General Musings from Generalists

Requiem for a Dream

2007-11-27T23:52:00.000-05:00

Dear Reader,

After three years, the time has come to retire the Musings. In composing this final post, I was prepared to leave you lightly, with a poem a la Dr. Seuss. But digging through some old posts just now, I was struck by the contrast between the early days and some of the more recent stuff. There's actually some pretty heavy (beautiful) stuff back there. And so I had no choice but to switch it up.

I once observed that no matter where you find a Generalist in life, they seem to be Trying really hard. Trying in all sorts of ways but, I think, just generally trying to Be where they are. In the beginning, that was pretty apparent in the posts. Three years, three contributors, and perhaps three mid-life crises later, things, on the outside, have settled down. Less general musing, more general observation.

If yours truly and my now retired co-contributors were to sit down today and fill out the "About me" sections of our profile pages, I have no idea what they would say. I'd like to think we'd all be trying just as hard as we were three years ago, and openly so. Whether we are or not, we seem one by one to have found other places to record our progress. And so, the time has come to say Good-Bye. It's not quite quitting while we're ahead, just before we fall too far behind. And as with anything in life, the last to leave turns out the lights.

Thanks for reading.

Peace.

iHeart iPhone

2007-10-23T14:46:00.000-04:00

If I were going to marry an inanimate object, it would probably be iPhone.

For Better:
iPod. Music and video whenever wherever. The first time I watched episodes of Will & Grace to pass the time on a flight, I knew I was in love. Watching on a bus only made me love it that much more. As for the music, the best part is that I don't have to mess around with the little wheely thing from the regular iPods. I never cared for the wheely thing.

Google Maps. This is the 3rd most used feature (by me) after iPod and text messaging. Sometimes I look up directions to places just because I can. More often I look them up because I need them. The other day a woman stopped me on the street to ask me if I knew where a Currency Exchange was. I told her I did not, but that I could find out. Enter iPhone, followed closely by a list of Currency Exchanges in walking distance. Oh how I love to be helpful.

Even better, I was out of town last month killing time before a meeting when I decided to grab lunch. Out came iPhone. Search: Olive Garden. Result: Never-Ending Pasta Bowl, penne with meat sauce, salad and bread sticks. Delicious.

Internet. Having the internet ("just... the internet") on your phone is freakin cool. You know those moments when you're out and it's like "Oh, where's the meeting?" or "What was so-and-so's address?" and you know it's in your email if you could just get to it? Yeah... I don't have those anymore. If it's on the world wide web, it's in my pocket. Freakin hotness.

For Worse:
Stone-Age Text Technology You can only text one person at a time. This is either the greatest oversight in the history of cellular technology, or there's some Apple/AT&T conspiracy to control outgoing texts. Why that would be, I have no idea. Who else has a phone that doesn't let you send multiple recipient text messages? Everyone that I tell about this little oversight looks at me like with the same confused, bewildered look that I had when I finally realized that I wasn't just slow figuring it out, it can't be done. No freakin clue.

No Speed Dial. At least until the latest software update. In the original version of iPhone, you had to push at least 3 buttons to call one of your "favorite" contacts and at least 4 to call anyone else. With 1.1.2 your "favorite" contacts are essentially dropped into a speed-dial list and you can dial one of the homies in just 2 steps.

No GPS. Which essentially means you can't be lost. You have to know where you are to get to where you want to be, which hasn't been a problem for me so far. It'd be nice though if I could type "Borders" into a search box and just have it spit out the location closest to my present position. Of course, then Apple would always know where I am. For whatever reason that doesn't bother me as the prospect of being lost on a random road somewhere and having my magical little phone not be able to tell me where I am. I mean really, it tells me everything else.

Clutter. Now perhaps I'm not the prime audience for iPhone. But I could do without the YouTube and Stocks buttons on the homescreen. I'd like to be able to get to them, but I'm not so much of a compulsive YouTuber/stock checker that I need to be presented with the options every time I look at my phone. And with the new iTunes icon, the home screen is looking all too crowded.

No Batter Life Meter You have to estimate how much charge you have left based on the little icon in the corner. The phone alerts you when you fall to 20 and 10%. So if it's monitoring the percentage anyway, why can't it tell me when I have 50 or 60 or 75%? Just so I know what I'm working with. But this is a small thing. Definitely bottom of the list of things the Apple folks should be spending their time on.

Room for Improvement:
The Weather As it is, the weather icon is a sun with a random temperature reading (73 degrees) imposed on it. You tap it to get the actual weather. I figure if there's gonna be a graphic and temperature reading on the home screen anyway, why not have it display the actual weather, the way the calendar icon displays the actual date? Then you'd get the weather like you get the time or text alerts whenever you look at your phone. And you could just tap the icon for extended forecasts or highs and lows.

Reserving Judgment:
Ringtones iPhone comes pre-loaded with the most appalling selection of ringtones ever encountered on a phone. Of 25 ringtones, there are precisely 7 that don't completely suck, and only 1 that I actually like. The other 18 include things like "Bark," "Duck," "Motorcycle," "Robot," and my personal favorites, "Time Passing" and "Old Car Horn." Seriously???

Naturally, someone came up with a way to bootleg your own ringtones and sync them to the phone. Almost as naturally, Apple introduced an update that made the bootlegs obsolete, and introduced their own ringtone maker. Step one, buy a song from iTunes ($1). Step two, use the iTunes editor to cut a 30-second slice out of the song (another $1). So you're paying $2 to make a ringtone of a song you probably A) already own, and B) could cut up for free with software you already have. Unacceptable.

Fortunately (if accidentally) Apple's latest update actually restores users' ability to make their own ringtones. This was either an oversight that Apple will correct in the next update (Haters), or they realized how blatantly greedy and stupid their ringtone philosophy is (Thank you). I'm reserving judgment on this one til the next couple updates come out.

Bonus: Peep Apple's newest innovation, courtesy of MadTV: The iRack

Namesakes

2007-10-23T13:45:00.000-04:00

At the start of my sophomore year of college, I was going along, minding my own business when I looked up and realized I had become a quadruplet. At least in name. Meaning I was suddenly sharing my first name with three other people. Luckily, the homies quickly developed nicknames for everyone to tell us apart, but I always thought it was weird that there was in influx of namesakes in one class.

Fast-forward six years. I'm in my third year of graduate school, minding my own business, when on the first day of class, as we're going around the table introducing ourselves, I realize that this time I'm one of three. So me and the other triplets get to talking and someone thinks to ask, "Were you born in such-and-such year?" We all were. As were the three young women with whom I shared a name in undergrad. Clearly the name was very popular in that year.

So the other day I decided to find out exactly how popular it had been. According to the Social Security Administration, the popularity of my first name peaked in the year I was born, coming in at #9 among names for female newborns (... last year it was #201). On the one hand, I feel like maybe I should begrudge my mother's lack of creativity. On the other hand, I suppose she could've been really creative, and named me some sh*t that would never ever appear on an SSA list of the most popular names. So all in all, I suppose I'm not mad.

Comcastic

2007-10-18T12:13:00.001-04:00

Just when I thought it was going to be slow blogging week, the Washington Post comes through with a doozy. This joint is reminiscent of another classic piece in its hilariousness, and well worth the read.

Neely Tucker and Rob Harvilla. Journalistic geniuses.

Shouts out to "The Hammer."

All Things Political, vol. 7.2

2007-10-13T23:07:00.001-04:00

Add this to the list of things working against Barack Obama: He greatly overestimates the intelligence of the American people.

It seems the Distinguished Gentleman from Illinois has decided not to sport the requisite American Flag lapel pin because he believes that "true patriotism... is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security." Fair enough. But I wonder how many voters in Tennessee feel that way.

Wouldn't it be easy enough to wear the pin and speak out on national security? Then you win over the folks who want a little more substance without offending the reactionaries. Not that I'm a big fan of catering to reactionaries... but they vote, ya know? Your boy has basically taken the position that he only wants the votes of the people who actually think about the words that are coming out of his mouth. Honestly, what percentage of the electorate is gonna do that?

The leading Republican candidate has banked his whole campaign on the idea that you can make as many false, exaggerated, illogical and contradictory claims as you want, as long as you follow them up with "because of 9/11." The war is good "because of 9/11." I should be President "because of 9/11." We need the Second Amendment "because of 9/11." And it's working. Not a strategy I'd endorse. But I wouldn't spit in its face either.

As much as I (and my boyfriend) agree with Barack, I'm starting to think he may be the Lupe of presidential candidates.

(Seriously though, click on that Second Amendment link.)

Tit for Tat

2007-10-12T09:55:00.000-04:00

1. R. Kelly is a hot, ghetto mess.

2. What determines the order in which Contributors names appear on the blog? At this point, I figure it's the order in which we last logged in, or it's completely random.

3. Matt Leinart is like Trent Green 2.0

4. Why doesn't Subway deliver? Do they not know how much I want them to? (And WHO gave the Subway in my neighborhood permission to close "temporarily"? Whatthehell???)

5. Having Kurt Warner for a backup is almost as bad as being on the cover of Madden.

6. What is the Olive Garden putting in their salad dressing that it can make iceberg lettuce taste that good?

7. I have no co-contributors.

8. How did the Bears end up with such a good team and no quarterback? Don't you kinda feel bad for everybody except Rex Grossman?

9. Fall sure did come in with a bang. Not like, "Really, it's October? I'm on way." More like "Oh shit! It's October. I'll be there in ten minutes."

10. Who's going to beat New England? It has to happen, cuz I say so. (Semi-related: Wasn't Cowboys-Bills one of the best games you've seen in a long time? If only Monday nights were always so blessed. And Poor Buffalo. Talk about a heart-breaker.)

Bonus Question:
Why do people stand by the doors of half-empty buses and trains? Do they not know they are in everyone's way?

The Truthiness is Out There

2007-10-11T08:01:00.000-04:00

As I recently told one of my former co-contributors, I'm not really big on reading. But I have to say I am more than a little excited to get my hands on Stephen Colbert's "I Am America (And So Can You!)" Colbert is such an icon of foolishness that even his fans have become hilarious. A sampling of the customer reviews:

"Before I bought this book I was really not much of an American. But then I bought this book and now I am. Who would have known it was that easy. Thank You, Stephen Colbert, you are a truly great American, and now, so am I."

"This book doesn't waste time with useless left-leaning "facts" nor does it attempt to stimulate deep thought. No this book comes straight from Stephen's gut and tells you, the average American, exactly what you need to think about everything in order to keep this country great, the way God created it."

"I don't need to read the book to know it's brilliant -- Stephen Colbert has already told me it is and I believe him because it came from his gut. Lots of things come from his gut but now is not the time to delve into scatological musings. So yes, this book is the greatest book yet written this month..."

Happy Reading folks.

You think???

2007-10-09T23:36:00.001-04:00

So by now we've all heard that the Chicago Marathon was called off at about 4 hours due to folks falling out in the middle of the race. Naturally, the runners who didn't finish are pretty pissed off. They're all over the news blaming the organizers for not having enough water and not making appropriate arrangements for a 26.2 race in 90-degree heat.

Word? Out of curiosity, what exactly are appropriate arrangements for such a race? Because me personally, I'm thinking when you decide to go for a 5-hour run and it's 90 degrees outside, you ought to be prepared for a pretty harrowing experience. Nevermind that a marathon is hard as hell under ideal conditions. Nevermind that doing anything in 90-degree heat is a bad idea. Let's put the two together and just hope for the best.

Seriously... whatever the mistakes were... is there any amount of water, cold sponges, and air misters that could make a 5-hour, 90-degree run not life-threatening? I'm just saying...

"The Vick Divide"

2007-10-05T07:05:00.000-04:00

Last week, ESPN hosted a "town meeting" in Atlanta to discuss the Mike Vick case. Freakin incredible stuff. Like if it had been scripted for television, purely for entertainment purposes, it would have gone the exact same way. It was like Jerry Springer: Mike Vick Edition, the way the audience booed and applauded on cue.

