U S of A

So according to a poll (insert drum roll) 1 out of every 5 Americans is unable to locate the United States on a map. As ludicrous and unbelievable as that statistic may be - and I hope it is - even if the statistic was lets say... 1 out of every 205 Americans is unable to find America on a map, it is still equally embarrassing.

This is what one of the fine young women who has the honor of representing the fine state of South Carolina believes is a possible solution for the geographic catastrophe:



First off. Although it is very very very tempting, so tempting it warrants the three very's that precede it, to use this video as a segue for blond jokes, I will refrain for now.

Secondly this is absolutely brilliant. Not only is she a great social anthropologist and capable of noticing the utterly shocking fact that there is a serious shortage of cartographic images in America, but she is also a wonderful philanthropist who wants to extend her love to both Iraq and South Africa (twice). Not to mention, she also managed to work the phrase "build up our future for the children," into her answer. Brilliance I tell you. She is a both a wonderful representation of the state of South Carolina and of the United States education system.

You know what the scariest thing about this is... as of the time of this post, 9.5 million people have watched this video and 1 in 5... you do the math.

After reviewing all of this, and thinking about the problem at hand I have to ask: Where oh where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? Is it a coincidence that ever since Carmen and her entourage, "A Capella" have left the air, that one in five Americans cannot find America on a map let alone a spinning globe? I think not. I am utterly confident that she will be able to fill the void of geographic knowledge that a fifth of America supposedly has. She also has a catchy theme song. There is however, an underlying problem. If Carmen Sandiego is hiding in America, how are the geographically challenged ever going to find her? The world may never know; but they can sure laugh at us while we figure it out.



Once we master this game we can move on to such bigger and better things such as...
"Where in the Universe (gasp!) is Carmen Sandiego"

So... A dumb blond was bragging about her knowledge of the state capitals of the United States. She proudly announced, " go ahead, ask me any of the capitals, I know them all!"

So I ask, "So what's the capital of Wyoming?"

The Blond replies, "Oh, that's easy, 'W'."

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

PS: For those who want a rather obsessive and simple geographic lesson in humility I recommend trying Geo Sense. It's a site that will show just how little you know about Central and South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asian countries that are not China, South Korea, Japan, or India. It's a site that will also conjure up such thoughts as "Madagascar? I know it's an animated movie, and it sounds African."

That is all

-ydollar

T's

Dem Franchize Boyz brought the "White T"along with purposeful misspellings of easy words to the masses. Who doesn't like an over sized clean pressed white t-shirt with the space meant for shoulders reaching down to the middle of your bicep? I sure like them. As long as they're not venturing towards night gown territory, White T's are "A okay" with me. Crisp white T = Class.



The hipsters, the East Village and the Urban Outfitters of the world however, have brought the graphic t-shirt into the forefront of American fashion. If you play the role of social sociologist and engage in enough people watching, you're sure to run into a set of t-shirts that repeat over and over again. MC Escher style. These types of T-shirts usually have novelty, are quite amusing for shorts periods of time and sometimes even invoke some type of response from others. They also fit into a few taxonomic groups and are available at the aforementioned Urban Outfitters or places that are equally "trendy":

Cultural icons that are before your time type of T-shirts: These include but are not exclusive to all the stuff that appears on VH1 specials such as I Love the 90's, I Love the 80's, I Love the 70's.... I Love How VH1 Loves the specials they make on each decade. Things people used to care about, and I guess kind of care about now, eh.... but really probably don't care about. They play to nostalgia, and memories of yesteryear or for some even pre-yesteryear. These include T-shirts that have logos such as Care Bears, Reese's peanut butter cups, Pacman, Nintendo...etc:

The "Everyone loves an [insert ethnic, religious, or racial group] shirts": They usually are worn by people who are of a certain ethnic, religious or racial group and refer to people of the same ethnic, religious or racial group. For example, if an Asian kid wore an "everyone loves an Asian girl" t-shirt, it would go over with people fine. If Kobe decided to wear an "everyone loves a white girl shirt," that would be a bad look.

The shirt that uses a geographic location, usually a state or obscure city name in some type of pun shirt: For example, "Getting lucky in Kentucky." Yes, they may originally be quite amusing, but the amusingness level deteriorates after lets say...3 minutes. These are the shirts that cause eye rolling.


The this shirt has a lot of obscure and abstract diagonals, curves, lines, circles, and intricate patterns that make it look quite expensive type of shirt because it probably is inexplicably expensive shirt: It probably is also very expensive. It also brings a lot of attention to the person wearing it. It usually is one size too small. Sometimes two. Kangol hats and silver chains are also highly recommended if you wear the aforementioned shirt type. It really makes other people ask why anybody would wear a shirt with so much flash, and so much going on. The biggest offenders are probably Armani Exchange and Guess.


