Things I Should Have Blogged about this week, but didn't...

1. Tavis Smiley's Annual State of the Black Union on CSPAN
2. Pandora
   
3. Bansky
4. My cooking skills
5. Dallas as my least favorite city in Texas (and i've only been in one city of texas, although I have been there three times)
6. MC Hammer's Blog
7. My borderline gambling addiction (compounded slightly by the fact that i'm going to vegas in 16 days).

Question: If you could have one of the best jobs in the world, which you felt matched your personality and intellectual interests perfectly, yet you had to live in the worst city in America, would you take it?

Hell Explained By A Chemistry Student

You may have seen this a while back...I actually can't remember if I have or not. Regardless, its worth reading again because if you know me this is something that I wished I had personally penned AND certainly turned in for a grade. It has all the elements: seriousness and straight-forwardness, grounded in some fact, a hint of personal prescription, logic, and of course, an air of humor and sarcasm. Enjoy...

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A"

The Spectrum

Man, this story itself is the uber-feel-good type (two dashes). Then with the way the events of the actual game play out, its truly story-book. Incredible...and ya boy was got involved, got loose, and then got ON FIRE. In fact, he got "Hotter Than A Pistol." And come on, his name is J-Mac, you gotta watch. I'm begging you.

And then on the other side of the universe, we have the following. No comments but please, please read the 6th paragraph. I'm begging you.

And just for the hell-of-it (two more dashes), blog post association.

52 Books, Week 7: The Corner

"Black church services, murderers, Arabs serving burgers
As cats with gold permanents, move they bags as herbalists
The dirt isn't just fertile, its people workin' and earnin' this
The curb getters go where the cats flow and the current is
Its so hot that niggaz burn to live
The furnace is, whether money movin', the determined live
We talk shit, play lotto, and buy German beers
Its so black packed with action that's affirmative" -- Common

Wow. Becomingme said it but I didn't believe it. I must learn to take my favorite poster's words, much more seriously. Near great, this book is. Its probably the best fiction I've read in the past two years (slightly edging out Life of Pi, and the last edition of Harry Potter - Don't sleep). A harrowing, sobering, unwavering, unfliching look at the lives of a family trying to make a miracle happen, the authors really force you to look at some of the most unsavory features of our country, and economic system. Seriously, what do you do when an economy doesn't need 10% of its workers?. The political implications, and public policy implications of the 'war on drugs' are also discussed in realistic terms and very straightforward language.

A long book that never gets tedious, it succeeds in slowly sucking you in, until you realize that the chances of people making it off the corners only diminsh as you turn the pages. In Epstein's book, he writes that novelists are the best sociologists, and after reading this book I couldn't agree more. Simon and Burns team together to write an ethnography so realistic, I feel like I know these characters intimately. As an amazon.com poster said, "To use a worn cliche, this book is indeed an eye opener, telling the tale of people who fell and have no reason to hope for anything beyond the next blast from a pipe."

Just go out and read the damn book. ASAP.

By the way, TI's new single is crazy. Currently reading: We Who Are Dark

In Case You Were Wondering

Yes, this Generalist is still attempting to read 52 books in the course of a year. Yes, I am behind both in terms of a book per week, and in posting (obviously). With a new position at work, I honestly expected to fall behind early on but with some upcoming cross country flights, I'll hope to catch up in mid March. As for posting the books I have actually read, I more or less haven't taken the time to bang out a quality post as I have flirted with brevity recently, a new fling of sorts. But I haven't given up the quest, not yet; it's just that lately your boy has been... (as my man, who loudly discussed his rapping and laying down tracks with the bus driver for seemingly everyone to hear, said):


"...too busy for time."


(Yea...assuming he didn't mean jail-time, when you can't even fit time into your schedule because you are that busy...yea, that's going into the quote bag.)

Winter Olympics

"Count me among those who don't care about them and won't watch them. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention."

- Bryant Gumbel on HBO's "Real Sports"


Now, I feel the quote in and of itself generally, and especially given that one of the few American black athletes just won the gold in the 1000m Speedskating event. But let me be clear, I have NO idea how many American black athletes are in Turin given I have not watched one second of the Winter Olympics - so I'm hoping and feel pretty secure that "few" is relatively accurate. Gumbel's quote sort of brings into question the causality of the "state" of the Winter Olympics, but really, I think it simply is what it is: How many black folks do you know that would devote their younger lives to activities grounded in (white) snow, ice, and the kicker...cold?

I mean black folks operating in the cold is like someone drinking Diet Pepsi: "only if they absolutely had to."

2 Completely Different Posts!

Yes, to reiterate, this is the Greatest TV Interview of All-Time.

I sincerely wish I could recreate the moment when I first watched this with my roommate.

BloggaHHHH

(Lo-AHHHH)

Blogga

... i put the H, to emphasize it.. B-L-O-G-G-A-HHHHHH

Things that I should have blogged about this week, but didn't.

