What a week

You know what? Sometimes you need to pause, and take stock. It does not makes sense to act like things that would affect any warmblooded person will not or did not affect you, to show some sort of resilience to people as if nothing bothers you.

This has been a stressful week.

Even without the personal emergencies and stress of the end the semester there are some things that are a little less obviously deemed as contributors to stress. I've moved. And I'm going to be in between two homes. I'm out of school for the summer and need a job. My financial realities are growing and creeping up on me. My immediate future is quickly becoming my long term future.

So I am going to make an attempt at not snapping at people who have nothing to do with my stress. And for those who do cause stress, the same.

There are just some thing you can do absolutely nothing about.

It's no fun not being #1, but what to do, when you're not even #2?

When you thought you were the first pick, the one most wanted, when in reality you slid down to eighth. When you think that you were the first option but you became the second. No not even second, they found eight other options to choose before you.

You who, sacrificed all of what you could've had a year ago, to be with others. Then when you get to your day to see your come uppins they are focused on something that they think is better.

When you were the talk of the town, the best thing going. Or so they said. When in reality they secretly wished for something else, another shade, another body type, more upside than you.
What do you do? How does it feel when you're devalued, and then what do you do with that energy?

They say that doing well is the best revenge.

But how do you succeed when even those that selected you did all that they could to draft higher, to pick someone else, but beyond there control they were in line behind several others, and at the time when they got to pick you were the "best available?"

How does that feel? When you are the best available. Not that you are the best, you are the best available under these circumstances. Not that if I had my choice of all that were on the board, that I would've picked you first and only, no, you were the best available at the time.

It's draft day in the NFL, and I was just sitting here watching it. Looking at how things went down. The guy that would have been last years first pick, the one that would've had the highest rookie salary, decided to stay at USC, and help them when another national championship for his school. And in this years draft, he was projected to go second behind his team mate Reggie Bush, but no, he didn't even become the second pick, he slid to number 8.

Then the story this month is that Bush has been receiving money and stuff from an agent during his college career and that's illegal so he didn't even get selected number one. Nor did the guy that actually won this year's national championship, Vince Young. "How does it feel to be Matt Lienart or Reggie Bush today? Are you just happy that someone selected you? Happy that you get to play or enter the game?

I'm just wondering how it would feel if I were in a similar situation.

Note to the folks at V W.... Let me watch T.V. in peace.

I don't know about you, but I have got enough stress in my life. Women and children (no, not WIC), grown ups, and babies (no not Mannie fresh, well maybe so) that are in my life are giving me enough of a hard time, I don't need T.V. adding to it.

I don't know if you've seen it or not. But if you haven't yet and you watch TV, then you soon will. As a matter of fact they have two now. But there is this commercial where two guys are riding in a car, they're having this boring conversation that kind of lulls you to sleep. They're talking about relationship issues and one of the guy suggest that they guy stop using the phrase "you know" or something or other and the commercial is kind of deceitful in my opinion because they lull you to sleep with this quiet calm conversation and then out of the corner of your eye, there's a red truck which you'll miss if you're not paying attention, which seems to be the commercial’s intent. Then...

BANG!!!!

The two vehicles meet with a collision force that seems to belie the speed at which both objects are traveling, next frame the two guys are ok and saying to each other "Whoa!" with a surprise that says how'd we make it out of that?

I believe Volkswagen’s point is to impress upon us how safe their cars are. And I know that the major goal of marketing is to keep the products name in the face of the consumer, but I tell you this doesn't make me want to buy, it makes me want to hunt down the add exec that came up with this idea and shoot them. Well maybe not shoot them, but do them some harm.

Now don't get me wrong I like Beemer’s and V W's. Side note, I had to actually call a car dealer to prove to my “Know It All” Aunt that I wasn't just a know it all adolescent when I told her that BMW stood for Bavarian Motor Works. And please, don't argue with me and make me prove that they are the same people that make Volkswagen. Any way, I like your cars, the 755 IL, which me and my friends call the ILL, because it's so sick. I like the X5 and I even like the Toureg and the Passat, matter of fact one of my cousin and her husband bought one each.

But.... this commercial....

It brings back bad memories of my own accidents, people that I know that have died in accidents and I believe incites the fear of accidents. Talk about violence on T.V. I'd rather see 50 cent shooting people in a music video, or the terminator killing people in search of sarah connor.

So... to the German car makers or the to the undoubtedly American ad agency that created this commercial, I'd rather see a monkey ripping appendages off of one of those Australian nature ranger dudes than to see car accidents invade my day on the screen.

I don't know if I'm going too far, but you get my point don't you?

And btw, ABC/ESPN, can I watch the NBA playoffs without seeing trailers for “The flight 93” movie?

Thanks!

have we gone too far with our lyrics?

I love hip hop, and am a strong proponent of it.

I think most of the art that we call hip hop is grounded in real experiences and therefore its resonates with people. I preface by saying that at times hip hop skews reality in order to sell records and it creates a distorted view of reality that some, albeit a minority, try to live according to it.

I am a liberal as they come in reference to hip hop and sometimes I lean too much on the side of defending the most un-defendable lyrics, but I might have to draw the line on this one.

The other week I was accompanying my friend to her sons pre-school, and on the way back to his primary class, we had passed thru the older children. And while on the way I heard the unmistakably familiar and catchy tune of a popular song that I myself have found myself singing… but out of the mouth of babes, I don’t know.

“I’m in love with a stripper…”

Coming from the mouth of a four year old, I must admit, was quite disturbing. I know, I know.. he probably doesn’t know what a stripper is, or know what love is for that matter, but no matter. The sounds and the words coming out of this little boys mouth has stuck with me since I heard it.

Can I make a case for these kind of words being sung over the airways? No.

I remember when I heard my first gansta rap tape. I listened to Ice-T on a small portal radio player, we called it a box. I had to put the box under the bed and listen to it with my ear to the speakers with the volume to the lowest, for fear of my pops catching me listening to what I was sure he’d deem as garbage.

Now I’m almost sure that same Ice-T tape could run on the hip hop & R&B’s regular rotation in the middle of the day now with almost no censure. Maybe not the “Girls, let’s get buck naked and F$%k!” one.

It’s not just happening on the radio or with hip hop. You can hear four letter words on network TV during prime time. Movies that used to be regulated to cinemax after 1:00 or 2:00 o’clock in the morning with much T&A are shown at any time of the day.

Can you just imagine how many different ways a child could compute the words "I'm in love with a stripper?"

I don't know if it will warp our kids or not, but I've stopped listening to the radio for the most part. This just gave me another reason not to and to ask, have our lyrics gone too far?