You’re Gonna Be A Writer

This is a pretty cool/chill story, & the reason why is because I’m gonna give some massive knowledge about a point in my life where someone shared something with me that I didn’t think was valid…that I would be a writer.

Back in 2000, I was going to community college to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. Obviously, I didn’t have a solid foundation of where I would be going with my career. Eventually, after leaving that school, I found what I considered my career path, which has finally caused me to get back to what I’ve learned. However, while taking classes, I was able to be in a math class, & I remember one of the students telling me numerous times “You are gonna be a writer”. Of course, when he said that, I didn’t take it very serious. Obviously, here we are 18 years later, & I keep a journal with me, notepads on hand, & am constantly keeping a weekly blog (which I never thought would have happened). At first, my writing was pretty sporadic and uncontrolled. Now, I have a much better control & feel for my writing vibe. I don’t even try to fight the urge to write when I know I got something true & embracing on my mind. If someone knows, they usually know. I honestly didn’t believe that guy when he said it, but I guess I’m forced to eat my own words.

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Black Sweats vs. Black SLACKS

This blog might be the one blog that truly triggers me. The only reason why I know it will trigger me is that it is the most unique and unexpected form of profiling I’ve ever witnessed. I’m gonna paint a timeline first, which will then lead to why this conversation came about. A little over a year ago, I attended a business, which shall remain nameless for the sake of this blog. While attending this venue, I came in wearing a pair of sweatpants (don’t recall the exact color). Regardless, the owner mentions that I’m not allowed to wear sweatpants. I thought to myself “OK, they don’t want you to wear a specific type of clothing to keep a bit of a classy and somewhat professional flow to their venue”. I have no problem with that whatsoever. I shocked the owner by walking to my car and putting on a pair of pants WITH A BELT (since there’s this assumption that black men don’t wear belts when wearing pants). Regardless, I went back to the door wearing a pair of jeans & was able to enter into the location. I had a decent time that night (which was expected, because I’m not letting anything ruin my fun time of a night). From that point afterward, I learned that it was proper to avoid wearing sweats altogether in the venue. OK, cool got it. From that point after, for a couple of years, I learned and was used to wearing anything other than sweats when attending the venue. Fast forward, I had attended a couple of times, & one night (a few weeks ago), I decided to attend this venue again. Of course, I enjoyed myself, & once it was time to go, I was asked “Are you wearing sweats?”. Now, of course, while thinking before I act, I went ahead & responded with sharing that they were indeed slacks and no sweats…thus, the title. Why do I bring this to your attention? Well, a couple of things. Number one, there’s honestly no reason to racially profile someone (whether you mean to do it or not). If you have to question or address something, then address it. Don’t talk around what your issue is. The second thing…if you want to check something, then check. If you needed to see that I wore slacks, then ask me. Third, & this is most important…value your customers. Don’t forget to remember with no customers you have no business. I think that we sometimes fail to realize how one hand feeds the other. The customer feeds the business. The business feeds the customer by bringing in other customers based on the service. That’s the simplest way to put it. All I’m gonna simply say is communication is golden. It carries you a very long way. Until next time, this is BT wearing his black slacks to the party while giving a test of his skills. Take care.

Domestic Violence, Halloween, & My Unscheduled Rant

So the month of October was a very busy month (I’ll explain why in a moment). I was thinking of so many things to work on & try to achieve. I have also been mentally gaining ideas along the way. I worked specifically on Halloween, but I was a special guest on Ash & Jazz podcast, which was fun (especially getting off work & somewhat feeling like I was on fumes). I had a ball being a guest. October definitely ended with good vibes, which has forced us to roll right into November putting me in a pretty good headspace.

I’ll go ahead & break down each piece of the title & condense this whole thought process & mostly where things will be going for the upcoming months remaining in 2018. I feel really bad that I didn’t give much energy to the events & activities affiliated with Domestic Violence. I feel pretty bad about it (not even gonna lie). There’s no excuse other than me pushing other things & giving my energy & attention to those specific things. I guess I’ll share it now…I am currently working to get my technical platform a little more exposure by being a true content creator. This will include, but not limited to, graphic design & web development. Obviously, I’ll be doing the web design, as well, because not everyone realizes that there’s a difference between the two. I’ll be working on both though.

In regards to Halloween, I don’t have kids, so it’s become another day on the calendar when you’re employed. I think that I have to regain my mental fountain of youth & find little ways to have fun again. That’s been the biggest thing missing in my life lately. I had to work, so Halloween wasn’t that hefty of a priority within my routine. Maybe next year, I’ll put more energy into it. I didn’t really have my mind into it.

