Humbled, Pleased, and Negligent: My first blog award!

I've been awarded my first blog award by the author/blogger at the quickly budding, hot, chic blog: Tica Tattle .

It certainly is not a manly award, but I appreciate any type of accolades one can get. Especially in the face of the summer, where my posts have become few and far between. I'm humbled by the fact that someone with a blog so awesome and a follower number that has far surpassed even her expectations, can find time to give love to a blog that is still very much on the come-up.  Her blog has a lot of character, clever anecdotes and tips on everything from travel, to parenting (she is my co-God-parent for our beautiful God-daughter, Summer!) If you are one of the few people in my personal or blog circle who haven't checked her out, do so by going here .

So apparently the way this goes is that I tell 7 things about myself, so here goes:

1. I relate to Jack Nicholson in "As Good As it Gets" with the OCD.  I used to religiously avoid cracks in the sidewalk while trying to keep the idiosyncracy from being noticed by anyone I was with.  When I stepped on the cracks, I'd feel it.  My mom tried to talk me out of it, to no avail...i masked it well, and she forgot about it, i didn't though!

look @ dem pearly whites!

2. I'm pretty self-conscious.  I'm semi-obsessed with avoiding obesity, maintaining a good physique and I sometimes wish for perfectly straight choppers like Tyrese.

3. I'm also a bit obsessed with finding ways to make more money, either for myself or for others. Those close to me has had to endure countless random brainstorms on making money selling homes, investments, selling water, and even charging for designing blogs *ahem* (that wasn't directed at me by the way, I'm not very good at blog designing).

4. I love the sax, I plan on buying one before the end of 2010. I played for seven years in my younger days and was able to play songs like "In a Sentimental Mood" (think of the sexy, jazzy ballad from the movie Love Jones).

5. I'm pretty dramatic, at times.  I think I'm a weird mix of drama, realism and logic. But I can be dramatic.

6. I get very anxious about things.  I'm a bit hyperactive and I have a hard time relaxing or sitting still.  I think so much that it's hard to sleep.  I move so much that it's hard to relax, and when I relax, I feel like i could be doing something better with my time than relaxing...and the cycle continues...oy vey...

7. I'm a social butterfly.  I thrive in social situations.  I don't mind being the only one dancing at parties. I speak to strangers on the street, just to say hello. I'm a firm believer that the world isn't as big and cold if we would just try to be nice.

There goes my 7 things.

Now to pass the award...hmmm...

1. J Design -- He's a manly man, but my first recipient of the award goes to J at Jaedesign.wordpress.com.  This brother works very hard at making some fresh graphic designs for logos, fliers, twitter backgrounds, streetwear, and the list goes on.  I've witnessed him at work, from the tutorials, to the research to the final product.  I'm proud to say that my first recipient I know personally, for over 26 years (I'm 26 btw)...
J, aka Juny, aka Jonathan.

2. AMOR - Ms. Amor is another friend of mine.  We go way back to the awkward and formative days of HS.  Her blog is a revolution for women who don't fit the status quo standards of beauty.  She's a plus-size model who represents for the sisters who aren't seen or heard nearly as often as they should in the fashion world.  She's also a great writer.

3. Cool Guys Travel - this may seem like a plug, but it's not.  It's dedicated to men, especially men of color, who are reluctant to travel.  It's encouraging travel through pop culture, anecdotes, and, of course, peer pressure.

4. Sam's Chai has a smoothness that's reminiscent of the drink in the title, hence the blog's title is appropriate.  Sam has some great advice...go follow

5. Life's a comic strip .  If you like sarcasm, humor, wit, and illustrations (who doesn't like pictures?!).  Check this blog out. It's sure to put a smile on that cool nerd mug...

6. Single, Infertile Female .  I know, this doesn't sound like something a man would be reading on a regular basis, but I've always wondered what my reaction would be if I couldn't have kids (or my partner).  She explores her own feelings and the alternatives that medicine, love and a persistent attitude brings.  Check her out...it's a triumphant endeavor for us all...

7. Is it against the rules to give an award to something you've contributed to? I hope not, but the Tica cannot escape this. In a matter of weeks the I'd Rather Be Reading blog has become a happening place thanks to the creativity and genius of Tica and her partner in crime Anika, esq.  This blog serves as a place to discuss the read for the month, and some people who'd like to be a part of the actual book club but can't find their way to the blog and let their voices be heard...like Mr. Carson...so for that i say, kudos...because chances are, if you've gotten this far in this post, rather than being at work or watching TV, you've proven that you'd rather be reading...

