Peep Show

As requested by blog readers (to supplement the Sorry Neighbor post below)...

Click on pic.

and
Step out the shower... & *BAM* window's right there!

Be About It - Part II

I have to gripe a little bit... same topic is I blogged about last month. In fact, I'll just copy & paste it.

Don't talk about it. Be about it.
Everywhere we go, we hear complaints. Hear about about what YOU need to do. Meanwhile.... when it's time to act, time to participate, time to enact that change... there's no one around. If you have a problem that needs fixing, ask yourself what you are doing to fix it, instead of waiting to let others do it. Cause you know you will be the first to speak out when you see a problem. This message isn't going out to anyone in particular, really... it isn't. Just a gripe.

As for me, I'll continue to be a leader & make a positive impact on everything I touch.

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Bobby has a what?

Bravo will premiere the long-anticipated reality series “Being Bobby Brown” on June 30. The show, co-produced by Bobby’s Brownhouze Entertainment, will feature his wife Whitney Houston, as well as the couple's child, Bobbi Kristina; Brown's other children, La Princia and Bobby Jr.; and his brother and manager, Tommy.

I'm speechless. And I'm sure no one will watch it, cause NO ONE CARES about you!

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You did Paula Abdul? Yea.. RIght

As I'm sure you heard, dude claims he slept with Paula Abdul when he was a contestant on American Idol. Ummm, yeah, right. I can't believe Primetime is going to waste valuable couch potato time with this nonsense.

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It's time Mr. Chill..

It's time to get off your ass and do what you have to do to get promoted! You talked all that mess back in November, and now you're watching everyone get promoted around you... step up, or shut up!

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BET's Spring Bling

Someone tell Ciara that you cannot wear low rise jeans and do that booty dance. Your ass crack shows! Nice try, moving the radio receiver to try to cover it up.

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Making the Band 3

Is this really the best way to make a band? Having a contest to see who can dance the best will only leave you with a bunch of teenie boppers. What group out there right now is popular because of how they dance? There are solo artists out there that dance & sing. I think this makeshift band is doomed. At least the rappers from last season had used their rapping talents to get in the group, and they produced a few tracks you could listen to (not buy... let alone download). This new group looks like it's heading straight for video-fame.

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Sorry Neighbor!!!

I don't know who designed my house, but the genious put a big-ass window in my walk-in closet that faces the street. It wasn't a problem, until the other night. I was tired. Anxious to jump in the shower and hop in the bed. My shower is next to the closet.... right in front of the window. You know where I'm going with this, right? Generally, if my blinds are open, I keep the lights off, so no one sees me. But this night... *sigh*.... Llights are blazing, and I jump out the shower into my closet and "AAAARRRRGGGHGHHHH!!!!!!!"

Since it was dark out, I couldn't tell if anyone saw me... but it certainly did freak me out, just thinking they were in their living room watching tv and just waiting for me to step out the shower.

Myrtle Beach

I had an interesting time in Myrtle Beach. I went there for a ski convention, which included a bunch of meetings. I'm the racing guy for my club. I introduced myself at the meeting, and the agenda suddenly stopped. Everyone was elated to see a Black ski club become part of their organization, and everyone's offering their support & advice on how we can get more involved and better organized. There was also an intense questioning to find out how good we are. They take racing very seriously, much more than I have. But since my club does subsidize my ski expenses, and I enjoy skiing and racing, I may let their racing passion rub off on me.

My second observation was that many of the racing leaders were injured. I don't need to ask why, or how. It's just not encouraging to follow folks in leg braces or walking with a cane.

I stayed at the Kingston Plantation. The name alone made me think twice about going, w/o even looking up its history. The ethnicities of the worker-bees versus the top dogs were as expected. It was not warm out, but that did not stop the outdoor pool from being packed. Weird.

The funniest part of my drive, was seeing this Porsche Carerra anxious to pass me on a busy stretch of a 4-laned (total) highway. Apparently, my 85 mph wasn't fast enough, so I politely scooted over. The Porsche promptly accelerated for for about... 1 second, before he had to slam on teh brakes to wait for the other car to move over. This repeated itslef every 15 seconds. A couple minutes later, I saw the same Porsche on the side of the road with its hood up. LOL

King's Ransom

You should really thank me for this post. I'm about to save you a whole lot of agony. First of all, support black movies. If we don't, who will. Secondly, don't waste a second of your time or a penny, or your date's nickle on the most pathetic excuse for a movie since Soul Plane. I'm talking about the movie King's Ransom. I just saw a premiere of it. Oh, was that a mistake, now I get to warn all of my blog readers from ruining their weekend! I did laugh during the movie. But those rare moments were not enough. It was basically a movie full of punchlines that were thrown together to make a film. Punchlines are funny when they are given in the right context. The plot, the writing, the producing, the out of focus camera shots, all pathetic!!! Aside from the few chuckles the movie will give you, the next most noteworthy part of the movie is all of the cleavage. I swear, I saw more cleavage in the movie than I saw at Strokers or Magic City! But the difference is, it wasn't the good cleavage. it was like watching your aunt show too much of her goods at the family reunion or something. Bernie Mac's tv mom, Kellita Smith, was showing way too much. Nicole Ari Parker, from Showtime's Soul Food, is a beautiful and talented actress that probably killed any chances of being in a future blockbuster film. I didn't mind seeing her goodies though. Loretta Devine played her usual role. Thankfully, she was the only one that didn't show any goodies. Charlie Murphy (Eddie's bro) played his typical gay felon role. Donald Faison played his typical goofy role. And cut that goofy-ass mole off your lip. It only looked cute on Cindy Crawford!Anthony Anderson should have found a better film to get his first staring role in.

