Blog: Fake Hustle

2011 may be a bit early for Forza 4 considering how Forza 3 isn't an "old" game yet. Nevertheless I welcome it with open arms considering the strides Turn 10 made to make Forza 3 a great racing game. It wasn't a straight up racing sim. More importantly, it was enjoyable and accessible even with its downsides. Additionally, it's not like the 360 has a gang of exclusives for next fall especially considering how I'm looking forward to PStriples crazy lineup. At any rate I'm hoping the devs learned from [...]

I'm standing at a crossorads of sorts. My contract with AT&T is long over and it's new phone season. I was going to hop on an EVO but Amazon, my retailer of choice, ran out of stock on Black Friday. Lately I've played w/ the idea of copping a Windows Phone. But it's infant stage makes it unappealing. So now It's a toss up between the Captivate, iPhone (cheaper for me to stay w/ AT&T), the EVO, and Droid X/Incredible (I'm also TIRED of AT&T.) With that in mind there's rooms for improvement for [...]

...at least it was yesterday. I remember wanting one during college until I saw it's paltry launch lineup. It had a few standouts in PGR 3 and Call of Duty 2. But I ended up sitting on the fence until I could afford one about two years later. In my 3 years owning one (or two and change since my OG died on me ) I'd say I got tons of fun out of it. So much fun that I'm getting cold feet towards getting a PS3 yet again. That's largely due to [...]

What?! I'm writing on my neglected wordpress account? Yup I got the feelin' to post some geeky nonsense as I watch football. And speaking of football, Cablevision is on their BS as usual with Fox but lemme stop before I go on a rant. Anyway I've found myself enjoying Halo Reach more than I think I should. Bad Company 2 is still my favorite shooter of the year. But I used to be a relatively unimpressed with most of the Halo games. Reach looks like the same 'ol on the surface but it's really [...]

E3 wrapped a mere a week ago which means I'm talking about ancient times in internet time. But with that out of the way I might as well talk about a key announcement I was genuinely interested in only to be brought back to reality at an alarming rate. Microsoft's press conference was so-so at very best. With that in mind their ESPN 3 announcement for XBL gold users was a major point from my perspective. I'm a sports head so I could see myself getting plenty of miles out [...]

Oh yeah, it's Memorial Day Weekend. I can't remember the last time I went to some far away place to celebrate Memorial Day. Perhaps it's because I've become slightly misanthropic as the years pile on and night life seems less appealing. Well I'm not THAT terrible but I'm always one for taking it easy when I have limited time off. Maybe I'll go against the grain one of these days and try a weekend getaway if money allows it. But I'm a much bigger fan of five plus day vacation movement. Too bad my [...]

...in case you were wondering. I won't draw this one out for too long as not much else can be said about him. All I'll say is I feel quite cheated when I compare artists like Stevie to the most renown artists of my generation. Yes it's an unfair matchup since he's a living legend. But, in my opinion, even if you compared the music he made in his 202s to the stuff our 20-something frontrunners are producing it's no contest in Stevie's favor. Heck you could say it'd be an even more lopsided comparison if you [...]

Yup, my 360 died on me and that's arguably not the worst of it. My Dell laptop is on the fritz AGAIN. This time I don't even get a display when it boots up. Thankfully I'm still under warranty and it should be fixed tomorrow. In the meantime I'm using a loaner and I'm getting by. Actually that last part was a lie. I've been bouncing off the wall during prime time as I couldn't care less about most TV shows these days. Things could've gotten dire if the NBA playoffs weren't [...]

Many moons ago you could find the kid hammering away on some ivory keys over a tune he couldn't give a care about. I knew I had musical talent growing up since playing piano wasn't that difficult and the sax was even easier. But I never truly applied myself b/c other things (and distractions) were flat out more fun. I used to despise playing classical music and concert band and practicing those songs felt more like punishment rather than enjoyment. I'd much rather play basketball or get another hour of Super Mario World in rather than rehearse [...]

Better late than never right? Well if you haven't figured (or bothered) by now I might as well drop the bomb on you. Premo got the sample of "Life's A Bitch" from... Gap Band - Yearning For Your Love You can also hear it in SWV's "Your Always On My Mind." Funny thing is I watched The Wackness last night on Netflix and it reminded me to do this post as it stemmed from [...]

