Embracing summer

What would you do if you weren't afraid?

Favorite lines —

"So my hope for all of you here is that you're going to walk across the stage and get your diploma, you're going to go out tonight or maybe all summer and celebrate (you deserve it), and then you're going to lean way into your career. You're going to find something you love doing, and you're going to do it with gusto. You're going to pick your field and ride it all the way to the top."

"The most important career decision that you will make is whether or not you have a life partner and who that partner is. If you pick someone who is going to share the burdens and the joys of your personal life, you're going to go farther."

"A world where men ran half our homes, and women ran half our institutions would just be a much better world."

"Do not lean back, lean in."

"Put your foot on the gas pedal and keep it there, until the day that you have to make a decision."

"Try until you find something that stirs your passion, until you find a job that stirs you and stirs others. It is the ultimate luxury to combine passion and contribution. It's also a very clear path to happiness."

"I hope that each one of you have the ambition to run the world, because this world needs you to run it."

"Go home and ask yourself: What would you do if you weren't afraid? And then go do it."

Quotation of the Week

"Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything because it's all written there."

Carla Marion Paris

I gotta see this new Woody Allen asap. It looks very Vicky Cristina Barcelona gone French. Just how I roll...

Weekend Music: Sweet or hot, doowop doowop doowop

Lady's got sass and spunk. Ella totally kills it here. I always listen to this song for inspiration on how to live my life. With sass, with spunk and as always, with style.

Passage of the Week

"As an American, I want to speak up for women in my own country — women who are raising children on the minimum wage, women who can't afford health care or child care, women whose lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their own homes.


I want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air and clean airwaves; for older women, some of them widows, who have raised their families and now find that their skills and life experiences are not valued in the workplace; for women who are working all night as nurses, hotel clerks, and fast food cooks so that they can be at home during the day with their kids; and for women everywhere who simply don't have time to do everything they are called upon to do each day ...


We need to understand that there is no formula for how women should lead their lives. That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realize her God-given potential."

Quotation of the Week

Image via A History of New York

"The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own. There is no other way."

And the sun might be shinin' but it's colder than it seems; 'cause the weather's dialectical: there's no in-between

I chose that title, because it reminds me of Ithaca right now. Lolz.

Getting back into my whole trip-hop phase. Blue Scholars gave a concert here back last fall. This video is pretty old though (like 2007...), but it's still my favorite of theirs. How they come up with these lyrics is beyond me. It's music that has a lot of layers, a lot of depth..

Gah! So good. Even if you just read the lyrics, you can get a perfect sense of the stresses and the rhymes that he intended... 

Favorite lyrics (starts at 1:47) —

North of Martin Luther King: a straight warzone
Detours through the concrete, cranes, and bulldozers
No, the Hill is not over still
Every block got a coffee shop; it's overkill
Focus, know the deal
Dope to see Kalil back, the medicine is good again
The feeling: illegal, and coming back to your hood again
It's priceless, I write this, our lives are in crisis
Most talk, but don't walk, the path of the righteous
Despite this...
I measure each step, walkin' closer to my final destination of death
When I'm layin' to rest, I'm only savin' my breath
The Northwest fills my lungs, heals the pain in my chest
Clutch the moment, a transfer in my hand
Still listening
Lookin' out the window to the gold and the gray
And the sun might be shinin' but it's colder than it seems
'Cause the weather's dialectical: there's no in-between

In walks an old soul
A First Nation native, cat's chiseled like a totem pole
No words, as he stands and looks over us
He gets off and says, "Have a good day, you foreigners."
I, crack a smile one time for the acknowledgment
Northbound, now we start to pick up more college kids
They try to study on the ride
To make up for the fact that they probably kicked it hard last night
And I ponder if it's time to save up and get a car
And pay for the gas that we're takin' from the war
I'd miss all the colorful faces, the places, and spaces I've embraced with
The faith that I can rest and raise kids here even with these cats set
Trippin'
Bringin' '95 back again, same old conditions
From Reagan, to Bush, to Clinton, to the Bush the 2nd
No matter the neighborhood in the city you're reppin'
It's gettin' serious y'all
You can even hear the rebel call
Gettin' off, leavin' hella pieces on the walls
Seen it all, sittin' sideways with my townmates
Only place left where majority is brown-faced...