On second thought, don't support all black films.

Well, I'm off to pack for Myrtle Beach. This should be an interesting trip.

Keeping up with the Jones' - Part II

How do you know that the we are well into Spring? It's when all the neighbors come outside like they are preparing for a battle. The victor gets to claim the Nicest Looking Yard bragging rights. I met a new neighbor. He came by and told me his fiance' requested he find out what I did to get green grass in my backyard. I don't know where he's from, but he's got to be the countriest guy I've ever met. He told me his battle plans, and acknowledged that I was currently winning the war. I saw Geckogirl's neighbor had her kids digging out their weed infested garden.
My Latino neighbor was actively going to war. He's the one I talked about earlier who just aerated & seeded his yard since that is what worked for me. He was out with his kids, and guess what? I caught him & his daughter on my grass, checking it out, letting her play, and watering his own lawn. Click on the pic here. Remeber, my yard used to be a whole lot of red clay, now it's filling up with some greenery. #1> What are you doing in my yard? #2> Get your kid out of my yard! #3> Who's going to clean up all that damn straw?
Some new tulips have blossomed! I now have Dark violet tulips to go with my purple & pink ones. I could have sworn I planted some bright colored bulbs. But knowing me, I just bought anything and planted them w/o much thought.

Yard Work

I spent my off day building a retaining wall for GeckoGirl's garden. Let's do some math. We got 116 bricks from Home Depot, at 24 lbs/brick. We also picked up three cubic yards of dirt that's approximately 3,000 lbs or 1.5 tons per cubic yard. Pulling out a calculator That's (116x24) + (3x3000) = 11,784 lbs. Or just under 6 tons. Needless to say, my back was absolutely KILLING me!!! I did have assistance from someone who had no clue of what was awaiting him. All weekend, I was walking around like a NEANDERTHAL. I definitely had to clean out the hot tub for some muscle relaxation. But it was worth it. Wall looks nice. Will build one for the trees when it stops raining. I can't complain though, it was less bricks & dirt than I used for my yard.

Speaking of which, my tulips are blossiming, and I'm very excited. I took a picture of it yesterday. Unfortunately, the sun was setting. As you can see below, I don't pick my colors too wisely. Purple tulips with orange Marigolds. Mom would be proud to see her alma mater's colors. After the first set of tulips blossom, I'm expecting some pink tulips to do their thing. Then I should have a third set to sprout too. We'll see what happens. What do you think? I'll take a better, sunnier picture later.

Smokers = Litterbugs

I had folks over to my house this past weekend, and everyone was respectful. Just a few spilled drinks and one smoker. Alcohol on my stain resistant carpeting, I can deal with if it gets wiped up promtply. But what I just can't understand is why I have to go outside under my deck to clean up all the damn cigarette butts. I'm glad the smoker respected my domicile by not lighting up inside, but what I don't understand is why the respect ends there. Pretty much, every smoker that has lit up exhibited the same disrespecting behavior. Flicking of nasty, ashy butts out into the yard that I cherish. I know cig littering occurs everywhere, literally. But this is my blog, so I'm only talking about me.

Now I know there are some smokers out there, do you have cig butts all over your yard?

I was curious, so I did a little late night research. Why do smokers litter? Here's the results of a British study:

1. They don’t regard butts as litter – “they’re only small, what can it matter?”


2. Lack of receptacles – especially wherever wide scale indoor smoking bans have been implemented


3. Behavioiural studies report that if a smoker is not within 3 metres of a bin when they finish a cigarette, the butt is littered


4. Fear of starting fires in a rubbish receptacle


5. Belief that councils, local municipalities, stormwater drains, street sweepers etc will clean up the mess


6.  Films and other media have portrayed casually flicking or dropping a butt as a cool image

I agree with the messsage provided at BUTTsOUT.net. To stop this disrespect of my property, this is what I'll do:

1.     Apply classical punishment and reward paradigms

For every butt you flick, I will take an unlit cigeratte, light it, and burn your ass on every exposed piece of skin I see until the flame goes out. Then i will show you how to properly dispose of trash. When you put to practice your new knowledge, you will be rewarded by enjoying yourself with the rest of guests inside, instead of freezing your ass outside!

2. Use principles of adult learning

How about I kick your ass if you still can't learn?!

