Chain letter(s)

Because chain letters are now done over blogs...

Four Jobs I've Had
1. Sales Associate
2. Office Assistant
3. Bouncer
4. Web developer

Four Movies I Can Watch Over And Over
1. About a boy/Love Actually
2. Bad Boys II
3. Good Will Hunting
4. Rome & Juliet

Four Places I've Lived
1. Douala, CMR
2. Nkongsamba, CMR
3. Rockville, MD
4. Washington, DC

Four TV Shows I Love
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. West Wing
3. Sportcenter
4. Squawk Box

Places I've Vacationed
1. Daytonna, FL
2. Ocean City, MD
3. Mt Tremblanc, CA
4. Montreal, CA

Four of My Favorite Dishes
1. Supreme Pizza
2. Omelettes of all sorts
3. Captain crunch/Frosty Flakes
4. Anything my mom makes

Four Sites I Visit Daily
1. Bloglines
2. WAMU
3. Google
4. Craigslist

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now
1. Soccer field
2. Golf course
3. Shower
4. Douala

And to Kill two birds with one stone....

My Nickname: Black,  Jig, Patou, Brandi(frat life).

My Hometown: Douala, CMR

My Team: Terps Athletics, CMR athletics,

My Theme Song: My Own Prison(Acoustic) - Creed

My Drinks: Miller lite, sprite

My Spare Time: Code, TV, lisen to music.

My Hiding Place: shower, soccer field.

My Books: The DaVinci Code.. made reading exciting.

My Fake Heroes: Will Smith.

My Real Heroes: My Dad... good thing he doesn't use a computer.

My Tags: Greg, Femi, Don.

Two things...

1. I would seriously pay an insane amount of a money for a cell phone with a breathalyzer…

2. It should be illegal for people to take pictures at bars.

enough said.

UPDATE:  They do exist...Props to G$

Days by the beach

I’ve been on blogging hiatus because I’ve been out of town. I was in Florida visiting my one of my buddies. When it was planned the trip was supposed to be more couple friendly, since we both were involved at the time. But after my break up, there was a slight change in plans. After being stuck next to some lady who was snoring like it was her job on the flight, I got in Daytona Thursday night and we went straight from the airport to the bar. It was a pretty chill night because we had to drive home. The most memorable moment of the night was when we got to Denny’s. For some reason or another, my buddy got extra plate of sides. I called the waitress over and calmly explained to her that I felt discriminated against because I didn’t get an extra plate of sides. Of course I was joking, but the waitress played along and brought me an extra plate of sides. We tipped her well.

Friday, I attempted a sport white folks refer to as “surfing” a.k.a drink as much whale pee as possible (I was later informed that I makes you dehydrated so you get drunk faster… can someone check on that?). After swallowing about 2 gallons of whale pee, I gave up and concluded the following: Surfing was invited by white people for white people. Why you ask?

1. Black folks dominate every non-water sports(this include frozen water)


2. . Any black man not suffering from testicular cancer can not fit in the wet suit.


3. Historically black people don’t do well with water, mostly because as a race we don’t have nothing good ever happened at sea

Okay maybe the last one is pushing it, but three points is a good round number. To be fair to the white folks, I tried to get in the water after only a two minutes lesson. I did pick up some new terms like “pure wave” and “choppy wave”. And I even know how to put wax on your board.
After the surfing we decided to go out and get completely retarded. I could attempt to tell you the stories but the memory is choppy, a condition that was clearly alcohol related. Plus some things better when experienced than when told. And with a lot of future doctors (my buddy is in med school ish) involved in the debauchery, no photo evidence is available. As cliché as it may sound, what happens in Florida, stays in Florida.

