Gjjgh ff

Testing the new version of wordpress on my blackberry.

Can’t tell what features are new.

Updated: the photo came up b4 the text. I reversed things.

Update 2: the photo appears to be cropped on the black berry.

The above tweet was sent out by me on Twitter last night at about 1:30 am.

I forgot about it until I saw a link to an article on Yahoo titled Why 09/09/09 Is So Special. From calculated marketing activities such as film openings to the most personal celebrations such as weddings, people around the world have attached some significance to the date. Some good and some not so good.

One of my first thoughts was to radically change my life by making a radical change in my daily lifestyle. My second though … why are you lying to yourself … seriously. Am I really gonna exercise an hour a day everyday? While I’d like to, I don’t want to disappoint myself with such a lofty goal right now.

I was recently talking to someone about making a radical change in our lives and losing weight. He is taking small steps and being realistic about what personal changes he will make that he knows he can realistically keep. I’m sure his small daily steps will lead him to his ultimate goal. I need to do the same. Small realistic goals.

As I continued to mull over ideas, I’ve come up with something that I think I can do which will help me stay committed long term. I think it’s actually a good idea. The action is small enough where I really don’t have a valid excuse to not do it, plus it’s flexible enough so that I will truly stay committed. I’ll never be able to say that I don’t feel like doing one thing because I don’t have to do just one thing.

Does that sound like a commitment to not committing to anything?

It does, but really it’s not. Really.

I’ve decided to commit myself to doing something for 9 minutes a day to increase my overall well being. It can be exercise, meditation, cooking a healthy meal or just making the conscious effort to relax and take a moment to myself. While this may seem simple, the truth is that I really don’t take much time out of my life for myself. I don’t exercise regularly, I don’t cook, I’m always stressed about something in my life, I’m overworked and sometimes my life is chaotic. Very chaotic.

Over the years, I’ve always struggled with the work/life balance that comes with being an entrepreneur. Add being a caretaker to a developmentally disabled brother (who I described as a perpetual kid/teen who struggles to be independent but who constantly requires my help in managing his life) and you can probably understand why finding “me time” has been challenging.

I’ve rolled with the punches that life has tossed my way, but I’m finally realizing that if I don’t start fighting back that I may be down for the count. My battle with my weight is literally a fight for my life.

As I get older, my fear is becoming a statistic. African American woman, obese,  with high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, etc. All diseases which can be attributed to lifestyle. All diseases that my relatives have had and died from.

As I though more about the 9 minute idea, I realized that it may be hard to do some things in 9 minutes. It doesn’t matter. The beauty of the idea is that if when I get up to exercise (or do something else) for 9 minutes, I’ll probably keep doing it since I’ve started. Getting started is always the hard part for me.

Can you relate? Do you have any tips on keeping commitments to yourself? Put any ideas, suggestions in the comments section below.

~ April

Yesterday I wrote what was supposed to be the first of 30 blogs in 30 days. I wrote what I think is a great blog from my Blackberry. However, I just posted it five minutes ago. This blog was supposed to answer yesterday’s questions.

Not happening.

I didn’t get in until 4 am last night and basically talked on the phone and slept all day. I just turned on my computer an hour or two ago.

I’m keeping my promise to myself to blog everyday, but I’ll have to answer those questions tomorrow … hopefully

I’m wondering if I’m procrastinating I know I’m procrastinating because to answer them truthfully would mean that I’d have to get really personal.

Stay tuned.

~ April

PS: After I finished writing the above statement I did a Google search to look for an image. I typed in procrastination and the Wikipedia entry was one of those listed at the top of the search. Clicked the link and found the info below:

Procrastination is a behavior which is characterized by the deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite procrastination as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision. Psychology researchers also have three criteria they use to categorize procrastination. For a behavior to be classified as procrastination, it must be counterproductive, needless, and delaying^.

For an individual, procrastination may result in stress, a sense of guilt, the loss of personal productivity, the creation of crisis and disapproval from others for not fulfilling one’s responsibilities or commitments. These combined feelings can promote further procrastination. While it is normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, it becomes a problem when it impedes normal functioning. Chronic procrastination may be a sign of an underlying psychological or physiological disorder.

