18 posts tagged “qotd”
Do you have a green thumb?
So Leah was sitting in my apartment. As I was tooling around in the kitchen to get her something to drink, I heard her gasp in shock.
"Joanna, please TELL me you didn't kill bamboo..."
I whipped my head around to look at what she was looking at. There it was. Yellow, bent over and pathetic. I didn't even remember to throw it away,
I chuckled sheepishly. "Yup, yup I did."
"How- HOW did you kill BAMBOO?!"
END SCENE
*bows*
If you could write like one fiction author, who would it be?
Submitted by Marilyn.
Without hesitation, like Toni Morrison. This is no secret. In fact, my infrequent writings are heavily influenced by her work. I love her like potholes love tires.
Do you keep a journal or diary? How often do you write in it?
Submitted by Kim.
The answer is "yes", "kinda" and "try to".
I have one main online "journal" so to speak. I don't update it religiously or anything, but I do find it being an excellent placemarker for either various events, or at least where my head was at during various times. Supplement this with my Flickr site whereas I take pictures of damn near everything and everybody, then it's pretty easy to catalog the last few years of my life.
Back into the past, I always wanted to keep a journal. I just didn't feel I had the self-discipline to maintain such a personal committment. But as I was cleaning out my old boxes of things, I bumped into my old academic planners during high school and then college. There I would not only put in the homework and test assignments of the day, I would also find myself jotting down random events in my life like what time to meet such and such or what I ended up doing that day or what argument i may have had later that evening.
Evidently, I was a doodler. But not a doodler of images. I was doodling thoughts.
Scribbled in the edges of the pages are my ranting on the day. Mini poems. Rambling thoughts. I was journaling without even knowing. Seeing myself through my eyes well over a decade ago sobered me. It was amazing. How I have changed, how I have stayed consistent. How I've grown.
I doodle still. Sometimes during work, something will pop up in my mind. Updating a blog these thoughts would involve some sort of filter or proofreading. Some thoughts don't call for that. I end up emailing myself these smatterings of words just so they don't get lost. Most times I don't remember to look at them again. But yet they're still there.
So the answer is that I do Journal without actively journaling for journaling's sake. Much like how I tend to navigate through life, I just do what I do and am frequently amazed what the results are when I take the time to stop and look back.
Consider this here a form of that process as well.
What's your method for calculating a tip?
10% of total, including the tax, rounded, then doubled. Here in NYC, tipping is usually between 18 to 22%. I am a very good tipper. As a result, I tend to get very good service and bartenders everywhere treat me very well.
Don't get me into a story about when I cursed out and told on a bar manager of a restaurant for being an asshole by saying "you betta take care of (the bartender)". Eff you, man. You don't know me and you don't tell a person how to tip. ESPECIALLY if there was no noticeable red in the cranberry and vodka and no taste of alcohol either. No really, eff you.
We totally messed him up that night. Dude didn't know I knew the general manager and Carinda had spoken to the manager, we told the other bartender who made the original bartender offer us a free drink which I didn't take. I dropped a $15 tip and then walked to the bar manager saying, "now ask your boy if I 'took care of him'."
Man, I should really tell this story at length. Still peeves me off. And anyone who knows me knows that:
1) I'm an easy going person
2) If someone's acting funny with us, I'm usually the last person to know because I usually don't pay attention
Well, best believe I caught on before Carinda did when he said that shit to me. Damn insulting. I know how to tip, bitches.
Forget it. I can't believe I'm riling myself up over this again.
What would the title of your autobiography be?
Submitted by princesskasren.
Wabi.
Wabi, more specifically "Wabi-Sabi", is the Japanese aesthetic of there being great beauty in imperfection and asymmetry.
Like the jazz singer who holds the note then warbles. That is wabi.
Like the handcrafted vase with a slight irregularity in the curvature. That is wabi.
Beyond convention. Beyond permanence. Beyond pretension.
There is something beautiful and memorable in something imperfect and unexpected.
Which applies perfectly to my life and my growing world-view.
So there you go: Wabi.
Let's make a list. What are 20 things in your life that you're grateful for?
Inspired by wyndslash.vox.com.
This
is in no particular order as we go along since this is from the top of
my head... And I had to break it up into parts because I'm both
long-winded and I also am finding difficulty to find the entire 20
right now. Feh.
6) My Job - Through ups and downs, its still a reason to get up in the morning. After getting laid off in August of 2001, I was fortunate to find one, in Finance no less, and my still having one. A completely different industry than what I originally thought I would be, I have found it very interesting. I'm glad I have a job. Sounds weird, but it's true.
7) My Grandmother - Apart from being my ancestor, she put my then teenaged father on a train for New York and saved his life. According to my brother, because my father confronted some white boys beating a smaller black child, he was due to be dealt with ala Emmett Till. It was in the 20's. In South Carolina. My father was about 14. She quickly packed him up and sent him to his sister's up North. Without her actions, he most likely would have been lynched, and I wouldn't be here. Another reminder how certain choices and decisions could change so much so quickly. Very grateful to her.
8) The American Culture of Political Debate - Challenge and debate is one of the most American things we have as a nation and a people. Patriotism means questioning our leadership. To say otherwise is going against the very foundation of how this country was formed and has progressed throughout the years. So do it; frequently. And vote, dammit.
9) New York City - (later)
10) New Yorkers - (later)
Let's make a list. What are 20 things in your life that you're grateful for?
