Black and White

Let's assume, for a minute, that I'm able to peacefully and without incident create an organization based on color. Say, for the sake of the discussion, The National Conglomerate of White Grocery Store Workers (NCWGSW). We plan some sort of convention, or meeting, or something of the sort, and some black high-profile grocery executive shows up and wants to attend. Of course, being the WHITE Grocery Store Workers meeting, we deny him admittance. How long would it take for the likes of Jesse Jackson, NAACP types, ACLU brass, etc. to show up?

So, how come when it's the other way around, the story's entirely different?

A California man explicitly denied entry to a national conference of social workers because of the color of his skin is not finding many people to champion his cause of discrimination, according to the Bakersfield Californian.

Brian Parnell complained to the IRS and the federal Department of Health and Human Services after he was turned away from a meeting of the National Association of Black Social Workers in New Orleans. Members of the group told him, after he flew across the country, that white folks were not allowed to attend the meeting.

But no one seems to care, he said, and he remains frustrated about his "inability to do anything about what was an obvious instance of racism." He wonders why an organization created to combat racism feels "justified in exercising racism themselves."

Why does it seem that the ACLU is never coming to rescue for people like this? Are "civil liberties" only for one race of people? Some day someone will explain to me why there is Miss Black America, a group for black journalists, and black student alliances on college campuses, yet simple THOUGHTS of white-only groups of the same sort would be deemed racial, insensitive, disrespectful, disenfranchising, and everything in between. If the other race wants to end racism, they need to realize that if the cleaned their windows, then their neighbor's windows might not look so dirty.

WWJD? - Change His Name

Jose Luis Espinal of New York has a new name: Jesus Christ. Yep, it seems that ole Jose must have been tired of such a normal, Spanish-sounding name, and, as his own lawyer, went through the legal motions to get it changed to Jesus Christ.

Now, Jesus is a very common hispanic name, for sure. But to change it to Jesus Christ and then go on to say, "I am the person that is that name".........Geez. Look out for lightning, is all I'm saying. And work on some original pickup lines, because I'm not sure that "Hi, I'm Jesus Christ......Can I buy you a drink?" will get you very far.

iThink iWant an iPod

I haven't had my head in the technological sand for the last year or anything, but I've always thought that I didn't really have any use for a $300 Walkman (sorry, Sony--that's the best word I can use to express my metaphor). I've seen the commercials, and as catchy as some of them are, I just haven't ever thought to myself, "Self, you just HAVE to have one of those." Of course, Jeff has one. So does Steve. I don't know about Scott. My step-brother Tony has the original 20GB model that he bought online when he was in Iraq (he's also got the cool Bose speaker/cradle thingee for at home use). But the main "it's collecting dust" factor that I forsee is time. I don't jog 3 miles every morning, or walk 32 laps around the mall like an octogenarian. And I don't have a treadmill. I don't walk the dog. My morning commute is like 6 minutes long (with stoplights), MAYBE long enough for 2 songs. Oh yeah, and right now my life consists of working two jobs, feeding Nicholas, and sleeping. That's about it. That, and I don't consider myself a music buff at all. I couldn't care less about the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, U2, or that Bo Bice guy from American Idol. Oh, you either, huh?

On Christmas, I played around with Tony's device a little bit (without the earphones--just navigating the screens and such). I started brainstorming at the possibilities: If/When we move to Arlington, the morning commute will be a bit longer. Road trips no longer necessiate taking 6-12 CD's that you're tired of by the first 3 hours (hence an FM transmitter would come in handy). Maybe when I'm done with 2 jobs, I WILL walk around the block on summer evenings, walking the dog or pushing the stroller.

Then came Christmas and $275 in gift cards. I began to open my mind to the possibilities and started the information-gathering stage. I knew that the "Shuffle" model was a smaller, non-display-having version of the big kahuna, but that's about it. We ventured over to the Apple store at the Shops of Saddle Creek. Wow--there's 3 models. Shuffle, nano, and iPod. 2 versions of each. 500 songs.....7,500 songs.....15,000 songs. Nano has a display, but the iPod now has video. Video? Geez! I don't forsee me wanting to download the special Def Leppard tribute from MTV's website, but if CBS offered me a video of my favorite episode of Two and a Half Men, then I'd be all over it. And I'm sure as the popularity grows, more and more companies/websites will be eager to accommodate the gazillion people with one. I even downloaded the iTunes application last night, just to play around with it. Pretty cool stuff (but the "Video" section comes up empty, with no link to a catalog--What's up with that?? Did I miss the virtual "Opening Winter 2005 banner?)

All in all......I don't know where I'll end up. It's hard to pull the trigger on a $300 luxury purchase, even if most of it ISN'T my money. I think about all the stuff on my Christmas list that could be bought instead. But at the same time, I don't see myself saving $350 to spend on one on my own. So we'll see. Feel free to comment on opinions, thoughts, point out cool features, or share your esoteric knowledge from the iPod cult world for my consideration.

Melting Pot

I haven't blogged in a few days, so I thought I just toss some random thoughts and happenings out there.

*First, the obvious. Christmas. Last year, I swore that Leah and I were gonna start Christmas shopping in September and October. Well, this year we were pretty much preoccupied with the imminent arrival of our little bundle of joy. Leah usually goes shopping with her mom on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but this year, she sat out. Something about having a 4-day old baby and stuff. We're almost done shopping, and this weekend stumbled upon some really good, ideal gifts. There are some kinda-sorta hard-to-buy-for folks on our list, but all in all, I think we've got some great gifts for folks. My challenge has been getting Leah's presents wrapped--being that she's home all day, every day right now, I can't exactly come wagging them in the house to wrap. But I've got it taken care of with the help of a great little elf.

