Check out this spam comment

I took a screen cap of this comment to my recent post about Arsenio Hall. Needless to say I was amused by it. Needless to say I marked it as spam but it did get posted to the blog. lol

Skyline

Looking from the southwest at the Cook County criminal courthouse the Chicago skyline is calling!

Is Arsenio Hall back on TV for good?

[VIDEO] The above vid is from Arsenio Hall's first edition of his program from 1989.

When the 1st incarnation of The Arsenio Hall Show aired I wasn't exactly in the target audience of the show. As a matter of fact, one time Arsenio was doing his monologue and something he said caused a loud noise. I knew he said something, but the noise and the reaction of the audience had me rolling. When I got started laughing my mother immediately kicked me out of the room. He probably used a profane term although I was too young to understand what he was talking about.

Well it's old news that Arsenio Hall is back on TV with a 2nd incarnation of his program. He offered something different for late night audiences that wasn't seen. Another part of this was that one target demographic of his program were from urban areas who may not have been covered by the mainstream late night programs of the day or even now.

I remember years ago listening to his radio program, Mancow Muller made hay about other late night programs who have sought to replicate Arsenio Hall's success. Most have failed for varying reasons and Mancow noted that when people watch late night programming they want to wind down and programs that seek to replicate Arsenio's format were more late night parties than anything else.

Then again, I wondered why Hall succeeded for as long as it did where others have failed. There was once a show named Vibe - named for Vibe magazine - that only lasted two seasons of only 28 episodes. Keenan Ivory Wayans had his own late night talk program for a year. Even Magic Johnson made his own disastrous attempt with The Magic Hour. Also BET made two attempts to replicate the format and it crashed and burned - the final attempt with comedienne Mo'Nique.

Arsenio probably succeeded in the first place because he was something different. Not sure if that explains why others have failed after his program got cancelled after five seasons in 1994. But Mancow was probably right in stating that Hall's program offered something different.

To be honest I haven't had much of a chance to watch the new show which was recently renewed for another season. It seems different than the original although granted it's been close to 25 years since the 1st incarnation premiered. So it's probably something I should put on this list for late-night programming.

In fact since Jay Leno gave up his job at host of The Tonight Show to Jimmy Fallon I've been watching more late night programming. I gave Fallon a try when he first started and then I followed Seth Meyers the new host of Late Night although that program seemed to have gone off to a rocky start. Further more for the first time in years I watched David Letterman who has always been a long time favorite of mine. Of course I often could be found watching Conan O'Brien's eponymous program on TBS.

What can be said about the late night talk landscape, is there's certainly something for everyone!

BTW, I forgot there was another attempt at Hall's format that aired for two seasons on TBS called Lopez Tonight hosted by comedian George Lopez. I was about to call it much more successful but in the listing I have earlier in this posting it probably could rank up there with Vibe & The Mo'Nique Show.

There should be another Star Trek Compendium book...

USS Enterprise NCC-1701

I had a dream one night that a new Star Trek Compendium was published and was being sold at bookstores where I was browsing and reading. It seemed to include all Star Trek TV series and movies and the cover was much different than I was used to. Alas, it was only a dream.

The Star Trek Comendium I'm familiar with was written by Allen Asherman and largely chronicled the development, production, and eventual re-birth of the 1960s Star Trek series. And recently I just had this vision that some day in the future there may be another Compendium book where the last two Star Trek movies - by JJ Abrams - would be included.

Besides, Star Trek & Star Trek Into Darkness were based on those original characters that Gene Roddenberry created for the original Star Trek series of the 1960s. It wouldn't hurt to include those in addition to synopsis of the original 1960s episodes, the 1970s animated series episodes, and the six movies that feature the original cast of the 1960s series.

Years ago, I had purchased an edition of the Compendium which included the original episodes, the animated series and the first five Star Trek films that featured the original cast. There was an edition that contained synopsis for all six movies but for whatever reason I never purchased it.

However, if Mr. Asherman or anyone else elected to do a companion book for the original Star Trek series and included the Abrams movies. This would be something that's worth purchasing! For now at least the last edition from 1993 is still available via Amazon.

Sitting at Pepe's one Saturday night

 Waiting for some tacos and tostadas!

WSJ: Job Hunting? Dig Up Those Old SAT Scores

It sometimes threw me off when you apply for a job and there's space for GPA. Although in some respects I understand, if there's barely any job experience shown seen then you need something. Not that GPA is an indication of future success at work.

Still, it would throw me off even more that hiring managers would be interested in SAT or ACT scores. When I was in high school - Go Falcons - my ACT score wasn't that good so I wouldn't be entirely happy if I go for a job, get interviewed, and then my scores were requested. Even if it had been a decade out of high school, even if I had already gotten my degree, and even if I should've established a decent work record.

All the same, this aspect of this Wall Street Journal article concerns me:

Putting too much stock in standardized tests can put minority candidates at a disadvantage. In 2013, SAT test-takers in the "Black or African-American" category scored an average 431 on the exam's critical reading section, 429 on math and 418 on writing. White test-takers, meanwhile, scored nearly 100 points higher on average in every section. There is a racial divide for ACT score reports as well.

In any case, that article explores all aspects of this practice. Even notes companies that stopped this practice. Unfortunately this "fad" may not go away any time soon, however, it's good to know it's being evaluated and some just choose to go another direction.

It's like many ways that employers seek to screen out candidates. It's often unfair, but it's what they use and especially frustrating in an economy with high unemployment.

As far as "fads" perhaps one day employers won't even bother with these pre-employment assessments anymore in the future. Are those an indicator of future success?

