Friday, July 30, 2010

My Problem With The News

No I'm not talking about FOX vs MSNBC.  That's a whole new entry in and of itself.  My problem is the depiction of certain individuals in the news.  Watch this clip of a rape attempt gone awry captured by a news station.  The thing that frustrates me is that the news always tends to find the most ignorant of minorities to do interviews with on serious topics.  I guess in that clip, the producers couldn't help who the witnesses were.  However, couldn't they, at the very least, chopped up the video and found the more serious parts of the story.  It's like they went out of their way to find the silly parts.  This next video is pretty funny, but sad at the same time.



I just can't get out of my head that everytime the news has a story in a African American area, the most ignorant fool always gets an interview.  I promise you not all black folk are like that.  One, I've never seen a leprechaun.  Two, I don't make threats on television where there are thousands of witnesses watching.  I'm sure there is one or two black folks in that area they could have interviewed besides these folks.  There's always kind of a "how come you don't act like other black folks" question from folks.  My answer is, if I did I'd come out looking like these people.



YOU MEAN TO TELL ME NOT ONE WHITE PERSON WANTED THE $4.99 CHICKEN SPECIAL!?!??!

If you excuse me, I must play my leprechaun flute and ward off the spell of ignorance.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Train Wreck Reality Shows and the Tyrone Who Loves Them

I was asked by someone recently (Jessica to be specific; there's your dedication) why I liked that new Ochocinco reality show.  She couldn't quite understand why it would be appealing.  I mulled over my answer for 20 minutes before tuning into NBC to see who got voted off America's Got Talent.  I still think CJ Dippa was robbed, but that's my opinion.  I guess the answer to that is simple: I like train wrecks.  I like things that seemed like a good idea on paper, but totally fail when executed, like a Lindsay Lohan jail sentence. 

I guess that's why the Jersey Shore season premiere has me amped.  The thought of 8 people with heavy northern accents and horrible tans living together just gets me excited.  I guess it all started for me when I saw COPS for the first time.  No, not the wretched cartoon about the cyborg police officers.  I'm talking about the COPS that's been on FOX since I was in 4th grade.  To see a bunch of normal (relatively speaking) everyday people getting arrested by officers just made me laugh.  I think the horrible lies they tried to pull off as to why the police were called made it even funnier. 

The Real World (again, relatively speaking) was supposed to be a social experiment to see what happens when 7 random people move into a New York apartment and live together and learn about each other.  In theory it was a great idea, however the main result is two of the cast mates hooked up and, the rest got drunk and yelled at each other for an hour.  Granted, sometimes they addressed important issues, but nine times out of ten, silliness ensued. 

Now the influx of reality television has really caused a commotion.  With people living on islands, people trying to win the love of some B-List celebrity, or the combination of the two; we're really seeing a genre take over the airwaves.  I remember when I was in college at Liberty, kids would leave chapel service early to watch Temptation Island.  I always wondered where everyone went after chapel until one night when it was cancelled, I go to the lounge and there they are.  I'm constantly seeing people post on facebook about how they couldn't believe the bachelor kept one person over another.  I'm guilty of it, too. 

Why are we so enamored with reality television?  Especially considering how not real they are, we shouldn't really be into it.  Well, I won't say that we shouldn't, but at the very least, keep an open mind to the fact that it may be more fabricated than we or producers are willing to admit.  Jennifer Hudson being knocked out of American Idol being my lead example for fakeness of reality.  Survivor is filmed just a few miles away from civilization.  They're not in the wilderness, they're at the park.  Like I said, I think the train wreck style of reality shows just lends itself to be viewed by so many different people.  If you like to see random famous people pretend to be in love, VH1 has about 12 shows for you.  If you like silly folks who you swear you'd never be friends with, MTV usually owns that one.  And if you want to determine the status of random people's length of their 15 minutes of fame, that's all on network television.  Now if you excuse me, I'm going to do some fist pumping and later this week, watch random cooks get chewed out by a British man for burning the risotto.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

How Cookies Break Barriers

Today was a good day.  I shared my slightly famous homemade chocolate chip cookies with co-workers and folks.  The first question I got was, "You made these?"  That question is immediately followed with, "From scratch?  Really?"  It's as if a single male is physically incapable of making something from scratch.  The worst part is, it's women who have this notion.  Yes people, the same gender who burned bras in the 60s for feminism.  Yep, the same gender who put their hero Susan B. Anthony on a dollar to celebrate her fighting for suffrage.  This reminds me of a video I saw, I'll share with you.  Feel free to shake your heads in shame.


