RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS!!! (Vol. 1, No. 10)

Ever since I first saw "Sweet Love" on Music Video Connection as a youngster, Anita Baker has been in my top 10 favorite R&B singers of all time.  However, in the tradition of greats like Michael Jackson, James Brown and Michael McDonald, she has one "drawback" to her delivery: when she gets excited, her ability to enunciate suffers a bit.  Exhibit A: in the verse following the bridge on her 1990 single "Talk to Me", it always sounded like she was saying "hacienda"; in actuality, she says "across your face".  Right before going into the last round of chorus repetition, I always thought she said "you avoid my rush, you avoid my race, baby" when the factually correct translation is "you avoid my advice, you avoid my embrace, baby".  In all fairness, I don't have the best hearing in the world due to years of listening to music in my headphones nearly at full blast and only grasping the concept of protecting one of my greatest assets within the last decade.  Nevertheless, I know I'm not the only one who has looked at her like, "What the heck did you just say, lady?"  Now that I've graduated summa cum laude from The Big Dadi Scribbler School of Lyric Translation, let's roll with the rest of the nonsense--and trust, I do mean nonsense...

"Love Is a Commitment, Not a Feeling"...Says Who???

Much like my last "RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS!!!", another one of those "deep" relationship memes floating around Facebook has struck a nerve with me.  In a picture grid in the particular meme in question, a man is massaging his woman's feet on the left side of the grid and a woman is returning the favor on the right side.  The caption above the grid reads, "Choose to love each other, even in those moments when you struggle to like each other."  To this point, I'm wholeheartedly with this sentiment because whether it's your significant other, your friends or those one or two or five family members you want to choke slam from time to time, you must willingly decide to love that person regardless.  However, here's where they lost me: "Love is a commitment, not a feeling".  Let me be clear: I strongly agree with the former part of the quote, but I'm utterly annoyed when people echo the latter because it belittles and dismisses human emotions.  So here are my questions: how do you get to the commitment of loving without the feeling that makes you want to love and commit, and doesn't love encompass both feelings and commitments?  Well, let's try to answer these burning inquiries from several perspectives, shall we...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Regular Season, Week 2

I came into Week 2 of NFL regular season action on a high from a solid Saturday in NCAA football.  Although all three of my favorite teams won big--including Michigan storming back from being down 14 points in the first quarter at home to beat Colorado 45-28--my favorite game of the day was between two unranked teams, Maryland vs. Central Florida.  After UCF QB McKenzie Milton lost his third fumble of the game in the second overtime in a tie game at 24, Maryland freshman QB Tyrrell Pigrome had the daunting task of filling in for the injured Perry Hills.  However, there are few plays better in someone's first snap than to get a 24-yard TD run to win the game 30-24 in double OT and push your team under your first-year head coach DJ Durkin to 3-0.  Yeah...seeing another one of my favorite college football teams win in dramatic fashion definitely got me ready for football on Sunday.  So enough about the kids and let's talk about the grown man's game...