Month: January 2012

  • Yesterday was a funny day at work. It went really slowly at first, and then things picked up a bit when I saw my Godfather at the Capitol. We caught up for a few minutes before I headed back to the office. Then I tweeted about how easy my day was going...not knowing what I was going to have to deal with an hour later. Long story short, I ended up staying at work an hour and a half late. Came back here, watched a lackluster Raw that everyone seemed to love, and then went in two hours early this morning. Today was better than I thought it would be, but it was still long. Glad to be here. I'll probably go to sleep early tonight, although I'm trying to get out of being lazy by doing a household chore a day after I get home. Washing clothes now. I'm also going to buy some batteries and start playing my Wii again to help get my core back right (along with starting back running). There really is no reason for me to be so lazy after work, though. It's not like I do real blue collar work all day. So that's my really short-term thing, to be more active after work.

  • I meant to blog yesterday. Oh well...Thursday night I slept and I laid around Friday until I had to go in for my little two hours (since I'm going in at noon today, my Friday will be longer - not entirely happy about that, but it is what it is). Went out Friday, which was a total waste of time. At least it wasn't a waste of money.

    Saturday was one of the best days in a long time. I saw Man On A Ledge, which was really good. Came home and 'The U' was on. Watched that and then laid around before deciding to go out. Not only was the party fun, but I also paid half of what I expected to pay to get into the club.

    Watched a little of Nadal/Djokovic before I went to sleep. Watched the end after I got up. I should have known then that yesterday wasn't going to be the best day. UConn then found a way to lose to Notre Dame. After the game I went to my cousin's dad's house and found out...well, without saying too much...that my cousin is on the run. His apartment was searched - after which he was kicked out of it - and his roommate was arrested. He wasn't home, so he got "lucky". The hope is that he turns himself in.

    Came back here to listen to All Subjects Everything (internet radio show I've been talking about) and check on Royal Rumble stuff. Been about it. Well, time to slowly get ready for work. Really slowly...as in "work out and eat breakfast first".

  • Didn't go to sleep early, didn't watch the tennis match. I listened to an internet radio show last night and then just had a normal day. As such, I don't have a whole lot to write about. I want to go somewhere tonight, but the weather's supposed to be bad. Might be forced to just get some sleep, which I could use after the 38 hours so far. Of course, if I have 38 hours now that means there are only two left...yes, that means I'm going in at 4 tomorrow. I get to do nothing all day. Oh, that's going to be great. At any rate, that leaves me tired for now so I'll have to bid adieu.

  • So my friend called and we ended up going to Applebees and having a couple desserts and talking. The idea was that since people go to restaurants and never order dessert (and since she'd eaten already), we could do that and be different. We sat and talked about everything - politics, sports, music, and whatever else - until it was almost midnight and we both realized we had early mornings. I'll say this: she is the only one who can get me off that month-long stance I've had.

    Not much to report from yesterday: work was normal and I checked out early (part of why there was no blog yesterday) last night. I did read an interesting survey which I may write about soon, which took up the rest of my waking hours. Shoot, I think I left my phone in my car. I'll have to check. Oh, I started taking my MP3 player to work...for those of you who don't do it (and can), start. It really helps the days go by faster.

    Today I took more trips to the Capitol than normal, which I never complain about since the scenery is so nice. Pretty cool day going over there and all...um, that's really about it though. I'm going to try to watch the Nadal/Federer match, but that would really make for a long day since the match starts at 3:30 AM. Watching the match and then going to work all day? Man...I'd have to go to sleep really early tonight. Need to work out before I go to sleep, though.

  • I knew I didn't blog Saturday or yesterday, but I thought I blogged on Friday. Oh well...I laid around most of the day on Friday and then went in for my nice little two and a half hours. Was going to chill for the night, but my friend had the idea to go to our usual spot. Went out there and did some late-night grocery shopping after.

    Saturday I watched a lot of basketball and did a little bit of cleaning. Before all that, I went to the mall and ran into a friend's sister (well, she's a friend too...ah, y'all get it) and her daughter. Caught up with them before heading back home. I didn't wash my car because the weather forecast called for rain. Of course it didn't rain, and then some birds apparently had a buffet in the branches directly above my car. It looked terrible Saturday afternoon. Decided to get out there and rinse it off so it wouldn't look so bad when I went out Saturday night. Went out and saw the folks who are responsible for me meeting the last girl I was interested in. They didn't ask me about her, which was good. I had a decent time out, and it was good to go out and dance again (hadn't done so all year).

