here you go

this is a long, but good article

gracias wally

on the side note

i just have to post this before i forget..

i think it's really funny about the things that liberal white people protest about.. and i'm really not trying to knock on liberal white people.. but if you ever come to Berkeley and see some protests and demonstrations, you'll know what i'm talking about..

usually, if you see a lot of colored people congregated somewhere, it usually means that we're trying to earn some rights or rightful representation, or fighting against an injustice that is apparently centered around race.. you know, pretty legit stuff..

but a strange occurrence happened last year or so when i was tabling on upper sproul.. i saw a protest, but it was a bunch of white people.. and i thought to myself, "are you serious? are the white people fighting for equal representation?"

but as i took a closer look at their signs, it all made sense.. the white people were fighting for the trees, that were gonna be cut down to make room for the new sports facility.. i thought to myself.. TREES?.. there it is, the white people don't really have any racism or injustice to fight about, so they fight for other things.. like trees..

and forreal, those white people fighting for those trees got WAY MORE media time than ANY colored protest that i've ever seen.. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ALL ABOUT?..

but when you look at it.. it is pretty funny..

too much mayn.. too damn much

awhile back, i was driving the company truck with my boss, and we were on the 880 driving past downtown oakland.. while talking about cops (i think that's what we were talking about) my boss says to me, "i feel sorry for black people".. the first word that came to my mind was "racist".. but he explained what he was thinking.. "black kids usually don't have fathers, they're all locked up" and statiscally, especially in oakland, this has a fat amount of truth.. but in my head i was thinking, he still didn't have to generalize it to all black people..

fast-forward to now, or the past couple months, i think.. with the story about the jena 6.. are you kidding me?.. giving poor Mychal Bell prison time for a schoolyard fight that some racists instigated??.. and frickin prosecutor reed has the nerve to say that it has nothing to do with the fact that he's black.. oh my lawd.. and then i read something about how racists ass white teens drive through a protest in a truck with FUCKIN NOOSES hanging out the back.. and how the fuck does this not make any headlines i'm readin?.. oh that's right, there's worst shit going on.. thinks like barry bonds being a cheater, michael vick fighting dogs and then killing them, and other high profile black people doing things worse than being an outright racist..

my heart goes out to those black folk that have to deal with that BS, but i'm not gonna say i feel sorry for them.. i feel sorry for all those racists that have to stand before Him and prove to Him that they are worthy of salvation..

yea.. your president may be a racist and a catholic too, but that won't save your ass..

speaking of michael vick, wally had this really good article written by a black writer at ESPN about the deeper story of all this focus on michael vick.. and how it divides our country.. so if you'll be ever so kind, walter, to hook me up with that link somewhere, on my facebook or in the comments.. or something..

this is still kinna new to me

i think i age too quickly..

no that's wrong, everybody hits that metabolic wall eventually, but for some reason, this one hit me out of nowhere.

maybe this is confusing, "no context, josh!" you must be screaming..

i'm out of shape, and it's not like it happened all of a sudden, but it just feels that way..

today i played some IM bball with some of the youngins, and mayn, i can't run up and down a court like a used to anymore..

i was pretty much active (and sickly skinny) for most of my childhood and the pubescent years (or as i like to call them, the wonder years).. and i usually was always the last one to get tired when we played.. i remember going all day on my rollerblades.. til like 8 or 9 at night.. and on top of all this, i always ate the most food.. always.. like i said, the wonder years..

but now.. shit we were playing for like 2 hard minutes and i start huffin and puffin hard.. i mean.. everybody gets that way when you sprint right out of the gate.. but mayn.. it just feels soo horrible..

i remember high school, when we had to do PE and bball practice in the same day.. times was relatively rough.. cuz i didn't really have much of a social life back then, so it wasn't like i was looking good for anybody.. and being active for my own health wasn't really an issue with me, so i'd be like.. mayn, why am i running so damn much??.. i guess i never realized that that shit pays off during the hustle of the game.. but we didn't win anyway, so really, did it matter??.. i mean, coach was gonna yell at me anyway so why torture myself.. i wish i coulda told myself back then, "just keep at it man, cuz pretty soon you gonna be old and fat, and you needa keep active like this or else you gon throw up at your IM game"

i think i've used this blog way too much to complain about the state of my health..
actually, i think a lot about the purpose of my blog.. i don't think i've been dropping as many fevers lately.. i think it has all been my slow submission into online pop culture.. you know? making myself seem more important than i am.. maybe i'll change that..


this USED to be my favorite tshirt EVER.. it's a white tshirt.. that's standard, but it shows home.. or at least a better looking part of HOME.. i've actually heard that that place is just for gringos, but whatever, i got a pretty fly shirt on that kinna represents where i'm from..
it used to be my favorite shirt because i used to think that i was the only person in the states sporting that shirt, but last summer i went to the pilipino parade and festival in the city, and i see this kinna old "tita girly" lookin lady wearing my shirt.. i don't think i've ever been so heartbroken, my flyest shirt being sported by tita baby..


this one is pretty cool cuz it's from a telegraph faire.. actually it's not that cool, the first time i wore it i didn't feel that i'm fly rush that comes to you when you put on your nice tshirts.. but it still works, got the microwave, spray paint cans, and my favorite part, the rice cooker to the right.. can't really see that too well though.. the people that sold it to me were cool though.. just tryin to get by..

in need of some new music

it's not that i've tried to completely avoid downloading music, but i have been making the effort to buy my own cds..

and since many of my mp3 sources have graduated, i haven't had a batch of fresh picked mp3s in awhile..