At one point, I promise you this white dude on the panel was so frustrated he threw his hands up and was like, "What is wrong with you people?!" Except he knew he couldn't say "you people" without being booed off the stage. So your boy literally caught the P as it was passing over his lips, left it there, and rephrased mid-word to avoid the controversy.

At another point, a former player who had had the audacity to bring up personal responsibilty, was asked if it was true that at least 5-10 players on each team are involved in dog-fighting. When he said he had never heard another player talk about it, they straight booed this kat's life experience. Then another player that they liked said the exact same thing. Silence.

I really wish I had it on tape. Unfortunately, I do not. And YouTube is not coming through for me. Ah well... The memories.

Hate List 2.0

2007-10-03T09:32:00.000-04:00

More companies I wish I could ruin, in the order in which I would ruin them.

4. Bank of America
First of all, why are you calling me? Second, why are you calling me and asking me how much money I make? Third, why are you calling to ask how much money I make and telling me that my credit lines (which you set) are too high for my income (which you knew about when you set the lines)? You are the most fee-induced, interest-rate raising, credit limit lowering, automated system hell having institution I have ever done business with. And if I thought I could actually get a person on the line, I would call and curse you out.

5. O'Hare Airport
Not the whole thing. Just the uber retarded, super ridiculous, utterly inane signage for the bus/shuttle center that took me down an elevator, through a corridor, and back up an elevator, eventually pointing me directly to a freakin' brick wall, all to get me across the street and around the corner. You are stupid and I hate you.

6. Cold Stone Creamery
I don't really want to "ruin" Cold Stone per se. But it is forever on my Suspect List. Any company that can turn something you love into something that causes you instantaneous and gut-wrenching pain is worthy of a few skeptical faces. I mean my gut was literally wrenched. And to be perfectly honest, even when they're not giving me food poisoning, I've never been really impressed with the Creamery. Not nearly as satisfying as say, Haagen Dazs Sticky Toffee Pudding (which everyone and their mother needs to know about, immediately). But I recognize that lots of folks are fans, so I won't hate (too hard).

Quote of the Day

2007-10-01T11:59:00.000-04:00

Welcome to another week folks. I started to post my second Hate List today, but I decided to start the week off light.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States of America (arguing the need to reauthorize No Child Left Behind):

"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured."

Oh do they now.

The Vacationer's Rulebook. vol. 1

2007-09-28T16:47:00.000-04:00

Under normal circumstances, I'd say I probably vacation as often as the average person... once every 18 months or so. (By vacation I mean dip out for more than 3 days for the expressed purpose of doing absolutely nothing.) But recently, family, friends, and fate have conspired to get me away more often than usual. In the process, I've developed a few vacationing principles, Best Practices if you will, that I'd like to share.

1. When deciding whether or not to take a vacation, there are two questions (only two) that one must ask. First, "Can I go?" If the answer is No, as it sometimes will be, you're done. If the answer is Yes, ask yourself "Is there a good reason not to go?" The key here is goodness. Unless you are a genuine baller, there is always a reason not to go. You could put the money toward retirement or pay down a credit card or some other responsible nonsense. But unless you're putting away so much money in lieu of vacationing that you'll actually be able to retire early, or you're paying a credit card off, you don't have a very "good" reason not to go. So bounce.

2. In packing, I've found that the appropriate number of outfits to take for N days is approximately 1.5 x N. Now this varies depending on the environment. For instance, if you're chillin pool/ocean-side, you could probably get a away with N outfits, plus one or two extras (N + 2)... since there will be some days when all you rock is a bathing suit or trunks. On the other hand, if you're kickin it every night, you wanna take at least 2 outfits per day, with a few spares (2N + 3).

Also, the number of pants/bottoms (P) should not exceed .8 x N for trips longer than 4 days. This means for a 5-day trip, you gotta rock the jeans twice. Tops (T) are a little more sensitive. You should prolly take a new shirt for every day up to about 10 days. After that, it's time to recycle. Maybe .5T for each day over 10. Or 10+.5(N-10) for trips longer than 10 days.

3. Location. Sometimes this one takes care of itself. A homie calls and says "let's go to so-and-so." When it's up to you though, you wanna consider a few things. First, cost. Everywhere is cheaper in the off season. Maybe you'll get caught in a hurricane, maybe you won't. Yours truly has had fantastic luck with off season travel. Others might prefer a sure thing.

Second, weather. The summertime temperatures are great. But you wanna minimize the temptation to sit up under somebody's air conditioning all day. If you can keep your daytime highs under about 90, you can do just about anything during the daytime. Also, don't sleep on fall for your travels. 50 degrees and sunshine in a new and interesting place makes for a lovely day.

Finally, language. I wish this one wasn't an issue. Unfortunately... trying to explain to a taxi driver where you need to go when he so clearly hates your English-speaking guts is not a good look. I'm not saying stick to Anglo places. But maybe lean toward Anglo-speaking parts of non-Anglo places.

4. Picking your team. I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't vacation for any amount of time with someone you wouldn't welcome to come stay at your spot for the same about of time. This goes for your traveling companions as well. If X and Y are both cool with the group but not necessarily in love with each other, leave one of them fools at home. Nothing ruins a vacation like having the group split down the middle halfway through. Of course, this is a difficult rule to follow. Who wants to tell one of the homies they're not invited? Still, if you can finesse it... I'm just saying.

All Things Political, vol. 7

2007-09-27T13:10:00.000-04:00

In this issue: The machine that is Hillary Clinton

So folks are starting to talk (and write) about Barack Obama's stagnating presidential campaign. Even in states where Obama once led, Clinton has slowly but surely eaten up his leads among black voters. This is interesting for about half a dozen reasons, but mostly because I don't think anyone in America would have believed an attractive black candidate could lose the black vote to a white woman.

If you ask my mother, it's because "she was married to the first black president." True enough. Then there's always the "he's not really black" line of thought. That's a separate post (that I'll probably never write). My theory: It's a combo. The name gets her in the door with black voters (when most white women would be left standing on the porch). Questions about Obama's blackness don't lose him votes, but they keep him from being able to take the black vote for granted, further opening the door for Hillary. His complete aversion of race politics exacerbates the effect, since he's essentially a black candidate who wants not to be thought of as a "black candidate," which black voters seem happy to oblige.

The instinct is understandable. Minority candidates are almost assumed to be race candidates until proven otherwise, something Hillary doesn't need to worry about, which is why she can explicity call out the American justice system for discriminating against blacks, while Barack is stuck trudging through his own rhetoric of We-ness, and racial problems that aren't about race.

So we have a white woman who parades her husband in front of black audiences like a walking "I Love Black People" sign, and a black man who does everything in his power to keep race out of his public politics. To cap it off, the former consistently gives performances like this one, which even her haters admit are damn near flawless. And the end result is that black voters, like other voters, judge the two not on race, but on apparent merit.

Even then, one might say, and Barack does all the time, that Hillary got the Iraq vote tragically wrong, while as we all know, he got it right. And that would matter except that A) We're already there; B) People don't primarily blame the Senate for Iraq. That hate is mostly reserved for the President; and C) Hillary almost always comes off as the older, wiser candidate in the "Where do we go from here?" debate. At times, it's just because she gives more nuanced answers. Other times, it's because Barack is trying to bolster his foreign policy credentials by publicly sh*tting on the presidents of allied nations in critical parts of the world, albeit not intentionally.

Supposedly this leaves Barack with two options: wait for Hillary to mess up, which seems less inevitable as time goes on, or go after her, calling into question his own commitment to civility and change. Then there's always John Edwards, one-state candidate that he is. Were he to lose his lead in Iowa he could always take Hillary out with him, the way Wesley Clark did Howard Dean in '04.

Very interesting stuff.

I Know What You Did This Summer

2007-09-26T08:36:00.000-04:00

At least I do if you graduated from WU between 2002 and 2004. Cuz I've seen you every two weeks like clockwork. Ah, the wedding season. I figure every summer from now til about 2009 will be like a 3-month WU reunion. That is, so long as folks stick to the greater St. Louis and Chicagoland areas to exchange the nuptials.

And even if you weren't at a wedding, you were almost certainly on Stalkerbook. I was at a club (after a wedding) and ran into a chic I hadn't talked to since high school. But somehow I knew she has a 5-year daughter and works for a consulting firm downtown. Oh Facebook... how you make everyone's business everyone else's business. On the other hand, I have effortless connects with virtually unlimited homies. Because everyone who's anyone eventually pops up on Facebook. Just ask Sharla.

The Article I (Almost) Could've Written...

2007-09-25T13:27:00.000-04:00

... but didn't, because Black people would be mad at me.

Now I do have to add the caveat that I find the "maybe"s and the "possibly"s on the racism question quite ridiculous. And I'm at least half sure the author was just being overly cautious. Still, the article raises some interesting points, most notably that the defendants actually did what they're charged with doing. Then there's Mike Nifong's trading the lives of three young white men for black votes in Durham County, and Black people being more than a little okay with it.

Supposedly, when the organizers of the original Civil Rights Movement were looking for a cause, they intentionally ignored quite a few injustices as rallying points because the particular circumstances weren't ideal to serve as the basis of a movement. So they waited for the unimpeachable Miss Parks to sit down on a bus and there was the spark. Not that I don't completely understand why those young people did what they did; I just think the circumstances raise a lot of interesting questions.

One of my favorite authors wrote that what worried him most about white racism wasn't its effects on black people's property, but on their integrity. He was afraid that when Black people got to heaven and God asked them why they had become so vengeful on earth, He wouldn't think "They started it" was a good excuse. I don't doubt that six black teenagers fifty years ago might have reacted exactly as they did in this case. But I doubt that it would have been universally condoned. I believe that somebody in the black community would've at least suggested that they could've reacted differently, and that they should have. I believe that somebody would've said that out loud and that even if they were wrong, we would've had the conversation, and we would've been better for it.

As it is...

The Wrong Poster Children

It's Like Writing a Blog

2007-09-24T07:34:00.001-04:00

Yes. Summer vacation is officially over. For those of you that had it, I hope it was good times. For those that didn't, so sorry. Me... I am officially back on the grind as of this morning, which includes, apparently, writing the blog.

It seemed for a minute we were on indefinite hiatus. Turns out, we were just on summer break. Like Oprah. And like Oprah, we're back with all new material. Now, unlike Oprah, I have no grand announcement* to kick off the new season. Nor can I promise continual heat* on the blog posts. But... If writing a blog is anything like riding a bike, I figure I can be back to mid-season form in the next few weeks. Give me a couple months to recruit a tri-con out of retirement, and the rest pretty much takes care of itself.

For the premier episode... What else? A love story.

Enjoy.
--------------------------------------------------------

One of my homies shows me a picture of him at a game with some friends. Chic to his left is pretty cute.

Me: She's really pretty.

Homie: That's Jane*. She went to WashU.

Me: Ohhhhhhhh! (Word?) She's must be really cool huh? Does she talk about how cool it was?

Homie: Actually, she didn't think much of WashU.

Me: (confused face)

Homie: She wanted to go to Duke.

Me: (annoyed face)

Homie: And she hated St. Louis.

Me: (disgusted face)

Homie: WashU was her safety school.

Me: Yeah... She was one of those wack (expletives) that spent four years hating cuz she didn't go to Harvard. Like 'Oh... I really wanted to go to So-and-So.' Well (expletive), you shoulda went to So-and-So.

Other homie: Yeah. Those people are really annoying.

Me: Thank you! Like she had some list of Special Schools in her head, and ended up at a school that was somehow beneath her. Clearly, the Special Schools thought homechic was beneath them or she woulda gone there. Instead she spent four years hatin and taking up space.

Homie: Well maybe Jane didn't have the same experience you had.

Me: Yeah. Jane can suck a fat one.

Homie: Wow! You are really clowning this person for talking sh*t about WashU. If someone insulted (Blank) University, I wouldn't care.

Me: Obviously (Blank) University didn't show you the love WashU showed me. I'm saying... if someone talked sh*t about your parents, you'd clown them.

Homie: (in disbelief) Are you really equating WashU with your parents???

