Memphis City Government Responds: "I'm not Sure We Know What you Mean By Renovation"

Well, here goes Memphis City Government again. Just read the Smart City Memphis blog called, "Unconventional Thinking Needed On Convention Center," and I'm all ready to pull my hair out (that is if I had any to pull out).
Is it me or have every single member up to and definitely including the King, oops, I mean Mayor of our fair city's government lost their ever-loving mind??? What is it with this city's officials!? Instead of repairing or renovating an existing stadium or arena, these officials want to build a new one. Only when they are shot down completely, do they resort to the option they should have chosen first, renovation. This time it appears that King Willie wants to build a brand new arena/convention center here in Memphis, but for now has put those visions on the back burner. Let's see Mid South Coliseum (now defunct), check; the Pyramid (now defunct), check; The FedEx Forum, (brand new, but soon to be defunct), check. For Christmas 2008, my plans are to purchase enought Merrium Webster dictionaries to give one to everyone on the City Council and also give King Willie one. Inside each dictionary will be the words renovate and renovation underlined and highlighted. Hopefully, they will get the picture. I am reminded of the movie Rush Hour in which Chris tucker says, "DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORDS THAT ARE COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH?"

They Say Confession Is Good For The Soul...

Ok, I really didn't like AlphaPatriot and his lunatic ramblings, but I am starting to get peeved. I read the Confessions of A West Tennessee Liberal's blog entitled "Trouble up ahead in '08" and I wonder what is wrong with the American political system today. This John Marek guy is scared of John McCain like he is the boogeyman or something. He has absolutely no confidence in either Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton. I can understand if you don't like one or the other and if you have good reason not to be confident, but at the moment, neither Obama nor Clinton have given us any reason to think they wouldn't do a totally fabulous job in the White House. Hell, at this point, after 8 years of "W," a blind monkey with a CRACK addiction and a penchant for snorting cocaine off a hooker's ass would do a better job.
He has all but conceded victory to the Republicans. I would emplore Marek to have a little faith and find a candidate to support and actually support that candidate. A year or so ago, I believed that it really didn't matter who the Democrats put up against the Republicans, that the Republicans wouldn't stand a chance in Hell of taking the Presidency after Bush. The truth of the matter is that none of the candidates can say that another one voted for the War in Iraq, because they all did. Each and every single candidate still running for the White House checked yes to that particular question, so it will be interesting to see how things continue to unfold.

AlphaPatriot is just a weeee bit CRAZY!

Poor guy. He is just a touch upset over the fact that none of the remaining candidates believe the way he does. Well, maybe that's because he's a lunatic and all of the lunatics that wanted to be President are either out or on their way out the door. Maybe, just maybe "W" has screwed up so much that nearly every Republican looks like the Devil in disguise. AlphaPatriot says he can't vote for Mitt Romney or John McCain and is scared by the idea of Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama getting into office. Whatever on Earth is this poor guy going to do if either of them is elected you might ask?
"I decided right then and there that if either one of them is elected then I'm joining a militia to prepare for the coming disintegration of the Union. In fact, if I can't find a militia then I'm going to start one. Buy a few hundred acres of Tennessee wilderness and go practice war and survival," he psychotically said in his blog.
Umm, uh, yeah. That would be called joining or starting a CULT. And we all know what happens to people who start cults. For examples, see David Koresh and Charles Manson. One dead and the other locked in the criminal looney bin, the nut hatch, "Nanna's Change Purse."
This guy needs to get out and get himself a hobby before he ends up in a Mexican Stand-off with the Federal government he proclaims to love so much.

Whitehaven and Others

After reading the Memphis blog, Bring Back Whitehaven, I have to say that I agree 200%. Though I have never been to Graceland myself, there is absolutely no denying the magnitude of its drawing power on tourists, especially fans of The King. It is somewhat embarrassing to have people come from out of town and from other countries to visit a landmark like Graceland and see the blighted areas leading up to it. It must make them think to themselves, "damn, if this is how they treat Graceland, then it must be how they treat ALL of their landmarks. Why even bother going to see them if we can just expect more trash and blight when we get there.