This unscheduled rant is very necessary. The reason why is because I have a full plate of thoughts that I’ve carried for quite some time. I already know that this weekend equates to me putting me first. I’m over a year overdue to take another trip & find a chance to focus on me again. Many times, we forget the importance of self-care until we are put in the position to take that time to yourself & get away. I just know that there is plenty to look forward to. I hope everyone has enjoyed this blog. Until next time, this is BT signing out.

Media vs. Social Media

I am here to provide some bad news…social media is trying to take over as a supposed source of media. If you go back to life before social media, major news companies would be known for breaking or sharing the stories as they happen. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Court TV (before it was Tru TV), & obviously your local news outlets would be considered and are still known as media. That’s the raw data considered as news.

Within a matter of a few years, we have placed social media as a more trusted source of media or news compared to actually taking time to make sure that a story is valid. This is a very strange way to look at it, but if Twitter & Instagram were a thing during the OJ Simpson trial, there would have been much more information shared or exposed that we may not have needed to know. Someone would have “leaked” some information. I know that the biggest difference is that the World Wide Web has literally been upgraded or promoted to the Internet. We look at the Internet as gold. When you did research papers back in the late 90s, the World Wide Web was starting to make a wave, but nowhere near the way it has lately. We are at a stage & point in which you really don’t even have to do as much research for something to happen. When someone has been injured, harmed, or whatever, then a video will “eventually” surface causing social media to become the media.

Have we lost trust in local and our everyday news sources? Are social media sources really getting it right? I can think back with sports when Teamstream was just a mere thought, & now Bleacher Report has become the sports version of “the shade room”. For those who have no clue what the shade room is, it’s a tabloid source that gives news as quick as they happen about celebrities and their lives. Anyways, stories break more often about players and teams through their twitter or just people sharing information with major bloggers or other known writers. I’m just writing all of this to share that writing and promotion information now is pretty heavy.

Before a story has been broken, DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!!! When you think back to MJ passing, people already had him killed off without really seeing if the story had hit the major sites (Associated Press, Huff Post, CNN, etc). It’s gotten so bad that people like myself will share or break a story without really looking to see if the story is accurate.

Finally, it’s important to make sure that you don’t get caught by fake sites or trolling webpages that make a story that isn’t close to a real story. Hopefully you’re more tactful in your readings before just going to the first thing that’s out there. Until next time, this is BT signing out. Take it easy.

Learning how to Detach

A few weeks ago, I talked about the importance of Finding An Outlet. I feel like part of finding your proper outlet is to take time detaching and disconnecting from our various technologies. A few days ago (subject of when this blog was written), I came to work & decided to leave my tablet & keyboard at home. I usually use those as my resources for writing & preparing a blog in most instances. I know for a fact that getting that moment or two away from others to channel in or focus on what you’re trying to work on makes things in my life a lot easier sometimes. I think that from time to time, we need a little simplicity in order to get over our personal humps and bumps that comes our way. The million dollar question becomes “how do we detach?” Do you take time to work on reading a book or writing in your journal. Do you take time to truly turn your phone into airplane mode? Are you doing something to spend time with people while NOT spending time with your phone. It’s very ironic that I found a “TED Talk” last night that genuinely applies to the way we are with others and how we have a difficulty to detach from life because there are so many things offered to us to kinda keep track of who we are & practically what we’re about.

Writing this blog, I’ve come to a very bold and obvious conclusion…we can’t live in silence. Even as I’m writing this blog, I am watching a Netflix series (the Nineties) as “background noise”. The truth is that if we sit in sheer silence, it forces us to have to think about the thoughts that are fighting with our thoughts that we want to put into a communicated form. Even worse is being in a silent space and not having anyone to share your thoughts with. As many of you know, music is my outlet. I wonder to myself personally if I’m able to sit in silence. I honestly don’t know. What I do know is that silence can sometimes be golden. I am sitting in a private room to myself in order to write this from one device while using another device to watch the series…and on top of that, I wear a device to contact me while carrying a device to track and process my daily work. Bottom line, it’s tough to detach when you have things trackin and keeping wraps on you & what you’re doing. I guess it’s a matter of what circumstances occur in our life.

Detaching requires discipline. That’s an important thing to thing about here. If you’re not able to discipline your actions, then you won’t know when or how to detach. I am here to provide a challenge…meditate in silence. Write a journal in silence. Read in silence. Disconnect from your phone for a couple of moments. Take time to look into your mental aura & see what you could be working on. If you haven’t done so already, manage time by praying and being thankful for the small things that have come your way. This could help you find that possible outlet that may generate some form of sanity without knowing it. I hope everyone enjoyed this blog, & I look forward to the responses. Take care.

