fall / winter dating strategies

As the cold months approach is definitely important for you to replinish the

roster as you head into the cold months.  You have to break out some of

those secret recruiting tactics to make sure you have a team that will take

you through until next summer.



The first thing you have to do is play the numbers and learn from the

mistakes of others.  For example, take this past interation of the US

Olympic basketball team.  What we should all learn from this is that you

will go nowhere with a team full of wannabe superstars.  Role players are

essential to the success of the team.



Pick a region of operation.  If you don't go to the club, no worries.  You

can do just as much macking in the bookstore/library/bus/on the street as

you can in a club, it might be a little more difficult without the

assistance of liquor, but you can still get the job done and come up on AT

LEAST three fresh recruits.  But pick a place, become familiar with it, know

the staff so you can comfortably work without distractions.



Next, at this point you have to remember that the rule is quantity first,

quality second. Basically, you want to get as many macks in as possible

while you still can and sort the shit from the shinola later on. If you

waste your time tryna talk to 8's and up, you're gonna miss out on some 7's

that can run just as good through the cold months.



Prioritise your position players.  If you've had a good one or two from the

summer, keep them around and build your team around them, the rest of your

summer squad can get waivers or bumped up to front office positions.  Or you

could send them overseas to play somewhere in the minor leagues, but you

want to keep them working hard and under the assumption that they can get

called up at any time.  Don't drop your whole squad at one time on some

Denver Nuggets circa 1999 shit, you'll wind up a big loser.  If October

comes and you still don't have two, time to lower your standards.



MOST IMPORTANTLY, let all members of the roster know that the team comes

first.  Lying breeds drama, so it is essential that everyone is on board

with the mission statement. If there is one who is not down for the

concept,you have to let her go. You may even suggest she go if you sense her

hedging on the team concept. This will also help you keep a clean

conscience.



Next, you have to be somewhat discerning in your selections so that if any

two women should meet they are mature enough to handle the situation with

some decorum if not grace.  One way to ensure this is to make sure all are

of the same quality so one member of the squad doesn't get picked on by the

others. If you trash one the others are trash by association so make sure

they are all worthy of your respect (doesn't mean equal time, though).



Possibly you could pull off the sympathy thing for the one that gets picked

on by the others, but this takes advanced skills and shouldn't be tried if

you don't have the ability to keep her from becoming 'the needy one'.  This

is a maneuver that should only be attempted if you have tried, failed and

learned from this mistake in the past.  Otherwise, it is just not worth the

risk.



Lastly, it is too damn early in the Christmas season to narrow the roster

down quickly.  That task should not even be contemplated until january 2. 

Or you run the risk of ending up at some weird family's house being

introduced as the "B" word.



~C



CD of the moment: Marvin Gaye - "Here My Dear"

80's crate dig

Every once in a while, some amazing shit happens to me.



One of the guys in the house, Mrs. Jeff, bought a house and is moving.

In the midst of his purge, he mentions he has all these records and he

doesn't know what to do with them.  I suggest that I'll go through them

and see if I can take a few off of his hands.



If you knew Mrs. Jeff, you wouldn't think that his musical tastes would

extend much further beyond Madonna, cheesy dance music, and corny cross

dressing bands from the 80's.  So I didn't have much hope, but figured

taking a look wouldn't hurt.



The following day he comes up to me and says, "You know what, you can

just have them.  I don't want to carry them to the new place.  I'd just

appreciate it if you could make me a few CD's of the good songs whenever

you get a chance."  Still reluctant to take on 5 crates of records that

I'm  expecting to be bullshit, I say "sure, why not."



I start to go through these records and not only are all of the records

in near mint - mint condition, but they are all from the 80's and most

are damn near impossible to find!  I couldn't believe it!!  The lesson

here is never to judge a book by her cover.



~C





Here is the best of the best:





12" - Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls

12" - Whitney Houston - So Emotional

12" - Tina Turner - typical male

12" - The Jets - Crush on you

12" - Raze - Break for love

12" - Jocelyn Brown - Ego maniac

12" - Starpoint - Object of My desire

12" - Gwen Guthrie - Aint nothin going on but the rent

12" - Nu Shooz - I can't wait

12" - Falco - Rock me amadeus

12" - Vanity - Under the Influence

12" - L.L. Cool J. - Rock the Bells!

