25 Most Played on iTunes

These are by no means my favorite songs. I don't have too much music on my computer. I only keep complete albums on here and on my iTunes because it's a bitch trying to keep the iTunes organized when there's a lot of singles and miscellaneous songs here and there. Well, here's the 25 Most Played as of right now.



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Hip-Hop Explained... Charts and Graphs

Images are from this website: http://www.aclevercookie.com/rap-lyrics-explained-with-charts-and-graphs/

This one is my favorite:
Souls of Mischief - 93 'til Infinity

"This is how we chill from 93 'til..."


Mo' Money, Mo' Problems


It's really Biggie's lines, but yeah... Jay-Z - I Just Wanna Luv Ya


Nas - One Mic


Skee-Lo - I Wish

1st Christmas Tree Lighting at National Harbor...

Sooo, after that epic fail last night, I went to Nikki's. I had dinner up there with Nikki's family (minus Liz) and MaryAnn, Vince, and Lauren. It was a pretty nice night. When I was about 15 minutes from Nikki's house, I got a call from Nikki that MaryAnn wanted some Sprite to drink. I was like damn, I only got 5 bucks! So, I ended up using those 5 dollars for MaryAnn's Sprite in place of buying Nikki some sort of flower for our 2 month anniversary. I tried to make MaryAnn feel as bad as I could because of her need for Sprite... jokingly of course. Anyway, the food was the best ever. I'm proud to say that Nikki cooked all of it. They had candied yams, baked ham, roast beef, stuffing, mashed potatoes with bacon bits, banana bread, string beans, and some other things that I can't recall right now. I killed everything. I probably went back twice. I'm a pretty shy guy overall, but the food was so good that I didn't hesitate to go back. No shame, son! Oh yeah, before we ate, we all said a little prayer of thanks out loud... something my family didn't do this year. Lame!

Then, I played Scrabble with Nikki and Aya. Of course, yours truly dominated. Then, Nikki and I watched Lost in Translation on her laptop from around 1-3 AM. It was a hilarious movie and the tempo of the movie was right up my alley... so was the lighting and the rest of the cinematography. The only thing I didn't like was the ending. Damn it! Why couldn't they just leave it at a hug? Two of my favorite artists were in the movie though... Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.

Then, we left at 3 AM to go to St. Charles Town Center. Failure! The mall wasn't even open yet. The only thing open was Kohls. There was no way in hell I was gonna shop in there with $40 haha. So, I just took Nikki and I back home.

We eventually woke at around 11 AM. Her mom made us some breakfast and we watched Ratatouille. Boy, do I love that movie! Anyone can serve! : )

Then, I took Aya, Nikki, and I to the mall. They didn't buy anything. But, I bought myself my first shirt ever from Up Against The Wall.

Finally, Nikki and I met up at National Harbor for its first ever Christmas Tree lighting at 4:30. Nikki and I went to Potbelly's to get something to eat to help kill some time until the rest of them showed up. They were all waiting for Joe to get to Faye's house so that they could leave. Anyway, we also went to this store called "Life Is Good." I can't wait to buy some socks their for the baby on the way next month. They were so cute. Anyway, Joe, Chris, Faye, Tita Reggie, and Kiesha met up with us at around 5:40. So, we still had an hour to wait for the show. We all went to Gaylord to kill some time. The following pictures and videos pretty muched summed up the rest of the night.

Our Potbelly's. The tomato soup was bomb!


My boo Kiesha in the elevator at the Gaylord. I think this was pre-fart.


The Christmas Tree finally lit up.


Niks and I waiting for the rest of them at this place called Saigon something something on Oxon Hill Road. I got myself a number 7 pho. Great stuff.




Videos:

Sooo, I farted on the elevator at the very top floor. So, they had to survive that disgusting stench for 17 floors. Then, this guy at the very bottom came into the elevator as we all got out. I don't know what ever happened to that man.



After we killed time at the Gaylord Hotel, we went to the lighting. Here's a minute or so that I caught of the tree. I had other videos, but I was saying some stupid stuff on them haha. Well, here it is.



