Just to let my subscribers know, the post by Jay Smooove went out about 10 times from some strange reason. WordPress created new way of creating new posts and it seems that every time the draft was saved, a new post was created.
I’m not sure if the problem has been resolved, but I’m posting the old fashion way again and things seem to be working well.
So sorry for what seemed like spam, but hopefully everything is fixed on the WordPress end.
CSD
Sometimes comments get overlooked, but Jay Smoooove shared this classic story that deserves a blog post on its own!
Jay commented on the CornerstoneDad Back-In-The-Day Video of the Day post, and if you missed it, read more after the jump.
Do you have a similar story to share, let us know. As our parents always said,
– “Boy, we broke the stick you trying to walk on.”
– “If it’s been done, I’ve already done it.”
– “I’ve written the book on what you’re trying to get away with.”
Yes, stories like this add validity to those classic statements…
Thanks again Jay!
“Parents Just Don’t Understand” is the second single from DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s second album, He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper.
Lyrics excerpt:
Oh-kay, here’s the situation
My parents went away on a week’s vacation and
They left the keys to the brand new Porsche
Would they mind?
Umm, well, of course not
I’ll just take it for a little spin
And maybe show it off to a couple of friends
I’ll just cruise it around the neighborhood
Well, maybe I shouldn’t
Yeah, of course I should
When the cop pulled me over I was scared as hell
I said, “I don’t have a license but I drive very well.
My story, of course, isn’t nearly as good as Will Smith’s version. After all, his song won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance in 1989, and was one of only two songs to ever do so before the award was discontinued in 1991.
The parallels end somewhere around the part where our parents left town. Obviously, I didn’t take the keys to the Porsche, or the New Yorker sitting in the garage. I took the keys to the 1986 Dodge 400. I must admit, I was grip’in-the-grain rolling down the Lodge Freeway in my Mom’s ride. That was day one.
I had a little paper in my pocket, so the second day, I bounced to the mall.
The third day was my girlfriend M&M’s birthday. Need. I. Say. More!
You know I had to do it. I washed the ride, Armour-all’d the tires, put on my new threads, and dipped. I pulled up like the party was mine; Strolled into the joint like I was Mayor Coleman Young; Kissed my girl and gave her her gift; Paid my respects to her Mom; Dropped some mackish lines to a couple of girls I didn’t even know; Showed my cousin AJ some love. Then bounced like a true playa.
[Note: An automobile’s power to transform boys to men still amazes me to this day. I understand it, and I can appreciate it. So when I see vintage cars with 20” rims and candy colors, it’s cool. Until I see that the driver is over 40 – then it’s not.]
The fourth day was total recall. Now I had to undo everything I had done. The car was dusty before, now it’s clean. The car was full of gas, now it’s empty. Logic says wash off the Armorall, take the car for a ride through the hood to build up some dust, and finally get some gas on the way home. The problem with every good plan is that things don’t always work out, especially when you get greedy.
I’d gone three days of driving, with no license, with no drama, with no damage. But that wasn’t enough. I had to go downtown. And then the car overheated. I eventually made it back home, but my Aunt was waiting. I was busted. But my Aunt was cool, she didn’t tell. She didn’t have to. Apparently, when the car overheated it burned out the coils. So when Mom tried to go to work the next day, the car didn’t start.
My Mom still tells that story to this day, better than I ever could. How did it end, you may ask? Well let me finish with the last few lyrics from the song:
My parents walked in
I got my grip, I said, “Ah, Mom, Dad, how was your trip?”
They didn’t speak
I said, “I want to plead my case”
But my father just shoved me in his car by my face
That was a hard ride home, I don’t know how I survived
They took turns –
One would beat me while the other one was driving.
I don’t feel old physically, well at least most of the time.
But every now and then I stumble across a video or song that makes me say, “Man, that song was out that long ago?”
Well, watching this video and hearing this song again definitely made me make that statement and it’s still one of my favorites to this day.
This was back before Busta Rhymes went all, well…Busta Rhymes on us and hip-hop was truly real. Can you imagine a rapper rhyming about how they don’t have a car these days? If anything, they rap more about the cars they don’t have, and have been doing so since the late ’90’s.
Do you remember this jam by the Leaders Of the New School? If so, what’s your favorite memory when this song was out and what were you driving?
I was bouncing my old ’79 Cutlass with a 305ci. out of a ’75 Nova that me and my friends dropped in. We thought we were the baddest around as my cousin and I popped a Holley dual-feed carb on top of a stock motor (insert laugh track there). The Delco radio in the Cutty was one of the best I’ve ever had, but the car itself had rust so bad, you could see the back wheel spinning if you pulled up the corner of the back seat! But believe it or not, the Cut-Dog lasted a few more owners as my dad took it off my hands and later one of my other boys would be the proud owner.
