The Last Lap

                      It will make you quit quickly if you aint about that life ......what im talking about is swiming laps .........im not just saying that cause i can swim a mile  im saying it because ive been to the point of quitting several times this week and everyweek ....it that point when you are half way across the pool and you are low on energy and stamina and air ....and your mucles ache ...then you think about them lifegaurds having to jump in and get you how  embarrassing it would be ...and you swallow a lil bit of water as you take a breath ....and you blow the water and the exhale out into bubbles ...and your arms ache ...and you got to remember to kick cause if you dont your just making it harder on ya self but kicking takes so much energy .....but wait my next breath is coming ....and a lil bit of water is in your nose ..... Awww shiiiiiiiit then you look in front of you and youre still in the middle of the pool ......yeah it willl make you quit .....and it soo easy to quit ....you can end it all by stopping at the wall and just getting out of the pool ... Your hand touches ...you gonna do one of two things .....grab that mofo and get out ...or tuck your head turn back and do another length.....every lap ......so every lap is my last lap....unless i do another ......

Swimming with the Sharks

     Im approching the age of 40 and 40 is a big number for me. I dont know about you but a that age i think you peak you at the point where you are physically active or not. I havent really been taking the best care of my body and i always said that i would like to be the dad that still was able to have some fun with his children. Welp not in the deriction i was going ...so i  decided that i was gonna do something about it. I wasnt gonna let the cost .... The fear of failure ......or the fear of it self   exercise deter me from becoming a better person. So i got up the nerves and said im going to do it ....i spend the best 120 dollars of my life.

      Now  ive always loved to swim my mom  sacrificed things in our house so that i could learn how to swim, now im not gonna say the bills didnt get paid cause i wanted to swim ..naah its not that type of story ...im saying that other stuff could have been done with the money for swim lessons. I am no stranger to the pool and tho ive never made a swim team or anything like that ive always been a great swimmer. This may seem like a regular story to the adverage person ....but im in the 250+ club. So after accessing what would be a good option for me to get back moving i come to swimming ....i love to do it...its low empact and i could never lose that right........wrong!   
     
             Im usually personal about my health and any thing related because when your over wieght its like people expect something to go wrong ....almost as if they are waiting for something to happen ......... But i need to be held accountable so i go public the best place to do that is FB in front of all my friends and family i make a commitment.

               It's 6:30 am Monday Jan 7th and its time to hit the pool ....i havent been up this early in years ....i start work at 10 so this is out of my norm.  I stumble thru the house trying to make sure i dont wake the 2 year old JR whos already awake and i get dressed. Its still dark outside ....im thinking to myself  "what have i signed up for"  get in my car and drive ......it freezing out here ....... But the peeking sun is beautiful.  Sign in and shower and plunge into the water. I made it!

                 There are nothing but older people in the pool some walking some swimming some just exericsing ....i get in a lane and push off the wall .............. I know what im doing ....its just like riding a bike .....i got this under control ....stroke .....breathe. stroke stroke breathe ........wait where is my air ....oh no stand up!!! Im half way across the pool ...what it this????? This would go on for an hour ........ I walk swam for 60  mins... With a hurt ego watching..... 70 year old women swim pass me as graceful as swans.

Saturday Jan 12 my facebook status read .......

      Im gonna bring this into prespective for you ..... I have done no real exericse in a min ....i can swim ..so Monday i got in the pool and could not swim a full length ...((not a lap)))) a length one time down .... a lap is down and back  ....that scared the issh out of me .... I have never in my life not been able to swim a length ....its saturday and i can say i just finished 30 laps  with a few extra cause i was feeling good... I still have a long way to go but im not where i was ..... One week down.

B~Boy Survival Rap

         I can never forget the feeling of listening to hiphop from a boombox in the park.

Slow Down

           It's amazin how simply slowing down the shutter speed on my camera i can change the dynamic of the same picture. These are the in camera tricks that separate the photographers from picture takers. Now im not knocking anyone who takes pictures hell i used to be one, but there is a difference.
          
              I have been shooting "with meaning" since 2007 and i am still in the phase where i enjoy just taking a few hours and just trolling the city with my back pack and shooting for my personal enjoyment. Every so often i run into a couple or a lone person just wondering around with their camera trying to get a picture of that perfect sunset. What always amazes me about these encounters is that no one i come across has ever finished that book that comes with the camera and they are shooting in auto mode. Auto mode lol! So they see me standing there with my lens that looks more like it belongs on the sideline of the Super Bowl and they being talking to me. Now you must understand i am a bit apprehensive for the mere fact that under normal circumstances these people would clutch thier purses come in close to thier companions and walk briskly ....but it never fails some how i end up with their $500 piece of equipment for capturing light in my hand changing the settings, so that given the current situations they can capture this spot where we are standing in in the most artistic way possible. Yeah right! So after the mini~lesson session im rushing because im usually running out of light in what is called the golden time of day when the sun's setting, I but i always make it a point to turn and snap a picture of them trying to get their camera back to the setting they had before i changed it. Lmao!   
     
                 All in all I tell that story to say this ...... Sometimes if we just slow down we can catch a little more of the everyday beauty that surrounds us. By simply slowing down the shutter you get my picture vs. your picture.

A Change of View

 

          Every day in Erban America another dream is shatter by a drug, a gunman, an accident, a disease or even things as simple as  the lack of encouragement or opportunity. After recent incidents involving children being hurt there have been calls to arms of sorts. New cries have emerged asking what to do to protect the futures of the innocent? How could something like this happen in light of what has happened in Columbine?  VA. Tech? and even more recently Aurora? This will not revisit massacres but wait, these aren’t really considered urban areas. So now we must ask what is the catalyst for this malice this disregard for human life. What was once looked at as something you would expect to happen in an inner city school has now reach suburbia?

 

             

Opportunity knocks! I think the difference between middle class and millionaire can be something as simple as opportunity. Could the difference between success and failure be that simple?  Howard Stern once said something to that effect in an interview with rapper Jay-Z, while Howard Stern is a famous radio personality, when speaking of Bill Gates says …(and I’m paraphrasing) basically Bill Gates had almost unlimited access to the computer lab at a time when lab time had to be brought …could this have contributed to Bill Gates becoming who he is today?  That question was rhetorical! With that said who’s to say we are not hindering that the next great innovator with the Erban closures of Boy’s and Girl’s clubs, Recreation centers and programs promoting the Arts.  

 

Be Encouraged! In today’s age of Facebook parenting could the public embarrassment and humiliation of our children contribute to the explosion of copy cat Columbine’s?  I wonder everything is so instantly connected that beating you used to get when you brought home bad grades is now one stop short of reality tv. Parents are now posting punishments and making the children retract false statements live and in color in almost real time. Has this form of parenting been effective or is it disrespectful  to the young who’s respect has been proclaimed yet? I was told as at youth “when grown folks are speaking you should be quite…”    which leads me to think maybe this mixing of generations via social media is not a good idea?  I wonder if there is a whole group of children walking around with bubbling anger inside because they felt as if they where disrespected and they have no way of letting that pressure release?  

 

Maybe we as human beings need to change our view … I live on the bottom floor of my complex so I never knew what it looked like from the second floor of my building  till I went upstairs and looked out of the window. Wow that’s crazy how 13 stairs could change the whole view of my block …..