Here's some footage of the fireworks. I'm mad I missed the grand finale though. I thought I pressed the record button, but of course, I didn't. Ass!



After we ate at the Saigon place, Chris, Nikki, and I went back to Nikki's house to kick it, talk about some things, and watch a movie. I searched endlessly for a good movie, but all I saw that was interesting was 27 Dresses. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. Anyway, before the movie, Nikki's mom came downstairs and told us that she promised the Lord that she'd the Bible more often aka everyday. Unfortunately, uncle was asleep already. So, she asked if we could join her. Of course, we said yes. We ended up reading a few lines each from Psalm 91. I loved it. I thought that it was a great passage for reaffirming us that if we commit to God and put everything in His hands, we will be rewarded. Although it's a great reminder, we shouldn't only put those things into action when we read the passage. We gotta somehow find a way to remind ourselves of those things in the passage every single day. So, I enjoyed that imromptu teaching/reading. But yeah, after that, I had to drive Fune to Faye's house because that's where his car was. I always enjoy choppin' it up with Fune. We can just talk regularly and about anything, which is great. We got the same standards and point of view on a wide variety of things, so it's cool to have someone to relate to that isn't a girl. After that, the drive home wasn't bad. I filled up from the 1/4 mark for 9 bucks. I was pretty hyped about that. 9 bucks!

Epic Fail...

My family is weird. Don't get me wrong, we freakin' love each other to death. But, we're just not into the holidays like that... except for Christmas of course. But wow, tonight was a new low. My mom and brother were cooking from like 3-7. I got out of the shower at 7:45 to get ready. I got dressed up and everything... just to stay in my own house because I thought we'd huddle up around the table and eat. I thought we'd pray and say what we were thankful for as was the usual for the past 5 years or so. But, when I got out of the shower, people were already going upstairs and saying good night. They already ate! My middle brother is still at work right now, so that threw me off. I thought he'd be home already. But still. I just ate my damn Thanksgiving dinner on the floor in the living room by myself watching Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley shit on AI over missing practice this morning. What a failure. I'm about to head on over to Nikki's house in like an hour to chill with her family and Maryann. Sigh.

Be Grateful...

Happy Thanksgiving to all, except for all of the turkeys out there.



I'm thankful for:

-God
-my family
-school
-my friends in and out of the community
-being able to go to confession more than I ever have in my life
-being able to go to mass
-purity
-the great music that's come out this year: Ye, Jason Mraz, Jay-Z, Jack Johnson, Q-Tip, Raphael Saadiq, John Legend, Vampire Weekend, Robin Thicke, etc.
-my car
-the money to be able to get gas
-for gas prices going down although I know they won't stay this way
-the election... Change!
-finally overcoming (slightly) my shoe addiction and letting go of a bunch of shoes
-youth nights
-basketball
-prayers given
-football
-fond memories of NY, Discovery Camp, our first date, San Diego, Kids Village, and so much more
-our love
-OUR love
-all of my problems and stress from school and family... they were horrible at the time, but now these things are part of my life story... I can say that i got through them... I can tell my kids one day, "When I was your age....".... I'm a better man for having gone through them all
-overcoming the problems and stress... my triumphs... the feelings of elation and wisdom that followed those moments... the epiphanous feelings
-the lessons learned
-wisdom and knowledge learned from the community
-the advice given and taken
-hospitality
-being welcomed
-being heard
-my nephews
-soon to be Jayden Cassidy
-gift of love
-random acts of kindness
-the wonderful movies I saw this year
-my new cell phone... thanks for sacrificing your upgrade, Nik!
-Scrabble, Cranium, Clue, Monopoly
-getting through another semester
-The Office
-Pushing Daisies (R.I.P.)
-late night great shows on Nickelodeon and the Teen Network: the 70's Show, Home Improvement, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
-my new room
-a pretty comfy bed haha
-my home
-all the food I've consumed this year
-being a virgin
-beautiful sunsets
-the warmth, the windiness, the heat, the chilliness, the frigid cold
-my 21st birthday
-the laughs
-the tears
-the great conversations and great company
-everything!

