirits?

"High is high - low is low; Everybody want to go to heaven; But nobody wants to die..."

-- Andre 3000

"Everyone wants to get to heaven, but no one wants to die."

-- Jim Nussle; House Budget Committe Chairman on coming under fire from House Democrats for his proposed budget, which suggests cuts to several social programs

Common's New Album

Certified classic. I'm no album reviewer, but after listening to this album for a couple days, I'm convinced.... Just get your hands on a copy.

Deeply Disturbing

A lot of this commentary comes from an article that I read a month ago, that was deeply, deeply disturbing. I have been very reluctant to discuss this with my female friends, because it represents a sad, sad state of affairs.

A recent British study says that a "high IQ hampers a woman's chance to get married, while it is a plus for men. The prospect for marriage increased by 35% for guys for each 16-point increase in IQ; for women, there is a 40% drop for each 16-point-rise."

I'm assuming this deviation is from the mean. If so, that shit is staggering. And to all my homies who think i'm pandering to individuals that happen to have XX chromosomes, it is simply not true. I happen to like intelligent women (women period, but especially intelligent women). Seriously, its one of my favorite things in the world. And to realize that intelligent women, are placed at a serious disadvantage simply because they are smart, is really fucked up. This is not to say that marriage is a holy institution that should be preseved and protected at all costs, but it is something that a lot of people aspire to. And to find out that smart chicks are placed at a serious disadvantage is unsettling. Especially, Especially when you extrapolate that to how it affects black people and black families (in which educated women are already placed at a disadvantage with meeting men with similar education levels).

Miss Dowd goes on to postulate reasons for this phenomenon. A different New York Times writer stated, that "Men would rather marry their secretaries than their bosses, and evolution may be to blame." A University of Michigan study using college graduates, suggests that men going for long-term relationships would rather marry women in subordinate jobs than women who are supervisors. Why? "Powerful women are at a disadvantage in the marriage market because men may prefer to marry less-accomplished women." Men think that women with more important jobs are more likely to cheat on them. These evolutionary pressures on males, make them take steps to minimize the risk of raising offspring that are not their own. Hmmmm. Evolutionary pressure, or ego-stroking? Who knows, but the result is not good...

Disclaimer: As a self-proclaimed elitist, I place a special value on the characteristic of intelligence (which is not to say that other characteristics don't have value)

The Maureen Dowd editorial: http://www.sju.edu/cas/political-science/men_just_want_mommy%201.pdf

"Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution" - Mae West
"Shawty, you dead fine, but the bottom line is, you still my sister" - Cee Lo

Today's Final Four

Four tidbits I learned from college:

1. If you are at a “top 25” school and you aren't getting paid, 50% of that circumstance is your own fault. (I learned this directly.)

2. Just provide stressing parents what the likely end result will be. Kids set themselves up for external stress from their parents by telling them every scholastic detail and every grade. Within the first month of class, you typically have a gauge of the range of your potential performance in the class. So if you bomb your first test but know that you have three more to make up for it and could end up with say B+, why tell your parents you got a D? Say you got a B. If you get an A on the next one, say you got B+ - it shows improvement and those two grades combined leave you about where you actually are. In that way, you can be like B/B+ range to your parents the entire time such that if you get an A, its more love, and if you get anything below that, you can just say you got got by your final. That’s one “ahh well” end of the year stressful moment vs. multiple ones throughout the semester. College doesn’t operate the way the outside world thinks it does (try working in college marketing)…take my advice and just make things easier on yourself. (I learned this primarily indirectly and had a couple of direct reminders.)

3. Don’t use your significant other’s name as a password for anything. Overtime, its use will become habit and you won’t be conscious of the password’s significance. But...if there ever is a time when you engage in another relationship after you and that former significant other have parted ways and you need a favor of them to sign into something for you, you’ll have some unnecessary explaining to do. (I learned this indirectly.)

4. There is always something else: another person, another thing to do, another class to take, something. The phrase, “what am I supposed to do, there are no more ___” probably can be deflated. Moreover, there seemingly is an unlimited resource of people. You should make sure these resources are scarce by the time you graduate/leave. (I am not sure that I ever really learned this).

R.I.P.

I might be superficially forcing this:

Johnny Cochran: Law :: Michael Eric Dyson: Black Intellectualism


I wish I could take New Orleans dining with me everywhere I go...