"What you're about to witness is my thoughts/ Right or wrong/ Just what I was feelin at the time/ You ever felt like this/ Vibe with me" - Jay Z, Ruler's Back
dougie aka my "brother" aka eklektos. Think we were on our way to buffalo exchange (my new fav store bc i found 1 in LA!)....
view from hotel...
after asca conference, had a free moment so checked out the 6th Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, all about assassination of JFK. you can't take pics, but snapped this bc this is supposedly where Lee Harvey Oswald shot out the window...
met up with dougie's fam bam for dinner! group shot:
then i made it back home...for a lil before going to LA... yeah me & smoe!
Q: how does god reward me for a slightly crappy, not-as-productive-confrence-in-Dallas?
A: by accidentally bumping me up to 1st class on the flight back home!
Currently in atl for an hour layover.... Pondering if I should get an icecream cone or not...met a nice guy from bmore, his dreads looked more miami but he had great bone structure.
Standing in front of a gate boarding for LA & I totally can't wait to go on Thursday!!!!
As I tweeted last nite: I'm so over Dallas! My fed ex package JUST now came. I mailed it out June 24th, 2day delivery, Saturday delivery was checked. Not only did we waste money doing a 2day delivery, but I've wasted precious exhibiting time! Yesterday I was honestly ashamed to sit at my booth empty handed... There's no way to describe the look of another exhibitor as he/she stares at you bringing nothin to the conference! To escape the nonverbal ridicule and pity looks of others I ducked into the counselor's sessions. This was actually cool bc I sat in on a session about effects of excessive video game play on kids & another about reaching out to boys. Video game 1 wasn't too great as I was slightly offended by 1 comment & didn't think they explored the topic enough. Their last slide of 'parents beware' made me want to check out the super graphic/violent games. The one about reaching out to boys was great!
Bright spot of yesterday was I had free time to be a tourist so checked out 6th floor museum & hung out with my 'bro' & went shopping at buffalo exchange!!! shopping was prob not a good idea as I'm supposed to be saving money & I'm moving so I wanna get rid of my clothes.... But it was oh, so worth it!
So went to my 1st cabaret last nite in capitol heights. It was cool, pretty much like a mid 20s to 30s types club/gogo but w/ more tables set up & a byob policy.
After we got home I cleaned kitchen & went to bed at 4:30, only to wake up at 8ish...went into work to handle last minute things then home where I finally started packing- like an hour before my plane left! Through my super last minute packing & traffic on bwi, was able to make it & check in (darn you airtran for charging $15 for 1 check in bag)...
Once I got to Dallas I accidentally went to the wrong hyatt regency so ended up retracing sepa back to airport to he a shuttle to downtown hyatt. The guy tried to overcharge me, so I confronted him & he backed down...so down in fact that right before he dropped me off he asked me out to a seafood dinner! I said no bc I was here for work so that's what I'm focused on!
Weird that this hotel doesn't have BET. Normally I wouldn't care but the awards came on tonite. I'm happy I finished the 1st disk of season 4 of macgyver, started on plane. Maybe its bc I'm watching it on my laptop as opposed 2 tv bus DVD player, but just noticed the acting is not that great. Well, rda is AMAZING, but supporting & guest stars not so much, except Jason priestly. My thumbs are tired of blogging via phone so I shall go to bed now.
Song o the day: November 18 (drake)... This song is like a lays potatoe chip, I can't listen to it just once! Usually 2-3 times in a row.
between looking up jeremih & drake song smoe & i somehow came across lady nice from nc... not sure how i feel about her yet, as i JUST found out about her 4 minutes ago, but.... here's her myspace page
please note my "new artist" post don't mean they're brand spanking new, just mean they're new to me :)
...and yep think the quality of this pic sums up the quality of her music. that's mean so i won't give up on her yet. i'll go back to her myspace and listen again then google around and see if i can find more music. i'll keep ya posted...
