Where have I been? Around...things change in life, and as I read the blog posts of yesteryear that I splattered across these pages with wild abandon, I realize the absolute depth of my change.

So what am I here to say? First, some shameless self promotion laced with an attempt to show anyone that may return to this forgotten and most-likely haunted blog that I have not been static. I have grown, achieved some goals, and hope to continue. I have finally realized what most people probably know--life is a collection of meaningful moments because they are what comprise the entire arc of a life lived fully, and you should know that, too (obvious right? Then why wasn't I/am I not living it that way?). It ebbs and flows like a river hiding the world in its depths, and as such, each day should be lived in the way that you want to live the preceding years.


Now, click the picture to find my story titled:

 

 

 



 

And then return here to read the musings of the woman behind the story. I have returned, by the way.


~Prosepunk

Mind Blown On A Sunday Afternoon on this Burning Hot Rock We Call Earth!

Sitting here, drinking water and eating sunflower seeds...and having my mind blown by Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. My mind is blown over the content, sure, but what's more, it's blown with contemplation of the subject of the Earth, planets and otherworldly lifeforms.

As the opening credits splashed across my screen I wondered if shows such as this are  reputable. Do they present ideas and theories that are well grounded and well researched or present the crackpot ideas of random people all over the world?

I began to question the authenticity and the credentials of the scientists that offered commentary on very abstract, nearly unfathomable theories about the galaxy, aliens, the Earth's history, etc. Is it worth my time to watch a show that is nothing but speculation? Is the show mere speculation? The possibilities for theoretical and logical pitfalls are endless, so I left my criticisms behind for an hour or so and simply watched with a clear mind.

The stereotypical photo of a wormhole associated with articles about space.

The show had a few segments, one part was about the different rocks found throughout the world indicating that over time, the Earth has undergone dramatic climate changes and been formed of myriad  materials that comprised a world that humans today could not have inhabited. Another part focused on how Alien lifeforms would look on different planets with different climates and offered speculation about what evolutionary characteristics they might possess. All the ideas presented in these segments, whether I scoffed at them or contemplated them, led me to start asking a few questions myself, and heeeeere they are!!

Isn't it a given that life exists on other planets? The Galaxy is just too large for us to assume that we are the only things breathing.

Isn't it true that any scientist's speculation about our planet and its relation to the vast stretch of space in which it revolves will never live long enough to see their predictions be proven fact?

Will any of us live to see any speculation of our own realized? The Earth changes slowly. Any natural resources or species or rock formations etc. that we lay eyes upon today took millions of years to form and get to its current state. We are living in a constantly morphing world. But it's a slow morph--or--the Earth changes too slowly for the span of most of our lifetimes.

Are there superior mechanical beings on other planets or gaining intelligence on our own? Oh no! Are we going to get The Terminator'd?

Is it possible that our Earth exists in an ideal state (being geomagnetic, mild and generally stable) that no other planet can boast and therefore we are the only beings in the entire Galaxy? Isn't the idea that we are here all alone a bit eerie?

Ahh planet Earth. Isn't she beautiful?

Or, what if what we call oxygen would kill a being from another planet? What if organisms on other planets survived on Neon or Fluorine or Krypton (except that the gases integral to their survival wouldn't even be called by these names since all of these words are made by natives of this Earth). So if other species are able to survive on other gases, that would mean that other species on other planets do not need oxygen to survive, and therefore any speculation about whether or not other planets have life on them shouldn't be contingent upon whether or not the planet has oxygen, or even water for that matter. What other planetary beings need to survive may not be what we as human beings of the planet Earth need to survive.


And here's the main most mind blowing question I asked myself....

What if the earth is extremely cold, and we just don't notice! Or for that matter, what if it's extremely hot? Think about it, if the Earth was really hot, we wouldn't know it because we are able to survive in this climate and are comfortable in it. Or to blow the mind a bit more, what if we are designed to endure both extremes incredibly well. What if the parts of the Earth that experience freezing cold winters  and snow etc. would be considered uninhabitable by anyone but us--and then even WE can't go running through the Siberian tundra in our skivvies! We live on a planet of crazy weather patterns, volcanic eruptions, boundless waters and shifting platelets. We are pretty amazing and bad ass for existing quite successfully in a world that is as beautiful as it is unpredictable, as comfortable as it is dangerous to our health.

