Websites That Reveal and Repel

If I haven't done this before (my memory is asleep and I'm too lazy to check old posts), here are some of things websites do that will have me clicking the the close button in a hurry. I'm not naming names (mostly). You know exactly who you are...

• You blast sound at me as soon as the page loads. Sound from your embedded music player, sound from an ad or, worse yet, sound from something that sounds like porn (and you aren't even a porn site). Notice the YouTube vids on this blog's sidebar. I leave it up to the viewer to decide whether or not they want to share my "Song of the Day" or not. No pressure.
• And if you do force your tattle-tale audio on me, I have to go scrolling all over the place to find it so I can shut that sh*t down. (Well, I use to look for the Mute button. Now I just close out of the site. It's less disturbing to my nerves.) I mean, come on. Forget being at work or some other place where you shouldn't be checking out the sleaze that is mediatakeoutdotcom anyway. What about when you are just sitting up home late at night with a sleeping child, cranky roommate or jumpy pet in the vicinity? I clicked on a shopping site one night and the blast of an ad nearly made my cat climb up the side of my face. STAHP! Just. Stop.
• Your page barely finishes loading up before it's flashing your damn plea for me to "Like" you on Facebook. First, we all know how I (and many other people) detest any and all things FB. Second of all, why would anyone "Like" your page until they have a chance to even see it? If it's not Facebook pimping, it's a beg for me to subscribe - to a newsletter, email list, or whatever. That right there is a turn-off. It really just makes me NOT like you, or want to subscribe to your page, or ever click on another link to your site. EVER. I went to a site once after hearing about their fashion items. It took me two seconds to leave because there was no way to see anything on the site without first joining up. That's so stupid. How about you let me see what you're offering members before asking me to join? That's like letting me meet one person in your clubhouse and making me sign a blood oath to love all the members before I get in the door. Nah. You can miss me with it.
• The sites that post great articles or interesting information need to stop spoon-feeding it out. If I have to click "Next Page" every two paragraphs, I will get annoyed enough to leave. This is really a pain in the butt on those sites with the audio or "Like" begs that come up on every single page that load. At least Cracked Magazine has the option to "view entire article." That's cool because I have a theory that other sites only make you click over so that they can load your brain with more advertising. I'm just saying,
•  If I do get onto your site - with some initial peace and quiet, no membership required - you ruin the game with another peeve: anything that starts madly flashing at me. Reminds me too much of porn sites when I've, um, accidentally landed on them... Obviously,  you had my attention when I came over to view your site, right? All that damn flashing is just going to make my brain go into flee mode and get the hell out of there as fast as I can. Imagine a married man, trying to slink into a titty bar and being greeted with a flashing spotlight -outside the entrance? I don't even want everyone in town to know that I'm walking into Nordstrom.
• I hate the shopping sites that claim to let a user "sort" items by price, when their sorting doesn't actually work. I was looking at fragrances on a favorite site and sorted some items by "prices low to high." I had two things in my Checkout Cart before I noticed similar items at even lower prices. Just to make sure I wasn't screwing up, I went back and re-sorted. Guess what? On this particular site, $37.99 for Oil de Vanille is less expensive than $7.85 for Oil de Vanille. And I thought I was bad with numbers.
• If you are selling products, try to have: a) a decent image of the product, or b) an image of the actual product - not just one "representative" of the product, or c) an image at all. I hate trying to use my browser's Zoom to view something that you want to charge $20, $30 or even $100 for when the image looks like it was taken from space. And I have returned items that looked legit on your site, yet, when delivered, looked like it came from the Dollar Store's clearance bin.

Am I the only one with these peeves? I can't be. We live in a world where a lot of us do everything via website: learn, shop, amuse ourselves, socialize... You'd think any site out there would do all they could to keep viewers coming back.

Peace

--Free

Dumping Burdens

It took getting a good 24 hours into the new year to feel so good, but I do feel good. I made a promise to myself about my life in this year that I will turn 53:

If it's not fun, it should be satisfying.
If it's not satisfying, it should be rewarding.
If it's not rewarding, then to hell with it.

Simple, right? I think so. (FYI: I'm informally copyrighting that right here and right now.)

So, for anyone who may wonder about your status in my life - you're either now out of it or only in it because I want you to be or I can't get rid of you. For those that I can't get out of my life, I sure as hell can limit my exposure to you. If being around you doesn't do anything positive for me, I've got no reason to linger. You may not owe that to me, but I owe it to myself. It's a debt I can gladly pay.

