Gangsta Style

Okay, let's have some fun. First, I'll let you inside my head. I had to go to a meeting a month or so ago. It was not a meeting I was looking forward to. It was summer, I didn't want to go, and the meeting was about making a schedule for a bunch of other people to follow.

Luckily, the three other people in the meeting are some of my favorite people who breathe oxygen. So I'm at the meeting and we're hammering out the schedule. Checking how many kids are in each class. Calling other principals. Reading a chart that someone from Jupiter made, cuz that thing was a beast. In order to read the chart, you had to attend graduate school for four years and obtain two Ph.D's. So since I'm the one with the math minor (not two Ph.D's, mind you) I've got the chart. I finally figure it out and the four of us think we've worked out a schedule that everyone is just going to love. How could they not? (insert snarfage and heavy sarcasm here)

With me still? So since I'm also sort of witty sometimes, (usually only on Mondays, which this meeting was on a Monday) I was designated as the official email writer. So the other three people are dictating and I'm typing the email.

And I happened to give one of the people a nickname. I'm all over nicknames. I really like them. My DH gives them to our kids, his students at school, even me. He calls them rapper names, I call them Gangsta names. Details, schmetails.

So I made one up for this guy. Let's call him Zach Attack. So ever since then, he's been trying to come up with a gangsta name for me. Which, I must admit, thrills me to no end. I've always wanted to have a gangsta name. (In high school, I went by "Lane" or "Lanie" or pretty much anything else that started with an L or an E.)

Problem: my name is, well, not that easily adapted to gangsta style. But he's been working on it with his team. That's right. A whole team. So he comes in the computer lab last week to run a couple of the names by me.

The one we like best: EJ Jamma.

My DH hates it. He thinks E-Jamma would be better. So I need some help. What should my gangsta name be?

Here's some I've come up with for some gangsta friends of mine. If you imagine a gangsta accent and like me swinging my arms with my fingers splayed out and some baggy pants and my hat on sideways and some serious bling, it really helps. Trust me.

Christine Fonseca: Fonz-C. (Yo, yo, yo, Fonz-C. How's the WiP?)

Suzette Saxton: Z-Shizzle (Have your peeps call mine, Z-Shizzle. We'll do lunch.)

Bethany Wiggins: Wigs (He-ey! Wigs is in da house! *imagine the heavy gold chainz and you'll be there with me*)

Michelle McLean: Triple M Stack (Triple M Stack is bustin' out the wordage, yo.)

Heather Dyer: HDMD (Dude, HDMD, keepin' it real.)

So...so many of your are uber-creative. What have you got for a name like Elana Johnson? And this picture totally made me laugh. Cuz, well, E-Jamma and Zach Attack, yeah, we're pretty much like these guys. Can't...stop...laughing!

4 Out Of 5 Bejeweled Blitz Games Agree...

Yeah, I know. I told you I was going to ressurrect the Teaser Tuesday... Um, not so much. Next week, friends. Next week.

Instead, I give you...

Bejeweled Blitz Magic 8 Ball!

Ooooh, shiny.

This is courtesy of H.L. Dyer. She uses her score on Bejeweled Blitz as sort of a predicter. You know, whatever you'd ask a Magic 8 Ball, you can ask BB. Just pick a score and play!

Okay, so I'm not like the BB Goddess or anything, but I can usually get a score between 30 - 85 K, give or take a few thousand. Sometimes I get 6500. Whatever.

My question (yes or no only): Will I get good news this week?

So I picked the score of 50,000. If I got above 50K, the answer was yes. Below, no. Now, since I have quite a severe addiction to BB, I only gave myself 5 minutes. That's 5 games. Best 3 out of 5 you could say.

Yeah.

4 out of 5 Bejeweled Blitz games think I'm going to get good news this week! It could be anything, like the starting date for school has been postponed a month...or that my garage has mysteriously cleaned itself...or something.

Does anyone have a Magic 8 Ball they want to confirm this with? Thx.

Do any of you do stuff like this to pass the time? Or any other quirks you feel like sharing about yourself? Lay them on me, I'm ready.

Associating With Greatness

Okay, since the whole Michael Jackson funeral/spectacle last week, I've been thinking. I know it's a dangerous pasttime similar to skydiving, but hey, sometimes I like to live on the edge.

And I was watching the funeral from my couch, in my pajamas cuz I had it DVR'ed. And there was this woman who had flown all the way from Brooklyn or somewhere in New York just to stand on the street like three blocks away.

This stunned me. I was like, For real?

But why?

I mean, I grew up in the eighties, so I get the adoration of MJ. We (meaning me and my sister) choreographed moves to some of his songs, and who didn't learn Thriller? So I get tuning in to see the funeral, but I stayed in the comfort of my own home. I don't get flying across the country just to stand on the street.

Here comes the thinking part.

And I've finally concluded that it all has to do with Associating Oneself with Greatness. Think about it. Wouldn't you want to associate with Michael Jackson (as perhaps messed up as he was) or Oprah or say, Holly Root or Rachelle Gardner or Jessica Faust or Kristin Nelson or Nathan Bransford?

I would.

And why?

Because we believe they're great.

Enter more thinkage, and a few MJ lyrics.

Heal the world

Make it a better place

So that's my thing. I want to make the world a better place. With my books, my blog, my life. I used to listen to my favorite Michael Jackson song, Man In The Mirror, everyday on the way to school. It helped me to realize that I couldn't change those kids, their life circumstances or make the right choices for them.

But I could--and can--change myself. What I say. Do. Think. React to. Ignore. All of it.

So I've associated myself with greatness. Pat, Heather, Suzy, Carolyn and Mary are the kewlest critmates, blogging buddies and downright best friends ever. They are the epitome of what it's like to live your life intending to make the world a better place.

Christine, Lisa, Laura, Michelle, and Katie make my world a better place with their constant encouragement and uplifting emails. Thanks, guys.

I love hanging out in the QueryTracker forum. I think the people there make the world a better place. I also love going to my Writing Throwdown forum and reading the support people show each other there. That is a small slice of the world that is made better--and most of those people are you guys, the Mindless Musing blog readers. So thanks.

I'll be gone to Yellowstone the rest of this week, enjoying the beauty of this world. I could write a bunch of posts and set them to autopost, but I like to discuss with all of you, so I'm not going to do that.

I'd like to open the blog this week for you to talk about greatness. Who out there has influenced you? Made your life better? Made your world a better place to live? I want to associate with those people. All of them.

I want to be great. And to do that, I must Associate With Greatness.