And then, a segment came on about age, and my mind reeled in an entirely different direction! And another question arose!

Are we aware of how much we have evolved even within the span of a couple hundred years? Look at pictures of people from the period before 1950, for example. We don't really look like them physically, we're a lot cuter for one.We're definitely healthier and smarter. While your at it check out Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and see how far we've come in the realm of common sense and decency! We are not the people of that time, our ever increasing brain power has allowed us to make certain technological advances to ensure that we don't die from a cold or get wiped out by ruthless plagues, we are generally healthy and resilient. We have evolved. Trust that we aren't done. I'm glad I'll be pushing daises before I see what we turn into a thousand years down the line. That is, if the Earth doesn't combust before we can evolve past what I've deemed to be a human evolutionary trend toward shortness.

Are my sentences as confusing as I think they are? Perfect. It's good for you.

Anyway, just rambling really. None of these questions or ideas I've presented are particularly novel even though they are my own. The joy of thinking!

Peacy Weacy!!

2 Blog Posts in one Day?

Yes, but it's short, sweet and random.

So, I decided to turn off the Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton flick "Faster" the moment the one couple got married and then went to shoot at bottles in the desert with their wedding clothes on. Gimme a corny break. I mean, corn city.

I don't know what I'm like that with movies. I mean, certain things just turn me off so bad and usually it's such a miniscule thing. I never wanted to see Faster in the first place but it's playing on one of my movie channels right now so I happened to catch quite a bit of it. Sure, it was pretty bad, but nothing made me scramble for my remote until that damn couple.

It's like, bad characterization. So anyway I was barely paying attention to the movie, I was writing and such, but it's not that complex so I could glean most of the details and with minimal attention you know, but as I understand it, The Rock's character's brother got killed by bad guy that *insert villainous gimmick here* and now that Rock character is out for blood!

The police played by a drug addicted Billy Bob and an ever oh-so-coolCarla Gugino are looking for Rock's character who I'll just call Rock from here on out because he killed some people, I think. But anyway there's this couple in the movie and one can tell they're a BAD to the BONE racing car couple that lives on the wild side!

So they have a small wedding, after which I'm presented with a scene of them shooting cans in the desert, her in her wedding dress and him in his tux. No thanks. Just beat me over the head with it why dontcha? Ever heard of subtelty?

And Billy Bob, what the hell? Do you just take every role offered to you? I know the money's good so listen, I won't hate that bad, but where's your darkness gone, man? You used to be striking!

Anyway. Check the labels. This is just a rant. Great grammar does not apply. Nor does sense, or having a point.

Now for some How It's Made.


Peacy Weacy!

Me, pensive and sick!

I have the sinus infection from hell. I'm coughing. Tired. My throat hurts. Insert complaint here.

Yet I'm having a good, introspective day. I'm sick yet pensive. Pictured above. 

For some reason....

My fiction has been suffering horribly lately. I'm wondering why. I still feel the urge to write. It's not that I don't feel like writing because I do, but my fiction is wilting fast and I'm not sure why. I know stress caused me to slack on my writing in the past months but trust me when I say that I have excised a large chunk of stress out of my life and feel amazing about it. So why are my creative juices clogged like so many hairballs in the shower drain of an individual with abundant locks?

Now do you get it? This picture symbolizes my creativity perfectly.

Ho hum. Nothing more than that to offer today. Just wanted to lament my fiction-based writer's block I suppose. I even wrote an article about Writer's Block before. Too bad I seem unable to take my own advice today. But dammit if it isn't great advice. And the truth, too. I'm so brilliant, you are too if you're reading this. Isn't it great to be brilliant?

Peacy Weacy!!

When Soundtracks Attack Lite: Watchmen: Music From the Motion Picture

So today was a cool day,  I'm going to ramble on at length--or at short--about the Watchmen Soundtrack depending on how long I can resist the urge to dash back down to my television to finish watching Adventure Time. I spent some of my day off work viewing Watchmen for the third of fourth time and I was of course aware of how expertly the soundtrack was chosen, it fit the tone perfectly and doused me in a wave of nostalgia for a time that I didn't have the pleasure of living in. (I will ignore the fact that living in the 1960's/1970's/1980's as a black woman might have been less than stellar as far as lifestyle, opportunities and rights but I'm not talking about that today and it is irrelevant to my discussion on the soundtrack so quit getting me off track, reader).

