InkogNegro 2.0

So, after several months of casually tinkering with Twitter, I have gone all in.

I spent this weekend twittering frequently and just as I figured, it’s highly addictive.

Yeah, just what I needed.  something ELSE to keep me from blogging.

Shout out to all the folk I have picked up and met over the past several hours.

Now If you will excuse me, I have Two finals tomorrow and a bunch of Make up work for Wednesday’s final.  Almost done though.

For the many times I’ve fallen
And yet You forgave me, thank You,
Lord, I thank You
For unmerited favor,
And Your brand new mercies
Thank You, how I thank You
For wakin’ me up this morning
For letting me see one more dawning
Thank You, Lord, I thank You,
I thank You, Lord, Oooooh

For life, health, and strength
For food and for shelter,
thank You, Lord, I thank You
If I had ten thousand tongues
It just wouldn’t be enough to say
Thank You, how I thank You
For wakin’ me up this morning
For letting me see one more dawning
Thank You, Lord, I thank You,
I thank You, Lord, Oooooh
For saving my soul, for making me whole
For calming my fears, for wiping my tears
And letting me know that I’m not alone
For wakin’ me up this morning
For letting me see one more dawning
Thank You, I thank You, Lord

I have been tossing around a lot of possibilities as to how to bust back into this piece. We are cracking open the final can of whoopass on one amazing year.

But before we can wrap up 2008, we have to actually finish it.

Instead I want to take this weekend of Thanksgiving to ponder the wonders of gratitude. When I’m not getting my disgruntled former baptist on Me and the Most High are quite tight.  Of Course, it’s when I get out of pocket and forget my foundation that I tend to spiral out of control.

Nothing like a week devoted to giving thanks to get a handle on how blessed I have been this year.

Last year I spent getting my inner self together and growing up in preparation for the challenges I have faced this year.

In this year I have managed to finally turn the corner on a number of my personal issues.  I was able to tighten up my relationship with my sons and my wife and my ex-wife.  I watched my mother grow as a college student and complete her Associate’s degree.  I was so inspired by her that I woke up one day and went and enrolled my behind in a full load of classes.

Then two lovely lil kids end up on my doorstep and I am thrust into informal Foster parenting.

Mrs. Ink is wrapping up the bow on her Master’s Degree, Im getting my 38 year-old freshman and we are both playing Mr. Drummond to Arnoldette and Willis Gandara.

And here we are…One week to go in this semester and I was able to swing a small vacation to the Mountains with The Mrs.

Meanwhile the whole time I was listening to and watching news reports on the radio and tv about how bad things are for people all over the world.

Better to me than I have been to myself, I tell ya.

Now lets get back to church, shall we?

Yeah, I’ve been gone a minute.

I was breaking down my section last night and getting ready to go home when I realized that my Blog vacation coincided with my return to Okaplayer. (shout out to OKP, mind you)

That ain’t right, so I came to apologize for my absence.  (not like anyone around here misses me, ya non commenting mofos) and announce that at the midway point of semester one, I am maintaining my goal of 3.5 to 3.7.

I am going to have to finish strong though…

And I am going to have to up my blogging game, because I realize now that i NEED this in my life to maintain a sort of balance.

I think it is vital, especially given the tumultuous times we are in
as a community(despite Gov. Plain’s  (sp) assertion that communities
apparently don’t need organizing anymore) and as a nation, that we
never lose sight on acknowledging that behind all these dynamic blogs
and movements are real people with real lives.

(Cross posted from my Afrospear Google Group)

Because the vast majority of us conduct our online activism on a
volunteer basis, on top of everything else that we do, “real Life” has
a tendency to encroach upon our ability to fulfill our passion for
activism and community uplift.  (a fact that makes Gov. Plain’s
cutdown even more infuriating).

On August 24, 2008 I flew my sons back to Maryland to accompany them
to their first day of school.in Fifth and first grade.  I then flew
back to Texas, for MY first day of school in 15 years as a freshman at
a junior college taking a full load while continuing to work full-time
plus at my job at what I affectionately call the plantation.

