Bill HR 875 – Determine for Yourself

Here is another myth vs fact article that I would suggest reading, too.

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The U.S. house and senate are about to vote (in a week and a half) on a law that will OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING!! Main backer is (of course) Monsanto chemical and engineering giant corporation. This bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and POISONOUS insect sprays dictated by the newly formed agency to “make sure there is no danger to the public food supply”. This will include back yard gardens that grow food only for family use. If this passes. no more heirloom clean seeds but only Monsanto genetically altered seeds that are now showing up with UNEXPECTED DISEASES in humans. There is an enormous rush to get this into law within the next two weeks before the people realize what’s happening. The insane bill is called “Food Safety and Modernization Act (Bill HR 875) Call Congressman Tom McClintock’s office and tell them (politely)
you’d like to vote NO on this bill. To make it easy for you, here’s the numbers:

Washington 202-225-2511
California 916-786-5560

If they don’t ask, give them your name and city you are calling from. It’s really easy and will only take a few minutes. If you care at all about our rights to eat foods WITHOUT CANCER CAUSING CHEMICALS in them call right now!! And PASS THIS ON to your ENTIRE email list!!

Here’s a bit about Monsanto:
http://fooddemocracy.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/monsanto-the-bad-seed/

Here’s a couple videos on the subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thE54K3PaTY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeWVkTU1s1E

The House and Senate WILL pass this if they are not MASSIVELY
threatened with the loss of their position….
Their only fear is your voice and your vote! CALL THEM!!!

This website has a petition you can sign online to show your opposition to the bill:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714

UPDATE to a post made about acne…

I made a post back in November 2007 about how I couldn’t find a good dermatologist. I just realized that I never updated this post.

About 2 months after I wrote that post about how I couldn’t find a good dermatologist in the D.M.V., I found one! Her name is Dr. McKinley-Grant and she works at the Georgetown Hospital. I really do like her and she’s very attentive and asks A LOT of questions about your skin.

Just wanted to update that post.

Been kinda of busy with work and other life stuff, but I’ll try to make a point to post AT LEAST once a week from now on……

Until then, SMOOCHES!

Get Off My Dime!!

So, I am pretty ticked that the Octo-Mom/Baby Factory out in California is on welfare. Yes, I said it! I am TICKED that her and her kids are getting government assistance and have been for a while. Government assistance is for TEMPORARY MEANS, not a lifestyle! She’s getting $300K from the Today Show and how much other money from other places.

Three words for Miss Baby Factory: GET A JOB and stop having babies to cure your own selfish antics/thoughts!!! Oh, that’s right, you have 14 kids and SOMEBODY would have to care for them while you are at work and that costs money. So, instead, you keep suing everyone, getting money and living off of MY dime! YES, MY DIME!!! See, as a tax payer, part of MY money goes to support government programs, like WELFARE, which is meant as TEMPORARY MEANS, not a permanent stay. So, um we’ll let you slide for a few months, but from the looks of your situation, you will be on it longer than expected (which you’ve already been on it).

I work and have busted my tail in school and working, but Miss Baby Factory decides  she had a messed up childhood as an only child and decides to have a gazillion babies via IVF! You live in FLITH (we saw pictures of the house) and you have NO JOB! You are supported off of government assistance and settlement money and your mother (God bless her) is financially supporting you and all of your kids.

Get mental help, tie your tubes up and give those children the life they DESERVE and not via your selfishness.

Off the soapbox………for now…………

Things About MagnoliaDiva

I got the idea to do this from NerdGirl and Facebook.

1. I am a news nerd (I read 3 or more newspapers a day and scan others online). I also can watch the news for hours on television.

2. I secretly want to be a professional photographer (photojournalist and sports photography) or a investigative journalist/reporter.

3. I have three pet peeves: lying (UGH), staring (if you look that hard, SPEAK for crying out loud) and popping gum (just plain rude….NO ONE wants to hear what is going on in  your mouth…..No, we don’t…..really!).

