stop SOPA.

http://sopastrike.com/strike/

http://tucowsinc.com/news/2012/01/why-we-dont-like-sopa/

 

silver spoon

 I am not rich and I am not poor.  (The silver bars on the left are not mine.)  I am blessed.  Those silver bars on the left allowed me to visit my sister last month after a business trip.

I’ve been watching the Occupy Wall Street protests with interest for the last month or so.  Watching, because one of the blessings I have is a job.  And also I live in Podunk, population 3 people who would be into OWS and 30,000 who would just go on about their day and call the OWSers dirty hippies.  (I know, I know – excuses, excuses, right? but seriously.  Podunk is GOP-land.)

My idiot friend believes that the OWSers are arbitrary in their anger against the 1%, considering that even the 99% here in the US still have more than 90% of the rest of the world.  I believe that argument is a derail of the flavor: “stuff is worse other places, so you should be happy you’re not there, and fix those things first before you complain about here.”

Meanwhile, a website called slaveryfootprint.org can tell you how much slave labor contributes to your normal daily life.  Take a quiz and find out “how many slaves work for you” (my # is 46).  Except there’s no tangible way to free them.  Apparently, you can download an app on your phone and then email companies that use slave labor to express your displeasure.  There’s really no easy answer on this one.  There is so much that we use here that at some point had human rights violations attached, it’s quite difficult to handle untainted material.

So even though it was a derail, my idiot friend has a bit of a point.  OWS isn’t wrong.  But we need a parallel, global OWS.  The haves are continually putting their humanity above that of the have-nots.  I do this myself.  How many times does my lazy behind not do something for someone/some group simply because I don’t want to get off my keister?  or come up off a couple dollars, a bit of time, and some elbow grease?

I’ll admit that because of my privilege, my favorite way to help out is to just throw money at a cause.  It’s something I can do with minimal effort, and it generally does make a difference.  Sometimes I find it to be the more sensible response, as the economy of my flight to some poverty stricken area for a week versus me donating the price of that plane ticket.  This is why I disagree with short mission trips to the Global South.  Sure, folks get a glimpse into life somewhere else, but they don’t get much done, and they spend a gajillion dollars to end up building a hut, when that money could’ve built a whole hospital, and given people jobs.

Anyway, the plight of others doesn’t eliminate the current situation in our own country: a growing dichotomy between the ruling 1% and the working 99%.  If you start looking at charts and graphs about when the disparity really took off, they all point to the early 80s – and Reagan.  And yet, we currently have GOP candidates who revere Reagan, but are actually much further to the right than he was.

I’d like to be a little more clear on what I can do to stop contributing to what I do not want to support, without losing my job.  I hope that’s the next phase.  Because what are you going to do with a bunch of guilty people?  Other than desensitize them to it so they can enjoy Thanksgiving whole-heartedly.

Because compared to some, I really was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.  And I should do what I can for those who have no spoons.

 

 

good excuse

I never have a good excuse for not writing. Except today.

my view

Closing thoughts?  Vacations are necessary, healthy, and entirely underutilized.

VMA moments: old-timer’s edition

Dude Gaga

After a lazy/productive day (yeah – it’s an oxymoron, but it fits), I’m watching the VMAs on ffwd.  These are my notes:

• Lady Gaga opened and was awesome (!) as a dude.
• Bieber’s wearing Malcolm X glasses. For real.
• Watch the Throne!! (apparently Mtv still has security issues)
• SuperBass over All of the Lights? What?! (And is she wearing a junkyard???)
• Extraterrestrial was actually a good video.
• NeYo still looks great as long as he keeps the hat on.
• Katy Perry looks supercute in her presenting-dress.
• Is Adele seriously that young? She is the business.  But her performance is a little flat.
• Bieber still had a video eligible for an award?
• Chris Brown can dance.  But he’s not singing.  And I am not a fan.
• Lady Gaga tributes Britney. Congrats Brit! No one makes us dance like you!
• Bey’s dressed like a Temptation.  And this song is apparently the anti-hype.  Oh. So she’s pregnant.  (Yay for them!) She shouldn’t have to wear the sparkly jacket and dress like a dude, though.
• BNA: Who is Tyler the Creator? I’m just glad Kreayshawn didn’t win.
• Young the Giant = blah.  I predict they are the Filter of the year.
• Cloris Leachman should not be with the girls of Jersey Shore. And the girls of the Jersey Shore should not be on tv.
• Born This Way wins. Lady Gaga is sticking to the character.  Katy Perry has had 3 wardrobe changes.
• RIP Amy Winehouse.  It’s weird that Russell Brand is saying things that make sense since he was so awful 5 yrs ago.  And Tony Bennett is awesome.  Tony and Amy sound amazing together!
• The 60s are back.  Bruno Mars’ pompadour, Adele’s style, Beyonce’s moment…There really is nothing new under the sun.  (ex. Footloose remake)
• VOTY: Firework.  Katy Perry is a literal blockhead. At least that thing is on a headband…
• I love Drake. I can’t explain it. I love him.  Weezy? Eh. He’s kinda terrible.  Anyone else could’ve done How To Love.  I need to hear it by someone else, non-autotuned. He looks so stupid with his @ss literally hanging out.  And you can’t understand his rap because more words are bleeped out than what you hear.  So.  I’m old.

