Friday, February 27, 2009

Dawn Richard: I want to, but I just can't!

When I got online this morning I ran across this post of Dawn Richard (of Danity Kane), which is composed of scans (I assume) of her KING Magazine spread. I took a look at the first picture and scrolled down and then I remembered (again) that Dawn is the sister of one of my friends from college. Not only that, I met Dawn several years back and my web design company (part time thing) did the first version of her website, www.dawnrichardonline.com. But that's not the point I'm trying to make.

The point is that I'm a bit conflicted.

Conflicted because this is my friend's sister so I don't really want to look at her as just another famous half-naked person. I mean, I want to, but I just can't. I'm sure fellas who've grown up with a male friend whose younger sister was smoking hot can relate to what I'm saying. Beyond that, I met Dawn and I know that she is a very nice person and not what many people will subconsciously think/assume she is based on pictures like these. But at the same time, you make your bed and you have to lay in it too.

I wish Dawn all the success in her career and I'm sure she's working hard to achieve that success but those pictures help reinforce in my mind just how much sex is used to sell us people, products, services, and anything else that can create revenue. I'm sure I could have talked about this a long time ago but it hit a little closer to home this time because it forced me to address my own ethics and values because of the personal connection I have to her brother.

Facebook Man Law #1


I've been thinking about some things in general that should not be done on Facebook but today I realized what needs to be my first Man Law for Facebook.

Facebook Man Law #1: No man can accept a friend request from another man that has no shirt on in his profile picture.

For examples of some of the ludicrous and unacceptable stuff I'm talking about take a look below:




And just for posterity, even celebs can't pull this stunt.



SEE!

And this one is just bonus coverage because Curly has a shirt on but he still looks well, hmmmmnnnnn.


Fellas, I know you think it's attractive and sexy to show off your cuts (or lack thereof in some cases) to the ladies of Facebook. But let's be real this is really some BlackPlanet or Myspace shyt that you're doing. You're screaming for attention and I know that this lame shyt is attractive to some women but on average people are going to assume you're a self-absorbed clown, or perhaps ghey (not that there's anything wrong with that). No guy that was cool with you ten days, weeks, months, or years ago wants to be reintroduced to you by pictures of you looking like you just won a "push-ups in baby oil" contest. Save that for your personal/private collection.

To all of you guys that make your profile pictures one in which you have no shirt on or are otherwise trying waaaaay too hard to draw attention to yourself I would like to give you a stern but polite G-T-F-O-H! Before you try to request friendship with another dude (why does that make me laugh), change your profile picture! Don't worry, you can swap it back out for the ladies right after you're done, douchebag!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Baltimorians Looking for Employment, this post is for you!

Congressman Elijah Cummings 2009 Job Fair
Monday March 30, 2009
9:00 AM TO 3:00 PM
Fifth Regiment Armory
29TH Division Street
Baltimore, 21201


Participating employers:

BCDept of Rec and Parks
Baltimore City Joint
Apprenticeship Program
BC Schools
Chimes
HC Health Department
and Police Department
HC Public School System
Kennedy Krieger Institute
MD Dept of Juvenile Services
MD Dept of Labor, Licensing
and Regulation
MD Dept of Environment
MD Dept of Education
Whiting-Turner
Towson University
Census Bureau
*and more*

Baltimore Blocks

27th Street and Greenmount Avenue

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Great Short Film: New Boy




More info here.

You're going to hate that you love this

A few weeks ago I saw a bumper sticker on the back of a VW Beetle (one of the new ones) that had me dying laughing. Before viewing the picture I want you to keep in mind that I am a Barack supporter wholeheartedly and I think he ROCKED the address last night. But even though I support the man I can't help but find some humor when people poke fun at him. Especially when it's not racially motivated but just good-ole plain humor. Just because he's Black doesn't mean I can't laugh at someone's jokes about him.

Enjoy!

In case you can't read it says "NObama '08". But the tagline is what really made me bust out laughing.


That is CLASSIC!

My new office

Recently my job relocated about 100 feet south of our old building (no lie). The move went over fairly well and now I'm located on the 6th floor of an office building sharing an office with two of my co-workers. The best part of this new location is the view I have from my window. It looks southward toward downtown Baltimore.

Check out the new digs.






Tuesday, February 24, 2009

It's the KING

My favorite NBA player since his second year in the league.

