Ancient AfroSquad video from back in the day

While digging in the underbelly of the Internet, way below the Prime Meridian, far below where Optimus Prime dare go, I found an ancient video. I dusted it off, gave it two blows to the nose, and checked the scrolls. It was a sign by the AfroSquad forefathers, who couldn't decide among the four of them who the daddy was. So they dropped this piece of funktasticalness on the world. It's so funky it makes your grandmother swap out her gym socks.

Check, check, check it out.



Seven years ago, the founders of the AfroSquad posted this. Hard to believe youtube has been around that long. Yet The Man still prevails.

AfroSquad for life.

George Clinton and the Funky Seminoles

Last week, Father of the Funk, the great George Clinton was spotted at a Florida State Seminoles basketball game. GC was getting funky and getting in rhythm with the rest of the Seminole faithful, doing the Tomahawk Chop.



From the reports, George Clinton is friends with FSU basketball coach Leonard Hamilton. After the game, George Clinton took to his twitter to retweet many fans who tweeted their excitement at having the music legend at the game. There aren't many celebrities in Tallahassee, but Clinton has called it home for over ten years. Great to see him interacting with one of the local universities.

This is the first I have heard of George Clinton being at a Tallahassee sporting event. I wonder if he goes to FAMU games at all. Either way, I hope he goes to more. It would be great to have the funk helping out the Seminoles.


On the subject of George Clinton and his musical legacy, here is an interesting article about Afrofuturism - the use of sci-fi in black culture from Sun Ra to Parliament-Funkadelic to modern artists. Interesting read.

Gotta have that funk.

Commenting on Jedi Compentency

I've been meaning to comment on this link for a while. Way back in September, I discovered this great blog on the least competent Jedi in the Star Wars galaxy. Granted, it only talks about the "publicly known" Jedi, but it does mention some Extended Universe Jedi. It is an interesting list.

The 9 Least Competent Jedi

Everyone associated with Anakin Skywalker is listed at the top of the list. Except Anakin himself. Which is kinda weird. It is almost as if he is exempt from the list.

Yet he is quite incompetent himself. After all, he went to the dark side. He slaughtered Tuskin Raiders. He murdered a bunch of kids.

But here I have to add to the incompetency of the Jedi Council. How did Yoda let Anakin get away with murdering Tuskin Raiders? He felt the disturbance in the Force. He knew it happened. Why was Anakin never asked about this by the council? Even worse, Anakin admitted his actions to a member of the Senate. Padme knew what he did and never told anyone. Not even Obi-Wan. Was she afraid they would suspend Anakin? That's what should have happened. Unless Padme  had little concern for the Sand People.

JUSTICE FOR THE SAND PEOPLE!

Here is an entire bulletin board conversation about the topic of Anakin and the Sand People. Interesting read.

So put me in the camp of those who think Yoda had a touch of incompetence.

The analysis of Luke Skywalker is also quite interesting. The rescue of Han Solo was unnecessarily complicated. Perhaps Luke doubted his ability to go in to Jabba's palace, kick ass, and rescue Han. Perhaps Leia was the only one who knew the code to unfreeze the carbonite - possible but unlikely considering it came from Lando's Cloud City. Chewbacca probably wanted in so bad, he wouldn't let the mission go forth without being a part. Interesting how he his confidence in Luke's plan has grown since the Death Star rescue plan in A New Hope - where Chewie was also a prisoner.

The strongest being on your team, and your plan (Twice!) is to put him in shackles. Makes perfect sense.

Sure, Luke wouldn't want to involve the entire Rebel Alliance in rescuing a former smuggler who really had little achievements outside of the Battle of Yavin at that point, but think about how his father would have faced Jabba. It would have been much different. Granted, Luke was never as strong as Anakin in the movies. Anakin was much more polished and stronger with the Force.

Maybe Luke wasn't much of a leader yet. Maybe everyone piled in their ideas and did what they wanted to do. Then when he realized no one else's plan worked, Luke walked into Jabba's palace and rescued everyone. Although the placement of the droids before Leia and Chewbacca does sort of counter that theory. Unless Artoo did in fact play "the wrong message".

Although, what if Jabba had traded the carbonite slab for the droids? Droids would have been much easier to rescue. They could have easily snuck themselves out. Not that hard. C-3P0 and R2-D2 had been in worse predicaments.

