California Love...

So I'm thinkin it's probably time to make this move to L.A. happen if I'm ever gonna do it. I'm single, in the prime of my life and have been in love with the idea of living in L.A. since my very 1st visit as a child. 20+ years later, I'm realizing that there's no better time, but most of all, no one (who couldn't live without me) that I'd be leaving behind.

I've been seriously considering the move for the past 3 years or so, but when the economy hit the shitter, I decided it really wasn't the optimum time for such a change. The economy has since recovered (somewhat), and employers are beginning to hire again, so I'm hoping to find gainful employment someplace and make it happen. I've got family living out in L.A. (which always makes any major move easier) and a small, but established network of friends in the City of Angels.

To top it off, I've already got my eye on a few spots in Baldwin Hills, where my cousin currently lives - so who knows? Maybe next year at some point I'll have an address in L.A. Guess I'll know in the next year or so, but the thoughts of such definitely remain on my mind.

Free at Last (again...)

I spent about a month of my life reluctantly operating a non-jailbroken iPhone 4 upon it's initial release, but in recent weeks the Tech Gods smiled down upon us with the release of a new jailbreak via Jailbreakme.com. FINALLY a viable jailbreak solution for the new OS. Oh, how I've missed my jailbroken apps & tweaks. I've always thought it was ridiculous to ask a consumer to spend $500 for a device & then say he/she she shouldn't have the ability to customize.

Incidentally, along with the release of the new jailbreak came an announcement that jailbreaking a device is no longer illegal. Not really sure what that means for the typical cell phone user at this point, but one thing I do know is that the legality of the issue was rarely what kept apprehensive folks from doing so. To me, it seems to involve more fear of how complicated it is to jailbreak one's device and furthermore how painstaking it is to maintain a jailbreak in regard to future firmware updates and so fourth.

With that being said I'd be very surprised to see hoards of folk jailbreaking their devices since in most cases, the masses just don't know what their missing when it comes to tweaking their device. Below you'll find my lil' run-down of pros & (the one) con when it comes to jail breaking.

Pros:

1) An entirely new app store is made available to owners of JB phones
2) Complete customization of the phone (layouts, icon, sounds,etc) becomes possible when jailbroken.
3) Features and functions of the device either forgotten or forbidden by the manufacturer/carrier are available, and in great abundance

Con:

1) Often times firmware updates for a device become available; however, jailbreakers need to wait a day or two for app developers & hackers to test the jailbreak against the new firmware - that's about the only drawback I really come across in my experience as a jail breaker.

Recently broken your iPhone & looking for cool JB apps? Help are some of the JB tweaks & apps I'm using nowadays...Fake Carrier- is a tweak that allows me to customize the standard AT&T carrier banner to say whatever I'd like, mine says "Ghostwriter28," of course...qTweeter- an excellent jb app for Twitter & Facebook that allows you to effortlessly Tweet or update your Facebook status at any point, from anywhere on your phone with out interrupting anything your currently doing.iBlacklist- an essential app of mine which allows me to decide which calls make my phone ring regularly, discreetly or not at all. It also allows me to decide whether the call shows up in my normal call log or in a separate hidden log. The same features are available for SMS msg as well.

LockInfo- a tweak which displays a fully customizable quick glance display for each SMS/MMS msg, email, notification, calendar item, etc. to my lockscreen in place of the standare wallpaper.

biteSMS- an SMS/MMS app which I use in place of the normal texting app included w/ my iPhone. It displays the contact photo for each msg and allows me to send a msg at a scheduled time. It also gives me the ability to decide precisely how I want txt msgs to be displayed, this app is one of my favs!

Cyntacts- is a tweak that places contact photos next to each contact in my iPhone's default contacts list. This is a great tweak for me, as it performs a function that I've always felt has been missing from the iPhone (& still is).

vWallpaper- a tweak that allows me to display a video wallpaper instead of a static image or blank wallpaper beneath my app icons.

Okay, Not a Bad Date at All...

Typically, the movie theatre isn't really ideal for a 1st date but I think this time was an exception. Me & Ms. X seemed to hit it off the same way we did during our initial encounter weeks back when I met her in Miami. After taking in a movie, we stopped by the bar for a drink or two and a lil more convo.

Midway thru our time at the bar I realized I must've been enjoying myself as I hadn't even noticed that the 1st NFL action of the season was taking place. I'm glad I DVR'ed the game (as I'm watching it now) cuz I really didn't pay it any attention while in the company of my date.

Don't get me wrong, of course I've had good dates before, so it's not like I'm making any wedding arrangements, but it was certainly a nice change of pace to enjoy an evening with someone with whom I was truly interested in. We seemed to be laughing all night long, so I didn't feel like I was the only one diggin the evening. I'm glad we got the opportunity to hook up.

She really does seem like a sweetheart - all & all, it's just exciting to learn someone new. And at the end of the day, I think I made a new friend regardless of where things go from here, so that alone makes the evening a success in my mind.

