I am dedicated to start blogging again, since i last blogged, I moved back to the states, got married, and got a job on wall st. I am regrouping, and am in the process of revamping this blog...
I will start uploading some fresh content, promise, Chea!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Sunday, December 12, 2010
What I have learned
S/O to Carlos for inspiring this and reminding me to start blogging again
I still remember, I used to cut out quotes that I liked and push-pin them to my wall. Mostly Motivation quotes, I did this at a very young age, not sure why.
I remember when I was about 16 - Nas had just dropped ‘I AM’……I will never forget, I was leaving Best Buy, just grabbed the album, I was in my mom’s Acura Vigor driving down Greenbrier Blvd in Chesapeake VA. I popped in the album, and like any Nas fan, I was immediately hooked. But the song that grabbed me the most was the collabo with him and DMX. The hook was simple
Life is what you make it…I’ma make it…not matter what it takes…we gon take it.
Was this a defining moment in my life. Probably not, but has this simple quote shaped my view on life and success, definitely. Because it was not riddled in metaphor it was not complex it was simply - life is what you make it. I’ma make it.
I have learned a lot of things since that day, and I am still learning with every breath I take. I know that life is about choices, that there is always a choice to be made. You have one shot, a collection of moments, you won’t get it right all of the time but you always have to try.
I have learned that people are mostly good, and you should always expect the best out of people. But guard your heart because hurt people - hurt people. Most of our wounds are in fact, self-inflicted. I have learned that people will only treat you how you allow them to.
I know that creativity is the one thing that is intrinsically yours. It is something that no one can take away from you, but something that has to be cultivated to the point where it overcomes your fear, to quote one of my favorite poets (Andrea Gibson) “We have to create, it’s the only thing louder than destruction”.
I know that there will always be average people. It’s the only way some of us can be extraordinary. I have surmised that the defining line that separates these ordinary people from the extraordinary are three things - courage, creativity and faith.
I know for a fact – It’s not how good you are its how good you want to be. I have found that the most wisdom in this world comes from simple quotes and clichés. The things you read on bumper stickers, or in tweets by rev run, and right off as nonsense; things like. The early bird gets the worm. Or if you always do what you have always done you will always get what you always got.
I have learned that there ain’t no such thing as half-way crooks.
I have learned that hypocrisy runs ramped, and being real is a dying skill. I have learned that being an individual is the greatest gift that you can give to yourself. Listen, we all want acceptance, the people who tell you they don’t care what other people think, normally care the most about what other people think. But the thing about being an individual is it allows you to no longer need validation from your peers. And when you no longer need validation you are able to operate wholly as yourself. One that makes decision not based on the reaction of the people around him or her but on the true intent on the decision itself.
I have learned that everyone is insecure about something, and that these insecurities can cloud our judgment and hinder our progress. What you have to do is first be honest about them, and second deal with the flaw. I have become friends with my insecurities, I know them intimately, and by doing this I can squash them when they try to hold me back, when they turn the fuel of a good idea into a myriad of excuses on why it won’t work. When they tell me that I am not smart enough, or talented enough, you have to be able to quiet them, this is crucial to your development as a person, this is Imperative work.
I have learned that the touch from the woman you love can shed away the worst of days. I have learned that a hug can masquerade as salvation. I have learned that love is undeniably part of the human experience, and if you deny yourself of it you are not really living.
I have realized that music feeds your soul like nothing else on this planet can. There is no feeling like the perfect lyrics, coupled with the perfect melody, the perfect bass line, and the perfect guitar riff hitting you at the perfect time.
I have learned that there are no winners in war.
What I know of wisdom is that it is ever changing, and ever evolving, so truly continuously seeking wisdom is always a wise thing to do.
If you had to cut out some quotes that defined your life at this moment what would they say?
What would you want them to say? Mine would sound like the quiet wisdom of a kid from queens, mixed with the intense screams of a kid from Yonkers…Saying
“ Life is what you make it…I’ma make it”
I still remember, I used to cut out quotes that I liked and push-pin them to my wall. Mostly Motivation quotes, I did this at a very young age, not sure why.
