Slow and Steady Does NOT Win the Race

Remember the story of the tortoise (hereby referred to as turtle) and the hare(hereby referred to as rabbit)? You know, the rabbit and the turtle decide to race. The rabbit is so sure he's gonna win. The rabbit was winning. The rabbit takes a nap. The rabbit doesn't win, and the story ends with the proverb "slow and steady wins the race." Generally, the story is told with a bit more flourish, but I wrote it that way to highlight my point, which is that we look to the wrong character for the lesson in this story.

Be real with yourself. Logically, in a race of speed, the speedier racer will win. That's how it was designed and that's how it works in real life. The saying at the end of the story implies the opposite, that the turtle won the race by his own doing, and that one will win in life by being slow and steady. This is not at all the case.

The real moral of the story is, "Finish what you start and don't be a dummy." Really, the rabbit probably could have won the race and took another lap before the tortoise even got half way down the track. The ONLY reason the turtle won is because the rabbit stopped running. Of course the rabbit was cocky/foolish enough to believe that he could stop, take a nap, and still win (and overestimating your skills/underestimating your opposition is another lesson), but if he'd had the tenacity, or at least the intelligence, to just go ahead and finish the race then the tortoise wouldn't have even come close to winning.

So take that as the real lesson. Don't set out to be the slow turtle in the story, just strive to not be as stupid as the rabbit was and you'll be fine. You can skip being slow (though, I would recommend you take the advice about steadiness; it's good to be consistent), so long as you finish what you start. Do be fast, though, because slow and steady does NOT win the race.

Points: The usual for reading the whole thing. +10 for agreeing with me. Just to see who reads these, total your existence points so far and report that number to me and you can have 200 more.

JOSH, THE SHERM

The Fun Begins

I had two or three blogs pre-written. This is not one of them. Those other ones are not appropriate for me to post at this time, because when I post them I don't want them to immediately bite me in the butt (though they will indubitably cause repercussion, no matter when I post them).

Anyways, this one starts with a post to Facebook yesterday, and I quote,

"Next week, I refuse to sit at home all day, not a single day. I will enjoy myself, even if I have to clean out my bank account to do it." 

That's a pretty bold statement for a man with no job, who basically slept his way through most of June and has hung out with maybe 6 friends since getting home in May for summer break. Very bold indeed. But then all of those circumstances are exactly the inspiration for this vow. I mean, think of yourself in that situation. You've had two stupid-boring months pretty much nothing. Sure there's that one time you purposely had fun, and those few other times that you accidentally enjoyed yourself, but otherwise it's been nothing but house chores or sleep (and, in general, more of the sleep). Surely putting yourself in that frame of thought makes you understand that drastic measures had to be taken.

So, the "drastic measures" are ludicrous yet very simple. I'm taking what relatively little money I have earned/saved and I'm putting it on the line to have some fun. Being slightly less than financially responsible is the ideal situation here. My goal isn't to spend it all, or any of it for that matter, but not let it be as much of a limiting factor as it usually would be. I will try to have as much fun as I can for free, but if I can't get any free fun, I'll pay for discount fun, and if I can't get discount fun I'll buy it at regular price, and if they're sold out of that I'll find some other ways to entertain myself. Just that plain. I WILL enjoy myself.

I now realize I might regret it after the fact, when I've had my "fun" but I'm left with no money. Don't care. I'm doing it anyways. Phase 1: "Suspicious Movement of Funds" has already begun. As of tomorrow afternoon, my money should be ready to spend. And that's it.

50 points for reading, as usual. +100 if I invite you and you join me on my "Go for broke" adventure.

JOSH, THE SHERM

Black Planking and Slavery

I see where you draw the connection. I understand how you could be offended. I am aware of how it could be misunderstood, and that is what I believe has happened. Simply put, the meaning you draw from it, however logical, is not the intended meaning, and you are wrong to be offended.

I know, I know. The slaves on the ship and the one-on-top-of-the-other and the bodily fluids and disease and the death and all of that laying face down on planks of wood with the arms to the side. I know. I understand. You're still wrong.

Look at it this way. Say we're sitting directly across a table from each other. I draw a five-pointed star on a piece of paper with the point to the top from my view. From your view the point is to the bottom, so it is an inverted pentagram, a sign of Satanism. You may perceive it as me drawing a Satanist symbol, but I intended it as just a (half-assed) drawing of a star.
Or say I scratch the side of my face with my middle finger and you happen to be standing on that side. Am I flicking you off or simply taming an itch?

The point is, sometimes you really can take things for face value. You get pissed off for your teachers adding non-existant symbolism to books, and here you are doing in real life. Everything DOES NOT have deeper meaning. Some things truly are just what they are and nothing more. The "planking" epidemic has nothing to do with slaves stacked up on a slave ship (or, at least, it didn't, until you took it there). Planking was not offensive until you said it was, and that gives everyone else the opportunity to use that against us.

Another thing, as black people, it's time to let the slavery thing go. I can state as a fact that anyone my age or within 10 years of that age is AT LEAST three(3) generations removed from slavery, and probably a few more than that. For some of you, even your great-grandmother isn't old enough to have known anyone who was an actual slave. The black race has come leaps and bounds from that point, and could be a hop, skip, and a jump further than that if we would quit looking back at it all the time. The white man took off the physical chains, then we locked ourselves up in the memories. I'm not saying that we should forget our history, in fact it's vital that we remember, but it's about time we take a dose of GETTHEFUCKOVERIT, accept that it happened, understand that it's over, and let history stay where it belongs: in the past.

ALL THAT SAID, I WILL BE DOING SOME PLANKING AND I WILL ENJOY MYSELF DOING IT, BECAUSE I AM NOT BOUND TO THE PAST OF MY PEOPLE, NOR AM I CONFINED TO YOUR "ONCE-WAS-A-SLAVE" MINDSET.

Points: 50 for reading. -100 if you believe the planking=slavery thing. +50 if you are ready to move on and +200 if you go planking.