So Luke is not as good a planner as we thought, Yoda isn't a smart as we thought, and Qui-Gon's faults are pretty obvious.

Maybe the Jedi are indeed incompetent.

My new labor of love

It's been awfully quiet here lately. Tragically quiet. One might think I am trying to commit blog suicide. I swear I am not.

The reason this blog has been so barren of late is because I started a new online endeavor. I bought a new site domain and everything. And since February 1st, I've posted over 40 times there.

So I've been writing. A lot. And doing quite a bit of math and statistical analysis there as well. The type of stuff that just doesn't jive over here.

So far, Tampa Bay Baseball Market has been a success. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback by some really smart people. People are digging my deep-dive into the wonderful and wacky world of the Tampa Bay Rays attendance. Of course there are some who think I will find some magic panacea for why plagues the Rays attendance. There are not going to be happy.

There is no magic bullet theory.

What plagues Rays attendance is a lot of little things - from location of the park to who they are playing to day of the week to traffic to many other things. The whole thing is a paradox folded in a conundrum squashed in a dilemma. It's not easy and it is requiring a lot of work.

Hence I haven't been here filling these pages with witty banter.

In other news, I am starting to write query letters to get my first fiction book out published. I need to get that done. The book has been sitting semi-complete for too long. And I think people will enjoy it.

Add that to the list of things I am doing. Along with school (finance kicked my butt!), looking for a job, and other creative endeavors. I need to get comedy on that list as well. I miss going to the Tampa Improv for open mics. I miss writing creatively, shooting for humor on occasion.

I miss writing here.

Never fear, dear long time reader, I will have more posts soon. This month will not set the record for fewest posts. Even if it is a link dump of stuff I find interesting, you will get something here.

I promise.

The Origins of Jordi Scrubbings and his Afro

Ever wonder how I came up with the name Jordi Scrubbings?

Ever wonder why I wear an afro?

Buddy of the Blog Clark Brooks wondered that as well. And Clark did something about it. He invited me on to his podcast, The Ridiculously Inconsistent Podcast, which oddly enough has been ridiculously consistent since it began in January. But that's Clark's irony, right there. Who else would say his podcast and blog for that matter are inconsistent, yet post on both regularly?

Seems he should celebrate his consistency, not his inconsistency. Well, at least he is ridiculous. That is true.

I am not so sure about the trickle. Clark is a bit older than I am, but his trickling is a personal issue I am not sure I want to talk to him about.

But back to the podcast!

Clark had me on his podcast (did I mention that already?). It was the first podcast I have been on in a while and it was the first I have ever been on in person. Clark has a radio-like set-up and it's quite snazzy. And he is sponsored! Which means he may or may not be making money on the deal.

Too bad I don't have an appearance fee.

But anyway, I was on Clark's podcast. We talked the origin of the name "Jordi Scrubbings", why I wear an afro, my recent lack of comedy, my worst comedy performance ever, my new blog, my current blog, baseball, and how years ago I got really sick after a night of drinking.

It was a great time.

You can find the podcast on itunes by clicking the underlined letters, under the name

An interview with triple or quadruple threat Michael Lortz aka “that kid with the Afro wig”

Did I mention Clark is older than me? I think that's why he thinks he can call me "kid".

Hopefully, maybe, one day, if the planets align correctly, and the sun shines right, perhaps Clark will have me back.

Reactions to The Lego Movie

I've been told I think too much. That I dissect things I like into little itty bitty pieces. So of course, it stands to reason I would take apart and dissect 2014's biggest movie so far, The Lego Movie.

Because Legos are supposed to be taken apart into itty bitty pieces.

I went into the theater thinking The Lego Movie was going to be a mindless kids' movie with great animation and offbeat humor. I had seen the Star Wars Lego videos and found them cute and comical, but nothing overly spectacular.

But The Lego Movie is far different. Far more dystopian. It reminded me a lot of a "Brave New World" and somewhat of Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We", the forebearer of Huxley's novel and Orwell's "1984".

It is a movie about finding that niche between complete anarchy and utter obedience, that "Hairball Orbiting" discussed by Gordon MacKenzie.

It is a movie about Fun and Play.

