American Flags at Veteran’s Memorial Waterfront Park

American Flags at Veteran’s Memorial Waterfront Park
Originally uploaded by williamhartz

Can you believe it? I’m a veteran and I almost forgot about Veteran’s Day. It’s one of the few holidays I can actually celebrate. LOL

Happy Veteran’s Day!

Relax Time

I've just finished my paper and now it's time for me to relax. I don't have much time to blog. I doubt I'll be doing much blogging in the next year.

I noticed a lot of bloggers are making their blogs private. Why?! I suppose it won't be that bad since I don't have much time to surf the net leisurely.

I get a two-week break during my studies next month and I can't wait. I have a lot of things I need to do. I plan to write an essay about motherhood from a single and child-less-by-choice perspective. I've got an end of year video project I plan to produce commemorating 2007.

Work. I've settled into my civilian job. It feels like I never left. I can barely remember Afghanistan. If it weren't for the few pictures I took, I would totally forget the experience.

To date, I have yet to purchase music from iTunes though I frequent the store to listen to the song samples. I definitely plan to get Timbaland's new CD. I love the song 'Apologize.' Believe it or not there are Hip/Hop songs I would like to get. Fabolous has a song I like as well as Akon (Mama Africa) and Kanye West (Stronger). I've had my eye on Jon B's most recent album and India Arie is on my list as well. I think these will be my Christmas/Birthday presents for this year.

I almost bought a condo. Almost-as in once I saw how much the monthly payment would be I chickened out. LOL. The only good thing I got out of the experience is I know what my Fica score is. I'm very pleased. :grin:

I haven't seen any new movies lately. I wanted to see the new Denzel Washington movie but I don't care for the smell of popcorn and my attention span has gotten shorter for some reason so I doubt I'd watch the whole movie anyway. Besides, I haven't been to the movies in over a year. My last movie going experience was terrible. Don't want to go into details but to make a long story short, people need to teach their children manners.

I emailed my dad and asked him what he though of Dread locks? It wasn't a good response. He basically said they look nasty and unkept. He also commented that employers wouldn't hire someone with locks because the hairstyle is associated with potheads. (Don't employers require drug tests nowadays?) What's wrong with black people? Why is there such hostility to our natural hair texture?

Episode 4 - The Farm

Click to Play

This is video I shot when I visited my Dad in South Carolina.

I like goats. Their poop isn't mushy and it doesn't stink. Plus, they eat grass so they're natural lawn mowers.

A most horrible reaction

I left my Sisterlocks Lifestyle Journal (Summer '07) on my mom's bed just to see if she'd look through it.

Her reaction wasn't a good one and it pretty much summed up her attitude towards the natural, unaltered hair of black people - she finds it disgusting.

"Why would you want to ruin your beautiful hair? The only way to undo this is to cut it all off. I can see if you had hair like mine but you have long hair. You're not a loc/Rastafarian person anyway."

Wow. I can't tell you how depressed this made me feel. I could tell she didn't even bothered to look through the magazine or she would have seen the different ways in which one can wear their hair. I'm not much of a enjoy-having-my-scalp-burned kind of person either but she doesn't see anything wrong with me getting my hair straightened.

I been reading the blogs of women who've had their hair Sisterlocked. I really enjoy reading them too. I only wished they updated their blogs more regularly-but hey, they've got lives to live too.

Check out these blogs by Sisterlocked women. Don't they look lovely and so not Rastafarian!

Leighann's Sisterlocks Coils & Curls

Haven

It's Real!

Tuereonline2.0

Making money via blogging

I don't think my blog will ever be popular in the blogosphere. However, if it should ever come to be, I will never pass the cost of reading/maintaining my blog to my readers.

Why is this? Because there are people with blogs and video blogs who make money via advertisements. Companies are willing to pay for space on blogs!

One blogger is requiring readers to purchase a subscription for $20 per month to read her blog. You can get a whole year's subscription for a whopping $200! I'm all for getting paid for knowledge and advice on a subject, however, I believe she could make more money by soliciting companies to buy space on her blog.

For example, lg15.com earns 10K a month from advertisements! I read this in a tech/gadget magazine. So if they can make that much money on a 3-minute video blog a month, this blogger can certainly garnish a nice chunk of change from the hot-button topics on her blog.

My Curly Hair

IMG_2248.JPG
Originally uploaded by Shavonne

I really like my hair like this. I really do. But there are things that come along with wearing my hair like this that I don't like.

For example, I had to load my hair with a lot of goo to get it to look like this. I used products from the Curls hair product line. I think they are great but I don't like having to wash my hands three times just to get the leave in conditioners off my fingers.

The other thing I don't like I how much hair comes out in the shower as I'm combing out my hair with the conditioner. I also don't like the hair that ends up around my sink and floor after I'm done with the grooming process.

Third, it's Fall and soon the cold of Winter will approach the Antelope Valley and I can't go about walking outside with a wet head. So, if I wanted to wear my hair like this in the coldest months of the year, I would have to style it at night. The only problem with this is my hair will lose its shape and I will end up looking like I'm wearing a curly 'fro wig which is fine on the weekends but not the look I want for my job. Urgh!!!

And Matthew McConaughey is dating some Brazilian chick and I'm majorly pissed off about it!!!!

Sisterlocks

filled front cover
Originally uploaded by tuere.online

I've been contemplating chopping of all my hair because I'm tired of the hassel of blowdrying and straightening with flat irons.

I did a search for natural hairstyles and came across Sisterlocks.com.

I was skeptical at first because many of the pictures of women wearing Sisterlocks were rather middle aged (not that there's anything against that) and I wanted to see pics of women closer to my age.

I think Sisterlocks are beautiful and they seem very versatile. I'm not sure if this is the route I want to go. I guess I need to actually meet some folks with Sisterlocks to see if this is the journey I want to take.

Episode 3 - Got my hair done

Click to Play

Worthless. Absolutely worthless. I should have shot some video of the hairdresser burning my scalp or trying to comb out my wet and tangled hair. Heck, it would have been more interesting if I had shot video of her trying to convince me to NOT cut my hair.

Tunnel Vision

Tunnel Vision
Originally uploaded by Shavonne

I took a trip to the Apple store to play around with the new Macs. I always take a picture with one of the computers to commemorate the occasion.

Episode 2 - Hair

A while back I wrote a post about cutting my hair off and starting over. Well, I've decided to scratch the whole idea and cut my hair off in stages. One reason is because I can't find a hair stylist I trust enough to wack my locks off and two, I'm just plain scared.

BTW, if there is someone out there in Southern California who can do my hair, please, PLEASE contact me.