If there’s one thing China does right

It’s punishment; for cheating; on the gaokao.  I use all those semi-colons deliberately, because it’s my duty to goof on China whenever I can, and the truth of the matter is that I still think the Chinese are the biggest cheaters on the planet, and in spite of their refreshingly Draconian punishment when it comes to their national educational placement exam, they still cheat on just about everything else they think they can get away with.

Sure, they still have problems with Little Emperors running rampant throughout the country, with their parents being completely inept, incapable and unwilling to actually discipline their fucking kids from destroying public displays or museum exhibits, but it’s nice to know that when it comes to education, China is pulling no punches with their aspirations to punish exam cheaters.

I mean seriously, even at my most sadistic, I don’t think I could’ve dreamed up a seven-year jail sentence for cheating on tests.  It certainly seems like it’s severe enough to make would-be cheaters think twice about trying it.  Also, it’s kind of amusing to see what a society with lax cheating ideologies try to play the game of trying to outsmart the exam administrators who are going to some big measures to prevent cheating; all while overlooking the notion that if the effort to cheat were instead diverted to actually studying, then everyone would probably ace the gaokao to begin with.

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Didn’t see this coming

Not one bit.  Completely blindsided.  Never thought it possible.

Racist Park Great White Flight Field SunTrust Park, the future home of the Atlanta Braves, promised that it would not cost Cobb County residents anything (publicly) out of their pockets.  However, Cobb County has blown through its public parks budget, solely on the construction of SunTrust Park; and if Cobb residents actually want actual, useable, public parkland, a tax increase will be needed.

Yup, never would have imagined that SunTrust Park would actually fail to deliver on the promise that their construction wasn’t going to cost Cobb residents anything.  Who would’ve guessed this?

I mean, anyone who believed that SunTrust Park wasn’t going to cost residents anything also probably believe in the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny.  Sure, it’s easy to say that the funding is going to come solely from hotel taxes and other means, but wherever there is a general lack of transparency, the public is going to suffer, whether they realize it or not.  Be it through some sort of tax break that inhibits the cash flow in some sort of public function, or this hilarious publicly revealed snafu of the county blowing through its parks budget and now needing to raise taxes to fulfill its financial obligation, stadium construction is pretty much one of the worst rackets ever.

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Shunning power

One of the biggest obstacles I face in the light of server downtime is the obvious out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality that emerges from time to time, when it comes to the pursuit of trying to write on a regular basis.  Sometimes it’s on account of knowing there’s nowhere to post to, however there are the times in which I simply don’t either have the time or the simple drive to write anything.

At the time I’m writing this, I realized that in a hypothetical online status, I’d have gone four days without taking the time to write something, which I would have chastised myself for being unacceptable.  Usually, I like to write to what I like to call, more organically, which is to say things that are happening fairly current to the particular day, and I write immediately after finding something that piques my interest.

Failing that, there’s the well of topics that I notate in a Gmail draft, or a Notes file on my phone, that I feel like I can dip into from time to time in order to have something to write about, when current events seem dry.  This post, is one of them.

I came across this article written by Michael Wilbon, a sportswriter I’ve typically been supportive of, from his time at the Washington Post, as well as being the less-insufferable voice of Pardon The Interruption.  Long story short, it’s an article about how African-Americans aren’t into statistics as it pertains to professional sports as much as others are.

First of all, I didn’t even know what The Undefeated was, until after I read this article.  After a little bit of research, I deduced that it’s the “Black Grantland,” that was a contributor to the death of “regular Grantland (which had several black authors)” that was initially helmed by noted race-card wielder, Jason Whitlock. 

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At least the Braves haven’t resorted to suing the fans . . . yet

As much as I’ve been a loud and vocal proponent for goofing on the Braves, and voicing my dissent and disapproval of ScumTrust Park, I would have to say that there still exists a team that is worse off.  Which would be the Florida Miami Marlins, who have recently been reported to be suing their fans, alleging breaches of season ticket and lease contracts on account of the Marlins failing to deliver on a multitude of promises.

Long story short, since the Marlins opened their highly criticized, publicly funded Little Havana monstrosity, there was belief (that nobody believed in) that a brand new shiny ballpark would draw packed crowds, generate boatloads of revenue, and be a fruitful opportunity to businesses that chose to invest.  But because they’re the Marlins, and Miami is Miami, which is to say the people are vapid, fair-weathered and have attention spans of narcoleptic goats, none of the beliefs have come true.

And people who were stupid enough to have faith in the Marlins, who actually sunk money into the organization, be it through season ticket contracts or business investments, have finally realized that things are not getting better, and are pulling out.  And the Marlins are suing as many of them as they can.

Sure, the Marlins certainly have legal ground to pursue these lawsuits, but from a PR standpoint, all casual viewers of the scenario are only seeing one thing: the big bad rich and powerful organization, suing the fans.

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I know “Bundy” and “failure” go hand-in-hand, but

For the love that is everything holy, please do not green light the Married With Children spinoff.

I know it’s easy for guys like David Fausti–Bud Bundy to get caught up in the potential payoff from resuscitating the cash cows from their childhoods like Full House did with Fuller House, but there’s pretty much no way that a MWC spinoff can possibly work in today’s society.

Fuller Blouse House worked because the show was originally so squeaky clean and family friendly, that it’s a concept that can be regurgitated at any point throughout the history of time, and it would be socially acceptable.  Sure, it’s a little too lily white, but the underlying premise of the show is built around family values and living like paragons.  The show can be remade any number of times, with current localization not requiring too much effort, as long as the show revolves around families trying to live like wholesome families.

Married With Children on the other hand, as much as I was a fan of the show growing up, there’s no possible way that the humor could possibly fly in today’s thin-skinned, overly-PC and anti-bullying society we live in currently. 

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The Facebook blackout, continued

At the time I’m writing this, I still haven’t been on Facebook since the last time I said I haven’t been on it.  I think it’s been four weeks now.  Anyone astutely aware of my existence might notice the complete lack of activity from me there, not that I was ever really active in the first place, but combined with the fact that my brog is still down without any timeline of when it will be back up, and I may as well seem like I don’t exist anymore.

There was a part of me that thought about going Facebook dark until my brog gets back up, but given that I have a general understanding of what the current status is, that could be a little while.  However, I don’t really particularly feel like I’ve missed out on anything since I decided to shun checking Facebook outright, instead of fifty times a day like I found myself doing prior. 

In a way, all the articles floating out there lamenting about the anxieties people occasionally feel by not being included in the things that their Facebook friends are blatantly or passive-aggressively boasting about doing, feels kind of true, because me not knowing about the things people are doing means I can’t possibly feel left out or excluded.  Not to mention that I’m not privy to those people out there who use Facebook as a means to vent about the mistakes they make with their lives or just to make poorly veiled jabs at mutually known people and to air out their slightly sweaty but not visibly dirty laundry.

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A pathetic observation

I’ve noticed a trend these days that I’m quite perturbed by: men who are looking at their phone while peeing at the urinal.

Yes, we are going to talk about bathroom behavior again.

And I’m not talking about speaking on the phone, but such a thing can be done somewhat less blatantly, by means of Bluetooth headsets, earbuds, or wedging the phone against your ear and shoulder.  Sure, the behavior is still kind of disheartening to see, and hear, but I’m talking about people who are looking down at their phone screens, and using their thumbs to scroll or swipe; while not looking down while they’re peeing.

At first, I thought it was a thing that I’d only see at work, I get it, there are people who are (trying to look) excessively busy that they simply cannot sacrifice 60 seconds to go to the commode without interrupting business function.  Those emails cannot wait the duration of a pee break, obviously.

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