Top 5 Things My Parents Taught Me To Teach My Kids

5) Game Night

At least once a month gather the family together for an enjoyable, tech free day/evening of board/card/team games to direct and indirectly teach EVERYONE, not just the kids, how important family should be. This also teaches how to be a respectful winner, gracious loser and even get better at witty retorts because you gotta talk trash but not cross the line and get popped. Hone those trash talkin skills early.

4) Dinner Time

We will eat together, Not only literally but metaphorically. Breaking bread with your people is something your kids should know and understand in every sense that it is used. The time invested in putting in the work necessary to be able to eat a hot meal should be honored, respected and appreciated. Eating whole meals daily is not a luxury i had growing up, so being able to ensure my kids don't take that for granted is highly important.

3) Allowance is to be Earned, Not Expected

I never got a traditional allowance every week or month, and to be honest never even asked for it. When my parents gave us money it was a business proposition really. What's funny is both parents did it independently of each other, they weren't together at the time.

DAD:

While getting bored with how easy school was grades started slipping because i me and my older bro spent time being class clowns and town miscreants, so he made a deal. At the end of semester when we got progress reports in elementary thru high school, he created a monetary scale in lieu of allowance. If we got A - $20, B - $10. A C we got nothing, BUT... A D resulting in us owing $10 and an F $20. At 6-8 classes each, i looked forward to that $140 4 times a year. Never got the max every time, but made me work harder in school the entire time. I learned that sometimes doing good doesn't matter to folks. You have to motivate them with what THEY WANT, and make the means to an end thru what they should be doing. Eventually, hopefully, they will learn valuable lessons along the journey you've embarked them on. Clearly i did and gained tons of knowledge on the way

MOM:

I wanted to play in a soccer league in my town, it cost $30 and there were exactly 31days left to register and i asked her to enroll me. She said lets make a deal, you clean your room, do your chores without me having to ask you, i will give you $1 a day and you can pay for it yourself.

I of course made it like 2 weeks, got lazy, stopped and the end of the month only got $14 and couldn't join. Lesson learned, if you not ready to put in the work, you not worthy of the reward.

(Sidenote: i also started and organized my own soccer league after school with friends that i didn't tell her about which ended up in me getting the ass whooping of my life for lying to her about why i wasn't home on time everyday when she called from work. A Jamaican woman had to stop her from beating me because it was so bad... A JAMAICAN. You may not understand the significance unless you got island family, But i digress...)

2) Expose your kids to religion, don't enforce it

I think what many people do is try to make their kids follow their practices instead of allowing them to. Everything i learned about every religion in existence involved free will. Why take away from your child what your God gave everyone? Even if you don't believe in religion, just spirituality or hell nothing at all, why make them follow you? The very fact you have to force them to instead of explaining why it works for you and why they should try it should open your eyes to the fact that you need to get yourself right mentally. Because clearly you don't have faith in your own ways. Be tolerant and open minded so your kids wont choose their faith or lack thereof ignorantly.

1) Make fear of disappointment worse than physical pain

No matter the amount or severity of whoopings i caught from Pops, Moms, Uncle Mike, Aunt Dollie, Aunt Linda, yeah I'm naming names, eff that (don't beat me tho, for real that's not cool, I'm grown), nothing compared to the immense amount of terror i had/have in letting them down by not being the best i could be. I'm not allowed to be a failure because of them. Regardless of any personal flaws they had they instilled great ones in me that will last GENERATIONS beyond me. I don't want my kid to be afraid of the beating they will receive for getting caught doing something dumb, i want them to not feel its worth risking having me look at them with anything but Pride & Joy for a dumb act in the first place.

But best believe they will still be getting that behind whooped...

What you thought this was? Just cause I'm droppin knowledge don't mean you aint getting popped future kids. Act stupid if you wanna, i been practicing hitting other peoples kids on the sly for years. Try me.

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WorldstarHipHop… Cops

 http://t.co/STQ9G45lcJ

 

• You have the right to remain stupid.
• Anything you post can and will be used against you in a court of law.
• You have the right to consult an attorney before risking your freedom for cyber popularity.
• If you cannot afford an attorney, Sah Dah Tay.
• Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to keep being sheep?

 

I’m sure this website is not new news to anyone under the age of 35 by now. The site where all random cellphone video captured fights, “ratchet” chicks dancing and your favorite thug artists are doing drugs, drinking expensive liquors and various other parole violating activities to show their fans how “Real” they are. Idiots. It seems to me ignorant Hip Hop artists utilize “Free Speech” as a method to rid themselves of this basic human right that was once a luxury to even have in the first place which is why Hip Hop Culture even exists right now in the first place. Irony at its prime.

