"Ghetto" Christians

There's this thing goin around with Christian artists, particularly in the hip hop genre, that feel the need to cater to the "ghetto" culture that is often associated with rap and r&b, by wearing clothing endorsed by Hot97 fools and speaking like the idiots on MTV.

What bothers me more than anything is when ppl think that "ghetto"-ness is a culture that He is ok with. God doesn't hate hip hop or rap or baggy pants (or tight pants). As far as dressing like an imbecile, that's perfectly fine. As far as my personal opinion is concerned, check out http://bible.us/1Cor6.12.NIV --

"I have the right to do anything," you say—but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything"—but I will not be mastered by anything".

Anyway, if something looks "ghetto" to you, it means that it was birthed on ignorant principals. The jews were locked up in towns by the nazis and fascists in small "ghettos" so they would be ignorant to what was happening in WWII. Do u see a parallel in what "ghetto" really means?

Ghetto means confinement. It means you're stuck. It means you have nowhere to go, this is who you are, this is who you will be. You will continue to have a limited knowledge of what matters, you are boxed into a place of hopeless ignorance.

I HOPE this is not you... Right?

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ." -- http://bible.us/Col2.8.NIV

How to get Audio/Video off a YouTube vid

Josh Ortiz (awesome keyboardist, plays w/ me in the Mari Solis band. Check it out on http://MariSolis.com) asked me how to get audio off a youtube video. It's not the first time someone has asked me, and cuz I dont feel like answering this question more than once so im posting it here lol.

If you need audio, complete all these steps. If you want the whole video, u can kinda end at step 3.

Step 1: Copy the YouTube video URL. Try to search for the best quality version u can find.

Step 2: visit http://KeepVid.com where you can paste the URL into a bar and the website lets u download the file. I'd choose the highest resolution available.

Step 3: Get MPEG StreamClip. It's an audio/video converter/extractor/player. It does pretty much everything so it's just a good app to have. Also it's free and legal. Get it here: http://www.squared5.com/

Step 4: Open MPEG StreamClip and do File > Open Files, and locate the file u got from Step 2.

Step 5: As soon as u got it open, u can click play to make sure u opened the right file. Now go do File > Export Audio. Choose whatever format, change AIFF to MP3 or whatever if u want. (AIFF is higher quality and really should just be used if ur making a musical production or whatever.) Otherwise MP3 will be just fine. Make sure u name the file something u can remember.

You're done :-)

Benjamin again

Benja: Did you know that spiders are like octopuses cuz they both have 8 limbs?

Me: That's cool... Is an octopus a fish?

Benja: no, they have their own family

Me: yeah, like the octopus family

Benja: No, the Cephalopod family.

Me: Oh.

On the train

Haven't written lately. The reason is because i haven't really been riding trains. That's usually when I'm sitting and my thoughts are louder than my surroundings. I'm usually alone on a train, and there's no way of calling anybody with no cellphone signal, so I just write. The reason why I haven't been taking trains is simply because I no longer have anywhere to go anymore. Doors aren't being closed anymore, they're being destroyed and turned into walls. That's a big fear of mine. To be caught in a riddle of a life. Like that riddle that asks: what would you do in a room with no doors, no windows, and nothing but a table and a saw? The answer: cut the table in half. Put the halves back together. Two halves make a (w)hole. Jump in the hole and escape. Hahaha. Ok goin to church now. Bye, blog.

semicolon

Benjamin asks me
"hey what's that thing that looks like a comma with a dot on it?"
He was asking about the semicolon. " ; "
I told him it's like a comma and a period at the same time.
"You'll use it when u get older".
He says "how much older?"
I answered... "old".

Mac Oh Ess Ex

so a friend of mine got an old white macbook. Doesn't have the greatest processor or an immense amount of RAM. We wanted to see what it would take to make this computer freeze.

He opened all of the following applications:

RAM-heavy apps are marked*

- iChat with the Screenshare function and voice chat*

- Quicktime streaming a 1080p video online**

- Safari with three tabs open

- Photobooth

- Skype (with a running video chat)

- Address book

- iCal

- Preview

- iTunes (with a song playing)

- iPhoto

- iMovie*

- iDVD

- GarageBand*

- Logic***

- Microsoft Word

- Powerpoint

- MSN messenger

- TextEdit

We ran all that and i was still able to watch the 1080p video on my screen which was running off his screen. No choppyness, no lag. No freeze at all. The fan went pretty crazy but that's about it. Proof:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2703/4129700079_0cf632073a_b.jpg

Jesus.

