Reach For Your Dreams

I came across a post on Instagram that was showing a promotional-picture of the cast from the sitcom, A Different World (1987-1993) from 30+ years ago, and again today (minus deceased cast members, R.I.P Lou Myers) in preparation of the return of the show on Netflix. Some guy made what I felt was a very irresponsible post insinuating that the show was harmful, or had a deleterious-effect on African-Americans because of it's focus on college education and that youth should be focused on trade jobs. His exact quote was... "How about we start encouraging black kids to become plumbers, electricians, welders, etc. Well paying jobs that will serve them a lot better than having to borrow thousands to go to college and the graduate without a skill or a job" First of all, this comment is LOADED with inaccuracy and dilapidation. Yes, college can be extremely expensive and in my opinion the average tuition is criminally overpriced, but not all colleges are created equal. Some are more expensive than others, and there are always technical schools and community colleges where not only do you not have to "borrow thousands" to pay for tuition, but financial aid literally pays YOU to go to college with large amounts of money left over after your tuition has been fully paid. Even if you do not find a job in your field right away, you now have the education in your back pocket to maybe even start your own business rather than work for someone else. Also, of course there are scholarships, internships and other funding avenues to help people pay tuition. The one thing that I would agree somewhat with this guy is that you do need to have a VERY solid plan and course of action in place BEFORE you go to an expensive college. It wise to research the job market in your field of study thoroughly to see how employment is trending, the salary median, market conditions, word of mouth testimonies from people in that field, etc. It is also a good idea to start networking with people as soon as possible. Even while you are still in middle school. Put your name out there and let people see who you are so that they keep you in mind later on. Employment is a lot about WHO you know more than it is WHAT you know. Internships are a great way to pave the road for employment after graduation. You just have to be active and proactive. No job is waiting for anyone just because you have a piece of paper with your name on it. Second, not everyone is cut out for hard labor jobs. We are not all cut from the same cloth. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made, but each of us is made differently. Sure, if you 100% dedicate yourself to any job or occupation you can become "sufficient" or "adequate" at it, but if it is not what God created you to do you will never be happy, you will never have peace, and you will never LIVE. You'll just be a drone, to serve the collective which is the slave mentality that the individual that made this statement is a victim of whether he realizes it or not. Third, NOWHERE, on that entire series run do I remember anyone running down trade jobs or everyday jobs as if it were "beneath" them. Shows like A Different World, The Cosby Show, The Jeffersons, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Family Matters showed that African-Americans can do more than just trade jobs where as this wasn't being shown before on TV shows. Let's briefly look at The Jeffersons.

George and Louise Jefferson (Sherman Helmsley and Isabel Sandford) built their cleaning business from the ground up and became wealthy. We saw their journey start on All In The Family. We saw and heard how they struggled and watched how the struggle paid off in the end. Let's now look at The Cosby Show. Heathcliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) was a obstetrician that had his office as part of his own house, while his wife Clair Huxtable (Phylicia Rashad) was a partner in the most prestigious law-firm in America at the time. Sondra Huxtable (Sabrina Lebeauf) was studying to be a lawyer. Elvin Tibideaux, (Geoffrey Owens) her husband, was in medical school. Theodore Huxtable (R.I.P. Malcolm-Jamal Warner) was a leader at a youth center with a degree in Psychology. He even turned down a lucrative marketing job to work with kids instead. Same guy at the start of the show that said he was going to be a "regular person." The reason why he wanted to be a "regular person" was because he struggled in school and he felt the a regular job was the way to go. A decision no doubt born out of frustration because he was trying hard but his grades didn't reflect that. We would find out why later on. So, if he had decided to settle on that life, he might have gotten by. Maybe he would have become a plumber, welder, or an electrician. Nothing wrong with that. However, his parents consistently encouraging him just to do his best and not worry about the letter grades took a lot of pressure off of him, and he was able to do pretty decent in school. It was in college that he learned that he had Dyslexia and once that was diagnosed not only did his grades skyrocket, but his desire to LEARN also skyrocketed. It gave him the foundation to work with young, urban kids that came from not-so-fun homes and even able to recognize that one of his students, Stanley (R.I.P. Merlin Santana) also had Dyslexia and he was able to mentor him and help him overcome it the same way he was able to. Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) after MANY starts and stops finally settled down with a family, marrying a Lieutenant in the US Marines, and was studying to become a preschool teacher. Now let's look at the spin-off of The Cosby Show that continued this trend.

Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) was a college professor that got a job as a game developer, producer, and programmer for a major video-game company. Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy) at one point was a corporate art buyer. I didn't even know what that was until I watched the show. That's what shows like this did for us. Ron Johnson (Darryl Bell) was a musician, former car-salesman with his father, and business owner running a night club called Blues with Mr. Gaines. Kimberly Reese (Charnele Brown) was studying to be a surgeon. Winifred Brooks (Cree Summer) was studying to be a lawyer and aspiring to become a Supreme Court judge. Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor (Dawnn Lewis) started her own temp-service employment business. Walter Oakes (Sinbad) was a college dorm director and later became director for a youth center. Col. Bradford Taylor (Glynn Turman) was a decorated, retired US veteran and college math professor. Look at all this inspiration. All these careers spanning a wide spectrum of opportunity with African-Americans occupying them. As I said before, you didn't see all this on television before these shows. Let's go to another show. The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air

Philip Banks was an partner in a prestigious Los Angeles law-firm, and eventually became a Superior Court judge. Vivian Banks was a college professor. Hilary Banks had her own national talk show. Ashley Banks was pursuing a modeling career. Carlton Banks could pretty much pursue any job he wanted, and Will Smith after coming from the streets of Philadelphia and being on a dark path completely turned his whole life around to being a soon-to-be college graduate. Let's look at Family Matters.

Carl Winslow was a Sargent in the Chicago Police force and worked his way all the way up to being a Captain. Harriett Winslow (prayers to Jo Marie Payton on her recovery) went from being a graduate of the police academy and an elevator operator at the Chronicle (on the sitcom Perfect Strangers, to head of security of that same building, to a head buyer and manager of the Ferguson's women's clothing store chain. How about the sitcom, Martin?

Martin Payne went from working at a local radio station, to having his own local talk show, to having a national talk show. Gina Waters was a top-level marketing executive. Pamela James also worked in the same marketing firm with Gina. Cole Brown worked for the Detroit airlines as a custodian. Tommy Strawn didn't HAVE no job. Let's look at Living Single

Khadijah James started off with her own urban magazine company called Flavor. Synclaire James-Jones worked for Khadijah at her magazine company and was an aspiring actress. Regine Hunter was a buyer for a boutique. Maxine Shaw was an attorney that eventually became an Alderwoman. Overton Wakefield Jones was a general contractor. Kyle Barker was an investment broker and Wall Street executive. Just stop for a moment and take in ALL THESE CAREERS covering every corner of society, being shown to millions of people on TV, and you have BLACK people in these jobs.

So many instances of showing black people striving and SUCCEEDING in careers that a lot of people never thought possible, and some that people never even knew existed. How many black men got into medicine because of Heathcliff Huxtable? How many black women got into law because of Clair Huxtable, or Uncle Phil? How many kids grew up wanting to work for video game companies because of Dwayne Wayne? How many black people started their own businesses because of George Jefferson or Khadijah James? How many men got into investment banking because of Kyle Barker?

These shows were and ARE important for our community. Yes, we need plumbers, electricians, and welders, but we ALSO need doctors, lawyers, artists, law enforcement officers, musicians, engineers, programmers, entertainers, entrepreneurs, teachers, counselors, ministers, investment brokers, copywriters, publishers, managers and marketers and shows like A Different World and the others I mentioned showed America that BLACK PEOPLE, can do these things too. WELL.

Not to mention that college is necessary for certain occupations. For instance, you cannot practice medicine in this country without a certain level of education, and you can only practice law in this country without a certain level of education except for in California, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington that allow for legal apprenticeships.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said... "Small minds discuss other people. Average minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas."

In order for something a like computer or a smart phone to even exist, someone had to DREAM about that. Someone had to think outside the box. Someone had to listen to naysayers and still push forward to make a dream into a reality.

I know it's not sweet out here. This job market is HORRIBLE. I can honestly understand where this guy was coming from. People need electricity, people need plumbing, etc., and those jobs are more safe in a terrible economy, but no job is 100% safe. However, you cannot let yourself be a prisoner-of-the-moment, or to fear. As black people, we have over come TOO MUCH in this country to have ANY fear. The crab barrel mentality needs to die. Never discourage people from setting out to achieve their dreams. Whatever that may be. If they have a burning passion to become a doctor, lawyer, artist, entrepreneur, etc., it was God that put it there and by His grace and by His will if they stick with it, they WILL achieve their goals!

