VampireS SUMO

As a native son, I know that it doesn′t take much to get the average Alabamian excited. Double coupon day at Kroger will do it; the opening of a Super Wal-Mart; an Elvis sighting; a batch of Georgia lottery tickets smuggled in by a coworker and sold at cost. But I was amazed at the reception Microsoft CEO Bill Gates got when he came to Alabama last week. You′d have thought Oprah was on trial here for badmouthing grits, the way people were carrying on. One particularly- impressed fellow gushed, “I just shook the hand of the richest man in the world! I may never wash my hand again!”

Partner, you need a hobby. Try aisle 5.

Maybe all the ruckus was because Billy Bob Gates (his honorary Alabama name) came to Dixie to give away money, something we Alabamians will stand in line to see, especially if there’s a chance we might get a buck or two. Gates donated $2.7 million to pay for computers and Internet access for Alabama public libraries in an effort to bring cyberspace to underprivileged Alabamians. A noble gesture, but I′ll bet the underprivileged would have just preferred the cash.

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but Bill Gates coughing up $2.7 million is the monetary equivalent of me digging for change in my sofa. Consider these numbers: Bill’s estimated worth is $48 billion. That’s a 48 and a whole bunch of zeros. On average, Bill earns $120 per second, $7,200 per minute, $432,000 per hour, $10,368,000 per day, $72,576,000 per week, $3.7 billion per year. Poor sap. I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on him. Imagine what the IRS does to him every April 15.

Bill and his entourage (which included his wife and three bodyguards specially trained to handle terrorist pie attacks) visited two Alabama libraries that were recipients of his donation: one in Selma, another in Demopolis. Then it was off to Montgomery for a meeting with our beloved Governor Fobio James. It was on the way to Montgomery that Bill ran into another great American: Delbert Lee Knox.

Delbert Lee, a second cousin on my daddy’s side, is considered by most in the family to be what my grampa calls, “the one that fell out of the tree and didn’t land on his head,” which, loosely translated into semi-coherent English, means: the boy made good. Delbert Lee is known around the world as “Delvis: The Elvis Impersonator’s Impersonator.” His impersonations of other impersonators is incredible! It’s like Elvis to the third power. And you should see him do the Elvis Stamp (young AND old versions). It’s down right eerie!

That achievement alone is enough to get Delbert Lee seated at the head of the big people’s table at all family functions, but he has another claim to fame. He is also the mayor of Goober Falls, Alabama, a small hamlet just off the highway to Demopolis. It was there that Delbert Lee met and spent several minutes with Bill Gates. I’m sure neither of them will ever be the same. I spoke to Delbert Lee shortly after their impromptu meeting and here’s what he had to say.

Tim Knox: So, DL, what was it like, shaking the hand of the richest man in America?

Delbert Lee: It was something, TK! I may never wash my hand again.

HL: How did he end up in Goober Falls?

DL: I think he had too much sweet tea up in Selma because he had to stop by Arnie’s Gas-n-Go to use the facilities. Arnie called to tell me that he was out there, so I had him trap the little feller in the restroom till I could arrive.

TK: You trapped the richest man in America in a gas station restroom? Was he upset?

DL: Well, he was at first. Then Arnie gave him one of those pine tree air fresheners for his limo and all was forgiven.

TK: What was he like?

DL: Well, he wasn’t nearly as tall as I thought he’d be. And I had him pegged as being much older. I mean, he started Wal-Mart nearly forty years ago, you know.

TK: DL, you’re thinking of Sam Walton. The guy you met was Bill Gates, the CEO of Microsoft.

DL: (Pause) Bill Gates? Who the hell is Bill Gates?

TK: Ever heard of a little thing called the Internet, DL?

DL: Course I have! We get the X-Files off the satellite dish down here, you know.

TK: I’ve got an idea, DL. Bill Gates wants to put the average Alabamian on the Internet and since there’s no Alabamian more average than you, how about letting me test your Internet knowledge.

DL: I am your faithful hound dog, HL. Fire when ready.

So, I gave Delbert Lee a little test. I asked him to define the following terms. His answers are in bold.

