Nicole be Thinking...

I've been seeing tweets about the All-American Basketball Alliance for a day or two, but I have ignored them because I just KNEW it was a hoax. Unfortunately, it is not. According to the Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle , "a new professional basketball league boasting rosters made up exclusively of white Americans has its eyes set on Augusta." Sounds racist, right?! The AABA commissioner, Don "Moose" Lewis, says, "There's nothing hatred [sic] about what we're doing. I don't hate anyone of color." What's his justification, then? Well…… "People of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now." Plus, "here's a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like." OK… White people as a minority in 2010 is ridiculous. I saw that study on CNN , too, and it projected that by 2050, fifty-four percent of the population will be minorities. Right now… We make up about a third of the population. B...

Today I came across an article from the Washington Post, "Fewer see Obama advancing racial ties." Basically the article gives the results of a poll that was taken by phone from January 12 to January 15. The poll shows that only 41% of respondents say that Obama's presidency has helped race relations compared to the 58% of people who thought it would when he was inaugurated last year. "The decline was the sharpest among African Americans," the article declares. Fifty-one percent say he's helping even though 75% thought he would. Here's the best part: The respondents were 1083 random adults and 153 of them were black. Let's hold off on criticizing this ridiculous poll for a sec… Personally, I don't think Obama has done anything to help race relations. His presence in the White House makes people think "the struggle" is over. It makes white people feel like black people have nothing to complain about. It makes ignorant black people thin...

Because if they don’t… They'll miss out on government funding that could improve their school. I read an article on MSNBC.com about Obama asking for $1.35 billion to extend an education grant program for states. Of the $787 billion economic stimulus, $4.3 billion went to competitive education grants for states. Obama says the extra money would allow more states to win grants. According to the POTUS, "Offering our children an outstanding education is one of our most fundamental […] obligations as a country." This all sounds good but it left me wondering why states have to compete for money for their schools. Why wouldn't the government just give it to them? Especially is educating our kids is "one of our most fundamental obligations." So… reading on I find that Obama feels that a grant system is a competitive way to encourage states and school districts to do better, rather than a "formula-driven" system in which states get money regardless of succe...

So… Avatar won the award for Best Drama at the Golden Globes this weekend. To date the movie has made $1.6 billion. Second only to James Cameron's other epic, Titanic. Sad to say $10 in there represents me… Of his win, Cameron said, "Hopefully, this is part of a trend of the acceptance of science fiction as a legitimate dramatic form of cinema." But this win is not about accepting science fiction. In Avatar, a paraplegic marine, Jake Sully, has to take his twin brother's place in the avatar program on the moon Pandora. Humans want to mine Pandora for the precious mineral "unobtainium," but the inhabitants of Pandora, the Na'vi, don't want to allow humans to mine and ravish their land, to which they have a spiritual connection. To try to win over the Na'vi, human create avatars that look like the Na'vi but are controlled by humans that are connected to a machine at an army base. This marine sucks as a human. Bad marine. Not smart. Paraplegic. ...

For my Modern Grammar class I had to look up three sources that have something to do with the history of the English language or some relevant cultural phenomenon related the development of English. In my quest, I came across an article by Jack Sidnell about African American Vernacular English. AAVE has been around for a while under other names, most notably "Ebonics." (D'you remember when Oakland Unified Public Schools was considering using Ebonics to teach Standard English as a second language for black kids? Yeeeah…) The problem I have with most things that are labeled "African American" or are designated for use by black people is twofold. First… More often than not, these inherently "African American" attributes aren't all that inherent; the traits can be found in other ethnic groups also. Second, and possibly most offensive to me, is that the characteristics they give to black people are commonly found in poorly educated people across all c...

For Christmas, I received a $150 gift card for Macys pretty much for the sole purpose of buying a dress. So… I looked for a dress. I spent h o u r s in Green Hills and Cool Springs. Nothing caught my eye. Frustrated and cursing the day I laid hands on a Macys gift card, I went online. Lo and behold, I found a dress. It was December 30 so I called the 800 number to ask about overnight shipping. I mean… I had this big ole gift card and the dress was on sale. I don't really shop at Macys so I figure I might as well spend it all on shipping. The sales rep told me that Macys overnight shipping is really 2-day shipping since it takes 24 hours to process. Then she said I'd get the dress on Friday. I asked, "…the first?" To which she replied, "Yes. Friday, the first." And that was that. I figured I'd wear some other dress for New Years Eve and wear this dress for Michelle's birthday dinner. Everything would be fine. Friday rolls around and I don't have...

I can't sleep. I have a very uneasy feeling. When I do sleep, I tend to have very vivid dreams. The ones I remember don’t "come true" per se… But… Sometimes they show some side of some anxiety I have. It's weird… Once I had a dream I was in bed with Sasha (she and I weren't speaking at the time) and a guy that I hadn't talked in a super long time (and had no interest in being in bed with). The dream made NO sense to me at the time, but it stayed with me. Soon thereafter, Sasha and I reconciled and the dude and I ended up talking. Did the dream "predict" their return to my life? Not necessarily… But it makes me think… I bring this up because I had a dream recently that sticks with me. I haven't had a dream since, and my insomnia has been particularly bad. Makes me think I should pay attention to it… In the dream… A guy who is currently pursuing me (and has been pursuing me for a very long time) was, well… pursuing me. In the dream I was just as r...

Twitter is addictive. In the beginning, I signed up, followed Red Rhoner (@deltalady), and when on about my business. Something told me to go back and I've been stuck on it ever since. A lot has changed. The vibe is a little different. More people are addicted. The rules have evolved. But I still love it. I'm still ALWAYS on it. Recently (about 17 minutes ago) I hit 10,000 tweets. That means that in the 14 or so months (428 days according to mytweetsixteen.com) I've been a member I have sent 10,000 (mostly) meaningless messages to everyone and no one. It's been a blast. I wanted to go back to my very first tweet, but Twitter doesn't go back that far. It went back to September 3 ("RT @sashaalexandria: #hemightbecrazy if he gets mad cause you didn't answer the phone [it's happened to ME]"). Anywho... Here are some of the favorites I saw while taking my stroll down twemory lane... P-Bizzle and I are always debating about music. I'm usually t...