Misery loves company

It seems that there is a large contingent of people out there that are completely miserable because despite all their efforts, the Nintendo Switch 2 continues to break records in various categories. It sold 6 million worldwide in it's first 7 weeks of being on the market. It sold 2 million in Japan in 14 weeks which makes it the fastest-selling console in Japan CRUSHING the previous record held by the GameBoy Advance at 900,000, and it has become the fastest-selling console in US history at 2.4 million thus far besting the previous-record held by the PlayStation 4 at 2.2 million. At this point, while it is not confirmed yet, the Switch 2 has approximately sold 9 million units in just 4 months. By the time the Holiday season ends, the Switch 2 will have outsold the Wii U, and have sold more than half the units of the GameCube. Think about that.... Meanwhile, many people continue to say things like "People aren't satisfied with the Switch 2..." "The sales are slowing down..." "It's too expensive... "There are NO games for the Switch 2... "The games are too expensive..." "It's just an overclocked PS4..." "It's underpowered..." "Nintendo is suing this company, or that company...." ...BLAH-BLAH-BLAH yakkity-shmakkity. First of all, EVERYTHING is too expensive nowadays for EVERY THING. The prices of Switch 2 games are roughly the same as games on the PS5 family and the XBOX Series family with a few exceptions. However, people will tell bald-faced lies to push a narrative. They will say... "Donkey Kong Bananza is $90 dollars!!" The game is $70 dollars and in my opinion it is worth it as a major AAA, 1st-party title. However the DLC pack which includes DK Island and Emerald Rush is an extra $20 dollars. DLC is NOT REQUIRED to fully enjoy Donkey Kong Bananza. No one knew this DLC pack was coming, and no one complained about the game as it was. So, to act like the game was "incomplete" and now the DLC makes it "complete" and thus the game itself is $90 dollars is nonsense. No one has any problems being nickel-and-dimed to death by games like NBA 2K or Madden when you at literally paying the SAME PRICE ($70 dollars) as Donkey Kong Bananza, but you are just getting the exact same game you paid $70 dollars for last year, and the year before that. We haven't even mentioned the PAID content packs and DLC that IS required for a "complete" experience if you are a seasoned-player in those types of games and not just a casual. People complain about Mario Kart World being $80 dollars. I don't think it's worth that much personally, and I think Nintendo did kind of play themselves of overestimating the importance of Mario Kart and I don't think that they put enough into this game to warrant the price increase. They were heading in the right direction of a good idea of making Mario Kart open world, but they didn't follow all the way through on that concept and kind of took the cheap path. This game DOES feel incomplete but only because of the open world aspect being pretty bland and vanilla. It does feel like the results of the game do not match their ambition. That's fine because as a creator myself I experience that first hand, but don't charge the consumer for what it COULD have been (or even SHOULD have been.) Charge them for what it IS. So, with this game I'll let people have their complaints to a degree, but as I said before, you could have just bought the pack-in Switch 2 console and got the game for $50 bucks. It is definitely worth that. Just sayin'.... There are other games coming to Switch 2 that people are complaining about being too expensive by lumping in the price of OPTIONAL DLC packs rather than looking at the MSRP of the game itself, but I've already proved my point that this is balderdash. Then you have people that comb the Internet searching for literally ANY and EVERY single news story that has even a remotely negative thing to say about the hardware capabilities of the Switch 2, and if they cannot find any, they either just regurgitate the same false narratives (e.g. the Switch is just just a PS4,) or just tell bald-faced lies about it's capability. However, when developers from major 3rd-party studios known for producing games that push hardware come out themselves and explain just how capable the system is (in addition to being able to see it with our own eyes with games like Fast Fusion, Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter VI, Star Wars: Outlaws, Final Fantasy VII: Remake, and even Resident Evil: Requiem) those people get REAL small, and REAL quiet. To anyone that has a functional synapse left in their brains, it is clear that you can see the difference between optimized and unoptimized games on the Switch 2 (or any other console or device for that matter.) Games that are optimized look really good and even come close to the XBOX Series X and PS5 versions in some aspects, and games that aren't optimized look and run pretty bad, again just like on other platforms. The part where the cheese falls out of the sandwich in this is with people the will for example look at Madden '26 for the Switch 2 and say, "Ha! There is PROOF that the hardware is weak-sauce!" Again, purposefully ignoring all the previously mentioned games that show off it's capabilities. However, what you WON'T see them do, is go and look at the reviews of the PC versions of Madden '26 and you see literally the EXACT SAME PROBLEMS the Switch 2 version has and even some problems the Switch 2 version doesn't have. What are the commonalities here? Neither version is OPTIMIZED!!! There is no excuse for someone having a monster-rig of a PC that stomps all over the PS5 Pro in literally every metric that exists and have a vastly inferior gaming experience compared to playing it on a PS5 Pro. This is about laziness and greed. Not hardware capability. EA doesn't care as long as the get your money. They'll figure that since there hasn't been a Madden on a Nintendo console since the Wii U, Nintendo fans should be happy with whatever version they get, in whatever STATE they choose to give it, and if they don't like it, too bad. If they game does poorly, EA gets to say, "Hey, we tried," and then have an excuse to not bring another Madden to the Switch 2 in the future. Getting back to the chronic complainers. People will not give up talking bad about the Switch 2. They REFUSE to stop. EVERY time I type in "Nintendo News," or "Nintendo Switch 2," in the feed on YouTube, X, Google, etc., it is ALWAYS a barrage of NEGATIVE banter and you literally have to put in a concerted effort to search for anything positive regarding Nintendo. Not that it isn't out there, but it is just buried underneath layers of horse-crap that has been proven WRONG numerous times by legit sources. The only conclusion that I can come up with is this. People that worship at the alter of hardware specs are upset that the Switch being as weak as it was completely destroyed the competition in sales, and by the time the Switch is no longer in production, and the last Switch console sells in a retail store, the final tally for the Switch WILL BE OVER 160 MILLION making it the best-selling video-game hardware of ALL TIME, and there is NOTHING they can do about it. Not a blasted-thing. They can't handle that. To add to that, the Switch 2 while still not as powerful as the competition, turned out to more capable than they expected it to be and major AAA 3rd-party games designed with the PS5 and XSX in mind when properly optimized run so good that you literally have to pause some games side-by-side to point out tangible graphical differences. The Switch 2 being what it is has no business being able to do that, and that also drives them nuts. Lastly, despite prices being higher than expected on the games and hardware, and no real "killer-app" type game on the Switch 2, the console literally has broken every single record there is to break while in a recessed-economy. That is the 'Coup De Grace' so-to-speak. So, these people do everything they can to try and make everyone else feel as miserable as they do. The prices of the PlayStation and XBOX games, consoles, and services keep going up every few months, yet the same people don't say a peep about that. By the time the first calendar-year passes for the Switch 2, it is not a stretch to suggest that it will have more AAA 1st-party titles than the first 6 years of the PlayStation 5, and by the end of the year it will already have more than the XBOX Series X. Now, I have no dog in this fight. I'm a PC gamer and I primarily game on Steam. I bought a Switch 2 so that I can play Nintendo titles. I'm not interesting in playing 3rd-party titles on the Switch 2 unless there is something unique about the Switch 2 version of a 3rd-party game. I just like to point out hypocrisy. I find it laughable that people have so much time on their hands to talk about anything and everything negative regarding Nintendo. I mean, shouldn't you be playing your amazing games on your "superior" PS5 and XBOX Series X????? HMMMMMMMMMM??????

