I reluctantly joined Facebook a couple of years ago thinking that I might catch up with a few friends from my past. I didn’t think much of social networking when I signed up. I did a couple of “friend searches” to no avail and decided that FB wasn’t all that I’d heard about.

Bamp! (that was my sound effect for wrong answer for those of you who don’t speak “jali”)

I was absolutely, completely, totally, and unquestionably wrong. Facebook is amazing.

Today I found Yolanda, my dear, dear friend from the 9th grade.

I remember driving past the house where she once lived, on 120th avenue in St. Albans, Queens, about 15 or 20 years ago. A pang of longing hit me so hard that day that I pulled over to stop and see if there was a chance that she might still live there.

No.

I got back in my car and cried a little. I couldn’t find Yolanda so I couldn’t find my 9th grade self either. It was an overwhelming feeling of sadness when I realized that one of my ties to my past was lost.

September,1971

Yolanda had the perfect ‘fro.

Bigger and badder than Angela Davises’  and redder than she should have been allowed to wear back in the olden days.

Yolanda was a St. Catherine of Sienna girl. I was a St. Pascal Baylon chick. We met at Bishop Reilly High School at the beginning of our freshman year. Both of us came from predominantly Black (I cannot use a lower case b here) Catholic grade schools and both of us were shocked to find ourselves in the minority at Bishop Reilly.

We both had afros. We both smoked Newports in the 216 bathroom between classes. We both rode the 17A bus to Jamaica Ave every day and we both hung out at the library across from the terminal instead of going directly home after school. We joined the Black History club and created our own punk-ass girl gang (she was Red Tamu, I was Ebony Malika and Deidra (I have to find her)was Green Emerald. We were the “red, black and green” officers of our gang. We made jackets and wore our “colors” only once or twice since we were afraid of the real girl gangs out there.

We planned our famous Central Park picnic together and high school kids from all over the city attended. I remember being amazed that hundreds of kids cut school to hang with us. (we were off that day for a Catholic holiday).  We made a bunch of sandwiches and others brought food and liquor and we had a ball. I drank “Tango” and Boone’s Farm wine that day and thought I was all grown up. We played touch football and cards in the park. A perfect day.

more to follow…

I ordered my 250 free business cards from Vistaprint.com, and I’m pleased with the product. I received a 25% off coupon with my delivery, so I ordered 250 cards of my own design and I’m getting excited.

I’m excited since the cards are another step in my journey as a writer. I write because I have the need. I write to make my point, to have my say, to leave a mark.

My business cards are a reminder to myself that my book can’t speak until I write the words, and that I need to stay serious and get back to work. “Granny” is important to me – I love the story. 

(Talking to myself now) “Stop editing! Let the completed chapters rest a while. Just effing do it!.”

I’m going to do this.

First thing:

For 8 years we couldn’t find Dick Cheyney – he spent his vice presidency either hidden in a bunker or out shooting his long time friends in the face. When it came to any issue of importance, Cheyney stayed silent. How many Sunday morning news programs has Dick (such an appropriate first name) Cheyney appeared on since our president, Barak Obama’s term began? STFU! (I’ve been feeling that for a few weeks now, so it had to go first)

That confused little man with the last name West needs counseling. What an ass. STFU! (See how hip I am, I actually saw that happen last night)

Parents that refused to let their children watch a “stay in school” message from our president. It’s over. Get off my TV screen and STFU!

Justin Case.  He’s such a smarmy and annoying spokesperson. STFU!

PETA and their followers who continue to try to make news of no news. I’m glad that The Eagles signed Michael Vick.  I’m a life time Philly hater who will now root for the Eagles (except for when they play the premier team of the league, my beloved Giants) because of the ugliness and hatred spewed by that ignorant group. PETA: STFU!

Ooh. Blogging is fun!

I am obsessed.

“Oh jali..” some of you might say. “You’ve said this before. What’s your new obsession?” ::group sighing in unison impatiently::

It’s a game called Mafia Wars. ::cue doom-type music: Duh-Dah-Duh::

I started playing the game on Facebook, at the invitation of a high school friend that I hadn’t spoken to in over 20 years.  My plan was to join, then ignore the game, just to pacify Ray. I was getting tired of all the increasingly urgent requests for my participation, and figured I’d take the five minutes or so to register and that would be the end of  it.

