Lessons From A Black Brat
Sooooo, I spent Thanksgiving 2007 visiting friends in Indianapolis and family in Chicago. What kind of soul would go on vacation just before the end of semester 1 in Graduate School?
I don’t know about you, but I dread the question, “Where are you from?” Moving from Maryland, to California, to Indiana, to North Carolina, and back to Maryland I don’t have a place to call home. Don’t get it twisted though…I’m not a Military Brat and this is not a Pitty Party!
I won’t use this blog to tell my life story, but rather to share the lessons of my journeys and to shed a LITTLE light on the people they call Brats. Brats sacrifice a home for priceless experiences and rich memories. An assortment of cultures, values, trends and behaviors result in a mixed-breed like none other! Brats may be odd, but we have an interesting perspective on travelling and meeting people from various backgrounds.
Here are some lessons I’ve learned …
San Diego, California: There is no perfect place. Sunny Diego comes close to perfection with its mild weather and gorgeous mountains and valleys, but there are earthquakes, wild fires and serious droughts.
West Lafayette, Indiana: To be a part of the minority can be beneficial. At times I felt awkward because I was the only black girl in sight and the culture of most of my peers didn’t mesh well with mine. From this I’ve learned to be independent, fearless and able to adapt to the most uncomfortable situations…you won’t catch me following the crowd!
Raleigh, North Carolina: The dirty south is so fresh and so clean. Yep, North Carolina, among other southern states, is making some major contributions to society in terms of education for African-Americans. Living in Cary, NC, I was 20 minutes away from THREE Historically Black Colleges/Universities. I loved being surrounded by black folks who challenge stereotypes!
Baltimore County, Maryland: Originality is the key to enjoying life. Black people in the Baltimore area do not care what other people think. Some speak a different dialect of the English language–For instance, they say DUG when they mean DOG. Known for their own sense of style, people in Baltimore have taught me to truly value my own original ideas.
Soooooooooo, when I’m really stressed out, revisting the places that have helped to develop my character is the BEST MOTIVATION EVER!
READ THiS! if U DonT thInk FacebOOk is bs…
CongratUlationS…u cAn sEE through the windOws oF the fUtURe!! Social NetwOrking siteS r gReat in sOO maNy wayS…
They aRe MiRrOrs 2 Ur sOuL…WindOws tO the WhOle WOrld
a plAce 4 SelF~expreSSion & diScoverY
*tHInk outSide of the boX n recOgnize thaT LIFE iS fulL of symbolS & STUFF**
U can take advantage Of thinGs and lOOk for moRe...
@~ART*
If uLL Open Ur i’S…
sEe the starS* on Ur Friends List & watch them grOW n sparKle**
ThrOugh a maGnifyNG gLASs!!!
Apply yourSelf in everY littLe thing u chOose II dO Do DO
lisTen CAREfulLy & WAtch oTHErs 2 fINd the inSIde scOOp
you are only freE if you were Once chaineD^
paSs this mesSage howeVer yOu choOse: Lead By ExampLe or giVe sOmeOne i’s CREAM ;-P
Take the tIme tO rEA(a)d and cryy AND wrITe aNd laFF anD SMiLe N DaNcE n pOke…whaTEVER we aLL dO!!
LiFe’S yUmmy…deLicioUS…beaUtiful…raIny & SUnnY!!
~Kia-LilLiaN~hUgs*
(The onLy ThiNG I can’T chanGe VirtUalLy iS the cOlOr of my tiTLe…)
Yes, There Is An i In Team!
Thanks to It’s all about who you know… and Shel Israel’s comment on my last post, I found an i in team…iTeam! Why shouldn’t we recognize that every team has an i? Israel worked 17 hours a day for 6 months on Naked Conversations, and I initially referred to the book in my last post as if he had nothing to do with it, dismissing his collaboration with Scoble. My apologies!
i’s are an important part of the team and here is a little breakdown: Look at Facebook, a young team of networkers. Each networker created a personal account and profile, once upon a time, and then searched for Friends after his/her Facebook
skin was ready to be presented to a community of people. Without individuals, Facebook would be nothing and there would be no platform and no applications. Lucky for the network, i’s have come together to form Facebook and users like me get no financial credit. We do, however, get the privilege of creating our own groups and applications, and we’re connected to everyone on our Friends List.
