I invite people and my friends to read this discussion on dating. It’s of a European asking Americans what dating means, because dating as Americans call it doesn’t really exist in Europe. I discovered this cultural gap while in Germany. We were at a concert for Maxïmo Park and the lead singer was explaining one of their songs, and referred to dating as an American term.
Category Rant
Days later, I feel less mad and more relieved. Here’s why, Packer fans.
Most fans are ready to hit the panic button on Coach McCarthy and the Packers... (Photo: AP Photo/Mike Roemer)
(This article has also been featured on PackersLounge, hopefully the first of many from me, check out the site.)
Week 1. The Packers host the Chicago Bears for what would be my first Packer game at Lambeau field. Its true, I grew up a Packer fan in Wisconsin and never once been in the stadium. All my life, I’ve heard about Lambeau being being the mecca of the NFL. A stadium incomparable to any other, simply the best. I often wondered what it would be like, post-Favre era. But in all reality, I didn’t care. I didn’t care about the stadium, all I cared about was the team and how they were going to win as a team.
The Packers knocked the Bears off with a 21-15 win. A grand experience, regardless the fact there were so many smartass Bears fans. I was proud of my Pack, and delighted to see a standing ovation for Aaron Rodgers and the team.
The win came with its problems. Everyone…everyone pin-pointed our troubles on Allen Barbre. No one else was to blame. All Barbre, all the time. It was a leak that needed to be plugged for Week 2.
Unfortunately for us, we found the Packer basement flooded. It was brutal as well as frustrating last Sunday against the Bengals. We found nothing worked. Passes dropped, penalty flags thrown, quarterback sacked, and we face-planted on the wrong side of the score. We realized that these problems were more than just Barbre, who a week ago the media and fans lambasted. He played reasonably well compared to everyone else. I found Aaron Rodgers losing confidence in his line, his recievers, and eventually himself as time expired.
My brothers who went with me to the game at Lambeau also watched it with me this past weekend. We rarely get together these days as we live far apart, but the Packers have brought us together. This weekend, we felt let down. I spent hours being mopey more than usual after a Packer loss. Like any other, I knew the sun always rises the next day. It still didn’t stop me from wanting to hit the panic button.
The panic button. It’s the button that button the Vikings fans push too often, and its the button the Packer fans rarely ever push. When you know your team goes 0-4, you push it. When your star player falls to injury, you push it. When everything you thought right goes wrong, you push it. It is simple. I seen across the interwebs that every Tom, Dick, and Larry was pushing it for the Packers. I was too.
Giving it a few days, I realized something: It was the first time the Packers have lost as a team.
I stand by this statement. I could be wrong about this, but it is something I finally realize after a few days of sobering up. All these years, the blame has lied on individuals, fundamentals, defense, offense, Ahmad Carroll, coaches, coordinators….the list goes on. Last year, we blamed the defense for our woes. Sure there a few outspoken individuals who place it all on Ted Thompson for the lost to the Bengals, but I think a majority of the Packer nation don’t agree, and the players don’t agree either.
Nick Barnett was irritated with fans after the loss for this celebration. I understand where he is coming from and how emotional he is. Greg Jennings yelled at the officials, not once, but twice. Greg Jennings doesn’t strike me as a guy to raise his voice, and it was different that he would, but I understand. Aaron Rodgers had a tone of voice, and was the first to criticize the entire team, and I understand. Mike McCarthy seemed more frustrated about the team than simply ‘pad level’. I understand.
They–more than probably us fans know–that this Packer football team is better than what they have showcased these past two games. You can blame the media-hype of the preseason. But the Packer players are blaming themselves instead of each other.
Oooo shit, here he comes! (Photo: AP)
The 3rd-and-34 is bad. They know it.
The 5 sacks is bad. They know it.
The first loss is bad, and they know it.
We are all shell-shocked. But, now I see a fire burning in each player. I’m not going to compare this team to another team. I’m not going to compare this season to another season. As Aaron Rodgers said, Charles Woodson played his ass off. He was in on every play, and he knows this team is better than what they show.
