Kelly Smith Weblog Aficionado: Just a guy vs. Life

The lexicon of Alexandra.... I sit and listen to the words that my daughter is saying, and I am amazed at how much she has grown. I remember when I held her for the first time, I thought about all of the "firsts" that we would experience together. Namely her first word. In a way, I had imagined that it would be some glorious moment out of the blue where I would here her say something clear and coherent out of the blue. "Hey Renee! The baby just said, 'machine oil!' Yeah right.....Now that she is saying words, I can't recall what her first one was, or when she said it. It turns out that Alexandra understands most sentences and phrases that I use. The only problem is that I can't understand what she is saying. In fact, all of the cute cooing and gurgling that I thought she was doing just for the heck of it was more than likely an attempt at communication. Unfortunately I was too dull to catch on. However, as of late I have made it a point to ...

Am"Bush"ed Our President went to Great Britain in hopes of bolstering a continued alliance and support from our neighbors from across the pond. There seems to not only be a great deal of Anti-Bush sentiment, but Anti-American sentiment as well. While I would agree that this is not as bad as what we have to deal with from the French or the Germans, but it is scathing nonetheless. I won't give you my opinion as to whether or not we should have deposed Saddam Hussein as leader of Iraq, but I will say that the United States is in a position where we absolutely cannot pull out. We have to keep going forward. This past drill at my National Guard Unit, we were assisting one of our line units who has been activated for deployment. So, a second trip to Iraq seems like it could some day become a reality for me. I would really hate to go, but I would. One thing that I have to say is that I wish that the world would pull together and look at the good that can come out o...

Mike Check It seems that Michael Jackson has once again been accused of inappropriate contact with a child. I was really incensed when the investigation of the previous allegations against Michael halted after the parents in question received a settlement. In my opinion if you have reason to believe that an adult had some sort of sexual contact with your child, and you will accept "hush money", then you may as well don the red coat, white hat with blue feather, and drive a Cadillac with Zebra skin seat covers. To me, the first claimants were nothing but pimps. There is no amount of money on earth that could appease me. If I couldn't get my hands around Mike's throat I would want him in jail. We, as black people, have the tendency to circle the wagons when "one of our own" is threatened. However, wrong is wrong, no matter what. I know that some people are wrongly accused of crimes, but a great deal of the time "where there is smoke, there ...

The Doves and the Hawks... The Doves and the Hawks have squawked just a wee bit too much for me as of late. With troops getting killed by the day, I think that we are past the point where we argue about whether or not this is a just war. The fact of the matter is that no matter what the cause, we are in it, and we cannot just pack up and leave. I really think that the focus needs needs to be on how we are going to straighten this mess out. Oliver had a nice piece on his weblog about how many of the so-called hawks mustered support for the war from the safety of their keyboards. While I did find this to be amusing, I noted that some bloggers who claimed to have been in Iraq at some time took offense to that matter. In fact, there was one poster who commented on Oliver's blog named "Gimp". From the way Gimp described himself and told of his failed attempt to enlist, we can see that his moniker was aptly selected. Anyway, gimp called him a few names, and brough...

Not nice.....but she spoke.... This morning my daughter was extremely fussy and whiney while my wife was doing her hair. She squealed, and strained, and whined and cried out trying to free herself from my wife's grasp. She has become quite willful as of late, and doesn't like to be held for very long. She really hasn't tried to articulate any thoughts to us verbally, more often than not, she will attempt to repeat things that we say...."Say, Mommy?...Say, Daddy?.....Say, Cookie?" You know how it goes. The teacher's at my daughter's daycare have a policy of not saying, "NO!" When they have to calm a child down, they simply say, "Not nice". They do this by shaking their index finger in a disapproving way and shaking their heads. Obviously my daughter has been called down quite a bit, or else has witnessed another child being disciplined. (I choose to believe the latter, because my daughter is obviously the best child in the w...

