Alaska pics

It's been a week back on land. I checked Flickr, Tumblr and Picasa.

I settled on tumblr.

www.astar2011sum.tumblr.com

Now that something is up, commence with the complaints. I'm looking into the pic trading options. In a worst case scenario, I may just take pics by email and upload them ir we all set up and link our own sites.

Reggie, pull a reggin move

I had a vision the other day while playing Madden 11. I scored with Reggie Bush, and he did the Heisman pose, like Desmond Howard back in the day. How great would it be if the man who who smeared egg all over the faces of the distinguished Heisman Trust committee breaks a play for a touchdown on Monday Night Football and proceeds to show them what he really thinks?
I put Bush's scoring probability at 80%, considering the sad state of the 49ers and taking into account that rather large chip Bush must have wedged under those shoulder pads. Having been merely a non-scholarship athlete in college, participating in a non-revenue generating sport at a Division 3 school, my opinion on NCAA rules is a bit naive, although it has been colored in recent years by the input of the two friends I have who played D1 football. What would be so wrong with paying college players based on the NCAA mandated hour requirements each sport has. Clock the hours, get a check for minimum wage in whatever state the school is in. That way, guys can take their girlfriends out, or order pizza at 11:59pm without having to take envelopes from shady agent reps. Just my 3 cents...

In other news, if you missed the summer's Rock the Bells concert, you missed a seminal hip hop experience. I was on CPT, so I missed KRS-One, Rakim and The Clipse. But I did see A Tribe Called Quest, Murs & 9th Wonder & the whole Wu-Tang Clan. Good times. I know that I would have tried to see Miles Davis perform if he had played near by, but I just couldn't understand the great numbers of young (under 25) people bouncing to songs that came out before they hit grade school.

Yesterday was a bad day for Falcons all around. The youth league team I coach, Sacramento Jr. Falcons took their first loss of the season to the Folsom Jr. Bulldogs. Then we went, as a team, to the Holy Bowl and saw Christian Brothers' J.V. surrender a late lead and give up a tie, before watching the heavily favored varsity Falcons go down to an emotional Marauder squad whose seniors were winless versus their Oak Park rivals.

More later...

I'm Back!!!

From now on, you can call me Jurgis. [another reference to The Jungle]

I arrived in Sac on Thursday at noon. A full trip report will have to wait. My hands are still sore and tinlgy due to compressed nerves. So I have to rest and ice my wrists for the next week or so. This campaign was as much about personal growth as it was about the money. Although I would have liked to come home with more dineros, I would be lying if I said my face didn't light up when I saw my name on the fly-out list.

The Miami Heat are snake bait. (Black Mamba)
OUT

The Great White North

What day is it?

I really don't know or care at this point.

Greetings and salutations from The Last Frontier. For those of you who don't know, I am in Alaska, working in a fish (salmon) procesing plant for the summer. "Like on Deadliest Catch?" NO! I am on land, in a factory. Although I did see one of the Deadliest Catch guys walking through the Seattle airport while waiting for my connection. We touched down in King Salmon, Alaska at 11:46pm (PST) [10:46 local] and it was as light as late afternoon in Sac. Trippy!!

16 hours a day, seven days a week. I rip the esophagus out of a headless fish and send it down the line to be gutted and cut into fillets. DO NOT buy canned salmon! I must see a couple dozen fish a day dropped on the floor, picked up, and thrown back into the mix. It's like The Jungle (Upton Sinclair) but with seafood instead of beef.

I'm on fumes. But making it through. A "day off" is 8-12 hours of work instead of 16. I'm averaging 5.5 hours of sleep a day and drinking more coffee than I ever have in life. Caffeine is a powerful stimulant that i know i am overdosing on when I get these 10-20 second buzzes in the 12th and 13th hours of a shift.

I'm taking pictures with my phone but am unable to upload them because there is no cell signal. The demographics of the workforce here belie description. All walks of life from the college students to the CA central valley farm workers to weirdos like me. Sacramento and the whole 916/530/209 area is in the building THICK. I came with three other guys I know. Out of the blue, I had a guy from Folsom assigned to be my roomate. We are packed three to a room in accomodations that would be comfortable for preteens at summer camp.

I'm tired and I stink like raw fish. I'm going to shower and then to bed; no transition. OUT-

RIP: Keith Elam, John Wooden, Manute Bol

Long time.



Damn, Guru was nice. John Wooden did his thing*, too and Manute Bol is credited with coining the term, "My bad."



