What's Happening Here?

It’s Tuesday everyone, which means only three more days until Friday and the weekend. I do have to do some work this weekend at a volunteer appreciation thing but, thankfully, it will not take as long as the Back to School Rally was this past Saturday. However, it will still cut into my Saturday and for that I am not too happy since the college football season is so close I am getting really antsy about having to give up my Saturdays for other things.

I spent the majority of my young adult life in jobs that had me working on the weekends while most of my friends got to sit around like drunken fat cats. It was a real win for me personally when I landed a job that allowed me two whole weekend days free from the drudgery of work.

I cannot complain too much since these work Saturdays are so few and far between but I always go back in my mind to the days of nine hour Saturdays at a restaurant and I want to puke.

On another note, I am still sickened by the continual outpouring of hatred over this supposed mosque in New York City. Has there ever been a more clear cut case of religious persecution in recent times in this country? It seems obvious to me that stopping the building of the center would violate the First Amendment rights of Islamic peoples to freely practice religion wherever they choose as long as they follow local laws. To not allow this COMMUNITY CENTER to be built because you wrongly call it a mosque, wrongly tell us it is next to the World Trade Center site, and wrongly tell us that Islam is a religion of hate-filled war mongers is so disgusting and horrible you should be banned from speaking about anything, ever.

Give me a break. They are using this issue as a way to try and procure votes for their failing political ideology. The idea that they can use hate and fear to garner the votes they need is so backward and awful it makes me want to scream. The fact that it is working makes me want to move to another planet.

I think if I were ever cursed enough to have my own show on one of the 24-hour cable news stations it would just be me yelling at people for how dumb they are. Seriously, I would roll footage of what the idiots, I mean politicians, in this country say and then just berate them verbally. I would also overlay this verbal assault with actual facts, which I think would give me a real leg up against a lot of these knuckleheads since they usually just spout randomly strung together, incoherent sentence fragments.

 It is beyond disgusting that some are using this as a platform to say that all Muslims and the every tenant of the religion of Islam is behind the horrible attacks of 9/11. What? If we apply that logic to all religions in this country then no one should get to build churches anywhere because this land was violently and aggressively taken from the Native Americans, often in the name of Christianity and our "Manifest Destiny,"  and I bet they probably view all of this land as "sacred" and wish we wouldn't erect monuments to their destruction everywhere they look. 

Of course, fear mongering like this over sensitive issues is nothing new in American politics, which is why I am so thankful for our Constitution. Without it where would we be? I envision a nation full of ignorant, Christian white men slapping each other on the back and shouting at each other about how great it is that they are able to stifle any and all progress or change. Think about it; without the Constitution slavery would still be around, women wouldn't be able to vote, and education would have taken even more of a back seat to religious indoctrination. Of course by "back seat" I mean not even in the car.

Oh but have no fear because that beautiful document that our country is founded on is not safe from these lunatics either. How is it possible that the politicians who love to tout their defense of the Constitution as a motive for voting for them continually deride and ambush its most basic tenants on a regular basis? How are we even having a conversation about amending one of the most important and crucial aspects of our most important and crucial documents? Here's an idea people: How about we fix what's wrong with our policies rather than changing one of the few that actually works and makes sense? 

As if this issue didn't stink enough, we have members of both political parties coming against freedom of religion, which is what this issue is all about at its core. Why has no one brought these people to task about how they validate spitting in the face of the Constitution they so love? A quick rundown of questions I want to ask some of the people who are against this community center: First, how can you say that not allowing this Islamic community center is not about religion when your main argument is that the religion behind the center is evil and we are at war with it so we shouldn't let it be built there? Secondly, how did you graduate fifth grade with this mentality? Thirdly, why are you drooling? Finally, who elected you or said that you could speak on my behalf? 

Of course it should come as no surprise that these people do that with the Constitution when they do it with their more loved and more often quoted source on everything about life, the Bible. Their motto is to just pick and choose the best parts that fit their agenda and then forget about the rest of it, or hell even better, let's change it to fit our needs at a specific time. 

No matter how you slice it, this is an issue of religious tolerance and even if it was not one initially it has certainly become such because of the arguments used by so many that Islam is the religion of terrorist and hate.