3.  Ensure wide spread availability of a positive alternative

I have a real good, positive alternative. Take your ass home and litter all over your own place!

4.  Deploy the proximity principle

I'm not putting an ash tray, nor a trash can on my deck. FUGGETUBOUDIT! You know how gum chewers keep the wrappers for later usage? Drinkers keep the lids to the bottle for later usage? Smokers need to keep their own damnn butts until they get near a trash can.

Or better yet, just stop smoking. It's not cool anymore.

AAAARRRRGGHHHH!!!!!! HE'S BACK!!!!!

I can't believe this scary creature is back on BK commercials. I'd rather see Hootie singing!!!! This really, really bothers me. Is it just me? Before you answer, Do you remember the original comercial? Here it is here. (Or for folks on dial up)

Something about this ridiculous plastic truly disturbs me. I'm fine with the slogan, "Wake Up With The King." In the first commercial, dude wakes up in the morning with the King staring at him!!! You have to read what I wrote about it a while back. Maybe its my homophobia, but I fail to understand how a man waking up with a stranger staring at him in bed makes me want to buy a crosanwich in the morning. "Wake Up With the King" HELL NO! The second commercial isn't any better. The Husband looks outside to see someone inside of his pickett fence. There's problem #1, he's tresspassing! After looking back at his wife (who appears to be putting on aftershave!) the "King" is now immediately in front of his window! Isn't that how people get shot?!

Neighborly Wars

My neighbor's latest attempt to have his backyard worthy of being adjacent to mine is to duplicate my successful effort of last fall. Both of my neighbor's had yards full of red clay until I aerated & seeded my yard. Throughout the winter, our yards looked the same, but now we see green grass filling up all my bare spots. My neighbor aerateed & seeded yesterday, & watered the dirt through the night. I think it's too late to seed effectively, but we'll see.

Keepin' Up wit da Jones'

OK, i was just talking about how I'm excited about my backyard looking better than my neighbors'. Why did I wake up this morning and find this pulling up in front of my house? (yes, you have to click the link) I'm like, "What the hell?" I look a little closer, and I see this. (Yeah, you gotta click again)

Dammit! My neighbor is cheating! He spent mucho dinero to try to outdo everyone. It's ok. Come to find out, the guy refused to use the forklift for whatever reason. Something about he can't roll a 6,000 lb forklift over the yard w/o the proper paperwork. So it looks like I'm still in the lead for now.

I had to go over there to tell him his friggin' security light that he installed on the side of his house, which is connected to a motion sensor, stayed on all night... lighting up my bedroom like I was at a broadway show!

Sleet

Why did I open the door and see sleet coming down? It's like, 50 degrees, and I see ice crystals falling all on my deck. Crazy.

Damn Calipers

I found this site that says
"The results can also be skewed ...if you are nonwhite, since formulas are based on white subjects." WTH!

Then my numbers are all screwed up depending on which part of my skin I check. If I measure a location a 1/4 inch differently, I will get a drastically different result. *sigh*

Maybe I should have invested in a Monitor that measures your body density with a small amount of electriciity. But I've read that those are numbers are also inaccurate depending on if you're athletic or not (or in between) and how hydrated you are.

Millions

Just saw the movie Millions. This was a good ole Christian movie. I recomend it for any Sunday school class or for your good ole Christian Mom. Or to get in real good with your saved girlfriend.

Foreign Trips

Everyone's trippin on me traveling all the time. Well, if you visit me you'll see a big ole house with no furniture. My '99 Pontiac has been paid off forever. No debt. So basically, my priority in life is being adventurous and having fun. No luck, just blessed to have a good job for 8+ yrs.

Yesterday, I was completing a security clearance form. Got to the section that requires me to note all of my travels out of the country in the last seven years. This was the hardest question I had to answer! I'm up to 10 foreign trips so far, but I know I'm missing a few. I figure... Tijuana & Ensenada don't count. I hope I accounted for all the others.

Spring time means...

Yard work. Lots of yard work. I'm glancing in my backyard, and it already looks like my yard is going to be greener and fuller than my neighbor's yard. :-) You know I'm all about being Mr. Jones (versus keeping up with him). My yard used to nothing but red clay, so getting green grass is a great accomplishment back there. In the front, I have to wait a while. For whatever reason, my sod stays dormant much longer than other homes. So we'll wait & see there. But again, I still have to set the bar high. I already buile a retaining wall for my garden, tullips are 2-4 inches high. I just bought some matching bricks to build the same around my two baby trees. After I plant my annuals, my yard will be looking SHARP! As for inside the house... I'll have to wait until the cleaning lady returns.

Damn Calipers

OK, I started using the new site's method for calculating body fat. Looking at their diagram, I guess I've been measuring all wrong. :-( But at least they give me a concrete # for the results instead of a percentage error. Ignorance is bliss. I'd hate to find out this thing has 2% error. Anyways... the site calculates 9.4% body fat. So I'm advertising this that my goal is to decrease this number down to 8%. I ate McD's chicken nuggets & fries today, so I'll start next week. lol