Me: Not equating. But in the order of entities that have shown me love (and to which I am eternally loyal) ... GOD, family & friends, The WU.

Which got me to thinking. I can imagine that some loyal alums (of whatever schools) have longer lists. For instance, #s 3 and 4 might be a favorite city or maybe a summer program. But if your alma mater isn't at least in your top 5, you either A) are a hater (see above), B) picked the wrong school, an entirely forgivable mistake, or C) tragically wasted your time on things like classes and problem sets, as opposed to more love-building activities like lounging at Information Desks and outside libraries.

Sad, sad.
-------------------------------------

References:

* Verbatim, 2007

Madden '08

2007-08-14T22:37:00.000-04:00

I didn't get caught up in the maddeness (yet) but I do love when things blend perfectly. Madden dropped today and I'm going on a relaxcation tomorrow. It is these type synergies that one needs in one's life. I'll holla...

10 Essential R&B

2007-08-13T00:33:00.000-04:00

Piggy-backing my last post, here's my list of the greatest R&B albums I'm old enough to know about.

II, Boyz II Men
janet. Janet Jackson
Oooooh... on the TLC Tip, TLC
CazySexyCool, TLC
12 Play, R. Kelly
Toni Braxton, Toni Braxton
What's the 411? Mary J. Blige
Mary, Mary J. Blige
Unplugged, Maxwell
Funky Divas, EnVogue

I could also see a Mariah album or the Bodyguard soundtrack earning a spot.

200 G.O.A.T.

2007-08-13T00:04:00.000-04:00

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers, the people who sell music, have put together a list of 200 albums that should be in every music collection. I have 32. I'd say it's a pretty good list. I was especially impressed to see that the following personal favorites were included:

26. Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette
105. CrazySexyCool, TLC
133. Unforgettable: With Love, Natalie Cole
145. Toni Braxton, Toni Braxton
151. janet. Janet Jackson

Of course there were a few that raised my eyebrows:

67. Confessions, Usher (maybe toward the end of the list)
154. Big Willie Style, Will Smith
162. Let Go, Avril Lavigne (especially not 2 spots above the Fugees)

And a few that were mysteriously left out

II, Boyz II Men (inexcusable oversight)
12 Play, R. Kelly (They picked the R album over this one?)
August and Everything After, Counting Crows (98% sure about this one)

Hey Look It's Oprah

2007-08-03T16:21:00.000-04:00

Apparently, Lauryn Hill is alive. Poor Lauryn.

Seriously, look at her. Then, turn your head and listen with that image in your head and imagine her not talking about music but say, opening a school in South Africa. Seriously.

All Things Political, vol. 6

2007-07-20T19:25:00.000-04:00

Okay. Someone clearly needs to put down the laPtop and back away from the blog. I'm trying. In the meantime...

Came across some interesting trivia in my research for the last post. The 3rd person in the presidential line of succession, after Dick and Nancy, is one Mr. Robert Byrd, Democrat from West Virginia. This is infinitely fascinating in its implications. First, because if the least popular president of all time were to be incapacitated (God bless us), he would immediately be replaced by the only person in the country less preferable than himself (God help us). Then, if that person were to fall ill, he would immediately be replaced by the Speaker of the House, whom I don't know anything about, so we'll skip her. Now, if something were to happen to her, another Democrat would take her place. But, said Democrat would also be 90 years old, would have voted against the Civil Rights Act, vowed never to serve in the armed forces with black officers, and would once have been a member of the KKK. Finally, if bad luck or old age got the best of Mr. Byrd, Replacement #4 would be what appears from all observations to be a mindless drone of the original president.

Sleep tight.

Is it me?

2007-07-20T16:22:00.000-04:00

As a life-long lover of dogs, I hate to think of anyone abusing them for sport. Ergo I'm no fan of dog-fighting. However... the logic of the ever more popular dog-fighting = end of NFL career argument is completely escaping me. Of course, I see how going to federal prison could negatively affect a person's quarterback rating. I even see how having your QB indicted on federal charges is a bad look for an organization. But that's business.

What I don't see is how animal cruelty is cause for a national public outcry. Now it could just be me, and the fact that I get 75% of my news from ESPN. Maybe in the non-sports world of news, no one cares all that much (although this video from the floor of the U.S. Senate suggests otherwise. I wonder if he ever got that worked up about human rights violations), but in the sports world, kats are going crazy. And the altogether foolish part of it is that very few people seem to care that what Vick (allegedly) did was against federal law. We only seem to care that it was mean to dogs. One sports newscaster even remarked that he couldn't imagine young kids wanting to wear Vick's jersey anymore after finding out how he treats little puppies. Word??? Again, I love dogs. I just don't see how a person's lack of love for dogs should be related to their place on a football team.

There's also the possibility that, as a country, we have some kinda crazy soft spot for doggies. I could see that being the case. Still, I can think of a lot of f*cked up things we do to animals. (Ever seen where your meat comes from?) And no one is trying to send the Tyson chicken man to prison. So... I guess the moral of the story is... If you have to be an animal, be a dog.

Read a book, b*tches

2007-07-19T21:28:00.000-04:00

So I find myself in the horns of a dilemma. There is a certain YouTube video to which I simply must refer you. But how to make said referral... I could A) Steal it from the blog I got it from (I steal things sometimes) and post it here, making it more likely that you'll actually watch it. Or I could B) refer you to said blog (showing love to the blogger in the process) and hope that I've earned enough faith that you'll actually take my suggestion and go there.

I think I'll go with the latter option.

! ! ! Click Here ! ! !

Who Needs Bees?

2007-07-17T23:22:00.000-04:00

The good folks at Slate recently did their part to quell the panic over the whole honeybee disappearance thing. Turns out, we don't need bees so much afterall. For lots of reasons, but most interestingly, to me, because we can "culivate" other insects to pollinate crops for us. Two points for science.

China Is THE Place To Be...

2007-07-17T18:06:00.000-04:00

...in August 2008. I mean who knows where one of those rockets may be directed.

Faking the Band 4

2007-07-15T23:49:00.000-04:00

Yes folks, it's time to make the band. Again. If you are sleeping on the marvel of comedy that is Making the Band 4, please wake up. Never ever ever in your long-legged life have you seen 20 hard-core kats straight punk each other on some Boyz II Men. No one but no one has felt "End of the Road" that hard since like 1997. My only regret is that Dave Chappelle isn't around to spoof it.

It's the Questions, vol. 2

2007-07-15T23:48:00.001-04:00

1. If you were a major league pitcher and Barry Bonds were one homerun short of Hank Aaron's record, what are the chances you'd pitch to him?

2. After politics and health care, shouldn't Michael Moore's next movie be about America's education system? (And did anyone see America: Freedom to Fascism?)

3. How awesome would it have been if KG had become a Bull?

4. What was the last rap song that made you think, Man, why am I working a regular job when I could write a Top 10 rap song in like 5 minutes? (Mine was Party Like a Rock Star.)

5. Aren't the BET Awards a lot better than you ever expected them to be?

6. Why are there so many great movies coming out this summer?

7. What the hell is an umberella? And does it come from the same place as oxygen maskes?

8. If you could be famous for something, what would it be?

9. Remember when your life revolved around your friends? (Shouldn't it always be that way?)

10. Are you sleeping on Making the Band 4? Well wake the hell up then.

We're Just Gonna Wear This Out

2007-07-11T14:44:00.000-04:00

Gwen Verdon and some '60s Bob Fosse moves scored to...well, what else? You should really stick with this because some parts match up so perfectly.

Puff's Pearls of Wisdom

2007-07-09T20:52:00.000-04:00

Perhaps nothing is as consistently fascinating to me as the complete disconnect between my own graduate school experience and those of almost everyone else I know. If you were to survey my circle of friends in school right now, at best you'd have a 10% chance of finding anyone who would describe the experience as anything better than a dream-killing, soul-crushing labor of love. I recently attended a graduate student conference where the keynote was an appeal to keep the faith; the endless criticisms, set-backs, and let downs are a part of the process no matter who you are.

Except that they're not. Which brings me to the fascinating part. I can imagine, but have no personal experience with the kind of frustration that makes people question whether getting a graduate degree is worth all the trouble. And a number of folks I know have decided it's not. So what decides the difference? And how do you know if it's for you? Well, a few things:

1. Whether you're actually interested in the field you've chosen. For instance, I know a few aspiring political scientists who have no interest in political institutions. Not a good look. Makes studying for all those exams (on institutions) a lot harder than it otherwise would be. Before you commit to a 6-8 year program, ask yourself, am I interested in numbers, people, or institutions? Then pick a field that fits your interest.

2. The presence or absence of a mentor. I figure the difference between an advisor and a mentor is that the former tells you what you need to know ("Publish or perish") and the latter tells you what you need to hear ("Your dissertation will be great!"). How do you find a mentor? That starts during the application process. Keep track of whether faculty in a given program do little things like return your emails and phone calls, offer to meet with you, express interest in your work, or refer you to other people who could be helpful. If you email someone and they respond by sending you their phone number and saying you should feel free to call with questions, that's a pretty good sign. If you email someone and you never hear from them, maybe save your $85 application fee and don't waste your time.

3. Listening to your mentor (or your advisor if those are different people.) One of the most interesting things I hear from graduate students is that you should never let an advisor discourage you from doing the work you want to do. In some cases, I'm sure this is right. In others... having someone who'll tell you that your project, while interesting, has about a 0% chance of landing you a job, is damn near invaluable. God forbid you have the satisfaction of writing your dissertation on what you're really interested in, only to find out that no one else is the least bit interested in it. Gotta be able to tell when your advisor is just being closed-minded, and when they're actually saving you from years of heartache.

4. Six years is a long time to live somewhere you don't want to be. I must say I hated on many a school because it was in the middle of nowhere. As wonderful as your department may be, your advisors aren't gonna entertain you on weekends. Don't just pick where you want to go to school; pick where you want to live, cuz you're gonna be there for a while. Also, know how close you wanna be to friends and family. Maybe you're a phone person and moving cross-country is okay because you'll still talk to your people every day. Maybe you're not a phone person but all your folks are on IM, so it's cool. Or maybe you're no phone person, have no IM homies, and you're 600 miles from everyone you know and love. Maybe that's not so pleasant.

5. Focus. (Someone somewhere is laughing at me.) Teaching is great. TAing is cool. Being a research assistant puts some extra money in your pocket. But there is absolutely no point in being a well-paid research assistant with an excellent teaching portfolio and no dissertation proposal. No point whatsoever.

6. Funding. The magic word of graduate school. Talk to folks in the programs you're applying to. Are they working full-time and taking out loans, or are they hanging out at Starbucks writing their papers? Does your program pay for health insurance, or do you have to pay them? Do you have to teach to get funding? What if it takes you longer than 4-5 years? Do you have to find money somewhere else? I'm not (necessarily) saying you should go to the highest funder, but it's a consideration at least. Especially for folks who are going back to school after having worked for a salary. Some people don't adjust too well.

7. Roommate. The second magic word of graduate school. Now some of you will attend baller schools that keep you in the baller lifestyles to which you've become accustomed. For the rest of you, having someone to split the cost of living will put a few extra hundred dollars in your pocket every month. That's kick it money. That's leave town to see the homies when you're stressed out money. Don't sleep on it.

8. Relax. Everyone stresses over exams and changes their proposal a million times. Don't think you made a bad life decision just because it's harder than you thought it'd be. However difficult it is, as long as you're getting it done, and they're still paying you to be there, you're cool. Whether you know it or not, The Powers That Be are keeping a close eye on your progress. They'll be sure to let you know when it's time to worry.

To recap...

Pick the right field. Get yourself a mentor. Listen to your mentor. Study where you wanna live. Focus. Know the cost of living. Split the rent. Chill out.

You'll be Dr. before you know it.

The Simpsons Genius

2007-07-08T02:56:00.000-04:00

My favorite quote of the year and the movie isn't out for another three weeks:

"This book doesn't have any answers."