My oldest son and I had some good times cruising in that car, but it would get even better as The Stang would soon follow.
Now that’s my “Sobb Story”…what’s yours?
CSD
A friend of mine shot this story to me on TO, or Terrell Owens, or ah, I don’t know…
I just know he’s the guy that dropped the classic line, “I love me some me!” and had the great pom-pom end zone celebration that seemed much less rehearsed than the weak Sharpie-in-the-sock celebration pulled in Seattle in 2002.
Yes, it’s been that long. Hard to believe, but the San Francisco 49ers finally eclipsed the success they had when TO was there this season, as he departed the team in 2003. Back in 1999, there was Terrell Owens, a receiver that looked like he could re-write the record books and quite honestly, he eased the pain of Jerry Rice leaving for 49er fans as his talent seemed limitless. He was in perfect shape, 6’3 220+lbs, with deep-speed where DB’s could hang with him from 0-40 yards but post-40, “bye-bye”.
But then TO was born.
Obviously TO had a lot of fun. The article states that the he earned over $80,000,000 (1). That number is not a typo. However, now Terrell Owens finds himself “broke” (dude’s apartment is still the size of my house plus he’s in L.A., and I have 6 people with me) after suffering a knee injury without a contract, at 38-years old, with big child-support payments. Turns out that TO made a ton of bad business investments and even blames agent Drew Rosenhaus for not protecting him. Over the years, TO has always blamed a lot of people for a lot of things. I just watch the ESPN-tabloid so I don’t know what’s true.
But who’s to blame for this four kids by different mothers? The article states,
Now he is in court with all four women, whom he lumps together like one big bloodsucking blob. None of them are being fair, he says: “They know I’m not working; they know the deal.” Although he never established regular visitation with any of the children through the courts, he says he sees the eldest three as much as he can when their mothers allow it. So bitter is his relationship with the mother of the youngest child, a son, that he has never met the boy. (1)
Now, before I continue on, you may ask, “Who am I to judge?” Well, I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to seek a child support reduction, have a tenuous relationship with my son’s mother and fight for visitation. I didn’t make $80 million dollars, I was making a few hundred dollars every two weeks, worried about the lights getting shut-off, and had to take out a zillion dollars in student loans just to go back to school and re-invent myself because I didn’t want my son working side-by-side with me when he turned 16 years old. So yes, I’ve been there TO.
But TO, you need to start fighting to see your kids, and not just “when their mothers allow it” and you need to find a way to be a dad to the youngest you are yet to meet.
Any other single-dad that’s reading this, let me tell you that you fight. You continue to fight. You never stop fighting. Amazing that a fool is willing to fight and kill over stepping on his Jordans, but will hide like a mouse from our own children. This is not because we don’t care, but because we’re scared.
Scared of confrontation.
Scared of our own emotions and how they make us vulnerable.
Scared of losing because we are not in control of the situation.
But you call yourself “Hard”?
How well do you fight your inner-TO?
I often hear Terrell Owens speak of his grandmother and the impact she had on his life. However, I’ve never heard him really talking about his father. Perhaps it was because he didn’t meet his dad until he was 11 years old (2). In a 2004 Sports Illustrated article, we discover,
“At age 11 Terrell developed a crush on a girl across the street and began sneaking over to flirt with her–until her father told him that he could not “be interested in her” because she was his half-sister. “It took me a while to understand that I was talking to my father,” Owens writes. When he asked his mother why she’d never told him that his father lived across the street, she said that “it wasn’t necessary to explain everything to me.”
TO asks for no sympathy because nothing in his experience has given him reason to expect any. But he is entitled to it just the same, and his critics who read this book might want to lay off him for a while. It’s not hard to understand why a man deprived of his father, deprived of his childhood, deprived of the words I love you, would develop a tendency to call attention to himself when he succeeds.”
That was Terrell Owens talking right there. A man making himself vulnerable. But TO takes over when that same man, who knows what it’s like to grow up with a father so close yet so far, turns around and continues the same cycle with his children.
If a good man is hard to find, then the impact of a bad father is even harder to get rid of.
Just as Terrell’s dad was right across the street, TO’s image will be just as close for his children as daddy is just one ESPN click, internet page, and reality show away from them.
For what it’s worth, and not because I’m a 49er fan, I think I’d like Terrell Owens if I met him in person and we hung out. He seems like a guy that I’d get along with and I’d certainly love to hit the steel with him. But it’s TO that I couldn’t roll with, and if the article is true, I don’t think Terrell even wants to roll with TO any longer. Therefore, I hope Terrell steps back up and becomes the man and the father he’s supposed to be to his kids.
Perhaps you’re a single dad or soon-to-be divorced dad and you’re having a hard time dealing with visitation. Don’t stop fighting to see them and having a relationship with your child(ren). It’s not about you and the mom any longer, so don’t let that relationship hinder you.
