BlackMan Time

Archive for January, 2009

Someone sent me this Black History timeline which I share with you below…

I hate being in love,
sometimes,
For everytime I meet someone I like
I go through torture,
wondering,
if every word she say is truth
especially when we’re apart
for a start.

Yet when we’re together,
sometimes,
She loves me with an intensity,
that wipes all doubt,
right out
of my mouth
and my head
until I’m dead
and I rise again…

1. He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
2. He was known as “O’Bomber” at high school for his skill at basketball
3. His name means “one who is blessed” in Swahili
4. His favourite meal is wife Michelle’s shrimp linguini
5. He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
6. He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
7. He has read every Harry Potter book
8. He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
9. He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can’t stand ice cream
10. His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
11. He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
12. He can speak Spanish
13. While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead
14. His favorite drink is black forest berry iced tea
15. He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn’t
16. He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
17. He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
18. He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
19. His favorite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
20. He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister’s fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
21. His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
22. He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
23. His favorite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
24. He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
25. He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee
26. His favorite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugues
27. He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
28. He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
29. He doesn’t drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
30. He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
31. As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
32. His daughters’ ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malian, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
33. He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
34. He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
35. His house in Chicago has four fire places
36. Daughter Malian’s godmother is Jesse Jackson’s daughter Cantata
37. He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
38. He uses an Apple Mac laptop
39. He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
40. He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffer Marx suits
41. He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
42. He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Tariff, who charges $21 (£13)
43. His favorite fictional television programmers are Mash and The Wire
44. He was given the code name “Renegade” by his Secret Service handlers
45. He was nicknamed “Bar” by his late grandmother
46. He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
47. His favorite artist is Pablo Picasso
48. His specialty as a cook is chili
49. He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were “street urchins”
50. He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
51. His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government

The easiest thing to do whenever a situation gets too unbearable is to walk away from it. To quit. Quitting immediately moves you away from the situation in question, even if it weakens your soul.

In quitting you may inconvenience a number of people, some who may have helped to put you where you are today. They could, no doubt, be disappointed that you didn’t stick it out.

But since they didn’t experience the situation like you did they are not as intimate with it. Yet from their viewpoint they just know that quitting is wrong!

It’s funny how ignorance can manipulate its way to superior position.
Isn’t it?

This is one of those rare moments when you get to see the President of the United States crying.

I have no idea when the picture was taken or what brought tears to Barack Obama’s eyes, but it clearly shows a president who’s in touch with his emotions.

Falling in love is such a scary process. It terrifies most people. Even me…

On one hand you try to keep your heart and mind open to let the full emotional effect of it submerge and engulf you. On the other you are wary that if love isn’t true you will get hurt.

Some might say this is usually the preserve of a woman’s thought process. If truth be known, men are equally emotional. The main difference is that men may not show it.

Men are unhappy to admit fear in public, yet it is fear that drives them forward. If fear is the engine that propels us, then adrenalin is the fuel. Fear can also have a positive or negative effect, making us either suspicious and distrusting or understanding and trusting.
This can be a tough call if you’ve had experiences where love has not blossomed the way you expected or proved untrue for whatever reason. But keeping the heart closed or being negative certainly kills any chance of true love success.

Maybe this is why love is so scary because if you are sincere about it you have to leave yourself open to the dangerous possibility of being hurt…

There are all sorts of inequalities within relationships but one of the most intriguing is the tall versus short combination. I currently like this 5′ 11″ tall gorgeous, model type woman. I’m around 5′7″ to 5′9″ depending on the day.

In the past I’ve dated women who are 6′1″ and had no problems with it. But I’ve started to look at the situation again, against society’s reaction to such things.

Looking round I see celebrity short dating tall women getting hassled for it, under certain circumstance. Tom Cruise’s link with Katie Holmes is big media fodder! So too is Jamie Cullum’s current fling with Sophie Dahl. But, essentially, what are the long and the short of it all?

It occurs to me that people only make a big deal out of such things because society expect men to be the dominant partner in a relationship and the biggest thing signifying this dominance is height. A woman who is visibly taller bucks this trend, making such relationships the target of ridicule.

Elevate

Insecure men who are dating taller women may turn to various remedies to rectify the situation. They may resort to wearing elevated shoes, the so-called “shoe lifts” which will stretch your height 2 to 3 inches taller. There’s even professed remedies being touted that will add height to your vertically challenged frame.

But, if you’re like me, don’t give a monkey’s about society or what people think, you’ll realise that other people’s opinions only matter if you let it. What matters is what the two people feel for each other.

Besides, having a partner taller than you has certain advantages. You can share certain “height” jokes with each other. And when you’re lying down height doesn’t make any difference at all.

Does it?

List of selected celebrity Short Men/Tall Women relationships:-

Ha ha ha!

I’m laughing at those people who seriously think US President Barack Obama is the anti-Christ. It’s funny because the share ridiculousness of the idea relegates those who really believe the sleight, to minus level intelligence.

The subject itself is so mind-numbingly crass, but that hasn’t stopped supposedly respected media like CNN¹ to indulge in a feature on the subject.

Defeated US presidential hopeful John McCain even accused Obama of being the anti-Christ in one of his campaign ads last year. But even he couldn’t persuade many people of the authenticity of this rash claim.

I suspect the real reason why anyone would want to taint Obama with this brush is to try and ruin his good reputation. And, even though Obama is now sitting on the US Presidential seat, some still refuse to let this claim go.

1. Video shows CNN news feature asking the crass question: “Is Barak Obama the anti-Christ?” [↩]

I managed to watch a bit of the Barack Obama inauguration ceremony on TV the other day and the bit which fascinated me the most was when the BBC cameras went onto the streets outside Washington to ask people what they hope or expect from the new US president.

Their answers varied from achieving world peace to finding a solution to the financial crisis, closing the Guantanamo Bay “concentration camp” to building relationships with previously hostile countries. Even finding a cure for AIDS!

In other words most people saw Obama as Superman and their expectation of him is far greater than what he may actually be able to deliver. Coupled to the fact that America is in the worst financial state for quite some time, makes his job even more difficult.

There is also a sense that America is at such a low point that the only way forward is up! Even if Obama can make modest progress this will be received as a result. If he achieves anything more than this then he would be classed as a success.

History is filled with such opportunities and if Obama can somehow find a way to deliver on the expectations of some people, he would indeed be a super man!