Do Me A Solid...

...and follow me to my new home at Wordpress. The new blog is Rainbow Colored Lens at the address is http://www.rainbowlens.wordpress.com/

Please update your links accordingly and come chat with me there. I will no longer be updating or posting here.

Wordpress is pretty. And bawse. You can still comment whether you're on Blogger, some other site, or Anonymous. So come on!

This Year Halloween Fell On A Weekend...*

*10,000 cool points to whoever finishes that line first.

Here are the tame pics of me and Crabby gettin' crunk and holy for Halloween. This was the best Halloween ever. In addition to Father and Sister Gem, there were Riley and Huey Freeman from The Boondocks, a sexy cop and baseball player, a monster, zombies, pirates, old school basketball players, a French maid, a woman in male drag, a hunter, a prisoner, a hood vampire (complete with jheri curl), a pimp, Wonder Woman, vampire queen, 2 doctors, and some other assorted fuckery.

Also, October 2009 marked 4 years since I did the "Big Chop" and went natural on all you hoes. Here's a pic of my growth 4 years out.

This is unstretched length, stretched, my hair reaches almost elbow-length. Feel free to hit me up if you have any hair-related questions (bohemianbahamian@gmail.com).

-Also, I was asked to be a bridesmaid in a wedding next year; I'm super crunk over that.

-I love my Crabbypatty (he's going to kill me for that nickname, blame KB).

-Check my Tumblr page for some pictures I took in October. Skies, sunrises, sunsets, and rainbows.

-'Chall do this weekend?

Thoughts on "Morbid" and Halloween

I am often called morbid in response to my interest in death. I find this extremely backward. The definition of 'morbid', aside from the physical definition of illness and disease, is an uncharacteristic propensity for gloomy thoughts. I ask questions about death, loss, etc. because we as a society don't know how to talk about it without deflecting or hiding behind something else. There are things people do concerning death in this society that I consider extremely morbid and probably contribute to us not having the capacity to deal with death in an entirely healthful way. Open-casket funerals come to mind. If you think about it for a moment, that shit is extremely traumatizing. I hate this practice. It feels wrong to gaze upon the body of your loved one in a too-expensive coffin, face made-up into a stranger, with that god-awful organ music in the background. It feels intrusive to me. This context is different than the medical study of bodies; forensics, etc. because there is something to be learned there. There is nothing to be learned from the open gazing upon a dead body in the funeral context. Just my opinion. I also don't like the feeling of walking over other dead people's graves to get to the nylon green tent set up over a gaping hole in the ground for the burial you are attending. There is something just unsettling about that.

This society is also morbid when it comes to profane, or everyday dealing with death. We speak in hushed tones, refer to the dead as "passed on", refer to the body as "remains", speak of a "better place", etc. The news shields us from our own dead bodies from the war, 9/11, everyday accidents, etc. In it's place, we glamourize death via movies and TV shows, trivialize it through video games and speech, we say this team "killed" the other team, we're "dying" of hunger.

For Halloween, we hang nameless, anonymous skulls and skeletons around, we buy fake blood for spattering, we make food creations resembling eyes, brains, guts, human limbs, maggots, etc. We volunteer to inject panicky fear into ourselves by visiting dark, "haunted" houses. This is morbid. It's fucked up.

Don't get me wrong, I like the fun of Halloween. But to me, Halloween can be fun without the aformentioned paragraph. I like costumes, dressing up, being spooky, etc. But spooky and morbid are two different things. I love scary movies, but this is not a Halloween-specific occurrence. Why don't we celebrate meaningful death, like Mexico's Dia de los Muertos or Japan's OBon? Here, death is remembered on a mass scale, but it is also meaningful because people are remembering who they actually lost. To just string up skeletons for decorative purposes with no meaning, is so devoid of any compassion and an example of how vacuous people can be.

