guess who's back

As I open up this page, scroll through the website and acclimate myself all over again, I realize we may need to change the name of the website.  It appears we actually left for awhile, clearly  I have.  It’s been over two years since I last touched base and engaged your mind.  That’s a pretty long time, given the fact that my mind is always racing.  In support of those who been rocking with us, waiting on a consistent flow we’ve heard you.  I’m sure we lost a few readers along the lines and apologies are in order.  It’s like starting all over again, I don’t know where to begin, what to speak on, or how deep I want to go.   Both Handy and I, fell off tremendously but I remain humbled by those that still ask when will I post again.  With that said, sticking true to our name allow me to sneak back in like I never left.

When you leave something for a long time and return to it,  certain things happen.  Memories comeback, while some are good, some are bad depending  on the life experiences.  There are two major things you tend to think;   Read the rest of this entry »


Wow world it has been over two years since my last blog, it’s amazing how time flies!!! Well first and foremost, I want to apologize for the hiatus and tell everyone that I will give the most effort humanly possible to keep blogging on a consistent basis. I understand that sometimes life takes a hold of us and we caught up in the daily grind, but that is never an excuse. Effort is something that does not cost anything but time and energy, and I truely appreciate having this blog as an outlet to express my ideas, concerns, thoughts and feelings to the masses. So with that being said, whats new with your boy Handy???

As some of you may know me personally and for those who don’t, over the last couple of years, I have gotten married to my lovely wife Thelma (that’s such an old name haha) and we are expecting our first son in November!! I really wanted to have a daughter, but God wanted different for me so I’m not upset. My oldest son Isaiah was valedictorian of his 5th grade class and is now ready to tackle the new beast called “middle school”. Me and my wife are moving out of our home of the last six years into somewhere bigger because of the oncoming baby. Also, my “blogger in crime” Puff has a one year old daughter! Don’t tell him I told y’all it’s a secret, SShhh!!! As you can see, this is just some of the changes for us over the last couple of years. It has been a time full of surprises to say the least. Read the rest of this entry »

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As February comes and goes, all type of black quotes will cross your eyes.  One that recently stood out was from a lady by the name of Harriett Tubman “I freed a thousand slaves, I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”  An interesting statement that really bought forth the concept of this post.   I began wondering just how effective could she have been if everybody realized the zoo they were en-caged in during that time.  The question and title came to my mind who was worst? Fast forward to 2015 I see the concept sadly still exists.  As I look around there are quite a few happy slaves that see no problem with captivity. 

The happy slave, the biggest wild card in any arena.  See the happy slave has no alliance to the their ownself, the cause or the master. The personality  of the happy slave is hard to determine at first but I’m sure we all know or have experienced  this kind of person that I am referring to.

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LIKES, Camera, Action

Posted: January 5, 2015 by Puff in Life
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Finally hit triple digits likes,  multiple comments,  the feeling of pure ecstasy is all over me.  After several trials of getting the ‘right’ picture I get to feel my reward of getting my picture liked.  For that moment I’m on top of the world,  everybody saw the moment I was in got to experience my greatness.  What now?  Sit back and find the next post that will get me even more likes,  no need to disappoint now.

Taking pictures has become more than just a capture in the moment but to many it has become a way of life.  With the multiple facets of social media constantly growing we look forward to posting things for somebody else to see.  In that moment it’s simple though, why not feel like a celebrity as I show off my picture. 

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3 imageFinally I have returned to BLWN, and clearly I took more than a hiatus. For that I apologize, I don’t realize how many people the lack of our writings effect. As I navigate through my daily movements and get away from the website, I manage to come across somebody asking ‘when is our next post?’ ‘when should I expect something?’ ‘is anything in the works?’ and reluctantly I reply something is on deck. Which in actuality is the truth, my mind is always racing and I have plenty of posts I just don’t sit down and write them. For those people who keep me on my toes thank you kindly. A lot of persistent people our there challenging me and staying on the look for something new. With that said July is a long time many topics were missed and left untouched by the duo here at BLWN. I’m working on writing to everyone more often. If you’re still following we are still here. 2015 will embark on our third year of having the website up and we have had great feedback. Unfortunately we have not put the required effort to keep everyone entertained. Looking forward I will aggressively work on getting back to everyone more expeditiously. Three being the third year is for me. Taking a walk through my thoughts, experiences and understandings is my plan for the website this year. As a duo our lives are constantly changing and our views on the world expanding. With that said I look forward to the new challenges life has to offer. It’s entirely too many things going on that I have not touched on.