Saturday, I attempted the whole surfing thing again without much more success but less whale pee in my stomach. After which we had a bbq at a friend’s of my buddy place. At the bbq, I was introduced to an amazing concoction called “Gin Bucket”…(1) Handle of Gin, (2) 2 litters of 7 up, (1) can of concentrate lemonade, some lemons and sugar. It’s a dream when well made. Along with the “Gin Bucket”, I was also introduced what could easily be the third best drinking game (first one being Beruit, the second one being asshole): Polish horseshoe. It’s a bit difficult to explain, but requires some “athleticism” (the extra calf muscle came in handy) and some coordination. The only downfall is that it also requires a backward. Saturday night was slightly more belligerent than the night before. But really what did you expect?

Sunday was detox day. It was too windy to “surf”, so we laid on the couches and watched every DVRed shows from the week. Absolutely my favorite day. The flight back on Monday was pretty legit but I could have done without the crazy kids running around, shouting and crying.

I really enjoyed my visit down there. Even with all the debauchery, the best part of the trip was driving around with my buddy, listening to music, telling stories and caching up.

Next trip… ATL, capital of the dirty south.

Better Safe than sorry

"Results of the Torn-Up Credit Card Application
experiment show that a bank may issue a credit card when the
application is received on a taped-together form, so shredding such
documents is a much better approach."

[ Lifehacker]

The fact of the matter credit cards are a necessary evil.  If you don't have credit history, you don't have a credit score, and if you don't have a credit score you can't buy anything.  Paying in cash will work for a while till you get accused of being a terrorist, part of the mafia or a drug dealer.  Due some level of paranoia, I currently rip my financial letters, burn part of them (I know my fire engineer roomate is shaking his fist at me now), and seperate the rest in different trash bins around the apartment.  Call me crazy, but if a seven year old can have his identity stolen, I really don't know why/how mine would be spared.  Anyways i've been debating getting a shredder for a month or tow now.  After reading that article, I've getting one from Amazon.   Better safe than sorry.  This is the bad part about growing up.


UPDATE: G$' Thoughts the matter are here

Late nite cheese steak run

One of the many advantages of living alone is the fact that I can convince myself to something absolutely ridiculous without having anyone to talk me out of it. Of course this can be both good and bad but not matter what it usually makes for a good story or a lesson learned.

Last night, I decided to stay in and do some work on a personal project to meet a self imposed deadline (they suck worse then the one imposed by clients). With a ball games on each computer and another one on the TV, I geeked (I just made it a word) the night away. After the games were over, I found myself in need of some new background noise. That’s when I stumbled upon Harold and Kumar Go to white castle. Even though I wasn’t paying much attention to the movie, by the end I was in the mood for white castle’s burgers and a road trip. Since I don’t know of any white castle around here I went for the next best thing, Philly cheese steak. Luckily for me, I’m not the only insomniac in town. At 2:30 AM I had partner “in crime”, and by 2:50 AM we were on the road get some cheese steaks from Pat’s (Geno's is too Las Vegas for me). But before we left we devised the following plan (some people think planning is essential but I personally beg to differ… but this time I made and exception).

Formula for a 3AM of the night Philly cheese steak run:
- 2 hours for the drive there (average speed of 80mph)
- EZ Pass (very Tight on time)
- 15 minutes to get lost (Because Philly might be slightly more confusing than DC)
- 45 minutes to eat (Because the Irish guy will tell you not bother him because it’s St. Patty’s day and will make fun of you for about 10-15 minutes…If you’re taking a rookie also allow time for them to learn the proper way to order)
- 2 hours for the drive back (average speed of 90mph… there is something about the sun being up and realizing that you have at work in 2 hours that makes you drive faster)
- 1 hour for rush hour traffic (Because the beltway sucks)
- Music
- $30.
- Mountain Dew/StarBucks so you can make it through work without sleeping at your desk when you make it back.
- A friend you can actually stand for 6 hours in confined space (Of course it would preferable if you actually enjoyed their company… but at 3AM your choices might be slightly limited).

Needless to say got back safe and sounds. The only negative about the trip is that I didn’t get chance to talk to my sister while I was up there. All in all, good times. Time go enjoy my favorite Irish holiday.