- Homer Simpson

Something To Consider

2007-07-02T15:15:00.000-04:00

"Can you think of any healthy, stable democracy anywhere in the world that is not nourished by strong and independent universities? Or the reverse question: Can you think of any authoritarian regime that tolerates academic freedom and independent universities? There is, I would argue, an inextricable link between long-term, steady democracies and strong universities, so too, with sustained economic development."

- Jonathan Fanton, President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Week Finisher

2007-06-29T16:16:00.001-04:00

Or Finish-her. Shoutout to LH for this much needed clip in an otherwise mundane day.

What the... !??!?!?

2007-06-25T10:54:00.000-04:00

From Monday's Paper:

Is 50 Cent being nickeled and dimed, or can he afford more child support for his 10-year-old son? That's the issue at hand for the rap star, who has been told by young Marquise Jackson's mother that $25,000 a month is not enough to cover household expenses.Fif is "worth tens and tens of millions of dollars," said Shaniqua Tompkins' attorney, Raoul Felder.

Seriously? What are you doing in your household, that $25k a month won't cover it? Even in my ballinest budget, say I'm spending 5k on rent, blowing 5 on random ish, dropping 1 on a car and insurance, and 1 to eat every month, that still leaves $13,000 a month to raise "young Marquise."

I'm having a Chris Rock moment over here.

Dynamic Duo

2007-06-22T12:01:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one who thinks a Cee-Lo/Lauryn Hill collaboration would be (among) the hottest ish we ever heard?

Things That Need to Be Blogged About

2007-06-20T12:47:00.000-04:00

In this issue:
I. Airport Update
II. All Things Horticultural
III. The Life and Times
IV. Case Logic All-Stars
V. Acknowledgments

Hello again folks. Time for the semi-annual all-in-one update. Enjoy!

I.Airport Update: Blogging Boston

I took my first trip through Boston's Logan Airport this week. A few observations:

A. The $40 flat fee cabs charge to get there from Cambridge is ridiculous, considering it can't be longer than a $25 ride. Cannot be. But... since I wasn't paying the fare, Logan only loses half a point for this one.

B. Why is the AirTran terminal downstairs in a corner instead of up with United, Jet Blue and the others? Is it because of the ugly "rush-hour" check-in line that AirTran apparently develops everyday between 3 and 6? Seriously?

C. As in, the C Terminal. As in... What the hell??? Three gates get their own terminal? I didn't see the D and E terminal, but I'm gonna go ahead and say they coulda thrown those three gates on the end of one of the others. Then maybe I coulda chosen between two restaurants. Not that I have anything against Uno's. Certainly not.

D. As in the grade I would give to the folks in Air Traffic Control, or whoever was responsible for boarding passengers on a flight they knew had no chance of leaving the airport anytime soon. Waiting on a "non-food carrier" for 4 hours before a 2.5 hour flight when there's food literally 30 seconds from the gate (the terminal is very small) is enough to make you snap on a flight attendant. I didn't though... we'll get to why a little later.

All in all, can't recommend Mr. Logan. Wouldn't say I hate it. Prolly wouldn't fly AirTran through there though.

II. All Things Horticultural

So this post is long overdue. It's publication date has been pushed back at least twice in the past year. First because I hesitate to blow up my tri-cons' lives on the blog. But I recently gave a subtle shout out to The Founder's Life, so this not-so-subtle post seems only fair. Second, any good journalist double-checks her facts before putting them in the street, and it took me a while to get back to the East Coast to confirm earlier observations.

Having done that though, I feel confident saying that the horticultural wisdom of a certain tri-con is at the top of the list of things that indeed "need to be blogged about." It began with the observation that the hook to Chris Brown's Wall to Wall is in fact (in fact), a perfectly accurate depiction of said tri-con's life. All ladies callin'. So endless was the parade of ladies at one point that he was moved to utter one of my favorite quotes from any human being ever, a remark about his incredible endowment of... ummm... land.

Strangely, with all that land, there didn't seem to be any crops springing up. So the question becomes what one grows on said land. Eventually, you (probably) have to commit to a crop and work with it, for life. In the meantime though, no point in letting the land go to waste. Might as well throw up a few trees. (Cherry trees, if I remember correctly.) Now, the tri-con, in his unfaltering modesty, might say that trees are somehow beneath crops. I disagree. Trees are more agreeable and less demanding than crops. No one ever wanted to kill their trees.

III. The Life and Times

Lingering for the moment on the subject of other people's lives, (and one person's Life in particular), I want to pose a question. If you went out for sushi and ordered nothing that cost more than $5, what are the chances that you wouldn't notice a random $23 charge in the middle of your bill? And when you did notice it, what are the chances you'd shrug off the overcharge, saying, "It (Life) all evens out in the end"? Now for Yours Truly, the chances are 0% and 0%. Maybe I'm just cheap (or poor) like that.

IV. Case Logic All-Stars

Normally, I would drop this in an AIM away message. I'm leaving it here for two reasons. 1. It gives me a chance to shout out a hometown artist. 2. The listed artists have really come through like champs during interesting times, so I'm giving em a more durable salute.

New Release on Rotation: R. Kelly - Double Up

There are probably no "classics" on this album. But it is entirely listenable and a perfect summer ride album. Recommended tracks: Hook it Up, Zoo, Rollin.

Old Release(s) on Rotation: Coldplay - X&Y; Death Cab for Cutie - Plans

I told someone recently that I have a hard time listening to R&B albums straight through because of the monotony of the subject matter (Love). Not that I have anything against it, but 12 straight tracks about man troubles is a bit much (for me). On the other hand, sometimes you want something mellow, and hip hop won't quite get it. So these albums are the perfect happy medium. You got your love tracks, your hate tracks, and your life tracks. Pleases all sides.

Slept on Release on Rotation: Cee-Lo - ... Soul Machine

Now (almost) everyone but me has known about this album for quite some time. I tend to sleep (literally and figuratively) for a long time before getting on anything new. I recently got on this. The upside of sleeping so long is that in the event of a drought of quality new releases, there's always 2-3 "old" albums waiting to be discovered. So in a way, it's like storing up musical food for the winter. (At least one tri-con knows about this.)

Not-So-Honorable Mention: Me - "Update Me"

This was the catchy little jingle I came up with waiting on the tarmac. Sung to the rhythm of "Upgrade U" (of course).

Pilot won't you updaaaaate me? / Estimate it maaaaaaaybe./ When we takin' off? I'm goin craaaaaaazy. / Updaaaaaaate me.

I promise you it was good for like 3 straight minutes of chuckles.

V. Acknowledgments

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the following... First, my faithful friend the MTA, for knowing when you're needed and showing up, literally. You're the one thing in New York City that I'm perfectly happy to say is infinitely better than the Chicago version. Second, to ice cream. For being delicious even when you're not at your best. I never regret the time we spend together. Next, I actually want to apologize to the lovely recliner that showed me so much love during my stay. I slept on you for far too long, figuratively, because I never took the time to sleep on you literally. Now that I've had the pleasure, I just want to acknowledge your hospitality. I look forward to seeing you again. I also want to thank the upgrade to business class. Usually, for a 2-hour flight, just give me the cheapest seat. But for a 2-hour flight preceded by a 4-hour wait on the tarmac, the extra room (and attention) makes all the difference. So thank you upgrade. You're the best $40 I ever spent. Last but not least, as AirTran is a non-food carrier, I want to say thanks to the delicious Snickers that quieted my stomach rumblings during the wait. You said you would come through in my time of hunger. And you did.

So thanks to all of you for a wonderfully refreshing trip. Lord knows I needed it.

His Headline Reign Will Not Be Stopped

2007-06-18T21:46:00.000-04:00

Sorry to go so sports-centric today, but Deadspin lead their inevitable Adam 'PacMan' Jones post today with this:

One would think that, after all that's gone down with him over the past year or so, PacMan Jones would steer clear of the following things:

• Strip clubs
• Entourages
• Guns
• Rain

Witnesses?

2007-06-18T15:37:00.000-04:00

Excerpt from today's Monday Morning QB article by Peter King:

"There are approximately 113 million television households in the United States, and the average rating for the NBA Championship Series showed that 6.9 million of them watched the series between Cleveland and San Antonio.

Remember the late-night Monday night opener on ESPN last year between Oakland and San Diego? Awful game. San Diego won, 27-0. It was pretty much over at the half, when the Chargers led 13-0 and the Raiders couldn't get out of their own way on offense. That game - after a weekend that started with Thursday night football, went into Sunday afternoon football and Sunday night football, and had a Monday nighter before the second game on the West Coast - started at 10:25 p.m. EST and ended at 1:14 a.m. Tuesday. And it was on cable TV, which gets a lower rating anyway because not every TV household in America is wired for cable.

The Raiders-Chargers debacle was seen by 7.9 million American TV households.

We all know football is king in this country, but if the best the NBA has to offer gets trounced by the worst the NFL has to offer ... well, the NBA is in more than a little trouble."

Speaking of John Daly & Golf

2007-06-17T22:13:00.000-04:00

John Daly was a good (re: honest) interview on 60 Minutes. He in totality and today's U.S. Open winner, Angel Cabrera, who had a few smokes during his final round win, are both strong cases that Golf is much more a game than a sport.

The Daly Show

2007-06-12T20:37:00.000-04:00

John Daly, he of the troubled life, says his wife tried to stab him with a steak knife. Seemingly, just another day in the life of a celebrity/athlete...ho hum. BUT, he provided the following quote in a voicemail message to SI's Seth Davis. I think it should be shared, only because the finish is so succint; I wish I had such brevity.

"I just want my fans to know one thing — I am the victim in this," Daly said in a voicemail message left with SI.com's Seth Davis. "I was stabbed Thursday night of last week in my right cheek and clawed in my left cheek. She's saying it didn't happen. I want my fans to know it happened. I was the only one sober at this time. I just want the fans to know that I love them very much and my wife is a liar, a liar. I'm tired of being a victim of all this crap. She beats me up when I go to sleep. Every time I go to sleep she throws her fists on me. I just married the wrong woman."

And that's that.

Caution: Very Disturbing

2007-06-11T21:00:00.001-04:00

All Things Political, vol. 4.1

2007-06-10T00:52:00.000-04:00

So if anyone remembers how perplexed I was to realize that I would seriously consider not voting for Barack, even though he's black, then you can imagine how perplexed I am now that I'm seriously considering voting for Ron Paul, even though (15 years ago) he may or may not have been less than fond of black people.

And I love black people (... really, I do. I know that was in question at one point.) It just seems like every time the man opens his mouth, sense falls out. First at the Republican debates, then on Bill Maher, then on the Daily Show, then on Tucker Carlson. I mean if for no other reason than that substantive disagreement is necessary for progress, Ron Paul is good for American politics. Even if he were 90% wrong (which he's not), he'd be one of the best things to happen to mainstream politics in the last 20 years.

Unfortunately, I have no evidence that he'd actually make a good president. At least, though, I don't think he'd make a stupid one, which is a decent start.

Just in case anyone is disinclined to click any of the links, I'm including this one in the post for good measure. Click it.

Untitled, vol. 1

2007-06-07T18:06:00.000-04:00

I've decided to start blogging some of the randomness that I come across in my passionate pursuit of procrastination. Normally, I'd say to myself, Self, it's possible that no one will find this interesting but you, and refrain from posting. But what the hey... If a Generalist can't be random, who can be? Haven't decided what to call this little series yet, but I'm working on it.

The first installment: Bill Tancer's observations on the rise of Google in the current issue of Time magazine, which includes...

Google, in its transition from a noun to a verb, has become more than a tool to find information online, it's quickly becoming the default tool to navigate the web, replacing the browser URL bar as the way to move from one website to the next. How do we know this? The secret to Google's primary use can be found in the top searches that people enter on the site. The #1 term, representing over 4% of all U.S. searches on Google, is for the site that surpassed Google last summer to become the most popular domain on the Internet, "MySpace." In fact 17 of the top 20 searches on Google are searches for the other leading Internet sites such as "ebay," "yahoo," and "mapquest." The most puzzling search term that Internet users enter into a Google searchbox is the 14th most popular term: "Google." (In case you're keeping count, the three most popular terms that are not websites are: porn, free porn and lyrics.)

