And you didn't have to ask, nor was I tagged.... this year. I guess what brought this on is that I check out many blogs and after a minute, you kinda know them. The way I write, it's pretty much the same, but I am personal but not so personal. Regardless, here are some things you may not know about me.



1. I used to be in the school choir or two.



In the eighth grade, my mom thought is it would be a good idea to put me into the middle school choir. I didn't know that until later in the year and I damn sure didn't sign up for it myself. She did it because I was an introverted child. I stayed in the house and read. I did get outside after some prompting, but for the most part, I was curled up with a book (I kinda miss those days). Anyway, supposedly I had a decent voice and I actually liked it. In fact, I liked it so much that I kept it up until I graduated from High School. Oh, the weirdest song that I've ever had to perform was the Ewok
Celebration Song from the end of Return of the Jedi in the 10th or 11th
grade. It's true. The problem was, you don't just throw somebody into something and not expect repercussions. Thanks to the experience, I'm little more social (or at least can be). I also ended having bad cases of performance anxiety which has followed me til now. It was so bad, that I would throw up before every show and a lot of time could or didn't sing very loud. Thanks, mom. And I still can't sing now, so don't ask. I did also meet my best Friend in the eighth grade because of Choir, so something good came out of it. That, and one etched-in-my-brain memory of a girl named Tara in a red dress.. C-LAWD!!

2. If my wife and I were to have a child, it would be
African American.

Well, maybe it’s
just me. I’m African American based on the descent of my ancestry. My
wife is from Africa… Zimbabwe, to be specific. Therefore, any
child we should have will actually be both……ok. Next!

3. My “Freak Potential” has yet to be accurately calculated. I had a formula, too. It was something like:

Score from Freak Test * number partners ever / 69 + (365 / 12(3.14 * Square root of 69)

This of course is a bunch of BS, so if you tried it..Bravo. Realistically, I'm one wet donut away from being either a full fledged freak or one sick pervert, whichever comes first. I'm being governed by 1) the fact that I'm married and I do love my wife as vanilla as she is and 2) my personal Freak Trainer backed off on me when I did get married (Hi Baby Jaguar!). Opening those gates might have been like Bruce Banner turning Hulk. I still have my moments though.... ;P By the way, there could be some pics or video floating around the interweb. Not saying that there are, but if so, that's what I get for sharing......

4. I once opened for Dru Hill...

Well ok, this is kind of misleading, but it caught your attention, didn't it? A few years back, a couple of co-workers of mine had a rap group with one other dude. I would sit in on their sessions and even went into the studio with them. Well, it just so happens that one of the guys was friends with a "concert promoter" (The quotes are there to symbolize air quotes (read: Dude was shady)). He asked the group to be one of the warm up acts for Dru Hill show at a club a couple of hours away. Needless to say, we went. It's was a pretty good show. I even got on stage as a mic-less hypeman. It was fun.

5. I have a running ever-changing playlist in my head at all
times.

I can’t turn it
off (not that I’d want to) and I can’t determine what will play most of the
time. I can plant a song in someone's head at 30 paces. You have to know your audience, that's about as much as I can tell you on that. So when you see the songs of the moment bits I put on a post, that's probably why. There's always one in my head, but I try to turn it down unless it fits what I'm posting about.

Now, that you know that, I don't expect much traffic much longer. :) And I'm sure someone called the Paddy Wagon on me by now, so it's time to be out. Maybe there's wi-fi in the looney bin.

Peace

I mean, really. Yea, I'd be pissed off for being held up and I can't stand rubberneckers, but this would be the type of stuff I'd stop for.



Sex in fast lane halts traffic in Israel - Vehicular Peculiarity - MSNBC.com





(UPDATE)



here's something extra for you. A little different....



Nude jogger to miss 'liberating feeling' - Peculiar Postings - MSNBC.com

It's true. I was there. I was in a box musically where I've never kept myself. I missed out on a lot of good music in the past year or two. I'm getting better. I have help. Pandora's riding shotgun even though I hadn't been on there much lately. Honeysoul and Neosoulcafe are starting to keep me in line and I can't forget about my man T. Grundy who constantly reminds me what and where the real music stays. I'm set, but I hate the fact that I believed that Soul music was in hibernation.



I don't listen to the radio much because it seems that the same songs get played every 15 minutes or so. I can't deal with that. And as far as Rap is concerned, I don't know, i'm biased because of the school I came from seem more true than these cats out now. That's now fair even if it is true, so I plan to stick my ear back to the ground check the sound. Jazz for me is an ever growing love. I've been exposed to it when I was little and I was hooked ever since. In '06, I checked out a couple things on the contemporary front, but I lapsed on the classic stuff. Anyway, I am making a conscious effort to rebuild the blocks that fell off my house. Wanna know what I've done so far? Let's stick with Soul for the time being. It's actually not much, but it's a step.



