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Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Audacity at an extreme
In Haro, Spain, 2004, a 17 year old teenager is killed by a Spanish businessman. The teen was hit from behind on his bicycle as the businessman sped through some campgrounds. The teen was dragged for some distance.
A judge ruled that the man had technically committed no crime and as such no criminal charges were filed. Fast forward to 2006, the businessman decides to sue the parents of the teenage boy. He claims that they are responsible for the damage done to his Audi A8 and the ensuing car rental fees. Yes, this man wanted the parents of the child he killed to repay him for his inconvenience! Never mind that their son is dead. Never mind that he did not spend a single day in jail though separate experts estimate he was doing 70 to 107 miles per hour...in a 55 mile per hour zone. No his precious fucking car (excuse the language) needs Maaco and he shouldn't have to pay! The audacity, cold-heartedness, stupidity, assholedness of this guy!
He has dropped the charges. However, he did not show up to court fearing the publicity would amount to a public lynching. Perhaps, a public lynching is what this bunghole truly needs!
Technorati tags: Audi A8, Haro Spain
Monday, January 28, 2008
Update to my Thirties
On the 22nd, I posted about my worrries concerning my athletic prowess on the hardwood. Just want to let yall know that I was killin' 'em the rest of the week. Banking three's (that I called) to win games, steals, blocks, the whole shabang. My cardio still isn't where I'd like it and I'll be taking some time off due to catching lil man's cold but the John's Creek LA Fitness lunchtime basketball crew has a new found respect for this kid!
Devin's Man Night
Last night, lil Man spent some time with the dudes. Mrs Xpinionated had to help a friend in need which left Devin alone with me and a couple of friends playing video games. You know he had to be having a good time because he was sitting in his high chair eating lasagne with his hands in his diaper. Every man's dream to eat some good pasta in your drawuhs with your hands while watching your friends play video games!!
Later in the night, one of my friends J was shooting Devin's little basketballs (or trying to) into the little goal. The balls landed over near Devin in the corner and J said 'Devin, get those balls for me.' Devin looked at him like I know you see me ridin' my zebra! Then J mimed shooting a basketball and being the smart kid my son is, he got up off the zebra, walked over to the balls, picked both of them up and proceeded to take them to J. Attaboy!
Oh yeah...check out Devin's new pics with his new haircut! And first haircut for that matter
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Aging
I have been back in the gym for the past week playing basketball Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday last week as well as yesterday. After yesterday's performance, there are some things that are becoming ridiculously clear to me
- The game may have passed me by
- My body isn't doing what I tell it to do anymore
- My mind doesn't seem to care about number two as much
- In my youth, I may have relied heavily on my natural athleticism instead of actual skills.
- Number 4 means the game has definitely passed me by
- I am taking Aleve before playing basketball hoping to make me knees numb
If I'm not as skilled as I once thought I was and athleticism made me the hardwood threat that I know I once was, what does this mean going forward as my knees and lungs ache every time I play? I'm hoping the lungs thing is just a matter of getting into shape. But I fear the knee thing is just from years of hard work. I don't expect to dunk anymore by any means. However, now the pains in my knees are in my head. I don't make the effort to jump unless someone has pissed me off -- after which I revert to my twenties for approximately twenty seconds.
I'm gonna give it another week of strictly ball playing, then I'll alternate day to day between balling and lifting. Maybe I can get these legs into something they once were.
Technorati tags: Pick uP Basketball, thirties
Friday, January 18, 2008
The Black Notebooks - Inspiration
I haven't used this forum to address race often. And I honestly don't know if that is intentional or if it has been done unconsciously. In any case, I am currently reading The Black Notebooks by Toi Derricotte. It is a book that I've owned for years and have started several times. For whatever reason, I couldn't get past the introduction.
So I restarted this novel a couple of days ago mainly because I was out of books to read at home. FINALLY, I got past the introduction and found the book nearly impossible to put down. It is a collection of written recollections from Derricotte -- who is a black woman of white skin tone able to 'pass' as white. Oddly enough, she has touched on so many experiences that I have had at one time or another. Some which make me smile thinking 'I didn't know anyone else felt that way' and others that don't make me smile.
