I recently read a book by Shari Caudron called Who Are You People? A Personal Journey into the Heart of Fanatical Passion in America, which is somewhat of a long title, but trust me, it deserves it. I had been searching for this book ever since NPR did a feature story about it sometime last August. For some reason though, no book store on Long Island or in NYC seemed to carry it. So a few weeks ago, I did what I probably should have done in the first place: I checked the library. To my terrific surprise, that miserable excuse for a small book collection called the Island Trees Public Library had it on its dusty old shelves.
Who Are You People is basically the author's journey across America documenting people and the things that that crazy about. She attends a Barbie Lovers Convention in California, A Fly Fishing Tournament in Montana, a Star Trek Convention(of course) Pigeon Races in the Bronx, and many other interesting places where people doing what they love to do, all in search of her finding what it is that she is really passionate about.
While I was reading this book, I found myself thinking to myself what is it that I am actually passionate about? Sure, I have many interests, but what is that I am really really passionate about?
At first I thought it might be Pez. I have a pretty stellar Pez collection (370 dispensers), some shirts, a Pez tie, and a few Pez posters, but in comparison to other Pez collectors (Pezheads), my collection is weak. And it's not like I set aside money from my paychecks to go out and buy Pez (not any more at least). If I happen to see a piece that I am missing, sure I pick it up, but I wouldn't consider myself an actual passionate Pezhead.
My next thought was to consider the sports teams that I support. My favorite team of any sport in the world is the New York Islanders. I follow them every day, I have a few jerseys, and go to a few games per season. Does that make me a fan? Sure. Does it make me fanatical? I don't think so. Your not gonna find me standing on line in sub zero temperatures to get tickets or anything..Fanatics would be there though.
As I struggled to come up with something, I became concerned that I was wandering through life with nothing that I could say I was in love with. Then, in a moment that I have since called "the epiphany," I found out exactly what it was that I was passionate about.
On Sunday Night, I played in a small pick up game of Ultimate Frisbee, which is an amazing game, but it's not what I would call my passion. After the game, I was hopping a fence to get back to my car, and in a real freak accident, I rolled my ankle really bad off the curb. I was in intense pain. If I had any sort of health insurance, I surely would have gone and gotten it x-rayed. When I woke up Monday morning, I was barely able to walk. I called in sick to work that day, and realized that if I can barely walk, how was I going to be able to go on a 7 mile run that night? I became almost depressed, and then I got to thinking.. Running is something that I pretty much do 6 days a week, I do it for fun, I do it to get my mind off of other stuff, it is something that I truly love to do. And it's kind of funny, because maybe 18 months ago, you couldn't pay me to run, but now I've run a full marathon, a few half marathons, and countless other races. This whole week I have been pretty much just taking it easy and resting my ankle up, and it's honestly been a really rough week for me. We had some amazing weather this week, and for me to be sitting inside with my foot elevated and wrapped with ice, it was killer.
I guess sometimes it takes something negative to happen to make you realize something positive. Up until this past week, running has just been something that I do when I get home from work or school or whatever. I suppose I even took it for granted. But when something you like is taken away from you, its then that you realize that you might be in love.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
I saw the signs
Today, as I was driving around town, I noticed a few signs that struck me as interesting.
The first one was outside of the Levittown Public Library. The sign read "Caution: Blind Persons Crossing." Now, this made me think... Why would there be one blind person, let alone enough blind people, inside of a library to the point where they would need a sign outside warning about there street crossing habits? Upon further research, I found out that the Levittown Public Library only had a handful of books in braille, and a limited section of books on audiotape. So lets say that on any given day, considering that Levittown is not known for its blind population, there is one blind person at the Library. Do we really need a sign to warn us about them? They would be better suited putting a "Warning: Skaters Skating" or a "People reading" sign up.
Another sign that caught my attention was at the Dalton Funeral Home on the corner of Old Country Road and Jerusalem Ave. They have a fancy new digital sign outside of it, and it displays the time (which is 5 minutes fast), the temperature (which is 5 degrees colder) and then an interesting message. It says "Drive Safely." Now to me, this seems like it would be a conflict of interest. By them telling people to be careful when they drive, they are preventing them from driving like idiots, which would lead to less people dying, which would lead to less people needing to use the funeral home. If they had any business sense, they would not only write "drive erratically and crash into poles," but they would install some kind of strobe light into the sign as well.
