Lil Wayne - Prom Queen

Prom Queen

So the video for Lil' Wayne's 'Prom Queen' premiered recently and I found it a lot easier to watch when I left the sound off. This song is one of Weezy's latest "eclectic" efforts and I really can't do it with him this round. But I also know that there are lots of things I can't fucking stand that get inexplicable love from the masses and this I presume shall be no different.

Thoughts
- O Hai Thar! Is that Ms. Katrina LaVerne?
- The moshpit scene is the most staged and confused moshpit scene I have ever observed. Hannah Montana and them can go harder than that!
- I never see this many black women in rock videos. I'll tentatively drop that in the positive box for safe keeping.
- Ron Howard passed on the cameo because the set was not trill enough for his liking.

It's a Thief In The Night To Come and Grab You

What the fuck?

...Yeah, it's been a few days and that's all I got left. I'm not picking sides and I'm not calling him a monster or saying she provoked him but I will say whatever it was, was it really worth it? The night before the Grammy's of all nights? Not that it's appropriate at any time but just the sheer ease with which some folks can see fit to throw their lives away is nothing if not disturbing. These dumb assed kids are our future, America! It would be awesome if they knew that violence isn't an appropriate response to whatever relationship conflicts they may be having.

Some links and gossip and information on the saga...cause I damn sure ain't a source.

Pop Culture Fix

Necole Bitchie

Na na na na

Na na na na, HEY HEY HEY GOODBYYEEE

Goodbye Mr. Bush
Bush goes away from the White House... Tell him goodbye YOUR WAY (throwing boots, eggs, daisies or candies) This is a multi-highscore and cumulative-score game!



I'm not gonna lie...even I feel bad for this guy. BUT ITS ABOUT DAMN TIME!! Get in yo' choppa and GTFOH!
I think this game is a positive way to blow off some steam, and hey, maybe if the shoe thrower would've had this game he wouldn't have acted an ass (awesomely) and done what he none did. Lemme know your high score and object of choice.

Some Ad Nonsense

Skittles: Reflect The Rainbow

Here's something that you may not have known about me (or cared) but I enjoy advertisements. This is one of my new favorite ones. A white guy is at a Thai tailor getting his suit fitted. It's some alternate reality (as all skittles commercials are) where instead of your own reflection men of various races and ethnicity's mimic your every move in the reflection of the mirror. In this case there's a black guy a Mexican guy and a Filipino guy. The Black guy and the Mexican are both doing their jobs (Oh ho!) but the Filipino guy notices some skittles in his jacket and starts to eat them instead of reflecting the non skittles eating white guy. The white guy complains about it to the tailor who begins to chew this Filipino guy out. Dude gets pissed and kicks in his own reflection as a way of saying 'fuck you, I quit!' I like this ad more the more I watch it, because in it's way the whole reflect the rainbow theme is somehow a nod to diversity (why should your reflection be white too, can't you give that job to a Mexican? Welcome to post-racial America!) But it's also insane in a way that I really enjoy. I liked it even before I knew what the hell they were saying but a little research clarified that their conversation was as follows:

Tailor : Hey, Don't eat while you're working
Filipino guy: But i'm hungry
Tailor: No eating at work, you lazy bum!
Filipino guy: I'm hungry so I'm gonna eat
*insane asian arguing and swearing*
Filipino guy: Motherfucker, I'll do what I want
*kicks glass - mirror shatters - I laugh my ass off*

The craziest commercials come out of Thailand. Here's another one that I really liked. It reminded me of all the island ghost stories I used to hear when I was younger.




Sylvania Light Bulb Ad

The Obama Booty Call

The President-Elect is Barack Obama and as you may have already assumed I'm pleased. I won't bother to do a 'How does it feel?' blog because quite frankly if you've been watching any news channel you've seen the 'crying-black-people-from-all-around-the-world' reel ad nauseum and you already know how I felt.
So, I'd like to take a moment to discuss other matters this afternoon.

Is anyone else familiar with the phenomenon of the Obama Booty Call? or Obooty Call?
Oh, you know what I'm talking about. Someone trying to get at you using the pretense of inspiration and political minded discourse. Maybe, its just my isolated experience but in light of recent events I have been inundated with texts, instant messages, and phone calls from folks I haven't spoke to in years. Most of them are sharing in the excitement. Some of whom are trying to parlay the overwhelming emotions of this era of change and hope into inspiring previously conservative or reluctant ass into bold, bipartisan directions.
Trickin with Hope.

