It’s 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14th, and I’ve only recently gotten up. I was working really late on my website, genxchronicle.com. I wrote a story about the unique nature of hip hop videos and the women in them, and I wrote a story about the cultural significance of Chris Brown’s multi platinum hit song “These Hoes Ain’t Loyal.”
I spent the rest of the day doing some work emails, watching CNN and reading the New York Times. At around eleven p.m. I thought I was done for the night, so I started getting into chill mode and I popped on some hip hop videos on YouTube. There’s one I’ve really been grooving to lately by Cardi B. called “Bodak Yellow.”
She’s fairly new on the scene, but she’s become really popular in the past couple years. She’s from the Bronx, NYC, my hometown, and she’s Trinidadian-Dominican. But most importantly for my purposes, she’s beautiful, so I just like to watch her in videos.
So I watch her video, which takes place in Egypt, and it’s really cool. She’s wearing a full-length green Muslim dress with a hijab, and there’s a Tiger, and there are sheikhs, and they’re in the desert, and it’s all just so glamorous.
Now I’m single, but I dated a Dominican woman from the Bronx once, and she was incredible. Cardi B. reminds me of her in some ways, just in terms of her spunkiness and confidence and joy at life. So I’m ready to marry Cardi B. and move to wherever she wants. We’ll make babies and have a happy life together. She can rap and make videos, and I’ll write books, short stories, and blog posts. We’ll be happy.
The only thing is, she’s 25 and I’m 43, so it’s a bit of a reach on my part. I mean apart from the fact that she’s a mega superstar and probably wouldn’t give me the time of day, there’s also the fact that we just might not have that much in common, being from different generations and all. But she is hot, so I’m willing to give it a try.
Next I watch a video by the rapper T.I. It’s called “Whatever You Like.” In the video, T.I. goes into a fast food joint and orders food from a hot cashier girl, and when she gives the food to him he slips her his number.
The rest of the video shows their glamorous life together at his mansion, and in his private plane, and them living the good life together. At the end there’s a twist though. It’s revealed that she was just daydreaming, and in fact what he gave her was a $100 bill, not a note with his number on it. Which is nice, but certainly not the life-changing piece of paper she was envisioning.
It’s a cool video, and I like the melodic drum pattern and synthesizers a lot. When the video ends I consider putting on a new video, but I’m getting a little tired of hip hop right now.
I start to think about genxchronicle.com, and if there’s anything I should write about today in the news. Of course, there most definitely is the Cabinet shake up in the Trump Administration, with Rex Tillerson fired via tweet, and Mike Pompeo from the CIA replacing him, and Gina Haspel, the deputy CIA director, replacing Pompeo. Trump also fired an aide who contradicted the White House’s account of the timing of the events leading up to Tillerson’s firing.
So there’s a lot going on. But I just don’t feel ready to tackle it, because I’m so incredibly OD’d on Trump, and the crazy comings and goings of his administration, not to mention his retrograde policies.
I decide instead to write a lighter piece, and just then I notice it’s 11:11 p.m. I’ve been noticing 11:11 a lot lately, mostly at night, so I decide to delve deeper. Some googling reveals that there are many theories about its significance, from a window opening in one’s life to the stars and universe being in alignment.
So I write about it. I lay out the various theories, and I say that I hope the window idea is true. Because that means that genxchronicle.com will take off, and the children’s books I released on Amazon Kindle about life with my adopted cat Copper will hit it big, and I’ll find an agent for my memoir about my life and the cool places I’ve lived and worked, from Japan and Indonesia to the United Nations and the South Korean government.
I post the story around midnight, and I immediately try and re-enter chill mode. But something is nagging at me. Because I debuted a new feature recently on genxchronicle.com called Today in Trump Land. It’s supposed to be a periodic roundup of the comings and goings of the Trump Administration. So can I really let all this news about Trump go by without commenting? Maybe I should just suck it up and write about it, despite my weariness about the cheesy soap opera that is the Trump administration.
The other thing is, the coverage of Tillerson’s firing has really riled me up. Because most of the major media, from The New York Times to The Washington Post to The New Yorker, have painted Tillerson as something of a dove, a peacemaker, and a moderating influence on Trump.
I find that to be complete and utter BS. Tillerson worked at ExxonMobil for decades and rose to CEO. He also coddled up to dictators from Nigeria to Venezuela to Putin himself in Russia during his time at Exxon. Plus, global warming is out of control, and Tillerson was selling the fossil fuels that cause it on a massive scale. And if that’s not enough, Rex Wayne Tillerson from Wichita Falls, Texas, is worth at least $300 million. So does he really care about peace, human rights, social progress or the environment? His record says no, and I say no too.
So I finally just let it rip and wrote a story about all the hirings and firings in Trump Land, and I especially wrote about Tillerson and the bad man that he is. I also said I hoped he had many more bad things coming to him on top of his firing, because he so richly deserved to suffer.
I published the story on genxchronicle.com around 2:30 a.m., promoted it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and then I just kicked back. I felt an incredible sense of relief and accomplishment. Because despite how tired I was, and how sick of Trump stories I was, I just couldn’t let this one go, and I couldn’t let the flattering portrait of Tillerson in the media go uncontested.
So I did it, I got it out, and bang! It was in cyberspace for all to see.
I spent the next couple hours unwinding and watching more hip hop videos. I watched some old clips of Dave Chappelle on YouTube too. Man he was funny even way back when he was young.
I finally called it a night around 6 a.m. I was tired, but I was happy, because I hadn’t stayed silent. I had published two stories, a light human interest piece about 11:11, and a heavier essay weighing in on the politics of the day.
I woke up around 2 p.m. the next day feeling slightly hung over from the celebratory whiskeys I’d had after publishing my stories, but also feeling good that I had gotten them out. I checked for texts first. There was one from my mother, and one from a friend. Nothing important though.
Next I checked email, and bang! There it was! About two months ago I had sent out a mass email to a lot of my connections on LinkedIn, telling them about genxchronicle.com and letting them know I was seeking investors and partners.
Lo and behold, there was a message on LinkedIn from a connection who works at a major media company. She apologized for the late response, told me she found my website “inspiring,” and said she might be interested in becoming an investor or partner.
Wow! I was stoked. This was incredible. Because I’ve been working really hard on the site for a long time now, and I worked really hard on the children’s books, and I’m working really hard on the memoir. What I need now more than anything is capital to fund my work. And here was this angel appearing in my LinkedIn messages with an offer of potential help.
I lay back in bed, thought about what she said, and considered the possibilities for the future. All in all, I was in a good place. The previous night had been a success. I had published two posts and said what I needed to say. Now here was this woman appearing as a potential investor. Could the tables finally be turning?
I can’t say for sure what will happen, but I feel a renewed sense of confidence. I started wondering about my first story from last night, about 11:11. Did the fact that I was noticing 11:11 all the time now mean a window really was opening in my life, and particularly in my career?
Who knows. All I can say is, I like the idea a lot, and I hope I continue to see that time each evening in perfect clarity.
Because that would mean it really is my time.
