Summer Series (part 5): Don't be a Groupie, Keep it Movin'

How's it hanging, blogosphere? Sir Marcus here again... New blogpost time!

- This summer has flown by faster than any summer I can recall. I think that's because normally I spend my summer back home in Richmond lamenting the fact that I'm not in CoMo boozing it up with my fellow college students. And by boozing it up, I mean babysitting them as they get drunk and I quietly sit in the corners of random bars and house parties, weirding everyone out with my sobriety; Talk about a Debbie Downer.


Bo Peep: Now apart of the gang
But that's what this summer has mostly been about: hanging out at bars and such, with the occasional class being laced in every week. Gossip Girl and I have become part of a triumverate with our friend Bo Peep. We go waaaaaay back with Bo Peep to the days of 3rd floor of North Hall, which seems like an eternity ago. Back then, we didn't really hang out with Bo Peep quite as much (thanks to another of our acquaintances who tried to hoard her most of the year), but around the end of this school year, we happened to run into her at our favorite Wednesday night watering hole, and the rest - as they say - is history. Week in and week out this summer, the 3 of us - with the occasional assistance of her always-hilarious, never-boring bff ET - have made it our business to weed CoMo of its bar scene sleeziness, one gelled-up, collar-popped douchelord at a time. Any of you who have ever been out in any college town know that the bar scene tends to be over-saturated with them, so your army can never be too strong. Welcome to the gang and to the cloudy stream-of-consciousness that is SirMarcusRantsAndRaves, Bo Peep.

- In non-sequitor news, I - along with just about everyone else, I'm assuming - just moved. As in this morning. My roommate's girlfriend - hereby known as #2 - and her family assisted me in getting my shit outta Gateway before the ridiculously asinine checkout time of 10 a.m. That's 10 a.m. on a fucking saturday morning in the dead of summer, I might add. However, after managing to easily defeat the checkout time at Gateway, we then proceeded to try to move all of her stuff out of her old apartment and into her new one - right next door to ours - by 12. This task proved FAR more difficult, as #2 owned most of the stuff at her old apartment, most of which hadn't really been packed yet. And even once it was, all of her other stuff paled in comparison to what came to be the crescendo of our moving experience - trying to get her piano down the structurally-weak wooden steps of her previous residence and into the bed of her brother's truck. The good news is that we just barely beat the clock at her old apartment. The bad news is that between that piano and the TV that Gossip Girl just gave me, I've worked up quite the sweat moving things recently, and we all know being sweaty just ain't sexy. Given, the TV was harder to move up the stairs at Gateway when I first got it, but it still sucked today too. Put these moving experiences together with the fact that this week was my 1st week back textbook temp-ing at the bookstore, and I dare say that a brotha hasn't worked this hard over the course of 1 week since slave days.

Haha jk, slavery wasn't THAT hard.

The crux of the matter here is that moving is, without fail, always one of the least pleasant activities that one can put themselves through. Obviously I'm not breaking any new ground here by announcing my hatred for moving, but that doesn't make my statements any less valid. Has anyone ever had even an OKAY time moving? Don't be silly, of course not. Obviously moving is a necessary evil, but still, there's gotta be a better way. Dear Lord, I can't wait until the technology is developed that allows us to blink and have whatever we're thinking happen because moving is gonna jump right to the top of my list there.

- Just found out that a friend of mine from high school is on a women's roller-derby team. This news pleases me immensely. It awes in the awesome. Not so much because I'm tight with this girl, but because on the low-low, I've always loved roller derby. I feel that rollerskating is a criminally underrated and neglected pastime, so I practically climaxed with joy the first time I saw that someone had made it into a contact sport. Much like Slamball, it takes two great aspects of sports that in theory should coexist pretty well and fuses them together to make a hybrid supersport. Much unlike Slamball, it doesn't suck out loud to watch.

- A new season of Jersey Shore started this week. I always thought it would be a cold day in hell before there was something with "Shore" in its name that was worse than Paulie, but then again, my feet have been unusually cold as of late, so there you go. That all being said, J-WOWW can get the Dickens.

- I've spent the past 3 months or so trying to cultivate a nice set of waves in my hair and I'd actually made quite some headway in that regard (did you see what I did there?), but on the other hand, since I don't get my hair cut that often, I currently find myself sporting a mini-afro. I won't lie to you, I've given some thought to growing out a full afro and/or bringing back the cornrows, but my hair grows slower than trees do, so no one I hang out with now would even really get to fully enjoy it. I'll probably get my hair cut sometime this week for "Formal Fridays" (a campaign I've tried to start at the bookstore), so the mini-fro looks to be a short-term thing anyways. Stay tuned for further developments in this case, as I'm quite the flip-flopper with cosmetic things like this.

- Last time, I suggested that you all get up on "Shutterbug" by Big Boi. This time around, I'm throwing it back to the old school and suggesting that "Can You Stand The Rain?" by New Edition finds its way into your musical lexicon. It's a much more mellow song, but a damn good one. You're welcome.

Well blogosphanatics, I think that's as good a point to end on as any. The infrequency with which I've been blogging recently has been bothering me, so I felt I needed to jump back into the game for a minute. If I'm ever gonna reach my goal of being a writer, I'm gonna need to build up a bigger catalog anyways, so hopefully we can get together more often. Don't hold your breath on that one cuz I am - first and foremost - lazy, but know that the desire is there, if not always the execution. Until next time, this is Sir Marcus T. Williams signing off..... Yall stay classy now.