At the Shrine Again...

I went to confession at the shrine today. It was weird because I just went to confession on Friday at Saint Francis across the street from Madison Square Garden. I had to really reach and look for the most obscure sins haha. It was nice though. The priest was like uhhhhh, well that's good you use this sacrament a lot. Dude made me do a decade for my penance. I was like what the?!? Just kidding. That was probably the quickest confession I've ever had, but I still felt as uplifted as ever. Nikki was there, too. She said that the priest told her that even if she might've forgotten some of her small sins, it's okay since God has already forgotten them even before she went to confession. Oh, that God. He's so awesome and merciful. We took a few snapshots of each other because the weather and the lighting was beautiful. Plus, I was wearing one of my favorite shoes of all time haha. Shout out to Jamie Fernandez! Your former school is so beautiful : )

View from the street.


View from the visitors parking lot.


Niks with her usual pose. Cute!


Yours truly.


: )


This Statue of Liberty mosaic was pretty sick. The detail is so nice in person.

808s and Heartbreaks.... Illinoise!

I bought Kanye's new CD today. It's called 808s and Heartbreak as everybody knows. I'm loving it so far. It makes for horrible hip-hop, but is amazing music. It's truly a piece of art. I know a lot of people will hate on auto-tune, but auto-tune is only as wack as the person using it. Thankfully, Ye has a great ear for music and he knows what he's doing. I could appreciate him wearing his heart on his sleeve and not letting people dictate what music he makes. This music was from the heart, and I'm sure listeners can tell. Even if ya'll don't buy the album like me, I hope everyone that reads this gets a chance to listen to the music. Give it a chance. Don't turn it off right away because it's not hip-hop or it's not what you're expecting. Listen to it in its entirety.



My top 5 songs on the album are as follows:
In order
1. Street Lights
2. Robocop
3. Welcome To Heartbreak
4. Paranoid
5. Amazing

Next up, I'm really in love with this guy's sound right now. There's so much lively and soulful music going on. Horns, drums, trombones, trumpets, pianos, guitars, etc. Everybody should check this out. He wants to make an album for every state, but right now he's still only done Illinois haha. Regardless, it's an amazing album with great music. If you're going to be on a roadtrip or studying or want to feel good, this is the album for you: Sufjan Stevens: Come On! Feel the Illinoise!



Top 5 in order:
1. Chicago
2. Come On! Feel the Illinoise!
3. Casimir Pulaski Day
4. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out To Get Us!
5. The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders

Random NY Memories 11-20 to 11-23

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. There's no time to be taking pictures when you're having the best times of your life. You just move on along with the moment. This is most especially true when you're in NYC where everyone is moving fast and there's already enough damn tourists in Times Square with their cameras out. I wasn't trying to be one of those haha. So, I'll just comprise some random stuff that I can remember from this past trip to NYC.

