This is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog.

Monday January 30, 2006

Click here for the first verse. And to prove that I can be productive at work, here’s the second verse.

An MC with no words
Is like no wings on a bird
There might be high hopes
But they’re both locked to earth

A man without his tools
Might as well be a fool
Because he’s filled with ideas
That serve no use

The day the words failed
We lost ability to communicate
Thoughts remained thoughts
All we could do was contemplate ruminate

But the pressure of a thought
Can only be eased by a word
Man could not move to action
Without the use of verbs

Communication ceased
Silent disruption of the peace
As intelligent men
Became no better than wild beast

And as expression grew scarce
The passion grew fierce
Til no man could walk the streets
Without good reason to be scared

The air was filled with
Incoherent mumblings
A disjointed soundtrack
To civilization crumbling

It was a tragic day
When words failed across the globe
And we all felt the pain of lost
And we all endured alone

(chorus)
It may seem like a dream
But if it actually happened
Who’d be left laughing?

I know that you know what I mean
But that understanding
Can’t be taken for granted

One more verse to go.

This is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog

Monday January 30, 2006

Wow. I come into contact with a very diverse set of people, and one thing I’ve noticed a few times is that intelligent people have a tendency to be social idiots. People who can understand complex mathematical concepts or read C++ like it’s their first language seem to have trouble choosing appropriate ways to interact with fellow human beings. My assumption was that they spent so much time on their math or science that they were not used to interactions with people. Of course that theory was always flawed because I know plenty of artists and musicians who will disappear from society for months at a time to pursue their work yet can still have a normal conversation. But, I had no other theories to go on…until now.

To quote Slashdot , “The BBC is reporting that a leading scientist in area of Developmental Psychopathology, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, is indicating that there is good chance that there is a scientific basis to the observed phenomenon that children with highly analytical parents are more likely to be autistic. He believes the genes which make someone analytical may also impair their social and communication skills.”

Check out the article. It’s an interesting read. Remember though – the evidence is far from conclusive and correlation does not necessarily point to cause and effect.

This is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog

Friday January 27, 2006

So I’ve been doing a little bit of blog browsing on 360, and it seems like a lot of people post their poetry. Not being one to miss out on trends, I’m gonna post a verse to a new song I started writing today. (I also have nothing else to write about at the moment) Its broken up into stanzas for easy reading.

The Day the Words failed

An MC with no message
But ill ass phonics
Is like the empty promise
Of a prodigious convict

A wordsmith without a topic
Is like a real gifted prophet
Who speaks nothing but nonsense
It’s a problem

The day the words failed
Problems ran rampant
We succumbed to the
Pedantic antics of charismatic asses

It was like instant ignorance
As intelligence vanished
Leaving conscientious people
Starved, mentally famished

Everyone could speak
But words became so useless
Rich, poor, and educated
We all became clueless

Efforts to save information
Were ultimately fruitless
We became the ultimate losers
Victimized by the ruthless

Men that preyed on incoherence
Were free to take advantage
As meaning was destroyed
With nothing left to salvage

It was catastrophic
When minds became so catatonic
That no one felt sorrow
For the tragic loss of logic

(chorus)
It may seem like a dream
But if it actually happened
Who’d be left laughing?

I know that you know what I mean
But that understanding
Can’t be taken for granted

If I finish the other verses in the next few days, I might post them.

This is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog. Follow the link to see the pic.

Thursday January 26, 2006

Like the pic? The dancers come out in the middle of the week. Leave the weekend for the “Amateur Drinkers.”

I go out a lot. (House music all night long) Many people I know look at me and ask questions like “How do you have so much energy?” I’ve been getting this question for years just because I go out and dance. When I look at some of the people around me when I’m out, it starts to make sense. On average, people around my age don’t seem to have a lot of energy. People get up and dance for two songs and then they have to take a rest. It’s no wonder they want to know my secret.

