at the port

dang i did not know mccarren airport has free wifi thats freakin awesome, just kicking til my flight

i am a bit excited to reach home

boarding time!

im going going

back back to chicago cago =P

we are all heroes...

so i was watching this show heroes online on the nbc website because i wanted to catch up on it because that was the last show i saw last time i was in chicago, and damn this show is so exciting so much variety in different heroes and different personalities and different racial backgrounds. its so cool to see this show and how the characters develop. but even more it shows that people today can also be heroes and not just be a regular person, we can all rise above and become that so called "greater" person and help others out and maybe even help contribute to the future. a hero is in everyone of us but which hero will you be? what powers would you have? and would you use it for self pleasure or help others out? i am still trying to find that hero in me..

damn only 10 days left..

10 days until i see all my friends back in the chi..will it be an awkward hello? or will the relationships start back up again? dont you hate it when you are gone for a while and everyone has their little inside jokes and little things that they do that made sense to only them, and you would feel like what? what does that mean? and you would feel all left out...i hope that shit doesnt happen, will everything back home be the same? i can only wait and see, all i know is that the holiday season is here and by living in las vegas i really dont appreciate it much because of the lack of snow, for some reason snow makes it feel more like christmas..i dont know how people can deal with a non-white christmas thats ludicrous i tells you!..

enjoi my essentials

1. Cant go wrong with the new HD Tivo 2.Canon GL2 DV camcorder i do need a sick camera for some movie time 3.Apple Wireless Mighty mouse, apple snapped this this product 4. Pacific Drums by DW Snare with wood hoops, gotta get me that crispyness 5. Fire red Air Jordan V's

thanksgiving..?

The China-men built the railroad
The Indians saved the Pilgrim
And in return the Pilgrim killed em
They call it it Thanksgiving, I call your holiday hellday

-Nas

but other than that this day was really cool after all..

im going going

back back to cali cali =]

drumline and stuff

So I got this test in my animal physiology class and it just hit me that I study/practice more drum stuff on my drum pad then actually studying...i wish i could just drop out of school and pick up drums full time...but thats pretty much a hit or miss..i also wish that i had joined marching band in high school and work at that and then maybe go to a kick ass college with scholarship but i never wanted to think ahead..a lot of what ifs in life...i think its time for the what ifs to stop and start doing the steps to start becoming.

also i gotta get this off my chest, i was out camping out and chilling with a couple buddies that i met over here super cool dudes over here in vegas and when i got to the campout some kids in line took a good look at my sea crystal SB dunks and said, "damn what did he do to those" i mean come on now SBs are meant for skating, so why buy SBs to just hate on people who actually put them to good use, fashion today is going downhill when i look at it, i mean it is no longer a statement, its just who has nicer limited shit then the next person, no one gets it for the love of it or if they like it or not, fashion should be meant to express ones feelings or show the public what they are like, not put off the yeah i got limited shit and you dont facade. if you like the shit then buy it, dont hate on the next person who rocks SBs that are beat from skating, or someone rocking general released shit, its not even about making a statement anymore its all about showing off to other dudes and that makes no sense at all to me...but whatever if thats how they are then so be it..

but yeah i ate at this dope ass spot that Pat, Louie, and Akon took me to called tea planet, shit was good as hell! good ass boba and food damn i got that itis too, thanks fellas for that good ass food...must go there again sometime thanks..

my deepest fear...

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

-by marianne williamson

this excerpt from a book called "Return to Love: A Course in Miracles" written by marianne williamson and also seen in the above movie called Coach Carter, is personally very inspirational and powerful to me. being the youngest in my family i feel that my deepest fear is being inadequate also, but its not that. i believe that i can be more than what i can be if i put my mind and soul into it, its just that i am too scared to take that next step to the next level of my life. fear is what makes me inadequate, it makes me feel that i am limited in my abilities but in fact I/we have all the abilities in the world to make something of ourselves we are just either too scared or we dont do it because in actuality we believe that people would judge us and we wouldnt want that because of our image or reputation, but the truth is that we are all the same person and that we are all capable of doing what we want to do its just up to ourselves to determine the outcome.

basketball..amazement

so i was playing basketball again..and boy was i getting into it..doing buncha shooting and dribbling and getting my timing down again...its so hard to get that timing again..but practice makes perfect...its so hard not to cheat on skating but basketball is looking really tempting right now as if to say i am hungry and i see a plate of carbohydrates, thats how tempting it is..its even more tempting after watching this bad boy video of my main man mike

my block chicago...