Girls DO fart

Jesse

yo this girl was madd rushing out of the computer lab and rushing her friend to come

Jesse

and i think it was cause she farted

Carlos Fernandez

hahahahahahahahaha

Carlos Fernandez

LMAOOO

Jesse

cause  i sat down where they were sitting

Jesse

and it smelled

Jesse

she was like, "Come on, come on!"

Jesse

imagine in the mad quiet lab i say "dzzaaa"

Jesse

you farted

My mom tells Benjamin "you have to eat all your food. Don't leave not
even one grain!"
Benjamin is like "not even a bean?"
"no"
"not even a germ?"
"no"
"not even a molecule?"
"mira muchacho!"

Free music

So i had this big argument with a friend of mine. It was a stupid
argument because my "side" of the argument was just an analysis of
history and it's application to the future, and her "side" of the
argument was that I shouldn't "think" these things.
Let me make myself very clear from the very beginning:
I am not perfectly fine with accepting it as "ok", I am simply
speaking about it.

Anyway here's the point:

Just as selling horse shoes is obsolete, as will be selling music.

Right now, let's say you're a fan of R&B. You make about $12/hr,
working at RadioShack or whatever. You work ur ass off, standing all
day, lifting boxes when the truck comes (lol), dealing with retarded
customers. For a measly $12/hr. Then R Kelly comes out with a new CD
and the single is on the radio, the album is FIRE (lol). They're
charging you $13.85 for a piece of round plastic sitting in a plastic
box, wrapped in plastic. iTunes is charging you $11 for some music
floating in a computer. Then you realize that CD's get scratched, get
lost, or break, and iTunes sells music at 256Kbps mp3's. Then you go
online and see that you can get the same music thru a torrent, in 4
minutes, the entire album, at 320Kbps, plus the bonus tracks (that
album costs $15)... For free.

What are you going to do?

Are you going to be a law abiding citizen, wait til next week after
you pay your bill for your T-Mobile sidekick, and u get ur next pay
check, and give it to Sony BMG. OR will you get the music. Now. For
free. At an awesome quality. With absolutely no way of getting caught
or fined or whatever.

I remember when facebook was not "accessible" by old ppl. Now I see
even my mom on it. I believe the same can happen with torrents. Right
now it's still a nerdy world. The top most downloaded torrents are
usually action movies or anime. Clearly a bunch of nerds fueling the
free-media community. But just like facebook, it will become easier
and more accessible. When Luis Miguel comes out with his "farewell" or
"greatest hits" album, by then, my mom will probably be torrent-savvy,
and will get the album no-strings-attached, for free, at a high
quality, and in less than 4 minutes.

Artists will record album after album, and record companies will be
unable to make money off of this, because ppl will realize that
there's no reason in paying, when it's free and easy to get. There
will probably come a time when a software developer will make a
program that looks and acts exactly like itunes, except is just a
graphical representation of free torrents. They say that filling an
ipod costs $30,000 or more if u have a bigger ipod. You will save THAT
much money if you just click on "download" rather than "buy". People
will learn this VERY quickly.

See, the beauty of downloading thru torrents is that there is no
single source. There is no "mother load" of music. You get bits and
pieces of files from different users, and u feed the world bits and
pieces of your music too. What this means is that you're basically
walking into a supermarket, and stealing one grape, then visiting a
hundred other super markets and stealing one grape from each place. By
the time you're done, you'll have many many grapes. I'm sure it IS
illegal. But which supermarket cares enough to press charges?

The record companies will be like the horse shoe companies of today.
Who wants a horse, that you have to feed and maintain and has a speed
limit and stinks and sleeps and poops and dies... when u can have a
car that just needs gas and your foot on a pedal? The horse shoe
companies went out of business. Nobody cried. Nobody cared. The guys
working at that factory just left and found jobs at Ford. The iron
companies didn't care. Ford was still buying iron to make steel. It's
all good.

The same will happen in the future. Instead of Best Buy having shelves
full of pointless discs that nobody wants, they'll have shelves full
of concert tickets or something else that they'll think of. Maybe
merchandise will get as popular as it used to be, and artists will be
forced to make part of their earnings off T-shirts. Producers will
stop asking for royalty checks, since records arent selling, and
instead will ask for a big chunk of money up front.

Honestly, I don't care how it happens. I just think that it will.
That's all I'm saying. It's sad, but it's not like it's happening cuz
i'm sayin it.

My Defining Decade

i just realized that my "defining decade" is over. One's "defining
decade" is age 13-23. It's the age where the music u listen to is
defined, the way u dress, the TV shows u enjoyed most. From now on,
i'm gonna refer to stuff made between 1999 and 2009 as "the music i
listen to".
For example....
Say you were born 1957. 13 yrs later it's 1970. The music u enjoy
most, is stuff from 1970-1980. That is definitely a great way of
describing my mom's favorite music. My mom's "prime", when she felt
the best-looking in her life; where she felt "young" enough to do her
thang, yet old enough to remember it all and really absorb her
experience. Her "decade" is the 70's.

