Dear CC supporters and lurkers

Dear CC supporters and lurkers, due to circumstances perhaps foreseen but nonetheless traumatic, we are experiencing a hiccup in the system. Immediate life changes are forcing us to take a step back and regroup for a minute. We are not leaving, we just need a moment to get it together. Stay tuned, as the cube never stops turning, and time never stops ticking. We’ll be back soon!! Keep our cube recovery in your prayers.

Clearance Electronics

A great and wonderous philosophress once said “sometimes you just have to throw your electronics away and buy quality instead of the clearance rack, no more open box purchases for me, I learned that from my laptop.”

This philosophress and superbad spoken word artist was referring to her job situation after reflecting on what kind of day it was going to be at the office. She followed her lament with the following statement: “I am just going to throw this job away and shop around more than I did for this one, instead of what seemed like a “good deal’”.

And I agree and concur. Jobs, like people, are either here for a reason, season, or lifetime. Things go to shit when our needs outgrow our jobs and we try to extend the relationship with the job. A job we kind of fell into may become the “dream job”, it may be the job that opens the door for other opportunities, or it may just be around to pay your bills while you get your shit together. It is up to us, not the job, to decide when its time to move on or to stay. You can’t make a job you copped from the clearance shelf be the super robust career you’ve always dreamed about. Just like that open box computer the philosopher got, I’m pretty sure it met her needs at the time. It was a computer and she HAD to blog, but sista shoulda known, I mean the philosophress soon learned that running Photoshop and Dreamweaver on a Microsoft Word only pc wasn’t going to work for long*. Thus the death of the open box laptop. Thus the death of the one stop shop job, which was never meant to be a career. Thus is born incentive like a mf to make something else, something better work, with a splash of a crappy economy to bring the hustler out in ya.

My philosophress friend and coblogger is on to something with her metaphor. She aint the only one that needs to shop around, I do too. Yes the economy is in the crapper, but truth be told, being in a shady situation isn’t anything new to colored folks. We’ve dealt with worse, and yet still we stand. I’m no longer going to let the fearmongers dictate my every reaction to their propaganda**. I am a survivor, we are survivors, and we will be alright, like we always are.

*clearance rack Macs are still 110% better than a pc on its good day, booyah!
**this statement may seem hella random, but to those code crackers out there, you know exactly what I’m talking about and why I chose to put it in code to begin with.

6 Little Known Facts About Cubicle Crusaders

I was tagged by Miss Jia over at missjia.com to write 6 Fun Facts aboust myself, but I thought it would be more fun to do fun facts about myself and Tiha... here goes, in IM form of course :)


Alise (11:50 AM): Cubicle Crusader fun fact #1: Alise & Tiha have been IM BFF's for over 6 years, and even when we lived in walking distance from each other we still IM'ed more than we saw or called each other.
T 2U (11:50 AM): this is very true
Alise (11:51 AM): worked out nicely bc i am soooooooooooo not a phone person
Alise (11:51 AM): i hate talking on the phone
T 2U (11:52 AM): fun fact #2, we went to school together
Alise (11:52 AM): yup yup, but add that we never talked to each other
Alise (11:52 AM): lol
Alise (11:52 AM): you were scary, lol
T 2U (11:55 AM): ha!
T 2U (11:55 AM): lol
Alise (11:56 AM): #3: Cubicle Crusaders was started by accident bc of the daily work bitch sessions and a collaboration poem about Wolves in business casual attire
T 2U (11:57 AM): yes!
T 2U (11:57 AM): a happy accident
Alise (12:02 PM): yea 3 down
T 2U (12:14 PM): do we have any more fun facts?
T 2U (12:14 PM): lol
T 2U (12:14 PM): i think we've told them everything else
Alise (12:14 PM): ok!
Alise (12:15 PM): Fun Fact #4: Tiha is Alise's biggest fan. We used to go to a poetry open mic every Wednesday and Tiha would always give me a standing ovation and then we would ignore all the other performers the rest of the night.
Alise (12:15 PM): lol
T 2U (12:16 PM): LOL! so true
T 2U (12:16 PM): we sure would
Alise (12:16 PM): except for Marc marcel, lol
T 2U (12:16 PM): of course
Alise (12:16 PM): that day we were mesmerized
Alise (12:17 PM): i may post this up today if we think of 2 more
T 2U (12:17 PM): ok hmmm
T 2U (12:18 PM): #5 we watch cartoons
T 2U (12:18 PM): like religiously
T 2U (12:18 PM): adult swim
Alise (12:19 PM): yes!
Alise (12:19 PM): one more
Alise (12:20 PM): #6 I harrassed you the whole time you were in NC to go natural, and soon as you moved you did it
T 2U (12:20 PM): i had to get away from an ex who had the same do
T 2U (12:20 PM): lol
T 2U (12:20 PM): dang this is hard
T 2U (12:21 PM): fun facts, hmmmm
Alise (12:21 PM): we only needed 6
Alise (12:21 PM): we got em
T 2U (12:21 PM): oh ok

