my good friend natalie (soulgypsies whattup) just got back from HK and brought me back a neat little gift.







muji is a japanese brand that makes well designed practical things for daily use. from clothing to housewares. imagine if ikea and target had sex, made a kid who grew up to surpass the coolness of their parents. that would probably muji.
in case you hadn't figured out yet, it's a portable mini ashtray.
it's kinda weird and people might not think to keep an ashtray on them. but it definitely helps maintain your smokers mess instead of tossing butts everywhere. and i kinda think it makes a random cig session more of an event. a social meeting. people may think what they want about cigarettes, but you can't deny that well designed thoughtful things are just cool.

beauty and the geek?

In case you didn't know, Chris Pirillo is like the Yoda of online tech-buddha personalities. he pretty much has the tech/web game on lock and his insights on building a blog/website/online personality are enlightening to say the least. A self proclaimed geek, he even has his own geek community @ geeks.pirillo.com.


i hope you can tell i don't mean geek as a derogatory term by now.


just recently, chris posted on twitter about the reality show Beauty and the Geek doing a casting call and inviting members of geeks.pirillo.com to try out. and i must say that im halfway entertaining the notion of trying out. like why not? i mean i pretty much consider myself a geek. i took this okcupid test and scored a "Pure Geek"... and being a dj requires geek tendencies i suppose... so why not do it? at the very least i can represent and maybe cop a gig off it if i go far enough. but yeah... in geek fashion im kinda shy so im not positive on how i feel about being on camera.

well if i dont do it... maybe you should.

seriously? it's 2008. and there are people who really think they are too good to deal with "homeless people on the way to bikram"? so much in fact, that they need a website to help them navigate around undesirables?

WTF?????

and why are cannabis clubs on there... what kind of bougie yuppy stoner are you, that you want to know where a cannabis club is, but need a gentrification website to tell you where your precious beamer wont get scratched.

seriously people i'm appalled. say what you will about bringing in money to help the city and all that. but if you think you are better than the less-fortunate i have the perfect place for you. it's called dublin. or plesanton. san ramon. the entire 925 area code is yours. not to say good people don't live in the 925. i got family there. but if you really can't handle a homeless person, then the 925 is where you need to be.

music appreciation

happy monday y'all!

how was the weekend?  the weather was absolutely gorgeous here at the bay.  after working an early event for the ucla v. cal (go bears!) game on saturday, i headed to the city with my girl jenn for the world scs strikers 4 "female fury", an all female fighter muay thai event.  (ok, i'm all for female power and i love my fellow female muay thai fighers, but female fury??!  ugh!  that's just an awful name for the event.)  there were about 12 fights total, including 4 championship fights.  it was a long night but the main event jenna castillo definitely delivered and did not disappoint the crowd.  big props to all the fighters of the evening!

on to music appreication....

okay, first off, what the hell is mayweather doing in luda's undisputed?  the song is alright, but the video is straight g-a-r-b-a-g-e!

q-tip's new album the renaissance is dropping on november 4.  i've never been a die-hard tribe or q-tip fan, but i do have to admit that i've missed his music, so i'm excited!

during mos def's free concert at the defremery park (aka "bobby hutton park" in memory of the slain youngest member of the blank panther party), he had a political message about the upcoming election: regardless of who would end up being our next president, we should be responsible for our own lives and actions and stop looking at others to better our lives.  i happen to completely agree with his point and think too often, we shift the blame to someone else rather than being crticial of our actions and own up to our mistakes.  

speaking of politics and such, i'm ending this post with a link to dead prez's new track politricKKKs.  enjoy!

girlhood

last night before bedtime, i watched this documentary girlhood.  i should've known better than to watch something disturbing like that right before beauty sleep time... i ended up tossing and turning and woke up this morning feeling restless and tired.

the movie followed two girls, shanae and megan, and their journey through the maryland juvenile detention system.  stories like that are not new, and i'm sure you can open up any newspaper and read something similar to that every day.  still, it was extremely heartbreaking to connect these girls with their stories.   

people would probably immediately assume these girls were "bad" and the documentary showed a "good" or "human" side of these out-of-control girls.  but that wasn't the case.  in my mind, these girls weren't "bad".  sure, they made some mistakes, but their environment and circumstances had a lot more influence on their actions and lives.  people who dismiss these girls and wonder why they can't get their lives together fail to understand the everyday life of these girls.  

overall it was an eye-opening movie, rent it and let me know what y'all think!

be ready

scene: dreary morning, mid-week, on my way to work

driving on the freeway, i was listening to the new t.i. and mentally going through all the upcoming tasks at work (bad habit!) when i noticed something strange out of the corner of my eye.  

i saw a homeless man walking among the bushes in the median of the 580. although somewhat crumbled and disheveled, he had on a grey suit jacket (or maybe it was another color but covered in dust.)  he took quick, long steps; and he was combing his hair.

i did a double take.  mentally.

this man probably just rolled out of the bushes ten minutes ago.  by his appearance, it certainly didn't look like he had washed himself in days.  therefore, i could also infer that his breath probably hella stank.  despite all that, he was combing his greasy, long hair.

fixing your hair is definitely one of the quickest ways to clean up your look.  so obviously this man was concerned with his appearance.  where was this he going?  was he late for an interview?  was he meeting his lover?  maybe he was trying to hitch a ride?  for whatever reason, this man knew the lesson to "stay ready so you don't have to get ready."  well, at least about his hair.

yes. finally.

finally a post in the soulgypsy blog.

currently bumping:





i woke up a little bit late today. about 10. by the time i got online the apple macbook/pro announcement had commenced. but yay how happy i was to see this.








i just got my current macbook pro in december, so i'll be on this one for a while. but, jeeeeze... it would be inappropriate of me to mention how i wanted to have sexy feelings with the new macbook pro so i wont say that; but it touched my soul.


call me an apple fanboy. watevs. i was a hardcore pc dude till i got my powerbook in 06. you just cant tell me that's not an ill laptop.

geek rant over. just needed to covet a new laptop...

other wants?



via notcot

/b.