We as a People

I just finished watching Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, and I'm feeling rather pensive. Before I go and wipe this mood away with some mindless video game violence, I want to ask all of you, as a people, where did we go wrong?

It never takes me too much to generally disturb my mood or mindset, and get me thinking about something with more depth than I would prefer. As I've told others, I'm always thinking, and I can't stop thinking. Even when I'm trying to lose myself in a game, I'm thinking about something. And I'm thinking after this movie that we have gone horribly wrong.

Do the Right Thing, as Spike Lee will tell you, isn't just about the obvious messages regarding racism and violence, it's about justice, fairness, love, and hate. It preaches the words of both Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and it does so without being judgmental. If you're not familiar with the film, I recommend you spend a couple of hours watching it via Netflix; it's streamable. Naturally, given that I am a Black American, you'll probably think that I'm talking about the Black community in America when I asked "where did we go wrong?". You'd be mistaken. I mean where did we, as a people, all Americans regardless of race, origin, gender, religion or sexual orientation go wrong?

I told my sister about an unusual sight earlier today. As I was on my way to a grocery store yesterday, I went down Chicago Blvd. here in Detroit, on my way to the Lodge freeway. This isn't so unusual since I've lived in this neighborhood most of my life. But what I discovered yesterday were two young white men jogging down the street. For those of you that don't live here, I suppose I need to back up a bit.

As portrayed in the media, in particular television and movies, there are two Detroits here in Michigan. When they want to show young, hip, urban people from Detroit, they typically show the "white" Detroit. They focus on the sporting events or the concerts, the big businesses like the automakers, and so forth filled mostly by Caucasians. When they want to show the violent side of things, they tend to show the burned out buildings, the vacant lots, and gangs, mostly populated by Blacks. The catch is, in reality the vast majority of the Caucasians live outside of the City of Detroit, and quite a few never set foot within the city limits unless they're passing through, going to work, or one of the aforementioned sporting or musical events. I'm not trying to say that there aren't any Caucasians in Detroit, but it is very fair to say that the population is dominated by Blacks, which can also be found at the same sporting events, concerts, and businesses. Which Detroit you see all depends on how the movie or television producer desires to portray the city.

That said, seeing to Caucasian men jogging down the street in a neighborhood that is disputably predominantly Black, is something of a rarity, especially considering the proximity to Highland Park; a traditional hot spot of danger even for those of us that live in the area. I'm telling you about this, not to state that they're stupid or foolish for being in this neighborhood, nor out of fear of a "White Plan" that involves kicking all of us Blacks out of the city so that the whites can regain power. I'm telling you this because I feel that it's a step in the right direction.

For too long, despite desegregation, Detroit has been divided. The Caucasians kept to their suburbs and looked down on us, and we kept to ourselves talking about how racist all whites were. That's not what Dr. King died for. That's not what even Malcolm X wanted. That's not how a healthy city or country can survive.

We as a people have failed to get past our old fears, our old hatreds, our old prejudices. We as a people have failed to find the Dream of Dr. Martin Luther King. We as a people as failed to evolve when it was and still is demanded of us. We as a people are dying.

Too long have we let our own foolishness divide us. Too long have we let our petty disputes wound us. If we are to heal and grow, we need to set these archaic things aside, and learn to first be kind to one another, and then eventually respect if not love one another. I know that somethings are too difficult to easily overcome, but who among us has not benefited from the labors of others, regardless of skin color or religion? How can we not remember those that have shown us the way, and how can we ignore or deny the truth before us? We are all God's children, whatever your God's name is, whatever the details of your belief!

We must learn to get along, and how to build our lives together as one people, however different and varied we individually may be, because we are indeed one people.

Find the people that hurt you, and forgive them.
Find the people you've hurt, and apologize.
Find the people you hate, and learn from them.
Find the people you love, and share with them.

I don't normally go in for chain letters and spreading them, but spread this message. We have to stop failing before we can start succeeding. Succeeding isn't easy, it never is, but we have to succeed in this.

Regarding Tiger

I've been biting my tongue on the Tiger Woods issue for months, but I can't take it anymore. Why do so many people think that he owes anyone other than his wife and family and explanation and apology for his infidelities? Just because he's a popular sports figure doesn't make him any more than a famous private individual. He has every right to privacy that any other U.S. citizen has, so I think the media and John Q. Public need to get their noses the hell out of his business. I wish he would simply answer any questions regarding this controversy with "I appreciate your curiosity, but this is a private matter between my wife and I, and I wouldn't expect anyone else to discuss the same on a global media level." After all, would you want to air out your failures on world wide television?