If I don't feel better for being around you - you're out or limited.
If I don't feel respected when I'm around you - go away, or I will.
If your love is selfish or greedy - bye.
If you can't appreciate the sacrifices I make for you, I won't ask you to make anymore for me. And bye.

I have too much to battle out there in the world. I'm not going to let you poison the air my soul needs to breathe to survive that.

It feels so good to put that into words. It's going to be tough to put it into action, but I DID choose the word "strive" for my year. In that pursuit, I'm learning to be healthfully selfish.

Peace
--Free

Real Resolve

I didn't make any New Year resolutions, but I sure as hell hope some of you will. I'm so tired of just a few people wrecking chances for the rest of us to be happier and more content with this beautiful life we've been given. So, if I can be honest, let me suggest a few goals for some folks out there.

• Will you "yummy mummys" please go away with your rubber-band bodies? The media have overloaded the rest of us with your useless wonderfulness.You have a baby and, two weeks later, we see your naked ass all over Instagram and Twitter. I am speaking for the rest of us who are a little fatigued of seeing your 110-pound bodies (where the tits account for 10 of those pounds) all over the news. With the exception of a few ladies (who just happen to have stolen the metabolism I had in my twenties), you gals forget to mention the staff of "Personals" you have helping you make the rest of us hate you: personal trainers, personal chefs, and those folks you hire to keep you away from fattening food the way you hire other folks to keep you away from drugs. Get out of my face.
• You celebrities who like comparing yourself to soldiers and policemen and even (~sigh~) Jesus... Will you stop already? When you can honestly say that you personally rescued someone or laid down your very life for them (without calling the paparazzi to record the event), then I won't hurt myself doing an extreme eye-roll the next time I hear you bragging about making it rain in a strip club. 
• This one is a little random, but touches closer on us "regular" people. Let me ask all the international vacationers to be a little more courteous to the citizens of the land you're guests in. I am so embarrassed when I hear about the way we Americans act away from home. Keep it up and the next time I go somewhere out of the country, I'm not going to correct people who assume Alaska is part of Canada. And for the folks visiting us here in the U.S., please treat us the way you'd want us to treat you. I'm not going to call out any specific people here, but I will just say that being rude does not make you look classy, educated or above the rest of us actual mortals.
• (To the ladies) For those of you who like to whine about the poor quality of men in the world, why not try being a better person yourself. I believe that we attract what we signal for. I'm not saying that there aren't some bad apples out there, but, if you don't talk but scream like a banshee, dress like you just don't give a damn, and act like a skank, well... Don't be surprised when you attract guys who wouldn't be ashamed to have you as their woman. And please stop judging a man by his wallet. If he's got a job, he might only need a good woman to work his way to the "de-lux apartment in the sky-y-y". If you do get a jerk, hope that your friends wonder why you are with him. By the way, there are lots of jerks with great jobs or lots of money. Who the hell wants a jerk? Oh yeah, a skank gold-digger.
• (To the guys) Please start wearing your big boy pants again. If you like a woman, don't wait for her to break the ice. When you break the ice, try to be a gentleman about it. Wolf-whistling and making a comment about a woman's ass is not the way to go. (Well, not most of the time.) And please stop rating women only by the way they look. Haven't you ever been attracted to someone for their smarts, their quirks or sense of humor? Well, you don't "see" all that until you get past the makeup, hairstyle and Victoria's Secret magic. One more thing: before you start looking for Miss Universe, take a good look in the mirror. (That also go for the Plain Janes looking for a Channing Tatum.)
• (To the kids) I'm talking to those of you in your teens - thirteen to nineteen. You are young. Be young. Enjoy it because you're going to miss it when it's gone. Stop trying to be as stupid as some adults who think that being "gangsta" or "hard" is a good thing. Being stupid is not a good thing - for the young or old. Try being smarter and kinder. Shoot for setting trends that will make a positive difference in this world. Get your education. Enjoy the paid-for roof over your head. Talk to - no, listen to, all those "old" people in your life. They are part of your history and you, someday, are going to need to share that with your kids.

Yeah, so...

Maybe the only resolution any of us should make is one that is easy to accomplish: to just be better today than we were yesterday. I can handle that. Can you?

Peace

--Free

Happy 2014!