Summer Series (part 4): Far-Too-Independent Day

What is up blogoteers, how ya livin'? Don't feel the need to audibly answer that, because I wouldn't be able to hear you and was just asking as a formality anyways.

I don't have a specific topic in mind today, but since this blog is as celebratory an Independence Day activity as I'm going to participate in this year, what I do have is a shitload of free time and a mean case of logorrhea, for which I'm sure you all know the only prescription-->

- Speaking of cows, let me tell ya'll what's some bullshit: The USA Today crossword puzzle. Allegedly these things get tougher everyday of the week, so balking at the thought of starting with Monday's presumably too-simple-for-my-advanced-mind puzzle, I decided to dive balls deep into Tuesday's offering; ***FACE PALM***

It is now Sunday night, and instead of giving rocket scientry a shot and getting a Sunday puzzle, I'm stuck in neutral, having only done about 30% of the Tuesday puzzle. Frustrating? Yes. Humbling? Undoubtedly. But as I got stuck between a 4-letter word for "Old Turkish Dignitaries" and a 5-letter synonym for "Imp," I realized something: the USA Today puzzles are CLEARLY another way for THE man to further subjugate the BLACK man. This is why black people don't read the paper.

- It's almost Textbook Temp. time of year again. In roughly two weeks, I'll be back at the every MU student's choice bookstore, taking your orders and subsequently throwing them away shortly thereafter. It's obviously not something I'd want to make a career out of, but while I'm in school, it beats not working at all, especially during these long summer days. Stay tuned for further adventures on that front.

- I've still not managed to see The A-Team or Toy Story 3, two movies that I was determined to see long before they came to theaters. For some reason, people don't really seem to like going to movies as much as I do anymore, and I have no idea why that is. I guess it's because most of us are old enough to go out to bars now and college, I've been told, is mostly about getting drunk, having meaningless sex and other forms of the fun that can be induced by experimenting with other substances and/or people. That doesn't seem to leave much room for good clean fun anymore (anybody remember going rollerskating or bowling?), so it's either alcoholic activity or bust, sometimes; Not driving for myself has definitely proven to be far more crippling this summer than ever before.

- Rumor had it this week that Tiger Woods' estranged ex-wife, Elin NobodyCaresAboutHerLastName was due to receive upwards of $700 million in the divorce proceedings. Over SEVEN HUNDRED MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS. The news spread pretty fast, and even the Obama's had something to say on the matter.

Since then, I think the number has come down to $100 million (still more than enough money to set her, her children, her grandchildren, and even her great grandchildren up for life, but a far more reasonable figure, all things considered). The point here is that I need to know if there is any crime that one person can commit against another that is worth that sort of money. Don't get me wrong, I IN NO WAY condone Tiger acting like a sexual deviant and having affairs with all those women. It's reprehensible behavior for anyone to treat their spouse that way, especially someone who had been previously looked up to as much as Tiger had. And don't get it twisted, blogomaniacs - Tiger Woods is LOADED with cash; that boy got STUPID money. But reparations to the tune of $700 million, NONE of which she brought into that household herself? How long do you think Elin and her lawyers talked about the money figures before they thought it got out of hand? Did someone suggest $800 million before they were rebuked by the rest of the group for just being TOO ridiculous? Just the fact that some of us legitimately entertained the idea of her getting $700+ million has got to be considered a win for them. They probably haven't stopped hugging and high-fiving each other yet.

How can women argue with a straight face that they're marrying for love, and then have a marriage fall apart and they start asking for exorbitant concessions like that after the fact? Obviously every woman who gets divorced can't ask for that much money, but it's all relative. Even with men that are only middle-class workers, there are women divorcing them and asking to take everything from them - the house, the kids, the car, etc. A marriage is an equal union - theoretically, yes - but if it's that simple to get at least half of everything after a divorce (even if the husband is really the only one bringing in all of that money), then what's to stop gold-digging heifers from jumping into loveless marriages just praying for the day that their man slips up enough to get that divorce? And the worst part about it? Our culture is one that is not-so-subtly instigating the whole thing - yes, I'm talking about Basketball Wives - by shoving these succubi down our throats. Shame on you, VH1.

- Speaking of shame, shame on you all who read this and are on twitter and are not following me on there (http://twitter.com/MrWilliams88) or those of you who enjoy reading blogs such as this one and aren't reading up on my partna'dem 5 Deuce 4 Trey (http://ralphrude.blogspot.com/). If you're not doing either of those things, then you're losing.

- Finally, I've declared "Shutterbug" by Big Boi (the normal guy from Outkast) to be the official summer jam of 2010. Even if you don't have any discernible rhythm in your body, you should feel like busting a move when that bass line drops. Get on board or get run over, people - that song goes HARD.

For serious though, happy 4th of July to everyone. This is one of the few times that I would love to be home in VA. I wish I were at some sort of cookout right now with a bunch of friends and family, but alas, I cannot be, and so I'm with ya'll knuckleheads instead. So for those of you who are out at picnics or cookouts celebrating with others, enjoy yourselves and bring me a plate of food. Preferably just the food thing though, a brotha is hungry.

Until next time, this is Sir Marcus T. Williams signing off....... Ya'll take care now.