long day at work, but rewarding: broke up my day by going to see boys & girls club kids to their final post camp performance (THOSE KIDS HAD SOOOOO MUCH TALENT)! almost like teared up bc a lot of them wouldn't have had the opportunity if it weren't for b&g club & their performance arts camp! was still at work around 6:30 when a parent we work with from cali gave me a call. she was shocked i was still at work, but we spoke about her son (died from inhalant abuse) and what she's gonna write for our news blog, pic to include for new site, etc. lastly before i left out i scanned all of our contest entries for our baseball summer project. they ranged from "i didn't try at all-pencil sketches" to "not your average super hero, well thought out images and ta lines" to "i'm gonna be super high-tech and draw a hero w/ computer graphics"! all in all summer programs taught me kids=good, fun projects! on my way home roomie & friend told me we're all on the same page so we're gonna tell the folks we want to rent their condo...in va :( all the crap i talk about va it seems
oh so happy to be home!!! sipping on champagne, watching smoe cook veggie sloppy joes. not "cooking" be it was my idea, plus i'm in charge of drinking, i mean buying the beverage of choice, and the tatter tots! sloppy joes would be NOTHING w/o the tater tots. :) i'm a lil iffy bc he's using a recipe that calls for ground beef when i have veggie chorizo (side note: i love you trader joes for supplying affordable, tasty soy-based meat alternatives. namely your veggie chorizo)
with that i end this post & put together my to do list for tomorrow (which is actually my main reason for blogging):
- get clothes outta cleaners - buy a dress for masquarade ball - buy a dress for ceremony?? - buy tix to ct - pack for dallas - write intro speech for ceremony - stop by bbq?? - go to artomatic?? - go into work to tie up loose ends for next week
...hmmm those are the 1st things that popped into my mind, so i'll focus on those 9 for starters, i'm sure SOMETHIN else will pop up tomorrow as saturdays are by far my busiest days :)
song o day: maybe i'm amazed (the faces)... so i tried to google the lyrics to this rock song that i always hear on dc101 & this song came up. the name of the group drew me in, and rod stewart was the factor that made me decide to include it as my song o the day....guitars rock so it was a good choice!
read about this in the express this am and thought it was shocking!... after reading the article and seeing that the church, manifested glory ministries was in CT i stereotyped that it was a closed minded, white, religious fanatic type church...and i was mostly right except it's a black church.
now that i think about it isn't really surprising as the main voice against dc council's bill to recognize gay marriage is from black church leaders...
poor little boy! isn't it already tough enough being a gay, black, 16 year old boy without having to worry about your CHURCH saying the devil is in you bc you feel a certain way and laying hands on you?! so absurd, but here's a snippet of the video. think the real one is 20 minutes long (apparently the church put it up on you tube themselves, but recently took it down)
song o the day:the boss (james brown)... who DOESN'T like james brown??? i'm biased though bc my dad LOVES him, so naturally i have an affinity for him. for you youngins, this sounds familiar bc nas sampled it in "get down" (also a great song)... random but i wonder what THE most sampled song is??
Summers in DC suuuck! No no not bc of the heat, but bc of the TOURISTS! Anyone thinkin about coming 2 DC this summer, PLEASE: - at least LOOK at a metro map before you come. Get a sense of your surroundings once you get into town to avoid your group getting in every one's way & asking for help
- DON'T scream 2 each other on metro! Yea the kids in your group can hear you, but so can I... over m music
- DON'T wear matching (neon) outfits, and/or fanny packs. I like fanny packs and am still trying to figure out how to make them cooler, so don't steal my thunder :)
- STAND on right, walk on left. Thought the rules of riding an escalator were the same nationwide, but guess not...
- DON'T bring ANY family members that can't walk or keep a good city pace, i.e. babies and/or old people!
- sitting next to me DOES NOT me it's okay to lean super far over and invade my personal space.
- just ask me to move and i will...i'd rather you do that than staring at the top of my head/the metro map behind me
Thanks :)
song o the day: billy jean (mike jack)... no real reason why it just popped in my head. probably bc the jingle the boys & girls club kids made up was to this song... enjoy!
sooooooo coworker just sent me an email about giving blood because of the demand from the metro collision yesterday. i reply that giving blood is always a worthy thing to do... plus they usually have nutter butter cookies!
to make sure the cookies were called nutter butter & not nutty butty (what i used to call them back in the day) i googled it and came across this AMAZING video:
song of the day:time after time (Cyndi Lauper)... like every young girl i used to LOVE cyndi! this song came on yesterday am when i first started my trek to camp brown & i almost laughed & cried at the same time bc its kinda sad, but i was so happy it was on!
spent the day in southern maryland (about 2.5 hrs away from my apt)... working on a boys & girls club project for work, so went to camp brown to see the kids put together out prevention videos/commercials...
since i was in and out my service was too (thanks tmobile). on my drive back home got a call from bff in nycsaying her boyfriend was concerned smoe & i were in a metro train crash in dc! i'm super confused bc i hadn't heard about it at all. crazy bc normally i would be on the red line coming home from work. got a lot of calls from out oftowners to make sure i was ok. weird bc all of my local friends either texted or bb messaged me- maybe dc/md/va folks are too cool to call me?!
above is a pic from twitpics someone got from the news...not sure if you can see but 1 train is LITERALLY ON TOP of the other! was talkin to a friend who heard a lady sitting 3 cars back was still bumped to the ground, so she's not a fan of sitting in the front cars! what sucks most is that it was rush hour, so like most rush hours on public transpo that means a rack of people standing up and piled into cars! anywho unfortunately, thus far there's been (sketchy) reports of 4 dead & like 70+ injured. judt glad i'm finally home so i can check twitter & watch the news!
lastly, chris breezy gets off w/ 5 years probation & community service for beating down rihanna?? good ole justice system, eh? heard it on the radio and i have no words, but here's the bbc article i just read about that whole situation.
hopefully my dad's day wasn't as crazy as mine, and after talking to him don't think it was.