Here's wishing for us all to have a little more peace and love and laughter. I hope we make new friends, keep our old ones and cherish our families.

I'm sending out love to the people who have enriched my life, touched my heart and healed my body.

Happy New Year to all the writers and bloggers and artists who bless us with their creativity.

Let's all go into this new year with more patience, kindness and honesty. I'm praying for our celebration of the best times and our strength in the difficult times.

Thanks to everyone who visited Being Free to laugh, rant, cry, be sad and be silly with me. Big hugs especially to my buddies on Google Plus.

Here it comes, ready of not...

Peace
--Free

Christmas Past

Someone sparked a wonderful discussion over on G-Plus, asking her circle to share their favorite Christmas memories. (Mine was watching my mother decorate the tree, but I have many favorites.) A few of us replying admitted to getting tearing during the chat.

I have some sadness during the holidays, and not just because I've lost some family and friends. It just feels like there was more of a holiday spirit all through the year.

Remember when we made more time to enjoy our family and friends more often? A lot of us can recall a time when we gathered at somebody's home more often than on holidays. For my family, it was my mother's house. At any time of day, someone was dropping in. During the week, it was after work. Maybe one of the many folks who called my mother "Mom" would have stopped off on their way home. They'd come in "just for a minute" and end up staying to help Mom with something - say, reach something off a high shelf - and then they'd end up helping her finish "picking" greens for dinner. Or she'd have them sit and have coffee with her and watch the news or catch up on their life news.

After work, I'd go in to see my mother and she'd have two people watching TV in the living room, someone bringing up the the laundry from downstairs, and someone stirring whatever was cooking on the stove. By dinnertime, we could have five to ten us us setting us TV trays and fighting over who was going to leave their plate to get rolls out of the oven. My mother would be watching over us, like the contented grand dame she was.

On weekends, with all us siblings (blood- or love-related), our kids, their friends, Mama's friends - whoever we had gathered into our clan - the driveway looked like Walmart's on Black Friday.

There was never a week that passed without some kind of "company" being around my mother's home. I didn't have five siblings and one living parent, I had love flowing from hundreds of people into my life.

Ironically, it was Christmas that gave me time with just blood family. Well, Christmas Eve. The night before Christmas was traditionally a family-only event. Still, if my mother had taken in someone for a while, they were included. And my mother took in people who needed to be taken in. If someone living far from their own family ran into my mother (with 2 military bases here, that happened a lot), they were going to be part of her family if that's what they needed.

This was one Christmas Eve with just some of the kids that year...

Mama is the little dark lady surrounded by just some of her babies." This us the year before she passed away.

Christmas Eve, the kids (little ones and grown ones!) got to open one present. Mama picked the present.  She had the mind of Sherlock when it came to her tree. If any of the kids touched a single ornament, gift or candy cane, she knew.

For me, whatever year this photo is from, it's when I got one of the pearl rings my mother always got me. Not because of the gift, but because of Mama, I haven't had a Christmas so happy since. I think I was about 36 or 37 at the time. It was a Christmas or two before Mama died.

Check out the tree behind me. Every ornament just so!

So, really, Christmas was almost like any other day in Mama's house. Throw in some gifts and a turkey dinner, any day could be Christmas.

I don't think that my family was unique as far as spending time together.

What's happened to us? What happened to making time for each other? Why does it take a designated day for us to put away our computers and briefcases and cellphones and actually relate to each other?

How does the saying go: "Tis the reason for the season"? So why does the season have to be the reason. Why does Christmas have to be the day for family and showing our love and gratitude for each other?

Peace,
--Free

Life in the Age of the Web

So much of our lives are tied to the internet. I didn't send out many Christmas cards this time around - there are online services for that. I really kind of miss getting some cards in the mail that I can hang around my front door for the season.

This is the age of the internet though. Not surprisingly, I'm finding that a lot of my social esteem now comes from my online social circles. If I don't post on Twitter or Google Plus for a few days, I see a major drop in interactions when I return. This also affects my blog because visitor numbers drop into the canyons.

How does this make me feel? So far, it doesn't really affect my personal feelings, but I can see how it could (and still might).

Will I sign onto Twitter or G+ just to keep people interested in me, in what I have to say? Maybe. Will I do it, no matter how insincere my shared thoughts and opinions are? No.

I wonder how it makes other people feel when they experience this social lag. Does it make them realize how thin and passing an online social life can be?