Anyways, women just don't get that men can do things domestic.  A guy who can seperate his laundry and moisturizes his hands must be a rare thing or something.  So women, I'm just going to ask you to not be so judgmental when a male says that he can cook or clean.  In return, we won't act shocked when you catch a football or change your own oil.  Women have been fighting for many a year to be treated equally.  However when a man excels in the ONE PLACE that women hate being relegated to, they act as if a third arm just popped out of my forehead.  Not fair, at all.  Funny thing, my cookies got rave reviews.  Well, I don't know about rave, but people liked them.  I'm also having an issue with women pulling the "I'm a woman" card at convenient times.  For example, a woman goes shopping for a car.  They go alone and tell their significant other that she can buy a car by herself and doesn't need a man to help her.  However, as soon as the car messes up, she fusses at the man for not going back to that dealer and defending her honor.  You had that honor all by yourself when you went shopping.  Just kind of annoying that there is a double standard.  Either be a helpless damsel or get your own wedding ring out of the plumbing.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Barack Star

I've tried very hard to avoid politics in my life.  It's usually a grimy subject for me.  Usually it's because I don't know enough about the subjects to give a great opinion.  I blame overly biased cable news stations and articles for this lack of knowledge.  Everything is spun to validate the reporters' opinions.  However I must comment on something I learned this afternoon.  President Obama is going to be the first sitting president to ever be on a daytime talk show when he tapes an interview for ABC's The View.  You'd think he'd be on Oprah first considering how she pretty much got every woman who worships her to vote for him, but so life is.  I also learned that Obama will be in EA Sports' Madden NFL 2011 video game. 

Now I think this whole Obama-Mania is going a tad far.  With Jesse Jackson crying, rappers threatening to move to Canada if Barack wasn't elected, and him playing HORSE with Clark Kellogg (that's a whole other subject because surely someone better than Kellogg could have played him and beat him), I'm starting to get a little bothered by this rock star mentality.  I know that he doesn't really ask for all this.  It kinda comes with the territory of being the first brotha to be president.  Yes I spelled it that way on purpose.  Seems like people just can't get past that particular aspect of his life.  There are some pretty good things that he has done.  He inspired many of our nation's children with a simple speech telling them to stay in school.  That's basically what he said if you're a kid who has judgmental parents that took you out of school that day he shared the speech.  I can stand a couple of appearances on things, but he's always on some show or broadcast.  He did guest commentary during the Georgetown-Duke basketball game.  I can't even watch basketball without hearing from the president.  People were comparing my NCAA bracket to Obama's.  I don't care how his bracket is.  He has more important things to worry about than if Murray State can upset Vanderbilt (I called that one, by the way.  He didn't.)  I don't blame all this on Obama.  I blame a lot of this on the media.  Particularly the media that is 'liberal" in reporting.  One outlet (the one whose address is 30 Rock) actually sold Obama keepsakes when he won the election.  I don't mind a media-friendly president.  In fact, I'll embrace it.  However, take a break my man.  Let Ryan Seacrest be the media darling that we poke fun of. 

Monday, July 26, 2010

Introduction

Hello all. I am Tyrone. I tried this before, and it was pretty successful. I decided that I would do this again. This time, I'm going to share my opinion on anything. It could be on sports. It could be on the weather. It could be on politics, however I guarantee you that you won't hear my opinion on any cable news network. Basically, if it's happening on this planet or any other planet, I'm talking about it. Feel free to email me on topics to talk about. I don't even know how this will go. I could give up in like, a month. I probably won't though. I'm tough and stuff. I refuse to give misinformation like that Tea Party guy. I also refuse to insult people of power like the president just because I don't agree with him. I will have at it with any dumb idea that comes about. I've upset a lot of people with my opinions before. I probably will again. However, you chose to read this, so you took on the responsibility of getting offended when you clicked. Outside of facebook.com, I'm really not sure how I'm getting the word out on this thing. I'll figure it out. Maybe the great "word of mouth" will do the trick. Introduction to me: First of all, I'm a Christian. I love God more than anything and truth be told, His word is probably going to be the baseline for my opinions. That will offend a lot, I'm sure. However God's word is a stumblingblock to some. Have fun with that bandage. I'm Tyrone. I am an instructional assistant at an elementary school in Roanoke, VA. I work specifically with children with Autism. Yes it is as tough as it sounds. I used to be a youth pastor, but I had to work 2 other jobs besides that just to keep myself above water. I also felt God calling me to go into education after having a wonderful experience as a substitute teacher. It seems like I'm born for education. I'm contemplating going deeper into it and getting licensed. I don't know if I should or not. I've prayed about it. I'm sure God will make things right if I do it. The extra school thing at 30 isn't appealing though. You're probably wondering where I got the title for this blog. Well, I'm smarter than almost everyone I know, so that explains the "genius" part. The "cheddar biscuits" is a different thing. 1) It's my favorite appetizer ever. 2) If you've seen "The Boondocks" episode where we're introduced to A Pimp Named Slickback, you get this right away. If not, google it. Overall, I'm thankful that I get an outlet to just say whatever. Hopefully, you all will like this blog and enjoy it as much as I enjoy sharing it.