Day 6--Letter to a Stranger.♥

Dear Random Chick at the Mall,
You make me want to vomit... I understand that times are hard, and that you may not be able to afford things such as soap, body wash, feminine wash, body spray, deodorant, etc... but could you do us all a favor and keep your broke self at home? We do not wish to wallow in the scent of...whatever you call that odor reeking from your pores. It's not cute. It's not fly. It's not fresh {literally}...It's all bad. If you can enter my store at 2pm, leave at 2:15pm, and still have your B.O. lingering at 6pm, it's a problem. One would think that you'd have stopped by the many locations {ie, RiteAid, dollar stores, Walgreens, Kroger, etc} you inevitably have to pass traveling to the mall, in order to purchase the goods necessary to make yourself smell more like freshness and less like decomposition...but alas, the mall seemed to be more important. FYI, there's an aisle dedicated to you and your stench in basically every store everywhere. Hopefully you'll one day be inclined to pay said aisles a visit.
Thank You,
The Girl whose Nose and Stomach were Assaulted By Your Odor Last Week.♥

Shoutout♥

to the people who feed off drama. So much so, that if there is no real drama going on...they'll actually go so far as to make some/seek some out. Really? It'll never in life be that serious. 

to the white people who walk their kids in the mall...on leashes. RETRACTABLE leashes. Pink retractable leashes... I was flabbergasted when I saw that ish...little girl goes runnin. Leash freezes. Little girl falls FLAT on her pull-up padded ass. SMH.

to the people who are STILL FBing and talking about the BET awards. Yours truly did not watch them, and has no intention of doing so. Over it!

to B.ossip...try as I do, I just can't seem to stay away....

to Summertime Funk. And no, this isn't some new genre of music...I'm referring to those {particularly femmes} who don't realize that going without showers/baths, and the appropriate subsequent toiletries {deodorant, spray, perfume, etc} isn't EVER cool...but when it's 80+ degrees each day...the sh.t is just TOTALLY unacceptable. Fix it.

to the dude who approached me at the mall as I was shopping the other day. Reeking of liquor. At 6-ish in the evening. First of all, why are you wasted this early? Second, why are you wasting said wastedness on a trip to the mall lol? The guy had the nerve to be cute, too {not that it'd matter to me} but his err... condition...eliminated ALL possible cool points. SMH.

to the homeless man who's ass I wanted to kick the other day. Because of his pitiful little face, the sapp in front of me at a stoplight decided {at the last second} that she just HAD to get out of the car and put some money into the damn cup. Almost making me miss my light. 

to The-Dream...for sounding eXACTLY the same in every single song, remix, feature, etc.

to Adam Rodriguez...just because I was watching CSI:Miami earlier, and thought his gorgeousness was worth mentioning. 

x0x0 ♥

Stanky Face... ♥

Earlier today, I was walking through the mall with my bestie and I was getting SO frustrated! First off, I don't know what it is about Black girls (and yes, I'm directing it towards our people, because they're the people I catch doing it EVERYday, EVERYwhere) but for some reason many feel the need to look every other Black girl in the vicinity up and down. Why? And I know you all know the look I'm talking about...that stank, "she-think-she-all-that" look that about 99.7% of the Black female population likes to give off. I just hate it. It makes me want to punch chicks in the face. Depending on my mood, my reaction to the Stanky Face may be to 1) return it, or 2) smile and keep it moving, or 3) glance indifferently at the person because I'm too cool for that BS. Lol. 
Second, what is it about moms and pregnant people that is just sooooo fascinating to random White people strangers? I can't even count the number of times when I've been out with my bestie and her son, and had weirdos trying to peep into the stroller/baby carrier, or wanting to touch his hair, or some other randomness. I get the whole "goo-goo ga-ga, he's so cute" thing, but WE DON'T KNOWWWW YOUUUUU! Lol. Gosh!
Another thing... I hate it when people wear leggings as pants. Why? Just don't do it...Apparently about 47% of the legging-wearing population didn't get the memo that the rule of thumb is, if it covers your ENTIRE {not half, or 3/4} butt, it's ok to wear with leggings. This applies to shirts, tunics, dresses, whatever... But if I can walk 4 feet behind you and see 1) the color, size tag, and design of your panties, 2) the fact that you're not wearing any panties, or 3) every dimple/bullethole/stretch mark/pimple, etc on your toosh...mayyyyybe you should do us all a favor and put on some damn pants! It's nasty! 
x0x0 ♥

