"Use those talents you have. You will make it. You will give joy to the world. Take this tip from nature: The woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang best." 
--Bernard Meltzer

Song of the week

The saddest thing in the world, is loving someone who used to love you.

--anonymous

Sometimes the only thing you’re looking for, is the one thing you can’t see.

--anonymous

if you love something

set it free;

What do you need to set free?


 Per my Doctor;

Pizza
Sushi
Soy Sauce
Tacos
Scones
Donuts
Cake
Pie
Brown Sugar
Pancakes
Pancake Syrup
Butter
Margarine
Biscuits
Ice cream
French fries
Hamburgers
Fried Chicken
Ketchup
Mayonnaise
Cheese
Bagels
Cream cheese
Sour cream
Potatoes
Bacon
Spaghetti
Grape Jam
Nutella
Rum
Reese’s peanut butter cups

I LOVE ALL OF THEM
Per me;

Laziness
Procrascination
My 12-hour sleep sessions
Jealousy (I admit it)

some more Jody

this song popped in my head a few minutes ago:

I'm looking for a new love

A Blast from the past- Atlantic Starr

..."When love calls, you better answer,
Don't let it slip away too many times,
'cause love may not ever come again...."   Atlantic Starr

On January 29

   In 1991, Sharon J. Barnes, Chemist at Dow Chemical was part of a team of five (two African Americans) who were assigned U.S. Patent #4,988,211 for an application in Infra-Red Thermography -- courtesy Blackfacts.com


History Expects You.

Question

If you stopped initiating communication with the people you normally communicate with—if you stopped being the first to make the connection, who would you hear from ( besides your landlord, or bill collectors or your boss) first?

I think of this question from time to time because I used to have a group of 4 good friends (3 guys, 1 female) when I lived in Madison Wisconsin. We used to make trips to Milwaukee, or Chicago or road trips to Indianapolis, Dayton Ohio, or Minneapolis quite often, and take extended weekends and just party and drank. We got along well. One day I wondered if they were really my friends, since I was calling them all the time. I decided to see if they would call me, so I stopped calling them.
I found out that they had driven to Chaimpaign/Urbana Illinois that weekend. Not one of them called.

No one even seemed to wonder where I was.

I never heard from them again. And we lived in the same city.



Answering my own question, I would (and I do)  hear from:

1- My best friend Steve
2- My mom
3- My friend Marva
4- My friend Ron
5-My friend Sandra
6- My friend Bin
The only people I hear from without my having to initiate a communication, and without them calling because they needed something.

So, who would you hear from first?

top priority


peace before EVERYTHING
God BEFORE ANYTHING
love before anything


real before everything


home before anyplace

--  Mos Def

Quote of the Day

"If you want to be original just try being yourself, because God has never made two people exactly alike."
    --Bernard Meltzer

never...

remember this

30 mph

U said my way of loving was slow

 2 slow,

 but

my speed allows me

2 see your issues (if u have any)

 determine your lies (if u tell any)

 n their early stage of development

slowly rearing your ugly head (if u have one)

sprouting like weeds;

 there'd be no need 2 come 2 an abrupt stop.

 I can easily decide if I should leave

B4 they take root in me.

 No need 2 rush if we're meant 2b…

                          No need 2 rush if u're meant 4 me.

                                             --Alexgeorge

Do you

No one can do you better than you

History is expecting you.

This is for my nephew and my God-daughter, and all your children and my future children and every child out there.

History is expecting you

to be leaders of the free world, to cure Cancer and Aids and Diabetes and Heart Disease, etc., to create beautiful music that will be timeless classics like Mozart, Tchaikovsky, & Chopin, to create Picassos, to write your own The Catcher In The Rye, to be the next William Shakespeare, or equally as important,

to be great mothers and fathers and uncles and aunts and God-parents to inspire your children to be whatever they dream of being.

I'm pretty sure that if President Obama, as a child, told his mother that he wanted to be President of the Unites States, she might have said to herself that that was highly unlikely.

but,

History expects you.

The funkiest romantic song ever (to me)

@91

The first book I had read in it’s entirety when I was a kid, and the only book I have in my Gym bag ( I’ve re-started the book 2 weeks ago) besides my Bible, and including the Bible, the only book I gave my nephew to read, is ‘the Catcher In The Rye.’


The reclusive author, Jerome David Salinger (non de plume JD Salinger) died yesterday of natural causes at his home in New Hampshire, according to a family statement that his literary agent, Phyllis Westberg, provided Thursday.

