Troy

How does 999 relate to computers?

Poverty, for the descendendants of formerly enslaved people in America is a complex problem. We have been, and are, bombarded by a wide variety of assaults. What I do not is that our poverty will not be alleviated by the actions of out government alone. The government is necessary, but not sufficient to solver poverty in our communities. Black people must to do most of the work. This is a very difficult thing for us to do. This was made crystal clear to me only after I became a business owner. AALBC has lasted more than 20 years only because of my community. If we are to pull the Black community out of poverty we have to be the ones do to it.

This was one the the click-baity headlines you see advertised on websites. Even though my perverse curiosity is often peaked (who can resist the "You'd be alarmed how these 10 beautiful famous people look today") I avoid these links like the plague. How every this title, "WATCH: Two Transgenders Blow Out Girls In State Meet," made me laugh because I immediately thought about @Pioneer1 Rather than clicking the link I did a google search and was surprised to discover Transgender athletes is "a thing" now. Apparently all a guys has to say is that he is a girl and he can race with the girls. The "ex-dudes" are breaking records. From YouTube Earlier this week when Connecticut held its CIAC Track & Field Championships, the previous records for girls were broken in both the 100 and 200-meter runs. A transgender, won the events. Another transgender, was the runner up in the 100 meter dash. According to the Connecticut Post, the results are causing some controversy. “A lot of people have asked, can you run a separate race, can you put an asterisk next to their name, do something that shows there is a standard that is different from that?” said CIAC executive director Karissa Niehoff. “When you get into that playing out, you have got civil rights issues. “Then within the same gender, you are taking one population of the gender and you’re separating them and creating another class. That’s what Title IX speaks to. That’s what Office of Civil Rights guidelines speak to. You cannot discriminate based on gender. And in our case in Connecticut, gender is gender identity.” Yet what about the two girls who worked for years who got knocked out of the finals by Miller and Yearwood? And what about the two girls who finished seventh and eighth in the finals who were denied a chance to compete in the New England championships? “We do feel for them,” Niehoff said. “Fully agree it doesn’t feel good. The optic isn’t good. But we really do have to look at the bigger issues that speak to civil rights and the fact this is high school sports.”

Seriously I need to check myself with regard to the way I view people. If social media bring joy to an otherwise fruitless life for some, who am I to give them grief for it. Mel who you telling! The fact that Facebook owns instagram is obscene. Facebook now determines what people, across the nation's most popular social media platforms, see. The notion that Facebook has a lock on the least educated amongst is really quite dangerous. Whether you follow people, brands, or hashtags ultimately Facebook still controls what we all see. For example, after four hours, I posted this chart on Twitter, Facebook, Goolge+, and just now posted on Instagram. So far one retweet, one "Like on Facebook (that was from @Cynique thanks!) As far as I can tell no one has seen it. I can't track the traffic resulting from the post, because the link was to a different website (where the graphic was created).

I fired up my facebook account a couple weeks ago after having it disabled for a couple of months. It is just too hard to do what I do without an account, because so much information I need when researching people is most easily obtained on Facebook. Facebook's structure requires people to include information that is often left off their websites -- better bios for authors, bookstore hours of operations, event details, etc. I still post links, that get virtually no engagement. I've come to terms with the fact that I just don't have it in me make the type of posts required to get engagement of Facebook. On the advice of my students, I have recently begun using Instagram. I've purchased some advertising and even installed the app on my phone. I've created some posts and am experimenting with the platform to see if I can generate some traffic to the website. But I know, unless the traffic generated is great, I will not use the platform. I just don't like engaging in the activities that are needed to amp up traffic. All the sharing of personal minutiae is too much for me... I'm even beginning to feel contempt for the people doing all the sharing. ...this is a bad sentiment, because in the real world I actually really like some of these people. So it is likely I will ultimately disengage from Instagram before I become some online misanthrope.

@Delano just click Mel's Avatar and you'll see a list of everything thing she has posted including a recent one about block chain.

I dunno about the password. I do t know them the software handles that. You may need to reset it

Nope Del you did not (that I recall). I'm just saying impeachment because K2 mentioned it.

I'm glad you took the feedback as it was intended. We can all use Feedback.

Thank you and I will, to the best of my ability to just that. Buyt as you said I need people to engage, our people to engage here with the same enthusiasm as they do on Amazon and Amazon's site Goodreads. Recently, I experimented with using Goodreads reviews on AALBC.com to keep people on the site longer, but I'll probably remove them because it actually encourages engagement on Goodreads rather than AALBC.com.

Hi @Kween Yakini you can embed video directly by just pasting the the unshortened URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RriAEfw57W8 We need the truth for real! Just a bit of unsolicited feedback: the background music is too loud and distracts from you piece.

So Pioneer Ariens like conflict huh. I'm an Aries as well. Maybe that is why I always understand where you coming from and have no problem disagreeing with you (when appropriate of course).

Impeachment does not mean removal from office. Bill Clinton was impeached, and he is revered today even his wife was almost elected president. Del I'll pass on the 2nd vote

From your keyboard to God's ears.

@DWash, the artwork used on the cover is nice and seems to fit the subject. Have you published any of books of poetry that has been reviewed? If so, can you share a link or post the review? Thanks.

When we ran an online book club, the club's moderator, Thumer, selected Cane, by Jean Toomer of the first book for the list. For someone like me it was a surprisingly unusual book. I never read anything like it before. It, for me, was and is one of the joys of running AALBC. Read Arna Bontemps's intro to the 1969 edition.

Finishing the year 95% likely; finishing his term -- even money, but even that is wishful thinking. @Delano, I'll lay even money he gets elected to a second term.

No I never said Pioneer had a magazine company. You might have gotten confused back when he was using the Earl Graves as his avatar. Graves is the publisher of Black Enterprise magazine. I was probably explaining to someone who the photograph represented. Also, Pioneer did not start Tuskegee institute (Just in case someone accuses me a saying that)

Where did that come from?

Witness tampering is a big deal. Manafort will probably go to jail. The Teflon "Don" remains unsscatched. I'd be willing to bet he serves his full term.

Thanks for popping by @CDBurns, please posts some links here from time to time and share the news of your successes -- especially the interviews. Keep up the great work. I may make it to Memphis this summer and will reach out.

I would not use the term "far fetched," for I do not think 45 getting booked out of office is far fetched. I would however continue to assert that it is unlikely -- certainly before Jan 1st 2019. 45's tweets don't change my position. White folks have been feeling "the pinch" for sometime which is why they put 45 in office.

Sign in front of Mountain View, CA bookstore:

Man I was visiting friends in the area and decided to check out the Googleplex. It was a sunday afternoon and I just rode around checking things out. I did not met with executives of anything. I was doing the tourist thing. I could tell I was not the only one, as there were others talking selfies in front of Google different buildings as well. I have actually been in Google facilities in Boston, Raleigh, and New York city for focus groups and training, but those other locations pale in comparison. Black people are conspicuously absent not just on Google's campus but in the surrounding community of Mountain View, CA