Bytes: What my dog Priscilla does when you pull her tail.
Megabytes: What you get when you Super Size the McNuggets meal at McDonald’s.
Megahertz: The world’s largest car rental company.
Monitor: One of them big lizards from Japan.
Keyboard: Where Arnie hangs the restroom key down at the Gas-n-Go.
Scuzzy (SCSI): A woman of ill repute.
Hard drive: Any road trip involving my mother-in-law.
Modem: What I did to them stinkweeds that was growing in my yard.
Hardware: My drawers when Lurleen doesn’t use fabric softener.
Software: That frilly underwear you see in the Victoria’s Secret catalog.
Mouse: Like a gopher rat, only smaller.
Mouse Pad: Where that mouse lives.
Online: Where you stand when waiting to get your government cheese.
Service provider: A truckstop waitress.
RAM: My Dodge truck, by God.
ROM: Jimmy Buffet’s favorite drink. Goes good with Coke.
Random Access Memory: When I conveniently forget to tell Lurleen that I been out drinking with Arnie and the boys.
WWW: The international branch of the World Wrestling Federation.
Virus: Something that can’t be cured without penicillin or fungus medicine.
Reboot: What you have to do when you wear down the souls of your Dingos.
Microsoft: Really fine toilet paper.
Geocities: A town where everybody drives a little, bitty car.
URL: What Lurleen fries chicken in. Crisco is her favorite.
Shutdown: What happens when the vice squad raids the trailer park on Saturday night.

TK: Thanks, DL. I’ll see you at the next reunion.

DL: No, HL, thank you. Thank you very much.

Tim Knox
Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker, Radio Host
Check Out Tim’s New Radio Show! =>

More and more, people looked toward an internet poker game for stimulation and excitement. After all, poker itself is a very exciting and challenging sport. Many people like the competitive and fast paced nature that poker has, and yet not everybody has a bunch of poker buddies and friends that enjoy the game as much as they do. It is also sometimes difficult to find a time when all the friends can get together to play poker.

This is why internet poker is such a great thing for these types of people. They can join in an internet poker game, no matter what time of day or night it is. An Internet poker game offers them the opportunity to not only have fun in a challenging and stimulating environment, but also to make a substantial portion of income. The internet poker game is beneficial not only to the gambler, but it is also beneficial to the internet site on which the game is being played. A web site will get a portion of the money that the internet poker game generates.

Internet poker games are very convenient and this type of convenience is very appealing to lots of different types of people. Some of the people it is especially appealing to are novice players, who don’t really know how to play poker but want to learn. Lots of times, to them, casinos and even sometimes playing with friends can not be as fulfilling as learning on their own. For example, an Internet poker site is secure and safe and offers them the comfort that they need to learn in a peaceful environment.

Professional SEO. He helps a number of online gambling sites like:

doylesroom.com/ Poker
pokeraffiliatesprogram.com/ Poker Affiliate Program
doylespokerroom.com/ Poker Room

Gambling isn′t about winning, it’s about playing - and when there’s an immense opportunity to play, there’s undoubtedly a colossal industry in the making. This is precisely the notion that the internet gambling business thrives on after all, a little accessibility can work wonders on any business. But the online gambling industry has gained more than a little popularity over the last decade, growing into $14.5 billion market. What’s more, industry revenues are anticipated to climb to a whopping $25 billion by the year 2010 - nearly half of which is foreseen to come from US players, with Japan and China, who gamble twice as much as they shop online, trailing close behind. And the lingering threat of anti-gambling laws certainly isn′t doing much to slow the industry’s astounding speed of success.

But the proven growth of the internet gambling industry should not come as a surprise to anyone. Gambling, on its own, is of a nature that picks its winners and losers at random. Whether someone is an avid gambler or a first-time player, he or she has the opportunity to strike it big - and this ‘gamble’ is undeniably just as much a part of the appeal as the potential reward. But moreover, a better means of accessibility into the realm of an already booming business denotes inevitable expansion - and at an astonishing pace. This is just the idea behind internet gambling. No matter where in the world a person is, an internet connection paired with that one vital ingredient - money - will allow that person to place a bet. Even people who have never thought of setting foot in a casino now have the ability to venture into one at their own pace. And with over 2,000 gambling sites, there’s certainly no shortage of choice.

But the industry hasn′t stopped at ‘traditional’ modes of gambling either. With such an incredible client backing, it currently has a bit of room to make things more ‘interesting’. It is, for example, straying from casino style and sports themed betting to wagering on topics within the entertainment industry. Will your favorite celebrities survive their relationships? Who will win at the Oscars? Place your bets! It’s like taking a trip to Las Vegas - except you don′t have to travel, there are no bright, blinding lights, and the gambling never really has to end.

