Great Young Future Filmmaker

Play Fair

Notes:

Currently listening to Chris Brown's "Chris Brown" particularly the single, "Young Love" thanks to my friend J.D.

J.D. wrote me the following earlier today:
"i kno and were still 2gether!!! im really amazed and we still hav tha spark n our relationship lol this...i am really amazed!!!!"

So young and so funny.

She reminded me that though she has it together, some women just don't.


I love how some women refuse to play fair.

If you have a man, don't even tempt me. Check that, it's not even about tempting me, don't even play yourself. You can play eye or mind games all you want, but I for one am smarter than you. Don't do it to yourself! I can say no, and I surely won't disrespect the other man cause I wouldn't want him to disrespect me. Know that no matter how cute you look I have what shall we call it? Oh will power or better yet a conscience. Even if you want to play like you aren't interested we all know your ability to call me to console, comfort, entertain, advise, or save you says more than the words you refuse to speak say.

Why must some women attempt to wield their feminine wiles as weaponry?

Just play fair, I say. Play fair.

1) Don't play mind games: Don't play like if things were a little different, things would be that much more simple, and our lives totally uncomplicated.

2) Don't play the eye game: Don't give us the pleading look. Begging is not sexy.

3) Don't play the lip game: Please refrain from using the lip gloss that you know will make us do a doubletake.

4) Don't do that thing with your fingers: The come hither is so not going get it, though it makes us reevaluate.

5) Don't do that thing with words: That thing that makes us feel as if we need to do whatever it is you say, cause its right. Cause sometimes we need to be wrong :-).

From the Bottom of the Top

So I'm supposed to be working on a few things in no particular order:

1) Learn to take risks, or experiment (I guess people think I'm too predictable)
2) Learn to dance (I have two left feet, and if they were handing out thirds, I'd get that one too)
3) Learn to cook (My mother says and one of the best friends agrees that I need to be "self-sufficient". In order for me to be dependent on a chica, she'd have to do more than cook if you know what I mean ;-)!)
4) Learn to take more C time (I guess I take that whole notion of a selfless leader a little too serious at times)
5) Learn to develop a personal sense of style (I'm still trying to avoid an apperance on "What Not to Wear"

So I decided to tackle number 5, and I'm working my way from the bottom to the top. I decided to purchase two pairs of shoes. I needed a pair of brown shoes, and it helped that they were slip ons. Then I wanted some Vans so I copped them for spring time. :-)

Words of the Week

Note: In honor of tonight's Academy Awards

Sunday-
John Wade Prentice: You think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man.
-Sidney Poitier in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”

Monday-
Baines: A man curses because he doesn't have the words to say what's on his mind.
-Albert Hall in “Malcolm X”

Tuesday-
Antwone Fisher: It don't matter what you tried to do, you couldn't destroy me! I'm still standing! I'm still strong! And I always will be.
-Derek Luke in “Antwone Fisher”

Wednesday-
Lawrence Musgrove: I've always believed that a portrait captures a person far better than a photograph. It truly takes a human being to really see a human being.
-Sean “P. Diddy” Combs in “Monster’s Ball”

Thursday-
Tea Cake: Whatcha doin', Janie?
Janie Starks: I'm watchin' God.
-Michael Ealy and Halle Berry in “Their Eyes Were Watching God”

Friday-
Kenya Denise McQueen: Dreams change. When I was younger my dream was to marry Rick James.
-Sanaa Lathan in “Something New”

Saturday-
Myrtle: You know I know this man put a hurtin' on you baby, but you've got to forgive him. No matter what he done, you've got to forgive him - not for him, but for you.
Helen: Forgive him for me?
Myrtle: When some body hurts you they take power over you, if you don't forgive them then they keeps the power. Forgive him baby and after you forgive him, forgive youreself.
- Cicely Tyson and Kimberly Elise in “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”

If It Could Be Oh So Simple

Listening:




Reading:



A few weeks back, a few classmates and I were driving back to campus from an off-campus assignment and we found ourselves discussing how college was not living up to our expectations. College we all noted is supposed to "be a time where you grow as a person", but yet we all found ourselves doing so much they we were forgetting our personhood and we weren't quite sure that we were indeed paying close enough attention to our own personal growth.

One classmate Jazz noted as did we all that we have friends who are in steady relationships, some of whom are getting engaged. The three of us (there were 4 total) who were single loathed for a minute, and talked about how we were in college, the time when so many people meet that special person and we hadn't. It did register in my mind at that moment that saying I heard years back, "Marriage is just a timetrack for validation." Then Jazz lamented that just as soon as she'd hope to be in a fulfilling relationship, she wanted to have time for herself. Right now she said she ran from class to work to meetings. That mirrored all our lives. She said she wanted some her time, time to read for pleasure.