Unfortunately, the 24-hour news cycle has completely milked the fun out of the movie, with both "sides" of the political spectrum claiming the movie espouses their world views. It's almost comical.

Here is John Sexton of Breitbart saying it promotes an idea "one would expect the late Occupy movement to embrace." and he is "not surprised Michael Moore is a fan".

Here is John Heyward of Breitbart saying the movie is actually about capitalism.

The joke is on the lefty fools who didn't see the movie, because it's evidently a devastating slam at socialism, particularly the Obama model of government-business cronyism.

and

The expressions warn by doctrinaire liberal parents who took their kids to see "The LEGO Movie" thinking it would deliver a wheezy Michael Moore Marxist screed against free enterprise and voluntary commerce must be priceless; they should have planted hidden cameras in the theater to capture audience reactions.  Or maybe those doctrinaire liberal parents are too far gone to think about what they're seeing, the way Mollie Hemingway did, their critical faculties short-circuited by the sight of a villain named "President Business" who looks like a Republican.

There is Molly Hemmingway of The Federalist, who gets closer to the mark when she opines that The Lego Movie is a subversive pro-liberty film.

This is not an anarchist cri de coeur, with the film also rejecting the absence of rules and government itself. In one pivotal scene, Emmet explains how rules help build teamwork, efficiency and the ability to meet objectives.

See MacKenzie's ideas on knowing the rules before you can play! Hemmingway also continues:

Even though the film is a 100-minute commercial for a business, it’s also an ad for personal responsibility, individual choice, meaningful work, natural constraints, the dignity of the individual and the fight against a government that desires control of the lives of citizens. Its message about heroism being based in creativity, hard work, and resourcefulness — not superpowers — is deeply unifying.

Then there is the conservative flagship station, Fox News, which wondered why leftist Hollywood would make yet another anti-capitalist movie that would try to teach kids how horrible and evil businesses are and attempt to brainwash them at their tender ages.



Gotta love the Fox News spin machine.

What most of these politicos miss is the key element of the Lego Foundation:

The LEGO Foundation has a goal of creating impact by inspiring and developing children and youth to become active citizens – and to empower them to create a better future for themselves – through fun, creativity and high quality learning.

Fun, Creativity, and High Quality Learning.

The Lego Foundation even gives out prizes for people who promote that mantra. If you thought a movie about Legos was going to be made and that wasn't going to be the message, you were wrong.

That's their thing.

From this Fast Company article in October, 2013:

A growing body of research shows that testing-focused education systems are stifling children’s creativity and critical thinking skills--the exact skills many CEOs say will be critical for success in the workforce in the years to come (see our related story “Why Solving The Creativity Crisis Means Looking To 3-Year-Olds”), not to mention the skills needed to solve looming societal challenges such as extreme poverty and climate change.

Grob-Zakhary believes the Lego Foundation can help preserve these skills by paving a path for more structured “hands-on play”--whether that is with a Lego brick, an Erector set, or a robotics kit--to be incorporated directly into school curriculums.

"Systems are stifling creativity" - the ability to play should be fostered. That's the manta of The Lego Movie.

Playing and creativity is not the 9-5 office job inputting data or digging the same ditch. Of course a Lego movie is going to attack that. Creativity and play is Miles Davis jamming, it's art, it's a group of college dropouts wandering the country playing gigs in coffee houses and rock bars trying to get their band signed. It's the reason open mics were established. To some, hippies are a burden on society, to others, they are living life on their terms without the burden of society.

But that's the classical dilemma. Conservative-minded parents want the college dropout to finish school, get a 9-to-5, and play life safe, but the dropout wants to create.

Then there is this interview with the Lego Foundation CEO on Forbes.com:

Play allows us to test our capabilities,  as all forms of learning should.  It stimulates children’s learning abilities by fostering creativity, building critical thinking, sparking intellectual curiosity, and facilitating learning by doing. Learning by doing deepens our engagement and understanding significantly, and strengthens the most important pathways our brains use to learn and develop.

When the rules are strict and mandated, there is no reason to develop. When the TV dinner is packaged, there is no reason to hunt. No development of that brain function. That is the element we find the hero in in the beginning of the Lego Movie.