A current concern regarding the industry has to do with a greater degree of addiction that is linked to online gambling. This is simply a result of Internet gambling sites providing a higher level of access to players than the original, or ‘real’, casino. But when an alarming fifty percent of the gambling industry’s profits come from five percent of the population, one begins to wonder what the statistics will stagger to with the rise of internet gambling. However, certain online gambling sites, such as unibet.com/punter/index.jsp?lang=en” target=”_blank Unibet, are also taking the approach of promoting responsible online gambling. If this approach becomes a norm, it could help online gambling from spinning out of control.

Yet the possibility that online gamblers will have spending addictions is just the reason they’re seen as a money making ‘opportunity’ for many companies on the Internet. People willing to bet their money online for a potential loss are simply more likely to shop online as well. Gamblers are more apt than non-gamblers to click on ads, sign up for marketing posts, and to ultimately spend their money online. Thus, the gambler is undoubtedly a big target in the marketing world.

So with an evident link between Internet gamblers and online market success, it’s no wonder that many are placing their bets on the future of the online gambling industry. And with Internet gambling paving the way for a larger ‘pool’ of players within the gambling world, it doesn’t seem that the business will run out of luck any time soon.

Andrew Regan is an online journalist who enjoys socialising at his local

Angel Of The Morning

You’re my Angel of the Morning,
My lover and my best friend.
With you here beside me,
Our love will never end.

You’re my Angel of the Morning,
So delicate and so sweet.
With you as my lover,
My life is just complete.

You’re my Angel of the Morning,
The support that helps me through
All of life’s adversities,
My Angel, I love you.

You’re my Angel of the Morning,
The purpose of my life.
Heaven must have sent you,
When you became my wife.

You’re my Angel of the Morning
The cradle for my heart
How I miss you darling
When we are apart.

You’re my Angel of the Morning
You’ve helped me through the years.
There to help and guide me,
Wipe away my tears.

You’re my Angel of the Morning
It’s very plain to see.
I’ve been blessed, with the best
An Angel just kissed me

Brown Eyed Girl

I still feel that little tingle, every time we touch,

That warm glow, deep inside, I love you, oh so much.

In the early morn, I feel your fingers, twisting in my hair,

A bridge, between two souls, telling me you care.

To me, you’re still eighteen, an angel in disguise,

I can still, lose myself, in those big brown eyes.

Though the years are passing, as I grow grey and bald

In my eyes, my darling, you never will grow old.

It seems like it was yesterday, the day that we first met,

I knew you were the one for me and I hoped your heart to get.

Time hasn’t diminished my love for you, it’s always been so strong,

The strength you give to me, each day, has carried me along.

Our hands still touch, when we walk out, fingers just entwine,

I don’t care, what others think, I’m proud to show you’re mine.

A glance, a smile, a lifted brow, a twinkle in your eye,

Little signals of our love, immune to passers by.

I have always tried my best, there’s things still left to do,

For there are so many things, I still want to give to you.

I wish I could protect you, from all life’s hurt and pain,

Make you laugh, give you joy, give you sunbeams in the rain.

I hope our love, goes on and on, lasts for many years,

Know that I’ll be here, to protect you from your fears.

With our love, so far we’ve conquered all, made our way through life,

I love you forever, ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, I love you darling wife

John Roberts is a Freelance Training Consultant Trainer in the UK. Always open to discussion regarding training and training techniques, contact John by email.
John is a prolific writer and publisher of Training and associated technical articles, as well as poetry and childrens stories. jayrconsulting.co.uk jayrconsulting.co.uk

There are many ways to share your landscape photos with digital photography, but photo prints remain the most popular. Prints can be framed and hung up on the wall to show your photos off to friends and family. Creating the perfect print can become even more challenging if your monitor isn’t calibrated properly. You will have suddenly wasted your time, paper and ink on a print which doesn’t match what you see on your monitor. Read these quick tips for getting the best prints possible.

Dpi and Ppi

When you make a print of one of your photos on an inkjet printer, a lot is happening inside the printer. Inkjet printers work by spraying ink dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black from nozzles while they pass over the paper. Most inkjet printers have a print resolution of 1440dpi and some printers go as high as 5760dpi. In general, the higher the resolution of your printer the greater detail you can print and the better your photo will look.

