was this real life?

Okay, so can we just talk about how there are about four thousand laws included in these Jim Crow Laws that put restrictions on marriage and cohabitation of Caucasian and African American people?  I'm not saying the rest of these laws are unjustified and absolutely ridiculous, but I think laws restricting marriage of people of two different racial groups is obscene.  I don't want to be all lovey and gooey, but the government should not have the right to say which groups of people may live together and which can't.

Who takes the time to think of these laws anyway? "Restaurants: It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other place for the serving of food in the city, at which white and colored people are served in the same room, unless such white and colored persons are effectively separated by a solid partition extending from the floor upward to a distance of seven feet or higher, and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided for each compartment."  Seriously? So if my solid partition is only 6 feet tall, I am breaking the law? And would black and white people walking through the same door really hurt anyone?  Maybe because I do not live in the same time period, I can not see the reasoning behind a lot of these laws, but they honestly just seem crazy, ridiculous, and unnecessary to me.

These laws include everything from child custody to circuses.  Separate but equal seems like such a primitive idea to me.  It's almost as if they were pretending to give African Americans rights, but did so in a way in which they would still be inferior.  These laws are all cleverly designed to keep whites and blacks separated so that progress would not be possible between the two groups.

My journalism teacher, Mr. Motes was actually just talking about Brown v. Board of Education the other day.  Brown v. Board of Education resulted in the desegregation of schools, which meant that all of the schools openly welcomed black students, right? Wrong.  Mr. Motes lived in Virginia at the time and said that when the decision was made to make the schools equally available to both black and white students, the board of education as well as teachers, walked out and formed their own private schools.  They made these schools almost impossible for black students to get into and for a long time, there were no public schools for seven years in Motes' hometown.  I think hearing that story gave me an idea of just how unwilling so many people were to have the United States desegregated.

I am almost ashamed when I look back at these laws and how our country was run regarding these issues.  The worst part is, this wasn't even that long ago.  I feel like this is such a primitive topic and that these disputes and even the Jim Crow Laws should have taken place hundreds of years ago.

"Woah, dude, that's crazy!"

"i have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany."

How these authors are able to portray such detailed, unique experiences in such a small amount of words is amazing to me.  I feel as though I have to type a thousand sentences to get my point across sometimes, and for them, it seems so easy.  I have to remember that these professional writers started out in the same place that I did, learning the abc's, so that I do not lose hope.  There are a few pieces in the packet of readings we were assigned that really caught my attention and made me want to read more.  Maurice Sendak's piece about how he began writing was really easy to relate to for me.

Sendak describes the illustrations and stories he wrote as a child, and as he does this, it makes me think of the dozens of handcrafted books I still have packed in a box in my closet.  I think this essay made the biggest impact out of all of them because of a couple really powerful sentences.  Sendak says, "So, it seems that as a small boy, I pasted and clipped my bits of books together and hoped only for a life that would permit me to earn my bread by pasting and clipping more bits of books.  And here I am, all grown-up, at least physically, and still in the same old business."  These two sentences really hit me in a way that writing usually doesn't.  I don't want to sound all cheesy and say something along the lines of, "this inspired me to believe I can actually accomplish something with my writing," but that is exactly how it made me feel.

I was also able to really relate to Sendak's love for books themselves.  He spoke about the pages, the smell, and texture.  I am the kind of person who walks around Barnes & Noble just so I can smell new books... which sounds creepy, but who cares? This reminds me of the Anchorman quote, "I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany."  I have been in love with books since the minute I learned to read.  This might account for my lack of a really great social life... but hey, at least I have my books.  Just kidding, kind of.  Part of the reason I really appreciated Sendak's love for books themselves is because this whole business about online books, Kindles, and iPad libraries drives me bonkers.  I need to flip the pages of a book.  I like marking my place in the story with a bookmark to see my progress.  I love that feeling of reaching the back cover of a book and knowing it is time to jump in the car and go buy the sequel to whatever I'm reading at the time.  People say books, newspapers, and magazines are dying and that everything being online is great.  Call me old fashioned, but I would rather "have many leather-bound books" than stare at my laptop screen all day.

Why I Write

I have never really stopped to think about why I write, I have always just kind of done it. I used to write because it was required of me, but now it is less of a chore and more of a source of enjoyment and release. For my birthday, I don't ask for clothes or shoes. I ask for notebooks and shiny, new pens. I write because I love to read and to be able to have material to read, someone must write. For me, writing is a way for me to release all of the thoughts playing in loops in my head. I write because I always have, but more importantly, I write because I love to.

Bob's First Blog.

I failed miserably to come up with a clever name for my blog. So, Bob the Blog it is. I have never done this sort of thing before, but I think that with time, I might actually grow to really like it.  I can't compete with Quinn's expertise blogging skills, although I can try to stay in a close 2nd... or 3rd.