Nicole be Thinking...

I GOT MY GRADES LAST NIGHT! And I'm thrilled. They're not all perfect… (I did get a C, but I'm going to say "Thank you" because it could have been worse…) …but I'm pretty happy with them. For a while I thought that I was losing my touch. I went through this really weird phase when I thought that maybe I'm not as smart as everyone thinks I am. Seriously. Belmont was an intellectual vacuum for me. While I was there I couldn't write like me. I couldn't think like me. I was unhappy. No offense to people who graduated from there and love it, but it didn't work for me. I was the wrong student, the wrong person for that environment. AND too much was on my non-academic plate. SO… having been a stranger to Dean's List for SO long (the longest period of time ever) I thought I was losing my touch. My goal for this semester was to get it back. I think I did. I pushed all the envelopes I could. I sufficiently stressed myself out. I know exactly what nee...

Niggas are going to hate me for sure for this post… (If they don't already…) I don't care… This is unbelievable. Well… stranger things have happened. But… T.I. was released from prison after spending 7 months there on gun charges. I like T.I.'s music and ATL was a good movie and I definitely plan to see Takers . Nothing against him personally. I don't think he's a bad person. HOWEVER. Dude is a 7-time felon who violated his probation by purchasing assault weapons and silencers. He spent SEVEN frickin months in jail. For that . OK. He didn't use the guns. Ok. He thought his life was in danger. Ok. He's turning his life around. All that is awesome for T.I. But what about the frickin justice system? Are we REALLY saying it's ok for a 7-time felon to get away with illegal shit just because he's a good rapper? Bernie Madoff got 150 years in prison for getting rich off of scamming rich people but T.I. got 7 months for buying life-threatening weapons...

I know… Coming from a racist like me, that seems a little funny… But it's true. Some shit just is . No need to go deeper and make it about race… I had a long talk with my Mini Me last night (that would be Tia, for those of you who just started reading my blog…) and we discussed the racism in the Princess and the Frog and how a mutual friend of the family is outraged about it even though she hasn't seen it. Then we started talking about Tyler Perry and what makes a "black movie" and all sorts of other stuff that is better suited for a different post. When I got up today and started my rounds on the internet somehow I came across this picture of Kanye West and Lady Gaga. I saw the pic yesterday I think, but today it was special because of the conversation I had with Tia and the comments under the pic . Now… I'm a racist. I admit it. I'm very honest about my biases and prejudices and society says that makes me a racist. However I am probably the most open mind...

OK… So… A lot of this is repetitive (and that's actually important…) so I'm not going to go over everything about all these folks. You can read the bulk of it at the source sites. There are quite a few sites out there that say that Beyonce and others are possessed by the devil. It's actually a really interesting way to waste some time if you have it. But maybe that's just me since… I love a good conspiracy theory. I'm not here to debunk all this stuff. I just think some of it is simply wrong. Or… aimed at the wrong person. Or… conclusions based on shit that can't be considered evidence. Let's look, shall we... Alright... vigilantcitizen.com starts their analysis of Beyonce by saying Along with her new album, Beyonce has presented her fans to a new alter-ego named Sasha Fierce. The singer affirms that this new persona is the fun, more sexual and more aggressive side of her. This is however the “general public” version of the story. The esoteric meaning r...

Officially, I'm hibernating right now. I don't really want to connect on Facebook or Twitter right now. However… from time to time, I'm bored and reading that stuff is still mildly amusing… A couple things I noticed while tip toeing around Facebook: A lot of these "friendships" are super manufactured past the point of being fake. They simply don't exist. There are people I'm friends with on Facebook that I don’t want to be bothered with in life. Am I afraid to delete them? Perhaps… Well… I deleted a bunch of them just a moment ago. (Part of my hibernation is purging…) But… why even bother to begin with? Having said that… I discovered that I'm NOT friends with some people I should be. I'm missing out on some connections. A while ago, I deleted EVERYONE while in an angry "fuck friendship" mood. I'm STILL re-adding and re-discovering people from that episode… If it makes you feel...