The single biggest point of confusion comes from Dots per inch and Pixels per inch. Dpi is very different from ppi, which is the resolution of an image on your computer screen. Printers create dozens of tiny dots to fill the space of one pixel, and the more pixels you pack in an inch the finer the detail will look.
The ideal resolution for printing an image is 300 to 400dpi/ppi.

Ink and Paper

You have a lot of options when choosing different quality inks and paper types, all of which can be combined to form a satisfying result. Different photo papers will give surprisingly different results from the same photo printed on the same printer. Photo paper comes in many different styles, weights, and photo finishes, including matte, glossy and varying degrees of gloss, which is usually called semi-gloss. Colour photos usually look best when printed onto glossy or semi-gloss photo paper, while black and white photos usually look better on matte. It is also worth while creating and saving different profiles for your printer for each type of photo paper you use. This is because on some papers a printer may use too much of one colour, instead of correcting the colour yourself you can select a profile you created before.

The cost of ink can sometimes be greater than that of paper. Purchasing brand name inks by your printer manufacturer is usually the safest option and will produce the best results. Remember that printer damage caused by third party printer cartridges sometimes isn’t covered by manufacturers. Some companies such as Lyson produce high end inks which in some cases are better than the manufacturers own.

Archival qualities and resistance to colour fading is also important when choosing inks. For example pigment based inks help guarantee that your prints will remain crisp and vibrant for many years.

If you are going to print a large quantity of photos it is also worth checking the prices of online printing stores to see if they are a better option for you.

Monitor and Printer Calibration

Calibrating your monitor and printer is essential when viewing and printing your photos. Your monitor could be displaying inaccurate colours and density. Adobe Photoshop comes with something called Adobe Gamma which will most likely already be installed on your computer. You can use Adobe Gamma to create an ICC profile which uses calibration settings to change the way your monitor reproduces colours. Start Adobe Gamma, located in Control Panel and then select step by step and follow the instructions. Daylight can affect the accuracy of colours displayed on your monitor, this is why its best to carry out your monitor calibration in a darkened room.

The first and most important step in printer calibration is to use the correct driver for your printer. Every printer driver comes with its own calibration controls and tools, designed for fine tuning the overall colour of your prints. You can visual calibrate your printer using test images with a wide range of tonal values, including colours bars, photographs, and blocks of colours. You can then adjust the colours using your printer’s controls to match on screen with what you have in print. Alternatively ICC profiles provide a way to insure consistent colour reproduction. Every printer comes with default profiles for use with different combinations of inks and paper which may be suitable for your needs.

Peter Horner is an experienced photographer who co-created designerprint.co.uk designerprint.co.uk - a large format printing service, creating designerprint.co.uk/services/canvas.htm canvas prints, designerprint.co.uk/services/blockmounting.htm block mounts, and poster prints using the latest digital technology.

The Dark, damp, deep dungeons
(Underneath the castle grounds)
Where freedom has no sunlight
This dark palace,
Is where the cadaverous dungeon keeper resides?
Where death filters its way into, this dungeon’s stonewalls:
Here, upon your arrival, hate—with mortar mixed tortures
Fester about; infinite, horrid decaying bones separated from flesh
Paralyzed human spirits—live…(the Keeper’s clientele)
Live in a lifetime of hideous silence.
Here, all cease to speak, blinded and stripped
Raiment’s, just muffled echoes—
In these Dark, damp, deep dungeons
(Underneath the castle grounds)
Where freedom has no sunlight
Where death filters its way into this dungeon’s stonewalls.
Here all will forget ones original name, after time
And all carry their own chains [no crosses allowed]:
Contemplate propositions once made—now too late.

It was this demonic beast, Opiel: keeper of the dungeon
(Once keeper of Hell’s gates)
That broke the silence seized the arms of each human being
Grabbed some by the nostrils
Dragged them disquietingly
Across the stone floors, in utter darkness
In silence, darkness, solitude, who could stop him?
Motionless they all stood…!

“You are all my guests,” he laughed
His echo was like a pack of rats.
(No future, only madness.)

Dungeon walls speak: blank, dark secrets:
They have unconquerable spirits,
Impending footsteps, no fatigue,
Cold and slimy bodies; these walls have feet,
Instinctively they groan, wiggle about,
As if their thighs are blinking eyes
They do not know defeat!

