Life in the Mind of a Modest Genius

O the Randomness

Vending machines should take pennies

It's so sad that the media is still on this Tiger Wood's story yet Tom Brokaw and his wife kill someone in a car accident the same weekend and you barely hear a peep about it

It cracks me up when some jerk cuts me off because he's in a hurry and then I see that same arse got pulled over by a cop further down the road

You ever notice when we get inclement weather, the main vehicles you see in the ditches are the SUVs and trucks?  It's the same people who think they are invincible to the elements because of the type of vehicle they drive

I miss those "I Love the [Decade]" shows VH1 did.  They need to make some new ones

They can go somewhere with all those "the Love of" shows.  Just give all of those contestants AND the show's stars a year's supply of penicillin and call it a day

It's funny how everyone suddenly becomes a meteorologist overnight once the weather starts getting real bad

Happy birthday to the legendary creator of the Popeye cartoon series, E.C. Segar.  Which reminds me that I need to get the 80s "Popeye" movie as one of my upcoming Vault Picks.

Greg Oden is injured and out for the season AGAIN.  They need to do a carbon dating test on him.  I'm pretty sure he really is closer to 40 than he is 22

Don't send me an e-mail in all caps talking about you forgot to take off the 'caps lock'.  That's just lazy.  You saw it was in all caps before you sent it

I've added whale-watching to my bucket list

Sade only puts out a new cd about once every five years and yet everytime her new joint drops, it STILL ends up being hotter than most of the music that is out at that time

Snow is NOT my friend.  The only time I've ever totaled a car was thanks to snow

It should snow on Christmas Day and only on Christmas Day.  And even then, it should be just enough to cover the ground.  Not enough to be dangerous

The Vatican recently chose Pac's "Changes" to be on their official music playlist.  I'm not sure which is worse...the fact that they chose ANY Pac song or the fact that they're on MySpace in the first place.

Looks like our local "Black" station has stopped carrying the Tom Joyner Morning Show AND Doug and DeDe on the Ride in the Afternoon.  Thank goodness for that iHeart Radio app.  I just wish it would have better range.

People are getting carried away with their hiding behind the word "allegedly".  When there's documented proof...especially video or audio...you did it.  There's nothing "alleged" about it.

Thank you Iowa weather for reminding me again why I want to move.

'Nuff said.

Par for the Course

All day long I have been inundated with the endless tweets about Tiger and his current situation.  Then there was the e-mails being passed around about their new Christmas card.  Not to mention countless other jokes that have surfaced.  His whole reckless driving and reckless straying to match have been played to death which is why I wasn't' going to say anything.  But then I started thinking about some things about th3 whole episode that just didn't sit right with me and I felt compelled to speak on it.

Well all know by now that Tiger cheated.  First and foremost, does it come as a big surprise to anyone?  This is one of the most famous professional athletes in the world.  He has more than endorsement deals thrown his way on a constant basis.  He is only human.  A human man. Not to say that it's not impossible to resist the urges, but we all know that athletes are renown for wandering.  Tiger's not exempt just because he is who he is.

The thing I don't get it is when you have that much money, you have the resources to be more discreet about your indiscretions.  Like the whole cell phone thing that got him into trouble.  He should have two cell phones:  one that the wife knows about and one that is for the jumpoffs.  You don't EVER give your real number to the jumpoffs.  Because there's always that slight chance that the wife will search your phone and want to know who those strange numbers belong to. 

That brings me to my next point:  the infamous call.  In case you haven't heard, there's audio circulating around of a voicemail message Tiger left one of the other women.  He's telling her to remove her name from the voicemail because his wife found the number on his phone.  WHY ARE YOU LEAVING A MESSAGE??  He should know that the chick would potentially keep it to use for later.  You're not supposed to leave a trail, Tiger!  Especially if he's not breaking her off some ends which it appears that he clearly wasn't.  For Tiger to be so intelligent, he sure didn't have much common sense.

My favorite part about the whole mess is how Tiger puts out a statement where he is essentially requesting privacy.  Sorry, dude, but you know it's not that simple.  When you're one of the most recognizable celebrities in the world, you don't have that luxury.  Maybe if you would have been more cordial with the media, this thing would not have been such a big deal and could have just blown over.  You think you would have learned that from hanging out with Michael Jordan all the time.  Now you're just going to have to suck it up and ride this rocky wave out.