Instantly I was co-signing.

Oh for life to be so simple, and we can actually do what we want. So Jazz was my inspiration for picking up a book I wanted to read for pleasure. So, I just wanted to say I was so proud of myself for being a bit selfish last week.

I finally got around to ditching all the books of no consequence I called myself reading, and I began one which I actually think will be quite interesting. So now I'm going to try to read on a consistent basis, and finish it within good time, Deconstructing Tyrone.

Mind you I'm on page 20, this little thing called class, and this other little thing called work, and my being under the weather this weekend got in the way of me making a more sizeable dent. The point is I started :-).

It seems like it will be an interesting read, wish me luck in finishing it before something consumes even more of my time.

Sunday-"If a man does his best, what else is there?"
- General George S. Patton (1885-1945)

Monday- "Indecision is like a stepchild: if he does not wash his hands, he is called dirty, if he does, he is wasting water."
-African Proverb

Tuesday-"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Wednesday-"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."
- George Washington Carver (1864-1943)

Thursday-"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
- Antoine de Saint Exupery

Friday-"Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome."
- Isaac Asimov

Saturday-"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."
- Jimi Hendrix

"Soulstar", "Forthenight"

So last night I went to the Musiq Soulchild concert with my lil cousin, we're eleven months apart, and she's named after me. That's my little homie.

We showed up mad early 7:00, for a show which I didn't know started at 8:30. But oh well. We were front and center.






NOTE: They had signs everywhere which said no cameras like I cared, well that was until the rent-a-cop threatened to take my camera away. Ummm I do need a new one but not yet LoL.

I call taking pictures despite the signs being "subversive".

THIS MAY INSPIRE ME TO GET SOME SORT OF PRESS PASS FROM THE STATION SO I CAN GET APPROVAL TO CHRONICLE THE EVENTS WHICH I ATTEND.

It was hotness he performed the classics like "Love", "Just Friends", I think he did "One Night" "ForTheNight" and "Who Knows", he definitely did "Soul Star".

He also did a tribute to Rick James, Gerald Levert, James Brown and Jay Dilla.

He ended with his new section which samples De La Soul's "Buddy" and before that Taana Gardner's "Heartbeat". The funniest thing is that this woman was mad I didn't know "Heartbeat".

Her: "You don't know this song?"

Me: "No."

Her: "How old are you?"

Me: "20" (Note: Five months till I can hang ya'll )

She then sucks her teeth and steps back a bit. Was she mad cause she was peeping me all night and I'm not part of the 25 and older never mind the 30 and over club? Her friends were cute, maybe I should have broadened my horizons.

The show was on point, the next album "Luvanmusiq" drops on March 13.

It Doesn't Take Much, But Oh It Does

It doesn't take much to make me happy, well most days.

I just listened to this report I did for work featuring my granddad. (Click on the title of this entry to hear it).

I laughed a lot, cause my granddad is hilarious.

My boss is hilarious he played a minute and a half of music to stretch this to five minutes. I thought my writing was good, given I did all the editing and writing of the actual story in like three hours.

Aiight hopefully I'll be seeing Musiq Soulchild perform live in about an hour, if the tickets are properly put into my cousin's name.

We'll talk soon.

P.S. That first line maybe a bit of an exaggeration, because I am quite demanding. I have high standards and I get it from my family.

Words of the Week

So I watched a bit of Tavis Smiley's State of Black America on Saturday. I tried to soak up some of the wisdom.

Sunday - "There but for the Grace of God, go I."
-Proverb relayed by Tavis Smiley

Monday - "Joy has to do with the quality of service to others."
-Cornel West

Tuesday- "The people are the central determinate of history."
-Lerone Bennett

Wednesday- "The hardest job of a black preacher is to preach the funeral of an unproductive negro...we're supposed to get up and hallucinate a life for you, you ain't ever lived."
-Al Sharpton

Thursday- "Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, betray it or fulfill it."
-Franz Fanon relayed by Dr. Eddie Glaude, Jr.

Friday- "Personality led organizations die with the personality. Process led organizations survive."
-Bruce Gordon

Saturday- "The eyes of the future are looking back at us, and praying that we look beyond our own issues."
-Unknown

5 Things (You Think You Know But You Have No Idea)

I was tagged by La La

1. One of my first words, was piss.

As the story goes I called my paternal grandmother and said, "Grandma (pronounced Gra- ma) I know how to spell." Then I spelled piss, and my aunt said, "Well atleast he spelled it right."

