Good friends + Procrastination + Samwell = Pure comedy

There are times in my life when I sit doing work and am distracted by my thoughts/my friends/the sounds outside/my hunger, etc. Today the distraction came in the way of my thoughts and friends. I was preparing my lessons for my world history classes (yes, plural -- I am actually planning for the whole week right now) when I received a call from my man friend. Of course, I took the call. Of course, we get on some random tangents about some stuff he has seen in NYC and some people I have come across today and in the past.

Some how we started talking about people with large rear ends -- not necessarily wide, but the kinds that protrude to the back a lot, the kind that make you say da-amnnn and wonder about basic functions and daily activities that must be difficult for that person.

Then the convo went to where it inevitable goes when the two of us talk about butts -- no nothing graffic or x-rated.

I bring you Samwell.

Please... you must watch the video. The intro is a bit long, but then he gets started in on the lyrics. Some of you may be turned off by the content, but you must stick around to see the special effects throughout the video. And his eye gestures and facial expressions are fabulous.



I want to say that Michelle introduced me to Samwell a few years ago. And I have been entertained and tickled by him ever since.

Where's the Maytag man?

I understand that there are problems in this nation with severe unemployment rates. I also understand that there are a lot of people that work from home or do stay at home work for their families.

What I don't understand is how companies that do service work have not adjusted to the fact that many more people work. During the day. And cannot take off work and sit at home to wait for a 6 hour period for a service person or delivery person to show up. I don't have a job where I spend 25% of the day goofing off. I deal with children and their various issues/stories/dramas etc while trying to make sure I cover the material and skills I am trying to get them to master all day.

It is ridiculous. I need my washing machine serviced. I told them that I could not be home until 3 pm. They told me that they would come by after three. They then call me at 1:30. Fortunately, it was during the Homecoming pep assembly and I had my phone with me. Unfortunately, they were calling telling me that they were at the door of my home.

I stepped away from the students, went into the parking lot and I went off like I have never gone off before. I then called the phone system people who told them to come at 1:30 and went off on them. I then called the Sears people and went off on them when they said the next appointment would not be until NEXT Saturday. Then I calmed down enough to enjoy the water balloon tosses, the tug of wars, and the pie eating contests the students participated in.

But back to business -- what the fuck is wrong with these people?

Why do they not work at coming to people's homes during hours when they will be home? Now I do not have some one else who can sit in my home and wait 6 hours for them to show up. No I do not want to take off work (and take more time writing sub plans for my classes than it takes to plan them for myself to teach) to sit for 6 hours myself to wait for them to come.

I rushed home since the person on the phone assured me that the fix-it-person would try and make it to my place after three and before 5. Now I still sit here -- pissed. Just called them back asking if they would still be coming since it is 5:10. No - the person has left the vicinity and likely won't be able to come back today. Though they will try and call today, she said -- yeah, right. Again they said that the next appointment won't be until NEXT Saturday!! WHAT!!!?!??!

If I was really feeling like being risky and if I had a lot of money, I would start a service company that worked 8 hours a day, but started at 2-3pm. Then you could get shit delivered or fixed or whatever during times that were conducive to a lot more people's lives.

I would become rich.

I would make so many people's lives so much easier.

I wish I had the resources to make that happen. Maybe someone will read this and come up with a way to make this happen.

I don't understand why it hasn't happened already. People have been delivering shit to people's homes for a really long time. And people have been needing stuff fixed for a really long time.

Delivery companies can get the peace sign -- though I'll put the index down!

Props to Gramophone

Congrats to my boy Roo and his wife for their new spot getting "Best New Bar" from the Riverfront Times here in St. Louis! If you haven't been by, check it out. They are on Manchester in South St. Louis just a bit east of Kingshighway.

The Gramophone.

I wish others could recognize this man

Was just catching up on reading some blogs and refound my boy The Progressive Proletarian (high school buddy). He had a link to this video that I didn't get to see from the DNC. Awesome. Inspiring. Touching. If you were (or weren't) juvenated, this will rejuvenate you.

I just wish people would see Mr. Kucinich as a viable candidate so we could really start doing some things right in this nation.



