Pennies from Heaven.

I need to be walking into the plantation, dressed, in 15 minutes.  Clearly, I am not going to get there on time.

 

Oh. Fucking. Well.

I am posting THIS video…because it was the best thing to happen to me today, so far.

Props to Jay Smooth for capturing the spirit of all creative people and their struggles.

 

This week has been a humbling experience for me. 

The school thing is getting real.  REALLY, REALLY, real.

Someone almost literally dropped off two small children at my house for me to help raise and didn’t even bother to try and blame me for making them. 

I just flamed out on a US History quiz because I can’t afford to buy the book right now.  ( I would solicit donations while I am waiting for the Financial Aid to work itself out, but my Chemistry book just fell out of the sky, so Far be it for me to expect it to RAIN textbooks).

I have a brand new website that I don’t have time to get up and going.

I have a wife I miss even though I sleep next to her every night.

If it is darkest before the dawn…the sun should be coming up ANY MINUTE.

BUT….I am still a blessed man.

 

and so are you.  Stick around…it is bound to get interesting around here sooner or later.

Pray for me and my ability to manage my time better.

Seven-eleven

When a Raving Black Lunatic named Big Man tags you, your ass is tagged.

The deal is that I am supposed to divulge seven facts about myself.

Here goes:

1. I went from highly recruited high-school Scholar to college dropout in three semesters, thanks to a nagging ulcer, horrible study habits and making a poor personal choice of a quality school.

2. I was a bedwetter until the age of 15.  Not really trying to go into anymore details about that.

3. My father, my oldest son, and I share a name, a personality, character flaws, and mannerisms despite the fact that my father left my mother when I was 2 and I left my ex-wife when my son was3.

4. I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA and as you would expect, I am a huge Steelers fan.  The Pirates, not so much.

5.  My maternal grandmother has nine grandchildren.  I am the oldest and I am the only one with two Black Parents.

6.  I eat my grits with sugar and I don’t care if you don’t like it.

7. On Monday I will be a 38 year old freshman at a junior college in Fort Worth, TX (see number 1)

Since I don’t believe in chain letters, there will be no tags.  Get in where you fit in.

Eleven random sentences to cover where my head has been over the past couple of weeks.

1. Watching the Olympics with my children was a singular experience.  They are getting older and smarter ad more inquisitive.  Their mother and step-father are doing a wonderful job.  I ain’t ready to say this is the best situation for them…no actually I am.  Here goes.

Two adults involved in separate, but stable and loving relationships raising children > Two adults involved in one destructive and loveless relationship raising children in one house.

2. The more I follow this campaign, the more I regret being a political junkie.  They are a myopic and out of touch bunch, virtually NONE of whom have a real clear idea about what is going on in the head of Average Americans.

Greek Columns…seriously?

3. I cannot believe Casey Anthony actually was able to wander the street for a while there.

4. If Barack Obama was Brett Osborne…this race would be So.Fuckin.Over.

5.  I am really struggling with the idea that there is something wrong with the Stage tonight.  I usually can see the logic in ANYTHING…all I see in this (especially from Democrats) is the standard uppity Negro don’t show us up too bad meme.

6. I actually went to a math class with a pen, and couldn’t figure out why EVERYONE around me had a pencil…until class started.

7. If I close my eyes, I can smell the football in the air.

8. TV One would have been better off showing reruns of What’s Happening than showing the Democratic national Convention if they were going to cover it like this.

9. I may be old….but I LOVE college right now.

10.September 1st, I am starting my new marathon training regimen via Nike +.  You know you wanna join my Running group.

11. You also know you wanna join my Fantasy Football pick’em league.

Real Talk I wish I had written: RBL

The Big Man needs to be extensively quoted on this.  Someone get a pundit chair, stat.

Back when racism was an open sore on the face of America instead of the festering scab it is now, there was one unforgivable crime for black people, particularly black men.

Self confidence.

See, racists didn’t like their Negroes with a spine. A black man who liked to make eye contact with white people, who didn’t hold his hat in his hands whenever he made a request and who carried himself like a full-fledged member of the human race was seen as an affront to all that was decent. Black women had to face similar humilation, at times their humilation was worse because it also included sexual abuse, but nothing really got racists’ blood boiling like a Negro man who “took on airs.”

Postcards from the Edge: All I need

Three AM in a random Hotel room, surrounded by the three people my life depends on most.

Her.  and Him and Him.

It was a long time coming, and this ain’t exactly Leave it to Beaver, although to the naked eye, it looks quite lovely.

And so it is, Wife #2 and Sons 1 and 2 and myself are heading back to Texas.

I feel so complete.

I would do a dance but they are all asleep and that would get me jumped.

So, on to the NEXT topic of conversation.

For the uninitiated, I am and will always be a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  I do not, nor will I ever live there again, but it is home for me.

And apparently, In August of 2009, it will be home to a bunch of Lefty Bloggers for that NN thing.

Hmmmm.

Ordinarily, I would have just shrugged it off but…well ordinarily I certainly would never have shrugged that off.

I am in many ways who I am because of Pittsburgh, and I take it VERY seriously.

Pittsburgh is a hardscrabble place.  A place that is as conservative as the politics therein are liberal.

The most unprogressive liberal place I have ever seen.

I wonder if they know that?

I think I am going to go.

NN 09 here I come.

Postcards from the Edge

Friday(York, PA)  - The ides of July led to a last minute working binge for yours truly to “cake up” (that is, accumulate surplus cash) for my summer trip.

