It's dinner break at work, where we're all staying late because it's Tuesday and we all stay late on Tuesday because Tuesday is publication night. Did that make any sense at all? Well, this does: they're feeding us, as they do every Tuesday. This job is going to completely thwart any efforts I might be able to make towards losing any weight. Tonight's fare is Mexican. Have I mentioned recently how much I love my job?

In technology-related news, some Germans came up with the Painstation, an over-the-Internet version of Pong where, if you lose, the system inflicts pain upon you in the form of punches, electroshocks and heat. Those wacky Germans... I was going to say something to end that paragraph along the lines of "Leave to Germans to come up with a way to turn a game into something painful," but I figured someone would throw a fit because I was making a gross stereotype. But stereotypes are all around us, and it's a matter of not perpetuating the stereotype if you want people to stop believing it. If blacks want recognition as not being ghetto, then they need to stop perpetuating the stereotype among themselves with things like "Cita's World," a program on BET where a computer-generated character introduces videos while dressed in kind of a trashy outfit, speaking in complete slang and using improper English (I guess it's supposed to be Ebonics) and a bad accent. It basically sounds like that Shaniqua character Ellen Cleghorne played on "Saturday Night Live."

Now, BET is presenting this not only to their own audience, but to the entire cable-watching community at large. People who have no experience with blacks are going to think that this is the way they act all the time. People who see this who do interact with blacks may think that because it's okay for them to interact with each other this way, anyone can interact with them this way. (Which leads to that complete double-standard that I don't understand -- blacks can call each other "nigger" and it's a term of affection, but if a white person says it, blacks go nuts. If you don't want anyone using the term, don't use it yourself, people!)

Why are people scared of blacks? Maybe because a good portion of America gets their exposure to black culture through rap, where artists these days mostly seem to talk about screwing their bitches, shooting their enemies and drinkin' 40s with their homies. Well, if that's what you present to the public, that's what they're going to believe! It's that simple! It's like telling someone, "If you don't want people to think you're an asshole, don't act like an asshole!" This is such a "duh" thing, yet most people just don't seem to get it.

And I'm not just talking about blacks or Germans, this applies to all ethnic groups. I'm sure I probably exhibit some characteristics of a group that I'm a part of. Well, in order to knock down some of these stereotypes, I've definitely tried not to do the same stereotypical things so as not to perpetuate the behaviors & stereotypes unless it's a group that I intentionally want to display characteristics of (e.g.: being a liberal and with particular views on certain topics, being outspoken and forthright, being American).

Getting back to the Germans, though... [wicked smile] Seems that a group of Germans who were supposed to be providing translation services to the U.N. went to the wrong city for a conference. They were supposed to go to Monterey, Mexico, but flew to Monterey, California, instead. Sounds like they need to translate a little better for their travel agent.