Summer Series (part 3): PHI GRAMMA JAMMA

Salutations, blogosphere! Sir Marcus back here with a topic that I must admit, I've been looking forward to tackling: the prevalent poor grammar of people all around us. It had gotten to the point that I was practically pregnant with the anticipation of my impending bite out of this subject. Well guess what, blogomaniacs? Over the past few weeks or so, my metaphorical water has broken, and that bundle of joy is being delivered to you now with this blog parading as my OBGYN.

Now that you've gotten that arguably far-too-memorable, but absolutely most unforgettable image out of your heads, I want to preface this all by saying that most of you that know me know that I'm an English major, which is conducive to being inherently anal about these sorta things. So be forewarned because while I certainly don't mean to sound pretentious or self-righteous at all, you should realize that I'm a guy who carries a pocket thesaurus, so I obviously notice these mishaps more than your average Joe. This stuff needs to be said by someone, no matter how small the potential audience. I've been guilty of these things as well, so trust me when I say that it hurts me much more when I make these mistakes myself than it does when others make them. Actually, that's not really true at all, but just know that I see it in myself too. If it still comes off as condescending, I don't mean it to sound that way, but then again I'd say you may feel that way because you're feeling super guilty and if that's the case, then maybe a little condescension never hurt anybody, so build a bridge and get over it, Nancy.

I know there are others out there who yearn for better grammatical sense just like I do, and if me saying something makes me that movement's villain, then so be it. I mean, I'm okay with a little slang here and there (I talk quite a bit of it here in these blogs), but there's a difference between ignorance by circumstance and ignorance just for ignorance's sake and it's my job to point that out, so let's do the damn thang.

When I was in high school, one of my English teachers used to issue "Grammar Jams," which were pop quizzes meant to check - that's right, you guessed it - our grammatical skills. Anything from run-on sentences to use of periods/exclamation points to comma splices were fair game, and though most people hated these things, I thought it was a great idea and had a hard time curbing my enthusiasm for these wondrous occasions. I'm not saying I aced them all because Lord knows that I didn't, but the idea was that by the time we're in our teens and young adulthood, we should know the basic grammatical principles around which OUR PRIMARY LANGUAGE is built, a sentiment that I was more than happy to get behind. This is when I really started paying attention to things like this.

Since then, I've not been able to help but notice how terrible some people's speech really is. I brought this up recently (hey Scott and Randy!), but there really is no valid reason for us to not know the difference in usages between to and too, there, their, and they're, or your and you're. Now, I'm a pretty open-minded guy, but one of the few things I simply can not, will not, and SHALL NOT be convinced of is that there is any acceptable reason that an American citizen that has access to English education should not at least know these sorta things. If you say "to" when you mean "too" once every so often, then it's okay because accidents happen. My concern, however, comes from the fact that if grammar Nazis such as myself never pointed out the difference, some people would never know how different those words are and would continue to interchange them so carelessly and erroneously. Same goes for "your" and "you're" and "there," "their," and "they're." It may not be fair for me to hold everyone to the high standards of knowing that you are never supposed to end a sentence in a preposition (at, in, of, to, etc.). But, my growing befuddlement in people always saying "Their is no more water left," "I went too the store," or "Your getting on my nerves" is absolutely within reason for me to emphasize. Oh no, blogoteers, such nonsense just won't do.

To a lesser extent, spelling issues bother me quite a bit as well, but I realize that that is something that everyone just isn't going to be great with, so I'm content to let sleeping dogs lie there. Same goes for people not knowing to say that THEIR day went "WELL" instead of it going "GOOD." The rules of adjectives versus adverbs are far too big an issue for me to try to teach people through just one blogpost, so I won't even bother. But don't - not even for one second - think that I and others don't notice, because we do. And while I admit that having the uncanny, inhuman ability to notice such lapses in speech development would probably be the lamest superpower ever, it doesn't make the problem any more acceptable for you to just ignore. If Americans are going to insist that English be spoken by more people internationally, the least we can do is try to clean it up amongst ourselves. So while yes, I am an admittedly unabashed word nerd, that doesn't mean that those of you who aren't should be negligent of some of the basics in which our language is rooted. It's not cool, and it makes you sound like a fool with your grammatical dignity on the ground.

Another thing: if you know anyone WH0 TALK5 U51NG W0RD5 LYK3 D15 or G1V35 Y0U THA 1NF0 W1FF NUMB3R5 & L3TTER5 or any variation of the chicken scratch lingo that you just tried to read, then it's probably time to reconsider how much you really are "friends" with said person. All of us have seen facebook profiles decorated with these hieroglyphics, so CLEARLY that person isn't interested in speaking English like the rest of us. Don't get me mistaken - that shit was NEVER cool - but it was somewhat acceptable back in middle school; the second we got into high school however, it was time to kill that noise. If that lingo somehow stuck with these people after high school, then 1) the American education system has failed them miserably, and 2) you should award them no friend points, and may God have mercy on their souls. You absolutely need to suggest that they join us in young adulthood by using numbers and words separately as God intended or you should probably not talk to them anymore. Trust me, that would be best for all parties involved. (Actually, I'm realizing mid-rant that I still have facebook friends that talk like this; Well then. This is awkward........................)