I remember when I was about 16 - Nas had just dropped ‘I AM’……I will never forget, I was leaving Best Buy, just grabbed the album, I was in my mom’s Acura Vigor driving down Greenbrier Blvd in Chesapeake VA. I popped in the album, and like any Nas fan, I was immediately hooked. But the song that grabbed me the most was the collabo with him and DMX. The hook was simple
Life is what you make it…I’ma make it…not matter what it takes…we gon take it.
Was this a defining moment in my life. Probably not, but has this simple quote shaped my view on life and success, definitely. Because it was not riddled in metaphor it was not complex it was simply - life is what you make it. I’ma make it.
I have learned a lot of things since that day, and I am still learning with every breath I take. I know that life is about choices, that there is always a choice to be made. You have one shot, a collection of moments, you won’t get it right all of the time but you always have to try.
I have learned that people are mostly good, and you should always expect the best out of people. But guard your heart because hurt people - hurt people. Most of our wounds are in fact, self-inflicted. I have learned that people will only treat you how you allow them to.
I know that creativity is the one thing that is intrinsically yours. It is something that no one can take away from you, but something that has to be cultivated to the point where it overcomes your fear, to quote one of my favorite poets (Andrea Gibson) “We have to create, it’s the only thing louder than destruction”.
I know that there will always be average people. It’s the only way some of us can be extraordinary. I have surmised that the defining line that separates these ordinary people from the extraordinary are three things - courage, creativity and faith.
I know for a fact – It’s not how good you are its how good you want to be. I have found that the most wisdom in this world comes from simple quotes and clichés. The things you read on bumper stickers, or in tweets by rev run, and right off as nonsense; things like. The early bird gets the worm. Or if you always do what you have always done you will always get what you always got.
I have learned that there ain’t no such thing as half-way crooks.
I have learned that hypocrisy runs ramped, and being real is a dying skill. I have learned that being an individual is the greatest gift that you can give to yourself. Listen, we all want acceptance, the people who tell you they don’t care what other people think, normally care the most about what other people think. But the thing about being an individual is it allows you to no longer need validation from your peers. And when you no longer need validation you are able to operate wholly as yourself. One that makes decision not based on the reaction of the people around him or her but on the true intent on the decision itself.
I have learned that everyone is insecure about something, and that these insecurities can cloud our judgment and hinder our progress. What you have to do is first be honest about them, and second deal with the flaw. I have become friends with my insecurities, I know them intimately, and by doing this I can squash them when they try to hold me back, when they turn the fuel of a good idea into a myriad of excuses on why it won’t work. When they tell me that I am not smart enough, or talented enough, you have to be able to quiet them, this is crucial to your development as a person, this is Imperative work.
I have learned that the touch from the woman you love can shed away the worst of days. I have learned that a hug can masquerade as salvation. I have learned that love is undeniably part of the human experience, and if you deny yourself of it you are not really living.
I have realized that music feeds your soul like nothing else on this planet can. There is no feeling like the perfect lyrics, coupled with the perfect melody, the perfect bass line, and the perfect guitar riff hitting you at the perfect time.
I have learned that there are no winners in war.
What I know of wisdom is that it is ever changing, and ever evolving, so truly continuously seeking wisdom is always a wise thing to do.
If you had to cut out some quotes that defined your life at this moment what would they say?
What would you want them to say? Mine would sound like the quiet wisdom of a kid from queens, mixed with the intense screams of a kid from Yonkers…Saying
“ Life is what you make it…I’ma make it”
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Rich Neho
So I had a chance to kick it with a poet named miles the other day, miles runs the Australian poetry Nationals, does alot of dope things with spoken word and is an all around good guy, we hung out on Thursday and, decided to get up again today to shoot the breeze and talk business...I will go into all that later as this is not the topic of this post.
So steph and I met up with him at the central station on our way to annendale (sp) and we bump into another talented singer, luckily this time I got my mans info, he seemed like a real cool dude, we exchanged numbers hopefully you will see a “mike simms-rich neho” colabo pretty soon.
Until then check out this quick clip.
So steph and I met up with him at the central station on our way to annendale (sp) and we bump into another talented singer, luckily this time I got my mans info, he seemed like a real cool dude, we exchanged numbers hopefully you will see a “mike simms-rich neho” colabo pretty soon.
Until then check out this quick clip.
Def sound
I thought this video was creative and hella fresh
enjoy!
