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January 31, 2007
Hiatus: Jan - Mar 2007
It's official. I'm on hiatus starting now (well, really starting at the start of the year....lol) through Mar 1st, 2007. Not that I don't want to write, but life calls (and she's been a pretty demanding chick of late) and I've gotta answer.
I'll provide full details, about the reasons behind the hiatus, etc. when I return.
I'm gonna miss y'all ;-(
Posted by saga_30311 at 12:30 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 08, 2007
a last XMAS in NYC blurb
The other reason I had such a good time in NYC:
I mean, the most I can get in a MARTA station is a bad James Brown impersonator (no disrespect to the dead - I'm jes saying.....)
p.s. if it green screens or flips out - just rewind/refresh. even though it picks up sounds like a mutha, the video quality is bleh, but it's from my phone...*shrugs* ... it's a glorified walkman.
Posted by saga_30311 at 09:49 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
January 05, 2007
more favorite things: ej flavors and crunk + disorderly
Barring Reh Dogg releasing any new videos - there are a few things that help a beleaguered saga keep her sanity in an otherwise bananas corporate world:
ej flavors.com:: Did I mention that ej is the black blogfather of all black blogfathers? He's gotta be the hands-down internet authority on old school r & b music (well music in general...) and a complete sweetheart. ej also does old school radio blogs weekly, along with radio blogs of his favorite music. Hows-n-ever thats not the sole reason why he's my fave. ej's a real geek (unlike pseudo-geeks such as myself) and to my (limited) knowledge has introduced/upgraded dozens of newbie bloggers (like me) to tools like Radio Blogs, real servers/domains, bloglines, blogrolls, etc...etc..ad infinitum. Basically ej's a blog enabler, so you can probably attribute the prevalence of brakka people upgrading their blog game to him. And did I mention he's a sweetie? Ooops, I prolly shouldn't say that - don't want y'all random folks picking his brain with geeky Movable Type upgrade questions, or getting PO'ed that your fave old skool song from 2003 isn't on this week's arby....lmao.
crunk + disorderly:: I cannot get enough of this I swear. I'm tombout I literally HOLLA at my desk reading c+d. It's my morning, afternoon and evening humor fix. But the celebrity gossip that's featured while great (Fresh does her thing, no doubt) sometimes runs secondary to my fave part of c+d - it's the comments section that keeps me dying. And don't sleep on the vernacular - c+d will have me using phrases in real life, that are only known by true c+d'ers. For the stans, Dealers (for which I am currently shopping), WWDD (what would dmx do), :side-eyes:, dramatic cuntyness, donkey's most fascinating people, et. al. I am falling out jset-style and tossing glitter and Kanyekerchiefs to honor Fresh and all the c+d family for continually trying to destroy me.
That is all - Commence the clicking!
Posted by saga_30311 at 10:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 04, 2007
daily chuckle
What better use for an Amazon review than to provide a PMS'ing woman like myself with a chuckle? And to Livewire, the Canadian Information Minister, thanks for the yucks ;-)
Posted by saga_30311 at 08:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Reh Dogg - Why Must I Cry
Alls I gots to say is - I have a future in the music biz.
For those of you who haven't seen this on YouTube - introducing Reh Dogg.
Don't judge him man - he's got stories he's trying to tell - don't get distracted by his (lack of) singing ability.
Ok, for real though - if this dude can (and has) get his songs on iTunes, and they're (allegedly) selling - I have a future as the Arch Duchess of Hip-Hop/R & B. Mary, do not side-eye me!
Okokokok - since I tortured y'all with this - I'll post my real playlist before Friday, I promise ;-)
Posted by saga_30311 at 09:59 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 02, 2007
the Ketchup - OE
Ah, details, details.... click the pics if you want to see more trip pics...