What is It?? ♥

I was browsing another website when I saw a post about a book entitled Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture by Thomas Chatterton Williams. In his text, Williams looks at how Hip-Hop has basically become a pervasive detriment to our community; Hip-Hop Culture has replaced Black Culture.
I want to read this book, so when I do I’ll offer an actual opinion on it. Although the book is new to me, the argument isn’t. I’ve heard it countless times since I’ve been in college, around people who are actually willing to step back and take a look at the reality of what our “culture” has become, without being too defensive to see the real deal. That being said, I agree with some aspects of Mr. Williams’ argument. 
I don’t think Hip-Hop is to blame for what’s going on in households and street corners around the world. Period, point blank. I do, however, believe that somewhere along the line, the world’s image of a Black person became that “thugged-out”, sperm-donating, baggy-pants wearing, cornrow rockin’ jewelry-laced person that can be seen on TV at any given time in the day. This has become what people expect of us. I wrote a post back when the BET series Harlem Heights aired, and I mentioned that Black people don’t respond to shows that try to represent our race in a positive light. We’d rather see ourselves on TV acting a damn fool. I’m willing to bet that a lot of kids under 18 today have never even watched such things as The Cosby Show, A Different World, etc. It’s not fast-paced enough for many of these kids, who are being raised in the world of reality TV and 106th & Park. However, I don’t blame hip-hop.
It is my opinion, as a Black, 21 year old, hood-born-and-raised woman in America, that families are at the core of responsibility. Individuals and their choices. People have dropped the ball in generations as of late, and no one seems strong enough (or willing) to look in the mirror and acknowledge what is so apparent. Isn't acknowledging a problem the first step to fixing it? If we never take that step, what is the fate of our Black Community? Yes, there are things that have happened in this world to us as a people. But what about the things we continuously do to ourselves and to one another? What about darkskin vs. lightskin? What about “good hair” vs. “nappy hair”? What about “acting White” vs. “acting Black”? I doubt that Hip-Hop put those drugs into the hands of drug dealers and the fiends they’re accustomed to serving. Hip-Hop isn’t the culprit of a person beating his/her spouse, children, etc. I think it’s weak-minded of anyone to suggest that a genre of music has infiltrated his/her daily life to the point where it changes them for the worst. Where is our common sense???
A lot of us seem to have internalized the idea that to be Black is to be dumbed-down, inarticulate, hyper sexualized, etc…all while rocking the latest styles. It’s pretty ridiculous, right? Kids are afraid to show their intelligence because someone will accuse them of being an “Oreo” or “acting White”. So the smart kids sit in class, keeping answers to themselves, purposely inserting slang and ebonics into their everyday vernacular, just to satisfy someone else’s internalized ignorance. It hurts my soul…pushing past stereotypes is something we simply need to develop the strength to do.
I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. The real Cleveland, not the surrounding areas where all the White people live/used to live before Black people moved in and “chased them away”. I live in the Cleveland where there’s literally an abandoned home next door, a crack house across the street, another couple crack houses down the street, an Arab-owned store on the corner, right next to a church, and a prostitute who’s walked our block for as long as I can remember, with her short cut blond hair and her missing front teeth. That’s where I’ve lived. I was raised, like so many others, by my mother and her mother, with my father heavily in the picture as well, just not living in the household. I grew up riding my bike around the block, buying candy from the corner store, and I grew up listening to Hip-Hop. However I am not a typical product of my environment. I don’t steal, I don’t do drugs, I don’t have any children/pregnancies/abortions, I’m a semester away from earning my first college degree, and I have every intention of earning at least one more. Every free moment I have is spent listening to music, especially Hip-Hop. So I ask you, is Hip-Hop really to blame?
To sum it all up (because I know some people love lists and bullet points and whatnot):
It is not Hip-Hop's job to:
1) Raise your children.
2) Be a role model for your children.
3) Teach your children how to excel.
4) Provide a blueprint to success.
At best, Hip-Hop is an art form, used to relay the emotions and thoughts of our people, in a way that uplifts our spirits while putting a creative spin on our reality.
At worst, Hip-Hop is just another form of cheap entertainment, a business designed to exploit our people by promising us the very thing that we've been trying to gain for decades on this continent: wealth. 
Either way, there is so much more out there for all of us. The problem is lack of encouragement and knowledge being instilled in our children, to let them know that they ARE more than the clothes they "rock" and the cell phones, iPods, and gadgets they own. The potential is limitless, but it means nothing without desire to do better...
x0x0♥