Official Def Sound Up.is.The.New.Down. feat Novena Video from Def Sound on Vimeo.
enjoy!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Rough Morning
You are never really ready for an encounter with a large spider, you know they are out there, you also know that there is always a possibility that said spider can find their way into your house, or car, or office etc.
Have you ever thought about what you would do?
Do you know what your post spider sighting reaction would be?
Would you calmly grab a shoe and kill it, or would you run into the next room, grab your phone, hop on the couch and call anyone you can think of that might be able to come take care of the arachnid for you…Just the word arachnid creeps me out.
Maybe you would take a more humanitarian approach…perhaps grabbing a duster, or swifter jet vac, or whatever, and gently encourage this overgrown Spawn of Satan out of the window, and back to its rightful home. The answer to this question has been playing in my subconscious all morning since “the Incident” ok let me back up.
I woke up this morning at 7:23; I always set my alarm clock to an odd time, never 7:00 o’clock or 7:30...more like 7:13 or 7:27 not sure why I do this, I always feel like my body wakes up better at an odd time, as if the time is sharper or something. I know that does not make any sense, it also has not consequence to the story I am telling you, but I thought you might like to know :)
So it’s 7:23 and I am woken up by the alarm on my iphone, I get up and drag myself to the bathroom, I remember the floor still being wet from the shower I took the night before, I did not go to sleep until about 2am so I was really really groggy, as I looked in the mirror, I remember how stuffy it felt in the bathroom. It felt damp, like a pile of clothes that you did not fully dry, but there was no foreshadowing of what was about to happen, no broken door handles or windows magically opened that you know you closed, it was a regular morning, or so i thought...
It smelled like a typical morning in our little box studio, but I still contemplated opening the window to get some fresh air in, and to air out the bathroom so that some of the moisture could go out...I used the bathroom, flushed the toilet, turned around and saw it...fixed in between the door and the wall, right in the corner, who at this point I am sure has been watching me this entire time, like in the movies, when the predator is watching its prey. I imagine him looking at me with a grey screen like glance, watching my every movement thinking "the bigger they are the harder they fall" Thinking "make one false move and i will kill you in your tracks"
Right there in the bathroom of this tiny studio apartment, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney Australia, I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in my natural born life!!
This spider was huge, like little baby jesus, football, you belong in a zoo huge
Like damn that's a big ass spider huge!
Ok well it was not that big, but it was about 10 times larger than any spider I have ever seen with my own eyes.
So let’s revert back to the question...the question is, how do you think you would react if you saw a huge spider? Well me, I froze right there in the bathroom trying hard not to actually look at this intruder, for like 20 seconds I just froze. The thing is (in my defence) I was still groggy, still had crust in my eyes and still was not seeing straight, so my first thought was that I was dreaming, I had to be, that 20 seconds was spent convincing myself that all of this was actually real. So after I gathered my thoughts and my courage I slipped out of the bathroom door and gently closed it.
So there you are...decision time, you know the spider has to die, you know you have to be the one to kill it, but every bone in your body does not want to go back in the bathroom. I looked over at Stephanie knocked out sleeping, glad that she did not go in the bathroom first this morning, because you, wherever in the world you were in that moment, would have heard the scream of a distressed American in Sydney. And that is just if I was at home, if I was not home at the time you might have seen a Gotham City like alert in the sky, a streaming light breaking the clouds in the shape of a slightly overweight African crusader with a beard!
Ok I’m whiling…back to the story.
So I am just sitting in the living room, pumping myself up like Eminem in 8 mile, rolling my shoulders, pumping my fist and shaking out my legs like the beginning of a championship heavyweight fight.
"you cant let that spider smell you fear I told myself"
"that spider will be afraid", I say.
That spider has to DIE!
Then like Uma Thurman in Kill bill, I slide into the bathroom, broom in hand like an official Hanzō blade, and get in position, I am eyeing my assailant careful not to make any sudden moves, sizing him up as if to say
"Surprise Bitch" I'm back with my Hanzo Sword. You did not even know they still made these huh..HA!
And then in a very AL pachino in Carlitos way....HERE COMES THE PAIN written all over my face way, I, with way more force than necessary, thrust my blade at the spider and land a direct hit. Just like that the threat was neutralized.
Chump...