I really don't know where to begin. When I read that Brittany Murphy passed away I honestly started to tremble. I was an only child for a long time and I lost myself in movies. Clueless is one of my all-time favorite movies. I thought high school would be exactly like that and I felt like Cher, Dionne, and Tai were my friends, and of course, Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, and Brittany Murphy are too. This feeling sucks. And it wasn't just Clueless . I remember her in the episode of Sister, Sister . And nobody remembers Don't Say a Word because of Michael Douglas. I loved her in Riding in Cars with Boys . I would have never even watched Uptown Girls or Little Black Book if she wasn't in them and I love them both because she was. She was good in Sin City . And did I mention she was in 8 Mile ? I loved her talent. I loved her energy. I think I might cry. I know… of course I didn't actually know her. But this hits so close to home. It's not supposed t...

Music has always been my therapy. I LOVE music. I get really into it and I take it kind of seriously. "Diary" by Wale is the realest song I've heard in a while… It touches me in a place deep within my soul that hasn't been touched since " Going On ." I LOVE Wale for this. This is pretty much where I am in life right now, unfortunately. I am stuck in a mindset that says no man is going to do right by me. But that's what I've experienced. That's how dudes come at me. I'm not going to go over EVERY line because we'd be here all day. The whole thing is so honest and true. Of course some things stand out... Hearing Wale say " Every problem that you ever had with another man, i gotta face/Started off on thin ice I'm still here but I can't skate " struck me in a way that I can't describe. Never occurred to me that some dude is out there trying his hardest for a chance with me against my insistence that he is just lik...

ok... so... it's not really OVER over... i have finals... took one today. two tomorrow. one on both wed and thur. so... yeah... i'm still in this... BUT. no more academic papers on the blog (until at least january), and hopefully more creative reading and writing. my grades are ok. i didn't shoot TERRIBLY high... my goals for this semester merely included getting used to being back in school and not failing everything. i accomplished both. next semester (and every remaining semester) we're going for the 4.0. during finals, i'll probably be catching up on my facebook and twitter stalking so i'll probably be blogging about the things that offend me first. then maybe i'll venture back in to the land of current events... eh... i dunno... lets just see how this all works out. i have some albums to review for you all, too... SO... be looking forward to a fun-filled winter break!

The surge of literature produced by black writers necessitated the creation of a system of interpretation that "would be based not on white standards but on […] the black aesthetic" (Dobie 219). This new system would evaluate black art "in terms of the special character of the black experience" (Dobie 219). Reading as a multiculturalist that is specifically focused on African American literature requires seeking and examining specific narrative forms, diction and style. It is important to look at narrative forms in black literature because "many of the stories written by African American authors are derived from the folk tradition" (Dobie 221). Toni Cade Bambara's “Gorilla, My Love” follows a frame narrative instead of the traditional narrative structure of a folktale. While riding in the car with Grandaddy Vale, Hunca Bubba, and Baby Jason, Hazel's narrative tells the story of a trip to the movies. This story is framed by the story of Hucca Bubba...

Women are an important part of my life. I was raised by a single mother and other strong black women. Because of my life experiences, I am drawn to the work of women of color. I have long admired Octavia Butler, though I didn't read her work because of my ideas of what "science fiction" novels included. I found Butler remarkable because she proved to be a talented black woman in a genre dominated by white males. Prior to reading her novel, Kindred , I expected it to be an exceptional story, but I was also skeptical because I thought it would be farfetched and scientific. Kindred is the first of Butler's work that I have read. While reading, I began to identify with the novel's protagonist, Dana. I also recognized women around which I grew up in other female characters like Sarah and Alice. I noticed that these women shared traits with some familiar archetypes of black female identity. Common stereotypes of black women include the Mammy, who is "everyone'...

Jay and the Beans Talk from jeff on Vimeo . VISIT NOW .

Writers and readers on all levels rely on dictionaries to aide with diction and comprehension. Dictionaries, most commonly regarded as reference materials and instructional tools, are commonplace in households, schools, and libraries. Not many people these days think of dictionaries as literature or cultural centerpieces. However, the dictionary from which most modern dictionaries are derived enjoys great cultural significance. Poet and essayist Samuel Johnson published A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755 after eight years of selecting words, drafting definitions, and choosing illustrative quotes. By understanding Johnson, his intentions for this massive work, and the work itself, one can come to understand why Johnson's Dictionary is still important over 250 years after its release. Samuel Johnson was born September 18, 1709, to modest means. For a period, Johnson's father was a sheriff and the family was able to live in "a solid new fifteen-room house in the...