Morning folks,

If you are catching this as you sip the coffee or digest the oatmeal before work, hopefully it will fire you up. Back in the day, a college professor told me writers are needed to inform others not only how to think but to slap some sense into them. We are 90 percent blabbering morons but sometimes a pulse is clicked and a vein is pierced. Here are a few things I need to get off my chest. Call it a bullet round. A head clearing. A roast. Give it a name and I’ll turn it into a stamp.

The Bullshit Police

More like the gossip fucks. The people who must stick their large fucking heads into other people’s business because guess what…their life sucks like spoiled rotten egg nog. Why not? You’ll find these people on social media, in the neighborhood Walmart or at your workplace. They like dirt so much that National Enquirer is their middle name. They don’t care about good things. It bores the shit out of them. All they want is bad dirty info they can spread around to other people and hopefully start a storm cloud of shit. People reading this will know instantly what I am talking about. Others will just think I didn’t get the right amount of coffee this morning. The answer is easy. I’ve always hated people who can’t mind their own business. I ask myself every time I see this happen, what do they have to gain by sticking their fat beaks into other’s lives? What are they getting out of this? Satisfaction? Glee? Misery relief? At the end of the day, it doesn’t make them any less uglier or full of shit. I look at these people a lot. Through their words or right through their temples. I want to know what their purpose is. Are they replacing something they are missing? Gossip hounds are lawyers without a suit or a law degree. They want to investigate but their cases would fail straight up in court. They stink like the shit they dispense. Next time you see one of these people, tell them the next time a person asks about someone else’s personal or wants to know about a matter of business that isn’t privy to their needs, recite these three wonderful words. I DON’T KNOW. Those three words are a godsend. They save you from fucking yourself up and from fucking up lives. If someone asked me about biology or how to fix an engine, I’d tell them I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to lead them down a path that ends with our heads stuck further up our own asses. What good is that? I would tell them I have no clue. It helps. It keeps life moving. It presses go on the escalator. It cycles the bullshit out faster. Next time you feel like leaning into someone else’s business, do everybody a favor and fuck off. (more…)

Since I can’t literally fight for the causes I care most about, I write about them. If I led with my fists, I would spend time in jail and that doesn’t help anyone. I want to talk about a few things I care about here today and spread this post as far as I possibly can. Words can travel far with the right tools and they need the right push. Social media helps. So when I am done here parading for powerful cool shit, I am going to post it there. If you know of another way to make words fly fast, let me know. I’ve always said if you take the time to write about something or talk about it, that means you care.

Striking Out and Kicking Cancer’s Ass

Diseases suck. What sucks more? People dying young from a disease. People dying old dying from a disease. You know what really fucking sucks. A kid dying from a disease like cancer. My parents work in hospitals and I’ve had the privilege(if that is the right word) to spend quite a decent amount of time in them. Nothing shrinks a person into a human raisin like seeing a kid with cancer. A bald, lifeless, doomed and completely sad kid. I’ve seen it and it made me mad. The kind of mad where you need to take a walk or else you will punch shit mad. Enraged and full of fight. It isn’t right and never will be.

Former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jason Motte gets this. He started a foundation to help children with cancer in 2013. You may have seen the shirts…

Motte met and befriended many kids with the disease and used his name, money and time to start something truly special. You can buy a shirt(they are cool and super soft) with a portion of the proceeds helping kids with the disease.  (more…)

Greetings from Little Rock(that still hurts to say),

To your left is a fine picture of Vin and I during his last week at preschool in St. Louis last month. It felt good to throw in a pic of the Buffa’s for this end of the year post. A dose without pictures would only leave a lot of lonely words.

It’s time to let it all hang out. Grievances, surprises, good, bad, ugly and the rest of the things that rattled around my head. You won’t get a lot of sports or film here. I spread that around often in other places that it would be rather predictable for me to talk much about those two lovers of mine here. For the most part, I’ll choose the scope that turns around and reflects on me and the world I live in. The things that happened. Things I learned. The things I need help learning about. So here we go. Don’t expect a well established order to the following topics. I’m going old school here and just unplugging the drain. Shedding the dead with a few ounces of lead from the head.

