I never check my AOL mail, and when I do I get more fascinated with their news pieces than my actual email. AOL usually has the best lists, the top 25 things we never use, or the bottom lotions and why not!!! Those are all things I enjoy. So today I’m finally checking my email (lists) and they had their annual list of things we won’t see next year. So, I am highlighting a few things from that list.
What you won’t see in ’09!
1. Traditional Polaroid Film: I didn’t know they still made this. I remember in high school I had this talking Polaroid, well my grandmother really had it, but I used to buy film and use it. Polaroid film was not cheap, but damn those cameras were huge.
2. Zima: I heard about the discontinuation of Zima a few months ago, but wow, Yeah, no Zima for you drunks out there. They really want you to drink their new Sparks Malt beverage instead. I had that crap.. it isn’t that great. What is with all the lemony-limey flavors?And, isn’t it a proven fact that its lethal to mix energy drinks and liquor (red bull & vodka)??? HHmmmm…
3. the Kinkos name: aawww, no longer will I be able to say, “Well, there’s a Kinkos down the road. I have to say, “Yeah, go use FedEx Office.” WTF boooo!!!
4. Taco Bell Volcano Taco: I actually never had this because I don’t eat beef, and sometimes when TB gets new items they don’t offer to sub chicken. However, I did think this was just a promotional item only, like the Fajita Grilled Stuft Burrito. Damn, now I want some TB, but I’m going to be a good girl.
5. Smokey Chipotle Crispy Fried Chicken @ KFC: WTF is that? I never even saw this. Was this for release only in CA or the south our something? I never even saw a commercial for this. How do you get smokey chipotle flavor to shine through the crunchy goodness of the Colonel’s Extra Crispy?
6. Lehman’s Brothers & Bear Sterns: Nothing much really needs to be said about this… except well.. no, nothing its all already been said. Blame it on the mortgages..
7. Shea Stadium: They have closed to build a new location. What will the baseball world be without Shea Stadium? I drove past it once…. it’s big.
8. AFL (Arena Football League): People watch this? Supposedly it has a die hard fan base, which caused their expenses and debts to rise. IDK, but doesn’t increased fans usually mean increased profit?
9. 25 Banks: All total this year 25 banks failed, the biggest being Washington Mutual and INDYMac.. Once again, the blame the “mortgage crisis” vs. the greedy execs. Bah Humbug!!
10. Linen’s & Things: I don’t know if many outside of Jersey are into this store, hell I barely shop there, but it does make me sad that it won’t be there for my linen needs. I am hoping to try and catch some of their “going out of business” sales for my impending move.
Those are my TOP 10.. Honorable mention in my book include
-Sharper Images stores
-Steve & Barry’s
-Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper (any missing flavor of the Doc’ isn’t good!)
-DHL in the US
-Bill Blass
Go over to AOL for the actual list because I can’t find the actual link anymore. They replaced it with ” Best Buys Right Now” See, isn’t AOL still good for something!!
I have been watching Desperate Housewives pretty regularly since the 2nd season. After becoming engrossed in the second season I got myself acquainted with Season 1 and the characters. Gaby being the ex supermodel turned bored suburban housewife. Susan is the clumsy lovable girl next door. Lynette the over worked mother of way too many kids and Bree, the Martha Stewart next door. I guess you can say Edie is a main character is she is the slut you love to hate. There is something to love in each characters. There are some themes that resonant each season on almost every show-someone is pregnant, someone dies, or some great disaster strikes. Recently I noticed another recurring theme on this show.
At the start of the show, Gaby was sleeping with her gardener who was a high school student. She was being a “cougar. A “cougar” is typically an older woman who sleeps with a significantly younger man. This led to drama in her personal life. Fast forward to this season, where the show has fast forwarded 5 years into the future, here we are with one of Lynette’s many kids banging his best friends mom. WTF is up with Marc Cherry and his infatuation with old women and young men? People say that TV emulates life or if life emulates TV, but in this case which is it. I guess in the case of this show, Desperate Housewives-emphasis on Desperate-it makes sense to have bored housewives who are willing to sleep with young men to bypass the boredom and the realization that their lives are less than desirable.