Packing it up

Reaching up on the shelf, the one right near my easy chair, I grab a bottle, then look at the one next to it and grab that one too. I look at all of the bottles on the shelf, yes they all have to go too. I place the bottles in a box, wrap them in newspaper. I close the box and label it “TOXIC”. I called the biohazard people the other day and they’ll be around to pick it up tomorrow.

As black people in America, we’ve (yes I’m speaking for a bunch of us) had a whole lot of reasons for why we’ve been unable to achieve. We’ve had a lot of excuses too. We’ve had bitterness, we’ve had apprehension, we’ve been discouraged, oppressed, repressed, mis-educated, frustrated, castrated, alienated, and slept on.

Well today is a new day, and to paraphrase a famous comedian; what are we going to do now that we are the man? What can you do? What excuse do we have left? None really, if we ever really did. So its time people, time to pack up them bottles of excuses as to why we cant achieve and send it to the toxic waste site.

I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about the reasons that have been out of our control that keep us back, RACISM is real. This is understood, like a geometric equation, it’s a given. So I aint talking about those.

I’m talking about the penny anny excuses some of us give as to why we cant achieve, life is hard, but it is doable, like a $2 hoe.

Pack up those self impeding excuses, and try to work out solutions for the reasons, and BE THE CHANGE.

this has been a public service announcement from your inspirational moody gremlin, stay tuned for tomorrow’s edition: unpacking the goodies, tapping into the positive resource well to help rebuild and be the change. we getting our hands dirty now.

"The Wire" Fridays: The Main Event

vs.

In this corner weighing in at an undisclosed weight is the Side Eye of Death & Cubicle Heavyweight Champion of the World: Naturalllllllllllllllllllly Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiise....

In the other corner weighing in at a buck 0-5 wet is the Mr. Burns Lookalike Operations Manageerrrrrrrrrrr....

Let's get ready to rumbbbbbbbbbbbbllllllllllllllle.....




