Oh Tiger...

Tiger Woods... what an idiot. Maybe not the most eloquent way to start out this blog post but it is my honest feeling. Here is a guy who has everything. He a professional athlete, arguably the best of the best within his sport. He is a BILLIONAIRE, with endorsement contracts lined up for the next 10 years. He is idolized by millions of people, kids and adults, all over the world. And on top of that he has a beautiful wife, two adorable kids, he has the life. And all he really has to do to maintain it is hit a few golf balls and win a couple trophies each year. Some guys would consider that a vacation. I am obviously completely appalled by Tigers recent alleged affairs, and by his harem that is growing by the day. I could rant and rave about this topic but I have a more relevant reason for writing this post. I read an article on the NBC sports website about Tiger Woods and his weakening relationship with the black community. Interestingly enough, Tiger is a mix of races and has chosen the term "Cablinasian" (Caucasian, black, Indian and Asian) to describe the racial mixture but he was claimed by the black community as one of their own and was especially idolized by them. Since the recent reports of this infidelity, there has been a backlash from the black community. Not because they were insulted or embarrassed by his behavior, but because they felt betrayed because Tiger's wife, and almost all of his mistresses, were white. As one blogger, Robert Paul Reyes, wrote: "If Tiger Woods had cheated on his gorgeous white wife with black women, the golfing great's accident would have been barely a blip in the blogosphere." On one hand, this reflects the black communities resistance to interracial romance. On the other, it is a discomfort with the idea of a man who has smashed the white stereotype in professional golf and who is now one of the greatest athletes in the world, but who has yet to define himself as black. It is a fascinating situation. I'm sure Tiger will continue to be a sports idol and eventually this PR nightmare will go away. But I thought it was quite interesting and relevant to this class. Any thoughts?

almost my worst nightmare

I just wanted to let you all know that I am in IT hell right now. I am in the library, trying to be a good student and get all my final papers and projects done by Monday, when everything is due. I was having trouble connecting to the internet, so I bring it to the IT people for help. They shut it down, start it back up, uh-oh. It wont turn on, they run a diagnostic on it and then the guy says to me "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your hard drive is about to fail" Oh AWESOME. no big deal, the week before finals I'l just re-write and research all of my papers, its fine.... oh wait... that would be my personal version of hell. I drive home, get my 80GB ipod and start the process of transferring all of my pictures (about 3000 of them) and my documents to it. Thank god IT gave me a heads up but still this couldn't be more aggravating. I have had my computer for a little less then 3 years... for what I paid for it, I expected it to last a LOT longer. SO, while I could have been here all night getting my work done, I have been dealing with this.. and honestly I feel a little better now that I just vented to all of you. Thank you for listening, even if no one ever reads this. I hope you are all being much more productive then I am right now. Goodnight.

twitter anyone?

So this isnt really on the topic of this class, but im gonna do some shameless self promotion/ surveying. I was just wondering how many of you have/use twitter? I'm a marketing coordinator in the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership and I recently planned and executed a twitter scavenger hunt, called iHunt. It was basically a trial run for a much bigger twitter scavenger hunt that I am planning for springfest. It was actually alot more successful then we expected. We had about 25 participants, probably more like 15 that were really active throughout the week. But those active players were fierce! We tweeted clues, BSC trivia and challenges throughout the day for 4 days. Most of the players were having the tweets sent directly to their phones so they were responding almost instantaneously. It was crazy and really competitive. You can check it out at www.twitter.com/inbsc. or better yet become a fan :) Any thoughts on this idea? and would you be willing to participate in the spring? why or why not? any feedback is welcome!

2012?

So I am going to see the new movie 2012 tonight. (at 1015 which means I wont be out til around 1 which is wayyy past my bed time). Does any one actually believe in this stuff though? The person I am going with does. Which should be interesting. I believe in alot of weird things, ghosts, aliens and things like that. But I just can get myself to truly believe that the world is going to end on December 21, 2012. Just because the Mayan Calendar ends there? Our calandar ends every December 31st and then starts right back up again on January 1st. Im pretty sure thats whats gonna happen on January 22, 2012. And ya know whats great? If im wrong, no one will be around to say they told me so. Hope these tickets were worth the 12 bucks. I will keep you guys posted.

Glee Update

Well I hope that my post from yesterday prompted at least someone to watch last nights episode. It was one of the best ones so far, and ALL about diversity! Almost too good to be true. In this episode the glee club is still preparing for sectionals and the principal informs them that the school will not pay for a handicap accessible bus to accommodate Artie, the one member in a wheelchair. When the clubs advisor, Mr. Shoe, gives them the news, the club seems perfectly OK with making Artie's father drive him to sectionals and taking the bus without him. In an effort to instill some compassion in the Glee Club, Shoe makes each member spend a few hours per day in Artie's position, aka a wheelchair. The club ends up raising enough money for the proper bus and they even choreograph a wheelchair number for sectionals. Like I said, this was by far one of my favorite episodes of the season. So I was even more shocked to see headlines today like this "Disabled Advocates Protest Glee's Wheelchair Episode" and "Glee Wheelchair Episode Hits Bump with Disabled". Seriously??? Is there anything that will make people happy? The entire point of this episode was to promote acceptance and compassion, and still people complain. I applaud Glee, its writers and its producers for going outside the box and for sending a message of inclusion that many shows are lacking. Its unfortunate that not everyone can see that.

GLEE

Am I the only one who is obsessed with glee? When the commercials first started airing for the show a few months ago I wanted nothing to do with it. I assumed it was just going to be a rip off of high school musical. BUT, my roommates got me hooked and now I am completely addicted. The characters are great and the stories are funny and dramatic but believable enough. One thing I love about the show is the great diversity of the characters. One of my previous posts highlighted a show with a main star in a wheelchair. Glee also features a character in a wheelchair, and almost every other minority imaginable. African american, asian, jewish, gay, a character who stutters, the list goes on. The show has even won awards for it's diversity and message of acceptance. The show has been on a hiatus for a few weeks now and comes back on tonight. I am super excited and maybe some of you who have never seen it will turn it on at least once an see what im talking about. Let me know what you think!!

Ray-Ray

It has always been interesting to me how much comedians can get away with. They can say some pretty offensive things under the pretense of comedy and people usually just think its funny. I'm one of those people. I love watching shows like south park or watching stand up on comedy central. Comedians have this way of highlighting these completely not P.C. things that are realities in our society and making them funny. It fascinates me. Anyway, I went to the comedian that was on campus earlier tonight, Ben Hague. He has been featured on comedy central and opened for Dane Cook recently. I really enjoyed his show and his humor. One of the funniest parts of his show was a joke about the nav system called Tom-Tom. He said he asked for one for Christmas but instead his dad bought him a knock off version called a Ray-Ray. He explained that the Ray-Ray was not as polite as the Tom-Tom. For example when he missed a turn, instead of saying in a calm voice "recalculating"; the Ray-Ray would yell "What the f*ck? you missed the turn what the f*ck are we supposed to do now?". I thought this was hysterical but the joke only got a few laughs. He continued by explaining an even cheaper version called a Ling-Ling that just rammed you into other cars on the road. At this joke everyone in the audience was cracking up and applauding. At this, Ben Hague paused and pointed out the fact that no one felt comfortable laughing at the black joke, but was totally fine with the Asian joke possibly because there were no Asians in the room. The whole audience laughed at this realizing that it was probably true. Sometimes we take things so seriously we cant even laugh an obviously funny joke. Not everything has to be SO P.C... And if any arena has some room for the not so politically correct stuff, its comedy.