Boba Tea

My friend Kahlil broke me out of my work-home-sleep-wake-work rut with one simple text message asking me to come hang out with him at the What? Cafe. So I schlepped myself over there after work for a little break from the routine and the possibility of a good conversation.

And I got that, yay! And I also met a cool young lady by the name of Kelsey with the staff music for the Moonlight Sonata tattooed around her ankle (and an Asian symbol on the other foot whose meaning I cannot remember for the life of me!).

Before leaving, Kahlil offered me some tea. Now, being the automatic Google-r that I am, I had already done some research on where  What? Cafe was and what was on their menu. I found out that one of their featured items was boba tea (or bubble tea), which Wikipedia will tell you is “pearl milk tea and other similar tea and juice beverages that… contain small chewy balls made of tapioca starch, called “pearls” in Chinese.

Excuse me. My picky eater self retched at the thought of tapioca. I always envision it in my mind in tapioca pudding form which, to me, looks like fish eyes floating in white eye goop. Yum.

Against my picky eater’s better judgement, I decided “hey, let’s cross something off my 30 Before 30 list“ (namely, item 7).

I received a mini tea cup portion of taro tea with the boba balls in it.

As you can see, the straws are bigger than standard drinking straws, so you can get both the liquid and the balls at the same time. My first inhalation proved to be a fail because a  boba ball came rushing up with the tea and I freaked the freak out. But after that I was good.

What the boba ball looks like, even though my smartphone camera chose to focus on the tea.

So what do I think of the boba tea?

1) The taro tea was cold, wasn’t expecting that, but it tasted really good. Sorta of “herbal” but very sweet. Must have been the mixture of the milk and the taro (found out later that taro is sort of like a potato and very toxic if not cooked properly. Thanks Kahlil).

2) My description this morning of the boba tapioca ball was that it tasted sort of like a raisin and had the texture of a gummy bear. Not at all as bad as I was imagining.

In all, I didn’t hate it. I would love to try the taro tea again sans the boba balls. Mainly because I’m not quite over my weirdness about food textures and to me, randomly sucking up a gummy bear while drinking your tea is VERY distracting.

Ah well, 1 down, 19 to go!

30 Before 30: New Year, Let’s Get It!

So, if you didn’t already know, I turned 29 this past November which means the next one is a biggun’. That’s right, the Dirty Thirty. And now as we start this new year, I am going public with my 30 Before 30 list. That is, a list of things I would like to do before November 6, 2012 (coincidentally Election Day here in the US).

Without further ado, let’s get to it!

1. 1. Go to the Essence Music Festival
2. 2. Go to Mardi Gras – it’s a drive-able distance from Tallahassee and I’ve never been. What better time than now? Wanna come with? Let me know
3. 3. Plan my birthday cruise – Caribbean island hopping, yes!
4. 4 .Travel internationally by myself – every international trip I’ve made has been with my parents or family, so I would like to go somewhere and explore by myself (or with a small group of friends)
5. 5. Put at least $2000 back into my savings – 2011 was been a year of extra spending for me (most of it unexpected) and I ended up taking a bunch out of my savings. Time to put it back!
6. 6. Maintain a continuous blog posting regiment – hey there, no laughing about this one!
7. 7. Try a least 20 new foods - I’m a notorious adult picky eater. Ask anyone who’s ever had to place an order with or for me. I could go on about my food neuroses but that’s a post for another day!
8. 8. Get a second tattoo – sorry Mom.
9. 9. Learn to cook new foods, including staple Nigerian foods – see #7.
10. 10. Run a 5K
11. 11. Lose at least 15lbs and MAINTAIN it! 
12. 12. Go skydiving! – I’ve always wanted to try this! Maybe it would help me get over my mini-phobia of falling.
13. 13. Doing something “rustic” like berry picking or wine tasting
14. 14. Try a “weird” fitness class like hot yoga - if nothing else, it’s a conversation starter
15. 15. Go to Las Vegas - Vegas, baby!!! I want to see if what happens in Vegas really stays in Vegas
16. 16. Get my credit card(s) to 30% of the balance or less – financial responsibility FTW
17. 17. Go to a pro-level sporting event – I’m not the biggest sports nut, but I think it would be fun to experience it
18. 18. Flirt shamelessly with someone – don’t get it twisted. I’m not looking for a one-night stand or trouble or anything. I honestly don’t care if it never goes past this one interaction, but I would like to just be extra flirty with someone without too much worry.
19. 19. Learn how to apply a full face of makeup – foundation, concealer, blush, eye shadow, lipstick, the WORKS! I’ve been told I have a good face for makeup, but I don’t have the patience for it.
20. 20. Finesse my hair care regimen and find my gorgeous go-to style – I’m still relatively newly natural and any success with my hair has been by luck, but I would like to set up a routine and figure out what really works for my hair.
21. 21. Incorporate more “bold” (sexy???) choices into my fashion style – if I can successfully color block this year before the trend fades, I’ll be elated
22. 22. Get certified in something – I’m a techie and have no certifications to show for it, maybe HTML5 certification? Or even something less techie like massage therapy certification
23. 23. Open an Etsy/online store – I’m kinda sorta stealing this from my co-worker, but I did want to start making jewelry and selling it

