I was online this morning and came across 18 ways to make $100.00 a month. As I am always looking for ways to bring in extra income, I read the article. It was kind of interesting. Most of the things it suggested, I am not qualified to do. Then I came across this article called: 20 Ways To Waste Your Money. I found that even more interesting. I personally don’t know many people that are rich/well off but I do know people, including myself, that waste a lot of money stupidly. For instance, I have bought shoes that I have nothing to go with! Then I have to find an outfit to wear them with. I have so many shoes, and when I really stop and think about it, I could use that shoe money to either help someone or make that money work for me in a better way. Honestly, I think I have enough shoes to wear a different pair for 365 days. Hmmm….. as much as I like shoes, that is ridiculous and I’m wasting money!

Step one in my efforts to not waste money, reading this article and sharing it with you. I have told you about my wasteful ways with my shoe addiction. Share with us your wasteful ways but more importantly, PLEASE let us know of things you have done to save money! Maybe something you are doing can be helpful and useful for us all! Also, share with us some things you know about that we can do on the side to bring in extra money.  I  believe there are many ways to supplement our lives these days, we just have to find that ”on the side” job that works for you!  

Below is the article.  Holla back!

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/FindDealsOnline/20-ways-to-waste-your-money.aspx?GT1=33006

It is a well written, well voiced cry out, from a 15 year old, young, black, articulate woman. It is lengthy, but powerful. Please try to read to the end.

Ms. Janitra Patrcik: Dear BET, Why Do You Hate Us?

Dear Debra Lee,

I’m Janita Patrick, a 15-year-old African-American female from Cincinnati. Recently, I watched the 2009 BET Awards and felt the strongest urge to reach out to the program. My family is of the typical middle-class variety; both parents and four brothers. See, I’m a junior in high school (got skipped), so naturally EVERYBODY in my age group watches BET. I’m used to seeing the sagging pants, tattoos, lack of emphasis on reading and respecting women that makes up your videos. People in my class live this out everyday, while teachers tell us that we’re acting just like the people in your shows.

In your shows. That struck me as odd, because I would think that with your show being the primary outlet for black entertainers and musicians, and considering the context of blacks in this country, there’s a social responsibility factor to consider. I would never blame BET alone for the way a great deal of my classmates act and talk and dress. Everybody makes their own choices. However, if anybody is aware the power of television on impressionable minds, it’s the people running the television operations.  If you are not aware, then perhaps you shouldn’t be running the operations.

Guess who watches your network the most? Not those who are intelligent enough to discern foolishness from substance, but those who are barely teenagers, impressionable and believing. It’s awfully cruel to plant seeds of ignorance in fertile minds. You know it’s really bad when the co-founder of BET, Sheila Johnson, said that she “really doesn’t watch it” anymore.

I am constantly fighting against the images and messages put forth on your program. What made you think that it’s okay to bring my classmates on stage to dance behind Lil Wayne and Drake to a song talking about boffing “every girl in the world”? Why does reality train wrecks have to thrown in our faces? Are you aware of the achievement gap going in inner-city African-American communities? A report from America’s Promise Alliance, a non-profit group started by Colin Powell, recently stated that 47 percent of high school students in the nation’s top 50 cities don’t graduate. (Fifty-four percent of males of color in Ingham County graduated from high school, compared to 74 percent of white males). This isn’t because of BET per se, but I don’t see any episodes on your show doing anything to counteract this disturbing trend. In fact, your show is a part of this cycle of media depicting us at our worst.

My older brother told me something about profit being the number one goal for every business. I’m not sure I understand what that means, but I do know that your shows have to be entertaining enough to generate viewers, which is how you make your money. But surely our culture is rich enough to entertain without anything extra to “boost” ratings; why the over-the-top foolery? I listen to classmates talk about Baldwin Hills like it’s the Manhattan Project. It doesn’t take much effort to produce a throng of degenerative reality shows, nor does it take much to eliminate socially conscious shows off the air. MTV isn’t much better, but since when does two wrongs ever make a right? It’s one thing for white television shows to depict us in a particular way, but for black television shows to do it is baffling.