Though I agree with the plight of Whitehaven's blight, there are many other areas withing the city of Memphis that are slowly decaying and creating havens for criminals to carry out their dastardly deeds. Revitalization of Downtown Memphis is nearly complete, but the city's leaders need to shift their focus from that, once completed, to the other areas of Memphis that look post-apocolyptic.

The plan to improve Whitehaven is a very good one. And it can be expanded to other areas as well. One key factor that can help this plan along would be to have more police patrolling the streets to keep crime away and impose stiffer penalties on criminals for the crimes they commit. I think we have been taking it too easy on those who commit crimes, allowing them to go free later and just commit more crimes. This has got to stop somewhere or we will stop having decent places to live in this city and the Federal government will have to bomb this city and start from scratch.

Aaron's Story (Part Three)

So, after we chatted on the phone for over two hours, Aaron and I finally got around to setting up an actual date. My God, I hadn't been on an actual date in forever. I had gone out with a couple guys here and there, but it just didn't feel serious. The big night for me had finally arrived and I was very nervous at first. I had all kinds of silly thoughts running through my head: What if he doesn't laugh at my jokes ? What if I can't carry on an intellectual conversation on his level? What if he is incredibly dull after those first two hours? By this point in my life I was already sporting the shaved head or I would have freaked out about my hair. I found my sexiest outfit and put on just the right amount of cologne (if you want to choke an entire herd of water buffalo).
He picked me up from my apartment and surprised me by taking me to dinner at The Pier, only my most favorite seafood restaurant in Memphis. We ate dinner and then he pulled out two tickets to a show at the Orpheum Theatre that I had wanted to see. I was speechless once again and attributed his knowledge of my favorite restaurant and interest in this play to a little spy named Andrea.
After the show, we went to Beale Street to have a couple drinks and listen to some bands play. Then, he took me home and right there on my doorstep, he kissed me for the first time and I felt that same spark that I did when he touched my hand. "He's a keeper," I thought to myself. I went inside and called Andrea, as promised, and we talked for three hours on the phone. I gushed about Aaron for two hours and forty-five minutes. What could I say? I was in love with this boy. (To Be Continued)

Health Care Brainstorm

Health care in this country is in an alarming state of affairs. Millions upon millions of people are without some form of health care. Either they can't afford it through their employer, they get turned down by "guaranteed" organizations like Medicare or Medicaid, or they are simply unemployed. Health care costs from other independent companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee are even too high in most cases. Television is littered badly with commercials about inexpensive life insurance for people 50 to 85. Two major problems with that; the first problem is that you are excluded if you are younger than 50 and older than 85. The second major concern being that life insurance is ONLY helpful if you die!
If someone has health insurance, doctor visits and prescription costs are lowered, but if you are unlucky enough to have no health coverage, lower to middle income families and individuals can barely cover the cost of the doctor visit, let alont the cost of any outrageously overpriced prescriptions you might need to become well again. It is a vicious cycle: You can't go to work because you are sick, and you can't pay for the medication you need to get well because you can't go to work.
This country is well in a position to STOP all of these problems by providing free health care across the board to everyone. The only thing stopping the U.S. from doing so is its own capitalistic greed. Insurance companies want to get paid. Pharmaceutical companies want to get paid. Doctors want to get paid. With everyone wanting to get their slice of the pie, no one seems to give a damn about those who are sick and dying simply because they don't have enough money to get the care they need.
Then, there are the unemployed. The poor and middle class that are employed can at least maybe pay for a doctor visit, but the unemployed can not even pay for that. And it is a very good bet that they are not getting the prescriptions they need to take care of themselves. Damn shame this country can't provide free health care.

