ChazB

Strife.tv | Living the Strife Life

2011-12-16T18:20:00.000-08:00

Strife.tv right now is probably the only Youtube channel that does not follow all the trends of other bboy broadcasting networks. Sure they cover battles, and make coverage videos of events, but that's not what they're all about; they document the culture and educate people with the guests they have. Strife.tv's crew cover events in 3 main areas: USA, Korea and now the UK.

Strife.tv first started in 2008 covering BOTY USA, and was founded by Erich, Ari and Mitchel. Since then quite a few members have now joined, not all of them being camera crew - some of which are regular personalities. Off the top of my head, those that are down with Strife.tv are:

Daniel, Mitchel, Loan, MisLee, Minhzy, ManOfGod, KBE, Ari, Erich, Atomic Goofball, Maresco, Just-Roc (from AOM, not FLGZ), Peppa, Luis J, Aerospace and Doy.

I'm the newest recruit. Have been since August.

I knew Daniel since roughly start of 2010. I added him on Facebook when Strife were booming with footage from Korea. I wanted to tell him I love what he does (and still do), but also wanted to ask him about TIP's army situation (since he was in the know with it, and I didn't know anyone else who was, I asked him).

And over time we kept talking, got to know each other better, and it was roughly the end of 2010 when I asked him if he wanted battle footage from the UK. He said to me "Sure, why not? You're a funny guy :)". But since then it took a while for anything to be produced, it's not like I had to go through some sort of MZK induction process but I still had to have knowledge in a few things before I could start producing footage for Strife.

The first battles I put out for Strife.tv had some big names in them, so I was happy I was able to provide some people that haven't been shown on Strife before. First battles I took were from Castle Rocks this year.

Second set of videos I put out have probably been the biggest production I've done yet. A newly started tradition of Strife.tv is we cover our journeys down to, during, and after an event. We call it the STRIFE.LIFE. It was agreed between Strife.tv and BadTasteCru that I would film the top32-top8 battles and post them up, and I made a STRIFE.LIFE video of Just Jam.

There's only 2 members of Strife.tv that reside in the UK, myself and Doy. If you don't know of Doy's work, my god! ( http://vimeo.com/user701078 ) In the UK, Doy is the main guy when it comes to trailers - and the same for Strife - and I'm the guy with the battles! (Although recently I've been stepping into doing trailers as well).

But on a serious note, I'm truly blessed to be a part of Strife.tv. Not only have I learned so much from Daniel and others about filming etc, but it has also gained me status in the UK scene (not that I didn't have one before). I've had people credit me for the work I've done covering some of the UK's events, and it's great being recognised and appreciated for your contribution. I've had B-Boys I've looked up to (and haven't spoken to before) come up to me to say "Hi", since working for Strife. It's great to be part of a WORLDWIDE movement!! I wouldn't have had the success I have right now if it wasn't for Daniel and Strife.tv.

There's quite a few members of Strife.tv that I have yet to talk to but I can't wait for the moment that happens!!

From what I've learned from Strife, and from my own filming experiences, I could do this for my whole life. I think I will! This could turn into a job, I'd love it if it did!

Thanks Dan, for everything! :-)

*Signing Out*

Attention to Detail Expojam | TRAVELS

2011-12-06T03:43:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I was down in LEEDS for the final installment of Attention to Detail (ATD) Expojam; there were many qualifying events up and down the UK and even one in Belgium. This was the first time I was down in Leeds for an event and I'd heard a lot of good things about it...so you could guess what my expectations were.

Out of the crew it was only myself and Maule that made the travel down, which made 2 of us. How many Scottish bboys were there? 3. (Harribo lives in Bradford now and came thru).

Anyway, met up with Maule at 8am roughly to make the drive down. I am normally used to waking up earlier to travel down to events but this one was hard to wake up for, could be a winter thing - not sure. I think this was the first time Maule and I have traveled to an event together, but definitely isn't the first time we've been the only Jalapenos at an event. During the travel I was recording more footage for a new STRIFE.LIFE video. If you don't know what the strife life it, it's basically when someone from Strife.tv films their journeys to, during and after an event they attend. This one was interesting, stopped at a few service stations and got some good things to put into it - Maule's always a lot of fun when he's in front of a camera or behind it.

It took about 4 and a half hours to get down to Leeds University, we were a lil anxious that the battles would start without us but luckily the event started 30 minutes after we got there.

I got my travel paid down to the event to film, and put together a highlights trailer and a coverage video (documenting what people thought of the event and to have the concept explained). This also meant I got in for free, and so did Maule (since we were the only ones travelling through from Scotland).

Because of this I didn't really plan to dance at all; as much as I would have loved to cypher all day and that, I had to keep my head clear and make sure I was doing a good job with filming - so I only threw down ONCE before the battles started. But during the battles, it got to the last battle of the first qualifying round and they were 1 bboy short; I was really hyped just from filming the battles and everything so I stepped up! What the hell was I thinking?! I didn't warm up, didn't throw down enough rounds to feel comfortable or did I even intend to touch the ground in any aspect!! But guess what? I make it past the 2 qualifying rounds into the Main Battles ;). As Maule said during one of my battles "JALAPENOS BITCH!!".

I only threw down 3 times before the main battles, and had no idea what the hell I would do for the next battle.

The concept of ATD battles are simple: The 8 bboys that are invited to battle are also judges; when a judge battles this leaves an odd number of judges, when there's 2 judges battling a reserve steps in to judge to keep the numbers even. For this event in particular, a qualifying bboy has to go up against an invited bboy...and I was landed with ThePhasion. DAYUM THAT DUDE IS NASTY!!

To sum up my battle in as fewer words as possible? He roasted me! Straight up, I lost. I ran out of moves, couldn't even think about what I was about to do next, I was beat. Good battle though, definitely one to take back to training with me. Props to ThePhasion! Think I did Scotland proud, not that I had that burden on me but the thought did occur later on.

Congratz to the winner of the 1v1s BEANZ (Ghetlow Pirates) and GHETLOW PIRATES for 4v4s - great battle with Trinity Warriors that could have gone either way. It was a blast to film, and battle at. Met new people, spoke to those I respect that gave me props for my filming - it's great to hear I'm being appreciated for filming. More motivation for me to keep doing it, getting recognised for my filming too is a big plus - from the like of Kid Karam and Ghetlow Pirates (some i've never spoken to).

I also got a teeshirt and a bag from Eastpak! Nice!!

Journey back was even better than the journey going down, by miles!! We only had 1 mixtape to listen to - and it was a Rocking mixtape that SkamRok gave to Maule - and we listened to it all the way down AND back up...and yet we were still hyped for every track!! We also got caught in snow, and discussed the possibility of a Flyin' Jalapenos 10 year Anniversary jam!!

Shoutouts to the guys at ATD (Jamie, Flo etc), to those I battled (Phasion, Million Dollar Mike, Sneaky) and to those I met and filmed down there (Trinity Warriors, Ghetlow Pirates, Tukyz). Y'all know who you are, and I appreciate opportunity to come to ATD and film.

*Signing Out*.

My response to releasing footage

2011-11-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

Over the last year I've been posting up battle footage of many events that have happened in Scotland, and just starting to post those from England too. And I get people asking me for their footage, which is cool as I do this without complaining...but recently things have been changing. I've been getting more work from my filming and I'm going through other ventures with regards to filming; in fact I'm trying to edit more coverage trailers and promotional videos instead of uploading battle footage.

But the second I say I'm not going to release battle footage from a jam I was at (because I want to make a trailer of the event), I get bombed with people wanting their footage up. Why is this? I don't understand, I've not done anything wrong.

So whoever does bother to read this, I'm only going to say this ONCE.

Whatever I choose to do with MY footage, respect my decision. If you want my footage after I've uploaded to youtube/vimeo, there's software you can download to get it. I'll keep doing my thing, in my own time.

I'm on to do bigger and better things, it's going to be an awesome 2012!

*Signing Out*

The Disease that is my Speech...

2011-09-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

So I was speaking to my dad about something that happened at a work meeting tonight, and we were talking quite a bit about my speech. Now I feel I haven't properly justified myself, or explained enough what happens, when it comes to my speech.

It's the cause for most of the emotional ups and downs, if not all of 'em. It is probably the only thing that influences my decision to do things based off 2 things...if I'm speaking well or if I'm not. Imagine that. Imagine that your speech is the main factor in deciding what you do that day; what shop you go into; what food/drink you get; or even what you say and how you say something to another person. It's really quite a f*cking pain!

Everyone sees my speech as it is, face value. They don't understand what is going through my mind or how I'm feeling when my speech goes haywire...which I can understand! I'm not expecting everyone to feel sympathy the second they hear me speak, just some compassion and empathy (knowing where i'm coming from on an emotional level) is all I need.

But there are certain things that happen to me in different situations, i'll outline a few for you:

1. Loss of eye contact: When my speech gets a bit messed up I go into a very short spasm trying to get the air and the word out; this causes me to look away or to find a comfort spot, to get the air out. I've had people say that my eye contact can lack, well now you know. And people think that I can't look people in the eye normally...well I could look at someone straight in the eyes and not lose focus forever when I am able to.

2. Greeting people in a different manner: When I try and fix my speech from a bad patch, I go slowly and do something called "slow-rated speech". But in a scenario where I can't do that (like my job) you have to get through things faster which means i need to speak faster. At times like that the air coming out of my mouth is much more prone to be blocked, hence "blocking" my speech from continuing. In instances like this I CANNOT SAY THE WORDS THAT MY MIND WANTS ME TO SAY...instead I have to try say something of the same meaning but is easier to say. Example: If I had to greet someone at a bar, and I'm meant to say "Hi there, how can I help you?" but I can't say that? I'd end up saying "Yo man, wassup?". Now I've been pulled up for the way that I can come across to people, but the bottom line is that I CANNOT HELP THAT! Y'all can say many times that "You need to say ________" but in reality...most of the time I CAN'T!

People don't know how it feels to even suffer from a speech problem like mine, for as long as I've had it for (13 years). It comes to a point, after having a speech problem for as long as I've had it for, that when you mess up your speech you want to eject yourself from the situation you're in, find a corner that no one can find you at, curl up and keep silent. But I can't do that, I don't do that, cause I know there's always a way around it...but is it a suitable way? It's upto the individual that's affected.

This gets me to the 3rd part, respect: I try to be friendly to everyone, it's who I am! I try to make people feel relaxed and comfortable in my environment, because I'm that sort of caring person. Maybe it's my social dynamics but to people it can be unacceptable...not like I do bad things or anything, just maybe it doesn't reflect on me very well. Such things as calling people "Sir, Miss" etc can be hard for me to say; some days they will be and others they won't, but I never take my chances because of how I feel when I mess up my speech.

And this is the thing too, people tell me that I need to do ___ and ___ and ____ but THEY NEVER KNOW how I feel when I do speak. Everyone is so quick to assume that it's not much to mess up your speech...but think about this: Do you feel really happy that you could say a few sentences without any errors? No? Course you don't, because every "normal" person can speak smoothly and never think of such problems. But me? Those are the times that I am blessed with! Those are the times that tell me "Chaz, it's not going to be such a bad day after all". Because of my speech my brain thinks slower when it comes to me speaking because it's adapted so quickly to it taking a while for me to speak.

My speech can give me such low confidence and self-esteem...in such a short space of time like 3 seconds; it's not the fact that i've made the mistake that always gets to me, it's the reinforcement that "The problem will never go away"...every time i f*ck up my speech it's like a reminder, just not a very uplifting one. And having this problem can make me really doubtful too; I'm always thinking about what could happen, always thinking about the next time it will fuck up...and unfortunately most of the time it'll fuck up the next time I speak. How do you think that feels? Everyone complains when they get the hiccups, and complain when they can't get the words to roll off their tongue in the right order...they can all fuck off with their small unimportant problems! How would you like it if you get fear of talking to a girl you like on the street, not because of fear of rejection but of fear if your speech will mess up? That's the stuff I gotta live with.

How does it feel? I have no freedom of speech. There, I said it! It cripples me from the inside when I want to do something that challenges me. When I go into a different place, I always worry about my speech and how I'll sound - it's a constant worry and a constant struggle.

It's feeling like this that gives me low confidence to do public speaking or to speak on the phone, sure I can do it no problem...but how will I feel after knowing that I probably didn't form a single proper sentence smoothly? I'll want to cry after it! And no one will know how bad it feels inside as I'm speaking and messing up - sometimes I can put it into words and other times I can't. Everyone on the surface will see that someone is having problems saying a few words, but I think none of those people well ever be able to understand and relate to me when I tell them how bad I feel; how crippling it is to me when I can't even say a fucking sentence without failing; they just assume it's not a big deal...BUT IT'S A VERY BIG DEAL!

Also, I get people saying to me that they don't recognise that I have a speech problem. Lies. I also get people saying that they don't think it's a big problem. Lies. I get people trying to bullshit me to calm me down and to make me feel better about myself by lying to me. If it's such a big problem to you, man the f*ck up and tell me so I can make the decision to stop talking to you and take my business elsewhere. I wouldn't be offended if you told me that my speech was a problem, but we would both try find a solution for my speech to not be a problem...but I would be offended if you insulted my speech.

I guess the point of this was to raise awareness. I'm not here to complain about my life, just here to give justification. I try not to tell people that I have the speech problem when I first meet someone, cause what's the point? They're going to try so hard not to get on my bad side, cause they'll feel bad if they end up offending me or saying something negative about me; it's why I don't tell them to begin with and I let them figure it out for themselves; it's why I want to see if they'll like me for who I am and what I do, and it's not them trying to say "He's got a speech problem, I better go easy on him".

I've done all I can! I have no reason to try and act like I'm sorry that my speech could cause problems, cause I already know it does and it's how the other person handles it! I'm not sorry that you're offended, and I'm definitely not sorry that it is making you impatient and could cause a problem in the workplace...I gave up caring about it being someone else's problem. I'm not sorry that you are annoyed that it's embarrassing you, if you think it's embarrassing you then you're a prick...cause in among all of this, how do you think I feel?

*Signing Out*

Am I Too Happy?

2011-09-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

There's ALWAYS a time I get someone asking me "Why are you happy all the time?" or they tell me "You're too happy". It's cool when it's given to me as a compliment but quite a few times I get it like it's a bad thing, like it's a bad thing to be happy. So I want to come clean on this and maybe people will understand me a lil' better.

So why am I happy?

Put it this way, why should I not be happy? Sure I'm not completely satisfied with my life but it doesn't mean that I should me angry and annoyed all the time! I might have not achieved everything that I want to achieve but I guess, right now, achieving them make me hopeful and give me a euphoric feeling.

Now when I'm around people I'm just that very happy amiable guy!! I may not have the best chat at times, I may not have the best looks and I may not have a few other material things...but I can make people feel really good about themselves - or at least get other people in a great mood!

You could say that's my purpose here? To make others feel really good about themselves - or to get other people in a great mood? Hell, I wouldn't care if that was what I was put down on this Earth for! That would be AWESOME!

But this does have a bit of a flaw...I hate shouting! Especially if it is other people shouting at me, they feel the need to shout because they feel that if they don't they won't get me to do something. Put it this way, would you respect the manager at your work if they shouted at you all the time? Or would you respect the manager that came upto you and spoke to you on a level you could both understand, calmly and firmly? 'Tis all to do with understanding social situations I guess.

But even if people do shout at me, I don't shout back...I save my energy ;). Also, people say I apologise too much...how? If someone tells me I've done something wrong, I apologise right? But this is where it can get confusing, some people may think I can get away with doing anything cause I "know how to apologise". I feel sorry for those that have to shout at people, that have to have something against a person...unless they've done something to you to REALLY strike a nerve there really should be no need to expend any energy on them.

As my workmate Orson said "Chaz you seem happy all the time, it cheers me the f*ck up!!".

So I guess to summarise: I am happy all the time because I have no reason not to. I feel happy because I am able to, and because I can. I hate it when people try and put me down because I am like this; this is most likely because they can't be in that state themselves.

Actually!! At training I'm know to "talk"...but what am I really doing? Are you to feel bad when you train? NO, you want to feel great when you train because you'll feel motivated and excited like nothing could put you down. I guess that's what I do, I make people feel great about themselves and this helps my crewmates train.

People can say ALL they want about the state I'm in. But for the one's that have to try put me down, why? Why don't you try and be in the mood that I am in? Give compassion to every person in the world, accept them like you would accept a best friend? Why aren't you doing this already? If you see me being happy as a problem, it's only a problem to you because you aren't happy! ;)

*Signing Out*

A start to the end of ChazB? Let's hope not.

2011-08-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm feeling pretty uninspired to dance right now; I'm not dancing like my usual self anymore. I'm not feeling creative or free right now. I have a few reasons why this is happening...I'll go through them:

1. Overview of my breakin' from a different perspective

I'm really thankful that I have a crew where everyone is better than me, so with everything they teach me/criticize me on I'll get better and improve - this also helps when I'm creating new sets and they can help me with my form and give me different ideas and such.

Although, here is what I want to achieve from breaking...I don't want to be the generic, stereotypical b-boy that you see; in fact I don't want to be labelled as a European B-boy, or X bboy or Y bboy...I want to be ChazB and for me to be ChazB I have to feel free and look different because it is congruent to who I am as a person.

I don't like structure, in the true sense of the meaning, I feel it restricts me from doing things. I understand that people have their opinions on what every bboy should know, but does it mean you need to physically know them? Or does it mean you should be mentally in tune with them, without needing to be perfect at the physical part of them?

So then how did I choose to come to these conclusions? It was when I started to choose what I wanted to achieve as a dancer.

It started when I saw Y-Not (Rock Steady) dance, his toprock was just inspiring as f*ck, what he was doing on top I wanted to do everywhere...not just for toprock, I wanted to transcend his level of musicality into every movement I did. It was then I had that session that changed everything - I moved to the music and did not care how it looked or how stupid it was, I felt great about it.

When I really want to follow certain parts of the music, I came up with so many different movements that felt amazing to me even if they looked average or sloppy. It was then I had decided to go off and do whatever the hell I wanted. Obviously I work on the movements that helped me achieve some heightened level of musicality, just probably not enough because of what I feel.

Then this sort of all changed for me :/

It was when I was beginning to prepare for our shows at TITP that I was told to clean my stuff up. Obviously I understand that when you're doing shows you need to be clean and dynamic and the list goes on...so i needed to be cleaner.

After the shows were done I still needed to get my shit cleaner, so I practised my footwork and all sorts to make em cleaner so that when I did fuck around I'd look better.

What has this done to me? It's made me feel generic, sometimes look it too. I'm doing movements that aren't even like me to do, sure they may look cool on me and they may suit me but are they congruent with who I am and what I want to achieve? No. It's also made my mind claustrophobic; I find it harder than ever to go off now.

2. Too much shit happening in my life

Yep, there's too much shit happening in my life. I've been on a low because I feel that my speech problem could be getting worse, so I've already taken action to prevent it getting worse by doing breathing exercises and such - they're working great but my confidence to cross social barriers isn't helping my emotional state of balance.

I also found out some other information, I guess consciously I'm not worried about it but subconsciously I think it's taking a toll on me. You try and establish some control in your life so you get the most out of it, and yet what am I getting out of it now? I feel like shit when I'm not myself...unfortunately that's happening more often now, I'm just very good at hiding it.

____

So what do I do now? Do I go to an event just to cypher and film? Do I take time off from breaking to clear my mind and pursue other passions of mine? Or do I make a mini documentary about my dancing outlining the same things as here? I dunno, the documentary seems more appealing and emotional to the viewer. F*ck it, I'll do all 3. Looks like I could do with a break from it all.

Put it this way, in my scene I'm still a creation...a work in progress shall we call it. People see me battle one time and I do x and y, but then the next battle comes up and I do a and b. That's how it should be, predictable is a word I will never take hold of in this dance.

*Signing Out*

T in the Park 2011 - A Jalapeno Story

2011-07-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes the first sentence or paragraph of a story get people interested in something? Well this could be the case here, because T in the Park was probably the best experience I've ever had in such a long time! There was so much for everyone to do; and over the 4 days I was there a hell of a lot happened! From doing a late night show when completely hammered, to cockblocking a friend (supposedly), to watching your favourite acts perform, to generally having fun and getting smashed!! Anyway, I'll start from Friday, a very good place to start.

Friday: Setting off, Setting Up and Setting Down

I'm going to be honest and say I was kinda nervous about the whole trip. The fact that I've never been to a big festival before scared me a little, but I knew that I was with my crew - who have been there 2x before - and so the worry went away as the time was drawing near. I was meeting my crewmate Sam in town to go meet Maule, so he could take Sam, Tiger, Stevie and I to TITP.

After going to the meeting point (Tesco on Argyle St) for 2pm we had to wait about 40 minutes for Maule to turn up, then left another 30 minutes later (took 20 minutes to get all our shit in his car, then 10 minutes for resources aka booze!!

The trip to TITP was still funny as fuck, just all the random shit we all came out with was mental - Stevie always on about girls which made everything else we said after just something we wanted to remember!! On the way there we had to stop at TEESHIRTNATION. Maule had commercial Flyin' Jalapenos teeshirts to sell to get the crew name out there, in actual fact he sold quite a few which was dope! They look amazing too, I bought one myself and plan to get my name printed on it soon ;).

When we got to TITP we had to get our bands and our tents and such set up. It was a little wait for the band and was quite a trek getting to the spot that Kat and WongK had set up. It was the 2nd time I'd ever set up a tent, was a challenge but one I could defeat! :P. Stevie was mentioning that if we kept a tight circle of tents it means no one else will put a tent in the middle of us and ruin our social circle...so we moved our shit around accordingly and it proved effective!

The point of us being there in the first place was that we had shows to do in the Healthy T tent, 5 shows in total. In preparation for the shows we came up with quite a few routines, an order for each show and colours to wear for each show...so we looked different for a few but yet colour coordinated for the bigger shows!

It came to our first show, which was a freestyle, and I was a lil' nervous. I didn't want to fuck up cause I wanted to do the crew really proud, but then thoughts like this go through people's minds all the time when something like a show comes up.

The set up for the first show was a lil' strange, we had to wait a while for the last show to clean up...obviously they hadn't cleaned up everything which made it a lil' harder for us to dance...but it wasn't actually that hard when it came down to doing the job, we had hardboard to lay down - only problem was the stage was slightly slanted. But before the show started we had to arrange an order for this show (which was a freestyle), so Maule said "Pick a number between 1-12"...i picked 4, right after Sam...shit! That meant that for every blow up I could do Sam could do it better...no blow ups for me :(.

Then the first show came about, and I was hyped! I couldn't wait to go out and dance, didn't matter if I messed up in bits (which i definitely did in every show), I'd just have so much fun out there. And I did! I had a hell of a lot of fun that show, everyone kicked ass!

Since we were "staff", it meant that we got to get food from the staff catering service at breakfast lunch and dinner. After quickly rushing to get dinner after our show, we proceeded to relax and see what food they had. The food the catering staff had the whole 3 days was pretty good actually!! Was warm, filled you up, mixed choice, you couldn't go wrong with it! But walking through the event at night was really exciting; everywhere was lit up, everyone was having fun and you couldn't help but feel good from the experience. That night Jordan won a pink snake; we heard a bit of Artic Monkeys and Ke$ha and generally having fun drinking and such back up at the campsite.

That night myself and Sam had to share a 2 man tent, and boy it was a struggle! I only got about 2 hours sleep that night, if that! Didn't matter how much people were joking about it, it really was difficult to get any sleep in there. Ended waking up at 6am to get some food, water and orange juice from a local BP garage thinking that there is no way I'll be going back to sleep. I got back about 6:50am and suddenly went to sleep.

Saturday: Pushing the Boundaries

After not the best of sleep, I woke up at about 9:15am and headed for breakfast shortly after. A rehearsal was scheduled for 11am at the spot so that no one would be on the stage getting set up, so an early breakfast was on the agenda! Not everyone turned up to breakfast on time cause they turned up late, which meant rehearsals were later too...ended up getting about 10 minutes of rehearsal just for positioning and such.

There was a lot I wanted to do that day, a lot that I wanted to see too - House of Pain was a biggie for me! I also wanted to see how much I could get done that day so I could get the most out of TITP...instead of just dancing then doing nothing. :( Obviously my purpose there was different from what most other people's purpose was; everyone else had paid their £200 (roughly) to set up camp and get shitfaced but we paid nothing to do shows and get shitfaced! :P

Anyway, it came to our second show at TITP and this was the first of them that had a structure to it. Well, I say structure but there is always going to be something that doesn't go right...but why get stroppy and say the show went shit if something doesn't go right? I don't mean someone fell or crashed, i mean if an order is broke...how are they meant to know what order we have? It's not a program to a charity festival, it's a show! But anyway the show went on, and I thought that we were all better than the first show. We had a few routines here and there, which was pretty cool to be a part of! The crowds during the day weren't as hyped as the crowds at night, probably because the crowds at night have had more to drink and enjoy it more haha.