Registration was easy. I needed to choose a character type: Mogul, Fearless or Maniac.  (of COURSE I chose “maniac” – I was afraid that I’d be refused the title “mogul” based on my current credit score, and since I’m the original punk, “fearless” just ain’t jali. Maniac suits my personality perfectly anyway, so I clicked the button.

I was in.

I wasn’t very busy so I decided to give the game a go. ::cue doom-type music: Duh-Dah-Duuuuh::

My first assignment as a Maniac Street Thug was a mugging. ::click:: Simple job, simple payoff and I was hooked.

I used all my energy in a couple of moments on simple jobs, and started expending my stamina on fights. I lost my first fight and I lost my freedom at the same moment. I was determined to win at all costs and I started playing almost all the time.

I took a day off from work and I was accused of taking time off to play the game. Sooo not true. I had…ah… other stuff to do that day. I just finished that stuff early and didn’t have anything else I needed to do, so I played for a little while. (yes, I could see that pile of laundry, those unvacuumed rugs, that pile of dishes: &$%^ you!)

I leveled up pretty quickly and added to my Mafia. After about a month of playing the game, I was at level 170 with 2400 people in my Mafia with billions and billions in the bank.

I read a message on the main page of Facebook one day, warning people of hackers on the site and asking everyone to block invitations from certain members since they could take over your RL email account. I checked my list of friends and felt safe – I didn’t let the wolves in.

I tried to log in to Facebook another morning and read a message that almost broke my heart: “Your account has been disabled due to violations of the Facebook terms of service”. Looks like someone got me. I sent urgent texts to my Facebook friends that my account and my email were hacked then tried to access my Mafia Wars game from the Zynga (the game creator) site.

“Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo”.

My MW game was connected to Facebook and unretrievable.

I wasn’t concerned with losing Facebook privileges. I only cared about my Mafia Wars game. With a disabled account, there was no way to access my game in progress.  My heart cried for loss of my achievements, my money, my Mafia.

I needed to start again, on a new social networking site with new friends.

Tagged is a social networking site that’s less visited than MySpace or Facebook. The draw for me was that I could play Mafia Wars there and I quickly registered and started scouting for friends who would be willing to play the game.

That was a week ago.

Today I’m a level 45 with 83 in my Mafia. I have $130,450,976 in my account and I’m going strong.

I’m able to write this now, only because I have a little time to kill to allow my energy and stamina to rebuild.

Oh, if you decide to come to to visit, I’m known as “jali, pissed at FB” – join my team.

Instructional Stuff

woke up today before the alarm went off feeling great!

Why?

I had no feelings of guilt for “sleepeating” last night.

(Sleepeating is that thing you do in the dark – you usually stub a toe or step on the cat on the way to a stealthy meal. Calories don’t count if everything is done in the dark and if you don’t yell out when toe is stubbed. Oh yeah, the big part – no one can see you. If you yell, turn on a light or if someone busts you, the calories count)

This is what I would tell myself in the middle of the night.

I was jali-san, Ninja Eater (imagine that gong sound, you know what I mean ).

I use to try to eat a balanced dinner and I’d go to bed feeling pretty good about myself.

Almost every night though, I’d sleepeat. While I was enjoying the illicit snack, I talked myself into believing my Ninja fairy tale, but in the morning I felt pitiful.

Logging in my meals and snacks has cancelled out the whole fairy tale deal. I love it here!

My given name is Jil (I always add Li’l Jil of the ghetto) and I don’t love the name. Too many “Rons” say when introduced, “hey baby, my name is Jack” (wink-wink). Too many people will call me Kim or Lynn – any diminutive name seems to suffice and I generally didn’t correct them. I don’t run into the same crap with jali.

I now introduce myself as jali to friends and use Jill (the nuns added the second el for some Catholic school reason) for business and official stuff.

I never thought to make up a name to use online. “jalicook” is part of all my email addys and the name I use almost everywhere on the ‘net. I like the look of the lower case better than one capital and I don’t need to use the stupid shift key when signing in.

