I Observe, With My Eyes

Beyoncé and Jay Z have done a lot of questionable shit in their lives. 

Like...a lot.
Just last month, Beyoncé stole the visuals of her video for Spirit off some South African artiste. She didn't even leave room for doubt - it was just, copy, paste.
And how many stories have we heard about Jay Z and fucking people over? If it isn't Dame Dash, it's Kanye. Yes, Kanye is a mess but even before he was a mess, he told us that Jay Z liked to steal his creativity. I guess he's a true capitalist.
Now he's trying to sell this NFL deal as "the next phase" of the struggle when what it is really is, "Okay well, now the struggle is interfering with my money so the struggle can fuck off."
The very worst part is that some people will twist themselves into pretzels trying to defend it as a "positive" thing. I've the phrase "A seat at the table" being mentioned by Killer Mike, and Charlemagne who should know better is trying to sell it as a new lane.
It's not a new lane.
Jay Z is basically the butler in Django Unchained right now.

It's so disappointing but at this point, nothing is surprising anymore. Anyway, nobody contracted Jay Z to fight against oppression, so I guess he's free to do as he pleases. I guess the people who follow him are also free to do the same although their reasons are murky too and stem from the erroneous belief that billionaires must know something the rest of us don't and so if we just follow them unquestioningly, they will lead us to some promised land. Nobody seems to be awake to their own exploitation by these people they follow blindly, to the end of making themselves richer. Jay Z gets his influence from the idea that he brings the black population with him. Like sheep, who are following the wolf to slaughter.
I want you to think about something. When there is a recession such as the one Trump is about to cause, who gets laid off? Do the billionaires tighten their belts?
No, they do not.
Unless you count letting people go from their organizations as tightening their belts.
The only thing that matters is the bottom line and "keeping the shareholders happy." and so people are let go so that profits remain the same. The poors and whites are so against socialism because they've been primed to react like Pavlov's dogs to the word. Yet all capitalism does is keep them poor.
The rich want you to remain poor. That's how they control you.
But what do I know anyway? I'm just here living from hand-to-mouth right?

Meanwhile, Miley and Liam broke up. If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know I predicted this even before the wedding. Look, I don't know what ya'll are seeing when you look at them to think that they are 'well-matched' because chile...I cannot find one picture of Liam with Miley where he looks happy. Or even looks at her. She looks at him...all the time. But he's always looking away. Basic Body Language school will tell you that that is a sign of being out of sync. They never but never mirror each other. It was a disaster waiting to happen...
Why didn't any of Liam's family attend the wedding? Not even his mother was there, none of his brothers...you cannot say they could not afford the fare from Australia. I waited and waited for someone to point that out but no...Miley and Liam were supposed to be some perfect couple.
Bitch, please.
First of all, Liam is gay. My gaydar pings HARD when I look at him. But give him time to realize. then he'll go look for the guy he was with in hunger games wotisname and they'll live happily ever after.
Trust.

this is what in sync looks like

I've recently been experiencing a crisis of confidence when it comes to my writing. I'm editing Marcus Devereux (Book 5, Child of Destiny series) and I'm just feeling like...no. I don't like it. 

This has never happened to me before. I hear it's a common thing with writers but yeah, never happened to me before now. 

And it makes me want to go back and rewrite all my books. I gotta shake this shit off. So I'm posting an excerpt here and if the spirit moves you, you can give me a critique which will let me know if I'm crazy or I really should scrap the whole thing.

Okay then, here goes nothing.

Dis Tew Much

Ugh, I know! I have been neglecting my blogging duties.
Life.
You know?
In my defense, I haven't been updating my fanfic as regularly either.
And writing my stories?
Forget it. If it wasn't for me finding a new beta to read through The Post and push me to pay attention to it, I would be feeling really discouraged with myself right now.
It's just been one job after another.
Not that I'm complaining. $ is always a good thing.

 Which cover do we like? Should this be a poll? Imma make it a poll. On Facebook.

So...
It's been that kind of day when Twitter just went crazy and I need an outlet. So here I am on my blog not even writing about my books or my promotion but about gossip, I didn't even want to hear!
And I say again, ugh!

