Nicole be Thinking...

[...because it's THE song for this love affair.] Time will bring the real end of our trial... One day there'll be no remnants no trace... No residual feelings within ya... One day you won't remember me... Your face will be the reason I smile... But I will not see what I cannot have forever... I'll always love ya... I hope you feel the same... Oh, you played me dirty, your game was so bad... You toyed with my affliction... Had to fill out my prescription... Found the remedy... I had to set you free... Away from me... To see clearly the way that love can be when you are not with me, I had to leave. I had to live. I had to lead. I had to live....... If I can't have you, let love set you free to flap your pretty wings around. Pretty wings, your pretty wings, your Pretty wings. Pretty wings around... I came wrong, you were right... Transformed your love into like... Baby believe me I'm sorry I told you lies... I turned day into night... Sleep till I die a thousand ti...

I am a black woman. I don't think I have ever been racially profiled by a police officer. Every time I've been pulled over I was in the wrong and I rarely get searched thoroughly at the airport. However... I have been with my dark-skinned step father in a BMW in the Oakland Hills... I have all the first-hand knowledge of that kind of treatment I ever want to have. The situation with Henry Lewis Gates in Boston has me thinking... A neighbor said she saw two black men with backpacks trying to get through the front door of the house. I suppose she forgot that the man who lived there is a black man and made the logical leap that these men must be a burglars... But Gates wasn't arrested for breaking and entering. He was arrested for "exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior." That's... Well... What is that? Now... Gates is a professor at Harvard. He is an unassuming 5'7" and 58 years old. He walks with a cane, wears glasses, and has noticeable gray hair. ...

I haven't been blogging (and I'm going to make up for that...) and you've probably already seen these clips, but watch them anyway... =] Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy

Thursday I went to the Black in America 2 screening. Though I can't discuss the specific content just yet, I can say that it looks like it will be better than Black in America was. It seems to focus on solutions and successes as opposed to giving the impression that being black is so horrible. I appreciate that. I still think a White in America would be an eye-opening experience for some white people. Tim Wise should host... =] Anywho, while I was at the screening, President Barack Obama was speaking at the NAACP 's Centennial Celebration. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy Some people are a little salty about some of the points Obama made in this speech because they feel that he goes too hard on black people "in public." That he continues to speak to black people about taking responsibility for our collective predicament, but doesn't address white people about their collective responsibility for white privilege. I agree w...

Recently Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has come under fire for appearing to link abortion to eugenics, or the belief that intrinsic human qualities can be controlled or improved by controlling who can reproduce. Her quote appeared in and New York Times interview about a woman's role on the Supreme Court. She says, "Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of." The quote was taken out of context (read the rest of the article and Ginsburg's entire statement here ), and used to draw not only unfavorable conclusions about Ginsburg's beliefs, but also about the women who get abortions and the motives of the people performing them. Many years before Ginsburg, there was Margaret Sanger. Sanger's legacy is mixed to say the least. In 1921 she founded the American Birth Control League in New York City and that organization later...

NO ONE seems to remember this Dr. Seuss story... but I love it.. Here's a clip. Watch and learn. =] Part One: Part 2:

When I was young, I wanted to be criminal defense attorney. I blame OJ and Johnny Cochran. From the slow-speed chase to the acquittal, the trial was on tv at home, on the radio in the car, the topic of every discussion, everywhere. At the time, I just knew they framed a guilty man and if I had been on the prosecution, OJ would be in jail. And then a light bulb went off and I decided that I would prosecute OJs... Until they had this story arc on The Practice that involved a crazy killer going after Lindsey. Then I decided I would defend OJs. Plus before OJ, I loved watching Perry Mason. On The Practice Eugene never lost a case. And Johnny Cochran... well... he was awesome to me. Pretty much all of my extracurricular activities were dedicated to law: Forensics, Teen Court, Law Explorers. My ultimate goal shifted when I got really into Judge Judy. I didn't want a tv show, but Judge Judy was like this hot pink highlighter over an aspect of the courtroom that I had i...

I talked to my biological father (bio-dad) for about an hour yesterday. I called to find out if Boots the Bottom Hoe was a character in Iceberg Slim's Pimp or Donald Goines' Whoreson (we think she was in Whoreson ) and we ended up talking about a bunch of other shit... Mostly we talked about issues that come from him being this huge conservative... Turns out his transformation from a young hood nigga to an old white man is complete. Somehow we got on the topic of gays in the military. Sigh... A little backstory... My dad hasn't always been a homo hater. He hasn't always had this disdain for any- and everything involving homosexuality. When In & Out came out, he loved it. He quoted from it. He laughed when I teased him about being gay. Somewhere along the way someone hit a switch in his head and a little jerk inside started saying "haaaate the gaaaays, lamooonte..." We end up talking about homosexuals a lot because he lives in the Bay Area and it pops up...