It's been a long time, since I left you....(Hate me! I just fall into Rakim verses without even meaning to.) I have been adding iTunes songs in preparation for my upcoming trip. Guru was mad nice! (For those of you who are under 25yo) Guru is Keith Elam, the vocal half of Gang Starr who departed the physical plane two months ago.

The Greatest?

So, I'm minding my own business, youtubing it up, and I see another one of those comments from some teenager or twenty-something about which 'rapper' is the best. By the way, if you don't agree with them, your[sic] a hater. [I hate when people who speak English as their first language can not accept the fact that music tastes differ, or differentiate between possession and the contractive form of 'you are', but that's just me, and you already know how I am.] The youths of the 21st century are tragically being led astray. I almost want to campaign for music classes in public schools, but I'll rant on government education another day.

When it comes to great MCs, it's either the 'hardest', the 'hottest', the 'dopest', the 'nicest' or the sickest; who are 'in the game today' (does that count inmates in protective custody?), of his (her) era, or ever (aka so far). As I clicked down the digital memory lane, giving myself a much-needed refresher, and hearing some new joints, I had to ask myself, what does it take to be considered a great MC?
Who are the top 10?
Why are they at the top?
Who came up just short and why?

I'm not a big fan of the reality show pause. You know what I'm talking about. They get you all hyped up to see someone get kicked off a show. Then give the pros and cons for each contestant's dismissal. Then...go to commercial. Epic Suck!!! Not me, and not here. With no further ado, my top rappers are:

(wait for it, wait for it...)


5. Dylan
4. Dylan
3. Dylan
2. Dylan
and
1. Dylan
You know he spits that hot fire!

OK, I'm a funny guy. The MTV debate took many factors into consideration in Naming Jay-Z the #1 MC of all time. Longevity, smash hits, innovation, charisma, pop culture gravitas and more. For me, it all boils down to who I want to listen to. If I walk into one of the few free-standing record stores still in business and look up at a wall full of greatest hits compilations, I'm thinking 'if I never come back here, what will I hate myself for leaving?' If I end up on some desert island, or in some small Caribbean nation nestled in the Yucatan Basin, which spitters do I absolutely have to have in my iPod?

Who do I hope the next great one is studying? You know there's a kid out there right now, in that 9-14 age group. A kid in NYC, or L.A., or Boise, or Sante Fe, or a USAF base in Germany. A kid who is watching the world mess itself up, a kid who reads, a kid whose parents or older sibling is playing a track 4 or 5 times a day that this kid will grow up and say, "When I was young, I used to hear XYZ song EVERY day."

[I'm starting to win tonight's battle against insomnia, so I'll give up my top 10 and hit the pillow.]

10. Jay-Z
9. Andre 3000
8. Eboy
7. Common
4. (tie) Redman / B.I.G. / Ras Kass
3. KRS-ONE
2. NaS
1. Rakim

Check back tomorrow for explanations, examples, exceptions and #11-25.

Coming Attractions

To all my followers, I apologize. I was all happy with myself for finally getting something up and being able to call myself a blogger/writer, that I rested and did some other things for the past few weeks.

In any event, today's post will be a quickie. These are working titles of some of the ideas I'll be working on in the future. If there are any that you are very interested in, let me know, and they might move closer to the top of the list.

With no further ado:


Tiger Owes the World a 'Bud Adams' - Do you remember November 15th?
Obama's Negro Dialect - Who should be more upset about this foot-in-mouth episode?
Reality Television Needs to Quit - Unless they're coming out with more Joe Millionaire/Schmo
Master P, The Octo-mom and other pop phenomena that were popular for too long
Teams that don't try - Why do some owners vie for championships while others just fill seats?
Tupac Amaru rebels, Caster Semenya & other stories the news forgot
What If Health Care and Public Education can't be fixed?
How Can Fans Change Sports?
How Can Citizens Change Politics?
Title IX Strikes - Ode to Brittney Griner & Elizabeth Lambert
How To Be Black, Rich, and not-Stupid
"All Black People Leave" - How much can/will be done?
Donna Simpson wants to weigh 1,000lbs
Is the NCAA operating an illegal monopoly?
The Lottery is Good - But you won't catch me playing.
Sports Without Announcers - What is the next step in broadcast innovation?
Hey Rosie, Oprah Doesn't Need a Replacement
An American Consumer Conscience? - Chris Brown's sagging sales
What Makes a Con/Lib? - The cost/benefit conundrum

Did you hear the one about...?

Did you hear the one about the guy who broke (back) into jail? A man in Florida broke back into jail a week after being released on probation, due to fear of reprisal by the family of his (manslaughter) victim.
No, really...

http://www.nowpublic.com/strange/sylvester-jiles-gets-15-years-breaking-florida-jail