4. I grew up in a two-parent home with a much older brother (8.5 years older) and sister (12 years older) and we ate dinner as a family every day, with whoever was home (seeing that my siblings are much older, some of them were off in school as I got older). So um, yeah…no one can tell me that I was planned……….WHATEVER!I KNOW I wasn’t! LOL….

5. I literally grew up on a college campus (Jackson State University) because my parents worked there and NEVER had a summer where I wasn’t in a summer program, working or taking part in practices for extra curricular activities (in other words, my parents never let me have in idle summer….BOOOOOOOOO!). Of course now, I appreciate EVERY MINUTE of those summer programs and “village” raising!

6. I play the piano (mainly classical) and organ (no, they are not the same play) and took weekly lessons from the age of 4 until I was 17. I cannot play by ear, but I sightread very well.

7. I am one of a few (very few) Delta’s in my family (others mainly via marriage). My Mom, sister, and a host of aunts and cousins are all AKAs.

8. Earth, Wind & Fire and Mint Condition are my all-time favorite bands. I love GOOD music.

9. I am an 80s rap head (minus the west-coast gansta rap). I love Run DMC, M C Lyte, etc.

10. I was born in the mid-west (Hoosier baby), raised in the deep south (Mississippi) and now reside in the mid-atlantic area of the US.

11. I am really an introvert……no, really…..I am….

12. I have been secretly called “The RainWoman” because I tend to know little facts about useless stuff (blame that on the newspaper reading)….LOL.

13. I am a STAUNCH manners and etiquette person…..those who know me best can attest to this! LOL..

14. I think that there is so much to be learned from people from other cultures, countries, and backgrounds. Diversity isnt’ just a buzzword for me…..

15. I suffer from ulcerative colitis (a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease) and there is no cure. It is an auto-immune disease that attacks your colon and immune system. There are no REAL know causes and no current cure. Google it to find out more….

16. I am a Christian and try to live my life, daily, as I should from His teachings, but some of ya’ll make it REAL HARD ……………LOL!!!

17. I am a die-hard sports fan…….I subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket and will apply a hurting on someone if they change the station when I am watching my teams play (no joke)…

18. I fell in love with volleyball, by accident, in junior high. We were in study hall with a mean teacher and an announcement came over the intercom for any women interested in playing volleyball to report to the gym. ALL OF US left out of the room (LOL). I ended up playing, for real, LOVED IT and played for 2 years! I still like playing beach volleyball, when I get a change (SPIKE!).

19. I am very interested in Web 2.0 and its tools and how they impact our daily lives….(there it is…..the nerd coming back out).

20. I am an engineer, by educational training (BS and MSEE), and am a techy to the core! Yes, I am an engineer, but NO, I WILL NOT FIX YOUR COMPUTER!! Call a technician! LOL….. Yes, I went to school and earned an engineering degree, but they don’t teach us how to FIX those things…..they teach us how to DESIGN THEM!! There is a difference, people!

21. I HATED, HATED, HATED being tall growing up (I was 5’6″ in the 6th grade)! I grew to 5’10” by the 10th grade. As I got older, I learned to LOVE it.  Now, I wish I was about 2″ taller…….no kidding. I LOVE being tall.

22. I love being challenged! I guess my parents and I had that love/hate thing going on when I growing up (LOL)!

23. I love my siblings more than they know…..we fight like cats and dogs and then play like puppies and kittens when it’s all over! LOL!

24.  I am afraid of heights. BUT, I have to have the window seat on airplanes. I can’t walk along the glass  half-walls at malls on the upper floors (where you can look down). I get light-headed.

25. I am DEATHLY afraid of guns……..can’t stand to be near them and

shake if I get close to one. I just need to go to a shooting range and get this all over with (the fear, that is…).

26. I love lemons in my tea and LOVE homemade lemonade, but don’t like lemons pastries and desserts and other lemon stuff (lemon pound cake, lemon tarts, pie, etc.).

27. I used to want to be a medical researcher (cardiologist doing research on non-invasive methods for heart surgery). That was until I took the MCAT……I stayed in engineering! LOL….