Aaaaanddd… that’s where I stopped for now. You would think that it would be easy to compile a list like this, but I ran out of steam! I’ll come back and add more as I think of them. Either way, I’ll try my hardest to document a lot of these things on here.

If you can think of anything else that might be fun for me to try, please let me know in the comments section!

This Made Me Smile – November 18, 2011

He was so unassuming, like who’s that tall lanky white boy in the back, is he the A/V guy or something?

Ya Feel Me?

In the course of my conversations, I tend to use the phrases “you understand?”, “you get it?”, “you feel me?” or any variation of the previous (depending on the audience, of course). To me, if I’m trying to communicate a point, if I’m trying to argue you down or whatever, I feel that you’ve got to be able to understand what the hell I’m talking about.

There was a recent “The Nanny” episode I watched (thank you Nick at Nite”), where the titular character said something to her boss/husband that made sense to the folks watching in TVLand but made no sense to him. His response was “Darling, I know that made sense in there [he points to her head], but I’m out here!” And I think that’s what a lot of bloggers do. They make a post about something and write it as though their readers have reserved seating in the control room of the blogger’s mind and can see the thought processes involved in the statement. When I read a blog post, I’ll be honest, I tend to skim unless there is a reason why I need to carefully scruntinize each paragraph, sentence and punctuation mark. And often, I can misunderstand the point because I don’t have a similar mindset or share a common background or experience. I would give you an example to illustrate what I’m talking about, but alas, I’m on my BlackBerry and don’t have any readily accessible.

I know many of my readers are bloggers themselves, so I have a question for you. If you are blogging for an audience, meaning that you want people to read and care what they think about your posts, are you making sure that your audience can understand what you’re saying? Do you re-read over your posts and edit accordingly? Or do you commit verbal diarrhea on the keyboard, hit “Submit” and never look back?

And I know this was a real quickie post (like I said-posted from the BB), but it was just something that ran across my mind.

Motivation…

A little over a week ago, I embarked on a 27 Blogs in 27 Days mission. The point of it was simple: blog once a day for 27 days… so we’re at day 8 and I am officially 3 blog posts behind. The reason? I’m going to say lack of motivation.

I was told: “Just put something out there!” which would satisfy the blog-a-day requirement. But me? I like to hold myself up to a higher standard. When you see a post from me, it’s not so easy and quick. Let me not lie, there are some that are easy and quick, especially the ones from my Tumblr. But in general, I pride myself on putting effort into my posts and doing research to ensure that what I’m saying isn’t unfounded.

I read other people’s blogs and think to myself that it seems so easy for them to bare their soul or tell an interesting story about something that’s happened in their life. How easy it is for them to liken a pop culture topic to something personal or how easy it is for them to glean a relevant convo about a current event.

Sometimes, I don’t feel like sharing so much of my life in a public arena. I admire those who can, candidly and touchingly. Sometimes, I don’t have an opinion that I feel is worth sharing. Example: the BP oil spill. Yeah, it’s a crappy situation, yeah, BP should be doing more, damn, look at the poor birds. Thing is, so many other bloggers have said the same exact thing. So I feel that a post from me would be somewhat pointless if I don’t provide a more…unique viewpoint. Sometimes, I’d rather just watch Fresh Prince re-runs and chill instead of pulling 500-some-odd words out of my head about God knows what…

I asked others for topics. And got a ton of great suggestions. And I have 3 posts waiting in my drafts because I could find the words to make it past the first paragraph.

All of this complaining (and yes, I’m admitting that it is complaining) is all to say that I am right back where I started at the beginning of this post: trying to get over an acute lack of motivation. I will be back and break through this writer’s block as writers usually do. And I plan to make up for the lapse in posts ASAP!

So tell me, what do you do to get motivation or get over writer’s block?

Lil Kim: Publicity or Revenge?

