Yesterday I found out that Reinventionofmama had nominated me for the Sunshine Award. The Sunshine Award is something that spreads across the blogsphere fueled by inspiration. If someone inspires you, puts a smile on your face or is otherwise remarkable, then tag, they’re it. Reinvention nominated me because she thinks that I’m funny. Which is super cool.

Full disclosure: I didn’t set out to be funny. I have, at moments, aspired to be deep, or profound, or even cosmic. I was so ambitious. It was going to be something that the world has never seen before, taking over the world like a zombie virus.

In months, people on the street would look at me and say, “Aren’t you…?” And I’d nod. Fist bump, hat tip, and move on. Such was the depth of the coolness that Chadvs had unleashed. But, I’m not particularly deep, and I’m not profound. But sometimes, if I am being honest about my life, I guess I’m funny. And that makes me glad.

Here are the rules of the Sunshine Award. There are 10 bloggers that need to pay close attention to these, because tag, they’re it.

1) Use the logo above in the post. 2) Link to whoever nominated you. 3) Write ten pieces of information about yourself. 4) Nominate ten fellow bloggers “who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogsphere.” 5) Leave a comment on the nominees’ blogs to tell them of the award.

Okay… so the logo is on the post. Check. I’ve linked to the person who nominated me, the glorious Reinventionofmama. (Did it again.) Below are ten pieces of information about me. Not even my wife knows some of this stuff.

1. I am falling in love with the practice of blogging. The discipline of it, and the feedback that I get, makes me a better writer. For that reason alone it is worth the time that I spend writing and posting and trying to figure this whole thing out.
2. When I was about 19, I went to a journalism conference at Kent State University in Ohio. This was back when computer screens had green letters like the Matrix. The Internet came in the mail, in tan envelopes containing Compuserv disks. It was expensive, slow, and barren. One of our instructors told us that we would have to align ourselves to this new reality. He told us that the newspapers were on the path of the dodo bird, but with new media were were seeing the equivalent of the Klondike gold rush. At that point I stopped listening. I wish I hadn’t.
3. I’m afraid I’m doing it wrong. Everything. My kids, my wife…my life. Adulthood is such a high stakes game, and nothing can prepare you for it. Generations of my family will depend, in part, on whether or not I can get this right. This stresses me the hell out.
4. I talk about weight sometimes, but I secretly want to be stylish. I don’t care about weighing 200-ish. That is just a smoke screen for what I really want. To look good. Like that guy, Richie Havens. You see, it’s too late for me to be young and beautiful, but I have decades left to be old and iconic.

5. 

   This is the late Richie Havens. I want to be him when I grow up.

6. I watch ancient aliens, and I kind of take it seriously. I talked about a sense of wonder, here. Well, I think that most adults still have the gift of suspension of disbelief. We just become expert at keeping it secret. Ancient Aliens is my dirty, crazy secret.
7. Facebook makes me feel like an outcast. I’m terrible at social media. I am horrible at keeping up with my real friends, so the idea of engaging with facebook’s quasi-associates gives me anxiety. I fear I’m going to have to mingle more, if I want Chadvs to grow beyond a hobby.
8. I don’t know my wife. I am not sure I ever will. I’m fascinated by her. She’s bold and fearless in a way that is totally effortless and intuitive. My wife takes risks every day. Look at her! Look at how she dresses. That was out wedding day, but this is sooo her! She is a quiet pioneer, and I’m in a constant state of awe.
9. I want my children to be fearless like her. I want them to be smart and weird and wonderful. Things like Afro-punk give me hope that they will find a safe space to be themselves without fear of judgement. I didn’t have that safe space. But then, neither did my wife, and she’s still a warrior. Maybe a little bit of resistance isn’t such a bad thing.
10. I write science fiction. For a long time, all I wanted was to write sci fi. Now, if I can just feed my children by doing what I love the most, I’ll be happy. But every morning I add a page to story about our first, disastrous contact with alien life.
11. I wish I were more political. I see what’s going on and it shakes me up. I don’t know if things are worse than they ever have been, or if social media has simply flooded us with more information than before, but we live in dangerous and divisive times. But I don’t write about that. I try to be positive, focusing on solutions rather than problems, simply because I couldn’t otherwise maintain my sanity.

Now, if you’re astute, then you may have realized that I included 11 items. If you’re a regular Einstein, then you know that it really was just 10. The Richie Havens picture doesn’t count. I just didn’t feel like fiddling with the outline thingy, to make it right. So, consider it to be a bonus. Anyway, that was number three. Check.

Four. Nominate 10 bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the Blogsphere. Here we go…

formations// living at the intersection of self, social, spirit. I stumbled upon this blog after I wrote a post about Raven Symone’s coming out. She is a white woman who writes about race, which I think is courageous and pretty remarkable. At the time, I was grappling with a lot. She gave me faith that Black folk weren’t the only ones losing sleep over the racial divide.

Soulster Vibes… She lives in Atlanta, like me. And like me, she loves great, soulful music. Music that is off the beaten track. Music that was written by folks who know what love is. Music that celebrates the struggle, rather than just repeating the same pronouns over and over, and over, and over. She’s like a candle in the wind. And for that, I celebrate her.

Aker: Futuristically Ancient: Now, yaw’ll probably don’t know that this Chadvs started out as a blog about the world of Black science fiction. It’s since left that space behind. Why? Because I would rather write science fiction, than write about it. But this blog popped up on my facebook feed and knocked my socks straight off. It is a celebration of all things afro-futuristic, a label that goes way past traditional sci fi, into the arts and activism and music.

The Afrosoul Chronicles. I have two cases of comic books. They are in my mother’s basement, growing mold, but I have them. As quiet as it’s kept, a lot of brothers have them. The man behind the Afrosoul Chronicles highlights comics that are totally different from almost anything that I had when I was young. Almost. Now, I think he’s the writer, too, but I’m not sure. So I’m keeping my mouth shut about that. If he is, I’m jealous.

Conservative Calmversation. Here we go. I don’t think she remembers it, but this woman and I had a facebook frackus last year. I made a comment on a post about another blogger, and she came back with some sharp, pointed words, followed by more words by her closer friends. It wasn’t the thrilla in manila, but it obviously left an impression on me.

The two of us are on the other side of the ideological divide. She’s one of them; a fabled Black conservative. But she is intelligent and all of her posts are well thought out. Even the ones that I don’t agree with.  We desperately need people on both sides of the political aisles. Too many liberals, and the democrats take us for granted while the conservatives ignore us totally. For that reason, I admire where she’s coming from. Even if I don’t always agree with her.

That’s it for today. I have things to do; children to pick up. I’ll post the remaining five tomorrow. Until then, Peace…