Well, that was a mouthful. Don't be confused, my angst for the speech tomfoolery runs much further than what I've mentioned here, but again, one blog simply cannot properly convey how deep that sentiment goes, so we'll cap it here. When it comes down to it, I'm not sure how much of a dent this will make on a large scale, but I'll settle for raised awareness amongst people that know and have access to me. Until next time, this is Sir Marcus T. Williams signing off.........

Yall take care now, and you stay classy out there, blogosphere.

Summer Series (part 2): Shame, shame, shame...

What's the haps out there, people? Sir Marcus back here

Before we get going, I'd be remiss if I didnt take the time to shout out my boy 5 Deuce 4 Trey (say it all together the way it's written there) who saw my last blog as inspiration to start his own, hence bringing http://ralphrude.blogspot.com into the world. Before he started it, he was very much anti-blogging, so I'm admittedly pretty damn proud to have converted him to the light. He's that guy who will say what so many of us are afraid to - even in the somewhat sheltered and allegedly open-minded arena of the interweb - and because of his candor, hilarity often ensues. Check him out because you heard it here first, and for that, YOU'RE WELCOME.

In non-sequitor news, at some point, someone's going to need to explain to me how we got to a place in our in society in which it's completely acceptable to not take any sort of responsibility or action towards treating your fellow men and women with common human courtesy. That kinda behavior permeates all throughout our society, whether it be a relationship between people dating, one between employees and their employers, or one as seemingly trivial as the one between a babysitter and the person/people that pays them to watch their kids. To that last point, have you ever had kids tell you they were going to take some of the food you're eating because you told them they couldn't have any? Or better yet, have they ever just reached onto your plate to get said food without even paying you the dignity of a pre-reach warning? Yeah, disrespect for other people's space, belongings, etc. has trickled down from the douchey McAssholes in bars and subways of the inner cities all the way to kids in small college towns in the midwest.

I suppose it's nice to know that our progeny is developing adult-level apathy and indiscretion at an early age, so as to work out all of the kinks. When you steal food and other household items from people as an adult, it's "wrong" and you can get "arrested," but if you allow your offspring to do that shit at home, then when they are outside of the house with new people, it's "cute," right? But guess what, people? This is the environment in which most children are being raised, so it's tough to be too mad at the kidlets. Far be it from me to tell someone how their kids should be reared, but I'm just saying that if your kids should be a little more hesitant about snatching others' food or telling their babysitter that they're going to steal his food, phone, computer, etc; even in jest, that speaks to a certain level of comfort on the homefront that is slightly troubling. Between that and the phrases "please," and "thank you" being foreign expressions in most kids' language these days, somewhere along the way, their upbringing hit a serious snag. Take note parents of America, because you are way behind the 8-ball on this one.

The larger looming issue of changing the societal lack of common human decency obviously promises to be a HERCULEAN undertaking (i.e. IMPOSSIBLE) for just one person to take on, but there's no reason that that one person can't try raising awareness about it through reaching out to his fellow blogosphanatics. Here are the bottom lines:

(1) Parents, teach your kids common manners. If they have to be told to say something as simple as thank you, then that's a damn shame and you have officially dropped the ball.

(2) Employers, we all know that there aren't enough jobs for the thousands of young men and women who enter the workforce every year, but dammit, don't have us apply for your job and then not contact us for a long time (if at all); Let us know one way or another ASAP so that we're not in limbo for weeks or months on end.

(3) Ladies, stop with the fake phone number nonsense. If you don't want a guy to have your actual number, then cut the charade from jump street and just say so. Also, don't think that it is your born right to have the world handed to you; chivalry IS NOT dead, but for guys, we certainly aren't tripping over ourselves to get the girl who expects the world the be handed to her just because she's a girl. Get over yourself, chickenhead.

(4) Fellas, I know I'm going to catch flack for this, but so what, it needs to be said anyways: If you have no plans on calling a girl again, then don't say you will. If you say you will, then do so, even if it means doing so to say that things aren't going any further. Yes, it's controversial, but in the end at least it dignifies both parties. Also, stop grab-assing at random girls in bars/clubs without any sort of pretext between you that says that is cool. Even if you are just thinking about having sex with her, is there nothing to be said for just A LITTLE subtlety? Guys like this give guys everywhere a bad name, and make it that much tougher for the real, nice ones like myself to make any sort of headway. You're setting us all back, and it's just not necessary.

(5) As an addendum to #'s 3 and 4, it's pretty deplorable behavior to just ignore someone that you are/were involved with at any point, in any capacity. Again, guys are especially adept at this, but that allows it to fly under the radar that girls can be just as cold; Everybody just stop it. There's a much better chance of us both keeping our dignity and maintaining a cordial/pleasant acquaintance with one another if a girl just told me she wasn't interested instead of just being vague and distant before finally just ignoring me altogether. MAN or (wo)MAN UP, be honest with people and let them know the truth in a definitive-yet-tactful way. Chances are that the person you just met isn't your "soulmate," so is that really so bad to have to tell them that? We're grown-ass men and women, let's start treating each other as such.

On a much different but certainly no less somber note, R.I.P. Gary Coleman; despite your death definitely stealing some of my thunder for today's post (CLASSIC Gary, always stealing the show!), between me and you, "What you talkin' bout, Willis?" is STILL one of the better recurring quotes in TV sitcom history. As a tribute to you, it has been re-inserted into my lexicon of usage and will get good mileage from hence forth, even though I don't really know that many people named Willis. But the point is, pour out some drank for one's homies, people.

