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You Call Too D@mn Much!

December 23, 2008 by The Prophet · 1 Comment 

Angry at the PhoneSo every once in a while, it becomes even more painfully obvious that there’s certain instances where you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t when it comes with dealing w/ the opposite sex.

You call me too much. You call me all the damn time and we don’t talk about anything. Nothing. Nothing important or even relatively interesting happened in your life or mine between now and the last time we talked which, in all likelihood, was prolly like 5 hours ago. I’ve tried to just not pick the phone up hoping that you’d get the hint and just try calling back later…like tomorrow. But no, you call right back. No answer. Third times a charm. No, it’s not. It’s not a charm. Four times the phone rings and I pick up to see if it’s some matter of life or death…but it’s not. It’s just you on the other line, alive and well with no new or even interesting old subject matter to discuss. I find myself sometimes almost disappointed that your car hasn’t careened off the side of the road and burst into flames or that you aren’t somehow stuck in a airtight container and are running out of oxygen. No, you’re in pristine health and you have absolutely nothing to say. I make attempts to drive the conversation towards something of mutual interest, but that’s pointless. All I get from my questions of “How’s _______ doing over there?” or “What’s one thing you could change about Cali?” are dull and boring one-word answers of “Fine” and “I dunno”.

I’d rather staple my nuts to a burning building than continue this phone conversation any longer than it has to. And right as I begin talking about something I’m actually interested or excited about, you interrupt me mid-sentence w/ “Hey, I gotta go. Talk to you later.” Click.

This is what I want to tell you but can’t. I can’t because as soon as I tell you that “You call too much”, I know that instead of hearing what I said and just calling slightly less frequent or even just calling when you have something to say, instead you will interpret this as “I hate you. You are undesirable and I want you to never call me again.” Maybe not that exactly, but that’s how it comes off. The truth of the matter is that I actually enjoy hearing your voice and like spending time with you, but what I don’t enjoy is pointless communication because….that is by definition not communication. I’m not even a phone person, so if I’m going to be on the phone, there needs to be some kind of point of the conversation. If it’s gonna be one of those “We talked all night about nothing” kind of conversations, then there needs to be several points or at least some topics of mutual interest. Most people have about 2 major milestones in their day and one of those is work/school. Twenty-four hours is a very short period of time and with a few exceptions out of the year, very little happens in one day. So I don’t need to talk to you everyday, especially if you aren’t my girlfriend or “special friend”.

I’ve thought of about a million ways to tell you this, but each one as useless as the next. I almost wish you were a crazy-ass so I could just never speak to you again, but that’s not the case. For whatever reason, I’d rather put up with this nonsense than have you stop calling me, which you will (because you’re programmed to react like that). Apparently I have an unhealthy addiction to you, and if that means enduring an infinite barrage of meaningless and mind-numbing conversations, then I guess that’s the price I have to pay to feed my obsession. Damn.


Where My Obession With Art Comes From

November 26, 2008 by The Virtuoso · 1 Comment 

Japanese Painter Observing His Work

Japanese Painter Observing His Work

I have found it extremely difficult to write as of late.  I find myself writing a whole paragraph of words and then re-reading it, only to hit the backspace button and be left with nothing.  It’s been going on like this for weeks.  I’m not really sure why this is.  Today, I wish to write about my obsession with art.  Some people say they are obsessed but don’t really mean it in my opinion.  Some even confess to understanding art, when in actuality they don’t.  I call these people technologists.