Speaking of Halloween costumes, I hate when people use this day as an excuse to let their racist flag fly or be a gussied-up whore. Dressing up as a gypsy, an "Oriental", an "Arabic princess/genie", a MEXICAN (seriously, these ladies were trying on ponchos and sombreros in a Halloween store) is not a costume. You're just letting your secret racial ignorance be made public for a night. Don't get me started on the blackface costumes, nope not even going there. Now, I understand kids dressing up as gypsies/fortune tellers but parents should be a little more responsible in their children's costumes. For adults, there's no excuse. As for the whore costumes, there is a distinction. If it's an actual COSTUME, I have no beef with it. So I definitely understand the sexy nurse, police officer, fairy, princess, witch, she-devil, black cat, etc. I get it. What I don't vote for, are the blatantly made-up shits. Such as a costume I saw called the "Honey Bee". What the fuck is a honey bee costume if it's not an actual bee costume? Some antennae, and a couple of pieces of torn yellow fabric? -_- Just say no.

As for me and Crabby? Tonight we're going to be ain't shit at a party as a priest and pregnant nun. BAWSE. Pictures forthcoming.

I leave you with my last Halloween costume, from 2003 when I worked at a bookstore. I was a pimp, and my drag-queen co-worker Justin, was my ho. Yes, I had a purple fur (faux) coat. Yes, I had a cane. Yes, I had a "grill". Yes, my ho is puttin' that money in my hand. Yes, I know we were terrible, terrible people. We lived near each other at the time and worked 6am-2pm because we were on the inventory team. So I picked him up at 5am. Let that image marinate in your brains. The security guard at Justin's apartments was like O_o and it was hilarious to see customers unaware that Justin was a 'he'. Oh, and I had THEE STANKEST pimp voice ever all day. Good times, good times.

Chall doin' for Halloween?

HEY GUYYYYSSSSS

Been super busy. Work. School. Thesis. Papers. Doctoral program apps. Cooking. Twirling. And stuff. Be back next week. Have a funeral and a wedding to attend tomorrow, both in two different cities than the one I am currently in (Marlin, Halletsville, Houston, respectively). Have a magical weekend. Oh, and here are 7 reasons to keep your T-rex off crack cocaine. If you don't help him/her, who will?

P.S. Here's a list of things bears love. kBAI.

Serena Williams and Body Image

Serena Williams is on one of several covers for ESPN magazine this month. There have been comments going around on various websites about this cover that run the gamut of opinions. What's interesting is that the negative comments I have seen are coming mostly from black women. Comments such as Serena's being exploitated by white men, she's whoring herself out, she has fallen into the trap of showin' naked ass, she's reduced herself to a sexual object and thus can no longer be a role model, etc.

Others have rightly pointed out white women who have posed nude for magazines and have been called graceful, beautiful, artistic, etc. Serena's cover is posed pretty much the same way as these and yet she doesn't get these same comments.

I personally don't see how you can look at this cover and not see a celebration of a well-sculpted human form that has served as the foundation for greatness in sport. She looks BEAUTIFUL here. All that chocolatey, dazzling skin with her curves is just stunning. I mean, Serena is a straight brickhouse. However, she is NOT bent over, booty cheeks spread open for the world to take a looksie. She is not spread-legged, crotch all out. There are no tittays all in our face. This is as artistic as you can get, especially for sports.

Black female sexual repression is alive and kicking, and surfaces almost daily in judgmental words. I'm not here to start a revolution, but I can definitely point out these pockets of historical effects manifesting themselves in people.

Point blank, this is a celebration, bitches. Not exploitation. Not whoring.

Your Love is Mine

Speaking of Corinne Bailey Rae, I heard a song featuring her today that I had never heard before. It's by The New Mastersounds, on their album and it's called Your Love Is Mine. Very fresh sounding.