We really need to make sure that we keep a balance in how much time we spend online and off.
Internet acquaintances are alright, but it's our intimate friendships that need to be nurtured most. Go ahead and fall out sick and see which friends are going to be checking up on you first.

This random line of thought brings another to mind: How many people have just disappeared from their online social circles without anyone wondering what happened to them? I've known a few people who went from super-active online to dead silent. Are they dead? Did something happen to take away their need for interacting online? There's really no way to know without turning into a stalker, is there?

I'm a worrier. When I get to "know" someone online - say on Google or Twitter - and they suddenly stop posting or blogging, I think the worst. I don't for one minute imagine that they are just too busy living an offline life to post their every third thought for me to criticize.

We might all need to take regular breaks from our online lives. I do this about once every couple of months. It's an ordeal. You can almost hear the sucking sound as I pry my brain away from the computer. I always have a little bit of "dry out" fever and I will fidget for a couple hours before I can even get anything useful done.

Everything I do offline is cushioned by the internet. If I clean or do laundry, I need my last.fm for music because I no longer own a radio. When I writing, I need Wikipedia or Google because I have no paper encyclopedias, newspapers or dictionary references. I've given my last TV away to a friend, so I have to go online for my shows and movies.

I was talking to a doctor some time back about my Sarc and the problems it causes me. He approved of the "work-arounds" I've fallen back on: different types of listing and note-taking apps. He doesn't like the idea of calculators being used by the general population though. He feels it causes a loss of basic math skills. He's right. I feel almost the same way about our use of the internet.

When did this start happening to us? How far will it erode our skills? Will children one day not know what it is to hold a book in their hands (maybe with a flashlight under their bed-covers because they just have to know how the chapter ends)? I'm already annoyed that my nieces and nephews actually have never had to leave their seat to change the TV channel. It's not fair. On the other hand, they have been robbed of the joy of decorating their bedroom walls with their favorite album covers.

Don't you ever wish that we could have stopped the progress of the internet at a certain stage? Like, we could have email but only for business reasons. We could keep our social networks, but had to ask someone what an agoraphobic is. I think if we could still have a need for each other - to share mentoring and learning and real communication - we'd be better off. I can't imagine what's going to happen to human relationships if we let things keep going the way they are. On the other hand, I wouldn't have been able to tell you all this without the internet. So... we should keep blogs. Definitely keep blogs. And shopping. I can't take those long store lines...

Peace
--Free

Writing With Sarc-Brain

For me, writing is a passion.

Passion:

(noun) a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something

Writing with sarc-brain is a frustration, a painful struggle. Sometimes I feel like a starved woman gagged and bound at a feast. All my creativity is at full-throttle, but I can't corral any of the thoughts ricocheting around in my head.

It's maddening to sit for hours, trying to pull all the little sparkles of ideas together onto paper the way they strut through my mind. My mind creates the picture. I can see the picture, but I can't draw it. The characters and the words they speak are real and vivid inside my imagination, but they log-jam into confusion on their way out and onto paper.

The other day, I almost broke down and cried.

At this point in my life, when I am tied into myself with this "cognitive disorder," I regret having been so responsible before I got ill. I wish I had gifted myself with a year or two of selfishness. I could have gone off and locked myself in a cheap apartment to just write.

"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." Ray Bradbury

This sarc is my reality. It is what I think about in the early mornings when I am trying to navigate the worlds I've created with my fiction.

In every other part of my life, I've figured out (mostly) how to control the ways sarc impacts me as a person. I function, I manage, I live. I just cannot figure out how to get my stories written from beginning to middle to end. At first, the puzzle pieces to the plots come together beautifully, but then - as the minutes and hours past, they shift and drift apart in my head. I can spend days at a time, trying to collect them back into their proper place. For three years now, I've been trying to collect them. I always end up standing somewhere on shore, watching them ebb and flow, bump and collide.

I believe this is a form of madness.

The most frustrating thing about having this disease is that no one can "see" it. There's no physical badge of impairment. Unless I'm wearing heels and trip over some invisible obstacle, you'd never know there was something wrong with me. Maybe I'll get excited when talking about something and stutter or stringtogethermywords. You might think I've been drinking. Sometimes I have. Most times I haven't. But if I thought it would help...

The best thing about having sarc is that the people who love me still find me lovable. And amusing. (That amuses me, unless it pisses me off.)