* Christmas bonus. Along with Christmas comes the anticipation of a Christmas bonus. The first year I worked here, I was pleasantly surprised when I was given an envelope at our Christmas party. This year, the video business as a whole has been a bit down, so there were some (including me) who would've certainly understood if it just wasn't in the realm of possibility to get one. But this year was no different--we got one. It is certainly nice to have, yet I realize that it is above and beyond the norm, and I am certainly grateful and blessed to have such a generous group of people to work for. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go wipe this brown-colored residue off of my nose.

* Leah and I are getting the ball rolling towards a new house. Now that Nicholas is here, we've started thinking about a backyard to hold a swingset, schools with a decent education record, and a neighborhood where our son will hopefully have friends to play in the dirt or ride bikes with. We are most likely looking east toward Arlington, not far off of Exit 24-25 of I-40 and Airline Rd. The big variable will be the ability to sell our house--unfortunately, I don't think Cordova is as hot of an area as Arlington is, so selling it might be a challenge. But building a house in new phase of an existing subdivision should give us at least 6 months to work with, so we'll see what happens.

* Do you ever want a toy, but couldn't really logically explain to anybody why you want it? Maybe it's a guy thing. I saw one of these at our SuperTarget, and I just think it'd be cool to have. Apparently it's supposed to be really close to the NeverLost system (although....Not Exactly. Sorry, couldn't resist) that Hertz has in their cars--which is VERY cool. There have been a few times where we've been in Louisville or Nashville, and had to ask directions to the nearest grocery store, or find another route because of construction, or something like that. Plus, throw in my real estate career (if you wanna call it that), and I could totally justify writing it off, I mean, spending that kind of money for it, but there are other priorities right now than GPS gadgets for our automobiles (hint: re-read the last paragraph). But if I were to win the PowerBall or something, I'm getting one. Mark my words. Unless I'm paying somebody to drive me around by that time.

* One last holiday thought. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I won't be spending any time at Christmas with my mom's side of the family. Apparently space limitations and expanding families have led us to the point where my mom and I won't be going over to my aunt and uncle's house (i.e., her sister and brother in law) where we've gone every year. I'm a bit disappointed--almost all of my family-related Christmas memories involve my cousins David, Jennifer, and Kevin. From "Breakfast with Santa" to Enchanted Forest to thinking that that one of the red lights on the tall tower were Rudolph's nose, David, Jennifer, Kevin, Brad and I were there on a lot of Christmas Eves and most Christmas Days ("What did you get?"). But at the same time, I guess the page has turned a little bit.......All of us have families now, and it is indeed very difficult to juggle multiple visits and several lunches and many batches of gifts. In recent years, Leah and I have literally gone non-stop ALL day on Christmas and been really, really tired at the end of the day. So this year, it'll be a little less hectic, and it'll be time to make a whole other set of memories involving a little boy named Nicholas.

Free Time? What's That?

Sorry, my loyal blog readers (both of you)...Spare time has been really hard to come by recently. Really. Here's a recap of the last 5 days:

Friday: Work til 5, then Kroger 7p-11p.
Saturday: Work @ Kroger 9a-3p; Sunday School Christmas party (progressive dinner) 5p-10p.
Sunday: Leave @ 6am for in-laws (drop Nicholas off), then to Nashville for 12:00p Titans game.
Monday: Pick up Nicholas @ 2:45, then visit my mom's work to say hello and let her show him off. Work at Kroger 6:30-11:25
Tuesday: Work til 5:30, then Kroger 6:30-10:30

In other words, throw in care for a 3-week old, as well as sleep, and Eric has had little or no additional time to do much of anything. My blog reflects it, my house reflects it, and sometimes my emotion reflects it. The Nashville trip was kind of a last minute deal (somebody gave us game tickets), but we were happy to go. It just took a lot out of us!

There's lots of stuff on the horizon.......House building is a strong possibility (which goes hand in hand with house selling), as well as the holidays, Leah returning to work, and of course, day-to-day fun with the baby son. Stay tuned!

Frat's Boys

What better story for the blog to come out of hibernation that to mention the Memphis Grizzlies (get it? Grizzlies....bears.....hibernation?! Never mind). Mike Fratello's boys are turning some heads, yet some still think they're flying under the radar.

If the playoffs started today (which would be really weird, since it's December), the Griz would have the 4th seed in the Western (read: dominant, more powerful) conference, and would have home court advantage for the 1st round. Egads. Heck, they are actually tied for 2nd best record in the West, but the best record belongs to the perennial powerhouse Spurs, with whom the Grizz are cursed to share a division.

I distinctly remember their first season here. I owned an 11-game "power pack," and my buddies joked that we just wanted to see one win. That's all we wanted. We finally did, but all year we wanted to be excited about our new NBA franchise, but it was so very hard. We inherited the Bad News Bears, and there didn't seem to be any sun on the horizon (anybody remember the name "Big Country"??).

So now, we're in the 2005-06 season. Mike Fratello coached his 82nd game recently in Memphis (the equivalent of a regular season), and attained an impressive 51-31 record in that span. Not bad for a team plagued by a late-season meltdown, injuries, and some locker room discord. ESPN has us 3rd in their current power rankings. THIRD!! Over at NBA.com, Scottie Pippen says to watch out for us and warns against underestimating the Grizz. Suddenly, it's fun to be a Grizzlies fan. I was there during the lows, and now it's time to enjoy the highs.

Now, I'm a realist. I'm not expecting to be attending an NBA Championship parade in June. But currently we have a record-setting mark of futility in the playoffs, and winning a round or two of games would do this team, and this city, lots of good. Making the Playoffs is great (of course, 16 out of 30 teams make it), but winning in the playoffs is even better, and that's something that we haven't experienced yet. Yet.