We see headlines all over the news when teachers are caught having sexual relationships with their students, but what about the numbers of women who aren’t caught. They are betraying their yoga class buddies by corrupting their children. Sometimes, even going as far to say that they love them. I don’t understand how these relationships start. I know sometimes that young boys, and even girls, think their friend has a hot parent. But what could possess someone to cross the line with someone so much older. And what about the parents, they usually have children that age yet they still do it. But if the same was happening to their child they’d be outraged and do eveyrthing in their power to protect them. Are the rules totally forgotten because of “love” or lust in most of these situations. Let all my friends read this, if I have children and I find out that you are sleeping with them, I will cut you. Cut you out of my life, slice you up with a knife, and probably cut your tires. Then I am going to tell your spouse. I will tell your children, and then I will post pictures up around the neighborhood so everyone knows that you are a person who messes with children. If I ever did that, I hope someone would bring me public shame also. This is not right.
I read about this on another blog, and decided to test it out. This is a site that will analyze the blog to determine if its written by a man or a woman. My results said that my site is written by a woman (53%), however it’s quite gender neutral. I don’t know what to think about that, is it bad that you can only tell its a woman by a barely over half margin. I guess its good that its not overly masculine. I guess it is pretty cool to be “gender neutral” but I’d love to radiate a sense of subtle femininity. OH well, we can’t win them all… but all you fellow bloggers who might check me out should test it out, see if it accurately measures your gender. And let me know about it, via comments! I love comments! Gender Analyzer
Holy Moly! I found this article about a lady finding a black widow spider in her Costco Grapes. For those who don’t know, the Black Widow is the deadliest American arachnid-even their web is poisonous! Not something I’d like to find in my grapes-sometimes I just pick grapes up in the store and eat one (don’t judge me, everyone does it!). Then we I get home, I run water over them and put them in the fridge. Imagine, ingesting poison that way and not even knowing. Imagine that thing getting lose into your house and possibly biting you!
In case you’ve noticed more spiders around this year, which I’ve heard people say, it could be because in California farmers have been using spiders as a natural pesticide to keep insects off of the crops. While I applaud these efforts to stop the use poisonous pesticides, I think that they maybe should not use spiders that are dangerous to our health as well. Seriously, what kind of logic is that, let me not give you a man made poison, but a natural one instead. Although maybe their logic comes from the fact that no one has died from a Black widow bite since 1960 in America, but still. Confusion. This is definitely confirmation and reinforcement to always, ALWAYS wash your fruit. Like really wash it, just just run the water like I do and shake it. Not enough.
So, the other day I read an article on the NYtimes website on my Blackberry titled “Calories Do Count.” Basically, the article talked about the rising resurgence of calorie-counting, which is something many dieters have done or currently do; and how this has led to, at least in New York right now, the now ever popular occurrence of calorie contents of food posted on menu items. I know it happened to me one day. I was in New York, near Time Square at the NewsCorp building and I went to a Wendy’s for a cheap quick lunch. Now, I know damn well I shouldn’t be eating Wendy’s, especially since I’ve been gym slacking. But I wasn’t about to spend $15 dollars on a salad I wasn’t guaranteed to like. And I hadn’t really eaten all day, so Wendy’s it was. So I head in there, and right there next to my #6 were numbers that said depending on my size I could be expending about 1000-1600 calories on a spicy chicken sandwich with fries and a drink. Shocked and appalled I was. I almost thought about not getting fries. But its not the same if you get a sandwich and a baked potato. So I settled for a small and a bottle of water. With Wendy’s a small is really a medium. I once got tricked into ordering a medium and had this big ass soda I couldn’t finish. But I knew i wasn’t trying to waste my whole daily caloric intake on just one meal. Do you know how hard it is to burn 1000 calories at the gym? HARD! Super HARD!!