so.. that means that i've had to listen to pretty much the same old ish on the ipod/tunes.. but that's ok.. it makes me more appreciate a couple certain things..

one being that kanye's new album isn't really all that good.. i mean his lyrics are still pretty fresh, not as controversial in this day as his first albums were back then.. but beats aren't much different.. i mean.. for me at least, i can find an equivalent song from his first two albums to most of the songs in graduation, meaning they kinna have the same feel to them..

the second is this.. graduation doesn't flow like college dropout.. the progression isn't as smooth.. i personally like when artists connect songs together.. it makes a whole cd.. not just a bunch of their best beats and lyrics put together on an album, but a carefully crafted display of musical artistry.. case in point, little brother's - the minstrel show.. i know i've talked about that album before, and that shit was soooo 2005.. but i still can't stop listening to it.. i mean, once i start the first track, i have to listen to the whole thing, or my life won't make sense anymore..

okies.. it's way too late..
homework is an evil mistress..

tshirts #1 and #2

this is an appropriate start to my tshirt blog.. this one was bought from the Solano Stroll.. i usually like buying at least one thing from a festival or faire, and more often than not, it's a tshirt.. you can never go wrong with the golden gate bridge on your t shirt.. notice the little piece of cloth that was stitched onto the backside of the shirt.. that's a pretty fresh idea.. it makes every t shirt unique.. you know, artsy-ish..


now i normally wouldn't go bragging about a white t shirt.. but this one was free.. and for a free white tshirt, this one is pretty fresh.. i personally like the lettering..

oh lawd

this is me and my friend, Big Daddy Kane, at the Roots Hip Hop Honors concert at the Fillmore, featuring MC Lyte and my friend, Big Daddy Kane.

Big Daddy Kane is now telling me that he wants me to do the wop with him.

that's Skillz in the background with the black shirt. Skillz is a hella funny dancer. ?uestlove is on the drums, i'm pretty sure he's a closet nerd, and the guy in front of him, right behind me is Black Thought, who's just plain FRESH.

MC Lyte is to my right. She's pretty fly too.

Oh yea, and on my shirt, that's Manong Philip. Don't worry, i still keeps it real.


This is a better picture where you can see Black Thought better, except i think he and Skillz are laughing at my dancing. And i hella have this moded-ass face you get when somebody takes a picture of you in the middle of you getting your groove on.

By the way, THEY KILLED IT THAT NIGHT.

Thanks April for taking me to the concert! and to every other concert that i've been to in my life.
and thanks Holly "sunshine" San Miggy for her good luck with getting on stage. She got frickin serenaded by Common. check her FACEbook
and thanks Roel for the pictures!

party like a rockstar

nothin' mo'
ironic
than drinkin'
a rockstar
so
that you
can stay
up
to finish
ur hw


(i thought that last line looked better than "your homework", that's all)

ain't no half steppin'

HOT DAMN! WHAT A CONCERT!

though i'll shamefully admit that i didn't know more than half of the songs that they played, the mere fact that i may never see something like that happen ever again is something to celebrate.

the legendary roots crew, big daddy kane, and mc lyte all doin covers of hip hop's most classic hits. i shook hands with all of them.

and so much more happened!

t-shirt culture

i know there's a very vibrant thriving culture of shoes out there.. i know a couple shoe-heads myself, but the thing is, you gotta have a little bit of capital to be into shoes.. and it feels like you gotta devote most of your capital to shoes.. which i don't think i can really do.. but what if i like that artsy, can't-buy-this-shit-anywhere-else kinna thing.. what's a person to do if they're caught in this conundrum?

i propose tshirt culture. there are a lot of cool tshirts out there, enough to make other people actually jealous of your coolness.. but still, that shit is still under $20, well within most people's weekly/monthly budget.

i think i will start documenting my tshirts, because i like buying shirts that no one really knows or cares about, but it's still pretty fly to me. i just need a camera.

my brain unstable and i'm just too handsome

i think i wanna write a poem for the next open mic

about my group of friends

it'll be cool. hopefully.

fuckin' tyra banks

i think tyra banks is the anti-christ..

have you seen her show? i can't believe she gets to prance around like she actually knows shit, when we all know she don't really get it. too much privilege for that one, and too much forehead.

i think i hate her.

she makes me want to rip out my ears and gouge out my eyes and serve them on my severed ears so that i never have to see or hear her again.

i hope my kids don't want to become top models, or i swear to allah, i'll fucking shave your head tyra banks..

go bears murrfockrrr

the way i joke around with my friends now is completely different than the way i used to joke around with friends.

even though my major at Berkeley is heavily technical, i have learned a lot about other things, one being political correctness.. don't get me wrong, my jokes aren't at all always politically correct or aware, but now, i have an appreciation for what's cool to joke about, and what's downright asshole to joke about..

case in point, michael vick. i'm sorry, but american media just took this one too far. don't get me wrong, the crimes are inhumane and wrong, but shit, you're gonna go out and make michael vick the frickin devil, for what? for not being able to let go of where he came from?.. [tangent warning] i mean, there are other powerful rich white americans that do worse shit, such as treating other things inhumanely, let's say, people, or maybe just women, and they get away with it.. but they never make a frickin headline..



and so, we get to joke about it.. it's not like we're trying to poke fun of michael vick.. but more of the situation.. and don't worry.. it'll make him a better person anyway..

but for now, we shall always have our fantasy dogfighting league, with the bad newz kennelz, the good newz puppiez, and the across the board winner "kibbles'n'vicks"

(ever reread your blog and it turns out not as good as you hoped it would be?)