That ends my post for the day.  I apologize for seeming remiss in my duties as a blogger.  I'm getting my life together...

Nerdy Athleticism

I resisted the urge to start my own blog for approximately 25 months. I first toyed with the idea when a couple of my boys from Temple University started their own. I knew that I had an eclectic voice that could make you run a host of emotions all before you decide whether or not you believed a word I said. I'm a poet, so writing is what I breathe, I think in prose...I suppose that in my mind the world is a beautiful rhyme, with metric balances and atmospheric alliterations, metallic metaphors and simple similes that have us all snapping in our souls. So why wouldn't I, being a poet, try to bring out the poetry of everyday life to all those sponges who seek to soak up all that is conceptually beautiful? It's called second-guessing and procrastination. Two bad things to develop as habits. The former I dabble in every now and then (except when choosing a restaurant, i swim in the ocean of second-guessing, Yelp has helped me ease the tension though) and the latter I've been known to do, especially when it came to writing papers in undergrad.

So, here we are...on the blog of yours truly, a blog that has a weird title, a post that has a title that makes one wonder where I'm going with this...

I guess I'll use this time to explain a little bit about the title of this blog. I'm a kinesthetic, energetic, cool guy. I know, it doesn't make sense, but it's true. I can do nothing and need to do something in my nothingness to feel like I can take the nothing that I'm doing. For instance, as I sit in meetings my mind sprints to other places like relay races from HS track & field, open-mics, or just a kitchen with more gadgets than an iron chef kitchen, while my mind races I'll use whatever's in my vicinity to keep my hands occupied, tossing a clementine right to left under the table so that it is barely noticeable. In order for me to get through a meeting I need to be doing all of that as well as taking notes, otherwise I'll go crazy...I have a Bobby's World/Scrubs sort of mind, a humor that is some weird mix between Dave Chappelle, Will Ferrell, The Office and Kevin Hart...i know, wow...

Back to the subject: the first part of the title Urban Nomad is literally what I began to call myself. I've lost count of how many times I've moved since I first left the next at the glorious age of 18. I'm approaching or may have surpassed 20. I'm being totally serious. It sounds funny, like an embellishment of some sort, but literally between the year 2003 and 2004 I moved a total of 7 times, yup, 7. I've lived all over Philly, numerous places in Brooklyn, I've even lived in Queens (I know I'm saying it like it's some far away place, but I'm a brooklyn dude, born, raised, left during hs and college, and returned, I've been teaching in brooklyn for three years now)...So, Urban Nomad is fitting. I'll use this blog as a time to chronicle (retroactively of course) some of my crazy journeys throughout the urban terrain.

The second part of my title comes from a poem that I've been working on as I ride the L train to and fro work. I live on my iPhone. My lady gets annoyed at how much I use it, I sleep next to it at times. Being the distractible, kinesthetic, energetic, cool guy that I am, I need something in my hands to keep me occupied so that I don't go crazy, the iPhone is that something. I will not use this time to sing the praises of it's superiority over devices that some may call subpar like the Blackberry, the MyTouch or the G1, I'm just simply pointing out how much I use my iPhone...

Anyway here is an excerpt from the poem that remains untitled at the moment where the term Dance the Tangent comes from:

"...I dance the tangent. Salsa my way out of the subject of the moment
and sway my hips to the memory that tickles my fancy. Breakdance under the
strobe light of childhood memories, pop n lock to the hiphop of hopskotch on the
block in Bed-Stuy, two-step to the smell of fried chicken and WWRL, Christian AM
station that my momma blasted from her kitchen radio. I live in and out of the
moment. Staring at the saturated clouds above me, remembering the salty
taste of polluted urban rain..."

I haven't quite worked out what this post will focus on fully, I love that there are blogs dedicated to things from travel to newly weds, but I can't call this a travel blog, or a Christian blog, it's an anomaly, an exploration of things that are beautiful, ugly, challenging, weird, humorous. It's a journey through the malaise of a man trying to stay sane as he grapples with the scruples he professes, the desire to be a great father (to my four-year old), son, friend, boo, teacher, worshipper and leader.

The poem that birthed the term Dance the tangent literally begins with the affirmation that I'm a nerd and an athlete..."i grab onto literary elements like batons/doing stick passes for a relay of rhetoric to students of life..."

Stick! Follow Me!