Anywho, there is a law in NY that restaurants with 15 or more outlets were forced to post the calorie content of food next to the price. Now, do I agree? Yes and no. I think that yes, people should know more about what they are ingesting, however, I was perfectly happy going online or looking at the pamphlet they were supposed to keep in store if you had questions about content. I don’t like scare tactics. And this is a scare tactic driven by rising concerns over the obesity of Americans. Restaurants should have thought of this before they made heaping portion sizes the norm. In fact, as a result of this some restaurants have realized their food has very high caloric intake and to not reduce sales, they have reduced portion sizes-but not cost. So that is a win-win for them. Still sell and make more. You have to wonder, do they really care about the health and concern for Americans? I know who doesn’t, The FDA!
American is driven by profit. Companies are taking super advantage of the average Americans obsession with weight. Caloric content is spewed all over every damn product these days, and they make 100 calorie products in so many lines now. If people want to be fat, let them. You can’t make them eat right and you damn sure can’t make them work out. They have to come to the realization on their own.
“A woman’s heart should be so close to God’s that a man has to seek him to find her…”
This quote was inside an email I received. This quote, combined with an intense conversation someone and I had the other day made me question, Why are we so concerned with someone else’s proximity to church, God, and spirituality? I think that people are overly concerned with others religious beliefs, and for what? Does it make someone a better Christian if they can convert their sacrilegious friends over to the Holy word? Does God smile on them then and only then? I don’t see why people are so obsessed with judging someones faith based on how much they go to church. Why is it so hard to believe that someone can be close to God and not support organized religion? Why does it matter to the next person, seriously? It has been my experience that churches can be sometimes filled with many “half” Christians. Folk who step out to the club Saturday night and praise Him with that same hand that held the drink the night before. OR you have the ones who are “SAVED” in the sanctuary and get in the streets and curse folk out or are just plain rude. They spend their time talking about the folk they say at Church that week and how “Oh, Sister so -and so- , No she didn’t.” I feel that if you are someone who is truly “SAVED” you have subscribed to the thoughts that God accepts us as we are.
Now, if someone wants to go to church and get their blessings, I support that fully. But I’m at a point in my life, probably stemming from my own personal experiences where I have issues with church. I remember being like probably between the ages of 10-12 and my grandmother would force me and my cousin to go to Church and Sunday School each week. Most of these weeks she would spend home while we went to Sunday school and she’d join us later at church. Sometimes she didn’t join us. But it was like as soon as we left church, she was happy for a few minutes and then went back to cursing up a storm. I never understood it. I always imagine Christians to be good, kind hearted souls… she never embodied that. Not that she wasn’t kind.. to others.. it just didn’t give me faith in the power of prayer either because things were not easy for us growing up.
Even at work, there is this lady, Lady N, who is always talking about how she spent her wonerful weekends doing church events and passes out little green Bibles trying to convert us sinners to a better place. But then she does conniving things to get her way in the work place, how is this Christian-like? I don’t understand it. I try to keep my relationship with God a personal thing. No I am not ashamed of it. I will shout it to the mountain tops that I believe in God. But I don’t feel that by declaring myself a Christian I have to come down on religions like Buddism, Muslims, Taoism, and even Judaism. In fact, I have a desire to read about all the religions to see how they go about relationships with the higher being. I feel that that can increase my spirituality. End the end, we should be judged by our spirituality not by how well we followed organized religion…
I love this commercial everytime I see, because its just so cute, without being too cheesy like those say no to drug public service announcements. I caught myself sitting on the couch one day singing, “those boys are much too much.” I like the fact that this shows a father daughter relationship, because those relationships are extremely important. Especially for black women, too many of us don’t have father figures at home. I think that all girls; white, black, asian, indian-whatever their ethnicity need strong male role models. It is these relationship that shape the relationships that we have with males for the rest of our lives. You find some women looking to fill a fatherly void and you sometimes wonder, “Well, what is she doing with him,” or sometimes you see the girl searching for it by bed hopping, looking for that male to take care of her. We see these tarnished relationships reflected in different ways every day. The same is with boys. Many boys need to have a male role model to show them how to fix things, how to be a man. Instead of having to grow up with this innate sense to be the “man of the house.” Like Janice Huber (The first Aunt Viv from Fresh Prince of Bel Air) said in her recent Essence.com article “I feel like there’s so much decadence in the world right now. I feel like our children have really been corrupted with sex and violence and the need to fit in [by adopting] the whole thug-wannabe, gang-wannabe [mentality]. The role models out there are really dangerous,” this is true. She is not speaking from a place of older versus younger. I am young and I believe this. So I try to be a role model for my younger cousins. But I do find it kind of sad that there has to be an initiative to promote fatherhood. It is sad, and frankly appalling. I mean, even like Barack Obama said during his fathers day speech, “any fool can make a baby.” And this goes for women too… any one can give birth, but it takes a true soul to stand up and be a parent. On the website for the National Fatherhood Initiative I saw that they were more than just public service announcements. They offer a variety of tools and resources for fathers in various settings. They had community based programs, healthcare programming, school programming military programming, corrections and christian based programming along with information for balancing work and family. I wonder how many people, who have children, have seen those commercials and really visited their website. It makes me no difference because I don’t have a child, but if I did…and they had the motherhood initiative, I’d check them out.
