People you can only take in small doses

I am a people person. The evidence is obvious. I'm gregarious, a shameless flirt, I have friends from all walks of life and I work in a profession where I deal with many different kinds of people every day, and I love it.

However, there are certain people in the world you can only stand in EXTREMELY small doeses. For whatever reason (and it varies from person to person) being in the presence of these people for more than a modicum of time can cause everything from nausea vomiting and hives to a pronounced foul mood--or just make your good day a bad one.

What makes it worse is that these kind of people tend to gravitate towards each other and form groups-- so that they can inflict duress on innocent victims at levels that should be considered akin to criminal corruption.

Case in point-- a particular group of ladies that I have the dubious pleasure of being in graduate school with. These ladies have formed a tight knit circle and had the nerve to give their group one of the most obnoxious names possible (more on that later). While there are members of this group whom I find to be lovely individuals, once they join their herd, it is difficult to tell them apart from their perpetually annoying 'friends'. Therefore, for all intensive purposes, I will be dealing with all of them with the same amount of venom. Sorry ladies, but you are called on the carpet for being "Accessories to Extreme Annoyance."

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present for your condemnation-- The Super 7.

I'm mad that they have the nerve to call themselves "The Super 7." I am sure that it started off innocently and they thought it was cute ('There's seven of us and its pretty super that we are all friends...') but the name seems to have given them carte blanche to be-- well-- irritatingly self- righteous. They seem to think they are the only "normal" ones in our class and and confer a "lackof social skills" judgement upon other people. Apparently, they feel they have cornered the market on being 'the All American Girl' (cue: VOMIT). I recall sitting in class next to one of them during our final presentations and I happened to glance at her laptop. She had the nerve to start ripping another student's presentation to shreds (this person she was criticizing also happens to be someone in the class I am quite friendly with). Then she got up and do her presentation-- I must say, I had to stretch my mind to see the relevance of her selected topic to the class material we had spent the previous 10 weeks covering.

Another one who I am going to call "Her Royal Shallowness" ripped into another girl in the class on her blog (Curse you MySpace!-- Blogging for the WEAK) about not having social skills. Now mind you, "HRS" is quite possibly one of the most shallow, materialistic and generally unpleasant people you will ever meet. When I first encountered her, I thought I had met a kindred spirit when I saw her Coach bag and Kate Spade (faux?) shoes. But then I realized, unlike myself, she has an almost (self admitted) unhealthy obsession with expensive accessories. I like to purchase a nice Coach or Balenciaga (or both) every once in a while , but she's taking it to "Paris Hilton" levels... and I can only assume she has "Paris Hilton" cash to back it up-- or she shops on Canal Street. Otherwise she's got the most fucked up credit in the world.

The rest of them, I don't have an exceptional amount of experience with due to the fact that (thankfully) I've managed to avoid the madness. And like my above disclaimer, some of them are really nice people... ON THEIR OWN. However, the majority of the members of the "Super 7" have managed to say something that "rubs the wrong way" at least once in my presence. And by "rubs the wrong way"I mean that less tolerant people (especially less tolerant African American, Latino and Asian people) would find these comments offensive.

Oh.... did I forget to mention the fact that they are seven privileged WHITE women? Who are completing their Master of Public Health? A career field that leads you to professions where you work mainly with marginalized minority groups who have an inherent distrust of the establishment? I'm sure that they feel so very good about the fact that they are doing an MPH so that they can have a "fulfilling" career and "give back to the community"*snicker* (Damn, I can't say that with a straight face!) -- looking good while do-gooding, I suppose.

Aside: If I hear one more privileged, spoiled little asshole use the phrase "give back to the community" ONE MORE TIME....


I am by no means saying their motives are not pure or that they don't have the best of intentions-- they very well may genuinely give a crap about people besides themselves. What I am saying is that their constant stream of self righteous, judgemental bullshit needs to stop-- and soon.