Don't get it twisted thinking that I am taking sides on this one.  There's no Team Tiger and definitely no Team Elin for me.  She needs to recognize that she is where she is because she got a come up.  She used to be a nanny.  She knew what she was getting into and knows what comes with the territory.  If she was smart, she'd take a lesson from how Kobe's gold-digging wife handled a similar situation and keep on steppin'. 

O the Randomness

The shop has had The Dark Knight since last Friday and tell me it should "hopefully" be done this Friday.  Not what I wanted to hear.  Especially when I have to keep driving this junky loaner around.

It was good to see ISU beat Drake so soundly last night.  It was even better to see them score 90 points.  I think I'm going to make it a point to watch more of their games this season.

Are high-water pants required as part of the meter maid uniform?

Just found out recently there's a dollar theater in Ames.  Now THAT'S what I'm talking about.  If I mess around and find out their popcorn is on point too, it's on!

Not for nothing, but Taylor Swift should really be thanking Kanye for the huge boost her career has gotten lately.  Seriously...how many of us knew who she was before that incident?  I knew the name but wouldn't have been able to pick her out of a line-up if you paid me. 

I was all excited about my 7th arb win today just to have somebody end up pissing me off less than an hour later.  I hate when that happens.

Nobody is misunderstood.  It's just what people say about themselves when they don't like who they are. 

The eye is nearly back to normal.  The blood red color is more like a faded salmon shade.  Whew!  I was getting worried for a minute there.  That would have sucked to go thru life with a jacked up eye like that.

Just checked out Rakim's new cd.  As I expected...Eh.  He's still got the lyrical ability but the production was lacking big time.

Speaking of new cds, I hear that Ma$e is talking about releasing 5 mixtapes the same day.  Dude...you would really want to just focus on one quality cd instead of 5 crappy ones.

I hate it when I get click happy with the mouse and end up closing an application that I needed.

There must be a rule that dictates the actors in radio commercials have to be obnoxiously loud. 

I'm thinking about trading in the gel cover on my iPhone for a slick looking hard cover one.  Still wavering on that one though.

I need to get back to taking more random pictures.

There's no need to put your turn signal on when you're approaching a curve.  That's almost more annoying than those people who don't use their turn signal when they're making a legitimate turn.

'Nuff said.

O the Randomness

Soupy Sales died.  Many folks my age and younger (myself included) couldn't name a show and/or a single movie he played in if you paid us, but we recognize the name.  Anyway, rest in peace, Soups.

Whatever happened to Charlie Pride?

I wonder if the "Saw" movies will eventually surpass the "Friday the 13th" franchise and churn out over 13 installments.  Pretty sure it will happen.

I'm determined to win one of those prizes in that McDonald's Monopoly game.  And not one of the freebie breakfast sammiches and/or medium drinks.

If I don't win anything again this year, I am confident that those "winners" they list and name are all actors.

After a disagreement with a Papa's Murphy pizza (which I lost decisively), I am convinced I won't ever be doing any "Man vs. Food" challenges

I wonder if NFL teams have a play or two designed to purposely use that ref in the middle of the field as interference

Time to step up my game for the 31 Days of Horror Marathon.  I'll have to watch about two a day for the rest of the week to get 31 in for the month.  I don't see that happening.

It's hard to be an Iowa Hawkeye hater when they're #4 in the polls and representing for the entire state.  Although it's making their fans that much more obnoxious and we can all do without that.

The next time I decide to get out of pocket, I'm going to blame it on the rain...or the boogie...haven't decided which yet

So Lionel Ritchie's cut "Hello" was really kinda stalkerish.  Even the music sounds a little horror movie-ish.  How did I not pick up on that before?

It doesn't change the fact that I had a crush on the blind girl from that video for the longest.  Whatever happened to her?

I used to know how to make hospital corners.  I couldn't do it now if you paid me.

Now they're trying to imply President Obama is sexist because he doesn't have any women play ball with him when he hoops?  Give me a break already

A FB friend of mine introduced me to a new interesting site:  www.iseecolor.com.  It appears to be very time-consuming if you get caught up in some of the forums out there, but some of the conversations are very interesting.