Enough ranting for the day. I hope I spoke to something that we all recognize in our world in some capacity, because stuff like this is hard to miss on a day-to-day basis. If anything I've mentioned in here strikes a cord within you especially, then chances are that you're one of the people that I've noticed this behavior in. We're all susceptible to certain lapses in decency, but that doesn't mean we can't be aware of it. And now you know.

Stay tuned for part 3 of my Summer Series: PHI GRAMMA JAMMA, as I will be attempting to take to task our youth's astonishingly awful grasp on BASIC grammatical syntax. Should be quite the ride, and it's coming soon, I do declare. Until then, this is Sir Marcus T. Williams signing off.... Ya'll take care now.

Summer Series (part 1)

What it does, blogosphere? Sir Marcus back in action here



I know I know, the posts are becoming more and more infrequent; I mean, this is only my 2nd post since what, September? That's no good, so in an effort to sustain a more satisfactory blog frequency, I'm gonna try to do smaller posts but do them a lot more often, starting right this second. Grab yo' seatbelts fools, we're taking off.



- The school year is EXTRA over. I swear to God, it feels like we just started not too long ago. My 4th year of college is now in the books and though most of the high school class of 2006 has graduated college in these past few weeks, I'm sticking around for a little while and graduating this coming December. College is awesome and I'm in no real rush to leave, so sue me.

- All of my roommates have up and moved out of our apartment in the past month or so, though as of today, there are still 2 months on our leases. We live in a townhouse, so you can imagine the empty feeling that has been permeating throughout that place for the past 2 weeks. As for the roommates, the first guy absolute had to go, as he was the that bad roommate you all hear horror stories about. Don't believe me? Let's review his body of work:

1) Allowing his rude gf/evil twin/mistress/succubus to stay there without paying rent? Check.
2) Always having people over and making noise into the wee hours of the morning? Guilty.
3) Constantly smoking weed and leaving the smell lingering for days on end in a house with 3 non-weedsmokers? Yup.
4) Allegedly not paying his share of the utilities on a monthly basis? Oh you know it.
5) Most likely responsible for the disappearance of other roommates' food items as a side effect of items 1-3? DAMN STRAIGHT.

Yeah, so ya'll agree that homie needed to gets to steppin' ? Of course you do. The other two guys moved out because one has a job back home for the summer and the other is a volunteer fireman and is going to just be there all summer. The one who works at home also just got engaged to his gf of a year or so, so congratulations are in order for those two. They seem very happy together, so I'm proud of them. Anyways, between my relentlessly undeniable awesomeness, one guy getting engaged, and the other being a volunteer firefighter (and sober student driver as well), it clearly became too much good for one townhouse to contain. Tis a pity, but I suppose I'll just have to hold down the fort on my own.

- Is it weird to ask someone out via facebook? Yeah it probably is, but it wouldn't be the first (or the last, I'm sure) time that one of my methods has been perceived as "weird," so you'll have to come stronger than that, haters! But, before you burn me at the stake for doing it that way, get to know some of my extenuating circumstances: first of all, I don't have this girl's number yet (or I obviously would have called her) and generally don't see her that much anyways. Also, I've found that usually, my waiting around to ask someone out (if I ever even get to that stage) has only served to remind me of how bad my timing really can be, so I had to act pretty damn fast, especially with her being single only recently (as far as I know); Dammit, my hands were tied, people! Whatever the case, I've sorta had my eye on her for awhile now, and if exposing myself to potential criticism and silent judgment on the interweb means that there's a chance that this message gets through to her, then that's a price I'm gladly willing to pay. Stay tuned for further developments, ya knuckleheads.

Anyways, that's good for Part 1 of the thoroughly entertaining "Summer Series." Be on the lookout for part 2 in the next few days, but until then this is Sir Marcus T. Williams signing off....

Ya'll take care now.

Welcome Black

Well well well, what it do blogosphere? Sir Marcus here

DAMN, how long has it been? According to my profile here, we haven't spoken since September... I know I know, I've been meaning to call you, I've just been sooooo busy... Don't worry guys, it's not you, it's me. Lemme try to fill you in on the haps from the past few months.

- First of all, yall remember Sweetness, right? Yeah well she and I broke up like 2 days after that last blog.... Anyone who knew anything about our relationship saw that coming probably before we did, but I don't regret any of it; It was good for the experience, if nothing else and She's apparently bounced back nicely since then. Good for you, Sweetness, good for you.

As for my own recovery, it looked for awhile that it was going nicely with another gal, but it just never really materialized to much. I think we're both more or less to blame for that, but after dating for months on end, it became clear that if it had taken us that long to become serious, then it probably wasn't meant to happen. It's a shame it took that long for the realization, but not everything i

s gonna be apparent from Jump Street. I enjoyed the time we spent together though, she is still a great girl and I certainly

hold no ill will towards her. But being ever the optimist (er, naive manchild) that I am, there are always backup plans in mind so now I've moved in a different direction hopefully towards something new with someone else. Don't wanna jinx it, as nothing of note has really started yet, but let's just say that I am not without prospects; Stay tuned for further developments.

