The New Year is Approaching.

Self,

Well I may have mentioned in the past that for me despite the festivities in which I may participate on December 31st, my "new year" doesn't really start until my birthday.  It's rapidly approaching.

Now like most people when they think of the year to come they think about what changes in their life they want to make, what bad habits they want to change, what new habits they are looking to create...that sort of thing.

Well there are a few things that I want change;

I want to let go of fear.
I want to let go of doubt.
I want to develop a deeper level of faith


I'm sure there will be others that come to mind before the "New Year" arrives, but those are the primary tasks to tackle.

Wish me luck!

Sincerely,
Pharoah

And Here We Are

Self,
I feel rather bad right now.  I know it has been a while since I last posted.  I can't say that a lot has happen of any major significance.  I just been busy.
I didn't quite get into the Christmas spirit of things,  I mean It was Christmas Day when I realized that I forgot to do my "Twelve Days of Christmas" here on the blog.
I did cook Christmas dinner for my immediate family which was cool. and I did get to see a few of my extended family/friends. All that to say that I didn't have a horrible Christmas or anything.  It was rather low-key ...after I finished all the baking and cooking.  The day after Christmas I barely got out of bed and spent most of the day on the sofa watching Christmas themed movies on the Hallmark and Lifetime channels with my parents.

As for New Years Eve, I don't have any major plans as of yet, I want to go see either Stephanie Mills or Rahsaan Patterson. However Stephanie is performing in a place that's nearly 2 hours away and I dont know if I want to make the drive home at 2am.  Meantime the ticket for Rahsaan is starting at $145.  I may actually spend the evening planning and my 2011.

Be Blessed Y'all.

Sincerely,
Pharaoh

Commercial

Self,

The other day I went to the movie. During the previews I saw I thought was the best commercial.

It's a coke ad. They went back to the one of their old promos.

The ad is a series of words that flash on the screen.

"We'd like to to teach the world to sing,"

"In perfect harmony"

"Preferably, without Auto-tune"

I thought it was brilliantly hysterical!

Sincerely,

Pharoah

Rude

Self,

I know that one thing that makes this country extremely unique is the fact that it is very divers. There are people from all over the world and speak a multitude of languages. And no where is that more evident than here in Los Angeles, and other major cities. I say that because in a way I do appreciate that fact but sometimes bilingual folks can piss me off.

So a couple days ago I was at work chatting with a coworker who I'll call Night because he works the night shift. So while I was talking to Night at his cubicle another company employee, who I'll call Manilla for the capital of his home country, came over and interrupted us. Now the conversation wasn't serious or important so that wasn't what I was upset about.

What pissed me off was that Manilla interrupted the conversation by speaking to Night in Tagalog, the language of their shared home country. This became like a 3 minute conversation between them. It's pretty obvious that I don't speak Tagalog (yes I know a few cuss words.) I found it extremely rude to basically dismiss me from the conversation by not speaking in English, the native (if not official) language of this country. I know Manilla speaks English because it's a requirement of our job. To Night's credit he gave all his responses to Manilla in English so I slightly was able to follow the thread of their dialog, despite the fact that Manilla continued to speak Tagalog.

As I stood there feeling annoyed and contemplating to say something about it I became very frustrated because it occured to me that doing so may have caused problems for me. I realized that with all of our civil liberties and the diversity tolerance policies to protect those liberties, that if I said something about Manilla speaking Tagalog and not English, I would have came off as some kind of racist.

And as I continued to think about the situation through out the day, I realized this wasn't the first time that I've witnessed something like this either at my expense like this or at the espense of others. The language can be Tagalog, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, French or a whole range of others.

Maybe It wouldn't have been so bad if Manilla had started in English saying, "excuse me" before blurting out in Tagalog.

Did us native speakers give up our respect by trying to be respectful of others.

Did we become our own second-class citizens by allowing foreigners to earn their citizenship?

When did I miss that memo?

Sincerely,

Pharaoh

DAMN!!!!

Self,

I found this and had to share, but back off because he's mine, DAMMIT!

Meet Matt, 2011 Rundu Calendar Cover Man

Sincerely,

Pharoah

PS to "Where my boyz at?"

Self,

OK this is the "post script" because it was in the process of writing that entry that I noticed a few things.

So as I was writing the the post "Where my Boyz at," I did a web search for images of male bonding/male friends because I didn't want the post to be all text.

Why were like 75% of the images that came back in the search seemed rather homosexualized (if that isn't a word, then I just made it one,) or very homo erotic? I mean looking back at the pictures in the post, the black & white photo of some guys drinking and smoking cigars does not fall in to the category. For that matter neither is the one of the guys sitting around the table.

The picture of the guys hugged up in the water was a little suspect but I also found to be extremely playful that it basically out shined the tinge of homo-eroticism.