Facebook is killing me with their "Reconnect with" suggestions.  What they really should be suggesting is that we delete those friends since it's obvious they never use FB.

'Nuff said.

 

Random Pic of the Day

Bye Bye Black-face

So I'm watching the Iowa/Michigan game this past Saturday.  The only real reason was to see if it would be the one game where the defense finally wouldn't be able to bailout Stanzi.  That's when it happened.  Just like it always seems to during a football game where one of the teams has black as one of their school colors.  The cameras flashed on a couple of morons wearing all black-face.  Black-face.  In 2009.  I felt the urge to casually mention how stupid it was on my FB status and realized I need a post about it to fully explain why it incenses me so much.

One of my former classmates from Norwalk innocently indicated she didn't see a problem with it.  I don't fault her at all. I understand that there are some folks who grew up in Norwalk who weren't familiar with the atrocities that were committed historically that shape the conscience many of us brothas and sistas have today.  How could they?  It wasn't taught in our history classes there.  We didn't have Black History Mont then.  If students wanted to expand their palate to digest more diverse history, they would have to take it upon themselves to do so.  Much like I did once I got to Iowa State.

They wouldn't have known that black-face came about as a means to further humiliate and demean our people.  It was a way to lampoon our beautiful appearance by further likening us to creatures instead of human beings.  There is nothing redeeming about it.  AT.  ALL.  It is basically a slap in the face to every Black person when someone prances around in it now because it's a constant reminder of the racist connotations that are commonly associated with it.

I will never forget when we were in Middle School (most people know it as Junior High) and we got excused from class to watch the faculty take on the 8th grade boys basketball team.  The teachers felt the urge to come out in black-face in their feeble attempt at humor as the dunked on 7-foot goals.  The students and other teachers were all roaring with laughter.  I was the only one sitting there with my mouth agape as I was in awe at what I was seeing.  Even in only the 6th grade, I knew that was wrong.  If I did, you KNOW they did.

Unfortunately, it seems like there is somewhat of a resurgence of black-face as of late.  The most recent example is French Vogue magazine that had their "super"model Lara Stone (is she really that super if you've never heard of her?) pose in it.  Most of us don't like the French anyway and they don't like us.  Therefore, it shouldn't come as any surprise that they would do something that knew full well would be offensive to Black people.

Prior to that, there was the story of an Australian variety show where the contestants performed a Jackson Five song in black-face with Harry Connick, Jr. as one of the judges.  He rightly gave the group a zero score and even reprimanded the group for their actions right there on the show.  If I didn't already like Harry Connnick, Jr. before, I grew an entirely new found respect for him with that.  The Aussies got put in their place as they should have been, but it didn't change the fact that they also didn't see any problem with it.  Even though they later apologized for the skit.

My FB friend who was misinformed tried to use the comparison of a brotha in mime white-face and wondered why that was acceptable.  The only problem was it was a mime.  It's a known fact that part of the mime costume is to wear the white face paint.  It's no different than a football player wearing full pads.  It's what's required for the job and all nationalities do it.  It's not to wrongly impersonate a people, but rather to participate in an art form.  Huge difference.

That brings us back to the clueless fans wearing black-face at the games.  I don't buy that they are showing school spirit.  If the school's colors are black and gold then paint your face gold.  Paint it half and half if you have to.  Not black-face.  In this technology age, there's no reason for anyone to be so ignorant that they are not aware of how offensive that is.  They might as well have showed up to the stadium in a confederate flag while they were at it.  Do better, morons.

Mr. Bungles

If you had to find one redeeming feature about this week's Mr. Bungles recipient, it would be that at least the police officer involved didn't discriminate.  We're all used to the stories by now of how police brutality constantly has minorities as the victims.  A story about that wouldn't be a big shock.  It would still tick you off.  Or at least it should.  But it wouldn't be any revelation.  So to hear that one of the members of law enforcement was dishing some of that dirty justice on a special needs student would be quite the change of pace, huh?