1- took a friend out to b smith's for a farewell brunch...due to staff misplacing the signs i ended up accidentally eating CHICKEN SAUSAGE! more than halfway through i stopped and told my guys, this taste too good to be veggie sausage. they all looked down and said it's pink, its gotta be meat. i was so annoyed bc i got the sausage right in front of the "vegetarian sausage" sign. what made it worst is that when i told staff the boy was like oh, ok. i had to physically move the sign myself to in front of the right dish! needless to say i'm NOT a fan of b smith's right now!
2- right after brunch went to se a SUPER great documentary called dancing with the devil. it's about drugs in the favelas & shantytowns of rio. though i almost choked to death on stale popcorn i'm glad i'm just now setting aside time to go to silver docs & very glad i was able to catch that movie! BUT as i was in line waiting for my friend to come i ran into my spanish teacher!!!! i went to high school in atlanta & i was watching the movie in maryland!!! apparently he moved here 4 years ago & is teaching at a high school here now....what are the odds of me running into that guy ? the world is so small!
the name "new boyz" says it all. they're a new rap duo & they're young, but their style is funky/trendy which is why you gotta put a z at the end and not an s!
these new kids on the block sound like the pack to me, but there're only 2 of them. they're from la so totally wanna pick up some music when i go to the westcoast next month!!
their myspace page has snippets from a few other songs which sound really cool. not sure how many songs they have out, but this is out in dc/md:
doesn't make me wanna buy a louis bag, but makes me further appreciate anime, fashion & Art (uppercase a) as a whole!
according to daily beast: Artist Takashi Murakami and Louis Vuitton have teamed up several times—on products, museum exhibitions, and now a new Manga-inspired Web video, "Superflat Monogram." The ad campaign has become a viral hit, most likely because it hits the perfect Internet Bermuda Triangle-fashionistas, Kanye West fans (he's obsessed with both Murakami and Vuitton too), and most importantly, kids who love anime.
note to self: do a post about murakami designs & random toys...
song o the day:let me get em (soulja boy)... song has NOTHIN to do w/ the post, but was just listening to it in the shower now it's in my head. plus snap & roll is one of my fav dances ever- simple yet effective
don't think i still have any of my i heart ny shirts, but i need to stop by a tourist spot & pick one up bc this city is grrrrrreat :)
had so much fun last nite & ran into so many howard folks. as i was leaving the spot texted my bro telling him to move back so i can come visit every weekend...no response on that!
i'll add pics later when i get back to my apt & camera cable
while hanging out w/ 1 of my bff in ft green was hipped to 1 of the best commercials ever! they said this song has sexual overtones, but i don't see em.
i do see that this commercial is super catchy & the guy is sooooo serious when he sings! catch the note he hits in 2nd "meat falls off the bone"...
soooooo on the bolt bus w/ smoe & well, it's a bus... everyone talked it up sooo much like "it's so clean" & "there's wifi" & " did i mention how clean it is"! yes yes it is prettaaaay, prettaaaay clean to be a public transit bus goin to & from ny compared to others (mainly the old cult classic of "the chinatown bus").
i feel like i need to stretch though...still got 2.5 hours to go. thankfully i have my handy dandy ipod, gum & mags. smoe has his handy dandy netbook & school curriculumn stuffs to read... he's reading/writing now which is why i'm raping this netbook now (not just using, at this point i'm straight taking advantage of it)!
below is a dreadful pic of me & smoe on the bus... i promise my forehead is NOT that oily right now, honest!
just got into work & thanks to my smart brief on social media e- newsletters i was pleasantly distracted to this post on 10 commandments of social media.
informative, well written, (most importantly) concise. enjoy and go get connected!
so just boarded am trak in trenton, nj when i received a text from cnn breaking news via twitter about shooting at holocaust museum... i was super shocked bc who shoots up the holocaust museum??
after learning more info it's pretty sad. on the heels of drgeorge tiller being gunned down at church there's been a few reports that hate crimes are going up. this is scary! outside of the economy i really can't think of a reason hate crimes will be on the up and up.
