What If...

      Possibly the two most powerful words in the English Language.  It's the father of 'What would happen if' and the mother of 'I wonder if' and it has been the question that sparked off so much beauty and horror in the history of humanity.  Every great inventor, writer, historian, athelete, any one who has done anything most likely started with those two words, if not physically spoken, then spoken with their actions, with their spirit.  The bible says in the beginning there was the word and the word was God.  Perhaps there were to words and God wondered 'What if...' 

 

      So, for the weekend, I ask that each and every one of you (yeah I know, I know, all three of you) take the time to ask you're own 'What If' question and seek your answer to it.  Hopefully you'll be richer for it. 

 

      Sugar Water this weekend: Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Queen Latifah, and Floetry.  Should be a real good concert.  Sitting on teh lawn on a sunday evening with the fam, eating home cooked food, watching my daughter dance to the music.  Don't get much better than that, does it?  Oh don't hate... =0) 

 

 Benticore 

Out

Diction is everything...just ask Rummy-D

    The way you speak, the specific words you chose to convey a message can say as much about who you are and what you are trying to do as the actual message.  To wit: The Global War on Terror, first introduced after 9-11(The phrase, not the actual..uhm...war,  which is now firmly lodges in the American Lexicon which means so many things to so many people) is now not really in high favourability by our government.  You see when you use certain Fnords or words that are so laden with meaning that they jump right at the reader, those readers will have certain associations with those words that may or may not be intended.  War makes many people (at least Americans) envisage missiles striking buildings with pinpoint accuracy (thanks to all that lovely Government sponsored Desert Storm footage) and vague platoon movements through empty streets, laying down suppression fire and generally being badass.  For those who have military training or have family in the armed forces, the images are much different, and probably edged with pride and terror.  We won't even get into how different the word WAR becomes when you're from the Ukraine, or the Congo, or even Iraq or Palestine.

    Anyway, when people get the idea, as the gov't wished, that we are at WAR, they begin to wonder 'When will this war be over? Who are our allies and our enemies? How will we know we've won? What do we achieve with victory?'  The problem with a War on Terror is that Terror cannot be an enemy any more than Love, or Hate or Friendship can be an enemy.  It's an abstract concept, really a reaction to certain events.  It makes even LESS sense than the War on Drugs, which has been fought so ineptly and corrupted so thoroughly that you could replace War with Inroads and ON with For and not be too far off the mark.

    The administration has decided that it doesn't like to silly questions from the public whom it is serving like 'Are we winning the war?' or 'When will the war be over' or 'When the War is over, will we get our freedoms back?' and have now changed diction. 

 

    THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR has now been changed to THE GLOBAL STRUGGLE AGAINST VIOLENT EXTREMISTS

 

                            GWOT = GSAVE

 

    A war has a definite beginning and end, implies common sacrifices for common goals and has a specific enemy that must be defeated before victory can be achieved.  A struggle is ever lasting and a violent extremist could be anything from a hate-filled Jihadist with a bomb to a couple of angry teens protesting water too polluted to drink in Mexico.  Not only does the new jargon try to let the Govt off the hook, it gives legs to the Orwellian Ideal of Perpetual war, which means that your rights and freedoms are actually privileges the Gov't can revoke any time it feels the need.

 

    This is the Power of Words, The Power of Language.  Right now it's being used against the citizens of this country in a type of psychological warfare, like extreme propaganda.

 

    Behold and tremble...

 

 

    Benticore

    Out

Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it...

Just a quick hit.  Listening to NPR (as I can often be found doing while working tirelessly at my desk) and the topic of digital and DNA geneology came up.  As African-Americans in this country we have a very unique and lamentable position as far as history goes, in that there was a concerted governmental effort to wipe out our connection with our past that lasted around 400 years.  Slavery means more than just whips and chains and beatings, from which most people can recover.  It is the loss of connection with the past, with ancestry, with the stories and fables and wisdom of culture that we, as a people, are still struggling mightily to overcome even till this day.  One might even argue that our susceptibility to adopting corporate and media images as culture has it's roots in this lack of historic and familial base.  But what I want to mention is a website www.africanancestry.com which has genetic tests to trace back your geneology to specifc places in Africa and specific tribal groups living in the area.  Personally, I am all for this and if you can pony up the money, I believe it's well worth it.  But I'll have to do some investigation just to make sure this place is on the up and up.  Perhaps, if it is, I will introduce it to the fam at the Reunion in LA and see what they think, if they havent done it already.  Of all the things that I've desired to give Camille, a sense of family history and cultural identity are the things I've wanted the most and feared I wouldn't be able to give.  Now, I might have the chance.  If you've got any other geneological stories or tips, hit me up and lemme know

 

Benticore

Out

This pretty much sums up my feelings right there...yep...

