"Knibb High Football Rules"

The only reason I watch debates is, firstly, entertainment. Second, I need to see what the public is seeing and what public opinion is on things and, mostly, because I can be critical for people's thought on politics and issues. I only like that Trump had changed the debate towards a direction where the other candidates had to veer off-script on ad-lib to things they had not rehearsed or practiced with focus groups, etc.

So aside from Marco Rubio poorly execute coming off extemporaneously, he (which Chris Christie jumped on as well) changed the dynamics in a way where now any attack towards him or any GOP candidates about fact checks and obvious lies or hypocrisies will be attributed to that conservative, Republican angle which they always pull out and got the most applause which is the "liberal media" which he called the "Democrats' Super-PAC."

This will make the Republicans even more obnoxious and dangerous than the last batch.

OUTATIME

Yesterday, as I looked at our local newspaper, I saw that they were referencing the date with Back to the Future. Knowing our level of journalism our local paper does, I paid little attention to it. First off, I'm just annoyed at how pop-culture is all over the place these days. There was a time where referencing movies and shows was done between few people. Enough that films like Mallrats and Clerks resonated with me and my friends and when "Family Guy" premiered, my co-workers told me that show reminded them of me. Now it's everywhere and in an annoying and unclever way. Like people will make a reference, then say, "that was a [insert reference's reference] reference." Our local paper being no different from that annoyance, this type of annoying article is done on a quite regular basis.

So I was surprised to see that the "Daily Show" and "the Nightly Show" had both made big deals about it. The Nerdist had already done a report about this earlier in the year - with hoverboards and not sure what else. But someone at USA Today dropped the ball on this one. Anyone else could be excused for this but as far as marketing goes - understanding popular culture and taking advantage of that and exploiting things to any level to advance your product - especially in the highly competitive market of journalism - they should've been on this and making the big deal of it. So why, the day after, do they put out the cover that was in Back to the Future II? Someone, late at night or at the very least, the early afternoon probably noticed it or recognized this fact and acted on it. So today, we have this collector's item...with today's date: October 22, 2015.

Anyway, added to my fury over idiocy which derives from selfishness, complecency, and people's misuse of technology (meaning for every other purpose than for being a fountainhead of information on virtually any subject) is my ongoing frustration with bicycling in a city which refuses to educate itself for their own betterment. I will not even go into the surface-street situation here but just the bike trail. Now, riding a bike on the bike path in my neighborhood I automatically stayed to the right; just because it was how things were set up - not just for the streets but also hallways in school and high-traffic events at stadiums, arenas, etc. It just gave order and allowed things to flow well.

Today we have people who are not able to think rationally. People, during summer time high-traffic on the trail, even as several bicyclists and walkers and runners are passing at varying speeds, they still merge onto the trail without looking - not even glancing. The northbound Keystone trail next to 24 Hour Fitness (a breeding ground for idiots - look at all the dumbass driving going in and out of that place) there is a tree right at the entrance to the trail there and many times I slow because I know they cannot see oncoming traffic, yet they have no problem just darting out head-first into said traffic and yelp as they almost get hit. What the fuck were they expecting?! And this idiocy increases as the weather cools down into fall and winter since -even more so- they do not expect people to be out and about. Which is no excuse, one still should be keeping a steady path. That's why it is enforced in safe driving classes how you hold a steady path and why one should not change speeds approaching merge lanes because other vehicles are judging merging based on current, existing speeds; speeding up or slowing down ruins the flow and thus leads to back-ups and accidents.

So why do people on the trail when you are passing and announce, "Passing on your left!" do they jump and go to their left or more to the right. You are just announcing your presence. Obviously one who announces it is watching you so your moving makes it more dangerous. Just stay to the right and do not be these idiots who fucking meander throughout the path - EVEN DURING THE SUMMER SEASON!!!

When I started swimming I read about pool etiquette just to be aware when I go to a pool and know what to expect and how to not make things fuck up. This is where part of my "people's misuse of technology" gets me. People use their GD devices for everything except things that are beneficial like looking up addresses AHEAD OF TIME and maybe reading about bicycling (and all bicyclists, btw, should do this as well because we have no shortage of morons there) and trail etiquette. I learned, again when I was a kid, if there are NO SIDEWALKS OR LANES that one should run against traffic because most drivers do not look for runners. I again looked this up as I have started running as well. So on something like, say, the Keystone trail, why the fuck does it make sense for people to run on the right side of the path (their left side)? Even if it did make sense to them that one runs on the right, one has to know bicyclists do not have any reason to ride on the left aside from passing or very small other circumstances such as turning left from a one way street. Knowing that, how does a path flow efficiently if bikes rode on the same side as opposing running-traffic? No sense. And why the hell do these stupid-ass business people walking to lunch (because they have learned recently that walking is good and healthy and can be fun and relaxing) take up the sidewalk like they're filming the beginning to Reservoir Dogs? Aside from those assheads, people who just are walking or running on the path, how do they think that taking up the entire path makes sense? They aren't thinking - except for themselves. And these idiots that walk to their left side of the path, they do not even see how dangerous (even though directions are marked there) it is to round a blind turn when bicyclists are zooming around. And being a cyclists, I have my hands at-the-ready of my brakes in case there are these idiots then I can still stop, but most cyclists do not think like that.