Now I usually don’t do this, but erm…

Over AIM last night, a question was posited to me about why Lil Kim was attacking Nicki Minaj. My one word answer: “publicity”.

[Insert disclaimers here!!]

I do not claim to be a gossip blogger, if for no other reason than because I have a full-time job and I do not have time to keep up with celebrities’ lives and scandals myself… I’d rather let NecoleBitchie or Michael K tell me what happened over the last few days.

Nor do I claim to know everything about the music industry.

Nor can I claim, with a straight face, that I am a true hip-hop head that can weave you through the annals of hip hop and rap starting from the first person who dared to speak words in cadence over a sampled beat to the latest “genius” rapper that was signed to Def Jam… or wherever.

But I digress.

Back to Lil Kim and her reckless tweets. Here’s the background of the story as I understand it. Nicki Minaj, a female rapper who often employs multicolored looks and is inspired by being the “black Barbie”,  is poised to “take over the music industry” as the latest, greatest female rapper (notice the qualifier? But that’s for another day). However, Nicki draws many comparisons to Lil Kim. And why not? Lil Kim was a trailblazer and has firmly cemented her place in hip hop history. And as such, any rapper who imitates her style, in my opinion should be looked on as an honor.

I don’t think Lil Kim agrees. She wanted Nicki Minaj to “pay her homage”. How? I’m not really sure. There’s talks of how Lil Kim says she reached out to Nicki as a mentor and was shot down. Nicki, on the other hand, claims she’s been nothing less than civil and respectful. And I have no idea what actually happened, so that’s where we’ll leave it.

So why is Lil Kim attacking Nicki Minaj? Publicity, of course… And then I read her tweets. And I was hit upside the head by the acrid tone in many of them. Nicki Minaj wasn’t her true target… Drake wasn’t her true target. Her true target is Diddy. In fact, she throws about many claims including some that Diddy is gay and listing artists whose careers that he has supposedly ruined.

My mouth dropped as I read her tweets. My thoughts? “OMG WHERE IS YOUR PUBLICIST?!?!!!” My responses on AIM were either she doesn’t have a publicist or her publicist sucks because she been allowed to put out uncontrolled messages. Or, maybe the publicist subscribes to the age old adage of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”.  Because, of course, Kim has an album coming out soon, right?

And of course there will be the Lil Kim stans who will jump on the bandwagon and diss Nicki Minaj as a no talent hack and wannabe. And there will be the people who enjoy witnessing conflict and will gladly sign up to watch this drama unfold with a bucket of popcorn by their side. And there will be the people who shake their head and walk away from the entire mess.

I wonder about her emotional state. Diddy is not a saint by any stretch of the imagination, I’d assume, but what in Kim’s history caused such animosity towards him? What in her history makes her feel the logical decision is to attack a potential protege (because of said potential protege’s apparent alliance with Diddy)? And I wonder about her publicist who can’t possibly be all that concerned about her career and image if aware of her tweets and encouraging the tone of her tweets.

So why is Lil Kim attacking Nicki Minaj? Who cares knows…

But whatever the reason… guess who’s talking about Lil Kim vs Nicki Minaj?

Are You Secure Within Yourself?

What does it mean to be secure? To me, it means that you enjoy yourself in life. You continually improve on your strengths and continually try to diminish your weaknesses. You understand that you have a place in this world and you excel if you have found it or you work toward it if you’re not quite there yet. You accept others as they are and offer help if they need and want it, but you also value that we need to have differences in this world to fill our lives  with varied and rich experiences.

Let me posit it to you in some other ways. If you’re secure in your:

• Sexuality - you don’t put down people of the opposite sexual orientation. Gay, straight, undecided. It’s hard enough finding another person to love without having to worry about if people disapprove of the sex of your partner.
• Religion - you don’t put down other religions. Your religion should make you whole, should comfort you in times of trouble, should be your divining rod in moral crises. How another person chooses to deal with this world, whichever deity another person chooses to worship should not affect you. No need to “discredit” other religions as wrong if you feel yours is right. Keep practicing and if anyone wants to know more about it or is wanting to convert, be the welcoming hand. Not the hand that shuns because their God sports an elephant trunk and yours sports a bearded man in a robe.
• Size - you don’t put down people who are significantly bigger or smaller than you… the terms “skinny bitch” or “fat whale” should not leave your mouth unless you are talking about a underweight female dog or, well, a whale who likes to indulge in penguin goodies way to often.
• Race/Culture – you don’t put down others’ race/culture/ethnicity. I’m Nigerian. Proudly Nigerian. I’m Black, proudly Black. Would I put down an Ethiopian? A Korean? An Indian? A Canadian? No, I figure as much as I love my culture and my heritage, I can learn a lot from other cultures. How can you rally against Mexican immigrants when just last week you chowed down on chimichangas and downed a strawberry margarita? How can you rally against Arabs when you ordered an extra side of hummus last month? I must be hungry right now!  But when we all borrow from each other’s cultures, who are we to say that cultures that are foreign to us are bad?
• Achievements - you don’t put down others’ achievements. What have you done with your life? Have you reached your potential? Are you trying to reach your potential? No? So why are you putting down someone else who has reached theirs or is progressing towards theirs? By stopping their progress, do you advance yours? By destroying their will to improve, will your will become bigger? If so, take a real look at yourself… you could be considered a parasite if you leech off of others and stop their growth in order to further yours? Instead, it’s better to work on yourself and if so inclined or able, help others along their path to their potential. Build. Do not destroy.

