Ever since I published a post titled Black Women/White Men, I’ve gotten lots of hits for searches on “black women white men,” “white men and black women,” “black women dating white men,” “white men who like black women,” “white men attracted to black women,” “white men marry black women,” and variations on the theme, including this gem: “lashawn barber interracial dating.”
While I do reveal some personal things at LBC, I’ve never and probably won’t ever blog about…well, the blog you’re looking for is Black Female Interracial Marriage. It’s loaded with interesting stuff and lots of links. Check it out.
Update (1/17): Well, well, well. Apparently, this post and my penchant for reviewing books has resulted in an e-mail about a book titled, The White Man’s Guide To Dating Black Women.
In some ways, I'm starting over with this blog. After I stopped covering politics, a few loyal fans stuck around. For the most part, however, I'm reinventing myself and the readership is shifting.
Many people started reading my blog because of the way I covered political and "controversial" topics. Since I'm phasing out those topics, it makes sense that some of those readers are phasing out LBC. But it doesn't feel scary. I'm treading new-to-me territory, and it feels like a fresh start. I feel re freshed.
When I first started blogging, I followed veteran bloggers' advice: comment on and trackback to other blogs, send post links to established, like-minded bloggers, etc. I did all that. I even visited small blogs - really small blogs - and commented on those sites. This consequently led the bloggers to blogroll me, and things picked up from there.
Should I do the same with digital music blogging? Later, perhaps. LBC, with four years worth of backlinks and indexed pages, has got enough Google juice to show up high in search results under certain digital music terms. That's good enough for now. I've returned to my roots, in a way. Blogging for the pure pleasure of it and being genuinely surprised that people are reading the blog at all. It's still amazing after all these years. 
In the meantime, I'm taking notes and journaling my somewhat dramatic shift in tone and recording the hits and misses. The plan is to turn the notes into an instructional (and inspirational?) essay for established bloggers longing to do the same.
Many blessings to you!
(Clip art from EternalChristmas.com)
10:38 a.m. PT: LBC’s source code disappeared for a while. My host restored backup from the wee hours of Thursday morning, which means all the cool comments from Thursday morning through Friday are gone. 
I’ve reposted the California pictures. Nice comments about those. Gone. Oh, well.
Hanging out in Hollywood today. Have a good one!
Sunday, November 25: I snapped a couple of photos of the billowing smoke from the Malibu fire, but you can’t see it very well:
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If you’re visiting my blog for the first time, welcome! Stay awhile, grab a feed, browse the Writings page, and if you’re into Harry Potter and Narnia, check out Fantasy Fiction for Christians.
The following front page posts are open to comments:
Closed posts:
I’m taking a brief LBC (and politics) break, but I’ll return soon. You might find me over here next week.
While I’m away, visit these and other sites on the blogroll:
Yahoo! e-mail seems to be down at the moment. I haven’t been able to log in all morning. If you’re waiting for a reply from me, please be patient.
Running this blog is not always fun. Sometimes I have to deal with lonely Internet freaks or irate surfers and disgruntled naysayers who read one post and have a stroke. Every now and then I have to deal with readers who want to use my blog as their own personal forum. Or trash dump. But I must say, most people are civil most of the time. 
Last week I reached the 2 million unique visitors mark. Didn’t notice until yesterday. It’s great. I appreciate the readership, but what’s important is being a much-needed voice, one you don’t hear very often. I’m not always right, but God has given me this forum to share, learn, and grow. I’m thankful every day.
By the way, around this time last year, I gave up a steady paycheck to escape the 9-5. And I still have a roof over my head. It hasn’t always been smooth. In fact, at times it’s been rough, but I have no regrets. I highly recommend self-employment. It’s very…satisfying.
I’ve posted a couple of hate e-mails in the past, but since the good stuff outweighs the junk, I thought I’d share a few of those:
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Blogroll — As you can see, my blogroll is very long. At this point, I’m more interested in trimming it than adding to it. On occasion, I surf through the roll, deleting blogs that haven’t been updated in the past month and replacing them with new ones. As I’m very busy these days, I don’t do this as often as I’d like.
If you’ve sent requests for reciprocal links and haven’t received one, don’t take offense. Sometimes I don’t want to link to the blog for various reasons; other times I add the link or intend to add it, but don’t get around to it. That’s the way the blogosphere works sometimes. Fortunately, nobody is obliged to link to anybody, although it’s considered good etiquette to link to a blog you’ve referenced in a post.
