She

She’s the youngest of four. She grew up in a household where she was always babied but nobody really paid much attention to her. I know that that probably does not make any sense to you but let me explain. Since she is the youngest everyone spoke for her but never listened to her. Everyone protected and provided for her but never appreciated the things that she has done for them.

She was born October 4^th 1979. Her family was poor and had nothing other than morals, and values. She had a father that was a functional drug addict; he died when she was five and a mother that worked really hard and was never really home much because she worked so much. Her two older brothers and her sister basically raised her. She often struggled in academically and would always receive promotion in doubt but always work extra hard to be promoted to the next grade. With lots of hard work she stopped receiving promotion in doubt and graduated with honors from high school.

She was also compared to her older sister which everyone thought was “the pretty one” so she suffered with self-esteem issues. Instead of her getting depressed she discovered a passion for cosmetology and fashion (she always have on a killer outfit and is very fashion forward). She got her license for cosmetology by the age of 18 and started to do hair for various famous people. But she would always say what she likes most about being a beautician is not doing famous people hair its making people that do not feel good about themselves feel good inside. She began to thrive in her chosen profession and opened her own business by the age of 24. Eight years later her business is still doing well.

She’s determine, ambitious, courageous, outspoken, goal oriented, and the list goes on. She is all that and a bag of chips. She is my little sister; my first baby. I admire her and I am so proud!

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Happy About My Hobby

*Big deep sigh* the professor indicated that she wanted to do something a light blog and asked that we write about one of our hobbies. This was actually a depressing topic for me. I couldn’t think of one hobby. So my mind is racing: I wake up wash, cook, get the kids ready, drop them off, go to work, pick them up, cook dinner, go to bed, and wake up and do it all over again. Yeah that’s it. That’s my life the last few years.

Then it dawns of me. I have a hobby actually I have a few hobbies that I am able to fit in the busy “mommy” schedule mentioned in the previous paragraph. I love to eat, work out and shop for shoes and dresses.

Eating became a hobby at a very early aging. I had (this might sound mean but I say it with so much love) chunky brother that always wanted me to taste something he was eating, and now as an adult I go to as many restaurants as I can to taste new thing. I can’t eat any pastries that are not made that same day. I cannot eat pizza from just any pizza place. I’m from Bensonhurst Brooklyn, home of the Italians so my pizza must taste a certain way. If you ever come to Brooklyn you have to try L & B’s (I’ll list the link below). I guess I would love to be a food taster; maybe even have my own show on the food network.

Well with all that eating came another hobby of mine which is exercising. That hobby started as a teen. All I will say is JANET JACKSON. I wanted her abs so badly that I would do 600 crunches every day after school. I wanted a six pack just like hers. I only could get the for four pack and later found out that you (ladies) have to lift weights and have a certain diet in order to get a six pack. I jog four times a week, jump rope twice a week, and do body sculpting twice a week. I feel good working out. I recently had a baby (c-section) and for the last two years stopped working out but I’m back and going harder than ever. I’m promised the older women at my job to start a class after work come fall, so I have to stick to it! If I could would create my own workout video. I guess I can through youtube.

I LOVE DRESSES!!! I love long dresses, short dress, tight dress, ruffle dress; it screams woman, lady, beautiful. Every time I put on a dress I still spin around in it as if I was a little girl putting on my fancy Easter dress. I LOVE SHOES!!! I love stilettos, platform, flats, and wedges. Shoe to me accentuates a woman’s silhouette. To shop for them is the ultimate rush. I get to incorporate my other two hobbies: eating and exercising while shopping.

http://www.spumonigardens.com/home.html

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The Fear Article

There we many points made in the article “Fear and Focus” like: there is no such thing as good and bad fear and it doesn’t make us stronger like you’ve probably heard. After reading the entire article I believe the main point or idea is that you will run into “fear is inevitable, but the way you understand it and react to it is not”. If someone were to ask me what this article is about I would simply tell them that the article explains the mechanics of fear and how you can overcome or simply react differently to thing fear.

