mizChartreuse || redefiningSuccess

Earlier this year, my girl Angelique turned me onto the powers of AMIN.O. ENERGY; a dietary supplement which claims to “support recovery before, during and after exercise,” by utilizing “free form amino acids for rapid uptake,” which helps you “train longer & harder with beta-Alanine.” It also contains “natural energizers and antioxidants” and “supports nitric oxide synthesis,” whatever that means.

Really, she gave me two scoops of it in 12 oz. of cold water for me to take to work because I was hung over from our wine night the previous evening.

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I’m a flower-loving, nature-seeking girl at heart, but who doesn’t love natural beauty? I don’t think there are many humans who prefer manufactured concrete and welded metal over living mountains and water. I strive to travel and disconnect from the grid as often as possible, but that doesn’t always have to entail a $400 plane ticket to an exotic national park. Sometimes I just have to take a walk around my neighborhood with the intention of being open to my surroundings– things I’ve driven past many a time, and things I never knew existed.

Each of these photos has a certain energy to it; an element that gave me pause and drew me to capture it at that very moment. To scroll through and dismiss the collection as a bunch of weeds and bricks is folly.

Here’s today’s adventure in Urban Beauty within a five-block radius of my home on the south side of Chicago in the lovely neighborhood of Bridgeport.

Beauty in death.

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Television is not the truth. Television’s a goddamn amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We’re in the boredom-killing business. So if you want the Truth, go to God. Go to your gurus. Go to yourselves! Because that’s the only place you’re ever gonna find any real truth.” -Howard Beale (played by Peter Walsh) in the film Network, 1976

America’s popular collective conscious has moved beyond the disaster in Japan, the threat to Planned Parenthood, and the government shutdown. This past week, the characters were Donald Trump and President Barack Obama; this weekend’s act stars two Brits named William and Kate. Who knows? Maybe next week we’ll get to read the president’s high school progress reports before we tune into American Idol.

On Wednesday Apr. 27, Barack Obama released what appears to be his official birth certificate in attempts to shut up Donald Trump, the media, and “birthers” who don’t believe he was born in Hawaii, as he claims. Shortly thereafter, Trump gave a press conference giving himself credit and expressing pride for the results of his racketeering. Annoyingly, the White House’s actions probably only served as feeding stale bread to feral, never-satisfied pigeons.

The world went wild, and a little mad. My heart broke to see so many blacks respond with such sadness and anger. Baratunde Thurston of JackandJillpolitics.com and The Onion posted a heartfelt video that went super viral, and Elon James White and Bassey Ikpi discussed the events on their podcast, Blacking it Up, with Joan Walsh of Salon.com.

I empathize, and I hate the ugliness. Since the inception of this nation, blacks have had to fight harder than anyone for rights and privileges, paying dire prices. The playing ground has never been level, and it’s never been more clear than in present-day United States (despite what privileged white folk might want to say).

Nobody (worth associating with) wants to see Donald Trump rile up ignorant white trash, refer to “The Blacks,” and disrespect the man with the highest official position in the country. People questioned why the mainstream media gave the ridiculous issues so much attention in the first place.

I have a few things to say about all of this nonsense, which is certainly about race and politics (and if you’re white you don’t get to tell me that it’s not…).

But watch this clip from Network first (click)

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It pays to fight the systems and stand up for your rights. No matter how insurmountable your issue/circumstance may be, there is ALWAYS something you can do about it. I really don’t know how much more I need to drive this point home to some people, because it is true, and it is empowering, and why sell yourself short?

My domains for both this website and charlottemutesha.com are hosted by Go Daddy. A month before late February, I started receiving incessant “Renew your domains NOW!” emails from the company, and fair enough– at least Go Daddy

cares enough about their customers to bug them to give Daddy his money. And in turn, our websites stay live, which is always a plus, especially when your web presence has some sort of effect

on your livelihood.

So I renew, EARLY, and was proud of myself because I never do anything ahead of time. Furthermore, coupon codes gave me a discount, so it would only cost me $17.52 to be the registrant for my two little corners of the internet.

Two days later, I check my bank account at myciti.com, and find that I was charged $17.52 not once, but twice. I called up Citibank, and to my surprise, they handled the situation with THE quickness. As in, before I hung up the phone, I refreshed my browser and immediately could see the second $17.52 AVAILABLE and credited in my account. “Damn, that was easy,” I thought to myself. “Citi is going to contest incorrect charges on my behalf? Sweet tits.”

No.

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I declared last Thursday as an off day, so I carefully selected which bad TV programs I was going to watch for the afternoon before going to the gym. I caught up on Celebrity Apprentice, and squealed for joy when I saw there was finally a new episode of Biggest Loser available in the On Demand section.

Out of most of the world’s plethora of “reality” TV programming, Biggest Loser is one of the best. Yes, I understand that drastic weight loss in short periods of time can be unhealthy. Certainly, I overstand that TV is bad for you– it’s called “programming” (A VERB) for a reason. But hell, if I’m going to be brainwashed into working out (and lusting after Jillian Michaels), I’ll take it! That way, while I’m in the gym sweating it out and working on my boxing jabs, I’m releasing the pent-up energy out that was programmed into me from watching too much Basketball Wives and subsequently wanting to beat a bitch. It’s all about balance.

"You were a non-motherfucking-factor, bitch!" "Talk is cheap!"

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