I’ve considered interesting names like “grouchyblackmenopausalpoet” or “toolazytogetangryaboutmuchthesedays” or “formerrevolutionarywhoneedsanap” or “hellyeahi’mhungry” but the names would probably get on my nerves before long. I’ll stick with jali.

I’ll be posting soon (I know) about my recent trip to Dallas and my hang out with DD.

Here’s a letter I received that I feel the need to share:

Dear Jali,

The Bush administration is finally paying attention to the disastrous state of our economy. They didn’t act as many of us lost jobs, health insurance, and even our homes–with historic levels of middle-class Black wealth being devastated in the process.¹ Now that Wall Street is wobbling, they’re ready to come to the rescue, at our expense–to the tune of $700 billion.²

Bold steps are clearly needed, but the Bush plan is plain wrong:

1. It prioritizes protecting the corporations that got us into this mess, their executives and shareholders–while doing nothing to protect everyday Americans who’ve been overwhelmed with debt, which is the root of the problem.
    
2. It provides no accountability–giving the Treasury Secretary unlimited power to spend our money with no oversight from Congress.
    
3. There’s a good chance it won’t actually work. And when it doesn’t, they’ll be back looking for more money from taxpayers.

There are alternatives to Bush’s plan, but he’s pushing it through like it’s the only choice. Democrats control Congress, which means they, not the Bush administration, can set the terms for this bailout. At this point, stopping the plan might come down to the Senate. Your senators need to know that we’re paying attention, that we’re not buying Bush’s scare tactics, and that they shouldn’t either.

Senators are meeting today trying to decide what to do. Can you call Senators Chambliss and Isakson today?

     Senator Saxby Chambliss
     202-224-3521

     Senator Johnny Isakson
     202-224-3643

Here’s a brief script you can use (or make up your own):

“Congress needs to slow down and think about what it’s doing before it gives huge amounts of taxpayer money to Wall Street, with no strings attached. Any economic bailout needs to help struggling homeowners. It can’t be on the backs of those who can least afford it. And it must include accountability for the administration and the industry. Don’t let the Bush administration panic you into supporting another huge mistake.”

Then, please let us know you called by clicking here:

http://colorofchange.org/bailout_calls/?id=1784-239689

There are several ways to get the economy back on track that will do a better job of stabilizing the economy over the long-haul and go further in helping those hit the hardest.

A plan that makes common and economic sense would start by giving people on the verge of losing everything new terms for servicing their debts. Such an approach would spawn a recovery for everyone, including the banking sector, from the bottom up.³ Two industry and policy experts have put this idea forward and some politicians have mentioned the concept. But it hasn’t gained traction because the banks have controlled the conversation from the start. Here’s Thomas Ferguson & Robert Johnson, former Chief Economist of the Senate Banking Committee. They say a first step would be

reviving something like the Home Owners Loan Corporation that worked so well in the New Deal. That bought mortgages from people who were in danger of losing their houses and converted them into obligations that they could afford to repay. This sort of bailout has the wonderful property of directing public money to the public, rather than Wall Street. But it would still bail out Wall Street, since reviving housing and stopping mortgage defaults feeds directly through to mortgage bonds values and derivatives based on them.

Instead, Bush wants taxpayers to give his administration a $700 billion check with no strings attached, which they’ll then hand over to the Wall Street firms that got us into this mess in the first place and with no congressional or court oversight. That amounts to $2,000 for every single American.⁴

The plan is a failure on so many levels. It does nothing for families struggling to keep their homes. Tax payers get zero shares of the firms we’re bailing out, meaning when these companies eventually do turn a profit we get nothing. And the firms we’re bailing out can continue to pay their executives multimillion-dollar salaries funded by us. MoveOn called it a “pure giveaway of epic proportions” and they’re right.

Even some Republicans can see that the plan makes no sense. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) asked, “Just how long can the poor beleaguered taxpayer be expected to bear all the losses and bear all the risk?”⁶ Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) said, “I’m getting a lot of calls from my district, with people saying, why are you bailing out the big guys and not us?”⁷

There are many in Congress who want to do the right thing, but they need to know the public has their back. Please call your senators at the numbers above.

Then, please let us know you called by clicking here:

http://colorofchange.org/bailout_calls/?id=1784-239689

Thanks and Peace,

– James, Van, Gabriel, Clarissa, Andre, Kai, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team