After the Speech

I'm feeling slightly better, but WTF was up with that music after Obama got done speaking? Naturally I would have preferred that he played "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" or I would have settled for the Godfather's theme. OK, obviously I'm joking but what if he had finished and then dropped "The Message?"

[updated]
This song would have worked as a nice outro too. Check out the video of NaS over at the Cynics' Party killing Fox News.

Was it just me or was the end of Obama's speech kind of weak? He waited until the last possible moment to mention MLK and then it was like he threw cold water on himself and finished up with some lame bromides about unity. I understand that if Obama wants to win this election he has to avoid being seen as "too black, too strong" but finishing up with some weak-ass, whack-ass, generic country music was a punk move.

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Feeling Jaded & Cynical

As a (relatively) young Black man today is supposed to be a joyful day of triumph for me, but I'm not feeling that way right now. I don't know if my cynicism about party politics has prevented me from enjoying the coronation of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party Presidential nominee or it's my fear of having my hopes dashed by the reality that Obama is a politician and will ultimately be forced to make the compromises that all pols must make to get elected. Regardless, I'm taking no pleasure in what is one of the most significant political moments in American history and probably the single most important event in African-American history.

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Dive and Lie Wrecked This Weekend

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Working From Home and its Discontents

While we're out here in F-M area the wife and I are both working from home. I have still have a more or less regular job that happens during regular business hours, so I'm usually out of bed and in front of my computer some time between 7-8am making sure there's not some sort of asinine USDA fire drill jumping off. After extinguishing any early morning fires, I'll make breakfast, get everyone ready, and then send them on their merry way. The wife likes working at the coffee shop, so she takes the little one to school and goes there while I sit around in my underwear all morning working, scratching, and farting not necessarily in that order.

This setup is fine when we can pack BabyRat off to school for the day, but this week her school is closed until Thursday. So now the unpleasant chore of prioritizing either my job or the wife's job rears its ugly head.

To me this seems like a no brainer. I have a regular gig complete with a boss riding my ass, co-workers asking about deliverables, and meetings that I'm expected to attend. My wife on the other hand, is on sabbatical right now. Yes, she has a book to finish and a publisher that has set a deadline that she may not meet unless she gets busy. But having just gotten tenure, it's not she's going to get fired anytime soon.

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Back From the Lake

Christ, I keep finding myself in this dilemma; so much to write about and not enough time to do it. The life of a family man is hard (but rewarding), time is tight, and a silly, navel-gazing indulgence like blogging is the last thing on the "to do" list. So for now I'm going to give up on creating a coherent narrative and hit y'all off with some bullet points.

-The Dark Knight

I finally got to see this a month late. As of right now, the best superhero movie I've ever seen. There are some haters out there, but they can eat a dick. If I had any say in the matter, I would let this version of Batman marinate for 10-15 years and do a straight up adaptation of the "The Dark Knight Returns". To set the stage, have whoever the best comic book fan/movie maker of the day is do a 30-40 minute uncensored, untouched by studio hands (but with studio budget) viral video 2-3 years ahead of time.

- Thoughts About the Lake

I had a blast. BabyRat was able to run buckwild for eight days with a bunch of her cousins; I loved see her able to play and be free without a bunch of restrictions. There was a playground about 50 feet from our cabin and a couple of 9-10 year old cousins who were only too happy to be left in charge of a posse of kids. We were able to go swimming, boating, and fishing just about every day and while you're at the lake you don't have to sweat bedtime and shit too much either.

WifeRat was relaxed and happy because BabyRat was happy, and of course I was happy because they were happy. The fact that I probably drank close to a hundred beers and liter of bourbon over the course of the week may have contributed to that happiness. The beauty part of the setup was you really only had to be on your game a total of less than two days over the course of eight days. This probably sounds really bad to someone reading this, but I was sober when I needed to be. Don't be a judgmental prick.

My New Favorite Blogger?

With apologies to my man Ta-Nehisi Coates - the only blogger that's ever given me any shine. Check his blogroll, Woot! - is there anyone who's ass Ken Silverstein isn't scorching these days? The Democratic National Convention? Check. The Taliban/Al Quaeda? Check. Obama? Check. GOP? Check. Mainstream media? Check. Not only is this guy bringing the heat all around the political dial, he's also telling stories and giving analysis you just don't really hear about world events.

I heard this guy on mad lefty radio station WPFW, but what impressed me the most was that in the ten minutes I heard him talking he very and forthrightly copped to his own predjudices and how they affect his work. It was the kind of honesty that you don't typically get from say, someone like David Broder of the Washington Post.

Flame on my friend, flame on!!

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Big Pine Lake

One of the defining experiences of life in this part of the US is spending the Summer going to "the lake." Minnesota is billed as the land of 10,000 lakes, now I don't know how accurate that count is but it seems like it could correct. There's Lake Lizzie (where BabyRat caught her first fish), Detroit Lakes, Big Pine Lake (where I am right now), and list goes on.

Now I've been warned by WifeRat not to write about my in-laws and I'll respect that as much as possible, but I'll go on record as saying that it's massively unfair to have me in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of people who say things like, "Uff da" and expect me to not mine that vein of comedy gold.

Tomorrow is the big day, we (me and all the assembled brothers-in-law) are cooking a whole pig. The setup here was that each family would have a day where they cooked for the assembled masses.

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No Writing, Just Links

I was just in DC for a few days, but I don't feel like writing right now. Here's what I'm reading about:

Kwame Kilpatrick, just resign already. Seriously, in the words of Oran "Juice" Jones, "close your mouth, 'cause you're cold busted."

Could you imagine the foaming at the mouth if Obama was getting a bunch of shady donations from the Abdullah family?

I found this place Coilhouse via the copyranter. Categories at Coilhouse include: drugs, cthulhu, and stroke material. I lack the verbal skill to do the site justice, go see for yourself when in the mood for something different.

Please, let this be true so that I may cut Comcast out of my life like a cancer.

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Separated at Birth?

The second installment in an occasional series.

Presented for your consideration, musician Lil Jon and clubhouse cancer Manny Ramirez.

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