    Sunday I still woke up early and watched Joel Osteen, even though I didn't have to. Since football didn't start until 3, I could have watched Joel at 1 on Daystar with no problem. Alas, I was up at 8 after not going to sleep until 4. I didn't feel sleepy after Joel, so I did some stuff around the house. Got a call from a friend but didn't answer the phone because she always feels like talking for 3+ hours and I wasn't in the mood for that. She said something on Twitter about it and I told her it wasn't that serious. She thought I was mad and long story short, I think she's about to give me the silent treatment. For reasons alluded to above, I'm fine with that. At any rate, I watched the games and then fell asleep to replays of Chris Hansen asking pitiful and desperate guys what they're thinking.

    Went in this morning at 7:30 - yes, even earlier than normal...much less the time I'm supposedly going to be going in on Mondays - and was actually given an hour-and-a-half lunch. Loved it. Came back here and laid in the bed. Oh, we had pancakes for breakfast again. Great times, between that and listening to Mike and Mike at the desk. Also during my lunch break, I got smart and loaded my MP3 player up with songs to listen to at work. Makes things go by faster. All in all, today was a pretty good day...especially after someone wanted me to stay after and I basically told them no (which I'm well within my rights to do, and I wish someone would say something about it in the morning - especially given what I'm doing for them). I'd have stayed for some people, but she's not one of them. Oh well.

    Best part of the day might come up later...and I actually don't mean Raw. Friend of mine is in town from Tampa so hopefully she calls and we can go somewhere tonight. If not, I'll work out and watch the show. Either way, I'm going to be straight for the night.

  • I knew I was in trouble when I couldn't remember the last time I stopped by here. Ah well, y'all haven't missed a whole lot. Just went through another stretch of racking up 29.5 work hours in 3 days. As y'all might imagine, I'm tired. As such, this won't be too long. I don't have to go in until 3:30 tomorrow though, which is good. Also good is that tomorrow's a pay day. Also have a friend who's supposed to be coming to town. Speaking of, another friend whom I haven't heard from in a while called and invited me to lunch next week. Before y'all start, she's married.

    At any rate, I watched some basketball on Tuesday and saw UConn lose a terrible game last night. Been watching the Australian Open more than I normally do...oh yeah, Chris Evert looks absolutely amazing to be 57 years old. People usually say women of color age better (to the discredit of women with less color), but she looks a decade younger than she is. Maybe it's a Lauderdale thing. Well, I'm going to watch this Rafael Nadal match and/or take a nap.

  • I was going to blog yesterday, but it slipped my mind. Can't even say I was so enthralled by the playoffs: especially not that second game. All I did in the last two days was watch football, play Football Mogul (it's a sim game - I know, total sports nerd-dom), watch TV, and write. Y'all didn't miss much. I haven't even left the house. Have to say that part's been cool. Need to work out, but it honestly might wait until tomorrow. We'll see. Not terribly impressed with what I wrote, but I think I said I'd put it here so I'll leave with it and say "see y'all tomorrow".

    So this year I admit I had no idea what I was going to write about. This didn't come to me until maybe Thursday, and I just started writing Saturday morning. At least I can focus because it's too cold to do anything else.

    I wouldn't call it a stretch to say that when most people think of Dr. King, they think of the dream - be it the speech or the dream itself. This is somewhat of an unfair label to Dr. King because it doesn't give him all the credit he's due. When we talk of dreams and of dreamers, we often do so with the idea that dreams are picked out of the clear blue sky and have very little foresight. Obviously, that was not the case. According to the prevailing vernacular, goals and plans have the foresight that dreams lack. Well, Dr. King's dream did not lack foresight. His dream contained a goal, and he had a plan. His plan was to use the power of societal action to achieve his dream.

    Before anyone asks, there are two reasons I said 'societal action' rather than 'collective action'. Mancur Olson pretty much cornered the market on 'collective action' when he wrote his book. More importantly, Dr. King didn't want collective action - he wanted societal action. Collective action can come from a group of any size. Two people can participate in collective action, but it obviously takes more than two people to participate in societal action.

    It surely took more than two people to participate in the societal action known as the Civil Rights Movement. Can you imagine how far the movement would not have gotten if there were only two or ten or even a thousand people involved? Well, you don't have to. The numbers were small, but the motive the same, when slaves revolted 100-150 years before Dr. King marched down the streets of some of the south's biggest cities. As a matter of fact, the slave revolts of the 1800s are the perfect example of the main difference between collective action and societal action (numbers).

