The Chronicles of a VBG (Voluptuous Brown Gurl)

Deciding to create a blog post everyday for a month was far more grueling than I expected.  Somedays I rose to the challenge in my storytelling and others not so much. Still and all for 26 of the 30 days I got it  done.  Now its back to a weekly posting schedule and some changes for 2013. And one last TED talk

My very first blog post was entitled "Green is my favorite color" and it truly is.  But that post had nothing to do with my wardrobe or paint choices, instead it focused on my new (at the time) lifestyle choice to become vegan. I have said very little about it since then and that's because shortly after I started blogging a struggle set in and I have been all but abandoned it. All but because I just can't shake it. Like a crack addict needs a rock, I need to be trying to give up meat every other week it seems. I can do it too for a few days or even weeks and then boom I'm running with the bulls, pigs, chicken and fish again.  Baltimore is a pretty progressive city especially compared to Smallville. So you can encounter a lot there especially on foot. Even as a teen I walked - a lot! It was my means of transportation - I hated the crowds and confinement of buses, still do. Anyway, in my walks I came across a place called the Golden Temple and thinking it was ...

A big brown ball of contradictions. All at once fearless and fainthearted; flawed and flawsome; compassionate but cutting when crossed (consider yourself warned); wonderfully gregarious while relishing and even protective of my cloak of solitude; lover of the freedom to move/do/live as I please but equally paralyzed (at times) as limitless choices abound; a pseudo tree hugging xenophile bordering on femblactivism (my melange of feminism and black activism).  A tell like it is, opinionated, inquisitive, "I am woman hear me roar" kinda BROAD who is determined to forge my own path and define success on my own terms. If this sounds like you then you might be one too and all I've got to say about that is ... Lucky You!

.... and a TED talk.

One of the perks (and powers) of blogging is offering mostly unfettered reviews of anything I choose. So far I've reviewed everything from sneakers to lingerie for bigger gurl, vitamins, a Top Chef’s restaurant to a New York times bestseller. There’s no reason I should leave movies out, right. None indeed. Though I'm not easily swayed by sedentary activities, I do love going to the movies. While I'm not the avid go'er my Mom is, she goes almost every weekend, I do make it to what averages to about 1.5 per month.  My favorite genre is undoubtedly comedy but storyline sway my choices most as long as it's not horror.  I outgrew that with my "teenage moniker. I in the last 6 weeks I've been to the cinema 5 times and I'll try my best not to spoil any of them for you here. Alex Cross the protagonist of many a James Patterson novel was a disappointment though I hoped for a different outcome.   I’m not a fan of his most movies but I truly wanted to see   Ty...

Walmart workers are threatening to strike Black Friday and I am 100 percent supportive of their efforts.    I've not been a fan of Wal-Mart for a very long time because of what happens to the smaller businesses when they enter a community and also for their REFUSAL to pay most of their employees a genuine living wage - one that allows them to not only pay their expenses but also be able to afford something as basic as healthcare insurance - despite being the world's largest retailer. Lack of health insurance leads to increased emergency room visits which cost more than routine office visits, often go unpaid and end up costing all of us in the end. Wal-mart is large enough that it can certainly negotiate and afford to offer all their employees a reasonably priced plan. I just don't see how that's too much to ask when you consider these two things:  Mike Duke, Wal-Mart's CEO earned $38 million in 2010, that's more per hour than a full-time Wal-mart employe...

Left to my own devices I would read almost exclusively non-fiction. While I won't necessarily take you up on your recommendation for a movie, I love hearing about the books others are reading with the exception of the Shades of Gray trilogy. When I heard the Fresh Air interview of Rebecca Skloot, the author of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" early last year, I knew it was going to be a good read or more likely...listen. (One of the benefits of my long commute is that I listen to a lot of books  in the car.) The fact that most of the story took place in my hometown of Baltimore was an added bonus. I even choose to accept the invitation to join a new book club simply because they had the good sense to have chosen it as their November book selection. Definitely not a work of fiction, this book details the "benevolent deception" of arguably the most important woman in modern medical history, Henrietta Lacks.  Until she walked into the Johns Hopkins Hosp...