It’s not always easy, it’s not always fun, but when you look back and know that you fought for something worth for more than $80 million, then you have reason to celebrate like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPmOrcbq1fs&feature=related
Remember, you only have one shot at this, so do it right.
CSD
(1) Jeff Arnold, Terrell Owens In GQ: I’m In Hell, http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201201/terrell-owens-gq-jeremiah-trotter-told-me-not-apologize-donovan-mcnabb, January 2012
(2) Charles Hirshberg, Sympathy For The Showboat, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1113703/index.htm, 2004
You know, one day I’ll do a podcast or article on some of the racist things done at some of my schools when I was growing up.
The worst by far was the Slave-Trade that my high school put on to raise money by auctioning off athletes.
Oh wait, shout out to the NFL and NBA who still do that…
Image from: http://brotherdoc.blogspot.com/
Image from: http://brotherdoc.blogspot.com/
But you know, I can honestly say I’ve never had to take a test like this.
Beaver Ridge Elementary parents held a protest outside their Norcross school Tuesday after a lesson on Frederick Douglass prompted third-grade teachers to use slave beatings to teach math concepts.
Channel 2 Action NewsOne of the questions on the worksheet. A school spokesperson has said the questions were “poorly written.”
Another question on the worksheet. Several parents have complained about the assignment.
Channel 2 Action NewsSchool officials said that the questions stemmed from an effort to incorporate history into math lessons.
About 60 parents, community activists and church leaders assembled outside the school. A few carried signs that read: “Shame on them” and “The teachers need to be fired.” Some drivers passing by the demonstration honked to show support.
Parent Christopher Braxton, who complained to the district about the slave math questions, said his son’s class was being led by a substitute teacher for the second day in a row as the investigation into the incident continues.
Braxton said Beaver Ridge Principal Jose DeJesus would not elaborate on the status of the probe or his son’s teacher.
“They apologized for the situation and said they could not speak about it further until they finish the investigation,” Braxton said.
Four of the school’s third-grade classrooms received the assignment, which made references to slaves picking oranges and filling baskets with cotton. It also included the question: “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”
This is the second time in two years race and ethnicity on a homework assignment sparked complaints at Gwinnett Schools. There was a similar incident in Cobb Schools last fall.
Last school year, third-graders at Gwinnett’s Chesney Elementary were given a reading homework packet that included a story titled “What Is an Illegal Alien?” The assignment, which was copied from the Internet by a new teacher, was not reviewed by the school’s subject area department chair before it was distributed. The math sheet created at Beaver Ridge also failed to undergo a content review, officials said. Under district policy, the worksheet should have been reviewed before being handed out to students, but that process was not followed.
In September, Cobb Schools came under fire for a similar incident, an assignment by a teacher at Campbell Middle School. Students were asked to write on the issue of dress codes and read a fictional two-page letter written by a 20-year-old Saudi Arabian woman. The character wrote approvingly of wearing the Islamic veil — and of her fiance’s multiple wives and the law of Sharia.
Gwinnett Schools human resources officials are investigating the Beaver Ridge incident to decide whether punitive action is necessary. District officials said they would work with math teachers to come up with more appropriate questions.
“These particular questions were an attempt at incorporating some of what students had been discussing in social studies with their math activity,” said Sloan Roach, Gwinnett Schools spokeswoman. “One teacher developed the questions, another made the copies and it was used in four classes.”
Ed DuBose, Georgia NAACP president, had a strong view: “The teachers, the staff responsible for allowing this to go forward should be fired.”
DuBose called off a press conference Tuesday and met with Gwinnett superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks.
One of the teachers involved in the incident is Hispanic, Braxton said. The district would not release the teachers’ names or races. All involved are being questioned about their role and are still employed with the district, Roach said.
School officials said the questions were not intended to be offensive and that copies of the assignment were being pulled so they wouldn’t be circulated.
Copy and paste the link to check out the video of the story:
http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/parents-protest-at-school-1296640.html
Well folks, see anything you like?
What’s your favorite?
Look for more tomorrow!
So folks, what do you think?
Click on the link to view and feel free to leave your comments below.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/woman-kills-intruder-breaking-home-15286257
Washington Watch with Roland Martin taped a couple of shows dealing with fatherhood. The meetings were hosted by T.D. Jakes and while I may disagree with T.D. Jakes theologically, he makes many good points on fatherhood and parenting in general.
Some of the topics/questions covered are:
Are men to “sissified” in society?
Will a decrease in dad’s presence mean an increase in promiscuity for girls?
Can a woman teach a boy how to be a man?
If you don’t have any children, can you be a father-figure to someone who does not have a father in their life?