Because I still support him...

This may be old, but I'm still in the Obama camp...


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Always loved Dirk Benedict...

As a child, I watched the original Battlestar Galactica, and loved the Starbuck character played by Dirk Benedict. Years later, I loved him as Face[man] on the A-Team, especially for driving a Vette, one of my favorite cars of all time. Today, while looking up something else on IMdB, I came across the trailer for the new A-Team movie, and found it slightly intriguing, so I looked it up to see who was in it. To my surprise, I discovered that Benedict and Dwight Schultz, A-Team's Murdoch (another favorite of mine!), were at least making cameos in the film. I clicked on Benedict's name, and then on the trivia link, where I discovered the following:

On "Battlestar Galactica" (2003): Women are from Venus. Men are from Mars. Hamlet does not scan as Hamletta. Nor does Han Solo as Han Sally. Faceman is not the same as Facewoman. Nor does a Stardoe a Starbuck make. Men hand out cigars. Women 'hand out' babies. And thus the world, for thousands of years, has gone round.

Now, I'm not 100% clear on what he's saying, nor am I saying that I believe as he does, but in my opinion, it's an epic quote that deserves to be examined and considered for quite some time. :-)

Always on my mind...

Last month, I entered a contest for a house in New Mexico, and the announcement of the winner is coming up at the end of this weekend. While I know that the chances of me winning are literally 2 in 40 million, I can't seem to take my mind off of this house. Every day for the last week, I've found my mind wandering back to the house, and what I will need to look into once I take possession of the house. Not if I would take possession, but when. I've only felt this certain about winning something one other time in my life, and I did indeed win in that contest as well.

Everytime I find my mind back on this house, I have to make a strong conscious effort to squash my hopes because of the odds of me winning it are so remote. I've prayed that I would win this house, and perhaps this is God's way of telling me that it will be mine, but my realistic and pragmatic side keeps shouting at me that there's no possible way for me to win it. But despite the long odds, someone will win it, so why can't that person be me? Despite the long odds of the Mega Millions and PowerBall games (both well into the 1 in hundreds of millions range), people win those on a regular basis. So why shouldn't I take this feeling, enjoy it, and fully expect to win the house next week?

I guess the bottom line is that I'm afraid of being crushed  when the all too probable outcome is revealed: that I didn't win it. Still, the house lurks in the corners of my mind, waiting to rise to the surface of my thoughts and pose questions of details regarding it: will I need to buy a security system or did  the builders already include one? Does the community have a swimming pool, hot tub, and fitness center nearby that I could use? What about internet service? Would the neighborhood association mind if I try growing an avacado tree on my property?

It's these questions that bother me the most, I guess. I've never really posed these questions about a house or apartment before. No part of my mind in the past ever dwelled on questions like these before I moved into a new residence, or even when I was looking for one. These questions are the sort that a home owner would ask when he or she has made arrangements through a realtor and has not actually laid eyes on the home themselves. These are questions I would expect someone to ask after they won this house.

Well, God willing, I will win this house, justifying my mind's obsession with it. Otherwise, I can only imagine that I'll be mentally crushed for weeks. If I win, you'll be the second to know... ;)

I HATE Black History Month

The title of this article says it all, but I'm going to explain why I hate Black History month.

I guess the simplest reason is that ideally, it seems unnecessary. In an ideal world, our (African Americans, and their descendants, Black Americans) contributions to history should be recognized along side those of European Americans (White Americans), and we all should be learning about the complete history of our country throughout school and our lives. In reality, we are multiple cultures fused at some points where overlap occurs, and told to ignore those inconsistencies. Growing up Black in Detroit, a city whose population predominantly Black despite what you see in movies and on TV, I've been exposed to countless bits of Black history on a regular basis. I've been to museums featuring African American artwork and historical items, taught all about a lot of the Black historical figures and been told how important my ancestors were to this country. Not just in February, but through out the year.