Aaron's Story (Part Two)

Aaron excused himself after somewhat accepting my rejection. I didn't tell him I was speechless. I mean, I was actually speechless over what i had felt. I sometimes tell people that that was the precise moment that part of his lifeforce, or soul, or whatever you call it, entered me. Damn it!! He was all I could think about. During that following week, a couple guys asked me to go out to dinner with them and i found myself coming up with flimsy excuses not to go. To be honest, I didn't want to go out with those guys. I wanted to see Aaron. I must have started to ask Andrea to call Aaron for me about a dozen times, but didn't. How could I bring myself to ask her for this after so definitively shooting down her efforts just a week earlier? Amazingly, I ran into him just two weeks later at the grocery store of all places. We chatted for a few minutes in the produce department and I saw him again in the frozen food aisle. I started to ask him for his phone number but a little bit of nervousness prevented me from doing so. I think he sensed my nervous feeling and acted himself. When I got back out to my car, I saw a business card had been placed under my windshield wiper. Turning it over, I noticed it was Aaron's business card. At the bottom of the card, was his home phone number written in along with the words, "Call me Stud!" I blushed a bit and drove right home, almost running a red light and hitting a guy on his bicycle(for which I profusely apologized to the guy for). I called him and we chatted for a little over two hours. (To Be Continued)

Aaron's Story (Part One)

I wouldn't say that I met Aaron Richardson by accident exactly. About eight years ago, my best gal pal, Andrea, decided to throw herself a huge 21st birthday party. She knew Aaron for about 6 months before I did. They had become friends at work she thought that we would make a cute couple. If there was anything Andrea LOVED to to it was to play Cupid. Most of the time, unfortunately, her matches ended in a break-up as soon as the newness had worn off. I love her for her indomitable will and endless perseverance. She could often be heard saying, in defense of her terrible matchmaking track record, "I shall NEVER surrender!!"
Anyway, she threw herself this huge party and invited what seemed to be the entire city of Memphis. I had only met Aaron briefly before one night when he, Andrea and a few other people were going out. She and Aaron came over to my apartment to borrow some CD's and off they went. Of course, she invited Aaron to this partyand it was there that she unveiled her diabolical plot to fix he and I up. Having observed her success rate with these situations, I was adamantly opposed to becoming just another statistic. Now, because i am not a complete asshole, I pulled aron to the side and apologized. I explained Andrea's success rate to him and told him he was probably a nice guy but that I didn't think or even know if it could work. He smiled, said that he understood and placed his hand on top of mine for only a moment. But that moment felt like an eternity. It was at that moment I felt that "spark" that I had heard about so many times but had never experienced myself. (To Be Continued)

First I worked too much...

I was in class yesterday when I received a call from one of my managers at work. I work at T J Maxx (at least for now). Patty called me to tell me that they were having to cut labor for the week and that my shift for Wednesday was cut. This perplexes me just a little bit since there are employees that were hired long after I was and most of their hours are still intact. Now, normally I am not one to complain about such things, however, I only had three shifts to start with for this week and now one of them has been axed. I think the universe is trying to tell me something but I am uncertain what that something is. Maybe the universe is trying to whisper delicately in my ear that I should look for another job. I am hoping that this lull in business is very temporary and that things will get back to normal real soon. If this doesn't happen, I will be forced to look for another job and I find the whole process of having to submit applications and resumes truly unsettling.
The endless stream of rejections, not because I am a bad candidate, but because the company is just not hiring or they are amassing potential candidates for employment four to six months down the road. Great for them, however, I am looking for more stable employment NOW. Oh well, I refuse to worry my pretty little head over this at this moment in time. I have to concentrate on my classes which take up a great deal of my time as it is. I do believe that I am going to enjoy my English 1020, College Algebra, and Psychology classes. All three of my instructors are fun and exciting. Where the hell were they at last semester?! To her credit, Heather Seratt was a really interesting English teacher, and she helped me out a great deal. Now, I have Wendy. Just Wendy (since she has this "thing" about being called Mrs. Sumner-Winter or Ms. Wendy, lol). She is a hoot. She will be very instrumental in my becoming a better writer.
I love to write actually. I love to brianstorm and find the perfect way to start a paper or story. I received all As on my papers in my English 1010 class and I hope to do equally well in the 1020 class. I really like the way Wendy teaches her class. This is creative and it helps students be themselves rather than an emotionless college student doomed to have to do an assignment. Her style of openness and honesty will inspire students to openly write a paper, submit a blog, and do any other assignment without any fear that they can not be themselves. I think your best writing comes from the ability to write true. When creativity is stiffled, the work suffers and, consequently, so does the grade.
For the assignment in which we are to select a topic, find a book and locate a website or brocheur to analyze, I have chosen healthcare. I am somewhat passionate about this topic. My passion stems from my not being able to understand how the United States of America is the richest nation on the planet and yet we have an alarmingly high number of people that have absolutely no form of healthcare. It is distasteful to me how we lay claims to being the most advanced and powerful country in the world and we can't look past our own greed and love of capitalism to do something so basic as provide free healthcare to our own people. Damn, it's not like we have to extend it to people that aren't U.S. citizens, but at least offer it to own people. As Wendy said in class Tuesday, 1-21-08, "A healthy worker is a much more valuable worker." Not only that, but it is just the humane thing to do. France and Canada both have accomplished this goal and its citizens love their country even more for doing it. Sure, these countries raised taxes, but it was a very small price to pay for having the luxury of going to the doctor ANYTIME you feel sick. Come on America, get your head out of your ass and get with the program.
I believe that once the United States finally gives in and creates a broadbased free healthcare system, the people will look more favorably at its country and other nations will think higher of us as well.