Traffic school actually taught me something.... I was the proud recipient of a speeding ticket a few months ago, and I was required to attend traffic school. All day today I sulked while thinking about the roughly four hours in which I would have to be subjected to gory traffic films and monotone lecture of the instructor, and the incessant protestations of "I shouldn't be here" by fellow attendees. What I found was absolutely nothing of the kind. My instructor only identified himself as "Mr. Peach". Mr. Peach chose to talk about life in general for the majority of the instruction time, and he loosely associated it with driving responsibility. Of all of the things he spoke about regarding life, the thing that stuck out in my mind was his insistence that patience and wise decision-making was the key to a happy life. He stated that he thought that the 60's were a time of rebellion, the 70's were a time of disillusionment, the 80's were a ...

Oh shutup Mayor Bloomberg, you need your ass kicked too!! [Man, read this article about how NY Mayor Bloomberg said he would have prosecuted Pedro Martinez for throwing Don Zimmer to the ground. This is B.S.] SAD STATE: Teary-eyed Yank coach Don Zimmer yesterday says, "I'm embarrassed for the Yankees, I'm embarrassed for the Red Sox, I'm embarrassed for . . . my family." - N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg Whatever dude...you're embarassed because you came running out on that field like you were an extra in "Braveheart", and you got manhandled on national television. I know that this is the PC world where everyone is touchy feely and we can't hurt anyone's feelings, but this is ridiculous. Mayor Bloomberg had the audacity, the gall, the utter nerve to say that Pedro Martinez would have been prosecuted for throwing Zimmer to the ground during the fight. What about Zimmer? He decided to attack Martinez and was slung to th...

Man...what the hell is going on? I was searching for something to watch on television the other day and flipped to the cable guide. As the endless channels of drivel slowly scrolled by, the "Playas Guide to...." caught my eye. Out of a morbid sense of curiosity I flipped to MTV or VH1. Hell, I can't tell which is which anymore, except I think VH1 actually plays music videos........ Anyway, this show called the "Playas Guide", basically critiques movies, songs, television shows, or actual events that influence "Pop Culture", On this particular day, being that the 20th anniversary of a famous Brian DePalma film had rolled around, they were critiquing Scarface . The panel of sophisticates included none other than, Scarface, Ice Cube, Raekwon (Of the Wu Tang Clan fame), and a few other rappers whose faces blend into the myriad of typecast studio machismo. What was most disturbing was the fact that all of these people talked about this movie as i...

Pimp Juice anyone? I really can't believe that this is going to hit the markets. While I do admire the business savvy of today's stars, I think that we have become to complacent with the moral relativism of our society. Pimp is a bad term, no matter what the connotation. And, the idea of our youth, more importantly, my kids walking around with cans of "Pimp Juice" makes me shudder. Look at the can..... The font inscription is reminiscent of those oh-so-unforgettable, but yet we would love to forget 1970's. Too bad that kids nowadays look at the word "pimp", and they think of something "cool", "hip", or "stylish". I think it is really pathetic when you think about who a real pimp is, and what a real pimp does. pimp ( P ) Pronunciation Key (pimp) n. One who finds customers for a prostitute; a procurer. intr.v. pimped, pimp·ing, pimps To serve as a procurer of prostitutes. I needn't w...

A very, very, very bad Daddy...... Second child caught in apparent murder-suicide dies Police: Father intentionally drove SUV into truck Tuesday, September 16, 2003 Posted: 6:36 PM EDT (2236 GMT) You can view the article in its entirety here . Stories like this utterly disgust me. This guy is worse than Susan Smith, if such an analogy is even possible. Apparently this guy was going through a divorce with his wife of 10 years, and things were not going his way. In an apparent suicide note he laments about not getting a job, and makes the bizarre statement that if he is not there to raise his kids, then "nobody would". I cannot imagine a person being cruel enough to hurt a child. Any child, let alone your own flesh and blood. Apparently he drowned his two year old daughter and attempted to drown his 4 year old son. Then the genius takes the other two kids in his SUV and pulls out in front of a tractor trailer that is hauling cars. Un-be-liev-a-ble. He ...