(Warning-There may be spelling or punctuation errors in this dose. It is a rant after all. Apologies to the keyboard mafia in advance.)

Working Overnights Isn’t Ideal

In February, I worked overnights at Conway and hated it. I lasted four weeks before throwing in the towel and going back to Ronnoco. Why? Well, Conway is located in EASSTTTTT St. Louis city. Like “The Wire” of my hometown. It’s not safe and the farther you drive down on Hall Street, you feel like Rambo should be riding shotgun. It’s a dead end job full of tedious paperwork and robotic like movements. This confirmed the fact that overnights aren’t great unless you are a zombie who likes to function outside the house at night in a working environment. I am a night owl unlike any other, but this job made me realize that when it comes to making money in a 9-5 fashion, overnights aren’t cool. Yeah, and Conway sucks.

Writing Exposure’s Ups and Downs

This year, I wrote for a total of 5 websites. I wrote over 220 articles on the Cardinals this season. I wrote for Arch City Sports the most, and by November, I would be separated from them for one simple reason. Integrity. There was a time and place where everything(sports, movies, ramblings) went out of this site. In the past year and a half, I joined a few new sites. I became serious in social networking on Twitter and Facebook. I broadened my horizons from my personal friend list to people across the world. In that time, I got serious backlash, found good readers, and also learned a lesson about where to put your work. Arch City Sports broke a few ethical rules in my book. I was called out for patting myself on the back when I wrote about it here last month. In reality, I was clearing my head and trying to instruct other young writers that a scribe should never fall in love with page views and forget about ethics. I’ll admit. I got lost in the page views this past year. It’s part of dipping your abilities in deeper waters. At the end of the day, I was able to realize that ACS did things I didn’t like and I had to separate myself from there. There are good people at that site but you have to choose wisely where you set up shop in this internet driven journalism world. (more…)

Last weekend, I woke up to a text from a friend. She said there was some commotion relating to a website I wrote for, Arch City Sports, and I needed to look into it. Once I saw the Twitter feed and the two fellow St. Louis Cardinals writers and friends talking about a certain article on ACS, I knew exactly what happened and what I had to do.

In this day and age, where a war wages on between print and digital journalism, page views are the new drug for websites. Page views above all else. I wrote for ACS for over a year and liked the flow of traffic my articles got. I liked the interaction I got on Facebook and the comments that grew from the reads. The page views weren’t bad either. However, last weekend, the question rose straight out of the ground. What is more important? Journalistic integrity or page views? If the answer takes more than one moment of thought to an honest and ambitious writer, stay away from keyboards and computers. When in doubt, my fellow hungry and unpaid reporters and prose dispensers, maintain a high amount of integrity.

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How exactly does one clear out the noise in their head?

I’ve asked this question since I started writing. I was 12 years old and wanted to write about baseball. I wasn’t a troubled kid but I had energy and a will to express myself that couldn’t work face to face. So I went to the page. I had terrible handwriting by the way. It was like reading coded letters from a guy with 2 fingers and floating in outer space. So I eventually found a keyboard and went to work. Life has never been the same since. I don’t just write to write because it’s fun starting at a computer screen. I write to clear the noise out of my head. There’s nothing more therapeutic for me than writing and drinking coffee. A hot cuppa joe and a way to exit the real world and just put something into words. But…it doesn’t always work.

Sometimes, the noise in your head is so loud that a physical activity is required. A run. A workout. A trip to the batting cages. Something to clear out the noise.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Let’s give it a try today because my head is so full that it could heat up a bag of corn.

The Cards are done and I am back to that normal feeling of having free time in the evening. A baseball schedule is gone. The everyday thought of where the game is and who is pitching and what will happen. With no offense to hockey or football, baseball players go at it daily. Hockey takes 3-5 off days and football is once a week. Pardon my letdown but it isn’t the same.

This is where movies come in though, right? Those 2 hour escapist exercises where you climb onto a tank with Brad Pitt or you stand between Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Durvall in a courtroom? Maybe you stay at home and go back to the 1930’s and hit up Boardwalk Empire or climb a ladder with Chicago Fire. Something right? Man those people look so clean and sharp even though they are supposed to be fighting fire, avoid gunfire or just waking up in bed. That can’t be real….

