The force is strong with this one...

Pictured here is the chain some random lady fished out of her purse when she saw cammy gesturing towards her...my kid has Jedi mind powers....who just gives a random baby jewelry from their purse??

I'm screwed, aren't I?

Benticore
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Cammy and Anubis

Cammy and Anubis
Originally uploaded by raquita.

This is a pick of...well...I guess the title says that don't it? Dont get all smart now, mister, I was just trying to be friendly-like. But anyways, here's the two babies of the house. Cammy loves the Anubis and Anubis looks at Cammy like another puppy. We're still aclimating Anubis to the house so no training as such yet. They Do look cute together, dont they?

Benticore(Proud Daddy)
Out

Off the Donkey, boyo!

All hail Lord Anubis the chewer of all things near the floor! May his reign be peaceful and filled with treats and bones and naps!

Also, if you weren't able to partake of my wifes xmass dinner, you missed out on what will probably go down as the greatest feast the Henderson family has had the joy to consume...it was Off The Donkey for real.

I'm at Nobu's getting sushi for my baby. Peace and love, yall!

Benticore
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Will it freakin load?

Here is Anubis. Stupid pic didn't load before.
Benticore
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Will it freakin load?

Here is Anubis. Stupid pic didn't load before.
Benticore
Out

Off the Donkey, boyo!

All hail Lord Anubis the chewer of all things near the floor! May his reign be peaceful and filled with treats and bones and naps!

Also, if you weren't able to partake of my wifes xmass dinner, you missed out on what will probably go down as the greatest feast the Henderson family has had the joy to consume...it was Off The Donkey for real.

I'm at Nobu's getting sushi for my baby. Peace and love, yall!

Benticore
Out

On the night before the night before...

Somedays you get what you want and some days you get what you need. Every once in a long time what you want and what you need are at odds with one another even though both are firmly within your grasp.

Today isn't the greatest of days, being plagued by headaches and poor talks with spouses and parentals...sometimes the stress of the season can really get underneath your skin and the tongue can become viper-like, cutting anything that comes near it...its those times that one must remember what the true meaning of christmas is: family and love.

But FUCK is it hard some days!
I'm better now....Anubis arrives in about 4 hours...we're ready.

Have a blessed christmas!
Benticore
Out

Lord Anubis approaches...

So tomorrow we go to pick up our new dog Anubis. Yes, that's right...our dog is named after the Egyptian god of the Underworld. I like it and I was able to get it past the sensors(the wife). I am very excited to get him and cannot wait till tomorrow! :-D

Also, I don't have to work tomorrow and next week my bosses are out of town...things are comin up Benticore today!

Benticore
Out
(best thing since sliced bread BUT you already know)

Headache? Tired? Miserable? Welcome to Monday!

My Mood is: Tired and Headachy but at work and suffering through it like a man with bills to pay

Now Playing: Greensleeves, A Charlie Brown Christmas; Vince Guaraldi Trio

 

Worried about your parents?

I am.  My dad is having issues.  My mom is sick.  Neither will talk to me at length on their problems or really let me help them, nor do I have any idea as to how I might because they won't tell me what's wrong.  So I have to sit back and try to get them to let me help and I pray for them.  That's how I started my weekend; with stress and worry battling prayer and the love of my wife and kid.  Daimushi called from Japan to console me but we didn't get to talk long because he had to go back to work, but I appreciate his call nonetheless.  Daimushi is a rare gem in a world full of cold metals and dull rocks.

 

Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree

We got our Christmas tree this weekend.  It's a live one and is very nice and smells wonderful.  It has been awhile since I've had a Christmas tree in the house and it was a great boon to the mood to have the pine-scented memories come flooding back to me as I wandered near it.  Cammy thinks the tree is okay, and was curious about why a tree was in our house, this being her first real Christmas since she was way too young to remember the first one.  We aint got lots of fancy shmancy ornaments but we got some lights, and we'll get the little colored ball ornaments and tinsel and all that crap this week.

 

Lion & Spear, still chuggin

I'm still working on the Lion & Spear novel.  Its not writing itself, much to my chagrin, so I've decided to sub in for the lazy bastard and throw down a few pages when I have time to get to it.  One of the things I've noticed about writing is it seems like (to me at least) a bike ride through hilly country.  Sometimes you go up a big steep hill and you have to work and pedal hard and it doesn't seem like you're making much progress and other times you're on level ground and it's decent progress and sometimes you come down hill and you just coast, not even needing to pedal really.  And then there are the times when you get blisters on your ass from sitting on that tiny seat that is just big enough to widen your crack.  Your multicolored spandex biker shorts are riding up and pinching you in sensitive areas and your tired.  So you pull off to the side of the road and you rest and you eat and you get that awful spandex wedgie out of your ass before it enters your colon.