Corinne Bailey Rae Emerges

Corinne Bailey Rae's debut album is still in heavy rotation in my household. Her songs are like moonlight. I was saddened to hear when her husband died of an accidental overdose in early 2008. Not much had been heard from her since then, but an interview has surfaced with her. She looks lovely as ever, beautiful hair growing out, sad eyes with fleeting smiles. She's working on her 2nd album, and I am very excited to hear it. Here are some excerpts from the interview:



Corinne went home to her house in Leeds and began writing songs, just her and her acoustic guitar. One of the first she finished was called The Sea, a powerful elucidation of loss that was based on a family story that had been passed down to her about her grandfather's death in a boating accident. It climaxes with the lines, "The sea, the majestic sea, breaks everything, cleans everything, crushed everything, takes everything from me."


She says now, "I don't know if there was something in the air or what, but the songs seemed different, a bit darker. With The Sea, I was just thinking about loss, about the impact losing your father would have on you as a child, how one event that big could colour your life, bleed into everything else and force you into a certain shape."

Another song she wrote around that time was called I'd Do it All Again. It was written after an argument with her husband, Jason Rae, a gifted jazz musician who often played saxophone in her band. It was a testimony to the strength of her love for him, a song about how nothing, not his restlessness or the occasional rows it precipitated, could ever make her question that love.


"It was written literally just after me and Jason had this massive disagreement, a big argument, a bad one," she says now, faltering. "Almost as he was leaving the room, I just sat down and wrote it. It's just about how I felt about him at that time. Even right in the middle of the worst times, I remember thinking that I would choose this exact life again, that I would do it all again. It was me saying, I'm not wishing myself out of this situation. I'm 100% committed to this person. I don't have any regrets about this relationship even though there are all these difficult times."


I'd Do it All Again begins: "Oh, you're searching for something I know won't make you happy/Oh, you're thirsting for something I know won't make you happy…". It sounds now like a plea, a calling-out to someone to accept the life they have been given. "I just wanted him to be content," she says.


She wrote I'd Do it All Again in January 2008, and "just kept on writing and trying out ideas". Then, on Saturday 22 March, she was in a taxi in Leeds when her phone rang. A voice she did not recognise said that it was the police, that they had been trying to contact her all day, and that they needed to speak to her in person.



The police asked me to meet them at a certain place so the taxi had to do a U-turn and go back the way we came," she says now. "I always think of that moment when I had to turn back. My life was going in one direction, then, in an instant, it was turned around."



The coroner's report found that Jason Rae, aged 31, had died of an accidental overdose of methadone and alcohol. The coroner described Rae as "a naive user", which brought a strange kind of comfort to the young widow who was struggling to make sense of a death that seemed so random, so senseless. "The word 'naive' jumped out at me," she says. "It's like Jase was playing with something he didn't know the consequences of. He was impulsive, I guess. He liked to have a drink, have fun. It could easily have turned out to be one of those stupid, drunken things you do that you get to talk about afterwards – 'You'd never guess what I did when I was pissed?' – that sort of thing. It's unbelievable that this one didn't turn out like that, that this was the drunken, curious thing that went wrong."



In the living room, she picks her way through guitars and amplifiers, and sits down at a piano in the corner with Steve Brown. As he plays a slow meditative melody, she sings I'd Do it All Again. It is breathtaking; sombre but defiant, and imbued with a whole other layer of meaning – and longing – since Jason's death. It feels almost as if I am listening in on someone singing to herself.



"A year ago I could not have imagined going out and playing these songs live," she says afterwards, "but now I'm looking forward to it. I want to play live as much as possible. I want to get to that place where it's just coming through. It's not a performance, it's not self-conscious, you're outside of time, outside of yourself."


Later, I tell her that the "before" songs have now come alive in a different way, maybe because she is singing differently, inhabiting the songs in a much more forceful way than before. "They have," she says, "they definitely have. What surprises me most is how the songs I wrote before it happened resonate almost as much as the ones I wrote after. The circumstances have cast it all in a different light. It began as a 'before and after' record, but it's become an 'after' record."



For a long time, she continued to refer to her late husband in the present tense, seemingly unable to grasp that he was gone for ever. About three months after his death, she tried to record some of the songs she had written, even turning up at a studio to meet a producer. "I laugh now at how deluded I was," she says. "I felt like everything would somehow go back to normal if I got on with things but, in reality, I was still in shock."