One guest once told me:
They thought it was a dream
But when they awoke, it was reality!
“Ghosts have their dungeons of madness also…”
(I quote: the keeper of the gates);
Some are let loose to created havoc
Others like reptiles, sleep in these dark dungeons
Night after night after night so says the Keeper:
“Revenge is my birthright.”

#1370 6/14/06 Written at EP-Lima, Peru

See Dennis′ web site: dennissiluk.tripod.com dennissiluk.tripod.com

Be smart, play smart, and learn how to play craps the right way!

Over your craps-playing life, you′ll likely have more losing sessions than winners. Accept it. You must learn to play in reality, not fantasyland. Craps is designed for the player to lose.

Suppose, after two hours, the dice have whittled your chip stack down to $20. You haven’t seen a hot roll in ages. Although losing is as much a part of the game as winning, you can’t help but feel lousy. You wonder why you even bothered coming to Vegas in the first place. You were a rock for two hours, but it didn’t work. You want to win so badly that you lose control of your common sense. You’re down to your last $20 for the session and you have no fight left. Stop!

You must never capitulate, never surrender, never think, “This sucks, I’m going to put the rest on the Hard 4 and, if I lose, then I’ll leave. But if I win, I’ll be right back where I started.” That’s the dumbest thing you can do at the end of a losing session.

If you insist on giving your money away, please send it to your favorite charity. Don’t give it to the casino. Occasionally, you’ll win one of those idiotic bets, but don’t think you’ll win enough over time to conquer your losses.

If you can’t accept losing, you have no business gambling. If you can’t stomach losing a particular session, then quit that session and cash out. Don’t pee your money away on a terrible bet hoping to hit it big and get your money back all at once.

If it’s an awful session and you lose a lot quickly, then accept defeat and cash out with the $10, $15, or $20 that you have left. Take that remaining $20, go have a beer in the lounge, listen to the band. Put it in a nickel video poker machine and maybe hit a 1,000-coin jackpot for $50. Put it in your pocket, find your wife, and spend some time with her. Don’t relent. Do something besides pee your money away on a losing proposition bet. Don’t toss in the towel.

Now you know! Remember, learn how to play craps the right way.

Bill Enslen is a reliability engineer who routinely works with statistics. Having played and analyzed

SHORT REVIEW:

Perhaps its a bad idea to make a film about World War I that has a longer running time than the war itself.

REVIEW:

There’s a great number of things going for this film, too bad none of them made it onto the screen. A story about World War I flying aces shooting it out over France? A chance to see the old planes in action? A possible throwback to an older style war movie? This film offers some exciting possibilities. It delivers on none of them.

This film is a distracted mess. There could have been an engaging story involving the pilots dealing with the grim reality that they were all probably going to die while also living the fleeting lives to the fullest. The film moves a decidedly different direction and concentrates on a limp love story between a French woman who can’t speak English and an American that can not act. The heat between lead James Franco and his love interest, Jennifer Decker, is timid. I have seen more exiting chemistry when I’ve added half and half to my coffee in the morning.

The other portion of the film, the part involving pilots and flying doesn’t fare much better. The fight sequences are chaotic and poorly presented. It is nearly impossible to tell who is who because everyone is (of course) covered in headgear and flying identical planes. It is like trying to do a police lineup with everyone wearing football helmets. Beyond this, there isn’t a clear and active nemesis. The lack of a present villain joined with the a dearth of deep supporting characters, reduces the fight sequences into obtuse, buzzing interludes that bookend the awkward love interest scenes.

This should have been a great movie, but it’s not even a marginal one. It’s likely someone you know will look at the DVD box and think it looks good. The marketing does look good. Then again, the marketing of this film is the only successful part of the whole effort.

Don’t bother with this one folks, it will only waste your time and let you down.

Scott Nehring is an independent film critic, published on a number of sites in America and Australia. His readers enjoy his humorous, concise and unapologetic reviews of the latest releases. Visit his site Nehring the Edge at nehring.blogspot.com nehring.blogspot.com.