28. I used to sneak and eat the kids’ Tylenol that had the orange flavor. I thought it tasted good when Iwas a kid and would pull the tall chair in the kitchen up to the fridge and get in the cabinet and pop them like candy. Thank you for God’s grace and mercy because I should be DEAD after that…..

29. I wish people would stop relying on things of the past as an excuse to not do NOW.

30. I never realized how blessed I was being raised in Jackson and having a “village” raise me and look out for me when my blood relatives weren’t around.

31. Both of my parents hold PhDs. They actually had me when they were in their PhD programs (see #4). My Mom told my sister that she was preganant and my sister promptly told her, “That is impossible! We can’t AFFORD another child in this house!” because they were living on graduate stipends with 2 kids! LOL….. My sister, I tell ya….she’s a funny woman (back to this one in a sec……).

32. I thought my brother and sister hated me growing up because they never wanted me around them, in their rooms, etc. It wasn’t until I got to college they they “liked  me” (in my eyes)….

33. I was  an 80s music Night Tracks JUNKIE in junior high and high school! We had cable but the parentals REFUSED to pay for a cable box, so our cable went 2-13 (until cable-ready TVs came out). So, WTBS (now TNT) it was on Friday nights! Duran Duran, Brian Adams, White Lion, etc……..yeah, I was an 80s pop girl!

34. I love Faith Hill and her music. Yeah, I said it! We are Mississippi Girls!

35. I am a crier………..I am very emotional….

36. My favorite numbers are 9, 16 and 34.

37. I’m very observant…I don’t miss much. I may not say anything about what I see or have seen, but I am VERY observant.

38. I used to be a TERRIBLE pack rat. Kept notes from undergrad and grad school…..just threw them away last year.

39. I hate designer advertising. Like BeBe on t-shirts, the big ‘C’s on Coach bags, etc. I like A LOT of their stuff, but I refuse to be a walking advertisement. I purchase items because I like them and they are usually of good quality and will last, but that whole walking advertisement stuff………not me, kid…..

40. I hate pretentiousness. Who cares about where you live, how much money you make and where you work and what kind of car you drive?! No, really?! When we die, God isn’t going to ask those questions.

Parent – Child Relationship II

So, I posted this story/rant earlier this month. Well, I’ll be danged if something else didn’t come up to make me go, HUH?!

The Jonesboro High School Dance Team Get Suspended @ Yahoo! Video

I am so old school, but I think kids <—- (you are under the age of 21, you have NO REAL FULL-TIME job with benefits, stay with someone (i.e., parent, aunt, grandfather, etc.), and are most likely, still in school somewhere) these days just are exposed to too much sexuality in videos, games, ASSOCIATES, etc. My bet is some of this fast-tail girls have done this routine for some ole’ tack-head BOY already, for attention and God knows what else….

I can’t believe this show wasn’t stopped by an adult…..

If EVER there was a time for mentoring kids and teenagers is now!

Ancestry – A Newsweek Story

How cool is this story!

Beyond Words: Two Heirs to Two Great Americans

Archiving History..

With all that has taken place the last year, so many of us want to PRESERVE the memories. I’ve found a great website that has FABULOUS advice and great archival products to preserve the memories.

Me being a scrappy, photography, memory-preserving type person, I’ve been looking for ways to preserve newspapers, photos, etc. I’ve collected GREAT newspapers to keep for memories, but newspapers are printed on the worst possible quality paper you can print on they don’t keep if they are touched with your bare fingers, body oils, etc.

Newspapers, especially, they should be kept in a poly bag and in an archival box. Here is a great product to do just that. Archival Methods has other great archival products. Check them out!

Parent – Child Relationship

Growing up in our house, there was never a question of who was the parent and who were the children. None of this “let’s all be friends and talk to our parents like we would our peers”. Don’t get me wrong, I thought my parents were some devil-sent people who wouldn’t let me have my way, until I got in high school. Then, I guess I started growing up and realizing that our parents are PEOPLE that we can go to with our troubles for their opinions, chew the fat or whatever.