well i was watching some documentary on mtv2 and it was called, "My block Chicago." It was about the up and coming emcees, current emcees, blues music, skating, fashion, bears/bulls and different areas in general of chicago. I never knew chicago had all that flavor and culture, it was kind of cool to hear about the city i grew up in and mtv not always having to talk about new york this new york that and california this california that. it was also very nice to see Lupe Fiasco actually skate at a skatepark on lakeshore drive called wilson skatepark and to see Sway bust his shit. i thought that lupe was just saying he is a skater like skateboard p but he proved me wrong by going down a ramp and kind of ollieing and doing a nice little pop shuvit. another part of the documentary that i personally liked was the different stores that they went into, it was dope how they visited all the nice spots like uprise (chicagos finest skateboard shop) and saint alfreds (chicagos finest shoe/clothing store) but its hard to talk about all the stuff they did so you should go check that video out..heres a little trailer for ya

1 e & a

it is now time for me to start a journey that I have started but have not really put my all into. It is time for me to start learning the ways of gut busters, groove filling, beat machine sounding, soulful tunes. That is right..drums. My journey starts next week, I will be meeting up with a teacher to further my learnings as a musician. I will try to accomplish as much as i can into what people say is "the art of noise" its time for me and my drum sticks to travel to a place yonder and try to learn the 40 essential rudiments, reading sheet music, learning music theory, and keeping in time. for the mean time here is a video of one of my favorite drummers..my idol so to speak..ahmir "?uestlove" thompson

emcee esher!

damn yet again i was youtubing...and my brother justin told me to peep this dude out..



reminds me of me back when i used to be a G

jordan tube

damn i was looking through youtube again and i came up on this...made me want to go fly or something

stem cell

so i was on youtube doing my usually check up on some videos and i came upon these videos..



i think that michael j fox is a strong person for doing this and that i too support stem cell research..maybe to help me out as well in the future ..just in case

and then i heard that rush limbaugh was trying to bag on michael j fox saying that he deliberately didnt take his parkinsons pills so he could be more tembling and gain pity from other people...you know what i say..i say fuck ruch limbaugh.

again michael j fox went on the katie couric show to get interviewed about what rush limbaugh said..



michael j fox you have my support for stem cell research

also to add ... the back to the future trilogies are one of my favorite dvd box sets

fantasy ball

the time has come where boys become men and men become kings among peasants...the nba season is officially here, i cannot believe that in only a few days the 1st game of the season will start. chicago bulls vs miami heat and los angeles lakers vs the reigning mvps team (steve nash) the suns. i cannot wait for this to go down, excitement is boiling in my capilarries and alviolis.

so finally my friends and i have finished this so called fantasy basketball. its when we have our own little team with the players that we chose and we battle it out to see who has a solid team and statistics in 8 different categories. i just hope everyone puts their players in and is ready to see some statistic action. heres just a little image of what the fantasy basketball looks like

change..

so i was reading john mayers blog about change and he wrote this..

"CHANGE

I've been thinking about something lately.

Imagine this:

You're on an airplane, sleeping with your head against the window, your heart set on being home this time three hours from now. All of a sudden, something goes very wrong. The plane stops moving across the air and instead starts falling through it. The lights are flickering and the movie is skipping. The plane dips hundreds of feet in seconds, and the yellow cups fall from the ceiling. They're a brighter shade of yellow than you remember, because unlike the demonstration, these cups have never been handled before. "Flight attendants take your seats now", you hear, the pilot's voice trembling over a cacophony of alert tones. You get that smell in the bridge of your nose like you've just been hit with a football. That's what the fear smells like. The plane is going down.

Four more drastic drops in under a minute. People are crying. For all the folklore about how your life flashes before your eyes, you're remarkably fixed on one vision - your parents. They're sleeping at this very moment, in a bedroom so quiet they can hear the clock in the kitchen. And you can see them, clear as can be. You wish you could see a playground or a first kiss, but all you can see is your parents sleeping. Huh. Well, that's that.

Several long minutes go by. Then, all at once, the lights come back on and the plane somehow rights itself. Some people cheer, but most people cry harder. The plane lands about an hour later, and as soon as you feel that touch down - hell, even when you were within 50 feet of the ground and could still technically survive a fall - you realize that however you brokered the deal between you and God worked; you've just been granted life in overtime.

Here's the question: what do you change? Whom do you call that you haven't spoken to in years? Whom do you realize has been toxic to your heart and drop with surprising ease? What trips do you cancel, and what trips do you book? What can't you be bothered with anymore? What's the new you like?



Think about that, and then ask one more question. Why not just change it all right now?

(Working on it...)"