There is no doubt in my mind

Bobby Jindal is a d-bag. I can just feel it.

Next-Up: Drake

If you haven't already copped the So Far Gone mixtape do yourself a favor and GET THAT!


Sorry B.o.B., time to move out the way.

When being a snarky foreigner goes wrong

I was at the bus stop yesterday and this Carnival cruiseline advertisement caught my eye.

The full ad goes something like "All those tired of wearing pants" and then there's the Carnival logo. The point of the ad is to convince you that if you're tired of wearing pants, go hop on a Carnival cruise. And by now you know I've been there and done that so I'm familiar with all the Carnival branding and their advertisements catch my eye.

But what I noticed on second glance was some writing on the advertisement right after the word "wearing".



The first thing I thought was some kid wanted to be "funny" and write a message there for all to see. But when I read it I was surprised that the message made absolutely no sense, but I could tell what the person was trying to say.

If you put the ad together with what the person wrote it reads: "All those tired of wearing on the bus because it takes forever." I assume the person confused "wearing" with "waiting" (hmmmnnnnn).

After reading it I kinda chuckled to myself because the first thing I thought is that someone failed the TOEFL (Test of English as a First Language). You all know I'm ignant as hell so I could be wrong but it seems to me like that could be a common mistake that someone not very learned or familiar with the nuances of English language might write. And add to the mix that this bus stop was on the Johns Hopkins University campus (did I mention foreigners) and it just made me laugh because I can remember some experiences in undergrad where some of the not-so-familiar-with-English students would try to be slick and say something that made no sense at all. So this took me back a little bit and I can't help but wonder who it was that wrote it.

Less Bob Vila and More Tim "The Toolman" Taylor

It's been a while since my last home improvement project but I just finished up a home fix it project and thought I would share.

Late last week my kitchen sink started leaking a bit and I had to investigate to see what the deal was. "What had happened was..."

The seal that keeps the sink strainer connected to the piping below had dried out and was no longer sealing. You can see the old, dried putty (I assume) in the picture below.



You see all that rusty/brownish-white stuff? Well, you're not supposed to see that because that's the stuff that holds the pieces together. Before I realized that this was the problem I tried to tighten the lock-nut that holds everything together and as nature (and my luck) would have it, I completely broke it. You can see it below in the 3 pieces that I broke it into.


Here are some pics I took while I was taking it apart along with a shot of everything once I got everything separated.









Once I realized what was wrong I started to think: "Maybe I can save myself some money on a plumber and put it back together on my own (who wants to pay a plumber, right)".

So I started checking everything out to see if it was a plausible thought that I could actually fix this on my own. It's one thing to think you can fix something but you also don't want to mess things up to the point where you do some real damage (read: expen$$$$ive damage).

But after looking at (and making some assumptions) about how things were connected I decided I'd give it a shot. After getting all the supplies from Home Depot, I read the instructions on the back of the strainer box and it laid everything out in simple enough terms so I went into everything with a little bit of confidence. I mean I do have an engineering degree for goodness sakes! LOL.

Here's a shot of everything I had to buy to put it back together with a proper seal.



I was fortunate enough to only have to buy some plumber's putty and the strainer (it came with all the pieces that needed to be replaced). So it turned out this wouldn't be as complicated a job as I had expected. The first thing I did was clean off the old dried up putty from the hole in my sink. Then I replaced it with a new layer of putty. I think I used a bit too much but it's easy to clean off the excess (I didn't know it would be as easy to clean off as it was initially so I was happy that it was easily removable).

This is a pic of me making sure that the new strainer would fit.


After that I applied the layer of plumber's putty.



After that I put the strainer in place. During this part I had to press down pretty hard on the strainer to ensure that there was a good seal so I used the end of a spare pipe to press down on the strainer and get a good seal on everything.


From there I had to do all the work under the sink to connect the piping back together properly. This was the toughest part of all.




Here's how it looked from above once I put everything back together.


I had to remove the excess putty but once I did that, VOILA!



And that is my second home project that I'm just a smidgeon proud of (smidgeon, eh?).

Monday, February 23, 2009

Miscellaneous Randomness

It's been a minute since I've did one of these posts. Enjoy!

Rihanna still wants Chris Breezy? GTFOH!