There are some voices of reason regarding this issue. However, they just get drowned out by the constant noise machine that is our media. Rather than show us calm, reasonable voices they prefer to shove them out of the way with an ambush of idiotic and ignorant rhetoric. I really hope this idiocy stops soon because I believe that it is turning calm, rational minded people away from our political system, which means that it will only be controlled by those on the fringes. Truthfully, that scares me more than anything right now.

I am going to leave it at this for right now because I have to go and scream into my pillows. Have a good Tuesday folks. 

Time Sucks

This has been one of the slowest days ever. Time has literally stopped. I just checked my analog watch and saw the second hand quit moving. Come to find out it was because the battery had just died in this crappy old watch but the point is still the same; standard time keeping mechanisms are impotent in this office.

To make matters worse I can’t even enjoy the news today because it is still filled with hate and anti-American/Constitutional rhetoric that gets me so pissed off I just want to scream at somebody. Do you have to exchange your brain for a political office? Why does it seem that most of our politicians are ignorant fear mongers? Am I wrong?

Please someone show me some light somewhere. I implore you!

I better stop now before you are able to feel me screaming while reading this.

I would love to be running/exercising in some brand news sneakers right now. I am thinking about getting some K-Swiss Tubes. I hope you enjoy the rare behind the scenes look at how shoe endorsement deals get inked that I have linked below.  You’re welcome in advance.

Kenny Powers Gets Signed By K-Swiss - watch more funny videos

Here We Go Again

Controversy = The Same Thing Done Differently Each Week

Apparently the best way to get noticed in this country is to do a magazine cover photo shoot in the nude and covered in blood. Who knew? In the same stroke, the best way to get labeled as controversial and/or make news is to continue to do almost the exact same thing week end and week out.

The "new" cover of Rolling Stone is all anyone can seem to think or talk about all day on the internet. Am I new here on Earth or does it seem like every week or so Rolling Stone does something that people deem “controversial” or “news worthy?” How many times can you do something before it stops being controversial?

I would think that the limit on that would be three or more times, which means we can definitely move past thinking of what Rolling Stone does as controversial and start thinking of it as just what they do. That makes sense, right?

I guess not because we here in America are so overwhelmed with fascination for anything showing more than a quarter inch of bare flesh we will showcase and highlight and dissect it to no end. I suppose it should come as no surprise though since our culture seems to be probing and dissecting almost everything and anything anyone says or does these days ad nauseum.

It is enough to make me want to rip my clothes off and start snapping photos.

I also hate it when the news/magazine headlines will call certain photo shoots topless because the female subject just happens to not be wearing a shirt. I get it in that she is literally not wearing a top, but she is almost always facing the other direction giving us some coy smile/scowl or she is wearing a hand bra. In my opinion, these techniques render the “topless” term moot because we don’t get to see full breast.  

It might be just me but when you tell me a hot girl is topless I better be able to see nipple or at least more than the same amount of breast I would be able to see at the beach or at one of my sexy lingerie parties.

Perhaps I am dissecting this too much, but I am getting really tired of seeing one thousand posts about a magazine cover shoot where a female, or a male in some cases, is not wearing their Victorian era dressing gowns. Are we still so prudish? What is all the hype about?

I know it’s exciting when Katy Perry lets us see 85% of her breasts…again, but can we please keep the national discourse on the issue down to a slight murmur. Let’s just save the yelling for when they start taking pictures of her dripping honey on her naked body while penning her much anticipated and ridiculously forthcoming love missive to me. I could get worked up over that. 

On to the next one...

Challenging the person you love to a vodka cocktail drinks contest is probably not the way most people kick off their week, but Lindsey and I are not most people and there is nothing we love more than a good challenge. Especially one where we are pitted against each other and the winner actually ends up being the loser when it is all said and done. Irony is probably the one literary device we utilize the most around the house, well that and onomatopoeia. Boom!

Suffice it to say that this morning we both officially lost thanks to the latent and evil machinations of said vodka. I knew something had gone wrong in our plan when I had to pry my eyes open with a crowbar thanks to the pain from the unbearable light of that smug yellow dwarf star we call the Sun beating against the back of my skull. I think we can check this off the "Lesson not Learned, Yet" play-book because I am sure we will be back for another contest at some point. 