Woodrow is one of my favorite presidents... You see his glasses? Not really right? I want some like those . =]

I am the dumbest person I know. No. I am. Save your consolation for someone else... So... I went to San Francisco State University in 2004. Everything was cool except the being 2,000 miles from my mother and not being able to afford ANYthing except school. In 2006 I decided to move back to Nashville and transfer to Belmont University. Now... This is a great example of my stupidity. You see, I made the decision to go to SFSU because I had to go back to the Bay Area and they were the first school that sent an acceptance letter. I knew that was a bad method of choosing but guess what I did in 2006. Yup. I had to be back in school and it was looking like no school would accept me for the spring term and then Belmont came through. Sigh... The transfer to Belmont wasn't that bad. Except... Instead of coming in with junior standing, which is where I would've been at SFSU, I came in as a sophomore. Two years left turned into three years left. But that wasn't t...

Well... not really... but I do need glasses. How would you like to help me pick them out? Here in Nashville there's a cute little store in one of the cute little neighborhoods that sells cute little frames. They are semi-expensive but I'd like to check them out anyway. These are the ones I found on the website. What do you think?

Yesterday I was alerted to an unfortunate situation in Philadelphia. A group of kids at a day camp purchased membership to a swim club so that they could swim once a week. When they got there they were told that minorities aren't allowed in the pool and were kicked out. The club refunded their money and the manager made a statement saying that he was afraid the black kids would "change the complexion and atmosphere" of the club. Read more here .   Now... private clubs have the right to restrict their membership. However, that doesn't mean they should exclude minorities. And it certainly doesn't mean it's ok for their official statement to confirm their outright racist policies. It's outrageous that these kids were confronted with racism so blatant so early in life. (Melissa Harris Lacewell has an excellent piece on The Nation about this...) In this "post racial" society we're supposed to believe that this kind of racism doesn...

I've developed a small thing for Dr. Marc Lamont Hill. [I love smart men. And it doesn't hurt that he's also handsome...] Anyway... I came across a clip of him on the O'Reilly Factor talking about the "n-word." So... I agree with both sides of the argument to a point. Marc points out that it's not about right and wrong; it's more so about complex and simple. He also says that language can evolve to become redemptive. Both valid points. Jehmu thinks people should stop making excuses for using the word and that there should be the same code of right and wrong for black people and white people. Again, great points. However, I disagree with anyone who say everyone should stop using the word. I also disagree with people who say it's ok for black people to use it, but not ok for white people. I am in love with language. I like words. I like grammar. I like accents. I like dialect. All that... No one owns language, so it's simply incorr...

My name is Nicole, and I'm addicted to Twitter. (Hi, Nicole. =]) I've been on Twitter for a while. Red Rhoner told me to to try it so I signed up, followed her, and went on about my business... Many moons later I returned and realized that there's a lot to be gained from Twitter... valuable, correct information straight from the source. coupons. news. invaluable insight from the greatest minds I've ever known. But my Twitter experience has evolved. It's gotten kinda crazy. Twitter is totally full of egos. A friend pointed out that some people view their followers as "fans" and that's so true. Some people, celebrity or otherwise, tweet like we're their... well... followers . With that terminology comes a whole new ideology and set of etiquette. People are leveraging their follower status. Yesterday Patrick Ian Polk (who is the awesome and witty writer/creator of LOGO series Noah's Arc) tweeted that he would UNfollow people wh...

Everybody will probably say the Vietnam War was the worse war ever, the deadliest, the most pointless (until this business in Iraq...) The man behind the Vietnam War died yesterday at the age of 93. I had only heard the name Robert McNamara because he's from the Bay Area and some call the Vietnam War "McNamara's War." I know very little past that. In fact, since I so rarely hear his first name, I've been known to call him "John." I was listening to NPR yesterday and started reading about him today. Here are 5 things I didn't know about Robert McNamara: 1. McNamara began his career working for Ford Motors. He had a major hand in both shutting down production of the Edsel, the big commercial failure in automotive history; and pushing forth the widely popular Ford Falcon concept. He also worked on a team to stop losses for the company and implemented a lot of the organization and planning they probably still follow today. 2. The US entered the Vietnam W...

I enjoy Michael Jackson's music a lot and I am sad that he is gone. However, I am unhappy with the way the media treating this loss. I'm also not sure I like this situation with his memorial. Don't get me wrong; I'm sure everything is very touching. I bet it's a hell of a lot better than that mess BET put on the air. I know that this kind of musical tribute is something we as fans have yearned for since the thought of a world without MJJ sank in. But I don't think this memorial should have occurred in tandem with his funeral. I don't think his family and close friends should have to go straight from a funeral and into putting on a public grieving face. This has me thinking about the price celebrities pay for their fame. What do they owe fans? Especially in times like these? Michael Jackson tried to balance his desire to live a private life with his fans' endless desire to know about him. He didn't have very much peace in life if he e...