I didn’t know procrastination meant all that. I do feel guilty when I procrastinate but I never thought really why I do it sometimes. It this case with personal blogging, the answer was clear.

This was an eye opening read. I’ll try to take note of future issues which cause me to procrastinate.

Over two years ago, I started an online magazine (AroundHarlem.com). The original idea was to hire great writers, get rich and live happily ever after. I only expected to write an occasional article if something inspired me. (I call my column Reflections.)

To say there have been bumps in the road on my journey to become a media mogul is an understatement. I won’t go into details about the collapsing publishing industry, market forces, finances, tech issues, etc. that have changed my initial direction, but I will say that even in the midst of the chaos, (change/growth of the original vision) I still love my new career.

While I have always been a great writer (Honors/AP English in school) I never though of journalism as a career. Now, as an entrepreneur, I find myself doing what every business owner does … a little bit of everything.

Including writing.

Hence the reluctant blogger title. (I even use it in my bio.)

Since this journey began, I’ve written some good stuff and some crap. I’ve learned what motivates me to write and what subjects I should and shouldn’t tackle. I’ve also learned that the biggest indicator in the quality of my work depends on how personal I get.

I am soooooooooo NOT one of those bloggers who writes about their personal lives to entertain others or someone who wants fame along with the fortune. However, since I want to do what I do well … including writing … I have come to the conclusion that I HAVE to blog about my personal life.

I’ve been thinking about it for months and I’ve decided that in order to achieve my goals in publishing, I have to share more of myself. Everyone who knows me personally thinks I have a great story that should be told. Through the ups and downs, there have been experiences and life lessons that I think may educate and inspire others.

As I’ve made my way around the web, I have crossed paths with many people that are examples of the type of writer I want to become. “Naked” from NakedWithSocksOn.com is one of those writers. Naked, real name Anslem Samuel, shares his personal experiences about relationships, sex, and life. He has created a website with a great community that continuously discusses and debates the topics that he raises for discussion.

In addition to great daily blogs on random subjects, he created a blog series called 30 Blogs in 30 Days. Last year he did waaaaaaay more than 30 blogs (90) and shared some of his most personal thoughts and experiences. As an avid reader, I saw him tackle personal issues and even saw him come to terms with/resolve many issues that many of his readers share. (To learn more about his inspiration for the series, click here.)

Today starts another round of 30 Blogs in 30 Days and I’ve decided that this would be a great writing experience for me as well. I was planning to start a new blog after Labor Day, but I figured why not get a jump start now.

Naked’s first blog titled Angels With Broken Wings: Life, Death & In Between raises some interesting questions.

• How often do you contemplate your own mortality?
• What steps do you take to make sure that you’re living your life to its fullest?
• Do you think it’s important to take some time out from the day-to-day-grind to observe nature?
• How do you want to be remembered when you’re gone?
• How different is your perception of self from the way others view you?

I’ll be back with my responses and to discuss how these questions tie directly into the theme of my new blog.

~ April

NOTE #1: I’m not sure if I will always refer to Naked’s blogs for the next 30 days, but I do promise to keep blogging, so please continue to read.

NOTE #2: Still working on the technology of the new blog. I’ll move this post over there in the future.

• You’re independent – and a logical analytical thinker.
• You love learning and ideas … and know things no one else does. Bored by small talk, you refuse to participate in boring conversations.
• You are open minded. A visionary. You understand the world and may change it.
• At Your Best: You are sharp, inventive, and creative. You have the skills to lead the world.
• At Your Worst: You are reclusive, weird, and a bit paranoid.
• Your Fixation: Greed
• Your Primary Fear: Being useless or incompetent
• Your Primary Desire: Being competent and needed
• Other Number 5′s: Bill Gates, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Bjork, and Stephen Hawking.

• You like partying and politics. It’s likely you are young and affluent.
• You’re less religious, traditional, and uptight than most Democrats.
• Smoking pot, homosexuality, and gambling are all okay in your book.
• You prefer that the government help people take care of themselves.

To read an article about
the facts, click here.