Those of us who have jobs are definitely lucky. Some people use their Friends to get jobs, thinking that It’s all about who you know… Actually, the assertion could be true considering all the corporate relationships today…just look at all of Google’s Friends!
Collaborations are part of business and it looks like Signe gets the idea, since she’s on tour with a Pakistani pop-star and all. Hopefully she knows that she’s a star no matter how much exposure she gets. In a world where money consumes the minds of nearly everyone, I think we should think about the implications and responsibilities of the little tiny i. Forget about what everyone told you, I see an i in Team, don’t you? Seriously though, I see that little i EVERYWHERE.
3 Reasons Not To Be A Reporter
As an ex-reporter for the Campus Echo, NC Central University’s award-winning online and print newspaper, I have an utmost respect for journalists who dedicate their lives to presenting balanced stories to the public. However, I challenge them to slow down, review their personal archives, face the facts and follow the links. Here’s why I wouldn’t want to be trapped in a deadline, jammed in a beat or threatened by blogs.
Deadlines
For the sake of time, reporters are looking to interview spokespersons, CEO’s and presidents. Deadlines will rush a reporter into writing an article that is supposed to be well-rounded. That’s why many of them place great value on relationships with quote makers, because it’s a fool-proof way to meet deadlines and get newsworthy articles.
Deadlines often result in missing quotes and odd-shaped stories.
Beats
To be a good reporter, you should be in the rhythm of your designated section in a publication. Reporters know the key people to talk to before a story even unfolds. They study the appetites of their particular audience, and then report the big money numbers and shocking statistics in one spoonful. Experts in the field of quotes and article-construction, journalists seem to be stuck in an old rhyme book, fulfilling the least of expectations.
Even the best beats scream for more lines and fresh approaches to getting the stories that become history.
Blogs
Why report when you can blog? Blogs are a writer’s dream because, as Robert Scoble and Shel Israel (please see comments) remind us in Naked Conversations, rules on blogging do not exist. Check this Scobleizer out for fun and recognize that bloggers are free from the constraints of traditional press. We make our own beats, from the heart, with the help of Google, Google Reader and other RSS feeds. Captivating an audience through personal convictions, or not, bloggers are closer to the center of the issues that poke them than are reporters.
Strategically placed at the forefront of Google searches and mixed into the professional articles in the Washington Post, blogs are like big ‘ol shovels for reporters to dig up dirt and they threaten the big bold headlines in the archives.
Separate And Unequal Blogs In An iTunes Kind Of World
It’s too bad that some people are missing out on juicy topics, simply because they don’t read blogs. Magazines and newspapers are printed in people’s minds as sufficient information for today’s world. So my lesson today is this: Don’t get too caught up in black and white print. Check out the links and videos, and pay special attention to blogs.
Earlier today, I read A Rose-Colored Kind of Apathy, and now I’m drinking a delicious glass of lemonade. The first line, I view blogging as the maximum expression of self-centeredness, drew me in. Nearly offended by the sour BS at the end of the first paragraph, I caught myself wanting to get closer to the center of this particular blog.
On Blogs…
Let’s not put them in a rose-colored miscellaneous file. As links are in blue, blogs should be in red. So quick to lose its meaning, blogs are WEB-LOGS, simply put, the stories of the people. It takes great skill to report an article in the Washington Post. To get a tight story, you have to get the right quotes and the right angle to make the article objective. Bloggers, a little off-beat, read in between the lines of issues that have personal value, and then blog about it, blah, blah, blah.
Considering that you click where you want, bloggers should mirror your interests and ring a bell. They’ll have you looking for articles in the Washington Post. Like, why haven’t I seen anything in the news about my iPhone containing toxic chemicals? Yes, I want the facts, but blogs can lead the way to a valuable personal awareness.
