Okay, so, as you probably already noticed, I tweaked my site a bit over the weekend. I’ve paired down some of the images and the colors. The way I see it, I *write* the stuff that appears on my blog, but you guys are the folks that so kindly come here to *read* what I’ve written. For that, of course, I’m incredibly grateful. And, I thought it might be nice to give you all a say in what my redesigned site should look like. Let’s start with the headers. Every time you load FUNKYBROWNCHICK.com, the header image changes. There are a total of six images:

Yellow is my second favorite color. (Orange is my most favorite.) I took this picture of a yellow follow while fooling around in Central Park last summer.

I love New York. This is a cropped picture of the Statue of Liberty. I took the picture several months ago when my sister came to town. It was her second visit to New York, and the first time that she’d seen the Statue. (I’ve been inside that green lady more times than I can count.)

This is a picture of all of the stuff I use when getting ready for a date. I photoshopped the word “funkybrownchick” on the labels of all of the makeup.

Sexpot Donna took this picture when I was visiting her and Big T Man at their place. Error Boy added the pretty color graphic stuff behind the word “funkybrownchick”

On the beach with Mags, Bro and Bituin at Coney Island a couple of months ago. I’m wearing a bikini in the picture, but I’m much too modest to use that whole picture as a header image.

My smile. My favorite mug. My face. My blog name. My favorite city.

Those are the header images, and I wanna know which ones you like best. So, feel free to use the comment section to state your preference. If everyone likes one image much more than the others, I’ll use that image as the static image for the FAQ, Archives and About pages. If there’s a header image that everyone universally hates, I’ll cycle that one out of rotation. And, of course, if anyone out there wanted to design a new new FBC header image (970×140), I’ll add it to the rotation and give you credit for your work. So, that’s it. Time to place your votes, folks!

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UPDATE:Woot! Woot! Sexpot Donna created the ab fab FBC header below. I’ve included it in the header rotation as well. Three cheers for Sexpot Donna!!!

Brand new week. Brand new look here at The FBC. Over the weekend, I switched stuff around a bit. I’ve added an archives page, switched up the header images and changed a bunch of other little stuff here and there. In life, they say, change is the only constant. Things are no different on the internet. However, although my blog’s “look” has changed a little bit, the content is the same. Still blogging about my life and my dates in New York. And, every Monday morning, still celebrating all of the great and wonderful things about men. Yep, it’s Manly Monday again. And, today, I thought I’d talk about testosterone. What could possible be more manly than a hormone created by the testes? Besides, as you already know, testosterone has been in the news lately because of wrestler Chris Benoit’s murder-suicide case. Toxology reports reveal that his urine contained elevated levels of testosterone, and artificially supplementing the body’s natural testostrone levels too much (allegedly) triggers “roid rage”. Hmmm … If testosterone makes people angry, the keyboards of the three male bloggers below must ooze with the stuff. If you haven’t already, check out the three angriest men on the web:

Angry Aussie Guy blogs in “full angry mode”. He says that his therapist, girlfriend, kids and a judge all say that he’s too angry. Gotta love a blogger-writer guy who warns people against stealing his creative blog content — i.e. plagiarism, a felony & misdemeanor. In an angrily written copyright notice posted on his blog, he says: “Fuck you. Seriously. Just fuck you. This is straight up stealing. If you do this for your own commercial gain (i.e. on a site that is selling something even if it’s just advertising) you’d better believe I’m coming after you.” And, here’s the link to the Angry Aussie Guy’s blog because I want to be sure to credit him for his words (and I don’t want him to kick my ass): Angry 365 Days a Year.

This mf has a blog called “Thoughts of an Angry Black MF.” I’ll take him at his word. He is black. He is a mf. He is angry. And, coming to us from Washington, D.C., he does blog about the “everyday shyt” that bothers him. For example, he recently posted a really funny rant about the people who continue to live in the past. People who are “always tellin’ you what they USED to do? …’I USED to play semi-pro basketball’ … ‘I USED to be on tour with a rap group’ … ‘I USED to have a car’. But what the fukk is your USED to’s gonna do for a mf NOW?!” Love it.

“Yes, racism angers me,” says the Angry Asian Man. “But I’m not here sitting in front of the computer, hating whitey and plotting revolution.” What?? I thought *everyone* (white folks included) sat in front of their computers plotting such things on a daily basis. ;) But, on a more serious note, this guy’s site really is great. In a post titled “extra extra yellowface”, he writes up an interesting response to the movie “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry”. Read Angry Asian Man’s blog. It’s good.

(Note: photo sources of the images referenced above are the respective blog authors.) So that’s what’s going on with the angry men on the web. Now it’s your turn. Feel free to use the comment section link below to tell us about things that are making you angry at this very moment. Don’t hold back now. It’s Monday, and we’ve all got a loooong week ahead of us.

I went out, yet again, last night. Why oh why is everyone plying me with alcohol this week? Seriously. It’s like everyone that I know got together and said, “Here, this is what we’ll do … We’ll all throw parties during the exact same week!” But, whatever, that is what it is. Besides, I don’t want to talk about alcohol or parties today, because I already told that story at Nerve. [See: Drinks with Mr Charming.] So, no talk about that stuff really, but I do want to talk about a boy. A boy named Matthew. I met him earlier this week. And, yesterday, my friend Alison and I met up with him and one of his friends.

A good time was had by all.