-I got up on Thursday at 6:30, went to Samer's by 7:40. Then, we had to wait for his dad to go to work so that he could finally move his car to a different parking spot to make his dad think that he went to class haha. We finally got out of Woodbridge by 8:05.
-Then there was some bad ass traffic on 95 going North, so I took the very next exit back onto 123 and took the back road to get to Springfield. We finally got to MD by 9:10. We stopped by Oxon Hill High School to pick up some money from Jon Labson for some shoes I sold him. That $40 definitely came in handy in NY.
-We got into the city by 1. We didn't get into queens until about 1:40 because of the traffic coming off of the Verazzano Bridge.
-Samer and I ate at this pizza joint called Lillian's. It was about a block away from Samer's old house. The owners knew him. Pretty cool. Then, we walked down to Austin Street where there were a bunch of shops. We first went to Barnes and Nobles to take a piss. Next up was Gap. Then, we finally went back to my car to drop him off at his grandma's house.
-I called Erickson and eventually met up with him at Sports Authority. Thank you, GPS! Then we went to his apartment which was about 5 minutes from Samer's grandma's. Thankfully, we were really close to each other. I took a power nap on his couch while him and his girlfriend went grocery shopping. Oh yeah, his roommate is gay, so I was a little paranoid haha. Just kidding, dude was mad cool.
-Then, that night, I got to eat some Gray's Papaya. Stuff was mad cheap and real good. The owner's were Filipino. "Mag papakasal na." Awkwaaaaaaaaard. They didn't know I could understand Tagalog haha. Silly folk.
-The rest of the weekend was a blur, so I'll just list random ish now haha.
-Chicken and Rice on 6th and 53rd I believe. Crack! It was right next to MOMA. There was a line for this joint in the damn cold at 1 AM.
-Sobriety tests for all the cars passing on that street. I guess mad drunks come through there.
-Apple store was sick.
-Central Park was beautiful even though I only got to see the bare minimum of it.
-I wish I could've gone past 59th street. I never went up higher than that.
-F.A.O. Schwarz. I dunno why those people were lining up around the corner. Samer and I just walked to the side entrance and went in. Weirdos haha. That would've been a good 30 minutes in the cold. I ended up buying Nikki a mandrill stuffed animal. A mandrill is that same monkey that was in The Lion King... Rafiki. Samer bought his sister a Harry Potter scarf which was pretty sick.
-Damn it was cold. Even in the subway.
-The subway was a mess on Saturday. The Q was running on the R. The R was running on the F or the V. It was retarded man. Samer and I wasted a good hour on transferring and waiting.
-Uniqlo was sick.
-Flight Club was even sicker. I couldn't believe how close it was to where I was waiting. 8th and Waverly Place. Now I know. Of course I didn't buy anything. I only had $120 for the weekend.
-The 1 day fun passes were $7.50. I ended up buying two (Friday and Saturday).
-The diner Erickson and I ate at for breakfast on Friday was money. Thanks for the food, son!
-Erickson and I went to the Old Navy at Rego Park Shopping Center. My man OD'd on the shirts haha. I would've too if I had the money. I got a shirt for $3.99 that used to be $24.99. Clearance, baby! I was lovin' the colors.
- My Yankees hat. I dunno how I went so long without one.
-Clientele was a big big disappointment.
-Recon was nice, but of course, I went there just to see it.
-Port Authority.
-Grand Central Station... What a beautiful place!
-Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
-I got to go to confession at Saint Francis of Assissi near Madison Square Garden (2 minute walk).
-Rockefeller Center was also beautiful.
-Times Square was lively as ever. 42nd street = Times Square! Haha. Thanks for the heads up.
-Bryant Park was also very pretty. I loved watching all those people ice skate. There was this one rasta skating around with lit up skates and this crazy ass outfit haha. I also learned that "people watching" is a common term.
-I also learned that you don't have to turn off your car to get gas.
-Jersey is so damn lucky to have that view of NY. Coming down Route 3. Wow, beautiful. I envy ya'll.
-Thank you to my tour guides!
-Traffic coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel at 6:30 PM suuuuuuucks.
-Vince flaked on me! Kinda. Haha. I'll see you soon man.
-I met some cool NJ SFC though. Brian, Rich, Pox/Pocks, Jon Marquez, Ray, Chaz, Jay, and Jose. Cool cats. They were very helpful in giving me advice. That was the most productive household I've ever been a part of. Thanks for the words ya'll. Sorry to the sisters. I don't remember any of their names. Woops haha. Oh yeah, Arlen was there. I only know her cuz I met her a couple of times before at the SFC conference and when they visited MD for that sister's thing. I think?
-I officially kick Samer's ass in speed every time. No home-court advantage, son!
-Tolls ran us about $23 each.
-I spent $34 on gas total. I'd say that's really damn good. 613.5 miles for the weekend. This is driving un-economically, too. It's not like I was going 55. I was going a good 80 to 90 the whole time, which was mad fun since I hadn't done that in a while.
-Worship was really good at the meeting. I can't believe I freakin' got choked up while I said thank you in front of all of those people that I had just met. Embarassing! Oh well, it was heartfelt.
-Triple Five Soul had some sick gear. It was 50% off inside, but everything still ended up being expensive haha.
-NBA Store. Magic Johnson was there! I bought myself a black NYK shirt.
-Niketown was also amazing. 5 floors of Nike shoes and gear. Dreamie! Haha.
-The drive back wasn't bad. I was definitely driving like Jason Statham in the Transporter movies.
-The Trump Towers were very obnoxiously tall and black glass haha.
-There was this one intersection where there was a giant star hanging in the middle of it. Only in Manhattan, baby!
-NBA Store is on 52nd and 5th. Niketown is on 57th and 5th.
-The LV store was real extravagant too. LV print all up and down the damn building haha.
-NYU is on the R line. 8 Street stop.
-To get to Central Park, get on the R line and get off Lexington and 53rd.

