26 Friday Feb 2021
Posted in Funny Friday
A new patient settles comfortably onto the couch, and the psychiatrist begins his therapy session.
“I’m not aware of your exact problem,” the doctor says, “so perhaps you should start from the very beginning.”
“Of course,” replies the patient. “In the beginning, I created the Heavens and the Earth…”
Joke Courtesy: The Best Joke Book (Period).
Have a great weekend, folks!
Until next time…
Dave
25 Thursday Feb 2021
Posted in Thinking Thursdays
Tags
Exploration, Innovation, JPL, Landers, Mars, Nasa, photos, Science, videos
Photo Credit: www.nasa.gov
For those of you who are wrapped up with political or COVID news, this might be startling. NASA recently landed another exploratory vehicle called “Perseverance”. This is really excited because this lander is seeking evidence of life on Mars, amongst its other missions. Here’s a link (last about 1:45 minutes) showing the final stage of landing on Mars. I have always been in love with space exploration and to think we are actually on Mars looking around. Amazing!
I hope you enjoy this and are interested in learning more. To see all the great stuff NASA is doing, head over to their website: https://www.nasa.gov/ It has some great articles, videos, and pictures to keep you entertained for hours (at least it does for me).
Have a great Thursday, folks!
Until next time…
Dave
24 Wednesday Feb 2021
Posted in Wisdom Wednesday
Tags
bravery, Civil Rights, Ida B. Wells, Quotes, reporter, Risk, Truth, wisdom
Photo credit: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett
“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
― Ida B. Wells-Barnett
“one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap”
― Ida B. Wells
“A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.”
― Ida B. Wells-Barnett
“If Southern white men are not careful, they will overreach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction; a conclusion will then be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women.”
― Ida B. Wells-Barnett, The Red Record
“Burning and torture here lasts but a little while, but if I die with a lie on my soul, I shall be tortured forever. I am innocent.”
― Ida B. Wells-Barnett, The Red Record
Ida B. Wells was addressed yesterday as well, and I felt it wise to honor her again. Her work shined a light on the lynchings of the South. She was another firebrand responsible for the greater civil rights movement to come. Here’s her Wikipedia link in case some of you would like to learn more about this trailblazer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_B._Wells
Here’s another link to Ida B. Well’s place in the National Women’s History Museum: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett
As we approach the end of Black History Month, ponder the challenges, sacrifices, and dangers the members of the civil rights movement faced. This is a true testament of bravery in the face of death threats, violence, and a government that did not want to do the right thing.
Until next time…
Dave
23 Tuesday Feb 2021
Posted in Ted Talk
Tags
Civil Rights, Hero, History, Ida B. Wells, Journalist, Lynching, Pioneer
Photo credit: File: National Museum of African American History and culture (97858).jpg, created on February 29, 2020.
I hope you enjoy this video about Ida B. Wells. She was a journalist in the 1850s that exposed lynching both in the United States and Europe for what it was–murder. In many cases, she discovered that blacks were targeted whenever their businesses or ideas competed with white businesses and ideas.
If you enjoyed this video and would like to learn more, here’s a link to her on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_B._Wells
Have a great Tuesday, folks!
Until next time…
Dave
22 Monday Feb 2021
Posted in Motivation Monday
I’ve written about failure many times before on this blog. I am addressing it again today because it is so important to achieving anything. I’m a huge video game fan. My current game is Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. What a title right? It is a great game and tons of fun, particularly when my brother and nephew join in. Whenever I begin playing a new game, I alway screw up huge in the beginning. You are learning the game mechanics, the tips and tricks, the maps, the different modes of play, and so much more. If I quit playing because I fail to win a match here or there, I lose huge.
Playing the game is about winning and losing. If you win, it feels great. If you lose, it doesn’t feel so good, but that feeling motivates me to get out there and play another match. You see? We need failure so we can learn from past mistakes. We also need failure to remind us how good it feels to win. If you fail a bunch, and finally get a win, regardless of how small, it always feels awesome.
So get out there, folks! Get out there and put your best effort in. If you win–AWESOME. If you lose, figure out where you went wrong, and get back at it. The win is waiting for you.
I hope all of you have a terrific week!
Until next time…
Dave
19 Friday Feb 2021
Posted in Funny Friday
A patient in a mental hospital would spend his entire day with his ear pressed up against the wall. The doctor would watch this man, day after day, sit against the wall. The doctor finally decides to see what the patient is always listening to, so he puts his ear up to the wall and listens alongside the man. He hears nothing.