As the night went on, at some point during the evening, Matthew said “I’m gonna go check in with my Ally baby” as he walked away from me and towards Alison. My first thought? Her name is Alison. No one calls Alison “Ally” except for a few members of her family; and, she told him that earlier in the evening. My second thought? Why the fuck did he just call her his baby? He just met this woman. In any case, I’m absolutely *horrible* at hiding my feelings. I wear my thoughts directly on my face, and people can usually tell my mood just by looking at me. Matthew’s friend took notice. Matthew noticed. And, we all ended up having this long and crazy conversation about the way that men think vs. the way that women think. I felt like an insecure jackass, and I spent the better part of the morning beating myself up a little bit for being so petty.

I hate it when I do that.

I’m sitting on the MTA on my morning commute when, over my shoulder, I see someone with a copy of Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant. Oooooh! I wanna read it. Have you heard of this book? Basically, it’s a collection of twenty-six stories about the good, bad and ugly of cooking and dining on your own. If you’re single — or, if you’re a business person who travels on your own quite frequently — you’re no stranger to the phrase, “Table for one, please!”

I must admit, in general, I rarely dine out by myself. Well, I mean, you know, unless it’s a special occasion or something. And, by “special occasion”, I mean: out and about walking around the city on a sunny Saturday afternoon and I want to sit, rest, read a book and sip wine with a nice midday meal. It happens. But, not often. I don’t think that eating by myself is automatically a bad thing. Hell, with that recent report letting us know that obesity might be contagious, eating alone might be a really *good* thing! ;) But, anyway, typically, if I’m hungry and on my own out in the city somewhere, I usually order my food “to go”.

Before I moved to New York, I was much more uncomfortable with the idea of waltzing into a nice restaurant and sitting at a table by myself for an hour or so. Now? I wouldn’t think twice about it. It’s not that moving to New York made me more comfortable with such things; it’s just that this city is actually much more conducive to single living and, by extension, single dining. New York restaurants are quite used to us single folks. More bistros and dinners. More smaller spaces. More shapeshifting tables that morph to accommodate 1,2 or 4 diners. Whichever you choose. Hmmm … I really want to read Alone in the Kitchen. I absolutely love it that someone (Jenni Ferrari-Adler) wrote this book!

I’m reading the current issue of New York magazine. David Amsden’s piece, “Married Man Seeks Same for Discreet Play“, is about William — a married father who has a little secret. It’s a damn good article. Oddly enough, it’s not good for the reasons that you’d probably expect it to be good. I mean, yeah, sure, it certainly provides a voyeuristic peek into the mind of a man who leads a double life. But, this isn’t a new discovery on Amsden’s part. Afterall, didn’t E. Lynn Harris establish his entire writing career, in part, by crafting books about life “on the down low”?

Anyway, if you’re up for an interesting read, be sure to head over to nymag.com to check out the article. You can also find more of my thoughts about the piece over on Nerve today. (See: “Sex & the Pursuit of Unhappiness“.)

Now, for something completely different … It’s been a crazy been this week. (Man, is it really only Wednesday??) Every day this week, I’ve told myself “I’m going straight home after work”; but people keep inviting me to random events, parties and cocktail hours. I haven’t had time to write as much as I usually do. Man, this time, I mean it. I’m going straight home after work today. And, tomorrow, I’ll tell you about boys that I’ve recently met out at a few parties.

Went out with a boy. To hear all about my recent dating adventure, check out my latest contribution to that sexy online mag called Nerve.

They say “boys will be boys”. But, as a recent incident experienced by my friend Mags and her roommate Susan shows, sometimes (and *only* sometimes) boys will be jerks. Rewind to last weekend because that’s when LA Galaxy played Chelsea FC. Mags, Susan and one of their friends live in DC and they watch the game in a bar. Two guys, one from Ghana and the other from Germany, are sitting next to them. “That guy,” Susan says to Mags, “keeps giving you the eye.” Eventually the two guys approach Mags, Susan and the other girl. In what can only be called a desperate attempt to charm the trio, the two guys start to insult the women’s knowledge of soccer.

“You’re only here to see Beckham play!!!” (They’re probably right, but so what; it’s a free country.) “I bet you don’t even know what country Pelé is from!!!” (The girls didn’t know that he’s from Brazil but, again, so what.) I wasn’t there so I can’t be sure, but Mags says that guys were definitely trying to hit on her and her friends. I wonder: What is this? Junior high?!?! Boys make fun of the girls in order to show them that they like them? Have we not evolved? At any rate, the incident inspires me to think about some of the silly things that men and women do to show prospective dates that they’re interested. So, because it’s Manly Monday, let’s focus on the men. Ladies. Gentlemen. Please, use the comment section to share your mojo with the group. Tell us: What’s the best way for a guy to show a woman that he’s interested?

• The condom broke. Now, Sarah over at He Loves Me Not wonders ‘now what?’

• Peggy Brunache’s blog, Adventures in Negroshire, has the tagline: “Black girl from the US jumps the pond for love and life in Scotland.” She recently took a “Life in the UK” test to take another step closer to becoming a British citizen. (If you’d like to know how you’d fair on the American version of the citizen test, click here.)

• Charming But Single lists “The Five Things I Should Not Know by the End of Our First Date.”

• “I wish I never treated you the way I have..I am sorry..I have been horrible to you..I’m not after a reply..I just wanted you to know..xo” reads the text message sent to the woman who blogs Bexmeister. Check out her blog to find out what she replied.

• Boing Boing posts a funny story about a robber who ditches the cash and asks for a hug.