While Hemmingway claims a key scene is when the protagonist insists the characters follow some rules and channel their creativity under some guidance, there is an earlier scene I think is more powerful. When needing to build an escape vehicle, Batman, a pink unicorn, a spaceman, and several other characters combine their ideas and cooperate to build a plane that moves the heroes out of immediate trouble. They do this by themselves, without instructions, and without a leader. They just find the pieces they need (Batman: "I only work with black, and sometimes dark gray"), work together, and create.

In 1921, the Russian State Committee for Publishing found Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We" so anti-establishment that it was quickly banned. According to LiquidHip.com, the book dramatizes the struggle between freedom and security, nature and artifice, spirit and order.

In 1988, 65 years after it was written, "We" was finally published in the Soviet Union.

If it was written today, "We" would probably be taken apart piece by piece like The Lego Movie.

Thoughts on Kendrick Lamar

Amidst all the hype and hoopla around his Grammy snubs and highly acclaimed cameo verse on Big Sean's song "Control", rapper Kendrick Lamar has been the talk of the hip-hop world for the last year, if not longer. Being in Afghanistan, I missed out the "longer" part, but since I've been back, Kendrick has been the world's biggest new rapper.

With more than a little curiosity, I bought the much-praised "good kid, mAAd city" album.

The first time I listened, I thought it was good. But I was surprised for a Compton/LA MC, how little "Compton" Kendrick Lamar was.

The second time I listened, "good kid, mAAd city" became great.

The second time I listened, I realized how "Compton" Kendrick Lamar really is. His Compton is buried in the nuances of his lines. Here is a dude who grew up in Compton, but didn't subscribe to the gangsta lifestyle of the early 90s rappers. He is not telling us to "fuck the police" as an anthem for rebellion. As a matter of fact, he is not rebelling at all. He is trying to survive.

From the track "mAAd city":

Ain't no peace treaty, just pieces BG's up to pre-approve / Bodies on top of bodies, IVs on top of IVs

"BG", or baby gangsta, is the "Lil Ass Gee" Ice Cube warned LA about in 1994 on the Lethal Injection album. They are the youngsters who grew up in the shadows of the gang wars of LA where the Bloods and Crips duked it out for street domination. But that's not Kendrick Lamar. He is the kid who wrote what he saw and tried to stay alive. In this regard, Kendrick Lamar is similar to Somalia-born rapper K'Naan, who, in his song "Dreamer" said,

And "The boys from the hood are always hard" / Let alone in Mogadishu it's a mastered art / If you bring the world hoods to a seminar / We from the only place worse than Kandahar

Which of course references Easy-E's "Boyz in the Hood", a Compton classic, making the whole conversation full circle.

Writing what he saw while others fought also aligns Kendrick with Chuck D's great hip-hop saying that "rap is the black CNN".  Instead of the protester image of NWA or Ice Cube, Kendrick is the storyteller, the narrator, and the bard. He is the Nas/"Illmatic" of the post-gangsta Compton.

But while telling the tale of his "new" Compton, a plain tilled by the plows of old school OGs and featuring the blossoms of the BG/Lil Ass Gee generation, Kendrick reaches out to one of those same OGs, the legendary MC Eiht. Some would look at the Jay-Z cameo or the cameo and executive producer title of Dr. Dre as the legends signing off on Kendrick, but Jigga and Dre follow dollars like Toucan Sam follows Froot Loops, sometimes at the expense of hip-hop.

When MC Eiht opens his verse of "mAAd city" with the line "Wake yo punk ass up", I said "with the 93 shot" out of instinct. It was "Streiht Up Menace" from the Menace to Society soundtrack 20 years later.

A fucked up childhood, is why the way I am / It's got me in the state where I don't give a damn, hmm / Somebody help me, but nah they don't hear me though / I guess I'll be another victim of the ghetto

While MC Eiht resumes the gangsta veteran in "mAAd city" , Kendrick plays the survivor of the streets, "aka Compton's Human Sacrifice", an acknowledgment to MC Eiht's "Compton's Most Wanted".