On War Blogs
Why don’t I know much about the war in Iraq? And why don’t I know how this will affect me? Yes, the 25 and under crowd is stuck in a corner, hooked up to iPods and such. Some of us pause the music/games to get on the front-line in Iraq, like my best-friend who fought in Iraq for 3 years to get a chance to go to college. And others are busy idolizing stars, trying to make money or doing nothing at all.
I didn’t know anything about milblogs before last week. I guess that’s because I hate to talk or even think about the war, so I certainly steer away from clicking around the topic. It’s absolutely ridiculous to me and it doesn’t make sense. Why would a country raise billions of dollars to violate another? I don’t need to hear any details about that for my personal fulfillment. However, military bloggers describe the pain that I imagined as soon as I found out my best-friend could have to go to the war in Iraq. Even if I never read another milblog again, I am changed forever. My best-friend has never talked to me about the war, so I’m left to wonder. What would be the color of her blog? Would it have a black background with dark letters, like this? What pictures would she show and describe? What did Iraq do to her? Maybe I’ll find out on Thanksgiving when I visit her in Indiana. This is better than the Washington Post, but thank goodness for my instructor who made me click around in the war zone.
Separate & Unequal Blogs
I, too, am fortunate enough to reap the benefits of a people who struggled to be treated humanely. Plenty of black people expressed the pain of separate and unequal treatment in America. Many stories that would have us google-eyed are lost somewhere in Martin Luther King’s dream.
Imagine black bloggers back in the day. BB’s would’ve been too much! Harriet Tubman had her audience right in front of her and broadcasting her intelligence to the rest of the world would’ve hurt the mission to escape captivity. The Malcom X’s and the Martin Luther King’s wouldn’t have been able to buy a blog or computer if they tried, but the Nella Larson’s would’ve passed a word out somewhere.
Separate from news and unlike any other personal log, blogs today are right on time and valuable. Almost free, they’re the apple pie in a world where iTunes will instantly let you download and play any song you want to hear, and preview the songs you’ve never heard before. Left to rot underneath light-weight articles, the juiciness of blogs will still satisfy the sweetest craving for the American dream , when all one has to do is search.
The Best Of Blogs And War
One good thing about the war in Iraq is the emergence of bloggers who offer new perspectives on what troops and their families are experiencing. Soldiers on the front line, veterans, spouses and Iraqi’s are broadcasting news like never before on their blogs, and it’s becoming easier for U.S. citizens to imagine the war. Television, radio and print mediums have never offered raw war news like bloggers are doing today. If you want to hear personal war stories and see pictures, all you have to do is search.
Here’s a piece of bad news: Operational Security (OPSEC) wants to censor all blog and message board posts done by American soldiers in Iraq. Censored war news in a free nation sounds like a contradiction and makes me question the integrity of America’s leaders. Nearly $600 billion has been spent on this war and American soldiers are suffering physically and mentally every day. It doesn’t look like the war is coming to an end anytime soon, so U.S. citizens deserve an inside scoop, don’t you think?
Here’s the best news: It’s nearly impossible to censor all insiders and embedded bloggers. Many American soldiers feel a need to share their experiences in Iraq and broadcast the desire to return home, regardless of traditional war procedures. And most importantly, blogging may be the best form of therapy that troops and concerned U.S. citizens can look forward to.
This American soldier describes the haunting images that the war has left in his mind, and his wife blogs about her painful experience at home. The soldier points out that if it weren’t for enlisting in the military, he wouldn’t have published an award-winning and informative blog and book about the war. Timing is everything and President Bush needs to rethink the idea of war during this information/technology boom.
Needless to say, the best news about this war is the bad news that has come to the surface from the soldiers and Iraqi’s. We don’t need to be deceived by professional reporters and journalists who study how to stay on the fence in their news briefs and objective articles. We should listen to the thoughts and stories of both American troops and Iraqi’s…maybe this will get us a little closer to the truth about our government.