    There is another difference between collective action and societal action that the two events show. The civil rights movement was much more organized. One can easily attribute this to the advances made in the interim, but the numbers also come into play here. The network was increased, so it was easier to coordinate efforts. Larger networks also increase the fear from the other side exponentially. If every plantation's slaves revolted at the same time, the owners would have been more alarmed than if they occurred at different times. It's easier to squash isolated incidents than it is a larger circumstance.

    Planning scares people because of all that it entails. Let's look at that a little bit. To plan something along the lines of the above events, there are a few necessary conditions. There has to be a problem, for one. There has to be a large enough group of people that feels the problem is one that needs to be solved. There has to be at least one person who is both smart and dedicated enough to create a plan on solving the problem - one that includes altervatives that fit the inevitable difficulties that lie ahead. The group has to have the resolve to see the process through.

    There are a few more, but I think the point has been made. I don't mean to impugn the efforts of the slaves who revolted, I'm just illustrating the difference between Dr. King's efforts and those that came earlier. So much of his part in the movement was planned out. He knew the roadblocks (sometimes literal) would be there. He knew he would be arrested. He knew the strength of the opposition he would face. He went ahead anyway: because of the cause he believed in, but also because of the plan he had to get us there.

    I think one of the great historical fallacies of the movement is that many of us have allowed ourselves to think that the events therein occurred by happenstance. That is simply not the case. In addition to being possibly the most influential event in the history of humanity, it was also extremely well thought out. We don't give Dr. King and his colleagues enough credit for that. It's important that we recognize them not only for being courageous, but also for being intelligent. There's a saying that mentions the perils of failing to plan. Dr. King avoided those perils, and that - as much as anything else - is why he had the success that he had.

    *I didn't say that he succeeded for a reason. His success still depends on us - and our part in determining that outcome is undetermined at best, woefully unfulfilled at worst. It brings up a question I will have to ponder over the next couple of weeks.

  • Was thinking about going out last night. Got dressed and all, and then I went to...Walmart. Yup, did some late-night grocery shopping. Didn't do too much today: caught up with a couple friends before watching the UConn game. Saw my team handle business and then watched Tennessee/Kentucky before taking a nap and then getting up to watch the playoffs.

    Oh yeah, I also wrote some of this King piece (maybe half of it). I guess I'll finish the other half tomorrow. I kind-of want to go out tonight, but there are no appealing options - surprise, surprise - so I may just stay in. Need to pick up a couple things from Publix, so I might do that between games...actually, it'll be better to do that tomorrow.

  • Dang, I almost didn't blog today...because if I didn't do it now it wouldn't have happened. I decided to just stay here last night. Laid in bed all morning, but worked out this afternoon after listening to the 99 Jamz mix. I then watched the Disney version of Robin Hood before getting up to go to work. Felt like I was barely there. Oh: one of the ladies bought me pancakes. No idea why, but I'm quite appreciative. Saves me from having to buy breakfast for next week, although I'll have to get butter and syrup (don't think we have those). There wasn't a whole lot of work to do, which was to be expected. Came back here and I think I'm going to take a nap. I wish I lived in a real city where there was some spot to go to before "club time" like a Blue Martini or Wet Willie's, but whatever. Yes, I know I don't drink...but it'd be nice to be social somewhere in a more chill atmosphere before ramping things up. As far as whether I go out tonight, I'll leave that up to others. If I get a call I'll go: if not I'll stay here. Have a feeling I'll get one. Anyway, I'm going to watch Salt (totally forgot I set a reminder) since I've never seen it and heard it was good. See y'all tomorrow.

  • And it's finally arrived...Thursday night. I am indeed going in at 3 tomorrow and I have Monday off. Oh yeah, and tomorrow is casual dress. I'll bore y'all with work stuff since all I did was sleep and work in the last 24.

    It was questionable whether I'd have Monday off, and I was fully expecting to work. Even had a deal with my supervisor that he'd give me a day off with pay for having to work Monday (which I'd have preferred to having Monday off), but then our managing shareholder decided that there was no need for us to come in Monday.

    Skipped the staff meeting to work, because I'd rather work than go to staff meetings. I know that sounds funny, but as a collective I don't too much care for the staff as a whole. Sorry.

    I have no clue what I'm going to do tonight. I could live it up. I could sleep. I could do both. Shoot, I have no idea. As far as tomorrow, I will definitely lay around and maybe start this King piece (for those who don't know, I've written something regarding MLK the last two years). Shoot, I'll just let the day and the weekend come to me. Nothing out there really worth getting, per se. Shoot, that sounds like a plan.