Sunday, July 5, 2009
From the Desk of Jacki Simmons
From now on, all Jacki Simmons novels will be available from this site. Enjoy and please direct all questions and comments to msvisualeyes@yahoo.com. Thank you!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Miscellaneous Thoughts: Quarter to Ten Edition
So Michael Phelps took a bong rip. I ain't mad at him; I'm mad he let someone get a photo op. Ain't it funny how they're crucifying theis 23-year-old kid for being a 23-year-old kid? Especially when Ricky Williams, aka HBL, the Human Bud Leaf is still running around? Seriously?
Etta James said she can't stand Beyonce. At last.
You have no man, no job. But you now have 14 children. Congratulations: You are now the Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe.
Does anybody else catch how the Republicans are tryna black ball Obama?
Speaking of Obama, when he said things would get "worse" before they got better, are we expecting another soup-kitchen depression to sweep the nation? If so, let me know now because Progresso is $0.59 a can.
Does anybody catch how the MTA is tryna black ball New Yorkers? And how every single one of us has played right into Mike Bloombergs hands perfectly?
Seriously? SERIOUSLY??? What disturbs me even more than its mere existence is the 243, 000+ hits.
If your child has a histroy of lettting herself out of the house, you didn't think of babyproofing everything to the point that you yourself could barely get out? Or is it just me thinking this tragedy could have been avoided?
You are an asshole.
They say the Feds sent tainted PB to local schools. Hmm... Trying to "help out" again, huh? Like bags of white bread over India, right?
Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.......
Etta James said she can't stand Beyonce. At last.
You have no man, no job. But you now have 14 children. Congratulations: You are now the Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe.
Does anybody else catch how the Republicans are tryna black ball Obama?
Speaking of Obama, when he said things would get "worse" before they got better, are we expecting another soup-kitchen depression to sweep the nation? If so, let me know now because Progresso is $0.59 a can.
Does anybody catch how the MTA is tryna black ball New Yorkers? And how every single one of us has played right into Mike Bloombergs hands perfectly?
Seriously? SERIOUSLY??? What disturbs me even more than its mere existence is the 243, 000+ hits.
If your child has a histroy of lettting herself out of the house, you didn't think of babyproofing everything to the point that you yourself could barely get out? Or is it just me thinking this tragedy could have been avoided?
You are an asshole.
They say the Feds sent tainted PB to local schools. Hmm... Trying to "help out" again, huh? Like bags of white bread over India, right?
Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.......
And I Said What About Breakfast at Tiffany's?
...She said I think I remember the film... You don't remember that song? Deep Blue Something? Oh come on, you suck!
I'm eating the breakfast our boss and his wife had catered for us this morning. Not that I'm ungrateful in any way, but there is one little question to be asked: What made you choose salmon?
Here's the scene: I walk in the break room on our floor (which is where I must go to punch in or out) and there is literally a smorgasbord spread across the table. Juice, milk, coffee, tea, cookies, a fruit platter, a basket of pastries including chocolate chip muffins, a huge raspberry cheese danish (I totally took that, allergic and all), butter, cream cheese and bagels. Then in the corner of the table, innocently sitting in its plastic wrap, is the infamous lox.
I looked around for the bacon and sausages but of course, to my chagrin, you already know. Now I usually don't knock it unless I've tried it (I'ma keep knocking that cream cheese and bacon shit because that is just unholy) but there are some extremes in life that I am just not prepared for. Fish on my toasted plain cream cheese bagel is one of them. So I hastily plucked out slices of cantaloupe and pineapple as well as a couple of grapes and chocolate chip cookies (Yes, this is in addition to the danish) and a huge cup of apple juice. I whisked it back to my desk where I now sit, wondering in Lysol disinfectant wipes can get these cheese spots off of my keyboard.
I'm not gonna complain for the simple fact that this is the first time I've eaten before 12 midnight in weeks. My love affair with food has somehow waned in the past few months. I am quite sure that has a lot to do with the 40+ pound shift in my weight (down, not up if you were wondering). Food just doesn't hold my attention anymore. It has to be something really spectacular (like the amazing appetizer platter I got from Hard Rock last week) for me to even shift my eye.