I was listening to BBC Radio about a week or two ago during the Republican convention and they were interviewing this economist from France. Apparently he wrote a book about 10 years ago that was 100% correct regarding future global economic conditions.

They were interviewing him about the current economic climate and the dude got me scared with some of the stuff he was saying about the American economy.

The short version, we’re FUC*ED. I don’t curse so I’m not using that word lightly.

Then fast forward a week, Washington Mutual is going through some things that made me wonder if I should take my money out of the bank and keep it at home. (I don’t have much and it’s supposedly insured, but can you imagine trying to get your money back from the government after your bank has collapsed.)

Then I read that Warren Buffet has basically stopped investing and we have this weekend’s happenings with Lehman.

Times are not looking good for the U.S. these days.

So I’m reading an article on maintaining weight loss, 4 Reasons We Regain Weight, and checked out the comments section when I finished. The comment below was sooooo on point.

I am astounded how much weight loss maintainance is like remaining sober. That is, I am an alcoholic and in order to stay off the booze there are several things I must do, either daily or weekly. If I don’t do them, I may drink again, or crave it. Weight loss appears to be the same for some people.

I found her comment to be a very good analogy. I don’t think people really realize how difficult it is to lose weight and maintain the weight loss.

Every day is a challenge. EVERY DAY.

I’ve only been successful when I totally altered my life. Not just what I eat or whether or not I exercise. Check out some of the reasons why below.

• There’s not as much hanging out with friends or doing the after work thing. Why? Because the all social activities involve food and/or drinks. (At least with the people that I know.)
• I have to go to bed no later than 9 or 9:30 pm. Why? Because by then, I’m starving and if I stay up any later, I’m gonna eat again. (When tracking calories in a food diary, it was this extra meal that was always the difference in weight loss.)
• TV becomes annoying. Why? The tempting and teasing of the food commercials ….. LOL. I’m serious. I start to crave things that I don’t even like just because the commercials make food look so appetizing.
• Less leisure time. Why? No more downtime because I have to shop and cook more. Fruits and veggies don’t have a long shelf life. I find myself going shopping about three times a week just to eat right. Then add in the time it takes to cook and do dishes. (vs. the usual eat something out or order in). It’s hard to find time to just chill, talk on the phone, surf the net, etc. And, of course there’s the recommended 5-6 hours a week of exercise for someone my size.

There’s probably a couple of other things that I find challenging when trying to lose weight that I can’t think of right now.

I know there are benefits to the weight loss and I’m going to try to focus on those more. Kind of like the light at the end of the tunnel.

Have any tips for me? Put them in the comments section below. Thanks.

The situation has gotten out of control.

I’ve always been a big person, but I’ve never really felt fat. I’ve always been able to hold my own as a big girl when getting around and doing whatever I wanted.

Lately, things have changed. I feel myself slowing down, can’t do as much as I used to. I get tired doing simple things. One of my friends says it’s age. Some of it probably could be attributed to that, but the extra weight is the primary source.

I went grocery shopping yesterday and the five block walk home almost killed me. I actually had to stop and rest for a minute. After I got home, you would have thought that I did a workout the way I was sweating. NOT GOOD. Yes the bags were kind of heavy, but I should not have been sweating like I was.

I had been toying with the idea of writing about this on my blog for a couple of months. I read a lot of blogs and always find it interesting when people share their lives. However, I have this privacy thing which means that every detail won’t be on this blog. Just the highlights.

I turn 40 next May (2009) and I really don’t want to be the typical 40 year old couch potato. NYC and my life is waaaaay too exciting for that. However, I think I’m headed down that road and it’s time for a drastic change. Hence the new category, Faboulous & Fit.

Here’s a before picture. It was taken last year but I pretty much look the same. (Nah, I’m lying, my face is fatter. At least it looks that way in the mirror.)

I was inspired to blog this morning because of a comment I read on a website about losing weight. It was something that should help me keep things in perspective on this journey. The article was on maintaining weight loss. It was titled 4 Reasons We Regain Weight so you know it was a must read.

When you’re my size, you can lose weight fairly easy, but keeping it off and not have the scale go up and down every week is the challenge.

