When trailing in a game, it goes without saying how discouraging this can be for some of us (me).  But I rarely give up on a game (mentally), and even less frequently click “resign” in the middle of a duel.  After all, I’ve been involved in some games that have had some dramatic comebacks, and have been on both the winning and losing sides of games such as these.  When trailing, you really just gotta be patient, continue to play your game, and not take the 17 point word risking giving up an 80 point one.

But I hate it when the other person reaches the next digit in the hundreds before me — even in a game that’s relatively close and still within reach.  It’s like, I’d almost rather be down 347-308, than be down 330-292…even though being down 330-292 would put me closer to my opponent than the other score.  I’d just rather be in the 300′s, like my opponent.  It “looks better.”

“Ooh look at me.  I’m in the 300′s and you’re not yet.  Bet you’d like to know how this feels.” —- That’s what I hear in my opponent’s head when they reach the next digit in the hundreds column before me.

But yes, I’m not insane, and will always in actuality prefer to be down 38 points as opposed to 39.

But whether you’re down 38, 39, 50, or 100 points, I encourage you all not to give up.  Stay focused, play your game, and keep at it.

..now only if I was as determined in other, more important areas of my life….

As far as celebrity people are concerned, there’s just way too much gray area for me to buy into the dying-in-threes thing.  I mean, how famous does one have to be, to be part of the club?  Also, what are the rules with the passage of time? — like if two relatively famous people die, then a third three weeks later — that would count, right?  But what about a third death five weeks later, or seven weeks later?

Recently, we lost Dick Clark, Junior Seau, Maurice Sendak, and just yesterday the hair guy Vidal Sassoon had the nerve to die, making it four reasonably famous people dead, within just 22 days.

So what do you expect me to do?  We’re not gonna change this to the rule-of-fours now, are we?  Maybe we oughta just knock the least famous person out of the bunch.  I think Dick Clark for sure is safe, but with the other three, there’s less clarity.

So in conclusion, there is no “dying-in-threes” — only “dying-in-one-hundred-seven-billions.” (depending on who you ask, give or take a buncha billions+ since the dawn of man 50,000 years ago)

For my first Ron Paul-themed rhyme, I thought it be best to do something about what’s probably Dr. Paul’s core issue, the corrupt Federal Reserve system.  For rhyme number two, I wanted to further examine a specific topic that’s particularly important to me — Israel.

I am a Jewish person living here in America, yes.  But I’m not from Israel, and have never even visited there. So what really drove me to further pursue this topic? — probably the mainstream media’s continued twisting, distorting, and perversion of Dr. Paul’s views on many issues, including Israel.   Dr. Paul’s views on what America’s relationship with Israel should be, is something that I fear is too often misunderstood by the average person.

Now, I don’t mind calling black people African-American, or black, or whatever overwhelmingly is desired by this group of people.  It’s just that in this hyper-politically correct world in which we live, I feel like we sometimes get the absurd notion that just by changing the name of a group of people, it improves their overall situation, so to speak.

Comedian Wanda Sykes actually mentions this in one her of acts, that once the term African-American came along into popularity, the quality of her life was not improved at all…not even in the least bit.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, surveys show “…the majority of Black Americans have no preference for “African American” or “black,” although they have a slight preference for “black” in personal settings and “African American” in more formal settings..”

But the definition of what constitutes a personal setting, and a formal setting can be a bit unclear at times, in my opinion.  If anything, I think what this could mean is that, if you’re not African-American, you’re probably better off playing it safe by just using the term African-American.  But once again, what does this prove exactly?  I mean, in a country where most African Americans don’t care if you call them black, what’s wrong with just using black most of the time, if not all the time?

I think the funniest thing to me about all this, is watching white people get all baffled, not always knowing which term to use.  I love that occasional hesitation in the voice, when a white person has to make it known for whatever reason someone is black.  “Yes, I saw Bob in line.  He was standing right behind that bla–, err I mean African-American man.”  As if you’re going to offend people by saying black, even though it’s a term overwhelmingly no one takes any issue with.

It seems for much of my adult life, I’ve been finding myself in conversations with my guy friends, that have something to do with texting girls…

1) I met a girl over the weekend.

2) I got her number.

3) What should I text her?

4) When do I send that text?

…but this one is really for all the non players out there, who’ve ever gotten a girl’s phone number, and then spent way too much time trying to figure out the perfect text to send her.

Hope you enjoy my first ever Xtranormal cartoon video.

But in general, a lot of humans love to become all dramatic on each other, when one of us hasn’t heard a particular song, or started watching some new tv show yet.  We (the discoverers) take so much pride in this.  We sometimes talk and act like we are the ones actually in the band or something.  I do think it’s admirable to be a fan from the beginning, but I think we can all probably take it down a notch.

Its like, we’ll see someone post a meme on Facebook, and react all— “Will you look at what this fool has posted..I have seen this already.  Like five months ago.  And no one posts those anymore. You loser..How dare you post something I’ve already seen..You are the most unhip person, ever…You should kill yourself.”