You can thank the good ol' Officer Christopher Lloyd of the Dolton Police Department in Dolton, IL for switching things up.  Lloyd was working at the Academy for Learning School in Dolton, IL when he noticed student Marshawn Pitts walking the hall with his shirt untucked.  There's no audio on the video so we don't know what Marshawn said to the officer when Chris told him to tuck his shirt in.  However, Marshawn clearly did not appear to be a threat whatsoever.

What you can see on the video very clear is as Marshawn is slowly walking away from the officer, tucking his shirt in, Chrissy throws the 15-year-old into the lockers.  He did it with so much force that the kid looked like a rag doll hitting the metal lockers.  Chrissy easily had about 100-pounds on the scrawny student.  As if that wasn't enough, after his body ricochets off the lockers, Chrissy  throws him down to the floor face first, breaking his nose.

Did I already mention the fact that this was a special needs student?  Let me clarify...that doesn't mean that he was a troubled or at-risk youth who was there because he was a menace to society.  He suffered a brain injury when he was younger which left him with a learning disability.  It wasn't like this was some juvenile delinquent who deserved to be dealt some excessive force because he wasn't responding quickly enough for the cop's liking.

There's also much to be said about why the one-sided altercation even occurred in the first place.  All because the student's shirt was untucked??  I understand that some school's have dress codes that require shirts to be tucked in.  I also understand that the reason such dress codes are in place is to prevent the chance of students smuggling in firearms and/or drugs under their clothes.  However, was it necessary to take such aggressive action? Of course it wasn't.

Statistics show that over 20 people have died from the restraint move called a"face down-take down" that the cop used on Marshawn.  Eight states currently ban that maneuver for that very reason.  Illinois is not one of them.  I'm sure it's because they thought it would be useful when combating gang violence in the city.  I'm pretty certain it wasn't intended to be used on an unarmed special needs student that the officer is supposed to be protecting.

It's no surprise that the city didn't initially release the name of the officer involved.  They probably felt that since Chrissy resigned, there was no need to subject him to further public scrutiny.  It's pretty much par for the course when a police department realizes that they and/or one of their own has screwed up.  In this case, I hope that when the family takes the school to the cleaners that the no-name cowardly cop continues to feel the impact of his horrendous actions.  Oh, and thanks to the age of the internet, we are able to publish your name AND likeness for all the world to criticize your stupidity.

O the Randomness

It still kills me how some people refuse to get all the way over to the side of the road (when there's nothing obstructing their path) when emergency vehicles come flying by.

If I pose a question to you on your status update on Facebook and you don't answer it, prepare to be un-friended.

Susan Atkins, one of the Manson murderers who killed actress Sharon Tate, finally died from cancer.  No "Pour Some for the Homies" entry for her.  That is definitely more of a "Good Riddance".  I hope she enjoys the lake.

Speaking of Tate, they FINALLY arrested director Roman Polanski for his rape of a 13-year-old girl over 30 years ago.  Better late than never I guess.  That's what he gets for going to Switzerland and thinking he'd be safe.

My question is why was he messing around with 13-year-old girls when he had somebody like Sharon Tate??

Phil Jackson stands like he's in immense pain. 

I'm really diggin' this Colorsplash app for the iPhone.  I thought I would be confined to only pics on the phone but turns out I can do it with any pic then send it anywhere I want.  I may have just found my new top favorite iPhone app.

I forgot I even had this photo of Dad and G. 

Exactly when did they start (and who did it) celebrating the graduation of every single grade?  They sure didn't have that when we were shorties.

But would you have wanted to have that then anyway?  Doesn't it cheapen the high school graduation experience when you've been doing it for every other grade on your way there?

I would have liked the Cowboys to lose the second game in their new home stadium just to be spiteful.  That and I don't care for Jerry Jones.  Something about him just rubs me the wrong way.

Brothas...unless you are Mr. T trying to hold on to the 80s, the mohawk looks stupid.  PLEASE let it go.  And you parents that are allowing your boys to get their hair cut like that thinking it's cute....think again.  That should be child abuse.

Note to Penn State fans:  the Darth Vader masks painted all white looks idiotic.  That's probably why you guys can't seem to beat Iowa.

Say what you want, but I'm still a fan of pleated pants.  I just like the way they look.

I've been looking forward to the MMS patch for the iPhone ever since I got it and now that I have it, I hardly even use it.  But at least it's there for when I want to though.

