A Bad Boy And A Scholar(ship)

So the world is abuzz about Justin Combs - Diddy’s son: you know, the one with the restaurant named after him - getting a scholarship at UCLA. Apparently some people have an issue with it since pops throws around money like it burns in his hands.

Why We Cry When Musicians Die

I remember someone asking the question on Facebook of why people get all out of sorts when musicians die. "You didn't know Tupac. You didn't go to school with Aaliyah. Why does it matter so much to you?"

The answer, as I explained in a reply on the friend's post where I saw it, is simple.

Get Over Yourself Day

We have all these holidays, probably more than we need. Some are religious, some are patriotic, some are man-made. Many have been commercialized beyond repair. I still don’t get why we get more days off for Thanksgiving than for Christmas, but whatever. All that said, I propose another holiday that needs to be on the books…

…”Get Over Yourself” Day.

Opportunity

Opportunity is a funny thing…well, to be more correct, we act funny when it comes to opportunity. We always talk about how much we want it, and then it comes and we - well, act funny.

If a new professional opportunity comes up, we start to wonder about the corresponding changes we’ll have to make if we take the opportunity. Will I have to move? Will I get along with new people? What about the old people? Am I leaving something behind?

Two Steps

I found out a few minutes ago that Junior Seau died, apparently from a self-inflicted shot to the chest. This makes me feel odd in a number of ways: some of which are more relevant than others.

The main thought I have is “what in the world made him kill himself: he had money, fame, respect, and if he picked five women on any random day he could probably get with four of them”. Just goes to show that in his case and that of other athletes who’ve committed similar acts, we as fans don’t know what’s going on in their heads.

Six Tips...And Thoughts On Those Tips

Ed. note: I don't know how I had this in my queue for so long (almost a year), but since it makes no sense to keep it there and I likely still agree with it, here it is...

Ran across a Marni Kinrys article on CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/07/14/how.to.pick.up.girls/index.html) that gave men six tips on dating. Article text is in bold and regular type, comments are in italics.

(CNN) -- You have to think about picking up girls the exact same way you think about picking up a box. You just do it. Seriously. After working with thousands of men all around the world, I have found that the common issue holding men back with women is that "thing" on top of their shoulders. It thinks, analyzes and makes excuses, so rejection is self-inflicted before women even get a chance to do it.

Here are six secrets men need to know about women to help them stop that "thing" in their head from destroying their dating life:

No, I'm Not Perfect

I promised myself I wouldn’t try to rationalize or sugar-coat these things (at least individually). At the same time, I will say that I have little to no interest in changing them. My imperfections make me ‘me’ the same way that my positive attributes do. It’s all part of the same package.

*Note: none of these will be physical. If you think my being short or skinny is an imperfection, then…nah, won’t go there.

The Fabulous Straight-Edge Life

Over the last month I’ve mentioned CM Punk and his straight-edge lifestyle quite a bit. I’ve also gone into my own “straight-edgeness” (if you will) and related it to that of Punk and his ongoing storyline with Chris Jericho.

Don’t worry: this one won’t focus on wrestling much, if at all.

Why I Want to Join Mensa

I think I’ve mentioned to a few people that I’m interested in joining Mensa. Might have even mentioned it in a previous entry. I don’t think I ever got into why I have this particular interest, so I’ll do that now.

Why I'm Never Getting Married

So I’ve finally figured out the main reason why I need not ever get married. It came to me in the form of a question that someone posed on Facebook. The question was…

…after you get married, who should be the most important person in your life: your mother or your spouse?

The Unattractiveness of Being Smart

Sometimes I run across tweets that inspire me to write. This would happen to be one of those times.

One of my Twitter peoples retweeted a woman saying she’d take a smart man over an attractive man.

Anyone got the number for BS? I need to make a call.

 

Thinking Like A Man

Yes, this is about the movie.

Yes, I am going to see it.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way (yes, that's a Steve Harvey shout out), let's get to it.

The Best Wrestler of All Time

Saw a tweet asking whether the Undertaker was the best wrestler of all time since he’s been in 20 WrestleManias (and if you need to ask how he’s done in those 20, please exit stage left). My immediate answer was no; as names like Austin, Hogan, Michaels, and Flair came to mind. Then I started thinking: they have their warts too. I’ll get to those below, but it’s really interesting how arguments would have to vary about who the best wrestler of all time is. Let’s look at some guys (I’m sorry, but there isn’t a female wrestler I can put up there) and see their cases.

Brown Isn't Really Black

Was thinking about something to write about and had no clue. Was going to simply do a 20-something and then the idea came to me. In honor of this whole Coming To America thing, I'm going to talk about a few things that (most) black people (I know) like and I don't...and things I like that (most) black people (I know) don't. They won't be grouped together, as I'm thinking of them randomly.

A Cult of Two Personalities (Part II)

So I left off with how the current CM Punk storyline mirrors my own life in a few ways, particularly a possible effect of something that Chris Jericho said. Last week (right after I posted), Punk mentioned in a promo that he was proud of the strides his father has made. That’s where I’ll pick up.

Reasons...Three Months Later

So, as most everyone knows; I decided three months ago that I was done with women/dating. In this time, I have thought about a few things and I am still as grounded as ever in my decision. I don’t think I ever gave expanded reasoning for it, other than outlining the events that led to it. I’ll go ahead and do that, under the guise of explaining why it is so easy to stick with it.

A Cult of Two Personalities

For those of you who don't know, I'm a wrestling fan. I'm actually going to WrestleMania this year, since it's in Miami and I have a friend getting married that same weekend. Well, I was going to WrestleMania anyway: I bought my ticket before I was invited to the wedding. At any rate, I'm going.

American Pride

As many of y’all - shoot, just about everyone reading this on FB should - know, I’m from South Florida. Everyone also knows that South Florida has a large population of people who come from the islands.

Note: if you’re from the islands (especially if you’re female), you’re liable to not like me very much by the end of this piece.

For some reason I thought back to a time in high school when I was asked this question (by one of my FB friends, actually)…

What Would BIG Do?

So I have something new to talk about. Fifteen years ago tomorrow (well, not the day I'm writing this; but the day I'm posting it) Christopher Wallace was killed in a shooting out in LA. I'm not going to recap anything from that or even run down a list of my favorite songs by Mr. Wallace...now. I'm going to instead ask a hypothetical question.

If Wallace were still alive, would he still be rapping?

My answer? Heck no.

Why not?

Well, that's what the rest of this is about.

Lowest Common Denominator

I said I was going to stop talking about dating/relationship type stuff, but a tweet I saw and responded to made me realize there's something that needs to be discussed. Someone who one of my friends retweeted said that rule #1 for any "relational" (as opposed to relationship) partner was that they had to have a vagina. I said that the condition was necessary, but not sufficient. Guy then replied to me and said that sometimes it is sufficient.

Now, my mind immediately went to the fact that guys have been falling all over themselves for it for years and years. Even though there are so many reasons to not do so - friendships, finances, family - fools still go all out for it. Jay-Z and R Kelly made a song about it. Many rappers have made songs outlining the dangers of such behavior, although the message is often clouded by some accompanying presentation which a large segment of the population considers to be misogynistic.

I'm not arguing 'for' or 'against' on that point, because that's not what this is about. What this is about is one simple thing that guys who go all out seem to forget: something that has economic application even though it's a mathematical concept.