History of my birthdays

This is a short history of birthdays that I have vivid memories of. 5 years old I remember my mother taking me up the block to McDonald's where a lot of my friends were already there and I had a birthday party! I don't remember too much from the party itself other than the fact that we got the cool, red boomerang things as a parting gift. I also remember eating the Ronald McDonald cookie that was on top of my birthday cake. Back then, McDonald's used to have a program where you fill out this little slip and drop it in the huge deposit box in the lobby which you could get sent a card with a coupon for a free hamburger, small fries, and small drink. I made sure I did that EVERY year from that point on until I got too old for that stuff.

After the party, we came home and I opened up a few gifts. I got two remote control cars. One was a big, red Trans-Am that had the cord attached to the control. The other one was a small, dark-red colored Porsche which was a radio-controlled car with no wire attached. Later on that evening, we went to Showbiz Pizza Place! So, this birthday was pretty much fire to say the least.

6 years old I remember my sisters had baked a carrot cake and instead of candles, they put six pieces of gum on top of the cake! I also remember that I got the Coleco Gemini as my birthday gift and we were playing with it the day BEFORE my birthday while my mother was away doing something.

7 years old I don't remember having any party or anything. I just did the McDonald's free meal thing, but when I was coming home from school that day, I saw my sister and my grandfather taking a brand new BMX bike out of the trunk of his car. This was my birthday gift! It was a Team Murray Track 330. This isn't an actual picture of MY bike, but it is a picture of the same model minus the padding.