Wednesday Night, my wife and I found ourselves in custody of two young
children who we didn’t even know 5 months ago, probably permanently.
They weren’t literally dropped on my stoop, because that would have
required the minimum effort of actually BRINGING them to my house.

To say the least, it has been a chaotic two and a half weeks.  Just as
it was getting truly hectic and I thought I was drowning…

A huge dose of help arrived from a member of this collective and
inspiration from another blogger who couldn’t have posted an item to
me directly, but it seemed to be done just for me.

Those two incidents, one done purposefully, one encountered by chance,
made my day and have re-energized me in all phases of my busy life.

So, on this Saturday, take a moment to look around you and offer
support and encouragement to someone around you.  This action is at
the core of our message in this group and will ultimately make the
group better.

Peace and Love,

The Ink.

(Cross-posted @ the AfroSpear Google Group)

PS…the movie was rather Meh.  This part here…was great.

I wonder how some of y’all do it.

I got idols role models in this game who bring it on the regular,  Posting regularly with insights and genius day after day.

Between my sons and the plantation and the wife, not to mention my own focus issues, I do well to get one or two real posts out a week.

It isn’t that I don’t have the time, necessarily.

but by the time I get my reading and my usual online banking and bill paying done, I am way past the time regular folk should be online.

The wife says to me that I am addicted and that something needs to change.

I don’t know that I need to start hitting meetings or anything like but something is going to have to give.

The wife has decided that I spend every non working waking hour online.

Of course, this is an exaggeration, but even Barack Obama will tell you that life is much more about what people THINK is than what actually is.

So, watch with amazement while I try to be online less and get more done online.

*sucks teeth and logs off*

One of Kanye’s best.  What possessed him to redo and recycle it with that Coldplay cat, is beyond me.

I cannot tell you how glad I am to be home.  Vacations are all well and good…but it is time to make the donuts

Got a whole lotta stuff going on I wanna write about and hopefully I can get to it before it goes stale.  Nothing worse than writing a stale post.

The boys are sleeping on the couch until I can get the beds delivered and put together.  They are excited to be here, but not nearly as much as I am excited to have them here, if only for a month.

So, I am suited up next to Mrs. Ink and one of her cousins announces that he would like to run for mayor of the small to medium city in New York that will be the site of NEXT year’s Ink’s Wife’s Family reunion.

and I felt it.

I felt the urge to get involved.  I saw a man who believed passionately in government as a mechanism to move people forward.  I saw the chance to help a family member be the first Black man to be the mayor of Yadayada, NY.

Mrs. Ink looked at me while I chatted her cousin up and she sensed it before I could even say anything to her.

“I see you.”, she said with that knowing smirk.

I just shrugged.

So much for being done.

All I realized from that is that I cannot in good conscience get a degree in Hotel Restaurant Management when my passion is in Urban Planning/Political Science/Public Administration.

I also realized I am actually old enough to be more inclined to dance early in the family reunion than I am late in the reunion, after the old folk go upstairs.

Actually I WAS one of the old folk going upstairs….wow.

Just came in to blow out the cobwebs and keep things going. Being the husband of a teacher means I kinda get caught up in having fine women around and I slack up on my blogging.

It aint that I don’t love y’all…I’ll be around…when the mood strikes.

RIP – George Carlin

RIP – Mike Myers blockbuster career not involving the green cartoon and Austin Powers

RIP – My adventures with Dish Network…Hello U-Verse TV

But never fear…I WILL be Blogging the BET awards…again. You didn’t think I would make you sit through it, would you?

Posted to a Blog that died on January 16, 2007 <–note the year.

Now, let us marinate on what this truly means.

Here we have a black man man with a white mother and a Kenyan father, born in Hawaii, with a somewhat checkered past who rose through Columbia College and Harvard University Law School and the Illinois State Assembly to the United States Senate and now stands on the brink of history.

Blah blah blah.  but what does it MEAN, REALLY?

Well it means this:

For the first time in history, A man of color is positioned as a front runner for the office of president of the United States.  And he has formed a committee to explore that possibility.

