I do not remember any dreams from last night. I slept very hard and I do not feel well rested this morning. I wore my onyx necklace to bed last night.

I begin to wonder if the amount of onyx on that necklace is too much for sleeping. I may just stick with the garnet necklace at night. It has two onyx beads on the end.

So, yes, we have all of these great freedoms here in the U.S.A and the constitution protects those freedoms. We can all be proud of that for sure. But do you really think it was necessary for the United States to be formed in order for you to have those freedoms? Bullshit!!! Why do you think you wouldn’t have those freedoms if you weren’t born a native of this land? Brainwashing is why. Fuck that!

I think most people need a good dose of history. I am not the one to give it, because I don’t know nearly enough. But I can attest to the fact that the stuff we should be learning in our history classes is not the stuff that we are learning in history classes! The stuff we’re learning on the “mean streets” or in the churches is not the stuff we should be learning. Granted, I won’t take most things as my own belief because I just can’t get down with it, but this bullshit about American pride is too much.

Yes, I am proud to have been born on this beautiful rock, which I hear should be referred to as Turtle Island. Yes, I’m proud to have the freedoms and prosperity that I do. But I’ll be “got damned” to believe that my life would only be this way thanks to the “founding fathers” declaring independence from some tiny island off the coast of Europe. If it weren’t for the fireworks this day wouldn’t mean shit to me other than an extra day off.

And how ironic is it that the last time somebody declared independence in this land, it caused a HUGE hubbub! Lots of mother fuckers got kilt and nobody other than the “rebs” want to celebrate it…

Verily, Black Jesus says unto you, go ahead and be happy that some European mother fuckers declared independence from they daddies and then proceeded to rape and pillage this great land. Be happy that whole nations and crops were slaughtered so that you can go to Wal-Mart to buy beef or swine instead of deer or buffalo to throw on your grills. Pop off your fireworks to symbolize the destruction you’ve caused in the wake of your selfish rebellion. Sing your songs of glory against your dads and mums and roll your drums in respect for the warriors you send to force other peoples to follow your ways (instead of keeping them here to protect and look after you!).

Black Jesus, on the other hand, is going to spend the day contemplating how to be more respectful of the native traditions. He’s also going to enjoy some kimchi and jap chae cooked at home by his gorgeous Native-afro-meric-ean wife. And while you may see an appearance somewhere where there’ll be colorful explosions in the air, you will not see me flying the “banner of freedom” cause that’s some bullshit that I don’t need to represent. If a mufuka wanna step on this rock to hurt folk, he’ll catch a cap in his ass just as quick as one who’s already here that wanna try to pull the same shit. For me, it don’t have anything to do with no flag, no piece of paper, or no strip o’ land. Rather, for me, it has everything to do with the “don’t start none. won’t be none.” Ya dig?

I know you’re gonna do what you’re gonna do anyway, but please at least be safe and don’t drink or text and drive. And definitely don’t text while driving drunk. It’s stupid and too many people have cars for your dumbass to at best catch a charge. At worst, you could lose your life or worse, take somebody else’s. If your life ain’t worth enough to hold that text for later or get somebody else to drive you home, how bout considering changing your thought processes so that it will be. And I don’t mean go find Jesus. Maybe you, too, should research the histories that you weren’t taught before. Google that shit, son!

Thought I’d take just a moment to write up a feature request that’s been on my mind for about a year now. I am sure it will take some engineering, but I think the work would be a worthy evolution of your already excellent online music service. Please feel free to comment on this page if you have questions or want to announce it’s availability.

Add “In My Playlists”  Section To Track Pages

On track page, you can see that a song is already in your library and whether you’ve loved it. I think it’d be super-cool if track pages listed the playlists that I’ve already added the track to.

This addition would be useful for the following reasons (and I’m sure there are others):

• Instantly, I’ll know that I’ve added the track to at least one playlist.
• I’ll see that I’ve added it to a playlist that it really doesn’t fit into afterall.
• I won’t have to ask myself if I already add it to such-and-such playlist?

I’d be honored to test out such a feature.

Psst… Add me as a friend on Last.fm if you want to.

My 1st Amulet

Originally uploaded by Osolage

My wife helped me make my first amulet last night. I didn’t realize I was making it on the full moon and on the last day of February! Weird.

Neclace is made of faceted black onyx beads. Pendant is gold citrine.

As “crazy” as it sounds, I feel different having created it. I love it and plan to wear it often! (I will not neglect the other things my wife has given me to wear around my neck, though.)

I’d like to submit to you that you don’t have the need to move the mountain in the first place. You were born to Earth as a human. Why does a human have a need to move a mountain. Leave that power to your mother, The Earth.

Power over the 3D world is not a task your human body should ever be burdened with. Sure, we move earth all the time with tools and machines, but that is for the purpose of fulfilling wants that aren’t necessary. You never NEED to move the mountain.

Rather, you are blessed to have an opportunity to observe an incredible entity from a unique perspective. Undoubtedly, humans have a capacity to understand the Earth differently than any other entity on the planet. In fact, we have a unique perspective even from ET. Oh, how they might envy us.

Enjoy your opportunity. Do not spend all your terrestrial life dreaming of how this mountain weren’t there or how that valley were filled in. Instead, traverse them both. Otherwise, why even bother receiving the gifts of life that Mother Earth offers so freely. (And yes, thy even means the harsh cold and heat.)

