Wasting time with Jet

Okay, here we go!

I've been finding so many crazy pics with StumbleUpon, I wanted to do a funny post.

Then, I thought...it MIGHT be too offensive and decided to keep 'em to myself.

ANYhoo...as promised here are the final "Q&A" Answers in the less-than-successful segment that was "Ask Jet"

KimmyK is the Neil Armstrong of my Readers (The First...) and she has the utmost respect and admiration I can ever give a person whom I have yet to meet so far...

Her questions were hard to come by (Like pulling teeth!) but she was able to conjure up a few after her first initial question...

"My best memory of my Grandfather..."

I'm not sure I told this story in a previous post...the one of the Dueling Cameras.

Me and Granddaddy both had cameras (I think it was X-Mas Morning and one was a gift?) and we were facing each other sitting on both ends of a semi-circle couch.

I came up with this crazy idea to see what would happen if 2 cameras (with flashes) pointed at each other took a picture at the same time. (I thought the flashes would cancel each other out making for a big white waste of film...LOL!)

So, I tell him point and lets shoot at the same time...

We center each other for the pic and I say "1, 2,...3...GO!"

Neither of us clicks.

I know him too well, he wanted to see if I would click first...

So I mocking laugh, "Ha, Ha, okay...let's do it for real, okay?"

He says "okay" and I count again...

"1...2...3...GO!"

STILL nothing happens...

Now, we're still pointing the cameras at each other...but I got impatient and lowered mine and said, "Granddaddy, c'mon..."

and *POOF*

He TOOK my picture!

The look of surprise on my face must have been priceless, because I had NEVER in my life ever saw him laugh so HARD!

So, as he guffawed at me, I brought up and centered my camera and took a picture of him!

It was one of the rarest pictures anybody had of the usually stoic and serious man.

I've had the picture blown up since, and it always was a fixture in my old place in the bronx.

Mom has a smaller picture in a frame on our bookcase.

*sigh* I miss him the most every Father's Day...which why I make sure MOM takes us to pay our respects at the cemetery every year.

Okay, let's not get all misty-eyed now, LATER on, KimmyK added a few more questions and here they are...

1. Have you ever been a victim of crime living in NYC?
Yes, I mentioned being Mugged for a Video Game in the past, it's the only crime I've been a victim of, it was very tramatic to me (although the event itself was hardly as bad as it COULD have been...), the sheer thought of you owning something and have it taken away against your will...that feeling...is like a kick to the stomach...it hurts a lot...and it stays with you.

My sister taunted me for weeks after it happen (which made the memory even LESS pleasant) and I have promised myself to NEVER let myself fall victim like that ever again...even if it means losing control...


*Shudders*...Ooooh, getting a bit "Batman-ish" there...Let's move on.


2. What's your favorite snack?

Snack?...hmmm....That's a tough one...See, I eat snacks as meals (which is bad, I know) so I have no idea what I consider a snack between the snacks?...My best guess would be Cheez-It'z...Between the Cheerios, the Peanut Butter Sandwiches and the either Pizza or French Fries for dinner...(That's breakfast, Lunch and Dinner I jus Described...) I get by on Cheez-It's...Just the plain, not the White Cheddar, or Hot & Spicy abominations, or those dumb BIG ones, or even those silly stix...jus plain small Cheese Crackers with the hole in the middle. That's how I snack...

(I'm sure my eating habits are gonna raise some issues and questions....)

3. Racism...you think it's getting better or worse or unchanged? I ask this because my friend experiences stuff all the time here in Ohio. Drives me nuts.

When I think of Racism, I think of Chris Rock's famous question: "Which are the most racist? Black People or White People?"...answer? "Black People...Why?, Because we hate Black People, TOO!"

and it's true.

Everyone on my Mother's side of the family, MOM, Auntee, My Granddaddy, Their Aunts and Uncles...almost everyone I KNOW...as far back as the early 1900's (Can't go further back than that because no one talks!) has rarely (maybe once or twice) had any racial problems with White People, why? Because we're light-skinned. And as we got older, we got lighter! My friends thought I had a white grandfather when he was alive...all the early black & white pictures he's a shade dark, but by the time he was 70, he was REAL light. Granddaddy was able to get a job in the Transit Authority, probably cause of his complexion, he did 30 years as a Track Worker, got rich playing the OTB and took his two daughters from Sugar Hill (A black neighborhood back then...) to where the Jews lived in Washington Heights (Before the dominicans took over...) based on the fairness of his skin. White people knew by our features who we really was...but because it didn't stand out...it never really became an issue.