Then came the strange inertia that grief instils in those left behind, the long, terrible numbness that is, in itself, a kind of death. "I didn't do anything for a year. I mean, nothing," she says, still sounding as if she can barely believe it. "Everyone was asking, 'What have you done?' But I had nothing to show them. I didn't go anywhere. I didn't write anything. I didn't work. I sat at my kitchen table for a whole year, people came and people went, life drifted by. It was just bleak. Bleak."


Did she think that she might give up music altogether? "I did think that I could never do this sort of thing again because if anyone asked me about Jason, I would just explode. For a long time, I didn't even try and write. It was just too big a thing, too raw. It was just too destructive to make anything creative out of. All I wanted to do was destroy things. And I'm really not that type so it was all these emotions that were totally alien to me. It was just a bleak, empty, hollow nothing."

Earlier this year, though, Corinne began tentatively recording again. She had started writing after playing a few low-key club gigs at the end of last year. The intimacy of that set-up had led her to Limefield Studios, where she has worked at her own pace for months now.



Most poignant of all, though, are a pair of songs written in the wake of her loss: the plaintive Are You Here? and the slow-burning I Would Like to Call it Beauty. The first is a love song, or, more precisely, a lost-love song. It begins, "He's a real live wire, he's the best of his kind, wait till you see those eyes!" When I ask her about it, she says, "I actually don't remember writing it. That was one of the songs that just came through. It was like I was wishing him here. It's a song about grief and loss and that's really what the whole record is about. It's like I want to tell people about this thing, this thing that I could not make sense of and could not find anything I could read, or listen to, that would help me make sense of."



Anyone expecting the same kind of well-wrought, if hardly challenging, pop songs that made her debut such a big seller is in for quite a surprise. In her place is a singer of immeasurably sad songs, someone who has transmuted her well of grief and anger into something beautiful and raw. "I definitely feel more serious," she says. "I feel more impassioned. I have total belief in these songs and when I sing them in front of people, I want to pass that on. I don't think there is anyone of my generation saying these things, singing about these things. And it happens, you know. It can happen to anyone at any time. I want to be out there on stage with my hands out going, does anyone else feel the same way? That's what it's about, too."



Full interview and a video clip here.

Suggest A Song Monday-Don't Look Back

Hey peeps! How was your weekend? Regulars, newbies, and lurkers are you ready to drop a song recommendation? Welcome to Suggest A Song Monday. I suggest a song that I love and that I think you would love. You listen to it. Tell me what you think in the comments. Then, you also recommend one song to me and I will listen to it and tell you what I think. You don't have to limit yourself to a particular genre, just any one song that you love.

Today, we're working with Don't Look Back by Telepopmusick. I love dreamy, enchanted, electronic, chill music so this is straight up BAWSE.



Sit still...and close your eyes/What's behind the door...oh/No more silence/Don't kill this thing we got called love/Just searchin' for the perfect drug//(Chorus) When love comes calling/Don't look back/When love comes calling/Don't look away/(Repeat)//And I'm standing over here/Watching you over there/Smiling, happy, unaware/Oh, life is spinnin' round/You're going underground, forgettin' who we were/Let's try and keep it...just one more day//Chorus//You take your love/Throw it all around/Like it's nothing special/Just a sound/Let me say one more thing/I don't think you realize/That a day is like a year sometimes//Chorus (repeat til end)//

Color Personality

Saw this Color Personality quiz over at Colour Me Happy. It's supposed to determine what colors are around you most, and theoretically what colors you should dress in and decorate in (if you're in a rut or lost). I am a colour whoure (yes that's right), so I jumped right on it.

1. What's the first color you see in the morning?

Black: The color of my curtains

2. What color are your eyes?

Orangey Brown (see blog header)

3. What color do you wear the most?
Purple

Me in NYC last year

4. What color do you never wear?

Oatmeal

5. What color do you wear when you want to feel sexy?

Black

6. What color gets you the most compliments?
Blue

7. What color is your lipstick?

Plum Burgundy (sheer-ish though)

8. What color was your living room when you were growing up?
Forest Green

9. What color was your bedroom when you were growing up?
Purple

Yes I had one of these, LAWD. It was soothing though.