Why do you hate us?
All of the values that my parents seek to instill in me and my brothers seems to be contradicted by a more powerful force from the media, and your show is at the forefront. Your network is the only network that features rap videos and shows exclusively to children of my color. I know that you have no control over the music that the artists put out, but you do have influence as to how you air these videos. I’m sure if a stand was taken to use the talent in your organization to actually crank out thought-provoking entertaining shows and videos, then artists will follow suit. Being that they need you as much as you need them.

There was one awkward segment in the BET Awards when Jamie Foxx singled out three black doctors-turned-authors, but the introduction was so powerless that many of the viewers had no idea who they were. Had they been introduced as Sampson Davis, Rameck Hunt and George Jenkins, three brothers who overcame major obstacles to become a success without the use of lyrics that berate women, the sell of substance that destroy communities or through raps about loose gunplay, then maybe my classmates would have come to school talking about more than Beyonce, T-Pain’s BIG ASS CHAIN and Soulja Boy Tell Em’s hopping out the bed.

But they weren’t introduced like that. It seemed like a throwaway obligatory tribute to appease some irritated fans. It missed the mark. Big time. Ask Michelle Obama if she watches BET or encourages Sasha and Malia to do so. Ask President Obama. It’s a reason he is the leader of the free world, and it isn’t because of Buffoonery Exists Today.

You’d be surprised how smart young black children can be with the absence of Blacks Embarrassing Themselves. If your goal is to deter engaged, forward-thinking articulate black minds, then consider your goal fulfilled. It’s hard-pressed to think that your shows are working to promote cultural betterment. However, it’s quite easy to conclude that the destruction of black children through the glorification of immoral behavior and rushed production is by design. Poison is being swallowed by every viewer who adores your network, and the worse thing is, these viewers – my classmates – are not even aware what they’re swallowing.

There is nothing edifying for black women on your show. I don’t judge people who do throng to your programs though; I mean, if a jet crashes in right in front of me, I’ll watch it too. That’s why I don’t flip by your channel…I don’t even want to be sucked in.
I have aspirations of acquiring a law degree and possibly entering the public sphere, so I can counteract conditions in my community perpetuated by the images on your channel. So I should thank you, because in a weird sense, your shoddy programming is the wind behind my back. And it is my hope that I can accomplish my dreams despite BET’s pictorial messages, because Lord knows it won’t be because of them.

Sincerely,
Janita Patrick

Wow… Holla back!

I have thought about writing this post more than once and did not because I thought you might find it too shallow but I saw it again and had to speak up! How in the world did Brooke Shields get roped into doing a commercial on how to get your eyelashes to grow! Of all things! Of course it’s not about Brooke; it’s about the obsession with it all. Where will we ever draw the line and say, enough is enough?

Now let me go ahead and admit, I am all in favor of women (and men) taking care of themselves and projecting the best “you” possible. I wear makeup. I go to the salon for hair and nails. I get my eyebrows waxed/arched. I do microdermabrasion. I try to utilize all the bells and whistles available to me as a woman, to make me look my best, and feel my best, thus projecting my best self. However, when I see a former co-worker with a jacked up line on her lip because the tattoo artist went outside the line when permanently tattooing on a lip liner, or another friend with amazing eyebrows because her tattoo artist had a steady hand and created the perfect line, or hear a commercial telling me that I can grow longer eyelashes but the side affects are “possible” permanent brown eyes that should be white (Sclera), I think that is going too far!

Yesterday I was watching a movie and strayed from the story line as I watched the woman’s mouth trying to move but it couldn’t. Botox! Gosh, isn’t it a shame that we can’t just be who and what we are and look the way we look and still be considered beautiful? Who actually defines that beauty? Is it society? And what society, hormone growing men? Young eager men? Mid life crisis men? Dirty old men? Lol. Let’s just establish up front, surely the society I’m speaking about is men! Wouldn’t you agree? Because woman to woman, we know the pain of trying to be beautiful! I’d love to go out occasionally looking like “who done it and what for”! I’d like to just throw and go! That is, throw on anything and go anywhere and not care how I looked. But I can’t! That doesn’t project the image I want to exude. It doesn’t speak to the classiness I try to carry with me at all times! But people… it is hard! Don’t hate me if you think I look beautiful, it was hard work getting there!!!