Maybe that's why the Grammy voters gave their awards to Macklemore and passed over Kendrick Lamar. Not because "the Grammys hate rap", although past snubs can build that argument, but because "good kid, mAAd city" transcended the music in a way that was tough to digest unless you knew the backstory. Unless you knew how South Central LA was affected by the Bloods and Crips, unless you knew about truce between the gangs, unless you knew why LA rioted after Rodney King, and unless you knew how those events molded and shaped Los Angeles rap music. Unless you listened to Ice-T, NWA, Ice Cube, MC Eiht, and their peers. That backstory was Kendrick Lamar's life. It's where Kendrick Lamar came from and what he wrote about. When Ice Cube left Compton for Hollywood, he left kids like Kendrick Lamar behind.

Music, especially hip-hop, is a sum of its culture. Whether Grandmaster Flash in "The Message", Nas on "Illmatic", any Public Enemy album, early Ice Cube, the political stylings of Boots Riley, or the urban poetry of Kendrick Lamar. That's why so many rappers miss the point rhyming about cash, gold, or drugs.

That's why I am buying the hype. Kendrick Lamar's album is that good. But it had no choice but to be that good. It is poetry from an American war zone. Not quite Somalia or Afghanistan, but a first world struggle for survival. A struggle for control. Prophetic then that Kendrick's next big statement was in a verse on a song called "Control".

After the Grammy uproar and his transcendence from the underground to the mainstream, Kendrick Lamar now has control of the rap game. But the "rock star" life and its fortune means sacrificing other areas of control. Fame claims its victims as well. See the backstory on another '90s icon from a few states north of California, Mr. Kurt Cobain.

[Update: I was listening to the song "Sing About Me: I'm Dying of Thirst" with it's religious speech in the end and it reminded me of one of my favorite West Coast gangsta rap cultural laments. On the 1993 song "Lord Have Mercy", Da Lench Mob rapped:

Lord have mercy, the devil he cursed me / I heard you had the cup of life, and I'm thirsty / My niggas keep fightin for a street, the white man own / So many died, before they got full grown

Kendrick Lamar's "I'm Dying of Thirst" uses the same religious metaphor 20 years later. Coincidentally, both songs are also bookmarked by the voice of older woman commenting on the youth. In Kendrick's song, she tries to convert them to the ways of God, and in Da Lench Mob's track, the woman offers only an ass kicking. Hopefully the view in the more recent song is representative of a real change in attitude of those surrounding the plight of modern day Compton.]

A Sad Farewell to Mello Bondz

I've often used this website as a way to say goodbye to people I know who have passed on. People who I have met, spent time with, and smiled with. Some I have known since Day 1, others only for a moment or two. But all I feel deserve more than just a "RIP" on Facebook or Twitter, where acknowledgements are quickly buried by other news of the day.

So it is with a sad heart that I am writing here about the passing of Tampa Bay area musician/rapper Melvin Curry, aka "Mello Bondz".

I didn't know Mello all that well, especially in regards to other friends who knew him for many years, but my experiences with Mello were always pleasant and he always seemed to be in a good mood.

The first time I met Mello was during his affiliation with All-Stars Wrestling of Florida, a small independent wrestling organization. He wrote and performed the ASWFL theme song as a favor for longtime friend, music cohort, and ASWFL owner Nick Major. Not knowing Mello, I joked with him, saying he looked a lot like Cee-Lo Green.

Around the same time, about 2009-2010, I met with Bill McArdle of XtraMedium Productions in Largo, Florida. Bill showed me some of his music video work, and sure enough, there was Mello Bondz in the video "I Dropped It".



Mello also contributed songs to some of Bill's media projects, and they had a longtime partnership. A few years later, I again crossed paths with Mello Bondz. In January 2012, I attended Nick Major's "Unity Jam" concert in Ybor City. Nick had returned to music and contacted Mello to host the showcase of some of the best in Tampa-area hip-hop. This time, I knew who Mello was and we spoke briefly about our mutual friends and a bit about his musical work. During the show, Mello gave a shout out to his son, Ajay King, who passed away a few weeks before the concert. Mello and his son appeared in this video together in 2007.

 

 Sad to hear Mello Bondz is gone. He leaves behind a lengthy list of music and if his Facebook is any indication, an even longer list of friends.

Math Anxiety and the Quest for an MBA

Math is something new to me. Or at least something I haven't done in over 10 years. As an Arts & Sciences major and with a Master's in a Social Science, quantitative problems were never part of the curriculum. Methodologies weren't tested through formulas. Teachers in social science only want to know if you understand the facts and the concepts.