Then there is this shirt:


Words cannot really describe this. Some might say this is hilarious, including myself...but I'll let you decide.

That is all.

-y

You Play to Win the Game...!

I remember the days when Sportscenter on ESPN was king. Now that ESPN is the king of sports, Sportscenter is nothing more than a figurehead for a massive barrage of advertisements and tied products. Whether it be the "Budweiser Hot Seat", the "Coors Cold Hard Facts", "Gatorade Cooler Talk", and most recently the "Hummer Press Pass", to sum it all up in a word; RIDICULOUS. I could go on and on about how the mighty have fallen from grace - but to be honest - Sportscenter and ESPN are not going to go away or revert back to its glory days any time soon. And it's a shame.

With the Home Run Heard around San Fransisco, the NBA cheating scandal, and the Little League World Series all taking place, there has not been enough coverage over something that should have been much bigger news. Steve Spurrier and the state of college athletics.

Steve Spurrier, the head football coach at the University of South Carolina, when told that two of the players that he actively recruited were denied admission into the university. Here is an excerpt from the main article (from ESPN no less, because hate it or love it, habit is hard to break):

Bearden and three other tenured professors make up the university's special admissions committee, which, according to provost Mark Becker, reviewed more than half of the Gamecocks' football signees. The committee denied admission to three of the players, one of whom was eventually admitted on appeal, The State reported.

Spurrier was angered that receiver Michael Bowman of Wadesboro, N.C., and Arkee Smith of Jacksonville, Fla., were cleared by the NCAA to enroll, yet were turned down by the university.

"Hopefully, I truly believe this is the last year this is going to happen, because I can't operate like that," Spurrier said on Sunday. "I can't operate misleading young men."

Spurrier signed a contract extension, which included a raise of nearly a half-million dollars, that ties him to South Carolina through 2012. However, he said if things didn't change on admissions "then I have to go somewhere else, because I can't tell the young man that he's coming to school here," then not have him admitted.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2964254

Now if he really is that egotistical and hubris, this would all be understandable. But at some point three thoughts keep popping up in my mind:

1). It's misleading to tell them that they can go to school at USC if they're not qualified to attend. Everybody knows what the average ACT or SAT score, and GPA's are for every university and college. The Athletic Departments know the Athletic baselines. Work with them.

2). Does every school allow that much leeway for recruiting, and are perennial powerhouses of college athletics that inclined to bend the rules THAT much? I mean it's not quite the NFL yet - I know it's close - but not yet. So no need to listen to Herm Edwards yet. Seriously, you must be some student to get denied admission as a 4 star recruit. Snoop Minnis Stand UP!



3). Did Steve Spurrier do this type of "recruiting" at Florida all those years? Did Florida allow him to do this type of "recruiting" and turn a blind eye, or did they actively partipate? I'm assuming the latter because of nothing more than just speculation and a gut feeling. I think most people would agree with me. That's really sad because college sports as corrupt as it is, is probably the closest thing we have to pure sport left.

I just hope that college sports do not continue on this slippery slope. Long live the purity and beauty of sport where players play for pride, passion and university (big payday at the end of the tunnel, but I'll choose to ignore that for now). Long live college athletics.

That is all and GO BLUE!

-y

6 Wheel Drive

A quick picture for your morning pleasure just to remind those who think they're doing nothing at work that there are always people that can make you feel wonderfully productive. This woman being one of them.

How Cute....or Evil

I love the zoo and the aquarium. There is something about a place where you can see animals that you do not get to see on a regular basis all in one central location. One of my favorite animals in the entire world, and a favorite of many, would have to be the penguin. They have been Immortalized in such movies such as "Happy Feet" and "March of the Penguins". Penguins are genuinely just all around cute and not intimidating. For this very reason alone, penguins have won a place in the hearts of millions, including mine. I mean penguins have made it big not only in Hollywood, but through a variety of other mediums as well. They've won the hearts of nerds and geeks everywhere as the operating system of choice. A penguin has been the posterchild and has been made famous as the logo for their beloved Linux.



" I'm 1337!"





They've also fought for a place in the the hearts of millions upon millions of obsessed Asian people and entire Asian nations. What says more than the Japanese and their obsession with Hello Kitty and Sanrio related items than a gangster penguin.



"baby cause I'm a thug!"









Glorified pictures? I think not. Penguins have not been romanticized. They are genuinely just all around adorable. They have definitely won a place in my heart. When you think about what a penguin represents, you almost automatically have to think nice things. How can you not when penguines usually look like this?





















Awww....That's a fat and fuzzy penguin. How can anybody actually dislike something that is inclined to waddling or walking side to side. Clumsy in a human being is klutzy. Clumsy in a penguin is endearing. The problem is, they're really not as cute and innocent as they look. Deep down, they're just like you or me; EVIL!



