I have been seeing news articles and hearing people upset about the amount of traction the Trayvon Martin situation is receiving.   The reasons for the unrest being that Zimmerman is being considered to be a White man, when actually he looks Latino, the fact that Martin was 6’2’’, new information painting Trayvon to be a “bad” kid, or the fact that Martin may have been punching Zimmerman when he shot him.  Meanwhile, there are other murders happening around the country involving “innocent” children that are not getting even close to as much publicity.

I must say, personally, I think the current focus of this situation is misplaced and the populace is missing the point.  However, keeping to the point of this write-up, I will leave that alone for now. 

Let’s say that the roles were reversed—and I’m not talking about, “What if Martin would have been the one to shoot Zimmerman,” that question has already been asked.  I am wondering, if Martin would have been an adult, Black, man of 28 years, shooting and killing a 17 year old, White, child, or child that could be considered White (Zimmerman is not a Latino last name), after having stalked him in the dark of night, called 911, and been told by a police officer to stand down; is there any doubt that there is a 100% chance he would have been arrested regardless of the rights provided by the Stand Your Ground law?

I, as a 30 year old, Black, man, whose worst offense against the state has been not paying a speeding ticket in a timely manner, has been privy to the experience of racial profiling.  I was jogging down the street once, after having just gotten to school, in Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia because I had seen a prior girl friend that I hadn’t seen in a while.  I wanted to say hello.  When all of the sudden, a truck with police markings on it, swerved from the street, onto the sidewalk, and a police, gun drawn, yelled, “Get on the ground!”  I stopped jogging and looked to see who he was yelling at.  He yelled one more time, “Get on the GROUND!”  At this point, I realized the pistol was trained on me.  I dropped the cell phone I had in my hand to the concrete and then hit it directly myself.  I was handcuffed and placed in the back of another police vehicle that had just shown up.

Beside me was a young, Mexican man.  He asked me, “What’s going on?” I told him I was just about to ask him the same thing.  I asked the police officer the same question, I was told to shut-up.  An hour later, after successfully proving that I was a student at American Intercontinental University, who was simply trying to catch up with an old friend, I was eventually released. 

So why was I almost shot by the police and arrested?  Well apparently, not too long before I got to school, a Mayor’s Jewelry store down the road, had been robbed.  An off-duty, White, police officer, saw me jogging down the street and called in to name me as one of the “perps”.  The joke behind this situation is that every single suspect in this case was Mexican.

Does this face look Mexican to you?

Zimmerman was not arrested; he was not going to get tried until all of this “fuss” was started.  An adult was going to get off, scot-free, for shooting and killing a child.  This adult man’s defense was that although he decided to stalk and aggressively confront this minor, he feared for his life.  He feared that if he had not taken the life of this unarmed child, he would have lost his own.  The police officers who arrived to the scene believed this story and let this man go home.

Are you still wondering what all the fuss is about?

Last night, I had an opportunity to make my first table-top RPG character ever, with Twitter’s @Rolling20s.  It was a really exciting experience, much more so than I expected it to be, considering the fact that he was mostly just explaining the setting of the game and asking me questions. 

But the idea of creating a character that would soon be born into a living, breathing (imaginary) world had me on pins and needles for our first game on Monday evening.  I will get back to you all on how it goes.

I skipped Uncharted and went straight to Uncharted 2, which I just finished beating 2 evenings ago. I really enjoyed the game and see where the hype comes from. The game was so cinematic that even my hyper, 7-year-old gamer was content with just watching me play.

I can’t say that I can claim “Greatest Game of ALL Time on ANY System!” though, as I was tired of playing the game at LEAST 3 hours before it was finally over and only finished it out of sheer determination.

The endless jumping/climbing platforming really took it’s toll on me. When Elena made the remark, something along the lines of, “If I have to climb one more wall…” I was like, “Bitch! You haven’t even been climbing. I’VE been climbing!”

I know that the platforming is supposed to be a major gameplay item in this series, but I hope that there is less of it in Uncharted 3 and more gun-play. I’d rather fight through more endless waves of soldiers and fight tanks than have to figure out where the hell to jump to next because my fingers can latch onto a snow-covered mountain slope edge but not a window ledge…

PS Oh, and if you’re going to let me play as Chloe in Uncharted 3, give me her voice too! Seeing Chloe’s fine ass and hearing Drake’s voice…that was just creepy.

