Her Name Is April Rose

A few months back I attended the 80s vs 90s: A Different World party thrown by the Mystical Mu Zeta Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity at Rutgers University. The theme, if you can’t tell by the name, was strictly 80s/90s hip hop and R&B music and attire. People definitely went all out for the affair (see my homie DaShun dressed as Mars Blackmon).

I took an ish-load of pictures and never got around to posting them. Sorry people. I still don’t feel like uploading them onto Facebook, so your photo tags are just going to stay stagnant. But I did decide to post my favorites out of the couple hundred that were taken that night.

April Rose (my first & middle name).. I think it’s a beautiful name personally. Well.. now I do. Honestly, up until the age of 16, I wouldn’t let anyone but my mother call me by that. I’ve only met one April Rose in my lifetime. That was about 8 years ago in the middle of an Old Navy. She was half Asian, too. Go figure.

I was curious to know what other April Roses there were out there, so I googled it. I ran across one blog about an expecting mother who was pregnant with a very ill child. I skimmed through the entries and what I read was heartwarming. Apparently she touched the lives of a lot of others as well. I thought to myself that maybe I should check on this blog more often.

Well, I tried to read her blog today and it was gone. Alright. That was abrupt… and then I went to go look at my WordPress blog stats. One feature that I like about the blog stats is that it tells you what keywords were searched for when people click my blog’s url. I noticed a lot of people were coming to my blog after searching for keywords like “april rose fake” or “april rose scam”. I was lost, so I went to look for myself. What I found was even more confusing.

In light of that blog disappearing, new ones popped up. These blogs were saying that the expecting mother wasn’t really expecting. In fact, it might have been all a scam to get money out of the people who embraced the unborn child. I was in complete shock.

I don’t know much about the story, so I can’t say whether it was completely made up or not, but the info on these sites seemed pretty legit. If it is true that this was just an elaborate story used to bamboozle innocent people, that’s just sad and I hope they get what’s coming to them. If not, I wish the best to baby April Rose and her parents wherever they may be. Hopefully there will some sort of conclusive ending to this story sometime soon.

*edit
If you want to visit the sites I was referring to for evidence click here & here.

I’m generally not a morning person. Usually the only way I’m up to see 10 AM is if I haven’t gone to sleep yet. When I’m up in those early hours, though, I have to listen to Kanye. He’s my motivational music.

So it’s currently 7:16 AM. I’m listening to “I Wonder” and reading Artieka Nicole‘s blog. I notice one of her pages called 101 things in 1001 days.

Many people have created lists in the past – frequently simple goals such as New Year’s resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

I always feel I don’t push myself enough.. like I’m not as ambitious as I should be. I have all the potential in the world to be where I want to be in life, but I need to set goals and learn how to self-motivate myself. So to bite an idea from a lovely fellow blogger, I’m going to set 101 goals for the next 1001 days. Wish me luck. Those who know me know how easily sidetracked I get. Check back often to see my progress people =]

…for wanting to pull a Bush and throw my eff’n Jordan at this girl’s head? Let me explain.

Last Friday in my Intro To Art class, we were discussing censorship. My teacher displayed pieces of art that have been taken to court over cases of censorship and the 1st amendment. The first piece he put up was an installation by an artist who goes by the name of Dread Scott (yes, he took the name from the slave involved in the historical Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857). It was called “What is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag?“

This is the installation pictured on the left. As you can see in the photomontage above, there are two ways that the American flag is being displayed. Korean students are burning the flag and holding signs saying “Yankee go home son of bitch” and coffins draped in the American flag in a troop transport.

In the installation, the photomontage is hanging on the wall with a shelf with a book below it for people who view the installation to write their thoughts. But as you can see the American flag is laying on the ground and in order to write on the book, you must walk on the flag to do so.

Some call it art. Some call it an atrocity. President Bush (the first one) called this piece disgraceful. What do you think?