I mean pretty startling. I used to have such a higher perception about the character of my favorite flightless bird. Oh well. That came crashing down harder than that poor penguin did. This hamster knows how I feel. I feel a little betrayed too. It's understandable. I thought so much higher of penguins before. The penguins of the world have let me down. Like I just said, this hamster knows where it's at.



They're evil I tell you. haha...

That is all

-y

R.I.P. The End of an Era

Since there has been nothing to watch on television except for weekly episodes of VH1's "Rock of Love" ,which is basically "Flavor of Love" with white people, I have begun to pine for the good old days of television; especially cartoons.

I understand that I am at least a decade over the target audience but there is seriously something lacking with the cartoon shows of today. I genuinely believe that if given the choice, that kids of today would rather watch the shows of old than the shows of the present. Let's do a quick side by side comparison.

Theme Songs:
If I were to ask you to narrow down five memorable theme songs from cartoon shows from the 90's you'd have quite a hard time deciding between the "animaniacs", "duck tales", "teenage mutant ninja turtles," "pinky and the brain," the ever embarrassing "captain planet," and countless others.

Here are two of my favorites:

Now besides Pokemon and Spongebob, name another catchy theme song from a cartoon show of today. I have a hard time naming shows never mind the songs themselves.


Artistic Style
Now, I'm all for pumping out as many episodes as possible and I understand you should not judge a book by its cover, but at some point minimalism is not going to cut it. Let's compare two heroines.

Storm from the Xmen:











Bubbles from the Powerpuff Girls:











Now, ask yourself which one looks like they can fight crime better? Which one can Halle Berry play in a movie? Which one takes more than 20 lines to draw? One has shading, more than 3 colors, and the other one has 10 ovals connected to each other.

Time Slots:
Remember when you used to actually want to wake up early on weekends so that you could catch the lineup of Saturday morning cartoons? I do and it was fantastic. I would sit down and watch show after show and fruit roll up ad after fruit by the foot ad after gushers ad and leave both contented and with a strong desire to beg my mom for a heavily sugared snack. Usually to no avail. But it was still great.

Since the death of the Saturday morning cartoon lineup, and the growth of 24 hr cable networks, cartoons have since started on the slippery slope of suckiness. There are only so many reruns that I can stomach. There is only so much anime that I can refuse to watch.

Overall:
There are many more reasons why cartoons of today are so much worse than the cartoons of the past but it all boils down to money. They've taken the assembly line approach to cartoons, and have made everything that much more cookie cutter. It's a shame. Once they run out of old cartoons to turn into movies, what are they going to do? Sad really. Oh well. At least we can all hum the old tunes and reminisce.

L A Z....

I was too lazy to type the letter Y. This guy was too lazy to walk his dog.

Now when I look at this picture, two things immediately come to mind: that dog can run really fast and wow, can somebody really be that lazy? Americans are continuing to become obese, and pictures like this go a long way towards pointing out one of the core problems of so many; laziness.

I do not profess to be the most productive, most hardworking, or most active of people, but there is a threshold of laziness that I will not even allow myself to breach. I really have nothing wrong with laziness. I love being lazy but the above picture shatters the allowable threshold of laziness.

(tapping snooze over 3 times).....(being lazy because you just need a break).....(leaving dirty laundry in multiple corners of the room).....(eating a hot pocket cold)......(not showering for prolonged periods of time).....(THRESHOLD).

I mean there is often a very thin line between procrastination and laziness. When I'm writing this post instead of doing work right now, I'm not sure whether I'm being lazy or procrastinating. Probably both. I guess I'll define procrastination as putting off doing something by doing something else and laziness as putting off doing something for the sake of doing nothing.

la·zy Pronunciation: 'lA-zEFunction: adjective : disinclined to activity or exertion : not energetic or vigorous

That makes the guy in the car walking the dog that much more ridiculous. He removes one of the fundamental elements of being lazy, not trying. He has to get into the car, drive the car, make sure he doesn't run into other cars and make sure he doesn't run over his own dog. So in effect he is going out of his way just for the sole purpose of being lazy. It's one thing to be lazy and fall asleep or hit the snooze button 8 times too many, but to devise a plan to be lazy, that is just a bit much. It's one thing to eat leftovers cold because you are too lazy to walk over to the microwave to reheat it. It is another completely different sitution to unplug the microwave first and then deciding to eat the food cold. That guy driving alongside his dog should be ashamed and live in infamy on the internet.

So I guess I really have nothing more to say about this and this was all probably just fluff in order to justify posting that picture, but I will now get back to work before my procrasination becomes laziness.

-y