And that’s what I got from the awards. I’m old.  Now get off my lawn!

sytycd ’11: Sasha [is] Fierce

see? Fierce. Always.

I haven’t really had much to say about this season, even though there are very good dancers on this season.  The judges have been kind of hit-or-miss on hip-hop, as per usual.  Tonight, Neil Patrick Harris guest judges, and I normally love him.  But I couldn’t help getting pissed at all the judges when they said that Tadd outdanced Comfort in a hip hop piece.  It was a complete lie.  They danced to Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now”, which is completely hard-hitting, as we all know.  Comfort hit everything just the way she should, with clean lines, and sharp movements.  Tadd, on the other hand, didn’t finish anything.  He smoothed things out when they should’ve been sharper, and generally did not impress.  How anyone could possibly think he had outdanced Comfort is simply beyond me.  Except that I remember the judges have always been harder on her than any other excellent dancer on the show.

But the moment that made the whole season worth it for me was watching Sasha and Twitch.  Christopher Scott of LXD  fame choreographed a hip hop piece about relationship passion to Misty Blue sung by Dorothy Moore.  Sasha stayed incredibly in sync with Twitch to the point that it seemed as though we all were just looking into a personal moment between the two of them.  Everything was tight & crisp where it needed to be, and smooth and sexy at just the right places.  It was so good, even the judges couldn’t miss it.

Sasha has moved into fave position for me now.  Previously my fave was Melanie – who is still quite awesome and did incredibly well with Pasha tonight.  I still really like her.  But Sasha shines.  She’s a contemporary dancer, and -fyi- being black does not mean you can automatically do hiphop.  But she’s done it well a couple times.  And she’s amazing at her solos and other genres as well.  Not to mention how close she is with her sister.  That gives me all kinds of warm fuzzies.  Having a sister as a best friend, I love to see other girls getting along so well with their own sisters.

The top ten for this season, in order of my preference to win, are:
Sasha
Melanie
Mitchell
Jess
Marko
Jordan
Ricky
Clarice
Caitlynn
Tadd

Clarice also came out very well with Robert for the Bollywood number.  I didn’t even really remember her being on the show, honestly.  Tonight she finally made her mark.

So Please folks – vote Sasha!

officially old: what do I do with G+?

So.  I’m not actually an early adopter.  I like technotoys and all, and even though the longer I think about it, the more I’m convinced that Google = Skynet, I got one of my friends to hook me up with a G+ invite.  I’m not totally behind the curve here, but far enough behind that I don’t have a lot of friends that are on, and I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to be doing.

My most favorite thing so far is that folks from BIU and Racialicious are on there, and I can follow them without doing Twitter.  Because yeah.  I also don’t do Twitter.  I do not all the way understand Twitter, either, actually.  I get the following part.  I don’t get the conversation part.  I’m still not sure how that happens.  And I don’t think I have time for it anyway.  Honestly, I don’t understand how all these people can have jobs and have time for all this social media!  Unless.  Well.  There are a lot of unemployed people these days.

See, I must be crazy old, because I freaking LOVE del.icio.us (just delicious now).  I love getting to just outline some relevant text in an  article that someone should totally read, and then addressing it to that person, and sending it off.  I get to keep a copy to know what I’ve sent.  With add-ons on Chrome and Firefox I can just hit a button to tag something.  It’s easy and functional.  And a dinosaur.  (And in the midst of writing this I just delicious’ed [yes, it is now a verb] 2 articles to the R and 2 to my mom.)  But really, who wants to send an email link every time they come across an article that they want someone to read?  And who wants to receive that email?  Nobody.  Not me anyway.  Delicious me, sucker.

In other news, I recently involved myself in a political discussion on FB.  Which I don’t normally do.  The post was just so inflammatory to me though:

oh this is the kind of fight i can get behind. Go Cantor! Go Boehner. DO NOT CAVE. If the president won’t bend (whether on principle or bc he’s trying to keep his left base happy) on spending cuts then FORCE the debt ceiling freeze. Then he will have no choice but to prod his party to cut spending or default. And he’s surely not stupid enough to default.