Two years and counting... Today is September 11th, 2003. Most of us realize that this is the second anniversary of those horrific attacks that killed approximately 3,000 American citizens in New York, D.C., and Pennsylvania. Since that time, American Forces have swept across the Middle East, toppling tyrannical regimes and attempting to bring peace and order to the region. "The War on Terror". That seems to be the catch phrase that everyone uses to describe what many believe is protection against radical islamic extremists. However, we are not winning the war, not on terror at least. Yes, we did beat the Taliban, we crushed Saddam's best troops, and we have begun to round up lunatic after lunatic. However, we are still terrified. So much so that we question the sincerity of our government's efforts. We are terrified about money, terrified about how thin our Army is being stretched. We fear that today there could be an attack by Al-Qaeda that could commem...

Bad Daddy... Okay, the only reason that I am sharing this experience with you lucky viewers is the fact that I finally had the nerve to tell my wife about this. I often hear about people doing such ridiculous things as "forgetting to take their kids out of the car in the summertime, and coming out and finding them dead in the car seats later in the afternoon." I often scoff when I hear these reports and say, "How could you forget your child in the car?" Well, I had a similar situation, although I did not forget my child in the car, or anywhere else for that matter, but I thought that I had forgotten her. My wife went out of town to visit a friend of hers from College. The boys were at their grandmother's house for the week, so it was just me and my daughter Alexandra(Alex) for a few days. Since we were running low on food, I decided to go grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. After I wandered aimlessly from shelf to shelf for about an hour, I figured I h...

Is it ever enough? We often ask ourselves and others the question. "Is it ever enough?" This is very poignant. Do we ever do enough? Do we ever do enough for others? Are our expectations ever met? Do we meet others expectations? I suppose it is all relative, both in situation and in perspective. I wonder will it ever be enough, I wonder that on a daily basis. Will my expectations ever be met? Are they too high? Are the demands that I place upon those that are close to me too much? Perhaps, but hell....who knows? Do I do my part? Of course everyone always feels as if they do their part, but really? Aren't self-evaluations the most deluded and skewed? Over the past few weeks, a number of things have happened that are of some merit. I was commissioned as an Officer in the United States Army National Guard. My daughter turned a year old. I started back working on my Master's degree. I started working on a Management Trainee Program, and there may...

The evolution of trash talking... I always wondered why people talk trash so much in regard to sports. Warren Sapp appears to be the undisputed king of trash talking. He has often been seen standing over his victims spewing taunts about what horrific damage he has done to them after he hits them. I always thought that this was perhaps the machismo of high paid professional athletes, and the lax standards of sportsmanship that the NFL allows. But, while helping coach Devons JV youth football league team I see that the trash talk starts much earlier. In fact, you needn't be a superstar who always performs, you only need to do one good thing at any given time to talk trash. You could be the kind of receiver who ordinarily couldn't catch a cold, but if you happen to catch a pass and get by the corner back then you have license to talk trash. Here are some of the things that I have heard uttered on the field by nine and ten year olds. Runningack: I shook you like a we...

Feel homesick...just don't feel unappreciated. You most certainly are not. Unfortunately it seems that there are aggressive actions perpetrated against our troops on a daily basis. The length of time the troops have been there, and the different type of action that they have had to endure has made it very difficult for them to stay motivated. Reporters are telling us about how their hearts aren't in it. People can point the finger at Bush I suppose, everyday I hear the growing discontentment with the lack of substantive proof of weapons of mass destruction. My, oh my. Who would have thought that we would ever be back in Iraq. Much less occupying it with troops. Troops that are facing a faceless enemy who employs guerilla tactics. I can't imagine what the men must be going through. Having to worry so much everyday, and having to see their fellow soldiers killed and maimed. They do what they can to keep one another's spirits up, but that nagging feeli...