12" - Al B. Sure - Nite and Day

12" - Vanessa Williams - The Right Stuff

12" - The system - Don't disturb this groove

12" - Lisa Lisa - Head to toe

12" - Morris Day - Oak Tree

12" - We Are the World

12" - New Edition - If it isn't love

12" - Bangles - Walk Like an Egyptian

12" - Simply Red - if you don't know me by now

12" - Alexander O'neal ft Cherelle - Never knew love like this

12" - Jody Watley - Looking for a new love

12" - Whitney Houston - I wanna dance w/ somebody

12" - Michael jackson - The Way you make me feel

12" - Bananarama - Venus

12" - Power Station - Some Like it hot

12" - janet jackson – nasty

LP - Midnight Star - No Parking on the dance floor

LP - Midnight Star - Planetary Invasion

LP - Midnight Star - Headlines

LP - Flashdance original motion picture sountrack

LP - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - Spanish Fly

LP - Lisa Lisa & Full force (w/ I wonder if i take you home)

LP - Culture club - colour by numbers

LP - Footloose original sountrack

LP - Beverly Hills Cop original sountrack

LP - Bright lights big city sountrack (w/ Prince - good love)

LP - Prince - Purple Rain

12" - Mtume - Juicy Fruit

LP - Whodini - Escape

LP - New Edition - Heartbreak

12" - David Bowie - Let's Dance

LP - Shalamar - The Look

LP - Klymaxx - Meeting in the Ladies Room

LP - Cyndi Lauper - She's so unusual

LP - Prince - Sign 'o' the times

LP - the clash - combat rock

LP - Levert - The Big Throwdown

LP - Keith Sweat - make it last forever

LP - Tina Turner - Private Dancer

LP - John Cougar mellencamp - Uh-Huh

LP - Def Leppard - Pyromania

LP - A-ha - Hunting High & Low

LP - Kashif - Love Changes

12" - Janet Jackson - Control

12" - Terence Trent D'Arby - Wishing Well

12" - Pebbles - Girlfriend

12" - Janet Jackson - What Have you done for me lately

12" - Gregory Aboot - Shake you down

12" - Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance

12" - Patti Austin - The heat of heat

12" - Information Society - What's On your mind

12" - The Cover Girls - Because of You

12" - L'Trimm - Grab it

12" - L.L. Cool J - Going back to Cali

12" - Herb Alpert - Diamonds

12" - Cherrele w/ alexander o'neal - saturday love

12" - J.J. Fad - Supersonic (ORIGINAL!)

12" - Erasure - Victim of Love

12" - INXS - What you need

12" - Duran Duran - Notorious

12" - Miami Sound Machine - Congo

12" - Tears for fears - Shout

12" - Jody Watley - Don't you want me

12" - Keith Sweat - I want her

12" - Chaka Kahn - I feel for you

12" - Sheila E - Koo Koo

12" - Salt N pepa - Tramp

12" - T'Pau - Heart & soul

12" - Pajama Party - Yo No Se

LP - Human League - Fascination

LP - Spandau Ballet - Singles Collection

LP - Michael Jackson - Bad

LP - Culture Club - The first four years

LP - Angela Bofill - Teaser

LP - Freddie Jackson - Just like the first time

LP - Sade - Promise

LP - Club Nuveau - Life, Love & Pain

LP - Shannon - Do you wanna get away

12" - Shannon - Let the music play

LP - Michael Jackson - Thriller

LP - Wham!UK - Fantastic

LP - Wham! - Music from the edge of heaven

LP - Wham! - Make it big

LP - Cheryl Lynn - Preppie

12" - Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams

LP - 10,000 Maniacs - In My tribe

LP - Eurythmics - Touch

the thong dilemma

"YOU BETTA DON'T!!"



... the closing line of that new McDonalds commercial 'isn't not'

funny........  they really need to take that shit off the air.



So still waiting on my precious HBCU to get their shit together... so

now

that I'm taking on this new Professor Curtis persona I think I'll need

to start talking about more important things in the chronicles.. you

know, if I'm going to be an intellectual, a leader to the youth of the

future, I must lead by example and pass on the knowledge that I have

gained from my life experiences.  As a professor, I should be able to

see the world with different eyes and locate those things that need

to be pointed out to the young people of today.



For my first topic of intellectual wizardry, I'd like to speak to all

of the young ladies.  I've seen them all around campus, compared them

with women downtown, professional women who take the train to and from

work and there is a very serious issue that needs to be addressed and

that is:



the art of concealing panty lines.



As a man, I'm looking at your ass.  I don't care what you look like,

how you walk, or what you have on.  I'm going to look at your ass.

If you're fine, then a sexy ass is just icing on the cake.  If you're

not, then I'm at least hoping that your ass is your redeeming quality...

either way, I'm going to check it out.