He turns to the mental patient and says, “I don’t hear anything coming from the wall.”
The mental patient replies, “Yeah, I know, and it’s been like that for months!”
Joke credit: The Best Joke Book (Period).
Have a great weekend, folks!
Until next time…
Dave
18 Thursday Feb 2021
Posted in Thankful Thursdays, Thinking Thursdays
Tags
Activist, Art, Audre Lorde, Black History Month, Civil Rights Movement, Discrimination, Gay Rights Movement, Google, Poem, Poet, Poetry Foundation, Prejudice
Photo Credit: Audre Lorde. Photograph by Elsa Dorfman.
Today’s thinking Thursday is about another African American icon. This one is a poet called Audre Lorde. Much of her work throughout her life was dedicated to fighting discrimination be it racial, homophobic, ethnic, or whatever. I’ve included a poem from the Poetry Foundation below for you to read if you are interested. Google highlighted her today. This is where I got the inspiration to write today’s posting. After the poem, I’ve included the link for her biography on Poetry Foundation and a link to her Wikipedia page. I hope you enjoy reading about her.
BY AUDRE LORDE
The edge of our bed was a wide grid
where your fifteen-year-old daughter was hanging
gut-sprung on police wheels
a cablegram nailed to the wood
next to a map of the Western Reserve
I could not return with you to bury the body
reconstruct your nightly cardboards
against the seeping Transvaal cold
I could not plant the other limpet mine
against a wall at the railroad station
nor carry either of your souls back from the river
in a calabash upon my head
so I bought you a ticket to Durban
on my American Express
and we lay together
in the first light of a new season.
Now clearing roughage from my autumn garden
cow sorrel overgrown rocket gone to seed
I reach for the taste of today
the New York Times finally mentions your country
a half-page story
of the first white south african killed in the “unrest”
Not of Black children massacred at Sebokeng
six-year-olds imprisoned for threatening the state
not of Thabo Sibeko, first grader, in his own blood
on his grandmother’s parlor floor
Joyce, nine, trying to crawl to him
shitting through her navel
not of a three-week-old infant, nameless
lost under the burned beds of Tembisa
my hand comes down like a brown vise over the marigolds
reckless through despair
we were two Black women touching our flame
and we left our dead behind us
I hovered you rose the last ritual of healing
“It is spring,” you whispered
“I sold the ticket for guns and sulfa
I leave for home tomorrow”
and wherever I touch you
I lick cold from my fingers
taste rage
like salt from the lips of a woman
who has killed too often to forget
and carries each death in her eyes
your mouth a parting orchid
“Someday you will come to my country
and we will fight side by side?”
Keys jingle in the door ajar threatening
whatever is coming belongs here
I reach for your sweetness
but silence explodes like a pregnant belly
into my face
a vomit of nevers.
Mmanthatisi turns away from the cloth
her daughters-in-law are dyeing
the baby drools milk from her breast
she hands him half-asleep to his sister
dresses again for war
knowing the men will follow.
In the intricate Maseru twilights
quick sad vital
she maps the next day’s battle
dreams of Durban sometimes
visions the deep wry song of beach pebbles
running after the sea.
Notes:
M-mán-tha-tisi: warrior queen and leader of the Tlokwa (Sotho) people during the mfecane (crushing), one of the greatest crises in southern African history. The Sotho now live in the Orange Free State, S. A.
Má-se-ru: scene of a great Tlokwa battle and now the capital of Lesotho
Durban: Indian Ocean seaport and resort area in Natal Province, S. A.Audre Lorde, “Sisters in Arms” from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde. Copyright © 1997 by Audre Lorde. Reprinted with the permission of Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency and W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., http://www.nortonpoets.com.Source: The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 1997)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audre_Lorde
This is yet another inspiring woman. I hope you enjoy these links. I did.
Until next time…
Dave
17 Wednesday Feb 2021
Posted in Wisdom Wednesday
Tags
Champion, Civil Rights Movement, History, Icon, Jim Crow, NAACP, Quotes, Racism, Rosa Parks, wisdom
To continue with Rosa Parks from our educational video on her life yesterday, here are 5 quotes of wisdom from her. Enjoy!
I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.
I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free.
People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
Each person must live their life as a model for others.
Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.
