Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Random Thoughts

List form! And kinda heavy, so, after the jump:

1. I watch Southland. (Oh this is spoilery if you watch. Skip to 2.) It's on TV. It's got Kevin Alejandro. He's hot. (I won't post any half naked dude pictures this time. You're welcome.) Well it HAD Kevin Alejandro. They just killed him off. Like RANDOMLY killed him off too. Not in furtherance of a story. That sucked. You don't kill off the hot guy! But more importantly, it was a really violent and realistic cop death and that bothered me.

Normally cop shows don't bother me. They are so ridiculously outside the realm of actual police work I don't really even think about it. Southland? Not so much. It's a lot more of the day to day BS. Every mistake Ben Mackenzie's character made today? I've seen rookies make. And seen as in I used to spend my summers interning and training recruits at the police academy when I was in college. I know the stupid shit they do. I'd make a really good cop (god help me) just because I know how to do the job. I've been around it my whole life. Some kids get stock tips, I got the invaluable lesson of "always carry a handcuff key".

So when they killed Kevin Alejandro off tonight it bothered me because I know that can happen. Like I KNOW. Mostly I don't think about it. Mostly my dad drinks coffee in North Beach and my brother flirts with Marina chicks and mom does...whatever mom does and it's a non factor. But then I watch that episode of Southland, which the senselessness of Kevin's character's death actually DOES make sense in it's senselessness, I guess, and I am forced to remember that my dad's partner was killed when my dad was with him in early 1990 and his other partner got shot when my dad decidedly wasn't with him, as he was on vacation, but could have been with him, on the same day another cop got killed in (I think) early 1995 and my mom's boyfriend got shot in Golden Gate Park in...1996? (but that was kinda funny cuz it was in the ass. I'm not even lying. This is a different guy than my stepdad). All this make me remember that, yeah, when my mom comes home and tells me anecdotes about the girl trying to hide the crack pipe up her...ya know...that it's kind of annoying and kind of amusing to hear (that's a story from last Friday, btw), but their jobs do have the potential to be dangerous.

So that kinda sucked, Southland.

2. I don't want to get into a big feminist rant here but much was made of Jay Cutler leaving the Bears game on Sunday. Twitter about exploded. I follow a lot of sports people and I like sports. But the fact that they were equating his injury and lack of toughness with him being a "bitch" and a "woman" and as one person so eloquently put it "his tampon fell out", I got pissed. I got pissed because men are babies. Seriously. Be around a guy with a flu for five minutes and you'll want to punch him in the face. Calling into question Cutler's toughness is fine. Whatever. Just don't equate it with being a female.

If MEN had cramps and other PMS symptoms there would be a national act to give everyone five days off a month to deal with the issue. But they don't, so we don't. Any man with cramps would be doubled over in pain asking for his mommy. So, really, who are the tough ones? That's what I thought. Using "woman" as a pejorative just irks me to death. I stopped crew practice once in college and told the leader of the guy's side to not EVER call his team ladies again, especially as we were far faster than his side. I know me ranting about it here doesn't change it and coaches everywhere will call their guys "ladies" and "girls" to get them to play harder. Hell, one of the best movie insults of all time ever is when Ham tells the kid in The Sandlot that "YOU PLAY BALL LIKE A GIRL!" Doesn't mean I like it. And I wish more people would teach their sons to respect, and allow their daughters to BE, the tough, fearsome creatures that women are. I'm just gonna start making the insult for injury, "What? You get a microscopic tear in your foreskin? Can't tough it out like a woman? Need a blankie?" Hopefully it'll catch on.

3. Um. I started writing three but it got really long and really heavy so I think I'll save it for later when I can write about it more rationally. Sorry, that's really teasing but trust me on that. Just read this and know that we'll discuss it later, mkay?

I really need to study for the bar. Ugh.

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