- Halloween '09 came and went, but not before Gossip Girl and I proceeded to rock many a sock off, Kanye West and Taylor Swift style. I had a tougher time pulling

The blonde wig fit me well though.

off a teenage white girl look than I anticipated, but in the end I think I nailed it.

- A new school semester has started and as of right now is about halfway over; WHERE DOES THE TIME GO? My classes this semester aren't as tough as last semesters (partly because it may or may not include some repeats),

but the spacing this semester seems alot better. I actually like these ones for the most part and hopefully we can get through them all without a hitch.

- From late November - early February, I returned to my "job" as a Textbook Temp at the bookstore and this time was even more fudge-packed with shenanigans than the 1st time. There were a few repeat characters besides myself this season, including you-know-who (see Textbook Temps: Doin Work). But this season's show also included a new stable of characters that most notably provided much better eye candy for we red-blooded straight males (and depending on what you wanna refer to he/she as, possibly someone for those that may have had a much more ambiguous sexual taste). The identities of said eye candy shall be protected for safety and privacy purposes, but let's hope they make it back for the next season; one of them I know for sure will, anyways. ThankYaJesus.

The group of temps this year was a little less clique-y than the summer's batch and because of that, there was a pretty good group rapport from the beginning. It helped that I and some of the returnees were kinda tight to begin with, which made us more or less the leaders of the Temp movement. The permanents (save for one who took a bit of a power trip halfway thru the season) were all really good people, but outside of work, none of us really saw them. We temps had a few FUBU (For Us By Us - dont act like yall dont remember when FUBU ran the streets) parties, thus increasing our group dynamic. The whole experience was generally just better than the first. Of course, that's not to say that it was all peaches and cream, but let's not dwell on the negative, mmmkay? Shout outs are in order to everyone that worked there this season, here's to hoping we can all (or at least most of us) can come back and do it again next time.

- MU football season ended with quite the thud. Apparently that Bowl

ing Green game I told yall about was an ominous precursor to what was in store for the rest of the season. Now, to be fair, we MU football fans have become a bit spoiled by the success of the Chase Daniel era, so this was bound to be a bit of a rebuilding year, if for no other reason than we were breaking in a new QB (who, for the record, is arguably MUCH more talented than Daniel or possibly Brad Smith before him ever was). Because of said rebuilding,

we finished the season at a slightly disappointing 8-5. Some of those losses - Texas, Oklahoma St. - were expected, but others - Navy in the Texas Bowl, FUCKING BAYLOR (minus it's best player, I might add), IN COLUMBIA - are inexcusable. Point blank, period. The Nebraska game - also here in Columbia - is excusable because A) our QB was hobbled, B) you truly had to be here to appreciate how much of a nuisance the constant rain was, and C) their defense as a whole was greater than the sum of its parts, and was led by an All-Big 12, All-American, All-Fuckin Universe DT that will most likely be one of the top 2 picks in this year's NFL draft; make no mistake about it, "dominant" doesnt come close to describing homeboy's impact on the field, and we all got to see it that night up-close-and-personal. Blaine Gabbert is probably still having nightmares about that dude. For God's sake, his name literally translates

to "House of Spears." And after particularly scary performance that included a play on which he nearly decapitated one of our WR's, that sounds about right.

But also included in this season was a scintillating come-from-behind victory in the Border War showdown with KU at Arrowhead Stadium in KC, marking the 2nd time in 3 years that KU QB Todd Reesing's final play ended with him wearing turf from his own endzone as an asshat. That, coupled with the fact that the victory also gave KU its 7th defeat in as many games - meaning they would not be bowl-eligible and eventually bringing an end to the Mark-Mangina era - was enough to say that this season was at least on some level, a success. I, for one, am certainly excited about next year's potential.

- MU basketball is also experiencing a rebuilding year, but the learning curve wasn't nearly as steep as originally projected. There have been a couple of head-scratching losses - hello, Oral Roberts and Oklahoma - but there have been a couple of games we've won that the disparity in talent between us and them would have dictated otherwise, such as Texas and Kansas St. And outside of our worst 2nd half of the season costing us a close game against Texas A&M and the deflating-but-ultimately-not-surprising blowout at the hands of KU, Mizzou Arena once again proved to be a huge detriment to any teams coming in looking to beef up their own road game resumes. We shall certainly be back in the NCAA tournament for a 2nd straight year and with the bulk of our scoring output coming from underclassmen and a recruiting class ranked as high as #7 overall in some places coming in next year, MU basketball looks to be well on its way to becoming one of the conference's - and perhaps the nation's - elite.

- This past weekend held the Academy Awards. Big award shows tend to be hit-or-miss, but I thought it was pretty solid for the most part. The night was co-hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. In my book, Baldwin can pretty much do no wrong, but Martin was more or less the lead guy between them. Either way, they were pretty damn funny throughout and I kinda wish they had been allowed to speak more. The big winners of the night were The Hurt Locker for best picture and its directer - Kathryn Bigelow - for Best Director. B the w, she is the ex-wife of another heavy favorite for Best Director - James Cameron - who recently made this movie you may or may not have heard of. It's called Avatar, or something weird like that. Other newsworthy prizes went to Razzie award-winning (for worst lead actress) Sandra Bullock (I love her) for Best Lead Actress, Jeff "The Dude" Bridges for Best Lead Actor, and Mo'Nique - yup, THAT MONIQUE - for Best Supporting Actress, inducting her into the fraternity of African-Americans to have recently won Academy Awards with Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Halle Berry, and fucking Three-6-Mafia. (<--One of these things is not like the others)

With all due respect to Mo'Nique, I'm not sure many of us ever saw this happening until Precious (based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire!!!!!), a movie in which by all accounts, she gave a remarkably gripping performance. But, if one of you blogosphanatics had Mo'Nique as the next African-American to win an Oscar in your office pool, then chances are that you won against VERY large (no pun intended) odds, and the only thing left for you to do before you can retire is to go from house to house of your respective coworkers and collect on that dough, because dammit, you deserve it. Day or night doesn't matter, let's just get this money.

