Something for Nothing

First ladies put in a lot of work with no compensation.  Who knew?  Granted the duties of the First Lady can be viewed as volunteer work by adopting, promoting, and advancing a cause but even many volunteers are able to write off their contributions in taxes.  That is because there is value placed on volunteer work.  I'm sure I'm making something out of nothing but it doesn't seem like nothing to me.  A Google search will show you that other people have wondered the same thing.  Sure it's also questionable that I didn't notice this before Michelle Obama became First Lady but it's not a matter of when you or I notice, just that we notice.  After watching FLOTUS (try to) keep up with them young'uns, I confess, I got winded just watching.  I will add that Laura Bush pushing literacy should have drawn a salary.  She was (knowingly or unknowingly) trying to help millions of Americans not end up with a spouse or partner like hers.  That definitely deserves some wages.

During the Clinton administration, President Clinton and congress approved to double the President's salary yet nothing was included for the First Ladies.  To many, being a First Lady probably looks to be the "good life" with tons of perks but in my opinion, work is work.  If there was a way for homemakers to draw a salary I would support it.  According to Wiki the First Lady is a hostess, the premiere "homemaker" if you will.  She is a homemaker who also works, and for that work she too should be paid a salary.  I suppose they won't really address this until there is a First Gentleman.

Cobwebs

The problem with Trends of Culture blogging is that when the mood hits you to blog again you have to address all of the technical issues that comes with lack of use. First I had DNS issues so I transferred registrars to godaddy.com. Now I'm having Disqus issues and I'm sure it's my fault for tinkering with the design template. I was considering changing the design because while I really like this template it's too popular. I realized that to have a truly unique design I would have to customize it myself which I am not willing to do so the design stays. Unfortunately now I have to change the oil, put air in the tires, and figure out what the hell I messed up before I can attempt to resume blogging as usual and by some strange phenomenon actually receive comments. Smh @ myself.

Too Cheap for Children

A few weeks back I went to NY to hang out with some of my boys and I had a great time but I also had an odd man out, cheese stands alone moment.  All of my boys have spouses or significant others and all of them have children; I on the other hand have neither.  So my male biological clock had me on some, "why am I on the Tony Randall track to fatherhood?"  Thankfully that clock is digital and I can hit snooze as many times as I like so long as my million men keep on marching.  At the time though, I can't front, I was quite irritable at feeling like I was chilling with Wilson on Childless Island.  Time went on and the feelings subsided and were replaced with rational thought, one which is that I am not in a financial position to take care of a child anyway.  Right?

Let's Go...

Sometimes that's all you have to say to yourself.  It's great to be around people that make you want to move.  If you aren't around those people, find em.  If you can't find em, read about em.  Somehow, someway, find whatever it is that makes you go from neutral to drive. Press the gas.  Let's go.

Quality of Life - the Reality of Mortality

As the world pours out some liquor for Nate Dogg I want to take this unfortunate opportunity to talk about something else that came (back) to mind and that is the sobering reality that my generation has turned an all important corner.  Some of the joys of youth is the bliss that comes with ignorance, the false feeling of immortality, and the ability to rationalize unfortunate and untimely passings.  In hip-hop, we readily discuss B.I.G. and Pac's murders, along with countless other artists who met violent deaths.  Trouble T-Roy's death was a freak accident that spawned a hip-hop classic.  Same goes for singers like Aaliyah whose plane went down before a couple more terrorist manned planes took thousands more people down with them on 9-11.  Even Big Pun and Buffy from the Fat Boys deaths can be attributed to them being morbidly obese.  If you think hard enough you might recall many "unlikely" set of circumstances that lead to someone's death.  However, as our generation turns the corner of reality, now comes the time when life begins to keep it really real.

Shake It Up Baby?

If boredom is the Devil's workshop then what is monotony?  I believe that, aside from being a fancy word for bored, monotony is also another word for adulthood.  This is of course according to Merriam-Analytical Dictionary, the over-analytical unabridged version.  Lives are built on routine and in one breath we'll complain about life being too routine and in the next breath crave some routine and order.  So I find myself swinging from branch to branch like Tarzan trying to have some fun while all I'm really doing is revisiting the same damn trees I've been swinging from since birth.  When I was a younger man I did this alot with jobs.  I got a job, mastered a job, got bored with a job, got fired from quit a job, rinse, and repeat.  I loved interviewing.  I loved learning the new job.  Anything that would make something as cumbersome as going to work exciting and new.  I would board this same ship so much you would think Isaac was serving drinks.  The same ol, same ol, is the prelude to feeling lame.  I sound like a prime candidate to lead a swingers lifestyle but shoot, once you start swinging into a whole lot of unfamiliar, shady looking bushes, you can come away with all kinds of rashes and bruises.  No thank you.

Anyway, the whole purpose of this mindless rant is to ask the question, how does one shake things up and satisfy the need/desire for excitement and order?  Is it possible?  Are they mutually exclusive?  Is this quagmire what drove Knievel?  How can we rock the boat without tipping it?

Lil Wayne: Credit Where It's Due ("Repost")

*due to technical difficulties earlier in the week I'm re-posting this.

"So give up the props Hobbes, jealousy's a flaw
 If the next man deserves it, earns it, it should be law
 So let him pass right through
 Because you got to give the credit y'all where it is due" 

- Guru (R.I.P.)Credit Is Due

Lock your windows, close your doors; hide yo kids, hide yo wife, I'm giving Lil Wayne some props.  I never thought this day would come.  For a minute now my man S-Dub has been professing to me how nice Wayne is.  I still disagree, but as a professor recently quoted to me, "In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king," and Wayne is that one eyed man.  I stand by my assertion that hip-hop is dead but again, S-Dub says hip-hop lives, it's just harder to find and I believe my man Leon agrees.  So perhaps my averment of hip-hop's demise was an exaggeration but at the very least maybe it was premature.  Hip-hop is like Elvis and Tupac, people can't accept their death and that's understandable when you love someone or something so dearly.  I'll compromise and say that I'll entertain the notion that hip-hop is not  dead, but at the very least it is in ICU.  Pardon my tangent, back to Lil Wayne.