The Death Sandwich ♥

Excerpt from a random conversation on a FB status I posted a couple weeks ago, about what I've come to affectionately refer to as The Death Sandwich....


Sonji Sheree loves chicken just as much as the next person, but KFC is doing wayyy too much lol that big ol' death sandwich...

Friend K: LoL @ death sandwich!!!

Me: Lol girl for real, I'm lookin at this commercial like wtf, we using chicken breasts as bread now?? Lmfao

Seriously...what were they (KFC) thinking??? I'm sorry, but this is just the hottest mess I've seen in a long time...And then they have the nerve to include a promo for donating money to breast cancer research for every bucket of chicken people buy, or something like that. For real? Soooo we're all for curing breast cancer, yet we're selling hypertension, heart disease, and high cholesterol by the bucket? SMdH!
x0x0♥

I Am...♥

Sleepy, but trying to motivate myself to clean my house up before work (I know I won't feel like it afterwards!)
Happy, because this time next week I'll be in Cedar Falls (Iowa) with my love...on cloud 9.
Anxious, because I'm ready to leave. NOW!
Determined to make today a great day. Waking up to sunshine and turning on some good music will do that to ya!
Loving my life right now, and all the people in it. And all the clutter I've eliminated from it.
Cold, because of the draft coming through the window next to my computer desk...but I like to look outside while I blog and ish. 
Excited, because I've been sans-creamy crack (relaxer) since May now, and yesterday a young man at my job complimented me on my au-natural look. My hair hadn't been "done" in about 5 days... I did a curly set on like...I don't even remember what day last week. My hair is still looking great. Speaking of that, I'm
Thankful that I can sleep, wake up, remove my satin sleep cap, and GO! No extra hair junk needed!
Sad, because my beautiful younger cousin is now one of "those girls" at school who gets picked on because she "thinks she's all that"...and has been suspended for defending herself from a jealous girl who yanked her hair because she wanted to see if it was fake. When will our young ladies stop hating one another??
x0x0♥

Toot, Toot Snitches...♥

So the other day, I was told that I have "narcissistic tendencies"...to that person, I replied, "So? I don't care!" lol.
A person with narcissistic personality disorder:

• Reacts to criticism with rage, shame, or humiliation
• Takes advantage of other people to achieve his or her own goals
• Has feelings of self-importance
• Exaggerates achievements and talents
• Is preoccupied with fantasies of success, power, beauty, intelligence, or ideal love
• Has unreasonable expectations of favorable treatment
• Requires constant attention and admiration
• Disregards the feelings of others, lacks empathy
• Has obsessive self-interest
• Pursues mainly selfish goals

Obviously, looking at these points...hell yeah, I have narcissistic "tendencies". I fall in love with me every time I look in the mirror! What's your point? The thing that bugged me is that I was given this half-cocked opinion by a skeezer who loves to be the weepy-whiner of the bunch. "OMG, my hair is sooo ugly today !" (bitch, why'd you leave the house lookin like that, then??). "OMG, my thighs move when I run. I'm thinking about getting liposuction" {bitch, so what! Your whole leg moves when you run, you wanna get that nip-tucked off, too?!)...I could go on and on. The thing is, the girl doesn't even look bad. Dare I say, she's pretty. Anyone who knows me can tell you that when it comes to people, I can't STAND hearing someone fish for compliments and validation all day. Ugh! It's so annoying! Low self-esteem rears it's ugly head all too often. It's like, we see you! OK! So you can stop calling attention to yourself, and stop trying to act like you hate how you look, because in actuality, I'm the one who's smart enough to see right through it and recognize that you're actually quite enthralled with yourself. You just wanted everyone else to be, too. Well guess what? I called her out on it! She had the nerve to say, "I'm surprised you had time to notice anything, you're always tooting your own horn"...she had this look on her face that made me want to punch the shit out of her shake my head. I told her, "I'd rather toot my own horn than to wait my whole life for someone else to toot it for me." That's when she threw in that "narcissistic tendencies" BS... girl please. When you stop whining long enough to actually listen in class, earn a degree or two, and start practicing Psychology, then you can come throwing your half-cocked diagnosis over here. Until then, get the f*ck from 'round me! Go somewhere and get your Daddy-issues in check before you wind up knocked up in a campus bathroom talkin' about you're a virgin and didn't know you were pregnant...dummy.