Boondocks-Aaron McGruder...one of the few joys of life...If you don't know, you better ASK somebody!

Benticore
Out

The Erosion of Personal Property

On my way to work this morning, I overheard a local Radio Host Commenting on a new trend that car dealerships have started to engage in.  Apparently there is a new device, sort of a black keyboard, that is attached just underneath the dashboard that, when you are late on your car payment, begins to flash a red light.  So, one day late you get a flashing red light.  As the late days begin to pile up the red light flashes more and more, I believe.  On the fifth day that your car payment is late, THE DEVICE SHUTS OFF YOUR CAR AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DRIVE IT.  Once you make a payment, you receive a code that you can enter in and you will be able to start your car and drive normally.  You shouldn't be surprised though; this is just another step in a long standing effort by the government and, by extension, big business, to erode Personal Property.  Basically the Car dealership is saying, You haven't bought that car, you're just renting our property until you pay it off.  THEN you've bought the car.  Not only do I expect this type of device to become popular with dealerships, but it wont be far down the line when banks will start requiring such devices in cars before you can be approved for a loan if your credit is less than perfect.  Hell, with the advent of keyless entry into houses, I bet the same kind of system for homes is just around the corner.  Despite what people have been lead to believe as consumers (Man I hate that term, mostly because it fits so damn well), they don't own anything as long as they are continually paying for it and can have said item taken from them at anytime if they dont make a payment.  The future will be a strange and terribly wonderful place; Beautiful for those who can afford it, Hell for those who can't.  OH and all water you drink will be bottled by some company whereby you have to pay to drink it.  Tap water will be pretty much undrinkable without serious filters.  Right now, 90% of the bottled water sold in this country is owned by Coke.  COKE!  Let that marinate for minute...

 

'What makes you think I've taken you back then?'

'Well, you don't want to die single, do you?'

Just watched Shaun of the Dead from beginning to end last night.  An absolutely GREAT movie.  I know, I know, I'm late.  But if you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to check it out.  The way the british handle zombie invasions is just so much funnier than americans.  Zombies on the loose, eating people alive and they still have time for tea.  Priceless.

 

Am I all alone?  Is anybody out there?

What I need on my blog is one of those People Meters that shows how many people have visited, cause very few people leave comments.  So if you've stopped by and read some, please PLEASE just say a word.  Hi or helllo, or Guillotine...anything...just let me know I'm not shouting out to the void.  And if you happen to live in Japan, I think you should take the time to write to me more.  Especially since I comment on every blog YOU write, you lazy bastard...but Im not talking about anybody specifically...oh no, not at all....

 

Benticore

Out

me and my Daddy at the circus

IMGP1619
Originally uploaded by Queue_D.

This is a picture of said little girl at below mentioned circus.. with her daddy!!! Enjoy!
Raquita Queen of all things Henderson

When I say Big-top, you say Circus!

This past weekend I took Cammy to the UniverSOUL Circus up in North County and MAN, she had a BLAST!  She danced and sang and screamed and laughed and pointed and was just cutting up.  She was trying to look everywhere to see all the stuff that was going on.  I also had a great time too.  Raquita managed to take a few pictures of Cammy (even though cameras weren't allowed) but we havent seen them yet.  Oh and it was 101 on sunday.  So hot here, I thought I saw the devil talking to a real estate agent about selling hell and moving here.  It's supposed to get to 103 today though, with a heat index around 120.  THAT is rediculous.  But then Wednesday's high is supposed to be 78 or something, so cooler air will be with us soon.

 

We are Family...I got all my sisters and me....

Well, I dont know if my sister will be coming, but the Henderson Family reunion is right around the corner and we still gotta secure our hotel, our tickets having been paid for by US Air (via the vouchers we got for volunteering our seats in Jamaica).  I'm pretty excited to see all my relatives and to try and bridge the gap between me and my father and the rest of the family that has lain...err....unbridged, for years now.  Plus I get to introduce Camille to all her cousins and aunts and what not on MY side of the family.  And Raquita is working on a Henderson-Jones family website that is going to be OFF THE CHISEL!!!  It's gonna have a monthly newsletter, a calander, a Web forum, a yellow pages, all kinds of great stuff.  I love her for even trying, much less succeeding.  She is such an amazing woman...why dont we all just give Raquita a big round of applause....great!  What I need to do is get off my lazy butt and learn some HTML and what not so that I can actually help her make the website instead of peer over her shoulder and say stupid things like 'Can we have a page that has like poker and chess so that we can win money off family members?  But Chess with 3d graphics and a bear with a machine gun?'  Okay I dont say things THAT stupid but they might as well be, for the looks she gives me.  I love her anways!  Kisses, smookums! =0)

 

Thats all for now...prolly wont be nearly as prolific a day as last week.

