as far as good ol’ soul music is concerned, i’ve yet to hear an album that’s come out since good things to top it, so why stop with the music videos right? and why not get blogoteque folks to direct it, if not for an added extra layer of “awesome.” i guess dustin cavazos will be happy to find that aloe blacc loves riding bikes too.

-grizzly

It doesnt really get much fresher than this.. Jack Beats just posted this on their SoundCloud about an hour ago. Taking their unique sound to a whole new level. With some cazy synths and stabs this is a completely new sound, and it sounds amazing!

Stay safe x

Green For Go

Sorry it’s not that type of article. These traffic lights are signs on “Yes – Green Good To Go, Helps Everyone To Grow” and “Red – No”

Do you, on the odd occasion have a decision to make?

I’m sure one or two of you out there in cyberspace do.

How do you make this decision? Do you fret, worry, stress and rush to hasten to add I haven’t done enough even when you are clear in your own mind that the decision has been made? Or do you just take the first thought and let that one be the right one?

To add to your pain would be to embrace that there is no such thing as an easy change. Well I don’t add to it I help alleviate it, hence the need for this.

Traffic lights.

Next time you have a decision to make look for the signs. Doors open and others close. Traffic lights help you to see more clearly. A door opening will automatically show you a Green Light. And a door closing will be a Red Light.

Take for example, just recently I had to make a decision whether to leave full time employment with no job to go too, but a dream of becoming full-time self-employed. I initially had the thought to leave and left it at that. Signs revealed themselves. I found there were skills I had that I had long forgotten and swept under my own metaphorical carpet, and my old job wasn’t utilising them to any degree. Opportunities for future work kept presenting themselves to me. My landlord said he would be happy to have the weekly rent  instead of monthly. People I had offered services to in the past kept showing up to say thanks and tell me how ‘spot on’ my information or guidance had been. My area manager turned up unannounced so I could say goodbye prior to leaving. These were all green signs. Including my job was getting worse in many ways and I was being wasted in my level of skill mix and my money was disappearing faster than I could blink.

Red Means No Then You Grow

Red Lights were to say No. I wanted to go back to the previous type of work for financial security, only for a brief moment, and after lots of applications none were accepting me. Any loans I tried to get were an ultimate No. Now some of you might see that as a Red Light to going self-employed and would stay in their old job and ‘make do.’ I agree. Yet turn the world on it’s head and see it from a different point of view. I can make the money so I don’t need to pay a loan back. The money I make in the coming months will enable me to reinvest time and skills back into the business I love not someone else’s. Two good things come from that my quality of life improves and so does yours. Yours because the more I have the more I can spread around in the ways that will benefit the rest of the world. Hence my red light led me onto another Green.

It’s all in the way you see things. If you are mentally blind to the signs then you could equally make a decision that is right but you may have a lot of trouble convincing yourself. Enough to alleviate your own worry. I’m all for stress free productivity.

So next time you need help. Sit quietly, meditate on what has actually occurred, you’ll get the reassurance you need to become more decisive next time and if per chance it was the wrong decision then think about this.

Nothing changes without a desire to bring change. You can move your life forwards at your own pace. Stop and smell the roses if they smell sweet then you are complete, and if not then shit helps the gardener and the garden to grow. Mistakes are not really mistakes they are lessons in life all the same no one likes to fail.

Who said anything about failing! If that is what is stopping you from taking the leap then bring it on. No such thing as failure or indeed success it’s merely your own perception of what is. Based on what you believe.

Traffic Lights are your own signs. Be your own guide and hey, when times are hard, strange or not as good as they were or will be then look at your own strengths for comfort as to why you made the decision in the first place.

Good Luck

Need help then check out this Mind Readings

The 45-minute drive home started off nice. It’s later in the evening so there wasn’t much traffic on the road and the red lights don’t seem to hate me like they usually do.

I drove down some back roads to get to the interstate entrance and felt hypnotized a little by the street lamps as I passed them. The light came into my car to tease me before abandoning me into darkness, only to come back again when I passed another lamp. This continues as I peacefully make my way towards home.