            Well, Im at a place, writing, where I feel like I've come over the top of a medium hill and am now pedal along a straight away, a few twists and turns but nothing I cant handle.  It's a good place to be.

 

This week in the Lives of the Hendersons

This week there's no Gym for Cammy.  Last Wednesday she got an award for completing her class and next year will be moving up to the higher age group (18 months to 3 years and appropriately titled 'Beasties') so that should allow her to learn more from bigger kids that can challenge her and help her grow.  Maybe some bowling Wednesday, if we can get there before we start dropping like flies at 9pm.  Some last minute Christmas shopping and both me and the Missus is off on Friday.  I hope to avoid any shopping this weekend but I'm not sure how that will go.  I hope to write some and hit the gym often this week as well...Just need to wake up first *yawn*.

 

            OH! And let us not forget! SERENITY ON DVD ON TUESDAY!!!!!!  Best believe I'mma cop that son, word is bond!

Interesting Website of the Day: Neopets?

Ever hear of Neopets?  They're cute little computer animals that you take care of a train and then they...uhm...sit there....I guess... I don't know...Johns GF Shannon is into them and they are free to create and maintain.  If you were bored and wanted to try something new and pointless on the web, you could check them out HERE and see if you can Catch Em All....oh...sorry...wrong collectible cute cuddlie animal thing that battles other ones for the entertainment of their Masters.  I certainly wont be checking it out.  I CERTAINLY wont Create a Neopet and lavish him will all sorts of love and painful discipline.  Not me.  Never.

 

Benticore

Out

(Your firearms are too short to box with God...)

Well...I guess thats better then...ahem...

Mood: Intensely Focused (at least I was before I started this blog)

Now Playing: 'Prayer in Passing" - Rise, Anoushka Shankar

 

Well, turns out I wasn't so much paranoid as I was HUNGRY! It was creeping up on lunchtime after all.

So you can put down the Ketamine Darts and the blackjacks (you cant sneak up on me Daimushi!) and go back to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

Yeah

Plus, my Flash lessons continue to go well.

BEWARE

 

Benticore

Out

 

Isolation...a study in Paranoia

My Mood: Irritated and nervous
Now Playing: Pres. Bush talking up the 'Road to Victory in Iraq' on NPR

Somedays I feel really alone, the swirling images and thoughts in my head only serving to alienate me. Mostly I feel this way at work, a place where I am one of two black people and the only black male. I know I am overly sensitive to the small verbal and nonverbal cues people give (or don't) around me, and, over the years, I've honed my general narcissism into an acute sense of paranoia to the machinations of others. So sometimes I feel really under siege at work. This is stressful and doesn't engender me to want to spend any time with my co-workers outside of the 8-4 confines of my cubicle.

So I miss parties and functions and my co-workers interact with me a little less and I become a little more withdrawn, a little more suspicious that the soft susurrus of whispers behind cubicles are centered on me. Part of it has to also do with age. I am by far the youngest in the office, although there is another one who is just past 30. Besides him, everyone else is at least mid to late 40s, highly republican, and fairly Caucasian in their tastes. Which is fine. But sometimes I wish there was someone here to whom I could relate without feeling like my very opinions and thoughts would be interpreted as attacks on their moral high ground should I utter them. It is not an untenable position but it does generate the tight muscles in the neck every so often.

It's just me here. I'm alone. Most times it doesn't bother me. I'm the lone snowflake, as Daimushi would put it. I am the Lone Gaijin in the land of the dead, to mix genres, metaphors, and movie images. Most days I let it roll like water and sunshine off a ducks back and keep on strutting.

But somedays, I really feel it, a shrouding mist over my eyes, the expressive non-looks of co-workers, the invitations hastily offered because of proximity to a conversation.

On these days, it's a bit hard not to just take the day and do something I want to do.
Welcome to my Fortress of Solitude - A 7' X 10' cubicle surrounded by silence and stares and paper.
Welcome to my Paranoia.

Benticore
Out

Undeniable proof of deniability...

