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#gmfgr The Slater Incident

There is a new wrinkle to this #gmfgr movement, the video. We have chosen to sum up our thoughts into a one minute maximum length video. Please enjoy the Slater Incident

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This culture of quitting is perplexing. Please don’t misunderstand my sentiment. I want to stick it to the man just as much as the next guy or gal. Slater’s beer soaked ride off into the sunset resonated with much of America’s frustration with their situations. The way that we have accepted Slater as hero of the common man is proof that our social consciousness has devolved into a reality TV syndrome. While the tirade of Slater should be the brain child of the writers at SNL, these shenanigans are played out in real life for the army of talking heads to tell us that this is acceptable. What happened to respect of self? Where did the notion of lacing up your boots and giving an honest days work go? Since when do we expect that each and every aspect of our lives should be pleasant and pleasing to us? You see our misguided egos have inflated to the point that we have lost community. The status update culture is rearing its ugly head.

1. Two wrongs don’t make a right

By creating a right out of two wrongs, you have in fact created a genetically mutated version of what society says is ethically is accepted. The passenger that instigated the “take two beers and jump” moment, along with Slater are not the problem itself, but a symptom of an entitled culture.

2. Everybody is bearing a cross

Whether your problems revolve around money, or the emotional strife that Dad won’t accept your decision to pursue hand modeling, we all have issues that we deal with. In the rule book of life I have yet to find the section that provides the basis to be rude or inconsiderate to another individual based on the demons that I struggle with.

3. If Slater is a hero, then we are in big trouble

To call someone who was no better than the slimy passenger that ignited the “take two beers and jump” moment a hero, sets the bar pretty low for what we aspire to be. It saddens me that legions of weaklings that are emboldened by a petty outburst, yet we turn a blind eye and find bad things to say about moguls that gave up business in pursuit of purpose.

4. Integrity is lost in translation

A striking workforce is a group that has made a collective decision to band together and respectfully decline to work. A rogue employee that has bottled up anger and frustration and allows his wrath be unleashed upon the unsuspecting public is not respectful but quite the opposite.

5. Quitting is never good

If George Washington and his men would have listened to their inner Slater during the winter of 1776 while crossing the Delaware to show the Hessians what a good old fashioned American ass kicking feels like, who is to say that we wouldn’t be watching Soccer and driving on the wrong side of the road? Slater’s beer soaked slide off into the sunset is a polarization of the core issue behind our great and storied nation’s plunge on the social barometer, absence of hustle.

Give Me 5 Good Reasons…Medical Pot in Stockton?

Another feature that I am going to do is to take a subject, pick a side and give five reasons that back up your argument. I call it “Give me five good reasons”. It works best as a battle between two individuals that are consenting, but it works well on its own as well.

For each reason you get two sentences to explain. You also get 50 words to start and 50 words to end. Twitter has taught me brevity.

This week we have medical pot in Stockton.

Local blogger/writer @slickDiaz who maintains “Reclaiming the Title” has agreed to have a battle of words in regards to the notion of medical pot ordinances in Stockton. Today being the equivalent of Chinese New Year for pot heads, what better way to spend your day than reading two completely obscure points of view on mildly viewed websites.

My five reasons…

5. Stockton’s Great, Take a Hit

Everyone’s favorite director of Stockton’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau’s ears must have perked up when the puppy dogs known as the Planning Commission rolled over and pleased their masters at City Hall by creating the essential City ordinance for the booming industry of government pot. Now we finally have the credibility to attract employment minded marijuana merchants and over achieving purveyors of fine cannabis to our City with a slogan that will truly be in the spirit of celebrating Stockton.

4. Is this the City leadership’s way of playing hardball with the Police and Fire gangs?

Much to the displeasure of our City Council and taxpayers in general, our City Police and Fire departments exhibit a concerted effort to decimate the coffers of money that are generated through public funding for their “more than fair” retirement racket. The passive aggressive tactic of sanctioning the hippie equivalent of a liquor store and adding an element of potential crime as a submission move, rather than the City Council actually facing their pimps and airing the dirty laundry of collective bargaining, makes complete sense.

3. This is exactly what will fortify our landmark initiative of Strong Neighborhoods

When I think of the missing factor that is keeping our neighborhoods from interacting and strengthening the fabric of the community, I am embarrassed that I neglected to realize the obvious answer lies in the exiled close knit community of recreational drug users. Calling upon the reputation of ambition and organizational aptitude that marijuana users exemplify, we can hope to enjoy drum circles and jam band sessions with no particular regularity other than if it feels good and always benefiting the fight against corporate America, because we hate jobs.

2. Just what former most miserable City in America needs, legal drugs.

While the mortgage tsunami decimates Stockton resident’s financial lives and business owners stand in line at EDD, City Hall contemplates the important issue of how and where we are going to sell pot. Clearly this issue far more important than exploiting our humongous inventory of commercial lease space through aggressive outreach and benefits to potential employers, or bitch slapping the bureaucratic militias that disguise themselves as unions in an effort to negotiate a fiscally sound agreement that allows bargaining in times of need.