Do you know Israel and Palestine went to war five times since 1948? Can you explain why? What peace plan do you think would work best?

There is no right answer here. There are of course, wrong answers. There are answers that are so far in left field it becomes obvious the student didn't have the right knowledge before taking the test, but these questions use a totally different train of thought than mathematics, science, or any other field with calculations.

Recently, I have found myself in a conundrum. I am seven classes into an 20-class MBA program at the University of South Florida and have been working with math and concepts I haven't seen since my freshman or sophomore years in college, way back in the 20th Century. Even then, I wasn't very good at math.

Although my mother insists I was good at math once upon a time, way back in elementary school, I can't remember ever liking math. I was never enthused to sit at the kitchen table or a desk and do repetitive problems. I could never get excited about math. I think this dislike of mathematics eventually led to an avoidance which spiraled into me falling behind in math in high school. Math courses - from algebra to pre-calculus - were always my worst grades. They were my only "D"s in high school. They were the only courses I was not in honors-level classes.

I had no idea business classes were so chock full of math. I minored in business as an undergrad and took courses such as Business Law, Marketing, Advertizing, Economics, and Organizational Management. I've read Forbes, Fortune, a few Wall Street Journals, and some stock reports. I watched CNBC and Bloomberg. I thought that's all there was to business, and never imagined there was a world of business math.

Last semester, I struggled through Accounting. First, there were the terms such as "debit" and "credit" and meanings I had never been exposed to; that took learning. While other students enjoyed the refresher of their previous business undergrad lessons, I studied hours every night to stay afloat. I achieved a "B" in the class, but only by the slimmest of margins, and only after being aided by an extra credit assignment.

This semester I am taking Finance. For those who don't know, Finance is a mathematical-based class where students compare stock value, find the value of money, and evaluate portfolios. At least that's what we have done so far.

Needless to say, there is not much writing.

After three weeks in class I was petrified. The word problems the teacher handed out were in the English lagnuage, and the words were familiar, but I had no idea how to find the solutions. There was math I had to do, I knew that. I also knew I couldn't skip the math and rely on my strengths in writing to get me through. There was no writing to do.

As the test approached, I decided to start studying a week out. The first day, I stared at the problems. I had no idea what to do. The teacher's notes had formulas and variables that might as well been in Sanskrit. After an hour, I put the notes and the study guide down and quit for the day. I still had six days.

The next day, the same result. I was frozen. I decided I would visit the professor in his office the next day and talk to him about my problem. That night, however, I googled "math phobia". Surely someone had been down the same path. Sure enough, among the first entries was a Wikipedia page that caught my interest:

"Mathematical Anxiety"

I clicked.

Math anxiety is a phenomenon that is often considered when examining students’ problems in mathematics. Mark H. Ashcraft, Ph.D. defines math anxiety as “a feeling of tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with math performance” (2002, p. 1)

Hmmm.... tell me more.

Ashcraft(2002) suggests that highly anxious math students will avoid situations in which they have to perform mathematical calculations. Unfortunately, math avoidance results in less competency, exposure and math practice, leaving students more anxious and mathematically unprepared to achieve. In college and university, anxious math students take fewer math courses and tend to feel negative towards math. In fact, Ashcraft found that the correlation between math anxiety and variables such as confidence and motivation are strongly negative.

Interesting. But what causes it?

Math is usually taught as a right and wrong subject and as if getting the right answer were paramount. In contrast to most subjects, mathematics problems almost always have a right answer. Additionally, the subject is often taught as if there were a right way to solve the problem and any other approaches would be wrong, even if students got the right answer. When learning, understanding the concepts should be paramount, but with a right/wrong approach to teaching math, students are encouraged not to try, not to experiment, not to find algorithms that work for them, and not to take risks.

Very interesting. Then I read a paragraph that really hit home.

Active learners ask critical questions, such as: Why do we do it this way, and not that way? Some teachers may find these questions annoying or difficult to answer, and indeed may have been trained to respond to such questions with hostility and contempt, designed to instill fear. Better teachers respond eagerly to these questions, and use them to help the students deepen their understand by examining alternative methods so the students can choose for themselves which method they prefer. This process can result in meaningful class discussions. Talking is the way in which students increase their understanding and command of math. Teachers can emphasize the importance of original thinking rather than rote manipulation of formulas. This can be done through class conversations. Teachers can give students insight as to why they learn certain content by asking students questions such as "What purpose is served by solving this problem?" and "why are we being asked to learn this?"

