30 September 2008

Oh Stomach

You will be the death of me. Stomachaches suck.

I felt it coming and I thought I was going to be able to stop it by eating, but I ran by The Great Northwest Soup Company and picked up the 12oz soup & grilled cheese combo. I think I have a bug or food poisoning.

I'm dying at work and no one cares. Lame.

And the cherry on top- I didn't get the job. Blahh.

The Muxtape Controversy

"A physical cassette tape in your hands has such an insistent aesthetic; just holding one makes you want to find a tape player to fulfill its destiny."

- Justin Ouellette, founder of Muxtape.com


If you don't about Muxtape, you should. Here is a short-ass summery courtesy of Wikipedia:

Muxtape is a website that allowed users to upload playlists of MP3s, based on the idea of a mixtape. It was created by Justin Ouellette in March 2008. Initial funding of $95,000 for the site was provided by Jakob Lodwick, Justin's ex-Boss from Vimeo.com, and funding was agreed to via a contract written on a napkin.

Ouellette came up with the idea after being a disc jockey at his university's radio station. The site became unexpectedly popular within two days of its launch. In April, Ouellette estimated the number of users as "ostensibly ... more than the population of Germany, less than the population of Japan", however this fact is not supported by any third party traffic estimates, which show muxtape userbase at being less than 100,000
. The site was supported by links to Amazon.com. It had a very simple design and could not be searched within the site. Ouellette explains that the important part of a mixtape, which he tried to preserve on his site, is about discovering new music instead of someone finding music they are already familiar with.

...

On August 18th, 2008, Muxtape services ceased to be available, and the main page displayed the following message: "Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA.

I wasn't registered with the site, but I did find a lot of good music. I found the site through my favorite independent label, QN5 Music. They had their own muxtape to introduce themselves to those with open ears.

Anywho Justin and his friends are revamping the site, albeit it's going to be strictly bands. Damn you music industry- you're digging you're own grave.

Can't sleep

This is DEFINITELY a problem.

I had something to write a minute ago, but my brain just farted... damn.

...

I also wanted to rant about something, but that can wait another time.

I am bothered by the fact that I'm going to need to look for another place sometime VERY soon. Just as I think everything was going better here at the house, I get the news that if I plan to stay then I'll have to sign a year-lease and I'm not trying to be stuck here for that long. The problem is where would I go from here?

Decisions, decisions..

White Van Music


I'm excited for Jake One's White Van Music coming out October 7th on Rhymesayers Entertainment. I've heard a couple of joints off of it (Freeway + Brother Ali, Elzhi + Royce Da 5'9", Little Brother, Bishop Lamont + Busta Rhymes, and all of it = fire)

Make sure you pick up a physical copy! It's going to be hella dope:



PREORDER IT HERE - comes with a Jake One sticker, key chain, Jake One's "Great Beat Writer" mix cd and an autographed booklet.

Check out Sunday Night Sound Session this coming Sunday. Hyphen and J. Moore will be playing the record in it's entirety with Uno giving a story behind each track. 10:45pm on KUBE 93

Seattle heads- recognize where the picture was taken? I'm pretty sure it's a local burger joint chain, this particular location off the same road as my gym..

28 September 2008

Guns of the Patriots

so far:

Total Play Time 10:56
Continues 9
Alert Phases 74
Kills 481
Recovery Items Used 36
Weapon Types Procured 30
Flashbacks Watched 53
Special Items Used [Not Used]

Total Bonus 9740 DP
Current Drebin Points 61,551 DP

I just watched the fight between Raiden and Vamp.

I played for somewhere between 4 to 5 hours last night before passing out. RJ left for work in the morning and Mike was also passed out. When I woke up I went directly back into the game. Because the game is on Playstation3, every once in a while you'll have to do an "install" so that the game runs well. It basically prerenders everything (a pre-load, if you will). It's funny because during these breaks you're given the treat of watching an animation of Snake taking a smoke break. Text pops up and gives you suggestions like taking a walk or looking off into the distance. They also tell you that smoking is hazardous to your health. Good times Hideo! Good times.

A couple of real breaks were taken (brushed my teeth, showered, ate, and walked around to enjoy the sun for a second) but the game must continue!

THE LA LE LU LI LO!

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On a separate note, here's a dope Royce Da 5'9" site: http://nickelnine.com/

27 September 2008

Brooklynatti

Since I became DJ Hyphen's official "camera mayne" I've been able to meet some dope artists. Today was no different- Don Will and Von Pea of Tanya Morgan stopped by the studio for an interview since they're here for the Freshly Dipped Tour with the hometown heroes Blue Scholars and the legendary Hieroglyphics. I wish I was able to hit up their show tonight, but I had already made plans to pull and all-nighter with Mikey and RJ to play (AND BEAT!) Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots within 24 hours, starting as soon as I get off work tonight @ 11pm.

The dudes talked things like upcoming projects, life on tour, politics, dream collaborations, etc. Listen to his show, Sunday Night Sound Session w/ DJ Hyphen and J. Moore every Sunday on KUBE 93 @ 10:45pm. If you're not able to catch it you can always download it from Hyphen's blog.

Don Will- I hope you copped those Vans from GOODS. You seemed antsy about getting them.

----

A bit ago while here at work, the owner's wife came in and from what I've been told, she's VERY picky about how the spa looks and runs. As the attendant, my job is to make sure that the actual spa runs well and looks fresh and clean. I've heard that in the past she wasn't too keen on how some of the attendants did their jobs, verbally letting the right people know.

Anywho, I was in the back and my manager kind of scared me with the condition of the place since a couple of tasks hadn't been done yet (checking the women's locker room) and so we had to put everything in high gear. This sucked because I wasn't having the best of days (mainly, eating breakfast right before doing "Fight Gone Bad" so my stomach didn't settle right) and I didn't have the energy I've been exuding for the past week. I didn't remember what the lady looked like so I made sure to smile and stay busy in front of any woman who came by or who could see me. One of the tasks I do is squeegie-ing (is that a word?) the floor because water gets everywhere. Luckily for me I'm a bit OCD and take the longest time squeegie-ing everything, making sure that those surfaces become dry.

I realized which lady she was and the look she was giving me wasn't very welcoming. I could feel her stare burning into my chest as I tried my best to make the place look gooood. She wasn't smiling and it seemed as if she was grilling me. My heart was beating fast because I thought she'd be like "Hey you! You take way too long doing that and you could be spending time doing _____ (whatever other tasks)! Blah blah blah" and she would somehow fire my ass.

I put my squeegie back on the rack in the attendant station and stood there looking at my checklist to see if I needed to do anything. She walked up, still not smiling, and placed her hand out to introduce herself. We shook hands and I was awaiting something/anything to be said. "You do a fantastic job at keeping this place clean. I love your attention to detail. Thank you."

WHEW! What the fuck man, thanks for the compliment. I guess she's like me and just doesn't look happy when she's got a straight face. She walked off and I scattered upstairs to go make some tea.

Some of my coworkers then told me about her raving about me and how well I do my job here. Yeah- I deserve a star (because we have a "star board").

----

And speaking of "FGB" I hit a personal record of 347 today at my gym. Tony beat me (I SEE YOU!), but it's all good. I'll murk him in all the other workouts (=

A huge amount of CrossFit affiliates did the "Fight Gone Bad" workout today to raise money for prostate cancer.

More info on today's workout here.

25 September 2008

"Get By" // Talib Kweli

"The tv got us reaching for stars/ Not the ones that are between Venus and Mars/ the ones that be reading for parts/ Some people get breast enhancements and penis enlargements/ Saturday sinners Sunday morning at the feet of the Father"

- Talib Kweli


Thought this would be appropriate since the weekend is coming up. I always have this quotable in the back of mind, especially when going out. People are hyprocrites, myself included- but not about that particular subject.

Please, try your best and practice what you preach.

Morning Chai

I'm here again at Uptown Espresso drinking a chai. I remember last fall I'd start my day with one all the time.

This all reminded me of this old unreleased Blue Scholars track. They reworked and released it on their self-titled debut album as "Evening Chai"



download:

Which track do you like better?

Breakin' My Heart // Little Brother

"I ain't saying that it's right/ but we often pay the price/ because a woman's life is love- a man's love is life."

- Phonte

How true does this sound?

24 September 2008

WOD 24SEP08

I shvitzed earlier today after work. Then did this little ditty

5 rds for max reps:
bodyweight deadlift, 145lbs
handstand pushups

151/63

(40/14, 30/14, 29/12, 29/13, 23/10)

I wasn't positive throughout the workout and I know I could have pushed out maybe five more reps per round per exercise but I remember saying "I can't" to myself. Never good. There's no way up when you're not focused. Maybe I should warm-up (HA!)

Even through that lackluster performance, the workout was good. Brady (my diamond trainer in the rough) brought yet another friend to try CrossFit. Dude's name was Tom and he's a fellow figherfighter. Tom says he's hooked. I'll believe it when he comes back.

I've got to get back in the game if 2009 is going to go down as planned...

Lunch


Bomb.com = Chicken Teriyaki Bowl + Shrimp Tempura @ Whole Foods. $9.76 after tax. Tell me that's not awesome.

I really enjoy their teriyaki bowls because they layer the bowl first with your choice of white or brown rice, then they place delicious steamed bok choy and bell peppers together covering the rice, finally covering all of that with (pulled, not sliced) chicken. They give you the option of drenching the bowl with sauce or not, but you might as well.

The tempura was also a treat. The best piece in my mix was definitely the suprise red bell pepper. Deep fried it was juicy and sweet. At first I thought it was another shrimp (they give you plenty), then upon closer inspection thought it was a sweet potatoe. Only after the first bite did I realize it was a pepper. Damn that shit was good [/3stacks]

No better breakfast..

.. than Qdoba chips and queso!


Got them last night, needed breakfast. I'm at Uptown Espresso down in South Lake Union, enjoying a morning coffee. Earlier I was feening for a chai, but when I arrived coffee sounded more pleasing. I'm starting to like this neighborhood more and more. I applied to Rain Fitness earlier and hoping that I get hired. I REALLY need to get a weekday 9-5 because my schedule is too clear and I'm not liking that at all now.

----

On the music tip "Daykeeper" by The Foreign Exchange [download] is my current jam. According to Hyphen their upcoming albulum Leave It All Behind features Phonte rapping only three verses. Those who were fans of Connected will surely be dissapointed if they were looking for Tay spitting [Dylan] hot fire [/Dylan]. Oh well, it's hot to me.

Anywho, time for a refill and work!

23 September 2008

Tondeff - Warden (Love Lockdown RMX)

One of my favorite artists Tonedeff (of QN5 Music) who has been MIA on his music game is finally back with a track he did "for kicks". He reimagined Kanye's new single "Love Lockdown" adding his own concept and flavor.

download:
Tonedeff - Warden (Love Lockdown RMX)


Click here for more info and lyrics.

Mothers and daughters

my moms and sistar

Today I observed three different conversations between mothers and daughters. I don't know if it's a cultural thing (they were all Filipina) or on a wider scale, but each conversation had plenty of similarities:
  • There was yelling (or raised voices) numerous times during conversation.
  • Playful "You're dumb/gay/stupid/an idiot" name-calling
  • Questions about work and school (another Damn-We're-Getting-Old example)
  • Something about money
  • The obligatory "Did you eat?" from the moms.
Hmm. I wonder if we all talk like that...

----

I need to work on my posture when sitting down. Damn.

Aha!

While the fire of the new blog is still hot, I'm going to try to get it done!* I'm still over at my sister's joint, known as The Ashworth Estate where six (not so) strangers picked to live in a house work together and have their lives taped to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. After watching the badass premiere of Heroes, most of the dudes went downstairs to play pool. The ladies proceeded to knit and I started working on a crossword. Danica started helping me out as Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern played in the background. Damn we're getting old. Now I'm researching platza techniques. Hopefully some of the ideas the attendants threw out are considered. Some of them are:
  • Allowing an attendant to become a "master platza technician"
  • Because of the position and many tasks, allow the attendants to wear clothing that would allow platzas and getting wet.
  • Doing a staff meeting & potluck once or twice a month for some team building


Hopefully that stuff goes down. I also applied to some jobs today. It's about to get on cuz.

I talked to Steph earlier about going to shows and whatnot. My last post also referred to this. Hopefully I'll get on writing about the shows I see. Acts I've seen this year: Common, N*E*R*D, Elzhi, Common Market, Jedi Mind Tricks, Little Brother, Murs, Blue Scholars, Mos Def, The Pharcyde, De La Soul, Nas, ATCQ, Janelle Monae, Ben Kenney, Dyme Def, Macklemore, One.Be.Lo, PackFM, Substantial, CunninLynguists, Lupe Fiasco, Rihanna, Kanye West, DJ Kilmore, etc. Didn't do Bumbershoot this year (!), but I'd love to go to more shows. Dan and his buddy Matt have said that they're planning to watch more shows. With the re-budding music scene here in Seattle, I'm hoping that I'll enjoy going to more again.

*I can't wait until I get a new phone so I can mobile blog. I'm so much more passionate about that kind of writing when the idea is fresh in my head.

22 September 2008

Welcome Autumn!

It's officially the beginning of Fall: the Northwest's default season. Even when it's not Autumn, it can feel like it. Cloudy skies, the temperature runs below 60 degrees, rain, wind-chill, darkness around 5pm. I grew up here so I'm cool with it.*

After not really sleeping again I worked on my resume for a good while. Picked Kristina up from work and then we hung out at her house while we hooked up my old surround sound system for tonight's HEROES premiere! I bounced out for a mandatory meeting at Banya 5.