Random Sidebar: Last night was another travesty. The BF and I were at each others throats pretty much all night, which was why I was kinda glad for the peace, however fleeting, of the walk to the train. He is so insensitive sometimes. Fuck parents, boyfriends just don't understand.
Stay tuned for this weeks edition of Miscellaneous Thoughts, coming up next.
I'm eating the breakfast our boss and his wife had catered for us this morning. Not that I'm ungrateful in any way, but there is one little question to be asked: What made you choose salmon?
Here's the scene: I walk in the break room on our floor (which is where I must go to punch in or out) and there is literally a smorgasbord spread across the table. Juice, milk, coffee, tea, cookies, a fruit platter, a basket of pastries including chocolate chip muffins, a huge raspberry cheese danish (I totally took that, allergic and all), butter, cream cheese and bagels. Then in the corner of the table, innocently sitting in its plastic wrap, is the infamous lox.
I looked around for the bacon and sausages but of course, to my chagrin, you already know. Now I usually don't knock it unless I've tried it (I'ma keep knocking that cream cheese and bacon shit because that is just unholy) but there are some extremes in life that I am just not prepared for. Fish on my toasted plain cream cheese bagel is one of them. So I hastily plucked out slices of cantaloupe and pineapple as well as a couple of grapes and chocolate chip cookies (Yes, this is in addition to the danish) and a huge cup of apple juice. I whisked it back to my desk where I now sit, wondering in Lysol disinfectant wipes can get these cheese spots off of my keyboard.
I'm not gonna complain for the simple fact that this is the first time I've eaten before 12 midnight in weeks. My love affair with food has somehow waned in the past few months. I am quite sure that has a lot to do with the 40+ pound shift in my weight (down, not up if you were wondering). Food just doesn't hold my attention anymore. It has to be something really spectacular (like the amazing appetizer platter I got from Hard Rock last week) for me to even shift my eye.
Random Sidebar: Last night was another travesty. The BF and I were at each others throats pretty much all night, which was why I was kinda glad for the peace, however fleeting, of the walk to the train. He is so insensitive sometimes. Fuck parents, boyfriends just don't understand.
Stay tuned for this weeks edition of Miscellaneous Thoughts, coming up next.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Things That Make You Go Hmmm....
Take a few minutes to read this article, would you? Don't stop until you've finished. This was written by a white reporter from Georgia shortly after President Barack Obama's election.
Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: "When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?
Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk." Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster. But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again.
At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama."
Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites? How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations? I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do? How long before we start "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?
Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here's my three-point plan: First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people. Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama. Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE overcome."
Now tell me what you think about that?
Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: "When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?
Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk." Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster. But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again.
At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama."
Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites? How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations? I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do? How long before we start "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?
Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here's my three-point plan: First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people. Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama. Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE overcome."
Now tell me what you think about that?
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
How's The Weather Up There?
Yet another reason to keep my damn feet on the ground:
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Strapped to his dying instructor a few thousand feet from the ground on his first skydive, Daniel Pharr found himself floating toward a house and some trees.
The military taught the 25-year-old soldier not to panic. And TV taught him to pull the toggles on the already-deployed parachute to steer.
So Pharr grabbed the right handle and pulled to avoid the house and tugged again to miss the trees, landing safely in a field about a third of a mile from their intended landing spot.
Pharr said he wrestled out of the harness binding him to his instructor, George "Chip" Steele, and started CPR trying to save him from an apparent heart attack.
Steele was later pronounced dead, but the tragedy could have been worse: Other instructors at the skydiving school told Pharr if he had pulled the toggle too hard, the chute would have spun out of control, and he could be dead, too.
"They told me afterward that it was amazing that I knew to do that. This is my survival instinct at that point. I just kind of did what I had to do," said Pharr, taking a break Monday from his job at Fort Gordon near Augusta, Ga.