10. What color are your sheets?

White (ahhh so relaxing, like sleeping in a cloud)

11. What color was your favorite crayon as a child?

Green (it was always so crisp)

12. What color is your car?

Plum

Not this bright, more like a really deep midnight purple.

13. What color was your prom dress?

Orange

14. What's your favorite gemstone?

Opal (Would you expect anything other from a unicorn descendant?)

15. What is your favorite flower?

Blue Hydrangeas

16. What color makes you happiest?

Infinity Blue

Detroit airport tunnel, taken by me.

17. What color depresses you?

Muddy Brown

I also hate chocolate. The taste, the smell, BARF!

18. What color calms you?

Periwinkle

19. What color makes you grind your teeth?

Pepto Pink

20. What color would you like to try, but are scared to?

Acid Green

So, apparently your color personality are the colors that show up most frequently. To get to this, I edited out colors from the questions that don't have to do with everyday life and choices, or colors from questions with a negative, dislikey focus. So I eliminated questions 2 (can't choose your eye color), 4, 8 (had no control over living room color growing up), 11 (because I don't recall having a favorite crayon color; I just think back and am like hmm, green was kind of nice...yeah, that's the ticket!), 13 (one time choice), 17, and 19. This basically left me with variations of purple and blue as my color personality, not too surprising! To see this illustrated, I went to Flickr. Me eliminations make more sense because you can only pick up to 10 colors, so if you try this, keep in mind what colors surround you the most in your life in regards to the questions and edit out the others.

Here is the full link to my supposed color personality. *glances at my blog colors* Look familiar? Not too surprising, although I wouldn't decorate according to that color scheme. The clothes I am drawn to are usually those colors though.

Try it for yourself and let me know when you do so I can come see! Colors give me LIFE.

Pour Out Some Liquor for Cursive Handwriting

Charleston resident Kelli Davis was in for a surprise when her daughter brought home some routine paperwork at the start of school this fall. Davis signed the form and then handed it to her daughter for the eighth-grader's signature.

"I just assumed she knew how to do it, but I have a piece of paper with her signature on it and it looks like a little kid's signature," Davis said.

Her daughter was apologetic, but explained that she hadn't been required to make the graceful loops and joined letters of cursive writing in years.

The decline of cursive is happening as students are doing more and more work on computers, including writing. In 2011, the writing test of the National Assessment of Educational Progress will require 8th and 11th graders to compose on computers, with 4th graders following in 2019.

Students accustomed to using computers to write at home have a hard time seeing the relevance of hours of practicing cursive handwriting.

Text messaging, e-mail, and word processing have replaced handwriting outside the classroom, said Cheryl Jeffers, a professor at Marshall University's College of Education and Human Services, and she worries they'll replace it entirely before long.

"I am not sure students have a sense of any reason why they should vest their time and effort in writing a message out manually when it can be sent electronically in seconds."

For Jeffers, cursive writing is a lifelong skill, one she fears could become lost to the culture, making many historic records hard to decipher (Gem--this made me sniggle for some reason visualizing people throwing their hands in the air "Bob, I just can't read the damn thing!") and robbing people of "a gift."

But cursive is favored by fewer college-bound students. In 2005, the SAT began including a written essay portion, and a 2007 report by the College Board found that about 15 percent of test-takers chose to write in cursive, while the others wrote in print. That was probably smart, according to Vanderbilt University professor Steve Graham, who cites multiple studies showing that sloppy writing routinely leads to lower grades, even in papers with the same wording as those written in a neater hand. It's common for adults to write in a cursive-print hybrid. (Gem--this is actually what I do for mundane stuff)

Full article here.