POSTED BY JOHN MAYER AT 04:48 AM FROM SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA


After reading this story I felt that it takes something dramatic and life threatening for oneself to change for the better. If i were in this position stuck on a plane that was ready to fall, i would seriously be thinking of my mom also at that very moment. I wouldnt be thinking of my whole life, i would be thinking of my grandparents and my mom, they are the people that shaped my whole life. i wouldnt be trying to call a girlfriend or friend, i would want to try and reach my mother. and if i did survive something like this there would be a new me, and the new me would want to live each day as if it were its last. i wouldnt wait around for anything..i wouldnt care what my stupid mouth would say, just as long as i could express the feeling that i was having at that very moment, i would want to try new and exciting things without even thinking twice, but since this hasnt happened to me i too will start working on changing...why wait for the world to change when you can start changing yourself today

(working on it as well mr mayer...)

film fashion and drums

just recently ive got in touch with my producing and editing self. it has been maybe 1 year since ive touched an editing program, because back in the day my cousin and I including my brother, would film various activities and send to each other, it would be so heart warming and very fun to do these different short films. It came to the point where I knew how to adjust each effect and cut clips here and there to make them look nice and it was going really well. then all of a sudden i stopped making short clips and editing as a whole. it was kind of weird actually, i kinda know how this happened but i wouldnt want to explain in great detail. it was just recently, maybe weeks now, where i would be editing these old clips that my cousin gave me, or trying to edit, where it was at a point where, "damn how the hell do i work one of these things." it was so weird trying to figure everything out again, it seemed like i was at the starting point. as i got used to making clips and such, trying to send to my brother cause he is hundres of miles away, i got better at what i was doing, so i ended up getting this program for my mac called final cut pro, and boy o boy was this program a big hand full.



but as i started to use this application a bunch of information started hitting me, it was as if i was 5 years old again getting beaned in the nose by someone (name will be disclosed) and yelling randy johnson. but that is neither here nor there. there was another program called adobe premiere that i used to work with, and it had pretty much the same user interface as the final cut application. i started to hone my skills down a little more and made a little trailer for my brothers to show them how i was doing and that i got a little movie heading their way. and boy was i getting better by the day, the only bad thing is that my canon camera that my brother sent over is out of battery =[ now i must buy a damn 40 dollar charger, but its ok itll be put to good use. while in my editing and film mode i was brainstorming some facts and stories that i could put in this little video of mine, and boy they are gonna get GOT! lets just say some of the video will have some of _________ and a little bit of _____ yeah do it. well heres a little sample vid that i sent to my brother its kind of short but yeah tell me what you think



with all this editing taking place, my other hobbies were either suffering or getting stronger

for one, i used to love shoes, everything to me would be about shoes, like man those shoes this and damn those shoes remind me of when this happened or damn jordan did that in these, but its like man its only shoes..i mean dont get me wrong im still going to cop the shit that i like, but i wont be obsessing over shoes that i dont really need. to me shoes used to be everything, but now shoes is just further down on my priorities

one of my hobbies that got stronger is my drumming. while out here in vegas i either usually skate or go on youtube to check drum rudiments and try them on my drum pad. its pretty crazy what traveling to another state can do to you. before in chicago i wouldnt even touch my drum pad, but now i touch it like everyday trying to get my technique better and my time. i just hope to start taking these lessons asap so i could start a little something something back home.

moving to another state with no friends and no brothers can be hard, but learning more about who i am is better than being home and doing nothing

skateboarding or basketball?

before coming to las vegas i was playing ball pretty much everyday, and i felt that my game was trandscending to another level or plateau. i used to run drills by myself at solomon (school yard) and practice shooting and layups, i was really dedicated, but now that i am in vegas the basketball fever that i had is now losing its passion, but that passion has now dwindled down, due to the fact that it took me a long time to buy a basketball and the courts near me here in vegas are miles apart, but i still try to dribble here and there and do some warm ups around the neighborhood. but as basketball was drifting farther from me another sport..or should i say extreme sport was coming back around, and that was skateboarding, for some reason skateboarding came back around to me like how jordan came back around to the NBA to dominate the game, but that is neither here nor there. maybe it was because my brother kept skating in chicago and he would tell me how he would nail this trick and do that trick off of whatever he was doing it on and that got my blood vessels going, (damn why do brothers get so competitive), it made me want to be just as good, and i was jealous. it made my competitive drive and hunger stronger for skateboarding, so then i got a deck over at copeland boardshop, pretty sick place very down to earth dudes, and created a sick complete, a nice plain board with some silver trucks bones swiss bearings and some dark star flat land wheels. i mean it was nice!...so i started skating, and boy was i off as fuck. but it was ok, just trying to get the hang of things. whle this was going down i thought to myself, will my basketball habits die down? because i did not want to give up basketball either...the decisions in life are hard and complicated, but when it is all said and done, everything is worth it at the end and fun will never be bad, fun will always be fun. but as of now skateboarding has taken my heart and basketball is just set aside right now...

love and basketball? or skate or die? which one will it be

sorry for sucky pictures..getting battery for canon tomorrow for some action and entertainment