It was after the show that I REALLY wanted to go see House of Pain. Sam, Tiger, Nico and I were back at the campsite trying to figure out what way we should go to the NME stage to see them, but it took longer than we wanted to because we went a really long way round (a way that we thought was really short). We thought that we could get into a few places with our passes, but we were terribly wrong. We ended up jogging along a main road for 5 minutes to realise that we had to jog some more to get into the park again...by that time Nico's out of it, "Fuck this, I'm guna go back to camp!".

What a mistake he made, we made it to House of Pain with about 15 minutes to spare...and the atmosphere was electric! In actual fact we started rocking out in our wellies, Tiger trying to do footwork as always, I wouldn't be surprised if people did dance to House of Pain 'cause it was fucking awesome! Then Jump Around dropped, and everyone screamed in excitement...as did I! Throughout the song I felt really hyped and literally jumped around for the whole song!! I LOVE HIP HOP! It was the first act that I had actually wanted to go see, sure there were other acts that I saw before them that were OK (Ke$ha and Artic Monkeys) but HOP were mental! I'm really happy I got to see them, it's something I can cross off my bucket list.

That afternoon was a beautiful day, the sun was literally beaming down and it put me in a great mood. When we were walking from the NME stage (where HOP were playing) to our campsite we just took it easy, it was a Saturday and we had much more time to do whatever we wanted...all we need to do was turn up at dinner for some time before our shows. It's funny walking through the park, and seeing people of all ages getting wasted - you end up talking to anyone because no one gives a shit about anything there! It was one of the first times I ever felt like I was at a festival, just seeing all the people doing their own shit just having fun, guess that's what it's all about!

In the evening I wanted to see Slash but I lost my crew mates, so I had to watch most of Slash on my own - before I headed for dinner. And lemme tell you, that guy can still play! It was great to see him shredding, and when he played Sweet Child O' Mine and Paradise City...well put it this way it was EPIC! Everyone went nuts, well who wouldn't - it's a classic. But I went off to dinner by myself, 1. cause I didn't have anything else to do and 2. I was hungry! When I finished dinner that's when everyone else came, least I had a reason to stay you know?

The show we did was a blue show, and was our best show yet! Why? It had a better structure and better routines! If I'm correct there haven't been many routines in previous TITP performances from 2009-2010, but regardless of if there were or wern't I thought this show was great!! I felt that as the shows went on my solos got better; maybe I was relaxing into it I'm not sure.

It was after the show we all went to go see Beyoncé, and since we're "staff" we got to go through some special doors to be near the front. When Beyoncé came out, I was amazed! I had never seen a celebrity, with as much status as her, in the flesh like that before...it was electrifying! Getting to see her dance and play some of her most famous songs was mental, I can finally die happy and say I saw Beyoncé haha.

That night was pretty cool too! Jordan, Tiger, Sam and I went on a wee wonder through the festival at 11pm. We somehow lost Jordan and so me, Sam and Tiger just did our own thing. The rides there are too expensive but I still went on one of em...forgot how much fun they were. We were there until the main area closed, and proceeded to make our own way back to the campsite...until we passed a massive tent that had a lot of noise coming from it. Not knowing what was in it we asked one of the security guards that were guarding the back entrance what was in there. It was the main campsite bar - open from 12-2am. I use the "We are the Flyin' Jalapenos, we are dancers that are doing shows in the Healthy T tent to promote health and fitness", and we somehow managed to get in! Honestly, that sentence is a bunch of bullshit, I didn't think it would ever work!

We made it in anyway to find that it was just a bunch of random fanny's bouncing about not knowing WTF's going on. Somehow we had started a cypher, that lasted about 15 minutes, and it was honestly one of the strangest cyphers i've ever been a part of; throwing yourself about in wellies in the dry mud was strange as hell but fun! I tried to see if we could dance on stage but obviously the bouncers just don't trust anyone these days! So after cutting about there we just headed back to the tents, drank some more, set up Sam's tent that Nico had happily given to him as a spare, and went to sleep!

Sunday: The Final Shows and the Fun that came after!

It was the last day of shows, and I was relived it was all coming to an end! It's been great doing the shows, but you do feel great once the shows are over.

Unfortunately I don't remember much of Sunday, but I can tell y'all what happened with the shows and after the last show:

The first show we did that day was the Puma show. Basically someone hooked up with Puma and managed to send us gear from their new range all the way from London!! The only confusion was miscommunication with getting the gear from Maule's car and then to the show, I was fairly relaxed about all this but a few people wern't...but Davie helped calm me down even more - thanks dude! The result of that show wasn't as good as it could have been, because a few of us (including me) messed up at a few points and the show as a whole wasn't as strong as the blue show. Overall we tried to do a repeat of the blue show in the Puma gear and it didn't work out as well as we'd all hope it would - nonetheless I still found it fun, I didn't dwell on that show.

The last show was a total freestyle, come dressed in what you think is fresh and everyone just went out whenever they felt like doing so...obviously Stevie did help bring some variety to the show by putting together a little order, since he knows what moves we can all do and so he sorted us out accordingly. That show went great!! I thought it was our most hyped show of them all, my solos were much better that time and everyone else did really well too! As a gift to the crew we got a few crates of Tennents given to us and started drinking once we had finished our show, with Maule and myself declaring "LET'S GET FUCKIN' STEAMIN'!!!!" Even then the vibe at Healthy T was much better as we had stayed around to groove and pull a girl or 2 - well a few of us pulled anyway. Dinner was much more relaxed and happy that night, probably cause the relief was there and we could all properly relax and enjoy ourselves.

Walking back from the tent we saw the Foo Fighters, and a hell of a lot of muddy people! It had been raining pretty badly that day and just made the grass all muddy! People were sliding belly first in the mud, and it made Tiger curious to why people even did this...mate it's Scotland, shit happens here.

And the drinking still carried on going back to the tent, and at the tent. It was also decided that a lot of us would kick about the whole festival (main area and others), and see what kinda shit we end up getting into. I brought my bag with me, which had about 11 cans of Tennents and 2 bottles of Miller (for Sam), so we wouldn't need to buy any alcohol there...it's too expensive! Walking through the campsite singing "Ye canny throw yer granny off a bus" and "We'll be coming!" was one of the best parts of the trip! That wasn't the only place we sang that though, whenever someone mentioned "Oh ye canny" Michael would come out with some operatic "throw yer granny...off a bus!", it was one of the funniest things I'd seen!

We were told we could go perform on that stage in the main campsite bar, only to go and be rejected for no reason at all! We're then chilling outside the Cabaret tent to find that one of the staff recognised us, and asked if we wanted to do a show in there since a group had to pull out. We warned the people that were were pretty f*cking hammered but would still do the show, and it turned out to be amazing!! From past knowledge of the cabaret tent it would never fill up, it'd only get to about half full for a few acts...this time it was different...we packed out the whole tent! But after Michael could hardly stand for himself, it was kinda funny really - but at the same time it was kinda worrying too. After feeding him we all went back to the tent and just got even more hammered than normal! Oh what a night it was, I have never seen Tiger that wrecked ever.

Monday: Packing Up and Leaving

Not much to say at this bit, we all woke up later than normal, went scavenging. Tiger found 60 cans of beer, me and Stevie managed to get a 10 man tent and I went home early with Michael. I was originally going to go with Maule but I thought since Michael was leaving already I could go with him - was really nice of him to take me home too. I later found out that Maule got his car stuck in the mud and didn't get home until about midnight.

__

What can I say? I had the best time here!

One thing that I was a lil' annoyed at was that I did quite a bit of promotion for our shows, telling all the people I knew that were going to T in the Park to come see our show - I gave times and everything. So after all the promotion I did guess how many people I knew came to see us dance? Two...two people that I didn't even tell! Oh well, not that it has affected anything.

Hopefully we'll get the gig again next year, and we will be much better prepared for it. Roll on 2012!! ;)

*Signing Out*

The Barrier between Passion and Work

2011-05-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

My god, this is one of those topics that has so many sides to it it's insane! There's the "Work is meant to suck" side, the "Don't do what you're passionate about as a job" side and the "the best work is with a passion of yours" side too.

But how do we know what is a passion of ours and what ends up being work for us??

*This is inspired by a conversation I had with my best friend, and many experiences of mine*

Me personally, there's only 3 things that I am passionate about - Music, Dance and Video.

Music:

Music is something that has been with me since I was young, such as singing lessons and talent shows for my singing, and music production and learning more about audio since being at University. Right now I am learning not just about the science behind audio and how it can be applied to music, but also how to produce music to the best quality possible.

Because I grew up around music it was always something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life; I can't be in a job that requires me to wear a suit, to carry a briefcase, or to have a normal 9-5 working hours 5 days a week...I'm an expressive dude and I have to feel free in whatever it is I choose to do for my work. For me to carry on with music into my 20s, 30s or even older will be a godsend to me, cause I love music!

Dance:

Dancing has actually given me a new backbone to who I am; I can honestly say that if it wasn't for B-Boying I wouldn't be the person that I am today. The dance has given me the confidence to do whatever I want in life! In this dance you get to express yourself in whatever way you want, if you are being true to yourself that is, which is perfect for me! When I dance with my crew, when I break in clubs and at events, I feel elated - there's actually not many words that can actually describe how I feel when I dance.

Since this is a vital element of my life it's important I keep it up, but this is because I have been dancing without expecting it to be my main source of income; if I made my dancing a job then I may not enjoy dancing as much. This is one of the problems I see with going to dance schools, but that's just a problem I see - I do wish those that do go to dance schools the best of luck!!

Video:

This has been something that I have just recently began to love, obviously it boils down to it being a creative outlet - like my dancing. Obviously I started to get involved from filming the Scotland breakin' scene *REFER TO BLOG ABOUT VIDEO-ING* and from there I got started on filming club nights and such.

To be totally honest, this is just one of those things that I want to be really good at for personal gain...if I was to do this for my work I'd actually hate it. I couldn't film for work, unless it's of the breaking scene - anything else I'd lose the love for video.

And then you get people that don't even have a passion in their life, also those who don't do all the things they love in life. They go into a job that they hate that has nothing to do with what they really love to do, now what's the point in that? People are too scared of loving life when it comes to surviving and making money; there's too many people that have literally sold their souls to the devil so they can make more money...but those people complain too much about how their work is so bad.

You'll know when you can use a passion of yours as work when you see everything as being a fun and enjoyable and loving experience. If you lose any one of those 3 criteria along the way then that passion is no longer a passion, instead it becomes a job that you have lost love for.

If people were more honest with themselves with what they really wanted to do, we'd have less people complaining and more people loving life...but it's money that is bringing out the evil in people, and that's when life starts to get shit for people.

The reason why we have so much fun doing something that we find passionate is the emotions it brings out in us; if we transcend those emotions into our everyday activities then everything starts to seem so much happier and better...because everything just seems like so much fun and we can never be sad from it.

If you are passionate about something in your life, do the best you can to excel in that field.

*Signing Out*

Achieving: A Scary, Painful and Pricey Journey

2011-04-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

EVERYONE has a goal that they want to achieve. In fact it would be unnatural or defeatist if you didn't have something to strive for. Everyone has an image in their head of what they want to become when they are older, and everyone has a thought of what it would be like to be in that position.

But people are forgetting, it's never easy to be in that dream position. Let me explain:

To want to do something you love, it takes determination and dedication; the determination keeps you right when you feel at your lowest and the dedication reminds you of how much you love doing what you do. Under determination comes willpower - rejecting nights out and spending money, not seeing friends for a period of time to finish your goal - and under dedication comes the hardships, the time management to put every ounce of strength and mental focus on the target, the pain...the price to succeed?

It's the first but hardest hurdle to jump over - how much will everything cost? When people realise that to do achieve their goal in life will cost them quite a lot of money, maybe even put you in debt for a short period of time, they get turned off by the fright and the horror - and choose to stop.

Let me give you a few examples:

DJ: It's a lot harder than putting 1 track after another. Even if I talk about track lists first, the first thing this DJ needs is music, and to get the best quality he has to buy all his/her music. He also needs hardware and software to play the music from, that calls for a laptop and TRAKTOR/SERATO (in the modern ages of DJ'ing). Already that's about £1000 average gone into your passion. We're not done yet, you need something to play your music from, you need speakers! To get a good pair of speakers/monitors you gotta dish out about £300-600 for an average pair. Think we're done? Not even close. You gotta travel to play to your people, that's petrol money and money spent on flight tickets...when you're starting out or beginning to make a name for yourself you don't get your travel paid. Even if you get paid at the end of the day there's a lot that has to go in before you get everything given back to you.

Dancer: I'm going to stay to B-Boying for this one, because it's by far the most underrated, overlooked and least paid dance form out there. Starting with actually wanting to dance, there has to be a place to learn; and regardless of if you have a car or not this will cost you to travel to the places...for me to go to where I go to train it takes me about 1hr to 2 hours, one way! I gotta do that journey back too. If you go to classes to learn, or if you pay to hire a place to dance that also takes a bit out of your pocket. When you begin to travel to events in your city/country/region or even into another country/continent, that too also costs quite a lot of money!! You go to the events, chill with people, dance, cypher, but those that enter the competition want to win the prize money. And if you're one of those people, chances are you paid a lot of money to get there but find you don't win it. A lot of the time that is a HUGE risk. A lot of the time that prize money puts food on your table, pays your rent/hooker, reimburses you on travel expenses etc etc.

But to do this as your career?? Whoever chooses to do this has a lot of heart and commitment and determination. There's two people that come into my mind, but one of em is my friend Slinky from the USA. He currently dances on a cruise ship and gets to travel to many exotic places around the Mediterranean. We are currently in the process of training to compete in Outbreak 7 in Florida, Orlando in December this year. He has been dancing for much longer than me, and is f*cking awesome at what he does!! And yet I don't want to hold him back there, in a way I think I would be bad in his eyes when you compare what he does to what I do.

It does not matter what it is you want to achieve, but everyone has to understand how much goes into achieving your dreams. They take years to formulate, grow, develop and they also take a lot of mental and emotional endurance to be able to cope with the shit before it gets to the good stuff. If you don't have to spend much money, put much time or think about the goal that much to achieve it then it's not a worthwhile thing to achieve.

This all boils down to how much you love what you do! Do you love your life? Do you love what you do with your life? This is all the drive and motivation you need to make your contents in life the only things you do in your life - that is the perfect life, a life filled with what you wish it to be filled with.

*Signing Out*

The "Legendary" Status

2011-04-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

In every social event that you go to, you will always be reminded of this so-called "legend" that is there; and it's most likely that he/she got that name from doing something ridiculously insane or for just being someone who can provide casual entertainment whilst being humble about their business.

U see, this legendary status is based off social proof - the fact that most people believe something is true. I think I've mentioned it before in previous blogs; but say one person alone tries to talk to every girl in a club, everyone will think that every girl knows that person...but that one dude had just met all those girls. That's the power of social proof!

I had that feeling tonight.

I went to Club Milan to film for my friend, and the result will be in the form of a video - one that will hopefully promote Evolution Sundays. I want to capture an experience that is unrivaled, unmatched by other videographers, I want to have that ChazB appeal to EVERY experience I capture - almost like when you see a video on youtube and you can say to yourself "Hey man that has that ChazB touch to it, it has X and Y and it definitely beats Z when it comes to making those movies".

There were quite a few people that were thinking "WTF is that dude doing with a video camera?" not knowing that I am in the process of making the best launch video in history. I have a bruno mars launch night video to beat, and believe me I have captured the atmosphere perfect and it shall be much better!! When I tell people what I'm doing they are behind me 100% hoping that I do a good job.

But this is when it gets interesting.

As part of my job I wanted to get involved with the people that were in the club i.e. point the camera at a few folk and get them to wave or do something stupid in front of the camera, but once I do that I actually want to talk to the people and tell them what's going to happen. It's only when I talk to them that I find these people are actually really cool people.

As the night progresses you walk into the people you first talked to and build a connection with them. I said to myself that I wouldn't get wasted when I was filming - so I thought I wouldn't be wasted until it was like 2am when I could get wasted. Turned out that after about half 12 I was beginning to feel the start of what would be something f*cking epic!

When you start to film and talk to people when you're in a drunken state, it's quite refreshing to know that people will cooperate with you.

This was when the "legendary" status kicked in. I was talking to a few folk that I had met that night and one of them said "This man is a f*cking legend! Drinking and getting wasted while he's working? That's something I don't see a lot, this man is a f*cking legend!". It wasn't until other people began to call me a Legend that I really began to question my purpose.

You see everyone has a purpose to their life, it may be a subtle thing that makes you unique - or quite a drastic and in your face trait that makes you unique - but the point is that there is something in everyone's life that makes them who they are. With me I like to talk to anyone I feel like talking to, make them feel good and hope that I get along with them well. This is what I believe to be one of the good things about me, my acceptance to all kinds of people. With all those people calling me a "Legend" it made me think that I had some status, like people needed to know me.

See growing up for me, it was the exact opposite. I was shy, unconfident, sometimes depressed and didn't really like much about social activities cause of my insecurities - like my speech. I did things much later than other people were doing...for example at about 12-14 someone would get their first make out - mine wasn't until I was 16, and it's about 15-17 that someone would have sex for the first time - mine wasn't until I was 18, pretty much almost 19. It was when I began to embrace my strong points that I saw great things happen to me. Now people aren't aware of my insecurities, cause I don't let them show - as much as they want to be there to haunt me and attack me. I show people how to feel good about themselves, how to have a great time! I show them how to feel like ChazB and they thank me for it by showing me love and appreciation.

To the university, I am Charles. To old school teachers and my work, I am Charlie. To friends and best friends, I am Chaz. But the entity of ChazB, the legend of ChazB keeps people wanting more. To be ChazB is to be a legend, a name that resonates with everyone, and that is a status that I can live with.

*Signing Out*

Prove to me you're Hip Hop!

2011-04-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

I love Hip Hop! If it wasn't in my life I would not be who I am today, straight up! There are so many great things that come from Hip Hop, and so many reasons to be a part of the kulture. I've made many great friends from Hip Hop, and I've met other great people from taking the unwritten principles that Hip Hop teaches and provides.

What I really don't understand is how "Hip Hop" is this...icon, for something that is somewhat urban. I try not to listen to mainstream stuff, or what counts as "Hip Hop" in the charts, but I'm hearing the craziest of shit - like N'Dubz is Hip Hop. Also this messed up perception that if you are Hip Hop you gotta wear baggy clothes, all the "bling" in the world and walk with some NYC swag. A Geography101 lesson: Gangbangers from the ghettos of NYC wore baggy clothes and had a swag that's unmatchable; go to the Bronx and you will see that - I've not been to the Bronx to see it personally but I have seen it...if you're not from NYC or from a ghetto that resembles this, fuxisu? I know that Hip Hop came from NYC, and from an "urban" environment, but to use "Hip Hop" as loosely as something that seems rugged in mainstream society...that's wack!

I'm not some prodigy, or some sort of master or sifu, but I am a student and I'm always learning about the culture I live. If someone was to ask me to educate them on Hip Hop, I would be able to tell them enough for them to say "You seem to know a lot"...but I don't know enough! Instead, if someone was to ask someone who casually breaks like some mainstream dude that watches ABDC or Britain's Got Talent the same thing, they'd just say "Look I just breakdance I don't know what you're talking about". That's what we gotta iron out of society.

One thing that you definitely begin to appreciate from Hip Hop is how hard these rappers etc work to just get a tiny bit of credit; cause we're a worldwide community in Hip Hop we support each other, therefore we support the underground...or rather those that represent well!

I'm glad I'm exposed to underground artists, MC's and funk bands. I'm happy I'm someone who isn't mainstream and supports those that stay true, than to follow every mainstream act and suddenly front like I know shit after listening to KRS-One. Too many people think they know everything about Hip Hop after listening to some DJ on the radio play LL Cool J or Gangstarr. Hip Hop is not something that you can learn from TV nor is it something that you sit an exam on. If you really think you're Hip Hop you gotta live the kulture and appreciate the elements like everyone else in Hip Hop does!

I'll give you an example:

There's a girl I know - I won't tell you her name, she'll cry - that listened to a DJ in the UK called Jaguar Skills. It was after listening to him that she began to listen to artists like LL Cool J and EPMD, but she also began to front how much she knew about Hip Hop - and also trying to tell people about Tupac's life...basically she memorised a few paragraphs from Wikipedia. As she was influencing other people to listen to the classic era, I was getting confused. She was being seen as someone who "knew their stuff", and starting another fad...with Wu-Tang Clan. I feel sorry for the Wu, being used as a fad by some **** (make up your own derogatory term against the opposite sex).

If I was to walk right upto her and say "Prove to me you're Hip Hop!", she would most likely: list all the artists who she listens to from the Golden Era, say every rapper in some group (eg if she said Mobb Deep it'd be Havoc and Prodigy), and try and give some bio on them...like I need that shit! It's not about how much info you know about each artist - or knowing how many shits they take a day on average - it can't be explained, it has to be felt.

You can try your best to describe Hip Hop but the clarification and the verification comes from experiencing it all, feeling the kulture, feeling you're a part of something beautiful.

If you break, you're Hip Hop. If you DJ (in the true sense of the meaning), you're Hip Hop. If you write, you're Hip Hop. If you MC, you're Hip Hop.

If you beatbox, you are appreciated and respected in Hip Hop. If you do popping or locking, you are appreciated and respected in Hip Hop.

Also, there are some dance crews in Glasgow that front like they're "Hip Hop" when they do Street - a commercially grown dance that has no real foundation or roots...in fact it was originally called "Umbrella Popping" and was first started by Mr Wiggles...someone that is appreciated to the fullest in Hip Hop! If you do street you are not a Hip Hop crew. I'm glad to be a part of a family that represents Hip Hop, maybe that is why the Flyin' Jalapenos is a known name to those that are a part of the kulture.

You can say all the things underneath the sun to me to try and persuade me you're Hip Hop, but the only way you will prove to me you're Hip Hop is when you start living Hip Hop.

*Signing Out*

Cameras, Video Editing, Breakin' and a bunch of other sh*t like that...

2011-04-01T02:24:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, I film quite a few battles at most of the events that I go to. This all started when I was first getting involved in the Scottish breaking scene, I was about 17 at the time I started to film battles at an event I was at; it wasn't because I planned to post them on youtube and send everyone the footages, it was mainly because I was inspired like f*ck by these people that were dancing before me. This was at the time I was just coming up, a time where people didn't know me at all, a time when the amateur (me) would look upto these people and give props not because they had to, but because they wanted to, to hope that these people would like you back.

Because I was inspired by the breakers that were in my scene, I would tell them I got footage of them and if they'd want it uploaded. It got to about the time of Castle Rocks 2009 and that was probably the end of filming people cause I was inspired by them; it was at events after that when people began to ask me to film their battles. Don't forget, at every event that I was at I was competing, slowly beginning to connect to these dancers online - thus getting noticed when I go to events.

It was around about early 2010 when I just began to film people that I knew (aka the breakers I was first inspired by, the people that would ask me to film), at that point I quite liked filming it all - I have quite a few things that people haven't seen from events.

I began to realise around the time of Castle Rocks 2010 and Break Even (basically from august - october) that I probably the only main contributor to the footage from the Scottish breaking scene. I got people asking me to upload their battles...because everyone knows that I film at these events now. In a way I play a huge part now to the distribution of breaking in Scotland, probably even further when bboys from England come to Scotland to battle. I don't mean to be so direct and upfront about it, but that is just what I'm seeing.

As each event went on I was beginning to make a name for myself; I was beginning to get props for my stuff from the people I looked up to. This also helped because it wasn't just some randomer uploading stuff (as it used to be), it's someone who is trying to contribute to the scene that's uploading the footage. Right now I'm a part of the scene; when you hear someone mentioning the Scottish breaking scene you think "Psycho Stylez, Pro Stylez, Heavy Smokers and Flyin' Jalapenos", I rep the Flyin' Jalapenos but people know I'm relevant for it's up to date footage.

On my 19th birthday I got a new camcorder, it's a Sony Handycam that I will admit is quite pricey; but it records in full 1080p and the sound and lighting that it captures is brilliant!

Now here's where the video editing and other sh*t comes into play.

Because of my filming history, I want to do more than that. I also want to make coverage trailers and possibly upload every battle from an event. I could just start my own online tv blog and upload my stuff to there but I have found a better opportunity.

From sometime in 2010 I have been getting to know Daniel Zhu, the man behind Strife TV. Such a nice dude, very humble and is good to have a laugh with. I've been telling him about the events that exist in the Scotland, and the UK too, and how I try to contribute by filming when I can. He told me that " el' Doy" is a part of Strife TV because of the quality of his coverage trailers, to which that didn't come as a surprise because Doy's trailers are f*cking amazing!!

Anyway, the point is I asked him if he wanted any coverage from the events I go to - to post on his channel - and he said yes. I could say that I'm Strife TV UK but the fact is I'm not just yet. One thing that I gotta do is get my camera work in shape first, so that only the best footage goes up. I've filmed 1 whole event (or rather to Strife TV every battle from the Top16) so far, and I hope to film more and help the UK scene get more exposure.

