My friend DJ asked me to tell him "a story about when you decided you enjoyed cooking." This is my response to him: I've always liked cooking. I grew up in the kitchen with my aunts. I didn't start to love cooking until I started working at The Cheesecake Factory at Valley Fair mall in San Jose,CA. It was just after I started Expediting, one of my managers started talking to me asking how I liked Expoing. Told him I really liked it and that my favorite part was learning how to cook the food on the menu. That is when he started talking to me about layering flavors and how every single item on the menu was designed to hit every part of the tongue. From that point on I just stared playing. Mostly trying to recreate dishes from each of the thousands of amazing places my wife and I would eat in the Bay Area. I cooked often for years after that, but my big AH HA moments didn't come until culinary school. Once I learned methods and procedures, it was over. Researching flavor combinations and enhancing my palette became priorities. And now, here I am. I am the most relaxed in the kitchen. When I am creating something, even if it is just dinner for the family (which still uses at least three to four pans several utensils and a grip of ingredients) everything else slips away and I find myself in a place that is nothing but love. It is another kind of church for me which is funny because all those years ago when I was tugging on apron strings I remember my aunts talking to God the whole time, and though we probably each have/had our own ways of thinking about God he was/is in every dish.

Rise

Rise, my brothas, rise

Like the Sun that sets on souls in slums, on benches bumping gums, on streets packing guns and those on the run



Like a Phoenix from the burning ashes of corpses and crosses, another person lost is a cost we cant afford. Still, our loss is ignored



Rise my brothas, rise like mercury, temperatures climb and freeze in time. Thirsty for knowledge with a squeeze of lime. Brothas out in the grime making dime off of rhyme and crime. Forgetting schooling, still fueling a need to succeed in a crooked world of greed



Rise my brothas, rise like MC So & SO to the top of the charts. Winning our hearts with tracks of ho smacks as our culture flow slips through cracks of establishment sidewalks. No one listens when a man of pride talks. Just Pimp strides and glocks, outlines of white chalk



Rise my brothas, rise like a fist and twist your grill to a grimace and topple this menace of government. Another brotha sent to war, another mother bent to wail for another son that's sent to war or jail. Can't tell where we went wrong. Revolution used to be the song, now its "bling-bling"ing to belong. How far we've gone.

Trade off

Reading quite a bit of Utopian and Distopian fiction has gotten me thinking about what I would give up to end suffering in the world. In these books, people have no idea what they do not have yet everything is peaceful and joyful. What would you give up to ensure that everyone on the planet was happy? Art, love, emotion, pain...

Kite-Plucky

Those are some fun words. The word kite brings to mind two things. One is a note passed between prisoners is called a kite, and the other is a memory of me and some friends in the back of a pickup truck following a run-away kite when I was about 10 years old. I think I should get a kite. I remember them being a lot of fun. So I have been sitting on my ass for the last four days and have to go back to work tomorrow. I would much rather sit at home and watch cartoons. Ha, there's my tie in…Tiny Tunes. I used to watch that show all the time. And my favorite character was Plucky Duck…"Water go down the hoooole". Nite Y'all!

 

"We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations."

Anais Nin

Lack-Afterclap

So if some of you are unaware, I am a GEEK. Gadget/Comic/Movie/computer Geek. I get excited about things that most people could care less about. I would say the only thing my wife might lack (aside from being the most positively, absolutely most wonderful woman, wife and mother in the universe;-) ) is the fact that she could give a damn about much of the stuff I get geeked about. She is really supportive though. She can smile and nod with the best of them. I am sure she gets plenty of entertainment just watching me talk about stuff sometimes. Well tonight I saw her get excited about Iron Man 2 which was kinda cool. Granted it was because it was a great movie and not for all the comic nerd stuff sprinkled throughout. Excited about a lot of comic book movies coming out…Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, Nick Fury (rumored)-it's gonna be a great couple years. Also with and android tablet on the way and an FCC amendment that will keep Cable companies like Comcast for restricting access to some sites and the introduction of the HTC EVO coming next week it is gonna be a pretty cool year as well. Nite Y'all!

 

"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power -- Green Lantern's light!"

-- Green Lantern

Wealth-Malapert

I remember when I used to be a malapert individual. I can still be bold, but not in the destructive way I was before. I know I have said all this stuff over and over, but looking at these pictures we had taken today has reminded me how rich I truly am. It is not a material wealth, it is one that is worth so much more than all the cars, houses and "stuff" I used to think I wanted. It feels so good to be so truly happy and in love with my life and my family as I am right now. Blessed! Nite Y'all!

 

When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.

~Joyce Brothers

Stand-Matriculate

I have an ill headache that is kinda crippling me right now. My head hurts so bad I can hardly stand. Gotta get up early. Seeing as how I've matriculated I now need to buy books. Financial aid becomes available tomorrow and I want to get there early so I'm not waiting on line forever. Nite Y'all!

 

"I thought so hard I got a headache."

J.D. Cobb