NCAA Tourney on Demand

My company went away from the directTV to the xbox in employee lounge. But really how usefull is an Xbox during Tournament time? Luckily the internet has made great progress and you can stream things. So i will be watching/hearing everthing on NCAASports.com for FREE.... Thank god (which ever on you chose) for the internet.


Don't forget to do some work during this month.

Grey's Anatomy Season 1

Testing the blogging Feature of Rhapsody... geek moment.
Grey's Anatomy Season 1:
1. Cosy In The Rocket - Psapp
2. Portions For Foxes - Rilo Kiley
3. Super Cool - BANG sugar BANG
4. They - Jem
5. Ready To Rise - Vaughan Penn
6. Life is short - Butterfly Boucher
7. You Wouldn't Like Me - Tegan and Sara
8. Sister Kate - The Ditty Bops
9. Live And Learn - The Cardigans
10. Wait - Get Set Go
11. Somewhere Only We Know - Keane
12. There's A Girl - The Ditty Bops
13. I Won't Be Left - Tegan and Sara
14. Wishful Thinking - The Ditty Bops
15. Fools Like Me - Lisa Loeb
16. Could Be Anything - The Eames Era
17. Let Myself Fall - Rosie Thomas
18. Break You Heart - Get Set Go
19. Truth - Vaughan Penn
20. Sunday - Sia
21. Where Does the Good Go - Tegan and Sara
22. Wake Up - The Ditty Bops
23. Evil - Interpol
24. Edge Of The Ocean - Ivy
25. Save Me - Jem
26. Walk Or Ride - The Ditty Bops
27. Never Leave Your Heart Alone - Butterfly Boucher
28. Wish I - Jem
29. Downtown - Tegan and Sara
30. Hummingbird - Wilco
31. Fix You Up - Tegan and Sara
32. Rapture - Laura Veirs
33. David - Nellie McKay
34. Big As The Sky - A.M. Sixty
35. End of the World Party - Medeski Martin & Wood
36. The Dog Song - Nellie McKay

James Blunt Live

After a basketball filled weekend it was a time for some change, I went to see James Blunt at the 9:30 club last night. I have been going through a Rice/Blunt/Grey’s Anatomy Soundtrack(s) (Yes... I also watch show although it does interfere with Footballer’s Wives on BBC) music phase for the last couple of months. So when the chance came up to see Blunt live I was ecstatic but more importantly I was hoping he didn’t suck and I was also hoping that the place wouldn’t be filled with twelve years old girls like the John Mayor concert (that was slightly annoying but I had great seats). We got there at 9:30 (the girls that I was going with decided it would be cute to meet at the 9:30 club @ 9:30 pm), which was good because I didn’t have to watch some band I didn’t know of nor care to know about as of yesterday. Despite some annoying kids in front of me, the concert turned out to be pretty good for more reasons than one and definitely going in the books as one of the top 3 of all concerts I’ve attended. He played all the tracks from his current album and several tracks from what I’m assuming are from his upcoming album. I’m def looking forward to when it comes out. The best part of part of the concert is that in a weird way it kind of provided some sort of closure to the ex situation (hey I said it was weird). After a great concert, another chapter of my dating life’s closed and hopefully stays that way.

ACC Tourney - Finale

Similar to Day 2, Day 3 also started with a wicked hangover. Unlike Day 2, the M club didn’t have a breakfast for us. Since most Terps fans had left after the abysmal loss to B.C., it is understandable why they didn’t have breakfast. Denny’s hit the spot just as well as resort’s breakfast. We then headed to the Arena to see the Duke game. As much as I dislike J.J. Redick and his sappy poetry, he is amazing to watch. I’m considering rooting for him when he gets to the NBA. After the game we sold the tickets for the championship game.