I thoroughly enjoyed and needed this trip. We'll do it again, Sammy boy.

Welcome To Heartbreak...

I can't wait for the album to come out. Must not listen to the advance!

5 Friends All Kids Need...

So, I was on the can letting go of some stress and losing weight about 20 minutes ago, and I ended up reading this magazine called Parenting. There was an article that talked about the types of friends that kids need. The article was titled "5 friends all kids need." It was pretty interesting and accurate.

These are the 5 friends:
1. the convenient friend
This friend is one of the neighbor's kids. It's useful for ages 2-5. This friend is the one who teaches the kid that friends are fun.

2. the opposite-sex friend
This friend can be found at any place where boys and girls mingle such as the library or music class. The writer says that you don't want your kids growing up thinking that girls are aliens. Also, it allows kids to develop more respect and empathy for the opposite gender. The same age applies as friend 1.

3. the athletic friend
This friend can be found at the playground, swim class, or running on the sidewalk in front of your house. This friend is golden from age 3 to school age. They're beneficial because kids need friends who can teach them that playing outside is fun and won't end up inside their house all day playing video games and getting fat haha. Make sure to regulate sometimes if they get too competitive and mean.

4. the slightly older friend
This friend could be one of your kid's cousins or your babysitter's kids. They're good for toddlerhood through the preschool years. This friend is bound to be a great role model and a peek into what is in store for your own kid. You gotta make sure that she's a good influence though, or else it would basically be useless.

5. the friend he chooses
This friend is good from age 4-100+ haha. This one is solely on who the kid is naturally attracted to as a friend. They'll probably live close by and have the same interests.

Anyway, I chose to write about this because I thought about how these friends still applied to me now even though I'm 21 years old already. I'll go ahead and show some love to 5 people that fall under this category.

1. The Convenient Friend
My convenient friend would be Samer. We've been friends since about our junior year in high school when we met in advanced PE. Yes, advanced PE haha. We'd just stand there and joke about everybody. I used to hate him because he was so damn obnoxious and seemed to pick fights with everyone. But, once we found we had the same broad taste in music (Jack Johnson FTW!) and were both New York heads, we became homies. We still kick it a few times a month. Lately, it's been once a week. It's mostly at his house though because his basement is made for kickin' it. He lives about 12 minutes away when I get lucky and get all the green lights haha. Aside from my brothers, Samer would be my best man at my wedding. He's one of the few people that I could actually hold an intellectual conversation with, which is a great break from the friends that I have where all we can talk about is shoes or sports. Anyway, I hope you don't read this and become gay haha. What would your dad say? Oh, I know: "ARE YOU F'ING GAY?!?!"