I wish I could say it will be a healthier less brain berating contest; like seeing who can eat the most salad or chug the most water in under six hours, but I wouldn't bet on that if I were a betting man because we already are planning to do something similar to what you are going to see in the embedded video. The only glaring difference between us and that guy however, will be when we die. Probably naked and probably covered in each other’s vomit.

Crushing my Dreams

People that know me know that one of my dreams in life is to live near a Red Robin. It may not seem like much of a dream but there are a lot of selfish people who dream of things like going to space, working at the White House, or helping families in need receive the services they should be getting in order to make sure that their children can go to school.

Flying in the face of all this selfishness is my dream of a family friendly, artery clogging dining experience within an afternoon’s drive for the betterment of the entire community. I am a quiet activist for the little guy and what better way to make the little guy bigger than by offering him a relaxed environment where he can eat a 1lb. burger topped with bacon and a fried egg.

Well imagine my surprise when I saw that in the spot where I thought a Red Robin might be going up here in Shreveport, I see that they are building something called Cheddar’s. WTF!!  Is it a cheese restaurant? Am I going to sit down and they are going to bring me a glass of fancy wine with an assortment of cheeses with special crackers?

Is this the first installment in a series of real-world satirical chain restaurants from the guys who brought us South Park’s Raisins franchise? It sounds to me like it’s the cool place to hang-out in a 1980s movie about growing up in the 1950s.

Even without that ridiculous name a cursory glance at the joint’s menu via their website has me thinking that someone is playing a sick joke on me.  What is the difference between eating at this place instead of Chili’s or Crapplebees?  Did they think we needed one more restaurant serving up tasteless, pre-processed crap? How many places can serve nursing home food and still do business?

This market is already saturated with corporate franchises that do not have to play by the same rules as the locally owned restaurants. This has to stop. My city is crying for an original and enjoyable place to dine. Am I the only one who can hear her tortured midnight pleas for justice through the thin walls of my apartment?

As an aside, I realize that Red Robin is not locally owned, but it is still so much different and better than any of the other corporate restaurants we have here. I am amazed with how many incarnations of Chili’s we have in America while people all over the world starve to death.

Can’t we send places named Cheddar’s to those countries so we here in the States don’t have to suffer under the oppressive yolk of these corporate machines? Who said that living in the land of milk and honey was easy?

Whoever runs this place obviously needs to do a much more extensive market research analysis. What self-respecting Louisianan would go to a franchised restaurant to eat Chicken Fried Steak?

Wait, on further reflection probably every single idiot in this town, since I know for sure that a lot of self-respecting Louisianans would kill someone for a big ole’ heaping helping of Chicken Fried Steak because we are fat and do not care.

A handful of Louisiana's finest!

Well, fear not faithful follower! I will continue to email the folks at Red Robin in an effort to convince them that the obese and care free citizens of Louisiana need a delicious and innovative way to maintain our desperately poor lifestyle decision-making processes. In the meantime, I will refuse to go eat at Cheddar’s until someone offers to pay for it.

The Rule of Three

The Rule of Three is this: “If something happens once it is an occurrence, if it happens twice it is a coincidence, and if the same thing happens three times it is a pattern.”

The Rule of the Three is a behavioral tool and model that I have become more and more familiar with over the past few months. It is simple and succinct. Yet underlying that simplicity is an extremely profound revelation that is brimming with truth.

It applies to every aspect of life from the simplest individual behavior to the most entrenched societal norms. I like to employ it when speaking with young people in terms of their actions in life. It is a great starting point for them to see how they are acting from a totally new perspective.

If each of us looks back and thinks about the things we have done or are doing in our lives, the veracity of The Rule of Three can be striking.

I can definitely find this pattern in my own life. I know that probably most, if not all, people could see how this rule impacts their own lives.

Spend some time thinking about how and when The Rule of Three comes into play in your own life. It might just change some behavior you needed to lose anyway. 

Don't Stop Believing

If you spend enough time doing anything you are bound to become good at it. There is always the problem of not doing something enough. This problem usually lies with the person who is not doing whatever it is that they want to do.

How many times in life have you started something and then just finished it because you were not as good as you thought you should be?