The gist of the article is that in order to maintain long term weight loss, you need to do the following:

1. Participate in aerobic exercise for least one hour or more each day
2. Focus on watching calories
3. Keep food logs
4. Choose healthier and lower fat foods

I’m going to start with #4 this week. Choosing healthier, lower fat foods. I plan on keeping some sort of food diary. In the past, I’ve used FitDay.com, but I would get lazy or tired of entering food into the database.

FitDay.com is excellent for giving you a reality check about what you’re eating and how many calories things are. I noticed a trend when I would use it. First, I was always amazed at how many calories things were when you factor actual serving size vs. normal American serving size.

I think I may just use the blog as a food log. I’ll just write things down, no counting calories or anything. Just the facts.

Summer 2007 --- Before

The Countdown Begins Today. 8 Months to Goal.

This is getting ridiculous. Today, Alley Insider reported that some bloggers at AOL have chosen to keep posting for free after cutbacks that would only pay them for five posts per day. It’s assumed that at least some people are indeed donating some of their blog posts. And don’t even get me started on the Huffington Post, that repository of crackpot rants built by an army of many free-bloggers writing in the name of “exposure.” (CEO Betsey Morgan said in a recent interview that paying the HuffPo’s bloggers might possibly be part of the picture someday; in the meantime, “It feels very 1993 to say, ‘Hey, it’s all about the check that I get at the end of the month.’”) After the jump: Econ 2.0, or why bloggers should stop writing for free.

Bloggers have to stop thinking of themselves as white-collar creatives and more like rank-and-file workers. After all—that’s how they’re paid!

Some bloggers get paid per-post, like pieceworkers in a 19th-century factory. Some get paid for pageviews, which is even more idiotic from a worker’s perspective. It means you’re not paid for your labor (except your monthly minimum) but paid instead on a sort of gamble—how well your product will perform when it’s thrown into the open marketplace.

(The pros and cons of that system have been thoroughly discussed elsewhere. There are definitely flaws, but hey, at least I’m receiving money for my blogging.)

It’s easy and idealistic to say, but seriously: stop writing for free. This means you, if you’re one of the many Huffington Post bloggers who don’t get paid. Have something to say? Write an op-ed or a letter to the editor. There are some times in a young writer’s career where you have to make the decision to write for free. I’ve done it; you’ve done it. The trick is knowing when to stop.

Just about anyone can argue with my line of reasoning—”it’s more complicated than that,” etc., and on some level it probably is. But on the actual working-to-live level it’s not. It’s not more complicated than that. If you’re blogging for someone other than yourself (not as a commenter, not as a personal blogger; those are labors of love and don’t count) you deserve to be paid.

If you’re an employee or an independent contractor or a freelancer and some entity or website is making money off your labor, you deserve to be paid. It doesn’t matter how solvent the company is—they’re still selling ads and making revenue.

It’s not only for your own good that you should demand to be paid, either. People working for free (or for depressed wages) drive down the pay for bloggers who do get paid for their work. (more)

Here’s another clip.

Anyway, I’ve been loving the song “Love in This Club”. It’s one of the few “southern sounding” songs that I like love.

Usher’s dance skills appear to be a little rusty in the clip below, but if you’re a fan you’ll appreciate the performance. He’s definitely a great entertainer.

“Blow jobs are like flowers for men”

Source

A couple of weeks ago I read a posting in one of my favorite blogs about being a ride or die chick. I’d have to say that Suge Knight definitely has a ride or die chick that he’s rolling with.

I’m trying to figure out where his boys were and why a couple of women were helping him up after he got knocked out in the club this past weekend.

For more photos, check out the photo source.

Pi Day is an unofficial holiday that celebrates the mathematical
constant, Pi (∏).

It is celebrated on March 14 because the first three digits of Pi are 3.14 — although true enthusiasts mark the actual time of the holiday as 1:59 p.m., also known as the Pi Minute, or 1:59:26 p.m., the Pi Second. (While it is possible to estimate with great precision the moment at which the holiday occurs, it is impossible exactly to define.)

Pi Jokes are traditionally told on Pi Day. March 14 is also, coincidentally, the birthday of Albert Einstein.

Source