Darling Nicky

I’m so happy that Window made this commercial. I have a PC and, I know this sounds really stupid but, I felt dissed by the Mac commercials saying how outdated PCs are. There are plenty of things that can be done on PCs and I am very happy with mine. I have had viruses but they easy to get rid of as long as I immediately scanned computer and deleted them, though I have only had two instances with viruses when I’ve had my PC for five years. I can’t take it everywhere I go, but what’s the point of leaving your house if you’re taking what would keep you there with you?

The commercials are really sweet and funny. And even though the commercials were made on a Mac (ack!), they really drive home the fact that PC users are varied and worldwide. PCs are decades older than Macs, but there’s is still a lot of fight (and good use) in them yet.

September 26, 2008, Paul Newman died at his home surrounded by the comfort of family and close friends. He had completed chemotherapy for lung cancer in August, and finally succumbed to the disease yesterday. Newman has lived a life longed for by most with a successful and lasting career with many friends. He will not only be remembered by his films but also for his philanthropy with his Newman’s Own Charity. He is a legend that will be missed.

Jim Jones and Maria Davis

On Saturday, the neighborhood bakery Make My Cake held a “Client Appreciation Day” fair right outside its doors to honor it patrons for the great business they’ve been getting. There was cupcakes, hamburgers, hot dogs, voter registration, community groups, and music. I talk at length to a few people, not including neighbors, and the one person that really impressed me was a woman who told me she is an HIV survivor just past me asking what she had set up a table for and then asked me. Her name is Maria Davis and she was advocating safe sex for LIFEbeat. She was a music promoter in the ’90s when she contracted the virus from her ex-boyfriend who kept his status hidden from her and even his family. She is very serious about speaking up on people knowing about protecting themselves and knowing about AIDS. She even grilled me on my status, what HIV meant, what AIDS meant, and how would I know if I had AIDS? I aced the pop quiz, by the way!

After finishing up at Make My Cake’s street fair, she was setting up to drive out to Long Island to promote condom use, getting tested, and knowing your status at a Latin music concert. She was very well prepared with condoms and sex education literature in Spanish and she met a woman who works at a voters registration office in Harlem that has Spanish language voter registration forms she could pass out. I expressed to Ms. Davis that I am interested in interviewing her and she gave her card. I am very excited to talk to her, especially since the HIV/AIDS rate among African-American women is is higest due to unprotected sex and many still believing that HIV/AIDS is a homosexual disease. I can’t wait to interview her, although I don’t know where I’ll send the article to. It’s still a very important issue that needs to be stressed – that HIV/AIDS and other UTIs do not discriminate, anyone can get sick and that if you are sick you need to get help and treat your illness and not get bitter and angry.

Every year this parade comes around in mid- to late September and I get to look at the meager crowd of on-lookers from my apartment window. Every year it’s the same tiredness: floats, marching bands, dancers, protestors. It all pretty much amounts to a lot noise. Black Americans in this Harlem nighborhood always ask why the Carribean and Puerto Rican parades get so much publicity and why so many more people attend those parades. Maybe it’s because they’re not boring. They actually celebrate cultures. Radio station floats and marching bands are not exactly culture. I know that there are groups that march for important issues regarding the black community during the parade, but they of course do not get much play in the media because, in my opinion, they may seem too aggressive to mainstream television. I wish that the parade would focus more on the achievements of those who came before us, those with us in the present, and inspire the current generation to be more than entertainers and athletes. Those are not awful professions but there is more to a group of people than us being rhythmic and good at sports. Some of the greatest and most efficient inventions were made by African-Americans, why aren’t children being encouraged to aspire to create and be entrepreneurs (not talking about ellicit and/or illegal activities; not good, not prudent). I wish the parade would commemorate how much of an influence our culture has had on America rather than make the neighborhood really noisy and slow up traffic going across town. I wish more African-Americans cared more about heavier issues than the latest in fashion and music, and that more people saw that thepolitics practiced on every level always effects the lives of regular people so that they could elect those who they believe have the interests of them and their loved ones in mind when they make policies, bills, and laws.

I’m off my tangent. I just wish the parade were a little better.

Last night was not only the night to watch the MTV VMAs (which I wasn’t very excited about) but also to watch TruBlood (which I was excited about). TruBlood is set in Louisiana rural area of Bon Temp and is about what happens when vampires decide to “come out of the coffin”, and begin to want to be accepted as members of society. It’s a great mix of characters and the premiere episode was pretty damn good, in my opinion.

It basically centers around the character Sukie (played by Anna Paquin), an archetype little butt-kicker a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She’s a waitress at the local diner and is also telepathic. As she’s serving people, she’s hearing what they’re thinking. Last night’s episode was very action packed for a premiere, and I’m hoping the rest of the season for TruBlood doesn’t disappoint. In a nutshell: Sukie saves a vampire from drug dealers who sell and use “v juice”, her brother gets arrested for taking it too far during sex after seeing how rough she took it from a vampire, and she gets her ass kicked at the end of the show. Before credits roll, she’s getting her faced split open by a boot to the face.

OMG! I’m definitely back for more next week! I’m very glad to see Anna Paquin get some work. She’s a great actress and I loved her in her bit role in The Squid and the Whale. People need to know about this show because with the viral advertising HBO did to get the word out about TruBlood is enough alone to make people want to watch. I’ll be tuned!