Now, it's possible that the only reason I find this interesting is that the whole "go to Google to get to MySpace" thing is really impressive to me. I mean, how hard is it to type "myspace" or "yahoo" into an address bar? Not terribly hard. It'd be like if someone was trying to get to the university's website and typed "puff" into a search engine. Because they know I'm heavy on campus like that. Or, it'd be like if I worked for some really prestigious company, and people searched for the company website using my name almost as often as they used the actual name of the company. I'm just saying...

(Sidenote: Google's hybrid map function is freakin ridiculous, though the jury's still out on the street view.)

This Is Unbelievable

2007-06-06T10:31:00.000-04:00

This is Serena Williams, supposedly. I believe this, but then, I don't. Here is the Deadspin post. Here is the original AOL Fanhouse post which included this aside: "(Warning: we're told there's language in the song. We can't hear it, but then again, we're from Atlanta. Hip-hop profanity doesn't even register on our radar.)" That was funny to me. Otherwise, I'll let the video do the clappi...err...talking.

ATL Shawty

2007-06-04T11:56:00.000-04:00

So I don't log flight miles like the other contributors, but every now and then I get through a new airport. Not enough to make my own Airport List, but enough to drop 2 cents here and there.

Most recently I ended up in Atlanta. Piggy-backing Aristocrates' observations, the re-charging station is ingenious indeed. I was pretty impressed when I saw it. Never been to Chick-Fil-A, so that one doesn't do anything for me. Those connecting delays though...

It started with the destination. Trying to fly to Memphis, well, Good Luck. Southwest doesn't fly there which almost automatically means you're paying more than you want to pay. The major airlines start at $200 roundtrip, which doesn't sound terrible... but when you consider that I can fly to Cali for the same price, it kinda hurts my feelings. Based on the distance (1 hour, 40 minute flight), Memphis should be about $80 each way.

Then, I must have been flying at a bad time because the (late) flights I wanted were all like $283. At the last minute, AirTran had a sale so I got a one-way for $128 after taxes/fees. Of course, AirTran, which could just as accurately call itself InefficiencyTran, sends everything through Atlanta. So you usually have the luxury of flying past your destination before you fly to it. Add a weather delay and of course my flight gets to Atlanta 10 minutes after my flight to Memphis leaves. (I'm tempted to complain about the insanely long 1.2 mile walk from the terminal to the baggage claim, but they got this train system that runs like every 2 minutes, so its cool.)

On the bright side, I got a chance to check out the Heavenly Bed at the Westin. Maybe I'm not a bed person (although I'm definitely a sleep person) because I couldn't tell what the big deal was. And they have these comforters that are so heavy you feel like you're climbing under a lead blanket... like that gray thing the dentist lays on you before he takes your x-rays. Not sure what's up with that. Otherwise, a pretty smooth trip, with a not-bad-at-all 8-hour drive back to save funds.

Speaking of which, I'd like to pause for a moment in remembrance of the $50 I gave up last time I filled my tank. Do you know how many things I won't pay $50 for? Not sure what's going on, but we're lookin at 3.89 for regular unleaded. Now that hurts my feelings.

Game Theory

2007-06-04T02:02:00.001-04:00

An excerpt from my homie's blog...

Background: He was at an ER conference and his residency program was competing against 5 others in a game of ER Jeopardy...

So, final jeopardy comes around, our team has 3000, the next closest has 2200. The subject is toxicology. One of our third years is going into toxicology. We start the victory celebration. Wager 1500.

Question: What mushroom toxicity requires vitamin B6 to blah, blah, blah?

No freaking clue. No problem. Everyone else is clueless too. Let's just put the one mushroom everyone knows and hope for the best. Of course, everyone gets it wrong, but Wash U, the 2200, bet nothing. Genius. i say genius because I know the guy who probably made that call and he was probably scheming the whole time. If they bet to win and knew the answer, we would probably know it too, and you could just pay attention to the game to judge that our knowledge was more or less equal. If they bet to win and got it wrong, whether we got it right or wrong, we would win. They could either bet to win, get it right and hope we got it wrong (less likely if they thought we were about equal) or bet nothing and hope the question is hard enough that everyone flounders. Genius.

Now that is game theory.

When A Picture Tells It All

2007-06-01T15:24:00.000-04:00

Now, I'm not a LBJ fan in anyway but this is a pretty representative picture of last night events. One (the) Cavalier and five Pistons, the latter whom all aren't really doing any-significant-thing. Does it really take 5?

And for the hell of it, peep Penny Hardaway's back-to-back box scores against the #1 defense in the league in 1997. Also, peep his teammates. Round 1, Game 3. Round 1, Game 4 (I believe he scored 16 straight in this game). And I'm definitely not a Penny fan.

Just Bee-cause

2007-05-31T13:19:00.000-04:00

"Bees" have always been a topic of conversation equally among the Generalists. The Generalist here, Aristocrates here, and Puff here. (By the way, I can't believe I didn't think about my post after reading Puff's.)

Anyway, today is a big day. The Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee is today and even though preparing for the State Spelling Bee was one of the worst experiences I've ever had (yea whatever, clown me later), this event always manages to entertain. I mean generally you have kids who genuinely look uncomfortable in their own skin, kids who do dead-on Napoleon Dynamite impressions that leave the commentators in the land of the lost, and of course, you have one of my all-time favorite clips when Askhay Buddiga collapsed on stage, only to immediately get up and bang out the word. (His hands never come out of his pockets when he's falling; no one runs to his aid and helps him up; the other kids look completely unfazed; and like a robot he gets up and spells the word as if nothing happened. I love it.)

I'll watch when I get home (I've got Connor winning) but I've been following the hilarious live blog and the biggest news is that Samir Patel - the Peyton Manning of the Spelling Bee before Peyton won the Super Bowl - went down in the 5th round. That's like when the Colts lost at home to the Steelers two years ago. But wait...he's challenging the pronunciations of the word "clevis." It's the equivalent of a questionable call deciding a game. The problem for my guy Samir is that unlike Peyton, he can't come back next year. Ooooh, the drama!

(Wikipedia update: I swear Samir's fate was posted on his Wikipedia page in what seemed like real-time.)

It's Almost Like Riding Around In GTA

2007-05-29T19:11:00.000-04:00

Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Streets, Google Foyers?

Eventually, I probably won't be surprised when you google-map (that's a verb and I know Google fights such usage for some reason) 271 West 47th Street, Apt. 31L and in addition to your directions and/or mapped location, you get an accompanying snapshot of me in a recliner in front of my TV, circa Spring 2005.

"Google Maps is the best / True dat...Double true." - The Chronic(what?)les of Narnia

A tangential aside: NBC has worked like crazy to keep this video (and others) off YouTube and put them on their website under "web favorites." But then, the freakin' video never works (here you try.) Thus, the link above is from a YouTube backup, metacafe.com. As it stands for me, NBC now gets an incredibly smaller amount of total plays for one of the best (somewhat) recent videos for their most storied, fledgling franchise - that worked out well for them, I'm sure.

Quick Hitters

2007-05-28T01:31:00.000-04:00

When Puff goes into a thang like she has recently and becomes unstoppable, it makes me lazy just waiting for her to drop more real-talk. But that's shirking so I thought I'd come with some bullet bursts:

Watching Blood Diamond was almost equivalent to watching the season four finale of The Wire.
I did a bit of travelling from Valentine's Day through the Final Four. Basically, LA - Vegas - Chicago; LA - Vegas; Atlanta. Seems like an appropriate time to dust off the old Airport List. Here's The Generalist's Airport List for good measure. Mine is "expansive," while the tri-con's is (smartly) founded on brevity. Y'all forgot about the Airport Lists; it's cool though.
Paul Mooney supposedly will stop using the "n-word" (wink to Puff). This is the same "n-word" who during his routine said that saying "n-word" made his teeth white. I'm almost inclined to go to another show to view his current content. I'm convinced that he starts it by saying, "y'all 'n-words' didn't believe what I said in that interview did y'all?"
Lost got really, really good again. I watched from the beginning in January and I wonder what my first long layoff will do to my enthusiasm.
It is quite-so-ever-obviously-apparent that Google's close-to-the-vest-kept search algorithm clearly prefers Wikipedia as a trusted source, is it not? I would say that 80% of my searches return Wikipedia in the top 3 results.
Chicago style hot dogs are far and away my favorite type of hot dog. My company's cafeteria started serving them and I've been smashing them. And though it's not my favorite style of pizza, I definitely enjoy deep-dish pizza. Maybe Chicago has more going for it than I thought, maybe...
Deron Williams is Jason Kidd with a consistent jumpshot and a scorer's mentality. He's worthy of all the repeated hype from Mark Jackson. (And if you missed the "Stephen Wright" clownage between Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson in Game 2 of the Jazz-Spurs series, well you missed an incredibly hilarious impromptu exchange. "You're better than that Stephen Wright.")
How come double quotes aren't the keyboard default; they require the shift key while the single quote does not. Do you really use single quotes more often?
I had some musical musings but I might as well break that out into its own post. Instead, I'll leave you with what I'm currently listening to: Thom Yorke - Black Swan

All Things Political, vol. 3.2

2007-05-22T19:37:00.001-04:00

What I'm talking about...

Well whadaya know? It seems someone's actually done a study of the effects of immigration on those lazy, whining, low-skilled workers. Long story short, the rise in undocumented workers in the last 20 years "generally 'explains' about 20 to 60 percent of the decline in wages, 25 percent of the decline in employment, and about 10 percent of the rise in incarceration rates among blacks with a high school education or less."

I suppose one could still argue that if those workers had been responsible enough to go to college, they'd be okay. Because college educations, like skills apparently, grow on trees. (Sidenote: I have about $300K worth of education and I can count my "skills" on one hand, with fingers to spare.) Still, I think there are some very reasonable (and important) questions to be asked about the effects of incorporating 12 million workers into the labor force at once. And it'd be nice if folks could ask those questions without being accused of xenophobia (see previous link) or bigotry.

All Things Political, vol. 5

2007-05-21T22:11:00.001-04:00

It occurred to me today how much I've been enjoying this little political kick I've been on. Kinda nice seeing as how I'm a political scientist. So I started thinking maybe I could start up a little blog of my own, a kind of Political Musings from Political Scientists.

But what to call it... Naturally, it'd be called All Things Political. Taking a gander over at allthingspolitical.com, it seems that name's already taken... a clearinghouse for online political and governmental websites. I guess that's cool. Not as cool as my blog would have been though. ;)

All Things Political, vol. 4

2007-05-21T21:48:00.000-04:00

I read an article today about how well Ron Paul performed in the last Republican debate. Apparently he's the Ralph Nader (fat chance candidate) of the GOP. Turns out, some of what he said actually made a lot of common sense. But just as I was getting excited about the prospect of another Dean-like underdog poppin' up in the primaries, albeit on the Republican side, I came across this. It seems Mr. Paul thinks none too highly of the negroes, especially the scary male ones.

Oh well.

All Things Political, vol 3.1

2007-05-21T16:01:00.000-04:00

More thoughts on immigration...

I just read a Ruben Navarrette article on the proposed immigration legislation in the Senate. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should say upfront that this post is motivated mostly by my (increasing) hatred of Mr. Navarrette, and not by my feeling that I have any more immigration-related thoughts worth sharing. Having put that out there...

1) I was first introduced to Mr. Navarrette while reading an article he wrote about how unfair it is that people still get to pronounce the word wetback when it's not okay to pronounce the words nigger or, apparently, faggot. If those words are reduced to the n-word and the f-word, then, he says, wetback should be reduced to the w-word.

Ordinarily, I would be more diplomatic about this. But since I hate him, I'm going to go ahead and say I find his argument incredibly stupid. Especially because the primary examples he gives to support it are instances of people who pronounce the word while emphasizing that it should never be used as a slur against anyone (i.e. Rosie O'Donnell pronounced it when she was criticizing someone on national television for using it as a slur.)