This isn't the first time I've heard that she still allegedly wants to be with this dude even though he put the REAL BIG HAND on her. If it is true that she wants him back after all this it leads me to believe that: 1) Chris may have gave her that azz-whooping while trying to protect himself from her, and/or 2) Ri-Ri really was sliding off on Chris and got herpes and brought it back to the lil homie. Common sense says that the story linked-to above most likely isn't true but who knows what's really true in this situation. But I bet you one thing, there's a lot more to it than what the media's been putting out.

Marlon Jackson (yes, that Marlon Jackson) building a slavery theme park in Nigeria

Negro please!

Ladies, stand UP! Literally.

Go Girl!

Basketball game turns into a riot

Why?

As far as style goes --> Kid Cudi = Kanye "Lite"


It's official!



I love this song but after seeing this footage and the above video, I'm convinced Kid Cudi is Kanye Lite.

And it's not that being like Kanye is a bad thing necessarily, it's more about originality. I guess I should give him more time to show that he isn't as Kanye-esque (in terms of his style) as he appears to be, but it's not looking very good.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Tight Jeans on Guys: STOP THE MADNESS!!!!



I know the genre is evolving but seriously!

I think it may be up to the ladies to stop this lame trend. If the women start ignoring these clowns with tight jeans on and demanding that guys be able to put their hands in their pants pockets maybe this will stop. I'm tired of seeing all these dudes boxers and their jeans lookin' like they had to lay on their beds and wiggle into them with their feet up in the air like women do (LOL).


Fellas, if you have to do that to get into your jeans, that shyt is ghey. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I'm just saying man the ---- up.

If this was my sister...


YOU!ALREADY!KNOW!

I liked Chris Brown a lot and I am sure he regrets making this huge mistake but it's going to be hard for him to rebound from this. This is worse than the R. Kelly shenanigans and inching toward O.J. territory. It's sad that his career might be over after this or at least for the foreseeable future but it can help serve as a lesson to others that you just can't put your hands on a woman in this way.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

My fridge doesn't even have half of this stuff in it




This is classic. Should I feel inadequate because my fridge STAYS empty, I don't have any video games (other than the original playstation system I NEVER play), and I have like 3 bottled waters a whole bunch of condiments and left-over spaghetti in my fridge? ... Neeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh! Or maybe I just want you to think that I don't really care. I'm not sure yet, LOL.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Here yo go Big E!

I wish I could...


I ain't gonna lie, the song has grown on me and maybe I was a little too sensitive/scathing in my other post about this song. Maybe.

My boo for the nite

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MONKEEEEEEEEEEEY!


I believe the connotation here is that it's so easy a monkey could do it. Whether or not the monkey is supposed to be a representation of our first Black President is another story. But I can understand why this would offend some people simply because it's open to too much interpretation.

Why would I do this to myself?

Mizz-ee or Swiz-ee???

Go ahead, have at it...


Don't ever say I can't laugh at myself. CHUMPS!

My previous fury is well-documented.

Video: Welcome to Heartbreak

One of my favorite tracks off the 808's album.


Kanye is always ahead of the game when it comes to his videos. Or at the very least, creative.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Things I did for the first time while in NYC last week...

New York...Good.Ole.New.York! Let's get to the post though...

Took the train to get there...Riding the train to NYC > Driving, especially if you're staying in Manhattan.

Went to Club Macanudo...Puff, puff, pass.

Went to a taping of the Letterman show... "You know it's fashion week and the Westminister dog show this week. You know what that means right? There's b*tches running up and down NYC" -- David Letterman. He must have done the same thing I did before the show, LOL.

Tweeted about the conference I was attending while attending the conference sessions. She gon' let me tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet-tweet!

Had a watermelon martini with a watermelon ball in it...Ciroc and pineapple > fruit-infused martini.

Went to Dave and Busters in Times Square...Yeah I can do that at home, so what!

Sent a fax from a hotel fax machine...Best decision I made all week. Faxed my timecard for my part-time gig and hit the jackpot.

Had a bomb conference lunch overlooking Times Square...One of the reasons why NYC > just about any other city.

Went to Brother Jimmy's for rib tips and beer...Brother Jimmy's for rib tips > Famous Dave's

Had Irish Whiskey...Scotch is on deck.

Did not take a single picture with my real camera, only the camera on my cellphone...Boo to me, I know.

Until the next trip...