Here’s my secret: Energy is like money – you have to spend it to make it. It’s as simple as that. How can you have the energy to dance? Go out and dance. How can you have the energy to ride a bike? Ride a bike. Need energy for a martial art….you get the point. People constantly blame age for lack of stamina and endurance, but age has little to do with it. One of the best dancers I know is in his mid thirties. Somehow he finds the energy to keep a black belt in Kenpo teach two Capoeira classes and do things you didn’t think were possible on the dance floor. I’ve seen men in their 60s and beyond who are active Capoeristas. One thing these people all have in common is they keep doing what they do. When you stop being active, that’s when your metabolism slows, you put on weight, and your lungs seem to shrink to half their original size. When you stay active, it affects many different areas of your life. You’ll probably live better and throughout the day you’ll feel better, physically and mentally. And, there are so many ways to stay active. If you don’t like one, try another. If you’re a focused and/or loner type, you can workout at home, ride a bike or jog. If you prefer to work out with other people, join a gym, a dance class or check out your local community organizations and rec centers for various classes. If you can fit it in, do multiple things. No matter what your interests and budget, there is a way for you to be active. If you’re not active now, it’ll be hard to start, but once your body begins to get accustomed to the new demands on it, you will feel great. If you are active now, you’re ahead of the game, just make sure you stay active.

****

Ok, I hope you enjoyed our intermission, time for our second topic. I figured I could lump these together because this is slightly related to what I just wrote. It’s a pet peeve of mine. LEARN CLUB ETTIQUETE.

1) Dance floors are for dancing. They are not for talking on the phone. They are not for having group conversations. They are not for standing. If you are not dancing, get out of the way.
2) No matter how much you want to get to the bathroom, bar, or wherever the hell else you’re going, other people exist. Walking into someone really fast will not make your body pass through theirs. Look where you’re going.
3) On a related note, once you see someone in the way, do not push them out of your way. Step up to them and pause so they have a chance to see you trying to get by and move out of your way. If their back is to you, gently tap their shoulder or something to let them know you are there. Guys, this does not mean grab a girl’s ass.
4) On another related note, be aware of your body and its surroundings. We are not ostriches. People still exist even if we don’t see them. Look behind you before you back up. If someone is there, don’t back up. The same holds for moving sideways and forward.
5) If you see a circle of people watching one person dance, do not walk through it. Walk around the edge AFTER you’ve looked to make sure you won’t be walking into the path of whoever is doing what they’re doing. Trust me, its better that way. If all those people were dancing at the same time instead of one by one, there would be no room for you on the dance floor.
6) If you like the way someone dances and feel the need to tell them, tell them. ONCE.
7) Related note – don’t say stupid sh**t. you do not owe it to anyone to dance as well as them. Don’t apologize to people because you don’t think you dance as well as them. That’s annoying. If you’re white, don’t go up to a black person that dances really well and say “I’m just a white boy with no rhythm.” That’s stupid.
Drink your drink. Don’t spill it. Liquor and beer all over the dance floor makes it slippery, dangerous and just plain unpleasant. If you can’t dance without spilling your drink, drink it first or rest it someplace nearby where you can watch it as you dance. If you’re not dancing and you’re still spilling your drink, it’s time to stop drinking.

Hmmm…That’s all I can think of for now. If you have any more, let me know.

This is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog.

Monday January 23, 2006

I think written curse words have more impact when they’re partly censored, don’t you?

Nowadays, it’s far more normal for a person to be computer savvy then just a few years ago. Still, for most people, there is a mysterious fog surrounding the world of hackers. Hackers are these mysterious guys with glasses and B.O. who, once they are in front of the computer, have powers rivaling those of God. That’s what the conception is anyway. Hackers know how to use obscure vulnerabilities and take advantage off software features to break into and manipulate systems.

Well, here’s a little demystification. One of the most common forms of hacking does not necessarily involve computers at all. The easiest, and probably surest, way to gain access to restricted systems or information is a process known as “Social Engineering.” Don’t get scared off by the jargon, that’s just a fancy way of saying “tricking people.” For example, when I was in college, suppose I wanted to get onto a professor’s computer to change someone’s grade. I could have studied up on hacking and tried to crack the security, break into the database and changed the grade. That would’ve been the hard way. The easy way would be to walk into the department office, say “I’m here from the computing center. I’m supposed to look at ____’s computer, “sit down at the professor’s computer and change the grade. I know for a fact this would have worked because I did it numerous times. Not the grade changing part, but I did work for the computing center. It always amazed me when I first started that people who didn’t know me from Tyrone Bigguns would let me walk into their offices and mess around on their computers, sometimes even walking out with their computers – all with no kind of identification.