Put it like this, if it wasn't for Strife TV battles from the USA and Korea would be posted onto youtube in the sh*ttest of quality, or would we know they took place to start with. What Strife TV do is just beautiful; they are single handedly changing the breaking scene, I agree with AlienNess when he says that. I have mad respect for what they do, and to work with Daniel is only making things better and better. To finally make that list USA, Korea and UK would be great for everyone! I'm going to be honest, we have quite a few FRESH dancers in the UK, coming out with some ridiculous shit that other countries envy! The UK is actually making it far in European events consistently now, with the help of Soul Mavericks, La Familia, FloorRiders, FloorGangz UK and quite a few other crews...it's only fair that we deserve some good coverage. I'm also going to Florida in December to chill, dance, battle and help film Outbreak 7 =D.

I would like to believe I'm helping people out by filming; but I really don't know if people appreciate the footage I give out from the Scottish breakin' scene or not. If someone came upto me and said "Yo thanks for filming my battle" that means a lot to me. I get it sometimes, but other times they just ask to see their battle and f*ck off...you're welcome =/.

It is probably this passion for filming that I have now, that I'm starting to do more video editing. I love the idea of manipulating footage and giving off my own interpretation of how things could be seen. Back in December/January I made dance trailers for myself and for my bro Bryan aka Slinky from the USA, both of them had great reviews - mainly about how creative they were and how I went about making it. After this I wanted to challenge myself further and further, as I got better at learning the software I use - Adobe Premiere Pro.

But it's not just the breaking scene I would film, now I'm beginning to get opportunities to film other events also; in actual fact I'm helping out with a regular club night. By venturing onto other events and doing more coverage, this will mean I get more connections and could mean I work my way up the ranks in terms of video. As much as I would LOVE to do video as my only job, unfortunately that may be short lived. My passion is music, that's all I'm giving away.

But where did this inspiration come from? For me to do the coverage that I hope to do? Strife TV, again. I can't put it into words, but watch what they do and you will know what I'm meaning. You can check them out here.

So what's next for me? What do I do next in this field?

1. I learn how to use Adobe Premiere Pro more extensively, move onto After Effects, relearn Photoshop so I can combine all of these together and make some beasting footage!!

2. I continue to film breaking events in the UK. I could make DVD's from them if I have the time + energy to do so. If this was to happen I would have to ask the organiser to not allow any cameras in the venue so that they can buy the DVD and see high quality footage! Otherwise I still film events, always contributing.

3. Do what I want.

I guess from here it's onwards and upwards...if I plan to go up an escalator anytime soon.

*Signing Out*

Suffering in Silence

2011-03-03T08:01:00.000-08:00

Hearing about people that have suffered from sexual abuse, discrimination, family problems etc does make me sad, but it makes me feel sorry for those that chose to keep their emotions bottled up inside - like they're scared to talk to anyone about it.

I have a friend who has gone through something like this just a short while ago, nothing to the extremity of rape but still some pretty horrible shit happened.

When this person had the confidence to tell me what had happened I kind of didn't know what to make of it all; I had never had someone come to me with a problem like theirs.

But with all these things there's certain "principles" that can be used to help get over the "fear", I know that each scenario is different but I know that if you apply the same idea to that scenario you'll get something that is tailored to your problem.

One thing that always happens when an emotional problem arises is the person's lack of acceptance to the problem...they believe that there was no problem in the first place aka denial. It's like a slap in the face (except when u get raped it's more of a thrust to the asshole), you know that it happened why can't you accept it for what it is? Obviously all the emotional ups and downs come with the event but i'm sure you'll know that the pain in your ass didn't come from wishful thinking.

So what happens after you've identified that you've had a problem? You confide in those that you trust!

This is where people get on some psycho tip, it was their lack of sharing. You know by talking to someone about your problems there's an emotional release...and that's how you grow stronger, by telling people you trust. Put it this way: If you were to bottle up your emotions to the brim until someone strikes a nerve, you're gonna cause some serious fucking damage (no pun intended).

There's nothing else you can really do except for ways that'll grow your confidence. It will take quite a while to fully overcome an emotional problem, but it's how fast you begin to take action that can cut that time down tenfold. Don't just jump back into your old ways of doing things asap, maybe your old ways wern't substantial to what you wanted, there's maybe things you want to change. In one of my newest blogs "A Better Me" I spoke about just doing the things you love in your life. What do you love to do? When you're recovering from a problem it's always good to do what you love, cause when you do something you love it's only the positive emotions that are sparked!

I'm going to quote Buddha (Canadian FloorMasters) when I say "The strong men learn to cry".

What's so bad about crying every once in a while? I never understood this whole "Society tells you to act tough, show no emotion" stuff but yet as soon as someone starts to cry it becomes a tip to start bullying someone? Most of the time occasions like that are caused from jealousy, insecurities or being too damn self-conscious. If you bully someone, which one are you - the jealous one, the insecure one or the self-conscious one?

*Signing Out*

Attacking without Perspective or Knowledge...or Common Sense

2011-02-18T05:11:00.000-08:00

You're probably looking at the title thinking "WTF Chaz? What could you be leading onto with this??" Well it is actually something that a lot of people do without realising what the consequences possibly are.

Lemme elaborate on what I mean:

Do you ever have a friend, a friend that is one to complain about how someone is behaving? I don't mean in the sense that someone is mocking another and they get annoyed - that happens everywhere; I mean you have a person in your life that keeps nagging at how someone keeps acting like this towards them, not caring for them this, acting like a douche that...and this person then comes out with bullshit like "oh they lost me" "you don't love me really" "this was all an act from you" and such other related quotes that, if i'm honest, sound like they come from some shite band lyrics.

Have you ever thought that there is a reason why they are acting like this? It doesn't just happen out of the blue!

What I'm going to do may sound like I'm being a lil' harsh, but I'll be putting too many people in their place it'll turn shameful. But really, you'll be surprised.

Take a guy. A normal guy. What traits does a normal guy have? He will have been brought up in a moderate environment, have regular friends, will treat people with respect and will be an overall nice guy.

Put a woman into that scenario, with the guy.

Let's start with a girl that has little quality to them, but are "hot" by society's standards. If you put a negative force against something that is positive, you could essentially turn that positive force into a negative one. What would be the realisation in this case? You'll get a girl being bitchy as hell, expecting so much to come from a relationship, that the guy will just be turned off and hit back with negativity. What happens after? It's just a throwback of negativity from each side until one person calls it quits.

But put it this way: The girl probably doesn't know what is wrong, she doesn't know of other perspectives because she hasn't been exposed to them.
-----------------
Normally:

Low quality girl + low quality man = LOW QUALITY RELATIONSHIP

Low quality girl + High quality man = LOW QUALITY RELATIONSHIP

High quality girl + low quality man = LOW QUALITY RELATIONSHIP

High quality girl + high quality man = HIGH QUALITY RELATIONSHIP

-----------------

It is only when this low quality girl is with a guy who is of high quality that things don't go her way, in fact they'll go the opposite way because what she is used to won't come into the equation at all...it is only when she pushes it on that the relationship crumbles.

How can I put this into words that'll give you a realistic vision of this? She won't think she's done anything wrong! Because of her social upbringing (peer pressure, pressure from the media and such) she'll think that the image that she has is one that people should want to have.

Let's think about it from the guy's situation:

He is quite content just doing his own thing, is neutral about a lot of things and just acts normally. He gets this girl that looks attractive but has the personality of a wet battery, he'll wonder WTF she's playing at. This'll be such a change for him he'll turn sour, I don't blame him.

But if you get the normal guy and you give him a high quality girl, there will be a lot of playing around but it's all done with mutual attraction. There wouldn't be any stroppy childish problems involved, sure there will be problems like in all relationships but it wouldn't be about anything low quality.

What am I trying to get at here? I've said quite a bit about low quality people and the problems they cause in relationships...what am I getting at?

The reason why these guys are acting against you is because...OF YOU!!

Can't you not see that?? Can't you not see that the reason these people are being seedy to you is because you're being such an emotional, low quality, spoilt pretentious bitchy douchebag?????

This is what I'm talking about with another perspective. This is the perspective of an outsider, a perspective that most people do not see. It is only once they see this other perspective that they get panicky and upset and want to do so much to change but yet everything is hitting them at once, they can't cope??

This is where things will get a lil' different, because they will not know how they should approach what now.

I find it kind of sad that people don't realise how they come across to people, I thought that was a normal thing to do in life. Come on it's so simple, you give respect where it's due and treat people as equals...nuff said.

So what can these people do then to not come across as an emotional, low quality, spoilt pretentious bitchy douchebag?

A paradigm shift.

You gotta change your whole perspective, your whole mindset of life. Step by step. CHANGE!

----------

I'm going to be very honest here. It is stuff like this that makes me unattracted to people that do this, especially girls! Do you wonder why you end up with the same low quality guys, chill with the non-achievers and can't seem to escape? It's this!

This doesn't just go for girls by the way, there are a lot of douchebag guys that are like this but the situation is a lil' different to them.

So

Maybe before you start blaming the world for your problems you'll realise that you cause them? Maybe before you see bad in people, you'll realise you put that bad thing in them? Maybe before you start complaining, you start thinking.

They call it Common Sense and yet hardly anyone uses it. Shame.

*Signing Out*

A Better Me

2011-02-16T16:44:00.000-08:00

This is more of a follow-up to my last blog, because for those that didn't go out on Valentines Day haven't lost a thing...at all! In fact they probably gained something from it, and they don't even know what yet.

But I gotta ask, why do you need to have a girlfriend for Valentines Day? I mean, if you don't think the girl is interesting - or of some quality - but yet you're seeing her on Valentines Day cause you want a girlfriend for that day then doesn't that not make you desperate and needy?

So what can you do then?

Here's what I propose: Be better at being yourself!! That's right, be a better you. Something that we all get so caught up in is how we look to people, how we come across to people, and to be very honest girls subliminally sense this sense of approval/validation. This is not a "how to get a great girl" blog or a "here's my tips to being successful" blog...this is a "friendly tip that should help you" blog.

How do you be a better you?

Simple, do all the things you love without trying to please anyone. Using me as a scenario: I dance and sing, love video editing and socialise with people. What I'll be doing from now on is try to do these things without needing approval from anyone.

But how does this help?

Simple, the power comes from within - there is no need to try. Think about it, once you are a satisfied person you aren't going to live life with regrets or be scared of challenges. In fact people will love the fact that you know what is best for you and how you won't be swayed by pressure...that comes from an act of neediness or desperation. Believe me you don't want to do that.

Plus you also gotta have time to yourself too, and no I don't mean wanking time, you gotta know what you want from life before you even achieve anything.

Besides, I've given a lot of space for you to figure out wht my post means to you.

To be put in better terms, you don't feel good because you've got a great girlfriend - you've got a great girlfriend because you feel good. Make sense?

*Signing Out*

Valentines Day - A guy's perspective

2011-02-12T16:02:00.000-08:00

This can be such a terrifying time for people, in fact it's one of those days where you are EXPECTED to love your partner/spouse/friend's girlfriend (if you have that much game!) but we all get so tangled up in how we are meant to do this that we bask in our own disappointment.

There are 5 types of guys in this scenario:

1. The Nerd:

The Nerd is the dude who only imagines to be with the girl he has a crush on but really doesn't know how to express himself in a way that will get her affection; instead all he gets is her mockery and abuse. In general the nerd isn't that good with girls but he just keeps trying to find a way. Maybe he does find a way, maybe he doesn't, but all we know is that right now he isn't doing well and doesn't realise that by relaxing and taking things step by step he'll do better.

2. The Introverted Dude:

The Introverted Dude is the one that gets so nervous when it comes to girls, or people in general, that he just doesn't know what to do with himself; and it's because of his introversion and his massive anxieties that makes him really sad when it comes to girls. It gets to the point where he begins to label girls in general as angry unthoughtful people because of his unsuccessful attempts at his "music video" approaches. The only way this person is able to change his perception is if he gains confidence, and explores for himself.

3. The Selector:

The Selector is a special kinda dude. The Selector is the guy that has the SKILLS embedded to talk to girls in general, but he looks for much more in the girls he speaks to - which means he converses with those that have quality to him. He is just a confident person in life, and it shows whenever he talks to someone - girl or not. Although to society this dude would be looked down upon because of the "any hole is the goal" mentality that MANY GUYS PICK UP!! So if he's able to go through the shit he gets and come out with a beautiful woman - inside and out - props to him.

4. The Player:

The Player doesn't care about having something established in the relationship, he's the guy that counts his social status - when it comes to girls and that - on his fingers and brags about it. This dude isn't of much quality and will only seem like he is romantic - when it's all an act...and believe me guys can be good actors when it comes to opening up girls.

5. The Low-Confident Un-achiever:

Much like the introverted dude, except this guy has something established - only problem is this dude doesn't believe he is good enough for anyone. He would be too scared to turn up for the date, he would be worrying all the time if he was doing the right things or saying the right stuff that this would just cripple him with nerves and he wouldn't do well at all.

I like to think I'm number 3, or as close to number 3 as possible. In my opinion number 3 is the one to aim for, it means you have total flexibility in your choices but you will also be decisive and not "play" anyone, they'll just stick to the one.

I've been through the "any hole is the goal" thing. Fuck, I gave up helping those guys - that mocked me for this- with their relationships when their's were in turmoil...in a way it works like karma, but we even get karma mixed up with natural revenge. Karma means action, it doesn't express a natural revenge for someone. I have a few of those guys in my life and every time the topic of girls comes up, or rather talking about someone's relationship, it's the same f*****g people that mock. I love those dudes but natural revenge will come round and fuck them in the ass!!

To me I love building a connection with PEOPLE; actually wanting to know who they are, what their interests are, and even how they value life - that is how I choose my girls. I learnt something from reading a book - that I still haven't finished - from the (14th) Dalai Lama about human interactions...that's compassion. To sum up in as little as possible while keeping the same intensity of the message, he says that if you open yourself up to loving the other person with genuine compassion then you are doing yourself a great favour. This is because you would hold no grudges against the other person and so you are treating them with open respect and then prejudice/stereotyping goes out the window. True that!

This is what I do with all my interactions, I try to keep a level head and genuinely converse with them - subliminally making them feel comfortable. Surely you know that when someone is comfortable they are more open and happier right?? But compassion is mainly the act of trying to alleviate their suffering, whether that's emotional or physical...but this can transcend into a more general outlook of treating everyone as equals and giving the same amount of love.

But back to the topic in hand, Valentines Day.

I'm genuinely quite frustrated by Valentines Day. I don't understand why it has to be one day that you show your girlfriend love and affection and laughter...it all seems too much of a build up and it literally drives people crazy.

But here's my problem, I haven't found that one girl that I'd like to spend Valentines Day with!

I'll elaborate on a few people that I COULD spend that day with, but you'll see my reasoning for not.

A: A is attractive, very attractive, but it's not natural beauty - wears too much make up, this shows to me that she isn't comfortable and validated with her looks and has to try better herself. Even that in itself can say so much about someone to the point where it's a turn off...but I'm not finished yet. A also copy'n'pastes lyrics to her Facebook about love and romance to the point where she is never satisfied with anything, seems like a dream/fantasy she is after. Lastly, she is indecisive with her interactions. Lemme explain shortly. 1 week she's single, next she's with her ex boyfriend, month later breaks up, few weeks later is back with some other ex.

If I was to go off looks alone then I'd be "accepted" if I was seen with her, but these subtleties are putting me the fuck off!

B: B is a dancer, I love dancers! Looks are appropriate, she seems comfortable with herself, always in a good mood and is a lot of fun to be around. Problem? Friend zone! I couldn't see us dating. We joke too much about raunchy shit.

C: C is somewhat different from the others. Looks isn't the reason why I'm talking to her, she is actually someone I'm genuinely interested in. Could I see us dating? Yes I could. She has quite a few interesting qualities, those are the ones that I got hooked on. I think it's the transitional process of being what we are now to dating is something that I can't envision, sure I can see us dating and that but I can't see how it could happen.

But one thing I will never do is date two people at the same time. Sure I've gotten to know two girls at the same time but we were not dating, rather I wasn't dating any of the girls.

That actually brings me to a movie that I saw a lil while back: VALENTINES DAY.

The movie was about the lives of about 10 different people and their relationships around Valentines Day. There are two different scenarios that I want to point out to you.

Ashton Kutcher's relationship with Jessica Alba: Midway through the film she left Ashton, and he was totally devastated by this, but he found out that everyone else knew the relationship was going to end sooner or later!! This brings me to the halo effect - where you believe someone is nicer/better than they really are. You're just caught up on what is actually happening that you forget about your morals or what you look for in those girls that you do the stupidest of stuff that you seriously regret later. This is a reason why I will never date anyone for looks, or date anyone that has a shitty personality.

And then there's Patrick Dempsey's life: He was seeing two girls at the same time, and they both didn't know the other girl existed in his life. One thing about Ashton Kutcher is that he works in a florists, that do a special Valentines Day delivery service. Well Patrick walked in and asked for the delivery service to TWO DIFFERENT ADDRESSES!! Immediately clicking that he was seeing two different people Ashton is reluctant to proceed with the deliveries. This is why I would never cheat on anyone, and try have my way with 2 different people - ain't loyal man.

Oh, I went to see that film with my dude Nezar Swessi...bromance at it's max! ;)

Anyway, the point is I don't believe in getting yourself hyped up for a day you're meant to love the most, care the most...you should be doing it everyday I don't see why it should be reinforced by a time like Valentines Day. If it means that you have to put out that extra bit more at that time, then something is wrong with your relationship.

I won't go out for Valentines Day with a girl that I absolutely think goes against my morals and ethics, to get that "WOW SHE'S FIIIIIIT!!!" reaction from my friends. If it takes me longer to find that great girl then let it take that time! But I'll keep doing what I'm doing and I'm sure I'll be rewarded.

*Signing Out*

Birthdays, Benders and Britain's Got Talent...

2011-02-02T15:33:00.000-08:00

I have had probably one of the best weekends ever! Action packed with such amazing banter, cyphers, and the troubles of travelling 5 hours down to Manchester in the early morning!! This adventure started on Thursday 13th Jan afternoon and finished Sunday 16th Jan morning. Just to let you guys know I would have made 3 separate blogs but since this was all relevant to a time period I have to add in everything in one.

Maule's 30th Birthday

Since it was going to be Maule's 30th birthday we all decided to go to the Glasgow Art School for a 90's Hip Hop night - that was on the thursday night and his birthday was on the friday after. If you aren't aware of who Maule is, he's co-founder of the Flyin' Jalapenos Crew (who I have started to represent) and is probably the most fun you'll ever have on a night out!

But on the thursday he didn't come to training, f**k knows why, so instead it was Tiger, Stevo, Mario, Kat, Niall and I who turned up for training. I've been injured since my friend's 21st birthday event (18th december) so all I can really do is toprock and freezes, but still I like just doing a tops session...it actually makes me aware of the things that I need to work on with that - and I think I've improved wich just a few small concepts. BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT. Anyways, we left training at sometime after 8:30pm to get some food at this Ichiban joint - they do really nice oriental food! Whilst taking the scenic route Stevo showed me this weird and wonderful video on his phone. The impression is that you're meant to believe it's a girl's...ehh...cat, but it turns into an eye! And all the reactions he's had went along the lines of "Gross! That's awful! *after eye pops up* SEND ME THAT!".

After Ichiban it was then a long walk to Maule's house, but still when you're with your family (your crew) then that long walk doesn't seem long at all. Besides, Stevo was singing all the dirty songs you could ever imagine from his days as a child! He really was a dirty son of a bitch, and still is to this day ;).

By the time we get to Maule's house Tesko and his girlfriend Naomi were already over, it was great to see them again. But when our friend Jen (Jennoside) turned up there's a game that we play now - called Soju Face. To play Soju Face you have to be filmed taking a shot of Soju (a Korean alcoholic drink, with just alcohol and water in it) and then watch your reaction to the taste. It's pretty damn awful to be honest but still some of the faces people make are awesome! So Mario, Tesco, Maule and I were playing Soju Face for the next 5 minutes or so and I still get shits n giggles from it.

So about an hour later, after Niall and Ross turn up we decided to head over to the Art School for this 90's Hip Hop night. I had never been to the Art School before so when I got there I was quite surprised at what I saw. Since it was Maule's birthday we got in for free (Legend!) and when we did get in it was packed! The floor was covered in linoleum (they prepared for us, YALDY!) and the atmosphere was quite intense. Seeing as we're B-Boys and we don't actually go to clubs to pull we just started cyphering - right at the entrance to the floor. It's a bit of a shame really, how everyone can turn up for a "90's hip hop night" and yet there's very few dancers that do the dance of Hip Hop...but that's where the Flyin' Jalapenos come through!

At the time I was still feeling sore from an injury that I sustained about a month ago, so my variety was quite limited - it's not a good feeling! But I still did what I did, with what I could, and people seemed to like it. One thing that I don't like though is when people are too fucked up to care about what you're doing, so you get randoms who have taken too many drugs, or are completely fucked, coming into your cypher and fucking around - killing the mojo.

At the end of the night I found out that someone took my hat, so I found one lying around and took that!

So back to Maule's we go at 3am, because now we have to get ready to go to Buchanan Bus Station for 4am - to travel to Manchester.

Britain's Got Talent - Tiger's Audition

As you should all know from a previous blog of mine, my good friend and crewmate Tiger made it through to the LIVE judges round of Britain's Got Talent. I was with him when he had his first audition, but this time round I was feeling more excited but also more nervous for him. Tiger was originally meant to be at the Manchester Opera House for 7am, but it got changed to 10am...and this was before we travelled down.

So it's Tiger, Stevie, Mario and I travelling down to Manchester because we couldn't get a spot for the Glasgow show. The bus was pretty empty, but we were leaving at 4:15 am to be there for 9:15am so it wasn't like we were expecting it to be mobbed. I couldn't get to sleep on the bus down, I got shut eye but I don't think I actually went to sleep; so I texted some random folk some random shit - cause I was still a lil drunk from the clubbing.

As soon as we made it down to Manchester (at 9:15am) the first priority was to get to the Opera House as soon as we could, because Tiger was meant to be there for 10am. Along the way we all needed food and so a Greggs was most convenient; although it is not normally a place that I would choose off my own back it turned out that they do have some decent stuff in there. Only trusting a GPS system on Tiger's iPhone we made our way to the opera house, and told to go to the MOSI science centre because that is where every act is held before they are transferred over to the Opera House to audition.

When we arrived at the MOSI science centre we wern't sure where to go, but after asking we made our way upstairs to the top floor and didn't expect to see so many people and so many cameras. After finding Tiger's rep we were asked a bunch of questions, only to conclude that "We haven't finished the first part yet, if you can come back at 1pm then we will be ready for you", that would seem alright if we actually knew where we were and where to go.

Stevo was talking about The Green Hornet for quite a while when we were down there, and was thinking that at some point that day we could go see it. I was up for seeing it but we never did; instead all we did was look around Manchester a little. To Tiger everything seem so foreign, like he just stepped into another country (well, from Scotland to England is another country - but still) and doesn't know what he's looking at or where he is, but that's what happens with people who aren't familiar with other places. I'll be honest it was my first time down in Manchester but I wasn't fascinated with it like we were in another continent.

After talking about where to go we decided to go to the HMV Gamerbase, because they had seats and something to do. Now I'm not the best at Call of Duty but I still thought I did alright, even if I don't own the game myself. We were there for about an hour before we decided to head to the science centre and to get ready for something spectacular.

When we got to the science centre we had some more waiting to do, this waiting was for Tiger's number. But believe me, while we were waiting this time round, we saw some really daft and untalented shit! Example: There was a dude who did impressions through puppets...the only thing that was funny was the dudes voice, I mean naturally he had something wrong but it was kinda high pitched and that was pretty funny =P.

It then came to the point where we were about to get filmed getting Tiger's number, I'm sure this is for that intro bit that they do when the show tries to humiliate the contestant and makes the UK give their sympathy. But once that was done we were told to go to the waiting room and OMG that was the most tiring part of this trip!

In the space of about 9 hours this is all that happened:

Tiger gets interview, I try sleep, Mario bored shitless, Stevo just chilling. Tiger practises and everyone else does the same as before. Tiger gets another interview and everyone else does the same as before. That's pretty much how it went all the time, lots of waiting and sleeping and excitement at points.

One thing I can tell you about BGT when it comes to camerawork is that they are so overruled by impression - I can't count the number of times I've seen people move to another seat so when the cameras are rolling the room looks fuller. Also, every time someone got through their audition the BGT team were instructing the parents/families/friends to do exactly as they wanted...some bullshit that is.

It was about 9:30pm when we are finally transported over to the Opera House...Tiger is finally geting to audition! But when we got to the Opera House it took us about another 20 minutes of waiting before we were finally seated.

And then, 10 minutes later, Tiger comes on.

Now at this point I'm feeling so freaking excited for him, because I know how much this means to him and I really wanted him to do well!

Anyways, I'll skip the stuff about him talking and get to his performance. It was a shame because he didn't land everything as perfect as I know he could but still we went nuts for him! I'm sure that I will be on camera going freaking wild, but I don't care...I can probably use that in my trailer for 2011.

