Thoughts From Today

I’ve been really slacking on writing in my blog. But I’m not going to make any excuses though. As always there are many things that make an appearance in my mind that I would like to write about. Many of these things could be controversial and I tend to not to express those thoughts to many people. One of the reasons why I tend not to have those conversations with others or write them in my blog is because I know that a lot of people aren’t open minded enough to attempt to understand my perspective or understand an idea that is not the norm. As I have said many times, I am traditionally nontraditional and I work hard to understand others perspectives even if I disagree. Many people feel like they have to agree with someone/something in order to understand them/it, but I feel as though that is not true. Too me, this is a common problem amongst our culture. If we would practice a little more understanding and/or empathy for each other we wouldn’t have many of the problems that we have today. Our culture reminds me so much of crabs in a barrel…which is extremely sad and who knows if/when this will change.

Fred

29

Another year has gone by and I am a year older and wiser. At least I tell myself I’m wiser LOL. I’ve had some great experiences over this past year and I’m thankful for having the opportunity to experience those things. Although I am one year closer to being “the big 3-0”, as some people would say, it doesn’t bother me. I try my hardest to have a different perspective than most about life. Every year and every day that I am allowed to spend ten toes down is a great day. I’ve seen people lose their lives very young and very old and I know that any day could be my day. So I remind myself often to take advantage of my time on this Earth and try to experience as much as I am able to. It’s not always easy to push yourself to do those extra things because it’s easy to become complacent and comfortable in your everyday life. There is nothing wrong with becoming complacent and comfortable, but for me it is not ideal. There are too many people to meet, too many places to see, too many cultures and societies to learn about, etc. I will push myself to experience as many of them as I can. The next trip plans are in the works and hopefully will be ironed out soon but it will be a blast!!!

On that note…I’m off to enjoy the rest of the night with some great food and entertainment by the Blue Man Group. Should be a great time!!!

Fred

Another Fiscal Year In The Dust

Ahhhhh…fiscal year 2011 is in the books and for once I finished early. YES!!! It was nice to be able to relax for a week and not have to worry about getting any work done. I spent all week relaxing, working out, catching up on reading and playing just a little poker (OK maybe more than a little LOL). After grinding out work for 12 months a week off (at least) is needed in order to recover from the grind and mentally prepare for the next fiscal year.

On another note, I finished another book this week. The book was Read ‘Em and Reap by Joe Navarro. The book explains poker tells and observing people in poker and in life. I consider myself a keen observer of people and my observation skills were tested many times this week playing poker. I made great observations a few times and it felt GREAT! But I also lost focus a few times and missed information (tells) on people during a few hands and it cost me. But the lessons are learned and I do feel as if my observation skills in life and at the poker table have improved after reading this book.

This week it’s back to work and the day to day grind. But, definitely looking forward to next weekends get away to Orlando for my birthday. Should be a lot of fun!

Fred

The Mis-Educated Negro

I recently finished an amazingly mind opening book. The book is called The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter Woodson (Amazon, Wiki).

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.”

Without giving away the details of the book, because I believe that this book is a MUST read, Mr. Woodson explains the mis-education of the negro as he sees it and I believe that many his theories are still relevant today even though this book was published in the early 1900s. He breaks down and explains his opinion on many things including: the difference between training and education; how blacks don’t support black owned/operated businesses; how we don’t associate being smart with being black; not supporting HBCUs by attending them, not reinvesting in them with time or money, etc; not teaching African history to our kids along with American, European, Greek history, etc. in our schools especially since a lot of these societies are tied to Africans…and I could go on. Many of my own ideas and opinions have changed or been expanding on do to reading this book. I pride myself on having an open mind and being open to receiving new ideas from any source and I am extremely glad that I picked this book up to read. Mr. Woodson examined many things that I had thoughts about before but hadn’t yet examined further myself.

As I said before, this book is a must read by anyone black, white, latino, etc. If you want to borrow mine, I’ll mail it to you. Let me know…

Fred

This post is a day early and I missed my post from last week due to me being out of town and having no internet access. Therefore, there will be another post this week and I already have a juicy idea…

Blame It On Football

I’m a day late writing in my blog, but it’s all to blame on the beginning of the NFL season last night. Gotta love the beginning of football son! It will be nice to be able to relax on Sundays lounging on the couch watching football again. I may not watch all the games that come on each day, but I’ll catch at least one.

I had solid last weekend at my first Florida Gators football game. It was a very entertaining crowd to say the least, but unfortunately I forgot my camera so I didn’t get many pictures other than the few I took with my iPhone. All in all it was a fun weekend in Gainesville and it was nice to be around kind southern folk. I felt a little old Friday night while we at a bar/restaurant called The Swamp. There was a group of students playing drinking games that made me reminisce of the good ol’ MSU days…good times. I can’t do things like that anymore though. My body wouldn’t be able to handle it LOL. Shot out to Dave and Shema for escorting us around campus all weekend and making our UF football game experience that much better.

Fred

Heading To The Swamp

Tomorrow I will be having my first experience of a University of Florida football weekend. I’m looking forward to some good ol’ college football. I’ve enjoyed the games that I’ve went too over the past couple of years and I wish I would have went to more games while I was in school. The college football atmosphere is definitely one of a kind. Hopefully I’ll be able to capture a few of the amazing moments from this upcoming weekends shenanigans with my camera.

Cheers to opening college football at the swamp!!!