The reason why I do this is because they find art in technology as opposed to simplicity.  I want to point out here that you all are not artists.  You are technologists.  Artists die emblazoned with passion, and a strong understanding of the human mind, body, and soul. Read more


Dear Ex-Girlfriend: You Can Do Better

November 23, 2008 by The Gentleman · 2 Comments 

Dear Ex-Girlfriend,

::sigh::

You can do better.  I was trying to think of a more gentle way to say it but I don’t have to, I’m not your man.  Granted, enough time has passed that I am in no way upset that you are seeing someone new (nor is it my place to be so).  Honestly, I’m just happy that you aren’t dwelling on the past.  It’s not good for you.  But then again, neither is your new dude. Read more


Old School Tradition for the New School Generation

November 5, 2008 by The Lioness · 1 Comment 

The Sorcinellis

The Sorcinellis

I fall on that murky line between Generation X and Y; you know, the ones heavily responsible for the success of the Internet, text messaging and iTunes. Read more


Woman jailed after ‘killing’ virtual husband | Yahoo News

October 23, 2008 by The Gentleman · 1 Comment 

You know… if i had to be the victim of anything, I’d want it to be this.

(MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press, TOKYO) – A 43-year-old player in a virtual game world became so angry about her sudden divorce from her online husband that she logged on with his password and killed his digital persona, police said Thursday.

The woman, who has been jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his ID and password to log onto the popular interactive game “Maple Story” to carry out the virtual murder in May, a police official in the northern city of Sapporo said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy.

“I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry,” the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.

The woman, a piano teacher, had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

She has not yet been formally charged. If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison or a fine up to $5,000.

(Source: Woman jailed after ‘killing’ virtual husband - Yahoo News.)

Editorial:

I understand why she’s being jailed.  And really, I acknowledge her frustration.  But that sh*t is still so funny that I had to share it.  I’m glad the authorities prosecuted this correctly, by which I mean omitting the virtual actions.  It would be messed up if you were liable for trespasses in games like “The Sims” or “Second Life”.  How much would that suck?


Antimatter is mass-produced

September 18, 2008 by The Genius · Leave a Comment 

Physicists say they have mass produced antimatter, a crucial first step towards precision studies of its properties that may help solve one of the greatest mysteries of the Universe.

Antihydrogen has been made before, but only a few atoms at a time. Read more


I Never Call Back…Like EVER

September 5, 2008 by The Prophet · 1 Comment 

A few days ago, a friend of mine pointed out a bad habit I have. I never call girls back once they give me their number. Apparently, she and some of my other female friends consider this kind of behaviour enough to merit me the title “Worst person in the world”. I am fully aware that this pisses some people off, yet I keep doing it (unintentionally). Why would you work so hard to charm a lady, and then act as if you were uninterested after you’ve obtained her contact information?

The truth of the matter is that I personally want to continue to get to know these said individuals but for several reasons, I continue to put off calling them until, of course, too much time passes and I’m like “forget it”. I spoke to one of my male friends and he too had the same bad habit of not calling girls back. I conducted a mini-survey and apparently this is a problem that about 1 out of every 3 guys is guilty of at some point  (some more habitual than others). In my research, many of the guys could not pinpoint the exact reason why they don’t call back someone who they’re actually interested in, but here are the most common rationalizations:

