Product code: #E004

Type: Messy,

Description: This is a  rock-style, yet clean sleek look.

Status: 1 available

Cost: $5

To make this yours, email bijoux003@gmail.com

(Idelette’s note: It’s ironic, as I’m posting this, Scott just swept up some broken glass, Sarah hurt her arm from a stocking that fell off the fireplace and the kids are making lots of noise. It’s Christmas at Linwood House and everything is so beautiful, so perfect … then, well, enter us humans. Yes, life is messy and noisy. Thank you, Stacy, for reminding us of Christ born into this very mess. Love it.)

Christ-in-our-mess
By Stacy Wiebe

My friend Suzanne was arranging ceramic nativity figures at a Christmas party for international students and their families. “I want to hold that baby!” a little boy said. Slipping through his busy fingers, the baby Jesus fell and hit the floor—and broke.

“It’s OK,” Suzanne reassured the boy and his mother, gingerly laying the broken baby Jesus back in the manger.

Looking at the fractured pieces, I thought, it really is OK—fitting, actually. The sweet baby in the manger came to be broken. He came to be bruised for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him.

The very first whisper, “Christmas is coming” is found in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis. Adam and Eve still have pieces of forbidden fruit stuck in their teeth. And God says, “Christmas is coming.” Who is the first to be told? The one who least welcomed the news—the serpent, Satan.

And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel (Genesis 3:15).

Theologians call this the protoevangelium, the first gospel. It’s the first telling of the good news of great joy that will be for all people. But on the surface it doesn’t look joyful. Although we may not see it at first glance, Christ is in this verse. He is the ultimate Seed of the Woman who would one day come to crush the serpent’s ugly head. In the process, His “heel” would be bruised and His body would be broken on the cross. In short, this verse predicts that Jesus would win the victory over Satan but would Himself be wounded in the process.

This first promise of Christmas was made in the middle of the perfect mess the human race made of God’s perfect garden. And when Christmas finally did come, it was in a dark, messy cave where God-in-the-flesh was wrapped in strips of cloth and laid in a feeding trough.

When my son was born, my mom attended the birth. She told me afterwards that it was much more dramatic and messy than she’d anticipated. Miracles, I think, are like that. The first whispers of Christmas and its ultimate manifestation certainly were.

As we take time to ponder the meaning of Christmas, let me suggest one: Christ-in-our-mess. The holy, flawless Son of God came to be with us, to be one of us. He came to take the fall … for us.

One word for today: Hope

Activity:
When you watch or read the news today, whisper the word, “Hope” and pray that the individuals in the stories will experience Christ, whatever the messiness in their lives.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, in You alone we place our hope. Your hope is not illusory; it does not disappoint. No one whose hope is in You will ever be put to shame. Amen.

About Stacy:
Stacy Wiebe is a homeschooling mom and a writer/editor. She has lived in four countries and currently resides in the land of chicken tikka masala.

Well, reader, you will obviously be expecting a Christmas pomegranate recipe so I’ll give you one, my favorite, but this only started my thoughts for a blog.

Seed a pomegranate, rinse and drain.  Pour them, sparkling red, into a small, colorful Christmas bowl, place that in the center of an appetizer platter with all your other favorite Christmas snacks, add a cute spoon, and watch them disappear!

Even though I looked up the easiest way to seed a pomegranate on Google, it was still time-consuming – though not nearly as much as the old way I was doing it before!  (Old way: peeling random sections of skin off, gently digging into a seed section, peeling off pulp, and so forth).

I got to thinking about things that take a lot of your time, but are worth the result – both in color and flavor,  like pomegranates!  There are a lot of these, but one of my favorites under this category is marriage.

Today I took my husband outside to show him things that had accumulated on the property since we finished several yard and house projects in the spring and summer months.  Things that need to go to recycle centers or the burn pile in the field, or the trash can.  I know, from being married to him so long, that I would have to do this delicately.  This is because my husband is a collector and he actually fears throwing things away that might come in handy someday.  Additionally, he grew up in a cluttered home on cluttered property – having had a hard-working, single mom who didn’t have time or money to give to her home and for whom neatness was not so very important.  Hoarding….saving….these were values she passed on to her three children….probably because she was a young child during the depression, and childhood life skills are not soon forgotten.

My husband’s own childhood values too, are not soon forgotten.  He is comfortable with clutter:  I am not!  Take, for example, his bathroom counter.  I have to scrub mine shiny fairly often and put away accumulated jewelry, hairbands or coins that I leave there.  I can’t stand a dirty or cluttered bathroom countertop or sink for very long. 

