over two weeks ago, i took a breather to jot some things down and get a bird's eye view of my life from afar. two weeks later, i am still out of breath; panting and bewildered by the q-u-hectic way of life i am leading. i caught myself saying i'd sleep when i die a few too many times.
"then everything changed 'cause he saw his own wings"
I attended a banquet with the midget and saw two very deserving brothas get some much-needed public props for their good deeds on the front lines and behind the scenes. I got a chance to reconvene with the crew - my immediate family - down in ATL. Those chicks are crazy. But I love 'em. Lil Sis is about to go off into the world on the real life voyage shT and make it happen. She had a showcase of her body of work and I was beaming from ear-to-ear with pride and excitement (on the inside of course). Yet, the real quirk in the story is our moms though. It's strange because I give her such a hard time when we get together. But you gotta love her. All of our collective craziness stems from her. Yet, our passion, poise, and perseverance also comes from her as well. Coming from where we're from and how we had it at one point, it's a testament to her willpower to see that all three of us came out okay in the end, graduated from college. Durant Ave in the mid-nineties raised plenty of kids; but I guess I'll never know how many of us truly grew up.
"I got love fo' my folks
baptized when the levee broke"
I got to enjoy my annual mini-vacation known as the NSBE conference. This time, we bounced back to Orlando, where it was located my lst year of undergrad. Oh, the memories. This time, there more people, less familiar faces, and a different overall experience. Yet, I am highly happy that I went. Highly. Ain't nothing like a NSBE conference. It gets me rejuvenated. It does something to my equilibrium. I saw several folks who I knew when they were still in high school. I damn sure ain't responsible for any of their success, but it feels good to know you at least played a minor role as a extra in the motion picture of their evolution from child to adult.
"they be trying to hide the history
but they know who we are"
So now it's back to the ever-cliched grind. We grindin, yo. Blah blah blah. Working hard and playing hard trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents and change the world one quarter water at a time. My portable hard drive crashed, my whip got side-swipped, and taxes are still not done yet. Le sigh. And if the school district's budget issues continue, I just may be out of a job soon. Woe is me, right? Nah, fuq that, B. Take it all in stride and man up. My life is in just as much order as it needs to be. I got that sparkle in my eye so when you see me coming, please step aside or get run off the road. I'm aiming for knee-caps and will not stop to ask for directions. I'm chasing dark clouds away to start anew once again and won't be deterred from living out my dreams. If you trying to ride shottie, then buckle up.
"we g'on keep marching on
until you hear that freedom song"
-Erykah Badu, "Soldier"
Monday, March 31, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Ignorance swoops down like a vulture
Why you should join me and work for the Boston Public Schools
"It's calm, yet wild; the style that I speak.
Just filled with facts and you will never get weak in the heart."
-BDP, "You Must Learn"
Today’s educator should choose Boston Public Schools because it is challenging, rewarding, and empowering. As one of the most culturally-diverse cities in the nation, Boston offers a variety of experiences to challenge even the most seasoned educator. The district has a strong mandate to close the achievement gap and educators are a vital component towards achieving that goal. The district reflects the city; a multiethnic and multilingual urban village with many needs, opportunities, and challenges that require the creative and critical thinking of educators willing to take risks and give their all.
Working in Boston is rewarding because no where else in the country is there such a vast supply of resources, opportunities, and networks to tap for building the whole student. Boston is the education city and its public schools should remain at the forefront of setting trends. There are several special programs in place to recruit and retain a diverse pool of educator candidates who are willing to roll up their sleeves and invest in not only the education of students; but their own as well. Plus, being the college town that it is, the professional development and training opportunities offered here are beyond compare.
Lastly, Boston needs educators who can connect with students to reach for the stars and seize their potential. In turn, these educators will become empowered citizens – along with the students – embarking on a journey of self-discovery and learning together. The children of Boston need more positive, visible, and tangible role models. The immediate impact that can be made in the life of just one child should be reason enough alone. Education is the faithful cog in the wheel that has brought to life many students’ dreams, and with issues such as drop-out rates, homelessness, broken homes, and youth violence making the nightly news, Boston educators are authorized to invest in the future of their students.