I imagined living in the time of these songs' creation  and hearing this music so close to it's inception, so soon after these artists had penned and recorded these masterpieces of American music. Nice. Many of the songs were either on my Zune already (like one of my ABSOLUTE favorite pieces of music of all time from bomb-ass composer Philip Glass, a version of "Pruit Igoe" called "Pruit Igoe & Prophecies") or should have been, like Billie Holiday's amazing "You're My Thrill", Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence", or Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". Really good songs. But then I was introduced to the voice of Nina Simone for the first time.

I've heard her name numerous times but never took the time to see what this woman was about. I wish I'd discovered her earlier because needless to say, she blew my mind. Her cover of Kurt Weill's "Pirate Jenny" from The Threepenny Opera, is absolutely perfect, haunting, memorable, amazing, look, I'll  even put it here for you to listen to because it's just that good:

Whoa. So once again, as it happened when I viewed Pirate Radio, a Watchmen sent  me to download its soundtrack and discover all sorts of amazing old music that needs to be spread in this century to remind us that music can be as transcendent as we always hope for it to be. Nina Simone, this post is for you. I was truly inspired and I am on my way to becoming a big fan.

Oh, and stay tuned for my post about the movie Watchmen, it will interesting and titillating, I promise.

Peacy Weacy!!

I feel the pulse
The electric vibration
From the foundation
It snaps to the forgettable extremities
It originates in the dark
Swell within me and teach me
Why the touch is what is craved
Why the world is at my toes
The pulse an idol
Suffering sneers from established gods
Pulsing in time to a techno beat
Sliding beside a jazz riff
The fire behind the strike of a rap lyric
As I live in it and I felt it today
With passion inside me I searched
Only to find a pulsating femininity
A need to be pressed against hard and different
Those creatures hailing from Mars.

Skunktastically Refreshing

This is maybe a bit of a blast from the past, but, remember Skunk Anansie? If you just  thought to yourself, "Skunk-a-who-who?" Get ready to have your mind blown to the point where you will be inclined to use Google or some other search engine to find out more about this band that I will mention in a very general way in this recommendation. Run-on city; population: me.

This is Skin, Skunk Anansie frontwoman:

I know, right?! Black Girl Rocker!!!!!!!!!*ALERT*!!!!!!!!

Feast your hungry eyes on Skin. Her voice is as intriguing as her very existence. I'm sleepy at the moment, so I'll edit and lengthen this post tomorrow, or not, we shall see.....but in the mean time, check them out, listening to their infectious "My Ugly Boy" right now and it's hitting the spot. Plus they've been knockin 'em dead for a while now. I still remember their live ass performance in Strange Days. If you haven't seen Strange Days get yourself together, you can't even begin to call yourself a movie buff.

 But if you take nothing else from this post, hold this close to your grey matter: Skin's a black female rocker!!! A rare and endangered species that must be enjoyed and experienced and appreciated....

Oh and this list is lame and these people have no taste. How dare they vote Skunk Anansie so high!! Poppycock! Yeah, granted some of the bands probably sucked but the moment I even saw Radiohead's name even near that list for anything bad I almost slammed my laptop shut and biked to Bad Musical Tastesland to destroy their power supplies so that none of them have access to the internet anymore. Hahaha. Just kidding, all in good fun. Look I even linked to your wretched site so that crap tastes can exposed for what they are, different from mine.

Also, I've never attended a Glastonbury Festival outside of YouTube but I stand by the snarky and antagonistic tirade against the unsuspecting users of said site.

Welcome to Prosepunk!!

Peacy Weacy.

Quintessential I'm still blogging blog post.

So I'm sitting here watching a horrible reality show that shall not be named (yes I'm ashamed of myself I did create a blog post under the passionate exclamation "Scripted Television Only") and I remembered that I haven't blogged in a million years. Do not be alarmed, life has been coming at me at breakneck speed because I have decided to become an adult. Just kidding I've been an adult since I stopped believing that America was racism-free. What a lesson I learned!

