Amobi Okoye came to the United States from Nigeria when he was 12.  Here’s a brief list of what he’s accomplished so far:

• Age 2½— started going to school in Nigeria with his mother, Edna, who was the principal.

• 12 — Freshman in high school after testing well on an aptitude test in Huntsville, Ala.

• 13 — Started 13 games on the defensive line at Lee High.

• 14 — First-team all-state on both sides of the ball as a senior.

• 15 — Signed with Louisville.

• 16 — Youngest player in college football, played 13 games.

• 17 — Made first collegiate start vs. Army.

• 18 — Full-time starter as a junior.

• 19 — Selected captain of the Cardinals.

• 19 — First round draft pick with the Houston Texans.

• 19 — Graduates college with a degree in psychology

 Now, that’s a pretty remarkable lifetime.  And, he can’t even drink a beer, yet.

The thing that gets me is the stereotypes Okoye shatters. ( I’m gonna get pretty crass here )

• Don’t really expect a Nigerian immigrant to be THAT smart and obviously well-educated.

• Don’t really see blacks in general in the US stressing academics the way they should.

• Don’t really picture big hulking guys at 6 feet 2 inches and 305 pounds to be that smart.

• Don’t really expect football players ( or most major-sports athletes ) in general to be that academically oriented.

Okoye’s just shattering stereotypes all over the place.  For that, Amobi Okoye is a hero of mine.  And, I hope he becomes a hero to millions of young boys all over the world who feel that if they wanna be a jock, it’s uncool to be a brain too.

I think Okoye will excel in the NFL.  Not because he’s 6′2″ and 300+ pounds, but because if he’s pitted against someone else who’s the same size, I’ll bet, with just a little bit of experience, he’ll outsmart the other guy.  When talent’s equal, brains win.

I’ll be keeping an eye on Okoye.  He hasn’t taken a pro snap yet and I’m already a fan.  And, I’m certainly not a Texan fan, but I bet they get a lot better real quick. 

Technorati Tags: amobi-okoye, bias, Heroes, houston-texans, Sports, sterotypes

Spent the day cruising creeks. Here’s some pics of one of them. This is Short Creek. It’s the shortest known creek in the world at about 100 feet or so. It comes out of one cave and runs right into another. Needless to say, the water stays cool all year long.

Technorati Tags: kentucky, Parenting, scenic-pics, short-creek

1. DON’T SWEAT THE PETTY THINGS AND DON’T PET THE SWEATY THINGS.

2. ONE TEQUILA, TWO TEQUILA, THREE TEQUILA, FLOOR….

3. ATHEISM IS A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION.

4. IF MAN EVOLVED FROM MONKEYS AND APES, WHY DO WE STILL HAVE MONKEYS AND APES?

5. THE MAIN REASON SANTA IS SO JOLLY IS BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHERE ALL THE BAD GIRLS LIVE.

6. I WENT TO A BOOKSTORE AND ASKED THE SALESWOMAN, “WHERE’S THE SELF-HELP SECTION?” SHE SAID IF SHE TOLD ME, IT WOULD DEFEAT THE PURPOSE.

7. WHAT IF THERE WERE NO HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS?

8. IF A DEAF PERSON SWEARS, DOES HIS MOTHER WASH HIS HANDS WITH SOAP?

9. IF SOMEONE WITH MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES THREATENS TO KILL HIMSELF, IS IT CONSIDERED A HOSTAGE SITUATION?

10. IS THERE ANOTHER WORD FOR SYNONYM?

11. WHERE DO FOREST RANGERS GO TO “GET AWAY FROM IT ALL?”

12. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE AN ENDANGERED ANIMAL EATING AN ENDANGERED PLANT?

13. IF A PARSLEY FARMER IS SUED, CAN THEY GARNISH HIS WAGES?

14. WOULD A FLY WITHOUT WINGS BE CALLED A WALK?

15. WHY DO THEY LOCK GAS STATION BATHROOMS? ARE THEY AFRAID SOMEONE WILL CLEAN THEM?

16. IF A TURTLE DOESN’T HAVE A SHELL, IS HE HOMELESS OR NAKED?

17. CAN VEGETARIANS EAT ANIMAL CRACKERS?

18. IF THE POLICE ARREST A MIME, DO THEY TELL HIM HE HAS THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT?

19. WHY DO THEY PUT BRAILLE ON THE DRIVE-THROUGH BANK MACHINES?

20. HOW DO THEY GET DEER TO CROSS THE ROAD ONLY AT THOSE YELLOW ROAD SIGNS?

21. WHAT WAS THE BEST THING BEFORE SLICED BREAD?

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT EGOTISTS: THEY DON’T TALK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE.

23. DOES THE LITTLE MERMAID WEAR AN ALGEBRA?

24. DO INFANTS ENJOY INFANCY AS MUCH AS ADULTS ENJOY ADULTERY?

25. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A CIVIL WAR?