During one of the street lamp teases, something on my dashboard caught my eye. As I looked closer the light inside my car disappeared and I couldn’t see anything in the darkness.

Something had gotten wedged between the front windshield and the end of the dashboard. I had planned to use the light from the next lamp I passed to look in the same spot on the dashboard to figure out what I saw.

Was it a parking garage ticket? Or was it a ticket stub from the Arepas food truck? Or maybe my roommate’s niece put one of her arts & crafts cutouts up there again?

I was approaching the lamp and eagerly waited for the light to illuminate my car glancing back and forth from the road to the spot I thought I had seen something. The light came and my suspicions were confirmed. Between the edge of the dashboard and the windshield was a two to three-inch long cockroach.

I’m not afraid of roaches. I don’t understand how they came to be and why they are here (where their spot in the food chain is or what actually eats them). Do they even have any nutritional value?

Then I was trying to figure out how this big insect even got inside my car in the first place. Each time I passed a lamp I would get a better look at it. It’s beady eyes were looking right back at me too!

I was okay with the roach being there at first. I wasn’t thrilled but I was okay.

Then it began to move it’s long flaky brown skeleton body slowly across the dashboard, usually during the dark periods when I couldn’t see that well. The light rings around its eyes made it look like it was examining me through a pair of glasses. The antennas twitched to find a sense of direction.

It was moving towards the passenger side of the car but during an illuminating moment turned around and at a faster pace used its 6 hairy legs to crawl towards the driver’s side door. Again I’m not afraid of roaches but they still creep me out. Already I’m swerving out of my lane to keep an eye on this thing and anticipating a launch attack since I’ve seen these things fly before.

At this moment I’m really hoping to catch a red light but unlike every other time I’m out driving they seem to be timed out perfectly for me to continue non-stop on my journey home. Then, my wish came true. It was the last stop light before the entrance to the interstate.

The roach had crept his way onto the door handle so I wasn’t sure how to open the door. He was too low for me to try to flick him out the window. When he crawled past the handle, I knew I was going to have only one shot at this.

I jumped at the chance to open the door. As wide as I could! I desperately searched for something to use to fling him off the door grabbing the closest thing I had to me, my cool new hat I wear everywhere. A brief pause was made before using it but it was all I had so I pushed on. Swiftly I swatted the hat at the roach.

Nothing. He held on to the door with his sticky, hairy legs and was not going to jump ship anytime soon. And I’m not sure but he looked a little pissed at me for making such an attempt on his life.

The stoplight turned green. I’m at this intersection with my door wide open and this huge roach hanging on with all of his might. I didn’t care that people had come up behind me or that I was stopped at a green light now. I missed my first shot but I could not miss my second.

I swatted at him again.

This time I knocked him down, trying not to kill him but simply set him free in the middle of a three-lane road. I know I struck the roach. I saw him fall off the door. But I didn’t see where he landed.

I quickly closed the door and proceeded through the light and onto the interstate like nothing had happened. Because I didn’t actually see the roach fall out of the car and onto the road, I knew in the back of my mind there was a chance that he may have fallen back inside the car.

It was dark once again and there was no sign of the roach anymore. Nobody was harmed in this invasion of privacy but the scars are still there. And because there wasn’t concrete proof that this roach made it out of the car I must live with the realization that this battle is not yet over.

Greenefy offers solar lighting solutions, which are easy to install, can be used indoors and outdoors, and are aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Engineers predict that drivers will see an average 12-percent decrease in travel times.

Sixty-six intersections between Topanga Canyon Boulevard on the west and Tampa Avenue on the east will be plugged into the City of Los Angeles’ central traffic computers. The northern and southern boundaries of the project include Roscoe Boulevard and Vanowen streets, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

The California Transportation Commission approved the traffic signal links at its meeting Friday in Sacramento.