That evening we had dinner at Bert’s Seafood. The place was rated best seafood in North Carolina. Although is NC really renowned for its seafood? Despite the very complicated and confusing menu, the food was great. After dinner, we attended another Gentlemen’s club. Can’t you tell there is nothing else to do in Greensboro? There I bought private dances for the other guys in the group as a thank you for taking me to down to the tourney. Who needs thank you cards when you got “dancers”? Again I was talking to one the dancers all night (I think sense a pattern developing here) while watching the ‘Cuse vs. Pitt Game. It turns out that this dancer also had a day job where she is manager and was just dancing for fun (I’m starting to sense a scam amount these dancer… or “independent contractor” as she referred to them). The other guys mistook my curiosity about why women dance for interest in the girl. So they bought me two private dances. It turns out I’m really uncomfortable getting private dances… who knew.
(in the middle of the second dance)

Me: Umm… Can you please stop?
Girl: Yea… Is everything ok?
Me: yeah.
Girl: Do I do something wrong?
Me: No… just not my style. Can you just sit till the end of the song then we will head back to the table. Thanks.
Girl: Ok.

I get back to the table say thanks and proceed to buy them more private dance. What can I say; I really want to come out on top of the private dance buying. Later MP bought me another private dance… this time I didn’t even let her start...

Me: You don’t have to do this.
Girl: Ok. Do you have a girlfriend or something?
Me: No. Told you this is just not my style. Why don’t we just continue the conversation we were having and go back to the table in a few?
Girl: Sure.

I know I’m sad. I felt bad about the money for the dances but really how do you say no to a private dance? I did get golf balls from the establishment… that counts for something right?
The tab at the end of the night was slightly ridiculous. And I had more dollar bills than I know what to do with (since I didn’t use any).

The next day we woke up and drove back that down while listening to the game. Overall good weekend. I Might be slightly “basketballed” out for a couple of days though. Now I have to get rich so I can to do it all over again next year.

ACC Tourney Day # 2

Day 2 started out with a wicked hangover. Do the service ladies really need to bang on the door when they are trying to service the room? It really hurts when you’re hung over. One of the many Maryland alumni associations had a breakfast for the Terps fan staying at the resort. Once we get down there, my name is the only one missing (tiny reminder I’m not really important). So no one in the group wore their name tag. Solidarity. When we walked in the place we were the only people not wearing red. I seriously think the other people looked down of us for that. During breakfast Barbie and I were a bit rude, because we got up in the middle of Mote’s speech to get seconds. But really we couldn’t take the lies and the bad jokes anymore. I remember being a fan of him when I was an undergrad…. Now not so much.

After breakfast, we bummed around till the game time. We watched the second game of the first session. To pass time during the break and the first session, we decided to attend an adult entertainment establishment. Saying that the girls were nothing impressive, would be giving them a compliment. Most looked like they were 3 months pregnant and had been visiting the Taco Bell next door way too often. I was talking to one for while and found that she was graduated college with a 3.9 and just didn’t like her office job after college and that’s why she was dancing… she didn’t like the word stripping. I must the only idiot that actually talks to the strippers. Can you tell I don’t attend often?

At 7pm, we went to watch the reminder of the games. Unfortunately, the Terps got manhandled by B.C. I didn’t except us to win, but I at least expected to show up to play. The beating was so bad we left in the middle of the second half. Can we say NIT?

Back at the hotel bar, the discussions got a little rowdy. A hardcore republican (MP) and a “liberal” (me) talking about politics, the economy, foreign policy and such is just bad. Then you add Greygoose and tonic, a bad loss, and two very stubborn personalities…and you know things are going no where good. No one had to be escorted to their rooms, so think it all ended well. Post bar debate, Barbie, a friend and I made another run and continued drinking till wee hours in the morning. Good times.

ACC Tourney Day # 1

Characters Involved in the trip:
Da King – my friend’s dad (his phone says so… I swear).
MP – my friend’s dad’s friend (make sense?)
Barbie – my friend.

