Idiot

How not to rob a liquor store

Bebe More Campbell...

November 28, 2006

Bebe Moore Campbell, a best-selling novelist known for her empathetic treatment of the difficult, intertwined and occasionally surprising relationship between the races, died Monday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 56.

The cause was complications of brain cancer, according to Linda Wharton-Boyd, a longtime friend.

With writers like Terry McMillan, Ms. Campbell was part of the first wave of novelists who made the lives of upwardly mobile black people a routine subject for popular fiction. Straddling the divide between literary and mass-market novels, Ms. Campbell's work explored not only the turbulent dance between blacks and whites but also the equally fraught relationship between men and women.

Throughout her work, Ms. Campbell sought to counter prevailing stereotypes of black people as socially and economically marginal. Though critics occasionally faulted her characters as two-dimensional, her novels were known for their crossover appeal, read by blacks and whites alike.

Often called on by the news media to discuss race relations, Ms. Campbell was for years a familiar presence on television and radio. With the publication of her most recent novel, "72 Hour Hold" (2005), she also became a spokeswoman on mental-health issues. The novel, about bipolar disorder, was inspired by the experience of a family member, Ms. Campbell said.

Originally a schoolteacher and later a journalist, Ms. Campbell made her mark as a writer of fiction with her first novel, "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine," published in 1992. Rooted in the story of Emmett Till, the book tells of a black Chicago youth killed by a white man in Mississippi in 1955. After the murderer is acquitted at trial, the narrative follows his increasing dissolution.

"I wanted to give racism a face," said Ms. Campbell, who was born in Philadelphia. "African-Americans know about racism, but I don't think we really know the causes. I decided it's first of all a family problem."

Ms. Campbell's other novels are "Brothers and Sisters" (1994), written in the wake of the Los Angeles riots of 1992; "Singing in the Comeback Choir" (1998), about a black television producer feeling cut off from her roots; and "What You Owe Me" (2001), about the friendship between two women, one African-American and the other a Jewish Holocaust survivor, in the 1940s.

After earning a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971, Ms. Campbell taught school in Atlanta for several years before embarking on a career as a freelance journalist. Her first book was a work of non-fiction, "Successful Women, Angry Men: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage" (1986).

She also wrote two picture books for children, "Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry" (2003); and "Stompin' at the Savoy" (2006).

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

Rewind...

So, I read a post on another blog yesterday, and it made me want to go and buy the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, for the second time (not sure what happened to the first CD I purchased). Anywho, the music industry is kinda whack right now. Superstar sums it all up for me,

"Come on baby, lighy my fire
Everything you drop is so tired
Music is supposed to inspire
How come we aint getting no higher?
Now tell me your philosophy
On exactly what an artist should be
Should they be someone with prosperity
And no concept of reality?
Now, who you know without any flaws
That lives above the spiritual laws
And does anything they feel just because
There's always someone there who'll applaud"

Give us some more Lauryn...

Priceless Photos

People...

So, while I was at my second job last night, a lady wanted to come in and exchange a camera she had purchased a year ago. She bought a SERVICE plan along with the camera. Well, with a service plan, we SERVICE it for you, and then if we can fix it, or you have to bring it in more than 3 times, then we exchange it for you. Well, apparently she thought that with a SERVICE plan you would automatically get a new one. No-no, that's not how it works. She said that she had spoken with someone earlier and they told her that she could exchange it. Well, when she came back, of course he was gone. It's possible that he did tell her that, but I don't know. She just kept going on and on about how she needed her camera the next day for her son's football game and blah blah blah. So, I explained to her the way service plans typically work, and she says to me, well that's not happening with this one. All I could say was oh, ok. Well, to say the least, she left with her broke camera, upset. Seriously people, I don't make the rules, I just follow them.