Then it came to the judges. Michael MacIntyre was really impressed with Tiger's handhops and said YES. Amanda Holden was a bitch about it, but she did have valid points to make about his performance. She noticed his slip ups and said NO. And then it was David Hasselhoff's turn. He noticed the crashes too but thought he did well. Suddenly Stevo shouts "COME ON HOFF!" which suddenly turns the whole auditorium crazy shouting "HOFF, HOFF, HOFF!" to which he finally says. "I can't put you through Tiger".

I have never felt that bad for another person as far as I can remember. If Tiger got through and made it to the semi finals he would have celebrity status in Taiwan, but you know these things happen...just a shame it had to happen to him.

So that was it, that was Tiger's dream over. Moving onwards and upwards he is.

But it wasn't the end of the night, our bus was at 1am coming back up and we had so much time to kill so we decided to get food - and this was at the time everyone was cranky and a lil worn out. It's because of this that an argument between Stevie and Tiger arised, I just wanted to stay the f**k out of it so putting your head down really does work!

Once we were on the bus I managed to sleep! I can now officially sleep on coaches and shizzle now =D.

Back up in Glasgow for about 6am we all parted ways, only to see eachother again that same night for Maule's 30th birthday bash @ Buff Club!

Maule's Birthday @ Buff Club

I was already thinking this weekend couldn't get any better, until it came to Maule's birthday party. When I got home from Manchester I slept until 6pm and remembered Buff was open at 8 tonight. To be honest when I'm around my friends and my crew I feel no need to work on my hair and whatnot; I'm going to get sweaty and I'm sure I'll be dancing so why should I try look good in that essence?

So anyway I turn up with gear on that looks all right that I can still throw down in - I wasn't thinking of it due to injury.

I get to the place for 9pm and what do you know? There's not many people here. Oh well, there's a few people here so that's all right. As I was walking in there was a battle between Tiger and Eel, it was very entertaining.

After saying hi to everyone I decided to throwdown, unfortunately it was a set cause I wanted to get in and get out in case my leg started to hurt.

One thing that did annoy me was the amount of people that travelled from outside of Glasgow to be with Maule...very little. No one from PSC or HSK were there...when some of my crew were at Knuckle's 21st birthday jam (which was where I picked up my injury)...oh well they just missed out on a dope night.

Funny story, Mouse was there. That's not the funny story though, it involves him.

Eel and Mouse step outside to smoke a fat one and are harassed by one of the bouncers. Well, the end result is that they aren't allowed back in - even to get their things. It was lucky that Eel didn't have any bags and such to bring with him, but Mouse has his bag and jacket in there. When I came out again to chill with them Mouse asked me to get his back and his jacket. Lemme put it this way: With the amount of bags and jackets I came out with to be told "That's not mine B" I could have gone to jail 10x over. It was finally when I realised that the jacket and bag I was looking at every time I went to search, were the ones that Mouse was meaning. I've never had a dude hug me that much in my life; I guess that his phone and wallet and passports were in that bag so it was lucky we found it.

I'll tell you something about Mouse and I's relationship. First time we met was at UK Uni Champs 2009; at this time I wasn't that heavily involved in breaking and so I thought Mouse was celebrity status pretty much. When he asked if I was alright after my round I felt awesome cause he paid attention to me. Then for most of 2010 it was more a case of recognition, just saying Hi to him and that was it - because honestly he didn't know me but he knew of me. But now we're cool with eachother, he's my homie!

To be honest all that happened that night were cyphers and regular dancing...there wasn't anything else to it, because after 11pm the cyphers decreased in number cause the club is officially open then. But the great thing about cyphering in a club is that there are lots of people around you that don't really get to see breaking, so when some happens they all go nuts! That didn't happen much though due to the decrease in cyphers and the increase in general-fucking-around-ness.

Fast forward about 2 and a half hours, past trying to make sure Mouse was on a bus home, past all the other shit that happened in buff and in Hong Kong Express, we were on our way to Maule's house. There was a shopping cage that was at the bottom of the hill...and yet Niall and I pushed Eric and this girl (I honestly don't remember who she was) up the hill, to push them down and have the shits for giggles!

Maule's after-after party was such a fucking laugh! When Sam and I get together man it's all fun and games and laughter I tell you! Just with all the shit we were coming up with was ridiculous, and all this included with Rachael's and Niall's witty stuff too. Obviously there were lotsa faces that I didn't know so it was good to see them, and it was great to be with my family! Didn't leave Maule's place until 8am and I didn't get back home that night until 9am.

But you know, I've learned something from this. (HA, South Park FTW!) I learned that when you're with your family you aren't expect to talk all the time; you're not meant to be all happy and giggly all the time; you're meant to vibe and get along and speak up if you think there's a problem - like a real family should. I think I have in fact made better friendships with people from this experience. I was always going to go down to Manchester and support Tiger - win or lose - and I was always going to be with Maule for his birthday outings, with my family. I'm just glad I have these people.

*Signing Out*

Keeping the Faith

2010-12-22T17:05:00.000-08:00

You know from a lot of people that I have met, most of them don't have strong willpower. Willpower is simple, you set yourself a target and you stick to it until your objective is complete. What's hard about it? Is it lazyness? Peer pressure? External vices like the weather affecting your performance?

Something else that I haven't totally got my head around is how people can be so narrow minded about life. To me, life is filled with what you wish it to be filled with. Kind of like a fish tank if you think of it in that sense - what do you put in a fish tank? Fish. What do you put into life? Everything that drives you to the purpose of your life. Everyone's purpose in life is very different from the next person; sure you could have similar interests but your PURPOSE is different.

What I hate to see though is people who don't try hard, and have some deadbeat job that shouldn't reflect anyone. You know?

Growing up during High School you really saw who worked hard and who didn't, you also saw those who didn't care about their future and those who did. Those who didn't work hard know who they are, but how many of those now have a fulfilled life doing the things they want to do (and I don't mean if they want to do nothing, they do)? While being surrounded by these people I was seriously losing respect for them; its's one thing to not be an intelligent person by nature but for someone to not give a f**k is something that I don't tolerate.

But I am a firm believer of turning your life around; whether it is only a part of your life that you need to sort out or if it's pretty much everything, I'm a believer in that success. It's like you always have the time to make up for your mistakes - just make sure you do!

Because I believe that everything will come my way, I don't see why it shouldn't with my mentality on life. If you're viewing that sentence and thinking it's negative and snobby and obnoxious, then I understand - but this also comes from a state of re-framing your beliefs and setting goals and conquering achievements. By being that blunt and by being that determined, that is how goals are achieved anyway. No half assing, no compromising for other things...you do what you need to do and you will get what you want (unless it's herpes).

But something I can never understand is why people have to be so negative? Sure negative sounds so vague, but in this case I am using the word to represent the emotional state that the person is in when conveying whatever it is they do.

Take an argument. Who do you think would win: The person who is shouting all the time trying to be loud and upfront, while sounding so weak and pathetic because of this? Or does the person who conveys the most dominant demeanor handle the situation with a calm tone and a mind as clear as pure water?

I'll explain from both sides:

The shouting:

To shout comes from a place of insecurity and disbelief in your neutral self to handle a situation. The person may feel that the louder they are the more presense they have; that's not a bad way to look at it, just that the logic behind it is wrong. To shout also comes from a perspective of harm, in which case the person shouting has been harmed emotionally because of something - so they feel the need to express this by shouting.

Looking more specifically at the emotional involvement in shouting, this emotion is always channelled differently through each person but there is two different "foundations". These two foundations are: Imbalance and Aggression and Calm and Collected.

Imbalance and Aggression:

If something is channelled to you and it emasculates you of a positive outlook then we feel compelled to show our distaste, it's natural to do so. But it is these people that do not know how to take control of this negative channelling; ok even if you can't make it totally positive you are still able to have a positive outside that masks a negative inside...but people can't even do that. So when this happens to them they feel shaken up and stirred, like this shouldn't happen to them; and when they feel this shouldn't happen they express their concern in a more aggressive manner.

Calm and Collected:

When anything is channelled to you, these people have the ability to explore all possible perspectives and select the one they feel will interpret the scenario. It is these people that have full control over themselves and are able to have a fulfilled life because THE CHOICE IS THEIRS!!

When a scenario is presented to them they choose the route that gives them the least amount of pressure; the least hassle; the most available comfort possible; the ability to unleash the superior being!!

But back to the situation of the arguement, I still haven't spoke about the calm and superior dude.

The calm and superior:

The calm and superior come across like they own the frame, because they are at their most composed and not threatened by anything. It is because they don't feel threatened by anything that they are that calm and collected. They also have a larger balance of "Emotion vs Logic" and so the dominance increases.

Don't you not feel that those that come across as the most composed speak with the most conviction? Who needs to be loud and shouty when you can just be the dominant being; having this composed demeanor with a positive mentality; plus being the one in control is something we all wish for!

Now

Put these two opposite forces against eachother.

The shouting person starts first; pretty much going all out ranting on about something trivial but doesn't matter about the topic, they'll still shout and rant. But what does the calm person do? They show they're not affected and they keep talking in this superior tone, with no signs of shouting or strain, and tries to calm the situation down. But the shouty person is emotionally flipped by this, and keeps shouting because they don't know any better. All that the calm person can do is try and stay relaxed and find a tactical solution but the angry person keeps shouting. After a back and forth encounter the angry one thinks that walking away will mean he wins...but he was so far away from winning that it is beyond a joke! What the shouty person showed was that he was weak at the heart; not very good at thinking straight when emotionally targeted and cannot keep composed; while the person that was calm and collected showed that under any amount of shouting/pressure they can get through any situation.

But hey, this is only once scenario, there are many more that can still convey the same amount of willpower.

But do you see where I am trying to get at? If you have some sense of willpower you can build on it, we all can. If you want something achieved you have to be able to have the willpower to sit through the rain before you see the rainbow! It is when we are at our most discouraged that we are at our strongest.

Now, why am I saying all this? Well, a lot of stuff has happened to me that required me to just "Keep the Faith", and in reality that faith has kept me strong - and now things are beginning to happen to me. I'm beginning to see more opportunities arise and it feels great!

I have people that disagree with my way of thinking, or my logic rather...well that is being narrow minded. Explore all possibilities and you will be able to see something you couldn't see before. Never the master, always a student.

*Signing Out*

23/11/10 - Britain's Got Talent 2010

2010-12-07T17:43:00.000-08:00

That day was quite a special day for me. It was a day where tension would build and parents would be very supportive and all in a place that was suddenly turned into a haven of love - unconditional love. I'm talking about the SECC, which is where the Glasgow round of Britain's Got Talent is held.

Going back a week ago my good friend - and crew mate - Tiger aka Fu Cheng calls me up, asking what I'm doing on the tuesday of next week. I reply "Nothing, why?" and he responds "I want you to come watch me do Britain's Got Talent." And I felt honoured that I was able to support my friend through this. (For those that don't read my blog, Tiger is from Taiwan and is over here studying for one year.) He asked me to burn his CD for him which I did with great pleasure, and I knew he was going to rock that joint.

So the tuesday arrives and I head to University, to be honest I don't know why I bothered to go into Uni because I had missed my tutorial for the day so what was I going to do? Simple, check my mail - I don't get to do that in the morning. So after I check my mail I head to Glasgow Central to meet him. What is always so amazing about Tiger is the number of international girlfriends he has; from Poland, Russia, China...it's crazy! So when I met him there he was with two other girls that I did not know of, but we got to know eachother as the day progressed so I'm happy about that!

After getting the train to the Exhibition Centre station we proceeded to walk over to the SECC. Now Tiger and Ivona and Paulina (the two Polish chicks) had never seen the SECC in person before, and they were just as amazed at the Clyde Auditorium that stood beside it - as Tiger mentions "It looks like Sydney Opera House."

So after many pictures we go inside, and guess who we see? Psycho Stylez Crew!! For those that don't know, Psycho Stylez is a B-Boy crew from Edinburgh.

But once we pass them we look to see that the line to audition is freaking huge! Well I guess that we did come at the right time...sorta. But anyway we're in line and we see that there's these girls from like 7-15 stretching and dancing, but they had all this weird make up on. But still we watch in amazement as I think "Damn these girls think they have a chance? =P" As we are in line I ask Tiger if he has anything to drink, and suddenly he brings out a can of Red Bull saying "I've never had this before". I was in shock. HE CHOSE THE WRONG ENERGY DRINK! I was like "DUUUUDE, wrong drink! You ever tried Monster?" *Tiger shakes his head* "I'm buying you some man!" so I step out of line to go to the McColls that's opposite the line to get a can of Monster and a bag of Minstrels. Can you believe that Monster from there costs £2.20?? When in somewhere like ASDA it's only £1? And I still don't know why mum goes to Iceland...well she doesn't actually, I just wanted to use that line cause I've never used it before. But while we're waiting in line our crew mate Mario, I forgot he was going to be there, he's here with his friends from the Philippines that came from Newcastle to audition in Glasgow.

About an hour passes and some dude from the BGT team comes up to us and tells us:

"If the contestant is 18 and over will their friends please move to the holding room at the end of the line. If the contestant is under 18 then will a parent or a guardian over 18 please stay with them while the rest move in to the holding room". Now let's be honest here, I was the only one from the group that could understand that, maybe because Tiger is from Taiwan and Iwona + Paulina are from Poland...not a problem so I told them what would be happening. Tiger was alright staying with himself and me + girls made our way to the holding room. Well it didn't look like a holding room at all, there were just seats and another line. But we got up to a little bit, mainly about cameras and stuff - for me that's freaking awesome.

Tiger then comes back through and we now have to wait in this queue for the BGT waiting room. We had some giggles and quite a lot of fun in that line. But lemme tell you one of my pet peeves...kids playing bagpipes - and are shit at it! This lil' dude's bagpipes are clearly out of tune (being a music dude you pick up these things) and people still give him the "easy props"...but to be honest he was with his mum I wasn't guna shout "YOU'RE WACK!", I mean his mum was in front of me hahaha. But Tiger decides to get down behind him while he's playing and he is just incredible at what he does.

So after about an hour and a half of waiting in that line (could have been longer, I'm not sure), we finally get into this room with lots of "Britain's Got Talent Glasgow" banners...finally I'm in one of the official rooms that's seen on Glasgow's episode of Britain's Got Talent. At this point it is Tiger, Iwona, Paulina, Mario and myself. While we're waiting for any future announcements Mario and I have the best conversation about South Park! Man I love my crewmate, talking about South Park is definitely on the agenda now hahaha.

But you know what though? Would you wait for more than 4 hours for a mate to do something that only takes about 3 minutes? That's the kinda scenario that makes or breaks friendships, I mean normally you'd be bored shitless if you were with someone for more than 4 hours but I wasn't thinking that, I was really hoping the best for Tiger because I know he has potential to win the whole contest! It's that burning sensation in your heart that when you look over at your friend and see what he is aiming to achieve, that's when you stop thinking for yourself and start believing in their dreams and supporting them all you can! Now that is being a friend, he is more than just a crewmate to me - in fact all of the people in my crew are more than crewmates - but Tiger is now a close friend of mine!

It was about 7pm and I hadn't had food for a few hours now, and I wanted Tiger to have energy so I got him and myself a Panini...and honestly I've never been happier spending money, even if I ended up with hardly nothing left! But Iwona, Paulina, Mario and I were beginning to feel tired from the long wait. But an hour later we finally get called through.

Now this was really where my heart was really beignning to get racy, the crucial moments. Tiger went through that room and was a little unsure about the whole process, so I quickly tell him before he gets in. I could see what he was doing through a peephole, and I just went nuts when he hit his moves like I knew he could! Once he left the room he was given a sheet with the details of when he'll hear back from the show - Feb 2011.

After the audition, I had never been more proud of a friend of mine! I'll travel to where he needs to go, I'll be with him for the whole journey! Not just me - but on behalf of Flyin' Jalapenos, the best in Glasgow, we will be with you the whole way!

But the night wasn't to finish there, I decided to go back to Tiger's and head out to Karaoke at his student union - this meant I had to go out to Paisley. But when I got to the union it was quite a nice set up, lighting was pretty awesome and it had a chilled vibe to it all. The only thing I didn't like was that I didn't really seem to fit in with all of Tiger's friends, they all seemed kinda uninviting and they didn't really try and say Hi to me...throughout the whole night not one of his friends that I hadn't met decided to say Hi. What bitches!

Although the Karaoke was awful fun, I went up twice once with Iwona and once on my own. I actually thought I had a great chance of winning, because let's face it...the rest wern't really that good. But then the winner of the Karaoke contest was...not me. WTF? How not?

But then me and Tiger repped and danced in the union, getting quite a response which I like. I just don't like to go to every club and have to dance, that's the problem with peer pressure (another post on that later).

When we got back to Tiger's dorm we were just up chilling, I took a shower in his room and then we went to get noodles from the kitchen. It was there that Tiger really told me what he wanted to do with his life - that I won't reveal because of a matter of respect. But at 3am his german friend Geoff comes in, I've met Geoff before from a dancing event he watched Me and Tiger rep at. I forgot how much of a nice guy he was!! But then we both ended the night at about 4am and had to be up at about 8am.

So Tiger was really nice to take me back to the station and help me get home, and he still made it into University in time.

I can never thank Tiger enough for being who he is. I know he is only here for a year but I just want to make it the best experience he'll ever have; it's not like I want to be overprotective or anything but I know how precious his time over here is and I want to make sure it's an experience he'll remember.

Another post will be made when he gets his results from the first round.

*Signing Out*

Uni - It's annoying me to hell

2010-11-19T03:34:00.000-08:00

Ok so basically this is just another rant - much like my others it's just me complaining about shit that you most likely won't care for. It's now getting towards the time that all the tests and all the coursework tasks are happening AT THE SAME TIME during the same time period (from around about now till beginning of December, but what seems to be the problem is having the time to be able to do ALL of them to a sufficient standard.

But before I go on I think I'd better tell you what each course's coursework tasks are involving:

Audio Tech: This is probably the longest coursework task I've ever done in my life!! We are to do 2 A4 pages on each lab we do...and there's 8 labs! The dude who is teaching us, Colin Dodds, looks like he could have joined the course himself - so freaking young! Hell he has a brain like Google but fuck me I didn't expect him to give us this much. Besides, it's meant to be in for the 10th of December but I hope to hell I'll be able to get it done! But we also have a location recording assignment for the 29th, and that is pretty difficult to explain correctly (much like the first one) because you don't know how much needs to be involved, but it's 1500 words this one so I guess I sorta know.

Digital Electronics: Here is where I just get pissed off. We have a lecturer that is alright at times but can annoy you to hell at times with his attitude (depending on your mood pretty much), but he's a real decent guy when it comes to explaining stuff and socialising. But on the other hand we have Jackie Chan's nephew trying to tell us that "if you say I boy, but comes up I girl" and can't explain for shit. For the coursework thing it's 200words each lab (5 labs). That would be ok if I knew what the fuck was happening in each lab!! For 14th December though.

Sound Production: This is probably one of the best things ever! We're recording a mix of Rage Against the Machine - Bombtrack and we are to comment on everything that we did; all the plug-ins, mic positions, mics...pretty much everything. I'm beginning to think that this coursework task is similar to that girlfriend we all get where they want you to tell them where you're going, what you're doing, who you're talking to like every 5 minutes...it gets pretty fucking annoying after a while. For 8th December, but we don't have a lot of time between when we finish and when it needs handed in.

Maybe I'm just overexaggerating but this is going to eat up all my social time. Not that it doesn't do that already but maybe this is me getting into the spirit of University...damn!

*Signing Out*

Just Jam 2010

2010-11-11T00:38:00.000-08:00

WOW! What a weekend I had. I was down in Newcastle for Just Jam Intl. 2010 - probably the next best bboying event in England besides UK Bboy Champs. It was a crazy weekend, here's how it went:

I was travelling down Saturday, staying over for the event on Sunday 24th October and travelling back up after the event. It was better this way because I didn't have to wake up at some extreme time to travel down there on the same day - I could relax and get there at a reasonable time.

My train from Edinburgh to Newcastle left at 4pm, so that meant I had to be at Queens St. Station for 2:30 roughly. To be honest at that point I was pretty glad I didn't have to rush to go anywhere, felt great. But I guess I did leave getting to Queens St. a lil' late because I didn't know if I was going to get the express train to Edinburgh or the really long one that goes round pretty much every stop humanly possible - but the train I got was the express service so I was happy!

While on the train to Edinburgh I remembered how much train food really was, I really don't understand why train food has to be so f*****g expensive!! We spend quite a bit on the train journey in the first place, what makes me think I'm doing to spend more on food? But the ironic thing is, I did spend more on food - I got a box of pringles and a BLT sandwich. But the good thing was I didn't need to pay for my train ticket up to Edinburgh, it was all part of the train tickets I got to Newcastle.

When I got to Edinburgh I only really know where one platform is, No. 11. That's because everytime I go down to Newcastle from Edinburgh I take that train from that platform...it's normally an East Coast train. While I only had about 20 minutes until my train left I quickly had to get a Burger King and get on the train - made it with 5 minutes to spare. I had booked first class tickets there and back. I love first class! It's so quiet and relaxing, the seats are so comfortable it's unbelievable. The reason I bought first class tickets was because they were going at the same price as the economy tickets - £50 return.

As I entered Newcastle I had to find my way towards the hotel that I booked VERY LATE - booked it the thursday before the event...eek! I was in the Jury's Inn near to the LIFE centre, and next to the walk-in NHS clinic. I guess it's a strategically great place to put a walk-in centre, shag a hooker one night and the next day check yourself in at the clinic - result!

When I got to my room I didn't know what to do with the power, until I realised that I had to put my room key into this power box...only to realise I was only briefly putting it in, when I should have been leaving the key in. My room was quite comforting, I had a single bed and a double bed - then again the room I did book was big enough for 2 people...most likely Santa Claus and an Ethiopian.

I wasn't alone on my trip down to Newcastle, Heavy Smokers Kru from Livingston/Edinburgh made the trip down that Saturday from a wedding they attended. I called my friend Jason aka Presto to tell him I was here and asked where he was at, he was actually very near my hotel because the venue of the event was only a 5-10 minute walk. So I left my hotel to pretty much go back the way I came, at least for most of the journey. As I was walking upto the venue there were 3 people that just came from the left side out of nowhere...I didn't think there was a path at that point. One of those people was Jason, now I didn't feel so lost. He was with some others from his crew - Liam MC and Steven aka Knuckles. To be honest I've never really seen people from different crews chill together for a long time unless they're both affiliated with eachother somehow (eg Heavy Smokers are affiliated with FloorGangz b/c some people from HSK are in FloorGangz), but this was different. I've been quite good friends with HSK for a while now so it was easier for me to fit in, although when there were people there that I didn't really know it wasn't that much of a problem...I'm quite surprised how many people knew who I was at Just Jam - I haven't even met most of them.

So after we got some food, a diabolical chippy, we went back to Dance City and chilled with HSK/FloorGangz - it was also the first time I chilled with Blanka (FLGZ/MZK/SLR)...such a character! At Dance City there was a showcase thing on, but none of us went to it - instead we were chilling and somewhat sessioning outside in the hallway...it wasn't exactly a hallway, I mean it was just a huge space that you had to cross to get to the stairs to see the performances.

But at this point I was just in another land, I didn't really care or bother to do much. But it was quite funny when I'm constantly begged for kneespins, and yet everytime I do them I fall. I was told I got about 3 spins in, I don't really see people do kneespins anyways - and not 3!

So after about 2 hours of either shouting everytime Blanka did something or just generally shouting, we all went to this bar called the Head of Steam. I had to go back to my hotel room to get changed and shizzle - cause I don't think they'd let us in if I had cotton trackies on. The place is quite small but can be quite lively, but I wasn't in the mood to talk to people outside my "bboying social circle".

When I got there I got 1 round for those that I knew, but only got a couple of drinks in return...had to buy two for Sweet because what he wanted wasn't there and he didn't want the substitute - but I didn't mind. I only really had tequila slammers cause that was all I wanted, besides I didn't know how the night was going to go so I didn't anticipate it to be all as well as it was later. Blanka needed money cause his bank card wasn't working, and nearest cash machine that took his card was 30mins away, so I gave him 20 quid. He still owes me it back.

So 3 hours and 3 tequila slammer's later I decide to leave. But I offered Eggy and Kiina a spot in my room since it is big enough for more than 2 people, and besides I was saving them from sleeping on a cold floor. We had to go back to Sweet's hostel to get their stuff and my god it was funny! When we got upto the top where his room was the key wasn't working, and so we needed to get some help so we had to go back down to the first floor to get help. There was a lift that said "FOR LUGGAGE", and me and Sweet took that one down! Unfortunately, it really was for luggage - and we ended up behind the reception desk. It was crazy, Sweet got into this argument with the woman that was there cause of the way Sweet was acting. He was pissed, I found it funny!!