My man, on the other hand, saves things like movie ticket stubs, every receipt for every item he has purchased for the last 12 months, tiny nails, screws from wood projects, every key he has ever owned, faded unframed school pictures of grandkids with spots of toothpaste and water spray from his sink, and so many other miscellaneous, NOT-bathroom-related items that I cannot count them all.  And he likes to leave them all on his bathroom counter….to lie amidst layers of dust, water spots, toothpaste spray and soap splatter, shavings of white antipersperant that missed his armpits,  alongside empty or near-empty contac solution containers…oh yes and did I say empty antipersperant rollers because he might be able to get one more wipe to the “pit”, from the empty mini-post-holes in the containers’ applicators?  The only surface left uncluttered is the sink bowl itself, and it is covered with said toothpaste and soap splatter, which are also liberally splashed on the mirror.

I remember the first time I couldn’t stand it anymore so I cleaned his bathroom counter off, sorting and putting away everything, throwing away trash like candy wrappers and shirt tags he’d torn off, then moving things I knew he was saving to a more hidden place on a shelf in his closet (three steps away and through a door).  WWIII broke out!  This was HIS stuff and HIS space and how DARE I touch it!  At first I thought, wow, what was in those receipts he was afraid I’d see?  Because I could not imagine such a reaction from simply moving and cleaning and telling someone EXACTLY where everything was.  But, really, he was ready for me to pack a bag and go stay at my mom’s!

I’m sure my reaction was not so kind, I recall words like “ridiculously high value placed on bathroom counter collections”, and “ludicrous attachment to an insane use of a bathroom counter”….yeah not real helpful… for him.  But intensely satisfying for me.

But that was many many years ago.  Now, every four to six months, when I absolutely cannot stand it any longer, I ask my man if he would MIND cleaning his bathroom counter, and he does it.  Never to my satisfaction, but the receipts get moved to the shelf in the closet, the little things get SORT of categorized and placed in the oblong-shaped woven basket I put there for him.  A three-tiered bathroom “rack” holds his medicines, contac solutions, and things that clearly don’t belong on a bathroom counter, but what the hey at least they’re not ON the counter surface, and one can actually see the tile.

Did I mention that our countertops are beautiful – a gorgeous blue tile that simply glows when clean and polished!?

Like the patience needed to seed a pomegranate, I had to decide to use great patience with a man who loves me dearly, but who has an inordinate affection for clutter and the items he clutters with.  Did I mention sentiment is also part of the attachment?  I had never met anyone before who felt sentimental about things like receipts, movie ticket stubs, keys to places and cars long gone and notes I’d scribbled to him in a hurry…at least not sentimental enough to keep them on a bathroom counter!   Nor met someone who didn’t mind when these items get covered with water and soap scum/splatter….until the paper items are no longer readable!  It just seems insane to me.   To attempt to understand my man and to keep peace in my marriage, I had to compromise and use great patience … to be tolerant of someone very, very different from myself, and diametrically opposed to what “normal” in my own life….and for most people I personally know!

Now, take the bathroom counter scenario, add a 2-car garage, every tool a man could possible have or want that would both fit and NOT fit into it, and five acres that surrounds a very large home.

If I told you it’s been a twelve-year battle since we moved into this house, would you believe me?  I’m thinking yes.

But let me tell you the wonderful things about him!  He is very intelligent, he is a design engineer for a leading electronics company.  He has several patents under his name, travels to distant places, is responsible for saving his company millions of dollars by designing electronics as frugally as possible.

But I have seen his workspace at work, too!  The only time it is neat and clean is when he is required to move his cubicle to another part of the building with his team.  The rest of the time, it’s just like his bathroom counter – expanded multiple times the surface space.

My husband is also a very loving man.  He is deeply in love with me, and he married me when I had three young boys to finish raising, becoming the father they never had (who had deserted them and moved states away).  They are all grown now with children of their own, and we are all very close as a family.

One of his nicknames is “Mr Christmas” because that is his favorite holiday and he goes “all out” with decorations – lights inside and out.  It was so contagious that I became his full-on decorating partner and we have a GREAT time getting our house ready every year….to the ooooh’s and aaaaaaaw’s of family because we try to never do it the same.

Another of his nicknames is “always the teacher” because he used every opportunity to teach about anything musical or scientific – his two academic loves.  He would get the kids up on Saturday mornings, and instead of cartoons, they got to watch him draw lines, scales, notes, and chords on a white board in the living room to the sounds of a lecture on music theory.  Our five children were all required to take piano for at least five years before they could switch to another instrument or form of musical expression.  Grumbling through those years, but grateful today, he is still “ever the teacher” to them, and now, to the grandchildren.