It can come in a variety of forms but it typically begins with Person X* contacting you out of the blue and using the election as an excuse for the interruption. For me, it began election day, getting texts from randoms I had long forgotten about or possibly never knew.
For the purpose of exposition here are some examples of several types of Obooty calls that may or may not be copy and pasted or retyped verbatim. *smh*

.:The Text:.

_: "The Streets Keep Callin'.... I Gotta Change My Number":_

Person X: Ayoo, shawty. Wuts good?

me: ?

Person X: Me, i just voted. U vote?

me: Hell yeah i voted. Yo, who is this?

Person X: Daaaaag ma. its like that? dis ******, yo what u doin this weekend?

me: Ohh...prolly something else

Person X: Huh? but yo get at me. we should do somethin, ta celebrate.
*****The Block Obama '08*****
Git that guap. G unit, D-Block, Birdgang, Dipset, Ay!
text sent via Sidekick.

I discovered there are also exotic variations on this type of text.

_:Political Sex Text:_

Person X: We did it. Obama is the man.

me: Yeah I know, i'm so excited. i can't even believe it

Person X: I know you're excited, I can tell. I can believe it.

me: it was crazy though. I thought it would be closer.

Person X: yeah you can't always tell.. I mean the campaign was so long and so hard...

me: yea

Person X: yeah it was real intense.

me: mmhmm

Person X: But he just kept pushing forward. building so much momentum. he wasn't gonna stop. shit, he prolly couldn't stop even if he wanted to.
they thought they had him when they brought in that white girl

me: Palin?

Person X: yeah. but they should have known a brother could handle that chick. i mean hes too cool to let some jawn like that phase him.

me: Thas true

Person X: Hes very orally skilled. we have alot in common.

me: ...yea

Person X: But toward the end tension kept rising and the polls were tightening. I almost couldn't take it. But i knew my man would come on top. How did it feel for you when it happened?

me: wow, i mean i was just overwhelmed, i was crying a lil bit

Person X: Mmm, I bet I'll have you crying

me: what?

Person X: What you doin tonite?

.:The Instant Message:.
There were quite a bit more of these than texts but I'll just post a few examples...

This is from a random whom I had the good fortune of eventually losing contact with.... Only for Obama to return him to my IM window. He hit me up about an hour before the announcement pretending to be inspired and inquiring about my life. Then 11 pm rolled around....

Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008

NOTE THE TIME!!!

This next one, I'm ashamed to say, is from an ex-boy, who after hitting me up with some of the above mentioned Obooty call dialogue was apparently inspired by Obama to redistribute my wealth.

*SMH* 2008

This last one isn't technically a booty call but it's a little election night correspondence that left me feeling satisfied. The character in question is the individual from a previous post who was attempting to convince me that Obama is the antichrist. I mean even if he is, so what?

Luxuriate in the deliciousness, bitch.

The commonality to all of these Obooty calls is that they leave me wanting the real thing. Who wouldn't turn Lewinsky for the 44th President (Sorry, Michelle)? Intelligent, terrible dancer, tragic mullato corniness/sexiness. I'd respond to a late night smiley from him anyday.
I need ;-P I can believe in.

So, you bookworm negroes better step your collective game up and parlay the former Senator from Chicago's success with the ladies into a revolution instead of lazily tacking parts of his speeches on to your pick up lines. Maybe now instead of these young boys pretending to be hood they'll pretend to be college educated to get some trim.
FELLAS, START BRINGING YOUR DEGREE TO THE CLUB. Cause, I want to see it. I want to see it real bad.


*I'll give him the moniker person X because this person usually is an Ex of some sort. Ex-boyfriend, Ex-friend, Ex-jumpoff, Ex-used to buy me sht cause he thought he was gettin the drawls, etc,. I assume Person X is male but I'm sure theres some enterprising females getting they Obama Booty Call on.

**names were changed to protect the ignorant and the irrelevant.

Watch More South Park

South Park Fun

Barack Obama

Michelle Obama

John McCain

Sarah Palin

I couldn't resist making one for that Ashley Todd girl. If this is the thing that sends me to hell, so be it. I'll take one for the team.