Holy cow. That is my elementary and junior high math experiences in a nutshell. As you can see on this little website, I am the creative sort. I ask questions. I analyze. That's been my thing since I was kid.

So often, however, math teachers in my early years dismissed my questions, said they didn't have time to explain, or taught strictly by the book. I am not blaming them, but that could be the reason my for negative attitude towards math. My questions were never answered so I never bothered asking again. I was never taught in a way that fit my learning style.

Now here I am, 15 years since my last math class with a need to learn.  I've decided to take a step backwards before taking more steps forward. After I get through Finance - IF I get through - I am going to enroll in a lower level math course, either statistics, business calculus, or college algebra, to brush up or add to my skills. I think the pressure of having math homework will force me to do the problems and practice getting solutions. Perhaps the professor can also answer why.

It's humbling to know that I don't know what I should know in these classes and that the skills I do know aren't that good. Hopefully I get better at math in the next few months and my increased skills will lead to increased confidence. Of course, increased skills and increased confidence are good things to have when looking for a job. So is math.

In the meantime, I'll keep watching Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land for inspiration.

Protesting Presidents and Attributing Tweets

On Monday, Jan 20th, a candidate for Florida's 68th Congressional Seat got himself in a bit of hot water. According to many media reports, candidate Joshua Black, a taxi driver from Pinellas County, Florida, called for President Obama to be impeached and hung.

"I'm past impeachment," Joshua Black wrote on Twitter. "It's time to arrest and hang him high." - Tampa Bay Times

A Republican candidate for the Florida House is calling for the arrest and execution by hanging of President Barack Obama for treason — but only after a trial. - TheNewCivilRightsMovement.com

Joshua Black, candidate for House District 68, made the comment in a Tweet Monday saying he was “past impeachment” and that “It’s time to arrest and hang him high.” - CBS Miami

Joshua Black, who’s running as a Republican for the 68th legislative district, Tweeted on Martin Luther King Day that Obama should be arrested and then “hang him high.” - ColorLines.com

Monday, he tweeted: - ThinkProgress.org

A Republican candidate for the Florida House of Representatives District 68 seat, Black tweeted, "I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high." The comment gained national attention after being brought to light in a Tampa Bay Times political blog. - BayNews9 (Tampa)

The problem with all these media articles is that Black DID NOT actually tweet that.

Here is the tweet in question:

"@civilwarcometh: @BrandonMArms @RedNationRising I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high. commieblaster.com" Agreed

— Joshua Black 2014 (@JoshuaBlack2014) January 20, 2014

Notice the quotation marks before @civilwarcometh and after commieblaster.com. That means the tweet was a quote. All Black added was "Agreed."

Here is the original tweet from @civilwarcometh:

@BrandonMArms @RedNationRising I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high. commieblaster.com

— stephen abner (@civilwarcometh) January 20, 2014

Black quoted this tweet in his own. Some publications did observe the difference and cite properly.

The remark that launched a thousand tweets came when Florida state representative candidate Joshua Black simply agreed with a comment from another user. - TheDailySheeple.com

When one of Black's followers tweeted, "I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high," Black simply wrote back: "agreed."- Complex.com

He tweeted in agreement with a fellow Twitter user (Stephen Abner) who called for the U.S. president to be executed. - Canoe.ca

Black's official campaign Twitter got behind a plan by one of his followers yesterday: - Gawker.com

Black didn't do himself any favors by re-writing the above tweet in his own Facebook post, confirming he believes in the idea. But again, my point is not to defend him. My point to show that many media members are still unsure how to properly cite Twitter.

This ambiguity is why many people and organizations attempt to put distance between Tweets they type and their quotes and re-tweets. Hence the common "RTs do not = endorsement" phrase in Twitter profiles.

Let me make this clear one more time: I do not agree with Joshua Black. Not one iota. However, I do think many media outlets attributed something to him that he didn't write, although it seems he has no problem claiming credit for it.

Stay tuned next week when I quote the Gettysburg Address on twitter. Feel free to say I wrote it!