top 10 things the ex has ruined for me

for whatever reason today on the train i was in a serious girly folk music mood, and realized that most of the women folk singers or bands i dig were tainted to my ears because of a certain ex girlfriend I once had. so instead of stopping there i decided to compile a short list of other things she has ruined for me. please enjoy, because i no longer can.

10. The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys
9. Edward Scissorhands
8. Regina Spektor
7. George's pizza
6. Cedar Falls
5. sweethearts drinks
4. trust
3. romance in general
2. Emiliana Torrini
1. Norah Jones

champs

oh yea and this happened duh


at about 25 seconds in, after the interception watch other players in the background, particularly a certain nubian linebacker. you'll know it when you see it. props to mattie for this one.

Us

In music news, it has officially become one of the best years for hip hop. Curren$y, Method Man & Redman, Kid Cudi, Rick Ross, Fabolous, Jay Z have already dropped fantastic albums, and there is only more on the horizon with Wale, Consequence, Lupe Fiasco, Big Sean and Drake set to release variously throughout the rest of 09.
Most importantly though, is undoubtedly the best hip hop album of the year, but underdog Rhymesayer Brother Ali. The street preacher has always been on the list of my favorite independent artists, and his skills are undoubtable, but this album completely knocked me off my feet the first spin through. If you haven't snatched this up yet than you need to wake up and get out of your jammies. I don't care if you what you gotta do to get it, buy/download/steal/trade/prostitute etc but you seriously need to check it out.
Every track is the best track on the album. The beats are original but not weird, and his lyrics and flows go unmatched. The substance he rhymes about on this album is fresh and creative, positive and uplifting but not cheesy and important for our generation to here. Suffice it to say that Us has become the anthem and theme music for my City Year tenure. Whenever I find myself doubting humanity, or losing steam with my mission and job, I just throw on a couple of these jams and I'm back on track. I seriously hope that people can not only vibe but align themselves with this album like I have.
Even awesomer is that I get to see him live in like a month or so. Hopefully Philly Freeway will make a cameo. Midwest stand up.

100th post

I guess that means I gotta post about something meaningful and worth your while. Its been too long since the last one.
Life on the east coast has become pretty awesome. I'm about 4 weeks deep into City Year, closing out basic training, and about to learn about my final permanent team and what school I will be placed in for the rest of the year. I'm pretty damn excited, but super nervous at the same time. My last team is seriously the rulage. I have really started to get to know a ton of cool ass people on the team and will be sad that I won't see them all day every day. But at the same time I will definitely be happy to be out of ear shot from this one girl on the team that never stops talking and interrupts people and constantly puts herself into conversations that she's not involved in. Imagine the sound combination of nails on a chalkboard, an alley cat dying and Lloyd Christmas making the most annoying sound in the world, and maybe, just maybe you might be able to understand what her voice sounds like. That being said, City Year has become my home away from home and am very much excited for the next 9 months of my life to serve Philadelphia and interact with the youth.
Unfortunately as much as I love what I do, it has become a major drain on my emotional and physical energy that I am away from my house and dog and personal time for up to 12 hours some days. To be downtown by 8:15 I have to hit a train by 7:15, and don't get done working until 6, which means not getting home until 6:45. By that time my dog has become so desperate for attention and desperately needing to kill some energy. Unfortunately for him I am so exhausted for having to get up early and working all day that I can't devote much time to running around with him. It's a situation that constantly weighs on my mind, but for now its just gonna have to do. He takes it like a G though.
After walking him and finally getting situated to make dinner its usually around 7:30, and probably around 8 by the time I'm eating and finally allowed to sit down and relax for about 3 hours before its time to go back to bed and restart the whole thing over again. It's awesome that I love my job, but it is seriously killing me softly on the inside (L Boogie what up)
For now though, until I get a real job, this will have to do, and I mean complaining aside, its doing pretty well.

moon man

props to the man on the moon for selling over 100k in his first week. most people were predicting half that. g.o.o.d. music lives.

