The Expat Diaries: Hong Kong

Circumstances allowed me to spend the past weekend in Hong Kong.  I flew out Friday night on HK Airlines and returned Sunday night via the same carrier. Ideally, I would have spent four days, but this trip wasn’t planned until the last minute.

I hit up TripAdvisor and a couple of other travel websites to find out what I could do in 36 hours.  The answer is plenty.  Hong Kong is a walking city that is very clean and very easy to navigate.  I grabbed a city map at the airport and the travel websites advised getting an Octopus Card, which is basically a travel pass you load money onto.  You can use it for transportation and a lot of restaurants, shops, and stores also accept it.  It saves you from carrying loose coins, which gets tiresome real quick.

My hotel was, fortunately for me, near the central train hub and in walking distance.  With map and Octopus Card in hand, I walked down to the ENORMOUS station and stared at the maps, trying to figure out which way was up and how the trains worked.  The city is tourist-friendly and there are a lot of British “leftovers.”  There are signs literally pointing you in the direction you want to go, labeled with the sights you want to see.  I rode the Peak Tram up the mountain so that I could get a view of the stunning skyline with the mountains in the distance.  The mountains are called the Nine Dragons, and behind them is Mainland China.

2014: It's A Wrap!!!

I've been blogging for five years.  Noob reminded me of this recently and I had to take a step back and reflect.  Five years ago, I was an undiagnosed mess of turmoil, grief and rage.

Two years ago, I was sitting in my Atlanta home, infuriated with the lack of progress I was making towards completing my degree.  I didn’t have a job and was battling a bout of tendonitis in my right hand after spending six weeks entering numeric data into Excel.  I’d actively taken steps to move abroad but nothing was panning out and I was unbelievably frustrated.  I was unhappy, unhealthy, lonely, and I felt like everything was against me.

Fast forward to now.  I live in Shanghai; a city of 26 million people.  My educational pursuits are now directly related to professional development.  I have a job that I love, and the absolute freedom to do whatever the hell I want.  I don't think I've ever been as happy or as content as I am right now. Sometimes I can’t believe it; that I really am back in my little house and dreaming about being an expat instead of actually being an expat.

Boss Chicks: Special Edition

So yesterday Noob sent me a link to a video of a christmas party in Nashville, TN. The video showed a clip of a group of what had to be at least 200 Delta Sigma Theta sorors strolling to Strafe's "Set It Off."  I'm inspired.

***Update:  The video can now be found on YouTube at http://youtu.be/HhHP17KO-58.

I got every single inch of my life from this vid and I am here to tell you that every last one of those glorious sistahs set that shit clean the fuck off.  The video was originally found on the Facebook page of BJ Baskerville.  I hope you can watch it.  Please try; it's worth it.

The party was held on 12-13-14, and it's nearing one million views on Mr. Baskerville's FB page.  I'm responsible for about 30 of them.  I cannot stop watching these grown and sexy sistahs stroll like it's going out of style.  What I really love is the parade of different ages, hues, sizes and shapes storming the scene and daring anyone to throw even the slightest sliver of shade.  It's absolutely wonderful.  I am inspired.

I'm not Greek; I'm not a member of that tribe. I respect each and every organization and the people who comprise them.  What keeps me watching this video (other than the absolute fabulous flawlessness of 95% of these women killing it in stilettos, mind you) is this:

Imagine being a teenage girl and knowing (superficially) that your mother is a member of a Greek organization.  Imagine your mom being, well...your mom.  Then imagine seeing your mother get out there and slay with her sorors.  My mother wasn't Greek, but nevertheless I found myself in the mental shoes of a 15-year-old girl seeing her Greek mother enjoying herself in the throes of her sisterhood and geeking the hell out. I am so inspired.

Even better, what you see is not only mothers, but also grandmothers, aunties, cousins and big sisters.  I love it.  I love that the line is comprised mostly of sistahs who aren't in their 20s.  I love that the women range from butterscotch to mocha, buzz-cuts to 14-inch Yakki, size 3 to size 24, with various levels of energy but dedicated enough to participate in a rigorous exercise in celebration of their sorority.  God bless them.  I am soooo inspired.

I raise a glass of kumquat honey ice tea to those stylish strolling sisters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. Happy Holidays and please continue setting it off!

Update

So much has been going on these past few months.  I’ve been swamped up to my eyeballs with work, and there’s other stuff happening.  I haven’t had the freedom to create or think or write, and it’s really starting to work my nerves that I don’t have access to that outlet. 

There’s so much to say, to express, to comment on, to vent about.  I don’t even know where to start or even if I can start.  I will say this: being removed from all of the headlines and whatnot is a relief sometimes.  I don’t ever really know what’s going on unless I log into FaceBook & Twitter.  Sometimes, I deliberately stay away from social media because I can’t always handle the news as it comes.  Stories about babies dying in cars, child abuse, the #Gamergate bullshit, motherfuckers looking to rationalize rape, and most recently, #Ferguson…it can be too much.  So it is nice to not have to know everything.  Emotional distance is a good thing to have.  

Besides, getting through the rest of this SY is going to take every bit of emotional energy I have.  I’ve found myself in a situation I didn’t foresee, and I’ve now got decisions to make.  I am getting better at what I do, and that has been nothing but a bonus.  Change is good, but it’s also annoying as fuck.  But I know that things will work out for the best, because they usually do.  

At any rate, I’m just checking in to let y’all know that I’m still alive and still kicking.  I will hopefully have some news on the creative front soon enough; Nightingales: cool air is just about finished, and hopefully I can get back to working on the revisions for Tainted soon enough.  Just have to see how all of this plays out.

