Watch out for Crazies, including yourself

As I peruse through blogs (mostly on the LHBE) when I want a little down time reading between grading papers or planning lessons, I find that I must "re-post" a portion of my bloggin' help to my fellow blog family on line community.
Now I'm not trying to tell anyone how to run their blog... But good advice and feedback can be healthy. Case in point... I don't know about you, but if a dentist tells me to floss regularly
because it is as important as brushing your teeth, he/she means it. It may not make a lick of sense, even to grown folks, but it's advice that should be taken. This portion below, IMHO should be taken as well:

Watch out for Crazies, including yourself. Unfortunately there will be some bloggers new to the scene who visit other's blogs just to start confusion. I've seen it before and thankfully have experienced it rarely in my blogs. They probably didn't read this blog post nor researched on-line about how to conduct yourself as a blogger who has blog nettiquite.

If you stumble upon a blog that you don't like, do yourself a favor and #1 DO NOT comment on what you don't like, and #2 NEVER visit that blog again.

For the most part, the bloggers won't know how you feel, and it's best to just keep it to yourself. Don't go visiting someone's blog to "check" them. Leave them alone. There have been some ugly "cyber cat fights" on line and it's just a shame and a hot mess. If you are a rabble rouser in public, then I'm sure you're gonna start mess on line. Some folks just like drama and have no problem seeking on line. Go back and look at your blog, and if it has more of a negative, complaining, antagonistic spirit about it, you must know that "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth (blog) speaks". So watch out for Crazies, including yourself.


My personal suggestion is, if you have a post that may be incendiary, which most of you know what views are highly sensitive to others in our community, make a disclaimer in the post that if one doesn't agree, then push on, which I've seen and adhered to myself on many occasions. If you have a post that has gotten out of control with feedback, especially if it is unwanted, cease and desist. Draft that blog post and get back to enjoying posting and receiving healthy comments in your blog. As a matter of fact, I'll draft this post after some dust settles down, which is my prayer.

Much love and blessings...

Do you know who Desreta Jackson is?

While finishing the final one hour stretch to complete retightening my hair this afternoon (yah!!!), Jen popped in The Color Purple. As usual, trillions of emotions rose throughout this movie as it always has whenever we watch it. I laughed, I cried, I mouthed famous lines, thinking of Tyler Perry and how he loves to use Oprah (Sophia's) lines in his plays. The DVD we have is the 2-disc collection that has behind the scene interviews with Alice Walker, Steven Spielberg, Whoopi Goldberg, Quincy Jones and others in the cast. As always, the thought to google the "unknowns" comes to mind and I made sure today, I did such. If you know who actress Desreta Jackson is, then you are a true Color Purple fan. I was quite amazed to find out that when the movie was shot in 84, Desreta was about 12 years old. I was 14 at the time so that puts her at about 35ish. The last film on record she played in was Sister Act II. Not sure if Whoopi gave her the "hook-up" or if she had to audition on her own. She looks good and also has a myspace. Not bad for an all grown up young Celie Harris Johnson. She's doing her thang, and I ain't mad at her. It's funny how folks have to get on with their lives. And you never know who will make it "big" and who wont. I often wondered since her role was so negatively portrayed at that time if it would hinder her acting career. Only she knows and will tell. I will say she's not on the extras disc as many other key characters, such as Akosua Busia, (Nettie) are who were located and interviewed.

***Update on Desreta Jackson***
An online interview with Desreta Jackson and BET was posted February 2009. Read the interview here and get many many questions answered as well as see what she's up do these days. Thanks Christine!!!



That leads me to say how I believe my plan for this summer will be to get back to writing. I have too many good stories stored up inside me, waiting to be freed to the masses. Last summer I spent my tax refund money to go to Mexico to study Spanish. This summer, I'm leaning strongly towards hiding out to write. We shall see.

Jen suggested I bantu knot my hair for my Spring Break traveling to see friends and loved ones in Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. Here's what my length looks like along with my bantus. The longer my hair gets, the harder it is to bantu. I'm curious to see how this is going to turn out.


You can see some comparison shots of my length from the back in my fotki. I'm glad I took those pics because it shows how far I've traveled on this journey.

OK, I needed to add the results of my bantus. Here they are....
This picture was taken in the evening of 3-21-08. The curls from the bantu knots are tight!!!