Some may think I'm being sarcastic with that title but hear me out. Here's where Delonte West, starting point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, succeeds as a rapper/entertainer. 1.) He actually freestyles. I highly doubt the following video features pre-written rhymes. 2.) He has enough rhythm to get on the radio 3.) Dude is damn hilarious Last I checked that's all you needed to make it big these days. Now for the video in question. In it, Delonte and his cohort go bar for bar about their affinity [...]

The following song, Life's A Bitch feat. AZ, popped in my head for two reasons. One, I was listening to a recent solo effort from the one of artists involved in making the source material. Now I'm jamming to the answer like a geek as I type this. Second, Nas's child support woes popped in my head as I was driving b/c of one of Miss Info' s news updates on Hot 97. I won't go into detail about my stance on this issue. But I bet Nas wishes he could go back to simpler days [...]

The UPS man/woman hooked it up quite nicely today. The package was oddly shaped and the shipping address made me look at it sideways. I decided not to waste any time wondering by gutting the hell out of the envelope. Let's just say I got quite the surprise when I did away with the cardboard. Ok so my weekend life is GONE after procuring this item. I'll take breaks for All Star Weekend and late night viewings sponsored by Netflix. [...]

Left 4 Dead 3 is inevitable like it or not. Even if that slip up never occurred both games sold too many copies (especially 2 w/ it's holiday sale deals) to scoff at the possibility of making another entry. I guess you could say I finally caught the L4D bug. No, I'm not infected . Instead I finally did the right thing and bought L4D 1 during the holiday steam sale. While I gushed about the thought of playing it many moons ago I rented the 360 version (bad [...]

Sorry for the wack title but I have a penchant for associating my birthdays with athletes. I thought about taking a year off considering the seriousness of the earthquake but I decided that we could use a little bit of cheering up now. So since I turned 24 today I'm gonna go with Kobe Bryant (Duh, who else is better @ 24?) I want to thank you guys for the sending me birthday wishes today. I've been a mess since the earthquake hit as I've worried about my and my friends' families. Some of my [...]

http://smokingsection.uproxx.c om/TSS/2010/01/major-earthquak e-hit-haiti-on-january-12-2010 Haiti needs help you guys so please do whatever you can to provide relief. Keep everyone in Haiti in your thoughts and prayers. We have to remain strong during adversity! Also be careful about where you donate. Scams always pop up in troubling times so do your research before you decide to give.

I decided to kick in the new year by staring at unemployment straight in the face. RU always holds a job fair during winter break and I begrudgingly decided to go. I say begrudgingly because these fairs include very few attendees from the media (mostly radio stations.) I don't know what keeps the Star Ledger and local network TV affiliates from showing up. Then again any job is better than no job at this point. Still it wouldn't hurt to apply to something I actually majored in. Anyway I get to the place and I [...]

Merry Christmas to everyone reading this. Enjoy those new socks, that mock neck sweater you didn't ask for and the ten million "MerRy XmAs" texts you'll receive throughout the day. Nah but in all honesty count your blessings and stay safe. Christmas is a Hallmark holiday these days but at least it's good to catch up with family and friends. I got some good gifts and all but I'm most thankful for my good health and support system: family and friends included. So yeah I'll wrap things up with this... [...]

It's an understatement to say Mr. Wonder is a great singer/songwriter. His contributions to American music not only transcend genres. His fanbase has reach across many generations WORLDWIDE so it's safe to say he's a national treasure. Dude's subject matter has reach beyond love songs too. He's scribed about economic hardship, depression, society's ills and even Christianity among other topics.  I'm a huge fan of this living legend If you couldn't already tell. He always finds a way to get spins on my iTunes despite the abundance of rap&BS in my library. I have so many favorites from [...]

The first Crackdown is one of my favorite games published by Microsoft. Despite it's tired mission structure, barely there story and pretty short shelf life I had a stupid amount of fun with it. It was more enjoyable than Gears and kept my interest longer than Halo 3 ever could. Hell I'd put it right behind Mass Effect, Forza and PGR (R.I.P.) when it comes to exclusive games from the Bill Gates Mafia. So when I heard that Crackdown 2 was in the works I did back flips. Well I wasn't THAT excited but the kid was cheesing. [...]