I remember learning to write cursive and how important it was in elementary school. It was like a rite of passage when you could write in cursive, so "grown up". What are your memories of learning/using cursive? I have two types of cursive (besides the print-cursive hybrid). One is my scribbly cursive, which has no slant and looks pretty psycho due to my left-handedness. Then I bust out the fancy schmancy cursive when necessary, the kind that slants up to the left. My print handwriting however, could win awards. I am constantly getting compliments on my beautiful print handwriting, no joke. Crabby be hatin' because his cursive looks like one of the forefathers on the Declaration of Independence and stuff, but ER'BODY AIN'T ABLE, YOU KNOW WHAT I'M SAYIN?

Warning To My Readers: Never Befriend A Blogger

Ok so I know I gave thanks and stuff a couple of posts ago but I want to recant at this time, my friendship with Karrie B. Bloggies, do not befriend people such as her and let them into your life, e-mail, and phone. Otherwise you subject your inbox to stuff such as this:




The subject title of this picture was: Gem Nomming.

I'm upset at so many things, as discussed with Karrie and QQ. Why does it look like a pony-sized bite was actually taken out of the tomato? Why is she gazing at the tomato so lovingly and smirking about how her lunch has more swagger than yours? The way her pink and white locks are in a breezy fresh roller-set style...

Let this be a warning to those who open your hearts to bloggers. Love is a losing game.

Pink Insects: The Cuntiest in the Land

A boy found a pink grasshopper in a nature reserve recently. Pink insects are rare, but can pop up from time to time. How much you wanna bet they J-set every Friday for no reason?


Pink grasshopper


Pink Katydid


Pink Dragonfly

Peeped here.

Also, have a song to take you through the weekend. I usually don't like "feel-good" songs, but this one is irresistable with the bass and instrumentation in the background combined with the floaty vocals and lyrics. Turn it up loud and jam. Ok, BAI.

Weather - Amel Larrieux

Feelin' It

Love, that is. In it's various forms. I just want to hand out some virtual wildflowers today (I don't eff with cut flowers anymore) to people who make life interesting.

I've mentioned before how I am constantly amazed at how technology brings together people who probably would never have met otherwise. I have met and "met" some dear people online; many who have turned into true friends who I know I can reach out to.

I was just reading the blog of a blogger who died very recently, and reading the comments on her last post reinforces the importance of the connection that so many of us feel to people we know online.

Knowing that I've inspired people in the virtual world to go natural, maintain their natural hair, and go vegetarian or vegan (or even reduce their meat) means a lot to me.

The virtual friend I've known the longest is a dude that goes by DJWaltd. We "met" on Blackplanet (LAWD) back in like, 2001 or 2002 (no funny business, just friendship) and are still friends today just shooting the breeze every now and then about music, books, TV Shows (always quoting The Simpsons for something), etc.

Muze is the first blogging friend I made. She was my very first consistent commenter on this blog, and always made me feel like I was saying something interesting when I didn't think anyone was reading. She linked me on her blog and is responsible for a lot of my early blog traffic because her blog was already crunk. She is an extremely talented writer and phenomenal woman all around. I love how she stays positive in almost every situation and retains a bit of mystique while sharing some of her most personal stories. We missed each other when I was in Detroit last time, but I know I'll see her one day! Thank you Muze, for being you!

Karrie B is my best blog homie right now. We are pixie twins; the shortest, fun-size bloggers you know. I lurked on her blog for a long time (I believe I found it through Muze), then we began chatting on Twitter about ain't shit type things. Months later, we talk in some form (phone, gmail, twitter, text, yahoo) every day. What I love about our friendship is we can say absolutely anything or share anything, and the other person will not even bat an eye. No judgment. Just honest assessments and advice.

QQ is another one whose blog I had lurked on forever. I lurked on C&D back in 2006 and 2007 and I remember her from there as well. She is one of the most forthright, intelligent, funny, and kind people I know. There are Gmail threads every day between her, myself, Karrie, Slaus, Bully, Sherri and Terri that keep us all wheezing for breath and cackling and for that I am thankful.