Anyhow, I have no thought provoking gems of knowledge to drop, but I can't leave that damn Patriot Act dish up there (down below now) could I? More pressing issues have arisen, I haven't even taken the time to follow up with that Patriot Act to see how it's doing these days, but I digress.

My focus is shaky but taking its time and developing into a delightful juggernaut that is born of necessity. Reality bites some sooner than later. But I digress again.

What's with all the digressing? I mean, the more digressing than usual?

What am I kidding? This damn post is about Final Fantasy 12! Take a gander through this blog. I've been playing this game exclusively for nearly two maybe three years! I thought I passed it the other day and then wham! I have to go fight something some damn where else! I am a bit obsessive compulsive about video games so I won't be able to enjoy another game until I trounce FF12, but I'm simultaneously sick of the game and driven to beat it, which means long periods of time pass between my sessions with the game. If  I played it every day for about three hours a day I might get it done, but I've been playing it for sooooo looong, I've fallen out of love but am too loyal to it to leave it incomplete and collecting dust on the shelf!!

bakanaartist's rendering of FF12 characters (and my faves) Fran and Balthier.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm going to beat it. Who wants to wager me? I can't even imagine finishing it anytime soon, remember I'm playing it THOROUGHLY! Killing marks, finding Espers, fnishing side quests, sprawling catatonic on the floor! I'm playing through every inch of the game, well maybe the last thing isn't in the game but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

I talk about myself a lot. I'm an American, so sue me.

Are representations of beautiful black heroines in the media as rare as a functional government?

Misty Knight from Marvel Comics' Marvel Universe

I'll let you be the judge of that because I make no comment on the aptitude or lack thereof of my government or that of any other country. But hell, did you get a load of Misty Knight up there? That's a bad bish!

Black women are beautiful, as are all women. Since I'm a black woman I have to give ultimate props to black women though, I'm sure you understand. Anyway, from time to time I get on these kicks where I want to search out representations of black women on television, in literature, in comics/graphic novels, movies, etc. that are depicted in a--natural, cool--light. Black female characters whose characterizations aren't motivated by their being a black female. Know what I mean?

I like comics, I like anime, I like graphic novels. Call me a geek, you'd be the only one to do so and therefore be unique in that one aspect. I like those three things even more when I can see a character that looks like me on the screen, on the pages. We can kick ass. We can. We can be beautiful and kick ass and carry a plot that doesn't involve man problems and wrangling three kids as a single mother. We can have strong meaningful relationships and go through ups and downs in light hearted rom-coms. We can kick the crap out of aliens and then pull our partner to safety. We can kick a self-aware robot in the metal gonads and kiss our long lusted after sidekick amidst a barrage of fireworks while the credits roll.

Don't you agree?

Then why don't I see more of it?

More on this later...

In the mean time, check up on miss Misty.

I make it a habit every time I take a glance at my blog to check out other people's blogs on Blogger.com, just to see what subject matter I might stumble across that might either scar me for life or teach me the meaning of life, I'm open to either experience, but what I usually find when I click the "Next Blog" button at the top of the screen are inspirational religious blogs, blogs that lament the fact that the author doesn't give enough attention to his or her blog, and blogs about picture perfect families and the amazing antics of their "too cute for words" offspring.

It's cute, really. The pages are so bright and hopeful and inspirational. I appreciate them. But every once in a while, you get a gem of a page. Something that sticks in your brain, something that makes you place a link to it on your own magnificent blog.

Blogging is like anything, a hobby that many attempt, most in a half-assed fashion (don't look at me), which provides a vast pool of blogs of varying quality thick with opinion, fashion dogma, questionable imagery and of course, celebrity gossip. So when you find one that strikes a chord, it's like finding a four leaf clover or a deftly produced movie sequel, I say that to say, it's rare that you find a genuinely interesting blog.

Prosepunk may not be that blog. Maybe my rambling isn't your cup of tea. I don't mind. But I know what you do like, headphones. Who doesn't? They're a necessity for plane trips, brooding rides at the rear ends of buses, as a shield against the acidic banter of the long married couple sitting next to you on the subway train. Hey, and  you know what you don't see often? A person wearing black lipstick on days other than Halloween--AND looking damn good while doing it. I gave you all of this at the top of the page. Doesn't that count for something?