(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

It takes a lot for an artist to make it onto the list of my favorites, let alone have your album played in my iTunes library for 5 hours straight. I seek much more than an awesome beat or a couple dope verses on a track. There’s something about the emotions you put into your music that matter the most to me. For the past couple months I have witnessed the dedication, artistry, devotion, sacrifice and most importantly, the love this artist has put into his album, “Green Lights”. His name? The one and only, Kay M.

Occasionally I would hear Kay M rhyme a few verses from “Green Lights” until the curiosity hit me and I couldn’t help myself but to ask to listen to it. He was a bit reserved at first because like many artists, he wanted things to be perfect before anyone heard it. Fortunately, I was able to accompany him to one of his last studio sessions where the mixing for “Green Lights” was being finalized.

I heard the entire “Green Lights” album at the studio and I couldn’t stop singing/rappin’ all the lyrics. This is not your “typical” hip-hop album, he definitely stepped out the box and added a different feel to it. It’s awesome when emcees,rappers or musicians in general are able to expand their creativity and aren’t afraid to bring something new to their listeners. I have “Practice Makes Perfect, (1 & 2)” by Kay M as well but this album tops off any mixtape, (Kay, I love all your stuff but you know how I feel ’bout Green Lights). The production on “Green Lights” is ridiculous, like I said, I have had it on heavy rotation for days actually.

There’s something about this album that inspires me, and that is to keep going. Later on I will get Kay M on an interview and I will ask him everything I need to know about “Green Lights” but to me this album is about not giving up, following the light you see ahead and keep that motivation going until you reach the top. A lot of musicians give up when they don’t see things their way right away, but for the past couple months I have noticed almost every type of emotion Kay M has put into his album and he definitely wasn’t going to stop until everything on “Green Lights” was perfect.

Rather than me going on about the entire album, because I can do so if I wanted to, I would like for you to check out his first single “What I Gotta Do” produced by 4 Dolo Productions. “What I Gotta Do” was released this morning on his website http://kaymonline.com. This track is dope! I can’t really say anything else when all I can think is “Damn Kay, this shit is dope!” I was telling Kay the other day, this song brings me back to when I lived in the South, yes, like the Dirty South in Miami. It just gives it that “real good” feeling and makes you wanna jump out your chair and do some funky ass dance. Call me crazy, I’m fine with that. But seriously, this track—> official.  Please be sure to check out the single, get your free download and keep your eyes and ears open for December 17th which is when the entire “Green Lights” album drops on iTunes.

Don’t worry, I got you all covered on an entire album review later this month. You just have to be patient and wait. =)

Peace, Mad Love & Melodies,

Lyn Melodix

For your consideration, a map of the area (Courtesy of Google Maps). The parking lot is right next to the green rectangle. At the end of the day, everybody rushed down 55th Street to 23rd Avenue.

The scene was one of stark raving bedlam. Imagine 300 cars trying to get through the same green light, and you’ve got the right idea. It was a daily stampede.

Everybody watched for the green light. We lined our cars up so close to one another that if you had nudged the car in the back, the guy at the front would’ve felt the tap in less than a second.

When that light turned green, the cars cleared the gate faster than the opening moments of the Daytona 500. I would recommend any graduate of Buchholz as qualified for a fine career with NASCAR.

But the buses threw everyone off. Everyone knows you can’t count on a school bus to move with any kind of urgency.

Moral of the story: Green lights are precious. They don’t last long, especially in the town, so reaction time counts for a lot.

I usually try to match the driver in front of me. If you move quick, then so will the rest of traffic. Otherwise, we’ll just be sitting in traffic wondering why the light is green and traffic is stopped.

 I am asked this question all the time – do you have those energy friendly bulbs?  Those compact flourescent?  The swirly kind? 

My refusal to manufacture them has hurt our company and business significantly.  Public perception is everything, and companies with dollars can really make you think anything they want.  You don’t even know how much you need until you hear about what they tell you they need.  I know, I used to work for ‘them’. 

CFL’s burn more energy because they are lower wattage for the same amount of light output.  So yes, technically they save energy during the lighting cycle and because they last much longer.  What companies did not promote is the energy it takes to make a CFL.  It takes 4x or so the energy of an incandescent, not to mention the amount of wasted production in product development.  

Not to mention the hundreds of millions of incandescent light bulbs we get rid of to replace with CFL’s.  And the CFL’s that break or don’t get recycled spreading Mercury around, the same Mercury we have been warned is NOT green for years.  And please don’t tell me the batteries have more – two wrongs do not make a right and you are simply confusing me about Mercury.

CFL’s also have workers directly handling the mercury – and if you haven’t been over to China you don’t know their environmental standards in factories – if there even are any.   So all these workers are getting poisoned.  Is that good for the environment? 

It is ironic – we created all these environmental standards, made it too expensive to manufacture in the U.S., so started buying everything from overseas because they don’t have those expensive standards.  So it ends up doing more harm than good because we are poisoning workers there through the handling of Mercury, the lack of environmental standards eventually affect us all, and U.S. jobs are gone. 

Why isn’t there a major campaign to stop using lights so much?  To simply use lower wattage lights?  The real ‘GREEN’ technology is coming with LEDs, already in the market.  Is it really that hard for us to wait 10-15 years in the scale of life?  Especially when you think about the amount of waste we are creating for the environment with light bulbs? 

Unfortunately I am marketer and would have done the same thing working for a major corporation - we are taught in business school to find the strength and hammer it into consumers heads.  It is different owning my own business because I have ethics and values to adhere to, and unfortunately short-term success is not as important as long-term fulfillment to me and I do not have a marketing budget to explain my reasoning.  

My hope is we have not been so rewired to use these curly bulbs people won’t understand or use the LEDs?  And that major manufacturers do just as much education on LEDs with all that money they made from the CFLs.  I don’t they anyone has any malicious intentions, business is business.  Unfortunately many corporations often make short term decisions that don’t benefit the long-term future of the environment.

Visit our website for more details on our research and sources. 

An interesting article in debate of above article - http://www.7gen.com/blog/20090504/25599-compact-fluorescent-lights.  Please be sure to share your thoughts!

I have…a lot. It seems like traffic lights see me coming from miles away and coordinate together to  turn red at the same time just so I will be late for my appointments. Of course, an easy solution to this problem would be for me to just leave early. But no matter how hard I try, I still leave at the last minute. I usually end up getting in my car about ten minutes before the appointed time. As soon as I hit the first red light I know the outcome. So, I pray. “God please give me green – light grace. Turn every light green for me so I can get there on time!” I know this sounds ridiculous, but there are times when it actually works…or so it seems. However, there are those times when it doesn’t matter how hard I pray, the lights remain red. This is when I become extremely frustrated and my stress level skyrockets, causing me to become cranky. On one particular evening I was making my way to an appointment and, of course every light in town for a mile was red. I was running late and so I prayed once again for the Lord to extend his green light grace and change the color of the lights. It didn’t happen. What should have been a ten minute trip  turned into twenty minutes. I was ten minutes late. Later, on my way home, I was thinking about all those red lights and how my prayers seemed to go unanswered. The Lord gently spoke to me, “Why don’t you pray for grace to get through the red lights instead?” I was taken aback. I had never thought of it that way. Instead of praying for all the red lights to miraculously turn green, I should have been praying for the grace to endure them.

In life, there are times when it seems like all the lights are red. Marriages fail, illness occurs, bankruptcy is declared, and parents are spread thin. Sure, we could pray for God to miraculously rid us of all of life’s annoyances and hardships, but most of the time that does not happen. Let’s face it, we live in a world that is not perfect, and humanity is not perfect. So, life will not be without problems. But what if our attitudes could change during these trials and tribulations? What if we could make it through with a smile? What if we saw the red lights in life as opportunities rather than obstacles?

Now, every time I hit a mile long stretch of nothing but red, I don’t pray for the lights to turn green. I pray for God to give me the grace to endure my time at the red lights. I pray for God to speak to me as I wait at the red lights. I pray for God to give me peace while I wait for the green glow I long for. I rest in the knowledge that red lights don’t last forever and my green light is just around the corner.