Besides, your fellow man will present all sorts of mountains for you to surmount. Even still, you can always choose to realize THAT is not a mountain also. Either it is an memory you are collecting for your soul’s obserance or it’s not REAL and choose to exclude it from your reality. After all, what is real ISN’T unless you believe it to be, yes?

This evening, I had a very weird experience. I was filling my gas tank up at my local Shell station when I noticed the moon off in the distance. I was looking South and I saw the most stunning “bowl” of light in the middle of the sky. Instantly, I knew it was the moon!

In hindsight, I wish I would have just observed it for some time, but instead, I was compelled to text my family that it was so beautiful.

When I got back in my car, I fully expected to see the moon just looming where it was 5 minutes earlier, when I looked through my windshield. But it was nowhere in sight! I even got back out of my car and walked into the middle of the parking lot, looked up at the sky and visually confirmed that the sky was clear enough for me to see some stars. Of course, where the moon had been seemed like it was covered in clouds. There are so many lights in Richmond, that it’s hard enough to see the night sky without there being cloud-cover.

I started to think I had just gone plumb crazy, because all my family responded back that they couldn’t see it. At last, I just had to do scour the internet for some kind of visual confirmation of how the moon looked tonight. I found this photo and I feel much better.

Based on the tags, this photo appears to have been taken in Texas. I bet the distance Richmond, VA and TX would account for the slightly different orientation that I saw the moon in.

Either way, I feel a LOT better having gotten visual confirmation that I wasn’t just seeing things.

What if exhile from Eden was a lie to discourage people from practicing shamanism?

I mean it wouldn't be the first conspiracy that The Church has perpetrated. And if The Church could assimilate as many Pagan holidays as it has, why wouldn't it steal from creation stories and put them together in such a way that slightly resonates with cultural inheritances and discourage spiritual enlightenment the way the "sacred cultures" did it?

Personally, I've always had issue over the story of banishment from Eden. I've always had a feeling that The Bible was His Story more so than history. I've always felt that there is truth in The Bible, but as it was written by man, it couldn't be The (whole) Truth. How can The Truth possibly fit into anything other than the soul?

X number of pages can never approximate containment of The Truth, IMHO.
Rather, The Truth IS obtained through the seeking of it. I doubt I attain all there is to know, but the journey itself is the reward. The Church is a good starting point for a lot of people, including myself, but I believe that it can also be a diversion from gaining further enlightenment.

For most of my 20s, I spent the holidays on the road. Whether it was driving from Roanoke back to Appomattox to do the same dance or drive from Charlottesville back to Appomattox to do the same dance or drive from Richmond back to Appomattox to do the same dance. At least I did go visit my dad and his family, because I could drive. However, there was more driving, because we also went to Roanoke to visit my wife’s family, too. So, not only did I miss people I didn’t get to see, many times I missed my wife, because sometimes we would visit separately just to cover more ground in the same amount of time.

Everything changed in 2007, however. I was betrayed, in different ways, by 2 people I thought I could trust the most. After that, I didn’t have the same urge to catch up with family anymore. I had a terrible start to 2009 because of some dirt I did. On top of that, a conversation with my mom about how she felt about my name change just threw me over the edge. Sadly, family now means a lot less to me now than it ever has.

We haven’t really left Fort Osolage to visit family much at all this year. The difference is that I don’t feel pressed to do it, either. Yes, I do feel bad for missing out on seeing everybody that I care about, but I suppose you could say I’m able to sort out my feelings and really understand what/who is important to me without being influenced by the ghosts of slavery, alcoholism or chaotic living.

This year, I am thankful to not be on the road for the Thanksgiving holiday. Last time my wife and I traveled, we found ourselves behind a drunk driver, which we pursued hoping our plea to 911 would result in an arrest. Add that encounter, plus my accident on Easter “weekend”, plus a tingling in my soul that it’s just too much of a risk to be on the road with all the drunks and inattentive shoppers and you see how easy it was to decide on not travelling…

So this year, I am most thankful for:

• having an insanely beautiful and incredibly genius Native American/Black woman 1) enjoying the holiday weekend with me and 2) cooking a nice size bird in our renovated kitchen
• this wonderful, beat-up ol’ shack that we call home
• skills that enable me to have a job where I can pay for this shack and pay for my wife’s schooling and put food on the table and not be so broke that we can’t buy some of the frivolous things we want
• family that we miss and they miss us in return (especially those that betrayed us)
• having survived dropping my bike and the guy that got the license plate of the inattentive driver that pulled out in front of me
• being more comfortable in my own skin more than I ever have been in my entire life
• realizing that even if this country crumbles, it ain’t the end of the World. I mean, time passes and countries come and go – even in the short time this assemblage of matter that I call “my body” has walked the Earth.

I wish you all a very happy and especially safe holiday. And to the loved ones that might be missing me that read this, give an aggin a call why dontcha?

Honestly, I should say also that I’m thankful for my co-workers. And I’m extremely thankful for my new DBA apprentice/future partner in crime, Steve Pendlebury (@BionicChango). 2010 is truly gonna be an awesome year in my career with Steve, the rest of my team and SharePoint 2010 to keep me going!