Vesper inspires me with her creativity and her expressions about life. We have e-mailed back and forth (I still owe you one!) about life, love, career, health, TV shows, whatever.

Mrsmarymack and I have also e-mailed and shared texts back and forth about family choices, careers, dreams, etc. She is my go-to person for advice and tips on certain areas of life and we can always make each other laugh with our Dallas vs. Houston rivalries in ain't-shitness.

TheJadedNYer, Kingsmomma, ChocolateOrchid, Chanel, BCU, Cheron, InnyVinny, and Sydney all keep me looking forward to our chats and their blog posts. I love chatting with Lina, and I hope she brings her blog back because she has a lot to say and I love how she says it.

Cas is a fierce warrior for righteousness and I learn so much from her everytime I read one of her posts. I look forward to continuing chats with her.

My Blisslife homies, linked in our admiration of one of the most inspirational artists out there (Amel Larrieux) provide a haven to come relax and share. I am thankful for the presence of 2Serenity, Ness, Sacha, Tanijoy, SoulReflection, and SS1.

To the peeps who follow and/or lurk on my blog, thank you for reading and finding what I have to say interesting or entertaining. School and work have left me little time to read as many blogs as I want, so know that I read your blogs when I can, even if I don't comment. Also, I chat with so many wonderful people on Twitter; too many to name. I have made friends with several people on there, even people from my own city. Bawse.

I'm also really feeling the love for Crabby. 4 years strong as a couple, and it's a nice feeling. We are at a point where THINGS and STUFF are closer instead of a distant horizon and it's a funny, buzzy feeling.

I'm also reading blogs from people who were in NYC on 9/11/2001. I was in college, in a class when it happened. A classmate was getting news updates on his phone and said out loud, "A plane has hit the WTC in NY." We turned on the TV in the classroom. As it became apparent what was happening, the buzz of people's voices grew louder. Class was dismissed. People poured out into the hallways from other classrooms. People left. Went home. My school was downtown, and it was jammed with traffic of other people leaving work to go home. People were confused and scared. Houston is a space, energy, and medical hub in this country. Could we be in danger too? The rest was a blur; I just remembered being glued to the TV once I got home. The fact that so much video was obtained forever stands out to me; as I am a visual person, I need to see things. My thoughts are with the people who experienced this first-hand and/or lost someone today. My thoughts are also with anyone who is hurting right now, be it from loss, heartbreak, disappointment, whatever.

One of my favorite Coldplay songs (and one of my favorite songs, period), Sparks:

Sparks - Coldplay

Hump It

Check out these tasty morsels (always and forever ruined by QQ) I made *snobby voice* from scratch this weekend:


Strawberry-banana muffins

Also, let this license plate be your entree.

Hump It

Labor Day I got crunk in Spades and Boca chicken nuggets with veg. baked beans and homemade fries courtesy of my mother-in-law. Also contemplating big changes for the future. It's that weird time period where stuff is about to happen and you gotta ride the wave. But which one to ride? Hmmm.

I am also now hooked on Law and Order. I saw Benjamin Button for the 1st time and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

I Love the 90s Friday: The 1st Night

Monica was so cute and sassy in the 90s. This video and song are heavily linked to a lot of high school memories. Flirting with Crabby, basketball, summer changing to fall, and fashion. I just HAD to have a white and khaki outfit after being influenced by this video. I think I was trying to find a khaki skirt and couldn't, so settled for some khaki capris and a white tank top. LAWD.



Homegirl at the 2:18 mark was trippin' though. Bish, do you hear the lyrics to the song? All hot and bothered being a hussy on somebody's couch. Where are your parents? Anyhoo, I thought it was a nice message for teenagers since this came out my sophomore year (I think) of high school. It didn't avoid the fact that there is temptation out there for girls, but firmly said "not now" with a cute little beat.

Bleak

This is exactly why I do not support the death penalty.