But the night was to get crazier. After we all get back to my hotel we stayed up for a while drinking tea. That's not the crazy part, stay seated. We got to sleep at about 3:30am, and at 4am the fire alarm went off. WTF?!? The fire alarm went off because of some smoker on the 2nd floor. Although I knew that this would be over soon, Kiina and Eggy went outside - thinking that the power had gone out in our hotel. That wasn't true. The reason the power went out was because in my room there is a slot for my card to go into - that's the power box for that room. I had taken out my card when I went downstairs and told Kiina etc to stay inside the room. After about 5 minutes the power automatically goes out if your card isn't in the box. So the power went out in the room, and Kiina and Eggy thought something fucked up happened...so they bolted. After finding them we went back up, and went to sleep.

On the Sunday we woke up late! If it wasn't for Kiina's girlfriend calling him then I don't think we would have gotten up for the event. After getting a subway and shit like that we went to the venue. I was feeling like shit, not exactly up for dancing. Was feeling like that pretty much the whole day - didn't cypher much which sucks =(.

But for the main event there was a lot of people that entered, so we did this crew battle thing and the best 16 were chosen from the different battles. My set was clean and simple, but not enough to get through to the next round.

So after Just Jam we (Flyin' Jalapenos, Kiina, Eggy, Blanka) all went back to Mouse's apartment that he got for that weekend. That was a great laugh - mainly because half of the time Blanka was talking about all the shit that happens with his facebook...Lhiba King Zoo anyone? HAHA. Was great to see Mouse again, hadn't seen him for a while and he's a real humble dude!

Overall I had an awesome weekend! More or less it was the experience that did it all for me, wasn't all about the dancing that weekend. I had a wicked time chilling with the bboys from Heavy Smokers and FloorGangz and I wouldn't really change anything about it. It was a shame I couldn't stay for the afterparty - I heard it went off!! But anyways that's about it from me.

*Signing Out*

Jack's 18th

2010-09-23T16:57:00.000-07:00

To be honest, since I've been at University there has been so much going on and it's eating away at my money - I hardly have any left for this month now. But I knew that it was my friend Jack's 18th birthday so I wanted to save money for his night out.

I didn't have a big night out in town for my 18th, I mean most of my friends are younger than me so they couldn't get out anyways. But me, Ryan, David and the rest of the gang wanted to make this one special for Jack!!

The night started when I met Jack and his friends at Campus. I didn't know who his friends were so for the first while I kept around Jack cause honestly, it can be scary at times to socialise with people you don't know. But it was alright actually cause Jack kept talking to me anyways, all good! I wanted to buy Jack a drink, being the good friend that I am :P, and I met someone that I recognised. The guy who served me first asked, "Are you Chaz?". I replied "Yeah I am" - not knowing what the hell was going to come after that. But then he asked "You're a B-Boy right?" And now this got interesting. At first I thought it was like a "fan" or someone who liked my dancing but then he said "I'm part of Sickantix" and I knew who he was!! After a while we decided to get this drink called "Shrek", it was quite nice actually - had it in one of those big Campus plastic cups. And then David arrived!

It was about 10 mins after David arrived that we decided to go to Firewater - Ryan, David and I were there the Tuesday before and really enjoyed ourselves. When we were leaving Campus guess who was outside queing to get in? Ryan and his girlfriend, and we didn't realise until we went outside. But you know what? Firewater is ALWAYS a great place to have fun at!! Period. We met our friend Donald there a bit later and at like 9:30pm/10pm we were pissed! I've never seen Jack or Donald or David pissed and it was quite funny, especially when we all just shout random shit at eachother like we're about to die in a tornado.

Every tuesday at Firewater there is a carnival special with facepainting and fair games and such, it's quite small but it's still an awful lot of fun. The first time I played it I went all the way to the final, and lost!, but this time round I only made it to second round - cause the person who was taking charge this time round was being dickish with the rules...the cute chick last time was laid back and happy. Last week I saw that a few mates in Uni got their faces painted, and this week I wanted a piece of the action!! So guess what I got done? The Joker, and I don't even know why either. The facepaint was quite garbage if I'm honest, but we're all pissed and didn't really care.

I needed something to eat, and so did Jack - so we went to get something to eat. I ran into a guy at my old high school Fraser Adams as we were leaving, and he told us to get food at this bistro place cause he thinks the food there is great. Now being me, especially drunk, I do the funny immature shit that no one really does...like forward roll while crossing Sauchiehall St. and doing cartwheels to get up from eating on the pavement.

It's quite a bad idea to tell your friends when you're pissed that you feel like dancing...they get you to dance!! It was before we left that I said to myself "I'm just guna have to do something here, I can't not do something"...so we moved to the dancefloor where I did a few windmills and swipes and that. When I got up I was amazed I could do that stuff when plastered.

We did not know where to go to next, because we did not know what clubs were open - but one of the things I love about Glasgow is that any randomer will come up to you and help you. Someone overheard our conversation and told us what clubs were open when and what clubs were not open...how nice is that!! We tried to get into O'Couture but Ryan's girlfriend was too wasted to get past the bouncers, maybe it was that tequila we all had that got us all wasted. But one place we DID know was open was The Garage - I have never been to The Garage as a nightclub, I've only ever been there for dance events. We had a plan which was to enter in 2's so it would be easier to get in for those that were wasted *hint hint*, and it worked - we all got in.

There's lots of different rooms in The Garage: There's G2 - band room, there's a bar near the cloakroom and there is the big upstairs dance floor which is like popular music or just generally stuff that gets you dancing. We went in the band room first...I didn't like it, but the rest of us did - maybe that's because my heart lies with Hip Hop and not bands, but I'm not one to bash so I let em do whatever. It was like 20 minutes later that Jack said "Upstairs is jumping!" so we all moved upstairs to the huge dance floor.

And honestly, I was dancing! I really loved it upstairs. To be very honest I thought the whole world saw dancing with friends as a poofy thing, but really no one gives a shit what you do just as long as you're having fun...so we all did have fun dancing together. Now David, when he's wasted, like to hold onto you while shouting "B-BOY, CHAZ - BBOY!" and I had to do something cause I had already danced earlier and I was feeling kinda pumped to do a short footwork set.

So I was waiting for this beat to kick in and I just did a short and sharp footwork set. As always in clubs, if anyone tries to go down on the floor and dance it attracts attention - right? That's exactly what happened. It's strange because I always thought The Garage was a place for the B-Boys to go and throw down...but this was quite different. After throwing down a few times, I walk out of the cypher and this guy comes upto me and says "You should get some power on the go". To be honest I was quite shocked! - mainly because of how he knows his stuff about breaking. So I asked him "Really? Think I should?" and he just joked about airflares and that. The music was still on and funky, so I got down again - except this time there was no walk around or no toprock I just went straight into windmills, then munchmills then BOOM...knocked someone's drink over. Now, normally I'd apologise but he should have moved so when I got up I shouted "WATCH IT!!" and then proceeded to do a swipe>halo>pretzel>kneeslide and just finished it there and then.

Now you know what really surprised me the most? How the fuck I managed to do a swipe to a halo while DRUNK and not being able to do that when sober? It's a mystery unexplained. I was also surprised that I was able to dance to a satisfactory level when hammered, last time I danced in a club when hammered I: Hit people by accident, fell over fuck loads and almost made love to a pole from 1 move...so I was quite pleased by this.

After a long while of dancing with ourselves another really hot beat dropped, one that I don't know/remember the name of, and off I go dancing again - except this time I just did the ridiculous shit that I do when I really go off. It's also kinda handy to try different moves you've never really practised but sorta knew already - I could never freeze cause I was drunk so headtracks were used quite a bit lol. So after my darkhammer set I see this big guy give me props for my set and I also hear this girl shout "hell yeah!" as I was getting up. What do I do then? I walk straight over to the girl that had shouted at me and began to dance with her...and things began to escalate from there ;).

Sometime after that I run into her outside and we got talking from there, got her number and things were great! It's just a shame that when I'm drunk I have a tendancy to smoke, when I am not a smoker at all!! I hate myself everytime I get drunk and smoke. But I guess shit happens right?

So after all that it was quite a successful night! Jack went back to Donald's to crash and David and I got a taxi home, so all is good. I just wish that Jack had the best night possible, I did want that night to be special for him and I really hope it was! =)

*Signing Out*

Secret Wars

2010-09-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

Secret Wars was probably one of the best events I've been to in a looooooooooooooooong time! It's a graffiti event, that had all other elements of Hip Hop too - including B-Boying. But at this graffiti jam it was Glasgow vs Birmingham so representatives from both cities went to the event.

But hey I'll start off at the beginning - a very good place to start ;).

My crew were there from the afternoon, but cause I had work my time there started at about 8:15pm. But from what I've heard everyone just socialised and when the chances came to dance, they cyphered. From the photos that I've seen it looked like a very friendly atmosphere.

But my day was a lil different.

I had work from 8:30am - 6:30pm, which was quite tiring cause there wasn't many staff and for a place like Poundstretchers there needs to be more than 3 staff on the floor - without management...cause when theres about 2-3 people there's pressure on you. But after a tiring day there my dad picked me up, took me home to shower etc and then back out to get a train at 7:40pm...not long to get things sorted if you ask me, but I'm Chaz Beeeeeee - I can do anything ;).

One thing was running through my mind when I got on the train - Where the f**k is Clutha Vaults? Clutha Vaults is the pub that Secret Wars was held at, it has a beer garden and is really hyped up! So when I was on the train I asked this woman where it was, and honestly, I was confused by some of the directions - but we got there in the end :D. I was sorta rushing cause I said to my bro Fu Cheng aka Tiger that I would be there for around about 10 past 8ish. I get to the Clutha and I get my drink, but don't know where the fuck to go. It was only when I stepped outside and 5 minutes later I saw my crewmate Dool walking in that I followed him and saw the rest of the guys. I think Tiger was the first to seem really happy that I had turned up! How awesome!!

For about 2 hours all we did was chat, get photos taken, smoke weed, drink, play the congas and dance!! For a while we had a cypher consisting of just toprock, was great - even better when you're drunk cause u express yourself more willingly. Although in my second round of footwork I broke a glass trying to do a signature, but instead of getting hate and boo's I got claps!! Haha wtf I was expecting much less than that, but got props from Sam and Tiger for it lol. I love nights like this, where everyone can just vibe and relax without having any problems. I thought it was only girls that took lots of photos of people, but guess what? Guys are like that too!! I didn't even think that was possible, and yet everytime Me and Tiger and David had a camera in our hands they'd be more than happy to be in a photo. I guess that's called getting along really well?

Then it came to the main event, the graffiti war. This was part of some championship thing that had been going on for a while, and Glasgow and Birmingham were up against eachother in the quarter finals. The way it worked was that each city got half a canvas, and they had to do the best design...no spray paints as there are probably health and safety hazards so it was all done by marker pens, I don't think it was a Sharpie. But at the same time this was on, there were beatboxers and MC's on inside the Clutha Vaults. Sam, Tiger and Josh had gone inside to see them and I honestly didn't know where to go, do I watch the graf artists or the beatboxers? So I tried to find Sam, Tiger and Josh to see the beatboxing.

It was so freaking hot in there! With so many sweaty people shouting and clapping the heat built up...remember that Nelly song? After about 20 minutes of Big Tajj and the UK no.1 they could begin to feel the heat too. When the no.1 began to unbutton his shirt this girl from the crowd shouted "Take your top off!!", people began to laugh but I wanted a piece of the action - and shouted back to the girl "Take off yours first!!" And the number of laughs and props I got was infinite, Sam was laughing like a lil' kid, so was Tiger, and I couldn't stop laughing at the fact I said that.

We came back out to see that the graf showdown was still going on, but we were all hungry to dance. We thought we were going to get cleared some room to do a showcase but that didn't happen at all. So what's the next best thing to do? Dance inside! Yep, we had a good cypher inside the Clutha Vaults with quite a few people watching us. I, drunk as hell, had so much fun - especially when onlookers just give props for the fact you're bboying. All my crew just went out and had lots of fun, it showed in their faces and their moves...I couldn't have asked for anymore.

And guess what? GLASGOW WON THE EVENT!! They will be proceeding to the semi finals and repping Scotland/Glasgow to the fullest.

The event finished at 12am but the night wasn't over for me and Tiger. From the Clutha Vaults we walked through Trongate and went to McDonalds to eat. While at McDonalds we had quite a deep conversation, I love deep conversations. I don't know why but there is something about the night that seems to bring out all your heart and emotion - maybe it's more relaxing at night so less likely to keep things secret.

It was 1am and we headed to ABC on Sauchiehall St. We saw so many drunk people and it was hillarious. Getting into ABC didn't cost anything for us, I was surprised by that! Maybe it was 'cause it was late at night when less people go into the club, but still it was awesome. Tiger had never been to a club in the UK so I thought that this one would be good for him to see. He had such a great time there, so did I. Whenever there was a song to dance to we just did toprock but since we can actually use it well we got quite a bit of attention from people - girls especially. We got dancing with quite a few girls but we just wanted to dance, didn't really bother talking to em after.

Come 2:50am we decided to leave, might as well before everyone leaves. The taxi home cost us £28 which is much more expensive than normal, but still a taxi home is a taxi home so I was happy with that.

Overall, I had so much fun that night! I hadn't ever experienced such a laid back event where everyone could vibe and chill with everyone. It was one of the first times that I felt like I belonged to a group of people at such an event like that. My shoutout goes to those who were with me that night and made my stay there awesome! FJ, real recognise real.

*Signing Out*

I won my first battle!

2010-08-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I am elated about my performance on saturday...because for the first time I won a competition battle!! All the time I was complaining about losing, I don't need to do that anymore - cause I've finally won a battle and so I don't care now what happens - just keep getting better. But i'll tell you how my day went anyways.

First thing I did on Saturday 28th August was meet this new guy called Fu Cheng aka Tiger - he's from Taiwan, moved to paisley and wanted me to take him to the event. So I met him at 2pm at Glasgow Central Station because we were going to have a wonder round Glasgow before the event, plus Tiger wanted to do some shopping so there was no harm in just going to see a few things. We went to go look for trainers first, because Tiger doesn't have many pairs of shoes...but neither do I xD. It's a real shame, Foot Locker in town is shut :( that was where I wanted to go first for shoes but yet I think they're changing it into something else - I couldn't find an entrance and there was nothing really there.

But after looking around a couple of sports places we came to the conclusion that we are going to have a better look another day haha. Although when we were looking around we went to this shop called Madhouse, my friend Gokmen (aka Ozo) works there and I didn't expect him to be there today. Tiger knows him so it's all good, we all felt comfortable. We then went upstairs in Madhouse and had a look around at all the "cheap shit" that was there, but the "cheap shit" was really good stuff! I bought a track jacket...well Tiger paid for most of it, thanks =). He got himself a jacket that looked pretty fresh on him, but he was worried about it cause he doesn't know scottish winters lol. It was only after we bought the stuff that we realised that our friend Ozo could have gotten us a discount...like 80% off discount, me and Tiger were quite mad that we didn't get that discount.

Once we left Madhouse we decided to get something to eat, so we went to McDonalds on Sauchiehall St. which was jam packed. The queues and the people eating moved round in periods of 5 minutes - least it looked like that anyways. That McDonalds that we had lasted me about 4 hours - and I'm still not sure how I managed that. Then after eating we finally thought about going to the event for opening time. The event was held at The Garage nightclub, in the G2 section of the club - which is quite small but once packed with people it's a great place to be. As soon as we went in we just started to get sorted (changed and warmed up) while watching around. I didn't warm up as much as I thought I was going to cause I was already in a good mood so all I wanted to do was groove and vibe with the music. I'll admit, the music at the beginning of the event was so much better than the battle music and the cypher music thereafter.

It then came to the battles. Now I was mad by the fact that half the people who signed their name didn't show up, IF YOU SIGN UP YOU BETTER BE THERE!! Or at least say why you aren't going to the organiser...as far as I know no one said anything about their absence. There were only 12 people sign up for the 1v1 battles, but then again I guess that was alright.

Tiger and I both entered, and battled in the first 3 lots of people. The battle that I was in was quite important because this was my chance to win a solo battle for once, after the improvements that I've made from earlier events in May to Castle Rocks I knew that I had quite a chance if given the right opponent. I was up against a dude called Hammer, which I will say is inexperienced - but didn't mean that I wasn't to go full out. In the battle all I wanted to do was the big stuff that I know that I can hit plus show some sort of diversity. But for Hammer, he crashed a move at the beginning of his set which is hard to recover from for his experience level.

After the battle is when the judges decides who proceeds to the next round and who loses. At this time I'm thinking "I have this, I really do", I didn't fall at all in my battle, I flowed to the best that I could and tried to be as musical as I could be...probably because that is the first foundation to the dancing I do. So then the host (my good friend Dool) says "THREE, TWO, ONE!" the judges point to the b-boy who they thought won the battle based on different criteria. A lot can happen between the countdown and the point, at times it can be quite a nervous moment. But as soon as I saw 5 arms point to me I was elated! FINALLY...I have won a battle. FINALLY...I don't need to complain to myself about not being able to get past first round. And I felt great! And I showed it too, after Dool said "ChazB goes through!" I ran on to the floor and jokingly did some celebration to show my happiness. Although after my last worm my nuts really began to hurt, so I let the whole world know and people laughed, nothing wrong with telling people.

Then it was Tiger's turn. Now Tiger is one of those bboys that amazes you with everything he does, not just on complexity but also the way he constructs his blow-ups. But from my opinion, he was robbed in his battle. He went up against a dude called Cmac and lost. Judges went 2-3 to Cmac so Cmac went through...where he was smoked by Sweet =P...although I don't know why I'm laughing cause I got smoked by Eggy =P...cause in the quarter finals I went up against Eggy and judges called 4-TIE so I lost. But we both learned lessons from that event - as we always learn from everything we do - so I can walk away happy and feeling like I have grown up as a B-Boy.

My day with Tiger didn't end at that event though, we got something to eat afterwards and watched footage of the battles we were in + others. What I freaking love about Tiger is how friendly and easy-going he is, and that he just really wants to have a good time with people while he's here. In fact this saturday we are going to a graffiti jam and then clubbing after, so I can safely say that while I am at University I will be going out at night etc with Tiger! We both get along really well and I have no problems with the fact he is from Taiwan. What a guy!! =)

*Signing Out*

University here I come!!

2010-08-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

On the 5th of August a big envelope came through my door. This envelope pretty much holds the key to the rest of my life ahead of me, so I was hoping that what's inside the envelope is great news. Anyways, my mum woke me up when the envelope came through the door, rushed up the stairs and wanted me to open it.

Normally with things like that we're all kinda nervous about it right? But why be nervous? Everything has been done already and so we just gotta open the freaking envelope and see what's inside. That's what I did. I just opened it without another thought.

I went along the lines of this:

Yess!!! Oh wait, OH SHIT! OH SHIT NO!!

My grades were ABBB for Physics, Maths, Music and Chemistry. To get into Glasgow University I needed AABB...I didn't get there =(. On an upside I did get into Glasgow Caledonian University, which needed BBC.

The situation that day was to figure what my possibilities are. From what I knew I was able to go to Glasgow Caledonian, or back to school - but can't go to Glasgow Uni. We phoned the school that day to see what could be done because I missed out by a grade, and so we decided to appeal against one of my subjects.

You know, at first I was just so hyped to go to Glasgow University because of all the stuff I knew I would be doing - documentaries etc. At that time I wasn't thinking that well of Glasgow Caledonian because of the lower entry requirements, I felt that It would have been less work for me to get in and it wouldn't have gotten me as motivated to work. But now that my intentions/goals have changed I think that Glasgow Caledonian would be a great place for me to go to.

But just earlier on the 18th August me and my dad went up to Glasgow Caledonian to fill in my Matriculation card and found out that I shouldn't be doing anything until my appeal has been through. Which lead on to even more complicated stuff. We then took a trip upto Glasgow University to ask the same stuff and that lead into our minds being frazzled with confusion and mixed emotions. It kinda goes along the lines of "If my appeal is successful before 31st August I'm going to Glasgow Uni, if my appeal comes after 31st august they will give me an unconditional for 2011"...that is the simplest way I can put it.

But besides all that carry on I am really looking forward to going to university!! I mean I'm responsible for everything I do, I don't have to go back to High School and I'll have so much fun there. I'll only talk to the people that I want to talk to, not like at high school where you end up talking to everyone (even those you don't like). And the university life would be a great playing ground for all my aspirations (music and dance), I'm looking forward to the nightlife and the other things that the universities etc have to offer.

Such confusing stuff but I'll be really happy to be at whatever university I get into.

*Signing Out*

I finally have a job

2010-08-07T15:13:00.000-07:00

My, my search is over for a job and some source of income. You know how great it feels to know that you do not need to hand round lots of CV's to places you don't like anymore? I am so relieved that I do not need to keep looking for work anymore.

I'll tell you what basically happened on my jobsearch:

I was looking for a job since the beginning of June, so for 2 months solid I was out and about looking for work and thinking that nothing was going to come up.

I went out every other day pretty much for a whole month, always out in town doing the same routine - the same boring shit that everyone does when they look for a job, and I hated it.

I used to go into town to chill with friends or to shop...but I didn't like the fact that I was always in the city centre, and I kinda got fed up of it.

Things were looking bright when I was invited along for job interviews, thinking that I actually had a chance of getting a job. It wasn't until you get that letter or phone call saying that I was unsuccessful and I didn't get the job. That pisses me off...so much! It's like a slap in the face when you show how keen you are for the job and then get a reply of "You're not wanted here".

But then things changed, for the better.

I went jobhunting around Shawlands Arcade and further up to Goals on Thursday 29th July, to see how my luck would fair out over there. I walk into pretty much every place that seemed like they had some sort of customer involvement, hoping that something good was going to happen. I then walked into Poundstretchers and one guy Jonathan told me that "There isn't anything going right now, but definetely keep your hopes up because something will probably come up soon".

It wasn't until Saturday that my mum told me that the managed at Poundstretchers called asking for an interview, he phoned when I was asleep from drinking quite a bit of alcohol and watching movies + plus playing video games for pretty much early evening to morning with Sam and Alan.

So I phone back the manager and we arrange a day and time for the interview.

I go in on Monday 2nd August after having such a tiring day from an event in Stockton-on-tees the day before. Im suddenly beginning to feel that maybe this will be different, but didn't let go of the thought that I may not have this job. But then that all changed when he began to talk about what my CV was like and what the job would entail, talking to me like I had the job but I didn't know for sure. So I asked him "So wait, I have the job?" and he replied "Yes, course you do!".

That made my day! Finally my search stops and I'm able to work and get money. For so long I was craving a job and now I am able to save up for stuff, the feeling is great. The only problem is that I'm needing to save up for quite a few HUGE things, i'm still kinda baffled at the fact that I'll be saving up for that stuff - looks like I won't go out at all these days :-P.

So since that day I have started working. Honestly, it is quite different working in a supermarket...especially one like Poundstretchers. It is awesome to know that if you're told to put stock onto the shelves you are your own person when it comes to that - you don't need to bother anyone you just get on with it, until someone asks you where something is but yet I give whatever answer I can considering that I've only started working. The amount of independence you get in there is great, what I mean by the stock thing, although one problem is that you're only allowed one 30minute break. I guess I don't have a problem with that but 30 minutes isn't enough to recover - in my case since I dance anyways haha, but I just get on with it.

One weird thing is how they pay you. There is a cut off point around about middle of the month...however many hours you work there is your pay for THAT SAME MONTH, and then whatever else you do after that gets put into your september wage and it keeps going and going.

That's messed up though! I get more money in one month than I do in the one previous to that (in my case since i've first started), looks like I'll be saving EVERYTHING I can so far...or just put aside however much money and then leave whatever is in the bank to spend if needed. Or I could get another job while I'm at University as well as the job I have already, which would mean more money for me xD.

What I don't like about this job is the finishing time. I finish at 6:30pm - 30 minutes after closing time - but my training sessions start at 6pm...which means that the days I'm working I'm not able to dance at all...shit! This means that I am leaving a few days out of my dancing time, and the next time I go to dance my right thigh hurts like hell. I don't want to be repeating that shit over and over, if this job is making me really inconsistent with my dancing I might need to change jobs. The dance means the world to me, so does my music, and I want to make sure I get the best out of both worlds!

*Signing Out*

The Law of Attraction

2010-07-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

If I am honest, this is something that I live my life by. The reason being is that when I am in a great mood and I focus on something I want, I most likely receive. It's pretty critical that I am always in a good mood because if I am not then things go downhill for me, i'm sure some of my friends know what I'm talking about.

I'll basically tell you what it is:

The world we live in feeds off of one energy, one that is universal. It's attraction. Attraction is created by virtue of the images that you have in your mind. Not only is it images that you hold, but it is also thoughts that you have too.

I'll give an example, tiredness. Ever notice that when you consciously think that you are tired, you are tired for the whole day? This is because your mind is constantly thinking about how tired you are, thus you are attracting tiredness. You are matching your emotions to your thoughts, and then the result of the both of these = attraction.

"Emotion + thought = Attraction"

With the emotion tip, do you ever realise why people that are: happy about life, self validated, never negative are always rewarded well? You see, because these "happy" people are never negative their situation is guaranteed to be better than those who are always feeling bad and depressed and doesn't like life.