Don't forget to register to vote if you want to take part in the election next month. Deadlines are fast approaching. If you moved, register for your new place. If you are away at school or out of town, get an absentee voter ballot.

If you know some one who is going to be in the hospital on the day of the election, let them know that they can contact the election board and have some one come out and vote them in the hospital. (Same applies for people in jail that have not been convicted of a crime.)

Also be sure to look into the local issues around you that will be on the ballot. If you aren't going to vote for national stuff, at least take care of the stuff around you.

Playing with fire

Just for fun this Wordless Wednesday. Move your mouse, see fire.

I can totally see some high school (or older) kids getting high and doing this for a really long time in amazement.

McCain gets owned

Here is another example of how McCain says whatever is convenient at the time. (RIP Tim Russert) This is old, but it still shows the varying flip flopping.

Please watch the whole video to get the whole idea and to watch McCain get OWNED by Mr. Russert.




If you can't attack a person on what they say, what can you attack them on. Please pay attention to McCain's comments on the economic situation that he helped create as a person totally in favor of deregulation. Now we are just about in as bad shape as the nation was in during what has been called the Great Depression.

Are they finally admitting that racism exists?

Dude.

Are they finally admitting that people will not vote for a black man for president? Are they finally admitting that people hold deep seated racist views that will not let them vote for a person they feel is part of a race that they find "lazy" and "violent"?

Read the article.

It is about time people are admitting this shit. It is about time people are not ignoring the fact that a lot of white people in this country have racist opinions and just will not allow themselves to support a black person even if that person holds their same political views.

Did they really need a poll to figure this out?

Summer is officially over - let the new procrastination begin

It is the time of year that officially means that summer is over. New fall seasons of tv start and the summer shows are ending.

One of my favorites for a couple years has been Weeds. Awesome show! Crazy situations. The first two seasons made me want to upgrade the cable to HBO. The third season was a bit far out, and the fourth just ended. They kind of eased off on some of the craziness, but the end of the season was super-duper -- I don't even know how to describe the weirdness and the basic anger that I felt for some of the characters on the show.

I can now cut off my HBO -- really not even sure why I got it since a lot of the episodes I was watching online, but sometimes it just feels nice to watch it on tv when it is first shown.

Every time the last few seasons have ended, I have said that there is no way I can watch another season of Weeds if it keeps getting more and more crazy, that I would boycott. But maybe they have some sort of crack that comes at you through the screens, because it just keeps me coming back. Maybe I am hoping for some sort of closure, for some sort of resolution, for Nancy to get rich quick and then give it up, for the DEA to hook up with one of the drug dealers, for the chil'run to get kidnapped for doing some stupid stuff, for Celia to just crash and have her children or husband do something really horrible to her (well, that is finally about to happen -- possibly) I don't know, something. But it never seems to happen. There is just more and more drama.

But I am excited to watch another season.

In the mean time, I have a lot of fall shows to use to add to my procrastination-of-necessary-work habit.

A man, his man stick, and a park bench

A brief moment of comedy for you all. (Though for the men, or others who are sensitive to others' feelings, perhaps some pain.)

Unbelievable. This story gets funnier to me the more I read it and really think about what must have been going on.

A man in Hong Kong almost lost his penis as he was humping a metal bench in a park. It happened on 8.8.08, which was said to be a lucky day in the culture. He thought he would take advantage of the luck and have at it with a bench full of holes.

Ooohhhh how those benches must have turned him on.

I guess he was bigger than he thought, because he had to call emergency workers to get him free. They came, tried to pull him out -- didn't work. Tried to release some blood from his member -- didn't work. They ended up having to remove the entire bench from the park with him on it and take him to the hospital.

Click here to read the full story.

Or you can watch the video here. I'm not sure if the moaning is actually really this man, but it adds to the effectiveness of the video. Especially when you think that his initial moaning probably sounded much different than the way it sounds when he is being rescued. Also imagine what embarrassment this must have been. And was his cellular phone easy to reach or did it cause more pain in him to reach down his pants leg which was likely a bit farther down than normal to reach for it in the pocket? And did he call in a normal manner and try to rationalize his condition, or was he hysterical from the first moment someone answered his call?