Now, I don't know what is taught in other communities, and especially in predominantly White communities, but I somehow doubt that the same level of attention was given to Black history. Sure, I expect that the major figures were covered: Malcom X, Martin L. King, Jr., perhaps George Washington Carver, but what about Harriet Tubman, the Buffalo Soldiers, the Tuskegee Airmen and all the others? Even if they are taught, during Black History Month, they're taught out of context: our hundreds of years of history in this country is consolidated and taught during a one month period, without being placed along side their contemporary events in this country and the world. In my opinion, this month trivializes those individuals; it reduces them to a once the year footnote that is not treated with the same reverence and importance as the rest of American history.

And what's worse is the big deal that the media, here in Detroit at least, and some others seem to make out of it. I can't go one day in February without hearing about Black History Month and yet still watch television. It just makes me feel that I'm being thrown a bone to acknowledge that my people were important to this country too.

I'd much rather to have been taught, and one day to have my kids be taught African American history as part of American history.

But you know what makes me feel even worse? The fact that I'm sitting here complaining about Black History Month when the Native American people don't even get that much acknowledgement. There's no Mexican American history month either, and God knows I haven't seen the same for Chinese Americans, Indian (as in India) Americans, or Japanese Americans either.

I don't feel this country can be truly united until we fully integrate our combined histories. America was once called the melting pot, where we all became equals, but I'd say that despite our progress we're still pretty far apart.

Ahh, the Nexus One...

By now, you've probably heard of the Nexus One, and maybe heard too much. I want one, but Google and T-Mobile seem to want me to wait 10 months. While I'm about 99% certain there will be an even more awesome phone in that time, the Nexus One is the one I want.

Let me start from a little earlier in the story. Ever since Android was announced, I've kept an eye on it because it was a pretty cool concept, and there were certain things I wanted to do on my cell phone. Oh, and I MIGHT be able to write some programs that someone would be willing to spend money on.

So when the G1 came out, I decided that I would invest in one when my Verizon Wireless contract expired, which happened at the end of 2008. Frankly, I prefer Verizon by far, but at the time they were not Google or Android friendly, so I got my G1.

The purpose was two fold: first, I needed a new cell phone, and second, I needed a phone I could use for development. So it was an investment.

The G1 is a pretty decent phone overall, and even though it's kind of dated compared to the Droid and Nexus One, it functions pretty well. I wasn't and still am not particularly tempted by the Droid, but the Nexus is another story.

My only fear with the Nexus is the lack of a physical keyboard, but I'm more than willing to give the on screen keyboard and voice recognition a chance. But the big thing for me is going to be the fact that it will most definitely get Android's latest updates as they become available.

You see, the G1 apparently has a tiny amount of space for the operating system which seems to be preventing it from getting the official 2.0 update despite many rumors. If I'm going to be serious about doing Android development, I will need a 2.x capable phone.

Then there's the recent problems my G1 has been having. It started Thanksgiving weekend, when my phone suddenly started acting weird and certain features were suddenly either missing or malfunctioning. They seemed to be cured with a factory reset that caused me to lose some no longer available apps. Then the G1 started experiencing new problems, such as locking up while the screen was off. The weird thing about that was that the screen wouldn't turn on at all, and I couldn't shut the phone off either. The keyboard backlight turns on if the screen is slid open, but it's useless. Sometimes the notification lights would still be blinking, but the only thing you could do was pull the battery and restart the phone. This didn't happen often, but it was irritating.

So after weeks of hearing about the Nexus One, I asked T-Mobile if it would be possible to extend my contract to 2 more years in exchange for the Nexus at the discounted price. I did this before the official announcement, and was told theoretically that I could. When Tuesday rolled around and the announcement was made, I checked the online orderr system to see if it would allow me to do it, but it wouldn't. It didn't matter at the time any way, because I didn't yet have the money. Today, however I came into the money (through non-nefarious means) to pay on a bill and get the phone, so I called up T-Mobile to try to arrange it.

And I was told that because I wasn't qualified for the normal upgrade routine that I could call Google at a certain number to get the partial discount price. Fine, I called that number, which turned out to be HTC (the manufacturer), who told me that they had nothing to do with it. They connected me back to T-Mobile who then explained that I would have to wait until I was qualified for the upgrade in 10 months.

In rare moment of clarity, I realized what I could do, and I asked about the early termination fee on my existing contract. The lady told me that it was $200, which when combined with the cost of the Nexus One on a new plan was still less than the cost of the unlocked version by more than $100. Since that was a lot of money, I decided to hold off and think about it.