Backup Post And A Little Jambalaya
Before I dig any further, I must admit that I’m a little overwhelmed with the integration of all this new technology into our daily lives and that’s why my last post may have seemed a little scattered. Jumping from my iPhone, to iGoogle, to gamers and bloggers so quickly, when each of them need an entire blog, I’m looking for more time and faster, more efficient technology and losing references of focus. Everywhere I click, there’s a blogger and OMG I’m one of them!
Today’s media has a new flavor. There has always been a little sugar and salt, but bloggers are adding a new spice called Opinion to daily news. Just like the great selection of salads at McDonald’s, I’m loving it! ;-P The best thing about blogging is knowing that there is no official rule book, so that huge cloud of objectivity is thrown out of the window. Opinion matters because it’s spicy and people want that extra taste, like hot sausage in jambalaya.
That’s why I think washingtonpost.com is smart to feature bloggers on its site, in the mix with so-called objective news articles. Readers want to know key issues and bloggers are giving it to them, so why shouldn’t washingtonpost.com take advantage of this as a company on a mission to share news with the public? Getting too caught up in objectivity, as many journalists and readers have done, can be an obstacle in the search for the truth. I won’t get into the popping ethical issues with all this on our stomachs, just yet.
Today’s washingtonpost.com is like a steaming bowl of New Orleans jambalaya with thousands of baby spoons. Bloggers are everywhere, discussing political campaigns, health issues and other issues in the media. In fact, I sometimes get articles confused with blogs, so forget it and just give me the whole bowl because it’s all going to the same place anyway, right?
Get Hip: Who Needs The Old Shovel When There’s iPhone?
The buzz on the internet today is that new technology is giving individuals and companies more tools and indefinite options.
So you know, now that I’ve got my iPhone handy everywhere I go, I feel fully equipped for today’s world. I’ve never had a Blackberry, but I hear those are great companions too. I’m a little frustrated with AT&T’s service—I have a strong signal when I’m at work in Greenspring Valley, where NO ONE can get reception. But, at home I have to stand near a window and wave the phone around to catch a piece of a signal. Anyhow, my signal doesn’t usually stop me from using my web tools, I just can’t talk on the phone (which is great because the pricing suggested a low-minute/unlimited web access plan in my opinion, so that’s what I went with). Still, I feel strong when I have my music, pictures, videos, messages and documents clenched in my hand and my trustworthy (darn, TWO YEAR contract) Verizon Wireless phone in my purse.
I haven’t explored all the possibilities of my new little friend, because I’m still in the process of getting fully hip to iGoogle and my new Gmail account. Google Alerts sends me D.C. news highlights all day and Google Reader feeds me new articles and blogs about my iPhone, Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia as they post.
Getting hip to gamers is quite hard for someone who never had a Nintendo, but now I know that it’s essential to understanding personal and corporate messages. I did have a Gameboy a long time ago, but I only played Tetris, Super Mario Bros. and PacMan. Finally, one Christmas I got a Sega Genesis, but it was far too late. I missed the Nintendo, so I was completely out of the loop and only mastered Sonic the Hedgehog, the game that came with Sega, because that was the only one I had. Much later I got an Xbox and used it mainly as decoration under my television and occasionally to hurt my thumbs during Tekkon battles.
Now I’ve been introduced to Second Life for the second time, this time in more depth, and I’m staying tuned for information about Barack Obama’s campaign in the virtual community as part of my Media Relations course at Georgetown. When my mom first told me about Second Life, I didn’t believe that people really spent money in Second Life, for fun. I’m still curious to know what these people in Second Life are doing and why. And I’d like to know if there’s a secret I should know about, but I don’t have the patience to find out through my avatar, so I’ll do my own investigating.
I’m not the only blogger who is doing investigative work out here. The Washington Post features an excellent blogger, Michael Dobbs, who aims to get to the truth of memorable, false statements in The Fact Checker. Clear and concise, he includes a quote, an image of the speaker and identifies problematic statements. Dobbs goes on to give all known facts related to the subject, revealing bogus quotes from political figures and others we should all be able to trust.
Now I’m off to see what else my buddy and I can dig up.