Flip flops, mix-ups, or just plain lies?

More politics. I can't help it.

Strange sculptures

Wordless Wednesday this time is not focused on one particular artist. Instead I bring you some really cool, different sculptures from around the world.

Westenbergstraat, Netherlands
Germany
The Magic Tap; Aqualand, Cadiz

Children; Oslo, Norway

Man at Work; BratislavaPi; Prague

Policeman; Brussels, Belgium

PragueThe River; Stockholm , Sweden

Quick start to a long day

Last night I had the best night's sleep. Even woke up a few times thinking of how great I was sleeping and how comfortable I was. Had some incredibly inspiring dreams of my changing the world for the better through workshops with KBO, her husband, my man, and some bloggers I follow (who it was weird dreaming of since I don't know what they look like).

At one point I was thinking how it felt like I was sleeping forever and it was so nice compared to the rain storm that was Ike's remnants yesterday morning. Then I had some random thought of how I hope it never comes down to me being late to work since it is much further than the last job and it would be harder to get there quicker.

Went back to sleep. Woke up again to another dream of a bunch of stray cats coming to torment me in my crib. I placed them in some sort of drawer but they kept getting out and long jumping on to my legs in an attempt to cuddle with me.

I stopped using an alarm clock a long, long time ago when I became too blind to see even a clock that was on a night stand basically on the mattress. Even with the Lasik now and my oh, so better than perfect vision, I still don't use an alarm clock since I really don't like the light that they emit. Stick with the cell phone.

So this morning I looked over to the cell phone and almost crapped my platform bed. It was 45 minutes past the time I normally get up. It was 15 minutes before the time I like to be at the workplace.

I hate to rush in the morning. I like to be able to check my email and see if anything has changed in the world since I last was online. I like to be able to take a peaceful shower. I really like to enjoy my couple bowls of cereal in the morning. (Breakfast is honestly the best meal ever invented. I even partook in some breakfast with beer the other night while out with KBO and Derek at Blueberry Hill -- I had no idea they served it all day.)

Not today.

Fortunately I get all my stuff ready the night before -- clothes, lunch, bag of stuff for school, keys, toiletries, etc, so I did pretty well. Brushed my teeth, showered, and was out the door 16 minutes after my heart almost exploded from the shock of how late I was. Made it there in record time and with a few minutes before classes began.

Once I got in, I also remembered that I have a meeting that doesn't start until 6, with dinner for it starting at 5:15. So I have a 12 hour day today.

On the bright side, with the high rate that my heart was beating at the shock of being so late, I think that could count as my cardio workout for about a week, so I can continue being lazy about exercising.

White privilege and the 2008 campaigns

This is scary, frightening, almost funny.

Funny until you realize it has to do with the future of the entire nation and the ignorance and lack of a sense of reality for many people who are not really paying attention to what is going on with the selection of the VP candidate and what is going on with the slamming of the Democratic candidate and the people around him.

Funny until you realize that brown people deal with way more than this on the daily.

Funny until you remember that it is not a game -- that the future of this nation and the relations of this nation and the rest of the world are at stake and will be partially decided in a few weeks. That this future is in the hands of some people who don't want to listen, pay attention, or even blink.

Tim Wise wrote an interesting little article "White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 Election."

Here are some excerpts:

• White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is… [when] no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.
• White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."
• White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.
• White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
• White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin’ redneck," like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
• White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
• White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn’t added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
• And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

More campaign distortions, missteps, and round about answers

I keep trying to stay away from the politics but like Michael Corleone, "just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

First up, McCain campaign ad distortions (otherwise known as lies). Unfortunately the people who really need to see these lies are probably not going to see them or even click to see this video.

Do watch.



Next we have him saying that governors and mayors do not have national security experience. You can also read the transcript here. He said it during a debate last year. But, suddenly your VP pick is ready when last year you said someone with th same experience as her would not be ready to be in office?