More than anything, a team that goes down together is going to rise together.
I don’t mean for this post to be preachy, uplifting, or cheesey. I’m not trying to tell you ‘don’t panic’. I just want to convey how I feel right now. My disappointment has turned to hope. I think we needed this loss more than anything. Our 3-4 isn’t going to be our savior. Aaron Rodgers isn’t going to pass our way to victory. This is a young team yearning for something more than a perfect record. I could be wrong, but I know that I am not. There is 14 games left, That’s 14 chances to win, not 14 chances to blow.
I can’t tell you if we are going to march into St. Louis and blow them out of Edwards Jones stadium. But, I can bet that the Packers are going to fight with a passion we didn’t see last year, win or lose.
Ain’t no party like a Boston Tea Party
courtesty of shirt.woot.com
That’s what these group of people like to think they can live up to. Ultimately, they have failed miserably. They are championing “fiscal conservatism” and cheering for lower taxes and lower spending. My question is, where were these people protesting President Bush and the Republicans when they were in office? Yeah, they lowered taxes, but he increased spending….BY A LOT. This is one reason I cannot get behind these Tea-Partiers. These hypocrites are just playing the field because there is a Democrat in office. The same people who feel that ‘Obama is the Anti-Christ’. Oh boy…like I haven’t heard that one before. I had to put up with liberals telling me Bush is the anti-christ, and not I have to put up with these so-called conservatives telling me Obama is the anti-Christ.
I usually give people the benefit of the doubt, but lately, I feel like revoking that privilege because of a few people who like to run off with their mouth. In the past week, I have been stepping up and calling people on their bullshit. People who run their mouths a lot are just people who don’t listen. If you met me in person, I do a lot less talking (and a lot more singing–badly) and more listening and perhaps tuning out. I don’t like to talk/argue in conversations about politics because of the nature of it. Naturing being that people will say something completely absurd because they can’t mentally process the information given to them. Hence, why I don’t say anything, and hence why people listen to talking heads such as Keith Olbermann or Rush Limbaugh for examples.
Generally, that is how I feel about these Tea-Parties. They don’t even understand their own position, but they know it feels right. These Tea-Partiers are just late to the party–no pun intended. They are directing their anger at Barack Obama because they feel it is happening now, even though it always has been.
....Obama Joker??
Also, it doesn’t help the Tea Party’s cause that they were trying to solicit Sarah Palin into being their leader. Perhaps the biggest stain on political history wasn’t on Monica Lewinski’s dress, but rather on the Republican presidential hopes in 2008, and these people want it to be their leader. Not only does she have a reputation of being a brat, she also has a reputation of being an idiot. I mean, if her bashing of France’s supposed ‘death panels, or RESIGNING as Governor, or her claim of being able to see “Russia” from her house didn’t tip you off, then you are in for a real treat. You might be fortunate to know that Elmo is a real animal and he lives just down the road on Seasame Street.
Finally, the coup d’état of the reason to join the Tea Partiers is the entire events were planned and organized by FreedomWorks. I guess the entire idea of “grassroots” movements can just be bought and sold like anything else apparently. Hell, if I had as much money as the Koch family does, I could buy my own country. Tax-Free nation and all.
P.S. And where do we get off on parodying the Joker to lambast Obama? Wasn’t this drollery already cleared up by Tony Pierce of the LA Times? Guess not, as people are still using it (see recent protest photo above). The photo has just about as much emotional impact on me as if it was a Smurf-parody of Obama. Its silly. Add that as another reason to not get caught up in this “party”.
What does “Minneapolis” stand for? REDUX: or “How I picked up a sense of humor and loved Wamzlee.com”
Recently an internet user stopped by my site to leave a comment on my rant on Minneapolis. The comment wasn’t so much critical as it was a cheap shot at my “ignorance” as he put it. The comment to me was laughable, and really wasn’t worth much of my time, as he completely missed the kind-of-subtle humor in my rant. I resorted to a pokemon type- battle in my response to him, mainly for my own amusement. However, I recently became perturbed by an article about a father being branded a pervert for taking photos of his own children playing in a park. Long story short, a woman running an inflatable slide and a woman bystander thought the guy was a pedophile and was taking photos of children for his own sexual urges instead of an innocent family photo album. I don’t see anything wrong with the women being concerned, but when they are clearly proven wrong in front of their face, they refuse to believe the father and insist he is still a pervert.