On Monday, Barbie called me and asked me if I wanted to go to the ACC Tournament.  Really how do you say no to that?  The only problem was that we would be leaving early on Thursday morning.  Since I had already Friday off for what was going to be a trip to Boston with the Ex (sad face), I struck a deal with my manager where if I could work 40 hours by Wednesday, he would try to get me Thursday off.  So I spent all the first days of the week at work.  I think there was a cot underneath my desk.  I got the 40 hours in (actually 38.5, but who is counting) and off to ACC Tourney I was.... I did bring the laptop just in case something needed to be done in between games and (hotel) bar hoping.
Wednesday night after watching the Constant Gardner (good movie but I got beefs with it.  Another entry for another day), I packed, got a hair cut and stayed up till 5 am watching cheesy movies and sportcenter.

The drive down (for some reason I thought there was a plane involved at first) was pretty cool.  The necessary road trip nap was awesome not because I was tired and going on 2 hours of sleep but because I’ve extensive experience sleeping on leather.  So I felt right at home (except it was moving at about 70mph).  We stop at Denis for a brunch, where a retired Marine (not with us) felt the need to remind that I was black and too old for Armed services (believe it or not it was not a racist comment, just a little weird).  We also stopped at a gas station to fill and get some drinks (non-alcoholic ones unfortunately).  The people in the gas station were so country it was unbelievable.  It was so shocking to me that I was like “Whoa… they do extist!” (like in the M&M Christmas commercials where they meet Santa Clause). The rest of the drive was pretty chill and relaxing, couple of conference calls, talking about cars, sport and making fun of Barbie (easy target).

Once we got down to NC, we checked in a ridiculously nice resort; a bit intimidating actually. After drop our stuff in our respective rooms (we each have a separate room with some sick view of the golf course… which is equally as sick), we made our way to the hotel bar.  There were four hot girls sitting at the bar, clearly Barbie and I were trying to figure their deal what there deal was.  Da King took a look at them once and suggested that they were “working girls.”   I protested, hot girls likes sports too. Sure enough when the bar filled up, the ladies were hitting on every guy in place.  I felt like such a Rookie (rookie moment # 1). 

We eventually made our way to MD vs. GTECH game.   Barbie and I first try to get media passes so we can meet up with a friend of ours who works for a news station down here.  That was not a successful endeavor, but we stumbled on a VIP area where they served alcohol (they didn’t serve any in the rest of the coliseum… stupid NCAA rules).  We tried to bribe our way into the VIP area, but the man with missing teeth was having none of it.  After we got back to our seats, some guys came to schmooze Da King (he is part of the M club), and ten minutes later we are in VIP area boozing (rookie moment # 2). We finished boozing and went back to our sits to watch the game.  GTECH fans really didn’t show up.  They must have been expecting to lose.  Terps Fans on the other hand travel really well.  I was impressed.  Clearly Terps Dominated…. Mike Jones (who?) and   Nik Caner-Scrappy both played really well.  After the game, we headed back to the hotel bar.  And yes they ladies were still working (rookie moment # 3).  After Da King and MP headed to bed… we hit the town with our friend that resides here.  We got a round of beer, got in a mandatory fan scuffle (the other guys got kicked out).  Last call is at 1:30 around here… Seriously? I was really disappointed.  And since I’m rookie around… there was no after party spot that I knew of. So we called it a night.  Overall first good day.

Introducing..

Intelligent, Witty and hillarious.. but don't take my word for it, read it. Everything Greg

Unlike me he uses spell-check, and since English is he first language is you can expect less grammatical errors.


UPDATE: Unlike my other posts, the errors in this one are intentional.... really i swear.

How to reformat your hardrive

"Hey, Windows XP users: The blue screen of death got you down? Missing dll errors making you frown? Frequent software crashes leave you yearning for that fresh, new PC you unpacked with glee three years ago? If you’ve scrubbed for spyware and viruses, defragged, chkdsked and done the requisite rain dance but things are STILL wonky on your computer, it may be time for extreme action"

[ Lifehacker ]

Since all the non geeks i know are proned to want to reformat their computers every couple of months because they have a "virus" and call me when everything goes here a good artible on how do it correctly.