I quit perming my hair in a stand for sistas everywhere! I wore it in its natural state for quite a while, all kinky and whatnot. Did I feel as pretty??? No I didn’t because society says my hair needs to be straight and as close to the Barbie look as I can get. (Sidebar: Did y’all know Barbie turned 50 this year and her full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts? Uh huh) In efforts to change up occasionally, I took the hour and a half necessary and went through the grueling steps of straightening my hair. I did that one time too many and now it won’t conform back to the kinkiness and whatnot. Once again I am sporting that permed look (although it is still natural). My husband is happy and I do like it, but I’ve lost my Angela Davis edge and I feel like I have let my sistas down!

I want to be beautiful. I want to be sexy. I want all the good feelings that come with what we go through to look our best. I have another admission. I got the fake eyelashes. Yes, I did! I went to the salon. She analyzed my natural lashes and we discussed the appropriate size for me and my face. Off we went! She glued the lashes on in groups of three hairs at a time. I sat in fear as she got closer and closer to my eyeball. When she was done, I was beautiful! Or so I thought. The lady next to me told me so. Nails, toenails, hair and eyelashes! Mary Kay helped me manually do the rest. Lol. So the next day when I saw something black lying on the floor, only to discover it was a group of my customized lashes, I was distraught. The next day, the next group landed on the sink. Between Tuesday and Saturday, I had been to that shop three times getting and re-getting my lashes done! Nothing worked! I even had my husband to bring home goggles to wear over my eyes when I showered. And still they wouldn’t stay affixed to my “real” lashes and lid! I had to treat them so gingerly. “Don’t get them wet,” is what the “lash tech” told me. Huh? How can I not get a part of my face wet? And I always felt like there was a shadow looming over me. It felt like I had clumps and clumps of mascara caked on my lashes when in reality, it was my $20.00 set of new lashes I tried in my next step of enhancing my beauty! Pray church!

Where should it end? Now I am a proponent of believing all women should wear a little something. There is nothing more beautiful than a finely crafted eye with just the right shades of matte shadow/s and pencil and mascara to make the eyes pop! Rarely do you see a perfect complexion, one without a little blemish here and there. Nothing a little foundation or pressed powder couldn’t smooth out. I believe it is self affirming to take steps to beautify ourselves and it gives us confidence, I just don’t know where we stop! Treatments for growing eyelashes??? One that could leave permanent browning of the eyes?

So here’s the thing, you have the treatment, you get beautiful lashes that have probably only grown a 1/10 of 1/10 of an inch and the whites of your eyes are permanently brown. Uh… certainly the latter completely cancels out the former. And what’s up with the commercials when they say, “before starting this regiment, ask your doctor. Blah blah blah (said regiment) may not be right for you”. I’ll just speak for me; I have never had a family doctor that would sign off on an eye lash treatment that could cause permanent browning of the eyes!

I have one more admission. I am in Georgia now. A place where it is (as I say) slavery hot! The women here are not feeling all the beauty regiments I am used to in Indiana. The heat makes them just say no to beauty regiments. However, I have seen some beautiful, beautiful smooth complexioned ladies here who use a bar of soap and go! I ain’t mad at ‘em!

Sigh…. I’m just saying… Is the side effect of a brown sclera, for slightly longer lashes, worth it? Is beauty still in the eye of the beholder? Hope so! No brown eyes for me. Short lashes that are mine and snowy white eyes that shine bright! )

Holla back!

Holla Back!

Also, the time I have planned for our trip is Fall with Fall temperatures in Greece. Currently the trip with the most votes is Greece and IT WILL BE COLD at that time. Our options are to still go with the cool temperatures (I know we will probably loose a few people if we go during cold temperatures), move the date to summer and nicer temperatures or pick another trip. I just want us to go, be together and have fun! Any decision is fine with me!  

Bearing all that in mind, especially those of you who have already voted, come back and tell me if you want to keep your vote as is, or change it. I am giving the voting process until June 8th and then we will make the decision.

Holla back!