I wonder, sometimes, are there any other men (or women) out there who are such a dichotomy of personalities?  I’ve met other engineer’s wives who complain of similiar eccentric values and behaviors, but none quite so extreme as my husband’s – perhaps, however, they are lying?  I am laughing because I have told so very few people how cah-razy he really can be sometimes.  (I haven’t even told YOU everything!)

Marriage is a lot of work when you are much alike with your mate, but when you have diametrically-opposed values in any category, it takes a lot of talking (calmly, whenever possible), a desire to hold back sarcasm, and an ear to listen to reasons that make absolutely no sense when you ask “why”.  It takes a relentless pursuit of forgiveness…and letting yourself forget things said in the heat of the moment….on both sides.

It also keeps life colorful and interesting…how boring would it be if we never had any conflicts, any completely opposite ideas about things?  And how would we learn to live with people very different from ourselves, in our own home, so that we can be far more tolerant of those who don’t live with us?  I think marriage is the practice ground for everyday tolerance, for everyday compromise and for learning selflessness that is truly self-LESS.

I will say more about this later, but let this be a start.  I would love any feedback from compadres married to men (or women) with similiar goods and similiar evils!

It is not fair to say this topic was my original idea, but I just wanted to pass it on to others since the topic actually stems from the current sermons at the church I regularly attend – that being “A Very Messy Christmas”.

If you take a moment to think about this, it will probably ring true somewhere in your holidays, somewhere… or maybe you’ve lost that too. Have I lost anyone yet? Myself maybe… or perhaps I’m just finding myself again amid all the holiday hubbub. It’s really quite simple: we as society have turned Christmas into something that doesn’t have much meaning, or substance. There’s the alcoholic substances of course which get passed around the dinner table or with after dinner snacks, then there’s the multitude of fancy or just plain expensive gifts, and then goodies that everyone partakes in, only to later regret that they downed the same amount of calories in a few hours that would normally take a week to consume. ;p (I’m exaggerating a bit!) Then there’s all the stress that comes with preparing the decorations, dinner and purchasing of said gifts when a lot of times one has neither the resources or the time to make everything “just so”. However, we do it to ourselves don’t we? I think so. But of course the media is to blame too, along with our commercially powered society that brings everything down to spending more, more and even more (a lot of times on things we don’t even need). And then one has to ask themselves, “Why am I celebrating again?” Good question.

The truth is, Christmas has changed from one celebration to another over the centuries, but at one point, Christians decided to embrace it not as some useless holiday, but as a celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And so the next things we’ve been looking at have been at all the ‘messiness’ of the birth of Christ.
Between Mary being a virgin who became pregnant before marriage, to Joseph whom she was betrothed to dumping her then taking her back and marrying her, not having sex with her until after the baby arrived (not typical Honeymoon behavior), then not even having a place to stay when Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem and having baby Jesus in a manger with a bunch of animals – the King of Kings! There was a comparison made between one very rich baby being born into a palace with an extensive lot, many rooms and lavish surroundings, and the Lord Jesus being born into the exact opposite of a rich environment, when really His heritage says He deserves otherwise. We cannot as humans even begin to fathom the ‘Why’s’ of the situation, but God knows why, and that’s what matters. The important thing to derive from all this, is the message of Christmas and what it means to Christians and those who have yet to receive Christ as their Savior; from John 3:16 of the New Testament, “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” And this my friends, is what Christmas should be about. So let us all try to take time this coming week to reflect on what God did for us by bringing Jesus into the world to die for us all that we might not perish but have everlasting life with Him in Heaven. For surely there was never a greater sacrifice nor gift than that.

God Bless you,

Roxy

It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up

~Vince Lombardi~

This expensive ($10 a bottle) little wonder works great in your tea and coffee as a sweetener. It has no calories, is a natural product  and goes a long way. Just one drop per drink will do it.  This is also available as a dry product ( I have not bought that yet) for cooking. It is costly compared to sugar, even compared to Splenda or aspartame but is is NATURAL meaning your body can process it easily.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What a busy day yesterday was.  I went out with a friend for brunch. Skipped breakfast so I could combine the calories and come out ok. I had a 3 egg omelette with cheddar, onion, mushroom and green pepper. It was served with fresh fruit, toast and potato rounds.  I entered in into Calorie count and figured that it inhaled about 1200 of my 1700 calories for the day.  To keep on track I decided not to have dinner (I wasn’t hungry anyway) and opted for a sandwich at 7pm and a granola bar at 8pm.  I used the treadmill for 30 minutes an hour before we left so that helps a bit I guess.  I don’t expect to see much or any weight loss tomorrow and its been an off week even though I have maintained my 1700 a day.

