Many women in Corporate America struggle with the decision to go natural. They are tired of the chemicals and the damage done by relaxers, weaves, and wigs but they’re afraid they won’t be considered “professional” without long straight hair. This is one televisions news reporter’s story of going natural.
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Going shopping on the busiest shopping day of the year? You’ll need lots of patience and a good dose of humor to deal with the crowded stores, impatient shoppers, and disappointment at stores being out of the one item you’ve come to purchase.
The Saturday Night Live Black Friday skit below is absolutely hilarious. Watching it won’t help you find a parking space at the mall or give you a leg up when you’re duking it out with someone’s grandmother over the last normal-colored sweater on the sale rack. But it will give you something to smile about while you’re waiting in long checkout lines.
Happy shopping!
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I saw an interview that Portia di Rossi did with Cynthia McFadden on Nightline a few weeks ago. (Interview posted below.) Portia talks about her struggles with her body image and sexuality as part of her publicity for her new book, Unbearable Lightness.
It was an interesting interview and one worth watching on many counts. Anyone who has struggled with body image or issues of identity will find inspiration in Portia’s tale of her own struggles. There was one line in the interview that really stuck with me. She talked about how all of the time she spent focusing her energy and efforts on being the “perfect weight.” She said: “Being that concerned about how much I weighed was the biggest waste of time in my life.”
That really struck a note with me. It made me think of all the wasted time and energy I’ve put into things like fear, procrastination, and self-doubt. This isn’t a recent epiphany. I’ve long acknowledged and struggled with tendencies toward procrastination and self-doubt. On the cartoon, G.I. Joe, they’d always say: “Knowing is half the battle.” Sometimes it feel as if knowing is more like a third of the journey and the rest is all uphill. Yet acknowledging negative traits or bad habits gives us the ammunition, the opportunity, and the power to change our lives in a meaningful way.
We spend so much of our lives wasting time. Time that is better spent on projects and activities that will move us closer to our goals. This is not a condemnation of others. Rather, it is an assessment of my own life and habits. As a chronic procrastinator, I am the poster girl for wasting time.
Time passes quickly. Before you know it you find yourself in the middle of your life (if you’re lucky) and on the back-end (if you’re not). A single question looms over you: Have I accomplished the things that are most important to me?
I have a few very important unchecked boxes on my list of Things to Do. Becoming a published author of women’s fiction is one of them. Failing isn’t a bad thing because at least it means you’ve tried. I had to admit that I’ve never really given my goal of being a fiction writer my honest effort and commitment. It was something I dreamed about, dabbled with, and talked about. But I did very little to make happen.
Instead I threw myself into low-risk projects that were beneficial to others but did very little to move my dreams forward. With a new year quickly approaching it is a great time to reassess my goals and what I am doing to achieve them.
I will not waste time and energy or procrastination, fear, and self-doubt. Instead I will move forward toward my goals with all of the energy and effort I can possibly muster.
Looking back at your life what has been a time waster for you?
Thank you for stopping by my Blog! Please explore Mindful Banter and get to know me, then jog on over to One World Singles Magazine Blog. If you would like to visit a different Blog in the jog, go to http://blogjogday.blogspot.com.
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I’m really liking the new MySpace. The folks over at MySpace has finally embraced it’s identity as a space to discover new artists or connect with the artists you already know and love. I got a few friend requests on my shiny new MySpace account. Much to my surprise there was nary a creep in the bunch. Instead there were several fresh, interesting, and talented artists that I hadn’t heard before. You’ll find videos for two of them below. J Minus and Jonathan Clay, respectively.
What do you think of the new look MySpace?
Jonathan Clay – Gypsy Woman
Jonathan Clay | Myspace Music Videos
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My “baby” is 21-years-old, so it’s been a minute since I’ve watched an episode of Sesame Street. Yet, the mere mention of the show puts a huge smile on my face and reminds me of the characters I grew up with and still love. Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, Susan & Gordon, Luis, Bob, and Mr. Hooper were a big part of my childhood. When my son was young I enjoyed watching the show just as much as he did. So, while I don’t watch anymore, I’m glad to see that Sesame Street is still making a difference in the lives of kids (big and small).
I saw a post on Twitter about an episode of Sesame Street where a little African-American girl sings about how she loves her hair. It’s a wonderful, positive message for little curly-head girls who worry that their hair isn’t long, blonde, and sleek like Barbie’s or many of their other dolls. The message is even more moving when you learn the reason behind the song. (Thanks to Natural Hair Blogger, Tamara Floyd for sharing this story!)
Hopefully it makes natural hair girls (from 2 – 92) smile and hold their heads a bit higher.
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It’s Day 2 of the Back2Blogging Challenge: A Post I Wish More People Had Read. This post is from August 2008.
A funny thing happened when I turned 21 – many moons ago – I realized that the word “old” is quite a relative term. When I was 16 I thought my friends’ siblings who were in their mid-20s were “old.” Being in my 20s myself at that point, I realized that 25 wasn’t so “old” after all.
After turning 25 I dreaded turning 30. The age at which I could no longer say that I was a twenty-something.
I hated turning 35 because I was officially ushered out of the “youth” bracket. You know how all marketing questionnaires seem to lump together people in the 18 – 34 age bracket, as if those at the top and bottom of that spectrum are, in fact, anything alike? Despite the fact that I felt it was absurd to lump those age ranges together, I still ‘mourned’ the fact that I was no longer a part of it.
