Secretly pulling for the Avengers. Am I the only one?

Well it's almost summer and you know what that means....summer blockbuster movies!!!  Yay!!!  First up this year is Marvel's The Avengers.  This one has plenty of star power with the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlette Johansson amongst others.  The budget also was through the roof.  It costed a whopping $260 millon to make.  It is projected to be one of the highest grossing movies of the year.

But lurking in July is the juggernaut.  The one everyone, including me, has been waiting on.  The Dark Knight Rises.  After the success of The Dark Knight, including a riveting academy award winning performance by Heath Ledger, expectations are that DKR will smash all other movies in 2012.  I can't lie I want to see it.  I'll probably be one of those people standing in line at some unGodly hour to get good seats in the IMAX theater.  I STILL HOPE AVENGERS KICKS THE HELL OUT OF IT THOUGH. Like anything that becomes big too many all of a sudden, Nazi, know it all, Batman douche bags have come out of the woodworks.  I'm not sure where these people were when Joel Schumacher was destroying the last Batman franchise but they're here now and they are unbearable.  So seeing as how awesome the Avengers trailor was and how awful the new Batman fans are I've decided that I'm now pulling for the Avengers.  The Dark Knight Rises will undoubtedly smash the HELL out of Avengers but hey I'm just telling you where I stand.

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We've been without Rose all year

Once again.  Black nerd.  Me.  I'm it.  But let's go one step further.  I'm a Black nerd from the Midwest (Northwest Indiana).  We Hoosiers from the northwestern tip of the boot are Bulls fans.  That said, with the NBA playoffs in full swing, the Chicago Bulls have lost their superstar point guard Derrick Rose for the remainder of the playoffs.  Saturday night while facing the Philadelphia 76ers Rose jumped and when he landed  suffered a torn ACL.

Seeing as how Rose is clearly the best player and the leader of the team, the pundits and analysts have pronounced the Bulls dead.  I think not.  Let's examine things. The Bulls played 27 games without Derrick Rose this past season due to his assorted injuries.  Of those 27 games they won 18 games including a win against the Miami Heat (the favorite to win the Eastern Conference).  In fact shortly after Rose's return they faced the Heat and Rose only scored 2 points.  So I don't think it would be....prudent to count the team with the best regular season record out because of Rose's absence.  This has all the makings of a tortoise and the hare kind of story.  We all know what happened to the hare.

Hoodies for Trayvon

Even though it's starting to feel kinda like a fad, I really dig the whole wearing your hoodie in support of Trayvon thing.  We discussed Trayvon a couple posts ago and if you don't know Trayvon Martin was gunned down by an armed security guard in Florida earlier this month.  But since that time ,mostly on social media sites, many people have flooded the internet with images of them with their hoodies on in support of justice for Trayvon.  As of today George Zimmerman still hasn't been arrested.  The reason for the hoodies is that is what Trayvon was wearing that made him look so "suspicious".  I've seen people go as far as to not only take photos with their hoodie on but also add skittles and iced tea (Skittles and iced tea were what Trayvon purchased from the store shortly before he was killed).

I haven't gone as far as to take and post my own picture with a hoodie but I do share the sentiment.  Justice for Trayvon.  I wonder do I look suspicious when I wear mine.

Nerds and Twitter Don't Mix

I'm a Black Nerd.  I'm not sure how I stack up when compared to nerds of other ethnic backgrounds.  That said admittedly I'm new to Twitter.  Let's stack more on top of that.  I don't really know what all the hoopla is for regular people like myself.  We all follow a bunch of celebrities that don't know us and don't follow us with a few friends sprinkled in.  What is this craziness?  Do we REALLY care what's happening in the deepest recesses of Kim Kardashian's mind?  Do we REALLY care how Andersen Cooper feels about his new toothbrush?  I can safely say I don't.  I can also safely say you shouldn't.  If you're using Twitter to past the time between flights at the Flagstaff Airport, fine.  However I feel people that indulge too far in the life of celebrities are a sad sight.

Don't mean to be "hipster-like" and hate everything but....Twitter is a useful tool so that local celebrities, nobodies, and C-list actors/actresses get to feel like royalty.  Lonely 35 year old men will tune in to take heed to their every move and read their every thought.  I don't know that I care enough to obsess over Twitter.  No thanx.

Ok.  Check this out.  Movies I'm looking forward to.

