I finally got my computer – yay! At Walmart, no less – I haven’t been in that store in so long, I had no idea where anything was. Sigh, and I’m such a bad shopper that by the time I was done picking out the laptop (which wound up being the very one on sale that I came in for in the first place) the last thing I wanted to do was shop. Though I did get catfood. Which Cat was very happy about.

So far, I really like the laptop. It’s a little hard to get used to, mostly because it seems so huge compared to the itty bitty blackberry. Also, it’s windows 7 and my last “new” computer was in um… 2002? Something like that. I have a lot of catching up to do, as far as technology goes. Probably won’t bother, though.

So, nothing really to say. Now that I can be mobile AND see, I need to scout out some quiet place to take off to to just write. There is the library across the street, but that’s about the size of a Jack in the Box drive through and not really a place to concentrate and work. Or, not one to my taste, anyway – more than two people in there and it’s crowded to me and I don’t like crowds.

Michelle Obama Inaugural Doll

And I don’t run around collecting memorabilia related to this or that celeb. It’s just such a rarity to see contemporary, realistic Black figurines and to also see particularly Black women depicted with such… well, grace is the only word I can think of and it may actually be the one I mean.  I think it may have been done by someone who actually likes Michelle Obama.

Then again, they wouldn’t sell many if they just threw something together. I’m not shilling for them either (especially since they aren’t paying me to do so! I have no ads on the site yet), but I here is their site to see the doll in full:

Michelle Obama Inaugural Doll – The Danbury Mint.

I practically grew up with MJ. Oh, I didn’t know him (unless you believe the rumor that was going around my jr high school at the time that that was him spending a semester there), but he’s just a few months younger than me so many of the milestones of his life, including turning 50, were mine as well. Kinda makes you think.

I was sad at what he’d become in the later years but just recently I caught an old video of him, with the Jackson Five, and was just amazed at how talented he was, even then.

And Farrah – I tried and tried to get The Flip but wasn’t really able to do it. And even though she had more serious roles later, my favorite was still Charlie’s Angels. Sure there were issues with it, but for that period of time pretty groundbreaking. The Charlies Angels women almost replaced Emma Peel in the “cool women who kick butt that I want to be” category in my mind.

Anyway, nothing deep to say. May they both rest in peace.

antique dogon sculpture - 3 kneeling figures covering their eyes

I have nothing much to say about anything, but I came across this very cool sculpture when I was searching for something to illustrate also not wanting to see or hear anything much today.  Here is the description from the World Art and Antiques site where I found it:

Kneeling “Dyougou Serou” Figure with Hands over Eyes

A rare kneeling naked figure, both arms bent at the elbow, the hands covering the face, the eyes felineated by extended zig-zag patterns. This is a type of figure was originally interpreted as representing Dyongon Seru, the first man created by Amma the Creator. The myth (which is highly symbolic) tells how Seru committed incest with his mother the earth and as a result was endowed with the gift of the first word. Said to depict the concept of shame for this “misdeed”, which resulted in the creation of human beings directly, this interpretation has recently been questioned. Apparently there is no indication that in Dogon culture covering the face is a gesture of shame. Alternate interpretations are that this is either a gesture of mourning or commemorates the installation ceremony of a “binu” priest when offerings are poured over the head of the supplicant who immediately afterwards raises his hands to wipe the sacrificial liquids from his eyes. Carved from a very dense hard wood, the surface brought to a high polish, but now pitted from termites. Good natural aged patina.

Clicking through to the other sculptures and commentary is an education in itself, but one thing caught my eye on the section main page:

The Dogon of Mali number about 250,000 people today and inhabit some 700 villages. Their present home is the Bandiagara Escarpment, a row of cliffs among the Homburi Mountains, located parallel to the Niger River and about 300 kilometers south of Timbuktu. According to oral traditions, they chose to settle among and on the cliffs precisely because of their inaccessibility. This is one of the rare regions in Africa that had no contact with the West until the end of the 19th century.

I never knew this. Did you know this?

Of course, now I had to look Mali up – wikipedia comes in very handy as a starting place – and, man, what a fascinating history. Some of which I knew, some I’d forgotten and other parts I knew but didn’t associate with Mali, if that makes any sense. Which it might not.

Anyway, more stuff to read about.

Wouldn’t it be great if we each, no matter what our financial or educational status was, could take at least a full month each year to just go somewhere and learn and and rest and renew? Or write. Paint. Whatever. Different from a vacation (which not everyone gets anyway).

Wonder if one could get a grant to form centers for just that purpose…

Said the 4 year old, upon disembarking into a completely different place after his first cognizant ride in an elevator.

Sometimes kids make up for all their other annoyances just with wonder.

I’ve realized, lately, how much I look forward to Sundays. I am not religious in the least but I’m glad others are, or at least that the day is pretty much a declared a non-business type day.

If the phone rings it’s likely a family member or friend instead of a telemarketer, a bill collector or a politician.

If someone is at the door, again most likely a friend or relative (or religious person who, when I just politely decline, will leave with a smile and go on to their next target) and not someone coming to fix something or to sell me something (except maybe tamales!) or whatever.

My daughter, love her though I do, *knows* not to show up at my door with her children, seeking a babysitter, on Sunday.

So, besides having to do for my mom – which is every day, or guilting myself into writing or doing all the cleaning I didn’t get to during the week… Sunday really is my day of rest.

Mental rest, more than any other and really, for an introvert, that is sometimes more important and refreshing.

I turned 50 last year.

I had a dreadful year last year.

I joined Twitter.

I realized that, of all the sites I’ve made or been a part of, not one has been just for me. A personal site, with my own thoughts, dreams, aspirations or kevetches.

This is not to say that I’ve not expressed some of those things other places – at Human Beams or someplace else, it’s just that I’ve never felt really comfortable doing so. It’s possibly all in my mind but I’ve just felt limited on what I consider professional sites. Still, it just never occurred to me to start a personal site of my own.

Well wait – I lie.  The original Stalking Sunlight – on blogspot, in 2003, where I wrote a total of 5 posts before moving it over to Human Beams, or thereabouts. I wonder why? In my first post I was saying the same things as now:

And this surely is a new thing for me… a completely self-absorbed journal of thoughts and views, which is also open to the world to see. This should be interesting… to me, at least. I don’t expect anyone else to really care. I guess that is the entire point of random anonymity… exploring who you are, what causes you to be… in full view of people who could care less. Sort of like standing in Times Square, NYC, and yelling that the world is ending while eddys of people pass around you, oblivious, pursuing their own lives and not giving a hoot about yours. I wonder if that is actually the true liberation of thought and spirit.

It’s possible that this experiment is already not turning out as planned if I am at the beginning comparing myself to street ranters, and they are coming out on the topside.

So, here I am again, then.  Things changed when I brought the blog under Human Beams – it was no longer about exploring my own writing or thoughts, so much as (somewhat) writing for a purpose for and about others.  Even my writing style changed (might be a good thing) – less reflective, less visual, more … something. Bloggish, maybe. Certainly more constrained, as there I am representing something. Here, I represent nothing but myself, and can write bad fiction, if I want; long, rambling essays; explore thoughts about activism, writing, gossip about other people – or just whine a lot about life in general.

Anyway, trying again – whatever this turns out to be.

It doesn’t exactly scream “sober and professional”, which might be a worry, but I’m not yet doing any promoting of HB or anything. And, well – it pleases me to look at it, and I think that’s okay for right now.

I have planned a post about Twitter, blogs and other things. Of course, I plan many things but don’t always get around to writing them.