I really dislike Philly

I really dislike Philly. This place kinda sucks.... I've been here for 3 weeks now, granted in King of Prussia, which is a barren suburban waste land of strip malls and one of the largest indoor malls in the country, but Philly in general, I am so not a fan of. Here's why:

1. How the hell does Rocky have a statue and "Smokin" Joe Frazier's gym can't fucking stay open? Rocky is NOT REAL. He's not even based on Rocky Balboa. Even if he is, Balboa is from Massachusetts! Frazier is by far the greatest boxer Philly has seen, and probably will ever see with the way boxing is going. Yet, the city will allow the iconic Joe Frazier gym to go bankrupt and close. Thanks Philly! Keep honoring your fake boxers!

2. Geno's sucks. It's pretty awful, this is why you get 2 1/2 stars on Yelp. The owner is a douche. If you don't remember, read this. American chauvinism irritates me, GREATLY. Granted, I think learning English would be great, and probably will benefit you since most people speak English here. But the whole THIS IS AMERICA!! FUCK YEAH! mentality is annoying. What's worse...SO MUCH WORSE...about Geno's is the sign that says blah blah blah cop "murdered by Mumia Abdul-Jamal". REALLY!?! There's was a great amount of controversy around Mumia and the cop shooting. I'm with the free Mumia camp. There's fishy evidence and probably police misconduct, but that's for another time and another post. FREE MUMIA! Suck my cock, Geno's

3. What is the bad part of Philly again? North? West? South??? Everything? We know Camden sucks some balls....

4. Do you ever support your sports teams? Ever?? I've heard Philly fans boo everyone... and you have a jail under Lincoln Financial Field, enough said. 

Philly does have great capoeira though. ASCAB is in Philly, so gotta give some love to M. Doutor. If your ever here, go to his class. The studio is gorgeous and M. Doutor is one of the funniest guys I know. 

I also have a lot of friends here, I love you guys, but I hate your city, I'm sorry. 

Philly, minus some good trails to run on, you suck. Like you always have....

Before you buy an Apple product

Listen, I know a lot of the people that read this have something made by Apple. It is damn near impossible to convince anyone not to buy Apple, it’s a good product, I get it. But let’s not forget the human cost that goes into keeping us entertained. Everybody, by now, has heard about Foxconn. If you haven’t, read this. Horrible working conditions, suicides, dying from exhaustion are all in a days work at Foxconn. 

I believe that, as consumers, we should demand that the workers that make our products are promised basic workers rights. 

Apple makes HUGE amounts of profit. $1B USD profit in a quarter is absurd. These numbers are comparable to ExxonMobile on a good quarter when they inflate prices. Yet, no one ever complains that Apple is making too much money at the expense of human rights. My wish is for Apple to cut its profits and mandate higher wages, benefits, and better working conditions for its subcontractor manufacturers, namely Foxconn.

I’m not going to be wordy and detail my whole argument, if you wish to hear them, call me. 

My plea is this: Foxconn has a major plant in my hometown of Chengdu. This place is making the iPad 2 and will be making the new iPad. I love my hometown and I wish the best for the city. Foxconn’s working conditions there remind me of a communist factory where everything is company owned and every facet of life is controlled. It hits hard at me, and I do have a moral obligation to not buy Apple. I can’t tell the readers what to do, but before you buy an Apple product, do this:

Email Apple.

I’m not 100% sure where, it’s not like Apple has a complaints department, they’re too good for that. But Google something and write a letter, or an email, and let them know that you want rights for workers that make Apple products.

 Email Human Rights in China

Write to them saying that basic human rights are being denied to workers at Foxconn. Let them know that this is an issue that people care about.

Donate

I’m biased to Human Rights in China, so I would advocate donating to them. But please donate 2% of the cost of that Apple product and let them know that this is for worker’s rights.

This is my little plea for generate some sort of change. I will continue to boycott Apple until they change their business practices; I wish you all would do the same. I know that won’t happen, but I hope that you all take action and help the people in my hometown to gain some basic rights. 

NC...you and me...this can work

First off, I've been in North Carolina for the past month because I was voluntold to go down with a sinking ship. It pissed me the fuck off, but complaining won't do me much good. What I take away from this experience, professionally, is that I can deal with crappy situation much better than I thought I could. Yay?

On the bright side, I did get a chance to spend some quality time in NC, which continues to surprise me. First, thank you Yelp. You just IPO'ed at an absurd amount of money, and though I don't understand why, I appreciate your services and making me look like I know what's going on in terms of choosing restaurants for a date. For that I thank you. Second, southern food is great. It's fairly hard to fuck up. Deep fry it. Add gravy. Always good. But what is surprising is when you mix a genuinely southern style food with a new age American twist. I respect that. A lot.

The first place I found, Glenwood Grille, was amazingly good. I don't trust restaurants in strip malls, because they usually scream CHAIN! or KITSCHY! and generally AVOID! But this one was great. I got the seafood and grits, which was grits (southern, good grits) scallops, crayfish, shrimp over a light sauce. It was amazing. The size of the scallops were huge. In DC, I probably would have paid a SHIT TON for them, but in Raleigh, $22 gets your amazing stuff. My date had the salmon on a bed of creamed spinach. It was "Scottish salmon"... all I could think about at that moment was the Starburst commercial...DAMN YOU COMMERCIALISM FOR SCATTERING MY ATTENTION! I'm not a huge fan of cooked fish, unless fried, I tend not to eat it. But she seemed to enjoy it, which I was very happy about. She also got the succotash, which I didn't try, but since it got finished, I'm going to say it was good.

The dessert was a creme burlee. Straight traditional French, nothing changed. It was the first one she had, since she had given up processed grain for lent, the creme burlee was the only good option. I liked it, and since we both finished it, I'm guessing my date liked it.

The only disappointment was the wine. A viognier. If my cousin is reading this, for the record, yes, I like viogniers, regardless of how hipster or elitist you may think that is. It wasn't good... wasn't bad, we finished it, but I've had much better at about 1/2 the price. Can't win them all...

The second place was a sushi place, Mura. The decor of the place was very nice, check out the website, it does a better job with pictures than me typing about it. I'm very spoiled when it comes to sushi. Thanks to Cais, who worked at Kushi for way too long, I was able to get whatever the executive sushi chef wanted to feed me. 2 of the greatest food joys in the world: super fatty tuna, and super fatty tuna cheeks. And pea sized salmon roe is a close third. They were fairly innovative with their rolls, using mango, which might have been a first for me. Since I am a spoiled brat when it comes to sushi, I will just say that it was a decent sushi place, which probably means it was awesome to most people. Judging from the response I got from my date, I would venture to say that it was pretty good.

I have a feeling that I will be frequenting NC for the coming future, on my own fruition and hopefully on company dime. The food there does bring a lot of promise, though its not the primary reason I would be going down there. But I believe food is to be enjoyed with good company, it enhances the experience. Since I have an amazing person down there, more reason to get to the south.

I would have never expected any attraction to NC. But everything about it has just exceeded expectations: people, capoeira, food, living expenses. UNC is on my list of law schools, and I thought about taking it off, but after all this, if I get in, it might be hard to say no to.