America's Best Dance Crew '08

http://view.break.com/592648 - Watch more free videos

Obama and McCain - Battle Dance

Yeah, I think I've reached my exhaustion point on politics for this year. We're all boned either way. This video however is the stuff of fantasies and nightmares.

I'm going to have to announce McCain as the winner of this battle. Just because he brought in Sarah Palin who held down her G status and was poppin that ass like a bad chick. Not to mention Barack Obama WISH he could dance like that. I saw him callin himself tryna shake somethin on Ellen a while back. He could have benefited from a few more barbecues with Michelle's peoples.

Obama - 4 McCain - 1

Obama on Foodstamps

I'm so broke I would probably use these if it came down to it. I am, alas, but a Dollar Menu-naire.

Yes, there's a story.
Indiana McCain supporter whips this up in a newsletter, claims she's 'not racist'.

PSA: You ever had a white friend and you got into a racial argument with them, or even just a discussion that got out of hand? Then you try to break things down for them, rationally explaining the differences between their experiences and yours. And you call on every African American studies class you took, and very special (insert black family sitcom) episode you seen, or black militant pamphlet you ever read. And instead of just digesting it and understanding it they..they start fucking tearing up and crying. And their all like 'Oh, I never thought about it that way. It must feel terrible to go through (blank) everyday.'
Now, you don't even know how to feel. On the one hand you're glad that you may have made a breakthrough. Then the idea that somebody could start crying just from hearing about your life is like..depressing as shit. Then you get angry that somebody could live in this country and not understand or even consider important aspects of life here that you and many other minorities find inescapable. What the fuck do you mean you 'never thought about it that way'? How is that even possible? So, then you get mad and you hate her for the rest of the day but, you can't act like it because her mom is picking both of you up from the mall.
That story kind of had its own tangent, but the point I was trying to make is that although one may think it's progressive to 'not see race' it's not helpful. At times, I feel I prefer discussions with racists because at least we have the commonality of both seeing race instead of conveniently pretending its not an issue, and getting appalled when it's brought up.


Okay, to end with some levity.



Obama prepares for the debates

Long time coming...

Former Secretary of Defense, Gen. Colin Powell files paperwork to get his negro card reinstated.

Powell -- who has yet to back a candidate -- told the audience: "I stand before you as an African-American. Many people have said to me you became secretary of state of the USA, is it still necessary to say that you are an African American or that you are black? And I say yes, so that we can remind our children."

"It took a lot of people struggling to bring me to this point in history," Powell told the audience. "I didn't just drop out of the sky. People came from my continent in chains."
-Source

I, like most black folks, got mixed feelings about the General but I always felt like one day he would come around. Time will tell what this leads to but this image reminds me of the scene in How High when the Dean gets a hold of the sticky and starts bustin' out to Parliament at some bourghie costume party.
This is like that but better!

As much as I hate to throw the 'election headquarters' at Fox News any ad revenue (even from my insignificant effort on this blog) I have to link the article, just cause they have the pictures, the info, and the most brazenly ignorant, amazing headline to this post that I couldn't even imagine.

Hip-Hop-Dancing Colin Powell Fuels Speculation He'll Endorse Obama

Colin Powell showed off his hip-hop moves at an 'Africa Rising' celebration in London Tuesday, fueling speculation that the former secretary of state is about to endorse Barack Obama for president...

...crimety.

God shed your grace on thee

Politics is something that I have been into in varying degrees for the past couple years. I liken it to a spectator sport. CNN and ESPN aren't altogether that different. It's show after show about alleged authorities on the subject, as well as talking heads, spewing opinion after opinion and attempting to speculate the shit out of whats going to happen in the next event based on the statistics and data they have available, when they totally don't really know. Also, the actual events for that matter only make up 10% of the programming so what you get is masturbatory droning interspersed with episodes of absolute live and realtime excitement and/or horror. So, you pick a team and you root for it. Brag about their accomplishments and blame the ref or the coach/advisor when they don't perform well, depending whether your fandom is obsessive or pragmatic. I know it's stupid, and in some ways pointless, but I am a fan, especially now that I have an MVP I can really get behind.