Idk, I assume we’ve all encouraged a suicide at one point or another while scrolling through our newsfeed on Facebook. Or maybe it’s just me.  Who knows.

Sure, most people probably know Robert Shapiro immediately upon hearing the man’s name, but let me remind you that while it was dubbed “The Trial of the Century,” as a kid, I more or less just saw coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial as something that day-after-day just annoyingly interfered with Sports Center’s showing of game highlights.

So anyway, when Shapiro popped up on my TV, I thought to myself, why would I want to work with LegalZoom, a company associated with a man who helped another man essentially get away with murder.  I mean, just because someone is famous, this doesn’t automatically mean he or she is a good fit for selling products and services to the general public.  But after all, this is for LegalZoom and legal services.  So who better to represent an online-lawyering service company than a man who helped a former client literally get away with murder.  So just imagine what they can do for you…

And it’s not that I’m trying to judge Shapiro for his actions (at least not intentionally).  After all, we’re supposed to be entitled to due process and a fair trial.  I say “supposed to be,” given our Federal government’s recent passing of the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act).  But that’s a topic for another blog, for now just Google “NDAA indefinite detention.”  Because with the NDAA now, even Robert Shapiro might not be able to help you.

Yes, your eyes and ears aren’t deceiving you.  I’m rhyming.  Yes.  Rhyming.  Sort of rapping.  Doing spoken-word poetry, a cappella style.

Call it what you want, but here’s a video about politics, and you guessed it — Dr. Ron Paul.  Believe me, rhyming, and rhyming about politics is not something that I ever expected to be doing, let alone sharing with the world.

As far as rhyming goes, I actually did go through a brief phase of my life back around 2004, when I was writing some spoken-word stuff.  So technically, I do have some (limited) experience with spoken-word rhyming.  In fact, years ago I actually performed twice at “Da Poetry Lounge“  Tuesday nights at the Greenway Court Theater, over on Fairfax here in Los Angeles.  I just remember being insanely nervous, and reciting my words a mile-a-minute.

In terms of politics,  I’ve always had some interest in that — but was never actively involved or even very passionate.  If the subject came up, I’d have go-to phrases like “I’m not active, but I try to be aware of what’s going on.”

But somehow someway within the last year, the more and more I watched and listened to Dr. Paul, I realized that he makes a lot of sense. I may not agree with all of his views (no one agrees with any candidate 100%) — but in my opinion, what separates Dr. Paul from the others, is that he’s really the only one going after our flawed system, which has gotten away from any semblance of a sane Constitutional government.

Believe me, I’m no expert on politics or the economy, but still feel I have something important to share with everyone that can have a positive impact.

Originally I thought I’d eventually just shoot some video blogs of me talking about political issues, but instead came up with the idea to do some rhyming — just thought it’d be a much more interesting and perhaps entertaining way to share information with the world.  And what better for my first rhyme than something about one of Dr. Paul’s core issues as a politician –The Federal Reserve system.

*Note – If you’re wondering why I titled my video “Jewish American Guy…” It’s because given how too often the mainstream media would like us to believe that Dr. Paul is anti-semitic, and that he doesn’t have very many Jewish supporters, I think it’s important that people know Dr. Paul has lots of Jewish support.

For now, I’ll turn my attention to completely unrelated random subjects.  God, religion — all that crap.  Crap?  Actually, I guess I shouldn’t refer to that stuff as crap.  After all, god might punish me for it.

Now, I was raised Jewish, although my family was never very religious in the least bit.  We more or less just went through the motions and traditions, because well, that’s what most Jews do.

Nevertheless, I was ingrained with certain ideas as a child.  For one thing, using the phrase “god damn it” or “god damn this” or “god damn that” —- weren’t exactly encouraged in my household.  In fact, I could remember my mother scolding me for occasionally using such phrases.  She told me I’d be punished by god if I continued to say such things.

Anyway, flash forward to the present — today I consider myself an “agnostic Jew” — meaning basically I identify myself with the Jewish people, despite at least questioning the idea that a god exists in the first place.  But if I had to put money on it, I’d bet that there is no god.  Maybe some singular force of nature did indeed get the universe rolling, but surely there is no old man in the sky aware of my every move and thought.

I mean, I consider myself a pretty reasonable and rational person, but even today after I hear myself blurt out something like “Godammit, I don’t think the Mets are going to be very good in 2012″ — I feel a bit of regret afterward.  As if god (Mets fan or not) is now mad at me because I said such things.

It’s interesting though to think about that something my mom said to me as kid still has such an effect on me even to this day, as a fully-grown fairly-reasonable adult.  I guess the lesson here is one should never underestimate the power religiousness and god-lingo has on a young mind.

If a theist feels the maximum amount of guilt after blurting out a “godammit,” and an atheist feel no guilt whatsoever, where does that leave me?  I guess my real question is, now as adult agnostic, am I supposed to feel a little bad each time I say “godammit” or should I just feel guilty —– say, after every other time I use the phrase “godammit” ?…