What About Our Daughters vs. BET

There's been some controversy over BET's new show "Hot Ghetto Mess". A fellow blogger from What About Our Daughters took a stance against the show by targeting companies that advertised during the show's premier and it worked. Sort of.

I'm no fan of BET. In fact, even if I were able to watch the network, I still wouldn't have been willing to watch the show just to find out which advertisers to boycott. It isn't just about "Hot Ghetto Mess". This is about all of the inappropriate, unoriginal programming aired by BET for the last decade!

I will continue to do with BET what I've done with Ebony and Essence magazines-I will continue to deny them my money and my time.

The Duggars

The Duggars are due to have their 17th baby! Wow! I've watched a couple of documentaries about this family on Discovery channel and I'm total in awe of how many children are in this family. The Duggars make it look so easy. And the children look so happy!

(I've written about this family before, but the blog post was lost in cyber space somewhere.)

My mom is one of six children. If you went by her upbringing, you'd think the more children one had, the poorer and unhappy they'd be. My mom wasn't one to make motherhood look appealing either. I guess when you're doing it at a young age with no help, it can be a rather unpleasant experience.

Call me old fashioned, but I'd take the Duggar way over my family's way anyday.

KAIA early in the morning

IMG_1581.JPG,
originally uploaded by Shavonne.

Since I've managed to get the blog this feature of flickr working, I'll be posting a picture with every post. I took this at KAIA which is at Kabul International Airport. This picture doesn't do the view any justice. The mountains were 100 times bigger in person. My camera, which I still love dearly, just can't capture the moment like my eyes.

If you can't tell, it was bitterly cold the day I took this pic. It was taken back in December '06. I don't think I've ever experienced cold like I have in Afghanistan.

Toilet brush usage

IMG_1574.JPG,
originally uploaded by Shavonne.

This picture is displayed in the bathrooms at KAIA. Apparently someone has tried to use the toilet brush for more than just cleaning the toilet. :smile:

Stream of Conscience Post

I'm selfish or so I was told by a co-worker. His exact words were "You
don't want to have kids because you're selfish."

Let me explain the conversation at work. I mentioned that I don't
date men with children because at this point in my life, I'm not sure
I want kids. So why bother myself with somebody else's. Makes sense
right?

Well, I'm still selfish according to this man. Working Mom isn't an
appealing title. It sounds funny when I hear women at work say, "I
can't wait for daycare to potty train Junior. I'm sick of changing
diapers." However, I've seen the life of a woman relying on welfare
to help take care of her kids. That's an even more unbelievably
unattractive alternative for having a kid at this point in my life.
But remember I'm selfish because I don't want to do things the hard
way.

On another note, reading the blogs of other black females has got me
thinking about the Black Diaspora. I've noticed they group all Blacks
in the same group without acknowledging cultural differences. There
are cultural differences between Black Americans and an Africans.
There are cultural differences amongst Africans themselves depending
on what country they're in or the ethnic group they belong to. The
same goes for Black Americans. So why is there this constant need to
group us all in one category? Different people with different values
will have different goals and skin color alone isn't enough to unify.

This is where I think my selfishness really shows. I think I'm better
off focusing on bettering myself than trying to change the world.

I hate bootleg movies. They usually aren't worth the money. I'm one
of those people who not only want to see a good movie but have a good
viewing experience. Bootleg movies don't provide both. For example,
the first time I saw Pirates of the Caribbean, I thought it was
terrible because the picture and sound was greatly distorted. It
wasn't until I viewed a legit copy of the movie that I fully
appreciated it.

Heroes has become my second most favorite show with Buffy the Vampire
Slayer being the first. I so wish I had my Buffy DVDs here. I'd be
having myself a kick-ass time!

I signed up for a video blog at blip.tv. I will use it eventually. I
think I like it better than YouTube. Blip.tv has an interface that's
easier to understand.

I lost 8 pounds! I'm around 113 pounds now! And I don't exercise
much. I'm on the Supreme diet. Basically, the food in the chow hall
is so terrible, I don't eat it. It doen't help that I've had trouble
digesting just about everything I put in my mouth and I had two bouts
of diarrhea which lasted for about three weeks.

I can't stop biting my nails. I bite them to the point they bleed. I
hope I can break this when I get home.

I'm not looking forward to going home. There's nothing there for me.
I want to leave Afghanistan but I don't want to go back to Lancaster.

I still want to cut my hair.

--
Shavonne

Afghanistan

I haven't blogged in a while. In fact, I haven't felt much like
surfing the net. I spend maybe 20 minutes a week on my computer.
Most of the time I'm reading or listening to music. Oh and catching
up on Desperate Housewives. I also watched the last season of Lost
and 4400 and Grey's Anatomy.

Yes, yes, I've devoted a lot of time to television. But it's really
not a lot because I still spend more time a week reading and doing
other thing totally unrelated to TV like working. Ha!

I doubt I will continue to watch a lot of tv when I get home simply
because I'll be going back to school. I've got some catching up to
do. I'm so behind.

Good news, I'm completely debt free. I'm out of the whole and into
the plus. It feels so good. That's just about the only good thing
that came out of this deployment. I'm going to send the money that
used to go to pay off my debts straight into savings. My goal is to
put $1000 away every month. That should be easy since my car and my
credit card is paid off.

I won't be buying another car anytime soon. I've been looking at
different places to live in the country and what I'm looking for is
someplace that doesn't require a car. The top city on my list is
Bethesda, Maryland. I blogged about it before but I really, really
want to live there. I won't have worry about a car because the
neighborhood I'm looking at is few minutes walk from the subway to
D.C. No car required. :smile: I think this would be great for
maintaining an active lifestyle. I do think I will get a better bike.

I don't think I blogged about this before, but when I visited my
cousin back in October. we went on a bike tour through D.C. It was
awesome! Really enjoyed it. I took pictures by the way. I didn't
get to take that many because my camera died but I had a blast.
Maryland/Virginia have some great parks to hike/bike through.

I'm going to buy myself a new toy. I've been shopping around and I
found two digital SLR cameras that I'm seriously thinking of buying.
My choices are the <a
href="http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/11433/canon_eos400d_review/">
Canon EOS 400D Rebel XTi </a> and the <a
href="http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/9420/nikon_d80_review/">Nikon
D80</a>. The Nikon got better reviews. My main concerns are the
quality of the picture and ease of use. I've also considered the <a
href="http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/news/articles/story_6913.html">Nikon
D200</a> though I find it a bit on the pricey side. I'm leaning more
towards the Nikon D80.

I have a bit more to blog about but I will save it for tomorrow.
--
Shavonne