However I found others pictures that leaned more the other way. And I want to see am I crazy or do others see/get it too.

So this first group are pictures that I think do not have an homosexual or homo-erotic overtone:

Ok so those seem pretty basic; you know just folks having a good time and enjoying each others' company.

Now these I thought were....suspicious to say the least;

So the three walking on the beach may be more innocent than I think butlike the three on the jet-ski and the ones on the sofa suggest the idea of a threesome, with the three on the jet-ski pushing for a sandwich like scenario. The guys in blue I could almost let go as just a group of surfers or hell scuba divers if it wasn't for the one layed out on the floor wearing slacks and a silky shirt tied like a mid-drift.

And these last two are just over the top.

Honestly I like this one of the guys kissing. Yes it is very gay but I think its fun and a bit playful. I could almost buy it as three straight guys caught acting out an inside joke. (And yes I think they are all rather cute.) Although the reality is that it may be two gay friends expressing their affection and maybe even attraction for the third. The locker room shower....well I get that it's may be an advertisement to sell the shower equipment, playing off the idea of athletes bond as a team continuously as long as they are together. However, it looks like the boys are checking each other out. And the two in the bed...someone actually had the nerve to label it as "two straight guys bonding", REALLY????? Can't be. I mean I've shared a bed with str8 guys before and even if the conversations got deeply intense and personal, we were not laying up next to each other naked while covering up our crotches with pillows.

Anyway like I said I would love to hear some feed back on these pictures.

Sincerely,

Pharoah

Where My Boyz At?

Self,

The other day I blatently experienced something that I was already aware of but not sure what to do about it. What I experienced was basically a sense of isolation.

Last Saturday I was put out the house. NO, not permanently! See what had happened was, my parents were hosting a social engagement that...well I wasn't intended to present. I mean I could have stayed home in my room, just coming out for food/drink and to use the bathroom, but that didn't really appeal to me. However, the situation served as a reminder to me that to some degree on a social level I seem to remain ...aloof or a misfit. Simply stated, I became aware of the fact that I really had no place to go.

There was a time, years ago, that like clockwork on certain days (particularly weekends) that I knew what I was doing and who I was doing it with. If all the details weren't figured out, I atleast knew who I would be hanging out with as we figured out what we were going to do that evening. Essentially, as the phrase goes, I'd be "kicking it with my boyz." (Granted unlinke this picture, sometimes there were women in the group as well but you get the point.)

This incident highlighted the fact that I don't have any "boyz" to kick it with on a regular basis like before. back then there wasn't a question of "if" we were going to see each other, it was mostly just what shit we had to do BEFORE we would see each other. So rather we were sitting at a table, making a mess and laughing like these guys. Or doing something wild and crazy that caused us to act as silly as this group.

I mean don't get me wrong I'm not a total hermit that only interact with people here in cyberspace. There are folks that I talk to almost daily, and some even 4-5 times a day, however they don't live here in Los Angeles.

I suddenly feel like the dude in "I Love You, Man." LOL Do I need to start having folks set me up on man-dates for a Bromance?? LOL ok and in the realm of Gay folks, how is that going to be different from just dating? LMAO maybe this will be a perfect use for (the devil,) Facebook.

Wow well I would like to hear some suggestion on how to solve my dilemma. ANY LA locals out there HOLLA!

Sincerely,

Pharoah

Turkey Day - Part Two

Self,

Just a quick update.

My cooking was off the CHAIN! Originally my mom was planning to keep it simple and make Stove-Top Dressing, but I decided I wanted to try making the dressing from scratch. Not only did I succeed, but it was DAMN good.

Everything was good!

Sincerely,

Pharoah

Turkey Day

Self,

I just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I know some people choose not to celebrate this holiday because of it's political ramifications. Although I agree with those arguments for the most part, I mostly see this as a day of reflection and to spend time with loved ones.

That said I will be doing a large portion of the cooking for the feast...mostly the sides. I'm going to learn how ot make stuffing from scratch.

Wish me luck!

Sincerely,

Pharoah

A Royal Consession

Self,

Well I listen to the radio a lot in the car while riding to and from work mostly. Although I prefer just music sometimes the music is interrupted to include traffic reports, weather forecasts, tidbits of news and kernals of gossip, sometimes the gossip is masked as news.

So the other day as I was listening to the radio, there was a bit of gossip that was masked as news. The report that I heard said that Elizabeth II, Queen of England, has officially become a member of the dreaded Facebook. Although I could use this as one more example of how Facebook is the devil since it has corrupted a member of royalty.

Many folks have been trying to get me to get on Facebook and I have resisted. However if the Queen of England has a Facebook page, I guess my royal ass can have one too. So I will look into finally getting an account. I'll let it be known when I do.

Sincerely,
Pharoah