So fine and it just ain't fair; so beautiful and so damn rare.

I love unconventional love songs. This one has the dopest lyrics. I highlighted my favorites. Because I'm a dork.

03-nujabes-lady brown feat. cise starr from cyne-cms by miriambasco

Favorite Verses (starting at 1:08) —

[Verse:]
She's angelic and energetic
Using sex as a weapon
I reckon that I'm confessing
Her body is just a blessing from God Down to earth
She needs to be in a church to prove that
We didn't spawn from fish but God's work
Hurts to see her clothed cause her body beholds
Secrets untold valued like platinum and gold
For she is the key to open my mind to see
The energy that radiates from the gates of heavenly bliss
I reminisce over touch and kiss

While you fucking a bitch, I go make love to my miss

Never scandalous
It unanimous that the how i handled it
Lights off and candle lit rooms and glamorous
Yo I call you love sexual you look edible
Parallel snuggle up close intellectual
In a rendezvous who are you in wrap hairdo
No makeup in jean shorts open toe shoe

I wanna hold you mold ya soul I behold you

Know you better than myself never own you
But keep you never leave you
I beseech you
Gods gift to man is you wearing a see through
Riding Seadoos in Atlantic Ocean
Causing commotion
Lay you down going through the motions
Keep ya skin soft lotions got me coasting
Down pretty round brown thighs the candles low lit


[Chorus:]
Honey brown wit the long black hair
Teasing me with a kiss and a stare
Slight touch and you taking me there
So fine and it just ain't fair
So beautiful and so damn rare

[Verse:]
Look at this agreeable
Delightful, delectable
Unforgettable
So sweet she may be edible
She needs a pedestal To step out of heaven you ready boo

Never hypothetical you factual and magical

Fuck theatrical

Baby girl because you actual

Physically your chemistry is so mathematical

Had to use academics to define your spirit

You lifting my limits

Your name off my tongue is a lyric

She's a compilation of my minds representation
Of a representative
Representing an excellent revelation of time and dedication
Never impatient
She know the deal
Revealed herself to me
So I can see Her heavenly ways
Her heavenly gaze
And plus it don't hurt that she has an ass for days
So as we lay I reminisce on the day that we met
Please god never let me forget

Quotation of the Week

"I want her to know that this world is made out of sugar, it can crumble so easily, but don't be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it."

Sun salutations

Image via New-Age

And we were... gone!

Favorite excerpt —

"You're so beautiful," He said.
"You're elegant and deep,
and innocent and wild."
"You saw that there?" I said.
It was like he read my palm.
"I saw that,"
He said, "And much, much more."

Bob stayed looking for almost an hour,
As if he were studying a map,
Observing the moon, 
Staring into my eyes.
But it was my vagina!

I watched him looking at me.
He was so excited.
So peaceful and euphoric. 
I began to get wet and turned on.
I began to see myself the way he saw me. 
Like a great painting or a waterfall.

Bob wasn't afraid, no, he wasn't grossed out.
I began to swell.
I began to feel proud.
I began to feel beautiful and delicious,
Like a great painting or a waterfall.

Bob wasn't afraid, no, he wasn't grossed out.
I began to swell.
I began to feel proud.
I began to love my vagina.

And Bob lost himself there,
And I was there with him,
In my vagina.
And we...
Were...
GONE!

I went curiously and left deeply moved. Who would have ever thought, the Vagina Monologues would be a tearjerker?

To the stars if you really want it

Far East Movement

Far East Movement - Rocketeer [DJ Megaman and Panic City remix] by djpaniccity

It takes a little patience to get to the good stuff, and then out of nowhere, just explodes into happiness. I am very loyal to originals, but this ain't too shabby.

I'm really digging their skinny ties.