The jump was a Christmas gift from Pharr's girlfriend. The two went to Skydive Carolina in Chester on Saturday to jump from 13,500 feet in the air while attached to instructors.
Steele, 49, gave instructions as the plane climbed. He told Pharr he loved skydiving, having jumped more than 8,000 times.
They were the last of about 10 skydivers to jump out of the plane. Pharr enjoyed a minute of free fall as the cold air rushed by.
"He pulled the chute," Pharr said. "It got super quiet. It's eerily quiet up there. I made the comment to him, 'It's surprising how quiet it is.' And he's like: 'Welcome to my world.'"
A few seconds passed, and Pharr asked his instructor another question. This time, Steele didn't answer. Pharr repeated his question. No answer.
"And then I just looked up at him and he looked like he was conscious, but just talking to him, I realized something was wrong," Pharr said. "So at that point I realized I was just going to have to do what I had to do to get down to the ground and try to help him."
The pair ended up about a third of a mile from the airstrip where they were supposed to land, blocked from the spectators by trees. Pharr's CPR failed to revive Steele.
"My only thing walking away is that I wish I could have helped him," Pharr said. "I tried as hard as I could — all my training, I did everything I could."
After paramedics arrived and stepped in to diagnose Steele, Pharr asked them to call his girlfriend, Jessica Brunson, and mother, who was watching from the air strip.
Pharr's mother said all they knew at the time was from a brief message on another staffer's radio: A tandem pair was down and it didn't look good.
"It was an eternity," Darlene Huggins said, when asked how long it took her to hear her son's message he was safe. "No, really, it could have been 10, 15 minutes."
After talking to authorities, Pharr got to see his girlfriend, who he said kept her composure. "Once she saw me, she was in tears," he said.
Huggins said she asked the Lord to keep her son safe. "I just give the glory to God. He was just covered with that hedge of protection that us mamas pray for," she said.
Initial indications are Steele died of a heart attack. Chester County Coroner Terry Tinker said he would wait for a written report from Monday's autopsy before releasing an official cause of death.
Skydive Carolina General Manager James La Barrie released a statement saying it appeared Steele, a test jumper and instructor, died from a medical problem. No one answered the phone Monday at a listing for Steele in Sumter.
Pharr had to work Sunday, so he immediately went back to Fort Gordon, which is home of the Signal Corps, the communications nerve center of the Army, and deals heavily in military intelligence.
He joined the Army a year ago, leaving his job in Columbia selling alarm systems because he wanted to serve the country like his two grandfathers and get money to go to college. When asked what he does, Pharr laughed and said "can't tell you."
Fellow soldiers have been asking him about his jump for the past two days. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime story, and I told them I hope I never have to top it," Pharr said.
Pharr wants to jump again, but it looks like his first skydive will be his last.
"My family has told me I have to keep my feet on the ground," he said.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Case of the Fake People-Personal Rant
Sometimes I really wish justifiable homicide were legal in this state.
Does anybody else have someone in their life that they have to, for lack of a better phrase, 'deal with' purely on the strength of another person? (i.e. Like you have to tolerate your husbands' shitty elder brother every Christmas dinner. His bad cologne, his even worse jokes, his all around douchiness...) Have you ever wanted to take a hammer to their head?
Yeah, its totally been one of those days. What makes it bad is that often times, this person is so vindictive, miserable, and lonely that they must try their hardest to pull everyone around them into the muck of their misery. What makes it worse is that this person will smile in your face and constantly pretend they are concerned with your general well-being. What makes it ugly is that you know the slightest slip in your general treatment can result in a cataclysmic series of events thatyou never meant to put in motion in the first place.
I'm not going to say I'm perfect, but I know I'm no hypocrite and I know I'm no phony. If I genuinely don't like you, you know within the first five minutes of us meeting. Why? Because my behavior never changes. Once I don't like you, that's it. I don't drag you through the sandy beach of discomfort and then right when you think everything is finally all good, snap my claws down around your waist. No. If I'm going to snap, I do it as soon as I see your piggly-wigglies sticking out of the beach sand.