x0x0♥

PS: Yes, I do feel better now. Thank you. :-)

On My Mind...♥

Soo I had to ween myself from blogger for a hot sec, in order to...you know...study and junk like that. I just finished a research paper on genocide for my Hate Crimes class and during my research I found this quote that's been on my mind ever since: "Do they want another 6,000,000 deaths before they can be ashamed again?" --David Nzaligo, Tanzania. The quote is referring to the UN and their slow ass reluctant response to the Darfur Conflict due to the fact that there was no "genocidal intent". Apparently if the word genocide isn't absolute, the UN isn't legally obligated to intervene...isn't that some BS? I feel Mr. Nzaligo's frustration here...When hundreds of thousands of people are being killed, who the hell cares what it's called?? Fix it! No one has time for you to be playing Scrabble with words and ish! The things humans do to one another will never cease to amaze me. That paper really took a lot out of me, I had to take mad breaks during the research phase...but I got it done. Might be one of the best papers I've written since I've been in college! 
Anywho, I finally settled on a schedule for Spring '10...after about 30 readjustments lol. I'm so excited. In January I'll be taking Criminal Profiling, Human Sexuality, Clinical Psych, Research in Clinical Psych, and Issues in Crime... finally, some worthwhile stuff...I'm so sick of core classes IDK what to do! 
Gotta go, Criminal Minds is on!
x0x0♥

Game Over! ♥

This past year, my most highly anticipated reads were The Conversation by Hill Harper, and Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by Steve Harvey. So I went out and bought them (usually I go to the library, but if I feel something is worth keeping I'll buy) and I read them. I loved them both. I've mentioned The Conversation in a prior post, back before people actually cared about my blog in October. It's a really good post, if I do say so myself. Check it out when you're done reading this one. {Yes, I frequently toot my own horn. On a healthy level, though} 
Anywho...
As I read both books, I thought about certain people, situations, or even memories of my own past and present that illustrated the points both men were making.
Why do we play games when it comes to the opposite sex? Men think women are the ones playing games, women think the men are playing them, so we respond by what? Playing along with them! I've always wondered, what is this unwritten set of rules that we tend to abide by? Who "un-wrote" them? I'd much rather find things out through trial and error than to abide by some rules that make me put my emotions in some box and toss them to the side. Then I read chapter 15 of The Conversation. My mouth dropped when I saw mention of the book The Rules: Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right. Seriously? That's some mess I'd neither buy nor check out from a library. When did men and women become so disconnected to the point where we feel we need manuals to get to know each other?? To me, all this says is that women are mindless, uncreative creatures who need step-by-step instructions to socialize, and that men are mindless creatures as well, who will swarm to us when they see us correctly playing a role that's supposed to represent the perfect woman. The Rules apparently mentions things such as turning down a date if it isn't made offered at least 4 days in advance, and smiling a lot during the date, but not talking a lot about yourself. First of all, what the heck else are you supposed to talk about while getting to know one another?? Duh! As far as the 4-day thing...SMH. Apparently we should be mindless, uncreative creatures who sit and look pretty while lacking spontaneity, as well... I know idiots people who still swear by the rules from the movie Two Can Play That Game! I feel like if you aren't able to do something as simple as thinking for yourself or making conversation, maybe you shouldn't be dating, bringing someone else into your hot mess of a life lol! Seeing as how we all possess...I dunno...BRAINS and whatnot, every little rule isn't going to apply to every person you meet and/or decide to date. Why place someone in a box instead of giving yourselves the space to honestly get to know one another? If you're playing a role, chances are they can tell and will probably play a role to keep up, or dismiss you altogether because, let's face it, a pretty smile is only going to get you so far. Show your personality, and let them decide if they'd like to pursue something with you! I'm sure it probably sucks monkey balls to meet someone and get bamboozled into believing their everything you've ever wanted, only to marry them and find out down the road that they were "just playin'"...
xoxo♥
PS: In honor of this post, here's one of my all-time favorite Maxwell joints. Enjoy!