Check out this link to Brittanica on Rosa Parks: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rosa-Parks
Until next time…
Dave
16 Tuesday Feb 2021
Posted in Ted Talk, Thinking Tuesday
Tags
Accomplishment, Black History Month, Civil Rights Movement, Icon, NAACP, Rosa Parks, Service, Torch Bearer
Photo Credit: Photograph of Rosa Parks with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (ca. 1955) Mrs. Rosa Parks altered the negro progress in Montgomery, Alabama, 1955, by the bus boycott she began. National Archives record ID: 306-PSD-65-1882 (Box 93). Source: Ebony Magazine
When we hear the name Rosa Parks, we all remember the incident where she refused to move out of a “white only” section of a bus and was arrested, turning the fledgling civil rights movement into a national phenomenon. Watch this short video to see what else she did in her life. I think you’ll be surprised.
If you’d like to learn more, here’s a link to read about her and her life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks
When you look at the large list of her accomplishments, think about the Jim Crow laws and all the other roadblocks that were put in her, and other African American’s lives during one of the darkest periods of American history.
Have a great Tuesday, folks!
Until next time…
Dave
15 Monday Feb 2021
Posted in Motivation Monday
Tags
Consistency, duplication, habits, Knowledge, Learning, Mindset, motivation, realistic, Sources
How do you get up on Monday, attack your goals and priorities, and feel great consistently? You do other things consistently. If you smoke, drink, and stay up until 3 am binge-watching a series on Netflix, you probably will not be your best at 6 am. Makes sense, right? The same follows with working out. If you are not eating right and getting enough rest, your performance in the gym is probably going to suck pretty bad too.
When I worked, I did my best to be in bed at a reasonable time every day. I went to the gym at the same time every day. It was my consistency that allowed me the same performance at work, in the gym, etc. Self-discipline is the key to anything we want in life. If you want to write a book, you have to discipline yourself to write on a schedule with deadlines and all the rest. If you want to get in shape, you have to go to the gym or exercise in some way consistently, coupled with eating right, drinking water, and getting enough sleep to recover. I’m not preaching some new thing today. This is the way things work–period.
So, if your goals are going off the rails, those New Year’s resolutions are not progressing, re-evaluate. Do you really want those things that you wrote down, or were they a pipe dream? This is one of the biggest problems with goal setting and achievement. We write things down, but fail to plan how to achieve them. Many times I have begun planning in the past and realize that the commitment to achieve something I think I want to achieve is just too much. I’d like to write some books someday. I gave this a chance a year ago, and it didn’t go anywhere. Why? Because other things came up that took a priority, and I couldn’t do what most authors do–work on their books consistently. I had too many other things on my plate that were a higher priority for me. Make sense?
So, here’s what you do if you are having trouble with consistency. First, reevaluate what your goals are. Second, examine what it will take to achieve your goals by the date you set. Third, be honest with yourself about your motivation levels around certain goals. Are they really something you want to pursue, or is there something else that is higher on your list? Fourth, put those goals on hold that you struggle to commit to. You can always pursue them next year or at some other time.
Motivation is about mindset. It is about pursuing the things you really want vs. pursuing things you think others want you to have. It’s your life. Pursue what you want. Also be realistic. If your schedule does not allow you to go to the gym every day, then start working out at home. If that doesn’t work consistently, then reduce the number of times you exercise and stick with that. At a minimum, if all else fails—walk. Walking is healthy. It is something most of us will be able to do for most of our lives. Any exercise is better than no exercise.
This same process can be used for any goal you have. Are you doing the things necessary to achieve it? Do you know what those things are? If the answer is no to both or either of these questions, there’s a quick fix. Simply do some research to see what other people do? Writing? You can find tons of information about writing books, articles, blogging, etc. all over the place. You can find out what other people are doing and try that. The first place I turn when I’m looking at doing something new is the Internet. Then I tag the things other people are doing and begin experimenting. Someone will have done what I need to do, and they will tell you. These can be found on YouTube, on some online schools/universities, or you may luck out and know someone that does something you are trying to do. All these resources are available. You just have to get out there and look. Once you begin to learn what it takes, then you have to decide: Can I duplicate what they are doing? Do I really want to do this? Can I fit in these steps or processes into my day? If yes, then you are all set and ready to go. If not, you may have to decide to put it all on hold.
The mindset we have is critical to achieve our goals. We have to know what we have to do consistently to achieve the things we want. We have to learn about what others are doing to achieve their results. We have to be willing to apply what we learn consistently in order to achieve what we want to achieve consistently. Make sense?
Ok, folks. Have a great week!
Until next time…
Dave
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