Until Later, Peace Out :)

Mikey's Manifesto

Michael Parker
English 1020 (046)
Wendy Sumner-Winter
750 Word Manifesto

My Very Own Manifesto

From The Oxford American Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus, a manifesto is a public declaration of policy and aims, esp. political or social. History is chock full of these types of public declarations. From the Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848; and the October Manifesto, issued by emperor Nicholas II in 1905 that ended unlimited autocracy in Russia and began a constitutional monarchy, all the way to our beginnings as a country that started with our very own Declaration of Independence drafted in 1776 and our Constitution of the United States in 1787. Manifestos have been a source of initiating change in power or policy throughout history.
I have never considered drafting my very own manifesto. I have always seen what I needed to do (or not do), change (or not change) and I have tried to act accordingly.
In writing my manifesto, I suppose I should first consider what I need to change or start doing that I am not doing. I am afraid that up to this point I have been somewhat of a procrastinator. Not dangerously procrastinating, just enough to be annoying to myself. I tend to put things off, as most procrastinators do, always thinking that there is enough time to get all things accomplished. So far, I have managed to finish all tasks on time, but not without some last minute, late night computer lab sessions which have compromised quite a bit of sleep. I suppose this activity should be changed to better help me become a more successful college student, not to mention when I begin my career as an advertising executive.
So, here goes nothing. I, Michael Parker, being of sound mind and bo…no wait . Wrong declaration. For continued success at The University of Memphis, I, Michael Parker do hereby formally declare that I will begin putting an end to procrastinating and free up more time to lounge around and do nothing, or at least work on other assignments for class. The following are some detailed steps on how I plan to accomplish this goal.
Step One: If a reading assignment is given for an essay or other assignment to be done on it, I will immediately read the assigned pages, providing I do not miss another class or this reading will make me late for work. Immediately following the end of my school day and if I do not have to be at work, I will complete the assigned readings and begin on the associated assignment immediately. Once I leave work for the day or evening, I will begin working on the assignment immediately.
Step Two: If possible, I will coordinate my school and work schedules and schedule time off from work in order to work more on projects and assignments that are due. Realizing that sometimes this may not be possible unless I want to become homeless as a result of having no money, I will only do it when time and finances permit.
Step Three: In the event that I have worked exceptionally hard on the project and find myself needing additional time to make it better, I will contact the instructor and ask for an extension on the assignment, if possible, providing that such a request does not conflict with the class policies set forth by the instructor. In the event of an emergency that could arise, I would also request an extension from the instructor based on the emergency.
Step Four: I should limit my amount of time spent frivolously looking at the Internet and watching television. If I am to accomplish this task, in terms of watching TV, I will have to rely heavily on my digital video recorder. To lower the amount of time spent surfing the Internet, I should wait until all assignments are done or at least allot a specific amount of time to surf and then make myself stop when that time expires.
Step Five: Ask for assistance or pair up with a classmate, if possible to gain a new perspective or to work together on a project or assignment. Sometimes, two heads are better than one.
Having looked at all possible contingencies, I believe these steps should be more than adequate to assist me in reducing the amount of procrastination that I have exhibited in the past. When all else fails, ask my wise English 1020 instructor what else she thinks would be appropriate. I believe she would be able to provide insight that I had not previously considered.