Dating has been somewhat disappointing for me as of late. Just don't feel like I'm getting the caliber of women I'm looking for, so I'm definitely due for a woman who knocks me off my feet. It's not as easy for a guy to find a quality single women as it once was, so it always makes me a lil irate when I hear ppl talk about the small pool of black men available to black women, when all the while I know the task is just as difficult for the black man

The wait is over!!!

It's just about my favorite time of the year (Football Season!!!) and it's very interesting to see the amount of women who not only follow football nowadays, but actually watch, attend and fully comprehend the sport. Each of the past five years that I've hosted my fantasy football league more and more women have participated (& successfully so, I might add), that's definitely what's up! I always enjoy it when people blow-up stereotypes and the typical expectations of others.

The way I see it, that has to be something that goes along way in terms social relationships among men & women in this country. How cool would it be to have a gal who shares the same enthusiasm for a football as me? I can think of three instances where I had a chick who loved football and I must say that each time it certainly enhanced the relationship.

Of course I've most frequently I've dealt with women who honestly didn't give a damn one way or another about what was goin on with football, lol. Some made an attempt to try and understand the fascination while others didn't desire to understand in the least and made no attempt to even humor the thought. Kind of interesting though as I can recall many times where I've made an attempt to understand the various hobbies of women I've been involved with, including participation in activities that I was familiar with, so what the real difference with football?

Idk & honestly, I don't really have a preference in either regard. If homegurl ain't into football and prefers to use that time pursuing other things (i.e. - leaving me the fuck alone!), by a means do you! But DO know that I'm goon be a minute if it's Sunday or Monday (& sometimes Thursday) Night, lol.

Just kick me while I'm down, why don't you?

A good friend of mine recently sent me a photo of her son putting on his football uniform for the 1st time (helmet & all). And though there's no way she could've known this about me since I'm rather guarded when it comes to my emotions, the shit honestly kinda killed me inside. Having children & raising a family has always been something I've looked forward to in life. Yet time after time it's either been the wrong person, a bad situation or mother nature stepping in & taking care of things all on her own.

Though it's certainly not a forgone conclusion, ain't shit poppin right now in that regard. You see, the thing about having children and starting families is that BOTH parties have to be extremely interested in the idea or very carless in preventing such an outcome. Unfortunately, I haven't had the privilege of either instance very often.

Alas, everything ain't for everybody, but I just know I'd be great at it. After all, I had a great example of both a husband as well as a Dad in my own father. I only wish I could give him the satisfaction of knowing how great a job he did, by demonstrating what I've learned along the way.

It's not that I'd change much about the decisions I've made in life - God knows I've grown tired of pursuing lost loves, repairing broken relationships & wondering what could have been. I just wish a few things turned out a bit differently here & there and that certain individuals I truly cared for weren't hurt along the way.

But whether it's meant to be or simply something that never will, I've come to grips with the reality of it all & I'm okay with whatever hand I'm dealt. I prefer to celebrate the accomplishments of others rather than dwell upon what I 'perceive' to be my own personal shortcomings in life. There's definitely enough hate in the world for everyone to have two-slices each. So I'll instead work on my recipe for love, support & nurturing, a dish that seems far more elusive nowadays.

So there are you are, another deep albeit, brief glimpse into the inner-workings of me; thanks for listening, think I'll have a drink now, lol...

Dear Metro: Is that how you feel?

Ok, really - what's the damn deal? So Friday Metro implemented the 2nd wave of fare increases in the past 6 months, and they did so in a pretty sneaky manner. They're calling it a Peak of the Peak-time Surcharge, wtf??? And the bastards couldn't even wait until 1st of the month to put the new fares into affect (as was previously announced). There was no surcharge for the 'peak of the peak-time' during the morning commute, but by Friday afternoon they had signage at each station indicating that the new fares were indeed in affect for the afternoon commute. Bitches!

Perhaps I wouldn't be so pissed about the constant fare hikes if the overall service & function of Metro was ever enhanced by the additional revenue - but Nope! Service has gone nowhere but down-hill since last year's train crash. At this point the shit is beyond ridiculous.

Lazy-ass station managers act as though your interrupting them whenever u experience a problem. Train drivers don't allow enough time for passengers to board ('in an effort to stay on schedule' - yeah, right). Not mention we're still waiting for Wifi in ALL stations as promised a year ago, escalator outages are a dime a dozen (you can forget about the convenience of an elevator anytime u actually need one) & many of the stations and train cars have no AC.

The dysfunctional organization has been on the constant decline despite the hikes and goo-gobs of federal funding they've received in addition to funds acquired locally. At this point, I'm convinced that the big wigs who run Metro simply don't give a damn.

If were cheaper to ride the train as opposed to driving to work many of these problems might remain a small after-thought as was the case to until this year. But with the constant increase in fares it's that's clearly no longer the case so there's alot more scrutiny being placed upon the level of service that Metro provides it's patrons & rightfully so!