Hat-tip for my new favorite blog - Ask a Manager - where a commenter on her blog pointed readers to that Wall Street Journal article. There was a question about whether or not an applicant for an office manager position should provide old SAT scores.

Proofreading

Something I like to pride myself is being a good writer although at times my writing isn't as clear as it should be. Sometimes I go through past posts and see where the grammar and the meaning of sentences could be improved. Often times I just simply change them long after the fact.

I'm usually prompted when finding that old posts recieves visitors although the main thing about blogs is that they're constantly updated. For the most part a blog reader isn't exactly going through the archives thoroughly. They're reading for the more recent posts and the blog must be constantly updated.

Reading one of the more recent posts one morning there was one mistake that certainly changed the meaning of what was supposed to be said. It was the post about the state trooper who took a phone call answering questions about a newly enacted law his agency was expected to enforce. Seeing the mistake although days after the fact, it was important to make a word substitution to make clear the point of the necessary statement.

Acknowledging that as a blogmaster that sometimes writing mistake are made, it's time to do better within that regard. Perhaps it's time to do some proofreading before hitting publish. Even better perhaps the post need not be published when done writing, but can be scheduled so that there is time to properly proofread. Or at the very least leave the post as the draft so that it would get one more proofread before publication.

With that being said, I shall do better in the future!

Thinking about the past after a recent visit to a courthouse...

Looking outside of the courthouse

Recently, I was summoned to jury duty at the Cook County criminal courthouse when it hits me that many years before had been my first visit actual visit to this area. My 8th grade class at Bennett School took a field trip to the adjacent Cook County Jail where we were met by the inmates who's apparent goal was to scare us straight.

They made a unified statement telling us to think about it. Some of us smirked to which some of these inmates let us know that there was nothing funny about what they said. Some of us were passionate as whatever these inmates were saying struck a nerve. Some were in tears and others had an outburst.

Many of them tried to relate to us tales of what happened to put them in jail and some of my peers were finding themselves in the same situation anyway. In fact, I'm sure this experience probably saved a few of us that day. Unfortunately in spite of this trip, there is at least one classmate who was headed for trouble back then who is no longer walking among us today.

In fact that experience was the first time I realize that some of my peers were in gangs. It was a revelation that was only the beginning as I headed to one of the worst high schools in the city at the time. If I had no clue they were in a gang when I finally got to my assigned high school that fact would be thrown in my face.

Hopefully the youth of today don't have a trip such as this, one of the most unusual during my time in public school. Although perhaps a trip such as this should be reserved for the ones who are known to be trouble. Although if only we had a true crystal ball for the ones who's future are either dead & buried or constant trouble with the law.

If anything I'd rather hope we sent our youth to the courts for a tour of a courthouse. If only my grammar school had arranged for that back in the day instead of a trip to the jail. Perhaps someone in my class - especially myself - could've been inspired to be a lawyer or judge. Or the future 8th graders could be inspired to have a career in the law.

All the same, I'm satisfied only with having to make a rare trip to a Cook County Courthouse for jury duty. Thankfully no brushes with the law that would land me at either Cook County Jail or in a courtroom at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse. And I hope to keep it that way!

The Atlantic: Ex-journalist's life as a retail worker...

I tweeted this story earlier today about a ex-journalist who was forced to take a retail job after having a long prosperous career. Then unfortunately he made one bad move and he was out of a job. In some respects I sympathise with him because I'm sort of in the same boat as he is.

My situation is slightly different than his in his case he got off to a great start until one event caused his career to unravel. In my case, I'm still looking for mine and illustrated one example recently where unfortunately it didn't work in my favor.

Every now and then we hear stories about how x-amount of jobs were added to the economy, but seemingly not enough to offset the number of unemployed right now. Thankfully I do have a job, but at the same time you got your start now it's time to move ahead to something better. The question that keeps hitting my mind is what does it take?

We got to keep moving and we got to keep plugging away. Best wishes to those out there looking.

Hat-tip Woodlawn Wonder!

Epiphany on social networking sites

facebook.com

I've reached something of an epiphany recently. Actually when you think about it, it seems there are epiphanies about anything with me. In any event, I've come to a conclusion about social networking.

Believe it or not, I've been using Facebook since it was brand new. So brand new in fact that when a user registered they must have a college-issued e-mail address. It wasn't as wide open as it is now.

Never would I have ever imagined that there would be other ways of distracting ourselves online - such as Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat - during the course of a given day. In fact now these sites have evolved beyond the PC which was the only was to access sites such as FB years ago. Now we can access these sites via cell phones or a tablet device.

So getting in touch with our friends and more random people via these various sites are easier than ever because now we can use cell phones and tablet devices. You don't have to wait until you get to a PC to utilize these sites.

Then it hits me, it's cool to be able to use these various platforms to communicate with a number of people. We could reconnect with childhood friends, classmates, family, or even make new friends. It's as useful as the many uses you can make of it however you choose.

At the same time there is a dark side to using such sites. Like any tool, if you use it the right way it will prove to be beneficial. At the same time if you use it the wrong way, then it probably will cause more harm than good. You can use such a site to project yourself as you are until you find someone who decides to mess with your reputation using online sources. And unfortunately it seems a lot of people put a lot of their lives online.

Then here comes my epiphany....there's got to be better ways to pass that time than on a PC or a mobile device. This should be time connecting with our friends and family offline and perhaps taking them to a movie or to a restaurant. That is being truly social with them in the real world.

While, I'm a long way from ever removing myself from these various sites perhaps it's time we consider how important our time is with the people we do care about. And anything else that happens online whether wanted or unwanted is at some point merely noise.