I know. I should go outside. Go to the park. Feel the fresh air on your face. Pick a pumpkin or apple. Take some pictures. Run around. Be cool and free. Take the kids. Be a family. Put up decorations. That might work too.

The existential crisis of all people is finding worth in every single day you are here. Some attach that to God. Some attach it to what happens on Earth(haven’t checked out Mars yet so I am sorry Mars people or things). What are we doing here? Are we doing it right? Once you have found something, how hard is it to keep it or do right by it? That is the noise in my head. Am I doing enough and am I doing it right?

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It seems to me that the fight for equality in this world is a war that wages on throughout our lives. Long ago, African Americans simply wanted to live the same way as whites and other genders as one world and nation. There are incidents in Ferguson that have raised hands on the racial tension that still thrives today. No matter how hard a certain group of activists fought long ago, the war is still there, breathing. For me, it isn’t the only unfortunate fight. There is the same sex marriage debate that wages on. There is another terrible injustice being waged at this very moment. Equality among genders. A solidarity if you will. It is a fight that Emma Watson is taking upon herself to make right.

I know what you are thinking. Here is some actress trying to soak up some headlines and get some feel good time with the world. Hey, look at me, I am a good person. I call bullshit on those people. All this does is tighten the lens on Watson’s career. You see, she thrives on the attention of men in her movies, so this could be a risk. A lot of men won’t like her movement. Trust me, there are a lot of males still living in the Mad Men age, “Draping up” relationships and marriages. Hey, ladies, do this and do that or else I am gone. That still happens here in 2014.

I stand up in the name of feminism. I think women deserve equal rights, in the workplace or the home or wherever the setting needs to be laid out. I was raised by two great parents, but my mother is a saint. She lives for her kids and she takes care of sick kids at Children’s Hospital. She also cares for my brother. I grew up around strong women. My grandmother, Henrieta or “Meme” as I called her, was a strong voice in my life. She preached patience, goodness in the soul and made sure I was a nice and gentle person. She fought off the hate in people when she was around them. My wife, Rachel, works 60 hours a week and is also a great mother to my three year old son, Vincent.

There isn’t equality for women in the workplace. This is the tip of the iceberg for the campaign. Men still make more money. I don’t really have to break out the numbers and scales for you.  For a lot of men that I have been around, this seems to be the way they want it.  The men make the dough an the women stay home. Screw that. I don’t see it that way. My wife makes more money than me and there isn’t anything wrong with it. As long as my son is taken care of and a roof stands over our heads, I can keep breathing and walking. You don’t need to measure pride up against survival to get the point here.

I take a certain pride in knowing my wife can dominate a male driven market, and that is sales. Give it a name. Car sales. House sales. Computer sales. My wife sells tile and is making a name for herself in an industry dominated by men. I am proud of my wife. I don’t need to sleep comfy at night thinking my writing and warehouse work are just as strong. Why is it in life that men and women have to be measured in terms of who is better at something? Why not find the best person, male or female, for a job instead of judging it on gender? That’s still a problem.

Racism was a huge problem. Same sex marriage still has a problem winning over the religious folks because the invisible man they believe in told them it’s wrong. Gender Equality doesn’t seem too hard to understand but today, it is still an issue.

HeForShe doesn’t just speak about women in the workplace. It stands for all violence and abuse towards girls and women. There’s simply too much of it. You don’t have to know who Ray Rice is to know about domestic abuse towards women. It happens every hour of every day. What’s wrong here? Why is there still so much violence towards women? Don’t ask Stephen Smith about this.

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Yesterday, in broiling 100 degree heat in the Lou, I dragged my wife and kid outside to assist me in my Ice Bucket Challenge for the ALS Foundation.  I did this without being nominated to do it. I wanted to contribute in some way and felt a need to spread the word. I donated money and threw an ice bucket on my head. Before I get into it, I want to tell you a little about ALS.

The disease, in case anyone wants to know, is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The world knows it as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”, because the famous Yankee has his life cut short due to the horrible and debilitating condition. It attacks the nerve cells that run to your brain and spinal chord. Everything that makes your body go and move strongly is attacked by this disease. The body degenerates, muscles weaken and in the end, the body is completely paralyzed by the disease. Motor neurons send signals to your muscles to make them perform a movement and when those motor neurons are damaged and attacked by ALS, other things start to shut down.