I was apparently in just the right place to HAVE to respond.  I knew I’d get whacked, but I had to. And I did get whacked, but not by my friend, by her husband.  Which I’m not into simply because he doesn’t know me. At all. Anyway, my point is that this whole debt ceiling mess is grating on my last everloving nerve.  I realize governing isn’t as clear as it seems to us folks in the peanut gallery, BUT!  Can we not get it together?

the stone on 'Secession Hill'

I live in Podunk, SC.  Nestled between the seat of secession and a town that hosts a store actually named The Redneck Shop (Google it if you must).  Nearly every white person I meet around here is a staunch Republican.  And yet many of them see the need for compromise to work things out.  To be clear, the Tea Party has South Carolina by the nipples, but there are still reasonable people (of the Republican persuasion) here.  If we can have them here, how did none of them end up in DC?!?  Why is Boehner so beholder to the TPers that he can’t even lean toward reality?

Eh.  I don’t know.  I wish the President wasn’t so centrist, because then we might actually end up in the middle.   But now, he’s so centrist, and wanting to work with everyone, he’s leaning further and further right.  It’s like he keeps capitulating and the GOP is like – “that’s right, we’re not caving on ANYTHING”.  But they should be held responsible for holding up progress and gumming up the works, and somehow that’s not happening.

SO frustrating.  Especially since I live in Podunk, SC.  We all know the score here in South Carolina.  The Dems here vote party lines whenever we can and it makes no difference.  It’s spitting in the wind.  And I don’t know what it’s like other places, but here?  It’s mostly because there are so many poor and middle class white people here who would rather miss out themselves than see the gov’t do something to help poor/middle class brown people.  You can tell when it comes from that kind of place.  Because the arguments have HUGE holes.  Something like. “Yeah, but you know, State’s Rights!”  Or just a pure bootstraps argument.  I’m tired of it.  I try to stay out of it, but CNN is on blast in our work breakroom 24/7.  It is very uncomfortable to be the only brown person at the table during some of their topics.

Anyway.  I’m still not clear on G+.  Ideas?  =)

BET Awards ’11: This Time Mary can Sing!

I am SO happy Mary J took singing lessons, or whatever she did to be able to perform live.  The first time I saw her singing well on stage was about…. 4 yrs ago now?  Y’all remember how she used to be: pure studio artist.  Now she’s singing with Anita Baker – who has always been the real deal.  Her voice is still like butter.  I love Sweet Love. (“With all my heart I love you baby..”)  Anyway, Mary did a lovely opening, and she looks good.  An all-white, skin-tight catsuit with not a hint of anything out of place – 40 is SO the new 30.

Kevin Hart being the host seems apropos of nothing to me, since I’m not a fan and I have no idea if he’s even doing anything right now.  I must say though that his entrance to ’6 Foot, 7 Foot’ with a group of child steppers is the most impressive things I’ve ever seen him do.  He kept up with those awesome kids.  (He was also about 6inches taller than them…)  He’s right about Ne-Yo though, he needs to leave the hat on.  Hart hit Busta, Jamie, and Puff in all the right places.

Taraji presents Best Male R&B Artist to Chris Brown.  That remake of MJ’s Human Nature straight up sucks.  I like some of his music, but he’s about to go in the R. Kelly stack of musicians that I cannot financially support do to poor life choices.

PS – note to ALL tv shows: I don’t care about what people are live-tweeting.  I don’t Twitter.  I don’t care about what people are saying on FB unless they’re my own friends. (sometimes, not even then)  But if I’m watching your show, I don’t need internet updates.  wtf?

Wait. WHAT?!? “Reed Between the Lines” with Tracee Ellis Ross and Malcolm Jamal Warner looks like it could actually be good.  Like a “Cosby Show” for the 21st c.  I only worry because it’s on BET.  This is the kind of show that should be on network tv.

all the single ladies?

how come only Stacey is smiling?

Apparently I’ll watch anything with Stacey Dash in it.  Even if Lisa Ray is in it too.  I am watching Single Ladies, y’all.  It’s also probably because it’s summer, there nothing else on, and I live in the South so it’s still 80 degrees at 11pm and NObody wants to be outside in this weather.

