Signs...Single Life And More!!

First, I need to give another shout out the nicest voice on internet radio, Ms. Steph Renee of Soul Sanctuary Radio. She gave me a very nice shout out on her program, plus a whole Latin set dedicated to me, so Steph "Gracias mucho! Te amo su trabaja! Con carino, Ryan". Keep up the good work and I hope you will dedicate more shows to me in the future....:)


"Do you like me?" Under that will be your raggedy boxes with a yes or no above them; do you remember those days? But when you like someone, and give them signs but they never catch on to them, who is at fault? The person who was giving signs or the person who receiving the signs who were too slow to catch on. Little birdies are telling me that sometimes you need to be forthright and tell the other party your feelings, but sometimes going with your heart has dangerous complications. But how many signs do you need to get the point? Let me divulge you with you a few examples: wanting to spend all of your time after school, knowing you had a bunch of homework but you dropped your book bag and went to knocking on the door, taking interest in what she likes to do, sticking up for her when some guys were giving her some trouble, love taps, punches, etc. Would you had caught the signs? (Putting my finger on my temple and I am saying "hmmmm") But I must say as I got older, I have learned the best way and only way, is to be forthright, go for what you want. Life is much too short for signs, because if the other party doesn't have their mitt on to catch it, both of you have missed out on a possible golden opportunity.

Let me break it down to you: Working hard on the job, getting home, putting on your leisure gear, and making it in time for happy hour, and for you to kick some game to that fine bartender, who has no interest in you, unless you are filling up her tip jar. Looking forward to Friday so you could hit up Republic Gardens, or Dream, case the whole club, get a little tipsy,find you a nice little honey dip, you dance all night long, and if things flow right, you will be following her home, or you two could possibly meet at IHOP for some nightcap. The blackbook: having enough entries to keep you busy, your phone constantly ringing, and your voicemail box full. Gentleman's club, whether its the Mirage, Roxy or McDoogals (Hey Ms Sassy and Neveah!), no better to place to spend your disposable income1 I say all of this to say, I don't mind growing up, opening a new chapter in my life, and acquiring responsibility, but hey, sometimes I do miss the single life! As some of my counterparts would say, "Good times...good times!"

Coming Up: Inspiration

Gas Prices.....Old Friends...

What's going on people? I just have a question, are gas prices affecting you the way they are affecting me? Do you have to reconfigure your budget these days just to make sure you have enough to fill your tank? Do you see yourself looking at your gas gauge more these days and find yourself pointing at it, cursing at it, and saying to yourself" I just filled up this damn thing!!" I don't know about you but it seems to me that once your gas tank hits the half way point, the gas burns twice as fast lol!!! As the price of barrels of oil are at record prices, there is no relief in sight. Analysts are thinking that $4/gallon for gasoline is very much feasible. They wonder why consumer confidence/spending is down.....hmmm how about the fact we are trying to save our damn gas? When I first got my car it was $11 to fill my tank, today try like $32. It is out of control. Hopefully, within the next couple of years, we can find an alternate fuel source so we will not be solely reliant on oil. What do you think?

How do you know when you got great friends? How about the fact when you can have a friend that may have moved away, or just lost contact with but by happenstance, you guys get reconnected, and you pick right back up like nothing had changed. That's a good sign that you have a good,true friend on your hands and cherish that. Good friendship is hard to find, because you can't make it out in this crazy world alone, so I challenge you to call some of your best friends, and tell them "Thank You For Being A Friend!"

Coming Up: The Single Life......Signs

The Gym....Working on Patience!

Hey, I am trying to do right by going to the gym. I pack my gym clothes in my bag when I go to work, so I have no excuse about having to go home and changing. All I want to do is go in do my thing and roll out. But, is not that simple these days. There are far too many temptations I see...

No, no I am not talking about those temptations...get your head out of the gutter please. I am not talking about those young, supple women who know what they are doing by walking in there with those tight spandex pants and sport bras and they get on the elliptical machines in the very very front so us guys can get a free show. They know what they are doing :)....oh, and why do they always have to bend over in front of me to get the cleaning bottle to wash the machine when they are done? Why, why?

