You are not a label

You are not a label

I don’t mind labels. I actually like them. A label is just a sticker. It can be removed. It can be moved around. It can stay on indefinitely. Labels and…
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Post-Racial America? Ha!

Post-Racial America? Ha!

Post-Racial America? Ha! I can’t help but scoff at the notion of this term whenever it’s uttered. We live in a post-racial America in the same vein that god exists:…
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disambiguation: black is a color; Black is culture, history, music

disambiguation: black is a color; Black is culture, history, music

I’ve been sitting on this piece for quite some time. It’s witnessed two Black History Months pass by, actually. After the resurgence of racial upheaval and tensions (e.g. Trayvon Martin),…
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Love to travel? Love me? Support Nomad•ness Travel Tribe Kickstarter

Love to travel? Love me? Support Nomad•ness Travel Tribe Kickstarter

I love to travel. Being the ever curious one, a veritable sponge, i’ve had the bug since i was a child—always wanting to see the sites and distant lands i…
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my individualist manifesto, of sorts—more a personal declaration

my individualist manifesto, of sorts—more a personal declaration

Here lie meandering thoughts along pathways unlaid by others, but known to me nonetheless My goal in life, my destiny (eh), if you will, is to be a bastion, a…
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Filling a need (i hope): i'm creating a WordPress theme & plugin for scholars

Filling a need (i hope): i’m creating a WordPress theme & plugin for scholars

During my continual galavanting across the Interwebs in search of cool shit, i’ve yet to come across a WordPress theme (or plugin!) that is both aesthetically conducive and appealing to…
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Personal Book Embargo

Personal Book Embargo

I have to do this. It’s a necessary evil, a vital push towards chopping down this never-ending tree that sprouts books as fruit. I need to do this. Mantra! Lol.…
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Individuals have power, too—not just gods

Individuals have power, too—not just gods

Far too many times people use (g)God(s) or religion as a crutch more than as a springboard. Owning up to one’s prowess and greatness takes courage. Dr. Cornell West maintains…
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an introduction to Mental Ephemera

an introduction to Mental Ephemera

I had totally forgotten about this post, written almost in its entirety during January. It was supposed to be the new About page, but clearly that didn’t happen. I think…
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noshing of Sacred Cows: a tirade, of sorts

noshing of Sacred Cows: a tirade, of sorts

I cannot for the life of me, even when i begin to have some thoughts of, and i cannot call it acceptance, but maybe respect or leniency (i guess) for…
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i choose deaf

i choose deaf

A few months ago, a question was posed to someone on my Twitter timeline: which would you choose?—to be blind or deaf. Allowing myself to step into existentialist and hypothetical…
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entrepreneurs ... must read this book: Rework

entrepreneurs … must read this book: Rework

Counter-intuitivism has never been this appealing or enlightening. Urging someone to listen to uncommon advice and tips would normally be considered crazy talk, but in Rework, the approach and delivered…
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the Proust questionnaire

the Proust questionnaire

Thursday, while still awake at 3am with my sleep routine out of wack from the mid-week snow day, and excited from finishing the design for version 3.0 of Mental Ephemera,…
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zodiac signs, The Game and unique Internet IDs

zodiac signs, The Game and unique Internet IDs

I decided to wait until today to post this, in hopes after the Zodiac dust settled, people would be less concerned with something that has always been inconsequential (Celebrity Apprentice…
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marriage name-taking: a patriarchal anachronism

marriage name-taking: a patriarchal anachronism

Several weeks ago, during a Twitter conversation with a group of friends, we discussed the traditional practice of a woman taking their husband’s last name after marriage. It was asked…
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darling Nikki (Giovanni): your transparency should be lauded

darling Nikki (Giovanni): your transparency should be lauded

When encountering an artist’s work for the first time, especially one who’s lauded doubly for her writing ability and Civil Rights activism (and the coupling of both), it’s dismaying when…
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thoughts of self: conventions of naming

thoughts of self: conventions of naming

Conventions of naming: You’ll notice that anytime i write in the first person or refer to myself, it is a lowercase ‘i’ and not the normal ‘I’ that everyone (in…
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Latest Ephemera
marriage, oh boy; or is it, oh girl? ::shrugs::

marriage, oh boy; or is it, oh girl? ::shrugs::

