Pessimists Anonymous

First name Cynic, last name Always

½ empty was my glass ever since I tagged my name in the hallways

I mastered P for pessimistic; optimism?  Didn't get it.

Always late to the game, alarm clocks I never set it.

“Now let’s get off this negative tip and go positive…”

Hi, my name is Mr. A and I am a pessimist.  I've been clean for about...::checks watch::...eight minutes now.  I was hoping to find a sponsor but I don't think that's going to happen. Damn. Ok, I've been clean for about 8 seconds now.

When you allow the dog of disappointment to sleep in your bed, you will wake up with the fleas of failure.  I was speaking to my mother and I was in the midst of one of my negative rants and she stopped me mid sentence to order me to suggest that I stop speaking negative.  "What you speak will be!"  She has said this many times before, I am after all, a cynic.  I could tell this time though that she was mad frustrated with me.  It's a good thing my mother is one of those good peoples because she could have abandoned my gloom and doom ass long ago.  Sure I've been disappointed and had my fair share of failures, but even though tomorrow isn't promised to us, I still expect to wake up.  Whether I do or do not is a different story/topic altogether; it's the expectation that I will that matters.  Not in a sense of taking tomorrow and life in general for granted, but it's a daily practice of optimism.  So if I can be optimistic about that which is not promised to me, or any of us, surely I can take it a step further and apply it to my daily life; right? Right. Disappointment, yeah, it'll happen, but don't sleep with it.  Cleanse thyself with Silver Lining Shampoo and leave those failure fleas behind (a little corny I know but...refer to Wednesday's post and you'll understand).  Have a great day!

Premeditated Spontaneity

I saw this on Twitter, which I am not on nearly as much as I used to be so, I'm going to take it as divine intervention.

Frank Delaney ‏@FDbytheword If you don’t do some spontaneous writing every day, you’ll become too controlled. It’s only writing – you can always edit it later.

You see, the problem with spontaneity is that it doesn't give me enough time to think about what I am doing and what I want to say.  Yes, I know, that's the whole point.  But when you are a habitual over-thinker such as myself, spontaneity requires a trip to the oral surgeon.  Truthfully though, I'm not trying to be spontaneous.  Most of the time we have "pre-thought" the things we do.  Like if I'm walking down the street and decide I'm going to go into this Wendy's on the corner, even though I hadn't thought of doing so ahead of time, chances are I had thought that I was hungry and was unsure what the hell I was going to eat.  Every day when it comes to writing I think of something I would like to write about and I find a way to let the day pass by without writing or I convince myself that whatever it was I was thinking about writing is not worth writing about.  This particular post I'm drafting at this moment is spontaneous, wanting to post is not.  So I need to take a dash of spontaneity add a splash of just do it and make it happen.  Keep on moving, don't stop no... 

         

Good Peoples

One of the greatest things you can be blessed with, or cursed with, is your family.  You know what they say, you can't choose your family, etc.  No truer words have been spoken.  I'm a little biased but I love my family.  They truly are good people. My sister in-law died suddenly just over a month ago and my immediate family was crushed.  Ten days prior to her death my sister in-law earned her MBA and family and friends came out to support her.  When it was time for her home going, those same family members and then some came out to support my brother and my nieces and nephew during their loss.  Even friends from back home whom we hadn't seen in a while came out to express their sympathy and be present with my brother.  Both our maternal and paternal sides of the family came through, and for a brief moment the somber mood was made a little bit lighter with laughter and remembrances of my sister in-law.  Earlier this year when my cousin died the family again showed their support for his immediate family in their time of need.  It's nice to have your heart warmed, even when it's broken.

Our family and friends mourning with us is not to minimize their presence sans tragedy.  They also come out to celebrate the good times and other times they show up without any reason needed.  Nobody's family is perfect, and some are "worse" than others but hey, they're still your family.  Even if you don't think your family is comprised of good peoples, check the mirror.  If there's a good person staring back at you, and yes, you are a member of your family, then somewhere among your family and friends, I'm sure you'll find plenty more good peoples as well.

Hey there...

I wasn't sure if I was ever going to blog again.  Come to think of it, I'm still not sure.  I told myself I wanted to write more and I've been telling myself that for a while.  Well, as Wallace and Martin said, "Ain't nothing to it but to do it," so here it is.

There's a whole lot going on in my life but I'll talk about that maybe some other time.  The most important thing is that Mr. A is Daddy A!  I'm a father and it truly is a blessing.  The amount of drama that has transpired over the past 12 - 18 months would make for a great soap opera but for now, I'm trying to not focus on that and just channel some positive energy.  That in itself is exercise, trying to turn pessimism into optimism and snatch happiness from the arms of gloom and doom.  Wish me luck (I'm talking to the man in the mirror...ain't nobody reading this...yet).

Something for Nothing

First ladies put in a lot of work with no compensation.  Who knew?  Granted the duties of the First Lady can be viewed as volunteer work by adopting, promoting, and advancing a cause but even many volunteers are able to write off their contributions in taxes.  That is because there is value placed on volunteer work.  I'm sure I'm making something out of nothing but it doesn't seem like nothing to me.  A Google search will show you that other people have wondered the same thing.  Sure it's also questionable that I didn't notice this before Michelle Obama became First Lady but it's not a matter of when you or I notice, just that we notice.  After watching FLOTUS (try to) keep up with them young'uns, I confess, I got winded just watching.  I will add that Laura Bush pushing literacy should have drawn a salary.  She was (knowingly or unknowingly) trying to help millions of Americans not end up with a spouse or partner like hers.  That definitely deserves some wages.

During the Clinton administration, President Clinton and congress approved to double the President's salary yet nothing was included for the First Ladies.  To many, being a First Lady probably looks to be the "good life" with tons of perks but in my opinion, work is work.  If there was a way for homemakers to draw a salary I would support it.  According to Wiki the First Lady is a hostess, the premiere "homemaker" if you will.  She is a homemaker who also works, and for that work she too should be paid a salary.  I suppose they won't really address this until there is a First Gentleman.

Cobwebs

The problem with Trends of Culture blogging is that when the mood hits you to blog again you have to address all of the technical issues that comes with lack of use. First I had DNS issues so I transferred registrars to godaddy.com. Now I'm having Disqus issues and I'm sure it's my fault for tinkering with the design template. I was considering changing the design because while I really like this template it's too popular. I realized that to have a truly unique design I would have to customize it myself which I am not willing to do so the design stays. Unfortunately now I have to change the oil, put air in the tires, and figure out what the hell I messed up before I can attempt to resume blogging as usual and by some strange phenomenon actually receive comments. Smh @ myself.

Too Cheap for Children

A few weeks back I went to NY to hang out with some of my boys and I had a great time but I also had an odd man out, cheese stands alone moment.  All of my boys have spouses or significant others and all of them have children; I on the other hand have neither.  So my male biological clock had me on some, "why am I on the Tony Randall track to fatherhood?"  Thankfully that clock is digital and I can hit snooze as many times as I like so long as my million men keep on marching.  At the time though, I can't front, I was quite irritable at feeling like I was chilling with Wilson on Childless Island.  Time went on and the feelings subsided and were replaced with rational thought, one which is that I am not in a financial position to take care of a child anyway.  Right?