Cudi Zone - Kid Cudi

best kanye diss ever

man oh man

shaking my head at last night's post. i don't know why i felt like writing a post while hammered drunk was a good idea, when it was so clearly not a good idea last time when i wrote something about the transformers movies. i don't remember writing most of it. so apologies.

that being said i do plan on writing an extensive post on previously mentioned topics sometime later tonight, but in the mean time i gotta watch my chiefs smash up the raiders and listen to the neighbors cry when drew brees throws 6 more touchdowns against their beloved eagles.

El Manana (prequel)

so after i got home from a pretty steady night of drinking, i meant to author a post that was very serious, about philanthropy and altruism, and my views and personal opinions on each subject. the post was to be read while listening to the gorillaz demon days album, and more specifically the song "El manana".

the post itself was meant to have been written after a long night of drinking so that it would be raw and unadulterated and be as honest as i could make it. unfortuanately, when i am under the influence of alchohol i become exteremly un-articulate, and possess the writing instincts of an under privileged 3rd grader. so in order to please my followers, and eventually to be recorded by historians, i have decided to post pone my original post on altruism and philanthropy for a later date. please excuse my lack of spelling and grammatical corrections, for i am wasted as shit after an intesne night of local drinking to celebrate not only the hawkeye football victory but also life and freindship in general. if you have beef with the spelling you can take it up with my hotline, which can be contacted at 1-800-i-dont-give-a-shit or emails to idontgiveashit.com.

that being said, i will actually post a serious, and sober report on my actual views on human rights and justice and altruism in the near future. in the mean time, go chiefs and saints. (i love you eagles on any other days but this week and next, so until then suck it)

And more slightly veiled racism

With Bill O'Reilly and special guest retard Glenn Beck. Obvious problems with racism aside, are these two cock sockets not the most annoyingly stupid pieces of albino shit you've ever heard?

52 shots fired in daylight gunfight

PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia police say two groups of teenagers opened fire on one another as children played on a street in the city’s Eastwick section.

It happened around 3:30 p.m. Thursday outside a home on the 2800 block of Bittern Place.

Police say the shootout erupted after a group of teens drove from another neighborhood and confronted people hanging out on the front steps of a home. No injuries were reported.

Police say the gunmen fired a total of 52 shots from three different weapons, including a high-powered assault rifle. Seven cars were damaged.

Five teenagers have been taken into custody. One faces drug charges after crack cocaine was found during a search of the home, say police.

Detectives think the teen charged was the intended target of the shootout.

This all happened today just a few neighborhoods over from where I was doing service today. Highly messed up. Still not deterred though. I will change this city for the good whether they like it or not, kicking and screaming.

worst night ever

I can't believe I almost forgot to post this, but last I had absolutely the worst nightmare ever last night. It started out by having to relive the entire day of Taylor's funeral, which was absolutely the saddest day of my life. But it only steadily got worse as the days progressed and each one of my friends from that group was dying daily. So every day there was a new funeral for someone whom I have admittedly fallen out of touch with since high school, for like 2 full weeks. Naturally in my dream I was a mess. Just absolutely bawling my eyes out to the point where I was physically exhausted to even breath. When I finally woke up it was around 5 in the morning, about an hour before I have to start my day. I checked my pillow to see how soaked it was and was surprised to see that the only evidence of my being there was a small drool spot, but no tears. It's a wonder that I could be crying so hard in my dream but there was no physical manifestations of my sadness. Suffice it to say I was pretty shook up and had to walk around the house for a little bit to gather myself before dozing off for a paltry 45 minutes. But shit, what a horrible way to begin a day. Fortunately it shocked me into realizing that despite our differences and varying paths traveled, I need to get back into touch with some people that I promised I would stay in touch with since Taylor passed. Its been over a year and a half and those scars are as fresh as the day he died. I miss you so much man, and think about you every day of my life.

truth

put on for my city

nuff said

List of things kharma owes me back for

including but not limited to:
broken passenger side window motor
broken tooth requiring oral surgery
front right paw disfigurement of Winston
saturday night New York City debacle
losing my monthly train pass worth $150
not having been able to find a job the first 4 months of living in Philly
every bump, scrape and bruise that is generally allotted to clumsiness but is actually kharma (there are a lot of them)
the vicious bug bites this season (worst of all time)

At this point I'm reaching a little bit but still, if you consider all the positive things I have or am trying to do, you would think that kharma would at least toss me 5 bucks here, or a favor there, or you know, at least make things neutral as opposed to the extreme lopsidedness. Oh well, all I can do is keep on keepin' on and hope there's some kind of good out there that's coming my way. Considering converting Scientology in the mean time though. At least those mother fuckers stay paid.