Why I Stay Away From The Perm

not scratching my scalp, a week prior to a chemical service for fear of burning
	not brushing my hair a few days before getting a perm because it would burn more
	giving the stylist explicit instructions to start the perm in the front because the back burns first
	enduring burning and scabs because I thought becoming beautiful hurt sometimes
	letting the perm burn as loooong as possible to get it straight.
	picking scabs from your scalp the day after relaxing
	ripping out tracks that were glued in only to discover I had ripped out my own hair
	literally having tears running down my face while sitting in the hairdresser chair (or wherever) while I had to wait for the relaxer to "take" and thinking "these people in here really have no idea what kind of pain I am in"
	I remember having a scalp burn so badly after a relaxer that I couldn't wear a hat. And it was mid-winter so my head burned and froze at the same time.
	sleeping with a hand under my arm to protect my style
	knockin' yourself up the head because u don't want 2 itch because u know you're getting a perm
	Does anybody remember having to hold their ears while they got their hair pressed?
	another sign was scabbing so bad post-perm that my hair would stick onto my scalp and it would be painful to even pull it off I should have KNOWN that wasn't healthy
	the smell of singed hair and my mama saying "That's just the heat, baby!"
	hearing the curling iron sizzle and smoke as I ran it to the end to get the straight look
	fingering the dark black protrusions on my head after every touch-up and actually believing that the fusion of hair & scalp together was normal. *Doesn't everyone get scalp burns that take 5 weeks to heal?*
	not being able to comb my hair in a certain style because the hair needed for the updo was chillin' in a scalp burn
	having a scalp burnt so bad that the wind blowing on my head HURT
	not being able to sleep because my scalp hurt
	after all the burning an squirming in the chair with the relaxer, and then more burning when they washed it out and rubbed the spot where it was burning, and then the combing of the funky conditioner stuff and itting the burned spot once again ... the final touch was ... *drum roll* ... spraying the spritz or holding spray on it to 'set' the style and it caused that kind of piercing pain that makes a tear appear instantly in your eyes. LOL I can laugh now but, I darn sure wasn't laughin' then...
	I remember as a kid crying so badly because the relaxer burned my scalp. And then after it was done being told not to sweat or get my hair wet. For crying out loud I was 9years old and wanted to go swimming!! (sigh)
	head stuck flat to my head a week and being afraid to pull it up because it would break off since it was tangled up in dry scabs
	I remember them days and you would be all squirming in the chair and you would be too scared to tell the hairdresser that it was burning!!
	My co-worker just got a "touch-up". Each and every time she gets a relaxer her forehead breaks out....it like the top half of her forehead gets "raw", and it takes about 2 weeks for it to heal. She actually has a line dividing the top part of her forehead (the raw part), and the bottom unaffected part. It looks really weird. She complains, but she faithfully goes back every 6 weeks for a touch-up. The last time she went she got bangs cut to cover the part that broke out.
	hair so hot it not only smokes, it leaves burns on your fingers from touching it
	not being able to comb or brush my hair to close to the scalp for at least a week
	sleeping on magnetic roller and waking up with a sore head because they hurt like crazy

Random...

I went and saw The Prestige last night and it was pretty good. It had some twists and turns in it that kinda caught me by surprise. I picked the movie for three reasons, 1. It was #1 at the box office this week, 2. It was the best option for the time period that I wanted to go, and 3. I haven't seen any previews for any movies in a while. It was the best movie I've seen at the movies in a long time. That was the high-light of my weekend. I went to Texas Roadhouse with the family for my sisters birthday, and worked, and slept. Good times!!

I finally finished my first knitting project last week. It is a gray scarf. Now I am working on a blanket, which I'm sure will take me a year or more to finish. But we shall see. I'm going to attempt to be more dedicated to the project. But given that I won't be having too much free time, I'm not going to make any promises.

I am kinda stressed at work, but apparently I shouldn't be, because my task lead leaves early or takes a day off about once a week. If he's not concerned, I guess I shouldn't be either.

My sister got a 30" tv yesterday, and I am super jealous. I was going to buy me a TV, then I said I was going to pay off some bills first, now I want a TV again. I'm going to pay off bills though. I don't think I'm going to get a plasma though, I think I'm going to go with a Sony DLP, although I'm not sure which size.