His Point of View

“What you know cannot really hurt you” That is a quote from a book I started reading this morning. The strange things is that I was trying to write this post last night but I tossed it in the recycle bin as I lost interest half way through writing it. I was surprised to open a new book to be greeted on page xx(page 20) of the prologue by almost the same words I wrote last night. I suppose that means I need to finish composing my thoughts on this subject.

The post I was attempting to write last night was about how the course of one’s life can and does change unexpectedly. I would bet that if you think about the series of events that brought you to your current position in life you would have only a handful of critical decisions or a handful of days that  didn’t unfold as planned, for better or worse. Most of the things we plan tend to fade into obscurity (continue reading…)

I was browsing blogland, when I came across this absolutely useless blog post.

Step one of this blog post about how to clean a Duvet cover is below:

“1) Read the care label. If the duvet is dry clean only, take it to your dry cleaners! Washing a dry clean-only duvet can result in shrinkage, and it will no longer fit over your existing comforter.“

I know that we bloggers should update our blogs daily, but c’mon if you have nothing to type about just sit back and take a loss for the day.  This is the primary reason I don’t post every day and the other is that I am often too busy.  For all of you who are not familiar with how blogging works (continue reading…)

I came across the video below of Scott Dunbar singing what appears to be a “freestyle” song about a timber mill in Canada which was destroyed by a suspicious fire.

We all have day jobs, and we all have bills to pay. But those things should not stop us from growing.  We must all find time, even if only half an hour a day to spend on self improvement.  If you work for someone else for 8-12 hours a day, you should make time to work for yourself 30-60 minutes a day as well.  Family is important, but you will be of more value to your family when (continue reading…)

“Women depreciate and men appreciate”

That was a statement made today during a discussion on the finer points of dating. I took the statement to mean that women typically are attracted more by a man’s level of success and ability to provide for a woman/family. While men are typically attracted to a woman’s physical appearance. Therefore young women have more good looks to offer, and as they age their looks diminish…while younger men have less ability to provide for a woman, but as we age we (should) have more to offer a woman therefore older men are more attractive to women.

This statement seems to hold a lot of weight for several reasons. Perhaps this contributes to the frustration some older single ladies have…Perhaps this contributes to the high number of young ladies dating older men…Perhaps this is why women begin to lower their standards as they age (although in many cases lowering standards is what should have been done long ago if the woman’s expectations are not in line with what she has to offer a potential mate)…Perhaps you have something to say about this statement… Please feel free to comment below.

It has come to my attention that some women are making a conscious effort to avoid doing any thing that might be considered ‘woman’s work’…by this I mean cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, etc.  I have even been told by some women that their refusal to do housework is the result of their mother’s teachings.  Apparently some mothers have taught their daughters that they do not have to do housework…. or at least that’s what these young ladies interpreted their mother’s message to mean.  Although I understand the intent of a mother teaching a daughter that there is no such thing as ‘woman’s work’ I do not think that lesson was meant to teach young ladies to be filthy creatures.

Why am I discussing this issue?  Do I want women to be barefoot and pregnant?  Do I expect women to cook and clean for me while I lay around and drink beer and watch football? If you asked me any of those questions I would say (continue reading…)

This weekend I had to take a trip down to Virginia Beach… unfortunately it was not a trip for pleasure and it rained much of the time I was there, but I was determined to spend some time at the beach rain or shine.  While I enjoyed the 60 degree November weather I snapped a few photos… I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed the few moments I spent on the beach enjoying the ocean spray in the air. (FYI: These photos were taken between 3:30-4:30 pm, the beach was just that empty!)

As I walked along the beach I came across roses, which were deposited in various locations scattered about randomly, and grouped in bunches of 2 or 3 roses.  I could not help but to wonder if they were remnants of a night of celebration or if they were left on the beach as a result of sadness.

Finally, I came across these two guys from Ohio, who were very much excited to find a location with 60 degree weather and no snow during the last day of  November, so they could not help but to go for a swim in the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean.  After they noticed me taking a photo of them from afar, they asked that I use my phone’s camera to email/text a photo of them in the ocean to several of their friends and family members, which I agreed to do as they were so excited to be there that I could not help but to be happy as well.

I have lived in the metro Washington, DC area for just over a year now, and yesterday was the first time I actually saw a Presidential or Vice Presidential motorcade on the streets.  In fact I saw it twice in the course of 2 hours.   I am not sure which motorcade it was, because I could not see inside any of the vehicles… but it was still interesting to see the rolling roadblock in action on 14th Street.  The part of the motorcade which caught me by surprise was the ambulance that trailed behind all the black SUVs with agents standing through the roof, the vans, the truck and the dozens of police cars and motorcycles.  I did not have a camera with me at the time, so I searched the web and I found the photo below (on FLickr.com) which shows a part of some  motorcade, including the trailing ambulance.

I immediately thought about how the President and Vice President must be reminded constantly of fact that their job as leaders of the nation causes a state of  imminent danger of actions by US citizens who disagree with their ideas, and from foreign powers who seek to cause turmoil.  Imagine what it might be like to go out for dinner with your wife after work, and an ambulance was required to follow you around…just in case (continue reading…)

As many of you know, I took a trip to Cape Town, South Africa in March, 2009.  If you don’t know, South Africa was under a system of legalized racism called Apartheid until 1994.  Apartheid ended just 15 short years before my visit, and it was clear to me that the racism is still alive and well in South Africa ( I can only speak of Cape Town and its surrounding region, as this was the only metropolitan area I visited during my stay.  Please see my previous post regarding my interactions which some of the citizens of South Africa here)  I saw that darker colored people held very few client facing jobs (such as waiters, hostesses, cashiers, etc).  I saw that coloured people drove nice cars, while most of the black people walked or took public transportation, I experienced hesitation to serve me in retail establishments until the shop keepers realized that I was not a local black or coloured person.  I won’t even mention the German owned book store which featured writings by Adolf Hitler and other Nazi (continue reading…)

I don’t know how many of my readers follow me on twitter but if you do, perhaps you read a tweet I sent out a couple weeks ago about hearing a song mentioning a person (or people) you know.  The long and short of it is that I happen to have grown up in a neighborhood with a few people who have found some success in the music industry.   A couple of weeks ago I heard a song by one of these individuals which mentioned the fact that one of my closest childhood friends was murdered.   I had to play the song about 10-15 times to make sure I was hearing the lyrics correctly.  I made a few phone calls and my family could not confirm it, nor could the only other person I grew up with in the neighborhood that I still have contact with.  So I sort of dismissed it as perhaps it was another person the musician knew with the same name.  The band that made the song in question came to DC this past weekend and I got to spend a few moments catching up with the band member that I knew growing up and sadly he confirmed that he was talking about my friend.

The fact that this young man lost his life in such a senseless manner is bad enough, but I could not help but to think of his remaining family that has been hit so very hard by death.  My deceased friend, lost one of his older brothers when we were very young and his mother to cancer while we were in middle or high school.  I could not help to think of the pain his father and remaining brother  must have experienced.

The second tragedy is that this is the fourth young man from the single block that makes up the neighborhood that I grew up in that is immortalized in the lyrics of a song, who is now dead and no longer here to hear the songs written about him.

The third tragedy related to this issue is the fact that I am the only young man from my neighborhood within a 5 year age range that is alive, currently not incarcerated, and has never gotten caught up in gangs or drugs as far as I know…(there is 1 other young man who I really didn’t know growing up from our neighborhood, and I have no idea of his status over the last 11+ years since I left East Point, GA).  My neighborhood was squarely upper middle class, suburban (continue reading…)