NYC Trip1:: this one was work related, and technically I was in a small town in NJ. BUT (as any woman with fashion sense, or originally from NY will tell you) if you put me within 50 miles of NYC proper, you may as well let me stay there. Did some shopping, had Cheesecake @ Junior's, etc...etc.... The one drawback: work-travel typically sucks, because you're forced to "hang" with coworkers, so my NYC experience wasn't quite what I wanted....
theGig:: ok, so technically I'm writing for a living now. Sorta. Hows-n-ever, I was wearing two hats for a while (geeky and writey) and being pulled in several directions. I was also covering several folks' a$$es while I was doing it (no promo). It was hectic, 24X7, with some sleepless nights and weekends thrown in. Let's just say I am making my babysitters (primary, and backup) rich, m'kay?
theSchool:: I'm into my core now, 7 classes to go. <When we gonna get to the good part?> Yeah, this is the interestingness. Sad part is, I hadn't been able to apply myself as much as I'd like to, because of theGig (as per friggin usual). Profs are pissed, because they know I have A-level work in me, and I can't even straighten it.... *sighs*. I think I owe one professor a beer....
theLoveLife:: It's funny, because there was a point (December 14 maybe?) at which I was dating in bulk. But yanno what happens during the holidays - all them m****f****s went up in smoke. F*ck em. I'm sick of even discussing it.
NYC Trip#2:: Ok, I'm anti-social (well, mostly anti-dramatical, but I ain't going into details). Bottom line: I'd rather travel alone. Given that, I scheduled a trip back to NY. 4 days/3 nights of me/myself/I in the Big Apple. No itinerary, no goals - just me chillin, hanging out, etc. Ah - bliss....
...until it got jacked by work. Ain't that a bytch. So, my 4/3 turns into a 7/6, but I get a rental for the extra days. Kewl. So, I shopped, ate, vegetated, listened to Ms. Jones (luv me some her, tee-hee), shopped more, chilled, explored, shopped for the kiddies, ate more, chilled more, listened to "real" radio stations (i.e. variety - Hello 107.9/95.5/103.3?!!!) and reported to work a freshly refreshed former NY'er (upstate, shhhh - no jokes). Yes, I luv NY. So much that I even considered whether I'd want to relocate (again - not trading my 2500+ sg ft house for a 750 sq ft condo). But I'm headed back at least 2X in 2007. Yippee!!!
theTravel:: Did I mention that I love to travel? No? Yeah - cause it's been so long that even I forgot. I do, so along with the NY trips, I need to plan one more stateside trip this year. Somewhere that Airtran flies. Any ideas?
theStudyAbroad:: If I've mentioned this before I apologize, but I'm headed overseas sometime in '07. I'm shooting for South America in August, but it will definitely be this summer. And I got a scholarship to cover part of the travel costs to boot - yeah!!! The S. America trip will be Rio (Brasil) and Buenos Aires (Argentina) and I'm just so happy I can't hardly wait. I just have to let the trip coordinator know, confirm my space and it's on (hey, maybe I should be typing up my letter of intent as we speak, hm..?).
Aight, so that's basically what I've been up to, along with the usual holiday cheer. BTW, Hammy wants to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
author's note: Hammy's Seasons Greetings were delayed by the author's trifling non-blogging-ness and not by Hammy himself. She apologizes and extends her (albeit belated) best wishes to everyone as well ;-)
Posted by saga_30311 at 11:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
OE related randomness
on the k-solo travel thingie:: Maybe I'm weird for this one, but what I need to get out of my travel experience is a lil different from what other folks need to get: a) I need local food b) I need local shopping c) I need local entertainment and d) I need local music. Not necessarily in that order. Now I know, lots of people go to NY for Broadway shows, 5-star restaurants and Chinatown. And a bootleg or two. But I need: gutter dogs, and real NY hip-hop. And pizza made by Italians - preferably in family-owned spots. And collard greens in Harlem. And kinda mis-matched clothes. And outside-the-fashion-box-thinking. And Puerto Rican/Dominican/Cuban/Columbian men (wait, see you don't even understand that - so I almost want to repeat this one. My next baby daddy will be a Papi Chulo, m'kay?). And street vendors in Soho. And the skyline view from Riverside Park. And Lennox Ave. And old architecture and buildings with "character". And decorated stoops. And Macy's Christmas windows and the lights in Herald Square. And clearance window shopping at Uniglo/DKNY/Triple 5 Soul/Necessary Objects/Issey Miyake (even if nothing fits). And graffitti and crowded streets, and sarcasm, and people who understand dry wit and subways and being kinda lost, and getting directions from "angry" (what a fallacy) NY'ers and beatboxing and breakdancers in the 34th street station and homeless folks who don't try to guerrila beg from you and.....oh, you get the gist. I miss NY.