MOM always told me stories about how she testes fate sometime drinking at the "White" Water Fountain and riding in the front of the bus...to me those stories sound like Fairy Tales because it has taken a lot time believe how far we have come so far...

My mom traveled all around Europe when she was very young (18, 19, 23...) and she would encounter these Creole Speaking Caribbeans or "Blue-Black" Africans and wouldn't even consider her one of their own...and it was sickening!

My Grandmother, SHE was darker, but even she could pass occasionally, it was said that HER mother (My great-grandmother) was an orphan, born in St. Thomas but raised in the south. With St. Thomas, there were possible british settlers there that had their way with the women, so who knows?

It's been a mystery our heritage for so long, with such scandals and skeletons hiding in the closets. I'd like to think I'd figure it out in my lifetime, but I'm afraid as time moves forward, a piece of the past disappears, to be lost forever.

From what I hear, Ohio is a bit of a land mine field (Good places, and bad places). I remember hearing the stories of Eagles Quarterback Donovan McNabb when he moved out of Chicago to the some small town in Ohio...I even have family that live near Centerville, Montgomery County so I still believe Racism is still out there...

I wouldn't really see it as unchanged...but it's not as worst as it was in the 80's...I only see it thought other people thou.

I remember an incident in kindergarten, where someone stole my winter coat. The teacher tried to call my house and when no one answered, they noticed it was only a few blocks away and just sent me home...thinking only my long sleeves would be enough! As insane as that sounds, It was Albany, it was the 80's and I guess nobody didn't care about 5 year old children back then...

A stranger found me collapsed and frozen nearly to death and took me to the police station. They call my house hours later and mom picked me up and then the police AND mom confronted the school.

The teacher was suspended, she was also BLACK. MOM told me she couldn't believe how someone could treat "one of their own" like that, but someone that teacher thought I was some rich white kid (with an afro?) who could afford to get a lil sniffle and had another coat waiting for him at home. After awhile you jus dismiss those certain types as "Sellouts" or "Uncle Toms" but what happens where common, regular folk expel you, too? When you get to the point where you have to PROVE your Blackness? What is up with that?

Then on the other side, the white people come condescending towards you...

They think "Oh, it's a black person, but he's not THAT black, so I can act comfortable around him..."

and ACT so Comfortable that it becomes UNcomfortable for both of us...

"Will I be accepted dating a WHITE woman?"...NO!

"But am I dark enough to date BLACK woman?"...Also NO!

so where does that leave me?

In the middle...and that's how I feel about Racism.

We're there...but we're not THERE, yet.

Sooner or later, Black People of ALL kinds will be accepted and hopefully all of us then can start getting along with the White People and everyone else...

Because White People are a bit divided too, (Irish, Jews, Anglos, Caucasians, Italians, yadda, yadda, yadda...), but ya'll seem to handle it better than we do.

*Whew* that was a mouthful...now the last question.

4. Stranded on a deserted island..you get to have one person, one book and one food. What goes with you?

Oooh, I love these questions!

Okay, the book would have to be "Q Squared", a Star Trek: Next Generation novel by Peter David that I could enjoy reading over and over...

For the person, it would have to be a woman (for OBVIOUS reasons) but, someone still strong enough to survive and be famous enough to be rescued so, I'll go with Tennis Star Venus Williams...yeah, her sister Serena is more popular, sexier and all that, but she's a Libra jus like me (her b-day is one day before mine!), we'd drive each other crazy. Besides, Venus is the older sister, and I have thing for those beads (Ggggrow!).

Food's no contest, if I'm gonna be anywhere with limited resources I'm gonna need Potatoes...it'll be the only way I'll survive...I might eat fish if I have to, but I'll NEED potatoes, mashed, boiled, don't care, it's gotta be the spud!

Well that's all for today kiddies...in other brief news...

I've been online on my Meebo.com IM all day and only had a light convo with Red...where's everyone else!!!?!?!?

and,

It's been damn near a week and I'm only up to 23% on this damn "Full Scale" Torrent!!! I'm going nuts here!?!?!?!

Peace!