Backhanded Compliments♥

Today, I was approached by a man who, after asking my name, attempting to obtain my phone number, and dismissing my revelation that I'm in a relationship, proceeded to tell me that I looked like a "Big ass Barbie"....
{insert b*tch slap}
No, but really...what? First of all, I don't do that whole backhanded compliment thing. Either you think I'm a fat ass (insult) or you think I'm gorgeous (compliment) or that I was dressed cute (again, compliment)... Either way, he looked like a broke ass wannabe Ken. So....that's what I addressed him as. Since I'm Big-ass Barbie, he was Broke-ass Ken... needless to say, the conversation pretty much faded from there. Lol.
I can't stand someone who either doesn't know or doesn't care enough to think about their words before opening the bottom hole in their face and letting BS flow out of it. Other statements that piss me off:
"Damn, you're fine as hell for a big girl!"
"Oooh, she's cute for a dark-skinned girl."
My personal favorite: When a guy approaches you and says all the nice things in the world...until you reject his advances. Then you're all types of fat, ugly, stuck-up b*tches and h*es! How fat, ugly, and stuck-up was I when you were asking for my digits? Creep.
Why can't someone just be attractive? Obviously if a female is aesthetically pleasing enough for you to approach her, then the insults are unnecessary! Not to mention tacky and ignorant! 
x0x0♥

♥Dear Mall Rat...

I can't take it...
No matter how short, long, straight, curly, multicolored (wtf?!?!), or cute you think your quickweave is... It's not.

As you walk past us, in your Coogi (from head-to-toe) and your K-Swiss, with your overly-huge, tarnished hair-store earrings, the only thing we're all thinking is "Who the heck procreated, and why'd they nix the condom".... You look like you stuck your head into a furnace and then various colors melt over the final product. Please stop...Thanks in advance on behalf of society.

Love Always,
Pretty Pacino...

 PS: Where did this quickweave phenomenon come from??? (I know it's not new, but gosh I was really hoping it would have went away a lot sooner)... They're not cute. At All. EVER!! Why is your mom wearing one??? She's 60! Her hair should NOT be pink and purple with a blue bang! I know she thinks it looks da bomb with her striped velour sweatsuit, but it's just wrong... on more levels than I even have time or energy to discuss.

Ugh, I'm done.

x0x0♥

My People, My People...♥

Life has been pretty Blah for the last few days... despite the inevitable randomness that a college student & sales associate encounters lol... 

HOWEVER... my moment of amusement for the day:

I'm at work, and 3 Black girls come into the store. It's around 11 am...closer to noon maybe, so not too many people have gotten on my damn nerves come into the store thus far. Read: I'm still in a genuinely cheery mood. So these females enter, and I speak to all of them. One stares at me for a second then rolls her eyes, while the others walk around a fixture, to the opposite side of the store. Whatever. I go up to them and ask if I can help them find anything... get ignored again. *enter: wooosah...* So then all three magically find their way to our counter, behind which my manager was standing, doing some paperwork. The counter is also where we keep the stands that hold our rings. So now all three females are standing next to each other in front of the counter, and in front of the rings. Since we'd received shipment this morning, all the slots in the jewelry stand were filled. Clearly we all know what time it is... so I go over to ask the females AGAIN if I can help them, and all of a sudden two of them leave.

So now there's one thievin' ass h*e female left, still looking at the rings in the jewelry holder, and by now a FedEx delivery woman (older white lady) has entered the store, and she left her little push cart thingy in our store's doorway...she's behind the counter talking to my manager, as manager signs for something. All of a sudden, I hear the "customer" speak, and here's the conversation:

"Customer": 'What, you think somebody gon' take somethin from yo store or somethin??"

Manager: ...silence...

FedEx: *looks up*

"Customer": "Yeah, I'm talkin' to you, you watchin' yo stuff like somebody tryna take it!"