But I did the same thing in Savannah and Charleston. Smothered pork chops from Suzabelle's have it way over Ruby Tuesdays, even if Ruby's food is guaranteed. And I need not take anybody's tour, because tourists generally make me want to choke the ever-living shyt outta them.
Give me an unexplored city, some subway tokens and some free-time, and I'm a kid in a candy store.
the fashion thingie:: I'm gonna add it as a category, albeit an indulgent one. I'm....I'm working on a sideline project that's fashion related, so I may need to bounce some things off of y'all. For now, it'll be on some "so, i think this is cute - what do you think" type shyt. And with Spring '07 impending, runway shows ova, and stores gearing up for Spring, what better time than now, dont'cha think?
Aside: have you seen some of the chains (department stores) spring previews? Ugh.
on reorganization:: the spammers are keeping me busy, with comments and trackbacks, so I apologize if it takes awhile for your comments to display. I have got to upgrade MT very soon. And I'm also re-doing the categories, to focus more on things that make me happy (clothes and music) and less on drama (politricks, dating, and who knows what else). Any suggestions (as usual) will be....prolly tossed out the window, but hey - can't hurt.
Posted by saga_30311 at 10:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 01, 2007
Entrance Strategy
He-e-ey,
where have I been? for anyone who still accesses this page, I've just been really busy. I promise I'll post the ketchup later today. I thought about doing a yearly recap, but frankly - it wasn't that interesting. And given today's magnitude, and what's on my mind, I really wanted to focus on the future. The immediate future.
Welcome2007, Goodbye2006:: and Happy New Year, Happy Old Year and Season's Greetings - alla that good stuff. Hope you, and yours are doing well, and have a fabulous, fierce and frenetic (but only in a good way) new year. 2006 was a ball, no doubt....ok, wait. I do have to provide a lil background. Along with a new job assignment, some at-work drama, I've been back & forth to NYC a coupla times in the last coupla months, and fully engulfed in school - as usual. The difference being that the NYC trip was wholly devoted to lil ole moi, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Way more than I anticipated. More on that later. Suffice it to say that I need to spend more time on me.
Along with that, someone pulled my proverbial ho-skirt*. Sadat X, who is one of my best friends in the world, told me that my swagger was gone - completely. Not that I didn't have an inkling, but he confirmed what a coupla of my other best friends has already suggested - my self-esteem needs work. Swaggerlessness has not been a good look for me, but before anyone in the blogosphere tries to disagree - I'm ok with this. It's true, my swagger got jacked a long while ago, and I need to do what I have to do to get it fully restored - and I'm ok with that. Which is a large part of me wanting to create an entrance strategy.
*pulling the ho-skirt: a derivative of a street phrase "pulling his ho-card" that suggests the revelation of something about the person in question that this person didn't want to be revealed. Typically, it's used when showing a man to be a coward, but varies by context.
the entrance strategy:: Yeah, it's that time again - time to regroup, and figure out what exactly I want to do this year. Not what I have to do (the proverbial plate is already filling) but want to accomplish. And the plan to accomplish that. Hence, how I plan to enter 2007, and what I need to do to ensure that the year is as fabulous, fierce and frenetic as I need it to be. And so I can be that fabuous, fierce and frenetic. And trust me, I need both to be pretty frenetic....lol.