But I digress, what I am speaking of is that big, oval table that sits in front of the welcome desk. Pizza Hut....Papa Johns....Subway...Chinese...Italian....Jersey Mikes....and ANY other food coupon you could desire!! So, what's the point? Let's go ahead and work for out for a 1 1/2 and then once we cool down, we are going to shut down McDonalds, is that how it works? That's a great workout program; please sign me up!! You would think that there would be some healthier alternatives on display there (ummm GNC?), but it's the total opposite which is mind boggling to me. I just wanted to know if it is the same at your gym?

My friend told me to have patience. Patience is something that I am working on everyday. Being an only child, and now having a son, it's a work in progress. But I hope my friends remember this patience conversation the next time my friend requests something to be done expeditiously.:) Patience is truly something I desire.

Your First Reaction....Right??

Good Morning! I have a question for you out there: isn't it true that your first, initial reaction most times than none, the person's most honest reaction? Allow me to give you an example please: what reaction would you ingest if you told a very, very close friend some quite newsworthy information and what you got was.......utter silence? However, as the news sinked in to that person, maybe 10-15 minutes later the secondary reaction quite complimentary, and wordy but like as I stated it was 15 minutes later. Which reaction would you deem to have more prudence? For me personally, the first reaction is the real reaction.

Well, this person feels that I don't understand that he/she was "shocked" during that initial reaction period and I need to take that into consideration. I can understand/respect that but ummmmm ummmmm no I am STILL going with that first reaction lol! This friend is tight with me and knows how I roll, so "shocked" is an invalid reaction....

Anyways, who is right in this debate me or my friend? I hope you all have a great weekend!

Coming up: The Gym!

Does Mr. Drayton Really Have The Flavor?

How does he pull this off? I grew up on Public Enemy, one of the more socially conscious rap group of my time and 10 20 years later, Flavor Flav is now looking for love. I just had to write about this because this dude has to be close to 50 years old and he has young, supple, fine women swooning over this brother? I would love to read your explanations.

A lot of people say that these ladies are on the show just to promote themselves, but dang, they are doing a great job pretending to have love for Flavor Flav?

It must be the clock, the ladies must know what time it is when it comes to that old, crusty a** Flavor Flav. Will Flav finally find love this year. Let's just pray because this show format is getting old!! Flavorrrrrrrr Flavvvvvvvv, go home, you have ruined the Public Enemy legacy....

http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/flavor_of_love/series.jhtml?extcmp=SEO_SSP_Y

Generic Communication...Got To Love Them...Right?

For my people 30 years and older, do you remember the TV Show, "Small Wonder"? (http://www.tv.com/small-wonder/show/1711/summary.html) Well, the main character of the show, Vicki, comes to mind as I write this blog entry. For those who remember, she was a robot, and talked like one, with short, choppy, sentences. Vicki is the personification of what I am getting from some of my friends these days with generic communications and I must speak on it....lol

Ladies and Gentleman, today we are spoiled with communication methods. Just a few years ago, you had 3 choices, risking being cursed out by your parents for hogging up the house phone, paying 25 cents to use the pay phone(yes, I said payphones), or doing it the old-fashioned way with a stamp and letter. Today, the options are endless: cell phone, cell phone text message, Blackberry, email, lotus notes, and the options go on and on. I say all of this to say, take things back to the old school and take the time to write something of substance.(throwing a friendly hint to a dear friend...:)

Before you curse me out, I understand the KISS method of keeping things short, simple and to the point. But this rule does not apply to your friends (especially ones you have known all of your life :)) I don't know about you, but I want to know what's going on with you....if I write you an email, I want a little more than, "imitating Vicki from Small Wonder", "Hello, how...are...you...doing? I...am...doing...fine...how....has...your...day...been?" No, no, nooooooo!! Give your brother some love and substance! That's all I ask for.

