Haitian Kids Forced Into Slavery.

Instead of blogging about my daily life. Today's blog entry is a news article that was on MSNBC.com about children in Haiti who are forced into slavery. These kids who are referred to as "restavek", and are beaten and are treated basically like shit while doing heavy manual labor (cleaning, tending to the crops, and anything else their owners want them to do). This article hits a little bit close to home, being that my parents are from Haiti. Especially being that my Dad is from the poorer areas of Haiti, where as my mother grew up in the capital city. I have included the link to the article, for those that want to read a bit more in depth about what these kids go through.

Article: Kids forced into domestic servitude in Haiti [source: msnbc.com]
[picture source: msnbc.com]

On The Midnight Train To Georgia

Ohhh...what a great unwanted surprise today when I came into work.

On September 9th, 2007, I get the opportunity to travel to Georgia. Am I going up there for fun or pleasure? No, no, no...I have to go up there for some class on how to use a new computer system that we use here at work. Now what probably sucks is that either my manager or myself are going to have to drive (probably in a rental car, since there is no way in hell I'm taking my car up to Georgia) ourselves up there and stay at a hotel. If there is a high point, gas and the hotel fee is covered by my company. It looks like a definite that I will have to make the trip.

well I keep you posted about my trip to Georgia...(maybe).

Singly Dating

The life of a single man...

Not a tough thing by any stretch, if you believe me on that. The only thing tough about being a single guy is when you don't want to be single anymore. When that happens, a single guy will need to go out into the wild and find that woman that you want to date (for a while...maybe). It use to be that, with the right combination of cologne, clothing and tasty breath a guy could stroll (stumble) into their local bar and find a woman who was willing to give out her phone number. However, now that we live in the twenty-first century, everything is digital. So now we pick our potential mates by dating sites (which at times resemble retail catalogs) and ask for emails (or myspace URLs).

After months of refusing to give in to the demands of my friends to join a site...I'd decided to go ahead and sign up for them....well all of them.

My thoughts were that each website offered a different experience, even though each website was about connecting two single people together in hopes that they will be the perfect match for each other.

Match.com: It was an okay website. The one thing that annoyed me about this website was that all the matches never panned out. And don't get me started on the fake profiles that litter the site. I was continuously having to report profiles, because the profiles never added up to what the person wrote or where they were from. Also, (in my opinion) it seem very hard being a single black male on this website. Slim pickings when it came to women who were interested in single black males, especially in this town. Verdict: I've completely deleted my profile and will not rejoin Match.com in the future.

Cupid.com: This website was like dealing with a water-down version of Match.com. Almost all of the same problems I had encountered with Match.com were present with this website. One frustrating thing was the limited amount of single women who matched up to what I was looking for (and that was even after I made my general search broad trying to encompass any woman that came close to it). Another thing that I had noticed were the fake profiles again. Now I've heard rumors of dating sites using fake profiles to entice customers into getting a subscription for these paid dating websites. Usually these fake profiles have a model looking woman, who has bad grammar, and doesn't live anywhere close to you (like in Belgium)...but still wants to go out on a date. Again, I was disappointed with the offering of single women in my area that this site had to offer, but I guess there's no changing that. Verdict: I've completely deleted my profile and will not rejoin Cupid.com in the future.

eHarmony.com: Out of all the dating websites I have tried, using this website was a bit refreshing. Unlike the other websites where I would have to go out and practically hunt down a woman that comes close to what I want to take out on a date. eHarmony.com would have a few matches (some days I was lucky to get one) that in their opinion matched up to what I was looking for. As far as fake profiles go, I had only encountered just one fake profile (compared to the 3-4 fake profiles of the other websites). The only drawback about eHarmony.com is the amount of single who actually take the time to do the whole "Guided Communication process." I've had people that would start out the process and just kind of trail off, where I never hear from them again. Sometimes it does feel like you are filling out questions for the SATs. I have met so far one person from the eHarmony website, the date didn't go as well as I thought it would, but you have to use it as a learning process and move on. Verdict: I enjoy using this website. Just wish more of the matches would respond. Still not getting a whole lot of matches in my city, but that's no surprise. I'll stick with this website for a while longer (maybe another 3-4months).

Well I'll keep posting updates as the quest to get a date continues.

Addiction: Soda

It has been a long long time, since the taste of sweet corn syrup, fructose and all that other stuff past my lips. I had decided that on July 8, 2007 I was going to give up soda for that week. Well that week has now extended to more than a month. And I have to say that I am really proud of myself. I thought soda, was going to be one of those things that would be hard for me to give up. I usually had a soda (diet soda mind you) with every meal and always scoffed at the idea of drinking water. But now that about four weeks have passed by, I cannot get enough of water and have disposed of every last can, bottle of soda that remained in my pantry. Also, I have notice that I have lost more weight (10-lbs pounds worth) after giving up my diet soda in favor of water and juice.

I don't recommend this for everyone. Since everyone needs to find their own path on how healthy they want to live. I am just glad that this is one addiction that I don't have to worry about for a long long time. Not as bad as other "addictions" but an addiction that could of had major health risk for me down the road.

Here is an interesting article that I had read a while ago about the health risk of drinking soda. [Doctors Debate Soft Drink Ties to Heart Disease, Health Risk]