So, with that in mind (and with that 101 list winding down in the back of my mind - haven't forgotten about it, and that clock is ticking) here's my entrance strategy - also known as my top XX list of things to do to make myself happy in 2007 - and get back my swagger in the process:
- travel:: I love Atlanta, but my heart belongs....in the wind? I'd say NYC, but I've got the wanderlust really bad, and trips to South America, and the West Coast on my plate. And even though I didn't get that "I'd really like to love here" feeling when I went to Chi-town as I do/did when I visited NYC (as I do every time I visit NYC), I'm a realist - I ain't trying to sell my brand spanking new house to live in a 2-bedroom walkup. I really like to travel, so I'm looking forward to doing more this year. And I've already planned a trip back to NYC in March...lol.
- flying solo:: whoda thunk that I'd travel 900+ miles to NYC to do things by myself (and enjoy them immensely) that I refuse to do alone here in ATL? Simple things, like shopping, dining out, clubbing, exploring museums and pampering myself. What sense does that make? So, I need to keep stepping out of my box, my routine, and indulge/force myself to do those things that really make me happy - by my self.
- music/dancing:: here's what gets me moving in a nutshell - hearing Mims remix of "This is Why I'm Hot" featuring Junior Reid and Baby Cham. You don't even understand - the first time I heard the acapella version of "Back to Life" on WLBS I cried....literally. Music makes my blood churn, makes me move, and makes me happy. But beyond that, I do/did/will like to dance, on most occasions. Matter of fact, I do/did/will dance regularly 3-4 times a week for most of my less-than-thick years (teenage and adult). Hell, if fitness clubs played NY hip-hop and served drinks, I'd be less-than-thick now (not skinny - I'm just not that chick). Not just for my health or weight, but because I can dance my a$$ off, and dancing makes me happy. Yeah, I'm rambling - bottom line is I need more of both. Period.
- fashion:: yeah, I like pretty things. I even like expensive things. And I even like accumulating pretty, expensive things (hence the luggage I bought while in NYC to bring home my accumulations). But more importantly, I like creative things. I like new finds, slightly avant garde, off the wall, edgy things. Things some people are sorta "hm?" about. As Sadat pointed out, that's always been important to me, and although I occasionally express that - I don't do it in a manner that feeds my spirit or best represents me. Fashion for me is like breathing freely, and I also need to express that regularly. Design/sew/buy/wear/suggest/talk/write about, it' just has to be in there, somewhere.
- food:: let's just keep it real - it's not my friend, and it's not my man. It's been a crutch, and it's keeping me crippled as long as I use it as such. I could go on and on about my weight, but the bottom line is that I'm addicted to food and I need to break this addiction. And it's completely within me to do that. I've known that for a while, but now it's time to walk the walk.
- working the plan: graduation is impending (Dec 2007) and I really need to a) create a firm exit strategy at the gig that b) will allow me to pay bills and my student loan and c) provide the next step in my career journey. I need to stop planning the work (cause the more I excel there, the more they put on my plate, with no compensation for the additional responsibilities) and work my plan.
- writing/blogging:: i haven't had an epiphany about this that says "this is what I'd like to do with my writing..." and yanno what? That tells me that I'm either being a) lazy about it (lol - ya think?) or b) I'm satisfied with what I've done. So, at some point I need to assess what I've written, and determine this is still the direction in which I'd like to go.
- dating:: I give up. I'm definitely not feeling it. And I'm not even sad about it. It has sucked royally for so long, that I'd rather just have the V8.
- time-management:: this is really the key, isn't it? Let me just come clean and say I spend inordinate amounts of time on the 'Net. Some of it productive (school research or working) and some of it a lot less productive (ego-surfing, or just vegetating ,watching web pages grow). Now I'll be the first to embrace a healthy distraction, but this has to change. I'm not swearing off the distractions, just limiting them. I need to make sure tat the frenetic pace isn't hampered.
- hammy:: he's 11, going on 18 (or sometimes 3) and far from my afterthought. He's my new partner in crime - and isn't he the friggin cutest?
Aight, I'm off - gotta work on the ketchup (catchup) amongst other things. And I will be back...soon.
Posted by saga_30311 at 12:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack