To all Baltimorians out there...Beware!!!

RED LIGHT CAMERA LOCATIONS

The Phase II cameras are digital (I'm sure that these will probably be implemented in cities across the country soon). They will send you a ticket with a picture but you will also be given an ID number where you can go online and watch yourself running the red light. They look like glass bubbles and will not flash as you go through the light. There was an article in the Sun paper.

PHASE I LOCATIONS

Northern Parkway & Falls Rd.
Northern Parkway & York Rd.
Reisterstown Road & Patterson Ave.
Eastern Avenue & Kane St.
Edmonson Avenue & Hilton St.
Edmonson Avenue & Cooks La.
Franklin Street & Pulaski St.
Orleans Street & Gay St.
President Street & Fayette St.
Russell Street NB & Hamburg St.
Russell Street SB & Hamburg St.
Light Street & Pratt Street
Pulaski Highway & Monument St.
MLK Jr. Blvd. & Washington Blvd.
Franklin Street & Franklintown Rd.
Hillen Road & Argonne Dr.
North Avenue & Howard Str.
Patapsco Avenue & 4th St.
Lombard Street & Gay St.
Reisterstown Road SB & Fallstaff Rd.
Hanover Street & Cromwell St.
Park Heights Avenue NB & Hayward Ave.
Park Heights Avenue SB & Hayward Ave.
Harford Road & North Ave.
MLK Jr. Blvd. & Pratt St.
Northern Parkway EB & Greenspring Aven.
Northern Parkway WB & Greenspring Ave.
Reisterstown Road & Menlo Dr.
Edmonson Ave. & Athol Ave./Woodridge EB Edmonson Avenue
& Athol Ave.
Frederick Avenue & Catherine St.
Park Heights Avenue & Violet Ave.
Sinclair Lane & Moravia Rd.
Russell Street & Bayard St.
Wilkens Avenue & Desoto La.
Pratt Street & Howard St.
Northern Parkway & Waverly Way
Cold Spring Lane & Hillen Rd.
Liberty Heights Avenue & Dukeland St.
Hanover Street & Reedbird Ave.
Ft. Smallwood Road & Ft. Armistead Rd.
Wabash Avenue & Garrison Blvd.
Walther Avenue & Glenmore Ave.
Franklin Street & Cathedral St.
Perring Parkway & Belvedere Ave.
Cold Spring Lane & Roland Ave.
Cold Spring Lane & Loch Raven Blvd.

PHASE II LOCATIONS

Caton Avenue NB & Benson Ave.
Caton Avenue SB & Benson Ave.
Reisterstown Road & Druid Park Dr.
Wilkens Avenue & Pine Heights Ave.East 33rd Street EB & The Alameda
The Alameda SB & East 33rd St.
York Road & Gittings Ave.
Potee Street & Talbot St.
Gwynns Falls Pkwy & Garrison Blvd.
Charles Street & Lake Ave.
Wabash Avenue & Belvedere Ave.
Harford Road & Walther Blvd.
Orleans Street & Linwood Ave.
Erdman Avenue EB & Macon St.
Erdman Avenue WB & Macon St.
Macon Street NB & Erdman Ave.


This is from the Department of Transportation
Charles L. Benton Building
417 E. Fayette Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Black women, Black men...WAKE UP

If you have any feelings/opinions about the relationship between black men and black women (or relationships in general for that matter), take a listen to the poem below.

This is a poem that was sent to me as an email forward so some of you may have already heard this.

<a href="http://mike.webic.biz/poemwife.wav">Click here to listen</a>

I think she does a good job of mouthing alot of the frustrations that black women have with black men. Initially I thought this was going to be what I have termed "A SH&T on Ni99as party" but she went from venting to really just stating the REAL.

She even broke it down as to what type of men she has dealt with. And we all know that alot of what she is saying is 100% true. You can name some people you know who fit those descriptions. Ladies, I know you can probably name some dudes to fit one or more of these decriptions. And fellas, if you felt funny listening to it, you are probably one of those "ni99as".

A poem like this makes me re-visit how much pain, struggle, and frustration there is in a lot of relationships between black men and women. It's kind of sad to me because I things don't have to be this way. What she talked about happens to lots of women! So it needs to be discussed. But not discussed ONLY in circles of black women. There needs to be dialogue between black men and women for any progress to be made. I think this is where we often get things twisted. Women get upset because a brother did them wrong and they go back and huddle with their girls. That's fine initially, but once the pain is over, there needs to be some sort of dialogue between women and men who are honest and have some sort of integrity about them (I guess you would call these men "good" men). But the problem is SO bad that some women are hurt to the point that they can't see any man as a GOOD MAN! That people, is TRULY SAD and I think it's something that black men have to accept alot of the blame for and also step up to dispell the negativity surrounding relationships between black men and women.

