You Know What Happens When You Assume

Never judge a book by its cover. Never assume you know someone’s life and background without KNOWING them. And never………EVER assume that all women and black people are the same.

I am a nerd and a geek. No qualms about it. LOVE it. I am a gadget queen and will talk you under a table about sports. I am not your “typical” female. Don’t get it twisted, though. I am a heterosexual MARRIED female. That other side is not my team. It may be yours, but hey, do you. Not my role and not in agreement with that.

My career is in a technical and strategic role. Sad to say, I am used to being the only female and/or the only black in offices, meetings at work, etc. It is 2008 and I am still getting second-guessed on my abilities because I graduated from two HBCUs (if you don’t know, go Google it), looked at as being the admin at an office (get your own dang coffee and take your own minutes!) and rarely presumed to be an active, knowledgeable participant in the meeting that is about to start. Yeah, I hold an undergraduate and graduate (thesis-option) degree in electrical engineering and an MBA in finance. Yet, people come still have this preconceived notion that I am the admin or I must be the note-taker for the meetings or I am the “MS Office” guru (definitely not MS Excel because that requires me being analytical and knowing something and gee, this black girl couldn’t know that!). NOT!

I chose to go into engineering because of my LOVE of math and science and I am very analytical. I LOVE the combination of technology, policy and strategy and law. That is my passion. I love being a nerd and learning new things. But the reality is there are very few of us (female and blacks) who are going into engineering. Articles have shown that younger kids view engineering as pocket-protector having, coke-bottle glasses wearing, Urkle-looking folks.

Just a rant for the day….

I Want My REFUND!!!

I am going to have to come back to this because this is just ……..

Just read it….

After Bailout, AIG Executives Head to Resort

Absentee Ballot Deadlines – ANY QUESTIONS?!

http://www.longdistancevoter.org/absentee_ballot_deadlines

Real Women

I was raised by a mother who, at all times, was fair, poised, tactful, beautiful, graceful and FIERCE. When I look at other women, 99% of the time, I compare them to my mother and the other real women in my life. You know, those women who are articulate, street smart, hard-working, and the like.

I was watching Michelle Obama’s speech at the DNC last night and throughout her speech, it was if my Mom was speaking to an audience. See, we all know that we aren’t alone in our daily walk (God is always with us) and that the road we are taking has been laid by someone else (how else would it get there?!). That road may not be the exact same path that someone else took, but the ground has been graded for the road to be paved, if it isn’t already. We all stand on so many shoulders and owe the next generation what our prior generation gave to us and better.

Michelle Obama spoke of family, shared values, hard work, determination and the future. These are all the things that I heard (and still hear) from the real women in my life. Not to say that the men in my life haven’t expressed the same concerns, but this post is about the women in my life.

My parents didn’t come from money. Didn’t receive a huge financial inheritance when their parents passed on, but the values that were instilled in them is more than any money could buy. They have passed on those values to us.

My Mom was (is….LOL) always telling me to think before I speak. Hold your shoulders back and walk tall. Do good in school and take in all that you can. Life isn’t fair, but work hard and you’ll move forward. She always was dressed to the nines and professional at all times. Classy, elegant and poised…..yeah, how a real woman should look and act.

Here is to all of the real women who are in my life and who have been in my life….I want to say THANK YOU for all that you’ve done, you do and continue to do for me and others.

Friday Rant – 22August2008

Okay, it’s Friday and um, I am starting to see things that just should not be happening in 2008:

1. Freeze curls are PLAYED OUT and should not be worn!
2. Black pencil liner on your lips….Black pencils are for EYES, not lips!
3. Fingerwaves, fingerwaves, fingerwaves on a DAILY basis….RELEASE your addiction to the gel! UNLESS you are going retro with the ENTIRE LOOK, LET IT GO! ESPECIALLY on dudes… YOU know who you are.
4. Socks worn with sandals…………if you are going to wear sandals, WHY do you have on socks? Don’t believe the hype.

Alive and Kicking

If you are one of those people that exist in this world and thing racism isn’t alive. Think, again. Yes, matters may be perceived to be better, but on the inside, racism is still alive and kicking.

Here it is 2008 and this kind of crap is STILL going on. Only this time, instead of the crosses being physically burned in our front yards, they are being burned at our schools (mentally), at work, and at the most segregated hour of the week, Sunday morning.

Cosmetic Safety Concerns?

I ran across this VERY informative and insightful website this morning when reading an article on one of my fav beauty websites.

Hitting the Pool

Um, yeah, I’ve been considering swimming twice a week as an alternate form of exercise. I guess God was trying to tell me something, because here is a reason for me to go. Talk about an inspiration!

A Few Things I Love About Living in the DMV

Just sharing a few things I love about living in this area in the summer (comes a cool second to my all time FAVE summer city, CHI-TOWN!).

Browswer Bookmarks In Several Places?

Ever bookmarked a URL at home and forgot what is was and wanted to pull it up somewhere OTHER than your home computer? If you use Firefox as a browser (as most of us techies recommend you do), there is a solution that ROCKS! It’s called Foxmarks. It is an add-on to Firefox that allows you to sync your bookmarks across multiple computers. How cool is that?!

For the web-surfing, net-loving, always-tech-learning, gadget-googling, nerds like myself, this is a FAB feature! Makes life VERY easy for me….. I like when life is easy (who doesn’t?!).