I was on my soap box so long that I forgot to mention that upset of a football game that happened yesterday. Indy gets trampled by "the Bus" and Pittsburgh yesterday. That was incredible. Almost everyone, myself included, had Indy picked to make it to the big dance. Good comeback in the end by Indy, but damn the stars were just in favor for Pittsburgh. You got Bettis dropping a ball, Nick Harper (who had been stabbed by his wife the previous day) recovering the ball, Big Ben Roethlisberger making a tackle ( QB's actually do that?), Peyton Manning just getting manhandled, and then Vanderjagt (the most accurate kicker in the league)missing the tie by a gazillion miles. I feel bad for Indy, but that was a hell of a game. The fourth quarter by itself may have been the weirdest thing I have ever seen, but a tremendous effort by both teams. This ranks right up there with the Longhorn victory over USC. Oh yeah, How Bout Them Horns.

I found two discrepancies in the game though. Well actually I found more than two, but I only wish to discuss these:

1.) Troy Polamalu DID MAKE AN INTERCEPTION. I agree with Joey Porter " everybody loves Peyton Manning, but don't take the game away from us". I just heard that the ref says he made the wrong call. I'm glad he owned up to it, but that could have been a costly error.
Troy Polamalu has to have the sexiest hair I have ever seen under a football helmet. I just want to give him a head massage (please don't sleep on the head massage. you have to have had a good one to understand it. i like giving them ... they are very underrated). I heard the announcers say that Polamalu wears his wedding ring under his gloves, thats so sweet. C'mon I watch football but, I'm still a girl.

2.) The Steelers roster has Jerome "the Bus" Bettis listed at 255 pounds. I'm guessing his pushing about 275-280. I'm just saying he looks a little heavy. He actually kind of looks like a mini bus, just kidding. Props to him on an excellant game.

3.) I know I said 2 things, but Big Ben should really cut that beard. I don't know if its a luck thing or not, but I'm pretty sure he'd look better without it. Again I watch football, but I'm also a girl.

Okay enough for now.
Congrats Steelers, Panthers, Broncos, and Seahawks(is there a such thing as a seahawk?)
See ya next year Colts, Bears, Patriots(bye Tom Brady, tear,tear),and Redskins.

I'm out.

~Jen

Hola everybody. Hope your day is going well. Today I didn't do much. I went to the MLK parade and got rained on, but it was well worth it. After the parade, went to the MLK luncheon and listened to a speaker talk about the I Have a Dream Speech. Came back home flipped on the TV and the first thing out of the reporters mouth was "what is the state of Martin Luther King's dream today"?

Here goes my analysis:

Its hard to say that the dream is dead for a few reasons. In my eyes it would somewhat demean the hard and tireless work that Dr. King put into the civil rights cause. It would demean all the lives that were lost in the struggle. To say that the dream is dead would be almost like saying that these things were done in vain. Secondly, to say that the dream has died would de-value all the progress that this country has made. Think of all the racial injustices that were committed,the murders,lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and slavery, we have overcome all of these things.

With that said, how come there hasn't been a minority president? How come there are not more minority CEO's of Fortune 500 companies? At my college I have never had a black professor. In sports, black athletes are good enough to play, but hardly ever good enough to be head coaches, GM's, or team owners. When I was home from college on a break I decided to do something nice and bring my cousin lunch at her highschool. Stepping into the cafeteria, there was somewhat of a racial divide. White kids in this corner, black kids over there, Mexican kids there,etc. So if the dream is still alive, why do these things exist?

The dream has stagnated. I think in our country, once the Civil Rights Act was passed, many felt that was the band-aid for all the wrongs committed. It allowed minorities chances for education and jobs, and at that time it seemed as if they got what they wanted. The heat was off and that spark died down. Everything was fair.

Wasn't it? In my opinion, not really. This has created another problem. The problem that is standing on the neck of the dream. W.E.B. DuBois said that " the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line". In my eyes the problem of the 21st Century is the classism. The Haves vs the Have Nots. Those that have rise to the top and call all the shots. Those that don't have sink to the bottom and take orders from the top. We keep trying to rebuild our society from the top down, but in order to be successful we need to build from the bottom up.

I think it was Marx who said that the proliteriat must rise up and take those in power out. This is where the dream has stagnated. Who is going to rise up? Until somebody rises up, the dream is still just a dream. It will not fully materialize. The dream will not reach its full potential.

I may be right or I may be wrong. I honestly don't see my self doing anything significant to propel the dream. Is anybody doing anything? Just think about it.

Okay I'm stepping off of my soap box.
Enjoy your evening.
Keep the dream alive.
Keep hope alive.

~Jen

Oh my goodness,did ya'll just see what happened to the New England Patriots? They were railroaded by the Denver Broncos. I'm so sad. My mind is too focused on the loss of the Pats that I can't think of anything relevant to post. I'm so sad. No more Patriots and more importantly no more Tom Brady until August.

