Thursday, January 24, 2008

Mid-week Musings - A Day Late

So here I am boys and girls. I had genuinely intended to give you blog junkies your literary "crack" yesterday - metaphorically speaking, of course - to get you through the rest of the work week. Blame it on my baby, A.K.A. my novel that continues to blossom; well, that and a few other things I've chosen to devote my attention to lately. What can I say, Carolina girls are the best. And I don't mean that as a blanket statement to refer to all North Carolina girls. No, I am referring specifically to UNC Chapel Hill girls. While I am tired from a lack of sleep over the past couple of weeks, I'm certainly not complaining.

Without further delay, I give you "Mid-Week Musings for the Masses":

1) The Tar Heels lost their first game this past weekend and yes, I was upset. Yet this disappointment lasted but for a few hours. I've learned to take things into perspective, to look at the big picture. The bottom line is, it's just a regular season loss. All goals for the season still remain in tact: win the conference, with the conference tournament, and win the national championship. One loss just takes some of the pressure off.

2) Amy Winehouse got sent off to rehab after a video was leaked showing her hosting a party at her house last Friday night at which she could be seen taking hits from a crack pipe, snorting cocaine and crushed exstacy tablets, as well as boasting about taking a large dose of valium moments earlier. The woman is a musical genius if I do say so myself. It's just a shame that's what it takes for her to produce good music. You know the VH1's of the world are foaming at the mouth with thoughts of putting her on their next reality show. Let me be the first to say I'd watch.

3) My roommate came home from work last night claiming he might get fired from his job at a prominent, well-known jewelry store. Apparently he overrode some sort of computer control system and compromised the integrity of every computer the company owns. I must say I was extremely proud of him while listening to hear him tell this story, although I always envisioned some sort of smash and grab job. That would be a lot more exciting and might warrant a spot on the evening news.

4) I came home from work Tuesday night and our culdesac was blocked by the patrol cars of two of Raleigh's finest. Looks like the neighborhood dopers might finally get evicted soon. I must admit I'm a little disappointed. I'm afraid I might experience some level of seperation anxiety when I can no longer park next to their ghetto fabulous cars. I'm not sure which has more glitter on their body- their 1950-something Cadillac or the chicks on The Hills.

5) So the Super Bowl is fast approaching. For some reason I don't really care all that much, although I will be pulling for the Giants, along with the other 99.9% of the country. Speaking of the Super Bowl, does it strike anyone else as odd that whoever wins is deemed "World Champions". Since when does beating out 29 other teams based in AMERICAN cities make you World Champions? If you ask me, I think it's just the NFL puffing up their chests. News flash: No one outside of the lower 48 cares who wins. In fact much of the world probably doesn't even know the game is being played, and you have the nerve to call yourself World Champions. That's laughable.

6) Those of you who really know me, know that I love snow above all things. It looked like we might finally received a measurable snow for the winter last weekend, but the results were far less than expected. I'm with Al Gore on this one. I blame global warming. Keep in mind that when Al speaks of global warming it's code for "all the Republicans and their SUVs".

7) With the market approaching a recession and putting the fear of God into investors, the Federal Reserve Board has acted drastically to slash the Fed Funds borrowing rate in a desperate effort to stimulate growth. All this price slashing has me picturing Ben Bernanke as the yellow smiley face in the Wal-Mart commercials. He's just rolling back prices.

8) Memo to John Edwards: Give it up dude. You won't even be able to carry your home state when the North Carolina primary is held. Apparently you took Jimmy V's "Don't give up. Don't ever give up." speech entirely too seriously. For you it should be interpreted as "Don't give up. Don't ever give up. That is unless you have a more lucrative option to fall back on, such as more ambulance chasing." And no, your wife having cancer isn't going to buy you any sympathy votes.

9) The recent murder spree in Durham has drawn some national attention. It's funny how this sort of thing goes on week in and week out in "Compton East", mostly resulting in young black men killing other young black men, and no one really seems to care. But as soon as one of them intrudes upon rich, yuppie, white person land (A.K.A. Duke University) and kills someone it's all over the news. I'm surprised Barbara Walters, Mike Wallace and Bill O'Reilly haven't shown up yet. When I saw the news I couldn't help but think to myself "Man, if you're going to do it, at least make it count. Take out Coach K."

10)Kudos to my man Tiger Woods. I'm sure you all have heard plenty by now about Golf Channel analyst Kelly Tilghman's on-air comments about Tiger and the 2008 PGA Tour season on which she speculated that the only way anyone will beat Tiger this year is if they "lynch him in a back alley." Obviously it was a poor choice of words, even though it was clearly a joke. Tiger could have gotten riled up over the comment, could have gotten Reverends Jackson and Sharpton involved, and could have basically put the Golf Channel out of business if he wanted too - he's that powerful. But what did he do? Nothing. He talked to her and worked it out. She meant it as a joke, and something tells me Tiger took it as a joke. I like the guy even more now. Who knew you couldn't say lynch on tv? Who knew it was a racially derogatory word, related to a single race? I sure didn't. I would think it would be possible to lynch a white person, an Asian person, a Mexican person, etc. just as easily as it would be to lynch a black golfer. It just seems logical to me. Oh well.
Until next time...