8 years old This birthday was LEGENDARY. At least, how I remember it. I could be wrong about this, but knowing how things were back then, it's hard for me to believe that all this was done without it being my birthday. I remember coming home from school on a Friday and my mother and sister were putting together a new entertainment center in the living room. It was customary to change out of my school clothes into my play clothes before I could go outside to play. My mother said, "Don't change out of your clothes yet, because we are going to Ponderosa."

If that is all we had done that weekend I would have been straight because I LOVED going to Ponderosa. However.....it was not. After having dinner and enjoying ourselves she tells me that we are going to the movies. I asked what we were going to see, and she said that I was going to see Godzilla 1985: The Legend Is Reborn. My jaw just hit the floor. I couldn't believe it.

The movie was AMAZING of course. I remember seeing all the promotional material on TV for the movie for months and being excited about it including all the goofy Dr. Pepper commercials as well.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/43491a_d072254b33fe47eb86e54ab320cea9fe/720p/mp4/file.mp4

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/43491a_f309c03ccedd4908bf7039124d298ba3/720p/mp4/file.mp4

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/43491a_3973c521cded460883b7dc2a00a14a39/360p/mp4/file.mp4

To this very day I cannot drink a Dr. Pepper without thinking about Godzilla! I obviously asked my mother if we could go see it and she never said yes, or no. It was one of those, "Well see....." type of things which usually meant "yes" but not right now. The Saturday morning after all this fun, I was in the kitchen messing around with this secret spy decoder toy I got out of a box of Capt. Crunch (which is the most DISGUSTING breakfast cereal EVER created IMO, but I tricked my mother into buying it just so I could get the toy!) LOL!! Anyway, while I was sitting there, I was just basking in the afterglow of such an incredible evening. I could still hear Godzilla's awesome "roar" in the back of my mind. I was a HUGE kaiju fan at this point in my life. I had watched many of the old films from the SHOWA era every Saturday afternoon at 1:00PM on Super 18 in Milwaukee, and then later on TBS. So, seeing a brand new Godzilla movie with modern (at the time) special effects was incredible........but we are not done!

Now, this is where it gets confusing. It is entirely possible that I misremembered the date of all this, or it happened exactly as I remembered it, because I also remember having a birthday party. I have pictures of this. It was a Transformers theme for the party. All of the plates, cups, and napkins had Transformers stuff on them, and my birthday cake had a small Optimus Prime on it. You can clearly see 8 candles on the cake so this was my 8th birthday party.

So, it is POSSIBLE that this party happened on a Sunday and the other stuff happened on that Friday. If not, who cares. I choose to remember it ALL happening for my 8th birthday!! 9 years old I had a pajama party that wasn't all that great. My friends came over, we had hot dogs, chips, and soda. We played for awhile, then went to bed. When I woke up, everyone had left and went home already in the middle of the night. So, that was a bummer. After this, I did not have a birthday "party" again until I was an adult. More on that later. The next several years had the same pattern which was still a blessing. I would get my little coupon from McDonald's like I mentioned earlier and get my free hamburger, fries, and soda. My grandfather every year would give me $25 for my birthday. One year I remember using it to buy a microscope. The reason being is that I got the Transformer toy, Perceptor, which transformed into a functional microscope. This peaked my interest in microscopes in general, so when I got my $25 bucks from my grandfather, I took it to Kay-Bee Toy Hobby and bought a microscope. I can't remember too many things I ever bought with my birthday money. I usually just put it in my piggy bank and used it to buy snacks on occasion. 37 years old The next "memorable" birthday that I had was about 11 years ago. My brothers took me to Gameworks in Schaumburg, IL (it's gone now unfortunately) and we had a good time playing the arcade games there. They also all pitched in and bought me an XBOX One console. Also on this date we went to the Galloping Ghost Arcade. I call this place the "collapsed dimension" because when you look at it from the outside, it doesn't look that big or impressive, however, when you are inside there are seemingly ENDLESS rows of arcade machines that just go on and on and on and on and every time you feel like you found them all, you discover a new area with MORE machines. It's nuts! This was my first time visiting that arcade. That day was very special to me, and I'll never forget it. These days I don't really celebrate my birthday or holidays. It's just a personal choice. However, I am grateful and thankful to God that he allowed me to have those wonderful experiences and great memories of birthdays of the past and I can always pull those memories any time I want.