2006 marked a seven day Caribbean cruise

2007 was a weekend in San Antonio

2008?   Baltimore and York, PA.  Well, this year’s choice was about family.   York, PA is the site of Mrs. Ink’s Family reunion and Baltimore is the Airport of choice as well as an ideal place to pick up the Little Inks (Inkognegro 2.0, age 9 and Inkognegro 2.5, age 6) for their first trip to Texas.  While I have been pretty aggressive in maintaining contact with my sons since my separation/divorce, since resurrecting my life in Texas in 2004, I have yet to feel comfortable enough with my place in Texas to bring them down to visit me. Up to this point, I have shared my time with them with my mother in Pittsburgh and I cannot remember the last time I was this excited about a period of time in my life.

But before I get to scoop up my babies, first there is  the matter of Mrs. Ink’s family reunion.

Mrs. Ink is a native of Queens, but her family is scattered around the Country.  York, PA is where a significant number of her family have settled, so the reunion finds itself here periodically.

Even though I am a native of Pennsylvania(GO STEELERS), York was never on my radar as a place to know all that well.  Seems like a harmless enough place, though.

Not a whole lot to report so far, Flying is still wack and my wife’s family is still crazy.

All I can think about is getting my kids.

That and trying to decide if I am going to take them to see The Dark Knight or not.  9 and 6 (especially six) is kinda light in the britches for gloomy dark superhero movies…But I know most other kids are going to see it.

I wanna be the cool dad, but I also wanna be the right dad.

If anyone can give me a heads up from a kid’s perspective, I would be most appreciative.

More on all this foolishness as it develops.

Stop. Look. Listen.

In the midst of my personal soul searching and self-evaluation, something has completely irritated me about the Coverage of Barack Obama.

While there is an overall buzzphrase that pervades all mainstream coverage of any campaign, The Obama campaign seem to be caught in a heavily watered down narrative that usually focuses on one phrase that usually connotes a certain skepticism on the part of those alleged to be in the know.

Surely you remember such hits as

Is America Ready for a Black President?

How Black is Barack Obama?

Can a man with the middle name Hussein get elected?

Will Blacks Fall in love with Barack Obama?

Will Whites vote for Obama (this one was before Iowa)

Will Poor Whites vote for Obama?

Will Hispanics vote for Obama?

Can a man married to one of those angry Black women be president?

Can Obama sway the SuperDelegates?

Can Obama win in the South?

Can he win in the West?

Can he win without Clinton

Can he sway her voters?

Why Can’t he close the deal?

Why cant Obama go to the nice Black Churches we see Bill Clinton going to all the time?

Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

Well…for the past three weeks the latest buzzphrase has revolved around whether or not Barack Obama has moved to the Center.

Ignore all the blather.  It isn’t about moving to the center.  It is about broadening the conversation.

Barack Obama has made a habit of speaking in broad and general terms about what he wishes to accomplish, sometimes ruffling the feathers of people who usually agree with him.

To THOSE people it sounds like pandering.  It isn’t.  It is leadership.

Since Monday, Obama has delivered thoughtful and provocative speeches on Patriotism, Faith, and National Service, all topics Democrats traditionally struggle with but topics that Obama clearly has passionate ideas and principles about.

These three also are issues that Obama is uniquely qualified to address as opposed to his opponent.

Patriotism from a non-jingoistic perspective

Faith as a tool for upliftment

Choosing service over self

Name a politician better suited to address these topics.

Instead of bitching and whining because the preacher won’t preach from your momma’s favorite scripture, why don’t you LISTEN TO WHAT HE IS SAYING…you MIGHT learn something.

Go ahead, I’ll Wait (Williams, K)

What would you rather have?

Would you rather be part of an oppressed group that can be patronized and dismissed using coded language and revisionist history?

OR

Would you rather be part of an oppressed group that is still subject to a ubiquitous double standard and glass ceiling and suffer never ending slights to the press, compounding your own mistakes and squandering an unprecedented advantage in this campaign?

OR would you rather be part of BOTH?

One Man’s Circus is another man’s Trip down Memory Lane.

Life is a matter of perspective.  What I experience in life is directly reflective of my own principles. I am highly suspicious of anyone who acts as though their experiences are somehow universal.

It is Sunday, April 27, 2008 and As the our of nine o’clock approaches, on my PC streams the services of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. It just so happens that Friendship-West is the home church of Mrs. Ink’s best friend and maid of honor in our wedding. I am streaming this morning’s service on my PC because one of my ALL-TIME favorite Preachers is ministering the word of the Living God live within earshot.

The year was 1987, and a man came to Pittsburgh who was the pastor of a giant church (to me at least) that performed all kinds of amazing (to me) things within the walls of a church. During the weekend that he was in town I was one of the young folk who were able to spend time in his presence, outside of the pulpit where you see the TRUE measure of a man of God. What I saw for those few moments has never left me and what he taught me has shaped my personal relationship with God ever since, creating the bridge between what I had learned in school and in my personal reading and what I was being taught in Church. This bridge has spanned the troubled water of my life ever since, revealing itself in my Politics, my self-Image, my parenting style, and the core of my very being.

That preacher is Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Before Sean Hannity had ever heard of Jeremiah Wright, I knew him.

I have known Jermiah Wright about as long as Barack Obama has.

No, I wouldn’t have been inclined to say God Damn America…but I wholeheartedly endorse the underlying sentiment.

Damon Wayans is now officially the least funny Wayans sibling

WIth a grateful and gracious bow to WAOD

Keenan…get your brother before someone gets him first.

Jersey #1 for the Rafters: Steve McNair

On the day of his retirement, I would like to acknowledge Steve McNair for his achievements in Football by hanging his jersey in the rafters.

Let the Steve McNair for the Hall of Fame campaign start here.