Mood: Focused and eager

Now Playing: Freddy Freeloader - Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

 

So, early this morning, Stanley Williams was executed in California for the murder of 4 people about thirty years ago.  I don't know whether he was guilty or not; while he was convicted of the crime, there are plenty of black men in prison and on death row that are being held for crimes they didn't commit, and there are plenty who deserve to be right where they are.  That's not my point today.  My question is this:  At some point in the past, the incarceratory system we use in this country was decided to be not only a punishment for crimes done but a way to rehabilitate criminals and help them return to society as changed men and women who could contribute to the human endeavor with positive results.  If one takes a look at the late Mr. Williams deeds in the past several years, you might see his award for winning the Nobel Peace prize as well as his endeavors to halt the violence that the gang he himself created so long ago (the Crips) has perpetuated on inner city blacks in Los Angeles for years.  How does one judge rehabilitation?  How can you rule on a change of heart and its sincerity?  I'm sure Mr. Williams had no desire to die.  But was his conversion an act?  Was it the sign of a soul ready to come back to the life of American Society, healed and whole?  I don't know.  What do you think?

 

Also, the death penalty is a silly way to "Even the Score" with criminals.  He was convicted of murdering four people.  You can't kill him four times, nor can you bring back the lives of those he was convicted of taking.  I've heard the death penalty defended as a strong deterrent against crime, as well as lauded as means for the victims to get a sense of closure.  But how does having your child's killer bring any closure other than the fact that another person has been unwillingly shoved from our existence?  I'm not sure.  If something (God Forbid) happened to Cammy and I was asked how I wanted the man or woman responsible punished, I'm not sure I could make such a statement.  So much in our lives depends on the circumstances we find ourselves in at the moment we are asked to make that decision.  What do you think?

 

Filling the moments...

I just wanted to also mention that I'm working on Flash at work and its coming along pretty well and I'm happy with the pace I'm learning at.  Also, the novel, while put on hold for the moment, still fills my heart with joy at the prospects of finishing it and editing it.  I'm in love with the story.  The characters I'm beginning to like a little more and I have to be careful not to try and do too much too soon but I'm still pretty excited about it.  Also, I'm sexy today with my powder blue pinstripe shirt and broken glasses.  Just thought you should know.

 

Puppy Countdown...

I think we might be at like T-minus 15 days or so.  It's really contingent on when we move to Grandma's house which depends on when she moves to her daughters house and when we clean the place up and paint a little bit.  I'm excited about that too.  Also, I'm really sexy today...you just have no idea....It's ridiculous...honestly, if I started to kiss my own hands, I wouldn't be too surprised.

 

Daimushi Updates...

I've heard from Daimushi after Hank visited him.  Apparently he's still recovering from the extreme partying and pimping he and Hank did to represent the Pantheon.  But he'll have tales to tell, my friends.  Many tales.  So we just gotta be calm and let him get his thing done.....

 

Benticore

Out

|Heard the bass ride out like an ancient mating call|

|I can't take it yall|

|I can feel the city breathing|

|Chest heaving against the flesh of the evening|

|Kiss the eyes goodbye|

|I'm on the last train leaving|

Those red pills...how many are you supposed to take at one time? Don't look at me like that, Morpheus...

Okay, Im in a great mood and that scares me.

 

Not that its not okay to be in a great mood, its just that I'm a little Manic right now.  I made my own Bookmark and that made me so happy I nearly ripped the water fountain from it's foundation and threw it threw a window screaming out 'HDP, Fool!  WHAT!!'

 

So how do you know if you're manic?  I don't know...but the voices inside my head are telling me to change the subject...

 

You should watch Good Eats on Food Network, if you like cooking and are a little more interesting in the intellectual side of things, such as WHY things do the things they do when you immerse them in 375 degree vegetable oil and such.  Love that show.

 

Anywho, I'm going to start stabbing myself in the arm with a sharp pen to see if my blood evaporates on contact with air...that's what it feels like it's going to do today...Cheerio!

 

Benticore

Out

Respect my Gangsta

My new homemade bookmark...
Benticore
Out

Well.....dammit.....

Now that I can post pictures to my blog, I'm looking around my office like a crazed beast, trying to figure out what I can take pics of and mention...but there is NOTHING....at least, nothing interesting...I need somebody to start a fire or get mauled by a bear or something....sigh....So not fair...working in an office with no bears or pyromaniacs... =0(

 

Benticore

Out

Because I can...

Really, honestly, this is just a little test to get the mobile blogging era started...figure I'd throw in a picture of lil miss cuteness in her Halloween best. Enjoy!
Benticore
Out