Do I think that I could (even without sarc) be a "great" writer? That's never mattered to me. All I've ever wanted was to have at least one book out there with my name on the cover. Writing fiction is a form of history-keeping. I only ever wanted to tell the stories about people and places I know. They are good and interesting people and places. The world should have the chance to enjoy reading about them.

Will I stop writing? Nope. I'm just losing hope of being read.

Peace
--Free

Quickie Post: Snow, Vodka & Birthdays

This is Alaska. It snows sometimes. Sometimes it snows a lot. No matter. I had a birthday party to go to.

Yep. My car. My job to shovel out...

Did you get a good look at that? Crazy, right?  Snow almost to my kneecaps...

Seriously. Want to see it again?

I love it when the snow avalanches into my passenger seat like that...

I made it. My hair looked like a wet tumbleweed, but I made it.

Half hour before the party, before the place filled with toddlers, I had a quick Vodka and O.J., and found the sleepy birthday boy. He was a little cranky and wouldn't sit still for long. I managed to get one half-decent photo by turning his attention to a cartoon on TV.

He is bored & waiting for his friends to arrive. Sitting still for 2.23 seconds!

That kid right there made my trek through the snow worth it. More than worth it.

Happy Birthday, little Mister Stole-My-Heart! I love you.

I spent two and half hours wearing a silly hat, helping corral little ones and sneaking sips from my drink. Now I am back home & having a cup of HOT chai. Screw this snow. My bed feels a little empty but, mmm mmm, so good. At least I don't have to share the blankets.

Goodnight all.

Peace

--Free

Life Jubilee

A new year is creeping up on us. Again.

As always, I have been examining my life. In 2007, my life felt something like this

via Sim U

Then I just had to go and get married to the wrong-est man in the world. In less than a year, this is what my whole existence felt like

God's going to trouble the waters...

Because I have friends who love me and a family who will collect all their noses to put them in my business if they think I am in distress, I was pulled back on track. I got home to Alaska and right onto a great job that I loved. Ironically, things fell apart for me on the Fourth of July - a national and, for me, a personal celebration. Just when I was getting my shit together, this freak show called neurosarcoidosis decided to come and visit me.

Damnit.

But I try to look for my blessings in everything. Guess what? I wasn't in my right mind when I married a man who pulled a Jekyll and Hyde act. Yes! It wasn't really me who stayed with someone who treated me so badly. It was a woman with a strange stuff happening inside. My brain was just having its own problems.

Or your brain cells doing weird things...

And I have a million stories to tell, most of them kind of funny. (But not the one about walking nine blocks in 100-degree heat for groceries because Mr. Tingles left with the car and stayed gone for over a week.)

Anyway. My brain digresses...

This post is about healing and progression. In shedding the weight of the past, I have decided to no longer make resolutions for a new year, but kind of go bit by bit with my self-improvements. It's the same idea an aunt of mine has about Thanksgiving. She will remind well-wishers that every day is "Thanksgiving." While, she has felt that way since youth, I have just now taken up the same belief about renewal.

I've decided to fall back on what the Bible teaches about cycles. I'm not sure if I have it right, but 2014 is the year for things being better.

In the Bible, the number seven is significant. I'm no scholar, but I remember enough from reading the Bible (and from the sermons I sat through as a child) to know about this "perfect" number.

What I didn't remember in detail, I could easily find around the internet. This one really goes into some detail. Too bad I have the attention span of a gnat.

I found other explanations for the perfection of seven as a number. Some were too scientific for my sarc-soaked brain to love. The vision of numbers in parentheses makes me go blind.

Nooo!!!! I can't look, I can't look!

God being so good as math is enough to make Him my hero. Me being so bad at math, yet fairly intelligent, makes me the opposite of Rain Man.

Kidding aside, this was the best for me. It's a simple repeat of everything I learned in my Pentecostal home as a youth. The seven year/day renewal idea is a simple one that I can intellectually grasp and it fits in with my faith. (Note that it doesn't affect my faith.)

My simple mind can deal with this. It's something I can incorporate into my own life system. I can handle fasting once every seven days, doing something charitable, cutting my hair, trimming my Google Plus circles. Every seven weeks, I can check my oil, call my great-auntie in Arkansas, change my online passwords and delete useless apps from my phone, hint to the fam about the things still on my Google Wishlist.