 

I know a couple times on my blog I seem like a conspiracy theorists but I study people, all the time. And you know the dumbest way to enforce your authority over someone? With brute force. Think of all the cultures that used all out force to attack, subdue and control their enemy… what ALWAYS HAPPENS? Revolution, Anarchy, Collapse. But what if you remembered this simple universal truth, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, creed, gender, sexuality… Ignorance is Bliss. Why even tell people they are enslaved? Hear me out…

When you have a group of folk and oppress them, they bind together to overcome ignoring differences to unite and fight against a common evil. Every.. Single.. Time. When you get your back to a wall eventually you have no choice but to fight to survive. Too much to gain with seemingly nothing to lose, Anarchy.

Now when you are too lax in authoritative force you get a group of the few that feel they can do a better job than those in power, and start a militia to overthrow in a lust for absolute power. Too much to gain with seemingly nothing to lose. Anarchy.

But what if you, the one in absolute power, instead created a system in which the oppressed feuded with the oppressed? Where the people with nothing to lose constantly kept each other from uniting without as little outside influence as possible? What if a overseer simply injected hot topics and influencers that people with nothing who craved power chose to revolt against that while giving others power and the immense desire to not give up the little power they did have?

How does this all relate to sites like WorldstarHipHop? Lets see, you have hood rappers with nothing who did everything possible to hide their drug empires from cops in order to provide for the people around them, using their stories to create new lanes that accomplish this goal, legally, and are now in positions to inspire others to do the same as them but celebrated when they get caught doing the very thing in their lyrics they wrote to make money to stop them from needed to do said illegal activities in the first place. Confused yet? lemme simplify.

If you were a cop, your goal could be to get an undercover in training willing to risk their life, start him/her from the bottom to weasel his way to the deepest levels of the criminal empire gaining pertinent information with wiretaps, video surveillance along the way so that they could eventually testify after years upon years of work to bring down the head boss. OR… you can just make it “cool” to tell on yourself by filming your self doing so and submitting it to a public forum voiding any expectation of privacy and use a persons own words/actions against them.

Like I said, I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but if you are a real Hip Hop fan, of the culture, not just the music.. what part of the game is encouraging your “idols” who made it out the hood to get caught doing stupid stuff to get wrapped back into that life? Sounds like undercovers to me. Or maybe I am crazy and if this were true there would be TONS of evidence pointing to this actuality… in unrelated news, peep the below quote.

 

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist.” ~Charles Baudelaire

 

 

I’m gone.

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Photo Poetry: America the Brave

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48 Laws of Power: #10 Git from Round Me

"Infection: Avoid the unhappy and unlucky."

I don't know how many times I've fell victim not following this very important Law but its hard because of my overly protective nature, and I'm sure many of you have too. What it pertains to is people's negative energy, their aura, their Karma, luck or whatever you wanna call it, it's one in the same. Sadness and Depression are diseases; So much so, in fact, medicine exists to cure those who have too much of either... and its a multi-billion dollar a year seller. As living things we tend to sympathize with others doing worse than us out of caring, guilt and/or feel the need to want to be needed and attempt to help the less fortunate. I can't say I disagree with doing this but you MUST do so with better judgment. Let's look a this metaphorically...

Scenario: A man that cannot swim is in a river drowning, flailing at the arms...

What do you do? Seriously, say it aloud.

Now I'm sure most people's first instinct is "Jump in and save him." Which is a very noble idea but let's evaluate.

#1: Can you swim?

Sounds asinine to think someone who can't swim would try to save a drowning person but since we are speaking metaphorically, how many times have you (or someone you know) tried to help someone with an emotional/financial/physical issue that you/them couldn't get out of alone?

Broke people helping other broke people pay bills, "robbing Peter to pay Paul", people who are bad in relationships giving advice to others about keeping a lover happy, Out of shape folk telling people how to lose weight and diet properly... I know I see it EVERYDAY, don't you? Not saying the information/assistance can't be valid, because it very well can, but it definitely fits the scenario.

#2 Can You Do it Alone?

Do you actually possess the necessary ability to help the drowning man, or just the desire to? You want to try and aid someone but end up in a similar predicament doing so, helping them at your own expense.

And what if you dive in but because of your lack of expertise they STILL drown, now what? Now you feel guilty and just traded places, drowning, hoping someone comes along and saves you as you attempted to do for another. But if someone nearby just saw all the events that transpired, you think they will be just as likely to "dive in" and help you the same? If you saw a man run into a burning building to save someone and get thrown out by a fireball explosion would you run in next? I doubt it.