Alise : Morning
Alise : Girl, I wrote a bog last night, and my laptop ran out of power and i lost it
Alise :
Alise : it was good too
Alise : oh well back to the drawing board
T 2U :awwwww
T 2U :just got out of a waste of my time meeting
Alise : booooooooo
T 2U: par for the course
Alise : yup
T 2U : i just realized something
T 2U : my boss is sexist
T 2U : when my male coworker gets to venting he just listens and is calm
T 2U : when my boss pisses me off and asks how i really feel, he gets indignant and jumps down my throat
T 2U : like an intimidation thing, but i'm not intimidated by him, just disgusted
T 2U : hmmm
T 2U : not gonna let it boggle my mind
Alise : girl my blog was about an incident yesterday
Alise : I go to the production manager for a request of vital information that i need for my account
Alise : been hounding him about it for 2 weeks now
Alise : he pushes back, over something so dumb
Alise : and easy
Alise : so i have to pull my manager into it
Alise : she asks him the same exact question verbatim
Alise : and he might as well have shucked and jived to get her the answer
Alise : I'm like why make it get to that point
Alise : he could have deaded this situation 2 weeks ago
Alise : but now i gotta be a snitch bc you are a dumb ass
Alise : and i made sure he saw the contempt and hatred in my eyes
Alise : i did like Top Model in reverse: I frowned with my eyes
T 2U : lol!
T 2U : i so hate stupid high school personal sh*t like that
T 2U : and he was being an ass because it was you
T 2U : is he a white guy?
Alise : yup
Alise : we go thru this with every little thing
Alise : but yet if he wants something from me he has a fit if i dont jump up right at that second and drop what i'm doing
Alise : f*ck him
Alise : cracka ass cracka
T 2U : do something unexpected him and buy him some donuts
Alise : no, i will not buy young Mr Burns shit
Alise : wit his frail ass
Alise : i'll snap him in two
Alise : snap
Alise : he do need a donut though, and a biscuit
Alise : with extra jelly
T 2U : i mean, can you really continue to be shitty to someone who gives you donuts?
T 2U : or you could snap him in 2
Alise : lol
Alise : he has the worst disposition of any man i have ever met
Alise : he acts like a whiny bitch
Alise : i think he would somehow find fault with the donuts
Alise : and create a lie world around the motives of said dounuts
Alise : he grinds my gears
Alise : oh my bad, he is the Operations Manager, so he's a kinda big shot... i guess
Alise : but he got the same boss as me
T 2U : HA!!!!!
T 2U : so what is his problem with you?
T 2U : he's not your subordinate?
Alise : so when i go get a manager: it is the VP
Alise : we are equals
Alise : we are not in the same dept if that makes sense
Alise : he is over operations, i am over this particular account
Alise : so we are supposed to work hand in hand
Alise : support each other
Alise : [insert side-eye of death]
T 2U : so i dont understand what his problem is
Alise : this convo may be my blog
Alise : minus the cracka ass cracka
T 2U: lol, hehehe leave it in
Alise: ok, lol


Check out the clip following this last IM exchange:

Alise : i am going to put in a The Wire video that has nothing to do with the blog, just bc it has a boxing scene in it
Alise: well i guess that would make it relevant though, duh...
T 2U: yes it would
T 2U: lol

When reality calls

Here is an IM convo between me and Alise about what happened when reality checked my a--, enjoy!

alisenikkole: oh how did u hurt your ankle?
eysqueen: running an errand for work. walking across a courtyard and there was a step down i didn't see
eysqueen: i landed on my ankle
alisenikkole: damn son
eysqueen: not as spry as i used to be
alisenikkole: apparently
eysqueen: lol BUT this is super incentive to lose this extra weight I've been lugging and get to exercising eysqueen: having to lug myself around by upper body strength alone has been a wake up call
eysqueen: ring ring "bitch you big"
eysqueen: is what it said
alisenikkole: LMAO!

Has there been a time when reality called you early in the morning?

We Still Here

*limping to the podium

"You can't keep a good blogger down" says the temporarily crippled blogger from her laptop. 

crippled blogger: My partner is off experiencing history from the front lines, while I'm here experiencing history from my couch because I busted my a-- unceremoniously and sprained my ankle.  My partner has cryptically reported back from the front lines that she is going to have quite a story to tell when she gets back.  Let us all keep her in our prayers as she safely makes her way back to Carolina.

bowing heads

crippled, but healing blogger:  I cannot put into words how I felt watching the Inaug from my soft couch and warm apt today.  I refuse to sound cliche...so I'll just say I was inspired.  Inspired overall for the country and the state of things, but also inspired for myself.  It is no secret the kind of opposition President Obama faced on his way to his dream job, but he didn't let that stop him.  And you know what?  Nothing is going to stop me as well.  I have no excuse, I'm raising my personal standards bar back up to excellence.  The prez, and the lady that I pay to give me advice, have me convinced that the only person holding me back is me!  So here's to another inspirational blog.  I can't wait for my partner in the field to come back and report on what she saw.

yeah Prez!!!!!!!!

"The Wire" Fridays: Trouble in Paradise?

Will Tiha & Alise end up like Stringer & Avon????*

No trouble in paradise..... Tiha had a minor accident and is out of commission for a little bit and I have been uber busy with work and other projects, so we haven't posted since Tuesday. So don't think we fell apart like Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale. In fact, Ms. Tiha was over supporting me over at my personal blog for the kick off of my weekly blog poetry slam, posting new material to her blog, and helping me coordinate something huge for this blog that I will be taking care of this weekend in D.C. (Can't wait to unveil it!!!) So the Cubicle Crusaders are trying to do doing big things. Have a happy Cube Sabbath (Friday), and I'll see you guys when I get back from D.C.!!!!