Shot out to all those strong black couples I know...J, Laf, Jon, Rah, Kev, WG...Do your thing fellas!!!

A Year of Black History

Most of you probably are not like me...You probably did something during February that had to do with Black History month.

But I was lucky enough today to get an email from my co-worker Ashanti with the calendar below attached. I think this is a GREAT calendar! It lists an entire year of milestones and achievements for Blacks. Please download the calendar and take a look.

Sub-culture Spotlight: EMO

My co-worker sent me this. I thought it was entertaining/funny. But the more I think about it it's kind of interesting in terms of the mash-up of a subculture this appears to be...Is it preppy? Is it "brokeback"? Is it gothic? Is it hipster? Hell, I dunno...

In the words of Big G..."YOU MAKE THE CALL!!!!"

The Ron Artest Countdown...

This is NOT a countdown like other Ron Artest countdowns...No no no! This is not the countdown until he freaks out again...This is not the countdown until he decides he wants to concentrate on his rap career again...And it is not the countdown until he decides he doesn't want to play in Sac-town...

This is the countdown until [drumroll....]the next time Ron Artest makes a public appearance with a shape-up!!!!

Everytime I see this BAMA he has the complete opposite of a shape-up! I can't even think of a word to describe his hairline other than confused. I mean check it out for yourself...





Wasn't he on the The Shop on MTV recently or am I mistaken. If he was they ought to be ashamed because I JUST saw him on Sportcenter 10 minutes ago sporting a fresh...Oh, wait...Not fresh anything! It was the normal wet spaghetti noodle shape-up he normally rocks! I mean DAYUM! Even Busta Rhymes when he had dreads kept a fresh shape-up.



You can do better than this Ron...By my calculations you are more than slightly rich! You can afford a traveling stylist, let alone a d@mn shape-up.

In the words of T.I., "get ya sh^t together!"

The clock is ticking...

I got hit with a BANANA!

So my co-worker Brian and I are coming back from lunch Monday and I'm driving down Charles St. almost at Loyola when someone in a a car going in the opposite direction of us tosses a banana from the passenger side. The banana floats through the air and lands smack in the middle of my windshield.

My reaction [in my mind]:
Slam on breaks...Turn around and chase this m*th%rf#ck@r!

My reaction [in reality]:
Turn to my co-worker and say "I'm glad you're in the car with me!"

Had I been in the car with one of the boys from around the way, my reaction in my mind would have been a reality (most likely). I am glad that was not the case because only God knows what would have happened.

I found the whole situation ironic in a way. You see, at the moment that banana hit the windshield of my car, Brian and I were talking about the movie CRASH and the racial stereotypes addressed in the movie. To me, this was ironic because I am a young black man riding in the car with a young white man. But, I will bet ANY amount of money that if I were in the car with two or three of my "homeboys" (lets just say one guy with a durag on, another with corn-rows, and another with a stocking cap on his head...Which is quite realistic in my case), that banana would never have been tossed in the air.

Now I'm not saying that the reason that the banana was tossed was because it was ME in the car. What I'm saying is that if it were ME and a couple BRUHS, whoever tossed that banana may have taken a look at the passengers and thought twice. So to me that's kinda funny/ironic. Maybe I'm looking too deep into this thing but I don't think so.

In retrospect, I am glad I handled the situation the way I did and I am glad that I was not in the car with a bunch of my boys from back home because there would have been some drama.

How can "ICE CREAM" be so FIRE?!?!

This track is HOT! Especially if you liked the Wu-Tang original...

Skateboard P (AKA Pharrell AKA Fur-real) (Windows Media Audio File)

Taboo! Transcript

Last night friends were over and we all ate food off the grill (shocker) and played Taboo! Here's a pseudo transcript. This is hilarious!!! Thanks for the transcript L! I had to take a few items out though and add a couple edits

Lionel: I bonked on how to describe the Earth.
Bony (Me): It spins . . . We’re on it!

Bony: Kobe doesn’t like to . . .? [Attempting to get someone to pass.]

Prince: B came through just like Bruhhh-man with the head nod and everything. He took two plates!

Bony: We gonna get twelve this time.

Lionel: Look at you dancin’. Don’t be frontin’. That’s three out of six. Half the people in this room like Macy Gray.

Bony: Ya’ll gonna play Taboo?
Kevin: We were just about to roll.
Kelly: I was just about to ask if you wanted to play.
Lionel: Oh. I see. Speakin’ for your wife there, Kevin, like it’s 1950.

Lionel: Old school.
Bony: Walter Kronkite!