  • “I keep remembering to call too late” - This, I admit, is my main problem. My schedule with time usually peaks activity in the wee hours of the night, a time in which most sane individuals are asleep. By the time I “remember” to give pretty lady a phone call, she’s probably already in bed or getting ready to go. “I’ll call her tomorrow” is what I usually say. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Fail.
  • “I don’t wanna like lead her on or something” - Cuz I’m not tryina be nobody’s boyfriend. This is a funny excuse. A lot of times guys think that the world revolves around them and that just because a girl seems interested in you, that means she wants to marry you. On the opposite side of my research, many of the girls I talked to said that sometimes when she gives her number to a guy, sometimes it just means that they think that guy is interesting, funny, or just cool. It doesn’t always mean that she wants to pursue a physical or emotional relationship. When we sometimes jump the gun, I think in a way we kinda trivialize the mental of the female gender, and that’s not exactly playing nice.
  • “If I don’t try, I won’t get rejected” - The excuse guys are usually reluctant to admit. Among the men interviewed, a significant amount of them stated that they somehow felt that being able to charm the girl at the initial meeting was lucky or that they set such a high standard for themselves. When it’s time to call her back, he gets scared that he may not be able to live up to what she expects (or what he thinks she expects) either because he’s too much of a punkass, or because she intimidates him, or both.
  • “I’m not a phone person, but I’ll text her to oblivion” - This is me too (kinda). I don’t like selling myself over the phone. And this is not just with dating, this is with everything. I can charm the hell outta an interviewer in person, but my phone presence during phone interviews is extra whack. I’m apparently not alone. Many guys don’t like talking on the phone. As men, when we call each other, it’s very procedural and with a clear and finite purpose. Ex) “Hey! What time are we gonna meet up?” “I dunno? Eight?”, “Ok, I’ll call when I’m downstairs”, “Make sure you come the back way”, “Aight”, “Yeh” End of Call. Calling someone we don’t really know to talk about nothing doesn’t seem to make sense when that person hasn’t given us much reason yet to talk to them. But texting! Procedural and straight to the point with a clear and finite purpose. Guys’ phone conversations with each other align perfectly with a typical text message convo. The downside is, when a guy usually only asks a girl straight forward questions about “where are you?” “do you wanna hang out/come over?”, this can be easily misinterpreted. More than half the females interviewed said that when a guy is only texting about meeting and not asking how there day is or questions like that, that can be seen as him just wanting to get laid when this very well may not be the case.

Let me make this 100% clear. All these excuses are bullshit and there probably is no good reason as to why a good third of us guys do this, only 1/2 ass rationalizations for irrational actions. What’s even worse is when we are talking to females and everything’s going good and then suddenly just….stop. But tha’s probably a whole new topic and question for another time. What is it about the male psyche that makes us act this way?

Males are supposedly the more logic-oriented sex, whereas women are more intuition-oriented in there decision making processes. After all the interviews, I’m still perplexed as to why we do this. Why do we sometimes not call her if we are actually interested? Is there an actual reason that we’ve missed?

Gotta figure this one out, until then…guess I’m still the worst person on the planet.

Speak….


It’s Still Not Enough…

September 3, 2008 by The Virtuoso · 2 Comments 

African-American art

Today I wanted to take the opportunity to write about an observation that I’ve made throughout the past three weeks.  A very close friend of mine of Jamaican decent had stopped by my parent’s house one lovely weekend.  My father happened to be in town so we sat down and engaged in an intellectual conversation of Black America as we saw it presently. Read more


Transitions in Texture

August 13, 2008 by The Paragon · Leave a Comment 

Gabrielle Union“Don’t let nobody peep yo naps.”

During Black History month in the 7th grade (late 80’s/early 90s), having written previously about Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, and Dr. MLK, himself, I ventured into new territory. I constructed this great three sided poster filled with pasted on pictures, text written in bold colored marker, and, of course, artistic puff paint, exalting the first FEMALE (black or white) self-made millionaire, Madam C.J. Walker. She, being the premier entrepreneur that defined the modern day black hair care industry and standards of “straightened” beauty. Read more


Slapping Miss Daisy

August 1, 2008 by The Reverend · 2 Comments 

Slapping Miss Daisy

Gee whiz, Beave. How can i best backslap the rest of your people and slightly exclude you?! Maybe if i say “no offense”.

Growing up I remember using the huge box of crayons with the names you knew someone was overpaid to create (we’re looking at you “orange-yellow”). In that box, the one that always pissed me off was “Flesh”. Especially since my flesh wasn’t “flesh” colored. What were they trying to say? How self-centered do you have to be not to realize the ramifications of labeling one hue “flesh”; dangerous not to just yourself, but your company? Do you not consider how you may be inadvertently offending… oh… say… everyone else? Go find this crayon… if you are around that color, this sermon is for you. Why the “flesh” colored people? Because they are the main perpetrators of the non-compliment. I’m going to use the most recent example in my life but please recognize that “…this type of sh*t happens ev-ery-day!” Read more

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