So at that moment I hear something from the bedroom, a faint voice saying “is everything all right” and like any courageous boyfriend not wanting his damsel to worry I say “yup”
Now granted, I am standing in this bathroom literally shaking from all of the adrenaline, pumped up like a roman warrior celebrating his conquest, but all I could muster was a yup! lol…
The thing is, I don’t want her (and her active imagination to start going crazy) if I leave it to her, her brain will have her thinking that we are under attack like the spiders are soldiers and they are going to start invading the studio like the Germans invasion of Normandy, so as any caring mate would do I minimized the entire encounter.
Starting to wake up she says “what was that loud noise” at this point I was standing in the bedroom, broom in hand I said “oh nothing just a little spider I had to kill” she goes “oh” sits up and looks at me with the WTF face, looks me over from head to toe, and then with the wisdom of an old Indonesian medicine woman, she says as she drifts back to sleep,
"sometimes you have to put some drawls on your face and go in for the kill"
Crazy right…what’s that?….oh you want to know why I had drawls on my face.....lol
wellllll remember back when I was talking about going into the bathroom, while I was pumping myself up I starting thinking, what if this spider has moved? What if the spider has like super human strength or worse what if the spider can jump?
Remember I had just woken up, so at this point, all I had on was some basketball shorts. So I did what any sane solider does before he goes into battle, I put on my armor, my thought was if the spider moves I can stay in the game but if somehow it jumps on me or gets on my skin it’s a wrap for me.
So I put on some Sweat pants, a jacket and my hard bottoms (in case I had to step on this giant) even after adorning all of this, I still did not feel protected, I thought “I need to cover my face”...thing is we are not fully unpacked, and finding a scarf or a bandanna before this son of Lucifer had time to make any dangerous moves, or procreate, or morph into harry potter, or anything like that I had to kill it, and finding the correct head gear was not likely, but I did have some white briefs sitting on the couch that had just been laundered two days before. So I put them on my head...the part where my legs would go is covering my face from my nose down. I looked like a chemist with a ghetto hazmat suit on about to disarm a nuclear bomb....so now that my battle gear was complete...
I could step into my destiny as an American Spider Slayer in Sydney.
(I should have taken a picture)
All this may be comical now, but in the moment,
In the moment this was a very real, very troublesome, and very serious matter!
Have you ever thought about what you would do?
Do you know what your post spider sighting reaction would be?
Would you calmly grab a shoe and kill it, or would you run into the next room, grab your phone, hop on the couch and call anyone you can think of that might be able to come take care of the arachnid for you…Just the word arachnid creeps me out.
Maybe you would take a more humanitarian approach…perhaps grabbing a duster, or swifter jet vac, or whatever, and gently encourage this overgrown Spawn of Satan out of the window, and back to its rightful home. The answer to this question has been playing in my subconscious all morning since “the Incident” ok let me back up.
I woke up this morning at 7:23; I always set my alarm clock to an odd time, never 7:00 o’clock or 7:30...more like 7:13 or 7:27 not sure why I do this, I always feel like my body wakes up better at an odd time, as if the time is sharper or something. I know that does not make any sense, it also has not consequence to the story I am telling you, but I thought you might like to know :)
So it’s 7:23 and I am woken up by the alarm on my iphone, I get up and drag myself to the bathroom, I remember the floor still being wet from the shower I took the night before, I did not go to sleep until about 2am so I was really really groggy, as I looked in the mirror, I remember how stuffy it felt in the bathroom. It felt damp, like a pile of clothes that you did not fully dry, but there was no foreshadowing of what was about to happen, no broken door handles or windows magically opened that you know you closed, it was a regular morning, or so i thought...
It smelled like a typical morning in our little box studio, but I still contemplated opening the window to get some fresh air in, and to air out the bathroom so that some of the moisture could go out...I used the bathroom, flushed the toilet, turned around and saw it...fixed in between the door and the wall, right in the corner, who at this point I am sure has been watching me this entire time, like in the movies, when the predator is watching its prey. I imagine him looking at me with a grey screen like glance, watching my every movement thinking "the bigger they are the harder they fall" Thinking "make one false move and i will kill you in your tracks"
Right there in the bathroom of this tiny studio apartment, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney Australia, I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in my natural born life!!