Anyways, I live blog-tweeted most of the entire Oscars affair, so if you're looking to peep game, go to http://twitter.com/MrWilliams88 and check me out. And for those of you who have twitter accounts, don't be a McAsshole and just go there this once and then NOT follow me. It's a dick move, and ya HATE to see it. But in the meantime, I think we've caught up on quite enough for today. Until next time, this is Sir Marcus T. Williams signing off....

Yall take care now.

Workin' for the Weekend... (part 2)

How goes it blogosphere? Sir Marcus here, back for part 2 (SCROLL DOWN FOR PART ONE).

So with my family having left for the weekend, it was time for me to settle down into something we've all been looking forward to since February: the beginning of pro football season. Not only am I a fan of the game, willing to watch just about anyone who's on TV, but fantasy football has given me a vested interest in most games that take place, whether it involves my favorite team or not. To date, I have five separate fantasy football teams, so I have players on most of the league's teams that I cheer for every week. Yes, it's stressful most of the time worrying about players in every single game, but at least this way, every game means something to me. Otherwise, games like yesterday's Ram/Seahawks showdown would be barely a blip on my gameday radar. 

Now, anyone who knows me knows how much I love football. But by the end of the night, NFL Opening Weekend took a backseat to something else that was going on that night: The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. I originally had no intentions on watching the VMA's this year, but by the end of the night, anyone who missed it had missed out on quite the shitshow. Now, let me clarify this: when I say it was a shitshow, I mean it in a sorta complimentary way. It certainly wasnt a shitshow in a bad sense like the BET Awards 09 were. The BET Awards 09 were pretty damn terrible, and embarrassing to watch for the most part (which, in a way, makes them a perfect microcosm of the entire BET network). The VMAs last night were a shitshow, but an entertaining one at least, running its viewers thru a gamut of emotions like elation, confusion, anger, sorrow, and at times - at least for me - sheer terror. I'll explain.

The host for the evening was Russell Brand, who was hosting for the 2nd year in a row, I believe. I'll go on record by saying that I like Brand. His comedy is definitely not for everyone, as his jokes take quite a bit of time to develop, but he seems like a genuinely cool guy to hang out with. I don't think he's necessarily funny as a stand-up comedian, but I think we can all agree that his work in Forgetting Sarah Marshall was pretty solid. Anyways, last night, he seemed like he wasn't totally there. Maybe he was on drugs or something or maybe I just don't see him on T.V. enough, but something seemed a little off last night. He seemed to have a much easier time making us all uncomfortable than he did making us laugh. He generally rambled quite a bit, and I honestly thought he was ad-libbing all of his monologues, which isn't always a good thing. Not his best effort, in my humble opinion. 

The night opened with a very nice dance tribute to Michael Jackson, as a group of dancers performed routines to a a handful of his hits, concluding with a heartfelt cameo appearance by Janet Jackson to perform their hit collabo "Scream." Even if you don't particularly care for all of his music, this was a great moment to watch. Good for you to be able to bounce back like that Janet, good for you. Once the sentimentalities were outta the way, the night really took off.

As for the actual awards, only a select few really matter, and with that being said, we go right to the story of the night: Kanye West's outrageous stunt. If you haven't seen it yet, then you, my friend have missed the boat. We all know that Kanye is eccentric and outspoken, therefore making him prone to incredibly sad and perplexing moments (ask Mike Myers and George Bush), but last night, he might have finally earned himself the type of negative publicity that even a superstar of his stature may not be able to overcome. What did he do? Well, the category for "Video of the Year" came up and in somewhat of an upset, Taylor Swift came out as the winner over people like Beyonce and Lady Gaga (who would also be heard from on this night). So Taylor goes onto stage to accept her award and is about 10 seconds or so into when Kanye crashes the stage, takes the mic, and though he attempts to give her her just due, he goes on to say that basically Beyonce got robbed and that her video was one of best videos OF ALL TIME. Needless to say, the crowd began to boo mercilessly. Now I admit, I laughed when I saw it, not because it was funny in a comical sense, but because it was just so surreal and so vintage Kanye West, that I had to laugh at just how uncomfortable everyone was. 

The only real way to explain the subsequent expression of Taylor Swift,

 Beyonce, and everyone who watched this is COMPLETE AND UTTER SHOCK. He probably could have dropped an N-bomb on live TV and gotten less astonishment in return. Now, for the record, I agreed with him that Beyonce's video was much better than Taylor Swift's, but that, IN NO WAY, excuses his behavior. Sadly, this type of behavior isn't exactly outta the ordinary for Kanye, but again, this one has been met with the biggest backlash. For the rest of the night, just the mention of his name garnered a chorus of boos, and rightfully so.