So first of all, +Jada Pinkett Smith was a drug dealer.
Did you know?
I didn't but somehow it doesn't surprise me. She hasn't quite lost her inner street thug even after twenty years with the King of Bubblegum. Opposites really do attract. I was watching Quad the other day and also Dear White People and thinking that the 'bougie' black people seemed really fake. Like they were all trying to be Joanne the Scammer and behave how they thought white people behave. (What does this have to do with Jada? Patience.)

Anyway, so I tried to think about actual black people who grew up rich and whether they behaved in that 'oh look at me I'm so cultured my voice barely goes above a whisper' way. And the most immediate example that came to me was Jaden and Willow Smith. Now I follow Willow on Instagram and she's somewhere between a fairy and a super-nerd but definitely not those Hilary Banks Wannabes. Hilary Banks felt a lot more genuine than they did. Anyway, so I thought maybe Willow and Jaden weren't the best examples being first generation nouveau riche and their mother being Jada who was clearly Street.
Anyway, I can't wait to read that book she's going to write.

From here on in, it just gets ugly so do yourself a favor and stop reading. Go read some wholesome fiction like this instead.
So Usher.
My fave.
Sigh.
Apparently, he infected his former wife's bridesmaid with herpes.
So much ugly in that one sentence.
I hardly know where to start. Okay, let's tackle the most important thing; Safety First.
Am I the only one who grew up with the ABCs of safe sex?
A - Abstain.
B - Be Faithful
C - use Condoms.
There was a D and E added I think later on but I can't remember what they were. These three though, they were bludgeoned into my mind. I grew up in the eighties and nineties when HIV was still a scary monster so it was really burned into my brain. It wiped out WHOLE VILLAGES in Luoland and Uganda. I guess the difference here is that people got infected maybe but didn't die as much in America so people get cavalier about having unprotected sex.
What the worst that can happen right?
Herpes is just the tip of the iceberg.
Gonorrhea is becoming incurable these days.
AIDS still kills.
But worse than dying from it, is living with it. I've worked in a pharmacy that served a lot of folk with HIV. Lots' of pretty people walked in and out those doors. Healthy looking, attractive, fit and HIV+. Can you imagine going out for a drink with your attractive self and trying to stave off everyone trying to shoot their shot but not being able to tell them why? Being attracted to someone maybe and being afraid to pursue it because you have a big disease with a little name? Or worse, pursuing it and facing the choice of infecting them or telling them and have them make the choice to leave you.
Life with a chronic disease is hard.
Some people have no choice about it.
Don't close your eyes and jump blindly into that life if you can possibly help it.
Oh and nowhere in the ABCs does it say celebrities are exempt.
I'm not even going to talk about sleeping with the fiance of your friend and then suing him when he infects you with a disease.

Speaking of choices, R-Kelly has been accused of having a cult and keeping girls against their will. Said girls were introduced to R-Kelly by their parents....
I can't even.
I am SUPER JUDGING ALL OF YOU.
Robert Kelly is a known pedophile.
A known pedophile.
He likes teenage girls to pee on him.
But here you are introducing him to your teenage daughter and then blaming him when your teenage daughter decides to volunteer for the R-Kelly harem.
Again, ain't nobody a victim here. Y'all are all making bad decisions. Own them.
It makes me think about this review I got about how Mya (in Child of Destiny) was wrong for getting in that situation with Leo; that she should have made different decisions. It's easy to judge a fictional character for fictional situations which reflect what happens in real life; but then in real life, we might be too afraid or whatever, to speak up.

Finally, but not really...
Kevin Hart.
*shakes my head*
There is allegedly a video of him and some singer from Miami, making out in a car.
Now I've never really liked Kevin; he's too thirsty for my taste, but...I thought this cheating thing was supposed to be about circumstances, not habit.
Whatever.
I hope they used condoms.

Too Much Madness For One Text

I haven't felt much like writing lately. I mean I have; so many things to say - they keep me up at night...for at least an hour. It's just sitting down, opening the browser and writing has just been a HUGE detail. However the stars have aligned today; it's been an excellent day if I do say so myself - if not very productive work-wise...I had a point.
I went to the supermarket today to pick up some food and the guy at the till is just staring at me instead of ringing up my stuff. So I finally look up at him to see what the hold up is and kind of meet his eyes.  And I lift up my eyebrow (yeah I did even manage to lift up just one like all the heroes in my books) and he says, "You're so serious, why aren't you smiling?"