Isn't it pretty sad that Charlie Murphy has surpassed his brother Eddie as the funniest in the family? 

When the elevator opens, always wait a second to see if someone is going to be getting off before you go barging on.  That's just common courtesy.  Not to mention common sense.

'Nuff said.

Things to Be Grateful For

I should just go ahead and make 'O the Randomness" a regular weekly featurelike I do Thursday Throwback or Mr. Bungles.

Of course then it wouldn't be very random, now would it?

Speaking of Mr. Bungles, after the President's speech last nite, I'll give you three guesses at who's getting this week's award and your first two don't count.

I found a new guilty pleasure on cable:  "Hoarders".  The only thing is you have to make sure you're not eating while you're watching it.  Found that out the hard way.

Allen Iverson going to the Memphis Grizzlies is about the saddest thing in the NBA since Jordan came out of retirement to play for the Wizards.  Almost.

HUGE game this weekend here in Iowa.  Iowa State vs. Iowa.  In Ames, no less.  I thought for a second there that ISU would be in trouble, but after seeing Iowa against UNI, I like our chances.

FINALLY got the tags for my car.  It would have been nice if the dealer told me they had them there instead of me sitting here thinking they were going to be mailing them to me.

My break from horror films is going to have to wait until after I watch "[REC]" which is already on its way here from Netflix.

I ashamedly admit that I have a little inkling to see "Sorority Row" after the trailers make it look rather interesting.

Then again, I though that with "The Final Destination 3D" and we saw how well that worked out.

I know they're frat and all, but I swear if get ONE more e-mail on Facebook and/or see one more post about the Alpha Eta chapter Back -to-School party...

I'm finally beginning to slowly navigate my way around West Des Moines.  Just so I can end up moving again in a couple of weeks.

New favorite site to past the time : Evony. 

Someone remind me to defrag my hard drive tonite because my lappy is running WAY slow.

So I'm guess I'm going to the Norwalk football game tonite since G wants to see my former high school play football.  This should be interesting.  Norwalk's football program has never been very impressive.

All-4-One reunited, huh?  Well I guess if New Kids can go touring, then why not All-4-One?  Even though their group is just a Boyz II Men knock-off.

I'm still holding out for that Troop reunion.

Last nite's game was a heckuva way to kick off the NFL season.  Yet an even further reminder that baseball needs to go somewhere and stay gone.

The Iowa Air National Guard recruiter won't return my calls regarding OCS.  That must be a sign.

Some folks really need to realize that closed-toe sandals were designed specifically with them in mind.  Elegant nail polish is not going to hide the fact that you got some jacked up feet.

'Nuff said.

 

 

Where Were You? (Pseudo-RePost)

There are few catastrophic events that are so significant enough that where and what you were doing is burned in your mind as to when they occurred.  Such as if you ask me where where I was when the Challenger exploded, I  clearly remember sitting in Science class when they wheeled the tv in and we watched the media replay it over and over.  Likewise, I'm sure my parents and everyone from that generation can vividly tell you where they were when they heard that King and Kennedy (and maybe even Malcolm X) had been assassinated.

So as far as life-altering moments go, I very distinctly remember where I was when I heard about the planes hitting the towers.  I had just dropped off Elijah and Mariah at school since I was living in Cedar Rapids at the time, working as a field claims rep.  On my way back to my in-home office, I was listening to 99.7 FM.  They talked about the first plane rather cavalier as they didn't fully know what happened.  Initially, it made a little sense just listening to the scenario that  it wasn't that bad.  Maybe a plane went too low and hit one of the towers accidentally?  I mean they are rather large so wasn't it bound to happen sooner or later?

I got home and started working my normal claims with the tv on and slowly got more details.  Then I realized what had happened.  I also recall trying to go to CNN.com to get even more info and they were so swamped with hits that it's the first time I EVER saw that site crash.

Long story short, on the eight year commemoration of the tragedy, I  can safely say that it is one moment in my life that I will never forget.  We can put the blame on as many different people as we want as to why it happened and it still won't change the fact that the surreal became a reality.  An attack on American soil.  Here we thought something of that magnitude could never happen and we all receved a jarring shock of true life.