My Grandfather

Well, what can I say about my grandfather in particular? He was a mostly quiet man. He was simple and enjoyed sitting out on his front porch watching us grandkids playing in the front yard. My relationship with him was distant at best, I never really new the old man with tired eyes and sunbaked brown skin. The little I knew of him was that he lost his wife to a blood clot, raised most of his children by himself on a 6^th grade education and a sugar factory worker salary. I knew that my mother had a very estranged relationship with him and I think that added to the distance between him and myself. I just new this sad, almost grumpy-looking man, who didn’t say much and kept to himself.

Double Standards...You're Kidding Right?

Yesterday my younger brother posted what I can only describe as a piece of ignorant dribble derived from that of an over-privileged mind. I want to take this moment now to say that this is another segment about race so if you’re going to get sensitive either stop reading now or leave that stuff at the door and follow along with me. 

 

   Now, the issue at hand is this article: http://madworldnews.com/michelle-obama-white-girls/

   The article’s title is “Michelle Obama Sends Message To White Girls That They Don’t Matter”

Let that sink in for a moment. It is obviously crafted to serve as click bait to ensure someone reads it. But, as the saying goes, “One cannot judge a book by its cover” so, too, “One cannot judge an article off of a sensational headline”. In the interest of not being shallow in my assessment, I clicked on this link and read the article.

   Here’s a summary if you didn’t click the link above: Basically Michelle Obama attended the “Black Girls Rock” event and as a result of doing so, she told white girls they don’t matter.

   It takes some effort for me as a Black Woman and a Latina to get through the article and took even more effort to nicely summarize the point of the article as I did above. Ok, now that I have that little item out of the way, let me get to my opinion and why I have arrived at my opinion.

My Take on #Ferguson

I debated writing this...went back and forth with myself but I had to write it.

Tell me if this has ever happened to you: One night on my way home I was pulled over. This female Fairfax County Police officer proceeded to ask me "Is this your car?" not "Do you know why i pulled you over?" (which is the usual line of questioning) and not "License and Registration" but "Is this your car?" Maybe she forgot herself, maybe she was having a bad day but last I checked that is not a proper question to ask someone.

Tell me if this has ever happened to you: One night, as a friend drove me home, he got pulled over. He was Jewish, I am mixed with a darker skin tone. There was no reason for the police officer (again Fairfax County) to come to my side of the car, I was not driving. There was no reason for the police officer to ask me any questions (like my ID and such) and yet I was the one being asked all the questions. I WAS NOT DRIVING.

I am not a black man but I have had my share of racial profiling too and at the hands of police officers. Those situations above are MY personal experiences. I have never been in trouble with the law, I am an upstanding citizen, I will soon have a Master's degree. Regardless of all these things, my experience in the country has and for the foreseeable future will always be different from that of my white counter part. I will be seen just like any other member of the black community no matter what letters come behind my name. Its something I grew up understanding that the world would always be a different experience for me as a woman, and as a Black woman.

If one thinks that everyone's experience is the same....they really need to take a better look...

Knowing this difference exists makes me fearful for my son, makes me fearful for my brothers, makes me scared for all black men in this country. What is a black man's life worth in this country? The answer in what I see in today's world scares me beyond belief. What do I tell my son, my cousins, our family, our community, our progeny? Do I tell my son to immediately lie on the ground with hands behind his head in order to not be shot? Do I tell him that in a situation where he is the only black man, that if something goes wrong he will have the worse punishment? Do I teach him that his mere being is considered a crime?  I want this world to be better when I leave it in his hands but....how do I do that? How do we all achieve this?

I do not condone the actions of the rioters in the community. Martin Luther King, Jr. wouldn't either. Gandhi wouldn't either.

Nothing is ever achieved by responding to violence with more violence.

Also, if one is to get angry, don't mess up your own neighborhood. All that does is prove to those that seek to oppress that they were right about you. That you are an animal that needs to be controlled and contained.

Prove those folks that would say otherwise wrong, that you can conduct yourself as a civilized human being. Turn the other cheek. Greet thy neighbor and thy enemy with love not with anger and hate. Like will always attract like so....do you want to attract peace, understanding, positivity, a positive cultural change? Then one needs to be and project those things first.

I don't pretend to know all the answers, I don't. I know the problems, racial privilege, comfort with the status quo, inhumanity. I am not sure where we go from here but I will say that if not now, then when will we start to work together as AMERICANS, not as African Americans, White Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Hispanics, and so forth, when as AMERICANS with out the added prefix of heritage will we work together to CHANGE what treats some of us as less that human while others are treated as having more VALUE. When?

The time needs to be now.

I want to be able at the end of my life to say that the world I leave to my children and my grandchildren was better than the world handed to me by my parents and grandparents. I think that is something every human being should and can strive for in this lifetime.