L to the O

Last week was quite a week at work..... about 13 people were laid off. Now that might seem like a relatively small number considering the large layoffs that have been going on as of late throughout the country. It seems like a small amount, but my company is small, about 120 employees, so that is 10%. Needless to say everyone was walking on eggshells. Normally, around that Peyton Place (drama & gossip) I call work, we get the buzz when things like that are about to happen. Especially me since I am in management. Well, this came out of nowhere. These layoffs actually really made me feel some kinda way. Especially the particualr department they cut, here are a couple of the characters:

The Black Widow: This is what we really called her. She is the only person at work I actually hated. I know hate is a strong word, and that is why I said it. She was so mean, evil, hateful, spiteful, and irritating.... but, she has kids and is a mother, so I felt bad about her losing her job.

The Court Jester: Work will never be the same without this lovable, strange, funny man. He was the funniest most random person I have met since Tiha, Luvvie, & PBG. His entertainment made every day go by a little faster, because he always had a funny story or saying each day. What also sucks for him is he has a part time job, so he might not be able to get unemploment. That blows.

I mentioned them just to say, layoffs, restructuring, and other bullcrap affects everyone. It impacts them, their families, and even the morale and mental health of the people left behind. It also means, Alise has a lot more work and not more pay, and that just sucks. This is short and sweet, but I have to go do ol' bullshit piles of work. hmph........

The getting older fear from experience syndrome.

Today I would like to talk about something I noticed happening to me over the past few years or so. As we hurdle over obstacles in our lives, sometimes when we feel overwhelmed we take the time to take stock of what the heck is slowing us down. Is it our environment or is it us? Then we proceed to make changes. When we take a closer look at those self induced obstacles, we may find a nasty little emotion called “fear”. Now I’ve said time and again that I’m a warrior and I don’t shy from confrontation, especially when I need to confront myself, so this fear thing has really become one hell of an opponent. I’ve found that I have acquired fears from my past experiences.

For example: you may have been driving down a street one day, trying to take a short cut and ended up getting into a car accident. Naturally that street or any similar instances may bring up bad memories, but what if in your attempt to keep this terrible experience from happening again, you just stop taking short cuts in your car altogether. You turn into a main road driver and would rather wait in traffic than get off the main route?

This may be an extreme example, then again it may be right on point. Here is one from my own personal experience.

Eys example: One day, while I was young and spry, I quit my job without having another one lined up. I was in a situation that I just couldn’t tolerate (we already know I have a low threshold for stupidity), so I left, dignity and sanity intact. A few days later I got another job, in my area of expertise (at that time) and never looked back.

This example had a positive ending. However, I always tell myself that I’d never do it again. That it was just a fluke and the stars couldn’t possibly line up for me again like that. At the time I didn’t put that much analysis in it. I just knew that I was in a crappy situation and I needed out. I also knew that I was resilient and that I would bounce back. But now I’m at a point where I should probably be doing the same thing again, that I should be looking out for MY best interests and give a crap about my mental well being a little more.

In both examples, fear of the unknown has been the obstacle keeping them (us) from moving forward. The situations may have been different, but fear and lack of faith are glaringly obvious issues. Should the person in example one be able to get over that accident (with the help of counseling maybe) and not let one incident disrupt the ease at which they move through life? Should Eys have the same kind of faith in herself now as she did back then and make moves like she knows she’s capable of? Even though her(my) example was a positive, why cant she draw from it the strengthening themes to help her move forward? Why is it easier to believe that an accident can happen twice in the same way, than it is to believe in ourselves and our ability to persevere?

munch on that for awhile and holla back, these aren’t rhetorical questions…

Freedom Friday

Somewhere in the world, its Freedom Friday. This means what? Well it could mean anything, today it means that my blog partner is so bogged down with her real job that I’m free to talk about whatever the f- I wanna talk about. A Tiha with no restrictions is a Tiha unleashed upon the world (grinning manically). So I’m going to talk about a quote I just heard on the Warren Ballentine Show.