The other reason it irks me is that I find all the letter-words - the n-word, the f-word, and, I guess, the w-word - quite ridiculous. Hearing fully grown adults talk about "the n-word" makes me feel like we're all a bunch of 5 year-olds referencing the a-word, the sh-word and all the other grown-up words we're not allowed to say. I also think its disingenuous and inaccurate to go on tv and say So-and-So called Such-and-Such an n-word. No, So-and-So called Such-and-Such a nigger, and So-and-So should get his ass kicked.

2) In this most recent article, responding to critics who say illegal immigration depresses wages for the low-skilled, we get the following:

Memo to the low skilled: "Grow up. Stop complaining. And go get more skills. Then you won't have to suffer the humiliation of being driven out of the market by folks with a sixth-grade education who are here illegally and don't even speak English.

WTF??? If ever I wanted to bash someone over the head with a frikkin' bat. A couple things:

A) There have always been, and will always be, low-skilled workers. And in generations past, those workers could actually command a living wage, not to mention health care and the expectation of retirement benefits. Let's not act like people suddenly got lazy.

B) (And even my Libertarian Love Mr. Maher is guilty of this one...) Let's not act like immigrants are inherently dedicated laborers who dream of picking tomatoes for $2/hour in the dead-ass heat of summer. They don't want those jobs any more than American citizens do. They take them because it's what they can get, and because it's better than starving to death in Mexico. How many second generation Mexican Americans (or legal immigrants) do you know who pick tomatoes for a living? (Think about it.) Nobody with a green card is trying to pick tomatoes or scrub toilets for less than a living wage, and the ones that do, do it because they have to.

Admittedly, I have a pretty tender soft spot for the working class (they're the backbone of society, blah blah blah). So I don't take kindly to people who tell them to "grow up" and ridicule them for lodging legitimate complaints about their economic options. Also, as an aspiring writer-academic-social commentator, I'm consistently vexed by how it is that people that I think are idiots get syndicated columns in places like cnn.com. But again, those are personal issues.

Daily Double Entendre

2007-05-17T12:29:00.000-04:00

So this clip is funny to me on a number of levels. Firstly, I think he should get a $100 for his answer. Secondly, young Jennings smiles as soon as he answers. Thirdly, he's smashing his competitors and the guy who got it right is still in the negative after his correct answer.

Someone in the comment section of the original YouTube post asks: If you finish in the negative, do you owe Jeopardy money?

28 Weeks Later

2007-05-16T01:38:00.000-04:00

So you should go see 28 Weeks Later. Period.

Since I was a fan of the first movie - 28 Days Later - and the zombie genre in general, purchasing a ticket was a no brainer for me. (deep breath)

Anywho, even more remarkable then the first 90 minutes of the film, are the names of two of the main characters in the flick. This is what I mean:

Name 1: Mackintosh Muggleton
Name 2: Imogen Poots

I am not making these names up. They play a brother and sister in the film, and are sort of the main characters. What are the odds of their names being not only singularly ridiculous, but them playing siblings, and both of their names being incredibly ridiculous. Its like the ridiculousness is multiplied by them being near each other.... Yowza.

.... I guess i'll go listen to Pink Martini now ;)

Observation

2007-05-14T18:05:00.000-04:00

If you check out the profiles of your friendly neighborhood generalists, you might notice something they all have in common. It seems whatever their individual callings may be, they're all Trying really hard. Not sure what that means, but I find the symmetry (infinitely) interesting. I wonder if they give A's For Effort in life...

Disney

2007-05-11T13:30:00.000-04:00

"Disney's making a movie starring a black princess. And we only had to get through a Native American princess, an Arab princess, a Chinese princess, even a half-fish princess. Not to mention the countless cats, dogs, mice, elephants, talking cars, and whatever the hell Stitch was."

- "Senior Black Correspondent" Larry Wilmore, on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

YouTube Classic

2007-05-10T12:52:00.000-04:00

Oh and you should be watching the Warriors-Jazz series. Crazy good games.

"Dirk-a-licious" is my favorite because of how well his voice matches the track and then the transition to "This Is Kobe's Shot" is so seamless.

"Kobe only passes...to guys who pass it back." (Cadence was sickkk.)

Fly Away

2007-05-08T13:58:00.000-04:00

So for my boy-boy's birthday yesterday, at the (excellent) suggestion of his significant other, we went to Trapeze School. Yea...like the folks you see at the circus and what not. Straight up though, it was incredibly fun, highlighted by my mans (nervously) completing the knee-hang catch (see pic). Moreover, our sense of flying was further heightened by the fact that in addition to the 22-25 feet that we flew on the bar, we were on top of a roof of a 3-story building where we could see the street down below to our left and the river to our right. All that is to say that if you had ever been inclined, or on the flip side had never considered, I would get on it without a doubt - I'll be going back. Consider this a PSA...

"Ready...Hep!"

I'm Sayin...

2007-05-07T20:43:00.000-04:00

Came across this observation on cnn.com. I won't summarize it here because the title of the article does it so well. It's like they were reading my mind.

Damn Good Question

2007-05-03T14:42:00.000-04:00

Who reads books anymore? One that I hope has a solid scaleable answer. In the least, 2(.5) of every 3 generalists do.

An aside: Puff is going into a thang right now. Had to be acknowledged.

All Things Political, vol. 3

2007-05-02T13:47:00.001-04:00

Warning: This is a very long post.

I just read a Lou Dobbs article about the May Day immigration marches in Chicago and elsewhere, and, at last, I think I can actually formulate an immigration-related thought worth sharing. After many (many) hours of consideration, I think it boils down to a simple question of Why. Meaning...

At a basic level we have A and B. A thinks he has a right to something from B. B disagrees. (I think) what opponents of amnesty and legalization are missing, what they haven't heard from A, is Why. Why do you have a right to anything? This is important because of the language with which A is making his claim. He doesn't "want" it; he's not asking B for a favor; he has a "right" to it. And (so political theory says) rights have to be grounded in something. I have a right to my home because I payed for it. You have a right to a fair wage because you're contributing your time and labor. A has a right to citizenship because...

And here is where the debate breaks down. I imagine there are 2 bases on which to declare a right. Either A is entitled to something (he earned it, or it's his by nature), or B owes it to him. There are some passionate proponents of Mexican immigrants' rights who take the second approach. Their claims to the rights of illegal Mexican immigrants are based on the history of exploitation and territorial violations between the U.S. and Mexico. At the very least, this kind of thinking has the makings of political grounds on which a group of people could make a claim on a government/state. There's another group of people though - the largest and loudest, the ones who hold up signs at marches - who, if they even try to answer the Why, answer most often with something essentially akin to "because we're here." We deserve to be here because we live here, because we work here, because our families are here.

Emotionally compelling as that reasoning may be, it is politically and legally unstustainable. It effectively asserts that one has the right to do something because they went through the trouble of doing it (or because they do it well). But one cannot assert that one has a "right" to commit an illegal act because one has shown that he can do it responsibly. This does not work in the case of immigration any more than it would work for a driver who argued he had a right to go 70mph in a 50 mph zone because he had demonstrated (through much speeding) that he could do so safely.

Or we can imagine a different example, one where the original commission of an act is illegal, but all subsequent acts are (potentially) legal. This is more in line with much of the public discourse around immigrants' rights. Specifically, illegal immigrants may have broken the law, but many of them have since demonstrated their faithfulness to the virtues and work-ethic America claims to value in its citizens. This should prove them deserving of citizenship.

This is another logic which fails legally and politically, its moral weight notwithstanding. Imagine C robs a bank and uses the money to buy a home and finance his child's education. I cannot imagine any circumstance under which the bank would say to C, "You shouldn't have stolen the money, but since you have it, at least you've invested it wisely. God Bless." I am 100% sure the bank would want its money back, and that it would have the legal grounds to assert its right to reclaim it. Admirable behavior in the wake of illegal activity might constitute a moral argument for amnesty (Now that we've shown we can be good citizens, we should be allowed to stay), but it is not a defense of illegal immigration itself. And it cannot be used to compel legal concessions (i.e. stoppage of workplace raids and deportations).

I find the most compelling basis on which to assert Mexican's "rights" to U.S. citizenship is the basis on which those passionate people referenced earlier (mostly academics) have done so. It has been argued that if the U.S. were to return to Mexican control all of the lands it acquired through unjust wars and treaties during Westward Expansion, Mexico would have the resources to feed, clothe, and house every one of her people. If this is true, A might say to B, "I have a right to live, work and raise a family on this land because it's mine (by nature)," OR, "The opportunities I'm taking advantage of are those you built using resources you stole from me (You owe me)." These are similar to reparations arguments made by Black Americans. At any rate, these are not the arguments you get from the sound bites of interviews on the nightly news.

Perhaps there are some who think that the way to get something you want from the U.S. government is not to go out of your way to point out the centuries worth of exploitation and oppression it perpetrated on your people. Maybe they think you attract more flies with honey, and instead of saying "You're an imperialist and a war-monger," they say "We love America. We want to be Americans too." And they may be right. Unfortunately, what this leaves one with is not grounds for a "right" to citizenship, but rather only a sympathetic story that one hopes will elicit a neighborly response (Sure, come on over.) At that point, I guess there's just the question of whether you want to bet your citizenship on the neighborliness of the U.S. people.

All Things Political (Science), vol. 2

2007-05-02T13:07:00.000-04:00

Someone just forwarded me an article about an academic paper that's going to be published citing racial bias in NBA foul calls. To (over-)summarize, in any one game, an all-white officiating crew will call between .12 and .2 more fouls on black players than an all-black crew would, or 4.5% more fouls per year, which apparently results in a real loss of about 2 games per year for the teams with the most black starters.

The most interesting part of all this (as far as I'm concerned) is that someone actually conducted a fairly rigorous academic/statistical analysis of something as non-academic as NBA foul calls. Being that I'm fairly well stuck in statistics/"What can I publish?" mode, my mind immediately set off in search of how I might re-model such an experiment and arrive at different results.

The study controlled for things you might expect to affect foul calls like veteran/All-Star status, position, player "assertiveness", coaches' behavior, etc. If one were going to do a counter-study, they might look at things like flagrancy vs. non-flagrancy of fouls, since the former are much less a judgment call for officials; actual physical style of play (not measured by stats), since some teams/players may just be more physical than others; at what points in the game fouls are most likely to be called, and which players are most likely to have the ball at those times (or to be defending someone who has the ball); etc.

I'm tempted to drop a stat model right here, but I won't. At least not until I figure out how to turn it into a publishable paper, which seems to be 25% of what I care about these days.

Interesting Factoids / Halberstam

2007-05-01T20:32:00.000-04:00

...That I'm Pretty Sure Only Interest Me.

Record-setting April here at The Musings. 21 total posts with Aristocrates responsible for 16 (personal monthly high, not that any of it is particularly high brow), Puff 5, and The Generalist...well you do the math. But we kept the tri-con involved by recirculating some previous content wherever relevant as we anxiously wait his reemergence. Strangely enough, we had 17 last April, after dipping in February and March from 20 in a strong January, and the total was even dragged down by a 13-day hiatus. Apparently, Spring can influence all kinds of behavior.

To kick May off: David Halberstam died in a car accident last week so I thought to leave you with a literary quote (courtesy of "The Moderate Voice" - go figure) from the last pages of his book, The Best and The Brightest (1972):

Lyndon Johnson had lost it all, and so had the rest of them; they had, for all their brilliance and hubris and sense of themselves, been unwilling to look to and learn from the past. . . . He and the men around him wanted to be defined as being strong and tough; but strength and toughness and courage were exterior qualities which would be demonstrated by going to a clean and hopefully antiseptic war with a small nation, rather than the interior and more lonely kind of strength and courage of telling the truth to America (about an unwinnable war) and perhaps incurring a great deal of domestic political risk…

Nor had they, leaders of a democracy, bothered to involve the people of their country in the course they had chosen; they knew the right path and they knew how much could be revealed, step by step along the way. They had manipulated the public, the Congress, and the press from the start, told half truths, about why we were going in, how deeply we were going in, how much we were spending, and how long we were in for. When their predictions turned out to be hopefully inaccurate, and when the public and the Congress, annoyed at being manipulated, soured on the war, then the architects had been aggrieved. They had turned on those very symbols of the democratic society they had once manipulated, criticizing them for their lack of fiber, stamina, and lack of belief. . . . What was singularly missing . . .was an iota of public admission that they had miscalculated. The faults, it seemed, were not theirs, the fault was with this country which was not worth of them. So they lost it all.