26. IF ONE SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMER DROWNS, DO THE REST DROWN TOO?

27. IF YOU ATE BOTH PASTA AND ANTIPASTO, WOULD YOU STILL BE HUNGRY?

28. IF YOU TRY TO FAIL, AND SUCCEED, WHICH HAVE YOU DONE?

29. WHOSE CRUEL IDEA WAS IT FOR THE WORD “LISP” TO HAVE “S” IN IT?

30. WHY ARE HEMORRHOIDS CALLED “HEMORRHOIDS” INSTEAD OF “ASSTEROIDS”?

31. WHY IS IT CALLED TOURIST SEASON IF WE CAN’T SHOOT AT THEM?

32. WHY IS THERE AN EXPIRATION DATE ON SOUR CREAM?

33. IF YOU SPIN AN ORIENTAL MAN IN A CIRCLE THREE TIMES DOES HE BECOME DISORIENTED?

34. CAN AN ATHEIST GET INSURANCE AGAINST ACTS OF GOD?

Technorati Tags: acts-of-god, adultery, algebra, atheism, bad-girls, bank, bathroom, braille, deer, drive-thru, egotist, endangered-animals, evolution, fly, forest-rangers, hemorrhoid, Humor, hypothetical, infant, insurance, lisp, mermaid, mime, monkey, oriental, petty-things, police, santa, synonym, tequila, tourist-season, turtle

Technorati Tags: camouflage, Humor, what-to-wear

In 1965 The Who pretty much defined the mortalistic view of hippie generation by claiming, loudly, “Hope I Die before I get old“.

One person didn’t go along with that apparently.

That folks, is Iggy Pop preparing to turn 60. That’s right:

60

Now, a lot of people like to credit bands like Pearl Jam for “inventing” the mosh pit experience. However, Iggy defined this about 35 years ago by constantly flinging himself into the audience. Sometimes they weren’t prepared for this, since no one else had ever done it, and Iggy wound up with several broken bones as the result of it. Definitely need to find his interview where he describes his misadventures with crowd surfing and mosh pits. It’s hilarious. Here’s a sample of Iggy “inventing” crowd surfing and moshing. There won’t be too much debate on this, it’s from 1970:

To put this concert in perspective, Eddie Vedder was five years old. Curt Kobain was three.

I never bought into The Who’s claim. Now, I know they now mean it meant emotionally “old”. However, I don’t live my life worrying about the negative. I just wanna be like Iggy when I’m “old”.

Technorati Tags: 60, crowd-surf, curt-kobain, iggy-pop, mosh, Music, pearl-jam, the-stooges

My heart and soul go out to the people of Blacksburg.

Before anyone tries to make some kind of tormented martyr out of this guy, he was an asshole of the worst possible proportion.

I don’t care what his excuse was.  And, don’t try to pin this on everyone else as this being "society’s fault".  Someone close to him had to know there was something bad wrong with this guy and didn’t take any action.  That’s not society’s fault, that’s the fault of the individuals who failed to do anything for, or to stop this guy.

He’ll rot in hell.  Anyone else that might have known what he was going to do will as well.

Technorati Tags: Current Affairs

Last year I did a thingy on Askmen’s most desireable women.  I looked carefully at that list and picked about 54 “desirables” that were not that desirable to me.  Well, I was kinda on target.  This year’s version of the same list completely replaced 43 of last year’s “most desirable”.  The list in it’s entirity was more desirable to me, but the #1 left me completely lost.  Yeah, she’s ok.  But something about her personality leaves not desiring her at all.  Divas turn me off.  The next 10 you can put on my list of keepers for this year anyway.

( OK, maybe not so much )

Shakira

Angelina Jolie, skippit.

( With hair. )

Beyonce. Yeah.  Right.

Technorati Tags: askmen, beyonce, pavlov, Pavlov's Dog

Tim Cole got arrested for DUI.  He wasn’t just a little tipsy, he was .174.  That is smashed.  He’ll do a little time in the pokey, and he’ll lose a paycheck out two.  However, his worst punishment has already been dealt:

That folks, is his mugshot.

Technorati Tags: Idiot of the day

My entire life I have been slightly hearing impaired.  Now, I’m not deaf, not even that close to it.  But, I don’t hear so well.  What this situation has done is take ordinary situations and make them that much better more often than not because I didn’t hear a word or two just right.  Now, I finally have the perfect illustration of that effect.  Watch this:

Probably isn’t all that funny at first.  Probably doesn’t make any sense either.  If it doesn’t, go back and watch it again.  This time, ignore the subs and listen very carefully to the choir.

That’s been my little joke on mankind my entire life.

Technorati Tags: Humor

Look closely at their shirt.

( the idiot of the day is whoever made those shirts. )

Technorati Tags: Idiot of the day, Sports