As I sat on the edge of my chair at the Huemann Bookstore in Harlem, peering into the eyes of film legend Melvin Van Peebles, it was hard for me to fathom the lack of promotional fanfare. I could not understand why Mr. Peebles, as so many other legends, are infrequently receiving the accolades for breaking into Hollywood, theater and or music. Mr.Peebles sat in the bookstore without major paparozzi, and spoke to me and several other reporters, producers and scholars, as well as aspiring writers and children, on the systematic approaches he needed to break into Hollywood. Amidst the systemic racism, stereotypical roles, and lack of technical assets Mr. Peebles moved to Europe and eloquently informs of his causasian comrades that have assisted him along the way. Mr. Peebles spoke of the power of unity in the community prior to integration, and how not having come from a culture that promotes unity, for individualism is an American tradition and that we as a people were critically effected by racism. He explained the lack of cohesiveness. He spoke of being able to use the passport to avoid the radical, and powerful tools corporate America uses to stagnate your growth. It was a learned experience and I am prompted to have you, the reader, research all that you can on the life and works of this genius. I use Melvin Peebles as an example of great African-Americans that are pioneers in the film industry, and whose art and style set the trends for action packed movies. His association with Stax records led to the making of some of the greatest soundtracks of the 1960’s and ’70s.

Melvin Van Peebles confirms African Americans have set the cultural standard of music. He says that with film the larger movie houses continue to utilize Black recording artists to sell their movies. As he said, now a days, movies are just long soundtracks. Sometimes people go to a movie because of the sound track.

The legacy of Melvin Van peebles, filmmaker, writer, pioneer, is like the instruction manual for independent filmmakers. I am urged to advise all artists, music lovers, writers and filmmakers to study his works, his films, and to learn from the hardship and success stories.

Being a lover of film and music it was not very hard to choose both genre’s as my column’s topic. It is vital for us to continue to observe, praise and document the many contributions Blacks continue to make in this country and the world.

All things new are old:

As of late, many corporations, media houses, and universities, are attempting to document the contributions that have been made in hiphop. Although there have been many great innovative artists that have been promoted in the mainstream, there still is a decade of artists that go almost unnoticed. I remember when lawyers, librarians, record labels and mass media thought disco would be the music that would be forever. I observed the music scene at a very early age. My father’s cousin, Fats Lewis and Bobby Robinson owned Fury and Enjoy records. In the early sixties Gladys Knight and Pips graced their label. Later in the mid seventies Bobby promoted rappers. I was influenced by music from that era but it was my Grandmother, who sang gospel everyday, that exposed me to music. My uncle Al Eford wanted a club and he decided to take on the task of running a club, which became 22 West 135th Sstreet. So of course the family worked there, and I sold tickets for any party my mother and aunts gave. From promoting 22 West and going to parties at Harlem World, Harlem Prep and the Celebrity Club and Renaissance Ballroom I met a lot of Djs. My experience with living in Manhattan and the Bronx, partying in the centers, parks, fire escapes, roofs, led to my love of aerial views and prompted me to get into video at an early age. I still wrote poems and news articles on a freelance basis with the Amsterdam News and other small tabloids when I got older. I still, however, loved music and thus learned how to produce my own songs and worked with young producers like Strafe, Toney Woods (New Jack Swing/Teddy Riley’s producer) Donald D, Pumpkin King of the Beats (PBUH) and Paris Ford (7 Minutes of funk) Michael B and Richie Weeks (Weeks and co). Then later Barry B (Get Fresh Crew). I learned to respect the innovators who also had been influenced by the legends of rap and r&B and of course funk.

Although music was a passion, I rarely witnessed women on tv being promoted or promoting rap on a positive level, or even allowing new rappers to speak to the public and see a more intelligent side. I observed that women on tv were promoted as hookers or emasculate. So I decided to get into tv production and public access was a vehicle.

Moments in Hiphop are vignettes of the talk shows that I hosted/produced. It shows a side of many artists who may have set trends and who have had an opportunity to influence the sculpture of the ever evolving hip-hop culture.

We as producers, artists, poets, actors, filmmakers, writers, painters, dancers, djs, are the creative force that shape the world. We are the true innovators and it is only genius when we learn from history how to identify the new to preserve our HISTORIES…

We must be the authors of the dictionaries that define our works. All too often creative individuals do not receive the proper acknowledgments for their contributions, because somewhere in this generation, someone decided that when you are too old you are not important. Remember it was the elders that gives the knowledge to the young who are to manifest what is learned. It is up to us to tell Our story. When DJ Yoda spoke of a plan to preserve the hiphop culture with pioneers in the industry, I referred him to the necessary grant writing agency that could do the job in raising funds for his tasks.