So yesterday while I flipping through my September issue of Essence magazine while working out, I came across a one-page article about India Aire starring in a revival of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.” I was so thrilled I damn near fell off the machine. I personally have not read the book, but I have heard how inspiriting it is, and what I have read from Ntozake I have loved. She is phenomenal. I think I am going to grab a copy of this book from amazon the next time I purchase a book. I have to keep an eye on this production because I absolutely have to see this. I really wanted to catch the all black revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof but I missed it, so if I miss this I will kill someone. I tried to google information, but couldn’t find any information dated after July 30. All the information said that India Aire’s debut will be postponed due to lack of funding.. I am praying that this comes to Broadway or off-Broadway because I need this in my life. For those who don’t know, “For Colored girls…” was First produced off-Broadway, the play soon moved onto Broadway at the Booth Theatre and won a number of awards, including the Obie Award, Outer Critics Award and the AUDELCO Award.
“how we live / is important business
latin night only monday
is contagious / dangerous
let us be ourselves / every day”
Dope. Crazy. Perfectly Imperfect. I'm not the best writer and probably not the worst either, but I am happy while doing it. Stick with me and you'll never be bored! I mean, maybe you won't and maybe you will....
I read about this on another blog, and decided to test it out. This is a site that will analyze the blog to determine if its written by a man or a woman. My results said that my site is written by a woman (53%), however it’s quite gender neutral. I don’t know what to think about that, is it bad that you can only tell its a woman by a barely over half margin. I guess its good that its not overly masculine. I guess it is pretty cool to be “gender neutral” but I’d love to radiate a sense of subtle femininity. OH well, we can’t win them all… but all you fellow bloggers who might check me out should test it out, see if it accurately measures your gender. And let me know about it, via comments! I love comments!
Holy Moly! I found this article about a lady finding a black widow spider in her Costco Grapes. For those who don’t know, the Black Widow is the deadliest American arachnid-even their web is poisonous! Not something I’d like to find in my grapes-sometimes I just pick grapes up in the store and eat one (don’t judge me, everyone does it!). Then we I get home, I run water over them and put them in the fridge. Imagine, ingesting poison that way and not even knowing. Imagine that thing getting lose into your house and possibly biting you!
So yesterday while I flipping through my September issue of Essence magazine while working out, I came across a one-page article about India Aire starring in a revival of Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.” I was so thrilled I damn near fell off the machine. I personally have not read the book, but I have heard how inspiriting it is, and what I have read from Ntozake I have loved. She is phenomenal. I think I am going to grab a copy of this book from amazon the next time I purchase a book. I have to keep an eye on this production because I absolutely have to see this. I really wanted to catch the all black revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof but I missed it, so if I miss this I will kill someone. I tried to google information, but couldn’t find any information dated after July 30. All the information said that India Aire’s debut will be postponed due to lack of funding.. I am praying that this comes to Broadway or off-Broadway because I need this in my life. For those who don’t know, “For Colored girls…” was First produced off-Broadway, the play soon moved onto Broadway at the Booth Theatre and won a number of awards, including the Obie Award, Outer Critics Award and the AUDELCO Award.