Similar to the sovenouir hat I own.
Then today. My roommate’s father was helping put in new windows in my room. He saw my Russian souvenir hat I picked up at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin. He turned to me and said, “What the hell is this? Are you some kind of communist?” I laughed and said it was just a souvenir. It was clear he was disturbed, and later I asked his son what else he said. Basically said I was crazy and messed up. …mmm, definitely wasn’t a compliment. Guess he didn’t get the memo that the USSR ended in 1991. I was a little upset, not because I was called something I’m not, but I could have had more fun with him by putting on a Borat impression of some sort.
So how does this all tie together? Well, let’s look at user JS’s comment.
“Minneapolis doesn’t have a Greek meaning, or Swedish translation. It is what it was always meant to be.”
Your blatant ignorance of the Native American origins of that word strikes me as racist.
He quotes my post’s last sentence and accuses me of not researching the real origins of name Minneapolis. I will admit that I didn’t research it. Guilty as charged. But what JS doesn’t know and failed to notice was that my question of “what does Minneapolis stand for?” was that of a rhetorical one.
Commenter JS stopped short of calling me a racist, but suggested strongly that I may be racists towards Native Americans. Now, I have no idea how he devolved my rant on how much I hate the way Minneapolis does their business into a racist slur. Also, he argues that not knowing the etymology of Minneapolis means I’m a racist. To me, that is like saying I don’t know what amber bock is and that makes me a teetotaler. His statement doesn’t make any sense, and I think he might know that. That is why I didn’t want to donate more time than I needed in response to his argument.
But then I realized I would be missing out on an opportunity to out a race-baiter. A race-baiter is simply someone who abuses the word racist in an effort to save the position they were defending. In layman’s terms, he called me a racist because he was unable to contribute to any side of an argument. I realized that I wasn’t do any better because I didn’t respond seriously.
So, after he made that comment. I did google search the origin of Minneapolis. I didn’t expect to find what I did, but I felt the sweet taste of vindication. JS comment suggests a deep, Native American cultural name to Minneapolis, but he will be quite shocked to find out he is wrong.
Charles Hoag was the city of Minneapolis’s first school master, second Treasurer of Hennepin County and a classical scholar.
Look at this history.
Charles Hoag is said to have played a central role in the naming of the city of Minneapolis. … Hoag was thinking about Indianapolis and having been trying to form a word from Indian suffixes decided on the Greek “polis,” meaning city, joined with part of Minnehaha which was and is mistakenly thought to be Dakota for “laughing water” but really means something closer to “curling water” or “waterfall” (see Minnehaha Falls). The next morning he had an article published with Mr. Bowman’s help that proposed the name Minnehapolis, explaining that the “h” was silent.
source: Minnesota Historical Society via Wikipedia
Yes. The name Minneapolis came not from Native Americans themselves, but from a white man who envied the name of Indianapolis, thus butchering a Native American word in the process. Its funny, because Indiana is a politically incorrect word to describe Native Americans.
Clearly, JS himself was “blatantly ignorant” to the origin of the word Minneapolis. I guess that might strike me as a hypocrite….or dare I say it, a racist?!?
And now for the cherry on top of this delicious sundae that JS has allowed me to make. I am of Native American descent. I had a great-great-great grandmother who survived the Bad Axe Massacre, and was adopted by a group of white settlers. It is a story I wish to share and hope to transcribe from an old newspaper. Sure, I may not be a modern day Native American, but I can tell JS that my grandmother was definitely around during the naming of Minneapolis, a time when her people were getting scalped and slaughtered. A time when people like Charles Hoag robbed the Native Americans of their land and resources and the only way to show appreciation was to name a damn settlement after them.