I mean this applies to more stuff besides music and clothes. It goes
for movies, philosophies, mentalities, etc. When my mom says "the way
we did it back in the day" is usually referring to something in the
70's. Yo i just realized my grandmother's "decade" was the 40's. LOL!!

Usually ppl stick to their fav. music forever. I seriously listen to
albums that came out in 2001, 2002, etc. more than anything coming out
today. I also enjoy artists that came out during that time; ppl who
initiated their "sound" in that decade. This is nuts. I'm growing up.
Now i gotta get a job HAHA.

What's your "defining decade"?

Lightrail

Lightrail

I just did the math right now, and I've already taken the lightrail
without paying so many times, that even if I get two violation tickets
tomorrow, i'm still saving money.
These people need to figure out a way to improve the security/access
validation process. I never ride the subway for free because it's
impossible.

Lost in Translation

They say that music is the one true universal language. As if music is
the only way to really communicate with ppl a message without anything
getting "lost in translation".
I am a musician, I've graduated from a music college, etc etc
And frankly;
I disagree.
The problem is that this mentality does a number of things to distort
one's perception of why music happens, how it's made, it's cultural
influence, etc.
I heard a song that had one of the most pungently beautiful melodies
I've experienced. It's called "Strange Fruit", and it's a song about
lynching. As you can see by its title, it's also one of the most
disturbing songs I've heard. So clearly, and unfortunately, music says
nothing about communicating a message. Ok so let's say it's lyrics and
songwriting. There's some songs with ornate and richly deep lyrics
that, if expressed "correctly", can have an impact on someone's life
for about 4 minutes. Then the bridge comes along, and finally the
chorus vamps over a few times, and the singer repeats "He loves you"
like 40 times. In the end, no matter how awesomely well the song is
written, it might not really be absorbed. One can even say the same
about an epic Obamic speech. If it's not projected with that full
round tone, nobody's listening.
This is the perfectly incorrect way of understanding why music is NOT
a "universal" language.
What really "does it" when a person says "that song spoke to me"
is...
(drum roll, please)
LiViNG the song.
What really speaks to people is not chords, harmony, melodies,
rhythms, or even lyrics.
It's the lives of the people making the music.
Understanding this is the basis behind all music. They say that
"actions speak louder than words", and I've decided to apply this with
a fuller definition.
"Actions speak louder than words or music, but combine all three, and
you've spoken loudly enough to mute the world."

update

new myspace page! add meeeee
has links to music facebook and youtube as well

http://www.myspace.com/notjustdrums

(UPDATE: you dont need a myspace account to view the page)

new myspace page! add meeeee
has links to music facebook and youtube as well
http://www.myspace.com/notjustdrums

notjustdrums wants to keep up with you on Twitter

To find out more about Twitter, visit the link below:

http://twitter.com/i/511c2fbc3717862ca06982cf30c696283c1aa208

Thanks,
-The Twitter Team

About Twitter

Twitter is a unique approach to communication and networking based on the simple concept of status. What are you doing? What are your friends doing—right now? With Twitter, you may answer this question over SMS or the Web and the responses are shared between contacts.

This message was sent by a Twitter user who entered your email address. If you'd prefer not to receive emails when other people invite you to Twitter, click here:
http://twitter.com/i/optout/f0dcbf4687bf943f39e033a555b4531a2b4a1c16

How to blog effectively

This is an email i sent to Lipe. It might be relevant to you too, if
you like writing FaceBook notes or Blogger blogs. If you dont have a
Blogger account, you should really get one. Go to blogger.com and
create an account. Seriously it'll help you write Facebook notes
easier. You'll see why.

- - -

pues si... about ur blog

there's a few things u can do to make posting easier and more likely
to be seen/commented on by other ppl.

The Blogger community is pretty popular, and ppl will see ur blogs.
However, it is microscopic compared to the facebook community.
Although the FaceBook Notes thing is nice, it doesnt have the "test of
time" thing that blogger has. One day Facebook will probably lose
popularity, just like myspace, and there'll be something else. BUT the
beauty is that you dont have to make a "transition".

This is what you do. You merge your blogs. If you look at my facebook
profile, on the left under my friends list, you'll see my "notes" box.
You'll notice that some have a lil white paper icon, and some have an
orange logo. That orange logo means that i actually posted the blog on
Blogger, and it merged onto my FaceBook Notes application.

