Lupe Fiasco - is he a solo artist?

What up yo. Lupe Fiasco is a solo artist, but Matthew Santos is on half the hooks, damn that Santos has a great voice. Apparently he can't write though. I wonder if his solo material is any good, I do know that Lupe writes all the hooks that Santos sings on Lupes albums.

anyway, I can't wait to hear this song in full:



too bad he is saying "I thought I was down" instead of "I thought I was god"
"I thought I was god" would be a much more interesting chorus line than the bland and generic "I thought I was down"

if Lupe didn't delete his twitter account I would tell him that myself.

Oh well, guess its up to me to write the I thought I was god song. Too bad I have never thought that, I will try and channel chris p. OH SNAP!

I'm Such a Great "Mathlete!"

On Monday I trudged my way through the thick rain with no umbrella (forgot it on Amtrak) from E street all the way to the to the crumbling, stale green basement of the GWU Stat department on Penn Ave.

Usually me and this other stat tutor chit chat while we switch over shifts. I noticed she was on a website custom designing a t-shirt. It was a bright green shirt with "Mathlete" emblazoned on the front. My first reaction was, "oh snap!" she must have been a mathlete too, or at least appreciates them, I must fill her in on my mathletic past!

So I asked her about the t-shirt and it actually had quite the backstory. Her roommate works for the Special Olympics headquarters in DC and is always telling her about how the staff there uses the word "athlete" interchangeably with the word "retard." For example: "That Jimmy, he is such a great athlete!" I know, how messed up is that? And these are the same people who got on Obama for the bowling comment, LOL.

Anyways, apparently her and her boyfriend have always joked about this unseemly reversal and even took it one step further. They decided that, along the same line of thinking: retard is to athlete as social retard is to mathlete. Thus, as a special inside joke she was making mathlete t-shirts as a birthday present for her boyfriend.

At this point I thanked my luck that I hadn't excitedly brought up my past exploits on the math team before she explained the story behind her t-shirt. Oh well, one day us mathletes will rise up and gain the respect we deserve.

elementary school redux pt.1

I have realized that during my elementary school time white people probably differentiated themselves by the European country of their ancestors. The parents of Irish children probably told them of their proud Irish heritage and maybe some of them told them of some bad deeds the English may have done in the past. Italian families probably watched The Godfather and lamented the fall of Mussolini (JK.....he never fell, ask his grand daughter). Jewish parents probably taught their kids the dradel song. I wonder if any animosity or discomfort was brought upon by differences in "race" between children.

I had no such problems when I was in elementary school. They were all just white to me. It was only later that I learned of these things. Pat denies he's any part German, Dan hates the English, and I don't fancy any race or creed. down with the planet!

Al Franken vs. Norm Coleman....312 votes?

According to today's edition of the New York Times, Al Franken is poised to win the 2nd senator seat in Minnesota by a wide margin of 312 votes. Of course, the Republican incumbent and seeming loser Norm Coleman has appealed the verdict so things are not completely settled, but it seems like eventually Franken will be named Senator.

You know what sucks about this situation? A lot. 312 votes is a incredibly slim margin in comparison to the 3 million votes cast. That means that 49.989% of voters did not want Franken as their senator. He definitely won't have any "political capital" and a lot of voters will be left with a sour taste in their mouth.

This is democracy at its dirtiest. It is not an ideal situation for a Senator going into his first term, but it is something Franken will have to live with. Honestly, I am guessing their is not much difference between Republicans and Democrats in Minnesota anyways. It's probably just a bunch of split hairs. Of course, some split hairs are over whether to fund a statue and others are over whether to fund an abortion clinic...

the manner in which i received my first driving infraction.

what is up, cake cups.

i want to relate a story to you all.

hmmmmmmmm. what shall it be.

I got my first ticket in the year of two naught naught eight. After being stopped by three cops since getting my license and smooth talking my way out of a ticket each time (ask about me son) I was finally done in by a video camera?

It was at a beach in Rhode Island. My sister was on a visit during a med school break and her, me, and my cousins all decided to go on a little road trip and have some fun in the sun.

Parking was a hassle at this particular beach and we had a lot of stuff to bring with us. We decided that my sister and my cousin Swetha would unload near the entrance to the actual beach and go find a spot while the rest of us went to park. There were signs that said no loading/unloading but we did a really quick scramble and got them out without beach security yelling at us.

In any case, a month or so later my dad calls me up and tells me he had just received a ticket in the mail for 62 dollars. Dag, a video camera perched on a telephone pole (im guessing) had done me in.

that is really all there is to say. you can't smooth talk an automated system.

at least, not yet. i'm getting there...