Red: stop. Green: go. Yellow: go very fast.

Have you ever sat in the left turn lane, waiting for traffic to clear, wondering why sometimes you get a green turn arrow, and sometimes you don’t?  Well, get ready to have your mind blown.

The collective mind of the APA readership.

The secret is to not look up at the light, but rather down at the street.  Ever noticed those little black lines in the road?  Those are called “inductive loops.”

Hey, look at that, a picture that's actually related to today's post!

I could explain how this stuff works, but that’s not really why you read this blog, is it?  The point is, putting your car over these little circles indicates to the traffic signal that a car is there.

This can have multiple effects, depending on the situation.  Some traffic lights don’t change at all, unless there’s a car present.  If you’re one of those people who stops way back from the crosswalk (or who stops way into it), the light will never change for you.

For turn signals, these loops determine whether, and how long, there will be a green arrow, or simply a green light.

Turn lanes in busy intersections often have two or three circles.  The next time you pull up to an intersection where a car is already waiting, don’t stop directly behind him; stop a few car lengths back on the second loop.

Enjoy the green lights!

(PS: Today’s post is sponsored by my wife, who figured this whole thing out one day when someone pulled up short behind her one day.)

Now that I’m working from home most of the time, maybe my average will go down.  But I do have to admit, I’m the chick in the next car putting on her makeup and mascara.  Hey, 4 minutes is all I need!

It didn’t really seem like an ideal or even remotely decent time to ask the question, but since there were twelve-car pileups, collapsed lungs and long, quiet hospital visits filling his recent memory, it made sense that his emotions mirrored them; if the worst to come out of all of it were misplaced questions, all was, for the most part, well. The son didn’t answer immediately because he also had a head full of  projections that came from old reels he hadn’t bothered dusting off in a long, long while: Skipping rocks, homemade quilts, smacked knuckles, tricycles, bloody knees. He had never found the good in mulling over the bad, so he had gotten pretty good at ignoring it, forgetting it. This funeral was no different.

Did you hear me?

The film was cut and the picture went from green grass and old southern porches to the present. It was still too early for the sun and the traffic lights had been rather obnoxious all morning. The car had stopped at nearly every intersection to let the non-existent 5am commuters coming from the left and right pass. It became nearly laughable how many times the lights made them stop for seemingly no reason at all. Finally, very calmly (and almost quietly) he said, I’m not really so sure that sitting behind a desk making rich folks get richer will make me happier. I’m not even entirely convinced that what I choose to do is even relevant, dad. It’s more how I do my job; it’s how I love my wife and daughter.

Another red light for another not-car. Another long silence.

We’re both going die the same way, the son said, no matter how you and I choose to trade our time for money. The same way grandpa, his dad, and his dad died. Everyone dies needing mercy. There is little truth beyond that.

Then there was a silence, which was followed by spritzes of rain, which was later followed by the light of morning. And for the rest of the voyage to watch a father, a grandfather be put in the ground, there were only green traffic signals.

There was no more need to stop.

Thanks for looking…….
Stay tuned

Jokes. Though the Empire will continue to glow green on the anniversary of the Broadway phenom (i.e. Halloween), the green I’m talking about is something you can’t see.

The building, completed in 1931 (in the midst of another notable depression), is finally getting a $500 million facelift. One fifth of that has been set aside to green the building. The Clinton Climate Initiative, founded by President Bill “Al Gore” Clinton, has agreed to foot the first $20 million. The Clinton Climate Initiative helps cities cut greenhouse gas emissions and is secretly chaired (shh!) by none other than Mr. Gore.

The Empire‘s energy-saving model should lower the energy intake by 38 percent, ultimately saving the 102-story building $4.4 million a year. “What Is This Feeling?” It’s the feeling of your heart “Defying Gravity” because you know this plan will be so “Popular” among treehuggers and people with common sense alike. “No one mourns the…” energy inefficient!

Sorry. End of the Wicked references.

XO, The Green Gamine