American Reunion
The Dark Knight Rises
Three Stooges
The Avengers
M.I.B. 3

....and here's some wishful thinking on that whole Ghostbuster 3 thing.

I've mentioned before the magnitude of the word Black as it pertains to race.  So, here is a tragic story out of Florida about a 17 year old Black kid named Trayvon Martin who a was murdered.  It was reported to police by armed neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman because he was "suspicious".   Zimmerman was apparently told NOT to pursue Martin but he did anyway.  An altercation ensued and it ended with Martin being fatally shot.  The best part of this story is that Zimmerman to this day hasn't been arrested.  This incident happened three weeks ago.

I try not to play the race card in places where it doesn't fit.  I won't play it here.  I'm not saying that there isn't a place for it here (although Zimmerman did feel compelled to tell the 911 operated that Martin was a Black man).  I know all about Florida's "stand you ground" law.  But let's do some simple math on this one since I am in fact a Black nerd.

1 Black man dead
plus
1 good intentioned, still unarrested killer
plus
stand your ground law validating said killer
equals
1 Young Black Man Still DEAD with the killer unarrested.  "Where they do dat at?"

This is a message from the love of my life Jasmine.  As the boyfriend of a Black Nerd I thought I'd shed light on NSBE.  Enjoy.

National Society of Black Engineers

 The national society of black nerds...oh I meant The National Society of Black Engineers is an nonprofit organization whose mission statement is “To increase the number of black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally, and positively impact the community.” This organization is one of the largest student run organizations in the world. My girlfriend (president of the sfsu NSBE chapter) partakes in events to encourage children and adolescents to get involved in STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) related fields; an area historically known to have low minority participants.   I personally come from an area predominately made of African Americans. It refreshing to see such a large scale group of people using any tools they can to uplift and encourage a community to seek opportunities outside of the “normal” realm.

SpilldotCon

In my journeys online last year I was searching for a movie review.  I decided during that time that I was really tired of spending my hard earned money on movies that SU.....were sub par.  That said I came across a review on YouTube done by members of a website called spill.com.  I don't remember what movie it was for but I really enjoyed the review.  I especially enjoyed how the reviewers didn't have an air of being "movie snobs".  It seemed more like a review done in a frat house.  I have been a fan of the site since that time.

I did a little research and the site was created by an animator named Korey Coleman, a Black man.  Imagine my surprise!  Every year the members of the "spill crew" host a convention in Austin called SpilldotCon.  This year I have to attend.  I invite all of my Black Nerd friends to check out the website and look into Spillcon.

http://spill.com/

http://www.spill.com/fest/

High Definition Video Clip

Who you wit'?-Floyd Mayweather's comments on Jeremy Lin

Black Nerd.  The second word, nerd, speaks of a group that is considered to be socially awkward, maybe intelligent, perhaps a little funny looking.  The first word, Black, is quite a bit heavier.  There's a long, sometimes ugly, history that goes along with it.  That is what we're talking about today children.  Race.  If the topic of race makes you uncomfortable now would be a good time to hit the eject button.  Good day.

On February 14th Floyd Mayweather tweeted:

"Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise."

Now that said, what do you think?  Is Floyd wrong?  Is he out of line?  Is he correct but just in bad taste?

Let's first of all give Mayweather credit where it's due.  He prefaced all of this by saying that Lin was a good player.  So all that nonsense about him discrediting Lin as a player is bologna.  Here's the thing:  There are Black players that get it done day in and day out.  Why aren't they as touted as Lin?  I've heard that it's the size of the New York media market that makes it such an intriguing story.  Bull. The size of the market hasn't changed in God knows how long.  Also the fact that Lin comes out of Harvard, which is not historically known for churning out elite basketball players, is what makes this story.  There have been countless Black players that didn't even go to college that have been productive in the NBA.  Still not buying it.  The last thing is Jeremy Lin makes the New York Knicks relevant again.  How do we call the Knick relevant again with such a small sample size?

Let's all turn around and face our psychological doom...Jeremy Lin is a novelty, is a story, is interesting because he is an Asian-American ballin' out in the NBA!  There I said it!  Yes he has broken records for his production in his first few starts but that's just barely interesting at all.  If anyone else does it, perhaps a Black man, we would barely notice. 

Floyd Mayweather has done and said some reprehensible things in his decade plus in the public eye.  Some of his statements have bordered on racist and/or maniacal.  Not this time.  This time ,like every other time he opens his mouth, is a hard pill for the main stream to swallow.  But unlike most of those other times....he's right.