The book is narrated by a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield, who is expelled from a private school, Pencey Prep, in Pennsylvania, and spends the next three days wandering around New York. Caulfield is mistrustful of authority, railing against corrupt adults and "phonies," and plans to decamp for the west.

"An unusually brilliant first novel," The New York Times called it, one of many raves.

Though intended for adult readers, the book touched a nerve among teenagers attracted by Caulfield's nonconformist attitudes and has remained a best-seller since its release. It has gone through dozens of printings in its simple mass-market paperback edition, clad in a simple maroon cover adorned with the title and author's name on the front and back.

It's also been a lightning rod for controversy. Schools have banned it -- troubled by Caulfield's language and attitude as well as his adventures with a prostitute -- and some readers have been obsessed by it, most infamously Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon in 1980. – courtesy of cnn.com

“Before you speak ask yourself if what you are going to say is true, is kind, is necessary, is helpful. If the answer is no, maybe what you are about to say should be left unsaid.” --Bernard Meltzer

my help

1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

In the past 24 hours,

I edited my short story the beginning and the ending of everything,
I worked a full day,
I paid bills,
Talked to my best friend on the phone,
Did 30 minutes of cardio and 45 minutes of heavy weight-lifting (doctor wants me to lose weight),
And I saw a love story with an ending that made me so angry it consumed me. It still does.

I’m going to write my own love story.

Just my opinion, but, love stories don’t have to end in tragedy, or with a love being unrequited. Unless they’re based on a true story of someone’s life. Then it should be an accurate portrayal of that life. Otherwise, love stories should be predictable in that they should always have happy endings.

Maybe I’m naïve still,
But

I am fan of love.

Life-

About 25 years ago an older patron at the fast food restaurant where I was working while in college, told me that life was like a Medusa; each snake is an issue or problem, and as soon as you tackle each issue and get rid of that snake, there are 8 more, growing in its place.
I laughed, not being able to relate at the time.  That was 25 years ago.

He was so right.

This is a repost

"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. "

--Morrie Schwartz

what's wrong with now?

Let's

Talk about beautiful things a little bit    this is a repost

i

I said that this would be the year of love....January is almost done. I have 11 months to go, God willing. I hopeful. Reality has pushed love down  from first to third  place on my list of concerns. Knowing my luck, love will arrive when I'm finally not looking for it.

On January 27,

1961, world renowed opera singer, Leontyne Price, makes her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Born February 10, 1927, in Laurel, Mississippi in the United States) is an American operatic soprano. She is best known for the title role of Verdi's Aida. Born in the segregated Deep South, she rose to international fame during a period of racial change in the 1950s and 60s, and was the first African-American to become a leading prima donna at the Metropolitan Opera.    -- courtesy, blackfacts.com & wikipedia



Also on this day,

In 1972, Gospel music legend Mahalia Jackson died, in Evergreen Park, Il. An African-American gospel singer with a powerful, distinct voice, Mahalia Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and is the first Queen of Gospel Music. She recorded about 35 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen "golds"—million-sellers. She had a contralto voice range. -- -- courtesy, blackfacts.com & wikipedia





 

quote

"It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice."

--Deng Xiaoping

A quote on Faith

"To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float."     -- Alan Watts


I have a morbid fear of drowning, but I sill like the quote!

Pebbles

This is a repost from last year...

Always the eternal optimist? No, not really, but I’m trying. I’m trying to be idealistic. I’m trying my hardest to see the good in all things.
Life keeps placing tall roadblocks on my route towards happiness, and though initially I’m overwhelmed and filled with worry, I go into battle each time, tackling each roadblock and somehow, I am always able to knock them down and step over them or go around them or through them, and keep walking, sometimes unscathed, continuing on my path.
I look back and I can’t see the roadblocks behind me anymore because they’re so small, like pebbles, and then I wonder why I was worried about them in the first place.
I used to let life bring me down, but now I am glad about the roadblocks life supplies. How else would I know my own strength? How else would I know how high I could reach? How else would I know how badly I wanted the happiness I seek? How else would I know that I can face challenges that life presents me?

This is a reminder to myself... I needed to read this again.

Quote of the week

"I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back."
 --- Maya Angelou

An answer looking for a question

I would be tired too.

Not slighting anyone, but, there's

something about seeing a black man holding his black woman that always makes me smile.

Maybe it's because I never saw this act of love, tenderness and affection at home when I was growing up, or on tv or in movies

or out in the streets. I only saw black women

like my mom, and my aunts, and their mom,

tired from trying to be both mother and father,

and sleeping alone.

with

no

1

holding them.