The disease was named after the famous baseball player but affects many people today. The disease is a variable one, meaning it moves in different courses with each patient. Someone may have a completely different experience than another person afflicted with the condition. There is a clinically approved drug to attack ALS and others are currently in trials.

This is important to remember when you buy the ice, get a bucket and are busy putting together videos. Remember the reason you are doing it. It is helping raise money and awareness for a disease that needs all the attention it can possibly get. When movie stars dump ice on their heads and nominate other movie stars and politicians, they are doing it for a reason. They don’t need any extra attention. They are doing it to raise awareness. Sure, they could have cut a check and be done with it. Then there is Vin Diesel in a tank top throwing down a steel barrel of ice water on his head and nominating Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama. Diesel is using his millions of followers and fans to join him in this fight.

When Steven Spielberg, Derek Jeter and other celebs do it, they are using the unbeatable power of their reputation and celebrity to teach people about this disease. Many people have no idea prior to this year what ALS is and only know it as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. They remember the famous speech Gehrig gave and that it was pretty cool. That’s about it. In taking this challenge, the idea is to learn about the disease, donate cash(whatever it is will help) and spread awareness with the video you share. People you know will see it and think that is great.

What people don’t know about Gehrig is how bad the disease took hold of his once athletic and baseball efficient body. The man was built to hit doubles, fire baseballs across the field and run like mad. In his final days, for a photo that showed him in his study, the disease had gotten so bad that someone had to hold his head up and put the pencil in his hand before the picture could be snapped. That is what The ALS Foundation is dealing with.

So I donated cash yesterday morning and went outside around 5 pm. It was hot. Real hot. My son Vincent got in on the action and eventually dumped a bucket of water on his head. I wanted to say all of this in the video but I didn’t want to wear anyone out with my face for more than a minute so I come here with the story and the video(posted below). I did this to do a good thing. In life, we get fleeting chances to do something a genuine good deed. You can open doors, help the elderly or flash a smile at someone who needs it, but the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is a good deed. It’s a win-win situation. You get a bucket of ice water on your head to cool off, get to nominate a few people to do it and donate cash to a good cause.

Do me a favor. If you decide to do the challenge, go to the ALS Foundation website and find out why you are doing it. The ice thing is cool and fun, but the real deed is knowing why you are doing it. Don’t let it be a hollow activity. Make it mean something. So far, the donations have reached 80 million dollars.

Alright, I’m climbing down off my horse and walking away for a bit. Thanks for reading.

 

 

Michael Brown was an 18 year old kid getting ready to start college in two weeks. A lot of hope came to an early end.  He was shot by a police officer this past weekend and Sunday night, riots broke out in Ferguson, the neighborhood where Brown lived and died. A Quik Trip was raided and burned up. Taco Bell restaurants were also targeted and streets were full of looters and bandits. All of this happened because one man died in a manner that hasn’t been clarified yet. The National Guard and The FBI are getting involved as we speak, and nothing good comes from that folks. When officers and soldiers line the streets, more innocent people have a chance of dying. In the history of this world, the human species has always resorted to acts of violence as a source of revenge. Why do that? It’s our human instincts kicking in. A man who many probably didn’t know at all feel the sense to set fires to public places, beat up random people and run wild like it’s the Purge. Violence breeding more violence never ends well and happens far too often.

People will instantly attach this to St. Louis and its rocketing crime rate and status as a bad crime city. That’s not completely untrue but this reaction happens across the world and all over The United States. Rioting has taken place in many cities. St. Louis is just the latest location of madness. Savagery isn’t relegated to one zip code. It has no one location. It’s a common occurrence.

I have a friend who lives in Florissant, a town right next to Ferguson. I lived in Florissant for three years. Those aren’t the safest streets in the world but Sunday night, they got a lot more violent and unstable. In 1992, Los Angeles started one of the most deadliest riots when the four officers accused of beating Rodney King were acquitted. In 1980, a similar act happened in Miami. Edward L. Glaeser wrote in 2011 that “When riots can often overwhelm police forces, most modern governments have more than enough military might to repress any riot, if the army is willing to slaughter civilians.” (more…)