The final sign I saw today was on Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow, I think. It was outside of some kind of Puerto Rican Hair Salon, which advertised procedures such as "hair weaving" and "eyebrow threading." Now I'm not the most advanced hair technician, but both of those sound extremely painful and expensive. But that wasn't what really caught me off guard. Above the "Nail Tips $5" sign, there was a sign advertising "Individual Eyelashes!" As I kept on driving, I thought to myself.. Who in their right mind would possibly need an individual eyelash? It was really mind boggling. Then, as I sat at my kitchen table eating some pancakes, I noticed an eyelash on my plate, presumably my own. Instead of thinking "Shit! An eyelash fell out! I have to go buy a new one immediately!", I continued with my day, not once noticing any missing eyelashes.
The End
The first one was outside of the Levittown Public Library. The sign read "Caution: Blind Persons Crossing." Now, this made me think... Why would there be one blind person, let alone enough blind people, inside of a library to the point where they would need a sign outside warning about there street crossing habits? Upon further research, I found out that the Levittown Public Library only had a handful of books in braille, and a limited section of books on audiotape. So lets say that on any given day, considering that Levittown is not known for its blind population, there is one blind person at the Library. Do we really need a sign to warn us about them? They would be better suited putting a "Warning: Skaters Skating" or a "People reading" sign up.
Another sign that caught my attention was at the Dalton Funeral Home on the corner of Old Country Road and Jerusalem Ave. They have a fancy new digital sign outside of it, and it displays the time (which is 5 minutes fast), the temperature (which is 5 degrees colder) and then an interesting message. It says "Drive Safely." Now to me, this seems like it would be a conflict of interest. By them telling people to be careful when they drive, they are preventing them from driving like idiots, which would lead to less people dying, which would lead to less people needing to use the funeral home. If they had any business sense, they would not only write "drive erratically and crash into poles," but they would install some kind of strobe light into the sign as well.
The final sign I saw today was on Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow, I think. It was outside of some kind of Puerto Rican Hair Salon, which advertised procedures such as "hair weaving" and "eyebrow threading." Now I'm not the most advanced hair technician, but both of those sound extremely painful and expensive. But that wasn't what really caught me off guard. Above the "Nail Tips $5" sign, there was a sign advertising "Individual Eyelashes!" As I kept on driving, I thought to myself.. Who in their right mind would possibly need an individual eyelash? It was really mind boggling. Then, as I sat at my kitchen table eating some pancakes, I noticed an eyelash on my plate, presumably my own. Instead of thinking "Shit! An eyelash fell out! I have to go buy a new one immediately!", I continued with my day, not once noticing any missing eyelashes.
The End
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
everyone hates al
For the past (approximately) 12 years, I have been addicted to current events. I love to watch local and national news, and love to read newspapers from around the world. (The only way to follow my favorite Australian Rules Football team, the Sydney Swans, is to read the online version of The Sydney Herald.) I love the sports section, the comics, the crosswords, the horoscopes, and in the recent past I have taken a liking to sudoku. But one thing that I can't stand about the news and newspapers is the amount of attention they give to one of the most annoying, idiotic, morons in the world today.
I'm talking of course about the Reverend Al Sharpton. For years I have sat by and watched as the good Reverend has acted as if he is "the king of all blacks." Anytime an African American is treated unfairly, Al comes out from wherever it is that he hides and gets his ugly mug on national news demanding that a white person takes some kind of blame for it. You see the same scenario all the time.. A black guy is working at a construction site, a brick falls on the guy's head, he's knocked unconscious, Sharpton takes an express limo to his hospital bed, calls for a press conference with the guy's mom standing next to him, and then demands that the white owner of the construction company is federally charged and also sued. Stuff like this happens all the time, and each time it gives Sharpton more and more political leverage.
