Danny B's Blog

So much talk about trading this week that it’s kinda hard to ignore. Yesterday it was pretty set that Chris Paul would be starting the new season as a Laker. The trade would CP to Los Angeles, Houston will get Pau Gasol, and New Orleans would receive Odom, Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, Goran Dragic, and a 2012 1st Round Draft Pick Throughout the day this was the talk on every sports channel until David Stern interfered and pretty much cock blocked the trade… for now. For reasons, not yet determined, & so much speculation I think it’s safe to assume that mixing business and basketball is a definite no-no.

Personally, as a Lakers fan, I don’t see that trade benefitting us to begin with. We are trading both of our big guys for another point guard. I could see maybe trading one of them, throwing in Shannon Brown or another for him but both of two of our best guys? The only way I would say trading both Pau and Odom would make sense is if it’s for Dwight Howard. If anything it looks like New Orleans is the one that would benefit from all this. That’s just my opinion though. Don’t get me wrong, we could definitely use Chris Paul, he has single handedly one-up’d LA on several occasions, this trade just doesn’t make complete sense to me yet.

At this point, I don’t care I just want to watch some people play some good basketball.

I’m sure Chris Paul will not be starting the year with New Orleans, he may head to New York, or the Clippers, who knows. 

My question is, now that the trade has been called off, and the players training camps begins today, how are the players suppose to respond to their team trying to get rid of them?

Dramatization: 
Team Owner: “Oh hey, no hard feelings but we tried to get rid of you yesterday, it clearly didn’t work out for some reason or another. LOL, sorry! welcome back!”  

Talk bout awkward.

This one took a while to post but, as some of you may know, I spent some time in NYC this summer and during this time I began putting together a compilation of songs that reminded me of my favorite city, from the night life to hot tourist spots, to just walking up and down NYC with nothing my but my headphones. Here is my NYC mixtape that I threw together, finally. Enjoy:

Photo by GDanny

Tracklisting:

1. Washed Out - New Theory (RAC Mix)
2. Childish Gambino - L.E.S.
3. The White Panda - G.O.O.D.G.I.R.L.S.
4. Future Islands - Balance
5. A Tribe Called Quest - Buggin’ Out
6. The Joy Formidable - Austere
7. Slick Rick - Sitting In My Car
8. M83 - Midnight City
9. Notorious BIG - Machine Gun Funk
10. Theophilus London - I Stand Alone
11. Gym Class Heroes - To Bob Ross With Love
12. Seapony - Dreaming
13. Sonic Youth - Incinerate
14. Eric B. & Rakim - I Ain’t No Joke
15. The Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
16. Beastie Boys - An Open Letter to NYC

Download here.

This one is pretty diverse, don’t say I didn’t warn you. You can also download my other one here.

A few weeks ago the How to Make It in America vol 2 mixtape was released to promote the new season on HBO.  I finally got around to downloading it, and I love it! I have gone through it beginning to end a few times this week alone. I also want to note that I really like Kid Cudi’s take on NYC in the intro. 
Here is a little preview of one of the tracks that I have really grown fond of. I thought I would attach a link to download the full mixtape, if you are curious too.

Download here.

I apologize to the Cowboys fans who are distraught over todays loss against the Lions, I feel your pain. However, I just stumbled across the perfect pain reliever and possibly the greatest news I could ever hear:

Thankfully to twitter, the NewYorker has confirmed another Arrested Development season and movie which will follow.

My brain is crying right now. Now I would suspect that after the internet and eventually the world wraps its disfunctional head around this, everything will come to a halt. The war will end, more teachers will find jobs, gas prices will drop…

No, that’s wishful thinking, but if you don’t know yet, you will soon understand the magnitude of what is to come.

I say gathered rather than learned because none of it is facts. Every weekend that I have been up here I have pretty much wandered aimlessly and these are just things that I happen to notice during my ventures.

1. Is it just me or does Dunkin Donuts run the East Coast? I have been in Philly, across NJ and all over NYC and I swear that I have seen a Dunkin Donuts on every corner. It’s been a pain in the ass for me to find a gas station at times, but oh, if I am ever in the mood for a egg muffin it’s good to hear I don’t need to go far. :P

2. Sushi up here = Amazing/Sexy/Refreshing.
    Philly Cheesesteaks = (please see above.)

3. In NJ, it is illegal to pump your own gas. Ok, this one is an actual fact. I learned the hard way when some random guy approached my window, I assumed he was just asking for change. Really though, Only gas station owners and employees scan pump gas that goes for here and Oregon, which is random. It is a very old rule, but it’s new to me. I clearly have just been schooled.