Panty lines tell a lot about a woman, but I just want to clear up a big

misconception.  Just because you wear a thong with your ann-taylor-esque

pants, don't mean I can't see the thong!! It just means that now I know

you wear sexy underwear!  It used to be that you could tell the freaks

by whether or not a woman wore a thong.  Now, everyone wears thongs so

it's  just not a given once you see the thong.  Pretty much by this age,

we understand that everyone does everything (or at least can be talked

into doing anything) so as we grow older we no longer use the thong as a

judgement of character.



Anyway, I can see the dilemma, because armed with this bit of

information,  what do you do?  If you wear big underwear, than we think

you're a prude.  But this is more than likely the best thing to portray

to others anyway!  Think about it.  As a woman, this world consistently

objectifies and makes women buy into this idea of being sexy and it's all

so we can look at your ass all day.  We're not going to comment or make

moves on you, but in the back of our minds, we know "she wears thongs

everyday."  So when we work with you or talk to you, it just peaks our

interest a little bit more.  But my theory is that if women wore big

underwear all the time, it would say, "I'm about business.  I have no

time to be sexy."  .... and this is a whole other level of sexiness!!!

The 'hard-to-get' role is always much more sexy than the woman who wears

her sexiness on her sleeve (or her ass in this matter).



So the solution?



No underwear at all.



We don't understand it when we look at your ass.  We're now conditioned

to look for the thong.  We expect you to be on the typical 'sexy ass'

vibe.  Before men understood thongs, we did seem to think that a thong

was a way to avoid pantylines.  But not anymore.  Now you just have thong

lines, which isn't any better.  So wearing no underwear gives us the

impression that A. you are a genius and have solved the panty line problem.

or B. you don't have any underwear on.



More often than not, we don't assume B.  We're not conditioned too.  So

we think you've solved the problem.  We know the little tricks with white

pants and how you wear flesh colored underwear to hide the thong, but if

the pants are tight enough (and why wouldn't they be?) we'll still see the

outline of the underwear.  Some of these young girls aren't even ready to

have this conversation and that's okay.  but when they get there, let them

know, no underwear is the answer.  I mean seriously, what is a thong really

doing anyway?  These little pieces of fabric are getting so small I could

almost floss with them.



I don't have the solution to how you keep cooch juice off of your pants

though when you wear no underwear... jeans I can understand, but dress

pants?? not sure how you do it... maybe pantyhose or something??? maybe

one of you women can enlighten me... us men are dying to know.



~C



CD of the moment: Miles Davis - "In a Silent Way"

Back in DC

Arrived safely on the East Coast after a 13 hour drive and was greeted with

18 rounds of golf and an impromptu crab fest, can't beat that.  I'm

currently staying with a former classmate in Baltimore who is staying in the

house of a friend of him and his boyfriend.  The other guy who is staying in

the house is an ex-boyfriend of the owner.  They were together 10 years ago

and when they broke up he just never left, and he's been there ever since.



There are also three dogs (all male) and two cats (one is male).  So

including me, that's 8 sets of balls all in one house.  But I have my own

room, an air conditioner and a place to sleep so I'll take it without

complaints



So here is the deal.  So about 5 weeks ago I got a call saying there was the

possibility that there would be a teaching position opening up my alma matter,

but there was some uncertainties on whether or not

it would happen.  So I looked up online to find out when classes would start

and saw that they would begin in 3 weeks.  Which meant, if I was going to

leave I would need time to give my current employer the standard two weeks

notice and that would give me one week to get out to DC.



I thought about it over the weekend and decided to do it.  So I was ready to

resign on Monday, but the boss was out of town so I had to wait until he

returned which wasn't until Thursday.  This was the toughest part, knowing

that you were leaving, and having people talk about the next project and

having to act like you were on board for things that were going to happen in

the future when you knew you weren't going to be around.  So I put in my

notice, left and came out here.



It wasn't until the Thursday before classes started did I know for sure that

I had the position.  Luckily, since it happened so fast, there was no

expectation for me to jump in and have to teach the class.  When all of the

paperwork gets finalized, it will be on a strictly part time basis which

will allow me to continue to grow as an architect with a firm out here.  I

just need to find a place that will be open to my current situation.



I will be doing two classes this semester and two classes next semester and

since I have never taught anything before, I am merely watching and may

lecture on a topic or two throughout the course of each semester.  I forget

how slow things move on a college campus so they are thinking I will not be

fully prepared to teach the class on my own for about three years.  Next

year I should be able to take on a more active role in the instruction, then

by year three, I should be able to teach the class on my own.



So that's it, I'm sitting in class 6 hours a week, and job hunting the rest

of the time.  I'm feeling good and looking forward to whatever happens next.



~C