And if none of this were true, wouldn't we all be on chairs (instead of pins and needles) beating our respective in-laws to death with metal pipes? I'm just sayin'.
Does anybody else have someone in their life that they have to, for lack of a better phrase, 'deal with' purely on the strength of another person? (i.e. Like you have to tolerate your husbands' shitty elder brother every Christmas dinner. His bad cologne, his even worse jokes, his all around douchiness...) Have you ever wanted to take a hammer to their head?
Yeah, its totally been one of those days. What makes it bad is that often times, this person is so vindictive, miserable, and lonely that they must try their hardest to pull everyone around them into the muck of their misery. What makes it worse is that this person will smile in your face and constantly pretend they are concerned with your general well-being. What makes it ugly is that you know the slightest slip in your general treatment can result in a cataclysmic series of events thatyou never meant to put in motion in the first place.
I'm not going to say I'm perfect, but I know I'm no hypocrite and I know I'm no phony. If I genuinely don't like you, you know within the first five minutes of us meeting. Why? Because my behavior never changes. Once I don't like you, that's it. I don't drag you through the sandy beach of discomfort and then right when you think everything is finally all good, snap my claws down around your waist. No. If I'm going to snap, I do it as soon as I see your piggly-wigglies sticking out of the beach sand.
And if none of this were true, wouldn't we all be on chairs (instead of pins and needles) beating our respective in-laws to death with metal pipes? I'm just sayin'.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Let The Games Begin
Going to see "Taken" tonight. Doesn't his monologue alone mak you want to see that? "I don't ave money but what I do have are a very particular set of skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you don't bring my daughter back, I will hunt you down. I will find you, and I will kill you." Come on, as if Liam Neeson isn't scary enough. Remember his haunting Ra's Al Ghoul? I just wanna see him get a guy in the kneecaps with a pair of screws, I mean, does it get more awesome than that?
Everything I Haven't Seen & Am Consequently Pissed About:
Changeling
Gran Torino
Milk
My Bloody Valentine
Doubt
Nobel Son
What Doesn't Kill You
Seven Pounds
The Spirit
Valkyrie
Things I Want To See
Friday the 13th (Yeah, I just gotta know if they kill this fucker once and for all.)
The Univited
He's Just Not That Into You
The International (This guy just doesn't like simple drama, huh?)
Fired Up (On occasion, when they are helplessly stupid I get caught up in these teen flicks. The last one Ienjoyed was Stick It, and waaaaaaay before that, the one I think that started it all, Bring It On (member how young Gabrielle Union was back then??))
Duplicity (Look out for it, it's gonna be a banger)
I Love You, Man
***Last House on the Left*** I have to get the original before this comes out because it's supposed to be the one horror movie that actually scared my mother (And let's keep in mind here she grew up in the sixties and seventies, when Wes "The Remake King" Craven started to get really popular. So if it did a number on her, I, who follow in her fearless footsteps, must to subject myself to director Dennis Illiadis' latest effort.
Everything I Haven't Seen & Am Consequently Pissed About:
Changeling
Gran Torino
Milk
My Bloody Valentine
Doubt
Nobel Son
What Doesn't Kill You
Seven Pounds
The Spirit
Valkyrie
Things I Want To See
Friday the 13th (Yeah, I just gotta know if they kill this fucker once and for all.)
The Univited
He's Just Not That Into You
The International (This guy just doesn't like simple drama, huh?)
Fired Up (On occasion, when they are helplessly stupid I get caught up in these teen flicks. The last one Ienjoyed was Stick It, and waaaaaaay before that, the one I think that started it all, Bring It On (member how young Gabrielle Union was back then??))
Duplicity (Look out for it, it's gonna be a banger)
I Love You, Man
***Last House on the Left*** I have to get the original before this comes out because it's supposed to be the one horror movie that actually scared my mother (And let's keep in mind here she grew up in the sixties and seventies, when Wes "The Remake King" Craven started to get really popular. So if it did a number on her, I, who follow in her fearless footsteps, must to subject myself to director Dennis Illiadis' latest effort.
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