{weird}gasm

but hey, $4.00 for a textbook that can be doctored with tape> $150 new book.

…and it was that bad. Not just Tyler Perry bad. It was strenuous to watch.

I try so hard to fish for complements and not trash Tyler Perry’s works, but I’ve got nothing (unintentional title track pun). Since I can no longer talk myself into buying tickets to see it in theaters, Red Box has been the move. I’m pretty sure the last movie of his I’ve seen while still at the box office was the original Why Did I Get Married. I thought since the original was slightly more consistent and palatable than his total catalog, the sequel could only further the pattern. Maybe the failure was in recognizing that the original needed no additions.

Some Notes:

• It’s never a good sign when the characters say the title of the movie outright in the beginning in the most illogical manner
• I don’t think at any point the characters seemed to be actually looking at each other or engaging on a personal level. Most lines seemed to be spoken directly into the camera as if spoken to audience. The over-reliance on most close-ups and over the shoulder shots makes this seem to be true.
• The editing and composition are so jumpy and disjointed in a way that indicates ineptitude instead of intentional cinema veritae. The cuts are way too frequent. The too frequent over-the-shoulder shots are obscured by the women’s fluffy wigs.
• So much yelling. Does anyone know how to use their inside voice EVER?
• The movie’s dialogue feels half written. I know for a fact Tyler Perry lets his actors improvise but so many scenes just stall and I begin to hear crickets. Too much time is spent talking about things of ill-significance with the least colorful dialogue. 
• For a movie that has so many things going on, there is no definitive plot, just a random array of unending plot twists. It feels like the story forms an incomplete 
• Continuity much? The movie was set 3 years after the original. Dianne supposedly has her tubes tied and she has one daughter. After untying her tubes, she would still have a gestational period of 9 months. How the hell is there a five-year-old boy that is supposed to be her son?  
• Oh yeah and Most WTF? ending ever. (It could be my own personal bias against movies that use deaths to be the magic pill that heals everything)

I love the past roles of those recognizable in the cast and wanted it to be good but I guess I’m that demographic that Tyler Perry movies elude.

On Monday, I took the plunge. On the eve of my first week of school, I pulled the plug on my Facebook. Immediately, I felt like a great burden was lifted but there were pangs of regret. I thought myself an idiot for cutting my most consistent communication line but extremely intelligent for ridding my self of outside worries. The oversharing, learning unflattering details of people I no longer legitimately know, the seething jealousy of former rivals achieving greater success and baffling grammar are behind me. But I do regret losing the exchange random quips and memories with certain people and I can’t force them to switch to something more discreet and less personal like Tumblr or Twitter.

It’s not all bad. It feels like a new birth. I see a less obsessive me focusing with more clarity and building a completely new support system. I can use that time to get more writing in or something.

Okay, so the second day of class didn’t go disastrously (unintended pun because the class concerns natural disasters) but the getting there was a pill. My lab class was cancelled for the week so I had to leave later in the day by train instead of the normal shuttle bus. Disoriented from exit from the wrong side of the train station, I managed to circle the downtown Atlanta streets for minutes. I go into the building exactly at the time the class was schedule to begin and I discovered that I did not have my schedule. I hobbled down the stairs where computers were found and got the room number. I got there just in time to sign the roll.  My feet were screaming when I sat down. Like an idiot, I wore flats on my not-so-healed sprained toe. But hey, it could’ve been worst!

In comparison to my first year at Art Institute, my first day at Georgia State was a wreck. I have no doubt I’ll ace my classes but not if a stampede doesn’t kill me first. I don’t know how I’m going to deal with being on a campus with 13,000 people and not a close friend in sight. I found my classes without a problem but it’s giving me way too much of a high school vibe. My high school started with 3,000 people my freshman year with most of them pre-cliqued, so I spent 3 years hiding away from the noise and crowd in the library instead of socializing at lunch. I do not want that repeat but I see these 100-people classes and it literally makes me tremble. 

1. Get some fresh new tunes and headphones  Done! Too bad the music can be synced to the iPod
2. Finish 5 books 3 full and half of two other books is close enough
3. Get into a fixed sleeping/waking routine Well, the naps are gone (to say the least)
4. Modify exercising schedule to fit school. Derailed by sprained toe and uncomfortable shoes.
5. Master a few more natural hairstyles. Kinda. Frohawk, bantu knots, twisted style, and cinnabon are still being worked out.
6. Add new scarves, hair accessories and earrings into the accessories arsenal. 
7. Get new glasses/contacts
8. Find new pairs of long distance campus-trodding shoes Well…one’s sufficient
9. Order Windows Office 2010
10. Buy books (and not spend a fortune doing it) Minor success
11. Find that pesky USB charger and battery charger that have been missing almost a month. EPIC FAILURE!
12. Attempt to compose at least 3 new written works. NOPE!
13. Finish character design for new comic series. Well…came up with title.
14. Open another savings account to pay off prior art school loans
15. Return to writing in journal. Abandoned after two days.
16. Watch and review 10 movies. Sadly, didn’t happen
17. Find a new order for room That’s funny now that I think about it. It’s worst!
18. Investigate to find out who in my personal circle attends Georgia State. Apparently not many close or fun people 
19. Explore lunch and break options. Gonna play by ear tomorrow.
20. Find more mature wardrobe options. Yep! Polos and dress pants go a long way.

This break too-long break bites the dust when I wake up in the morning. I will finally be living with drive and purpose again!

Anybody that has natural hair knows that there’s an everyday cultural battle. You sometimes end up having to defend your choice or look to people more often than you should. You feel great and satisfied about how your hair looks, but you receive negative attention. It stings when it comes from other black people that whisper nasty words like “nigger hair” amongst themselves where you can hear them. It has a worst sting when it comes from the opposite sex (particularly attractive ones) because it makes even the most self-assured natural lady feel at least momentarily undesirable. I will never surrender to their criticism and harsh words, but it sometimes I can shake it off, other times it feels like I’ve absorbed a huge blow to the gut.