In the afternoon we processed the schools hot lunch order for January and then when the kids got out of school I trundled them all up to the main road to watch the Olympic torch go by.  By the time we got back and I had the coats put away and snack served most of them were headed home.

My house seems to be a disaster all the time now.  I used to have it tidy and clean all the time but it seems like an endless impossibility these days.  I’m hoping that we can get on top of it this weekend but I have my doubts if it will happen between boot camp, training, groceries, Xmas shopping (with what money I have no idea) and a Xmas party.

Had another weird dream last night, it was summer and I was playing in water with Lisa and Ashley. We were trying to put Lisa on Ashley’s shoulders in shallow water. Ashley was strapped onto a wake board (would never happen). Anyway, we tipped over and I was stuck underneath them with my head face down in 2 foot of water. I could feel the air running out of my lungs….panic setting in.

Lots of dreams about being scared and panicking.  Good thing none of my readers are shrinks!

Anyway, I should get the ball rolling on this day.

As always, have a wonderful day!

I’ve noticed on the forums on the various swinger sites that there is an amount of frustration when it comes to meeting others from the lifestyle.  Seems many have found that they can send dozens of introductory emails to others and get nothing in return, not even a ‘not interested’.

I’ve been pondering this and trying to figure out what it is that will get a response, or why, perhaps folks are being ignored.  I started to glance through the profiles of those that post saying they never seem to find interested parties and have thought also about what it is we are seeking and have come up with a few thoughts on the subject.

When you are filling out your profile and posting photos of yourself keep in mind that you are marketing yourself in a sense to others.  Make use of a spell checker in either Word or by using an Internet browser like Firefox that alerts you to words that are not spelled correctly.  Also, after you fill in the essay portions of the profile, go back and read them out loud to be certain that the sentences flow and are not broken English.  Well written profiles DO make a difference.

Photos can give an impression about us that is a lasting first impression.  If your photos are scanned in, and have a look of being dated (hair from the 80’s, clothes that obviously are not current fashion trends but are from 10-15 years ago) will make people think they are not current and accurate representations of you and your partner.  Look around the background of the photo, what do you see? Often I see open closet doors that reveal a very messy and disorganized closet, or laundry baskets with clothes puking out of them and on to the floor, dirty dishes and counter tops stacked with items.  The background makes the subjects of the photos appear to be messy, unkempt and in some cases even dirty.  There is a tendency to assume that if one does not keep their home clean and organized that their hygiene might also be questionable.  Take time to clean up the background area of the photo. Pictures should represent you in your best possible light.

The reality is that most folks are seeking people that are similar to themselves or better when it comes to physical attractiveness.  While personality is indeed part of the chemistry that draws people to each other, looks DO play a part in the equation as well.   Make sure that the clothes you are wearing when you  take your photos, or that you wear when attending a swinger function, compliment your body and enhance your positive features.   If you are over weight by more than a few (5-15) pounds, then do not expect that the very physically fit couple is going to find you of interest.  Seek couples that appear similar to you and your partner in looks and build.  If your wife is slim and and you are 50 pounds over weight it is unlikely you are going to hook up with Ken and Barbie that work out on a regular basis.

See, the whole idea behind the lifestyle is to enhance one’s sex life.  Very few in this lifestyle are here to chalk up all the sex they can possibly obtain. Most are looking for those few select people that really turn them on and if you do not turn them on it is very unlikely that you are going to be on their dance card at any time.  If there is no attraction then it simply is not going to happen.

Make yourself as attractive as possible in photos and in how you write your profile answers, as that profile is often the first step to meeting others, and hopefully this will help improve your luck!

Hugs & Long, Slow Licks,

Jaz

Last year, I made a card for each of Koby’s family members, but between moving, and then his present not being ready until he was already in Thailand, they weren’t given at Christmas. Then one went missing (I have suspicions as to why, and it upsets me, but I will never be able to prove it.) Finally, I just redid the missing one, and decided to spruce up the others. Here are before and after pictures. Some of the differences are due to using different scanners, but I explain the changes made.

Motorcycle

The motorcycle was completely redone. More attention to detail, less freedom. Not as fun that way, but more like a motorcycle. Mechanical things are not my strong point.