Just briefly on the street deal, I almost got hit riding to the Old Market Sunday morning. I know people are not too aware for pedestrians and bicyclists anyway (though most of those peds and cyclists are just as dumb) but on a Sunday morning, even more so because they assume no one is around. So I see a car pull into Leavenworth as I'm approaching. The driver looks to her right and I keep my eye on her face. She glances towards my direction as I approach the intersection but I know enough that even if one makes eye contact, does not mean they see you. As I approach, I quickly glance back for any last-minute jackasses who do that speed-up-hook-in-front-of-you moves and as I turn around, she pulls out and I - and her- hit the brakes. She looks taken aback and I just stare at her and proceed.

This is what one deals with daily here and there is such a resistance and uproar for bike lanes when there is no traffic here and we are trying to build ourselves as a big city. This is something we should be educating about and taking care of before we get to that point and are just full of traffic and no parking and no solution. The bike rack I use at school because its convenient and no one used it is packed this semester. no problem except idiots pack their bikes on it and one day it took five minutes to maneuver my bike out of the rack and the next day my bike was locked on with another. That was another whole debacle which had Jeanne come down, the security on his phone and me telling him how it's stupid they cannot cut the lock because it's a bike and its absurd I should either have to wait or come back later. I told him I'll cut it off and throw this bike in the street and he said he'd call the police to which I told him he should because I'm calling my wife to come with a bolt-cutter, so he was doing that as Jeanne arrived. Point being, any other direction these people head are bike racks; bigger ones. There is no excuse. i've done it when I arrived and they were full. It takes no additional effort - in fact, it takes more to have to nestle your bike and lock within the existing ones.

"I Love My Ramen"

I'm not sure where we are at currently, but throughout history there has been this cycle where the counter-culture does its thing, becomes little more popular where it starts filtering through different social circles, then goes through several variations and questions, once the media gets involved (sometimes it happens earlier on in this cycle and therefore starts the germination) it loses whatever made it what it is. Except these days, what it is is that its contrived. The movements are thought of ahead of time and becomes a self-fulfilled prophecy. There earliest one I can think of that has affected my generation in the "punk" movement of the late 70's, particularly in England with the Sex Pistols.

Through myriad first-person accounts, there was never a meeting to decide nor was there a concentrated effort to define their scene. It was something that happened organically within the societal and cultural conditions at that time. The same could be said about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand being the explosive event setting off what became World War I; that event, in itself, did not start WWI but the conditions at the time was waiting for something to set it off. That was what the scene that involved the Sex Pistols was like. Whatever the case, anything worth its weight never is labeled by the people involved at that time; it is given to them later on by people looking in on it.

Today it comes as scenesters and hipsters. These are what should be counter-culture but just like any other self-imposed scene, claiming individualism, uniqueness, and counter-culture attitudes and angst towards all that is the complacency of the masses which are manipulated and marketed towards. This is what attracted me towards all my interests in life, but what has always angered me is the apparent hypocrisy and their inability to see that they are just caricatures of an annoying, ridiculous stereotype. In That Was Then, This is Now, which in the novel was a sequel to the Outsiders, SE Hinton said that there were still the Greasers and the Socs', but one could not tell them apart because the Socs' now dressed like Greasers, but, essentially, they paid money for their clothes, etc. When I read that, I took to it because, just like other voices I attach to sometimes, they are able to articulate my frustrations about certain issues at the time.

So today, I am not able to tell the true counter-culture and the annoying hipsters - which I get lumped into because what I normally do or did is what became their identity - which is also something that follows me through life. This includes my dress, glasses, bicycling, what is considered a fucking man-bun (which is something I took from my friend Mike in LA because I liked long hair but hate ponytails and I liked the top-knot style with what was my style at the time), even anything remotely stylish gets associated. But that is not even the thing that confuses me, it confuses me because in circles where one would see "real" counter-culture people is diffused into what is mainstream culture. There is a residual effect from annoying cultural-relevant messes such as Napolean Dynamite and the American Office where that vernacular and attitude is bled into pop-culture so much that it is accepted to a point of being cool to be marketed towards and falling for it or being just as a complacent, time-wasting piece-of-shit to be so media influenced and tabloid swallower with superficial characteristics and ethics and moral beliefs like Bernie Sanders (who is good and practical for reasons most hipsters do not understand), Vegetarianism (which is more disasterous than being a moderate, ethical consumer of meat), pro-marijuana legalization (which I agree with, but not in the idiotic way liberals go about it), climate change believer (being more informed than what is presented to me by the media), conflict-free products.

