I'm in a much better mood ESPECIALLY now that I see huny is back. I missed her "presence" on the web - it has definitely been a "gray day" without her.
Speaking of Lifetime, two of the best television shows to date are Any Day Now and Strong Medicine.
The other day, one of the directors approached me about putting up the dean's letter on the web. Currently, someone else is paid to do that task - I'm only responsible for press releases and updating the main page. According to the consultant who was in the office just a few minutes ago, it takes an hour to create this newsletter and costs "us" $150.00. So - it would cost them less to have me do it much less. But get this, on the day she asked me about maintaining the dean's letter, I looked over the site - there is only one jpeg, title at the top of the page, the rest is the dean's letter - nothing fancy - no javascripts, ccs, frames, rollovers, maps. . . nothing. Just basic html. I told her on Monday, when she approached me, that it was simple. "I can do it, won't be a problem." AND IT WON'T TAKE AN HOUR TO DO. But she called the consultant, who according to him takes an hour and charges $150, who will be training me on November 6th.
I'm angry and hurt. Because she, in particular, treats me and talks to me as if I know nothing. True enough, there are certain things I do not know but there is a HELLUVA lot that I do know. And one of those helluva's is that it should not take an hour to put up a simple page. Of course, I can stretch out the task too but it won't do me any good. I want to approach her and tell her that I don't need training (he'll be paid to train me). But I feel like I would be wasting time and my breath. I get so tired of having to re-prove myself. I know that when it comes to webdevelopment there are scripts and languages I don't know. But to maintain this particular site . . . my 7 year old niece could do it and I'm not exaggerating. This is similar to what the page looks like.
This morning, on my serene ride into work, yeah right. Conversation between two teenagers. They constantly referred to one another as "nigga." It s a word that has been around for a long time. When I was in high school, boys called each other nigga, men still do it today, black men talking to other black men - jokingly. "Nigga please!" I never heard anyone objecting until now, black people that is. In fact, when I was a little girl, I don't know where I heard this from, my sisters and I were playing around - we sang this jingle "eenie, meanie, miney moe, catch a nigga by his toe . . ." My mother heard us and shut us up quickly. After she explained why she found the jingle offensive, I felt sad. Because from the way she explained it, I actually envisioned a black man being strung up by his toe until he cried out for mercy. That is how I saw it, so we never sang that jingle again. And I don't recall where it was that I heard it because I was teaching it to my sisters.
In this day and age, I've heard white boys call each other nigga. It was shocking to me when I first heard it. Back when my grandfather, even my father was growing up, to refer to a white man as being a nigga was insulting - fighting words (even though calling a black man nigga was moreso insulting but he was supposed to take it without protest or objection kinda like men today who call women 'ho, ya know?)
But we all know that the word NEGRO had three "illegitimate" (for lack of a better word) children - nigger, nigga, and niggra. They all convey different meanings to some but the same meaning to most. Nigger is an insult, spoken by a white man to or about a black man (or woman) name came up during slavery times - example: "nigger, prepare my horse." Nigga is a jive word - street slang exchanged from friend to friend, "Man, ya'll niggas trippin'." And niggra well, that's that J.B. Stoner word, from the 1950's - the word the klan used to strike fear into hearts. Whenever I've heard the word accented in that manner, immediately I think of the klan preparing to physically , in addition to mentally, destroy a black man.
I guess everyone has his interpretation. Like the word bitch. Some women don't mind being called a bitch. Instead of being insulting, it now represents power - a woman in control. With that being said, I guess the word bioch, I guess that's how it would be spelled, is now the insult, since many women are no longer insulted by the use of bitch.
This also brings me to the use of the word asshole. I heard a driver calling another driver "asshole." Not that this was my first time hearing it. I've heard it often, in movies, in the neighborhood, whispered underneath a coworkers breath in reference to a boss . . . but I ask you to re-evaluate the word asshole. You may be complementing rather than insulting. Think about it. What does an asshole do? It recognizes shit and dispels it from the body - get s rid of it. So if you're breaking up with a guy and he yells: "I'm the best thing you'll ever have, bitch. You ain't gonna never have another man like me, asshole." Well take it as a compliment because first - he's called you a bitch which now days mean YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE - YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WANT and have no problem going after it - secondly - he called you an asshole. If you're an asshole and you're getting rid of him - guess what he must be?