Inspired by wyndslash.vox.com.
This is in no particular order as we go along since this is from the top of my head... And I had to break it up into parts because I'm both long-winded and I also am finding difficulty to find the entire 20 right now. Feh.
1) My mother - She is such a wonderful, self-sacrificing woman. Although it's trite, I would certainly not be the person I am today without her constancy and unconditional love. Though I have been a true test for her as a daughter, she has continued to teach me by her example the honor and nobility of her unwaivering self-sacrifice for her family and for her responsibilities. As the oldest responsible child in a family of 11 in the Philippines, she had to quit school at a very young age to take care of her siblings. She later travelled to the US to work as a domestic to send money back home to feed and educate those siblings and eventually their own families. She met my father, became an American citizen and had my bum ass. She scrubbed toilets and floors in order to give me a private school education since she understands the importance of it. When my bum ass became a single mother, she put me through her own boot camp to make sure I was doing right by not only the boy but for myself. I have my sense of work ethic from her. I have a special kind of survival philosophy from her. She is now my best friend and it amuses me to see how our roles are now reversed in her being the one always out and being social and me just making sure that everything in the family is humming along smoothly. I cannot imagine her not being in my periphery, being my number one fan. I love her very much.
2) My son - Now they say we look like brother and sister. Most times we act like it. But he is my partner in crime and my best buddy. The one who stuck by me and was always there through thick and thin, though it's not like he had much of a choice, eh? He's smart, funny and personable. I think he's this way despite me rather than because of me. As he was growing, it was amazing to see the world through his eyes. Now here he is, thirteen, and getting into that whole preteen/teenager thing which is kind of weird for me. But I'm grateful. Very grateful. Lord knows what path my life would have gone if he wasn't in my life. He'll always be the baby, and the little man. And oddly enough, he's becoming more and more responsible - though he needs more than a little prodding oftentimes. He's taken photography, acted in plays, excellent chess player with medals, now he's taking golf, track and football. Scholarship.. here we come!
3) Carinda - Hilarious how we came by each other back in high school. Long story. Let's just say it revolves over an old Sesame Street short that no one remembers. We were sitting at the lunch table together and she said "I get ma-a-a-ad," just like that animated goat who everyone was pissing off. Without thinking I went, "I get ma-a-a-ad." We stopped and looked at each other like a light went off. C'mon y'all, let's finish it together: "It ain't ba-a-a-ad to get ma-a-a-ad." From there on in, those days are just a weird blur of our adventures in one neighborhood from the next, scouring Nikki Giovanni poems and gleaning one line from another to make this one perfect poem to write to a boy pretending it was original that blew his mind so much that years later when I bumped into him, he was still talking about it. Years go by. There are seperate colleges. Seperate groups of friends. Marriages (ok, hers) to be had. Babies to be born. But still, here we are. And we haven't slowed down one bit. Hell, everywhere we go it's a damned adventure. All sorts of craziness... Remember that time when that strip club just smelled like ass and sweaty vagina? Eww. And best believe, all those stories, from 15 yea- what? effing 15?!? - 15 years ago to now are still funny. Totally. Completely hilarious! She's more my sister than any of my blood ones. Like it says in Sula: "Two eyes, one throat."
4) My friends I have met online - Yes, geeky, I know. Mind you, it's not really all that weird. The people you chat up digitally, most of them you end up meeting in Real Life and then now you're all regular hanging buddies. Even my friends who live many miles away and in other countries; even though I haven't met them in person, we know each other well and it's like they're next door. My NY'er buddies from my moderating that new yorker community (yes, Geeky! get over it!) are true blue. Leah, Denise, Jon, Paul, Edwina, Oz, James, Sarah, Leslie, Megan, Tritia, Stacey, Vanessa, Janna... yes, it goes on, doesn't it. Oh, there's more. But they're all great people. Love them lots. Here's one thing about people online. Basically, at first, you're just a bunch of words strung together. Some people may dig your words and you start a conversation. Afterawhile, you're dealing with each other on a cerebral level. It's only later on that you realize that one maybe white or black or whatever. DIfferent religion, background, culture. By that point it's not that depe for you because you are genuine fond of the person so you start sharing some more. Such things don't usually happen in Real Life purely because people tend to judge on sight. And now I've been merging my offline friends with my online friends. My life is much more diverse and richer now because of them. And I've had many varied experiences now with them. I am grateful.
5) A roof over my head - I am very grateful for that. Here in New York, one of the top three subject of conversation is real estate. Where do you live? What neighborhood? How much do you pay? Yadda yadda. I am fortunate to have a two bedroom apartment to share with Zigs. I thank Erikka for that. I am grateful she found the opportunity for me. I love my apartment and I deal with a lot of cooperative shit just to keep it. I love to decorate. I love to entertain. It's my little haven. It makes me happy. And it needs to be cleaned right now.
TBC...
What's the last thing you usually do or think about before you fall asleep?
Wow. This is an interesting one... Huh.
Sex? *chuckle*
Um. Well I tend to keep the TV on in the background (documentaries and educational programs) to sort of tell me bedtime stories until I drift away. But then again, some programming is just too distracting and I just have to turn it off.
I guess, the most honest answer is that I just revisit the little stories in my head, running and re-running them over and over again until it all gets too heavy to propel my own thoughts.
Naked thoughts. ;P