I just returned from a third world country. It gave me a nice tall glass of perspective and made me really realize what a wealthy country we live in and how much other nations, that we don't even think about, depend on us. I felt an enormous amount of pride in my country, at our ability to get things done and have a system and philosophy in place that facilitates the growth of our nation as well as the distribution of wealth to as many people as it manages. I wondered what set us apart. Was it the original settlers? The architects of the Declaration of Independence, or the minds that set the current legislative and governing systems in place?
But every time I watch the news I see more and more dumb shit. It's usually hilarious, and then sad because you realize your laughing at the state of the country, and that means you're fucked.
Then yesterday, I had the day off. So, since I had the house to myself, I picked up some lunch and sat down on the couch and clicked on one of the news channels. I am not ashamed to admit my naivety, and what I saw damn near broke my heart. I saw some grown ass men, in suits and ties no less, come on television and say that they were planning on reluctantly voting for the 700 billion dollar bailout package, but that they changed their minds because they felt some type of way about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's gutter ass speech. That bailout package was questionable in it's own right. I have no idea what it really means for America but I was assuming that the people voting on that shit did, and at the very least, if they didn't agree with it it would be for a more mature reason than that they had their feelings hurt.

Then I remembered, the United States doesn't owe it's greatness the systems in place and possibly not even because of our cultural and structural philosophies. The excesses, the celebrities, the skyscrapers, the technology: WE OWE ALL THAT SHIT TO THE SLAVES. We should have a slave appreciation month. Because, quite frankly if it wasn't for those hundreds of years of free labor, we would've been fucked, wrestling with some Native Americans over some dusty ass ears of corn to this fucking day.
So, next time your sipping a hot latte in an air conditioned venue filled with computers, ya know, just in case you feel like using one, thank your lucky stars for the slaves.

Thank you, Slaves
Love,
Ms. Shai

Love Lockdown

I can't do a full recap of the VMA's because as much of a fuckery enthusiast as I am I ...I just ..I can't. All I'll say is that Wayne's enthusiasm for music is infectious and him kissing the older white lady before going on stage to accept his award was a wtf highlight for me (it warmed my heart, and made me forgive that he was rockin a plaid vest I almost picked up at Forever 21). I also think I liked this 'Love Locked Down' song that Ye' debuted at the close of the show but it's one of those things that will sound better recorded than live. So I can't call whether it's simplicity is endearing or pretentious. The simple suit and pulsing glow heart was a cute touch though. But, his shaky vocoder work is distracting, even more so than this odd brittish cat hosting the show and his Amy Winehouse do. So i'm awaiting more. Also, I am actually more excited about this French Revolution inspired rap battle Tag commercial than I am about the VMA's as a whole so..theres that.

Update: Ok so obviously this whole show was some kind of Britney Spears marketing vehicle but can you get over Sway talking to Cee-Lo backstage and spending the entire interview asking him what he thinks of Ms. Spears recovering from adversity and K. Fed and then when they finally get to some interesting shit like what he thought of Ye's new music they cut him off. smh

My President is Black?

I don't mean to make this a political blog. But frankly if i'm going to be talking about what I like I might as well toss this in the blender. An article discussing what everyone wants to know: What if **** were black?

What If Bristol Palin Were Black? by Cenk Uygur
Christian-right leaders and conservative stalwarts have praised the decision of Bristol Palin, the daughter of Governor Sarah Palin, to carry her child to term. She is 17 and conceived this child out of wedlock. Now imagine she wasn't the daughter of a prominent Republican politician but an average person. Now imagine she was black.

What do you think conservatives would have to say about her? "Typical, urban youth with no sense of responsibility raised with loose morals who plans to depend on the state to take care of her child." You know it. It's not within dispute. That's exactly what they would say.

Barack Obama has told everyone to lay off this because it is a personal, family matter. Yes, but it also has public policy ramifications. Governor Palin is for abstinence only education. Well, that obviously didn't work.
(continue reading)

And in conclusion an excerpt from the all too short lived Chappelle's Show: Black President Bush. This episode was genius in its simplicity. Our president becomes explicitly indefensible when portrayed as a black man. Even though this black man does and says the exact same things as our president. What if? indeed.

Can I see some I.D.?

