Love Power Slay The Hate - A "Kinda Review" - Mos Def The Ecstatic

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I used to love her too. 


I know that it's common to say that but I did. She used to make me feel good about myself and teach me things.


When I listened. 


She still does.


When I listen.


I used to love her like she was family but after a while she started to trip. At first it was little stuff. Slips of the tongue and all that. After a while I couldn't be with her when family was around. She was foul mouthed and had an attitude that only got us in trouble. She was influencing me in ways I really didn't want to be pushed. My dad almost threw her out of the car one day when I left her in it by herself. 


I knew I had to let her go when she started to embarrass herself and me  by association. Those looks that the world gave me because they knew that I knew her didn't bother me as much as knowing they had a right to wonder if she told me what to do. They didn't know her like I knew her so I gave her the benefit of the doubt. She still made me feel like a king at times, and filled my head with dreams. For all that, I still thought that one day I would have to let her go.


I always knew she had many friends because of the way she sounded like so many people. Like her own flavor was lost in all the voices. She used to say that many come and go, and I believed her.There was one guy she was Ecstatic about though. She called him Dante. 


Now Dante always treated her right. Even though he got her big brother beat, he did it with love. He took her around the world and back again so that he could show her how big the world is. His example made others treat her better than she has been in a while. He made her a priority and gave her words to live by.


Peace before everything,
God before anything
Love before anything,
Real before everything.


To help her straighten out her life he teaches her about God.When asked if he's gonna take care of her he says "Yes. Right now on it. Always!" The Love is obvious. I hear them talking and feel like I shouldn't be listening to something so personal.  Such amazing beauty.


I think she's in good hands.
tc

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I have been a fool for lesser things...

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I made these from this recipe right here. I added 1/4 cup less sugar, no molasses and substituted applesauce for half of the oil.
I'm going for healthy nowadays. At the same time I'm trying to avoid the "healthy" taste. You know that "these aren't half bad. maybe just a little more..." sugar, oats, raisins or whatever taste? I don't want that. I want the "i'm going to fool myself with these" taste. I think healthy living is worth it in the grand scheme of things, I just wish I could find a good healthy desserts cookbook.  Something with a title like "Desserts That Taste Like They're Killing You. When They're Not." Or maybe "Cardboard Calories without the Cardboard Taste." 
Not the best tasting cookie,with my modifications taken into account.They were pretty though.
TC

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My favorite iPhone apps - Shazam

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True Story.
I'm watching the Orlando Magic vs. Boston Celtics game the other night and during the commercial break this extremely catchy song comes on. In the past what I would do is listen for the hook, Google the phrase and filter through the results. Normally that's a fail safe plan, but this tune had very few words. A few minutes later I remember that I have Shazam on my iPhone ( one of the problems with having 6 pages of apps is you misplace 1 or 2). So I rewind the DVR back to the commercial and use the Tag Now function. Within seconds I have the song title "Make My Day" by the group Waldeck, Waldecks discography, a link to the You Tube video for the song and the bands biography.
This reminds me if the 1st time I saw Pandora (write up coming soon.) The 1st thing that comes to mind is 'This thing really works.' Some of the free apps make you want to donate money just so they take it down, never to return. I'm just sayin.
Shazam is pretty straight forward. As long as you can hear the song fairly clearly, the app can hear the song well enough to send you results. I usually point the iPhone speakers in the direction of the music source to help things a bit. I am truly amazed every time it works, because of it's speed and accuracy. I will say it has a hard time with mainstream jazz (Dizzy, Monk, Coletrane). I don't hold it against them though. The jazz catalog is huge, diverse and notorious for being pretty closed to "outsiders". I have a hunch that some of the classics are either poorly cataloged or purposefully obscure in some cases. But that's a story for another day.
A really nice/useful touch is that all of your past returned results are cataloged and can be perused at your convenience through the My Tags (default) screen. Each result is linked to the iTunes store so that you can purchase the single from your iPhone. Also Shazam gives you a link to the lyrics so you can polish up before karaoke night. If that's your thing.
Being the music lover I am, I can honestly say that this is one of the best iPhone apps that I have seen so far. When given the "What could they possibly make better?" test, I can't think of anything major. A minor thing would be to have some type of agreement with Pandora so that I could create a station from a tag. Maybe I'll twitter that and see what happens. One day I'll dig a little deeper into the science behind this top notch app. For now all I'll say is it's really good, get it and use it.
TC

Sweet Love

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This is one of  my lifelong enemies.




Whenever things are going well it rears it's pretty little head and attempts to bring me crashing to earth. It stayed in one place just long enough for me to snap this shot but I'm telling you it can disappear fast. It attacks my heart and does it's best to cause me pain and kill me slowly. What it doesn't know is I'm a wiley veteran. I know it's tricks, the sweet promise of satisfaction leaving only emptiness in it's wake.


Curse you cinnamon cupcake! As good looking as you are, I have to pass.
TC

My favorite iPhone apps - AroundMe

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My family and I recently drove about 2200 miles cross country. If you've ever done this you know that the hard part is deciding where to go and how to get there once you exit the highway.  Not knowing what's available leads to the obligatory stop at a Hardees or worse yet McDonalds . 
At first look, AroundMe seems like a standard locating app for services. Also as GPS's get more and more advanced some may wonder why they would ever need the Aroundme app.
I'll tell you. This free app works fast in conjunction with the iPhones GPS. I have tried other category based location search applications that retrieve information much slower and present the info extremely poor compared to this one.  
As an example of the apps usefulness, the family stopped in a small town outside of St. Louis and wanted to grab a first aid kit and also stop somwhere to eat something a little different than the aforementioned Hardees or McDonalds. I opened AroundMe, selected Restaurant from the default categories and it informs me that there is a Culvers Butter Burgers, 300 yds from where I was. After 2 clicks I have a map that leads me directly to the restaurant. I was able to use the Search function to find a Walmart for the first aid kit with no trouble at all.


For the trivia buff, you can get almanac style information from the Nearby category. This came in handy many times during the trip especially when passing through the smaller towns along the interstate.





The only drawbacks I see from the app are that the categories are somewhat limited. Also when you request a search when you click the + sign for additional results and none are available AroundMe will return a list of the same locations. Since the distances are listed, it's easy to spot the duplicates but I think this is minor enough to ignore.

All in all AroundMe works as advertised. And you can't beat the price.


TC