In Love

Quote of the Day

We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.
                                                --Author unknown


I like this quote because when I think of my soulmate, I'm not looking for someone perfect because I'm not perfect. I'm looking for someone that's perfect for me.

Quote of the week

Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn't mean he lacks vision.

--Stevie Wonder

Song of the week

She's baaaaack

History expects you.

-- Alexgeorge

I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.  ~Mother Teresa



History is expecting you.
--Alexgeorge

in the past 24 hours i have...

written a love poem
learned how to write my name in Farsi
written a short story
teared up towards the end of a movie I’ve seen about 10 times
learned a life lesson

dyed my soul patch black to get rid of the grey
hoped

dreamed

napped
saw a movie

got invited to a party
and asked a  woman @ Macy’s for her opinion about a shirt and tie I bought (with the intention of returning since she wouldn’t give me her number--)

PS- I was rejected, but I do feel  good that I tried.

I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.  ~Mother Teresa

Energy conservation for your computer

Click Here

Life

Only after the last tree has been cut down.
Only after the last river has been poisoned.
Only after the last fish has been caught.
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.
-Cree Indian Prophecy

Courtesy, http://emikegarcia3.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King Jr, today, January 15

Martin Luther King with his family

All of us owe a great debt to Martin Luther King Jr. He had the courage to stand up against injustice without resorting to violence. America is much closer to living out its ideals because he was willing to lay down his life for God’s cause.
 Few have had as much impact upon the American consciousness as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A Baptist minister and passionate fighter for civil rights through non-violent action, he was the closest this country has come to producing a leader with the moral stature of Mohandas Gandhi. When King was assassinated in 1968, citizens in many major cities reacted violently --- while others held vigils and peaceful gatherings. And Americans, black and white, wondered what would happen to his dream.
I hope Monday, the federal holiday set aside to commemorate King’s life and death for the cause of civil rights, will be more than just another day for you. I do believe that God’s intention is that each of us find the cause He created us to pursue and then give ourselves body and soul for the advancement of his Kingdom.

this

Oldie but goodie,  my absolute favorite song of all, and my future wedding song --Click Here


No, I haven't met her yet, but I can dream, can't I?

Not to give this person any unneeded publicity, but I just wanted to say that Satan knows (who and) how to use people to his advantage under the guise of religion. And it's sad that they don't even realize they're being used as his instruments, especially in the wake of the current devestation in Haiti.
Said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, “Robertson’s callous comments show grotesque insensitivity to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of victims, their families and the nation of Haiti."


   Click here

All I can do is shake my head

click here

The Lights Turned Off

Have you ever had a song that took you back to certain times in your life? For me, it’s never the mention of a song, but hearing the song itself that instantly (mentally) transported me back in time. When I hear George Benson’s ‘Love Masquerade’, I’m a child again, visiting my grandmother, aunts, and cousins in Memphis. When I hear Christopher Cross’s ‘Never be the same’, I’m in my freshmen year of college in Harrogate Tennessee, tired of my roommate using my turntable to play his music. And when I hear Teddy Pendergrass’s “The Whole Town's Laughing At Me,” I’m a young boy in Brossard Quebec and Chicago, at my grandfather’s house.

Teddy Pendergrass was one of my favorite childhood singers. He was one of the greatest soul singers and balladeers of all time. He passed away yesterday from colon concer. The crooner, who many affectionately knew as just "Teddy," started in music with a group called the Cadillacs in the late 1960s and was still with the group when it merged with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes.
I can still envision the 8-track tape of that group in the 70’s, and his first solo effort, on the top of my grandfather’s HiFi, along with his 8-track tapes of Al Green, BB King and Johnnie Taylor.
He had quite a few hits, but my favorite song of his was Turn Off the Lights. I was a teen then when I first heard it, and my voice hadn’t yet dropped to the bass-singing voice I have now, but I used to sing that song all the time, along with Love TKO, which I wanted to sing at my voice recital in college but couldn’t find the sheet music ( I ended up singing Luther’s A House Is Not A Home).

In 1982, Pendergrass was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed. But Pendergrass returned to the studio in 1984 in his wheelchair to record an album.

In 1996, I went to my first and only musical, when I saw him and Stephanie Mills in Your Arms Too Short to Box with God

In 2009, Pendergrass underwent surgery for colon cancer and had difficulty recovering from that disease from which he eventually died yesterday January 13, 2010, at age 59, while hospitalized at Bryn Mawr Hospital in suburban Philadelphia.

Here's a couple songs from him;

Verses of the week

I will bless the LORD at all times: His praise shall  continually be in my mouth. 

Psalm 34:1

I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. 

