Good riddance, Fulton County Courthouse

When it comes to moving, there’s no shortage of niggling little loose ends that seem to permeate from the furthest and most obscure sources.  My own move was no exception to the rule, and no matter how comprehensive and thorough I thought I was being, for weeks and months after departure, there were always letters, notifications, and things showing up to my apartment that were unexpected, that needed to be addressed.

To be fair, there was a surprising amount of money owed back to me from various sources, which was always welcome and pleasing, but there were the usual share of expenditures, final payments, and other nuisances that showed up and had to be dealt with, like good citizens do.

However, one thing that showed up, way later than everything else, was like one final fuck you from Fulton County; everyone’s favorite civil obligation in the world, jury duty.  Naturally, this was met with the enthusiasm of having your dick placed on an anvil and beaten down with a hammer, and absolutely minus-fifty parts of me wanted to deal with it.

I lived in Fulton County for 13 years, and was summoned for jury duty six times.  Once every eligible two years.  Anyone who tells you the selection process is random and unbiased is completely full of shit, because it’s entirely based on demographics, and Asian male property owners in my neck of the woods is an extremely shallow pool that saw my name get drawn at a guaranteed rate every two years, even if I had just managed to unload said property and no longer lived in the county.

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Thoughts on Get Out

Recently, I just watched the film Get Out, which came highly recommended by just about everyone.  Needless to say, when everyone is saying it’s a great movie, and then you start seeing/reading things about how it’s getting rave reviews, most notably the 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, then the bar is being set onto some skeptically high heights.

To cut to the chase, I did think Get Out was a really good movie.  It’s well acted, thought-provoking, with great timing on comedic moments to break the tension and levity of the constantly escalating conflict of the story, with some pretty good twists because everyone loves twists in the plot.

Worthy of a certifiable fresh rating on snarky websites like Rotten Tomatoes?  Definitely.  But to be given the sheer volume of critical response it received?  I think it’s a little overblown.  Frankly, after the film ended, I couldn’t help but feel like, especially given the sheer nature of the entire film, that there’s a prevalent aftertaste of white guilt involved in how the film was so universally acclaimed.  I feel like I could see clear as day the irony of a film that touches on white guilt on almost an anthropological way is applauded by the vastly white majority of popular media, who watched it undoubtedly in an anthropological manner.

It’s a very good movie, don’t get me wrong, and I would love to see what Jordan Peele does next in the future.  But maybe it’s because I’m in a minority group substantially more minor than blacks in American society that I just don’t see anything about how white people treat black people for me to be apologetically lenient with my judgment of a film over.

How to invalidate Ohio State’s educational credibility

The moment I saw that Cardale Jones graduated from Ohio State, I didn’t even have to look it up to assume that his degree was in African-American studies.  And then because I like to be proven correct, I looked it up, and sure enough, Cardale Jones’ major was African-American studies.

For those who do not really follow sports, Cardale Jones was a former athletic ringer at Ohio State who was brought in solely to play football, and made an imbecile of himself on social media when he said:

Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS

Basically admitting that he was no scholar and was an athletic ringer that only served to feed the NCAA machine and make money for others for the opportunity to audition for the chance to make millions for himself.

The point is, Cardale Jones was surprisingly no genius, and it was even less of a surprise when he dipped out of school early to go into the NFL, where he’s basically a third-string quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. 

Let me repeat, third string quarterback for the Buffalo Bills.

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MARTA STRIKES AGAIN

This one was to send a message: “Suspicious package” near the Howell Mill Road exit leads to shutdown of I-75 southbound during the heart of the morning rush hour.  There is no MARTA alternative route coming from this direction.

This one’s for you, Cobb County.  For those of you who aren’t necessarily savvy to Atlanta county-isms, despite the fact that it would make more sense than peanut butter and jelly, Cobb County absolutely refuses to allow MARTA into its hallowed county lines.  To the point where MARTA rail almost patronizingly skates on the county line as it goes all the way up into the northern part of Fulton County.

Don’t believe anything else you may or may not care to inquire about why Cobb refuses MARTA, and just know that it has entirely everything to do with the simple fact that Cobb County does not want black people to have rail access into their sacred communities.  Because nothing is more synonymous with scary, scary colored people and their definitive crime that they will in fact bring, than rail access.

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So long, southside

Despite the fact that I’m feeling a little blue about having just sold my house, when the day was over, it was still a massive achievement in unloading, and opening up the doors to the various paths that the future has in store for me.  For every melancholy memory that makes me a little depressed that I’ve said goodbye to my old house, there are at two things I did not like about the area in which my house resided, which contributed to the general notion that I really wanted to get out of the obligation of the house.

For a long while, I’ve always thought of the reasons why the area in which my home resided was not a good place, but I often neglected to notate any of them, and eventually I’d forget some of them, inconvenient, for when I wanted to channel my frustrations with long commutes, or the feeling of despair of living in an area that did not have a whole lot of hope for the future.

I started a Google note file on May 28, 2016, simply entitled “reasons south of Atlanta is not a good place,” and told myself to add to it whenever I had something new to add.  The thought was that eventually one day when I successfully succeed in unloading the house and moving forward, I would have some notes to look back onto for my eventual post about saying farewell to my old area.  It’s a little surreal that that time has finally come, and despite the fact that I’m still feeling bummed about unloading my house, I am in a way relieved that it’s an area that I won’t really see myself going back to any time soon if I can help it.

Because of my general paranoia of the world, I never was very specific to where I lived.  Even now, I won’t get too specific, but I will admit that my old house was on the south side of Atlanta.  The half of the metropolitan Atlanta area south of I-20 that doesn’t get much acknowledgment or credit for anything, and the half of the metropolitan Atlanta area that pretty much has no hope for the future.

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Hashtag white-washing lol

Impetus: Ghost in the Shell starring Japan’s own Scarlett Johansson attempts to create promotional meme; blows up in their face like Japan’s own bukkake

Honestly, I thought too much time had passed for me to bother talking about the white-washing of GITS.  Sure, I’ve got lots of opinions about whitey taking over yet another story conceived and taking place in ‘ze Orient, but none of them would really be any different than the litany of white guilt white knights that are all over the internet crying over the injustice of it already.

I mean there was a movie about the Great Wall; of China, starring fucking Matt Damon of all the people on the face of the planet, so it shouldn’t be the least bit surprising that GITS would star a woman as Japanese as Scarlett Johansson as the lead character.  I don’t think we’re that far off with a remake of Roots, starring Topher Grace as Kunta Kinte, or perhaps a rendition of Frida starring Blake Lively as the titular Frida Kahlo, and neither would be a surprise if such were to occur.

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In Mississippi, sagging pants is a mental disorder

TL:DR – Mississippi lawmaker hates sagging pants so much, aside from fines for repeat offenders, psychiatric counseling becomes necessary

This story is kind of a good example of the current state of the American political climate.  If this story broke out a few months ago prior to the presidential election, it probably would have gone mostly ignored, possibly ridiculed, but a definite flash in the pan.  People like me laugh about the irony behind how stupid it is, and maybe even dedicate some words in a privately run blog and shine a little bit of light to like six readers.

But happening now?  It’s racist!!  The lawmaker?  He’s racist!!  The implications behind punishing people who sag their pants?  Racist!!  It’s Trump’s fault!!  Emboldened!!  Racist!!

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