In hindsight, it is nothing short of amazing the crap that was thrown together and presented as evidence to convict a father of murdering his 3 daughters by way of arson with NO MOTIVE, SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE REFUTING JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING IN HIS TRIAL, and other gems of truth. The death penalty does not deter criminals from committing crimes. The death penalty costs the state more than keeping a prisoner alive. Oh, and innocent people are murdered in the name of justice. Why? How can this be? How can I believe in people as a whole with this ceiling above everything? What can be done?

Twins Getting Crunk in Indian Village

THEY'LL KILL US ALL!!

Walk around Kodinji village and you'll think that you have double vision. The village is home to as many as 230 sets of twins. Nobody knows why there are so many twins in the village of 15,000 people, although one local doctor suspects it might be due to the water.

In fact with about 35-45 twins per live birth, this village in North Kerala, India, has four times more twins than normal. Not surprisingly, the village has been dubbed "the twin village." The latest official estimates by the Kodinji's Twins and Kins Association (TAKA), which conducted door-to-door surveys at the start of the year, found that there were 204 sets of twins.

Based on births since the survey was conducted, there are probably now around 230 sets of twins in the village, locals said. That number is set to rise as there are five women pregnant with twins.

Full article here. P.S. Read the last sentence of that linked article. That was a non-sequitur like a muhfugga, wasn't it? Like, did the author have no other possible way to end the story?

Breaded Tofu, Baked Macaroni and "Cheese"

This is the 1st week of school at my job AND I have a deadline of Friday to turn in some important stuff for my thesis so I'll be blogging all sorts of random nonsense after that. In the meantime...GETCHU SUMMA THIS!

Breaded tofu from the cookbook 'The Garden of Vegan'...made with a BAWSE ASS breading and spice recipe then pan fried.

Baked Mac n "Cheese" made from a mixture of soy cheese, macaroni shell pasta, cornstarch, nutritional yeast, soymilk, and breadcrumbs baked in the oven. From this vegweb recipe, but I changed some of it.

I served some peas with this too. No recipe. :-/

My Regular Amel Larrieux Fanatic Update

One thing I love about all this technology is how many people I've met and "met" online/offline. When I went to San Francisco to see Amel, I met Ness who I frequently talked to on Blisslife.

I was SO exhausted at this point. Had been up since 4 am CST flew to Cali, traipsed and frolicked around San Francisco, went to 2 back to back concerts, so this was around 12:30-1:00am when this pic was taken.

Anyhoo, she went to see Amel last month in LA and got this video of her singing how she met and married her husband, Laru.


Love it.

Dog and Owner in Need

If you guys are animal lovers or even if you can just feel compassion for someone going through a tough time, help out Krystle; aka YoungBlkBeauty (she blogs). Her dog, through some unfortunate events is very sick and she just relocated and took a new job and can't afford to get him treated and cared for. Those of us who have pets know what dear companions they become and it is heartbreaking when something isn't right. Here's the link where you can read the story and help if you so choose.

Yum-Type Dinner

Boca Chikn patty, green bean casserole, mashed sweet and regular potatoes. I felt so proud tonight, this meal was full of YUM. This was my first attempt at making my own mashed potatoes, and I was very pleasantly surprised. I don't know why I always assumed making mashed potatoes was complicated.

Surfside Sunday

For some reason I keep forgetting what a wealth of treasures Texas has to offer regarding nature. I went to Surfside, TX today with Crabby and our friends and friend-family. We had a blast! (Blast is one of those words that always makes me giggle because it's so over-the-top) The water was shallow very far out and the waves were awesome, so we were just a-frolicking to our heart's content. I'm definitely going to keep exploring this big ass country state.

Stuntin' and mermaiding on all you hoes

Me and Crabby saltwater'd up

My hair post-oceanwater. The salt defines and separates the curls so crazy-like.

Oh yeah, I saw District 9 on Friday. It was weird. Like, hella weird. I don't even know what else to say about it. I enjoyed it overall, but wouldn't want to see it again. The beginning was really blatant with comparisons to current world issues and that annoyed me. After that, it was just weird man. Has anyone else seen it yet?