Jets

Just one of my favorite rappers doing what one of my favorite rappers does.



and

NYC (continued)

Sorry folks, just thinking about the situation last boils my blood all over again. Suffice it to say it sucked major deez. If you really really wanna know the story you can ask me in person sometime when we both have the time, and hopefully some kind of intoxicant for me afterwards, cus I'll be all stressed out just from talking about it.
In the mean time stay classy buttholes.

NYC

Humiliating story to follow soon. Right now I'm not far enough removed to be able to openly talk about how shitty last night really was. Words can't describe the negative thoughts and feelings I'm having about certain people and situations and life in general. Again, more thoughts to follow. I'm gonna get some Pineapple Express in my life to make myself feel better. Fuck you kharma, you owe me so big right now.

3 day retreat

If your wondering where I've been for the last 3 days, or probably not, I've been on a 3 day retreat with City Year to a retreat center in Malvern PA to do team building exercises and continue basic training for the job that starts the first few days of October. Overall it was about as corny as expected, with some fun stuff sprinkled in there ever so often. However I did meet and get to know a bunch of cool ass people, including the entire hallway of brothers from different colored mothers that I lived with for 3 nights. Connections were made and hopefully will be continued for the next 10 months, but I'm definitely happy to be home with puppy and extremely not black roommates that don't stay up until 2 in the morning being loud, and wake up at 6 continuing to be loud.

distant relatives

Wow, the tracklisting just came out for the Nas and Damien Marley joint coming out hopefully sometime soon this year. Take note of the K'naan double feature and also a Snoop appearance. This album is gonna take em to Africa.
01 Intro (Something New) (prod. Damian Marley)
02 As We Enter (prod. Damian Marley)
03 Revolutionary (prod. Damian Marley)
04 Count Your Blessings (prod. Damian & Stephen Marley)
05 Belief is Key (prod. Damian Marley)
06 Africa Must Wake Up f. K’naan (prod. Nas, Damian & Stephen Marley)
07 Black Horizon f. K’naan (prod. Damian Marley)
08 Only the Strong (prod. Damian & Stephen Marley)
09 Our Generation f. Joss Stone & Stevie Wonder (prod. Damian Marley)
10 Empowerment (prod. Stephen Marley)
11 AID (prod. K’naan & Nas)
12 Let’s End It (Poverty) f. K’naan (prod. 9th Wonder & Damian Marley)
13 The Earth f. Bob Marley (prod. Salaam Remix, Damian & Stephen Marley)
14 Black Man’s Paper f. Erykah Badu (prod. Afry) [UK Bonus]
15 Weed On f. Snoop Dogg (prod. Damian Marley) [iTunes Bonus]

Here's a little sumpin sumpin for your viewing pleasure.

dear iowa football

you did not score 8 touchdowns. please correct this next week.

love tyler

dear iowa football

I expect the amount of beers I drink tonight to be in direct correlation with how many touchdowns are scored tomorrow. Its been a long week so I'm thirsty.

(Yea I know I twittered this too. What can I say, sometimes I find myself clever. Suck it.)

Day 3

Basically just consisted of workshops and speakers all day. Extremely tedious and boring and mind numbing and necessary. (I suppose) Sorry for the lack of enthusiasm on this one. 10 hour days are hard enough, but when you gotta start your waking up process at 6 in the morning things start to get pretty difficult. Especially when I have probably seen 6 o clock in the morning times from staying up that late, then actually getting up that early. City year quote of the day...