“We gotta stop looking for saviors and start looking in the mirror.”

This was his response to a caller who complained that Warren and Rev Al and them shoulda been in Oakland. Warren explained that he goes when people call him, he doesn’t just show up, and that the people have to want the change, have to make the change for themselves if he and Rev Al are going to be affective with what they do (whatever that is). Now I have an indifference towards Ballentine and Sharpton and Baisden. I don’t hate them, I don’t love them, I just listen to them sometimes, and when something meaningful hits me, I absorb it. These fellas are real good at getting you riled up, I don’t need that here on the plantation. But anyway back to the quote. I love the quote, its so true. I remember when Obama first started running and all the way up to his nomination hearing all of the discouraging words people were saying about it. About how it wouldn’t make a difference. How it’s not a big deal, yada yada yada. And although people were getting shot every time they said something against brother Obama in my presence, I still understood where they were coming from. No Obama cant do it all, he cant fix it all, he is not our savior, but at the same time, shame on them for thinking that he was. He didn’t run for Savior of the United States of America. He ran for president.

I truly think its time for us all to either start to or continue to be the change we want to see.

Have a Happy and Wonderful Freedom Friday!

Do you know what today is?

anniversary - Tony Toni Tone



Yes, this is our 150th post. We Deed it Mayne! Isn't it exciting! To commemorate this fantabulous, vanglorious day I want to do something a little interactive and fun to get to know you all. Today is the day I want all the lurkers and regular commenters to let me know about yourselves. Tiha is gonna drop a hot 16 bars, and I am going to spit a poem about ourselves. So, in return for these blazing verses I would like you to tell me about yourselves, where you are from and how you found us and anything else you'd like to tell us.

*1,000 bonus cool points if your introduction is in the form of a rap or a poem. (Who doesn't want cool points?)


alise writes:

Seems just like yesterday but all of a sudden it hit me
This blogging adventure done hit one-fifty
Me the Durham, N-C chick with my Yankee partner in crime
A perfect cohort to make this artistic climb
We never had to show any T & A to show we're fly
Only had to be the real Tiha and Alise and knew you 'd comply
So thank you readers for witnessing this journey and please don't stop
We'll never forget y'all when me and the eysqueen make it to the top....


tiha writes (for the lurkers):

peeking through the blinds
what's popping this time?
slinking down the halls
tip toeing trying not to fall
I just wanna see
no need for meet and greet
I just want to hear
just wanna be near
oh no I’ve been spotted
lights shinning bright
oh no there they are
over to my right
“lurkers we see you,
come out and greet
lurkers we see you
here’s the mic
go head and speak…”

"They" Say......

Howdy Cubicle Crusaders, et. al. ! I have been swamped with work. So I know I was supposed to have a tepid hot rhyme for y'all today, but no such luck. BUT, Tiha's post yesterday brought a blog to mind that I wrote on my personal blog that was fitting. I actually wrote this back in October when I first cut off my locs, people were so judgmental and lamenting over the fact I no longer had long hair. Yet, if they really knew me, they would know that I could care less about some long hair or what anyone thinks of my hair. I hope you guys enjoy the piece and the song! (I'll have a lukewarm blazing 16 bars for ya tomorrow! (I promise.)

*originally posted 10/8/08*



*Baldheaded me*

Living my life by other people's rules was like listening to wack ass hip hop (read: radio) when there is so much good music out there that is not neccesarily the most popular, the poem coming up speaks to that, I have had a trying evening dealing with judgmental people telling me what beauty is and what it ain't, what success really means and what it ain't..... le sigh...... but I don't care anymore what "They Say", so I'm good, real good:

You have finally faced the music
Cut through the overproduction,
Pushed through the synthesized keys and unlocked your destiny
Swam against the tide of superflous watered down beats
Escaped the trap of snares...
Came up and breathed in the pure air of lyrics.

Unearthed what lie beneath and between the lines.

Found the treasures of knowledge in each syllable.....

Tiha's comment:

1 comments:

eysqueen said...

bald heads unite!
we too...ecletic to be confined to just one state of mind always trying to find something to call mine to make my own something homegrown too raw to be cut but they want it to be diluted wtf?! just let it be and do what it do and maybe one day they'll write a poem or create a song for you...