Keri is so very.....dangerous I woke up this morning and took a shower. Once I got out I looked around for my lotion. No Vaseline Intensive care to be found. I saw a bottle of Renee's Keri lotion and smelled it. Hmm.....not girly smelling at all. This will work. I applied a generous amount to the palm of my hands and began working it into the skin on my arms, back of my hands, and my face. Man. That stuff goes a long way, I had too much on, so I had to towel off again so I wouldn't be too greasy. I finished getting the kids stuff together and headed for work. As I sped along the interstate, I decided to roll the windows down and save the AC. Apparently there is something in the air that I am allergic to, so I sneezed a couple of times, but not too bad. After I sneezed I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. Suddenly my eyes began to burn and sting, then they began to water. I wiped the water from my eyes with my hand, and they began to burn twice as bad. ...

Last monthly drill... Believe it or not I am at my monthly drill for the National Guard. This is the last monthly drill that I will be involved in before I head to Phase III of OCS. We are here updating administrative information, so I have access to the internet. I am kind of worried about how things are going back at home. My wife is helping her family with a family reunion back in Lexington, and I am not sure how much work is going to fall on her shoulders. There are a lot of things that need to be done, and I wish I was there with her now to help out. This is one of the drawbacks to my reentry into military life. Before, when I was young and single, I hadn't a care in the world as to where I went, or how long I went. I do enjoy military training, however, I am always wondering what my family is doing. This year when I go to Phase III training, I will be feeling a lot better than last year. Last year my wife was 7 months pregnant, and I was terrified that she was g...

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Alex... The other night I borrowed a DVD copy of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" from my brother-in-law Roger. I sat on the couch in the TV room upstairs and began to get lost in the action of the movie. One thing cool about DVD's is the fact that you can change the languages spoken in the movies. Nowadays the language change is almost seamless as compared to the voiceover material of the 1970's Kung Fu flicks. So I sat upstairs watching it, and Alex sat on my lap sucking her thumb and staring intently at the television screen. She lost interest and began to whine and clamor to get down on the floor. I set her on the carpet between my feet, and she began to play with a stuffed animal. Suddenly during a high-flying action scene Alex stood up and held onto the edge of a clothes basket and began to yell at the characters flying and fighting across the screen. She lashed out quickly with her foot and fell on her back. I scooped her up...

Happy Birthday, Renee! Today is my wife's birthday. I already gave her a gift last night, I bought her a copy of Hillary Rodham Clinton's "Living History". Unfortunately we couldn't wake up together this morning, she spent the night at her mother's house to give her a hand with the preparations for this weekend's family reunion. The one thing that her mother wanted us to do was to change the linen on the bed in the spare bedroom. I am betting that this bed is well over 120 years old. Renee's grandmother and all of her siblings were born on this bed, and it has been handed down from generation to generation. The actual matress sits much higher off the ground than most beds do, and it is an odd-size. It's size rests uncomfortably between a queen and a full size. Renee and I went into the back bedroom which had been closed so as to save the amount of space that the window air conditioner had to cool. The moment we opened the door, a bla...

Strom Thurmond is dead... Many people are observing the passing of Strom Thurmond with mixed feelings. A lot of my friends seem to be rejoicing as if an evil dictator has been deposed. If we look at his past words and actions, it is easy to see why some blacks may not think too fondly of Strom Thurmond. I am not sure what to think, actually. As a Christian, I know it is not good to harbor hate for anyone, no matter how reprehensible their behavior has been in the past. I was reading a Slate article about him, and they spoke about how no official apology for his past behavior was ever rendered. However, there seemed to be an "unspoken" apology that his fellow conservatives voiced for him over and over. What was once an unspoken rumor of his biracial daughter has come to light in news services as well. It would seem that his past disdain, or need for seperation from the black race was not quite so urgent at one point in time. He fathered a child with a black ho...