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

-Barack Obama

Truth.

QOTD

With all the excitement of starting a new job, I forgot to mention the best and simplest part of my day, that I actually look forward to every morning. Being a night person, it is of no surprise that waking up 3 hours earlier then my body would prefer has been a burden to say the least. But after changing my routine of cereal and cartoons to running with Winston and breakfast on the go, I can already start to feel my body get a little more settled into the early morning. That being said, the greatest part of this new routine, after all of the grumbling, is finally getting onto the train and, not being able to fall back asleep for fear of missing my stop, watching the city skyline slowly make its way into view after about 30 minutes of travel time. The city itself does not have an extremely impressive skyscraper arsenal compared to that of say, a New York or Chicago, but there is something very moving about seeing the city that I am about to serve, creep into view, and shine in the morning sun. But what's even more fantastic is finally crawling out of the underground train station, and first emerging into the already bustling and thriving center city streets. Even with the rampant trash and sewer smell, mixed with the exhaust of speeding cars, the fresh almost autumn air immediately fills your lungs, and the sun shines down on you, and lets you know that you're in the city. I can't help but have a big stupid grin on my face for the first block or two on my way to the office.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm really starting to embrace Philly. And with that I leave you with the City Year quote of the day, that actually ties in very well with my current reading of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being which I will absolutely be blogging about later...

"Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness"

-Leon Trotsky

Day 2

Today was the second day of BT (basic training) which was basically one long day of workshops, ranging from the history of City Year and Americorps, to the rules and regulations of the mantel (batman joke about the uniform). I must say the workshops themselves can be interesting at times, but sitting in a hot room with 60-230 other young adults ready to serve can be trying. I am already a very restless person by nature, so having me sit in a sweltering room, in uncomfortable chairs, surrounded by a horde of other uncomfortable, and quite tired individuals is a drain. I understand that its absolutely necessary to be as trained as possible, especially when the lives of our future are at stake, but its hard not to be more then a little frustrated in such a boring setting.

On a positive note, I have started to hit it off with more then a couple of my team mates (naturally, since I'm one of 3 males in the group) and have already been invited to enjoy some beverages for the weekend. I really hope I stay in touch with some of these people once we get our placements and are more then likely split up. Its only the second day of knowing these people, but there is something extremely compelling about knowing that all of us are in the same boat, both literally, and ideologically.

I've somewhat realized that with the strenuous new hours of BT I will not be blogging/facebooking/twittering even a fraction as much as I normally do on a given day, but there is something a little bit liberating in knowing that I can't look or think about a computer screen until I get home and have thoroughly taken care of myself and the dog first. Assuming my days stay eventful, I will hopefully at least have one entry per day.

Can you tell I'm a little excited about starting work?

Give a year. Change the world.

Today was the first day of training to become a better human being, and help others do the same. Half the day was spent getting to know our new team members for the next month, followed by some intense clean up efforts of a kids playground on the west side of Philly. I wanted to break into the fresh prince of bel-air theme song, but figured there were probably hundreds before me that have done the same thing, so I quietly kept it to myself. The playground itself didn't stand a snowballs chance in hell against 200 some odd workers, spirited workers at that. It took just under 3 hours to completely clear out a playground and football/baseball field, two basketball courts and an open lot of a forest of weeds, broken glass and various contraband. It really is quite remarkable how much a huge difference a group of people can make in such a short amount of time. I can only hope for the same results for the youth of Philadelphia, and America for that matter. It took literally one day for me to be fully in line with the ideologies of City Year, and can only hope everyone else subscribes to the same thing. Unfortunately it will be another month before I can put this positive energy to use in the classrooms and lives of children. But I know it will be worth it.
On a different note, I had the song Empire State of Mind from The Blueprint III on repeat today, both riding the train to work, on the walk to the City Year office, and again on the train back and the walk home. Its looking to become the anthem for anything positive in life, especially changing others. Alicia Keys should be deified or at the very least made a saint for the hook on this one. So without further adieu.
Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys "Empire State of Mind" The Blueprint III