Xpinionated

It’s time for a new category on Xpinionated.  I know, I know past features on this blog have often been shortlived.  But you know what, still my blog so read it, comment, and let me do what I does!

The first installment was on this story regarding injury to that guy covering Plaxico Burress on the winning Super Bowl score.

OCleftcoast:  tank, careful, I think I hear a banjo in the background! Yikes!

tankrose:  OCleftcoast, don’t be a racist on here. That is not cool! You have no idea what you are talking about!

OCleftcoast:  racist? what are you talking about?

tankrose:  You said you could here a “banjo playing” are you saying that I am a hillbilly. Watch that BLEEP !

OCleftcoast:  no, I was joking about that other guy you told to go clean his fish. C’mon now,

tankrose:  Yeah, sure and if the shoe was on the other foot, then what? I find that offensive! You have no idea what my skin color is and you are saying I am a inbreed, hillbilly. That don’t belong here. You want to go there, we can. Lets keep it out of that!

Cubbiesfan93:  Geez tankrose, he wasn’t even talking to you. The only reason you should react like that is if you really are a hillbilly.

OCleftcoast:  Tank chill, It was the other guy, his avatar, not you, lighten up!

tankrose:  NO, what I am saying is that kind of BLEEP leads to other BLEEP So lets keep it above that. We anit got to go there. Stay with football! Don’t get all racial!

OCleftcoast:  The movie Deliverance, maybe you never saw it! My apologies.

As I was reading this dialogue that had nothing to do with the topic of the story, I couldn’t help but wonder how sensitive and/or politically correct tankrose must be.  But then the comedy of this exchange rears it’s comical head.  Who knew hillbilly was a race?  And what exactly is the other foot when you call someone a hillbilly?  In fact, for all of his political correctness, tankrose is actually more offensive than any others befuddled by his responses.  tankrose makes several jumps to stereotypical conclusions:  banjo to hillbilly, hillbilly to race(?), hillybilly to inbreed.  Oddly enough, when I read banjo, I too thought ‘Deliverance’.  

Tags: Comment Board Conversations by Xpinionated
CommentsGreat+Comment+Board+Conversations%3A+%2312008-02-05+01%3A37%3A02Xpinionated

You gotta love the way technology has enriched corporate America.  But there are those times where technology presents an opportunity for stupidity to raise it’s misshapen head and attack.  Case in point:

A technical issue regarding how remote users connect to the corporate network has been found.  The IT vendor, obviously in an effort to alleviate concerns, sends a corporate wide email simply stating that they are aware of the problem and working to resolve the issue.  Unfortunately, once you admit that something is broken in corporate America, there are those that feel it is the perfect time to share their own aggravation with the broken issue.  So, these folks start Replying to All  simply to say ‘Yeah, it’s happening to us in xxxxxxtown too’.  After 10 to 15 emails essentially saying the same thing and being sent to everyone in the entire country, the next wave of folks jump in to say ‘Please stop replying to all’.  The irony, these same people trying to curtail the email traffic have hit Reply to All.  In effect, they did what they were telling others not to do which is setting a horrible example.  Though this could have been effective if only a single person does it, alas that it is not the case.  For the next hour, the ‘Don’t Reply To All’ people are bombarding the company with their message while the ‘Yeah it’s happening to me people’ are slowly fading and decreasing their email throughput.  Halfway through this hour, the ‘I have a workaround’ people start chiming in and yep they are replying to all…

‘Tis a vicious circle guaranteed to last at least until lunch time….

Tags: Just the Random by Xpinionated
CommentsCorporate+Twilight+Zone2008-02-04+15%3A41%3A45Xpinionated

There’s a new social network for those in interracial relationships!  The site’s creator is known to have a short attention span but if folks start showing up and the discussion is lively, I know for a fact that the site’s creator will try to maintain a lively community.  SO GO CHECK IT OUT —>  http://www.intermarriage.ning.com

Tags: Just the Random, That's hot! by Xpinionated
CommentsNew+Interracial+Marriage+Site%21%212008-01-31+16%3A32%3A08Xpinionated

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!

Tags: In the News, On a serious note by Xpinionated
CommentsAudacity+at+an+extreme2008-01-30+15%3A52%3A28Xpinionated

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!

Tags: Just the Random by Xpinionated
CommentsUpdate+to+my+Thirties2008-01-28+15%3A40%3A15Xpinionated

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

1. The game may have passed me by
2. My body isn’t doing what I tell it to do anymore
3. My mind doesn’t seem to care about number two as much
4. In my youth, I may have relied heavily on my natural athleticism instead of actual skills.
5. Number 4 means the game has definitely passed me by
6. 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.

Tags: Just the Random by Xpinionated
CommentsAging2008-01-22+15%3A25%3A36Xpinionated

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.

Tags: On a serious note by Xpinionated
CommentsThe+Black+Notebooks+-+Inspiration2008-01-18+15%3A48%3A46Xpinionated

Xpinionated has a new look as you can probably tell. Thanks goes out to www.ensellitis.com for the theme. Very creative.

Tags: Just the Random by Xpinionated
CommentsNew+look+for+Xpinionated2008-01-13+18%3A05%3A03Xpinionated

Not sure who sings the songs but the chorus is as follows — roughly

We can go to the tropics, sippin’ on coladas, shorty I can take you there

Or we can go the slums, where killers get hung, shorty I can take you there

We can go the slums?  Where killers get hung?  Really?  This is your pick up line, your git r done?  This is why I find myself listening to the blues channel more and more.  I love(d) hip hop.  I have defended it for years against critics and naysayers.  I’ve spent chunks of money on it.   But when something as idiotically stupid as this (though trivial in the scheme of things) makes a regular playlist, no wonder hip hop receives some many backlashes.

When going to the slums is a way to pick up a female companion, then the (and lord knows I hate to use the following term) ‘thug’ mentality has gone too far.  It’s one thing to glorify ballin’, not that I agree with it but I can understand the origins. But to use the slums as a place of luxury instead of as a motivation to succeed, then there’s a complete lack of common sense there. 

What’s happening to our culture? 

Tags: Just the Random, That's hot! by Xpinionated
CommentsStupid+Lyrics+-+Hate+%27em2008-01-07+15%3A49%3A15Xpinionated

The title above says a lot. If you’ve ever seen Jerry Springer, you know there are tons of lows that can be considered for this dubious title. But I am now watching a jilted woman fighting the lover of her baby’s daddy. Nothing special right? Yeah, well, the lover has one arm. The prosthetic arm has now fallen off as the one armed lover is on top of the two armed jilt. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, the title of the show? ‘Hands Down, Our Best Show’.

UPDATE:  The one armed woman is now swinging the prosthetic at her man.  No one is stepping in to stop her.

Tags: Just the Random by Xpinionated
CommentsJerry+Springer%27s+New+All+Time+Low2008-01-04+15%3A06%3A09Xpinionated