Psalm 34:4 

Tonight I was watching one of my favorite shows, "Fringe", an Xfiles-type show, and I had alot on my mind. In one scene of tonight's episode, one of the main characters was standing outside of a church, waiting for someone to leave,  and on the marquee was the above verse. The cameraman focused on the marque about maybe 10 seconds. 

I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. 

Psalm 34:4

Just before I saw it, I was talking to God, asking Him for the same thing I had been asking for, all day.

I saw it and I smiled. I feel better. 
Fringe is not a religious-based show. It's science fiction.The characters are self-professed atheists.
One of the scientists mentioned  the Latin translation of  a quote from St Augustine,  to a woman at the end of the episode, in English
;

Unless you believe, you will not understand.

"Even as a scientist, sometimes I have to rely on faith," he told her.

You never know how or where  God is going to communicate with you to be patient with Him.

 

GOD sent a Marine

This came to me in an email from a friend, and I had to post it:

GOD Is Too Busy



If you don't know GOD, don't make stupid remarks!!!!!!

A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan . One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU.
One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, GOD if you are real then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 min.' The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, 'Here I am GOD, I'm still waiting.'
It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold.
The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently.
The other students were shocked and stunned, and sat there looking on in silence. The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, 'What in the world is the matter with you? 'Why did you do that?'
The Marine calmly replied, 'GOD was too busy today protecting America 's soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot.. So He sent me.'


The classroom erupted in cheers!

sometimes...

 Come on NAACP, come on. For real? click here

Interesting article

Click here

It was all so simple then...

also, on January 7

In 2002, Shirley Franklin is sworn in as the first African American Mayor of Atlanta and the only African American female mayor of a major American city.

On January 7,

In 1955,  Marian Anderson made her debut at Metropolitan Opera House as Alrica in Verdi's Masked Ball. She was the first Black singer in the company's history.

My perspective

It’s interesting how two different people can see the same thing, and come away with completely different reactions It’s easy to say that it’s based on our experiences, and what we’ve been accustomed to. To me though, what’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong. It can be very frustrating.


"In calceis meis mille passus tibi ambulandum est" is Latin for “you should walk a mile in my shoes.” I consider that everytime, in my opinion, someone either misinterprets what I say, fails to see the gravity of a situation or circumstance, or somehow overlooks something that’s staring them right in the face.

Last night, it was raining, and was headed toward Borders Books. I was about 10 feet away from the door and I noticed an elderly lady about 7 feet away. I opened the door for the lady, and I stood and waited for her to enter before myself. She smiled and said ‘thank you sir, that was nice of you.’
Right behind me, entered another caucasian woman, probably in her 40s and she says to me, “Your mom obviously raised you right. What a good boy you are.” She looked like she was about to pat me on the head like I was a dog. I didn’t have the most appropriate response so I just walked away in the store.
Yes I was offended. I mentioned this to 3 different people. Two Caucasians, and 1 black person, a male. The black male was the only one who found the woman’s ‘boy’ comment offensive. My caucasian friends didn’t see the offense at all. They didn’t bat an eyelash.
I'm over it now, but was wondering.. was I right in being offended?

someone is a wee bit arrogant, don't you think?

Click here

Patience

“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.”   -- Author Unknown

I see the picture above and it makes me laugh everytime... This cat has no choice but to be patient, and focused,  in order to get what he wants.

 

Just another day in Madison, Wisconsin

 This is my sister's street, 3 days ago

This is  why I don't complain about the rain or 30 degree temps in Oregon

abduction

In the beginning, we soared.  We knew the crackle of constellations, the heat of worlds unborn. Our coupling was cosmic. She said it was in the stars.
When the nights grew cooler, I should have returned to earth, but she promised me the moon. I floated on  clouds.
Now, she's light-years away. No longer the chosen one, I wonder where I've been. Here, in the dark, in church, she left to join a mosque.

A friend challenged me to write a short short story based on the word "abduction", in 75 words or less.  Tell me what you think of the above?

2009

My soul looks back and wonder how I got over!


God blessed me to see 2010; now I've got to make better use of this year than I did the last...

When I feel I'm straying off my course, I'll have to review the resolutions I made, my likes and dislikes, and my list of things I said I wouldn't drag into 2010

Question of the week

When is something worth doing?

discuss....

John Lennon said it best when he said “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

I hope that my life, this year, will be about love. The receiving equal to the giving, for once.

“ Sometimes we tend to be in despair when the person we love leaves us, but the truth is, it’s not our loss, but theirs, for they left the only person who wouldn’t give up on them."

-- Anonymous

This is about no one in particular. I saw this quote, and couldn't walk away from it.