Work and Music

Here is a quick post to show everyone what I have been up to during this weekend. As you well may know from my constant complaints, I am swamped with work and blogging duties. Not only am I backlogged on guest posts (sorry Amber!) but I also need to film the karaoke vid, recognize some other awards given to me, and watch a bad sports movie to write up a review. Though of course all the homework, exams, and design projects assigned for next week have absolute control of my priorities, it is still nice to remind myself that there is other stuff I need to do besides dive into the books. 


So yea, bitchin' time over, now for the fun stuff. First of all...check this out, its my work station:

I could build a book castle if I wanted to

You can't really see it, but I assure you I also have a HUGE folder with all the journal articles I have to read for my memory devices class...it is underneath the black book, right there in the center stack. 


As a parting note, since I am going to go back to my world of laplace transforms, quantum mechanics, and vanadium stainless steel implants, I want to leave you with this - a nice little cover. Jex Mix from Jes Getting Started and I both love this song, Please Don't Go from Mike Posner, so I decided to be quick and record a first draft cover. Hope you enjoy it.

Let's Put Some Kiwi (Karaoke) In You - KBROD March

This February, month of couples and singletons alike, we at the Karaoke Blog Ring of Death have brought you a special treat. Not only have we gained tons of new members for you to check out and fantasize over, but we had a double theme. In recognition of St. Valentine's day and all that love/romance mess, this month's theme was Love versus Anti-love Songs. Got you all excited down in the pants doesn't it?

To make things even better, because indeed it can get even better, I get to host Neal/Lost from You Know What Really Grinds My Gears...! Of course, of course, I realize the obvious. Yes, he is a Kiwi (from New Zealand), yes he has that accent and I know all you girls are secretly touching yourself when he sings. Or openly, whatever floats your boat and feeds your goat. I must admit that I am a tad bit jealous but he is my bro, so therefore I will be a supportive wingman. I will tell you that  he is sex-ay, has god-like powers in the sack, and there is definitely enough of him to go around for every blogging female. 

Here is his video, singing If You are Into It by The Flight of the Conchords. A great artist choice and a fun rendition, that's what this karaoke ring is all about. You should savor this moment, because it's his last month for a while. Give a good farewell folks, and comment down below! 



Care to see my videos? Really? Well then, you can go over to Lana's (Nuggles's) blog at That Ain't Kosher. Let me know what you thought of my attempts at stardom haha :P 

People Like My Blog?!? (Yeah, It's a Surprise to Me Too)

This is the conversation I just had on 20sb with my pal Lily:

Lily - "I just gave you an award"

Me - "say whaaaaatttttt"

Lily - "on my blog"

And sure enough, this little baby was right there with my name and blog link below it:

My first award - keep 'em coming people!

To be perfectly honest, I am both shocked and slightly confused. Me? This blog? Really? I guess its not the time to be humble and modest though. So, yea, my blog rocks. It rocks so much that your mother, sister, and girlfriend all want to do it. Multiple times. On your bed. All at once. 


I have to give a huge shout-out to my girl, Lily. She is the blogger over at Is it too early for a martini? and she is not only a cool individual but a talented writer as well. Hence why she was chosen as 20sb Featured Blogger of the Month for February. 


When I started this blog, I just wanted to be able to post regularly. Fast forward a few months, and I have some kickass blogs that keep me entertained, some readers that were nice enough to follow, and have met several awesome individuals through 20-Something Bloggers. It's freaking incredible how far this has gone. And now I feel like I am giving a speech at the Oscars, and taking up too much time. "I would like to thank my family, and my fans, and....and...." Play me out guys.


Anyways I have to tell you five things and you readers get to guess which one of the five are true. I personally think this is a little bit, how do you say it, stupid. But since I have been awarded this sticker from someone that was following these rules, I'll play along this one time.


Here are the five:

1. I am a fan of country music
2. I have brown hair
3. I broke my arm once, trying to hang from a fan
4. I can pop and lock pretty well
5. I have done it in a helicopter

After this guessing game is done,  I then have to award this baby to five other bloggers and hopefully they will carry on the process. Here are my five for this blogger award:

Falen at Colorful Rants of a Fed Up Sista

Neal (Lost) at You Know What Really Grinds My Gears...

Jess (JRoll) at Musings of an Underestimated Youth

Dan at From the Head of the Danaconda

Jessica at Hello, My Name is Jessica

These folks up there deserve every award that comes their way. I probably spend too much of my day reading through all of their posts. Keep up the good stuff guys, I will be reading.