History tells me that it is important because it can repeat itself. As the scholar Professor James wrote in his expose’ Stolen Legacy, “if it remains to be seen if we are beyond typical historical responses to challenging ideas and if we only had original documentation. We must keep in mind the burning of the Egyptian and Ethiopian Libraries, the sacking of Timbuktu, the Inquisition and the many book burnings in history″.

Legends of film, like Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon Parks,and all the masters of Rock, Soul, Jazz and the true pioneers of Rap like Kool Herc, Afrikaa Bambatta, Grand Wizard Theordore, Jazzy Jay, Pete DJ Jones, Pebblee Poo, Cold Crush Brothers, Crash Crew, Mike and Dave, Eddie Chebe and Reggie Wells, Mr. Magic, Frankie Crocker, Eddie Ojay, and that bum DJ Red Alert, and so many others that would run off this page, must be remembered, documented and preserved.

Darlene also had an opportunity to work with Filmmakers Kerwin Devonish(Have Plenty) Lahh Woods (BeeBoy TV), Austin Philips(Straight out of Bklyn, Paid in Full), Darriel Dashiel (Darlene Lewis, Darryl Johnson (CNN) and Darriel created Borough of Manhattan Community College’s ENG TV Student Club), FishGrease/Classic Concepts(Ralph McDaniels), TNT Casting(Prison Song), Mother Goose Down Productions (Broadway Playwright Jean Spruill).

When you purchase Hiphop Before the Bling/DVD Moments in Hiphop, a third of the proceeds will be forwarded to the Non Profit Organization The Universal Federation for the Preservation of Hiphop Culture. This is an organization which preserves the Pioneers of the culture. Kurtis Blow, Grand Master Cas, Melle Mel and First female of Hiphop Pebblee Poo are some of the members of this organization. Founded by Afrikaa Bambaata. Contact organization:

Email mailto:Federation200@aol.com Federation200@aol.com.

Accomplishments: Associate in Applied Science Degree 1988
(Business Management)

Bachelor of Arts Degree - 1993 (Communications

Guitars are highly technical instruments with intricate mechanisms and parts that help produce the sounds that it produces. The guitar’s strings are probably the most important part of a guitar’s sounds, but many people forget to care for them the way they should be cared for. Even guitar owners who maintain and clean their instruments on a regular basis often forget to maintain or replace the most important part of a guitar’s sound - the strings.

There are some signs that are obvious clues that you need to change out your guitar cords. If your cords are discolored, change them. If your cords are not conforming to the right shape, change them, and if your strings are rusted, please, please change them.

Hopefully, you are operating with all six strings because if one has disappeared, there’s a problem. On the smaller end of the less obvious scale, the truth is that you should change your cords every few months. Changing your strings will make the music that you play sound more clear, crisp and audibly recognizable to others.

The time in between changing guitar cords is really the best way to tell how often to change your strings. If you are an avid guitar player who likes to play every spare moment of the day, you will need to change your guitar cords more often than the occasional guitar player.

The latter can get by with waiting three months or more in between changing strings while the avid musician might want to consider changing guitar strings every two weeks or so. It is hard to give an exact time frame for changing strings. It just depends on how often you play your guitar and the amount of use the strings actually get.

There are many different kinds of strings, and many different manufacturers that will swear that their product is the best. The only way to decipher which brand is the best is to try out different ones and decide for yourself. However, knowing which type of cords, and not who makes them, is what should be your concern.

If you have an acoustic guitar then you will need just regular acoustic guitar strings. If you own a classical guitar then your strings should be nylon. Generally, what type of guitar you are playing is what will categorize the strings. Therefore, there is really no excuse for buying the wrong cords. The thickness of the strings determines the quality of sound, but remember, the thicker the strings, the harder they are to play. The ballpark price for them is quite reasonable.

Changing your guitar strings can be a lesson in frustration. The intricate detail that you have to endure just to change one string can annoy even the calmest of personalities.

Rather than trying to do this yourself the first few times, it might be helpful to make a trip to your local guitar center. They may have kind associates who can give you tips and hints on how to change your strings with fewer frustrations. They may even change them for you the first couple times until you get the hang of it.

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