I DVR it, because there’s too much I have to fast forward through to watch it live.  Basically I only care about Val (Dash) and her store.  I don’t like Lisa Ray on GP so that was already a hit against her.  Then her character is a former video…vixen…with no appreciable skills, looking for a rich man to keep her in the lifestyle to which she wants to become accustomed.  IMO, her only redeeming trait is being friends with Chilli.  I didn’t have anything against the girl who plays April.  You know I actually thought she was black for a second?  Yeah.  I was fooled.  Then it just started seeming to me as though she was trying to be the stereotype.  And I can’t tell if it’s the actress or the character.  But I still tried to give her the benefit of the doubt.  Until she said she was cheating on her husband.  Her husband spends much of his time singing her praises and talking about how much he loves her, and she’s cheating?  So now I ffwd through all the scenes between them.

Val is ok, though.  She’s the center of the show, but not always the center of attention.  She makes some bad decisions, but at least she’s a designer and into fashion and pretty awesome in that way.  So far, she doesn’t spend every episode centering the world around herself, or doing highly embarrassing things.  So I like her.  She is sometimes a little willy-nilly with the cookie, but that’s fine for VH1.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

No one will ever make a show about my life (unless it’s a sitcom – my life could actually totally be a sitcom),  and I don’t expect tv people to really be trying to…That said, who are these people that they’re making shows about?  Is this real on any level or pure fiction?  Cuz it feels like PURE fiction.  And if so, that’s fine.  But then we can all be clear.

The drama seems so stereotypical and forced at some points, with the obligatory gay friend there to give some tough love with a snap.  I guess I’m just disappointed because Queen La is producing the show, and this sucker is no Living Single.  Not in the least.

Is this one of those times where you support the crap so that next time they make something better?

media consumption

I’ve been watching a lot of tv in the last year – although I couldn’t actually tell you what, now that I think about it.  (Other than Bones.)  For some reason, thinking more at work makes me want to think less when I get home.  But I think I’m reaching a better equilibrium now that it’s summer and I’m getting more used to my job.

I’ve also been consuming more online media.  I’ve been a fan of This Week In Blackness for about 2 years, now, but just became aware of Blacking It Up this spring.  It is now a part of my life.  Most of the time I am totally cool with Elon and the crew, and it’s definitely a good time, with a bit of cool analysis and some relevant news interspersed with random music.  It’s where I first heard this:

Yeah.  That’s real.

Other than BIU, I’m basically checking the R, rr, shakesville, and Persephone every day.  Often multiple times a day.  Because I still live in Podunk.  And there’s this really annoying guy at work who ends up requiring me to take a break after I interact with him.  I was going to the NYT for my daily news, but when they put up the paywall, that was it.  Now it’s the Atlantic, Salon, CNN, GOOD, NPR, and other random places – still supplemented by the NYT.  Oh how I miss full access.

I’m trying to get back into writing more, so we’ll see how that goes.  In the meantime, check out my fave places on the web.  They’re cool.

a new chapter: the world is upside down

It’s been 8 months since I’ve written here.  Partly because life got more complicated.  Well.  Mostly because life got more complicated.

Back in September I mentioned a bit about the changes at my job.  Even before that, I’d mentioned my boss.  Looking back on it now, it’s very clear that she was abusing me – verbally/emotionally.  Not just me, but me more than other people.  When I first started there, I thought that she was great.  Then I found that she was sometime-y, alternating sweet and mean.  But it seemed to be with everyone.  Time went by, and it seemed like I was getting a lot of hits, but I figured that I just wasn’t seeing other people get the short end of the stick.  It wasn’t until my work-buddy said something to me because he noticed that I was particularly getting picked on that I realized how bad it had gotten.  As I am wont to do, I internalized quite a bit, multiplying my white hair, contemplating quitting and complaining to my family on the worst of days.  When my work-buddy left, greatly influenced by her general suckiness, I became focused on finishing a particular project and getting out of dodge.

A few months later, things started moving quickly, we were interviewing candidates to take over for my work-buddy and settled on one.  The day she started, my boss tendered her resignation.  I was shocked – blindsided, really – and a little sad…weird, I know.  The woman my boss had been grooming had always said that she’d leave if the boss left, but I wasn’t sure if she really would or not.  And in the interim, she took over.  A week after my boss’s last day, the new girl and another coworker quit.  They were gone the following week.  But a week later, the guy wanted to come back.    My company balked at that, and it wasn’t clear if they would let him return.  I took on quite a bit of additional responsibility as the more senior woman and I handled the work previously handled by ourselves + 3 other people.  It was a difficult time, but when things are that dire, you just do what you can do.  No one is really expecting you to be able to do 3-4 people’s jobs.  At least not at my job.  Two weeks later, my last compatriot gave her two weeks notice.  That’s when I thought I would become a babbling idiot.  I took a short vaca to get away from it all (because I actually had to use the time) and came back to a pure unknown.