Give the show a watch and let us know what your thoughts are on the subject. If you have a story that you want to share, please share or email me at cornerstonedad@gmail.com as I’d love to hear from you.
Click on the link below to check out the show.
http://www.rolandsmartin.com/podcast/?powerpress_embed=1078-podcast&powerpress_player=html5video
Dads, have you made that New Year’s Resolution yet? Whether you have or have not, check out the tips at All-Pro Dad titled:
Our Classic 10 Ways to be an All Pro Dad http://www.allprodad.com/top10/parenting/our-classic-10-ways-to-be-an-all-pro-dad/
You can find details at the link above, but here’s a peek at the list:
1.) Love your wife
2.) Spend time with your kids
3.) Be a role model
4.) Understand and enjoy your children
5.) Show affection
6.) Secure your family’s financial future
7.) Eat together as a family
8.) Discipline with a gentle spirit
9.) Pray and worship together
10.) Realize you are a father forever
If you have any other good ideas of goals for dad’s or would like to just share some that you have, let us know in the comments section!
Make 2012 the year you become the dad that you want to be and the year you help make your sons and daughters the men and women that they are to be.
Christmas has come and gone and I find myself with the latest and greatest in technology: The Xbox Kinect. My kids have wanted one for a while and I wasn’t too keen on having a camera in the house but didn’t look into it much since our house was too small. Well, now the living room is big enough and while the gift cards were being cashed in on the ultimate spy camera, below is what I found online by others that shared my concern.
If anyone here has it, I’d like to know what you think. I’m not saying that Big Brother is watching yet, but I know that the goal is always to collect more data than you need today, because you or someone else will need it in the future for the right price.
Check out some of the links below if you’re not up on the spy cam urrrr….technology.
http://123kinect.com/kinect-privacy-debate/6408/
“In my view, the privacy debate is not new. Kinect is, and it is a perfect opportunity to discuss what our privacy boundaries are as it offers unique capabilities that other devices in our house do not offer. For those afraid of Kinect and it’s privacy invasion capabilities, I’ve got the following advice: the best solution would be to never ever buy it. Another way of surely preventing people from outside of your living room picking up on things you do in your living room (and a little less restrictive) via Kinect, may be to disconnect your Xbox 360 from the Internet when you play with Kinect so it cannot send out the pictures.”
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/15/micr … ht-tailor/
“Microsoft’s Dennis Durkin voiced an interesting idea at an investment summit last week — the idea that the company’s Kinect camera might pass data to advertisers about the way you look, play and speak. “We can cater what content gets presented to you based on who you are,” he told investors, suggesting that the Kinect offered business opportunities that weren’t possible “in a controller-based world.”
http://internetsafety.trendmicro.com/yo … box-kinect
“While the games are fairly intuitive while in play, we did not find navigating the settings and menu options as easy. After some guessing and fumbling with how to scroll through the menu items (there is no search capability to quickly find privacy settings, e.g.), we finally found the privacy settings and discovered that the default was for the videos and images to be shared on Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online gaming service that allows you to play games against other members in its online community. So we immediately set up blocking on all of it. The games still continue to capture the images of you playing the game, but in our case, it isn’t being shared anywhere.”
http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/14/more-k … eo-effect/
In fairness, here’s Xbox’s FAQ on the issue: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/kinect/privacyandonlinesafety
http://kotaku.com/5681521/microsoft-say … ur-privacy
http://www.geekwire.com/2011/microsoft- … l-controls
“That’s the idea floated by Microsoft in a patent filing made public this week, proposing to use a 3D depth camera (such as the one in its Kinect sensor for Xbox 360) to digitally measure the proportions of a person’s body and estimate age based on the data, such as head width to shoulder width, and torso length to overall height. The system could then automatically restrict access to television shows, movies and video games accordingly, using ratings for each type of content.”
That’s all for now!
“…our little procession of life! The little child says, ‘When I’m a big boy’, but what is that? The big boy says, ‘When I grow up.’ And then, grown up, he says, ‘When I get married.’ But to be married, what is that after all? The thought changes to, ‘When I’m able to retire.’ And then, when retirement comes, he looks back over the landscape traversed; a cold wind seems to sweep over it; somehow he has missed it all, and it is gone. Life, we learn too late, is in the living, in the tissue of every day and hour.”
– by Stephen Leacock
The only really time I enjoy the area we live in is, you guessed it, summer time! There’s a cruise nearly every weekend and the Tribe knows the routine: Grab the food, folding chairs, and camera.
Right now, it’s the only way I survive the minivan years…by hoping that one day, I can pile the Tribe (or at least some of them) in my muscle car (defined by the era, not the category) or Stang and cruise down the street as well.
But until then, here are some photos of some of the better rides from the sidelines, as CornerstoneDad’s lens saw them:
Furious Fathering 