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Good morning friends, haters, and other loyal readers!
I have a confession. I am bored out of my skull with the political ranting and raving and nitpicking. I’ve got to take this blog to the next level, mix things up a little bit.
Since November 2003, I’ve basically done the same thing: check the headlines, pick a story, rant and rave about it, link to other bloggers blogging about it, try to get links from other bloggers blogging about it (”chasing the link”), wait for the comments, read the comments, comment on the comments…and start over again the next day.
That’s what most bloggers do, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with it. It’s just not the right format for me anymore. I do some of my best writing on the blog. I put most of my time and energy into it. In fact, I put so much time and energy into it, I don’t have time to do writing outside the blog.
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Update (4/23/06): For more information on how to trackback, see the Linking Policy.
Update (8/25/05): To reduce some of the e-mail I get from bloggers requesting links, please start using the trackback feature to let me know you’re blogging about a particular post.
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1) Haloscan users must use Simpltracks to trackback to this blog. Haloscan and WordPress are not compatible. Why not? You’ll have to ask some other geek.
For people on Blogger.com who don’t have a trackback feature set up, you can still use Simpletracks to trackback to other blogs.
2) If you trackback to an LBC post, a link to my post must appear in your post, or the trackback will be deleted. (I’ll go easy on new bloggers.)
Why link to a post just because you trackback to it? The reason you left a trackback is the same reason the other blogger wants you to link to his post: traffic. By leaving a trackback, you’re alerting the blog host and his readers that you’re writing about the same topic and/or the blogger’s post. The host and readers follow your trackback, increasing your traffic and readership. The host accepts trackbacks on his blog for the same reason. Quid pro quo and information-sharing, too.
3) All trackbacks must reference the post you trackback to. Any trackbacks that do not reference the post (off-topic) may be deleted. (I’ll go easy on new bloggers.)
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I knew it would come to this one day, and I’ve been dreading it.
I can no longer answer all of my e-mail. It’s getting to be too much, which is a good thing, but some of you won’t hear back from me, which is a bad thing. I won’t have time to blog or work on projects if I spend it trying to answer every e-mail.
I know how I feel when writers I admire reply to my e-mail. It’s flattering to know they took time to read my thoughts and respond, and I will continue to do the same as much as I can. But I am no longer able to say, “I answer every e-mail.”
I assure you that I read every e-mail, and on occasion, I will post interesting ones on the blog.
Thanks for reading.
Update (7/2): Unless you request otherwise, e-mail may be published on this blog.
Update (3/24/05): For any reason, at any time, and depending on my mood, your comment may be deleted or edited with or without an explanation or warning. Comment on this blog at your own risk. If you insist on an explanation, read this. If you still don’t like it, tell your story walking. The queen of this domain has spoken.
The rules below are still in effect, but this one gets to the bottom line in a hurry, don’t you think?
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This is my comment policy, which will be updated as the need arises:
1) Do not call me names! Please don’t offend or insult the blog hostess. If I get into specifics, this post would never end. Just use common sense. Don’t imply or state that I’m stupid, for example. Don’t call me a puppet or mouthpiece of white conservatives. And if you call my argument stupid, you must explain why.
Don’t call other commenters names, either. Attack the argument, not the person.
2) I am queen of www.lashawnbarber.com because this is my weblog. I pay for the hosting and I make the rules.
You have no First Amendment rights on this blog. My right to free speech is protected on this site, not yours.
Mini-civics lesson: The First Amendment restricts government, not private citizens, from infringing on your right to free speech. On this blog, your speech is a privilege. On your blog, your speech is a right. Learn the distinction.
3) No profanity or quasi-profanity, such as the vulgar reference to urination, pi**. I hate that word.
4) Stay on-topic. While I won’t delete off-topic comments, I prefer they be relevant to the post. If you have an off-topic question or issue, e-mail me.
5) I reserve the right to edit or delete any comment for any reason. If I edit your comment, most of the time I’ll add a notation, such as “Edited by the Admin” or “Nice try, troll!”
6) You get one warning before you are banned, although there are exceptions (If I really like you, you’ll get three warnings.). Being banned from my domain means your IP is blocked from accessing the entire site.
7) I prefer real names, but if you are anonymous or use an alias for privacy, that’s OK (As if I’d know anyway, right?).
Trackbacks leading to offensive posts where I’m the subject will be deleted.
I seem to have lost my voice somewhere. While I search for it, check out a few of my favorite music/digital tech blogs: 