When the Columbine High School incident occurred, it was a sad day. BUT, I often say that something like that would have NEVER happened in our house for several reasons:

1. We could never be in our bedrooms with our doors closed UNLESS we were changing clothes. I was once told that when I started paying bills in the house, I could be in my room with the door closed.
2. Our parents were always “walking by” or having to PHYSICALLY come in your room when speaking with you about something, while side-eyeing everything in your room (Mom and Dad, you are not SLICK!).
3. We all sat down and had dinner TOGETHER, as a family (we still do when we come home for visits) and things of the day were discussed.

So, our parents knew our every move, what was in our rooms, where we were going (though I tried that “lie-about-where-you-were-going bit and it BACKFIRED…..never did it again), etc. We also knew that they were our parents and that we should respect them as such.  They reviewed homework, answered questions (if they could…if not, they sent us to those 1962 encyclopedias in the study…LOL).

I said all of that to say this:  YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CHECK YOUR CHILD’S HOMEWORK (see below).

I’m Slowly Coming Back…

I know it’s been A LONG TIME since I posted. Let’s just leave it with life happenings.

I have also moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress for increased personal creativity. I have additional downloads and changes to make on the blog, but I am adjusting things for my MAC and WordPress so they can work together.

Smooches…

Commitment

Commitment.

(NOTE: This was in my draft folder and was never published from July 2008 )

I received several emails, texts, etc., this morning about the potential membership acceptance of Michelle Obama into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. If she accepts, I say kudos to her. If not, life will go on. If she accepts, I hope that she can be committed to the organization and serve, as that is something that all members of all greek organizations lack in this day and time. Commitment.

I have the utmost respect for Mrs. Obama. She is a full-time working woman with a family to look after, too. Being a mother is a full-time job in itself (hats off to all of the working Moms out there……..love you!). ANY woman that can carry a full-time job and be a mother and be a wife, HATS OFF!

When I person is TRULY committed to something, I’ve usually seen a display of tact and class associated with it. We all understand that passion plays a large role with commitment, but how you CARRY yourself during these times is also a huge part.

For example, my Mom ALWAYS shows tact and class (unless she was angry with me…another story for another day). She is consistent in her speech and how she treats others. She is fair. No matter the skin color, age, pedigree, etc., she is by the book and consistent. My Dad, as silly as he may be at times, is the same way: class and dignity (unless he has a joke going with a crowd…..after that, give it up). They are both COMMITTED to exemplifying how one SHOULD carry themselves, knowing that at all times, they represent God, their family, organizations, etc. They are committed to improving their family and community and what is around them.

My Mom, sister, a few cousins and aunts are members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. I chose a different route. I sought membership, was accepted, after my 2nd try (first time via my undergrad institution and the second time via an alumnae chapter), pledged and made a commitment to another sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Why, as so many have asked, would I “break” tradition? It’s not about breaking tradition. It’s about how I want to serve the community and how I observed it to be served by various organizations. As for me and my character and how I wanted to serve, I liked how members of Delta were committed to serving the campus and communities they were located in. Not saying that others were not (please don’t go there). I just saw more consistency from members of Delta. Know that all of the Divine Nine are in this SERVICE commitment TOGETHER.

My parents and family showed me how to be COMMITTED to something through their service to their respective organizations and work (church, AKA, Kappa Alpha Psi, The Links, Jackson State, etc.). I look at how they were dedicated to serving, not for prestige and fame, but because it’s the fabric of who they are. That fabric continues to be woven with their children, grandchildren, students, and the lives that they touch. Their commitment exemplifies that we should all bring someone else (if not more) with us as we travel UPWARDS.

May I make a suggestion to everyone? Before you join something, check our commitment meter and look WHY we are looking to join certain organizations.

Whether we wear red, blue, green, or whatever, know what your calling is and SERVE, not look to be served. Stop haggling on past failures and issues. Move on knowing that you stand on the shoulders of many and it’s your job to pull other along with you who are lagging.