Here, Palin finally addresses (you be the judge of how successfully) the bridge issue. Again, she is good at bringing the question to an answer she has practiced giving rather than actually answering the question being asked of her.



You can also read this article here about Palin's words that were not so nice to various people in the community or to the Democratic presidential nominee. It also talks about how many people in her home state and where she was mayor are afraid of speaking out against her for fear of the "Republican Party machine".

If she's not going to blink, the rest of us need to. Blink. Open our eyes. And really see and listen to what is going on here.

Palin and Gibson

No matter how hard I try to stay away from politics, it keeps coming at me.

Check out this video of Palin with Charlie Gibson on ABC. Long, but listen to it all. Come back later if you need more time.


She is the one that people are completely switching their political views for? She is the one that is revving up the Republican party? She is the one they want to be a heartbeat (literally) from being president?

She doesn't even fully understand what the Bush Doctrine is.

I do have to give her credit for being good at not directly answering questions, though. The McCain campaign has trained her well to bull shit some answers and go around the question to answer it in a way that gets the points she is trained to answer out there.

I am ready for the debates.

Crickets, Race, Lil Wayne, and John McCain

Lately I have not been sleeping very well. An unfinished basement that echoes the sound of crickets chirping incessantly is really not good for REM sleep. I have tried so many techniques to get rid of those bastards that it is ridiculous. I tried more environmentally friendly methods; I tried not so hazardous methods; but it finally came down to fogging those bastards out yeterday.

I think that worked.

At least I didn't hear them as loud last night.

Though last night I still didn't sleep well since I kept waking up to listen to hear if I could hear any of Jiminy's friends.

When I did finally get some zzzz I had a horrible dream.

Horrible.

I was best friends with Lil Wayne and John McCain. We were on a road trip together with some huge insects and were driving on a road that was like a roller coaster with its incline so incredibly steep. And I couldn't see where the road would wind up when we finally reached its peak. The two guys were laughing and joking and all I could think about was how I hoped that the large incline would lead to nowhere so that I would drop off and not have to be around the two of them any more.

(Un)Fortunately, the alarm ended the dream before I could see the finale.

We'll see if Jiminy's cousins are back to scratching their legs together to keep me up tonight.

On a completely different note -- NPR started a story on race issues on Morning Edition and continued on All Things Considered asking some voters in York, PA "Does race matter in '08?" and about some general race questions. I didn't get to hear the afternoon portion yet, but this morning they said that in the afternoon some of the participants admitted that they still believe Obama is a Muslim.

Talk about lies and exaggerations being held in people's heads. If someone says something many people will believe it without looking into the actual facts. Like people saying that being a community organizer is a negative thing.

Tune in or check the site to see/hear the morning story and the rest of the story.

The art of Stina Persson

Remember in preschool when you used to do watercolor paintings and cut out paper and magazine clippings to make pictures? I never got into it because I didn't feel like I had control over the painting or image I was trying to make.

Perhaps I needed lessons from Stina Persson.

The city that never sleeps - or hides their stuff

I have always thought that New York City was filled with some weird characters -- people just seem to be drawn there and feel more free to be super interesting. I would love to just go there for a short while and people watch in all the various areas of the city. Until then, I will have to listen to the stories of my man while he is there.

The latest one is the strangest one I have heard or even imaged.

He was walking around on Sunday in Manhattan and passed this McDonald's. Outside there were several people sitting outsides since the weather was nice. There were street vendors selling their goods on the sidewalk, people reading newspapers, people who looked like tourists blocking his way of walking down the sidewalk -- the usual.

He was calling me at the time. I heard the phone start to ring, and then it stopped. I tried to call him back, but he didn't answer. It was about 10 minutes later that I heard back from him.

He said that he had just seen something that required his full attention in order to figure out what was really going on and if it was real.

Outside the McDonald's was a man in a pinstriped dark colored suit. The man had a McDonald's cup in his hand. He was standing up to the side of the seating area, but still in plain view of all the people sitting there and all the people who would pass by.

In the man's other hand was his male member.

Yes.

His penis.

Completely out of his pants.

Clearly being stroked.