Today is my official day off for Independace Day. There are a lot of things I need to do but I reeeally don't feel like doing anything. I don't necessarily feel like being a bum, I'm just looking at my list of things telling myself that they can be postponed or cancelled altogether. I have a doctor's appointment at 3 that I made weeks ago because I was feeling sick. Now that I don't feel the same way I'm debating on whether I should still go. I guess I could go and ask about the symptoms I was having, but what good will that do me if I'm ok now? I called to make my appointment earlier when I should have cancelled so now I have anxiety that I'll look crazy if I call and cancel now. Sigh... I need to go get my tire patched... well... really i need new tires. this patch would just be a temporary fix for a tire that will be replaced soon anyway. but at the same time, I can't really drive too much longer on the spare. It's significantly smaller than t...

i was a TERRIBLY fearful child... but i wasn't scared of conventionally scary things. no spiders or insects or things like that. more like... grass. trees. dogs. michael jackson. the picture of prince my mom kept on the toilet. a lot of weird shit. now... i'm not really afraid of anything. well... maybe one thing. i have a general fear of crashing my car and out of that fear comes a lot of minor ones like my fear of driving in inclimate weather. Aloysius is pretty much a piece of shit so i just know i'm gonna die if things get too bad... i'm afraid to drive when it's raining, even if it's not raining that hard. bad storms cause me to tremble and that makes things worse. i don't have much confidence in my deteriorating sight so that makes things even worse. p.o.s. car + bad eyes + conditions you can't see in anyway + fear of dying in a car crash = aaaall bad news. i can't do snow. and fog. oh fog... ok... so... i grew up in the bay area and pre...

when someone dies i always have a heavy heart and want to say something profound about mortality but i can never get it right. i can never get past my emotion at the fact that someone is gone and saying "duh, we're mortal" (regardless of how profound and nice the words may sound) seems stupid to me. everyone knows that death is apart of life. we all know that. but there are still people you just know are going to live forever. you still plan out your life as if the "rest" of it is some endless line into space. it still sucks when someone goes whether you knew them intimately or not. idk... i wrestle with myself. i have lots of thoughts but they don't come out. i can't bring people back and really when you first find out someone is gone, that's all you want to do. right now, i would love to bring steve mcnair back. i would love if my words had the power to reverse time and intervene before all control was lost. i would love to bring back grandpa. i d...

I've been reading what people have to say about this so called "rule of threes" that states death [and most things in life] happen in threes. It sounds convincing, right? You had Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson die within a day and a half of each other. But what about David Carradine, who died earlier in June and didn't appear to be a part of a set? And Billy Mays, who died on Sunday very close to the uber famous trio already mentioned? And what about other minor or local celebrities who may have died this week? Is there some sort of alternate criteria, an extra rule we're missing? Who qualifies to be a part of celebrity trio? I threw this "rule of threes" idea out the window... But it got me to thinking about other "rules" or coincidences I had discovered or heard. With Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett dying on June 25, people began to notice this pattern of celebrities dying on the the 25th of a month. Left E...

I wouldn't really call myself a liberal. I'm not a conservative. I'm not a politician so I'm neither Democrat nor Republican. I grew up in the Bay Area, a place known to be the one of the most liberal places in the country. But I can be quite prejudice and racist at times. I'm also open minded and tolerant. I just like to be honest about my opinions and in the most basic sense, I don't care what you do as long as it doesn't stop me from doing what I need to do. I believe in fairness and things that are just and I can understand gray area and the need to hear out all cases and not rely on the generalizations you're most certain to make. Some might say that growing up in the Bay Area made me sensitive to the plight of the LBGT community. Eh... I'm not sure that's true. In general, lesbians annoy me, I don't believe in bisexuality, and I wouldn't recommend anyone put him/herself through all it takes to be transgendered. Howe...

I heard about this program a while ago, looked into it, and dismissed it. Nae brought to my attention that it goes into affect today and thinks I should look into it again. Basically under the program, you'll receive some money towards a new, more fuel efficient car if your current car is a "clunker." It sounds appealing. However, Aloysius is paid for. This credit would be towards a new car which means new car debt and higher insurance. In order to get the money, your car has to be less than 25 years old, you have to trade in for a new car (2008, 2009, or 2010), the trade in car has to have been registered and insured continuously for a year, and your purchase must be between today (July 1) and November 1. All that applies to Aloysius. Buuuuut... I was holding off on buying a car because I don't want the debt right now. I have debt that I'd like to pay off before I add car debt. Based on my credit now, my interest rate would be high and so would...