G-Block

2007-04-30T20:15:00.000-04:00

Once you get by the seriousness of workers getting hurt while working on the New York subway, this headline/story strikes a particular chord.

The good ole G train. The only train that doesn't go in Manhattan; the train that lifetime Manhattanites don't even know exists; the train that essentially runs every half-hour when it gets dark and, because of it, wasted at least 5 hours of my Summer of 2002 to go two stops (I later found I could have continued on the A/C and walked two more blocks...yea); and most importantly, the train and hood that The Generalist and I held down during said summer. For that and Kim Kau's, Sapolo's, Zaytoon's, Luigi's, and "Grocery" I got love for the G and I don't like to see it associated with bad news.

Seriously

2007-04-29T23:25:00.000-04:00

I just heard Stu Scott on Sportscenter, showing a highlight of yet another Steve Nash assist, say:

"Steve Nash...giving it up like Abe Lincoln."

Anybody know what it means to "give it up like Abe Lincoln"?

Interesting Factoids

2007-04-29T20:09:00.000-04:00

...That May Only Interest Me.

I've averaged 1,645 text messages per month over the last three months (February = 1,395; March = 1,687; April = 1,854). That's almost 55 per day which is completely mind-boggling and I'm the one sending the texts.

Morgan Pozgar, a 13-year old from PA who won the LG National Texting Championship, estimated that she sends more than 8,000 text messages a month to her friends and family. That's almost 267 text messages per day and. that's. stupid.

I was handed a flyer for this competition and for a second entertained the thought of participating but then saw that the competition was QWERTY based. T9Word is my thang and while a part of me feels like I could make a good showing at my best, would I really stand a chance if cats in their formative years are "practicing" over 200 times a day?

Piggybacking

2007-04-28T11:54:00.000-04:00

If you saw one of my previous comments, you know I was a little suspicious of Al Sicard's Jim Boeheim-like zone-implementation skills. That's not the only commercial I take issue with:

1. Direct TV / Entourage - Ari offers courtside tickets to Turtle for a Lakers game. Turtle asks who they are playing, Ari answers Wizards. He says "no, I want to go watch my Knicks on Direct TV." (This is pre-Arenas' injury...) So word? He wouldn't want to watch a game that earlier in the year featured a 60-point scorer (Arenas), a 45-point scorer (Bryant), and an overtime game in which Arenas set the record for most points scored in an overtime period (16). He rather pass all of that potential up to watch the Knicks? Come on man, that's suspending way too much reality even for a commercial. At least pick another team that featured a non-descript game.

2. T-Mobile / DWade & Chuck - Regardless of how good or bad of a golfer someone is, does anybody (anybody?) pick up/significantly move their front foot when they put? Absolutely not.

40/28

2007-04-25T18:24:00.000-04:00

As may or may not be known, I am currently studying for a comprehensive exam in Political Theory. Unfortunately I only began reading last week and haven't exactly kept the pace I need to keep to finish. So I figured I'd start a little series of posts to encourage (shame) myself to get on the ball.

Had I been disciplined, I might've come up with something like The Generalist's book-a-week routine. As it stands, I'm looking at more like 1.4 books a day, or 40 books in 28 days. What? Not possible?

We shall see...

Bee Keeping

2007-04-22T09:48:00.000-04:00

Interesting Story: About 8 years ago I was signing up for some music forum online and I needed a login name. I wanted something random and not related to my actual name. In about a minute I came up with i2012. Why/How? I have no idea. It just occurred to me, and I like it to this day.

Later I started wondering why such a "random" number would ever occur to a person. Eventually I became convinced that "i" was simply I, and 2012 was a year. Other than being the year in which I should turn 30, I felt like something significant would happen to me in that year... no idea what.

Then came word from Aristocrates that the Mayan calendar is predicting that 2012 would bring the end of the world as we know it. Upon hearing something like that one can't help but wonder how exactly it'll be that the world will end. ... Which brings me to the title of this post.

Supposedly, Albert Einstein once said that if all the bees disappeared from the earth, man would have "only four years of life left," the logic being no bees = no pollination, no pollination = no crops, no crops = no animals, no crops and no animals = no people. And well, it seems the bees are disappearing. Give Einstein's prediction an extra year since "all" the bees haven't disappeared, and we're looking at massive crop shortage that produces worldwide starvation by about 2012.

So how's this for coincidence: Roughly 8 years ago I came up with a random number that I was convinced had some extraordinary significance, only to find out that it happens to coincide with both ancient and modern forecasts for the end of the world.

Nice, huh?

Hokie Hope Day

2007-04-20T12:05:00.000-04:00

Definitely wearing Maroon and Orange. Today we are ALL Hokies.

Believe It Anyway

2007-04-19T13:45:00.000-04:00

"This world's gone crazy
And it's hard to believe
That tomorrow will be better than today
Believe it anyway"

Martina McBride - Anyway

Chicken and...Waffles

2007-04-17T09:38:00.000-04:00

"I can't tell you, but I've said very clearly I don't consider myself out of it forever."

- Senator John Kerry, when asked if he's considering running for President again

"It's sort of a miracle that it continues to work well today."

- Dipankar Raychaudhuri a Rutgers University professor who is overseeing a federal research project to look at whether the Internet needs to be completely scrapped and started over

Seriously?

I Stand Corrected

2007-04-15T20:31:00.000-04:00

So if you, like me, thought that we had reached the pinnacle of lyrical nonsensicalness, I refer you to Twista and R. Kelly's "This is Why I'm Hot" Chi-Town remix. And I quote:

This is why I'm cold.
This is why I'm cold.
This is why, this is why,
This is why I'm cold.

I'm cold cuz I'm hot...

Wait... let's run than back.

I'm cold... cuz I'm HOT.
You aint cuz you not.
This is why, this is why
This is why I'm cold.

(tear*)

60 Minutes: Duke Lacrosse

2007-04-15T20:16:00.000-04:00

So, I don't know if you watched the 60 Minutes report on the Duke Lacrosse case being dismissed but some of the facts that the Durham County D.A. ignored and failed to consider are simply unbelievable.

For what it's worth: True Rap Lyrics: 1.1

Poetry? In Motion

2007-04-13T17:16:00.000-04:00

Has anyone ever read one - one! - "Poetry In Motion" (a short poem posted in typical ad space in public transportation - specifically, the New York City subway) and said, "Yea, that was a good read." To keep it real, and with apology to offending anyone's personal attempt at art/poetry, I think most are horrrrible.

I was already thinking about making this post but then it was confirmed when while riding on said NYC subway with my roommate, unprompted he turned to me and said, "Those poetry joints are always horrible to me." Me: "Youngin', wow, get out of my head."

This would be my second "equivalent to The Generalist's view of Garfield."

Last (Only) Words On This Subject

2007-04-12T10:20:00.000-04:00

Keep in mind that the quote I provided a few posts ago was posted because I thought it was funny.

I'd rather not talk seriously about Imus (surprise!), mostly because it will get beaten over the head until the next bigger story comes out and it gives credence to an off-putting comment made by a shock-jock/comedian who like his cohort has always been in the business of pushing the envelope. (Let me be clear though, I'm NOT dismissing him and certainly not the comment, and obviously, the Rutgers women do not deserve to be thrown in the public hat with his colleagues and politicians...It's just you know all that. Plus, I leave hard-hitting commentary to the tri-cons :).)

But once you get past the "seriousness" of the issue, my dad brought up a good point:

Isn't Don Imus the absolute last person who should be clowning someone else's appearance and nappy-headedness? I mean look at that cat ^---.

Gained in Translation?

2007-04-11T18:09:00.000-04:00

Speaking through a translator, your boy Ichiro said about facing Dice-K for the first time in the U.S.:

I hope he ignites the fire that is dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul. I plan to face him with the zeal of a challenger.

well damn.

All Things Political

2007-04-11T14:04:00.000-04:00

Well folks... It's about that time. 16 months and counting til I start looking for a job. Only 2 articles, 2 finals, 1 exam, a proposal, and half a dissertation to write between now and then. So, in the interest of righting my mind for the work ahead, I am tightening my focus on all things political... starting with this:

It seems someone in Maryland thinks The People should actually elect the president. How about that?

An Obligation

2007-04-10T11:26:00.000-04:00

Someone asked me yesterday: "Don't you have to put this video on your blog?"

Actually, yes. Yes, I do.

The part that makes me laugh, and to which I can so relate, is that my man "PMD" is a Terps fan yet is just as angry about Duke calls happening in a non-UMD vs. Duke game and even in a UNC vs. Duke game.

Quote of the Day

2007-04-09T10:32:00.000-04:00

"As Imus makes clear every day, his views are not those of MSNBC."

- MSNBC, in a statement, after Don Imus on his radio show called the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed ho's"

Easter Special '07

2007-04-08T19:19:00.000-04:00

We have a tradition of providing Easter Specials here at the General Musings from Generalists. This year though, straight up, I got nothing. But hey, for the...ummm...Heaven of it:

OutKast - Big Boi - Church

Blog Reads

2007-04-06T10:21:00.000-04:00

I found Gladwell's blog on "Bad Stereotyping" (third entry) an interesting read and it specifically made me think if I typically "conversationally discriminate."
I have yet to do it but I think I need to shout out my mans "Mr. Garr's" blog. The Tilden Middle School stories and recaps are always a good, honest read while his other entries are varied and interesting. Plus, he big-upped Food & Liquor as the album of the year (2006 obviously) and blessed folks with Amy Winehouse. Might as well be a Generalist...
I'm pretty sure that his latest post absolutely confirmed that Gilbert Arenas is my favorite athlete personality of all time. He had planned to give away 20,000 jerseys at the first Wizards playoff game. Now that's he out for the season (we'll miss you GA), he's giving away - and sending directly to recipients - 6,000 Gil Zero shoes and 20,000 jerseys all signed "Agent Zero"!!! Yes, his shot selection kills me sometimes but the Wiz better get him signed to an extension past 2008, ESPECIALLY since he wants to keep the team flexible and will not break the bank.

12-Song Commute

2007-04-05T14:31:00.000-04:00

Back in September or so I bought a Sprint LG Fusic Phone. I don't own a digital music player (read: "iPod") - gasp! - so in addition to satisfying my need for a cell phone with a battery life greater than a half-hour, it also provided me with travel-beats. Now, the phone only came equipped ("with rearview mirrors" j/k, umm, nevermind) with a 64 MB memory card. That's good for about 12 normal sized mp3s, give-or-take. I briefly considered upgrading to a larger sized card before realizing that 12 songs almost gets me to work and back. I see this as a good thing because if I could load a large portion of my library I would probably fall back into listening to songs that I always do. Instead, I upload tracks that I have put-off or are brand new, brand new. So then, here is the playlist that makes up the current "12-Song Commute":

1. Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
2. Black Milk ft. Royce Da 5'9 - Guilty Simpson (Remix)
3. Fat Joe ft. R. Kelly, Lil' Wayne, Birdman, T.I., Ace Mack, Rick Ross - Make It Rain (Remix)
(Purely for R. Kelly's contributions and that's probably the first time I've ever said that.)

4. Gym Class Heroes - Cupid's Chokehold
5. Saul Williams - Black Stacey
(I was rocking the remix with Nas last week. I very much like the different feel of the versions.)

6. Shop Boyz - Party Like A Rockstar
7. Willie Hutch - I Choose You
8. UGK ft. OutKast - International Playas Anthem
(Yep...that's the original right into the sample. I would say more, but 3000 really deserves his own post at this point.)

9. Wordsworth - That Way
10. Wordsworth - Trust
11. Wordsworth - What We Gon' Do
(See this is an example of me listening to something I want to but for whatever reason don't. I'm a big Wordsworth fan, for what it is worth.)