Bubbly Cola

The cola bottle wasn’t showing up too well, so I defined it more, added stronger color to the background, more texture, a surface for the bottle to sit on, and the words.

Drums

Outlining was added for the drums and words.

Flight of Fancy

The words were made more visible with white gel pen and some white paint was added to the edges to balance the brightness of the words.

He Dresses the Lilies

Outlined the stamped words and images for more clarity.

Oobleck. Runny, squishy fun with just a little cornstarch and water.

With New Year’s resolutions looming, I’m continuing my quest to simplify my life and unclutter my home. To this end I’ve been reading “Unclutter Your Life in One Week” by Erin Doland (author of the Unclutter blog).

Erin suggests tackling your firsts first. By firsts she means the areas you encounter first - your closet/wardrobe, your desk at work, and the entry to your home. Uncluttering these spaces will make your firsts more pleasant and will motivate you to do more.

Your desk is the first thing you see when you walk into your office. This was my desk today:  

Not an ideal way to start my day.

Ah, much better.

I removed everything from my desk, cleaned it and then went through the miscellaneous stuff that was taking up residence on my desk. Such as:

• Electric toothbrush that needs a new head
• First grade art project (my daughter is in 3rd grade now)
• A backup mouse
• A battery and some polished rocks

I find that things accumulate on my desk day-by-day, until I have a jumbled mess and then I clean it up.

Erin’s advice for your desk:

“The only things that should be on your desk are those things that you use regularly – as in more than once per day.” Everything else should have a place somewhere else, preferably in a drawer out of sight.

Now that I’ve cleared off my desk, let’s see if I can go a week without adding anything.

Can I create a habit of keeping my desk clean?

What’s on your good habits list? - I enjoyed this post at Serene Journey. Instead of New Year’s resolutions, think about what habits you’d like to form. If you fill your life with good habits, you’ll leave no room for the bad ones.

I decorated my house. Christmas stylee.

Correction: I tidied, cleaned and decorated my house. Well, the downstairs of it. Which is a bigger task than you’d initially imagine. I’d like to blame most of problem on the fact that I was overseas all week and my live-in-laze-bot didn’t lift a finger, but the truth is that we are both just messy buggers. He did do some washing up I guess.

In any case, I intend to make the whole house beautiful and tidy over the next few days and – whats more – keep it that way at least until the New Years soirée that it looks like I’ll be throwing. Its state following that night all depends on how up to cleaning I feel on Jan 1st.

The Chrimbo decs look okay though. I had kind of wanted to hold out on the decorating until next weekend, so that they were still all new and a novelty on the day, but I got too excited walking around a very festive Luxembourg that I just couldn’t wait any longer.

That's no moon. Or those other ones...

I was planning on posting more of my Lux photos here, but unfortunately they are all still on the memory card, which is in my camera, which I haven’t seen since some time on Friday night at the “J-Tronic” Christmas ‘do. Yep – I lost my camera. We were in the downstairs of a local hotel, and I remember that I had it when I was gathering up my things to leave, but then didn’t have it when we got to the club just down the road. I’m pretty sure I’d have noticed dropping it, so all I can think was that I put it back down when I put on my coat or something, and then didn’t pick it back up :sad face:

Ahh well, I wanted a new one anyway >.<

I thought that I would upload some pictures – because I was bored.. d:

Close-up pics of my coffee table – just as messy as the rest of my room, haha d: Will have to clean that up tomorrow….

The first pics is something I wrote on sales slip papers at my work. I was sitting at the cash counter with no customers in sight, so I printed out some paper and started writing random things.. The second pic is of the poster that my mum made me for my Confirmation, when she gave me the trip to USA as a gift – the BEST moment of my life!

Random pics of the one side of my room.. Don’t ask me why I posted both of them, even though they look pretty alike. Oh well~~

I read a post yesterday by Kristen over at Motherese that reminded me of a great lesson I learned years ago before children. My mother was obsessively clean. One day, I came home from a date. We had gone to a basketball game at the local university and when he dropped me off at home my mother was down at the street scrubbing the curb with a scrub brush. I raced past her into the house, knowing my date had noticed but pretending I didn’t know her. When it was safe to venture outside I asked her, “Why are you scrubbing the curb?” She told me that it was dirty. I laughed and said, “That’s what street cleaners (the big trucks – not the people!) are for.”

She said, with a straight face and all honesty, “But they don’t do a good enough job.”

That, my friends, is what I grew up with. Our house always looked like we were expecting royalty. Everything scrubbed. Everything shiny. Anything with the slightest bit of wear was tossed and replaced. I vowed never to be like that.