Bony: How many we gonna get this time, L?
Lionel: I don’t know, but it’s a prime number.

Lionel: Um . . . People love this performance around the holiday season. Tchaikovsky. It’s a stage performance.
Bony: ?
Mindelyn: ?
Lionel: On stage. Tchaikov –
Brandi: Time!
Osei: The Nutcracker.
Lionel: Work with me here.
Bony: You be usin’ those intellectual clues, L.
Osei: He said Tchaikovsky.

Brandi: Can you turn that down?
Bony: Girl, this is classic hip-hop!

Bony: Is that B-Hill? How long you been out there, B?

Bony: You just got some beans?
Brandi: Uh humm.
Bony: Make some room.

Bony: Crabgrass!

Bony: How many we gettin’ this time, L?
Lionel: Three-and-a-half?
Bony: How we gonna do the half, son?
Lionel: Watch.

Brandi: What’s the score?
Bony: A whole lot to a little.

Bony: But Boo, your team needs you.

Bony: How many we gettin’ this time, L?
Lionel: Pi squared.
Bony: That’s like 9.12578364.
Lionel: Word.

Bony: Oh. It’s a whole lot of strippers named this? It’s a little . . .
Brandi: You can’t say “little.”
Bony: Damn. [30 seconds later.]
Bony: I’ma go back to one I missed. A whole lot of strippers. That was Bambi. Hee heeee!
Lionel: Could you have said Thumper?

Lionel: There are a lot of good reasons not to put 6,000 miles on your car. That’s just stupid.
Osei: But you still wanna do it?
Lionel: Yeah.

Bony: That’s mad good, son. You got mad skills.

San Diego...Here I Come!

Next week I'll be attending the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego. I haven't been to San Diego before but I've been kinda geeking to get out there since the Real World San Diego (I'm kind of a Real World fiend).

The conference looks like it'll be interesting and cover some good topics in IT. But once that conference is over, I'll have a chance to get to know San Diego a little. That may include Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, the Gaslamp Quarter and Old Town San Diego, and quite possibly a trip to Tijuana to get some real cheap prescription drugs and a $2 hooker. The hooker line was a joke!

Needless to say I feel fortunate to be able to make it out to the Left Coast again. Of course I'll be taking pictures and some will inevitably end up here.

$7 Colon Cleaner....

Last night a few friends and I went out to our normal Tuesday night spot for burgers...Koopers Tavern in Fells Point, Balt. Unfortunately, it was a $5 cover charge for the Mardi Gras festivities they were having. So we ended up going to another bar named Kislings a few blocks away.

Koopers is more of a pub type of spot. You go in there and you expect someone to just hand you a Guinness off the break. Well, Kislings is slightly different. It has that diner feel to it with a bar on one side of the room and diner-style seating against the wall on the other side of the room.

My buddy Ravi told us all on the way over there that Kislings has "really good wings". Now me, not being a wingman in any sense of the word kinda ignored it thinking that maybe I would end up getting something else off the menu. So we get in there and get seated and we all end up ordering wings. Some original flavor, some Jerk and papaya, and my dumb a$$ got the hot wings.

In retrospect, it was a pretty dumb decision. Consider the following: 1) I don't eat buffalo wings regularly and rarely have a taste for them, 2) I NEVER get the wings labeled "hot" anywhere, and 3) I'm around a bunch of guys who will clown me for not eating all my wings (I knew this before I ordered).

So I get the 10 hot wings in front of me and they look SCRUMPTIOUS...



But after biting into the first one I knew there was a pretty good chance I would not make it through all TEN! But I got all these guys looking at me asking me if they're hot or not...Do you think you can make it through all ten. Here I go, stupidly: "Nah, they not that bad! Hell yeah Imma eat all ten!" And a that point people, the gauntlet was laid down. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

So around wing #5 I am really starting to get concerned about the burning sensation in my lips. I had the waitress keep the Rolling Rocks coming regularly and I had to learn to ration my celery and blue cheese dip so I could hopefully make it through.

I made it to wing 10 with my lips on FIRE and of course the last wing would be drenched completely in the hot sauce. By this time everyone else was done with their wings and I was the main attraction. So I scarfed down the last wing and about 5 minutes thereafter made a quick trip to the bathroom. NO! Not to "call Earl" but to wash my hands and wipe the sweat off my brow. LOL.

So today, after having felt the *repercussions* of eating such a set of wings (let's just call the repercussions an earthquake with several aftershocks), I am convinced that those wings are the $7 version of a colonic! No doubt in my mind. They have to be what doctors recommend for people who are too cheap to pay for the full colonic.

Overall though, it was a great night and I had a good time. But I learned my lesson with those daggon wings!