This is dedicated to a dear friend, just trying to give her a hard time. But on a serious note, we are all busy folk, but if someone takes the time reach out, please...please...no generic communication. Ok? Thank you :)

Coming up: William "Flavor Flav" Drayton....How Is He Doing It????

Charlotte Was Taken Over By The CIAA!

This Weekend brought the culmination of the CIAA tournament festivities. I could be wrong but I believe Charlotte will be hosting the tournament until 2012 I believe. Well, being the frugal person that I am, I only attended the free stuff, except I scored some tickets to the final basketball game as well.

Well, the CIAA Fan Experience was this past Saturday at the Charlotte Convention Center, which was free to the public. Some of the big sponsors included: Ford Motor Company, Luster Hair Care, Geico, Dirty South Customs, McDonald's, US Navy, Alltel Communications, and Best Buy. For my car buffs, I am going to need for you to go to Ford's website and check out the new Ford 650. They had it on display there, and that piece of metal was a beast for real. (http://www.f650pickups.com/) I also saw my next vehicle, the Ford Expedition, in black, which had me salivating. But has economists are predicting gas prices to finally reach $4 by summer, I may have to rethink that decision. Best Buy had their setup quite nicely with flat-screen plasma and LCD TVs all over the place, and with Wii stations as well.

But, with the overall demographics for the event being very young, I was quite shocked that many of the CIAA schools were absent from the event. This could have been an excellent opportunity for them to showcase their schools to the young folk who may have never heard of say Virginia Union, or Fayetteville State University. Missed opportunity there. (http://www.ciaatournament.org/home). However, there were vendors which gave the parents of these young folk, the opportunity to check their blood pressure, as well as other health screening information that was nice.

Now, to the entertainment portion. I must say that I was presently surprised by some of the performances. When we got there, Lyfe Jennings was finishing up his set, but then Rick Ross came up on the stage. Blah, blah, wonk, wonk....I really wasn't impressed. However, I do like one of his songs which takes the sample from my movie's soundtrack, "Scarface". I think the name of the song from the movie is "Take It To The Limit". But his performance is quite lacking and gave me further reason to give up on hip-hop. (http://www.defjam.com/site/artist_home.php?artist_id=607)

Chrisete Michelle was also there but she was a little uninspired up there. Like, these kids did not pay to see me, so let me give them like 25%. One thing that caught me off guard is that I think Lyfe came strong with a live band whereas Chrisette was using tracks. I don't know I wasn't feeling that at all. I think one of the best performances of the afternoon had to go to Raheem Devaughn. Washington' D.C.'s own did not have a live band, but he did rock the crowd and had the ladies swooning, all the time, he had an onstage artist, painting Raheem. If you haven't got the chance to see him live,I will strongly suggest you do. He will give you hope for R & B music. (http://www.theloveexperience.com/index_main.html)

Tiffany Evans had a short set of I believe 2 songs, but she was setting up the crowd for Mr. Chad "Bow Wow" Moss. I hate to admit this but Bow Wow had the performance of the afternoon. He shut the place down, had those teeny-bopper girls feening, screaming, standing on trash cans, on the shoulders of tired brothers who were ready to go home. I never knew how many hits Bow Wow, but he was doing his thing with flavor and passion, and as a music lover, you would have to give him his props.

I ended the evening with the final CIAA tournament basketball game at Bobcats arena. Older alumni were there, dressed to the nines, with the Bros wearing their frat pins on their suit lapel, and the lovely ladies looked so elegant. Folk with old money was everywhere. The arena cameras flashed on Free and Rosci from BET, as well as Bow Wow who were on the front row. The final game was between Fayetteville State and the hometown Johnson C. Smith. Being a former band head, I was checking out the pep bands, but I think the Golden Bulls band took this one. Their one tuba player was filling up the area quite nicely. I am going to have find him on campus and show him some love from one tuba player to another.

Overall, I had a good time....take it easy

Bass Clef