The beauty of doing this, is that people actually see this blog, they
comment on it (a LOT) and the 20 minutes i spend typing it up on my
iPhone don't go to waste.

To make this happen, you'll need your blogger RSS address.

Blogs (among other sites, like news sites, TV show sites, etc.) and
basically any site that gets constant updates, have an RSS feature. To
get your blogger RSS address, go see ur blog, and at the very bottom
of it, you'll see a link that says "subscribe to: Posts (Atom)"
(OR if you're using safari, there's an RSS button right next to the
address bar, and just click that.)
The URL generated is ur RSS address. Copy/paste the address. Well,
dont paste it yet, lol.

Anyway.

login to facebook, and click the applications button on that bar
that's always sitting at the bottom of the facebook homepage. Open
the notes application.

Click "my notes" at the top.

Now, there'll be a blue box on the right that says "Notes Settings".
Click on the "import a blog" link in there.

Now paste ur RSS address from before into the thingy, make sure u have
the checkbox checked, and click "OK" or whatever it says.

Yay you're done with that. Sometimes it takes a few minutes for the
blog to merge.. like when u post on blogger, it might take even like
15 minutes for it to show on facebook, but it will.

NEXT thing we gotta do.

Go BACK into your blogger. Sign in. Go to settings.

There's a Tab there that says "Email & Mobile" open that.
Under "Posting options" put a "secret word" in pastorlipe.blabla@blogger.com
and clik the "publish emails immediately" option. Then at the bottom
clik save settings.

Now go to ur address book in both yahoo.com and in your phone, and add
an email contact, like if you were adding a person. Label this person
"Blogger" and, the email will be pastorlipe.blabla@blogger.com

whenever u send an "email" to this "person", it'll post as a new blog,
in blogger.com AND in facebook notes. YAY!!

What a dude has to do to get home

Yo I am madd lucky. I arrived to NYC, got off the Chinese bus without
a dime. I was so broke. I needed to catch a subway and a path to get
home. That's $3.75 total. It's 3am. No money in the bank, no cash on
me. I started walking and just hoped. I got to the subway station, and
was praying for a way to get on. The idea struck me. I went to the
turnstile and put my card in (just to fake it) and I turned the thingy
backwards. I told the dude that my suitcase doesn't fit and that I
needed to use the emergency door. He was like "pay a fare and turn the
thingy". I told him I did it already. He believed me.

I rode the subway free.

Next was the path. I was nervous again. What the heck was I gonna do?
I went to the machine to pretend to put money in. I was gonna start a
"fight" with the machine and claim it took my money. Then I saw that
the wheelchair entrance was broken. The employee's desk is literally
two feet away from that entrance. Using ninja skills and espionage was
the solution. I thought to myself "I hope I don't have to use a Steven
Segall on this guy". He got up for some reason, and turned around to
grab sumthin off the floor. That was my chance.
SWASSS... I slid thru.

Free path ride.

Wild Sprint

I have a quiz today that starts at 4:10pm. I was still at my house at
3:35. I was so worried. I ran out of my house and then I got on the
subway, dying of the stress. Then the stupid train got delayed. I
arrived at the door of the classroom, after sprinting wildly from the
subway station, just to find a white piece of paper taped to the door.

Class was cancelled.

Woah.

My goals. Here goes.

I was watching a YouTube video that documented the history of the
church I attend, Fountain of Salvation, marking the 30th anniversary.
The video showed images of other churches in the whole ICFS system.
I looked at Johansel, who was sitting next to me, and told him that
seeing all those churches is something I wanna to before I turn 30.
There's other stuff I wanna do...
(not necessarily in order):

- I want to own property. Not necessarily live on it, but definitely
have some real estate under my name.
- I want to see Europe. Or at least Spain, Monaco, and Luxembourg.
- I want to be a paid musical director at a church. Preferrably at my
church... but it doesn't look like it's gonna happen.
- I want to get a master's degree in something I can/will use.
- at some point I want a wife and two kids.
- I want to be part of at least one concert tour as a drummer, whether
it be playing for Kirk Franklin or Jessica Simpson. Quite frankly, I
don't care.

Seriously, if I get this stuff done, I'll die happy. Obviously there's
many more abstract goals, like spiritual stuff, but are mostly generic
goals everyone should try to meet.

Portals

I was watchin that chick flick, "He's Just Not That Unto You". Not very good. But.. There was one line I thought was interesting. It was about all the different "portals" people use these days to communicate, as opposed to back in the day where it was just landlines and answering machines. Now there's all of the following in my life: - Facebook wall / messaging - Myspace comments / messaging - Cellphone calls - cellphone voicemails - texts - AIM / Skype / instant msg's / vidchat - email yay for iPhone.