I believe that the article is creditable and it makes perfect sense. We are condition by movies, our parents, and society to react a certain way to fear. I felt that this article was very reliable because all of this information you can look up for yourself: from the definition of fear to the technicalities of fear. There is also lots of information on Zen. And, if you ever overcame fear yourself you can actually relate to this article. If the information Chris Joosse the author provides for you wasn’t enough he listed books and websites that are informative.

It looks as if the author has his own website; I guess that would be ideal for a person that is a software design engineer. I found it very shock for some reason that the author of this article is a software design engineer. In my mind I envisioned him to be maybe a yoga instructor, gym teacher, or a motivational speaker. As I read a little more on him I can understand why he wrote this article. His working Boater talk for Kayaking (which is an eventful/fearful sport) and majoring in English as well as theatre explains the tone of his article.

I could use a lot of the information in this article for a paper. The information that I find most informative is the “you and fear” section because that I find to be the turning point in this paper and of course the Zen because its really showing you how to recondition your thinking.

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It Still Exist

As a “Black American” woman I am constantly stereotyped. I am told that the most unsafe place for an African American child is in my womb. My odds of being a single parent are high and I do not speak proper English; instead I speak African American vernacular. I work in Corporate American and people instantly assume I come from the ghetto and I use a lot of neck movement outside of work; it really doesn’t matter how professional I look or how well-spoken I am. This is the stereo type for all blacks in America and it’s still apparent that racism exists even in 2012.

It’s hard to talk about this topic because of the recent event that has taken place in Florida where a young innocent productive black man; excuse me black boy was killed because he fit the stereotype of a “criminal” which is being black and wearing a hoodie sweat shirt. The young man name was Trayvon Martin a college student was killed by a local watchman for no reason. Trayvon went to the store one night and a neighborhood watch person stereo typed him as a criminal because he was black with a hoodie. The person shot and killed Trayvon. The watch person wasn’t charged even though evidence suggests that he didn’t have probable cause. I found this story disturbing because my two year old son’s wardrobe consists of jeans and hoodies. I guess I’m subconsciously teaching him how to be a victim of today’s stereo type of a criminal. I was actually on twitter a read a tweet from Geraldo Rivera that said” Trayvon killed by a jerk w a gun but black & Latino parents have to drill into kids heads: a hoodie is like a sign: shoot or stop & frisk me” I was outraged by this tweet. Now our kids could no longer wear hoodies or certain clothing because that gives others the right to violate our rights?

This takes me back to 1982 or 83 neighborhood we lived was very racist. My oldest brother who was probably 10 or 11 years old at the time and I (I was about 5,6 years old) were walking from school and the we saw some Caucasian boy and when I say boys I’ll say they were about 18, 19 years old were across the street. They screamed NIGGER and my brother screamed RUN. I ran as fast as I could. The caught my brother and I ran to get my parents. My brother could have been beaten to death but I thank god he wasn’t.

I say all of this to say stop stereotyping. Get to know someone then make your judgment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/opinion/blow-the-curious-case-of-trayvon-martin.html?_r=1&smid=fb-share

Validation

For some strange reason I couldn’t help but laugh throughout this short film! I’ll start with the acting; the man giving all the compliments was awesome. His was the perfect character for the validation role. He was believable and funny all at the same time. When he began to be sad because he wasn’t able to validate or make the woman happy he almost made you feel sad for him. It really was an emotional roller coaster.

Secondly the soundtrack; which I thought was fantastic. It supported the emotional roller coaster that the character portrayed. It also gave the film a vintage feel to it as if it was done on Broadway. I enjoyed the acoustic sound. It also made me want to clap my hand and join in on the validation. I must admit the singing part did scare me.

The fact that the film was in black and white gave it clarity. It also complimented both the acting and singing. It also gave the film a vintage feel to it. It made me think of shows like the Honeymooner, I love Lucy, and the Andy Griffin show.

Lastly I wanted to discuss the story. I didn’t like it only because I wasn’t sure what the moral of the story was. Was it that people need validation to be happy? Or, you can’t make everyone happy no matter how hard you try? Maybe it was there is always someone out there that can put a smile on the meanest persons face. I guess this film was made this way to leave room for discussion.

Over all I thought it was okay. I didn’t like it and I didn’t hate it.

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