Mike's Manifesto .007
THOUGHTS ON SPORTS, MUSIC, TECH, AND THE LIFE IN BETWEEN - Captain’s Log .007
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them”
— Maya Angelou
THE OPENING
Insurmountable — is the word sits in my chest as I write this newsletter, looking to keep the theme prevalent throughout. Coming to you this week from my childhood home, it feels appropriate to frame this under the code of transparency. Coming home feels daunting until I am present in its air. There are great, loving highlights blended in with rare, but frequent occasions of despair. As I age, my understanding of these emotions are lucid and my respect for them multiply.
🏀THE GAME—SPORTS THROUGH A CULTURAL LENS
Personality is Currency in Sports Media
With 24 hour news cycles in sports, there will never be a dull moment. One story that has transpired recently for far too long was Draymond Green’s comments towards Charles Barkley on Inside the NBA Tip Off show this week. Draymond uttered, “the goal is to not look like you in the Houston Rockets uniform, ” as a response to Charles’s comments towards his Warriors team having "‘older’ stars. The irony here is what Charles exclaimed was true, what Draymond said was not true in its entirety.
The last two seasons in Houston, Barkley was often injured and his body was starting to fail. He literally rehabbed the entire final season to play his very last game and go out on his own terms after rupturing his quadriceps tendon. As someone who is older than Draymond, I remember those Houston years. Were they great — compared to the days in Phoenix, absolutely not. But were they better than any of Draymond’s best years in the league? By a country mile. Recently, Charles went on to say that he would not trade his career for Draymond, and I believe a lot of people would say the same. What bothers me is the lack thereof for Charles Barkley and his playing career. It feels like a footnote for now what we all know Barkley to be, a larger than life media personality. Sir Charles has gotten away with a lot of ludicrous commentary — demonstrative to say the least, but his claim to fame is being glaringly adamant against being a role model.
That type of transparency can buy you social equity most relinquish willingly. Draymond is very honest and transparent with his rhetoric however, he tends to use it at the expense of others or to validate his own skills. Most people do not want to HEAR that. Draymond has since apologized to Charles on his podcast. Draymond hopefully learned a valuable lesson here, no matter how successful you are, if you are going to relish in the media space, it is perfectly fine to give some love and appreciation mixed in with the truth, because the public will turn it in to hate — quickly.
🎵THE SOUND—MUSIC AS MEMOIR AND MOOD
Why Lawd?!?
For some reason this album has been in my eardrums for the past couple of years now. I have songs that I go back to and listen for on occasions. Music can at times, for the most part, reflect your mood and mindset. An appropriate album for where I am mentally. In a state of gratitude and reflection. Songs such as ‘MoveOn’ and ‘Thank You’ can put a lot of emotions and thoughts into perspective. Just acknowledging the time space, you were once in and how you felt in at the present time.
‘Battlefield’ albeit a personal reflection from Paak, can allow you to sit with everything that you witnessed growing up and how you become what you saw, to only as you age now have the wherewithal to choose wisely. Will I be the victim of circumstances or will I choose the correct side to align with? Regret forces you to reevaluate how you moved and should outline a new direction, should the path is to be followed. A song like ‘HereIAm’ navigates this beautifully with the underlying theme of redemption. A certain level of appreciation is earned from Knxwledge and Anderson Paak with this album.
📡THE SIGNAL—TECH THROUGH LIVED EXPERIENCE
Google’s Race to #1 in A.I.
The Alphabet company, Google, has been in the news for their progressions in with realm of A.I. With news coming out that they struck a deal with Anthropic who will invest more than $200 Billion dollars into their cloud services while also overseeing chip development is significant. Also, with reported news that the Google Threat Intelligence Group released their latest threat tracker, which just so happened to document how they were able to stop an A.I.-generated zero-day attack that was not derived from stolen password, but more so an attack on a vulnerability, should alarm Cyber professionals everywhere.
A.I. is not going anywhere and it sucks that the mass unemployment rate is due in part, not entirely, to companies wanting to utilize a technology they have no knowledge of. Google has had several issues with their security being exploited in the past, so my cynicism here is warranted. If — and I do mean IF, Google has made strides of detecting intrusions generated from A.I., this is a huge victory, but it also means we are in for an even wilder next few years.
❤️THE REAL—LOVE, GRIEF, GROWTH, COMMUNITY
Innocence in Admiration
There is something to be said when you admire someone. Admiration can be seen. The feeling can also leave a person in shock, but also bashful to the point of blushing Admiration is beautiful when done properly. That is what I witnessed innocently watching the Daily Show clip from Josh Johnson and Ali Siddiq this past week. Josh Johnson is a very mellow character with a distinct voice. What I noticed when he was interviewing Ali, was a tone in which I have all embraced many times before. Sitting down with someone that you admire when you have the time and opportunity and admiring them through information. He started off by telling Siddiq he admired him and thanked him for being an inspiration.
Seeing that from one black to another is not as far-fetched as society would like to think. Even with that said, it is something I inherently believe needs to occur more often. Just in general. Our time here on earth is has a limitation, one that is undefined to all. Time should be spent admiring the people that make us who we are, people who carry themselves in a manner that looks alluring but attainable. Having a purity within your truth telling is entrancing.
When the chance arises now, I get I tell the people that I love and care about that I admire them. Not to gain anything but the feeling of them knowing I how I feel about them. It was something that I took for granted earlier in life, thinking if I had time as a younger person, so did my elders. Truth is, they do not. And even more truthful, you do not either. So we endure this tumultuous period of time we are in, right now feels like an appropriate juncture to express your admiration to those who you marvel at their talents, in awe of their aura, and laud their heart from which they maneuver.
WESS RECOMMENDS — 3 LINKS THIS WEEK
SUBSTACK
the Undoing
Going through my saved articles, I was finally able to dig into this one and it hit home on a variety of different levels.
SONG
NxWorries — “MoveOn”
The song fits where I am in life presently, perseverance, appreciation, and transformation.
READ OR WATCH
Imani Thompson - “Honey”
Her book was released last Tuesday and I have heard amazing reviews about. Definitely looking forward to diving into this book.
Hate is just masking unaccepted love & admiration.
— WESS
Thank you so much for reading and including my words! ☺️