Don Imus recently referred to the women's basketball team at Rutgers University as "nappy headed ho's." Now, before Imus said anything, I can almost guarantee that Al Shaprton never, ever watched a Rutgers woman's basketball game. I'm 99.9 percent sure that he couldn't name one player on the team. I would go so far to say that Sharpton didn't know that Rutgers even had a girls basketball team, and that he was probably sleeping in a king size bed in his mansion when Don Imus made his remarks. He clearly has no personal interest in the issue at hand, but because he is the self appointed leader of the blacks, he had to come out and demand that Don Imus be fired from his radio show that he has been doing for 35 years. His attack worked, as Imus was fired two days after he appeared on Sharpton's radio show where he apologized for the remarks.
Today, I would like to nominate myself as "the king of the whites." The next time Chris Rock makes a joke about white people, I will publicly demand that his sitcom "Everyone Hates Chris" is immediately cancelled and that he appears on my radio show to nationally apologize to white people everywhere. The next time a hip hop artist refers to a white person as a "cracka" in one of his songs, expect to see me on your local news leading a protest. The next time a black guy mugs a white guy, I will be at the white guy's bedside, hugging his mother and demanding that we put an end to black on white violence. And when I run for president in 30 years, you know I will be bringing all of that up.
It should also be mentioned that Al Sharpton one of the first people to call for the prosecution of the the three Duke lacrosse players who were accused of sexually assaulting an African American woman. He went on the nationally syndicated O'Reilly Factor and before any type of legal hearing took place, called the lacrosse players absolute liars. Every single charge against each of those three has been dropped, and Sharpton has not once apologized.
The bottom line is that the Reverend Al Sharpton uses the victims of murders and hate crimes as a stepping stone for his own political agenda. Since he is the "black leader," he should be using his energy to help put an end to problems in the black community, not just showing up wherever a TV camera might be.
I'm talking of course about the Reverend Al Sharpton. For years I have sat by and watched as the good Reverend has acted as if he is "the king of all blacks." Anytime an African American is treated unfairly, Al comes out from wherever it is that he hides and gets his ugly mug on national news demanding that a white person takes some kind of blame for it. You see the same scenario all the time.. A black guy is working at a construction site, a brick falls on the guy's head, he's knocked unconscious, Sharpton takes an express limo to his hospital bed, calls for a press conference with the guy's mom standing next to him, and then demands that the white owner of the construction company is federally charged and also sued. Stuff like this happens all the time, and each time it gives Sharpton more and more political leverage.
Don Imus recently referred to the women's basketball team at Rutgers University as "nappy headed ho's." Now, before Imus said anything, I can almost guarantee that Al Shaprton never, ever watched a Rutgers woman's basketball game. I'm 99.9 percent sure that he couldn't name one player on the team. I would go so far to say that Sharpton didn't know that Rutgers even had a girls basketball team, and that he was probably sleeping in a king size bed in his mansion when Don Imus made his remarks. He clearly has no personal interest in the issue at hand, but because he is the self appointed leader of the blacks, he had to come out and demand that Don Imus be fired from his radio show that he has been doing for 35 years. His attack worked, as Imus was fired two days after he appeared on Sharpton's radio show where he apologized for the remarks.
Today, I would like to nominate myself as "the king of the whites." The next time Chris Rock makes a joke about white people, I will publicly demand that his sitcom "Everyone Hates Chris" is immediately cancelled and that he appears on my radio show to nationally apologize to white people everywhere. The next time a hip hop artist refers to a white person as a "cracka" in one of his songs, expect to see me on your local news leading a protest. The next time a black guy mugs a white guy, I will be at the white guy's bedside, hugging his mother and demanding that we put an end to black on white violence. And when I run for president in 30 years, you know I will be bringing all of that up.
It should also be mentioned that Al Sharpton one of the first people to call for the prosecution of the the three Duke lacrosse players who were accused of sexually assaulting an African American woman. He went on the nationally syndicated O'Reilly Factor and before any type of legal hearing took place, called the lacrosse players absolute liars. Every single charge against each of those three has been dropped, and Sharpton has not once apologized.
The bottom line is that the Reverend Al Sharpton uses the victims of murders and hate crimes as a stepping stone for his own political agenda. Since he is the "black leader," he should be using his energy to help put an end to problems in the black community, not just showing up wherever a TV camera might be.
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