2. I used to be a bit of an attention whore.

Growing up my mother, my twin sister, and I lived with my mother's parents, our maternal grandparents. I had a room right next to my grandparent's room. Whenver I became upset I would cry. My grandmother couldn't stand to hear me cry, so she would start to sing. The louder she sang, the louder I cried. My mother tells me that when I cried my grandmother came a running, she was definitely the second love of my life (my mother being first).

3. I am always tired.

As I kid I was such a slow eater, that trend has largely been reversed. But my sister and cousins still make fun of the fact that I used to fall asleep eating. Now I eat much quicker, but I'm still always tired. I now fall alseep in the most random of places including work, shhhhhh don't tell anybody. My philosophy is as long as I don't fall asleep operating any heavy machinery I'm good.

4. I don't like B.S.

I am my mother's son and thus adhere to her philosophy "I like my drama in books and in movies, not in my life." Fakers, haters, detractors and the like maintain your distance, and don't even think of invading my personal space. I can be a jerk, but only if provoked.

5. I clean up a lot.

I am a budding intellectual, so my dorm room looks like a college professor's office. Imagine that professor with piles of papers, tons of books, and other miscellaneous things. That is perhaps what my room looks like. Thus I attempt to clean once a week, but it never really gets done, so every two weeks or so I spend 4+ hours trying to clean.

Editors Note: I had to consult with my mother to write this blog, cause even though it's after noon, it's still early, and my brain isn't fully functioning.

So Yesterday

So yesterday I was the site coordinator for a student diversity leadership conference, which brought together about 70 students from independent schools from Delaware (I always spell that state wrong, its 2 a's and 1 E) and from Maryland. I think things went well.

The conference theme was "Desire, Discipline, and Dedication: Service through Leadership".

In addition to talking about the 3 D's to succeed and how they help leaders to be servant-leaders we discussed the core cultural idenitifers:

Age
Ability
Ethnicity
Gender
Race
Religion
Sexual Orientation
Socio-Economic Status

The only thing I forgot to clarify is this point about semantics. I hate the term minority, and when I refer to people of color not being the dominant group, I refer to them as being underrepresented. I think to say minority weakens the power of the group. I saw underrepresented primarily for two reasons 1) it empowers the group which needs to be empowered and 2) it allows for the possibility of change, and there's hope that people will be better represented.



Facilitating my last workshop on "Dedication".



"Listening to a McDonogh student give closing remarks for the conference".



"The "three kings" posing for a photo op."

Words of the Week

Sunday-Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
Mahatma Gandhi

Monday-The ideas that have lighted my way have been kindness, beauty and truth.
Albert Einstein

Tuesday-If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
Mark Twain

Wednesday-Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth.
Benjamin Disraeli

Thursday-Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Friday-The more extensive a man's knowledge of what has been done, the greater will be his power of knowing what to do.
Benjamin Disraeli

Saturday-My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.
Mark Twain

Randomness

As I write this I'm listening to another aspiring broadcaster's radio show. It's quite good, he has a DJ doing a mix from old school to new school and it's quite good. It also reminds me of what I could do if I had more time.

Speaking of time, time is such a tricky thing.

It's tantamount to tortue for me to crave Friday's the way I do, precisely because they are supposed to mark the end of the week, and then for my week to have no end.

Tis the life I lead, and the life I'm trying to change.

My new year's resolution or one of them was to learn to "say no" and I'm committed to beginning to practice this as soon as possible.

Okay perhaps after next week.

That is when I should get a decent break after next Friday, that is after I co-facilitate a diversity conference for 75 high school students. It is a work in progress, but I'm confident it will turn out well.




Synopsis: Written by Perry, the reverse-Cinderella tale centers on a successful attorney (Union) who falls in love with a financially challenged mechanic (Elba) who is a single father of three children. The relationship hits a snag when the janitor's ex-wife comes back into his life and threatens to take away their kids.
www.blackfilm.com

So how excited am I for that movie? I just think it's going to be good because of Gabrielle Union, Idris Elba, Malinda Williams, and others. I believe it drops on Valentine's Day.

I have the soundtrack and it's nothing to write home to Momma about, but it has a few winners.

Okay maybe I should get some sleep. I was up to like 3am talking on AIM, and got maybe five hours of good sleep, that's what I get when I have two best friends.