You see, the more you focus on something you want the more likely you are to getting it. If you think that your mind is running on auto-pilot and that you have no control over what you think, think again. With every emotion and every action comes a thought. How? Well think about getting out of bed, if you fall out of bed and you get this surge of negative emotions/thoughts they will stay with you for the day if you do not change your mindset. That is why when if you feel great getting up in the morning, you will feel great for the rest of the day!

I know it will seem strange that you will need to monitor your thoughts so that you are trying not to have anything bad come into your life. It will seem like that at first, but the more you do it the more you will realise that there are other methods of being able to create and spur those great emotions/thoughts on. For me, I just need to feel good and I WILL KNOW that everything that will happen to me that day will be brilliant. You can think it consciously or subconsciously but either way you're thinking it.

I've had people flame me for my outlook on life. I've had people get pissed off at me for thinking that everything is going to be great and that I'm positive when I shouldn't be. Bullshit to that. You see, if you are not open to change then what will you be open to? Why be so narrow minded when you could just hear my story and probably benefit from it? I know that everyone feels down at sometime in their life but why feel bad when you can feel good?

I know someone who can explain it better:

I love life, this is why.

*Signing Out*

BIG NEWS Project

2010-07-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Aight, I'm not sure how I can explain this without revealing what I will be doing. Basically I've only told a few people what I want to do, so they will most likely know what this is when they see it.

I'm wanting this project to last a while, probably because of how much time and effort I would be putting into it. I wouldn't want this to be something that takes only a lil while, I actually want to spend time making sure that what I do is of quality.

This project could, pretty much, change my life! Why would I spend very little time and half ass a project that could turn my life into something that I could only dream of? I'm not saying it will make me big and well known, I'm not saying it will make me rich and I'm not saying that this will make people envious of me. I just hope that when I properly get the project finished that I will be able to get a lot of support.

I wouldn't be surprised if it takes a year for everything to be done, if it takes shorter then great! Although I am hoping that this will be done efficiently and with the quality it should deserve.

I'm not giving any hints, it could be too easy to guess.

Peace,
Chaz.

*Signing Out*

Away for a week

2010-07-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

I have not properly been on a computer for a week because I was away in Coventry seeing my mum and gran. Normally when I go down there it is for a holiday, but this time round it wasn't a holiday. I was there to help my mum with the conversion of my gran's house.

So when I landed in Birmingham Airport, I thought I was going to get that day off and start everything the next day (Sunday) - but that wasn't to be. When I got home I only had a lil' bit of time to get sorted and that, and then its straight into painting the kitchen. To be honest I thought I was going to hate the painting 'cause previously I did...but this time it was alright actually.

But then I realised that there was a lot more to the trip than painting. I also had to do stuff in the garden and I had to help out with quite a few other things.

Although, I was pretty much tied to painting and all that shizz. And we had to move pretty fast because we want Gran to come back ASAP so that means that I had to wake up around about 7:15-8am every morning to make sure things were done!! I've not seen 7:15 on a clock since the school days (and even then I didn't see it that much :P ).

It was actually a kinda fun experience painting for a good cause, especially if it is for family. It wasn't like I was made to do chores on my holiday and I get into a bitchfit about it, I knew I needed to help so it was a normal day pretty much. And when I couldn't be assed to paint or if I had painted a lot I would do some of the gardening out the front - like digging out weeds and all that.

But as the days dragged on with this I was getting more and more tolerant to the whole idea of work. But I kept going and I was rewarded with 2 shopping trips and a night out with 2 of my best friends.

Well actually, its weird that I say I was rewarded with those because I went shopping the 27th June and also went out that night, plus I went shopping again on the 2nd June.

But sunday was a great day for me!

Everytime I come down to Coventry I go shopping. Why? Because the shops they have down there are streets ahead of the shops in Glasgow! And plus there are different - sometimes better - brands there that you wouldn't really find in Scotland.

I spent about £70 on 1 tee, 1 polo shirt, 1 hoodie type thing, and 1 jean shorts.

I always have fun shopping down there because they always have different things from the stuff I'm surrounded with.

And this was all before England v Germany was on.

Y'all know the situation with my gran from my previous blogs, so I won't say anything about that now. I went over to the home to see her and we all watched the England v Germany game. In actual fact, I really wanted England to win - maybe it's because I'm half English or cause I don't like Germany. And I was actually gutted at the fact that Lampard's goal was disallowed! I was as raged as the next person was, if they had that goal they probably could have gone on to win the game - big confidence boost it would have given them.

So once that was over I went to this place called The Farmhouse to meet my best friend Brian - who I've known for about 13 years. The Farmhouse is a pretty sweet pub, the bar staff are all cool people and the atmosphere there is something that isn't here in Glasgow. So I see my best friend there and then we decided that since I can't go down to Coventry for our mate Steve's 21st, we would go out tonight. Although I did feel like I was being forced to go out, I was hoping to just take things easy...but then it clicked that it would probably be the only night I get to go out with them. So after a few drinks at The Farmhouse we had moved to another pub called the 4Provences aka 4P's...where we had more drinks HAHA. From there we went back to Brian's wardrobe of a house to play some COD and have some cider. By this time I'm past tipsy and verging on drunk, either that or I was kinda drunk. But that wasn't the end on the drinking tip, before Jumping Jaks (the club we went to) there was another pub called Old Orleans. It was a great place, looked like New Orleans before the hurricane :P. And it was there that I tried my first Tequila Slammer...honestly, what's the commotion? The zest goes away after a minute and then just carry on with your life.

I was told that Jaks had a strict policy on clothing since they try to be sophisticated, but yet the game was on and so there were lots of people in shorts and wearing England strips.

When I first walked in it just seemed like an assembly hall with a bar and a stage and a lower level platform for dancing. But then again I guess this is what made Jaks...Jaks.

The atmosphere was pretty good because of the music, although honestly there wasn't much socialising with other people - u know people out of their comfort zone. It was this "order" that made me a lil' nervous about approaching, not that I am nervous it's just when hardly anyone is doing it it's harder.

Overall it was a great night, got to chill with 2 people I've known for a long time and my first experience of a club...wouldn't have wanted to experience it with anyone else.

But hey it's a great place to dance, not so much of a grooving place but that's not so bad.

So while the rest of the week was painting and gardening and all that, I got a bit of a rest on friday. I went shopping again, managed to discount 4 jeans and 1 teeshirt for a total of £105 =). And then I went to the home to see Gran and saw Andy Murray lose to Rafael Nadal, was a shame for Andy 'cause he had many chances to go ahead and he didn't. And then I went to pack.

I wouldn't take anything away from that week away. Normally when I'm down there it is just a holiday, but this time around I knew I had a part to play and so I was willing to do all the work I needed to.

And now I look forward to some rest and some more events. Bring it on!! =)

*Signing Out*

Jobhunting Day and the "Hip Hop Shop"

2010-06-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

Remember I said in an earlier post that you shouldn't jobhunt 2 days straight? I lied. I just did that. But you gotta change your scene for it to work, if you're doing the same shit over and over it gets pretty boring.

But today I went around a lot of the hotels and some places near the motorway. It was the first time I was around there myself because the times I would be there are in the car with family. There are quite a few hotels around central but I went to the bigger chain ones. Hotels beat shops...by far!! There are so many things you can do in the hotels but very little in the shops. I ain't going to say where I go because you're meant to find your own damn jobs, but I'll give you some advice...go to places other than Sauchiehall St. and Buchanan St.

As I was finishing up I saw underneath the Central Station Bridge that there was a "Hip Hop Shop". I went into the Hip Hop Shop excited to see B-Boys and DJ's and MC's and Graffiti artists and everything related to them...but instead there were "gangster" clothing and "thug life" 59/50 caps. This isn't Hip Hop. Plus people don't even know why "Thug Life" is there in the first place. Tupac Shakur has it written across his chest, it's because he used to be in a rap group called Thug Life. As they were going to make their second album Tupac died. People just think it was to do with his background and shit, it could be but that's not the reason.

I just seriously hate it when people think Hip Hop is some gangster fashion statement with chris brown/lil' wayne music. Hip Hop is not a fashion statement, it's fashion statement is that there is none. It's a culture with 4 elements (Bboying, MCing, DJing, Graffiti) it is not a marketing ploy for people to have this fake identity.

I also get pissed off for people to ride someone's ass like they're the best thing to come out of whatever element. I'm not guna name names, but damn Eminem is King to a few people. Lemme ask you something about Eminem - how many of you have heard of him when he was part of Soul Intent? Did you know that he took part in Scribble Jam? Biterphobia anyone? If the answer to the first one is no, it's most likely the same for the rest of them...so therefore you cannot say you know shit about Eminem when you don't know his roots. He has good lyrics and he has been really consistent but if I mentioned Rakim to you guys, you would think that's some Indian takeaway. I'll let you do your own research on Rakim because you do not know Hip Hop if you do not know Rakim.

I've had people bash me for being too harsh for me telling people the truth about artists in the charts, I've had people tell me that I make them feel bad about liking an artist in the charts. I'm just like "Fuck it!" Why should I care? I care because of false marketing which gives flawed labels which in turn gives off the impression they are something they're not. Why would people want to believe in something that is false? That is like me saying that Chris Tucker is an actor, but really he is a comedian who gets comical rols in films. Sure he knows how to act but he is a comedian straight up.

Well enough of the rant, I've had a productive day today!!

*Signing Out*

Alcohol and shit

2010-06-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

Being 18 is a huge deal to a lot of people! I just see it as a great chance to do everything to my best potential. Although people think they need to act like they're 18 so they get fake ID and go to clubs etc. Actually, that brings me into something that I have hated for ages!

Just because I am 18 DOES NOT mean you ask me to buy you alcohol!

Yo, I'm getting pretty sick and tired of people asking me to buy them booze, it ain't my fault they aren't of legal age to buy it yet. And plus, now that I am 18 I take all laws about alcohol seriously. It's funny that kids are getting younger and younger when they first try alcohol, I know in a household the legal age is 5 to drink but I'm seeing kids as young as 12 drinking buckfast, MD 20/20 and all that other "social shit".

If I remember a conversation I had with a dude at my school, he said that he could hold his drink like a 25 year old could. At the time I spoke to him about it he was 15 almost 16, why would u want to be happy about that? I can't help but think that drinking at a young age is all about trying to come off as more manly or superior, but then again it is a "childish" thing to do. Although when they change from being n.e.ds to "normal people" they don't let go of the drinking tip, it's kinda shameful to hear/see if i'm honest.

So yo, if you ask me to buy you alcohol I won't buy it. I don't care how much you pay me or what I get for it, chances are I still wouldn't buy you alcohol. There is only about 2 people I'd buy alcohol for, out of the people I know and the many more that try to take advantage of my age.

*Signing Out*

Life After School PART 1

2010-06-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Since I have left school I have been so thrilled that I don't need to wake up somewhere between 7am and 8am to get ready to go to school! I feel sorry for my friends who need to do that but then again it is their decision. Although I may be happy I'm not back at school, I've kinda had it differently - shall we say. Here's how:

My mother is down in England looking after my gran because she fell over the stair bannister and broke her hip. She had to be taken to the hospital and is now currently in a home trying to recover. On the day I was told my mum woke me up at 9am to tell me she was going down to see her...I shat myself cause 1. Why is she waking me up at 9am on a saturday?! and 2. My dad could have told me or something. As my mum was trying to eat and get ready she was in this nervous mood that made her bitchy, i don't blame her - but it was hard for me to tell if she was nervous cause she's either happy or bitchy haha! Just kidding, I love my mum!!!

She came back up to give me moral support for my exams, and plus she wants to be there to help as this was her decision more than mine - but I did want her to be there to help. She was there to help me when I wasn't my best and I thank her an awful lot for that!

But she went back down to look after my gran and sort things out after my exams had finished, and seeing as I am most capable of looking after myself and the house I took on responsibility for all the chores and stuff that my mum did. So there I am feeling like a single mum to a drug addict when I realise that I need to get a job also. Every other day since I have left school I have been out trying to find work and bloody hell it is tiring! Personal Hint: Don't go job hunting 2 days in a row, your brain just cannot take it.

But today was a good day for jubhunting!! I didn't just go fucking nuts handing CV's round, I went to the right places and got the right consultation so the places I went to that day would be more productive. I went to hotels, bars, restaurants, big chain places and they seem to be the best places to look. I went into Career Scotland cause I thought they were linked to the JobCentre and that they could hook me up, but they did the smart thing and helped me choose more productively considering my situation. I feel a bit more confident about things now, but it's just a shame that I don't have money coming in to buy clothes and a camcorder and such, I haz a sad. :(

But I did get talking to this cute Polish chick on the bus home, just forgot to ask her for her number...damn!

I've been trying to get my driving out of the way too and my theory and all that. I did my hazard and perception mock from a DVD and I got 47/75...that's a pass! And I'm taught by a grade 6 ex soldier, ex firefighter who is going to be a doctorate in Psychology in a few years time...in essence I'm taught from the best I can find - cause he has the 3rd highest pass rate in the UK and is 1 of 31 people who use the Hybrid course which is the most effective way to drive. I'm almost ready for test but I need a real kick up the arse for my theory so I can get this over and done with A.S.A.P.

As well as all of that I've been trying to dance too, but yet not as much as I would have liked to. I was trying to find a hall for a while but then I got in touch with my friend Stevo who let me train with him and his crew, the Flyin' Jalapenos...they're the best and most respected crew in Glasgow and I'm getting along with them great, I plan to go there to train for most of my dancing in the week! But I need to spend time with my friend Mohammed cause he dances too, but yet he doesn't go to train with FJ. But I'm fine with doing that, but I am stoked that I get to train with people that can motivate me more to dance and get shit right!

What's next? 2 workshops, 6 jams in 3 months (2 in june, 2 in july, 2 in august) and a brilliant life at Uni!

*Signing Out*

What really pisses me off (PART 2)

2010-06-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

Aight, I have been thinking for a while about what things really piss me off still...and so it's another list of shit that I'm willing to complain about. Peace.

1. Messages the Media give out are bullshit!: You see, the mainstream media can be a real bitch at times! The only places I can think of that make me think like this are MUSIC and MAGAZINES/NEWS.

Music first. Pop music has now emerged into only one category...shite. Everything that you hear in the charts sound the same, send out the same messages and have the same non-original music videos that go with it. It's like, when artists really want to try and sound different they can't! It seems like everyone has to pass this certain threshold in music for them to be popular and famous. Artists like Dizzee Rascal: Dude was a grime artist, a good one as well!! And now he's reduced himself to being a pop act that little girls admire, and everyone has the nerve/cheek to call him a rapper? Hell you could call Drake a rapper but he is just out of wack - he's not Hip Hop.

But with this one category there is only a few messages to send out, and they're quite negative. For 1. Lady Gaga is VERY contradictory with the fact that her music does not reflect herself. Lady Gaga is celibate! Her music is about how people should be dirty all the time, that men are wankers, everyday should be about doing things you shouldnt do, and the list goes on. Ke$ha isn't any better...she looks like a retired slut who is making a comeback through music. When she uses auto-tune it makes men all over the world orgasm simultaneously, but she pretty much conveys the same messages. Going along to the other side of the spectrum - to the "Hip Hop" bit - acts like Drake and Lil' Wayne are all about abusing girls, bitches, cars, jewellery and it's pathetic because they are living a false lifestyle that does not coincide with the roots of their "genre".

But what does this all have to do with calling the media bullshisters? In 3 words: The younger generations. You are getting young boys and girls who are thinking that all these things the artists are saying should happen. You get teenage boys who try hustle cause "Lil' Wayne can" and you get teenage girls acting as sluts because "that's what we're surrounded with". Bullshit to that, when I was 12 I lost my walkman - not my virginity! It is these messages that are giving kids a false reality to live and this means that as the generations proceed we are getting worse. Stop listening to this fake bullshit and listen to an artist like EMPD, Luther Vandross, Barry White...bring back the old school!

Now on the magazine tip. All these dumb celebrities have papz and journalists following them everywhere and they are being exploited for the filth they stir up. Who cares if Lindsay Lohan's probation is now more serious...or if Peter Andre is having a nervous breakdown. It is these people that are also making little children think "if he does it, so can we", I used to be like that too...that's why I say it. So if there were no magazines about celebrities then things would be better!! Grrrrrr.

2. Girls that have been "Tango'ed"!!: I'm picky with girls, main reason being this. I date authentic girls, not something you find from a cereal box. There is this one girl at my school, not naming any names, that if she was any darker we would all think she was Indian!! I am not BS'ing that is the truth...I look at her and think "WTF are you?!". I see little girls as young as 12 slap 'emselves silly with make up, then they go out and look like something out of a child's p2 painting folder.

3. Kids with fake ID: This is probably one of my biggest pet peeves! My perception of someone with fake ID is that they're cheating at life. You know, there is a reason that such things have restrictions - mainly health and safety reasons. If you look older than you are that is different, cause it's not really your fault that you could get those luxuries with the looks you have...but having fake ID is wack. Especially when girls as young as 14/15 getting into clubs. I could spot them from miles away. It's like, what would happen if an older guy tried to have their way with a girl who "faked her way in" for him to realise that he just violated a 16 year old?!

I just really hate it when people try and act like someone older than them, or when they try and BE someone older. It looks desperate and it's not good. I grow facial hair fast, so when I was 16/17 I could get sold in bars cause of my looks, I didn't ever fake my way there I just tried with what I could. But now that I'm 18 I will appreciate it a lot more, I will be able to fully appreciate all the nightclub stuff better and I won't have been bored to death of it, if I had tried it before I would be bored by the time i'm almost 18.

That's all I needed to say on that one, but seriously I am happy with what I have because of these reasons.

Peace

*Signing Out*

Going Abroad Once I Finish University

2010-06-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

To be honest, I cannot stand the UK. In terms of the work that I want to do it is not a very good playground for it. It seems to me that if you work in the same place that you grew up in, you will never bring yourself around to escaping.

When I go to university I want to do Audio and Video Engineering. Sounds like a basic course doesn't it? It's not. The course that I am doing is one of these accredited courses, which means that it is one of the only courses of it's kind in Europe! In Europe? Holy shit, I could get almost any job I wanted. But to be honest I am not sure what type of job I would want.

I want to have a job that is either involved in music or video editing of some sort. I want to be involved in making something beautiful a success, I will not stand for some low class job, if the job will not increase my chances of going on to do bigger and better things.

I guess, in my own perfect work, I want to keep doing something with B-Boying. There is an organisation called Strife TV who go to different events and film the battles in high quality with different camera angles. Strife TV were asked to film the whole event for Evolution 4, one of the biggest events for crews to go to. They were also asked to make a DVD of it, and it will be amazing to see the good quality that Strife TV have in your living room.

This got me thinking. There haven't really been any proper organisations that make DVD's for the local jams, or rather the less recognised jams that happen in the region. Maybe I could produce DVD's of these events and sell them, it would definetely help contribute to the scene as the dancers competing will able to review themselves from different angles! The only problem I can see with this is copyright, but I am not distributing it outside of the UK unless the people that are foreign buy it from the UK.

If I am able to do that, I will be really happy!

Although.

If I finish my degree at University and realise there is nothing for me here, I want to move to North America or the Bahamas. Somewhere that is jumping with the type of work I could do, or somewhere with very little of it so it is easy for me to pick things up! I would love that even more, I would be living the life my parents did when they travelled abroad to work. To me, that is my goal! =)

*Signing Out*

Me, Myself and I...and Why I Am Who I Am

2010-06-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

Yo wassup!

Over the last few days I have been thinking about myself and what I could do to be a better person. I was beginning to think about the times where I was in total control of what I did in life and how much I had changed from the person I was a year ago.

Last year I didn't show much confidence in what I did, I was constantly brainwashed with the media and stereotypical traits. All I was, was the standard that society looks at. But why do I want to be the standard when I could be a leader? Or even better, superior?!

If I think back to last February-May, I was a reserved person. It could have been because of the company I kept, could have been because of the times or it could have been because I couldn't really release any emotion.

I then really had to see what the problem was and after a while I found the problem...ME.

I am the creator of my own reality. If things in my life are bad it is because I am letting them be that way, and I would have no intiative to take action and eliminate those bad scenarios. But after taking a good look at myself I decided to be a person that I was happy with. I did not care if I looked different or less inferior because I - internally - was individual and superior.

People began to see me change, I didn't take shit from anyone anymore so they would see me stand up to the strangest things. When people began to see me change into this more confident and vibrant person, they were kinda shocked that I was able to be this person. What I had done since then was only talk to the people I want to and I chose to be individual. I don't like it when I walk through town and no one has anything individual or original about them...maybe this is why i strive to do things differently, whether it is that I look different with recent clothes or whether it is that I wear things that are hard to get a hold of...I'll do it.

But right now I am on a road to being this person again. I was so ashamed of myself that I escaped this amazing sensation, and i'm not so happy about what has happened since I left that. I can't buy back any time to be this person again, just looks like I will need to strive to be better with the time I have now.

Although I am still trying to narrow down who I should associate myself with socially, the B-Boying doesn't count cause you vibe with everyone there. I want the best life for myself and I'm willing to have little to achieve it. This is why I love life, and this is who I am!

*Signing Out*

The Value of Friendships and Other Relationships

2010-06-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

This is something that has been bugging me for ages now!! People these days are not realising that the people they are insulting could be the people who really want to help them, but it is sad to figure that even when there is an emotional response to the action the LOGIC behind it will always make people think differently about the situation. If you go nuts at your friend for some crazy idea they have, after a while you will think that you shouldn't have reacted like that...as much as your emotional response seems like the one that feels best, most of the time it is not!

Over the last few years I have really been trying to figure who my friends are, and I mean the ones that I VALUE as friends...not people that seem like good people on paper. When I was in 4th year I had to depart from my old friends due to factors that I could not control. It was at this point that I tried to use up what I could of my popularity - at the time - and so I began to hang around with those that are considered to be popular...but the people were pretty nice. But then the more I was with them I began to realise that this wasn't me - I needed a foundation not a status.

The next person I hang around with USED to be a pretty decent person, but he just screwed around with me schedule and not considering my feelings - for the last month i was friends with him. But I did what I could to not talk to him and finally he got the message that the people he was hanging around with didn't like him. He has gone downhill now, just does whatever the fuck he wants now and is now heading to failure...hate to say I told you so ;)

But then I found my friends...or at least most of them. 3 guys: Nezar, Alan and Sam. I didn't expect to be talking to Nezar and Sam because I looked down on Sam in computing and never knew Nezar. But besides that it is only these 3 people that I want to spend time with anyways, they make me really happy!!

With Alan, I've known him since primary 6. What I have with him is something that everyone has with a friend - the upmost confidence to talk about anything and everything. If we were out late, at times we would take long routes home just so we can talk more. The brilliant thing is that he is very understanding! Maybe he doesn't really know the true feelings of the matter because he may have not experienced em, but he is brilliant at putting me to ease. I love him for that! That is the same with Nezar, Nezar always has faith in me and he always knows when I am not myself. He's great to bounce thoughts off, he definetely knows that my logic is pretty accurate and so he gives me confidence and reassures me in that. That's true friendship. With Sam I just have a really good time with him, theres not much to share personally but I'm never scared to when I need to.

This is going to sound ridiculously crazy but I need to get this out, I feel that people need to know what I think of the subject.

Dating Relationships.

If you have a relationship with your boyfriend/girlfriend you want to to be as productive and as fun as posisble, right? If something goes wrong, you work through it until the individual affected is at peace with theirself and the relationship is back to normal...correct? Then why is it that when the emotions kick in, they seem to totally obliterate the idea of thinking? It sounds like I'm bitching, but think about it.

My education is very important to me, especially when it is the determing factor of my career and the rest of my life!! If it is going to be something that will pave the life I live, I will do whatever it takes for me to be on the path I want to be on. When I was like this during my exams leave, I was: Paranoid, needy, insecure, partially depressed and generally not myself. This was showing up quite a lot in my interactions and I really didn't feel happy about the way I was...in fact i'm ashamed! But my girlfriend broke up with me when I was fucked over by the exams...she dumped me the second day before my last exam. The reasons she gave added up to the time we had apart (studying for the exams) when I wasn't right.

If I'm right, couples should be able to see the separation as something that can be picked back up again when they are able to see eachother again. That was what I was seeing, that the grass is ALWAYS greener. It's hard to change a girl's mind, but my morals cannot let this go down without knowing a good valid reason.

It's not so much I'm thinking about my relationship, it's the gut feeling that I get from trying to remember why it had to end. I can't change anything now, I can't ask for the 2 months I couldn't spend with her back, i'll need to move on.

*Signing Out*

What can I say? I'm ready for a new start.

2010-06-01T11:05:00.001-07:00

Seeing as now my exams are drawing to a close I have thought about what has happened over the last few weeks and then I need to think about what will be happening.

What's happened over the last few weeks:

My girlfriend broke up with me, but for the sake of this I wish not to explain why. We will remain as friends, whether this is the best option or not that is what will happen.

I have done pretty well in my exams so far I feel, and my chances of going to University are quite high!! Once I'm at University I will be able to do the things that I haven't had time to do eg Muay Thai Boxing and dance more!!

