Jay-Z and Gayle King: Brooklyn’s Own’ Takes Me to Memory Lane

It's November 14, 2023. This is the first post that I have made on this site in 10 years. The previous post is about Magna Carter Holy Grail and it was released on July 4, 2013. Alexa confirmed that. Crazy, she wasn't even a thing then. Today I happened to Google Jay-Z and saw there's a special with him and Gayle King on CBS tonight titled Brooklyn's Own. Let me backtrack and tell you the rabbit hole I went down and what I inspired me to make this post. I was watching Scream IV, on Tubi, which came out in 2011. I hadn't seen anything Scream related in years. As I'm watching, the cop, Dewey (David Arquette) gets out of the bed and then it flashes to his wife Gayle (Courtney Cox) rolling over in the bed. I'm like, "Wow, weren't they married in real life?" So I do what we all do and ask Google - Who is Courtney Cox's husband and who is David Arquette's wife? Then I decide to search Beyonce's husband for some reason, then I search Jay-Z and the info about the special comes up. I'm like "Wow, I would have never known". Alexa will be reminding me at 8:55 to tune into CBS to watch. I immediately start to reminisce about my fandom and how much I was into music and pop culture when I was a kid/teenager. It's like thinking back the good old days. I used to have posters all over my bedroom wall and door of everybody from Ginuwine, Aaliyah, Mase. I used to even write the fan clubs and actually got a autographed picture of Ray J, when he was Brandy's little brother. I had soo many CD's and magazine they're all in a suitcase in storage now. :-/ I remember being in high school and college running this site, buying all the magazines that The Carters were on, recording shows that they were featured on VHS and then uploading those to my computer, going to the Computer Hall on campus just to make updates. When I thought about the site I decided to pull it up and low and behold I didn't have a problem logging into blogger because it's linked to my google email. Soo much has changed! When I started there was no Instagram, no Twitter or Tik Tok. We didn't have as much access to celebrities as we do today. Many of the videos and photos on this site aren't clickable because the sites they were uploaded to aren't operating or the accounts have been deleted. I had dial-up internet at one point! I used to keep the phone lines tied up at home. Cell phones were not like they are today. I got my first cell phone in 2003-2004. It wasn't even a flip phone; it was a Nokia and took about 10 minutes to send a text. LOL Youtube ended up coming along later and I stayed getting copyright infringement notices. All of the knowledge I had on how to do anything like coding came from what I was taught in my high school keyboard class and some of the computer science courses I took in college. I taught myself a lot of stuff with graphics as well on whatever programs I could download for free. Once I graduated I ended up moving out of state. I kid you not, when I got my first job (with a temp agency) I was working that job (supposed to be registering boats with state) and was trying to make updates on the company computer. At some point, I guess I didn't have time for it anymore. I started having less time in 2009 then seems like I completely drifted off in 2013. My fandom for The Carters has never died. I just didn't have as much time to put into this with work and everything. Being on the internet back then was still messy, toxic and full of drama. Honestly, I was engulfed in it because I cared about what people said. I don't care or get emotionally caught up in a lot of stuff nowadays. I've been a fan of these people for years and always will be. They're Legends. I still support them, I still tune in. I like them as individuals. I wish them and their families well. It's really amazing to see how far they've come. I was a fan back when were they just dating and not even sitting next to each other at award shows. Now, here there are with three kids and billions. There are so many memories that are coming back to me now. My life has changed so much in the last 10 years. I moved from the I guess part of getting older is not being so up to date on everything. All of this is a very sweet part of my youth. I'm still digitally creative and do little things here and there through work or for nonprofits. I wish I'd kept up with coding. I could be building websites as a side hustle today. I'm making this post so that the next time I go down memory lane and decide to visit this site this post will sort of be a timestamp. Someone may come across this site. Personally, I've moved three times in the last 13 years. I made a full circle so where I am now is back home and this is where I want to be. I've lost the closest person ever to me, my Mother and that's been an adjustment but her love keeps me going. She would have wanted for me to keep going so I do it for her. The Lord is my strength because on my own I'm weak, I'm nothing. I'm an only child so it feels like I'm trying to find my tribe most of the time. Other than that, I'm really out here living young, responsible :) and free. If anyone would want to contact me for any reason, please email belmontqueen17@gmail.com. CharliRocs was my name internet name back then so you're fine to call me Charli.