It has happened to me a number of times. I have this vision in my head of things and when they do not happen that way I think they should I tend to just stop doing it. I think a lot of that stems from the fact that most of my life certain things that I do have come easy to me and I get so frustrated when I struggle that I shut down.

An example that comes to my mind instantly is playing the guitar. I want to play and every time I start playing I really dig it. However, there comes that time in my mind when I believe I should be better at it than I am and I just throw in the towel. Rather than keeping my head up and working on it even harder I just forget about it, in a way. (Sometimes when I am sitting in the quiet solitude of an afternoon after work the thought will come to me to pick it up again but I just convince myself to not worry about it.)

I am not sure why I do this and it is not limited to guitar playing. That example just stands out in my mind.

This problem of stopping an activity when I don’t like the way it is going stares me in the face every day and it is one that I try to overcome all the time. I fail and falter, but I every day I try to do something that I believe I am not as good as I think I should be. Of course, I find that the better you think you are at something the more likely you are to be reminded that you are not, in fact, that good at it. Or at least you will find out that you are not the best at it like you had so long suspected.

Then, I believe that I have to make sure that I stay sharp with the things that I believe I am already doing well. There are plenty of those things as well.

I guess the moral of this story is to make sure that you always work hard on everything in life and the important things will rise to the top. It is also a public reminder to me to make sure that I remember to not give up on not giving up, which is exactly what I need.

They say that shame works wonders on some people to correct an action and I think that is true for me in this case.

Looking for a Little More

I have experienced a real creative drought over the past few days. I just am bogging myself down in worrying what I should speak about and am forgetting that I can speak about whatever I want because this is mine and it doesn’t matter.

It can be really intimidating to try and think of cool things to write about especially when my brain is full of things I want to say but sometimes I cannot figure out how I want to say them. I feel strongly about a lot of things and issues but there is no real outlet for me right now in my life for those thoughts. It appears to me that most people I talk to do not want to talk about those things for reasons I cannot understand.

I guess it is the polarizing nature of issues of importance that make them so hard to talk about. If people were capable of intelligent, non-biased discussion then this world would be a much better place. It would really be beneficial if people put less emotion and more intellect into voicing their convictions. But then I suppose some people would say that to have convictions implies emotion.

I just want to find an outlet for the many ramblings that ensconce themselves into my brain and want to be worked out with people who also enjoy reasonable, intelligent discussion. I want to include people who disagree with me and could paint another picture but most of the people I know who disagree with me seem to just regurgitate information they have heard elsewhere without any intelligible, independent research. Have you ever tried to have an adult discussion with someone who does not go out and research the topic at all but uses clichés, quotes, and simple-mindedness to try and make themselves appear relevant? It grosses me out when I have to talk to people like that.

I just want to be able to discuss more important issues than the usual banality. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the banality as well, but I would just like to see a more diverse array of topics discussed than it appears to me that many of the people I associate with do. I should say, that I am not sure if they want to discuss higher order topics but I have never gotten the impression I could have a lengthy, intelligent discussion about anything going on with only but two or three people.

One of my main goals right now is to try and plug myself into a group of people that want to share and discuss important issues that affect my community and the nation as a whole. I am on the lookout for groups of people that want to discuss plans and aim to lead the community in better and brighter directions. 

Interesting Inspiration

Here is an amazing eulogy written in The Dallas Morning News for EPSN producer Leah Siegel, who passed away on July 26 after fighting breast cancer for two years. She left behind three children and a husband. I never knew Mrs. Siegel, in fact I never heard of her until I read about her on Peter King’s “Monday Morning Quarterback,” but I found this article to be incredibly moving.

I think that the story of Leah Siegel is one that is particularly apropos for me at this stage in my life. As I sit here and wonder why I am on this particular road and might want to pout about my particular problems the world is quick to remind me and all of us that there is always someone going through much worse.

I will take seeing this article as a sign that I need to continue to stay positive and that no matter how “dim” it may appear to me there is always something so much worse that could happen. Life is a battle and it is all about how you handle the particular battles in your life that matter. I have found some strength in this article and am happy to post it here.

I am not so concerned about getting others to read it (although that would be great), but I want it here so that when I look back at all the things I have written I will always be reminded to keep my head up, do what I have to do get it done right, and stay strong for all of the people that love and care about me in this life.

It is amazing that someone I have never met can inspire so much.