But something funnier still happened on the other side of 35. I no longer looked at aging as something that should be dreaded or apologized for. The growing number of women in their 40s and beyond who were portrayed as strong, smart, and sexy certainly helped to boost this confidence. Women like Madonna and Angela Bassett – both of whom recently turned 50, as have Prince, Michael Jackson, and Kevin Bacon. Helen Mirren, Sally Field, and Diane Keaton remind us that evolution and growth and beauty don’t stop after 60 either. These women continue to dominate their fields and rewrite the script for the women who will follow their path.
It is great to see more and more women healthy, happy, and more fabulous than ever as they mature, grow in confidence, and feel no need to apologize for who they are or what they’ve accomplished.
Viva la Fabulous and Fifty. Here’s to 50 more.
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LeBron James longtime girlfriend and the mother of his two boys, Savannah Brinson, has always been pretty low-key. You would rarely see her in photos and I only remember her being interviewed once in a piece on LeBron at home (before he moved to the MegaHouse).
It was great to see her and the boys in this piece for Harpers Bazaar. It was interesting to hear her thoughts and it sounds like she has lots of projects on the table in the near future. Glad to hear it. I wish her lots of success on Girl Listen (her girls empowerment project) and the furniture line she designed called Home Court by LeBron James. Read the Harper’s Bazaar article here.
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This is an absolutely fantastic song. It definitely made me sit up and take notice on Melanie Fiona – a Canadian born singer and one of Motown’s newest artists.
It was also very interesting hearing Melanie talk about her journey as an artist, her commitment to staying true to herself, and her determination to find a label that would appreciate her rather than try to change her.
Check out the interview and studio performance of her Grammy-nominated song below.
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Wow. Where do I start? First let me say that I am a long-time Nicolas Cage fan. I am also a long-time Val Kilmer fan. (In fact, I’m the only person I know who believes Val Kilmer was the best Batman).
That being said, Bad Lieutenant is just a really bad movie. I realize that Nicolas Cage’s character is an over-the-edge cop who is hopped up on a buffet of street drugs and regulated substances. This guy is over-the-top crazy. I get that. But Cage plays the role as more of a caricature.
It’s like sitting for three hours for a portrait that you can hang over the fireplace for all eternity, then being handed a cartoon drawing with an exaggerated nose and your belly hanging on the ground. It’s not pretty. All you want to do is punch the guy in the nose and get your money back.
I love a great bad guy. I really do. But in this movie there were no good guys to balance them out. Terence McDonagh had absolutely NO redeeming qualities. By the end of the movie I wanted to pop him myself, just so the movie would be over.
Eva Mendes did a great job as Frankie Donnenfield, a well-paid call girl whose drug habit is nearly as bad as Terence McDonagh. My favorite scene in the movie? McDonagh’s two hallucinations with the singing iguanas and the dancing soul.
Nicolas Cage and Xzibit stand over the body of a dead gangster.
Nicolas Cage: Shoot him again!
Xzibit: Why?
Nicolas Cage: His soul is still dancing!
Cue the breakdancing soul.
That made me laugh. Was it enough not to wish I’d had the 2 hours back I spent watching this film? No! I’ve read lots of reviews where people absolutely loved this movie. I guess it’s one of those love it or hate it films.
In the words of Damon Wayans and David Allan Greer in the Men on Film sketches on In Living Color: “Hated it!”
Speaking of In Living Color, Cage’s performance in this movie reminded me a lot of Jim Carrey’s recurring character on the show, Fire Marshall Bill. Except that with Fire Marshall Bill the whole thing was supposed to be one big joke.
Will I watch another Nicolas Cage movie? Of course. But, it may take me awhile to forgive him for this one. Terence McDonagh should have just said ‘No!’ to drugs. But Nicolas Cage should have just said ‘No!’ to Bad Lieutenant.
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I may lose a few cool points here (okay, who are we kidding, I didn’t have that many anyway) but I LOVED the television series, The A-Team.
Every week I looked forward to the adventures of Hannibal, Face, Murdock, and B.A. The team was group of ex-United States Army Special Forces on the run for a crime they did not commit and working as soldiers of fortune with big hearts who helped good people in bad situations.
I have to admit that I had mixed feelings when I discovered that they were making a new The A Team movie. I like the casting of Liam Neeson as Hannibal and Bradley Cooper as Face. But, I am hoping it that this will be a lot less like the sad remake of The Avengers (loved Mr. Steed and who wouldn’t want to be Mrs. Emma Peel?) and more like the Mission Impossible movies which are far better than the original series.
I guess we’ll have to wait until this summer to find out. The trailer is below.
Question: What are some of the best and worst television show remakes you can remember?
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Roxanne is... a Freelance Journalist and aspiring novelist living in North Carolina with her husband and young adult son. She is an avid reader with a to-be-read stack that resembles a small skyscraper and a music lover with a thing for singer/songwriters and a bonafide music soundtrack addiction. Roxanne is currently revising the first of three completed manuscripts.
NaNoWriMo Project
Best Friends Forever
Work in Progress
The Secret Lives of XXX
Editing Projects
Chasing Rainbows