Let's See Your Real Goods

I think auto-tune and electronica has left no area of music untouched. Seriously, there has to be a hundred wanna-be T-Pains within a 10-mile radius of me. Unfortunately, you have to realize that those sound filters and your digital instruments won't assure you producing a hit, and not even that you will be a good musician. Besides, you will be facing up against all the producers that know their shit and can create amazing rhythms, synthesizer or no synthesizer.

There's nothing wrong with the digital though, just so we are clear. I get annoyed when people keep complaining about all these new music technologies in their music. If you don't like your voices auto-tuned, then go the acoustic route, but even that is dicey. But just so you know, your much loved pop music is as guilty as the cheating hobag of an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend. The rap industry can't even begin to put a claim on temporary insanity, they are the ones that launched this program to the mainstream.

The real reason behind this post is not auto-tune or even electronic music. I like it, enjoy it, and dance to it, but sometimes I want to leave it all behind. Get back to the roots of music, and listen to just the chorus of human voices. Of course, I am talking about a cappella music. This genre of music has recently gained some attention due to the "The Sing-off" and I am all for more seasons of this competition. If you ever want to hear amazing, jaw-dropping, you-just-jizzed-your-pants-its-so-good, then head over to the a capella genre. 


This shit is hard. There is no other way I can state that. The melodies, the harmonies, the rhythms, the beat-boxing, the tuning, the choreography, the list goes on and on. Sincerely, when you realize that every.single.one.of.this.group. hits the right note at the right time, it just makes your brain hurt. Not to mention that the musicality is obvious, their music skills are right there in your face. An a cappella arrangement can make the difference between a tolerable song and an eardrum-blowing orgy in your head. 


I remember the first time I was introduced to a cappella. Of course I had sung songs without accompaniment in middle school and high school chorus, but I had never heard the levels of complexity that vocals could reach. Then I was on a college visit my senior year, and an a cappella group came on stage to sing for the visiting students. They sang American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, then Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-lot. My world was rocked. Who gave these guys the right to sing both rock and rap, I pondered. They looked like they were having the time of their lives on stage, belting about big booties and I asked myself: How did the hell did they make those sounds? Where did those awesome drum noises come from? Why are the freaking hairs on my neck standing up? I was hooked, no, addicted. 


So I will share with you readers some a cappella suggestions. Honestly, I have freaking too many favorite songs, so I just created a short list for you. If you wish for some more recommendations just let me know.

Breaking my Eyes, but Not Any Hearts - The February Movie Review Blog Swap

I signed up to do this whole "blog swap" thing again and this time it was to do movie reviews. This month's is bad romantic comedies, so I was like "why the fuck not?". One important thing to note: this is my first swap partner that actually got me their stuff! I had enlisted in two other so-called swaps, but I missed out on my partner the previous times. This is why I am pleased to introduce my new favorite person of the day...Christina.


She is a truly bad-ass chick so check out her blog, stick it to your Reader, and pay attention to what she has to say because it might save your eyes people! Without further ado, I present to you, Christina's Wonderland:


Hi. I may and/or may not be Christina Harper (from Christina In Wonderland's) ID, EGO, or SUPEREGO. Either way, does it really matter? I'm here from my wonderfully awkward and insane blog, that I've been neglecting recently. Well, not neglecting. I'm taking time off to pursue other endeavors, which is code word for "college is sucking my mental juice" and by "mental juice" I mean, well, you know what I mean. Or something. Where was I going with this introduction? Oh yeah, if you want to sift through random nonsense, please, go take a look at my blog. It isn't much at the moment, negligence and all, but I swear, within the next week or so I'm going to renovate it and get my creative mojo back. MUAHAHAHA! That being said, on to my review.

-----------------

p.s i (fucking) love you

So, I kind of cheated when I did this. I Googled "shitty romantic comedies" and looked at a lot of lists. Mostly because I really don't WATCH romantic comedies, or romantic movies at all. The last romantic movie I watched was, well, if you want to count Fight Club as aromantic movie, then go for it.


Anyway, the way in which I cheated was that I saw this movie on someone's list and freaked the fuck out. Like, I literally flipped a biscuit... off the desk... where I was eating. And I'm Southern so we take our biscuits VERY seriously. *ahem* Whatever. That was a mild rant. P.S. I Love You is by no means an AMAZING movie, but worst romantic movie of all time, or one of them? Dear person on the internet you must not understand that Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler make any movie tolerable at least, and the fact that they are BOTH in this movie, well, your argument is just invalid.