To be sure, it’s a hard thing to be 100% secure within yourself… but if you find yourself overwhelmed with insecurities and find that you are resorting to diminishing others in your mind, in your word, and in your deed to make yourself feel better, superior, what does that really solve? Are you making yourself better? Or not? Those insecurities still remain. You must deal with them before you can grow, before you can prosper, before you can help others.

What will you do today to become more secure?

Take a look at another perspective on being secure within yourself at OwlAsylum’s blog.

Bianca Golden – Vector

This is what I get for watching a marathon of Cycle 9 of America’s Next Top Model on Oxygen today.

Here’s Bianca Golden, one of the contestants in that cycle.  I loved this picture of her and inspiration struck!

So.

Here’s the original:

Annnnnd….

here’s the vexel image that I did:

Whatcha think?

(BTW: I found the picture on AllANTM.net and I believe the original photographer was Derek Blank. I claim no rights over the original work but the vexel is all mine )

Austrailia + KFC = Racism? Why the Ad Failed

Are Australians racist? I have no idea. There are camps that say yes. But that’s not why the only reason the ad failed.

The ad failed because it was seen in a market other than which it was designated for. Australians might have seen it, realized that this guy (who happened to be white) was a fan of cricket team X (because of the shirt/jersey he had on) and but was stuck in the cricket team Y side of the stadium (which happened to be West Indies and therefore all Black…. logical conclusion? You tell me…)

If the ad had been race neutral (all white  or all black) this issue wouldn’t have come up. It would have been “Oh, ha ha, that was a cute ad” or whatever.

If the ad had been designated for an American market, it might have featured, let’s say a Dallas Cowboys fan all decked out in his blue and silver seated in a Washington Redskins side (yes, I had to ask someone for sports team rivals, don’t judge me), you would have chuckled. Or you would have been like “oh that was a stupid ad”… but you wouldn’t have said “oh that’s racist” (aside from the fact that “Redskins” is a stab to Native Americans, but that’s not the topic here either)

The fact of the matter is, the treatment of African descendants is ALWAYS going to be a topic of sensitivity around the world. That sensitivity is concentrated in the Western Hemisphere, the US mainly, let’s be sure. But it’s always going to be there.

For Austrailians to say to American “Hey, lighten up! We’re not racist like you are” is laughable to me. We see the image and it is like a slap in the face and dredges up those old but persistent stereotypes that we hate. Maybe, in the future, design your ad for your market, but be sensitive of the fact that due to the pervasiveness of the internet, other people will see it too (YouTube, anyone?). And these people may get angry… or may get sad… or may decide to sue… or may boycott your product or services or decide to boycott your parent company which has a ton more restaurants in the United States than in Austrailia, I’m wiling to wager….

Just a thought.

What do you think about this ad? Racist? Not racist? Or why the hell are we even talking about this? Comments welcome and adored (I’ll take care of them just like a new born puppy…)

Artist Spotlight: Jessica Noel

For the last week or so, I’ve kicked around the idea of profiling an artist or designer whose works I like, but couldn’t really narrow it down. Then I came across a business card  in my wallet that my friend, Jessica, had given me. And decided, that of all the people I could profile, why not give back to my friends first?

I’ve known Jessica for a couple of years now and I’ve know Jessica with a camera in her hand for just as long. I’m not going to ramble on and on, but I will say that Jess’s pieces are striking and great at capturing a moment, a feeling…

I’m including some pictures in this post, but I encourage you to take a look at more of her work in her Carbonmade portfolio:  Jessica Noel.

All pictures above belong to Jessica Noel.