It’s funny the way life works: growing up i learned about marriage through broken relationships, innumerable constant failed attempts—one after another—with every pairing i witnessed my family’s and friends’ of the family, and not to downplay the backdrop of the vast populace around me, or on the tube or covering magazines or spread eagle on billboards, attempts at society’s golden hallmark when it comes to courting and pairing up, procreating and rearing. The participating folks never hesitated to think about what their actions, what their example would do/still does in the eyes of the to-come or the babies growing, following footsteps laid in sand turned to concrete or…
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of muses, of lovers, friends and others

of muses, of lovers, friends and others

In case yet said along parchment rooftops cursive or ruled awnings bold:   Women are God’s gifts laid upon Earth’s mantled soul. Born in whispers A muse is more than mere influences.   Existing in a word Living off sentences Birthing paragraphs silent Raising chapters alone Destroyer of books Standing atop volumes Queen of sounds Empress of visions Goddess of gods Breaker of hearts. She is The ultimate lover. ~m.j   Conceived as prose, transformed into verse, the above consciousness streamed via pen dripping sloppily jotted chicken scratch soon becoming livelihoods, usually uttered using different words over libations to best friends female—my internal love glowing in need of…
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i don't like phone calls

i don’t like phone calls

What people don’t know or if they already know, don’t seem to fully get: i don’t like phone calls. Not any. Well, okay, let me explain that a little bit: i don’t like unsolicited phone calls. I prefer phone calls treated as if they were emails: i want to know the subject beforehand. I want to know what i’m getting into before i get on the phone. It’s like reading a book without glancing at the back or inside cover, watching a movie without seeing the trailer or given a blurb of what’s (or who’s! lol) about to go down. I don’t like phone calls because they tend…
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stream of consciousness #0009: music is god's daddy & mommy

stream of consciousness #0009: music is god’s daddy & mommy

There is a train of thought that is constantly chugging along the great mental metal of minds too great to fail. That was the thought pattern behind the Titanic—right? Or, was that off since it wasn’t a train, but a large ship atop water, the icy depths of death soon awaiting its foolish passengers believing they could tackle the grandest of behemoths that are the oceans of the earth? Foolish pride is not pitied. Or, it shouldn’t be. The hamartia of the engineers and architects, the media and the politicians, the crewmembers and the passengers, was tragic on scales more epic than even the Ancient Greeks. Hyperbolic? Possibly.…
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gotta gotta gotta write write write

gotta gotta gotta write write write

Remembering why i blog, or really revisiting it, i’m determined to actually put my foot forward and to blog more often. This really has more to do with looking around at my peers or even strangers i stumble past on the Interwebs than it does with fulfilling some personal mantra. I see ‘em post all the time, even if a lot of it is drivel notwithstanding since it’s still being put out there for eyes other than its originator, and i (of course) compare my paltry offerings to the writing world, look aghast then cringe and berate myself (if only i had the means of self-flogging…lol…joshing, only joshing). I…
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Valentine's Day: no, i'm not a fan

Valentine’s Day: no, i’m not a fan

Typical, a man is not a fan of Valentine’s Day. An often heard and witnessed harangue, the woe is me charade: a man who has to spend buttloads of cash and oodles of time with a significant other or sometimes-jump-off-turned-friend-with-benefits who may very well be wifey material but you haven’t given much thought, all for the prospect of some carnal pleasure. But, more importantly, it’s truly for evading the days-, weeks-, months- or maybe year-long (because they have a mulligan once another 365 days passes) pissy mood their said woman (or multiple women for the enterprising debonair male) will surely be in if a particular ovaries-toting human does…
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