It has encouraged to maybe confront my feelings on race more directly. I tend to put my feelings about race out in a joking manner. Almost censoring myself when the topic is brought up outside of the comedic forum. The thing is that I'm not sure how I feel about race relations as a whole. If you give me a specific event or situation where race plays a part, I could probably argue until the cows come home. But generally speaking, it's a bit harder.
Mrs. Xpinionated often hears me say something about how I don't like people. Sometimes I'm more specific and say I don't like black people, the joke being that I'm black. Other times, I'll throw other races in there. It's not that I don't like any particular race, I truly believe everybody gets on my nerves at one point or another. Again, tying it to race is my defense mechanism of making a joke to either conceal my true feelings or protect the feelings of others -- and I'm not sure which it is. Mrs. Xpinionated finds it even funnier because strangers seem to talk to me quite often which is unexpected for a person that claims they don't like people. I guess the truth is I don't like people in general but within that large population of 'general', I am willing to make exceptions for specific individuals....does that make sense?
I digress. Race has been left out of this blog partly because I sometimes get tired of hearing about it. Sometimes it's left out because though I feel I want to talk about it, I don't know how to approach. I don't want to be the victim playing the race card nor do I want to talk as if I'm the voice of black folk everywhere. Sometimes I don't write because I fear what I write may signal alarms to my white friends and family that I don't want to deal with. But race is always there with me whether I acknowledge it or not. And if I start to write about it on this blog, I don't want to censor myself, cleanse myself, or otherwise change my writing so as to not offend.
Derricotte speaks of 'bearing and baring anger' in her writings with regards to race relations among friends of different races. In brief, in order for any lasting communication to be worthwhile between friends of different races, both parties must be allowed to bare anger as well as both parties must bear anger. The anger cannot be thought of as a personal insult; rather an accumulation of emotion and experiences that have reached a boiling point.
So I guess that if I plan to get a bit more serious on this blog, especially with the touchy subject of race, I ask that you bare anger when you need to and be willing to bear anger when it comes to that.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Turn of events
In foxsports.com's latest NBA Power Rankings, the Miami Heat are ranked 30th out of 30 teams. The Los Angeles Lakers are ranked 1st out of 30 teams. How's that for a 'flip the script' kinda moment?
| NBA Power Rankings Week Of 01/15/2008 | |||||
| Rk | Team | Last Wk | Rise/Fall | High/Low | Comment |
| 1 |  Lakers | 7 | (+6) | 1/15 | (26-11) Will Kwame Brown pick up the slack during Andrew Bynum’s absence? Don’t count on it. Count on Kobe to start scoring 35 per night – or more, like the 48 he dropped Monday on Seattle. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 2 |  Hornets | 5 | (+3) | 2/19 | (25-11) They’ve won seven straight on the road. Imagine how good they'd be if they enjoyed an actual home-court advantage. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 3 |  Celtics | 1 | (-2) | 1/4 | (30-6) Their defense has remained excellent, but offense is becoming a serious problem. They averaged 82.5 points in going 1-3 last week Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 4 |  Suns | 3 | (-1) | 1/9 | (26-11) Grant Hill's appendectomy means Boris Diaw needs to play a much larger role. Can he handle it? Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 5 |  Pistons | 2 | (-3) | 1/9 | (28-10) They must have been wasted by the end of that five-day, four-game road trip. Nothing else explains scoring 65 vs. the defenseless Knicks. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 6 |  Mavericks | 4 | (-2) | 1/8 | (23-12) They might be No. 1 if they’d knocked off the Kings on Monday. But if you can’t beat the Kings, you can’t be the king. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 7 |  Trail Blazers | 8 | (+1) | 7/22 | (23-14) Of all the improbable success stories on this team, the most improbable may be James Jones, a career sub-40% shooter who can’t seem to miss this season. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 8 |  Spurs | 6 | (-2) | 1/8 | (25-11) The Tony-Timmy-Manu triumvirate is finally intact. So why do the Spurs still look so average? Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 9 |  Warriors | 10 | (+1) | 9/28 | (22-16) Monta Ellis is a perfect fit for Nellie’s offense. He just needs to become more consistent and improve his shooting range, but he’s only 22. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 10 |  Jazz | 14 | (+4) | 5/16 | (22-17) Utah protected its home court with four straight wins. The Jazz are now 16-3 at home, 6-14 away. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 11 |  Nuggets | 11 | - | 7/11 | (21-14) Other than Marcus Camby, no one on this team seems particularly interested in playing defense. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 12 |  Wizards | 15 | (+3) | 11/27 | (17-15) The consecutive wins over the Celtics were especially surprising when you consider that Washington hadn’t beaten a team with a winning record since Dec. 1. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 13 |  Cavaliers | 13 | - | 10/20 | (19-18) It’s a good thing LeBron is putting up the numbers of two normal players. Because Sasha Pavlovic has provided next to nothing. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 14 |  Rockets | 16 | (+2) | 5/19 | (20-18) Houston's offense has gone through Yao during Tracy McGrady’s absence. It should do the same when T-Mac returns. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 15 |  Raptors | 17 | (+2) | 10/17 | (20-17) Chris Bosh’s commercial is cute, but his play will determine whether he makes the All-Star team. Totaling 78 points and 25 boards in back-to-back wins helps his cause. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 16 |  Magic | 9 | (-7) | 2/16 | (23-16) They’ve now gone 7-12 since their 16-4 start. The main culprit? Arguably the NBA’s worst backcourt. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 17 |  Nets | 12 | (-5) | 12/20 | (18-19) For a while, it looked like New Jersey was going to make a move in the Eastern Conference. But it’s looking more and more like this is a .500 team – nothing more, nothing less. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 18 |  Hawks | 18 | - | 8/21 | (16-17) No wonder the Hawks are so good at home. Their stat crew uses fuzzy math in counting opponents’ fouls. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 19 |  Bobcats | 26 | (+7) | 13/27 | (11-21) In a span of seven days, they beat the Nets, Celtics and Nuggets – and nearly beat the Cavaliers and Pistons. That would be a good week for an elite team, much less a mediocre one. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 20 |  Kings | 23 | (+3) | 15/30 | (15-21) Aft er sitting more than a month w ith a groin injury, Kevin Martin picked up where he left off. The man is a scoring machine. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 21 |  Bulls | 20 | (-1) | 8/30 | (14-21) Andres Nocioni is starting to get untracked for Chicago. Will Kirk Hinrich join him? Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 22 |  Pacers | 19 | (-3) | 11/28 | (16-19) That Western swing was predictably brutal. Indy allowed at least 105 points in all five games and lost four of them. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 23 |  76ers | 21 | (-2) | 21/27 | (14-24) Consecutive 20-rebound efforts by Samuel Dalembert haven’t kept the Sixers from freefalling. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 24 |  Bucks | 22 | (-2) | 9/25 | (15-23) That road trip against the Lakers, Suns and Jazz went about the way you’d expect – three L’s. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 25 |  Grizzlies | 24 | (-1) | 23/27 | (10-27) Pau Gasol’s role in the Memphis offense is increasing. So is his trade value. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 26 |  SuperSonics | 25 | (-1) | 23/29 | (9-28) Nick Collison is playing like a legit NBA power forward. As this franchise looks toward the future, that’s a positive sign. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 27 |  Clippers | 27 | - | 13/27 | (10-23) Sam Cassell's not making shots and the Clippers backcourt has no keepers, unless you count Shaun Livingston. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 28 |  Knicks | 29 | (+1) | 18/29 | (10-26) Rumor has it Stephon Marbury will opt for ankle surgery to hasten the end of his season. Other Knicks might be wise to follow suit. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 29 |  Timberwolves | 30 | (+1) | 28/30 | (4-29) Beating the Heat gives Minny a reprieve from the cellar, at least for one week. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |
| 30 |  Heat | 28 | (-2) | 17/30 | (8-28) Miami had a loss stricken from its record (temporarily) based on an error by the Hawks stats crew. Pat Riley is now protesting the other 28 losses on the basis of human error by his players. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy |  advertisement |