12. Dynasty - Adventures In The Land of Music

Freakin' Unbelievable II

2007-04-04T19:04:00.000-04:00

(Hey...anybody here???)

Freakin' Unbelievable

2007-03-26T13:08:00.000-04:00

This Division II Championship finish between Barton and Winona State is at least in the top 3 most incredible endings I have ever seen. I think I was in too much shock to put this up on Saturday when I watched it (so much so I forgot to record it on DVR). This was equivalent to Boise State winning for me. I just watched it again on replay and got chills. To see this Saturday and watch them Hoyas come back on Sunday, well, I was in a basketball thang. Atkinson went *Marvin O'Connor on these fools:

* Marvin O'Connor of St. Joseph's once scored 18 points in the final minute of a 91-90 loss to LaSalle, finishing with 37 points...yes, I just wrote 18 points in the final minute. That game needs to be youtubed as well...

Prison-Industrial Complex?

2007-03-22T10:51:00.000-04:00

~~The Apple Store in Vienna~~ A prison in Styria, Austria.

Even Avon Barksdale didn't have it this well.

Visions of Rod Tidwell

2007-03-21T18:36:00.000-04:00

"O.J. Mayo went out in a blaze of glory last Saturday while leading Huntington to a record third consecutive West Virginia Class AAA state basketball title. The 6-5 USC signee had 41 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds in a 103-61 rout of South Charleston. Late in the game he threw a long pass off the backboard, swooped in and dunked the rebound. With the crowd of 10,080 going crazy he then heaved the ball 25 rows deep into the stands. Nobody seemed to be bothered by the technical foul, because he received a standing ovation. He later gave one of his shoes away as a souvenir."

O.J. Mayo is on some Rod Tidwell in the end zone, T.O. on the Cowboy midfield star, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, over-the-top movie celebrations...

* To recap: he threw (a sick) pass to himself off the backboard, dunked, got hype, and threw the ball into the stands in celebration IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GAME (well, a minute to go). He's lucky George Teague wasn't around. I used to be torn between this being sick and ridiculous. Now, I think it's simply ridiculous. If it had been "THE Vince Carter Dunk" then it would only be sick. "Don't [believe] me, watch TV":

* I have to admit I'm proud (and, unfortunately, anti-shilling) to say that a modified version of this was used in Bill Simmons' (personal god) article/blog (3/22). I can knock that off the list. If only Simmons wrote for another website. Next up: The 10 Spot.

Top 6 a.k.a Motherload

2007-03-18T15:04:00.000-04:00

2nd Revised Edition:

As I'm sure you've all realized, there's nothing your General Musers enjoy more than making a good list. I recently stumbled upon Comedy Central's online stash of Chappelle's Show sketches, or as is it appropriately titled, The Motherload. (Mostly) Here for your viewing pleasure, and convenient reference:

My Top 7 Chappelle's Show Sketches (not including Rick James):
7. Before we dropped bologna on Afghanistan (no video)
6. Nicole Brown Can't Rap!
5. This some good-*ss cheese!
4. Allow me to reintroduce myself...
3. Is this anytime? (no video)
2. This.is.not.an.option.
1. The nigga tried to kill my faaaaaaaather.*

*Note: It has been brought to my attention that I was remiss in listing the #1 sketch as a "very honorable mention," when its hilarity quite possibly merits a #1 ranking. We'll see if it holds.

Informational Gangsters

2007-03-15T00:25:00.000-04:00

Self-Explanatory

2007-03-12T22:57:00.001-04:00

Guilty Pleasure

2007-03-09T00:22:00.000-05:00

Sophomoric for me to post this clip? Probably. Hilarious? Definitely.

InSIGHT

2007-03-07T10:27:00.000-05:00

While at the Optometrist, my doctor commented that my previous doctor had done a good job at maintaining my level of vision by recommending I use light reading glasses over my contacts if I'm going to be reading for a long period of time (yes, my vision is that bad). When he was done verifying the utility of that recommendation, he said, "Yep, you have a focusing problem."

My response: "Amen, doc."

Double the Love

2007-03-06T00:14:00.000-05:00

Is it possible to combine 2 things I love into a more perfect combination? I don't think so.

Can't Stop, Won't Stop

2007-03-05T18:54:00.000-05:00

Whoa. We're in a posting frenzy on the blog. Don't know what it is, but it seems I can't stop. The latest thing I felt the urge to share:

My WMA Song Rating System:
5 stars: Gets played on repeat (a lot)
4 stars: May get repeated, never gets skipped
3 stars: Won't get repeated, might get skipped
2 stars: Almost always gets skipped
1 star : Why did they record this shit?

Added Bonus -

From today's RedEye: If you know Chicago baseball, this is funny to you.

SoxPuppet and CubsPuppet are exchanging text messages...
SoxP: Congrats on holding my Sox to just 13 runs. If only I got frequent flier miles for all those Sox dingers.
CubsP: How did you get my cell number? Oh, well. At least Soriano went 3-for-3.
SoxP: That's the spirit. How was your winter? Raw and chapped, I hope.
CubsP: Only from forking over cash to stars. Some teams spend to win, other teams trade Freddy Garcia.
SoxP: I hate you. So Pryor and Wood pitch Monday? First 5,000 fans get a first aid kit.
CubsP: Oh. So funny. You should quit your day job and do comedy. Oh wait, you're a Sox fan. You don't have a day job.
SoxP: Heard Sunday's 12,903 at the Cubs' park is a record. Huh, the Cubs need the Sox to help boost their attendance.
CubsP: And here's the shocker: Not one shirtless Sox fan attacked an ump or a first base coach.
SoxP: You know, that joke is old and yet... yeah, it still hurts.
CubsP: I've only just begun.
SoxP: I'll see you in hell.

Kindred Spirits 5

2007-03-05T10:44:00.000-05:00

"OK, so two straight frustrating seasons have left Moss unhappy. The Raiders aren't too thrilled with him either, and he turned 30 three weeks ago. But here sits Oakland now, with the first pick in the draft, and with a quarterback they're gradually coming to like a lot, JaMarcus Russell, in their sights. Russell can stand at the 20-yard line on a windless day, take one step, and fling a spiral into the end zone 80 yards away. Why on God's green earth would they ever consider trading the guy who could make such beautiful music with Russell over the next two or three years?"

- Peter King, 3/5 Monday Morning Quarterback

"Then run and tell them ducks you heard Hovi new shit / He and the boy Phar-real make beautiful music"

- Jay-Z, Change Clothes

So.....

2007-03-04T02:16:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in an earlier post, i've been on an extended hiatus. This is primarily, because General Musings from Generalists was dead to me. However, like Lazarus I have arisen. Since then:

I finished Saints Row
Seriously contemplated starting a cigarette habit (and not some social smoker type shit, i'm talking about a real habit). After giving it some additional thought I passed on this one, although I don't think i'm out of the woods yet. If for some god-forsaken reason I have to stay in mid-michigan long term, expect the odds of this to greatly increase.
Realized how much I love New York (even though I would love it more, if it was between Arizona and New Mexico)
Barack Obama entered the presidential race (I had him at even odds), and Rush Limbaugh called him a Halfrican American
Started banging Young Folks
Started banging Black Mil k (J Dilla reincarnated)
Caught up on my reason reading
Made it out to Vegas
Discovered a new vanilla liqueur (Kajmir)
Finally saw Babel (not impressed) and the Prestige (was impressed)
Finally added the Robin Thicke album to my computer
Finished Blindness by Jose Saramango. The first half of this book is very very difficult to get through. If you want to think about some of the worst humanity has to offer, Saramango is servin' it up for you. Real Talk (even though I'm sure you won't believe me because of 3000)

See ya next time.... =)

More Things That are Delicious

2007-03-01T18:16:00.000-05:00

Seems I'm on something of a posting blitz right now. Whatever works. Here for your further reading pleasure:

10 More Things That Are Delicious-

1. Peach Sorbet (Whole Fruit and Haagen Dasz have been tested and are fully endorsed).
2. Tostitos Scoops or Bite Size tortilla chips (also Tostitos All Natural Medium Salsa)
3. Refrigerated Mini Snickers (had 4 for breakfast this morning)
4. Turkey and Havarti on Sourdough
5. Giardiniera Relish (Subway restaurants in Chicago have a very good mix)
6. Salmon Nigiri-Sushi (No wrap, no veggies, just a piece of fish over some rice. One of the 5 most delicious things I've ever eaten.)
7. Very good beef (The spare ribs at China grill or the grilled hanger steak at Sushi Samba qualify.)
8. Red Chimichurri
9. Fresh Ripe Pineapple (another one of the 5)
10. Betty Crocker Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (also makes pretty good cookies)

It's the Questions

2007-02-28T05:49:00.000-05:00

1. Isn't it genuinely mind-boggling that Martin Scorcese didn't have an Oscar until 3 days ago?
2. Don't we think Forrest Whitaker should write down his acceptance speeches from now on?
3. Aren't Justin and Fergie's albums just a little bit hotter than you'd like to admit they are?
4. Can you think of anyone who would beat out Tim Hardaway for Dumbest Man Alive?
5. What the hell is wrong with Scottie Pippen?
6. Does the fact that 35 degrees feels like a "nice day" after a month of sub-zero wind chills mean that cold is a state of mind? or at least that it's relative?
7. How much of a baller would you be if you didn't have to pay taxes?
8. Is R. Kelly the most prolific musician of our generation? Think about it...
9. (... as much as I like being feisty.)
10. Speaking of co-contributors (tri-contributors?)... where's Aristocrates' Vegas post? There has to be one afterall. Right?

Bonus Question: As I write this at 5am... Should I have known that 4 shots of espresso at 7pm would equal zero hours of sleep for me tonight?

And 1

2007-02-22T20:31:00.000-05:00

Greetings Folks...

Another day, another post. And as it turns out, my previous post was a most momentous one: Our 300th post here at the Musings. Had I been paying attention, I would've commemorated it with some (hopefully) clever commentary on the prolific nature our of postings. Instead, I'll just say a belated Congratulations to Us.

Now to the business at hand...

I recently returned from NBA All-Star Weekend in sinfully sunny Lost Wages, Nevada. A few observations:

1. Brian Urlacher is not nearly as swollen in person as he looks on tv. In person he looks like Brian Urlacher's little brother. (Brian Urlacher's still very cute little brother.)
2. The Mandalay Bay had to know what they were doing when they decided to erect the nation's largest advertisement in the form of Dwayne Wade's portrait on the side of their hotel. If you were wondering where your girl was staying, there's an 80% chance it would be in the hotel with D. Wade's face plastered on the side. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm.
3. Gambling is only fun for people who have virtually unlimited funds. Like if someone could take $2,500 out of your checking account without you noticing, at least until you balance your checkbook, then losing $100 on a hand of blackjack is probably pretty funny to you. For everybody else, the fun is a mystery to me.
4. Southwest Airlines is the official airline of Black America. A show of hands of everyone who felt like (or knows someone who felt like) they rode to Vegas on Soul Plane... Yeah, me too. And leaving Vegas??? Wow. Which brings me to my Theory of Lines:

When faced with an impossibly long line, like the one for Southwest Airlines that extended outside Macarran Airport and like 3 blocks down the street, you have a few options. You can
A) Turn around and not do whatever you were trying to do (i.e. fly home).
B) Find an alternative to that line (i.e. buy a ticket on another airline).
C) Get in line and hope you don't miss your flight.
or D) Find a gap in the line (i.e. someone who's not paying attention) and casually make your way into it.

I'm partial to Option D. And for those of you (like myself) who feel just a teensy bit guilty for cutting all those people and wanna restore your karma, keep an eye out for people walking up to the line with their jaws on the ground because they can't believe how long it is. Then invite them to get in line ahead of you. They'll be genuinely grateful for your generosity, and you'll feel like you've done a good thing.

So, to recap: 300 (and 1) posts... Urlacher not so big in person... I (heart) D. Wade... Gambling = bad... and when it comes to long lines, get in where you fit in.

Hollers...