#3 Is it worth it?

This may sound kinda bad but you really must evaluate if helping someone is worth your time. Let's take that same scenario and ask a few questions...

If you can't swim, why you in the river?

Why weren't necessary measures taken to make sure you wouldn't be in this situation in the first place?

Did you do this to yourself on purpose because you get a thrill out of being saved? Or were you trying to drown?

If I risk myself to save you will you just dive back in?

Did someone else do this to you? If so shouldn't I be watching my back because this is someone baiting me.

Are you the one baiting me just so I jump in to save you as you use me to save yourself?

These may sound like I'm "over thinking" but they are quite common occurrences. People put themselves in harms way to get sympathy all the time, and some do so strictly to use that empathy you feel for them to stab you in the back. You've got to train yourself to think faster so you can evaluate situations thoroughly and still have enough time to act accordingly in the best interest of not only the person seemingly in danger, but yourself.

So before jumping in to save someone else from "drowning" in their problems, make sure you can handle the wave of responsibility and repercussions of such actions. Everyone's misery isn't external, they do it to themselves and if you choose to harbor around these people... It will infect your health, luck & blessings too. Lysol your Life, hang out with those who make sure if they can't swim in their ocean of issues that they were fortunate enough to have a boat, smart enough to bring a life raft, hell even those who trained themselves not to panic because they learned how to float. Everyone in danger aint worth the time, energy & risk to assist. So with the inspiration of the ever so wise hood prophet Project Pat...

Don't Save 'em, if it aint worth them being Saved.

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48 Laws of Power Explained

I've been reading, well studying these guidelines to power written by Robert Greene in 1998, It's pretty impressive. At first I thought it was some random collection of common sense google tweets someone turned into book but it is far more in depth than I'd imagined.

Oddly enough, not to sound conceited, but many of the things I read so far in the book are things I naturally do but never really took time to notice why I do them, or why they work so seeing them laid out and explained gave me a lot of insight as to why I succeed in the areas where I do and am seen as a leader and somewhat intimidating to others even upon first meeting.

I'm gonna be posting some random laws I find notable to events I see or experience depending on the days they happen so stay tuned and you might find out some stuff to help you understand or even reform your actions to gain more power in your everyday life. Won't give you all the secrets though, you gotta read for yourself for all that... (That's Laws.. Nah, can't give yall too much too quick) Stay Tune, first post in 30minutes; Law 18: Isolation is Dangerous.

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Cause & Effect: Internet Shopping Hurting Your Local Economy

 

In this day and age we have so many avenues in which to reach the information super highway easily that all it takes is a flick of the wrist from Phone in holster to World Gather information on any Product, Service or Question ever asked in the History of our Existence, so why go to Retail Stores to shop when you can research, order, purchase without waiting lines and have everything you'd ever need shipped to you from the comfort of your own home?

Many people don't recognize the negative impacts online shopping, both legal and illegally have done to our Local communities. While it has opened up the markets to Mom & Pop shops to compete on a larger scale because of the trends and misunderstood nature of the common shopper it is set to do far more harm than good.

 

Right now Many retail companies are battling with the Business model that you need people to sell products, as crazy as that sounds think about it... Whens the last time you NEEDED a sales person? How often do you go to a store and need no one except a person to point you in the direction of what you need and a cashier to ring you up? How many times have you used the self checkout line instead of an actual cashier even when there is no line in either? How many times have you utilized the Purchase online and pick up in the store option because you've done all your research? It may seem crazy but the Machines that do the self checkout are more profitable than actual people. Hiring a minimum wage employee, giving them benefits and annual raises, break rooms, specific working conditions actually cost companies Billions of Dollars a year when internet can eliminate most costs, checking out millions of people at once and following all best business practices 100% of the time without needing to be trained or Monitored. With the way things are going, you will see far less people in stores and far more Machines to retrieve and ship these internet orders.

 

Another HUGE area people don't take into account is Tax revenue. Did you know that if an internet site does not have a Physical Brick & Mortar store in your state that there is no sales tax? That could equate to some very hefty savings from the customer and most would jump right on it, but that is also money taken away from Local Schools, Road Maintenance, the Legal system etc. etc. etc. Aren't we all annoyed with this trend that the annoying out of country Tech Support or customer service agent we have to speak to to get help was a job that could've gone here but Greedy corporations would rather cheaper Labor to pad their pockets? Well guess what? When We purchase things online trying to save a dollar here and there, not recognizing if its an American company we are supporting, then you are that Greedy person using cheap Labor to pad your pockets. Scary huh? You have now become a part of the very same corporate greed community that has setback our communities. And don't even get me started on you Bootlegg Movie and CD people, you will spend $600 on some Fancy European shoes but not $10 to support an artist from YOUR city that you enjoy the music of. You are crippling America but As Long as you look "Fly" I guess it doesn't matter right? Smh.