Goodnight All

~Jen

Whats up everyone. I know its been a few days. I'm been suffering from extreme laziness and haven't been able to leave my bed in a few days. Stop laughing this is actually true. Well, maybe partially true. I did have to go to the bathroom, to the gym, and to eat.

Made only one appearance in class this week. Went to Shakespeare class yesterday and that was it. I intended to go to the other classes, but I overslept and hadn't done the work so I figured why bother. I missed one test and possibly another one, so now the best I can maybe hope for in my classes are C's, this pending that I go to class and actually make A's. Will this happen? I guess it depends on how I feel.

I been watching the CNN coverage of the "man who conned Oprah". If you haven't been following, Oprah picked James Frey's book A Million Little Pieces for her book club selection. Of course the book becomes a best seller and everyone falls in love with the book, myself included. It comes out this out this week that portions of the book have been exaggerated and may not be true. The book was published as a memoir, with no admission that some of the situations in the book were embellished.

In the beginning, I thought this was the media just making a little noise over a senseless issue. So what, it wasn't all true. I mean you have to be an incredibly honest person to tell the truth about your life. I don't know if I could do it. At first, I wasn't so much bothered by the admission of the embellishments. The message of the book was much more powerful. The message of hope and redemption was inspiring, not to mention that the story was written in a gritty yet beautiful way.

Then, I began to recall parts of the story. Some parts,in my opinion,just don't seem to coincide with the life of a drug addict. I know family members who are drug addicts. These are people who have been to rehab and failed miserably at living a sober life. They can't keep jobs, have lost custody of their kids, robbed people, been to jail, been to the state penatentuary,and have generally lost everything except the desire to have that drug. Frey's book now seems more like a badass college boy who has just grown up. Having never been a drug addict, I don't want to question someone elses struggle, but I just know what I have seen. It isn't pretty and there isn't any glory in it, which is now what it appears the author was seeking in making the embellishments to his life.

With that all said, I still like the book. If you haven't read it you should. Its very interesting and catchy. It will probably make a good movie. Think of this book more as a novel than as a memoir. And if you're wondering, Oprah still stands behind the book.

This whole fiasco made me think about the truth. How much truth do we really get? How are we supposed to know the truth? As Americans I think we are exposed to so many half-truths, that this has now become the acceptible ideal of 100% truth. 50% is not the same as 100%. This system of lying starts from the government on down. Is there truth left in anything? Why has truth become such a private thing? Why is it when we question the truth, especially in the government, that we are troublemakers? Has knowing the whole truth become that sacred.

Okay, I'm starting to get frustrated.

Anywhoo, football is on all day tomorrow so I will try to post in between games.

Have a good weekend

~Jen

Not much happened with me today. I didn't go to any of my classes today. No justifiable reasons other than I did not feel like it. Slept until noon, went running, went shoe shopping, and then the biggest surprise of my day occurred.

My ex-boyfriend called. It was around 5pm and I wasn't thrilled to hear from him. Not because I hate him or anything, just that he was wasting my daytime minutes on my cell phone. Daytime calls had better be an extreme emergency, and since he wasn't dying I told him that he could wait until after 9pm.

I haven't called him back though. His voice kind of annoys me. It wasn't like we had a bad breakup, it was a mutual thing but he just annoys me now. Probably because I just want to write him off and be through with him, but he keeps finding ways to creep back into my life. He wants to be friends. I prefer to move on. We dated for almost 3 years. He thinks because he devoted that much time to me that he is owed something (ie: my friendship), but I don't feel that way. It would be cool to keep in touch, but as far as anything else I would prefer not to go there. Friendship in this case would just be the gateway to something else,something that would resemble a relationship. Relationship is definately not on my list of priorities.
Not that I have a list of priorities ...... I'm getting a little too random here lets move on!

Watched the new Monday night shows on ABC. Found myself unimpressed with them all. I like Heather Graham, but I found her show was disappointing. Watched Uncle Jesse's show and again was disappointed. It almost seems like everyone is trying to create the new Sex and the City. Its been done people, move on theres only one Carrie Bradshaw.

Watched part of The Bachelor. He was cute and charming so I'm sure the ladies will be clawing each others eyes out in no time. What was up with that one girl who was like "I'm ready for the reproductive phase of my life". Scary!!! If I was a guy, I'd be psyched to know that she's willing to put out, but not at her agenda. The subject of reproduction is never a good topic to bring up in your first conversation with a guy. I had once mentioned to a guy that I just met that I would like to have 2 or 3 kids. I didn't mean kids with him or even kids in the near future, I just making conversation. Nevertheless, that guy was never heard from again. Boy did I learn my lesson. I found The Bachelor semi-amusing, so I'll probably watch it next week.

This is a pretty sucky blog. I'll try to conjure up something more interesting for tomorrow.

Congrats to Vince Young for going pro.
Get Well Soon to Carson Palmer.

Peace and Grease
~Jen