They could benefit from a serious attitude adjustment. Their future careers depend on it. God forbid I end up working with one or more of them after we graduate, and they are still the same people that they are now. They don't want me to dress them down... they'll find out real quick how "abnormal"I can be and "lack social sklls"-- when I get GHETTO up in there.

My Apologies

Our President is a liar. He lied about the federal governments knowlege about the destructive potential of Hurricane Katrina( an offense more impeachable than getting sucked off by an intern in the Oval Office by the way) ... there is no mistaking that.

So now, I have to apologize to Michael Brown for being so hard on him about Hurricane Katrina. He took the heat for a 'f**ked up a la Republican on toast' response to the disaster on the Gulf Coast. That's right, he was the fall guy for the government. No wonder he sang like a bird on everyone else involved. He knew he was out anyway, so why not just tell on everyone? I would do the same shit.

So to Michael Brown... I am sorry for sending you up the way I did. It wasn't your fault. You were just doing what they told you to do as a faithful flunkie for our massively ineffective (corrupt) government.

To the f**king morons who voted Bush into office in the first place-- IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT. Sleep with that on your conscience tonight.

The Ghettofication of the Academy Awards/ African American Oscar Nominations: Double Edged Sword?

I know you have all heard it by now and were just WAITING for me to say something....

As you may or may not know, the Academy tradition is that all the songs nominated for Best Original Song are performed during the awards show, and after the last performance, the award it given.

For those of you who missed the show let me paint the picture for you.

Three-6 Mafia was the last group/artist to perform, and the graced the Oscars with their original song for the film "Hustle &Flow" which was titled "Its Hard Out There for a Pimp". For those of you who don't know who Three-6 Mafia is, they are a Southern rap group with hits such as "Stay Fly." They were introduced by Chris Bridges aka Ludacris (who by the way, looked very dapper that evening. I was very impressed with his overall look). Teraji P. Henson, who starred in "Hustle & Flow" sang the hook (" You know its hard out here for a pimp. Just tryna get that money for the rent.") while dressed in a rather unflattering white "Marylin Monroe Seven Year Itch" knockoff-- someone needed to tell her that she needed to wear a bra or some stickies or something... she was about to fall out of the thing. They had a 'pimped out' set, complete with pimps, hoes, theatrically coreographed and staged street fights and bitches getting the hell slapped out of them by their pimps. Of course, Three -6 Mafia came dressed for the occasion in throwback jerseys, baggy jeans, platinum chains and grills in their mouths.
They got permission to say 'bitch' and 'shit' in the performance of the song.
Interestingly enough, Terrence Howard, who was given the nomination for Best Actor for "Hustle..." was also supposed to perform, but the rumor is that the Black Hollywood Elite 'encouraged' him to sit this one out. And he shonuff did.

Immediately following the performance Academy Award Nominee Dana "Queen Latifah" Owens presented the award for best orignal song... and had the pleasure of handing the Oscar over to..... Three-6 Mafia.

I swear, I thought I was watching the Source Awards.

The best parts... Morgan Freeman's look of COMPLETE mortification, Queen Latifah's inability to contain herself, the Arsenio Hall "woof woof" arm motions from Three-6 Mafia's cheering section in the back, and Three-6 Mafia's acceptance speech which was sprinked with a few expletives.

That whole fiasco just set Black people back 15 years...

Then to add insult to injury, Terrence was nominated for portraying a pimp. Let's look at a few recent Academy nods to Black Actors....

Denzel Washington-- Best Actor-- Played a corrupt cop
Halle Berry-- Best Actress-- Got f**ked by Billy Bob Thornton, buck ass naked

I am noticing a disturbing trend here...

Not that the Academy is all bad or anything. They did give awards to African American actors for playing roles other than being a "unsavory" character but still...

Three-6 Mafia wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song: "Its Hard Out There for a Pimp"....I have lost all respect for the Academy, dammit.