In short, the kids need you, yo. Be a teacher. Or be a teacher of teachers. Be a counselor. Do whatever you can to help. There are too many of these youngsters dropping out and falling through the cracks. There are good folks and bad ones in the system just like any other corporation or organization. The future needs forming. The sky won't turn bright blue immediately, but everything little bit counts. We need more Prezbos, yo.
"It's calm, yet wild; the style that I speak.
Just filled with facts and you will never get weak in the heart."
-BDP, "You Must Learn"
Today’s educator should choose Boston Public Schools because it is challenging, rewarding, and empowering. As one of the most culturally-diverse cities in the nation, Boston offers a variety of experiences to challenge even the most seasoned educator. The district has a strong mandate to close the achievement gap and educators are a vital component towards achieving that goal. The district reflects the city; a multiethnic and multilingual urban village with many needs, opportunities, and challenges that require the creative and critical thinking of educators willing to take risks and give their all.
Working in Boston is rewarding because no where else in the country is there such a vast supply of resources, opportunities, and networks to tap for building the whole student. Boston is the education city and its public schools should remain at the forefront of setting trends. There are several special programs in place to recruit and retain a diverse pool of educator candidates who are willing to roll up their sleeves and invest in not only the education of students; but their own as well. Plus, being the college town that it is, the professional development and training opportunities offered here are beyond compare.
Lastly, Boston needs educators who can connect with students to reach for the stars and seize their potential. In turn, these educators will become empowered citizens – along with the students – embarking on a journey of self-discovery and learning together. The children of Boston need more positive, visible, and tangible role models. The immediate impact that can be made in the life of just one child should be reason enough alone. Education is the faithful cog in the wheel that has brought to life many students’ dreams, and with issues such as drop-out rates, homelessness, broken homes, and youth violence making the nightly news, Boston educators are authorized to invest in the future of their students.
In short, the kids need you, yo. Be a teacher. Or be a teacher of teachers. Be a counselor. Do whatever you can to help. There are too many of these youngsters dropping out and falling through the cracks. There are good folks and bad ones in the system just like any other corporation or organization. The future needs forming. The sky won't turn bright blue immediately, but everything little bit counts. We need more Prezbos, yo.
Friday, March 14, 2008
if you can't follow my lead, then follow my rules
"The birds be on that mission to fly south.
I be on that east coast mission to ride out."
-Buckshot, "All Out"
I am a fairly simple guy. Not too many strings attached. However, quite often I find that sometimes I don't have enough time in any given day left for me; much less anyone else. Nahmean. "Beat down" probably would be the best phrase to describe how I am feeling right about now. Work is straight nuts. Inhale....
The entire technology department for the school district is operating on all cylinders and full tilt manage this massive laptop deployment we have going. All teachers are getting brand spanking new MacBooks (with Parallels). Thus, they are getting the new Mac OS (Leopard) and Windows XP. And throw in there about 120 GB, a CD burner, and still/video camera, and you've got yourself a party, yo. For us, that means long days of logistical miracles, leftover boxes, cranky people, beaming smiles, raspy voices, and deja vu (like a mutha). All in all, the rollout is going tremendously well. I banged out my sixth training in seven days earlier today. It's getting to be pretty routine by now. One day, I was rocking the Bobby Brown with the headpiece and microphone while doing a hands-on demo. You have no idea how badly I wanted to randomly shout, it's my prerogative. Aww man.
I've always enjoyed training and teaching people how to use and maximize their productivity when it comes to technology. The biggest challenge has been how to balance out the widely varying levels of experience teachers have with Macs - and computers in general - and the large amount of information we must condense into two hours. Here and there, we'll get someone who has never really even used a computer or is simply unfamiliar with how to move their cursor with anything other than a mouse. But hey, it could be worse, right? At least they know what a mouse is. Verdad, son.