1. Greatest tv interview of all time
2. Paris falling off on American Idol (although she made it to the top 24)
   
3. The G Manifesto
4. My promotion (don't hate, shop with me)
5. Yeah...I Said It.
6. Jay Dee passing away
7. The Vice President shooting people in the face
   

52 Books, Week 6: Snobbery

As you may be able to tell, I'm swtiching back and forth between fiction and non-fiction. Going between the two provides a nice change of pace, and so far I haven't felt burned out. Reading is also keeping me from making potentially foolish purchases (including this one).

Eventually, I would be uttering these words, just as Montaigne, "I attach too little value to things I possess, just because I possess them."

Back to the show... Snobbery by Joseph Epstein is really a book about attitudes related to superiority, and the development of "society" (with a little s) in the United States over the past 70 years. If you're interested in learning about what it takes to have a truly elitist attitude, then this might be for you. Epstein, a trained sociologist, offers a well-reasoned critique of snobby ways and attitudes. Even though it might make you wanna puke at some points, still an okay read.

Alas, we may all have a touch of snobbery in us (i know i do, which is probably the reason I grabbed this book). "Snobbery haunts those who are not reconciled with themselves; evolution is the hope of the immature. You cannot be everything. Why not be what you are."

Because its Feburary, i think i'm going on a black history run this month: The Corner; No Longer at Ease, We Who are Dark, and, Is Bill Cosby Right.

RIP Jay Dee

52 Books, Week 5: Falconer

Extremely average book about prison life. I guess I could sorta force myself to see why its revered in certain literary circles (man's desire to make sense of nonsense, the struggle of conforming to societies norms, the tedium of routine, etc. etc.), but it didn't happen for me. Check out OZ or Blood in Blood Out, if you're looking for more action.

I Wish I Had Said It

"Half the lies they tell about me aren't true."

- Yogi Berra

52 Books, Week 4: Guns, Germs, and Steel

And, finally a classic. Guns, Germs, and Steel is one of the top 5 books I've read in my life. Period (thanks rosy). As an armchair social theorist, this book was like a wonderland. If you're interested in history, critical social theory, the environment, sociology, racial identity theory, political science, agricultural politics, or pretty much anything else, then this book is for you. In a very intellectually honest, even-handed, easy-going way, Diamond deftly creates a framework for human history (exactly, that's why its top 5). The books thesis can be summed up pretty concisely:

"History followed different courses for different people because of differences among people's environments, not because of biological differences between the people themselves"

The argument centers on the realization that based on environmental circumstances in which people were assigned to , populations (and human societies) developed in direct correlation to their circumstances. This includes their proximity to domesticable animals, plants that were suitable for agriculture, other societies that spurred their development, and other assorted primary factors.

The ability to domesticate animals becomes of incredible consequence, because cattle become a pseudo germ laboratory, which incubate diseases like the black plague, and other nasties that help to decimate indigenous populations (ask the Native Americans). The Tolstoy quote, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," is mentioned in the text. Diamond (and Tolstoy) means that, in order to be happy, a marriage must succeed in many different respects: sexual attraction, agreement about money, child discipline, religion, in-laws and other vital issues. Failure in any one of those essential respects can doom a marriage even if it has all the other ingredients needed for happiness. Evidentially, animal husbandry works the same way. To be domesticated, a candidate wild species must possess characteristics related to diet; growth rate; problems of captive breeding; disposition; and tendency to panic. As Diamond says, "only a small percentage of wild mammal species ended up in happy marriages with humans, by virtue of compatibility on all those separate counts." There are 5 major animals that have provided the majority of our animal needs (sheep, goat, cow, pig, and horse). And suprisingly enough, they all occurred in the wild in Europe and Asia (sorry Africa, Antartica, North America, and South America). The section on plants is also similarly interesting.

There seem to be a couple holes (particularly the part describing the stunted development of China in contemporary history) that ring a little hollow. But any book that can concisely describe why we don't eat zebra meat, is alright with me

Gangsta

I'm sorry to interrupt and disturb any of the beautiful blog love that is occuring but I wanted to relay something that I found amusing.

Unfortunately, the firm for which I work went through a massive reorganization that left some folks without a job. We have one interesting character here who self-describes himself as "marching to a different beat" and happened to be one of these unfortunate individuals. His last day in the office was today but on Tuesday, the day after he found out he was leaving, he wore a shirt that said, "Employee of the Month." It sooo fit his personality (he has a dog named Bella, would walk down the hall asking if people still worked here) to do something like that and it was HILARIOUS to me.

I only post this to say, if you and I ever work in the same firm, and I get fired/laid off, I'm pretty sure I will repurpose this idea.

P.S. By the end of the week, I'll owe 3 book posts and another thats just been sitting. I hope to bat .500...