Women's History Month and Fostering Passion

March 08, 2017 by Soul On Ice

The month of March marks Women’s History Month and today, March 8th, is International Women’s Day. The month is celebrated in a variety of ways all around the country. Some people engage in organized group activities while others use it as a time to shine the spotlight on the women who have made priceless and invaluable contributions to the world. One of the aspects about Women’s History Month is that women have done, and continue to do, so many wonderful things and contribute so much to the world that people can observe the month in ways that are unique to their personal experience.

Summer of '16 and confronting monotony

August 01, 2016 by Soul On Ice

Monotony (def) – wearisome uniformity or lack of variety, as in occupation or scenery (1).

For some, the summer of 2016 has been eventful in a number of positive ways. Traveling domestic and abroad, seeing familiar faces, getting acquainted with new ones and taking in new sights provide people with new experiences and additional perspective. For others, it has been not so good with destruction, loss, and grief permeating the atmosphere.

The theme of summer 16, on this end, is business as usual. On one hand, business as usual is cool. Prepare the same, execute the same, then do it again the next day. On the other hand, it has brought a level of repetition that borders on becoming a chore for the exact same reasons that business as usual is cool. The same reasons why the summer of 16 is cool are the same reasons why the summer of 16 is boring as hell. Trying to keep a routine, while incorporating activities to bring some life to the routine and keep days from becoming mundane, is the new challenge.

4:38 A.M.

May 30, 2016 by Soul On Ice

Late nights are not something that are a regular indulgence anymore. There was a time when staying up until 3, 4, 5 in the morning was the wave, was the move, and was the thing to do. Those days lessened once being a grown-up and having to wake up early became a part of the equation. However, there are moments, like the time this is being written, when staying up late is the way to go.

Book Review: How Starbucks saved my life

April 18, 2016 by Soul On Ice in Book Reviews

There is a particular aspect of writing in a book that is deeply admired and wholly appreciated anytime a book comes to the house (more often than not) from Amazon with the blessing of Prime shipping: storytelling with the limited use of first-person. Writing and storytelling aren’t the same thing. Writing has to have a certain level of objectivity while storytelling really doesn’t. There’s a place for both of them in the world of literature, but as more books get read, more emphasis is being put on writers who can tell great stories without littering the pages in the first-person.

It seems picky, and it kinda is, and it’s not something that is even noticeable unless you’re a book snob or a writing snob, but whatever. This rationale was adopted thanks to the great Myles Brown. Myles said something once about how much smoother writing is when the first person isn’t bastardized all over the pages, and he is absolutely correct. Hell, writing a dissertation less than a year ago should’ve been enough proof of that because the use of first-person is absolutely prohibited in that style of writing. Anyways, autobiographies have a steady place on any bookshelf at work or at home, simply because it takes courage to tell your own story which is the case of How Starbucks Saved My Life, a book written by Michael Gates Gill.