The most noticeable and striking observation I have made is of the visible generational differences. It's pretty much well known, but the visual evidence is remarkable. The newer teachers are literally waiting on me to get to the next step as they press on. And this is not to say that the generalizations holds true in all cases. Because I know for a fact that if my 90-plus-year-old, great-grandmother can play solitaire and send me email, then just about anyone can adapt.
We've tried being as diplomatic as possible if any issues arise; yet invariably they will pop up at some point. I guess that's another reason why I enjoy doing trainings. It allows me to hone my patience and refine my hold-that-thought skills. Taking a step back does a body good, yo. It's something I've noticed myself practicing with my night school students as well. On occasion, I can sense myself getting annoyed at someone's lack of understanding - especially when it's a simple topic. But maybe my explanation simply wasn't clear enough. Go figure. Practice makes perfect, right? Or close enough to good enough so that we can get by.
I be on that east coast mission to ride out."
-Buckshot, "All Out"
I am a fairly simple guy. Not too many strings attached. However, quite often I find that sometimes I don't have enough time in any given day left for me; much less anyone else. Nahmean. "Beat down" probably would be the best phrase to describe how I am feeling right about now. Work is straight nuts. Inhale....
The entire technology department for the school district is operating on all cylinders and full tilt manage this massive laptop deployment we have going. All teachers are getting brand spanking new MacBooks (with Parallels). Thus, they are getting the new Mac OS (Leopard) and Windows XP. And throw in there about 120 GB, a CD burner, and still/video camera, and you've got yourself a party, yo. For us, that means long days of logistical miracles, leftover boxes, cranky people, beaming smiles, raspy voices, and deja vu (like a mutha). All in all, the rollout is going tremendously well. I banged out my sixth training in seven days earlier today. It's getting to be pretty routine by now. One day, I was rocking the Bobby Brown with the headpiece and microphone while doing a hands-on demo. You have no idea how badly I wanted to randomly shout, it's my prerogative. Aww man.
I've always enjoyed training and teaching people how to use and maximize their productivity when it comes to technology. The biggest challenge has been how to balance out the widely varying levels of experience teachers have with Macs - and computers in general - and the large amount of information we must condense into two hours. Here and there, we'll get someone who has never really even used a computer or is simply unfamiliar with how to move their cursor with anything other than a mouse. But hey, it could be worse, right? At least they know what a mouse is. Verdad, son.
The most noticeable and striking observation I have made is of the visible generational differences. It's pretty much well known, but the visual evidence is remarkable. The newer teachers are literally waiting on me to get to the next step as they press on. And this is not to say that the generalizations holds true in all cases. Because I know for a fact that if my 90-plus-year-old, great-grandmother can play solitaire and send me email, then just about anyone can adapt.
We've tried being as diplomatic as possible if any issues arise; yet invariably they will pop up at some point. I guess that's another reason why I enjoy doing trainings. It allows me to hone my patience and refine my hold-that-thought skills. Taking a step back does a body good, yo. It's something I've noticed myself practicing with my night school students as well. On occasion, I can sense myself getting annoyed at someone's lack of understanding - especially when it's a simple topic. But maybe my explanation simply wasn't clear enough. Go figure. Practice makes perfect, right? Or close enough to good enough so that we can get by.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
And at the same time on the outside I'm representing
ShT is for real we abouts to get hectic
-Mobb Deep, "QU Hectic"
Hectic ain't the word. Oddly enough, 2008 is running my butt ragged. My juices are flowing and the pupils are dilating properly. But damn, yo. It's barely sensible.
I like to keep myself busy. Being bored make me, well, bored. And subconsciously, I feel as though I get dumber when my brain is not being stimulated. But I never actually considered the threat that over- or hyper-stimulation could pose.