Monday, January 21, 2008

Remembering His Dream

Today, January 21st, is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. For some of you, this may be insignificant. For others - myself among you - today is more than just a day off of work or school. This day serves as a reminder of where we as a nation have been, where we STILL are, and how much further we still have to go to end racism and inequality forever; this as opposed to simply tempering it and attempting to veil its continuing existence. I can't help but wonder what Dr. King would have to say about our nation if he were alive today. I think he would be pleased with the progress, but assertively insist that we have a long, long way to go. Discrimination, among all races, colors, and creeds is alive and well. Americans must continue to fight this terrible evil by not forgetting what Dr. King stood for, and by carrying on his legacy for our children and future grandchildren, so that they may live in a world where everyone is treated equally, afforded the same opportunities, and do not have to live in fear of one another. Underneath our outward appearances, we are all the same; let's not forget it.

Friday, January 18, 2008

A Novel Update

Sorry I haven't had much time to update this space lately. It's been a rather hectic week. I'm definitely looking forward to some snow this weekend. Plus I get Monday off of work for MLK day. It should be a good time to stay inside and continue writing. I just wanted to give everyone an update on how the novel is coming. If I'm lucky you'll see it on your local bookshelf in say, 12 months or so. There's a lot of work to be done between now and then though. I'll give you, my loyal readers, a little teaser. Let's say you are browing Barnes & Noble, and you pick up my novel. This is what you'd read on the dust jacket when determining whether or not it's a book you'd be interested in buying/reading. Feedback is appreciated.

The Crash

Growing up in the sleepy southern town of Oxford, North Carolina, Forrest Stevens dreams of escaping to the city in hopes of finding true love, and leaving behind the stereotypes and expectations that burden him as the son of a preacher. He learns that leaving was the easy part; finding love is perilous.

When an unlikely parking lot collision presents a new interest, Forrest's life is changed forever. He falls in love when Peyton Ann Thomas literally comes crashing into his life, escaping the loneliness and depression that have plagued him for years.

Forrest's new life is perfect - or so he believes - until uncanny events masked by a series of thinly veiled lies cause his world to cave in upon him. Mistakes fueled by his anger leave him fighting for his life, and for his belief in love.

The Crash is a story of love's attempt to conquer all, and what happens when individuals from completely different worlds collide and must deal with the wreckage left behind.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

A mid-week Thought

"I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it."

Those are the once spoken words of the great author William Faulkner. I came across them in a passage I was reading last night, and immediately thought them perfectly applicable to this blog space of mine. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with emotion when writing on a topic here, and thus my heart leads me through the keystrokes. Often, it is not until I've completed this process and read what I've written that I can fully grasp my feelings and opinions on the topic at hand. Just a thought.

I hope everyone is having a good week. Get back to work now, nothing to see here...

Monday, January 14, 2008

Guess whose baaaaack!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, your boy is back in the game! I went from being benched for fouling out of the previous game, back to the starting lineup. Coach thought I had ridden the pine long enough I guess because he put me in the game Saturday night and I hit the game winner!!!

I certainly hope my loyal readers understand the concept of well-placed metaphorical speech enough to translate this post. Something tells me most of you do.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

A Brilliant Idea, if I do Say so Myself

They always say the greatest ideas hit you when you least expect it. For me, that occurred this morning on my drive to work. I don't have time to tell you much about it right now, but I'll try to get to it later today. Ladies and gentlemen (mostly gentlemen), I give you "hosurance".

The idea was mine, though Nick coined the catchy-sounding term after my original idea was just whore/slut insurance. Guys, if you date around enough you're going to get dumped sooner or later, probably for nothing at all. Or you may experience something similar to what I did, in which the entire relationship was a lie because I was being cheated on. I won't name any names, just see the picture a couple of posts below to identify the guilty party. This most recent experience gave me the idea for hosurance.

Let's say you're dating a girl and you treat her great. You take her on great dates, nice dinners, buy her gifts, etc. Then you break up thanks to something that trifling ho did. You're left not only without the girl now, but you're out of a lot of money you invested to get her and keep her happy. It's gone. This is where hosurance comes into play. If you had a hosurance policy, you simply add a new girlfriend's name on it when you start dating her, similar to the way you'd add a beneficiary to your life insurance policy. Then over the course of your relationship, you save all your receipts from the dinners, gifts, etc. If the relationship goes bad and she's the cause of it, you file a hosurance claim and turn in your receipts. Your policy covers you and you're reimbursed 100% of funds expended over the course of the relationship. Yes, you're still without the girl, but at least you got your money back thanks to the brilliance of hosurance!