Of Water and Words

Interesting thing: whatever labels you keep repeating to a person, that is who they will  become, especially your children. So if you keep calling someone thoughtful, considerate, beautiful, and kind they will become those things. If you keep calling someone lazy, selfish, inconsiderate, and ugly they will become those things too.

Consider this: The human body is made up mostly of water. There was an experiment done with water by Masaru Emoto in which he attached or exposed water to different words like love and gratitude to You make me sick or music like Beethoven or Heavy Metal. In these experiments he found that water reacted to whatever he exposed to it. (See the images I attach to this post.)
If words and music can do this to WATER imagine what it can do to people...

Words, while not as deadly as a bullet or other forms of weapons, are still quite powerful and dangerous if not used with care. Words, once spoken, can never be erased so be careful what you say to others. Sometimes when one is so focused on winning an argument, they lose something else.

So ask yourself: Is winning this argument worth hurting a person I care about? What are my words doing to those people I say that I love?

Domestic Violence and The Past

  There comes a time in every writer's life where they have to get real and rather candid. Being a writer is being an artist with words and as an artist, one must be open to sharing a part of themselves from time to time.

   I was inspired by a video I saw on Upworthy and while I gave a brief synopsis of my experience with the subject I felt that telling my story at length was the right thing to do as well as the lessons learned.

Newest creation

So...I know it has been a hot minute since I posted a new creation here. I am trying to name her...any suggestions??? Comment below...

God Bless the Internet

God Bless the internet...why?

Because not only is it a wonderful collection of knowledge readily available to anyone after a few hits on a keyboard and a click or two here but it also features some rather strange things. Also, it is quite a distraction from getting anything done because once you click one thing, the sites post links to keep you clicking away, all the while they are keeping you plugged in and before you know it...three hours have gone by.

One such example of strangitude (yes I made that word up) is this lovely gem I found in my Facebook news feed, floating amongst the internet link debris that one finds on the home page.

http://gizmodo.com/any-animal-that-touches-this-lethal-lake-turns-to-stone-1436606506

This lovely gem was brought to my attention by another Facebook frequenter.

I figured, while I am not sharing art today, I can share an interesting link.

Here's my take on it: What it discusses is this particular lake that due to the pH balance of the water calcifies any animal that happens to have the misfortune of getting into it.

In short, the chemical make up turns the animals into stone.

What follows is a series of photographs taken of the lake's victims that are both hauntingly beautiful as well as crazily horrifying. Also, its sort of inspirational, like I feel like a movie idea could totally be made out of this rather strange phenomenon.

That's my opinion.

Let me know what you think.

The link features some photos but they are all from a book called Across the Ravaged Land.

Cute poem about the TARDIS

Dating Advice

Here is what I have to say about dating advice and what I have observed in my short stint on this planet:

None of it is really necessary.

Now, I am not saying I am some sort of expert. I'm not but I have still come to understand something very simple and it applies to almost all relationships I've witnessed be they fictional (movies) and non fictional (my life and the lives of people I know).

The only thing I have learned after all this observation is this: The right one for you will stay, no matter what ridiculousness is going on with you.

You don't need to follow a set of rules (unless that is what feels comfortable to you), you don't need to use certain techniques, you just need to be you in all your wonderful colorful glory.

Some advice will say, o well you overshare....But the person who is right for you may like that about you, they may appreciate the ever apparent honesty.

Some advice says, don't call until blah blah time....seriously? All that says to me when someone is, as they say, "playing it cool", is that you really aren't interested at all. And, for another thing, why in the world would you want to get yourself tangled up in a romantic mess with someone who isn't on some level so passionate and hot for you that they can barely contain their enthusiasm to contact you as soon and as often as possible?

Really, what is the point???

At the end of the day, be you, do what you feel is best. If they leave they weren't meant to stay anyways. If they come back and things work out then that was how that relationship was meant to be. If they come back and things don't work out again then there must have been some lesson the both of you were meant to learn and take with into that relationship that WILL work for you.

Just stop it with all the nonsense, you have to talk this way, use this body language, look this way, wear this thing, do things in this pattern, and blah blah blah blah blah. Just be happy and be you. The rest will fall into place as it should.

Besides, doing all that phony crap to "reel someone in" is merely surface and then you have someone falling for the fake persona you put across instead of the real you, and isn't that what we all want? To be loved, accepted, and cherished for who we really are? Flaws, Best traits, and quirks?

Of course it is, and if you're trying to sit there and say no you don't well here is what I have to say to that: You may lie to me if you wish, but you cannot lie to yourself. You know that feeling you get when you say things like "that's not meant for me" "I'm meant to be alone" or other variations thereof? That's what you need to pay attention to, because we all get that saddened lurching feeling in our chest when we tell ourselves we cannot truly be lovable.