So this girl in my class walks in late and starts adding her two cents into the discussion. Mind you this is the girl who always has something to say about everything and drags EVERY SINGLE TOPIC out longer than it needs to be. She starts calling it a disgrace and starts yelling about how he should be arrested… alright.. Calm down.

Moving on.

More work from Dread Scott we covered.

The Blue Wall of Violence is an installation that addresses police brutality. It focuses on the object which the police “mistook” for a dangerous weapon when they shot an unarmed person. The project consists of several elements: On the wall are six actual FBI silhouette targets which police use for shooting practice. Protruding from each of these is a cast of an arm. In each hand is an object-wallet, house keys, 3 Musketeers bar, squeegee, etc. In front of this is a coffin and in front of the coffin are three police batons which each strike it every 10 seconds with a loud penetrating bang.

Details of Scott installing Sign of the Times in Fort Green, Brooklyn on site where Floyd “Fly Ty” Quinones was killed by police, April 30, 2003.

Scott’s art reproduces Hattie McDaniel, the actress who played Mammy in Gone with the Wind, and emblazoned across her smiling face: “If white people didn’t invent air, what would we breathe?” Part of his BOOM Series.

Now she threw a eff’n FIT when she saw these pieces. She started ranting about how they promote violence against police and white people. She then went on to say that these pieces need ratings like they have for Grand Theft Auto…..

=|

What the fuck is your ass talking about?

These pieces have nothing to do with video games. This actually happens… Floyd Quinones wasn’t a perfect man. In fact, he was an ex-con, but does that mean he deserves to be shot IN THE BACK and killed? I don’t think so. Police brutality is real. Officers shooting and killing unarmed people is real. Need I remind you all of Sean Bell and Oscar Grant?

Am I saying I don’t like the police? No. I fully appreciate officers who actually do their jobs and are here to serve the people. All I’m saying is there are officers on the street who aren’t fit to have guns in their possession.

As far as the piece with Hattie McDaniel… Shit. I don’t know what yall interpretations are, but I know that Gone With The Wind perpetuated this myth that slaves were happy being slaves and race relations were not an issue. Yeah aight.. The portrayal of race relations in Gone With The Wind was one of the main controversies of that book & the movie. And that image of Hattie McDaniel represents all that is wrong with that myth.

But anyway.. back to the girl.. She just kept talking and talking. And I could tell that I wasn’t the only one getting pissed off. She sounded so narrow minded, so sheltered. Like wtf? It saddens me that there are still people in this generation so ignorant as to what happens in the world outside of their communities.

This isn’t some video game or some drama you see on prime time TV. This is real life.

Smh.

♥ April Rose

So I been thinking about Mr. Man a lot lately… You know sitting back a weighing the pros and cons of our relationship (or lack thereof). We went from talking everyday to barely speaking at all. When he hits me up it’s always ‘babe this’ or ‘[insert his nickname for me here] I miss you’. I mean.. ok. I guess. Do you even really mean that?

I don’t know what it is.. Speaking to him just isn’t the same. Could I picture myself with him? I don’t know. He’s changed. I know he has a lot going on, but so do I. I don’t ask for much from him, but he acts as if I want him to devote every moment to me. He treats me as if I’m being selfish for wanting to hear from him for more than 5 minutes a week.

And now it’s gotten to the point where I just don’t even notice it anymore. Days going by without speaking to him is regular. When he comes around, he comes around. It’s whatever. My time is consumed by school, studying, and people looking to replace him.

I hit him up today. No response. We got into a minor argument last night about him not calling me like he told me he was going to do earlier in the day. I mean honestly, I really wasn’t mad at all because I wasn’t expecting the phone call he promised anyway. I just wanted to point it out to him that I don’t believe what he says to me anymore.

So after I sent my message to him, I pretty much said fuck it, started texting my dearies and turned on my iTunes. Funny how this song is the one that popped up on shuffle. How fitting…