There is a virus going around that’s supposed to delete a bunch of files on Feb 3rd. Is it a sophisticated virus that dodges network security to infect computers? No. It’s a simple thing that doesn’t use advanced technology to get on computers; it uses promises of free porn. Tons of people get aggravated with the amount of spam that clutters their inboxes, yet some of those same people help fill my inbox because they think Bill Gates might somehow track that e-mail that promises payments of 1 million dollars and they believe he might have the funds to pay each of the millions of people who have received and forwarded it.

Be on your guard. Hacking is not some supernatural phenomenon that you can’t avoid, it’s generally a simple thing that you can avoid with a little thought and awareness. If you really need your porn, get on the web and find it yourself. Be sure about who you let on your computer. Think about those e-mails before you send them. If someone is offering to sell you something, don’t buy. If you really want what they’re selling you can track it down and get it from a reputable source. Protect your identity and information.

this is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog

Friday January 20, 2006

Yesterday, a friend of mine told me a story about something stupid she did earlier in the day. (I won’t repeat the story now because I need to preserve my blackmail ammo) After she told the story she said “You should write about that in your blog!” My response was “F**k you! Write that s**t yourself! You smell like piss!!!” or something of that nature. But, today it came back to mind and inspired me to write:

There are many misconceptions about the field of philosophy and what it entails. When I tell people I studied philosophy they respond with questions like “what’s your philosophy on life?” Academic philosophy basically involves two things. 1) Logic and argument – a lot of academic philosophy is learning how to form a proper and logical argument. If a statement begins with “I believe”, then it doesn’t have much of a place in philosophy. A statement carries weight when it logically follows previous statements that have already been proven or at least well argued. 2) Specific arguments to a few central questions or “problems.”

What first interested me in philosophy was the question of the good life. What is it to live a good life? This always seemed like such an important question to me, but I don’t think it is one most people ask themselves very often. Do you consider yourself a good person? What is the good life? If your answer to the first question is yes but your answer to the second is “I don’t know” then there is a logical problem here. Most people would look at someone who lives a life of servitude to humanity as a good person. In fact, I think philanthropy is one of the current “standards” of goodness. Hard work, honesty and good manners are some others. If you know someone who is a polite, honest and hard working humanitarian, chances are you consider that person to be an angel or even God incarnate. But, that causes problems for the rest of us. Everyone can’t be a humanitarian or else the world would stop. This is especially true in today’s world of multi-tasking dabblers. Is it impossible for a cook-by-day/performer-by-night with no time to volunteer to live a good life? Of course it is possible that the answer is ‘no’ but I can’t even contemplate such a bleak picture.

To make this daunting question seem simpler, let’s pretend to break it down into simpler parts. What is good? In order to understand what a life of goodness entails it is first necessary to know what goodness itself is. Pause to consider…….errr…this is why our attempts at simplification were just for show. ‘Good’ is a concept that touches just about every aspect of our lives. We try to be good, do the right thing, teach our children to be good, etc but it is one of the most slippery concepts to define. I’m not going to go through all the possible definitions and their shortcomings, but if you’re interested you can do some reading on moral philosophy. We spend our lives blindly pursuing a specific goal that we can’t identify.

I’ve spent a good amount of time reading about, writing about and thinking about the meaning of ‘good’, and I have yet to find a satisfactory definition. One thing I am convinced of is that it’s an important question. Nobody is perfect and if we all took time everyday to consider ‘the good life’, we’d find examples in our own lives where we know we definitely are not living it even if we can’t define it. Plato and Aristotle both arrived at the same conclusion by different paths. The best life is that of a philosopher because a philosopher constantly seeks the good life. A philosopher (by that definition) is constantly questioning himself and others, taking nothing on assumption. That concept leads to great discussions in the classroom, but I think it needs to be taken out of the classroom.