In my normal fashion, I arrived last. We had a pretty good meeting and accomplished/discussed many things. Afterwards we ate, some folks drank the MGD and Coors Light someone brought. After THAT we all shvitzed and Mondays are amazing! Since they aren't open on Mondays, each modality has been completely left alone, allowing each to level off at it's proper levels: the hot tub reaches 104 degrees, the Turkish steam room gets to 115 degrees, the Parilka hit 215, the cold plunge was probably at 60 degrees and the tepid salt water = 85 degrees. After a good hour and a half of shvitzing I headed back up north to my sister joint for the Heroes Season 3 premiere party. Still here.

Steph- I'm waiting for your personal concert minute-reviews for me.

Happy 22nd Birthday to my little brother Mikey. He got a PS3! Game Over- y'all ain't gon see me in a minute. Why? Metal Gear Solid 4 baby.

Solid Snake

*It irks the shit out of me when people complain about the weather. DUDE- YOU'VE LIVED HERE FOR A MINUTE. If you're not down, move the fuck away!

The Revamp

me and my sister Kristina

I may or may not have told you that 2009 will be my year of true development. Health-wise I will become completely one with CrossFit- following the official WOD, eating strictly Paleo (w/ occasional monthly cheat days), complete sobriety w/ no exceptions all making me become harder, better, faster, stronger (c) 'Ye.

I am going to become more in-tune with my responsibilities as a person and as a professional by becoming more punctual, rearranging my priorities by importance (see: work vs. play), staying in tune with time management and developing my dream goal of running a bigger gym. When it's completely, I'll post up the contract I'll be having with myself.

----

Today was a good day. Woke up and headed to Banya 5 to shvitz. Stayed there for a good 4 hours. I probably did a good four rounds and gave two platzas. My new routine: after the initial shower I warm-up in the steam room for as long as possible then take a seat somewhere in the Banya and cool off completely. When dry I head into the parilka and stay there for as long as possible, watching the beads of sweat build and finally drip off my body. Immediately out of the sauna I'll jump into the cold plunge (sometimes I speed vault into it) and start moving around to completely cool down the blood and constrict all of capillaries. Probably around 5 minutes or so in there I'll jump out and take a seat again OR lay down to dry off.

From there I'll either rehydrate with tea (Electrify or Purify ftw) and/or water.* From there it's either another round or just jumping back into the parilka.

I left Banya and met up with Sheena and Jenna who were just at the Seahawks game (W!) eating at Contour. Cheap good eats for their happy hour. Ate their mac and cheese and their lamb kabobs. Napped afterwards.

*Too bad we don't sell any more Kombucha Wonder Drinks. The Ginger Asian Pear flavor was the best.

20 September 2008

Catchup!

So if you haven't seen it before, I had a fitness & health blog [Bueno Fitness] where I would link articles, video, thoughts and my workouts. I'll be doing most of that record-keeping here now under the label/tag "CrossFit".

If you haven't seen my gym blog, CHECK OUT FOUNDATIONCROSSFIT.COM!

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"Tabata This!"

from the CrossFit FAQ:

Tabata Intervals (20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times) is applied in turn to the Squat, Rower, Pullups, Sit-ups, and Push-ups with a one minute rotation break between exercises. Each exercise is scored by the weakest number of reps (calories on the rower) in each of the eight intervals. During the one minute rotation time allowed the clock is not stopped but kept running. The score is the total of the scores from the five stations.

Some performance insights and a scoring example from Mark Twight:
  • Lying down between exercises lowers HR faster than standing, sitting or walking, indicating better recovery in the short 60 second rest.
  • Alternating upright exercise (squat, pull-up) with prone or seated exercises produces lower heart rates, and allows greater overall level of work
  • Rowing first reduces reps on all other exercises
  • Rowing reps are not seriously affected if done last
  • Improvement happens really fast when the workout is done consistently (bimonthly).
  • High number of reps may be maintained for greater number of sets as fitness improves.
  • Rep totals do not necessarily improve per set, but now I can do 6 sets of 7 pull-ups rather than doing 11, 8, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, etc. which suggests that local area endurance and lactic acid tolerance improve with this protocol.

Scoring Example: A total score of 53 (Excellent score, btw) is determined by adding up the lowest number of reps in any set of each exercise. 18 squats, 4 pull-ups, 6 push-ups, 13 sit-ups, 12 row (calories = reps) This score is a 53.

more Tabata articles here.

What to expect.

Here are some subjects/posts you'll see soon:

  • "Professional" buildings
  • the audience of sport
  • the overuse of singers at events
  • Punctuality
  • "Failing Forward"
  • drinking and 21-runs
  • the rat race
  • "Carspective"
  • AND MORE!

19 September 2008

microphone check one-two, what is this?

it's the [5'5"] assassin with the roughneck business (c) Phife

well here we go again. i decided to create a blog to share everything that i've been thinking about and wanted to write about. i'm going to try to combine everything into this so that i'm a little more organized.

this year i've learned a lot and i want to share my experiences and ideas.