Well ... she does an homage to the YouTube video that was posted about a year ago. This is the video for Beyonce's new video for "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)":
I thought about this En Vogue song during my commute to work. I think it is resonates more now than ever. Also, I never realize until today that the acapella intro is the Jackson 5 song "Who's Loving You." Don't know how I missed that.
Week two of Wimbledon is upon us and it has been interesting Grand Slam. A lot of top people were defeated early, and it left the Ladies' Singles wide open.
My picks for this year were:
Venus Williams - Ladies' Singles Champion
I picked Venus Williams because she is my favorite female player on Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and the grass courts of Wimbledon is her best surface. Not to mention that she is the defending champion and has won 4 times.
Rafael Nadal - Gentleman's Singles Champion
I picked Rafael Nadal because there were reports that the grass this year at Wimbledon was playing slower than usual. I really want Roger Federer to win but something tells me that Rafael Nadal may take it this year.
So hopefully my picks will win.
To commemorate the early lost of so many top players, I made this video:
So the video has premiered on BET's 106 & Park, and it soon was leak on the Internet on various website. I will my site to the list.
I didn't like the video during my initial viewing because it wasn't what I expected. I heard the song and expected a video which would be nothing but choreography, but the concept is Janet is creating the universe. Interesting. I went to a Janet fan site, and there were mixed reaction to the video. There was a debate whether Americans can "get" the video because it had a European feel and doesn't have some half-naked, booty-shaking girls in it. Is this what Europeans really think of Americans?
So I watched the video a couple more times, and I think I like it.
My interpretation: Janet and the dancers are dark matter and their dancing causes the galaxy to form (the Milky Way, going by the white liquid). At the very end she is all red so I think she is either a red giant or a supernova. If she were a red gaint, it would make more season because they are one of older start which other stars are created from.
Got it?
Could it be a metaphor for her career? If there wasn't a Janet, would there have been an Aaliyah, or would there be a Ciara or Britney?
So I like the video and hope when the album is release on February 26th, there will be a high quality version of the video on DVD. There are a lot of subtleties that were lost when I watched on television compared to a digital online version.
I don't know why but when I was a kid I was completely terrified of the HBO Special Feature bumper from the 80s/90s. When this came on I had to advert my eyes. The thing that scared me the most during this is when the "O" in HBO started flashing those multi-color rays.
I just found this online yesterday and I think it is technically beautiful considering that it was down before CGI.
I had a lot of phobias when I was younger, and I still have some now. But more on those in later posts.
(Roger Federer, winner of 4-straight US Open titles)
I can't believe Roger pulled the win in straight sets considering Novak Djokovic had 7 set points during the first and second set. Novak really should have won but couldn't close it out. As a result, Roger has his 12th Grand Slam title and is 2 away from tying Pete Sampras for the most slam titles.
(Justine Henin, 2nd US Open title)
I was hoping that Venus Williams would have won, but Henin played great throughout the tournament and deserved to win. I still don't like her because of her shady behavior, but she played well.
Videos:
Here a couple of moments I found interesting during the tournament. The first was during the women's final, after Justine won she ran up into the stands to hug her coach. Take a look at what happened to the security guard.
Oops.
The next is just a fun moment during the men's final.
I was singing (well...rapping) "Top That!" in the shower yesterday for some strange reason. I remember watching Teen Witch with my best-friend from elementary school in his basement, and dozens of times on HBO over the years. Even thought I haven't seen the movie in years, I still know 95% of the words. So when I found this online today, I had to post it. Teen Witch, for me, was like Showgirls at the time I saw it. It was so bad, that it was so good. I still can't believe that this movie got a PG-13 rating considering that there is a sex scene and a scene where 10 variants of the word penis (in rap form)is used. I never heard of the word "schlong" until I saw this movie.
My second favorite song of the movie, "I Like Boys":
I love it when people randomly start dancing and singing in unison for no apparent reason.
It weird, but I don't think I have ever heard Victoria speak before. To me, she has always been just a person in a photograph. She is seems to be quite a sweet person.
The other weird thing, I think her voice is deeper than her husband's. David Beckham is an extremely attractive man, but when he opens his mouth and that high pitch voice comes out ... it ruins the sexiness. For example:
See what I mean?
Hopefully I will get to see both of them when I am in LA next week.
Last week I got to see Michael Moore's lastest "documentary" film SiCKO. I didn't hear much about this film until there was a controversy about Roger shooting parts of the film in Cuba, which cause him to be investigated by the US Treasury Department. Also, a master copy of the movie was stolen and place in the Internet a couple weeks before the scheduled release. This prompted conspiracy theorist to believe that this was done deliberately but the Bush administration. I don't know that, but any way you see it, it is a good film.