4. Now this one: I don’t mean to generalize in any way but I almost feel as if people aren’t as friendly here as they would be back in Texas. I am actually curious about this theory. I don’t know if this idea was already embedded into my head before I came up here or I sincerely can say I witnessed it for myself with no influence prior. When I try explaining the attitude I’ve come across up here to others who aren’t from this side of the US, their response usually follows with “that sounds about right.”
Then again the handful of people I interacted with up here don’t really speak for the millions. I just feel like when it comes to the smallest things like saying hello or asking for directions; which by the way I have asked for directions twice while I was up here, once in Philly and again in NY, and both times I was given smart ass remarks like I should have known better. How dare I not know the way to Williamsburg! Even when it came to something as small as holding a door open for a stranger, I felt like they would show a greater amount of gratitude almost as if no one has ever opened a door for them. I mean I’m sure I am wrong, who knows, maybe I just have “D-Bag” written on my forehead.

5. I am not a huge baseball fan so I am in the clear, but no matter what do not say anything negative about the Phillies or Yankees! Ever. These people are intense.

6. More than 3 days in the high 90s? Everyone freaks the fuck out. That is Texas weather all day every day.

7. Since I am from Texas, apparently It is almost mandatory that I have some sort of accent. I have been asked over 10 times, after someone finds out where I am from, where my accent is? You know what? I don’t know, I guess I forgot to pack it. That reminds me of one time when I was younger and we first moved to Texas from California and one of my cousins back home asked me if everyone just rides horses there. Really?

8. Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT take pictures of people dressed up like characters if you don’t plan on tipping them. They get pretty angry.

Also I think I mentioned before how amazingly close everything is from each other compared to Texas but I won’t cover that again.

This is what I have so far and like I said I have a little over a week left so I may need to add a few more later.

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I have 10 more days now, I really wish I would have been able to take a trip up to Boston but the drive would be brutal! :/
Maybe next time. 

-Your Favorite Jedi

Notorious B.I.G. ft. 112 - Sky’s the Limit

First let me begin by saying that I am truly grateful for some of the friends I have. My friend Drew, who is stationed in Virginia actually drove up 5 hours to come hang out with me. When he arrived to South NJ last night, we loaded up the vehicle and drove up on over to NY where we have been running wild for over 24 hours now. 

While we were bar hopping around Lower East Manhattan, Drew had the sudden urge to get inked up. So we post poned our binge drinking to look for the closest Tattoo parlor and this is what he walked out with:

The trident is part of the symbol that the navy uses to symbolize Aegis. Aegis is a mission defense system, basically a weapon system design to shoot down any and everything. Very defensive. With that said Drew admits that he is extremely defensive of his friends and family. The Trident on his arm is proof of that. 

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I had a great weekend, I have a pretty busy work week ahead but I am prepared and excited even. Things at work have been picking up and I will begin taking on more responsibilities. This is my time to impress my coworkers.

I have only been here since the 1st and although I admit that my time here has been great, I sure do miss Texas!

For those familiar with Tumblr, here are a list of my favorite tags.

If you aren’t a Tumblr user and strictly visit Tumblr to read my blog then this doesn’t really concern you. No but seriously, Tumblr allows users to save their favorite search results (or Tags) so they appear on your side of your dashboard  (your main page after you log in) for easy access. Here are mine:

I understand how much this makes me look like a nerd.

I haven’t blogged this week because I’ve been trying to keep myself busy as much as possible. I work from 9-5 at my internship then after I will go to the gym or look for things to do around the area. The thing is, my internship is in a town called Marlton, NJ. From what I can tell there isn’t really much to do here, especially for anyone my age, as a matter of fact I  think I have only seen a handful of people my age here. The internship itself is going great, I started Tuesday and was fairly nervous at first but everyone has been more than welcoming and it looks like it will be a great learning experience. They have constructed an outline of things I will be doing for the next couple of weeks and it looks promising. I am ready to show them what I can do!

This week I felt it was necessary to get out, if I want to keep my sanity, and I drove back up to New York for the weekend. Today I continued to do more sight seeing. Tomorrow I might go for a run in Manhattan before driving back down to South New Jersey.