The Midnight Hour

Halloween 1987:  ABC broadcasted a made-for-TV movie called “The Midnight Hour.”  It first aired in 1985, but I never saw it until the aforementioned time.  I was a prepubescent middle-schooler and thrilled at the prospect of anything Halloween- and horror-related coming on TV.

The movie starred gorgeous Shari Belafonte and the lovely Jonelle Allen and it’s about a bunch of teens who fucked around with some sort of ancient curse and woke up the dead.  Story-wise, it’s so-so. Meh.  Why I’m even bothering to mention it is because of this:

Blasian "Winter of Love" Promotional

Middle Child Press is putting its top two Blasian works on sale at a reduced price of $3.99 for the entire winter...starting now.

Amaya Radjani's Corruption (2011) is the currently MCP's best-selling work of all time, having garnered numerous reviews and fairly consistent sales.

...this is a book you WANT and NEED to read. It's an interracial romance that spends absolutely NO time on race issues and more time on the vagaries of modern-day relationships. It's about friends, family, culture and finding love and strength in the most unexpected ways.

Honestly, Corruption packs more heat than Dirty Harry's .357 hand cannon and a lot more heart than any Hallmark Channel movie, all within a slim 164 pages. A warning: this isn't an HEA so if you're the type who likes their romances all warm and fuzzy wrapped in a big pink bow, then this book is not for you. For the rest of us, Corruption is a wild, sexy, emotional and unexpected ride. It's risky and totally untraditional, and well, the kind of romance that's right up my alley.

~ The Fountain Pen Diva, an Amazon Vine Voice

Folklore, and Other Stories (2008, 2012) remains Ankhesen Mié's most popular book of all time since its initial release in 2008.

A collection of three stories, Folklore is Mié's first foray into MCP's trademark experimental fiction and gained notable acclaim from the Midwest Book Review, RAWSISTAZ Literary, and APOOO Bookclub while still in the abridged, paperback format.

Folklore, and Other Stories by Ankhesen Mié is the author's sophomore effort and the short stories show how her writing has grown. Ms. Mié has taken on the ambitious task of writing from an Asian perspective. Many of the stories read like old-fashioned tall tales with the flow of poetry in short story form. The stories in this collection offer a new look at age old situations such as marital relationships. The stories are at once true to life, yet mystical and filled with fantasy. The story entitled, `The Collection' is particularly interesting with twists on love and divorce.

I recommend this volume of short stories to readers willing to read something different. In this day and age when many feel there is nothing new under the sun, along comes a writer like Ms. Mié proving that is not necessarily so.

~ Angelia Menchan, APOOO Bookclub

The books go on sale November 3rd, 2014.

It's November, and that means...

NaNoWriMo has begun!

November is National Novel Writing Month.  The object is for up and coming authors to get used to the writing process by writing each day.  The goal is to create a 50,000-word novel by November 30.  How you work out the amount of words you write per day is up to you.  I've never participated, as my writing routines were well in place before I ever heard of NaNoWriMo.  But my brotha from anotha motha, Denny Upkins, wrote Hollowstone in NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago and was able to get it published.  I strongly encourage newbies to participate.  It can be fun, you can get essential feedback, and if you're serious, you can get a novel and some notoriety.


Even if I wanted to take a shot at NaNo, I couldn't.  My muse holds to no one's schedule.  She's sididdy like that. 

Go to www.nanowrimo.org for more details.

Happy writing, peeps!  Even if you don't finish, every day of progress puts you closer to your goal.  Writing is a long, lonely process, and most people only notice when the hard work is done.  NaNo is good for glimpsing into that process.

From the Vault...All Hallows' Eve

Halloween is my favorite holiday.  It occurs during my favorite

Source

season.  My birthday’s about ten days removed, it’s the middle of football season, I’m cooking “real” food, and the air’s got a nice snap to it. For many, Halloween’s about trick-or-treating, costumes, candy, pranks, haunted houses, parties, great TV...yanno, cool shit like that.  For me, it’s always been about the candy, movies and costumes, but as I got older, I became fascinated with the origins of the holiday.

The Rebirth of Slick (IV)

It's almost been two months since I've been getting the weekly Trey treatment, and I've been asked about my health as a result.

It's great.  Physically, mentally, emotionally...it's green across the board.  Not to mention the fact that I'm able to get aroused again, which is a definite bonus.  (It is a bit...tedious...for Trey to constantly get me up and not back down, but that's the subject of a Shortie, not a blog post)

The Rebirth of Slick (III)

II

Yeah, this looks to be a series of Stella-esque proportions.  I'm working some things out, so...

(Leoprincess, getchu a Self-Care Fund on the real)

I used to get a massage once a month at Massage Envy in the States. 45 minutes and slightly more than a dollar per minute and contracts are required and medical history and all...Over here, where there's at least 3 massage parlors on every freakin' corner, they don't deal with that level of bureaucratic bullshit.  No contract, no dambs given regarding medical history or anything of the sort.  They feel like if you want a massage, then it's on you what your issues are if you don't speak up to your therapist.  And you can get a 90-minute massage for about $40.

So the first time I rolled up in one of said parlors, I was given a pair of paper panties.  Being used to keeping my underwear on at Massage Envy, I was like, "Dafuq is this about?"  The therapist assigned to me (her name was "Candy") explained in halting English that it's to keep from getting oil in the fabric.  I could also opt to keep them off if I wanted...but I wasn't even trying to hear that nonsense.

(She also asked if I wanted my breasts massaged and I couldn't get the words "Hell no" out fast enough)