Channeling my inner Poe-My new short story

I'm honing my writing skills these days.  Tell me do you think I have snowballs chance in HELL at making a splash as a fictional writer?

Look at him.  Dead.  Those lights that he used so that oncoming traffic could see him are still on.  They're still doing their job long after it matters.  He never saw the car and conversely the car never saw him.  As the bus where I had seen him a million times before pulls around the scene of the accident I can't help but wonder what went so terribly wrong on this foggy and damp morning.

I've seen this guy maybe 100 times prior to today in this very neighborhood, and the surrounding neighborhoods, always riding that bike.  Most of the time when I had seen him though it was right here on the number 44 bus, at this same stop, always at 4:33 AM.  He would always fasten his bike down on the rack in front of the bus then get on the bus with a bag.  That's over with now because he is gone.  His life was snuffed out by a 1984 Chysler Lebaron, smoke gray.  I often wondered when I used to see him what his deal was.  He seemed to be a nice enough guy.  He was middle aged, south Pacific islander descent, maybe Asian.  He was always really friendly with the bus driver.  He was always wearing sweatpants, a helmet, and lights.  OH I CAN'T FORGET ABOUT THOSE GOOFY ASS LIGHTS!  I almost expected him to one day try to convince me that visitors from outer space were going to land on the Golden Gate Bridge and mate with our women.  But he never spoke to me.  Not even once.  We exchanged a friendly nod or two but that's it.  

Some months went by and I became less and less curious about him and the circumstances surrounding his demise.  The demands of my own life had filed away my naturally inquisitive nature.  This particular morning I found myself alone with the bus driver.  We exchanged pleasantries and made small talk when we came to the subject of what happened to that nice fellow with the bicycle who used to ride this bus.  We went through the usual "damn shames" and "too youngs".  Then after a brief moment of silence the bus driver admitted to me that he knew the guy quite well.  His eyes became glassy with tears.  He had actually spent some time with him and had gotten to know he and his family outside of this bus.  After the accident he had an opportunity to talk with some members of the man's family.  I don't know why he felt compelled to tell me all this seeing as how I didn't know the guy at all.  But I still listened.  Maybe I was just being nosey.  Scratch that... I absolutely was just being nosey but I couldn't bring myself to stop him.  

The bus driver told me:  "He and his wife of 17 years had a big blowout that morning.  She wanted to leave him for another woman.  Things got out of hand.  A little physical even.  Before it could escalate further he got out of there.  Quickly.  The last thing his wife saw of him was him blazing down his street on his bicycle, then disappearing into the fog."

The bus driver, in full tears now, says to me he understands why the car might not have seen him but why he didn't see the car he couldn't understand.  The guy is usually so damn careful on that bike.  The bus driver collects himself and is decidedly quiet for the remainder of the trip and so was I.  Though this was a sad set of affairs my life must go on.  I use the time to look out the window and reflect.  It's really dangerous riding your bicycle in the dark with tears in your eyes.

I'm the Black Steven King (hopefully better looking though).

Inaugural Post

My girlfriend Jasmine is a Black nerd like me though not the exact same kind.  You see in Black nerdism all members have a focus.  There are Star Wars nerds, Star Trek nerds, sports nerds, politics nerds, so on and so forth.  It's very similar to having a major in college.  I, on one hand, am a food, sports, and movie nerd.  She is an engineering nerd which is arguably the nerdiest of the nerdy.  She always wants to explain to me how something works or how it is constructed.  I have had more conversations about bridges, tunnels, and construction than I would ever care to admit.  But I digress.  The point is Jasmine is a very important part of my life and I want to dedicate this inaugural post to something I'm sure she would appreciate.  Math.  I first heard this story on This American Life.

This story starts with something people generally don't find that interesting:  prime numbers.  Prime numbers are numbers that are only divisible by themselves (3, 5, 7, 11).  Uclid theorized that there were an infinite amount of prime numbers but he gave no formula to support his theory.  Marin Mersenne, a French monk from the early 17th century, had a formula that he thought could predict prime numbers.  One of the prime numbers derived from his formula was 2 to the 67th power minus 1.  It eventually became known as Mersennes number and was embraced by the mathematics community as true.  Fast forward 250 years to 1903, an American mathematician named Frank Nelson Cole attended a meeting of the American Mathematical Society.  He is scheduled to do a presentation on the "factorization of large numbers" but what actually happened was a lot cooler than that.

For you Lovely.