So I say: Live the best life you can – take some time to think about ‘the good life’.

This is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog

Thursday January 19, 2006

I don’t know if I’m misreading people, but sometimes I get the impression that a lot of young well-read people aren’t very impressed by some of the more known classics. Well, I just want to say that I am impressed. The other day I was reading Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and, as it does every time I read it, it amazed me. This time though, I had hip-hop on my mind as I read it and it struck me – Poe was into wordplay. The type of wordplay many MCs would be proud of if they could claim authorship. The poem came up in conversation with a friend of mine, another MC, and he made a similar comment. The value of certain works of art are very much connected to their placement in time. Think of that song that makes everybody go back to a certain era of time whenever its played, but if the song were to come out now it would’ve been laughed off of the airwaves. We move forward, certain forms get more developed, certain things that were once original and rare become cliche and boring, and interests change. You have to respect a piece of art that can pass through time without succumbing to those threats and remains valuable in different contexts because its true value is seperate from its original context.

As if that wasn’t enough, while I was searching the web for a link to the poem to post here, I came across an essay that Poe wrote detailing how he went about writing “The Raven” and why he made some of the decisions he made regarding. This man was a genius. He treated writing this poem as if it were a math problem and he came up with a formula that led to a poem the stepped out of the formulaic box poetry tends to fall into. No rant today, just a recommendation.

Read the poem.
Then read the essay.

This is a repost from my Yahoo! 360 blog. There is a picture for this entry. Follow the link to see it.

Wednesday January 18, 2006

A few months ago I saw a bike locked up to a signpost in my neighborhood. This bike stood out from most bikes – It was bright and pink and it had beads hanging all over a big basket attached to the front. Overall it was a little girly for my taste, but I couldn’t help but appreciate the magnificence. Somebody must have been very happy to get a new toy like that. As soon as I saw the bike, a particular friend of mine popped into my head. I knew that it was imperative that I show it to her because she would love to see it and, as a fellow bike rider, would appreciate the significance that such a bike would have in its owner’s life. Just to explain it to all the non bikers – a new bike can make any day of the year feel like Christmas (the gift/Santa part anyway) even if you’re a dedicated Buddhist with no legs. Now combine the normal new-bike-happiness with the happiness added by the fact that this bike was obviously customized and/or picked out specifically to fit the tastes and personality of the owner, and you have one happy biker. In this day and age there is much talk about jealousy and “haters” (I haven’t seen much evidence that this is as widespread a problem as Puffy says it is, but that’s another post), but I decided to put my “hater” ways aside and be happy for the faceless stranger who had gained the happiness of a new bike.

Now fast forward. Every time my friend happened to be in the area, the bike would slip my mind until the next time that I saw it while she wasn’t around. I brushed it off because I figured that eventually I would get to show it to her, I was in no rush. I should’ve been. One day I noticed that the front wheel was gone. Fast forward. The back wheel was gone. After that, every time I passed the bike, instead of sharing in a stranger’s happiness, I would think about what a shame it is that it’s so hard for someone to keep something nice. Yesterday I got a new camera and the first thing I did after getting home was go out to get a picture of that bike. I guess the cake needed a little icing. Last night I found that the handle bars were gone along with the attached basket and the beads that had been hanging from it were in a pile on the sidewalk. I never got to show my friend the bike. (Never put off until tomorrow what . . .)

Now, so far I’ve been writing with a pretty facetious tone, but damn! I watched this bike get transformed from what must have been someone’s dream bike to a frame and a pile of beads – piece by piece. I wish I had a before picture so I could convey how dramatic the transformation was. And the worst thing about it is that if I had paused to think about it, I would have seen this coming the first time I set eyes on the bike. That’s the worst thing about this because it’s not an isolated set of incidents. New things exposed to the public just don’t last. It’s not because of normal wear and tear, it’s because people purposely break them, steal them, or otherwise misuse and mistreat them. I like to think that people are generally good, but what use does that do when it’s the deviants from the average whose actions affect us the most?