The above is pop singer Jesse "You and Your Beautiful Soul" McCartney doing a cover of T-Pain's 'Buy You A Drank'. He prefaces his rendition by saying it has a "nasty groove", and then they launch into it, snaps and all. At the :49 second mark you get to hear this sweet blond child say 'Konvict Music, Nappy Boy, Oohwee'. It is my strong belief that any time a black people directly or indirectly inspire fuckery of this caliber in white people, an angel gets its wings, and a 40 oz. You don't have to understand my religious convictions, I have long been persecuted for my beliefs. Apparently, Young Money Jesse has been performing this rendition at his concerts because video of that is the first thing to come up when you type 'Buy You A Drink' in youtube as opposed to Teddy Bendherassdown's version. What do you call gentrification as it applies to music? Oh yes, I remember: Elvis, I believe was the term.

Hearing this boy, who I am just now understanding is in fact not Aaron Carter, croon this song reminds me of two things. The first being what an amazing song that is. I didn't think I would be able to bear listening to this song as interpreted by someone without pubic hair but the tune is so good and simple that it just reminds me of its goodness. I roll in a clique of music elitists who wanted to act like T-Pain was not that piff but I begged to differ. T-Pain is far past unfortunate looking. I've heard of him bearing a resemblance to one of the animatronic gorillas that perform at the Chuck-E-Cheese stage show. And his vocoder schtik has become a rap cliche but I have always tipped my hat to him as far as originality goes. He's a weird motherfucker and he makes music that sounds good. I would hasten to call him a genius but I am appreciative of his otherness and I anticipate his next album (and a Pain/Wayne collaboration disc would be sweet) even though sometimes I wish he would 'Take off that silly ass hat!'© Chris Rock.

The other thing this video reminds me of is the sanitation of nigger music for the consumption of the masses. Now, at this point I hesitate to cry foul on this poor white boy. After all the sanitation process does not seem to be working nor necessary because white girls have been upsetting their parents out in the clubs shaking it to the original long enough for the RIAA to figure out how to get a cut from the dark and nasty version without manufacturing a white washed copy *deep breath*. BUT, still I'll close the post with the Cadillac Car scene from *Dreamgirls where the point I was clumsily trying to make is illustrated through song and dance.



* copyright laws man, ignore the spanish unless se habla..lo.

These fuckers...

So it starts. I'm talkin with my mom about the Democratic National Convention and the last thing she says of course is, what else: I hope nobody tries to kill him. Well, we laughed nervously and I said that no one would try to kill him. I only half believed myself. My rationale being that the powers that be know at this point that when you assassinate a figure that is well liked they become a martyr and such. I felt that damage to Obama would be more surreptitious, like he mysteriously develops a crack habit or something (word to COINTELPRO). But butter my biscuits I forgot al l about the conspiracy meth heads- i.e. rednecks. I'm strugggling to find the quote exactly but a federal official remarked something to the affect of 'these are just some crackheads, dont worry. We got this.' Well obviously I hope so but, I never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. I read that on a T-shirt once and it saved my life on numerous occasions and also at a Rutgersfest.

On a waaaay doper note I'll leave you with Michelle Obama's speech at the DNC last night. Those babies, are so cute.

He Put Onnnn...

I wasn't going to post this because I wanted my next post to be music related but how excited was I when I realized this gem was, particularly relevant to my last post on Jay-Z. Angel Pantoja Medina of San Juan was embalmed standing up so that he could be on his feet during his wake. Fresh to death with Dolce & Gabbanna glasses on as well as what else.. a yankee fitted.

Refer yourselves to the verse Jigga spits at the end of Jeezy's 'Put On'.
"I put on for my city so when I’m dead and gone I got one last wish, put my Yankees hat on."

So you see kids? Fuckery only begets more fuckery.

However I gotta say I'm not mad at Angel. Everybody say they wanna go out in style but he had peoples that helped him get what he wanted, even in the afterlife. And now that I see how he's gone out of this world don't it make you wish you knew his crazy ass when he was alive? I think i've lost one of my brethren.



(Source)

Obama, Wolverine, and the Antichrist

On Sunday night I was all settled in to watch the fake debate (at Saddleback Ranch with Ricky Gervais or whoever) that the news channels had been broadcasting regarding the religious perspectives of McCain and Obama. I caught most of Obama's portion of the forum before I had to interrupt viewing to...sin, I won't get specific. Every time I watch Obama speak I'm holding my breath, its like watching someone on a tight rope, but that's how it always is when you have someone that represents your people addressing hot button concerns. And with all this talk about him being evil the ante is upped because now stupid people think the fate of the souls of the world depends upon it. I was preparing myself to write a post about all of it but I suppose I'll save the fire for next time. Or possibly for a real debate.