 

Benticore

Out

Quick Hit between the eyes...

Question of the Day:  Is the Bush Administrations policy of only funding Aids prevention groups that preach abstinance only the sign of a well meaning but Naive government trying to help in a moral way, a cold government appealing in a new way to it's conservative religious base, or a diabolical regime inacting a long range plan of depopulating Africa for exploitation of it's natural resources? DISCUSS

Benticore 

 Out

Help me help You...actually...help me help me...

The dreams that define us...

So most of you may or may not know that Im writing a book.  I would like a little help from you, the multitudes of my faithful readers (look ma! no Sarcasm!) who every night lay your heads upon your pillows and enter the sacred lands of dream.  If you could:

 

1) What is the best dream you remember?

 

2) What is the worst dream you remember?

 

3) What is the most common theme and setting of your dreams?

 

4) What do you wish you could dream about the most?

 

If you all could answer those questions it will help me immensely...thanks...

 

Benticore

Out

They dont call him Iron Mike for nothing...

I forgot to mention this before so I'll do it quickly.  Apparently Mike Tyson, being heavily in debt (to the tune of around $40 Mil), his boxing career in shambles, has decided that he needs to make some money the hard way.  Mr. Tyson will soon be doing PORN!  At first, like many of you I found this funny, hilarious even.  But even as mirth and merriment was to spill forth from my mouth, I realized just how sad this is.  How absolutely tragic it is that this man has turned to selling his body after abusing it in the ring.  I cant imagine the loneliness or the fear or desperation in Tyson's heart.  Thats when I stopped laughing and tried not to sick up in the car.  Somethings just arent that funny, when you really think about it.

 

Benticore

Out

I could see the Darkness looming so I got off the path...

While this may be a bit of a thematic leap, I was just thinking about my career as a Chemical Engineer and how it came to a voluntary end with a company that I was working for.  It's just that, at a certain point of my internship with this company, I realized that if I continued down the road I was on, I would be working there as a chemical engineer and all that that would entail.  It seriously made my stomach turn.  The work wasn't terrible but it wasn't engaging or challenging.  I could see myself stuck in that or similar jobs, checking the same pipes and valves, adjusting the same meters, eating the same lunch.  Now that might have been an irrational fear, knowing that I could've done much different work in multiple fields and that I should have stuck with it, if only to get my degree.  But the place I was in...I honestly dont think I would have made it.  Have you ever known, deep down inside, that you're in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing.  Not necessarily morally wrong but just that you're not where God needs you to be?  It was like that.

 

The trait...

I realized I asked this question without giving an answer.  The trait I would give my Wife (I almost typed fiance...still getting used to the title, although I think it doesnt do her justice) would be Confidence.  Sometimes she seems to waver in her belief in herself and in those moments, I wish I could bolster her up, without her feeling like I'm just doing it because I love her (which I do) and not because she's so incredible (which she is)

 

Damn you J.K...

So I just finished the lastest installement of the Harry Potter series and, despite my best efforts, am a little jealous of her skill.  Her writing is good but her storytelling is better and her ability to have an audience build up empathy for characters is incredible.  I just hope that as I continue to write, my ability to make a character seem real and engender real emotion from the reader comes anywhere close to hers.  I think I can do it, but it will take practice (and editing...lots of editing) for me.

 

Thats all for now...Hotter than hades around here this week...

 

Benticore

Out

The Silent Treatment

Why have I forsaken thee?  Honestly, it's because I've been too lazy and too busy to write.  Take both of those excuses and mix them up to whatever percentage works for you and go with that, I really dont care.

 

Do I have a lot to report?  Of course, but since NOBODY reads this, I dont really feel too much urgency in reporting things in a timely manner.

 

Circus this weekend though, and Poker night so it should be an active weekend.  Family reunion in a few weeks in LA, which should be equally exciting.

 

But what about my wedding you ask?  I've got a ton of thoughts on that and the whole trip but I havent yet formed them up correctly for written communication so you shall continue to wait for that.

 

Question of the day: If you could give on trait to the person you love the most, what would it be?

 

Benticore

Out

Men, Mai Tais and Marriage

IMGP1023_edited
Originally uploaded by raquita.

this is the Lady of the Manor posting a pic to let you all know we are back adn married... he's a bit slow ont eh blogging so i'm filling in the gap you can see all the detailed wedding photos by clicking the picture and going to my flickr account and taking a look! We had a ball -eventually he'll blog about it... I swear - okay maybe...