I've now realised what friends I will be keeping and what friends I will not be keeping. My friend Calum Simpson - who I don't really see outside of school - has helped me a lot when the break-up was coming, he gave me the confidence to see the better side of the split and I need to thank him for that. My new friend Lewis was helping me when I wasn't in the right state of mind, which I really appreciate! He's my ex's friend and I hope he stays my friend. There are others I would mention but now I really know who is in my life and who is not.

I'm ashamed of myself for being something I did not want to be over the last 2 weeks - real reason for split from Laura - and so I plan to be supreme once again once my exams are done!! There's so much that I want to do when I have the time after my exams, and there is a lot that I have already planned to do.

Things to do:

Dance when I can and become the dancer I want to become!! Travel more to events and workshops...I have never been to a workshop but I hope to hold one for Poe One (Style Elements/MZK) soon! I am also hoping to go to America to spend time with my bro Atomic Goofball (Lionz of Zion/Battle Snakes) and to dance with him and his crew, I can't wait.

Learn a martial art. It is just another thing for me to have as an individual person. I want to be individual, not another number in society, and I'm pretty interested in learning a martial art. I'm thinking Muay Thai Boxing, that shit looks lethal and I think I'd have a pretty good time learning it.

I'm all for relationships, with other guys or girls I still love 'em. And so I hope to be in more meaningful relationships when I'm older, whether it's with my current friends or I meet others, I just want a fulfilled life!

It seems weird when you look back at what you have done and either realised how much you have lost or how much you have gained. This is what I love about the life that I live, most of what comes out is positive - and if there is a negative in me then a negative will be manifested in life. I wish my ex the best in her life, as we will remain friends but not as close as we once were, and bring on the rest of my life!!

*Signing Out*

Hip Hop

2010-05-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

I just want to clear some things up about what Hip Hop really is, it's not what everyone in the mainstream world makes it out to be.

Hip Hop is a culture. It was first initiated on November 12th 1973 by Afrika Bambaataa, as the first "crew" to come from Hip Hop was the Mighty Zulu Kings and that automatically transcended into the Universal Zulu Nation. The UZN is not a crew, it is a movement that stresses "Peace, Love, Unity and Having Fun under the Oneness of God". It was started in the Bronx and people live their life by Hip Hop because it gives people a choice on how they want to express themselves.

Within Hip Hop there are four Elements (as quoted by CrazyLegs). There is:

1. B-Boying. This is the dance of hip hop, this is what the Mighty Zulu Kings did when they danced, they bboy'd. This is the ONLY dance originated by Hip Hop. So if you ever go to an amateur event and see choreography...it is not hip hop. It is not the dance of hip hop nor does it represent ANYTHING...it has no roots like Hip Hop does. I find it really funny, there is this girl Holly Murdoch, and her twin Rachel who entered this dance contest as a "hip hop duo". And when they won the trophy I could not help but feel embarrassed AND laugh my ass off at the same time. The dancing they do is what you would see on Britain's Got Talent from George Samson or Diversity, it does not represent Hip Hop.

2. DJ'ing. THANK HIP HOP FOR THIS!! Grandmaster Flash started the "anthem", shall we call it, for Hip Hop and he was the first person to use the turntables as an instrument...hence he was the first DJ. B-Boys need DJ's to spin on the 1's and 2's and so the two elements can be joined. If it isn't for the DJ's then the B-Boying will have still died, but wouldn't have been resurrected back in 1981 by Crazy Legs. It's sad, DJ's these days do not give credit to Hip Hop because we were the driving force behind the career that a DJ can have.

3. MC'ing. More commonly known as Rapping. At the time Hip Hop spawned, the social economy in Manhattan or the Bronx was not good. There was lots of shit happening, lots of gang violence and that, and there wasn't really anything people could relate to...apart from Hip Hop. So the MC's back in those days spat about what they were experiencing in real life, and if his/her lyrics were dope and flowed well they would get signed.

It's a real shame, such acts as Drake and Young Money are putting Hip Hop to shame. The general public perceive Hip Hop to be this type of negative music that shit artists like Drake are "talking" over a simple club beat. They do not respect the pioneers and what came before them. Back in the 1990's, every MC was dope!! The reason for that is because you starved if your lyrics wern't good, so for your records to sell you needed to prove a point and send a message. Nowadays it's the corny beat, and talking about negative stuff. If someone like Mr Wiggles met Drake then Drake would shit his pants and quit the music business.

4. Graffiti. Yes, the "bad stuff" you see on the walls, this is also Hip Hop. If you didn't want to Break, DJ or MC you could draw. Simple. Not much of an explanation for it except the underground stuff is the best, and the illegal stuff is just dumb (cause you'll get arrested).

Everyone should do their research on Hip Hop before they start saying that it is wack and all that. Do you know now why I take wrong terminology seriously??

*Signing Out*

I'm feeling fresh!!

2010-05-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

You know what? I've been evaluating my behaviour over the last few weeks/month and to be honest I've not been happy with what I've found.

I am aware that I have pretty much put myself in a position to receive paranoia, so that's my fault. It is me thinking things are happening when subconsciously I definetely know that they wouldn't happen in a million years!! I'm just laughing at the fact I was like that...but we all go through that phase so I respect the fact that was then, and now it's not the same.

But with the evaluation I discovered something that I did not want to come across, but yet I had put myself in a place where I was to suddenly become this. I became this...monster that I would always say I would never become. I became needy, self-centered, I pretty much threw away most of the pride I have because I was deprived of social occasions with friends and my girlfriend. Things that I would never ever DREAM of acquiring, I did.

It's like:

Pick Up Artists. What's their goal? To teach people, or to know themselves, how to get a girl in bed. But that is missing the bigger picture, if you're wanting a relationship you can't do what you just did, because you would never sustain a relationship with the "tactics" you attained to get that girl into bed. But then when you forget these "How to get her clothes on your bedroom floor in 4minutes 59 seconds" tactics/techniques/rules they suddenly become needy and just want to validate the girl like she is the prize...bullshit to that, I'M THE PRIZE!!!! I lost that pride, I came across like my girfriend - and everyone else - was the prize. I lost a huge chunk of who I was from the last few weeks of being vulnerable to anything and everything.

In a way I feel ashamed that I became the thing that I would laugh to my friends about. I feel completely to blame for this disgusting transformation, and that I was slowly eating up inside who I was with every second I thought of Laura and sighed with despair. It was this neediness and this "instant validation" that caused me to dig a bigger hole for myself. It was this act of desperation that caused me to constantly need reassuring from her friend Lewis - who is actually a really cool guy, someone I hope to see quite a lot!

I now realise how far I am from the person I was back in February/March, and I am definetely on the road to becoming better than who I was back then. Why be consistent when you can strive to be better? Why be average when you can be THE MAN?! Why be depressed and paranoid when I can be Chaz Bonnar again?!!?

So this may be a little bit weird, but i'll say it anyways. It's cute that Laura goes to see her friends first, she's probably asking for advice cause she hasn't seen me properly for 9 weeks =). And plus, I shouldn't be thinking about me and her getting back together all the time, cause we all need our space. So I guess if she sees her friends first she'll be happier about seeing me xD.

See?! This is how I was before, and I plan to be better than before!!

*Signing Out*

Rant #1

2010-05-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

I don't really like to rant but I really need to get this out of my system right now.

Why is it when you arrange to do something with someone on a certain day, they end up being booked up for the whole week when you ask them again?

Yo, I'm alright if it is a personal matter or something they can't control but if it's not that then why the fuck do it anyways?

*I'm not going to name any names here, they will just go by letters eg X or A or B etc*

So I'm talking to X a few weeks ago and we were talking about what to do after the exams, u know like you always do. Seeing as I haven't seen X for a while I suggested that we do something after my chemistry exam - which is my last one. I wanted her to see the Kelvingrove Art Museum since X has never seen it yet, so you know it was partially arranged and I was keeping that date just to see X.

I talk to X again last night about that date and X says she's chilling with Y after the chemistry exam.

Hold the fuck up!!

X is seeing someone who X has only been without for MUCH LESS time on a date that I had saved for X? Damn I didn't think things like that would happen. WHAT HAPPENED TO KEEPING TO COMMITTMENTS?!?

Yo, everyone seems to forget that I have a brilliant memory!! On the 13th of March X was wearing Red clothing, on my 2nd last driving lesson, which was a few weeks ago, we were up in Paisley and my instructor said that if he started training now he could complete the London Marathon, and proceeded to show me his complexion. In the october holidays of 2005 I was part of the CBBC show BAMZOOKi and we stayed in a hotel in london that had a fire alam go off in the night, I only had 3 hours sleep that night.

Ok I have other extremes that I would point out but that's not the point. Do not try and believe for one second that I will not remember what happened. The last time I saw A at calderglen A was wearing a "Cookie Monster" top while dabbing his feet in the river, I picked up B because B wanted in the water and didn't believe me when I said I would.

But yeah, never underestimate me, I take committments seriously and if you mess em up too many times I get hurt and will probably not want to speak to you again or more like I wouldn't trust you when you try meet me.

I do hope to see A sometime in the summer, A has reassured me on quite a few things about X so my thanks go to him!! =)

*Signing Out*

My mind for the past few months

2010-05-24T14:39:00.001-07:00

Right now I am currently in the middle of sitting the most important exams I'll ever have to face, and also the one's that will be the most work! Sure I am working hard for them, but it's not treated me well at all - here's why:

1. I have been suffering from paranoia ever since the beginning of April. My girlfriend hasn't been consistent with her studying throught the year like I have and has now had to resort to cramming, which means pretty much all of her time is spent revising and when she's not revising she's working. So when I heard about this it was like I had been hit by a train, I just didn't expect it. I was working hard in the hope that in the evenings I could see her - you know just as a breather...but instead she's cramming!

And besides my girlfriend not being able to see me, I've also become very distant from my friends right now...meaning that I haven't PROPERLY spent time with them since Easter. I do realise that I am trying to get the best grades possible so that the rest of my life can be a breeze, if I make it to be, but I don't want to potentially make myself go insane over the determination.

2. At night is the only time I get proper time alone, because in the day i'm studying. It is the only time for me to think and recap and get shit together, but recently things haven't been going as well as I have wanted them to. Because of the paranoia in the daytime, I get depressed at night. I suddenly turn into the ONE thing that I hoped never to be, plus it makes me nuts. I keep thinking about the things that make me go paranoid in the day, but get depressed about it at night.

For example, Laura. She is my girlfriend, and I love her very much. Since our time apart things have been different, because of the exams obviously. I end up thinking that the time apart is making her think differently about our relationship, when subconsciously I KNOW SHE DOESN'T! It is just a shame to realise consciously that I am thinking differently to what I know subconsciously, and I do not want things to not go in my favour because of this. I did see her saturday because she came to see me dance at an event, but she was there with her friend and I was there with my friend - but can you really count that as being with her? I never got ANY private time with her whatsoever!! I was hoping for some seeing as it has been hard for the both of us for the last 6 weeks or so. Consciously I'm thinking that there is nothing wrong with my relationship with Laura, but I am also thinking that I will be paranoid about something else in our relationship very soon...most of the time it's about her talking differently to me, and I keep thinking that shit's about to go tits up - but right now is a really stressful time so to think this is almost normal, right?

3. Since I have not been seeing my friends when I have finished studying it means that I have a lot of time on my hands, so I have been dancing when I can. Although my dancing has taken a hit mentally since it is now my second focus. I have not been able to be as creative as I wanted to because my mind subconsciously is on other things e.g. my exams. So you can say that I have been a lil bit sad about that seeing as I wanted to be unpredictable and as musical as I can be, and yet I'm not able to cause my mind cannot focus on unpredictable movements.

I was also dancing at an event in Glasgow, and I lost when I shouldn't have. I am not saying that I am better than the other crew but I am pointing out that I really don't like illegitimate judges. There was only ONE judge that I trusted out of the whole panel, and that was the judge that voted for me. It's not favouritism, because I have upmost respect for him (Bboy Ma'Roc) before our battle began, but I just feel that his explanations were the same as what I had in mind and that we should have won. Also asking friends of his and mine about my battle and they all thought that I should have won or it goes to a tiebreak, but hey that's life I guess...just don't want to keep living that one.

This should all go next wednesday, which is when my last exam - Chemistry - is. I just hope that I can feel better about life and that things can get back onto a better track!

*Signing Out*

What happened on my last day of school...

2010-05-08T15:22:00.000-07:00

When you finally come to the stage where it is your last day of school, you feel so alive with energy and just want to, pretty much, do whatever the fuck you want. But it was a friday and I didn't really want to work - I just wanted to chill, kick back, see how things are and go at things slowly. This, to me, was the best thing to do - even if I didn't get much work done.

It is like tradition to get your shirt signed if you are leaving school, pretty much for the memories. I went into school wanting everyone I knew to sign it...and I just about got that!! I was feeling quite emotional though when people were signing my shirt, it felt like I was never going to see them again and that I would love to bond with them again, like in the old days. This one guy Fraser Paterson was with me and a few others on a school trip to Paris, the times we had there I wouldn't want to change...such things as blowing condoms up and throwing them out of windows and all sorts!! So deep inside I didn't want to see these people leave my life, so they won't.

There was also a leaver's ceremony for those who are leaving early (in 4th year and in 5th year) - like me. It was funny, in the roster there were: junkies, lowlives, people you would expect to leave etc. There was this one fat ogre in 4th year who no one cared about, she was just hanging out alone anyways. But anyways, after that happened I decided to bust a few moves in one of the corridors...was great! I did a few gainers and some windmills - after the mills I thought I had split my trousers!

One of my best friend's Nick kept nagging me to do backflips like everywhere, so i ended up doing a few in the lunch hall...twas good.

And then the inevitable happened. There is this guy called Adam Pryce who is in my year. He, at times, tries to call me out to dance and yet I never do. I don't show off to anyone, I only dance when the time is right. Well this time was the right time, and I was the one that called HIM out!! So this battle took place outside in this courtyard - on concrete off course. There is this corridor that has huge windows so people could see from there too as much as there were people watching from outside. It was funny, cause we both new who the better dancer was cause I'm a B-Boy and Adam just did stupid stuff - but its all for comedy and we both had a great time. It was the first time I did a wall-flip in months too!!! I did not expect to do one but I was forced to do one. I was trying kinda hard just because as a B-Boy, it is one of these dances where if you go wrong you can get mocked for your ability to dance...depending on what moves you do. But I did well, not as I liked but I did well, and Adam was a great sport...and so were the crowd!

Last subject, Music, was fun!! We had a party like an American office party, it was great! And that being my last ever period of Music with that teacher for 5 years, it felt like a part of me died inside.

But school for me has been such an awesome thing to be a part of. I have met the friends I want to keep for life, I have memories to last me forever and I am the person that I am because of school. If I need to come back I'd gladly come back, but if I get my grades my work is done! =)

EDIT: And for weeks and weeks I said that I would partyboy my head of year Mr Sorley. He's had quite a bit of shit because people think he's gay, but he's not. He is probably one of the nicest people I'll ever know, and I hope to keep in touch with him.

But yeah I MANAGED IT!!! It felt liberating knowing that you were doing something you wern't to...aww yeah ;)

*Signing Out*

Last Day of School

2010-05-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

Damn! In about 9 days - and 5 school days - I will leave school and go on to have a mature life. It's funny, when I was younger I had always pictured myself staying in school 'till 6th year and being a good role model and all that other jazz - but i'm leaving school in 5th year. Well I'm currently in 5th year just now and I'm very much looking forward to getting out of school. There is no point in me being there if I have my qualifications, that is like saying "I have already won, but i'll keep going like i'm guna lose". Bullshit to that, if you have the grades, leave!

My school life has been up and down, like everyone's, and right now I am happy with the way it is. It will be sad to leave the memories but hey if that's what happens then it happens.

But then it got me thinking: If I am leaving this year I'm guna have to think of something original and awesome to do on the last day! Some of the things that I have heard and seen haven't been good at all - although the logic behind 1 or 2 of them have been good...like putting 3 sheep in the school, numbering them 1,2,4 and seeing all the teachers chase sheep number 3!

My ideas are much more comical and worthwhile than what i've seen. Like turning my english class upside down at night so the teacher doesn't know what happened...and putting clingfilm under the toilet seat so when someone has diahorrea then they'll shit all over the place :). And other subtle and awesome ideas!

Problem is I don't know if there will be any legal action involved if I am caught. I mean I am 18 and I do not want to get fucked over on my departure to university, otherwise I might as well die!

But hey I think that is enough, i'll make another post to see how things went =)

*Signing Out*

What really pisses me off...

2010-04-10T14:07:00.000-07:00

This section - as you may already know - is just about what really pisses me off. There are things that you will be able to relate to but others you will not - unless you are a dancer/bboy or you are on the same level as me in life. This is just an outburst right now, so do not be offended at either the language or the extremity of the post - if i ever gets extreme, just acknowledge the things that piss me off.

1. Not being able to compete in a 2v2/crew battle as a solo competitor

There are some real narrow minded niggas out there who feel like every competition they throw should be done by the books and that anything that goes out of hand, or not their way, will make the jam seem shit. Why do people frown upon a 1v2 or a 1vcrew battle? Can't you tell that the solo guy just wants to have some fun and wants to up his competitive edge?! I find it really funny that the promotors and the event organisers have to think that everything needs to be done by text - I understand that if theres more than 2 people in a crew then thats another story, but that's not the point!! The point is that the event organisers should see that the solo competitor is going to have a harder time so it is their fate, their fault, just let the fucker compete!!

2. Zulu Nation Scotland

That to me sounds like a dead-end thing to me in the first place. You get such a massive group of people involved in the Universal Zulu Nation, and then you put it in a shit deadbeat place like Scotland - where there is not a strong enough community to even consider a Zulu Nation from even running. And as well, the Zulu Nation IS NOT A CREW!! Surely this one fucker Rusty would know that, proclaiming his "Zulu status" like he's untouchable - get to fuck you're unwanted! I know that UZN is a good cause for those with a bad upbringing but in Scotland? Seriously? That's like saying you're going to put a Gucci shop in Kenya...where the people couldn't even relate to the products. But hey I'm sure they'll notice soon.

3. Girls throwing dicks mid-battle

The only time a girl and a dick go hand-in-hand is if you're getting laid. But why would a girl throw a dick at a guy in battle? Unless she's Brazilian, they shouldn't. In fact I'd be concerned if they had a dick - but it's not my problem...she's probably inbred anyways.

4. Popular people are not better people

This is where things get pretty fucked up. Somehow people tend to think that if you are popular that you have everything going for you, and that you are an awesome guy to be around. That is not the case. In fact, if you are not popular then you are a better person than those they think are popular. I know that popular people have no soul when there is word of a party. Haha that is my interpretation of it anyways.

5. Being smart DOES NOT make you a sack

In fact, it makes you interesting to be around - if presented in the right way. There is this one bitch in my chemistry class that makes the dumbest of comments towards the smarter kids in the class - who tend to be pretty cool. But then again, the blonder your hair the dumber you are. The smart people have lots of options open to them because they work for a better life, and the people making the dumb stereotypical comments are the ones that are going to be at the bottom of the ranks...more likely to be the cleaners.

6. Mainstream music has it ALL WRONG

There are only a few artists that I respect because of their ability to have a large fanbase and be liked by me, but the rest of them are brainless phonies. There are so many people that sound the same and they all say they're "trying to find a new sound"...seems like they've been pretty lazy in that field.

7. WTF happened to the Black Eyed Peas?!

I'll start from their album "Bridging the Gap". They did what other Rap groups did, SAMPLE. They sampled from some dope tracks and made their tracks golden. This was when they were not recognised and actually got noticed for their talent. They then got recognition after their album "Elephunk" because of this different sound, they were producing some pretty dope stuff that the crowd were not used to. And then something terrible happened to them - they got sucked into the media. This meant that they had to keep on top of what the media threw at them, and not what their first morals were. This is where autotune took over their career. It is now basically a competition of "Who can make the weirdest possible sound from Autotune to make thir music sell?" which has lost them my respect. It's funny, I saw Will.I.Am in a J-Dilla video, and needless to say I laughed at first cause of his music career just now - but then realised the video was from 2007 and so he music have had some credibility left.

Here's the comparison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MxOTYmPgS8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqV7DB8Iwg

with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSD4vsh1zDA

They have died.

8. "Popular Girls" and those who socialise all the time

Ok, here is how this is going to be laid out. If you are a girl who socialises as a hobby and gets wrecked every first or second saturday, you are already not going to get along with me. I just find it really weird that these people have NOTHING else to do with their life. Do you have a hobby? What do you love to do the most? AND DO NOT SAY PARTYING!!! Damn niggas these days need to have a hobby to keep themselves sane, there are a lot of talentless scumbags that I know of today that are wasting their life away...so I just let them, it's their problem not mine. I know many girls who are like this, and I do not respect most of them - I respect the ones who have hobbies and party at the same time and thats very few people. But bottom line, if your life is about partying then don't talk to me =]

My!! They are the important things for me right now. I'll update a part 2 later!

*Signing Out*

18th Birthday

2010-04-05T15:39:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I experienced the changeover from a teenage boy into an adult. I haven't fully experienced the changeover but I am aware that it is there. I decided to have round my best friends and just to share the day - and night - with them. It was great to know that I had the people that I care for, a lot, round about me on the day before I turn 18.

I accidently bought too much booze thinking that we were all going to get wasted but most of us wern't drinking because they either had something to do the next day or they didn't drink. I still have about 18 beers and 4 cans of magners cider left and I don't plan on having that just now - I wouldn't want to get wasted too soon.

But on my 18th we were just chilling in my house for a few hours on the Wii. I had ordered DJ Hero for my birthday but it had not made it to my house on time so we couldn't have great banter on that! But still because hardly anyone has a Wii because they either don't play on games consoles or they're too doped up in HD gaming, it is always an experience to remember being on a Wii. And it's funny to watch your friends suck ass on a Wii when you rock!!

We decided to go out for a lil' walk down to our local ASDA shop, and I don't even know why we went as well. Some of us smoking cigars, some just watching and thinking "wtf" but all of us were happy. I think we just tend to like to go out on occasions like that because it's really fulfilling - shall we call it - to hang out with friends outside of the house. It's moments like this that make me realise who it is I am chilling with, and it makes me think "These are people I could live with". I love those times.

But on the way back from the shop we ran into some trouble - because of something my friend did in self-defense. After that was out of the way we just went back home...and had more fun!

One of the funniest games to play is Truth or Dare! I will admit, even if it seems like a kiddish game you can have sooooo much fun with it when you are older. Ehh if I can somehow sum up what happened it went down like this:

1.I ate a bit of chocolate cake in under a minute without my hands - the challenge was to eat it in under a minute.
2. Alan mooned Josh Burnett
3. Sabih kissed Josh on the cheek
4. I ran down my street with my jeans down at my ankles and did cartwheels
5. Someone fancies Gemma Maher
6. Someone fancies Samantha Bell
7. Someone has given anal sex before

And that is all I can remember for the game.

My girlfriend (at the time) was scared for me when she found out about the escapade at the shops, but I wasn't hurt but my jeans were ripped...fucking hate the dude who did that.

But overall I had a lot of fun on that day!

*Signing Out*

UK Uni Champs 2010

2010-03-19T16:01:00.000-07:00

About 2 weeks ago I went to an event called the UK Uni Champs 2010, and the point to the competition is to let universities/schools and bboys who go to school/uni battle. And my god - IT WAS GREAT!!!

I was travelling down with my friend Sabih and I wanted to show him the talent that exists in the UK - seeing as he is learning how to B-Boy himself. He didn't realise that there were lots of people who knew how to B-Boy.

When I got there I got talking to my boys Jason (Presto), Kiina, Iain, El Diaz etc etc - while meeting Jingles and Nadz for the first time...and honestly I freaking loved their company. I knew myself that I wasn't an experienced dancer but the fact that I was trying and having fun with it, they respected that. I have only been dancing for roughly 1yr10months and I thought I had progressed well.

Then the competition stages came around. The solo's were pretty good - and I was set up to compete.

When I was competing against Stefan I muttered "I have this!"...because from my training and cypher runs and such I really did have confidence in myself. He threw down a full set, so there wasn't really much lacking - apart from power, but for what he had it was complete. His round was over and it was my turn. It was a slow song, hard to feel the music and manage to show confidence - I have that problem anyways. So my tops were fairly on point to the extent that I had more than Stefan - check. It was only when i tried to go into a plank freeze that i sorta fell, its funny when I was hitting that move about 100% in the cyphers before hand...but somehow i managed to go into a headswipe and carry on my set. Problem was...IT THREW ME OFF!!! I blanked out and didn't know what to do - and at the end of my set i didn't stick my freeze which kinda sucks.

The result: I lost. But I know why, I'm not mad at that. I talked to one of the judges and I completely agree with what he had to say about my performance. You know I am inexperienced, and this is all a part of the learning process. Then again I know what I need to do to get better, so when I get the time I will just try and find myself in this dance - train the powermoves and all that shizz but find where I belong in the dance...and after then i'll try and hit the events really hard.

But after that all I could do was appreciate the up and coming talent that was being shown. The university battles were pretty good, obviously the level isn't as high as normal crews that compete in the UK but that is the whole point of it. But overall I was impressed. My boys from Edinburgh won the crew battle - FOR THE FOURTH TIME IN A ROW!!