And I swear like every single 'please don't ask me to smile' meme I've ever seen just flipped through my mind. And something of that must have shown on my face because he suddenly became very busy ringing up my groceries. It was epic.

A funny thing happened a few days ago; I was discussing with a friend of mine on facebook, why it is that people follow +Donald Trump in spite of the fact that he's a total waste of space who doesn't even have good hair; like Becky. (I named my puppy Becky btw; coz she white..geddit? *snigger*) And I was telling her how when I was reading this overly simplified story on Archive Of Our Own, I had to ask the author why she wrote like she was writing a story for the mentally challenged. And she told me that one of her writing teachers told her that most 'people' (read Americans) read at fourth grade level and therefore it's advisable to write at that level. Now I don't know how old people are in fourth grade, having gone through 8-4-4 myself; but I know the final grade is 12th so it's way down there. And most people read at that level. 

Mind. Boggled.

Well anyway, my point was that if that's the level 'most people' are at then no wonder they think the Donald is the shit. Well this blonde haired, blue eyed person replies in defence of Donald Trump all the while stating that most Americans are not at fourth grade reading level; but somehow agreeing that his Trumpness' ideas are correct. I debated with myself for like...five minutes whether or not to reply but in the end, I couldn't help it. I gave it to her; both barrels blazing; and told her exactly why she, Donald Trump and anyone who agreed with them were huge blind fools with no brains. It was nice. I just let 'er rip. In the end, she said she didn't want to talk to me anymore and wished me peace and love. It was too easy. I was left dissatisfied. Is there anyone who has oppressive views who doesn't shy away when confronted. Because I'm here. Seriously, let's go.

I watched Captain America today...in fact, I'm actually watching it again right now. If you haven't seen it, do skip this part because there will be spoilers. 

What is it about the friendship between two guys that is so compelling? Sam and Dean, Jared and Jensen, Bucky and Steve...it's like the greatest thing since sliced bread when people would do anything for each other. Why aren't female friendships like that? Why are they laced with bitchiness and/or self-righteousness? Or unnecessarily competitive? Why can't we just love each other the way guys can? Always and forever regardless of whether one of you becomes a cold ruthless assassin who tried to kill the other?

I'm a sucker for such friendship and loyalty; it warms all my soft parts and melts all my hard parts. The thing I find with +Marvel Entertainment is that when they do a fight scene, you can actually follow it. Marvel movies are the only ones where I don't stop watching immediately people start hitting each other.In fact the fight scenes are some of the best choreographed I've ever seen. Also fuunnnyyy! Antman fanboying over Captain America; Spiderman fanboying over Captain America...

It was so perfect. And then there was the Black Panther...an African superhero?!?!? I'm like dead right now. And he was so excellent. Seriously; like EXCELLENT. He's definitely my new fave. And now I get the excitement over +Lupita Nyong'o joining the cast of +Black Panther. It's coz she's a legit African right? Whatever. It should be fun.

In other news that have happened since I was last here; Blacc Chyna announced a pregnancy! To the excitement of thots everywhere who felt like she'd exacted thee most righteous of revenge against the evil that is Kardashians. I couldn't help but feel a little sad. I can't help feeling that she kind of flicking from baby daddy to baby daddy looking for someone to take care of her by having their baby. I'm just wondering; by the time she's done, how many babies is she gonna have? And those babies are humans, not toys. You can't just return them when things don't work out. I hope they do; and I hope this is real. For the sake of the chirren. Still, her and Rob seem to be a solid team at the moment. I hope it continues that way. The saddest of them all is Tokyo Toni though - Chyna's mom. Why she likes to include herself in her daughter's shenanigans is that shit I don't like. Someone has to try and be the adult. And if it's not your mother, then who?

And finally...or whatever, someone finally wrote me a review on +Amazon.com for Child of Destiny. The thing about this review is that it wasn't from one of the half dozen people I have been politely requesting to write me a review in exchange for a free copy I repeat, FREE COPY of my novel. Oh no, it was just a random reader who came back to give me...count 'em...five stars because they enjoyed my book. I haven't really touched the ground since. Yep, that's all it takes to get me high.

I've had people review my books before but Child of Destiny is my baby and this is the first review I've had of it, from a stranger. It validates everything I think about it, that a total stranger who doesn't know me, would give me five stars for my work. Thank you lotty dot. You made my life.

Also I changed the cover.