I watched this movie. I really, really liked this movie. Albeit, there were certain things about it that bugged me. I guess I'll start with those. First of all, there was Harry Connick, Jr. who just has only ever impressed me in ONE movie throughout his entire career, and that wasHope Floats. And I didn't even like him in that movie, so maybe I just hate him and he makes every movie he has ever been in worse just because there he is... so, yes, he and his shitty acting were an undeniable flaw in the casting.


Maybe he was the only thing I really didn't like about the movie. Because most everything else was pretty par for the course. Well, and Kathy Bates... how I do worship that woman, but something about her character threw me off. I mean, no mother is that unsupportive of her daughter. But even then I still kind of get it at the end. Ugh. I'm so wishy-washy and indecisive in this review. Is that bad?


Moving on, to the reasons why I think this movie isn't nearly as shitty as everyone and their cracked out Grammymaw seem to make it. First of all, Hilary Swank always gives a good performance, I don't even care what you say. The fact that she was playing a woman who's husband dies, and she's getting these tiny pieces of her husband from beyond the grave, and she's trying to move on and learn to deal, well, Swank pulls that off. If she's "bland" it's because the character is probably personally numb from all that's happened, and because her friends are all kind of bitches.


And I literally cried near the ending, okay? I swear to whatever God there may or may not be that I bawled my baby back bitch eyes out and I KID YOU NOT THAT WAS A REALLY, REALLY GOOD MOVIE! It's one of  those movies that the ending doesn't even matter, it's the destination that's the real deal. So, even if you aren't pleased with the ending or whatever, enjoy the ride, man... or (wo)man. Don't want to leave people out. Lack of androgynous pronouns leaves the world a sad place, you know?


Okay... am I done here? Have I given you enough of a shitty post that I can go crawl back into my Earth Cave and die a slow, Tumblr-related death?


Seriously folks, I have nothing else to say. We're at the end credits now and you're refusing to leave the theater. What is WRONG wichu? Drop the popcorn in the trash receptacles and go have sex. Or if you're underage, go have frozen yogurt. Frozen yogurt is good...


And this has been a public service announcement from Christina In Wonderland. Thank you for tuning in.

Was that good or what? Very informative and hilariously accurate on the bashing, I *like* this review. If you want to read my honest opinion on the The Ugly Truth starring Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl, then move on over to McGriddle Pant's (awesome name right?) blog Serenity Now! Insanity Later. Tune in next month for more couch movie criticisms.

The Latin Feel Good Playlist

Here we go, coming straight from the depths of 20sb chat, I present for your hearing pleasure...a Latino/Hispanic based play list. I listen to music in all languages, but if I had to divide up the hearing time, I think English would beat out Spanish by a very thin margin. This post was encouraged, and therefore I am giving out a shoutout to Risha aka R...Rawr at Epitaph for a Heart.

Hmm, blogger isn't allowing me to link her blog site to the text. Wtf blogger I thought we talked about playing nice. Also, side note, I think I'm actively suffocating from the smell cologne coming from the computer cubicle next to me. What makes you think that diving into a bottle of cheap smelling scent will make you more attractive. Women confuse me sometimes, but guys really piss me off a lot of times. It happens.

The first song that I will present to you is "Danza Kuduro" by Don Omar featuring Lucenzo. Now I'm not normally a fan of "El Rey" but this beat is addictive. This song is perfect for the private dance party in your room, strippers may or may not be included. What I like most about this song is the mixture of African rhythm, Latin melody, and electronic feel. Far too many songs these days are going the eurotechno or the house backbeat route, and that's well and good, but it gets old very very quickly.

The next song is "Mi Nina Bonita" by Chino and Nacho. No, not a food item, but rather two pretty good melodious guys. This song is easy on the ears, danceable, and overall very up-lifting. The harmonies are good, maybe not excellent but with that trumpet backdrop do I really need more people singing? Not really, no.

Moving on to "Te Mando Flores" by Fonseca. Fonseca has taken over the tropical, Caribbean rhythm crown Carlos Vives and boy does he run with that thing. This brings to mind a sort of tropical festival, complete with people dancing in the streets and lots of confetti being thrown everywhere. Someone wipe this grin off my face because this song just makes me chuckle and want to go find some street performers.

Then you have "Todo Cambio" by Camila. Again, I am not normally a fan of Camila, and I think they are generally overrated. But this song, damn, this song almost makes me a fan. It is smooth, with some subtle harmonies and its like a feather dropping into a pond. It has an easy gliding down, with no effort, and yet it still makes waves in the pond water. That is what real music should sound like, if you are going for the delicate, emotional side of song composition.