Lyricism should be a habit, put this in the air.

Today’s rant is about the lack of lyricism in the rap game. I’m just sick of it. A catchy hook, a Mickey Mouse rhyme does not equate to good lyrical content. Why are good lyrics such an issue with me? I’ll tell you why. I can remember a time when rap music used to be how we communicated to each other our stories and talked about the things that were happening to us, good and bad. NWA let us know how it was going down on the west coast, Wu-Tang let us know the ways of the island world on the east and Bone Thugs represented for the mid west. They gave us an in depth, raw and uncut account of what was really going on in places we would never see, or of places where we lived but had no voice to tell it. Then what happened? The man got to us, that’s what happened. The man had us convinced that the music was about the money, not the message, and the money was all too important. I mean how else would we be able to get out of the ghetto and take care of our families, we had to sell out, we had to do it for the money. Yeah the man and the money= watered down commercialized rap. Also known as Commercialized Crap.

Stunt deez.

So lets make new meanings for old words, because they know how much we like to ebonicize the language. Let’s make a cheesy dance based off of some ole school steps our parents did back in the day and call it new, because they know we sho like to party. Let’s flaunt some rented riches that we don’t own, and can’t keep, because they know we will invest in things of no value, always trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Sarcasm is dripping all over that last paragraph. I know better, you know better, but do the right people know better? I don’t think so. Tomorrow my partner will tell you what real lyrics look like. And maybe we’ll even drop a few bars for those of you who are jonsing for a cipher…..

New Years Res, yes its that time again.

Last year (2008) I’d resolved not to have any resolutions for this year (2009). However, in my effort to maintain my steely resolve not to resolute, I’d indeed made a resolution. So, there goes my f- resolutions post, swirling down the toilet drain.
AND because my blog partner and I had made the better part of 2008 a super charged effort to better ourselves in hopes of a better future, well of course we’d have resolutions for the New Year. I had no way of winning my anti-resolutive (yeah I made that word up) campaign.

So aside from the usual resolutions, lose weight, exercise more, eat healthy, save money, yada yada yada; I believe one of our biggest resolutions this year will be to kick fear, that self imposing monster, right in the throat. We are too young and too beautiful to be hunched over, hunkering down because of fear. Looking like the bastard children of the Hunchback of ND. This year, that week long kickboxing class I took last year is going to prep me for fear ass kicking this year.

What are some of the new and improved resolutions for 2009 out there? any fancy slogans? 2009 kicking behind…2009 is our time….

Greatest book ever!

We usually don't post on the weekends, but a chat with my very good friend about my favorite childhood books sparked this blog topic. My favorite book in the world, and my life guide is......





I had a huge bookcase when I was growing up, I have always been a big book nerd. I think the books I read as a child were probably the most applicable to adult life. Really, when it comes to life, the rules/guidelines are pretty simplistic. We just make things harder than they need to be. Here is a brief description of the book from Wikipedia

In this book, Grover is horrified to learn that there is a monster at the end of the book, and begs the reader not to finish the book, so as to avoid the monster.

Fearful of reaching the end of the book, Grover constructs a series of obstacles, such as attempting to tie pages together and laying brick walls, to prevent the reader from advancing.

Increasingly frightened (and also in awe of the reader's strength at overcoming the obstacles), Grover pleads with the reader to stop reading as the book nears its conclusion.

However, the monster turns out to be Grover himself

Is Alise just being random and weird, what does this have to do with anything at all? Well first off, yes I am random and hella weird, everyone knows that. Secondly this book made a profound statement, that what we are scared of in life is 9 times (plus 1) out of 10 within ourselves, or made up in our own mind. As I mention often, and particularly in my Fear post, is that I need to stop playing the fear card, because it keeps getting cut anyway, so I need to try another suit (I tole y'all life is a big ol' Spades game). And guess what? I have been doing better, I have stepped out to do some things in the past I wouldn't have even tried. I am talking to and networking with people I previously would have been too shy or scared to approach, and it is making a big difference. All that from realizing the monster at the end of the book, was just lil' ol' me (and Grover).