1. If it is such a medicinal necessity, why not dispense it through a real pharmacy.

If you are going to allow the sale of a mildly illegal substance within your City limits, why are we allowing loosely organized bands of hippies to facilitate sales and not calling upon the expertise of our legitimate pharmacy constituency? Oh, I know, government involvement in the regulation and distribution of the illicit substance tramples on the counter culture code of ethics in that “the man” will attempt mind control and fund his war machine.

With all of this said, I will not claim to be a straight edge prudish conservative. I only think that the current state of affairs our City is experiencing the idea that our City Council is even wasting their time on this non-issue is laughable.

Give Me 5 Good Reasons…

The clash of the sports apparel titans. Nike v Adidas. @the_Rogue taking the side of America’s sweethart, Nike, and yours truly taking the Germanian powerhouse that is Adidas. Impossible is nothing.

• 5. 60 year family feud over misunderstood comment between Adidas founder Adi Dassler and his brother Rudi embody the notion of dedication.

Any person that can not only hold a grudge against his brother for a misunderstood comment made during an allied attack of Germany during WW2, but can have his grudge permeate his corporate culture so much that his employees would not speak to employees of Rudi’s Puma, is on my team. War loyalty.


• 4. Nike personifies all that is wrong with the American dream

Pay a designer $35 to design a logo for fledgling sporting goods manufacturer. Throw tons of money at high profile sports stars and plaster their likeness on everything from a bus stop to the side of a building in a heavy handed attempt to take up residence in the wallets and minds of the sheeple.


• 3. Official shoe of the only reason that soccer hits my radar, the Chelsea Football Club

I am American, so soccer is definitely not on my radar. If it were I would probably join the legion of fans that personify the closest thing to modern day pirates, the Chelsea hooligans.


• 2. Geek cred with Star Wars line

A sporting goods company that can snag the endorsement from the future’s most notorious rogue bounty hunter, Boba Fett, speaks volumes of their street allure. Boba Fett’s attempt to shake down Vader gained his spot in the Star Wars fan boy hall of fame, hence Adidas’ endorsement grabs a market of basement dwellers cast aside by the major shoe manufacturers.


• 1. Adidas Track Suit

Nothing in the apparel universe has come within jabs distance of the underworld uniform, better known as the tracksuit. From the stereotypical New York Italian mobster to the urban b-boy, the track suit is synonymous with American hustle.

Give Me 5 Good Reasons

Top 5 reasons Street Fighter 2 is the greatest game of all time.

• 5. Racial Stereotypes
  
  Street Fighter 2 danced on the line of political correctness with its over the top representation of each characters ethnic and persona stereotype. While the game play is the standard at which makes a game great, the depth of the characters make the game timeless.


• 4. Game play was simple yet still sophisticated
  
  Street Fighter 2 was the first game that incorporated character specific special moves in a fighting game, to my knowledge. While Street Fighter 2 paved the way for the one on one fighter, its special moves that were individual to each character are the standard of perfect sophistication that outshines the manic button mashing of its “special” spawn fighting game Tekken and the extreme example of requiring a PhD in order to complete a fatality in the gore fest fighter Mortal Kombat.


• 3. Rivalry between friends was heightened at the arcade by the entrance of this game
  
  In the age of physical arcades where kids had to leave their homes to play their favorite game, Street Fighter 2 was first game to have someone actually kick the ass of someone else on the screen, hence decapitating the high score standard. Head to head gaming emerged, adding a characteristic of swagger and trash talk during the game, to the once individualistic nature of the classic arcade game.


• 2. Individual endings for each character
  
  On many levels the detail of individuality permeated the game play of Street Fighter 2, but none more so than a personalized ending for each character. Not only did this mathematically substantiate the 69.99 price tag of the 16 bit SNES game cartridge by encouraging you to beat the game with each character, but it also sparked the revolution of taking a picture of the ending screen to prove to your friends at school that not only are you a nerd, but an accomplished video game nerd.


• 1. Bonus games
  
  The mini game was a button mashing break from the action that paid homage to the high score and best time standard of its predecessors. Breaking what looked like a Subaru apart on a dock, or smashing barrels on a conveyor belt provided the foundation for a future of sophisticated gaming by dangling the proverbial hidden features carrot with diverse layers of game play.

I know it’s against the rules but here is a little extra that didn’t make it into the Top 5, but is more of a testament to the depth in which Street Fighter 2 permeated the video game world. Capcom rode this pony until the wheels literally fell off.

Edit to satisfy ruling of Interweb judges 3-23-10 1245p Pacific

Bonus: Only game to have sequels that chronologically stopped at 2.

The game’s name was so important to the franchise that it merely added a different description rather than an iteration. EX: Street Fighter 2: Tournament Edition, Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers (see we have more racial stereotypes to exploit), and Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition.

And we have a fan club. Game Over.