Three years is a long time, many changes have occurred during that time. Read the rest of this entry »

August-11-2010-Selling-Your-Soul-Soul-for-Sale

What’s going on good people, guess who’s back!!  It appears we took an extended amount of time off and trust we’ve been catching all the flack.   I, personally, have let a few amazing topics slide out of my grips.  Of course, I want to thank everyone who continued to press me and ask for more.  I also appreciate the people who have been on the site, tell others about the site, and refer back. That means we’re really saying something worth reading.  Don’t stop challenging us here at BLWNL.com we need that.   With that being said, I stumbled across some motivation recently listening to the new Slaughterhouse mixtape.  Slaughterhouse is a rap group formed of four members from different areas across the country, the most recognizable name being Joe Budden.  He has a song entitled “Trade It All”, which really caught my attention and got me back in the labs again.   It’s crazy how a small spark can start a full fire.

The  verse goes,
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What Happened to the Real?

Posted: April 2, 2014 by Handy in Uncategorized

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Good day world, it’s your man Handy, one half of the BLWNL crew back at it with another blog. I hope everyone that blesses their eyes on our blogs are in good spirits and everything is well in your life. Now that we got the formalities out of the way, let’s start getting to the topic at hand: What Happened to the ReaL?

I was actually going to blog about another topic, but recent current events made this topic jump o the forefront of my mind. So let’s talk about it shall we?

So I have an IPhone and on it is an application called GroupMe. Shout out to the folks who created this app that should also be known as AIM 2.0. Pretty much its just a group messaging application. But the beauty of it is it crosses the boundaries of phones. Whether a Galaxy, IPhone or Blackberry. As long as your phone is a smartphone you can use the application. This allows you to keep in contact with multiple people that may not be in your area. This instant messaging also allows you to talk to multiple people at once in a group chat. You can also direct message specific people in the group without the whole group seeing. Plus you can post pics in the group chat. Its actually a great idea. Im giving you this info to give you a picture of the scenario.

Now imagine if you have a person who has a gf/bf, fiancé/fiancée, or wife/husband. You would expect themselves to govern themselves accordingly. Especially if they are involved in a groupme chat with single people. What they do and say within the group isn’t necessarily what that person can or will do. Now imagine if that same person thats involved carry themselves as if they are single also. The trouble they can eventually get themselves in could be catastrophic. Especially if there are people within the group that may know their significant other. Anyway that’s not really what this blog is about, just painting a scenario for y’all.

What happened to the real? I see a lot of fakes and phonies in my daily basis, especially with men. I mean there are a lot of fake woman, but I believe that is a direct correlation with the fake men they deal with on a regular basis. Men out here living whole double lives like it’s cool and it’s not. You can’t be engaged today and trying to hit everything moving out here. You can’t have a wife and kids at home and turn around and tell your side chick to have an abortion because you not ready for kids. You can’t say your single knowing you live with your significant other. Men lie, woman lie, everybody lies but it’s getting ridiculous now. Dudes out here lying to women that arent their girls about things they dont have to lie about. What part of the game is this??!!

When I was growing up, I was taught as a very young man, all you had was your word if nothing else at all. Somewhere in the recent years, that has gotten lost with our black men. And it has affected the way black women interact with us. My co-blogger and I always discuss how woman act towards men based off their previous experiences and even though we don’t agree, we now understand the fairness woman display towards men.