You've seen my post on Sy Smith, right? I'm looking for true artists like this lady. There are a few and unfortunately I may have to trek into that ungodly den called Myspace (no offense to my known Myspace junkies. I still love you all.) to listen to them. Here are a few:



Darien Brockington



Chrisette Michelle



Choklate



Kimy (Definitely check this one out.)



There are a few more, but you get the point. Like I said, I'm working out. And speaking for working it out, it's is Valentine's Day. Whether that means anything to you or not, it's always a good day for some great music. On that, I'm going to have to ask you to point your browser to this link:



NetInfoWeb 2.0: Soul, R Jazz and Blues on the ‘Net » ‘The Event’: Valentine’s Day-Triple Play…



In a case of my man never letting me down, Mr. TGrundy hosts a very interesting post full of great music mixes as he says, "3 Musketeers" style between himself, Grantlove, and EJ Flavors (whom I've checked out in the past and will be hitting up his spot with more frequency). And even if you see this post after February 14th, still check the mixes. After all, you're still going to Love and/or be in love after today, right? RIGHT?

Quick, what's the name of song with that guy who did that thing with the thing....? Here wait, let me hum about 2 seconds of it.

Come on, you know who is it!



If this happens to you on the regular (Don't lie, it's not just me), then I have a site for you to send these people and get in some kicks in the process. Midomi.com is a music search site that identifies songs by humming them. If you have a microphone hooked up to your computer, you can go to this site and you can sing (or hum) a few bars of that ditty you've trying to find the name of. It then goes out and tries to find the name of the song that you are looking for. It is said to be fairly accurate according to the article that I've linked to below. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's not too accurate with Rap songs. Now that I think about it, I haven't tried it. Oh, if it finds what you are looking for and you want to buy it, there will be a link to where you can do that.



And now for the beautiful part. The site also let's you record said rendition of songs and share in a Youtube / Myspace type fashion. So now you can bring that shower version of Mariah Carey to the masses. This is my favorite part because anyone can come to the site and listen to some good and some not so good versions of songs from Joanne and Joe Shmoe. HOTNESS! It's the stuff that American Idol was made from (God help us). I've actually heard some people with some pretty good voices on the joint. And I can always go on a Youtube style hunt for the next William Hung. That's where the kicks come in.



But hey, you don't have to take my word for it, check out the article below from Webware.com and then go to Midomi.com and check it out. I'm sure I'll hear a couple of you there shortly. :)



Midomi names the tune [with video] | Webware : Cool web apps for everyone

I'm going to be honest with. i'm not crazy about watching Football. In fact, I'm not so much a sports fan, either. I've watched Basketball. Boxing for sure, Track and Field, HELL YEA! Tennis, if Serena (or Venus should she ever) is on, but that's outside the point. hell, I don't even have cable so I couldn't catch too much if I wanted too. I'm going well away from the point now.And yes, I am, for what it's worth, an American AND a fully secure in his masculinity male child. BELIEVE IT! I say that because it always comes into question when I mention these facts. Meh!



The point is, while I suppose it is historic (for lack of a better word) that there are two teams with African American coaches playing, I'm not so much in caring. First of all, 32 teams, 5 African American coaches, 70 or 80 percent African American players, how ever many years of the NFL, and something still doesn't add up but you do the math. And on that note, how many African American owners are there? maybe I'll look into that, but I bet I don't have to go far. That's an issue that is as big as (if not bigger than) the coaches and THAT'S being glossed over for what it's worth. That's a whole other issue that i'm not yet qualified to argue, but I thought that I would mention it. As a matter of fact, that's not even the point of this post.



The points are that, (a)while I might tune into the game around the forth quarter, the winner has already been declared. I site this article as evidence:



Colts Win (Madden) Super Bowl news from 1UP.com

(UPDATE) Here's video of the match to support my claims.



See, now I don't have to watch the game. Which brings me to what I will really be tuning in for: the commercials. I love the commercials that come around Superbowl time. They supply me with half of my year's entertainment. Think about it, you know there will be some funny one's. You know there will be some summer movie lovin' going on! you know there is probably going to be the one tasteless one that everybody likes but will never ever be shown again. and you know that fool who is proposing to his girlfriend is finally going to get his shine. And I bet his girlfriend already knows about it. I call the dude a fool because you couldn't turn on the TV or read the web without running across a mention of it. Dude's been on Entertainment Tonight (a show I despise) with his back to the camera like no one who knows him well enough will EVER know it's him. Don't get me wrong, his idea was cool, but really. That should have been kept on the LOW low! And I hope for his sake that the girl says yes because you know it's going to come out. Alright, once again off topic (DRINK).