However the debate isn't exactly what I wanted to discuss this afternoon. I want to talk about some of the more ignorant and logically tenuous elements of politics. I should begin by saying that the ecosystem of my social environment is fragile. This means that most of the people I talk to on a regular basis have opinions that run somewhere along the spectrum of my own. So this guy I know somehow went and infiltrated that ecosystem and we begin having this pseudo - political conversation. I began with my own factually unfounded (but probably true) accusation that Bush has Illuminati- like influence over the oil industry and can be blamed for these crippling gas prices. No, I don't completely know what I'm talking about and I'll accept that I could be wrong but that's just one of my conspiracy moments, all great thinkers have them.

So then this reggin (word to Stephen Colbert) goes and says that he has a bad feeling about Obama because he just came out of nowhere. I attempt to stop him right there, because "he just came out of nowhere" is almost 98% of the time a preface to the accusation that Barack Obama is the Antichrist, and I think that hearing that kind of craziness come out of the mouth of an educated, young, black male would be too much for me to take. I'm all for open minded discussions and fuckery of sorts though so I let him speak his mind and as I suspected he believes that theres a reasonable possibility that Obama is the Antichrist (this young man also voted for Bush in '04, not based on policy, but on the sketches a Bush impersonator, whom he mistook for the President, does on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.*smh*). I thought he would direct me to several of the youtube videos one might stumble across if one happened to type in obama + antichrist in the search engine. But instead I got a treat. Apparently more support for the argument that Obama's popularity represents the end of days comes from our friends at Marvel and my favorite 90's childhood cartoon of all times: X-Men!



X-Men: The Animated Series -Time Fugitives (Part 2)
The episode synopsis is such that some mysterious techno virus is wiping out humans, everyone thinks its the mutants fault of course, and Cable and Bishop travel back and forth in time to either kill whose responsible and find an antidote, blah blah blah, nerd nerd nerd. The point is at around the 5:50 mark a mysterious leader makes an appearance and he bares a vague resemblance to the light skinneded incumbent, and then before u know it..dun Dun DUNN...Apocalypse is upon us!! I feel like this 'proof' is no stronger than any of the other things that are being thrown around the internets so I toss this into the ring as well. Also who doesn't miss this show! I won't lie, when framed in all this context it gave me the creeps but then i realized I'm not a freakin idiot like my homeboy.

I feel like slappin somebody today...

The Don Imus-fueled controversy over misogynistic rap lyrics surrounds Ebony magazine’s recent decision to pull rapper Ludacris from the cover of its June issue on "the New Black Fathers" and replace him with actor, Boris Kodjoe, reports Journal-isms. "Something has changed in America in the last few weeks," Bryan Monroe, editorial director of Ebony and Jet magazines, told Journal-isms, without disclosing the identity of the rapper. As president of the National Association of Black Journalists, Monroe led the movement to have Imus fired. "I think the media is being called to account in these areas," Monroe said. There is an opportunity to "transfer the conversation around language, race, inclusiveness and diversity," as he said in his NABJ president's column. --[Source]

This isn't exactly current news, but then again I never promised anything like that in this blog, however it's current enough for me to 'feel some type of way' about it. I can see where Ebony is coming from on this (from a business perspective) but the move really doesn't jive with my sense of morality. Luda says alot of innapropriate things but to remove him from the cover in a father figure issue is pretty cold-blooded to me. [soapbox] In my opinion the average new black father was raised on hip hop and would relate more to Ludacris, someone who somehow supposedly personifies everything thats "wrong" with black people these days, then sissy ass Boris Kodjoe. I say ho, Luda says ho. I think i'm a decent person, he's probably a decent father. My logic trumps all, and I demand that those Ebony stop actin like Bill O'Reilly and Oprah give a damn about their raggedy ass magazine and put Luda back on the cover. [/soapbox] Or not, I don't even read that magazine. But the gesture would be nice. I guess I just don't like the idea of criticizing the average black person, black men specifically. Yes, there are problems, but can't they get a break, a pat on the back every now and then? Dag.