And then, I moved out on my own.

I lived with roommates during college and it drove me crazy. They would leave dishes in the sink. Never vacuum. The bathroom? Ick.

I could finally afford my own place. Heaven.

I had a place for everything and everything in its place. Before I moved in I scrubbed like I’ve never scrubbed before. From that moment on, every speck of dirt was mine. And I’d would always clean it before it could set up permanent residence.

During my neat freak days I married – another fellow neat freak – and we lived happily. And then I met Erin. We had so much in common. We were like long-lost sisters. We read the same books. We both taught at the same school. We went to movies and school functions together.

One Saturday, our plans changed. Her husband had to go into the office and couldn’t watch the kids. Would I like to come over to her house? Sure. We could visit while the kids played. I had never been to her home before. She had toddler twins and our excuse was always to get her out of the house.

I showed up. Punctual. (That trait came along with my tidiness) I knocked on the door. “Come in!” a voice called from inside. I walked in. The side door that I entered brought me almost immediately into the kitchen. To say I saw a mess would be an understatement. Dishes piled sky-high. Spatters on the wall. I smelled syrup and, sure enough, the mess resembled breakfast made by 3 year olds. I stuck to the floor.

“Over here!” she called from the family room. I tiptoed through the mess. There she was, sitting in the middle of the floor, with two little cherubs on either side of her. They were swimming in a sea of every book they owned. There wasn’t a place for me to step. I stood at the doorway, confused. As I had been gingerly tiptoeing through her home I was thinking, am I here on the wrong day? wrong time? This is the first time I’ve come to your home. You’d think she’s pick up a little.

My thoughts were interrupted. “I’m sorry about the mess, ” Erin said, “But every since these little angels arrived, ” and she kissed them each on top of the head, “I’ve learned that there are some things that are more important.”

From that moment on – I was cured.

(Oops! I almost forgot. Happy Hanukkah to all my friends who celebrate this wonderful holiday!)

TERROR DANJAH PRESENTS…

‘Hardrive – The Compilation’

(Aftershock Recordings)

Terror Danjah is one of the pioneers of the Grime scene and a true champion for talent outside the big capital. This double disc serving features his latest and finest work to date. Featuring the likes of Ghetto, Griminal, Bruza, Mz Bratt, Chipmunk, Double S, Fumin and P-money to name a few, this compilation was always going to have to live up to its Big Bill. Similar to watching the David Haye V Goliath bout, I was hoping the big hits were going to last the distance and not be prematurely ended in the first couple of rounds.

Tracks such as Griminal’s ‘Cant Be’ and Fumin’s ‘Just Realize’ landed sweet right hooks to the eardrums but ironically it was classics such as ‘Cockback’ by Crazy Titch, Riko, Hyper MC & D Double E and ‘Zumpi Hunter’ by Wiley which enforced the vicious blows. The only bad thing i can say about this release is it is not necessarily a true representation of the finest talent in the scene. There are a few names missing and although listeners are treated to 160 mins of pure grime, maybe it could have been filtered to take away some below par tracks. Good value for price!

Review By Christian Nembhard

Christian.nembhard@gmail.com

The newest upgrade to The Protocol Centre’s “Etiquette Avenue” iPhone application was released today, and it’s all about dealing with messy, drippy, greasy foods, while you’re eating with supervisors, clients and co-workers. It’s appropriately called “Food for Thought.”

I developed the upgrade with this question in mind, “how does one look competent and professional while wrestling with barbeque ribs, corn on the cob or artichokes?” It happens. Not every corporate dinner is chicken breast under sauce.

At the heart of the upgrade, and etiquette as a whole, is our universal desire to be accepted, respected and capable — no matter what the situation.

I can’t imagine anyone, but the most confident souls, laughing off soup on the chin or salad greens stuck in their teeth, especially at a client dinner.  So if the hostess serves corn on the cob at your boss’ home, and you’re thinking, “is this a test?” — here’s the cheat sheet.

Learn more about the upgrade and the Etiquette Avenue app at The Protocol Centre’s press room or at my website. Happy Eating and Happy Holidays!

Until next time, Dale

Posted By Beez.

Well if this ain’t the pot calling the kettle black then I don’t know what is. Video Slut Model Lola Monroe was interviewed by All Hip Hop and they asked her what did she think about those calling her Boss Bxtch Movement a blatant ripoff of Lil Nickimayne Nicki Minaj’s Barbie Movement (they’re both dumb if you ask me). Here’s what she had to say.