Domestic Violence

I have been delayed with getting my annual blog written regarding domestic violence & my thoughts towards it. I don’t bring it up solely because it’s October, but because incidents happen nearly throughout the year. I think what’s tough is that we only hear about the bigger stories involving someone’s life being either taken or generating physical, mental, or verbal harm through the process. I wanna make one thing clear…domestic violence should NOT be taken lightly, regardless the circumstance. You will read various stats & give multiple amounts of information and phone numbers to find a way to help someone experiencing this. I feel like what’s tough is that no one (male or female) should put their hands on another person, regardless of what went down. I just want to make everyone aware that you have to truly remember that you matter to you. If a person you’re involved with pushes you to the point that you have to put your hands on them, then it’s just not worth being with them. To add to this, because I think it’s ignored, mental and verbal abuse are real things. I want to put major emphasis on this portion…both mental & verbal abuse should not be ignored whatsoever. There is no such thing as a specific form of domestic violence trumping another’s. Having to go through that is an unpleasant experience. I know that I’m using the word “experience” numerous times, because what happens is that many of these experiences happen in the blink of an eye. I want to share on this blog that if you haven’t done so already, please make sure to store this number somewhere…1-800-799-7233, which can be found on the National Domestic Hotline website. Also, what’s even more useful is that you have a chat feature to confidentially reach out them without actually having a phone call be recorded or available.

Resources are at our disposal. What’s important is to use what you have in front of you. If you are able to do so, be a resource to those that you know are in a violent or altercation-based situation. As I constantly write in this blog, that’s usually an “easier said than done” flow of the routine. All that I Ask is that you keep yourself mentally prepared for whatever life brings your way. Anyways, this isn’t a blog to be redundant in presenting the truth, but please remember that if you need to talk to me, please do. As an added bonus, reach out to those who are medically able to assist as well. Don’t sit & try to think that you can fight the battle alone. That’s the mistake that we constantly make in thinking that everything is OK. If it’s not, then it’s OK for it to NOT be OK.

As always, I hope everyone enjoys reading & even sharing these blogs. If anything, I want you to know that you can talk to whomever you need to in order to get through whatever may be going on in your world. Until next time, this is BT signing out. Take it easy.

Seeing Your Life Come Full Circle

You hear the term “full circle”, but don’t really understand the extent of how your life can come full circle. Tonight, I decided to go ahead & look over my stats with my blog & how various posts have done. I noticed that back in July, when I worked on that series, I had a lot of people come to see what that series was all about. Of course, if you catch part 3, you wanna know what happened within parts 1 or 2, which is totally understandable. I think back to where my writing was going & where my life has taken me since then. Obviously, I’ve turned a year older & been put in a position to really think things through. Many of my actions have left me in a much more unique position. Reading Mariam-Webster Dictionary, it states that “full circle” means to go:

through a series of developments that lead back to the original source, position, or situation or to a complete reversal of the original position

OK, great Bryan, now can you tell us what that means? Well, when you go through life, you literally have to go through life and just continue living until you’re brought to a position where you’re practically back at square one figuring that it was all an odd route or direction, only to bring you back where you belonged all along. I will be honest that seeing the route or routine come around in the way it does makes you see that you have to do things a little different. You don’t wanna go through the revolving door only to end up back at square one with nothing to show for it. I feel like I’m making the point, but not presenting it in the way that I need to. If you have been keeping up with this blog, I have been working on weekly blogs since March of this year…the same day that I got fired from my previous employment. In that period, I went through the timeline of my life, wrote about other various topics, as well as found myself working somewhere I have always known and felt that I belonged. I think I was trying to keep running away from it, but it’s truly been a safe sanity to work on other things that I haven’t been working on. I will admit that after watching a video today on Facebook along with just thinking about how my friendships and connections have been over life, it’s a somewhat smart idea to build myself up along with find a way to help other people get whatever their thing is off the ground. I have never realized how much blacks don’t want to see other blacks succeed, but we want to see each other strive for and achieve better. There’s no other way to talk more out of the side of your neck than saying that (and yes I paraphrased it a bit). I just think that you should wanna see people do better, want better, & most of all…BE BETTER!!!!!! I am glad that between watching the video & looking over my history of the blog, I know that progression has forced things to genuinely come “full circle” & humble me. I talk about this frequently (being humbled).

Just know that if you get another chance, CHERISH IT & don’t screw it up. Many times, that’s easier said than done, but you know where you belong & where you’re practically bound to go. Until next week, I’ll see you guys next time.