FedEx: "Yes, I'm watching my cart..."

"Customer": "Yeah I seen you watchin' my sisters when they left the store like they was gonna take your lil sh*t"

FedEx: "Well, it's kinda my job to keep up with my cart..."

"Customer": "Yeah, you betta be watchin yo stuff...{inaudible ish talking as "customer" exits the store}"

Clearly, this holiday season is off to a kick-ass start already...

PS: After "customer" leaves the store, I go over to the ring stand, just for kicks. Three of the rings are missing, out of a stand that was completely filled. Then people like this wonder why they get treated the way they do in stores. I've learned to not even let them get under my skin, because there is so much more to be irritated about than some skeezers who have to go to the mall to steal a 10-dollar rhinestone ring. 

x0x0♥

Tipsy.♥

Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just saw a promo commercial for Pretty Ricky's new album, and all I could think about was that horrible video. 
UGGHHH!!
x0x0♥

Freshmen.♥

I can't stand ign'ant ass people. 
I'm sorry, but Thursday is my long day, I'm in class from about 9 AM til 9 PM. That's a whole lot of time to see a whole lot of ish that makes me wanna smack a whole lotta crap out of a whole bunch of people.
Anyway, I'm in one of my classes, and it's a lecture hall, so I sit way in the back, where there's a seat by itself. I'm slightly antisocial when it comes to classrooms full of nasty, germy, nose-picking, ear-digging, swine flu infested people. So getting to class extra early to maintain my coveted seat is well worth it.
I digress.
So while I'm chillin' in my corner, taking notes on my beloved John Coltrane♥♥♥♥♥, some hoodrat sitting in the FIRST ROW has the rude ass audacity to answer her cell phone in the MIDDLE of my teacher's lecture! Not in a whisper, or any other slick, playing-it-off type of manner. Just answers her phone. As if this TA isn't in the middle of a sentence. What?
Where do these bitches people come from?? Who raised you?
Then, as if that wasn't ign'ant enough, she gets an attitude when the teacher calls her out!
("Umm could you not answer your phone in the middle of class?")
I think the request is rather reasonable...don't you?
I mean, I could see if the circumstances were emergency-related, but the chick hung the phone up, so obviously the phone call wasn't too important.
Ugh. I can't deal with people. I was SMH so hard. Eye rolling. All lat.
Welp, that's my rant for the day.
x0x0♥

Dude Said WHaT?♥

You know what grinds my gears?
When a girl makes status updates on Facebook about how this n*gga said such-and-such to me, and was trying to get with me, and blah blah blah, talking about how disrespectful dudes are when they approach her. Then 2 days later, the same female is updating her status talking about how old dude is taking her to the movies later that night.
What?
First of all, if a man {term used loosely} approaches you and the first thing he comments on is your ass or other womanly parts, he’s probably not going to display too many manners in future interactions. Plus, that's probably his way of letting you know that's all he's interested in. I mean, he’s probably THINKING “Man, she got a phat ass…” but voicing it as a pick-up line shouldn’t be the desired approach. HowEVER, if that is the approach you want from a guy, stop frontin’ and making statuses about it as if you’re so offended! You knew when the words left his trifling mouth whether or not you were gonna let him hit that give him your number. So what you acting mad for? Clearly if he was out-of-pocket when he approached you, but now you’re going out with him, he didn’t offend you too much.
x0x0♥

It's Barbie, B*tch!♥

So I’m listening to music today, and Keyshia Cole’s “I Should Have Cheated” came up in my iTunes shuffle… Every time I hear that song, I think of it’s video, and the first time I saw Keyshia’s hair (at the time). You remember, the red and blond weave? I’m sure you remember.

Know what I remember? I remember all the hoodrats girl fans going out trying to emulate that same hairstyle. As much as the term “epic fail” irritates me, it must be said. EPIC FAIL! There may be mixed opinions about it, but at the time, I loved the hair on Keyshia. On lil’ Peaches & nem from around the way? Using the dollar pack of hair from the Chinese store? Not so much….

Remember Alicia Keys’ “Fallin” video? Where she’s at the piano and her hair’s all braided and fancy-like, and above each ear there’s the braids that come forward, instead of back like the rest of her braids? Yeah…she worked it. Other attempters? Not so much.

