My Morning Gripe (8/22)

Space....

No not that space...

Space just in regard to everyday life... let me explain... I'm a big guy... north of 6'3, east and west of 300lbs so i take up my fair share of.. well space here on the ground. That being said the world can get a little cramped sometimes... public transportation.. restaurants... movie theaters.... and especially trying to find clothes to cover your ass. so Mass transit... RTA Chicago better know as CTA will make you a little self-conscious when you sit down because the seats on the buses are small... and i understand that they want to maximize the available seating space on the trains and buses but damn those little bucket seats all the way to hell. My real gripe though comes with the current, very devious state of the clothing industry.. not in the aspect of marketing or prices or anything like that (at the moment).. but its the actual clothes themselves really bug me. it is HARD to find consistency in sizing these days... shopping just is not easy regardless to where you look..nothing is as advertised because everyone seems to be using less material but labeling its a bigger size..a 3XL shirt isn't a 3XL anymore its like a 1.75XL. Same goes for pants which is probably the most heart-wrenching process, and chances are you'll never leave the store with the size you THOUGHT you were when you walked in. My personal guess to why this is the case is because very little (if anything) is made and produced here in the states...its all imported from places with skinny people and they have no idea about the concept of extended sizes which is necessary to American fatassery. its... frustrating to say the least.. I've given away a lot of stuff over the years that was picked up as a quick buy only to get home, try it on, and hang my head at another colossal fail that was made in China....

My Morning Gripe (8/18)

My People...

This is something that i think about daily.. and its most keen when i watch the news in the evenings.. the current state of my African American communities. It saddens me to see that the only time we decide to unite, stand up, be vibrant and glorify a reform is in the face of absolute tragedy. It really seems as though there MUST be a community rattling murder for our people to decide to wake up and do---no, scratch that BE better people. Within the last couple weeks I've seen and heard about some of the most heinous crimes to our people committed by OUR PEOPLE, and the community "leaders" decide to show face and use the rinse and repeat tactic of stopping the violence and rectifying the cancers that are destroying our innocent youth---blah blah blah... my issue with this is that the commitment to change is never constant.. there's never the stable feeling that we, as a whole community, are gaining ground and pushing in the right direction. Instead we have these isolated clusters of activism (once or twice a week seems to be the going rate), then we go back the same stagnant behaviour that allows tragedy to strike in the first place. This whole "it doesn't matter until it happens to me" mentality has got to stop, and until it does and this cycle WILL continue. Personally, --and as much as i'd love to be wrong on this--, i really dont think we have the willpower and capacity as a whole to take a stand against the tragidies in our communities. Why do i feel this way?.. well its simple.. unless something happens in our immediate family or vicinity we tend to turn the other cheek and lack that same compassion to undo the plight in the community.. instead we shake our head and go on about our day... thats not to say that im any better... im guilty of it too-- and thats my morning gripe.

My Morning Gripe--- (8/15)

These......

Theyre everywhere... you've seen them on numerous occasions... theyre the eye in the sky... always claiming to 'enhance' security and better 'ensure' loss prevention.. making people taking public transportation feel better 'protected'...at one point i heard these cameras could zoom in close enough to read the time on your watch... now thats some powerful stuff right?...we should be able to shop and travel with no fear right?!...........well.......... i dunno.. im skeptical.. why? well typically (in Chicago) the CTA train stops have a street level, a mezzanine type area where you can purchase fare cards and the actual elevated platform where the train is located. This morning i was on the Cicero-Green stop and noticed the abundance of these things... i almost hit my head on one on my way in everyday...while its nice having them there i really dont feel they detour anything... unless they contain a hibernating ninja or a pokemon within them... realistically im standing about 175ft away from the entrance to the platform... if something happens theres a lot of ground to cover to get to the incident.. youre two floors and about a 50 yard pass from Michael Vick to DeSean Jackson away from any law enforcement or security... not to mention there are a ton of people and two trains going in opposite directions to be used as getaways... now these cameras really just do not help in a dire situation.. realistically.. if they do happen to catch anything... rarely is the footage acted upon even if it is a heinous crime.. well not until much much later.... being watched and not protected especially on Chicagos west and south sides is highly irritating... and THATS my morning gripe.

its SUNDAY!?

every few months i say to myself...."damn i need to get back on this" so i am...again... dont judge me..

so here i am on yet another mild sunday afternoon with in the confines of my warm cozy cubicle annoying the hell out of people because it "Sunday"... and apparently they dont wanna have a less than 3 minute chat about higher education...but whatever. Thats actually one of the things that makes me think... when people say "Do you know its Sunday?!" in their livid, semi-confused tone of voice what DOES that really mean? its always interesting to hear Sunday prayer pushers get their bibles in a bunch..mainly because Sundays either are.. or precede a major socially accepted holiday (Mothers Day, 4th of July, etc.). being brought up in a heavily faith based household i understand that its perceived as a day of rest... to spend time with family and whatnot yes.. im well aware but the ignorance that lies in this statement comes well before the statement is even made...if this is what you believe... why are you picking up to begin with... and this is the thing you decide to affix your lips to say? futhermore when has "Its Sunday" been an excuse for any damn thing in life? aaaaand.. then come the attacks "you must not have a family..", "its pretty pitiful to call people on a sunday", "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU YOU STUPID BITCH.. (and then hang up)", the majority of people i get this from act like theyve never worked on a sunday... ever ...anyway i digress... im sitting here really.. really drowsy because i took a sleeping indicing allergy pill like an idiot with about half of my work day to go and about an hour of travel time to my home so its gonna be a long evening... later days