The film shows how the privatization of health care in the United States compares to (universal) national health care systems of countries like Canada, England, France and Cuba. After see how other industrialize nations treated their citizen in terms of health care, I walked out of the theater feeling disenchanted. Watch the trailer:
The film is humorous and informative, but it also has heartbreaking stories of health insurance battles people suffered through which in some cases lead to the death of a loved one. It's shocking.
I have been lucky enough in my life to have alway have some type of health insurance. I've had surgery twice to remove Chalazions from my eyes: once under general anesthetic and once under a local. My mother's insurance covered nearly all of costs.
The only time I haven't been covered was when I moved from Buffalo, NY to Dallas, TX and I was in the process of looking for work. When I became eligible for health insurance at my currently job, I went to a doctor to an annual check-up and was told that all of the procedures where covered (excluding a $20 co-pay). A couple of months later I received a bill for almost $400. I shocked because my friend had the same check-up that I did (same hospital, same doctor, same blood tests) and he was only charged his co-pay. This was a year and a half ago, but I am scared to go see another doctor because I am not sure how much will cost me.
I always thought that if anything serious happened to me I would be okay because I got health insurance. Now, I am not so sure. I am plotting a move to another country with national health coverage so I could have only less thing to worry about. Since gays can marry in Canada, I might end up there. As I type this, I feel the onset of a severe cold and I am taking Zicam to help lessen the symptoms. I hope I don't lose my sense of smell as a result.
Any (preferably gay) Canadians looking to get married? I need to see a doctor.
edited: because Michael Moore made this film, NOT Roger Moore. What the hell was I thinking about? Thanks for the correction, Anonymous ... if that's your real name.
So I was playing tennis with someone I have known for a while. When he said something that did really bother me at first, but I brought it to his attention.
What did he say? He said the n-word, ending with an 'a'. It wasn't directed toward me, but that doesn't really matter. It was said in my presence.
I asked why he dropped the n-bomb, only for him to say that he had black friends so I shouldn't worry about. Really? I told him that didn't matter. Then he said his friend was blacker than me AND he was blacker than me, which was suppose to make it okay. Oh, did I mention that the guy is from Albania? We finished the match and even though I was not happy about the situation and decided to let it drop because I didn't want to make a scene.
I am not sure what to be more offended by: the n-word or the person who uttered the word (who is not black) claims to be more black than I am?
The level of blackness remark hurts the most. Because I don't fit the stereotype of a black male does not make me any less black. I have friends, and hang out with people of all racist, so I have never before had this issue come up. And it really hurts. I don't use the n-word, I don't allow the n-word to be applied to me (by any race), and I just don't tolerate it in general.
I am going to have to pull this guy aside at tennis tomorrow and have chat with him.
Here a clip of Big Brother 8 UK where the n-bomb was dropped:
The Emily was wrong for saying it, and the look on her face immediately afterwards knew it was wrong. Charlie (the black girl) was wrong for applying the word to herself.
I saw those really catchy ads (see below) on television how people were rejected by eHarmony for what ever reason. Someone I know told me and a few others about a personality test that Chemistry.com uses to help match people. It piqued my interest and I decided to sign up and give it a try. I was/am not looking for someone to date, so it was more for informational purposes. Really ... it was for research. Shut up!
After 30 minutes of answering questions, setting my preferences and taking a couple of tests, Here's what I learned about myself:
You are a NEGOTIATOR/builder:
You care about the big picture. You are comfortable with large, ambiguous issues. You carefully weigh all of the variables involved, and regularly come up with imaginative solutions to complex problems.
You are friendly and humane. You have a big heart; you tend to trust people and sympathize with them easily. You want to make others happy and self-confident. So you work to build supportive networks among friends and kin.
Your empathy and kindness spill over into a desire to make the world a better place. And with your resilience and creativity, your ability to do many things at the same time, and your cleverness with words, you can be remarkably effective at improving the lives of others.
You are ambitious for your family and friends, but not always for yourself. You like an environment of sharing and consensus and you enjoy working in teams and planning long term.
You tend to be socially well-adjusted and skilled at inspiring others to reach their goals. So you are an empathetic and engaging companion.
I tend to agree with their assessment ... except for being socially well-adjusted, because I am damn near afraid of conversing with new people. I have come a long way since my move from NY to TX, but I am still a work in progress. I decided to give the website 2 weeks to see if would accurate in finding a potential match for me. The results were not great.