Fast forward to today. Now every girl (and some boys) with some multi-colored clothes, funny-lookin’ glasses, and big weave thinks she/he’s a Barbie doll, just because this Nicki Minaj character started the wanna-be craze. iCan’t.

x0x0♥

Girl, Eat that Sandwich...♥

Today in my Women and Gender Studies class, a guest lecturer spoke to us about eating disorders, disordered eating, and self-esteem issues, in both women and men. Mainly women, though, because we’re better it’s a WGST course.
A promo for the Tri Delts' Fat Talk Free campaign stuck out to me, because it’s part of their call to end “Fat Talk” amongst women. Fat Talk is the emphasis we put on ourselves and on others about weight in everyday conversation. Some examples of Fat Talk:

“Honey, do I look FAT in this?”

“Hey, you look great. Have you lost WEIGHT?”

“I’d love to go swimming, but my suit makes me look PUDGY…”

"Ugh, if I could just LOSE 3 POUNDS, I'd be happy."

We could talk for days and days about how the media and society influences body images, especially among women. The reality is that there is no “ideal” weight that every woman needs to strive for, because we’re all made differently. Health is what we should strive for, not an unobtainable weight that we see in (usually) photoshopped magazine ads and on starved models who are “thinner than about 98% of most American women.”
The video is kinda cool. It made me think. Which is the whole point of learning, right? Enjoy!



x0x0♥

Things that Make Me Itch♥

1. Plies
This includes his physical appearance, his voice, and his catch phrases (i.e., "it's Pliiiiiiiiiiies Baaaaaaaaaaaby")
2. Nicki Minaj's voice
3. The old pedophile from Family Guy
4. Things with more than four legs
5. Lil' Wayne's face
6. Dancing Midgets (or Little People, if you're into all that PC stuff)
7. Shaq's lazy eye
8. Orange hair
9. Dirty sneakers
10. Jeans that are ratty and stringy at the bottom, and drag on the floor
11. Dreds on white people...I'm sorry. I just can't...
12. Velour jogging suits (not wearing them, looking at other people wearing them)
13. Old people with hair growing out of their ears
14. Feet (I don't care how smooth, pretty, or attractive you THINK they are. They're still feet. Ugh)
15. People with loose dentures
16. People with ill-fitting dentures
17. Coogi
18. Liquid leggings
19. Olives
20. Girls who wear K-swiss to the club (yes, they do that. Here. )
21. Gucci Mane and anything remotely associated with him
22. Lips that are 7 shades darker than the face they inhabit
23. White eyeliner
24. Khia. No explanation needed.
25. Pants or shorts with writing across the butt
26. People who take pics and post them on the web with their background looking a mess (i.e., no sheets on the mattress, unflushed toilet, overflowing trash bins, etc. Nasty.)
TBC....
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The Blame Game pt. 2♥

It’s amazing to me that the race card is even thrown out in cases like this. Amazing, but not surprising. In my opinion, there is no Black community White community. It's all about the Green community. Money is the root of all evil, and at the end of the day, our world is all about economic class. There’s rich people, well-to-do people, poor people, and the people who are even poorer than that. People who are on the street, battling drug addictions and accompanying prostitution habits to support these addictions. The dismissed and forgotten. Depending on where you live, this may include people of ANY race. Black does not always = Poor.


We’d like to place the blame every and anywhere else, but it all starts in our homes and our communities. The devaluation of a Black woman’s life is blatantly obvious in the case of Cleveland’s little house of horrors. Why? Because 11 women don’t simply disappear. 11 women are dismissed and forgotten as we go on about our lives, all because they were just some “crack bitches”. Read the link before you come at me all crazy. Yes, this is someone’s family, but to those politicians, rich people, well-to-do people sitting in their nice warm homes watching the news, these are just a bunch of street women. If we want the world to see our value, maybe we should try seeing it in each other first. I'd hate to see someone I know personally on that list of victims, and I'd hate for my name to end up on a list like it. We've already lost so many lives to violence. Especially violence within our own "community".