Finally we have "Tocame" by Jandy Feliz. I grew up with Jandy, and his tropical merengue feel has always been in my head for when I decide to go record my album. This is just a well-around great introduction merengue and the tropical flavor that Caribbean Latino music has to offer.

Use this playlist well, and let some more dance beats in your day. More playlists are soon to follow.

Some Math You Probably Know

I started this blog with the idea that I was going to write about music I liked and math I enjoyed. So, a few months later, and there are several music posts. Not so much on the math side though. My bad, folks. Today, I'm going to fix that once and for all. For your reading enjoyment and possibly the first time you have touched math in a long time, I present...the Pythagorean Theorem.

Originally credited to Pythagoras of Samos, one of the first "true" mathematicians. I mean, the man developed his own cult that declared their religion to based off of mathematics and how numbers had spiritual properties. Not your average middle school algebra teacher indeed. His theorem is taught to all the middle school-ers out there, the simple rule about all right triangles. Now a right triangle is any triangle with a 90 degree angle in it. Got it? Good.

Here we go, simple and nice to look at as far as math theorems go. Plus, it's very easy to plug into your calculator! But how about proving the lil' muthafucka?
Well, actually that's pretty easy too.
So easy in fact, that even people you wouldn't think were into math got into the whole mix as well - James Garfield, for instance. That's right, President James A. Garfield did some math on the side of being a politician and future president. His proof is really short, sweet, and easy to explain, hence the reason I chose it for this blog post. I found this proof (and EIGHTY-FREAKING-NINE others) at Cut-The-Knot, a really cool and thorough math site. Check it out to learn more about everything math-y. So let's get to the proof itself:

First, let's imagine a trapezoid:

This baby has two parallel lines and a right angle, like so

Then you label the sides:

Next draw the lines, making 3 triangles:

Now it's all simple area formulas from here :P

The area of a trapezoid:

Area = ((base 1 + base 2)/2)*height

Well base 1 = A, base 2 = B, and height = A+B

But this figure is also made up of 3 triangles and the triangle area formula is:

Area = .5*base*height

Sooo...

Area of Trapezoid = Area of Triangle 1 + Area of Triangle 2 + Area of Triangle 3

Triangle 1 = A*B*.5, Triangle 2 = A*B*.5, Triangle 3 = C*C*.5 (as you can tell from above image)

Woot, okay then

(A+B)*.5*(A+B) = .5AB + .5AB + .5C*C, thats putting area of the trapezoid equal to the 3 triangles

Let's multiply the whole line by 2:

(A+B)(A+B) = 2AB + C*C

When we do the multiplication of (A+B) squared we get,

A-squared + 2AB + B-squared = 2AB + C-squared

Subtract 2AB from both sides and you're done!

A-squared + B-squared = C-squared

As far as proofs go, this one is practically giving itself to you. Hopefully, I'll do more proofs and mathematician biographies as the year goes on. We'll see.

Keep Your Dreams Up

Trying to write up to my standards every post has been slowly killing me. So, I will just let it flow for this post. Everyone has a dream. Sometimes they are little dreams, like making a good impression for your first interview or dunking the basketball. A lot of them are huge dreams, such as writing a best selling book or becoming a big-name actor. Yet, the most important thing at the end of the day is not letting go of that dream.

Dreams get abandoned all the time. The reasons are many and list a wide variety of details, but one thing stays the same for everyone: regret. Waking up years later thinking, "Man I should have gone for that job." or "I should have asked her to stay." Now, you are just left with memories of what could have been.

But let's not get focused on the negative side of dreams, and instead let's talking about keeping them alive. It isn't easy. Our wishes are like weak flames, that need constant encouragement, careful monitoring, and thousands of hours of dedication. No wonder so few flames become a full rage fire. And so, to keep your spirits alive, I offer you a song, something I found on the internets. It is called Dreams Up by Hoodie Allen.

In simple terms, Hoodie raps about how he keeps at the dream of making it big, of making it as an artist and rapper. There must be hundreds of thousands of people out there trying to make it in the rap industry, let alone the music industry and the road can get quite rough. People get lost, or worse think they are farther ahead than they actually are, with a very skewed view of their life and success.

Some lines to think about:
"The only road I know is like the steepest now

and I'm on the outside but they can't keep me out

'Cause that's not the way my life should be

I'm overall nice and a tight MC"

This song has a tight feel, and the combination of fighting lyrics along with the upbeat beats add the shine to this finished product. "Dreams Up" should be added to the wake-up playlist, the song that reminds us that all our efforts are not in vain. Believe in yourself and in Hoodie, so we can keep dreaming to make it big someday.

Dreams Up by HoodieAllen