Even in defending his friend, Kanye proved that he isn't above going out of his way to make his voice heard and no matter how big or small the venue or the company in the room, no prop or personality in any given room can even compare to the size of his ego. No one here is questioning his talent and his impact on modern-day music, but this was absolutely the wrong forum to express his sentiments. To have the gall to do something like that, damn the consequences, speaks to someone whose ego simply cannot be placated enough. There was no reason to get on stage and steal Taylor's moment from her like that, especially since she's still a teenager who was experiencing her first moment in the glory of the VMA's. No, a VMA is not a Grammy award, but if she hasn't won one of those yet, they probably aren't far behind either. Rumors have it that she could be seen backstage broken down in tears by quite a few people, which obviously makes the story that much sadder. By all accounts, Taylor is an absolute sweetheart who was just happy to be there and mentioned in the same breath as the other people in her category, so when she won, it should have been a moment that she could treasure and keep forever. Well, from hence forth, she'll definitely remember the moment, but not for the right reasons. Just an absolutely astonishing lack of respect for the moment and the process shown by Mr. West. 

Kanye's power move set facebook and twitter afire with passionate music fans (ESPECIALLY those of Taylor Swift) and other celebrities calling for his head. Pink wrote "Kanye West is the biggest piece of shit on earth. Quote me" (Katy Perry also had something like that to say, but as she's beginning to find out, people care less and less by the day what she says, so her quote doesn't matter).  Many pop-culture bloggers and fans have gone as far as to say that they will never again contribute a dollar to any of his music or projects and they are no longer gonna even listen to any of his music. While I can't exactly co-sign those kinda rash statements, I certainly understand the general disgust people have towards his stunt. It was embarrassing to not only fans of his, but fans of music in general, and - considering that Lil Mama later did something similar - yes, black people as well. Yes, I said it, and I know I'm not the only African-American that feels that way, but that's another issue for another day. 

After Kanye's outburst (and subsequent removal from the building)

 though, there was plenty more to talk about from the VMA's. First of all, can we talk about

how truly bizarre an individual Lady Gaga is? PLEASE?!?!?!?!?!? I mean, the woman

 showed up to the red carpet with KERMIT THE FUCKING FROG as her date (though now that I think about it, that was weird, but still pretty awesome). Her performance was so incredibly eerie that I could not find the words to properly convey my thoughts on it. At one point, fake blood poured from her costume and she was then raised by rope to about 20 feet off the stage, where she ended the performance dangled above her backup dancers. I legitimately thought that maybe she was hanging herself for a hot second there. Throughout the evening, it seemed that she was somehow in a different outfit every time the camera caught glimpse of her. When she won the award for "Best New Artist," she came onstage wearing a see-through red dress, complete with a mask and what I'm gonna just refer to as an asshat . I never know what to really say when I see her. Hermaphrodite rumors aside, she is just THAT weird. That being said, I believe this must have been what it was like to see Madonna when she first hit the scene

 and if that's the case, then we may be seeing this woman become an icon right in front of us. Say what you will about her music, but you can't argue with her creativity and ability to make sure that no two performances of hers are the same. You're very creepy Gaga, but at least you're keeping things interesting.

The night also saw a flying trapeze performance by Pink, who deserves kudos just for being able to concentrate on singing whilst she flew all over the stage. During her set, I mentally prepared myself to see her fall from her rope and harness, but luckily, the fall never came. I don't think I could ever see something like that happen and just shake it off anyways. I would be terrified to ever watch anyone on a rope ever again. 

All night, folks had been wondering where Jay-Z was. When the time for his performance came, he did indeed show up, and he and Alicia Keys performed a very good rendition of their song "Empire State of Mind." However, the end of the song was ruined when Keys and Jay-Z struck a pose and then had their stage crashed by Lil Mama - Yes, THAT Lil Mama, the assclown from America's Best Dance Crew - who could not have possibly been invited to that stage. The look on Jay-Z's face said it all, as if you ever see the picture, you'll see that he - like the rest of us - had to have been disgusted. It's one thing for Kanye West to do this sorta thing, he's musically relevant. But Lil Mama hasn't been the least bit musically relevant since that damn "Lip Gloss" song came out like 3 or 4 years ago. Her music career isnt strong enough on its own to withstand the sorta backlash that she may have brought on herself. Did she think it would be funny? It wasn't. It was possibly as absurd as Kanye's stunt, but she won't be talked about as much because she doesn't matter. I've already used too many words on her. 

After that debacle, however, we got a moment that, at the very least, rivals the Janet Jackson moment from earlier in the show. When Beyonce won for "Female Video of the Year," instead of giving yet another monotonous, blah blah blah speech for an award that she's certainly got plenty of back at her home, she brought Taylor Swift to allow her to have her moment in the sun after all. If you weren't a Beyonce fan before that, then you certainly were when she did it, as it was the epitome of classy and gracious. This showing by Beyonce was as classy and touching as Kanye's was selfish and ridiculous. What a truly poignant moment. 

And that, my friends, wraps up my take on the 2009 VMA's. There were many ups and downs, but it was very entertaining and at the end of the day, that's all we can really ask. Kanye West may end up coming to regret the timing of his outburst, but at least it's provided us with something to talk about for years to come. Until next time, this is Sir Marcus T. Williams signing off... Yall take care now.