Like it or not, let’s all start being real with ourselves for once. The reason this bastard was able to kill however many women (because everything inside me tells me that these 11 women were not his only victims) is not because the media paid no attention. He got away with it for this long because he systematically selected what our society sees as street women. As mentioned, I’m from Cleveland. I come from a home with a nosy grandma who peeps out the window constantly, watching what’s going on in our neighborhood. You can't tell me that there's not at least one neighbor on this street who saw and knew everyone's business. Where were the neighbors who saw these women going into the house of horrors, and never coming out? Women he lured in with drugs and alcohol, and women who had already been either partly or fully in the streets. ..He knew that no one would come looking for these women. And whether we’ll admit it or not, he was right. It's no secret that the relationship between lower socioeconomical neighborhoods and law enforcement isn't nearly up to par. This, however, would not deter me when it came to someone's life. How many police reports and missing persons reports were filed? Were the reports that were filed taken seriously? We as a community, and as a city owe it to these women to WAKE UP and realize that if we wanna place blame, we need to rightfully do so. Blame the politicians. Blame the media. Blame the Cleveland Police Department. But most of all, blame ourselves. Because all the signs were there.
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The Blame Game.♥

I’m from Cleveland, Ohio and I’m sure many or most of you have read about the serial killer who is so disgusting that I don’t even want to type his name in this post. As we speak, I’m on FB chatting with a buddy about what a shame it is...but my question is where was the outcry when the women initially went missing? I mean, the bodies recovered from the house are decomposed…meaning these women had been missing for some time. I’m not criticizing or accusing but if this is your family that you love so much, keep up with them. I’ve read that all these murder victims were also victims of drug addiction. This does not, in any way, take away from the value placed on their lives. It shouldn't. No matter what race or class, we all have someone in our family who is or has struggled with drugs. Does this mean we just leave them out there at the hands of killers like this? Pay no attention to the fact that you haven’t heard from them in days, weeks, months, or years?? When they go missing, raise hell UNTIL a body (dead or alive) is recovered. Not just AFTER the body is found and identified as your relative. These women are someone’s daughter, someone’s sibling, someone’s cousin, aunt, and perhaps even someone’s mother. Where are the search parties? The news stories? The newspaper articles? The Facebook and Myspace groups? The fliers?


There's so much to this story that it's mind-boggling, but when it's all said and done, realize that there are usually warning signs. More often than not. This isn't a charming, clean-cut, Ted Bundy type of killer. This man served 15 years in prison for violent crime. He was a registered sex offender. What guidelines for sex offenders were in place? When a sex offender moves into a neighborhood, is he/she just left there to do what they please? Why aren't their homes inspected? According to another article, as a sex offender, the guy was required to check in with deputies every so often, but all they did is come to his doorstep to verify that he lived there! Questions: Why the HECK are you stopping at the doorstep?? His home should have been searched top to bottom each time a check was conducted. According to the sex offender law, they can't search the homes of registered sex offenders without cause. That's BS, if you ask me. I don't really give two craps about the privacy rights of a registered sex offender. They shouldn't have any. He could have had women bound and gagged inside the home when the deputies visited. How would they know? Also, if deputies checked the home every few months, and the stench of decomposition had been lingering for years, how did deputies not notice? Most people haven't experienced the stench of a decomposed body, but it's very distinct. Even if a civilian can mistake decomp as stench from the sausage shop on the corner, I doubt a law enforcement officer should be mistaking it. It seems to me that more could have been done a long time ago...


I’ve also heard a lot of comments about their being a racial issue involved. Everybody contends that “If it were another lil’ white girl missing, the media would be all over it”…
Here’s the thing: STOP placing blame everywhere else. First of all, it’s unnecessary. Second of all, step back and look at the situation for what it REALLY is. A lot of Black people let that “White missing girls get more media attention” mentality hinder the work they actually put in to find their loved ones! Don’t sit there and think the media is just going to KNOW your family member is missing! The media can’t KNOW the lil’ white girls are missing unless their families go to authorities and such, in efforts to locate them. Maybe it is a racial thing, because guess what? Perhaps more white people go to the media and MAKE people aware that there is a problem, and that someone is missing. The rest of you sit around criticizing the media and assuming they don’t care, but then don’t even try to approach them to get the word out. Media employees are not psychic. They get stories that are brought to them, or stories that people are making noise about. So for God’s sake, make some freakin’ noise!!!
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