"I need to slow down, moving through life at a high speed
Watching all the slow runners pass by me"
So let's do a quick pulse check. The discipline is still there (I think). I've been making progress on several avenues that had previously stalled out. I've been doing decently on the whole get-your-ish-together genre in terms of to-do lists and things to which I needed to tend. However, I definitely behind on a couple of things that I would have hoped would be much farther along by now in terms of completeness. And much to my chagrin, a few personal goals have taken hardcore back seats to some more pressing issues. Definite disappointment there. But all in all, I can't complain. Complaining is for bammas. Fuq that, yo.
"FuQ a fantasy I'm leaving in reality
Caught up in this untouchable mentality"
I am tempted to commit. No, it's not what you're thinking. LMAO. I'm inclined to try and get back on my writing shT with a serious vengeance. But it's still just in the inclination phase right now. The type of inspiration needed for my poems comes from who the hell knows, so I'll just go with the flow there. As for blogging, I think about it all the time. So many things occur on any given day that I want to write about and share my view and offer some perspective on but then another fire starts to burn and it's time to ring the alarm. You'd think I was an actual, professional juggler the way things are going as of late. But we can always squeeze some time out of our days, right? There's always room for more. Or so they say.
And who the fuq is they anyway? Fuq them. I've actually been employing the "they" technique lately much to my amusement. I like to randomly invoke mystery experts into conversation without citing my sources. Just to make or embellish a point. To hell with a bibliography, I say. And to hell with rules in general. Break 'em. Just live your life, yo. We about to start the damn Underground Railroad at work beginning tomorrow with this massive-a$ laptop project. I will definitely have to write about that by itself. Let's just say, hectic ain't even close to capturing what's about to go down. I might have to start going to sleep before midnight the next few weeks. Um, yeah. We'll see how that goes. But whatever. We ready. Let's get it.
Why come around if you afraid of what's over here
-Mobb Deep, "QU Hectic"
Hectic ain't the word. Oddly enough, 2008 is running my butt ragged. My juices are flowing and the pupils are dilating properly. But damn, yo. It's barely sensible.
I like to keep myself busy. Being bored make me, well, bored. And subconsciously, I feel as though I get dumber when my brain is not being stimulated. But I never actually considered the threat that over- or hyper-stimulation could pose.
"I need to slow down, moving through life at a high speed
Watching all the slow runners pass by me"
So let's do a quick pulse check. The discipline is still there (I think). I've been making progress on several avenues that had previously stalled out. I've been doing decently on the whole get-your-ish-together genre in terms of to-do lists and things to which I needed to tend. However, I definitely behind on a couple of things that I would have hoped would be much farther along by now in terms of completeness. And much to my chagrin, a few personal goals have taken hardcore back seats to some more pressing issues. Definite disappointment there. But all in all, I can't complain. Complaining is for bammas. Fuq that, yo.
"FuQ a fantasy I'm leaving in reality
Caught up in this untouchable mentality"
I am tempted to commit. No, it's not what you're thinking. LMAO. I'm inclined to try and get back on my writing shT with a serious vengeance. But it's still just in the inclination phase right now. The type of inspiration needed for my poems comes from who the hell knows, so I'll just go with the flow there. As for blogging, I think about it all the time. So many things occur on any given day that I want to write about and share my view and offer some perspective on but then another fire starts to burn and it's time to ring the alarm. You'd think I was an actual, professional juggler the way things are going as of late. But we can always squeeze some time out of our days, right? There's always room for more. Or so they say.
And who the fuq is they anyway? Fuq them. I've actually been employing the "they" technique lately much to my amusement. I like to randomly invoke mystery experts into conversation without citing my sources. Just to make or embellish a point. To hell with a bibliography, I say. And to hell with rules in general. Break 'em. Just live your life, yo. We about to start the damn Underground Railroad at work beginning tomorrow with this massive-a$ laptop project. I will definitely have to write about that by itself. Let's just say, hectic ain't even close to capturing what's about to go down. I might have to start going to sleep before midnight the next few weeks. Um, yeah. We'll see how that goes. But whatever. We ready. Let's get it.
Why come around if you afraid of what's over here
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