AllHipHop.com: What would you say to people who may think you’re jacking Nick Minaj and her “Barbie movement”?

Lola Monroe: I don’t do the Barbie thing… that’s her thing. I really don’t agree with it, that’s basic. It doesn’t make sense to me because first off, you’re basically saying I’m jacking somebody who has never been known to have their style all throughout their career. She’s never been set to have her own style. It’s always been set to say she’s jacking Lil’ Kim to Foxy [Brown] and now Lil’ Wayne.

So how can I be jacking somebody or using somebody’s style if they never been known to have their own style. That part never made sense. That’s one. Another thing, it kind of comes from Wayne is in the foundation of my music and what I’ve listened to him for years and years. So you can hear his styles in my music. And you know, that’s her mentor and that’s somebody whom she’s under and so she’s known to sound like Wayne. That’s all they say about her now. I believe the similarities may have come from that but besides that, I have my own style, I have my own lane. She does what she does, ya feel me?

SMH, I mean, I agree with what What’s Her Face is saying to an EXTENT. But while I’m not a fan of neither, I have to side with Nicki. She may have swagga jacked everyone and they auntie but she’s got a whole following behind her now, plus she can spit lightweight. And who does Lily Mathis have behind her with this Basic Boss Bxtch Movement? Anyways Leave y’all thoughts on the situation below.

• Ranting. Raving. Raining.
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I don’t usually care that much about lyrics when i listen to grime or hiphop. I would like to, but to be honest probably between 70 to 80 % of the grime/rap i listen to, and like, have rather pointless lyrics. More or less mindless braggadocio, swagger-talk, repping your current or birth location, rapping about dancing, expressing your love for some girl, or how you like to fuck. Some attempts at being witty and clever, at times some light social commentary. Usually it’s beyond cliché, and usually i don’t mind. It has it’s own peculiar charm. But it is very welcome when someone appears who actually goes beyond the customary concepts and trite sterotypes.

I don’t know much about London mc Untitled. He’s released one or two mixtapes i think, that i hardly noticed, and he’s featured in a somewhat classic youtube clip of him provoking a guy in a clash on Axe Fm enough to make the guy start wrestling. I won’t post that up as i know Untitled feels that was a long time ago, and it’s a part of him that he’s left behind.

So i listen to this mixtape without any real preconceptions.When the mixtape starts of with the tune “Drink with me” i get kinda depressed and start thinking this will be yet another in a line of disappointing mixtapes with chart ambitions and uninspired concepts. It sounds like Bashy more or less, and the lyrics are at time more odd than good; “how about a cocktail thats pink, cmon you’re a alcoholic are you scared you’ll vomit?”.  Followers “Mind Warp” Feat Messy and “I Am What I Am” are better, but don’t do much to change my mind, good, but not exceptional grime.

However, things change dramatically with fourth track “Getting Older”. Untitled reveals himself as far more than a standard grime artist, as a talented lyricist,  and a talanted songwriter. Although i enjoy the Exo Remedy remix more, this is a great tune. He continues to prove this throughout the mixtape with a number of  tracks that actually makes me stop what i’m doing and concentrate on the lyrics, something that in my case is quite rare. At times the concepts could be more interesting, the “Sneeze” track about him getting irritated with a man for not covering his mouth when he sneezes does lack something to keep my interest up, and the descriptions of the problems you can have with your moms new man over a angry grime beat on “Step parents” seems a bit odd, as his stepfather seems like quite a nice character, taking him to the footie. But other times there is evidence of both a great lyrical ability as well as a unusually great social pathos, as on tracks like “Battered shoes” about the plight of a poor mother in a third world country, “Explanation” about overcoming the difficulties of day to day life, and “Homeless” about the life of the social outcasts on the outskirts of society. And the storytelling of “Rape” might possibly be the most sympathetic tale of sleeping with a prostitute ever told.

About half of this mixtape consist of good grime, the type of grime i like to listen to on a daily basis. Some ups and downs, some guest-spots that fail to convince me. But also some great verses and hype beats. But that is not the half that i will come back to. The other half is the sound of a artist in the making, the rare voice of a new grime artist with lyrics worth concentrating on, with stories he needs to tell.  At best it invokes memories of old Kano, or Bashy at his occasional peaks. That is the half i will be return to.

It would appear as though a small cyclone has hit the sewing room.