2. The Opposite-Sex Friend
The first two that I thought of were Krista and Adrianne, but they're busy at school with their boyfriends nowadays. We don't even talk no more! Who the hell else am I supposed to give advice to? Haha. So, Timi, this section is for you. We can pretty much talk about boy stuff, which is great. It's good because I can trust you with my secrets and I know that you won't judge me. That's alway s a plus. Whenever we don't talk for a prolonged period of time, it's all gravy because we pick up right where we left off. My best memory with you was when you lost your damn keys in D.C. after Adrianne and Myra's poop/vegetable dinner and then I drove you back home to get your spare and then went back to D.C. What a horrible drive. That was the only time I ever called you pretty because you were crying haha. I had to find a way to try and stop it. So gay! Oh yeah, Chris Paul... DBSK... The Office... Giants... It was all a dream... I used to read Word Up magazine. Okay, that's all.

3. The Athletic Friend
Spot open. I really don't know if I have an athletic friend. If I had to name a few, they would have to be Ivan, Fune, or James. I don't know if they would consider themselves athletic though haha.

4. The Slightly Older Friend
I would have to say Alan or Joe. There's never a dull moment with you guys and even if we've got the crummiest crap planned, they always turn out fun because ya'll find a way to make it fun. Both of ya'll have given me your fair share of great advice when it comes to love, the ministry, and pedophiles haha. Alan, you know what's good with that last one. Anyway, thanks for letting me be me and not giving a damn. I look up to ya'll bammas for different reasons even though I never say it. Gay gay gay galore.

5. The Friend He Chooses
I didn't choose you. God chose you for me. You've been my one and only true best friend my entire life. I never really had a best friend before, not even in elementary school or high school, mostly because my supposed best friend had a different best friend haha. It was never mutual. Anyway, we've grown together. We've had our ups and downs, our arguments, our agreements, our conflicts, our triumphs, our time away, our time together, our prayer overs, our birthdays, our Christmases, our Thanksgivings, our phone calls, our car rides, our camps, our Scrabble games, our Clue games, our Monopoly games, our jokes, our road trips, our dinners, our movies, our first date, our Ten Ren, our Osaka, our Willard Room, our J. Gilbert's, our Yammi Yammi, our Hong Kong, our Bangkok Golden, our Honda Accord, our Toyota Corolla, our Toyota Yaris, our Better Together, our So Close, our I'm Yours, our Reunited, our our our..... We've had all these things... together. And it's been a splendid ride that's just started. At the end of it all, it was you. At the end of it all, it was you. Thank you for that line, Q-Tip. Love you, Nik!

Thank you for reading, all.

Other Albums...

November 24th, 2008
Ludacris - Theater Of The Mind
The Killers - Day & Age
Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak

November 25th, 2008
Mos Def - The Ecstatic

December 2nd, 2008
Anthony Hamilton - The Point Of It All

December 9th, 2008
Common - Universal Mind Control
Musiq Soulchild - Onmyradio

Black/Cement III

I finally obtained these. I wish there was a Nike Air on the back, but oh well! III's are III's. They feel so different from my DTRT pair. They just give off a different vibe putting them on. I'm convinced that feeling was all psychological because they're definitely the same structurally haha.

Prayer...

Currently accepting and requesting prayers. Thank you to everyone who actually will have me in their prayers.

Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come

Balliiiiiin'!!

Yes, We Can.

Hope. Change.

Hacked

So, the Office of the Provost at Mason got hacked haha. Here's what was sent to everybody:

To the Mason Community:

Please note that election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Peter N. Stearns
Provost

Barack...

Soooo, apparently I don't know jack when it comes to current events. I had no idea until I was in traffic for 40 minutes that Barack is speaking at the Fair Grounds. My neighborhood is right next to it. So, dude is going to be speaking there literally 500 feet away from me. I was forced to u-turn because every damn street and every damn way to get into my neighborhood was blocked. I had to walk for 30 minutes just to get home. I told the cops that I lived RIGHT THERE, too. They were like, "No, we can't let you do that. Sorry." I was pretty effing mad at that. I hope nobody hits my car when they try to get out. I know cats around here don't know how to parallel. Ahhh, I'm just real mad right now.

Shoes FS...

I'm just uploading them here to post on NT because uploading them on tinypic takes forever.