The site sends you 5 matches per day and you have to decide whether you have "no interest" or a "high interest" in the people that are chosen for you. If you have an abundance of "no interest" in the selections the system is suppose to automatically adjust to find more suitable matches. In theory that sounds great, but it never actually worked for me. All my matches were not looking for someone like me, mainly Black males. I was frequently matched up with people looking for every other race besides "Black or African-American." I wondered why I was being matched up with someone who isn't looking for my ethnic background, so I decided to send a message to Chemistry.com's customer service.
I signed up on June 2, 2007 and I have a question regarding the potential matches. Is there a reason why I am being matched with people not looking for my ethnic group? With numerous pages of questions to survey my personality to find a compatible match, the majority of the matches sent to me are not looking for African-American males. I know it may seem discriminatory, but why can't these people be removed from my matches?
A day later, this I got this email in response to my inquiry:
Thanks for your question about matching at Chemistry. We hope that this email gives you the information you need.
How does advanced matching work? Our system uses two criteria in selecting matches for you: personality type and matching preferences.
Personality type: We look for members whose personality types are compatible with your own.
Matching preferences:Our system also considers your preferences regarding age, location, ethnicity, etc.
Each match is a combination of these two criteria: some matches will be of a highly compatible personality type but may not meet all of your preferences, while others will meet all your preferences but their personality type may not be the most compatible with yours.
Learning about you along the way. Our system learns about you through your feedback as you use the site and refines the matching criteria over time to bring you more of the matches you like.
Want to adjust your matching criteria? Click Chemistry to return to the site and change your preferences.
So I guess Chemistry.com is all about personality and doesn't really factor in race, which as much as we try to be PC, is a big factor in find someone to date. For me, I don't care about a person's ethnic background, but some people do. The email suggested that I change my settings to fix my problem, but there is no option to only find matches looking for your ethnic background. You can only select the ethnicities you are looking for, but not the other way around.
Does the mean the site is worthless?
Not necessarily because from the matches that were gathered I was interested in about 30% of them, so it worked in that respect. But those I were interested in were not be interested in my ethnic background. I think the system for selecting matches should be adjusted to only gather results from the user defined ethnic groups, and then further match the results based on personality. It could only bolster the companies success because people are getting what they want.
In my case, I think the current system doesn't work for me because of my location. I am an area where White men are looking for Latino or other White men; Latino men are looking for White or other Latino men; and the majority of Black men are looking for White or Latino men. If I were in Atlanta, DC/Maryland, or NYC areas I the people whom I am matched with would be more suited for me. I could test this theory but creating other account in different areas of the US ... but I don't want waste anyone time ... and I am lazy, so forget it.
If anyone reading has used or is using Chemistry.com: what is/was your experience?
I had a tennis tournament in Richardson, Texas, which lasted from this past Friday and ended Sunday. My first round match I had to play someone I know from my tennis club. For some reason I was nervous about playing him, even though I am undefeated against him. I ended up beating him 6-0, 6-1. After that, I began to calm down and was more relaxed in my other rounds. I ended up winning the tournament.
I should have won the tournament considering that it was in Richardson and tennis courts were on Syracuse drive. I mean, really. It was like I ordained to win this tournament. My final round I won 6-4, 6-3. It was so humid outside that you could wring sweat from my dri-fit shirt. But in the end I pulled out another win.
I have another tournament coming weekend and I decided to play a level higher. Mostly because I have some friends how are playing in the same tournament who are in the same level as I am, but I don't want to play them because I can definitely beat them and I want them to get far in the tournament. I've been criticized by people saying I should play in a higher level, but it comes from those I've beaten. So I am not sure how to process their suggestion. I have been beaten in two tournament so far this year, so I am not beating everyone, which suggests that I am in the correct division.
Sour grapes, maybe? I don't know ... moving on.
This past weekend were the French Open Finals.
As I predicted, Justine Henin won the Women's final against Ana Ivanovic. The match could have been good if Ana didn't get nervous. But it ended up being a total bore.
And, sadly, Rafael Nadal beat my boyfriend Roger Federer for the second straight French Open final. It looked like he was on the verge of tears because this was the third year that Nadal denied him his place in tennis history.
Don't fret, Roger, there is always next year. Focus on winning your 5th Wimbledon title.
Rafael Nadal, Gustavo Kuerten, Roger Federer
It was good to see Gustavo Kuerten at the tournament. He has been plagued with hip problems for a couple of years so ranking has fallen. I hope to see him back in action soon.
GUGA!!!!
Edited: Take a look at this frisky woman touching Nadal's butt after the French Open
By the pimp hand her husband is displaying, he wasn't happy about her copping a feel.