The Uni Champs is a great place to vibe and chill because of the different experience levels there, you feel like there is a place for you there and no one discriminated! It was the first time I felt like I didn't have to dance to impress anyone watching me, I just went and danced for myself because I was having great fun!

LadyBoi (FloorRiderz) won the Solos against Phrenik (PsychoStylez)...it was a close one!!

*Signing Out*

International Friends

2010-03-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

From my experiences with people in general, I have come to the conclusion that I am very friendly and welcoming to those who do not live in the UK. I am not sure if it is because I am always fascinated by other cultures and other ways of living or if it is really down to my core being - that I am friendly and welcoming.

The reason why I have come to this conclusion basically goes in a timeline:

First year of High School: This new French-American guy - Will Picard - moves to the school. 6 months later we are sitting beside eachother in Maths and just hit it off. I didn't know he was French-American until he told me he was - I could tell by the accent that he was from somewhere else but on the whole i didn't really know.

B-Boying: It's funny, I bet you're wondering "Chaz, what has the B-Boying got to do with international people?" Well, it has everything to do with that. I have dealt with many different types of people through dancing, French, Muslim, Asian, and in general they are all really nice people - because we are all together to do the dance of Hip Hop.

Fourth year of High School: Well, one of my best friends is from Libya. I met him while I was doing my exams in December '08, he is such a down to earth guy. He's told me many interesting things about what Libyan's do and all that jazz - best thing is his English is awesome!!

Fifth year of High School: New guy comes to school, me talk to new guy, me become friends with the new guy...simple. Guy names Sabih from Pakistan comes over, at first he was pretty shy but now he's more confident and out of his shell. The best thing is that he shares a similar interest to me...DANCE!! I was so happy when I heard that, he's currently learning how to B-Boy and so I know we'll be friends for a long time.

And a new guy has joined, Ali. He is also from Pakistan, such a nice guy - great sense of humour too. More to come from that...

But hey, this is what I mean by my welcomeness'ness...it appears that I get on well with international people - let's see what the future holds.

*Signing Out*

Party

2010-02-24T12:20:00.001-08:00

Me and Nezar were on the bus on the way home from watching Valentines Day - damnit that is such a funny film! - and the subject of parties came up. Now, me and Nezar are both introverted in the sense that we do not really care about our social status to other guys 'cause we do not strive for popularity by doing it the easy way - in fact we don't really care if we are popular or not but if we are then we do it through not trying to be known...but there's a part of me that knows that we aren't wanting to be popular.

This is my definition of a party:

1.There has to be some sort of thing to attract people, and it's normally Alcohol or Weed. This, in the world we live in today, is the only reason people go to these social gatherings called "parties".

2. There are these desperate and socially conscious people called Men who all proclaim their popularity and while trying not to so that these totally opposite people called Women will fornicate with these men.

3. They play this evil and unimaginative music they call "Pop" so that the person hosting will look like they are "in" when no one is actually "in", I believe you are only "in" when you play what's "out" so people will like it and will become "in".

But what I do not understand about these parties are the people that go to them. Think about it like this: Those that you see in school that you believe to be "higher up in the ranks" are the ones that go to these parties, the people that proclaim that their ability to hide booze from police while getting interrogated is actually considered respectable. It is these people that disgust me, it's these type of people that makes me wish that those guys should just die!

So if you get all of these people in the same room with the same morals you are going to have a party that shouldn't exist. But then again I do not worry about those that get damaged emotionally and physically there, cause I am not one of them...it's their fault.

Do you wanna stand out? First thing you gotta do is not be like everyone else, just be yourself. The rest should come.

Some people think that I am jealous cause I am never invited to any, but why would I be jealous when I think I do not need them to show my worth? I have the friends I have, if I want people round for a "party" I'll just invite my friends over - no need to invite friends of friends of friends just to get more popularity.

So If you are one of those people that is exactly like I describe them - always about socialising, not wanting an education cause their social status is more important, "higher up in the ranks" and go to these parties - you wouldn't get my respect.

*Signing Out*

Committments

2010-01-29T09:20:00.000-08:00

*IF YOU MAKE A COMMITTMENT, YOU STICK TO IT*

I'm finding these days that there is hardly any committment going on. Maybe its the type of people I hang around with, maybe its how I handle my business, but there is no one keeping their "promise" and delivering.

Meeting people, for example:

I like to meet people, I can't not meet people. Some of the time I start talking to people online, and meet them that way - but there are very few that meet me this way. Some people just do not understand the concept of committment. I begin to feel that anyone under the age of 18 does not care about meeting people without meeting them first in person. Bullshit. Social Networks and messengers are there so that REAL PEOPLE can talk to OTHER REAL PEOPLE. Im beginning to think that 'cause it's an internet thing they just don't want to. If that's the case then so be it - it's their loss, but why do people stress the bad things of the internet and all that? This does not happen very often - but its the minority that is stressed to everyone.

My driving instructor taught me something very valuable. We were driving to my practise location when the topic of trust and committment came up. In his industry, there are a lot of people that are very unreliable - and they push dates further forward than normal because they don't have the committment to get things such as money to their clients etc.

If I can remember, he said "If I say tomorrow, I say tomorrow. If I can't get it to them tomorrow, I phone and apologise - and arrange another day".

This is committment! If you commit yourself to something you keep that committment. As well, my instructor doesn't say "promise". He defines a promise as a legally binding contract between 2 people about a subject. If you promise something, and can't deliver, should this person trust you again?

Ok, I've not made many good promises - but it's too far on for me to try and keep to that person's request...he/she would have forgotten about it now.

Keep to your committments! You will be a better person for it. If it cannot be helped it cannot be helped, but at least try and make things work...

*Signing out*

"Friend"

2010-01-27T12:26:00.000-08:00

Think of the word "Friend". What comes to your mind when you think of this "Friend"? Is it someone who you can trust? Someone who you can laugh and joke with? Is it someone you feel safe with? Well, I think of all of these things when I think of "Friend"...but if I think strictly to this, I only have a few "Friends."

I have had a rough time with friends. When I say rough, I mean that it has taken me about 5 years to really know who my friends are - and who are not. I have had friends since first year...and I have had friends that I haven't met for very long. But here is how I have come to where I have come:

In first year of high school, there was this guy in my class called James Howie who I would always hang around with. He was one of my only friends at the time. But before my 14th birthday he was ill with an ear infection and I didn't know who to hang around with - so I went to the "safe people". You know, those people that you know is open to all people. In that group there were my best friends. My best friend for ages was a guy called "Will Picard". He was French, went to America and learned English, then came over to Scotland...that's how he could talk english well. I gotta be honest though, this guy isn't much of a sociable person in terms of talking to those outside his comfort zone...but how do you grow as a person if you don't? I was with that group of friends for two whole years until this...abomination, this...dreadful thing suddenly decided to come into the group. This girl called Joanne Williamson, and her pack of animals began to talk to everyone else in our group. And u know where that leads to, over time they suddenly became part of the group.

There were a very few of us that didn't want them there - I was one of them.

What they did to the group was turn them into immature and socially unaccepted clowns - at least thats what happened to most of them that were there. What this ended up doing was changing them as a person, so I couldn't communicate with them as properly as I wanted to. I had three good friends out of those lot: Will Picard, Niall Calder, Chris Cattanach (more on him later). I told these three people that I could not stand the girl's behaviour and how I thought they were changing the group. They understood, they are good people with a good heart (but with Will once you're out of his life he does not care who the fuck you are) and understood where I was coming from.

This lead me to a decision that I had never thought of making. I had to get out of there. I could not be there anymore. It was either sacrifice my happiness to be with friends who have changed, or move on - and hang around with the popular kids like I always knew I could. I didn't have a good start with the new guys, cause I got drunk and started a suspicion...being that I was faking it, but I am a lightweight so how could I have been faking it? But hey after that things got to be a bit better. But then when it came to prelims things changed.

I was reunited with an old friend of mine, Alan Hamilton, and I saw that some of his friends were in my classes...so it was easy for me to talk to them. I had met a few new people, one of them being a best friend of mine just now - Nezer Swessi. Nezer is Libyan - thats all i'm guna say about that part, and he is just so alive and happy...but he always says when he is tired and we can all kinda see that he plays COD too much. When I was talking to them I felt at home, cause I could joke around with these guys harmlessly and things would be great - I tried to headspin but it failed big time.

By June of this year I wanted to hang around with Alan, Nezer, this guy Sam McKelvie and some others, they just seemed the better people to chill with.

My friends mean the world to me. Those I ask out with me or those that I love talking to are the ones that mean the most to me. I have a few close friends (more like one) from England, and a few others that do not live in the same area as me...but those are the close friends I have. I don't need many friends anymore, in fact I do not need popularity because I get respect from my dance and my character - but I choose to hang around with my closest friends.

Right now? Alan, Sam and Nezer are my closest friends...I basically cannot live without em, Chris is a good friend of mine - I just hope we could see eachother a lot more. Brian - my friend from England - has taught me a lot of life lessons and I cannot thank him enough! Mohammed, my crewmate, I wouldn't want to share my dancing with anyone else...

The problem I have just now is that I want to hold onto an old friend of mine (Chris). I just don't know what is happening right now. But hey, I suppose what I can do if offer my friendship when I am available, and see if he wants it or not. He is such a nice person, I couldn't have been blessed with a more trustworthy and easy going person. He is currently dating Joanne and I wish them the best - but my views on what the relationship is like is currently staying with me.

I forgot to mention 2 very special friends of mine - one from high school and the other from primary school. The first guy is called Josh Burnett - a rather preffered "Salmon" as a nickname. This guy is pretty much the guy I go to for heart-to-heart conversations...and everything else friends do. Without this guy I am not sure what I would be doing right now - in a way he gives me confidence that I cannot return back...he already has lots you see. He also knows how to make sure I have a good time, which in my most important year at school is needed. The other guy is Andy McLean. Back in primary school he was always there for me - in the years leading upto high school. Me and him can relate to eachother in so many different levels and he is pretty much the same as Josh - someone I can go to if I need them. I love them both, they mean an awful lot to me!!

Some things to clear up:

All B-Boys are friends of mine, just depends wether you are close or not.

I plan to keep the friends I have just now, even when I am at Uni.

*Signing Out*

*UPDATE*

I have no problem with Joanne Williamson and crew as individual people, in fact I find them quite cool and funny in a way, but just what they did to my best friends is still hard to get over.

Homework, Exams, Revision...

2010-01-24T05:32:00.000-08:00

Hey guys!

I haven't been on here for a while, mainly because of homework and all that jazz. I only have a few weeks until my prelims and then I have little under 4 months until my Finals, which will determine whether I get into Uni or not. It sucks really, I'm getting stressed out a lot more now than I used to - maybe its because of all the hard work i'm putting in. I'm in my 5th year of High School now and I have decided to apply for Uni, for Audio and Video Technology - or something of the likes, so my expectations are pretty high to go to Uni...just wish me luck!

I am doing 5 subjects right now at school:

Maths
English
Physics
Chemistry
Music

Doing five Highers is really hard going, you do not expect this amount of pressure on you when you are at this stage. People just think "Oh, I'll be able to cope", you might be able to cope but hardly because of all the work you put in. I need to prioritise my schoolwork with my dancing too - cause I want to keep up my dancing as I got a few events to go to, and also its a great way to relieve stress! - but I am finding it hard to dance now as my energy and concentration levels are pretty low by the time i've finished my revision. I do suppose that once I get this out of the way then I will feel better, so that I can leave school and work until I get my results.

I don't know how I am going to feel when I leave, if I work all the time I might be under a different kind of stress or it might be awkward cause I am not with friends. Thats the problem, theres only one of my best friends leaving after this year (hopefully), and the rest of my best friends don't have the qualifications to leave - if they wanted to.

This leaves me in a rut right now. I freaking love my friends! I do not want to go to Uni and not be able to see them. But leave that for another post *Note to self*.

I just love where things are at just now, I am almost a self-validated person and I want to keep that up. For me to be totally secure with myself is a godsend - it means I will be invincible in pretty much every field I want to try.

But back to the topic, I hope to do Audio and Video Technology - or something along those lines. I love music and I love film, I would love to work in those fields because it is where I am comfortable. Unfortunately I do not have the resources to fulfill this properly but when I go to University and when I am working things should be better!

*Signing out*

Getting a QUALITY Woman

2009-09-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, I didn't think I would be talking about this. But it seems like I got some explaining to do.

Lemme just break this down into the basics.

What is Attraction?

There are two types of attraction: Attraction and Repulsion. Attraction is when you emotionally attach yourself to something and Repulsion is when you are emotionally detached from something.

But how does this work with girls?

Simple! If you can give a woman self-esteem she will be yours forever - a Quote from Michael Marks. She gains self-esteem because she is attracted to you. But in order for her to be attracted to you you have to be THE MAN! You have to be completely different from the average man, why be average when you can be BETTER than average?!

What has happened, unfortunately, is that Society has placed women higher than men - giving them more worth than they should have. These women already have all the validation they need and can get a guy instantly because they know they are on top. The only thing we are interested in to get her to feel brilliant around you is our DOMINANCE and SUPERIORITY.

Why do you have to be dominant and superior? Won't you not come across as cocky and arrogant?

The whole MINDSET about being dominant and superior is to show emotional detachment. I mean that you need to be able to show her that if something doesn't go your way when you talk to her, or if something is bothering you then YOU DO NOT SHOW IT...you simply shrug it off, laugh and get on with it. That way she will be in awe at your dominance because things that are not going your way will not bother you. Being superior and dominant pretty much means, in this context, to take control of the situation/interaction. As Michael Marks says "If you get two passive people it will not work, someone has to take control" and the person that will take control is YOU!

So how do we be dominant and superior?

There is a really good debate that I would love to point out to you. EMOTION VS LOGIC

I want to talk about the logic part first - since I want you all to understand where I am going with this.

The logical part is basically getting her to think - in an interaction you do not want her to think, you want her to FEEL. I am talking about how you have to get her in that state of mind where she is so receptive she is just captivated by everything you throw at her. By using logic you are making her evaluate the situation and therefore can lead to regret. For example: You're in a club and you want to talk in a quieter part of the club. You DO NOT SAY "Will you come with me bla bla bla" You have to take control and just say "Come on, we're going to a quieter part of the club". What you did there was call the shots - meaning that you were Dominant and Superior. By getting her to think she will be less likely to act so she will just keep THINKING when she is with you.

The emotional part is getting her to FEEL great at that moment in time. It has been proven, that most women will not remember the CONTENT of the interaction but she will only remember how she FELT at that moment in time. This is what you want her to do, you want her to feel really good about talking to you. You want her to think "God damn this guy is great!", not "This guy, he's nice - but he's not for me." which would suck if that happened.

So what we need to ultimately do is get her in that awesome frame of mind so that she will be really open to anything.

Presentation

Ok, this is pretty vital because this will set the energy of the conversation and will MAKE or BREAK your interaction.

Body Language: One of the first things she will look at is your body language - and how you present yourself. As you may know, if you are feeling CONFIDENT, ENTHUSIATIC and GOD DAMN AWESOME then it will show in your body language and other aspects which we will come along to soon. By being in this MINDSET - the confident enthusiastic and god damn awesome mindset - the energy of the conversation is going to be really good! What this will do is give the woman a really good feeling inside - because she will detect that you are in an awesome state of mind, and if you keep going so will she!

Tonality: There is a common law that I would like to say, based on your tonality: Your confidence is brought out by your body language and your tonality. This works for absolutely everything. If you are not confident you will have a dull tone to your voice and you will be slightly tense and closed up in your body language she will AUTOMATICALLY know that you are not worth a shot - but she might talk to you just so you can gain some confidence in talking to a woman. The key is ENTHUSIASM. This enthusiasm will raise the energy of the conversation and will make the woman think "There's not much that's going to make him sad" and this will be the case if you are confident. Let me help you out with confidence. Do you remember that awesome emotion when you finally got something after days, weeks, months, maybe years of practise/trying to find it? That sigh of relief and confidence will just be surging through your whole body and you think you're invincible. THIS is the feeling and the state of mind you should be in when talking to this girl - absolutely beaming with confidence and enthusiasm and positivity! So remember, the positive feeling will definetely give you better tonality!

Visuals: This is a hard one for me to talk about - simply because of all the screwed up pre-conceptions that people have with visuals count. Visuals count, but they are not everything. What do I mean by this? You could have the most attractive guy talk to the most beautiful of women but if he is not confident etc etc she will not be fooled by his feeble attempts to get her. But take an average guy or a less attractive guy. This person could be soaring in confidence and this is what the woman will love about him. But I have to say - it is so much being confident but unless you have something good to talk about then things will not go to plan, should have added that in earlier but thought it would be good to have here too. Fashion is another one i want to get out of the way. You don't follow trends, you set them! Be different from every other sucker in the room. Do not wear a suit, don't be stereotypical - be you! Go to different shops and change your wardrobe. All of this will take time so do not be worried about time. Wear glasses? Find the most god damn sexiest pair of glasses you can get your hands on - its necessary for attraction. Hair is another thing I want to talk about. EXPERIMENT with different styles AND different colours - this will take time to find your comfort zone but you gotta try and see where you get with this.

The best opener is...

THERE IS NO OPENER!! =D

I will expand on this when I get to the scenarios.

Places to meet a girl

Everyone thinks that you have to meet a girl in x place and y place otherwise they will not be very responsive to you and you will not pull, I call bullshit on that. You can meet a girl ANYWHERE.

Bookstore, café, club, social gathering, the streets, pub, absolutely anywhere you can meet a girl - and these places will change your opener.

Scenarios, Openers, and being Spontaneous!

Being spontaneous is a BRILLIANT gift to have! With this gift you are able to adapt to any situation and get talking to a girl.

RELATE TO THE SITUATION, this is pretty crucial in thinking of an opener.

Take any of the places I just mentioned and just THINK about all the things you could first say to a girl. Example: Girl is in a bookstore, looking at the cookery section. What do we know just now? She is looking at books about cookery! TONNES OF THINGS TO TALK ABOUT. When you walk upto her the first thing you might say is "I guess you're making dinner tonight?" What that line did was clarify that she was in the cookery section of the library and you related to the situation. You asked her a question about cooking so she will be forced to answer, but she will most likely laugh because it is just random but yet so brilliant! All you need to do is look around you to see what you can talk about and JUSTDOIT (he is a bboy from Holland, but in this case just go for it and talk to her).

Looking around for first topics

Ok, so you are at your chosen destination and you see a beautiful brunette wearing a batman top. What could you say? You could say "Excuse me, I really do not know why you're wearing a batman tee - cause SUPERMAN is waaaay cooler!" The first thing she will probably do is laugh, and then ask "Why do you say that?" At that point you could go into all the good things you love about Superman and BAM - you have a conversation going about superheroes, which can show your childish side and such things related.

What that example showed is that you can use material things, objects etc to start a conversation with a girl.

Things to make her laugh...

Obviously if you are blazing in positivity there will not be much that will bring you down from that high energy state you're in. She will appreciate that and will love that. Try using objects to act out situations, show your immature side. Chances are you're wit and childish side is what she really digs about you.

Girls and their girlfriends

Possibly one of the most hated scenarios, but with the help of Michael Marks I have been able to realise what to do when this occurs.

You could be talking to this girl alone and suddenly her friends come along. You automatically thing "Oh no, they're here, better run". But this is the WRONG THING TO DO!

First thing to do is talk to her friends - get their approval basically, so you have a better chance with them. Still in this confident mood her friends will like it, and you are isolating their friends from her. She will want to get back into the conversation but if you reply with the "Who taught you your manners?" phrase her friends will laugh even more but the girl won't. After a couple of attempts at those sort of phrases...isolate the girl from her friends. At that point she was fighting for your attention and now you are all hers.

Second thing to do is just act normal, her friends are now involved in the interaction but if you want to get away from them with her just be dominant and say "Let's go..." or "Come on, we're going..." to show dominance and superiority.

The last thing I am going to talk to you about is something that is seriously crucial to society. This factor is what is basing all these dating guru's to talk crap and degrade women.

Validation

Validation in this context is to tell someone something they already know to put them higher up in worth than you are. A lot of the girls are bombarded with validation - and the guys are stupid enough to think that this is what is going to get them a chance with them. When a guy is not validating a girl her system gets in tangles because she is not used to it - so she is fighting for his validation. This conveys dominance because the guy knows that he is of higher value and higher worth than the girl and so things like validation don't come easy for the guy. Next time a girl tells you to buy her a drink say "No". She will demand it and say "Other guys get me drinks" and at that point you say "I'm not other guys though" and then she is fighting for your validation and she will then know that you have worth.

The thing that makes and breaks the interaction is the people's worth. The aspect that is so complicated is when to give validation. You could be talking about your job and she could be all like "WOW, I love how you are the head of science at ... University", if you reply "THANK YOU THANK YOU" and giving her all that validation it meant her opinion means something to you and so her worth is higher AGAIN.

All of this is put into two words and is used effectively in whatever situation possible: Inner Game. This is your core, the foundations to your strategies - if you have any, remember this is all spontaneous - and this is something women will be looking for. Have no inner game? You will not be successful. But if you have inner game then you will be successful.

There is a lot more to this but I would recommend checking out Michael Marks at:

http://www.getagreatgirl.com

http://forum.getagreatgirl.com

http://getagreatgirl.blogspot.com

He really opened my eyes about the truth of attraction and inner game, and he can teach so much more!

Enjoy :)

Charlie

Introduction

2009-09-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, I first thought that I would introduce myself to you all.

I am Charlie Bonnar. I am a teenager from Scotland, UK and I live in Glasgow.

I have a range of things that I like to do, but my favourite thing to do is probably dance!

I am a B-Boy (stands for beat boy), a dancer that dances to a certain type of beat- called a "break" or a "breakbeat" - like James Brown or any old school Hip Hop track. You may know this as "Breakdancing" but that is a term that the media called B-Boying - the type of dance I do.

B-Boying is one of the four elements of Hip Hop. Hip Hop is a culture. This culture consists of four elements - B-Boying, DJ'ing, MC'ing and Graff. People tend to get mixed up between "hip hop" and "rap", so here is how I like to go about sorting that out: Hip Hop is a culture and Rap is what you do!

To be fairly honest, I don't really mind that much if people don't know the difference. It's more to do with the fact that the media will bombard the general public with BS all the time and giving them pre-conceptions of what things really are.

What do I mean?

For example: The general public think that "Lil' Wayne" is the best thing to come out of hip hop. Lots of things wrong with this statement - and I'll tell you why:

1. As I said before, Hip Hop is a culture and Rap is what you do. If he was the best thing to come out of Hip Hop he would need to be the "jack of all trades", which he isn't.

2. For those that do MC, they will know that the lyrics that Lil' Wayne spits are just truly awful! This is why the true MC's hate the mainstream media these days, because everyone is bombarded with bulldichtomy and don't know any better.

3. For something to be appreciated in Hip Hop they need to be respected in Hip Hop. The general public think that Hip Hop is the crap music that is in the charts these days - I say crap because everyone sounds the same and people in the charts just can't rap. If people actually understood how big the Hip Hop community is they would all think that we are a bunch of posers, but they're the ignorant ones!

But hey, as I said before I just do not care what the general public think Hip Hop is - because as far as I'm aware they will never truly understand why Hip Hop is what it is today!

I'll just be dropping thoughts into each blog. Whether you agree with them or not I just like to let things loose.

Enjoy

Charlie

ChazB

Strife.tv | Living the Strife Life

Attention to Detail Expojam | TRAVELS

My response to releasing footage

The Disease that is my Speech...

Am I Too Happy?

A start to the end of ChazB? Let's hope not.

T in the Park 2011 - A Jalapeno Story

The Barrier between Passion and Work

Achieving: A Scary, Painful and Pricey Journey

The "Legendary" Status

Prove to me you're Hip Hop!

Cameras, Video Editing, Breakin' and a bunch of other sh*t like that...

Suffering in Silence

Attacking without Perspective or Knowledge...or Common Sense

A Better Me

Valentines Day - A guy's perspective

Birthdays, Benders and Britain's Got Talent...

Keeping the Faith

23/11/10 - Britain's Got Talent 2010

Uni - It's annoying me to hell

Just Jam 2010

Jack's 18th

Secret Wars

I won my first battle!

University here I come!!

I finally have a job

The Law of Attraction

*BIG NEWS* Project

Away for a week

Jobhunting Day and the "Hip Hop Shop"

Alcohol and shit

Life After School PART 1

What really pisses me off (PART 2)

Going Abroad Once I Finish University

Me, Myself and I...and Why I Am Who I Am

The Value of Friendships and Other Relationships

What can I say? I'm ready for a new start.

Hip Hop

I'm feeling fresh!!

Rant #1

My mind for the past few months

What happened on my last day of school...

Last Day of School

What really pisses me off...

18th Birthday

UK Uni Champs 2010

International Friends

Party

Committments

"Friend"

Homework, Exams, Revision...

Getting a QUALITY Woman

Introduction

BIG NEWS Project