So what did we learn today? We learned that people are blinded by their own self-righteousness that they don’t realize how selfish and foolish they are being. It’s time for people to quit viewing the world as communism and capitalism, friend or stranger, bad or good.
What does the word “Minneapolis” stand for?
This past weekend I ventured North to Maple Grove, a suburb of Minneapolis. I often cringed at the thought of coming anywhere close to that city. If you have never been to Minneapolis, consider yourself more fortunate than most.
The year is 2009, The Jetsons promised us flying cars and devices that make our poo vaporize. However, I feel the city of Minneapolis has been holding itself out for technology to catch up to such remarkable achievements in consumerism. What the city failed to realize is that The Jetsons was merely a cartoon…there are no flying cars and we have yet to break the poo barrier.
Roughly two months ago, construction began on interstate 94. I was not made aware of this in advance, nor was I made aware of it 2 seconds before I had to make a last second decision whether I had to take an off ramp for in hopes of detour or risk falling off the face of the earth. Of course, traffic was horrendous with people not knowing what the fuck to do. Somehow I ended up in the projects, fearing that my little Ford Escort with Wisconsin Badger bumper stickers wouldn’t survive a couple gun shots to the hood. I drive around a bit, and head back to the highway 94 signs, because afterall, you’d think they would lead you back to a detour route. This wasn’t the case. Minneapolis road signs informed you that 94 was indeed open for business and that no such detours were needed. I found myself back at the on-ramp for 94, but barricades blocked me.
Now what?
My only options was to drive back through the projects, hoping you find a ramp onto some highway…ANY highway.
It’s been a two months since the incident, which I made it out alive. This past weekend I knew I would face a similar scenario However, things were different. Minneapolis warned me in advance of my arrival that 94 was indeed closed. Detour signs were posted. “HOORAY!” was my thinking. Did the city finally realize their failure and corrected their mistake? I was almost over-confident and over-joyed. Thoughts of blog posts praising the city bounced around my head. “Minneapolis catapulted into 21st-century road construction strategy” was one headline I conjured up.
(Let me mention that detours are infamously known for being inconvenient in terms of re-routes. Although shorter routes exist, detours are meant to divert traffic flow so that there minimal congestion (lol wut), but still get you to your destination.
Of course….this is not Minneapolis’s definition of a detour. )
I was impressed that Minneapolis finally figured out a detour, so with curiosity at my side, I decided to try the route, to see what path the city had in store for me. I drove along a beautiful road, the name slips me. A came across a ramp to get on 100, figuring it would lead me past the construction on 94, but the detour signs told me to continue my course. I obeyed. I looked at my map and seen that 169 had to be the highway the detour would take me. Sure enough…it wasn’t. The detour signs ensured me they were not liars, and that my turn would be sooner rather than later.
I then considered that 494 would be the highway I would need to exit on, but the detour signs were growing irritated of my disobedience. With a quick slap to the face, I was ordered to take an immediate right turn onto some street by the detour signs. I scratched my head as I turned onto what appeared to be a road for a couple gas stations and thats about it.
I drove a ways more, figuring it would be a nonstop path to freedom…saftey…and eventually water. My car came to a stop. I shut the engine off. I exited my car, leaving my door ajar. I crept towards the front, gazing at what I had just seen.
A dead end.
But it wasn’t any sort of dead end, it was a realization. A realization that Minneapolis is not a city to be trusted. A realization that a city that can’t build roads, bridges, or even careers, doesn’t want a person like me. The city isn’t meant to be a beginning, it is meant to be an end. It is where quarterbacks go to end their career of misery, it is where washed up media personalities go to be useless politicians.
The detour wasn’t meant to be an alternative to my destination, it was meant to be a message to me that I am not ready for Minneapolis and that I may never be. It wanted me to get as far away as possible, that I am young, and it wished for me to be forever young.
Minneapolis doesn’t have a Greek meaning, or Swedish translation. It is what it was always meant to be.