Peacy Weacy!!

A Day Stretches Before Me, and You

A day rife with endless opportunities and prospects--said prospects hover somewhere outside our corporeal world, they bang around out there in the abstract where our senses alone are unable to reach them, senses, you fragile things. Our minds pull them into existence however, an existence that we can consider if not touch see or smell. We conjure up ways to grasp those opportunities and prospects after we manage to tap into our goals and wishes, dreams and desires, and then we are able to put those into action through the avenues in the world that fit them.

This is a skill that eludes many of us, the ability to snatch from the abstract those things that will make our many dreams and desires a reality. It is all too easy to merely lounge around and wish, as we all know. Desires are as prevalent in all of us as plasma and nerve endings and so one who desires is not special or any closer to fulfillment. The challenge is to bend the world to our will so that it creates satisfaction in us when our goals are met, our dreams made a reality.

 Mastery of this skill is crucial but it will not by any means be mastered by all. Make no mistake however, anyone can make their dreams come true. The question is, do they have the drive, the will, and the imagination to do it?  

What if your computer combusted?

I mean it, what if it burst into flames while you sat before it with your fingers punching its keyboard? What then?

Better yet, what if the Internet went down--everywhere! No Internet at all, no Internet to find out what is wrong with the Internet, no Internet to look up phone numbers, no non-television news broadcasts or articles. Everything would revert back to the old times, would it not? Phone books would rise again in popularity, people would once more use their couches for more than just necking. Landlines would spin with the traffic of a billion phone calls, more than the lines have seen for at least fifteen or twenty years. People would go outside to hear things by word of mouth rather than by typed word, rather than by a vociferous image. Not to mention you would have never laid eyes on this masterpiece of a blog!!!! Things would be completely different!

So, that's why once a month I plan to research any given topic (or suggested ones) by using the lost art of Library/Book research. Yes, I'm going pull my library card from my wallet, sign on to the Tiger Library Catalogue (Toledo represent!) and look up books on those subjects that are in need of thorough elaboration!! Mind you, I can use only the database version of the catalogue, not the Internet version (<--if available, I'm going overboard now, right? I'll probably use the online database:)) At any rate I'm going to write down the dewy decimal number with a short stubby under-sharpened pencil on a slip of scrap paper. I will then wander up and down rows, staring up at the cataloguing numbers, using my God given talents of sequential recognition to make my way to the proper Dewey- Decimal clad row of books!! I will count, look up and down to match the number to my slip of paper, and either find it and rejoice, or stare dumbfounded at book binders that brandish numbers that aren't even close to the one that I seek hoping to find it misplaced among the row!

Rinse and repeat as needed.

Hurrah for book research!!! Topics anyone?

To twit or not to twit

Yes, two blog posts in one day! Success and power await me!

So I was looking up ways to promote this empty room known as my blog and the place I checked (balkhis.com) <<gotta give props--listed Twitter as an option, which, is good advice--for someone other than me. Now don't get me wrong, I already have a Twitter account, but I just couldn't get into it. My thoughts way surpass random blurbs of thought, and, I pride myself on always going against the grain, though, I do have a facebook and myspace account. Twitter is just so....over played. I don't like that media outlets prod me to  "follow them on twitter" and I don't want to feel worse about myself by following the tweets of vapid celebrities (okay not all celebrities are vapid but a lot of them are). I don't want to read about their unimaginably fabulous lives while my own life consists of mediocrity punctuated by stints of drama and emotional turmoil.

So Twitter is out. I'll stay on the grind and try to build readers but Twitter will be my last resort. I don't like what Twitter stands for, especially since our society is becoming so....embroiled in mindless entertainment and celebrities and celebrity gossip (which is a guilty pleasure of mine, I admit, I mean, I did link Dlisted for frank's sake).

Twitter doesn't appeal to me organically so I'll stay away. I'll try other avenues, and when those fail I'll probably turn to twitter with my tail between my amazing legs, but not right now, not today!

PeacyWeacy!!