I’ve had many of my female friends joke, “He prob got a wife, 3 kids and a dog at home talking about he single” Back in the day this wouldn’t even be taken seriously. Nowadays you gotta do research because it might be true. People wonder why marriages are failing at an epic rate and I relate that directly to not being real. Whether that’s who you truely are as a person or what’s your status as a person, either way just keep it real. I come from an era where if someone questioned your realness, someone might end up dying real rap. I know a couple of people in prison today because they kept it real. Now you call someone out on their fakeness and they brush it off like it’s nothing.

Hopefully if you are a person who performs these actions on a daily basis and reading this, please reconsider your actions. It cost nothing to be honest and keep it real, but it could cost you everything to be a fake, phonie and liar. Please stop making it hard out on these streets for a real man like myself. Until next time world be blessed and be great, I’m out.

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Hey what’s going on good people, it’s one half of the crew returning. I was told to step my post game up since I stay away too long. Realized I do need to get on my grind for you guys. With that said, let me get on it. As always I was having an interesting conversation with peers. The topic of choice was about cultural dynamics and the togetherness noted throughout different communities. The conversation progressed into several subtopics and the hierarchy found throughout different cultures. Based on the title of this piece I am sure everyone is wondering where I am going with this whole concept. Of course my wheels were spinning again causing me to come on BLWNL.com and talk my talk. Walk with me for a minute as I travel this path.

Given that I am an African-American male in my late 20’s I tend to view life as it relates to me first. Then I try to see life from a different perspective and combine the two ideals. As previously stated the conversation was about different cultures and I became so intrigued and disappointed at the same time. The concept of strengthening a community from within appeals to me as a community driven person. As I sat down and viewed other cultures, ultimately I had to compare my own. The black community or African American community is that of which I have always identified, so I speak from what I know. The Jewish and Asian cultures are two of which I believe are structurally intact. They come in, set up shop, profit, bring family in, move on to the next situation. The Jewish as well as the Asian also assist others that may not be family. Meaning if they identify with you they attempt to help you succeed in some form or fashion. I respect that 100%, something unfortunately I feel the African American community has gotten away from.

Naturally everyone has heard the cliché of “crabs in a barrel” but what does it really mean. For those of you whom have been living under a rock all of your life, picture this concept. Read the rest of this entry »

Good world, what’s going on? This is your man Handy back on it with another blog for the masses. Black History Month for 2014 have not necessarily been the best for me, but there is always March around the corner haha!!! But let’s end off the month right by making sure we hit a Black History topic all of us can relate. Nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga!!! My nigga, your nigga, everyone a nigga!!! (In my Katt Williams voice) Say it with me one time!!!!! Let me take time to all my NIGGAS in the world.

Sounds like I’m out of control right now. Sounds like I am trying to offend some people right? Being a black man in America, do you now give me a pass? Is it now okay for me to just throw the word everywhere and anywhere. If I were a middle aged white man, would you be outraged and angered? Would you want my blog taken down from the Internet? If I were a young Spanish woman, would you be confused on how to feel? Would you be indifferent about me using the word? These are all different questions that we as a society ask ourselves when referencing the use of the N word.
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stuck in a box

 

Growing up you’re bred to work.  Many of us have dreams of the types of jobs we would love to work.   However, as we matriculate through life sometimes we fall short from our dream job.   Other times our dream job may not be a stable money making profession leaving us stuck in the pursuit of something more financially pleasing.   Given the fact that life is expensive,  every one understands.   The thing that we tend to lose is what we want to do verses what we need to do.   I was listening to a Kanye interview he was giving with Ricky Smiley last month that really caught my attention.  Those that know me know that Kanye is one of my favorite artists out right now, so I really locked on his conversation.  He mentioned the concept of not being put in a box, which spoke volumes to me.   I tend to draw motivation from various avenues, often times from the rap world.  With that said, Kanye mentioned in his statement that he was more than a just a rapper.   As I heard those words I instantly understood and knew exactly what he meant.   In my understanding of his ( Kanye’s) interview, my gears got to grinding again.   This time I decided to return to BLWNL to share thoughts with everybody.

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