Checking Myself (Because Someone Has To)

I am so stoked about my new blog design, but I will blog about that later. While on IM earlier speaking with the gentleman that is redesigning my fabulous blog, I was going through my posts to see what I wanted to transfer to the new site, and I came across this blog entitled 2008. Yeah. that I wrote on Monday, December 29, 2008. In the blog, I listed the things I was hoping to accomplish this year. To read the complete entry, you can click the link above, but here is a list of the goals for 2009 that I set forth on that day:

*Get my non-profit off the ground and invest in my own business endeavor
*Get in shape. Work out on a regular basis. I have fallen off the last few months
*Establish better eating habits. Less dining out and cut out the sodas (oh how I love 'em)
*Finalize the revisions and edits of my novel and get it published this year, by May 1st
*Less television. More ME time
*Work on my son's website and help him establish his acting career
*Be more frugal when it comes to spending but not lose the spontaneity
*Continue to cultivate my blog and launch my personal website and vlog.
*Finally go to NEW YORK CITY!

Now of course this is only March 4th but I have noticed that I am slipping in most of these areas. I haven't worked on my non-profit paperwork or spoke with my planned Board since January. I've stopped drinking soda completely (yay) but I still do not have the best eating habits and I still eat out way too much (which is why I have been making a valiant effort since beginning my new Challenge). My novel still isn't completely edited and I have pushed the publishing date back AGAIN. I have the television on constantly AND my spending hasn't been curtailed. As far as my goal for my blog, I haven't been blogging nearly as much as I could be, even though I have plans to do more after my blog is redesigned. And I haven't even taped my first video blog (or vlog) and that was something that I was really looking forward to doing. I've went online and shopped airfares for NYC but still haven't purchased my ticket OR settled on a date to go.

There's not one thing that I have been consistent with on that list, well, with the exception of not drinking soda which I have done. It's kind of depressing when I think about it because the words staring back at me are ones that I wrote, goals that I have developed for myself and I have faltered. Took my eye off of the ball one too many times and here it is, heading into the 2nd quarter of the year and I am still seeking goals and not achieving them.

I've got to get my act together. NOW.

I never wanted to be the type of person who talked a lot of game, but in the end, was unable to back it up. I've known people like that and it's not a good thing to witness, especially when you see one's potential and they are too lazy to do anything with it. Laziness is not an option for me, I have too many things that I want to get done and I have to count on ME to get them done.

I consider this entry a reality check, one that needed to be done now and not six months from now. I will play my position. I will complete the goals that I have given myself, and I will NOT be lazy. If I can't check myself, who will?

I am accountable for my actions. And the buck stops here and the work begins. Try hard or end hard.

FIN.

Internet FAKERS.

This is a topic that must be discussed. Period and point blank. 

Let me start this latest blog entry off by saying I am not new to the Internets. Blogging maybe. But I have been on the Internet since 1995, when I got my first computer (A Gateway2000 'memba them?) and subscribed to American Online (before it was shortened to AOL). Back in them days, the scenery was very organic. Very real. There were, of course, people who played headgames even back then. But it was as real as it could be in cyberspace. It was a way to communicate and learn information and meet new people in other parts of the country and world. It was FUN!

Then social networking sites began to hit the Internet and thus started to take their toll on the fun-ness of logging on. People began to be preoccupied about their appearance more so than substance. "Let me post the best picture, even though it may be ten years ago when I was fifty pounds lighter, or better yet, let me just steal someone else's pics. Let me create a personality, another virtual me, that is nothing like me. Let me invent an identity. A resume. I graduated from Stanford and have a PhD in Biochemical Warfare. I have seven cars for every day of the week and I travel every week to a new place and I am invited to all of these parties and premieres and such. I am so fabulous, yo!"

Why can't people just be themselves? Be proud of their occupation or lack thereof, whatever it is. Why do we feel the need to impress? I am noticing, especially on TWITTER, that everyone seems to be a publicist, a model, a manager, a record exec, a something. There are only a handful of folks such as myself that aren't in the "industry". Knowing what little that I do know about the entertainment business, I find this hard to believe because it is a very close-knit and small group of folks in the urban realm. Don't get me wrong, I am not calling each and every person I've met online a liar because I do know there are those of you who are grinding it out and doing their thing and are quite successful at doing it too. And I love it. I love seeing folks on the come-up. But for those who feel that they have to create a false lifestyle in order to feel elite is suspect to me.

And then there are those individuals who are not necessary lying about their occupations or lifestyles but create a SASHA FIERCE character to coincide with their real life. For instance, in real life they are quiet, reserved, introverted. But online they become boisterous, obnoxious, loud, bold. Come on now. I am seeing people with statuses like "I am going to whip on this 'hoe' or "I am at ole boys house and he and I are getting ready to get busy" when in actuality they are sitting on their couch watching Maury Povich and can't get crunk in real life to save themselves from an uncertain death.

You don't have to lie to kick it.

Be you. Flaws and all. I think those that keep it real are the most fabulous.

Hillary for Secretary of State: My Take

I have always been a fan of HRC. In 2004 when the Democrats lost the presidency once again to the Repugs, I knew that Hillary was going to be there in 2008 to rescue us. But then when Obama announced he was running in Feb '07, I knew that if he made it through the initial primaries and caucuses, I would be voting for Obama. Simply put, Clinton was for the War and Obama has always been against it. That was something that distinguished the two, IMO, and Obama was going to have  my vote.

Of course we all know how this election played out. Obama crushed her. Clinton's team didn't seem unified, gave mixed messages to the press, and did not accurately understand that Obama was not a neophyte--she underestimated Obama's intelligence, political savvy, and 50 state startegy which ultimately won him the White House.

But now that it is over and we need to move forward, I think having Hillary as Secretary of State is a good move on paper but a bad one in the overall scheme of things. Hillary wants to be POTUS, there is no doubt about that. And her entitlement behavior that she and her husband displayed earlier in the race shows that she has an EGO this big...anyone who is like that doesn't work well "under" someone else. Especially someone like Obama who has demonstrated that he is the new Teflon Don. LOL. Plus her husband Bill has a lot of skeletons in his closet that would need to be unearthed during the vetting process. I know he is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that he and his wife are still viable and visible in the political process, but there is always a questionmark cloud over his head.

Some people (including myself) have trust issues with Billy boy. He was an excellent President but a very bad purveyor of judgement.

Please oh please, Obama, go through all of your options before selecting ole Hill. I know you want to mend fences and unify the party. But at what cost? You don't want it to bite you in the behind later.