This spider was huge, like little baby jesus, football, you belong in a zoo huge
Like damn that's a big ass spider huge!
Ok well it was not that big, but it was about 10 times larger than any spider I have ever seen with my own eyes.
So let’s revert back to the question...the question is, how do you think you would react if you saw a huge spider? Well me, I froze right there in the bathroom trying hard not to actually look at this intruder, for like 20 seconds I just froze. The thing is (in my defence) I was still groggy, still had crust in my eyes and still was not seeing straight, so my first thought was that I was dreaming, I had to be, that 20 seconds was spent convincing myself that all of this was actually real. So after I gathered my thoughts and my courage I slipped out of the bathroom door and gently closed it.
So there you are...decision time, you know the spider has to die, you know you have to be the one to kill it, but every bone in your body does not want to go back in the bathroom. I looked over at Stephanie knocked out sleeping, glad that she did not go in the bathroom first this morning, because you, wherever in the world you were in that moment, would have heard the scream of a distressed American in Sydney. And that is just if I was at home, if I was not home at the time you might have seen a Gotham City like alert in the sky, a streaming light breaking the clouds in the shape of a slightly overweight African crusader with a beard!
Ok I’m whiling…back to the story.
So I am just sitting in the living room, pumping myself up like Eminem in 8 mile, rolling my shoulders, pumping my fist and shaking out my legs like the beginning of a championship heavyweight fight.
"you cant let that spider smell you fear I told myself"
"that spider will be afraid", I say.
That spider has to DIE!
Then like Uma Thurman in Kill bill, I slide into the bathroom, broom in hand like an official Hanzō blade, and get in position, I am eyeing my assailant careful not to make any sudden moves, sizing him up as if to say
"Surprise Bitch" I'm back with my Hanzo Sword. You did not even know they still made these huh..HA!
And then in a very AL pachino in Carlitos way....HERE COMES THE PAIN written all over my face way, I, with way more force than necessary, thrust my blade at the spider and land a direct hit. Just like that the threat was neutralized.
Chump...
So at that moment I hear something from the bedroom, a faint voice saying “is everything all right” and like any courageous boyfriend not wanting his damsel to worry I say “yup”
Now granted, I am standing in this bathroom literally shaking from all of the adrenaline, pumped up like a roman warrior celebrating his conquest, but all I could muster was a yup! lol…
The thing is, I don’t want her (and her active imagination to start going crazy) if I leave it to her, her brain will have her thinking that we are under attack like the spiders are soldiers and they are going to start invading the studio like the Germans invasion of Normandy, so as any caring mate would do I minimized the entire encounter.
Starting to wake up she says “what was that loud noise” at this point I was standing in the bedroom, broom in hand I said “oh nothing just a little spider I had to kill” she goes “oh” sits up and looks at me with the WTF face, looks me over from head to toe, and then with the wisdom of an old Indonesian medicine woman, she says as she drifts back to sleep,
"sometimes you have to put some drawls on your face and go in for the kill"
Crazy right…what’s that?….oh you want to know why I had drawls on my face.....lol
wellllll remember back when I was talking about going into the bathroom, while I was pumping myself up I starting thinking, what if this spider has moved? What if the spider has like super human strength or worse what if the spider can jump?
Remember I had just woken up, so at this point, all I had on was some basketball shorts. So I did what any sane solider does before he goes into battle, I put on my armor, my thought was if the spider moves I can stay in the game but if somehow it jumps on me or gets on my skin it’s a wrap for me.
So I put on some Sweat pants, a jacket and my hard bottoms (in case I had to step on this giant) even after adorning all of this, I still did not feel protected, I thought “I need to cover my face”...thing is we are not fully unpacked, and finding a scarf or a bandanna before this son of Lucifer had time to make any dangerous moves, or procreate, or morph into harry potter, or anything like that I had to kill it, and finding the correct head gear was not likely, but I did have some white briefs sitting on the couch that had just been laundered two days before. So I put them on my head...the part where my legs would go is covering my face from my nose down. I looked like a chemist with a ghetto hazmat suit on about to disarm a nuclear bomb....so now that my battle gear was complete...
I could step into my destiny as an American Spider Slayer in Sydney.
(I should have taken a picture)
All this may be comical now, but in the moment,
In the moment this was a very real, very troublesome, and very serious matter!
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