Again, I never post without reason, I started thinking this concept over some time ago and then I was watching GIRLS last night on HBO. (SPOILER ALERT if you didn't watch) But Hannah and Adam got back together. Despite all her issues, all his issues, him rejecting her, her rejecting him, they still love each other and in fact one could venture to say that they love each other BECAUSE of those "issues" and quirks and all the good bad and ugly that comes with knowing or getting to know all the facets of a person.

I hope for that everyday...maybe I've already found it. Time will tell, but I am happy right now and that is all that I need.

That's my thought for the day. Have a good one!

DOCTOR WHO THROW ! ^_^

Exclusive TARDIS throw, Sting, arcade plush, & up to 30% off Doctor Who goodies for a limited time: http://j.mp/10ASOJQ

Another Doctor Who GEEK OUT MOMENT!!!!

So again had to share!

I was not successful in my quest for where to find the Tardis Bookshelf, because as it turned out it was a DIY project but.........

Here's some info for how all of us Whovians can get a hold of this bit of sleepytime awesomeness!! :)

Rojo y Azul

Rojo y Azul

Acrylic to 5x7 Canvas

Crimson Blue

11x14 (may have to double check that size)

Acrylic paint to Canvas

What I do with days off! ^_^

Meme Share of the Day 1/23/2013

History Repeats Itself

So we've all heard the cliche before: HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.

Well, it really does ring true, and just yesterday I found out why.

For a long time, I felt pain over the not so positive relationship between my biological father and myself.

As it turns out, he too was harboring a similar pain, a pain that came more to light when my younger sister tracked down our Cuban grandfather. I am actually looking at his naturalization document as I type, gazing at his signature. This person is a part of me.

Napkin Art

As a result of my need to get out of the house but my habit of being a bit of an introvert, I tend to sit in cafes or karaoke bars and start drawing with whatever I can get my hands on. Which is typically a pen (usually from my pocket because I always have them on me) and a napkin. Here is one that I sketched out and inevitably did a painting, that while not a replica of the image above it is certainly inspired by it. :)

Ball Point Pen to Small Napkin

Sketch: Sleeping Beauty

Another new sketch as I get back in the swing of things. I call her Sleeping Beauty. Which is funny as my current condition has put my sleeping patterns off a bit. This too shall pass. Anyways let me know what you think.

New Sketch

New Sketch. Below...well that's just the aftermath of the sketch on my hand lol

FINALLY! Painted the cover to my sketch book.

FINALLY painted it. Will eventually post some of the sketches. I don't feel they're worthy of publication JUST yet because I had stopped doing sketching for a while so, I'm getting back into the practice. Lot's of pages to fill but I like how the cover came out! I squeal with excessive amounts of Joy. Also...if you didn't notice I'm in some sort of weird pink phase. ;)

The Ego

So I came across this picture the other day on Facebook and it really does speak a profound truth in the most simplest of terms. Your head will talk you out of your hearts desire but over analyzing or applying too much logic. Also, as I thought further on the subject, its not so much your head as it is your EGO. Those three lovely letters which stem from the human need of self preservation.

I believe the home of the EGO is the brain, your heart could be saying, "I really love him/her and I want to talk to them or work things out." but then the EGO takes over in your mind and says, "Well it's their fault/They need to come to me/I'm not going to talk to them first." And other variations of the "selfish" variety.

I'm a firm believer in ignoring the EGO but let's face it, I am human, and the EGO is a persuasive little coward, which in turn makes me the coward for listening to it.

However, I am also a firm believer in following what your heart tells you. It is usually my number one piece of advice I give to a friend who is stuck in the midst of indecision on a situation. Your heart will not lie to you, in fact, I believe it is a gift and our best guide in choosing what is right or what is the right path. EGO, on the other hand, is a lot like a political lobbyist, it will lie/cheat/etc to turn you towards its agenda, as if it was a separate entity that happens to be residing in the same body. That is my thought for the day.

Below, I leave yet another piece that really made me think on this and perhaps it stood out because the one below happened to contain three things I would really like to say to someone but my EGO/HEAD/FEAR/COWARDICE and whatever else could be listed simply won't let me. An excuse perhaps but...it is what it is. 

Love them Anyway...

  

  
A couple of lessons I have learned about people: 
1. Insecure people will work double time to try to make you feel just as insecure as they are, but love them anyway. 
2. A person who has no problem hurting themselves, won't have any problem hurting you, love them anyway.
3. So many people will tell you that you can't do something because they feel in themselves that they can't, keep doing you and love them anyway. 
4. The most sensitive people often have the biggest walls. I have realized walls are for cowards, open hearts are for the brave.
Welcome to Day 2 of 2013. Make the most of it, it is a page of a chapter of the book of your life. Have a good day everyone! ^_^


Paintings above: Acrylic on 9x12 Canvas 
Available as mug, magnet, and post card prints at dcurbanpixie.deviantart.com