All I'm trying to point out here is that your community's success is on your shoulders, if you are not willing to reinvest back into it, how can you be mad when the government doesn't either? Step up and go to your local store, spend that extra $3 and purchase locally, get the extra additives that you know you need instead of stealing them all from torrent websites. I'm not saying be a saint, but at least Limit the negative impact you have in your own Neighborhood or else the next time you find you’re not able to get a job because "No ones Hiring" it'll be YOUR fault because the Internet took your job due to cheap labor, not foreigners.

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What Are Your Thoughts: Mandatory Drug Testing For Welfare Recipients

 

In Florida, as of July 1st, any adult applying for State/Federal aid will have to take and pass an illegal drug screening, at their own cost, before receiving their funds.

As of now their are two main arguments but I want to get everyday peoples thoughts on this matter. A few key points:

Families who paid and did not test positive for drugs will be reimbursed the funds they spent

Testing Positive does not disqualify you from receiving funds, you will simply have to name another person, who tests clean, and will agree to take responsibility for the Benefits.

Those who disagree feel that requiring drug tests on people, without probable cause, receiving governmental aid will inevitably spread to anyone receiving Financial Aid or Grants up to and including college students, science labs and elected officials.

On the other side, People for this revision feel like people are abusing the Food Stamp assistance to receive funds and trade them for cash for drugs while the kids suffer further with no progress for the families.

I want to know how you all feel about this Law that has been enacted as a Drug Deterrent and if it is worth the precedence set allowing the invasion of privacy to tax paying citizens.

Full Article: http://on.cnn.com/jkYUOm

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What Are Your Thoughts: US Food Stamp Program

 

 

I've always thought we need to take care of those less fortunate so I fully support the existence of the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) which many know as Food Stamps. I do have family members on it and they truly need more help then we are able to provide them as a family. What I have noticed is that the amount of people going on it is increasing faster than unemployment. Below I have researched and compiled some basic facts about the last 5 years of benefits paid along with basic rules to become eligible.

ELIGIBILITY

As the amount of people in the household increase the amount of Gross income allowed to be considered for Benefit payouts will at a rate of about $406 per person per month starting at $1174 ($14,000/year Gross).

 

Able bodied Adults without dependents in the house will only be allowed to receive benefits between 3months and 3years depending on specific income and situation. This is typically the plan College students will be on to supplement Food Plans and temporary solutions for people laid off or in between jobs needing a helping hand.

 

BENEFIT ALLOTMENTS

The minimal monthly benefit paid is $200 and raises slight for every dependent member of the household (rises approximately $143 per person on average). This number is based of the estimation that people spend about 30% of their net income on Food & Nourishment a month.

The National Average of benefits received per person is approximately $133 per person ($289 per Household). This is 140% of what it was in 2006 (a huge 22% jump occurred between 2008-2009 while the rest was a steady 1-6% increase year over year). 

Average Benefits Paid (per person) Per Month by State (2006 - 2010)

Average Benefits Paid (per household) Per Month By State (2006 - 2010)

 

I'm interested in a discussion so please comment and subscribe to the article so we can collect and share ideas.

Additional Facts:

• In Washington D.C. & Mississippi more than 20% of citizens receive benefits
• As of Nov.2009 1 in 8 adults and 1 in 4 children are using the Food Stamp Program
• Over 20,000 people per day apply for benefits 
• Number of People Participating has increased more than 4 million from Previous year. Chart of Rise of Members Receiving Benefits
• Benefits Paid to qualifying members has increased 214% since 2006 from 30 to 64 Brillion (Paid for with your Taxes) Benefits Paid Out (2006-2010)

 

So, now armed with the data, how do you know feel about Food Stamp Benefits? Answer a few questions in a sentence or two:

1) Do you feel the amounts paid out For Food Items are more or less than necessary for a typical household? Are they more or less than your own grocery bills?

2) Do you think the current time frame of 3 to 36 months encourages dependency on the program for unemployed able bodied adults?

3) Do the payout amounts & Income limitations per person/household indirectly encourage people into having more children/dependents and/or not seek better paying jobs?

What Are Your Thoughts?

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