He was finishing up as my man was making his call to me. Seeing him shaking the leftover stuff into the cup is what made him drop the call to figure out if he was really seeing what he thought he was seeing.

And when my man gasped and looked around to see the other people's reactions, they all looked at him like HE was the crazy one.

I guess that's how they do in NYC.

I'm going under the bridge

Two weeks of political ups and downs, many over exaggerations, and too many life stories are finally over.

The song that has popped into my head today is some old Chili Peppers -- Under the Bridge.

Seriously. I don't want to feel like I did these past few days and nights. And I don't want to ever feel anger like I felt after reading the anonymous poster's ignorant statements on Africa (and other nations) and on African Americans conditions and how black people really have it so easy in life. I have almost calmed down enough from those comments to be able to sit down and craft a response this weekend. Stay tuned.

Take me to the place I love.



Looking forward to a weekend of semi-mindlessness. Some house work. Some grading. Some planning of what could turn out to be THE event of the fall.

But definitely some chillin' out, maxin', and relaxin'.

About to go let it all begin with a/several dranky-drank(s) with some friends. Holla at me if you want to help me/you chill out this weekend.

Take me all the way.

He knows how the world works?

Possibly the best lines in the speech by McCain yesterday. (And by best, I mean the ones that caused me to gasp in astonishment and wonder if he really thinks these things of himself.)

"I know how the world works."

Oh. Really. I know you are older and perhaps that makes you a bit more knowledgeable about this. Though, most of the older people I know don't claim to understand the complicated workings of the world in which we live. Or maybe you are God.

"I know how to secure the peace."

Oh. Why have you been hiding this from the rest of the world for all these years? What's the secret? Please, do tell.

Video from John Stewart. Saw it the other night, then was reminded of it on KBO's site. Great at showing the contradictions that are huge in the right's media sources.

Wordless Wednesday: Julian Beever

I present some of the art of Julian Beever. Awesome 3-d pavement drawings.

Enjoy. Be amazed. Wish you could take a picture in/on/with one of the.

A little bit of music and war for the day

In class when the students are working on their own, or in groups I play music for background noise. I've heard many education "experts" say that it is a good way to get students to focus, good for transition times, and good for helping students not be able to hear what other groups are saying, yet be able to focus on their own group's discussion.

I typically use musicovery.com since it is not blocked and since I can select which music I do/don't want to have played. So when students really need to focus, I can select a genre that either won't have a lot of lyrics or will have lyrics the students may not know and be able to sing along with.

Today the song Three Little Birds by Bob Marley (Exodus album) came on. First I was really happy that a few kids in that class knew that the name of the artist. Then I almost became sick with the next student's comment.

"Oh, yeah. This is I Am Legend." At first I thought he was just misnaming the Legend best of album by Marley.

But, no.

The only reference the kid has of Bob Marley is a from that Will Smith movie. I haven't seen it. I looked it up to see what else was on the soundtrack and there are a few other Bob Marley hits on there as well (though the soundtrack cd available on cduniverse does not have the Marley songs on it - just the list on imdb).

I guess I should be happy that they are at least getting to hear the music. And maybe it will get them to hear more of his music and really listen to some of his lyrics.

One I really love is War. Just love all that he is saying and the emotion involved in it. I think it is perfect for not only this election season, but until all this stuff really does happen.

Posted here for your viewing and listening pleasure.



Though perhaps I shouldn't post this song since some may think that since he is saying there will be war "until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned... Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes... Until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race."

Some may misinterpret that he was a hateful terrorist.

Perhaps this one will be ok instead -- Africa Unite



Have a great day! I am trying to do the same.

Let the party begin

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now was arrested today at the RNC. She was not one of the many crazies that were out protesting.



See the show site for more information.

This always tickles me

I came across this artist over a year ago. And was reminded of him again as I listened to some Earth Wind and Fire. Their falsetto is nothing compared to Vitas Bumac's singing.

Please. Hold in there until he really starts to break it down. Awesome. Mesmerizing. If you are sensitive - it will send chills down your spine. If you are not, you will wonder if he is a eunuch or how it is that he is able to reach such high notes.