~Hmmm~

2007 was when things got twisted. 2014 might be at least the beginning of things going better. I'm hoping to get that book written, this heart of mine softened back up, this hair of mine under control, this disease tackled for good... I'm not looking for miracles, just a little joy.

Now that I'm thinking about it, this could be a really good thing. It's a simple thing to hope for. Seven years of struggle, seven years of peace. Please, God.

It's my life, somebody's got to live it.

Peace
--Free

One Month of Going Natural (on the cheap)

I am just at about one month in on my natural hair journey. Actually, I've been in transition since taking the Methotrexate to treat my sarcoidosis. For some reason, I didn't lose all my hair, but the texture changed and it did thin a bit. Going natural - getting away from the relaxing and dyeing chemicals - has really helped.

As for being overwhelmed by all the information withing the natural hair culture, I am finding a balance by keeping things very simple. I don't have a lot of money to spend on products and there are too many to try without going broke. You don't have to spend a fortune on products to take care of your natural hairstyle.

So. What to do? The same thing as with my other cosmetic issues: go natural to be natural.

First, I thought about what my hair type needs:

Moisture, moisture, moisture

Yep. Good old water. Free and on-hand. I've upped my daily intake from at least 70 to about 100 ounces per day. This is something my doctors will love me for even though staff at any place with a restroom are starting to recognize me by by my run-gait. I go into Starbucks and someone is handing me a pink or blue key before even thinking about taking my order.

In addition to hydrating my body from the inside, I am also watering my hair on a nightly basis. While steaming is way too much trouble without the right equipment, anyone can manage a spray bottle and plastic cap (like these). I think I paid just over a buck for the little sprayer and not much more for a bundle of plastic hair caps. (Heck, I might just mess around and get fancy and spring for a sturdy conditioner cap next month.) I take a 30-minute break in the evening, treat my naps to a good leave-in conditioner, adding a few drops of some SoftSheen glycerin, and do my routine spray-bag-and-sit in a warm bathroom. Just to kill more than one bird with that stone, I downloaded a really cool brick-blasting game on my phone. Reading a book or studying something useful might be a better way to go but, hey, at least I'm not still playing Angry Birds. As much.

$1 Spray bottle from Walmart

I remove the bag and, while my hair is still damp (or I guess you could say "porous"), rub in a little bit of oil and let my hair air dry - and it's amazing that there is no greasy feel. I'm using whatever oil I have on hand, by the way. Right now, it's either olive or sunflower oil (because those are what I cook with most), but I did get pick up some Jamaican black castor oil with my membership at Sally's Beauty Supply when they had a sale. (That JBCO is the bizness!) I tie on a satin scarf to cover the nape and sides of my head so that I can look cute while I protect my hair from my pillows. And, ladies, the look really can be cute in a 50's style kind of way. You don't have to be all "country" about it so that you scare the hell out of your man.

JBCO (About $6) This is great on my skin too.

 mix of black castor oil, sunflower & olive oil.
(Beauty tip: Use w/a baby wipe to remove
 make-up or cleanse & moisturize the skin.)

My niece gifted me the scarf a couple years ago. Thanks Gabs!

Left from an old relaxer kit I had. It's good stuff.
I added a touch of oil to it though.

I like this for the softness and shine

For the wake-up, I will cover my hair for the shower (or another light water-spritz) so that I can add some more leave-in or oil if needed. By the time I brush my teeth and hit my eyes with some liner, my hair is ready to be finger-styled. If I do need to use a tool to "lift" my curls, I use either this comb or a "pick."

Great for styling the natural

 Any plastic. undamaged afro "pick" will also do. I just try not to pull at the root of my hair. I like the comb you see because it's multi-use: it detangles, parts and lifts. I think I paid $1.50 at a local beauty supply.

Since I was too lazy to go get my glycerin spray from the bathroom pantry, this is what I'm talking about.

For now, I have not even gone out and gotten any special shampoos or wash-out conditioner. I've always used ones that are for boosting moisture and softness. Until I use up the different brands I have in the bathroom closet, I am just adding a few drops of oil to them. Next time I buy, I will worry about things whether or not they are sulfate-free or have good "slippage. For now, I'm glad I don't have to buy anything for a couple months. Maybe if I save on products, I'll be able to get this t-shirt

I like it kinky

There you have it. That's my cheap and easy way to keep these natural curls in shape and looking nice. If you have a good routine, you don't have to spend a ton of money. And by the way:

Cool game!

Peace

--Free