Then my G1 locked up again today, and I made up my mind. If it were just another random lock up, I might not have minded, but on Wednesday, my G1 developed another new and serious issue: while it would make outgoing calls just fine, it would send all incoming calls to voice mail before I could answer them (less than 2 seconds). So between these two problems, and today's lock up coming at precisely the time I was considering my options, I decided on investing in the Nexus One, and ordered it. In all likelihood, I'll contact T-Mobile and ask to get a replacement G1 due to these issues, and cancel that line in a few days or weeks.

Hopefully no one else has to jump through the same hoops I did, but I suppose the bottom line is that I'm getting what I wanted.

Update (1/9/2010 3:12pm) : Despite the disclaimer that it would take up to 72 hours ship the phone out when it has been inscribed (as a free option), my phone actually shipped out last night... The very same day I ordered it! And given that there's free overnight shipping, I'll be receiving my phone on Monday! A full 2-3 days earlier than I was expecting it! Thank you Google!

Who gives a QUIZ on the first day of class?!?!

Ok, so today is my first day of school for the Winter 2010 term, and my very first class was my Art History 100 class. Now, I've taken a lot of classes over a lot of years, but I've never had to take a quiz on the very first day of class before today! Now, I'm aware that there's a quiz in my Japanese class on Friday, my second day of class, as a review of last semester, but how is it possible that someone actually thought it would be a good idea to have a quiz on the first day of class of a 100 level course?

In my professor's defense, the order came down from above, and this waws intended as a practice quiz so we students know what to expect, and for them to know where we are in terms of knowledge of the subject, but damn that was uncool.

Any ways, now that it's over, I'll be prepared next time...

BEST. GRADES. EVER.

Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty smart guy. I feel that way, and friends and family have said as much as well. Yeah, that sounds like I'm tooting my own horn, and of course good friends and family might lie to the dumbest member of the family. But I get the distinct impression that they really mean it. If I weren't at least slightly above average, I wouldn't have been in an honors program in both middle and high school, though I'll be the first to admit that I still haven't graduated from college after nearly 20 years... There are perfectly good reasons for that, and I'll talk about them another day.

That said, I've never been the best student I could be. I tried to never do homework, unless it was absolutely critical to passing the class, and until I got to college, I had only failed a single class in my life. And  *THAT* was due to not doing my homework instead of not getting it; I got B's or better on all the quizzes and tests in that class, and I went to night school to retake it and graduate with my class.

In college, things got bad because I had a bad case of really not caring. I'd stop going to some classes half way through the semester and never tried unless it was a class I was really interested in. That's all related to some family and personal problems I started going through after I graduated from high school, and literally lasted for years afterwards. Again, I don't really want to talk about it right now, because I'm in too good a mood.

Basically, I haven't even attempted to take 3 classes at once since I attended Michigan State University from September 1990 through March 1991. When I took classes, it was usually one or two a semester, and about half the time I'd drop one or the other before the end of the semester. Ultimately, it's a miracle that I had 44 transferable credits by the time I got to Oakland University.

So, this semester, at the age of 37, I apparently got serious about my education, and decided to take 3 classes for 12 credit hours so that I could start pushing towards my degree. I was hoping to just not fail the classes, and I've been worried about my performance and grades all semester long. But tonight, I'm happy to report that not only did I pass the classes I took, but passed them with an average of 3.83 points out of 4.0 points. My best grades ever!

My only disappointment is that it took me this long to get this serious about my education, but for now I'm not going to worry about that. I'm already registered for my next 12 credit hours, and starting to worry about those classes...! LOL!

Finally! Something to actually DO in PS Home...

I don't know if you're familiar with the PlayStation 3 or not, but there's a social program as part of it called Home. Until now, it's been a place to just hang out with other PS3 owners, play a few trivial games, and buy stuff for your avatar. Think Second Life PS3 style. Well, today they introduced Sodium One, which has some fairly good games within its spaces. And get this, the games are ACTUALLY fun! I wouldn't say I'd go out of my way to pay for the upgrades and the full versions of the games, but the free exposures to them actually make me want to continue to play them.

That only took a year! Microsoft's NXE still doesn't make me want to use it...