More Blah Blah Blah…You aint sayin nothing to me….Give me something.  You go through all these changes to “Free” yourself and now you give me spin…..CTB….What does this MEAN?

OK.

This means everyone out of the pool…the shark is coming.  I am sure you have heard the following:

“we don’t know anything about him”

“He doesn’t have the experience”

“He can’t win because he is Black”

“He Can’t Beat Hillary”

“His middle name is Hussein”

“They won’t let him win”

Let me address these in turn.

We don’t know anything about him -  If you don’t know about Barack Obama, you don’t WANNA know about him.  He has TWO books that have been NY Times best sellers.  One is a fairly in-depth memoir that covers his background.   One is a wonkish sort that alludes to building a better America.  The man has a microphone constantly stuck in his face and is pretty much the go-to man for thoughtful progressive (liberal, for those of you who get off on such terms).  Trust and believe, if the man wasn’t the real deal, he wouldn’t be getting this kind of push.  Today, Chris Matthews said that, as a writer, he believes that if you cannot express your thoughts on paper, you cannot think.  He went on to say that Barack Obama is one of the most formidable writers of this political generation.  What Senator Obama says, comes from HIS pen.  That speaks volumes, to me.

“He doesn’t have the experience” – Experience is overrated.  Nor does Experience get you elected.  This isn’t carpentry.  This is government.  To be honest, the more you govern, the more inept you become.

Government tends to be a vacuum.  The longer you are in government, the more detached from reality you become. You lose your edge.   You lose touch with reality.  You end up doing less leading and representing of people and more…governing.  You have hearings, you hold press conferences, you go on TV, you compromise, you cease to be a representative and go to playing one on TV.

Barack Obama has been in the US Senate for 3 years. Before that he taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago. That is long enough to get a decent grasp on the practice of Government to go along with the formidable academic understanding of Government he already has.

“He can’t win because he is Black” – People will say that until it happens.  They said that about Mayor of Chicago, and Mayor of Philadelphia, and Mayor of New York, and Governor of Massachusetts. That isn’t really an explanation.  It just hasn’t happened, YET.

“He Can’t Beat Hillary” – This is a more useful argument than he cannot win because he is Black.  Hillary is the front runner because she is viewed as inevitable and unbeatable.  She is neither.  Hillary is polarizing in ways that confound the imagination, even in her OWN party.  Additionally there is a certain sense of fear that Hillary, because of her polarizing nature, can’t win the general election on her own terms anyway.  In terms of qualifications, even with the additional 3 years in the Senate and 8 years as first lady, I view them as equally qualified, exchanging the whole real life thing for the 20+ years of government life that she has been living. 

His middle name is Hussein – Stop.  Just Stop.  If you really think that is an issue, all the rest of this is pretty much irrelevant

“They won’t let him win” – who is this THEY?  If the PEOPLE want him, they will have him.  Will the fight from the GOP be any different than if Hillary wins?  Any different than last time with Kerry?  I didn’t think so.

One thing nags at me.  If Senator Obama is truly about change, the Secret Service better get on it’s game.

And that is NOT a joke.

Toldya.

Well.  What a week THIS has been.

This time LAST week I was flat on my back, Steak Fat in my throat waiting for the GI team from the Hospital to give me back use of my digestive system.

I haven’t been off work and at home this long since I was batshit crazy right before I moved back to Pittsburgh.

After a week of Hard Core Blogging (27 posts in one week?), I got numbers I have NEVER had before (and Ive been doing this a minute now) and more importantly, I am enjoying it.

But its wearing me down.

Mrs. Ink says Im cracked out on Politics and the Campaign.  Considering how I had been spending my time, you would think she would be grateful I am no longer channeling my inner cad, but I reckon there  is no pleasing some folk.

Tomorrow brings me back to somewhat of a regular schedule.  I doubt I will get 20 some odd posts off next week.   But I will get 7 off.  I owe Y’all at least that.

For those of y’all who have found me this week.  I welcome you to my little world.  If you got questions, I got answers.

It’s back to the grind tomorrow.