Um, could someone help me clean a little?

i tried writing today for the first time all week (as in, really writing, “where are you in life” writing) and i couldn’t. my head kept sliding away to the haphazard room surrounding me and it was only then that i started to think about what i wanted and how this room/living space is a representation and misrepresentation of such.

so here’s my idea: describe -  in great detail – your surrounding space. you could go on to analyze what this says afterwards, but right now (before i do it), i’d rather not. i’d rather let the stuff and words describing the stuff speak for themselves.

my room is very small. as far as furniture, there is a twin-size bed i’ve had since i was 3, a nightstand, a desk, and a combination of a dresser/bookshelf/tv stand…thing. it’s cramped but it gets the job done.

MY ROOM IS A MESS. it has been for weeks and i’m at the point where i enjoy the strewn-ness (word?) more than the cleanliness it has the potential to hold. i won’t clean it. my clothes hamper is overflowing. there’s laundry in there from seattle (still) that i’ve yet to do. i often unpack it to find certain items that i want to re-wear — hey, as long as they don’t smell, right?

my bed is unmade; it always is — unless i wake up with some strange motivation to fix that. the past few weeks none of the sort has surfaced. hiding under my covers are any odd number of socks, perhaps a pair of bedroom slippers that were too warm to take off, i think some pajamas and tissues are in there somewhere too. it’s comfy. i’m sitting on top of all of that writing this. next to me is my brother’s humanities textbook (he paid me to write papers for him) and a pen, neither of which have been touched for 3 hours or so when i placed them on the bed.

the floor is an amusing grab-bag of objects. immediately in front of me is my current journal, contents of a crayon box scattered on the floor, four pairs of shoes, two cameras (one digital, one 35mm), eight old journals (all of which i completed this year, 4 given to me, 4 that i purchased myself), a belt, my purse,  an almost empty coffee mug, and clothes. on my nightstand there is a 100 dollar bill (my brother pays well for me to write papers), my water bottle, some random mail, vitamins, a lamp, library books, a “live responsibly” wristband from the engine room last night, and my drivers license – face down. next to the nightstand are two stackable storage drawers that hold god only knows what. right now they’re functioning mostly as a surface for more stuff like a photo album that i swear i will ONE DAY turn into a portfolio/collection of favorite photographs, an old journal that i only use to rip pages out of and write letters to people, and old christian CDs from middle school that i found the other day and amused/pained myself by listening to.

next to the drawers is my green yoga mat that hasn’t been touched in about 3 weeks (thanksgiving food-baby still won’t go away. might need to get on that, literally). further still, my closet doors won’t close because i haven’t re-hung (re-hanged? why are there so many grammatical quandaries in this post? it’s disconcerting, i’m taking the GRE in two weeks) anything all week. on the bookshelf, my once “organized-by-how-much-i-like-each-movie” DVD collection is no longer so and precariously stacked on the very top. next to my tv, which probably hasn’t been turned on since i’ve lived here, is my Where the Wild Things Are plastic ring and a bowl i made in pottery.

i lied. the tv has been turned on twice. both within the past month, both times to play donkey kong on my super nintendo which resides in the ambiguous space above the drawers and is affectionately deemed “the place where i keep art shit and other random stuff that i dont use that often but i will one day make something out of.” my books are packed like sardines on the shelves next to the right. i think i’ve finally gotten to the point where i’ve actually read most of the books i own, or at least pieces of each.

the bottom shelf is filled with my journals and notebooks. they’re nearly destroying each other trying to stay together, as a handcrafted paper one from Italy (given to me by Andrea) holds onto it’s cover by, well, nothing. (i’ve been meaning to fix that for a couple years now…)

i initially set up my desk in the northwest corner of the room with my printer on top and lots of surface space where i could “study for the GRE” and “apply for jobs.” the former has, in fact, happened, though in coffee shops around town. the latter is still just a nice idea i’m hoping to never actually do. that surface space has been sufficiently divided and conquered by my mother’s sewing machine, random [blank] volunteer apps, CDs, markers, and notecards.

lastly, next to my desk is my recycle box filled with papers and recycle-ables from my room which never quite make it to the official recycle heap of the house that is taken out every week. it will continue to grow – i’ve got big hopes and dreams for this little recycle-pile-child o’ mine.  next to the cardboard-growth-and-potential is — ah — my carry-on luggage from seattle, recently unpacked and relocated six feet across my room to where it is sitting now.

heh, so wordpress is approximating my word count at the bottom of this post at a running total of 954, and there’s so many details i didn’t include, like the brown bag on my floor i just noticed. there’s cabernet-wine jelly inside of there from seattle for michael. so now it’s your turn. include as many details as you like or don’t like. either way it would be fun to hear about it and it feels good to do. to me, anyway.

[listening to: eluvium]