Do you ever have one of those days when you just can’t decide what to read next?  I just finished A Storm of Swords and I want to read A Feast for Crows (of course), but in this fail city of Columbus, GA, there is now only one book store since Borders closed a couple of months back, and B&N doesn’t have my book in stock…

So now, while waiting, I am stuck between starting a brand new book/series, The Name of the Wind, or continuing the WoT saga, and reading The Path of Daggers.

Suggestions?

Listen guys, if you are going to start a podcast, don’t just pick out a girl or two, and toss them in it, so you can call yourself an equal opportunity employer.

I was driving to work this morning, listening to one of my favorite podcasts (that’s pretty much what I do every morning), and I got ticked off.  This episode was alright, however, something that the cast does often, really got to me today.  It’s a pretty typical anime/gaming podcast setup, a gang of guys, one girl.  They all pretty much have fairly equal input on the show, although there is a clear host…with one exception, the female.

Every single time she tries to get a thought off, or start a topic, or comment on one of the topics already on the table, she gets interrupted or the guys brush off her statements to be lame, like, “Yeah…okay, so like I was saying…”  It’s infuriating!  To be fair, she does at times stutter and stammer over her thoughts when she is trying to make a statement, she really does parrot the other members of the casts a lot (and that’s annoying as hell), but oftentimes, she does have interesting points to make, or topics to start, and the guys just mow over her and use her like a jester.  And I know it’s supposed to be funny or whatever, but to me, it’s just lame.

The reason it pisses me off is because it perpetuates that whole idea of guy gamers treating girl gamers different and less than.  Therefore I, as a guy, have to fight an uphill battle when dealing with girl gamers, because I have to prove myself to not be one of “those guys”.

Now there is another show I listen to where there is one male host and one female host.  And I honestly, really don’t like the female host.  She is far too biased and fan-girlish for me and it annoys me to no end.  I also feel like oftentimes she talks far too much on show.  However, sometimes I feel like he talks way too much, and then there are times where I feel that the conversation is about equal.

…And that’s how it SHOULD be.  Hey, I might not like her, but she is a co-host of the show, let her be that!  If you don’t want to hear what she has to say, then don’t cast her on her your podcast!

Bottom line is that if you are going to host a podcast and you want to have both sexes represented in your cast, find people who you truly feel are interesting and would be valuable additions to your show; so that they CAN be valuable additions to your show.  When you do otherwise, it just lessens the quality of your show and makes you look like an asshole.

End Rant

So, update on Batman: Arkham Asylum and F.E.A.R.

Right after I finished cooking last night, I realized I couldn’t turn the 3D on in the game (Arkham Asylum)…because I didn’t have the GOTY version, and I was like, “**!!!!”

Luckily, I had to buy it used at Best Buy because they didn’t have the new version. So, I packed the game back up, and went back to Best Buy to take it return it and hopefully get money back. I wasn’t going to pay $5 less for a used copy of a lesser version of the game. I got the game returned, but unfortunately, they wouldn’t give me cash because I used a Best Buy rewards certificate to buy the game.

I left, and was rushing (It was 8:40PM) to Gamestop to go buy a used version of the game when I remembered something…K-Mart might have the game! It was a risk, and if I went to K-Mart and they didn’t have it, I just wouldn’t be playing Batman tonight, and that would be a travesty. Oh! Side-note, I freaking SAW Batman last night. No lie, dude was walking into Best Buy as I was driving out. I wanted to stop and get a shot with him, but I was on a schedule you know, so I was like, “Eh, he’ll need blank DVDs again some day, I’ll get the shot then.”

At the last possible moment, I turned off on the exit to go to K-Mart, hoping they would have it. And they DID! They had ONE, and it is now MINE. I got home, installed the game…and then passed out on the couch around 9:30…so I still haven’t gotten to play Arkham Asylum or F.E.A.R. But tonight! We Shall Game!

So last night I went to Best Buy for Batman: Arkham Asylum and came back with Batman: Arkham Asylum AND F.E.A.R. XD But I was too exhausted last night to play them. But all is well, my girlfriend is going to be out of town until Sunday, so we shall GAME!