Although I am not conflict-free, I do not support Apple. I have an iPod which I eventually got for deeper reasons other than it was marketed to me, but I do not have an iPad or iMac or iPhone, nor do I want one. First off, in the beginning, if one was not into music or video or gaming, Apples were unnnecessary, but not with better technology any computer will do. My $300 computer does everything I need it to do on a better level than I look for. And I've always had a portable music device and only got an iPod after my wife had got me one and minidisc players (which could do everything an iPod could do plus more) were going to be obsolete.

But everywhere one goes, one cannot but be assaulted by the hipster-marketing attempts in such ridiculous places. The other night we stayed at the Hampton Inn. They are trying way hard to be hip. Who the hell would use a corporate hotel chain with a shitty hot breakfast (which I like, but more to the point, it is not a destination breakfast place) as a "cool" place to associated themselves with? Hipster, that's who. Real or mainstream culture types? Does not matter. It is part of everyone's agenda to play along with this annoying marketing. Bacon on anything? Sign me up. The recent McDonald's breakfast all day, obviously marketed by and towards hipster-leaning people, with their annoying future-looking people based on the current hipster trademarks of black-framed glasses, man-bun, asking stupid questions about simple obvious things, bad taste in food (which is the ironic thing with hipsters. Lots of food critics and cultural food icon-chefs make fun of hipsters and avoid places where one sees them, yet they seem to hold this idea that they are sophisticated with the foods they eat), but also worse when they like those bad food based on marketing (Taco Bell breakfast, Burger King bacon stuff, any commercial pushing anything these days) with some stupid gimmick/angle. I worked at Jack in the Box throughout high school and at some point in the mid-90's we already were doing breakfast all day. Secondly, most grills do that as well. Thirdly, depending on the establishment and set-up, there is a reason other places do not serve all day. Fourthly, fuck you!

Why am I so upset about all this? I shouldn't be. But it not just because most things I like get hi-jacked by these idiots, but more so because the counter-culture was once a place which spawned creativity and intelligence. Now just a bunch of idiots who are no different than the mainstream but in their minds they are. In fact, most regular people are better than them because they are more certain about who they are at this point in their lives than these easily led bunch of clowns. I saw a commercial where this kid is in a kitchen with his mom and he's wearing a chef's coat and it says his name and "future celebrity chef." That's what is wrong with our society. Celebrity chefs did not grow up with that type of aspiration, especially when washing dishes and peeling potatoes and other menial prep-work which most of those "future celebrity chefs" would not enter the work force doing. As much experience I have in kitchens (commercially) I love washing dishes and entering a new kitchen I am not above washing dishes and prep-work and work my way up. This new "me-generation" want to start as sous-chefs and will not do what it takes to get there.

There are classes for comedians and people write to other comedians to ask how to become one. You fucking go out there and do it. That's how! Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Harvey talked about being asked to speak in those classes and their responses were basically, "If you're in this class, you probably don't have what it takes." It's true. Like Bukowski's "Don't Try" motto. Someone that inept as to take a class to become a comedian, chef, rockstar, would not survive the industry. And if one does it all on their own, to get the success they need, they do not need anything else. For instance, a band with a following big enough to gain the attention of the major labels can do it on their own. The money they get "advanced" to them need to be paid back (for one thing) but also, with their other expenses at the label, there is a reason a million "units" can still be a "failure" and not worth the money. Whereas independently, because one spends less money on producing and marketing and other frilly nonsense, 100,000 "units" one can make a comfortable living. Another thing, a major label is an industry in a capitalist marketplace. If you are interfering with their current product, they can side-line you and control you in a way where you are irrelevant until they milk their current agenda for all its got. Hence, no reason for major labels for the most part...there are exceptions. But the point is, these things all started on their own, and if one has the intelligence and aptitude to figure basic shit out themselves, they can make it - to whatever their idea of making it is.

So with all this in mind, I am making a point that we understand we have to be able to think outside of what we are marketing with or told what or how to believe. One can only be informed as much as we allow ourselves to be. Chris Rock said that when other young comics ask how to become good, he tells them to basically do their stuff by themselves spend more time alone. That is it. One cannot develop when surrounded by yes men and mediocrity. His point was comics today go to the clubs with all their friends and how do you know when something is working when it is all friends around. Chris Hardwick said the same thing with his material that killed in LA but on the road was bunk. Louis CK is the same way with the rounds he does in places like LA. And that is the problem today where one spends too much time being connected with things like their phones, social media, every where. There are no places and no time to be alone with their thoughts, self-reflection and working on things to make them better people; forming their own opinions on things and reading other news sites - other countries' news sites. I keep myself diverse because I know how destructive it can be to be involved with just one thing or one type of mentality. It is so easy to become diffused into that way of thinking.

We are connected today with everything yet we are so separated by ideologies which we cling to. Ideologies keep us from thinking critically about things and having uniqe opinions which, right or wrong, should be able to be intellectually debated and your evolved opinions synthesized by new information and outlook but still open to future information which may change your views on those topics. This is good to keep in mind with elections coming up. People are so fed up with the current way things are, yet we are still buying into that system no matter how against-the-grain we may think we are. If one still just gets their information fronm our news media, they are horribly misinformed - especially if they are aligning themselves with a political ideology.