are people getting that desperate, careless, hopeless that killing others doesn't matter anymore??
took the following video from He Who Laughs, Or The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Intimacy blog. this boy is adorable & i'm glad he nor grover got into the more intimate, sexual side of marriage...that'd be sorta awkward for sesame i'm sure!
if a child has this mentality, where/when do we go wrong and start putting folks in boxes and say what they can & cannot do...who are we REALLY to say 1 man & 1 woman constitutes a "marriage"... glad the dc council was open enough to pass the domestic partner bill
watching o'reilly factor (i like checkin out all sides/biases of media) & he was talking about pat robertson's quote that legalizing gay marriage would be the equivalent to legalizing sex with ducks... (1) did he reeeeeeeeally say that or was he misquoted? (2) they also showed the following video:
these ladies are grrrrrrreat! heard about them some months ago when i first learned about falafel & waffles... they gained small (local) fame when their song was featured on an episode of the wire (still 1 of my fav shows)...
i like the fact that they're local, from bmore, but are not the typical gritty female mcs. though their lyrics are hard, their delivery and voices are fairly soft and feminine, enjoy:
when i'm old & wrinkly (hopefully not too wrinkly), i need a room w/ THIS kind of view!...... & why did bush 41 get in on the action? it was barb's big 84th bday not his :)
soooooooooo everybody in the universe is talking about/has an opinion on jay's new d.o.a. track.
HONESTLY, when i first heard it i thought the beat/production was hot, everything else was ok. great job no id & kanyebc listening to it now & this horn, drum combo is amaaaaaaaaazing!
BUT after reading the lyrics i realized they are solid, so i respect the song more now! it's just good to see him coming back like the '96/97 hov i know! not pop, but solid brooklyn lyrics. (me likey)
with this being, i TOTALLY want tpain or ron browz to come back w/ a diss record! that would be great for us listeners! but who would really go after jay?? who's credible enough to put their career on the line to really battle that man?? hmmm guess we'll never know until someon actually does it.
...can't wait for blueprint 3 to drop on sept 11th (is it still considered distasteful when artists release music on this day??)
omg my friends are the best!! was just put on to bo burnham...this kid is hilarious :) i'll only post 2, but the others are worth listening too! enjoooooooooy!
so woke up crazy early this am so decided to be productive & work on a personal project i've been thinkin about for a while...a photoshop-visual arts project surrounding 4 women. i have phase 1 down where i pick a few pics of each woman i want to profile. phase 2 will be next time i have free time to narrow it down to one pic each & figure out how they should be situated on a canvas.
anywho i say all this bc one of the women in my project is ninasimone. in doing a google image search about her i came across cool calm pete'sheart which has a nina sample-fyiartisits can NEVER go wrong w/ a ninasimone sample!
i'm extra late bc he's been around for a few years... but better late than never is what i say! i like his a lazy flow. he kinda sounds like eminem on some songs, but not as annoying. cool calm pete'smyspace here
song o the day:cloudy(cool calm pete) there's a sample from another great song in here too. it sounds like that techno house that repeats "just breathe" can't think of the name of it though, oh well.
can some one pleeeez invent a pad pouch?? or something else that discreetly holds pads?
just saying i'm tired of hiding pads in a pocket and/or in my clothes when i need to change in the bathroom at work! (...and it doesn't make sense for me to bring my hug purse just to go to the bathroom)
with all this said, if it was that serious guess i could just use a flattened fanny pack...or a wristlet...but those don't sound as good as "PAD POUCH"!
song or the day: ego remix (b ft kanye) why oh why is kanyesooo great? this song is so cool it makes me wish i had a bigger ego so i could sing it and mean it :)
so was in the car talkin to smoe about shows we used to watch as kids...upon recapping a rack of cartoons remembered how much my bro & i used to love the end of james bond jr theme song-"james bond jr chases girls (james bond jr chases girls) around the world!!!"
some amazing man or woman decided to put a beat to it & chop it! i would totally have this as my ringer!
...ok, now off to watch smoe figure out how he's gonna design his part of our munny mobile... oh, how i love new toys!
how is this not funny?? if i saw this guy i'd totally be cracking up!...so nice had to post twice (well not twice here, but on both blogs)...
ENJOY:
song o the day:thanks to my musically inclined coworker found out about this super cool group. zimbabwe legit. this video is so rap-hype- 90s, it's great! makes me wanna get up and dance at my desk!
t Dealey Plaza, all about assassination of JFK. you can't take pics, but snapped this bc this is supposedly where Lee Harvey Oswald shot out the window... 
above is a pic from 