Anyway, as much as I'm looking forward to the commercials during the game, I can think of better things to do than sit through the game to get to that part. Luckily, there is an answer for that. Last year, there was a website that posted all of the commercials as they aired. Come to think of it, there were a couple. Ifilm.com has a commercial channel that has old and new commercials on it (you will see this mentioned again one day). In that channel, there is a section for Superbowl commercials for the last year or two. I don't expect them to stop doing that anytime soon. My personal favs are the Terry Tate, Office Linebacker (AKA The Mighty Rasta, BKA Calvin from My wife and kids). Dude ran for Governor of California. I did not know that! Anyway, Check it out:



Ifilm.com - Superbowl Ad Showcase



The site I'm really I'm really talking about is this site I ran across on a blog last year about this time. As i said, this site posted the commercials as they aired in an RSS feed so that anyone could download them and watch at their leisure. If you know anything about RSS (most of you have your own blogs, so you might have an idea), this means that you can suscribe to the feed and as the commercials air, you can download or watch them when the feed updates. I loved that idea last year and they are doing it again. As a matter of fact, if you go to the page:



Watch 2007 SuperBowl Commercials - Super Bowl Ads Podcast :: Technology News and Opinions



You can subscribe to this year's feed (yes, there is also an iTunes link) or watch this or last year's commercials as a podcast right there. And it appears that there are already some commercials for this year popping up. So now, all I have to do is check for halftime, and i'm set! Love it!



Didn't see that one coming huh? Yea, I'm watching Prince at halftime. That's a given! What! Don't act like i'm the only one whose going to be checking out just the commercials!



Oh, I'm pretty sure Youtube will be doing this also... Call it a hunch.



YouTube - Supervote





Technorati Tags: Superbowl, commercials

Do you remember that night you went to the club with your people and got clowned because you saw old Aunt Ruthie in the middle of the dance floor [Insert current dance craze]? You know when you ran into that fine ass person on the way out that you saw on the way in? How you both chatted away over drinks in the deepest darkest corner of the club. You had your head down the whole time and they though it was funny. You started getting to know each other. They were looking finer and finer the more you talked. The jam came on and you got up to dance (right near the table so that you wouldn't run into Aunt Ruthie or your people). You started grindin' really close even though it was a fast song playing at the time. Then you heard 'Sexual Healing' over the sound system (when it was really playing 'Smack my Bitch up'). So you decided to invite them back to your place, you know, because it's a little less crowded and noisy. Well, that and you thought you saw Aunt Ruthie heading your way. They agree after you say, 'I don't normally do this". You creep out the club real fast, find your car, and head for some head to the crib. The night ends with some toe curling sex on your overturned couch.



You wake up in the afternoon to the phone. It's your mom asking why aren't at the family reunion that started 2 hours ago. You also look around and see that your late night conquest has flown the coop. Shit, that turned out better than you expected. You don't even remember their name. so you tell your mom you're on way, rush the shower, get dressed, and roll out. And then you get there. People are eating, most are drunk, and the music is loud kinda like last night, eh? You try not to notice that Aunt Ruthie is still in the same clothes as last and is still dancing away. Pretty spry for 82 years old, but that see through mini skirt and matching top, ick. Still embarrassing, though. You grab a plate in between hugs and finger pulls. Junebug still can't get right and you refuse to do the shufflebutt like you did when you were little. Uncle Wally still preaching but makes the best whiskey in the country. Secret ingredient, Tequila, and you always wondered what that car that sat in his yard was for. Pee Wee still smells and "Aunt" floyd is still with Uncle Jimmy. There goes Aunt Frida cheating at Spades again and arguing like she didn't to Uncle Junior. She's at the point where she's about to take her blade out cut him....again. You hold your head down and keep asking yourself why do you keep coming to these things.



Anyway, as you mumble to yourself and after Bug asks you for $5...again (He'll pay you back. He promises...again), your mom taps you on the shoulder. She wants you to say hey to cousin Jenny, the second cousin that haven't seen since you two used to bathe together as babies. You don't remember what happens next because you fainted....





Well now, in between therapy sessions, you can keep track of your whole sordid family tree with the website, Geni.com. It's free and seemingly easy to use. You just start putting in your particular info (you, mom, dad, other mom i'm not sure of) and the branches of family that you know of and keep going. You get a temp password emailed to you at the time and then when you login the first time, you can make a permanent one. You can even put in email address that can be used to invite other family members to fill in spots that you didn't seem to figure out in time. So supposedly only your family will see your tree. Granted, it is said not to be a professional tool so you won't be going all Alex Hailey all of a sudden, but it can be a cool way to start going about it. Below is a link to where I found out about it. It should be noted that the site is in beta, which means it's got miles to go before it can walk. But then again, Google has stuff that is in perpetual beta and is floating about.



Sorry, I wasn't able to tell you about it before the reunion, but you might have still not known better (or cared). Try it out still and stay away from next year's reunion. Here's an article from where I found out about it.



Webware.com - Geni: Finally, Genealogy made easy