let me be your Peace (Piece).
your Peace of mind
Piece of the rock
Piece of work.
let me be your Piece of the pie
Peace with God
Piece of art
that Piece of the puzzle you’ve been missing.
let me be your Piecemeal
your Piece of fine ass
your chess Piece
piano Piece
Peace treaty
display Piece.
your companion Piece
your inner & outer Peace
your Peace on earth.
let me be your everlasting, everloving, eternal…Piece (Peace).
Seriously, drama just revolves around these three. With the forever saga that goes along with Rihanna and Chris Brown, somehow Drake is oftentimes thrown into the mix.
Remember the June 13, 2012 W.i.P nightclub fight that occurred between Chris Brown and Drake supposedly over Rihanna which ultimately led to the club closing its doors for a brief time and several lawsuits quickly following? The most recent lawsuit involves Chris Brown’s bodyguard suing Drake and the nightclub over physical damages due to being hit in the face with a bottle during the fight.
Well, now, here is just another chapter in the The World Turns Around Rihanna (…and Chris Brown).
Drake, who usually leaves his thoughts out there in his lyrics, stated on the “Keep It Thoro” internet radio show that,
Don’t ask me sh– about that man when I come up there and leave that man alone. Stop preying on his insecurities…His insecurities are the fact that I make better music than him, that I’m more popping than him and that at one point in life the woman that he loves fell into my lap.
I did what a real n—a would do and treated her with respect.
Hmm, while I appreciate Drake’s candidness making statements in regards to leaving Chris Brown alone; I really don’t think that calling him out on his insecurities, making claims that his music is better than Chris’, and that he once did the dirty with Rihanna is really going to help settle their issues.
I can only predict further beefing developments will ensue.
So, until the next chapter….
Working on a new bake book, my obsession with creating the almost-perfect recipe for chocolate chip cookies probably goes a bit deeper than most people. Some people even consider it a bit odd. Nonetheless, my efforts benefit my roommates, family and friends with tried-and-true recipes and a plateful of cookies. I have been recipe testing the “ultimate home chef’s chocolate chip cookie” recipe for the past few weeks. I think I’m close to calling this one my favorite recipe.
Being a home chef is not only about creating something delicious from raw ingredients. The home cook knows there is more that happens in the kitchen. Something happens to me. Something happens to the other people who share the space and the food. The art and science of food preparation builds not only good food, but wonderful memories and relationships.
Magic happens when people come together in the kitchen and mix laughter with chopping nuts and chocolate, talking about the day with measuring flour and vanilla. How does one create the almost perfect chocolate chip cookie? Just follow this recipe: people + good recipe + working in the kitchen = the almost-perfect cookie and a near-perfect experience.
Whether you are cooking something savory or baking something sweet, I hope you take the chance to pull someone into the kitchen with you and enjoy the beauty of delicious food and nurturing relationships this weekend.
Melissa’s Ultimate Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup dark brown sugar
1 cup (2 cubes) butter, softened
2 eggs at room temperature (pull out eggs about 40 minutes before putting together the batter)
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 ½ cups of flour
1 bag (12 oz.) of chocolate chips – pick your personal favorite: semi sweet; dark chocolate
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Mix the sugars and the butter together until they are creamed together. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until blended. (You can use a beater too. It does make everything a bit faster!)
Add in the salt, baking powder and baking soda and stir. Add in the flour one cup at a time and mix until the flour is completely dissolved into the batter. Fold in ¾ of the bag of chocolate chips.
You can use a variety of things to scoop the dough onto the cookie sheets. I like my cookies to look very pretty and round so I roll the dough in my hands – about the shape of walnuts. You can use a teaspoon for a similar size.
Take some of the leftover chocolate chips and smoosh them gently into the top of the cookies. This is a completely “let’s make these cookies prettier” step. If you don’t want to do this, simply add all the chips to the batter. I like to have chips sticking up out of my cookies.
Bake the cookies for 9 to 11 minutes. If you like your chocolate chip cookies on the chewy side, take them out at 9 minutes. If a crispier cookie is your preference, leave them in for 11 minutes. Be careful if you like them crispier. It is easy to go from crispy to burnt in less than a minute!
Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for one minute before moving them to the cooling rack. Removing the cookies off the cookie sheet too soon will cause them to fall apart. If the cookie rack has gone MIA or is being used as a landing pad for the Lego tower, foil or paper towels work well.
Enjoy the cookies warm or keep them in an airtight container to eat over the weekend. Chocolate chip cookies freeze beautifully. The literature tells me frozen cookies retain their freshness for up to 6 weeks. I will have to take the experts at their word because cookies never last that long in my freezer.
Melissa is a freelance writer, blogger and enthusiastic home chef. You can follow her on Twitter @melissauclair or find her at http://www.launchyourcreativelife.com where she writes about working towards the location independent lifestyle.
This week’s address is delivered by Francine Wheeler, whose six year old son, Ben, was murdered alongside nineteen other children and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, four months ago. Now, Francine – joined by her husband David – is asking the American people to help prevent this type of tragedy from happening to more families like hers. Since that terrible day in December, thousands more Americans have died, and thousands more families have suffered the pain of losing a loved one to violence.
Now that the Senate has agreed that common sense gun safety reforms deserve a vote, they must finish the job and pass those reforms to protect our children and our communities. Now is the time for all Americans to help make this a moment of real change.
“ADORN YOU”
…and watch Miguel perform live tonight @ 11:30pm on SNL!
2011 NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers
There is no doubt in any NFL fan’s mind that Aaron Rodgers is the best Quarterback in the league right now and he is expecting a big huge check coming his way from the Green Bay Packers. I can’t sit here and argue that he isn’t deserving of that money; Rodgers is a three-time Pro Bowler, passed for 4,295 yards with 39 touchdowns last season while leading his Packers to their fourth straight playoff appearance. This man deserves his money and will no doubt be getting it soon.
Move over Joe, Aaron Rodgers is coming with his fat paycheck
Over the offseason Joe Flacco was signed to a $120.6 million dollar deal by the Baltimore Ravens where he is going to be making $20.6 million a year. That deal was historic in NFL history since it made Flacco the highest paid player ever. Ever. Now Rodgers gets to have that title and plans to smash Flaccos small deal into last year. Even though his current contract extends through 2014 and gives him $19.75 million through though last two years, the Packers plan to extend that contract and give him a contract (of unknown length) coupled with $21 million per year, if not more!
The Packers are still trying to hash out all the details of Rodger’s contract extension and hope to have him signed before the season starts. The latest news coming from the sides was that they were still $2 million apart. Once they finalize that contract details they will more than likely turn their attention to Linebacker Clay Matthews and defensive end B.J. Raji. Rumors are that those three contracts will total around a quarter of a billion dollars
Linebacker Clay Matthews will more than likely be given an extension through his 2013 contract
As a Packers fan you must rejoice over having the best Quarterback in the league locked down and what looks like being able to finish his career where it started. On the flip side though you must be wary of the fact these contracts will eat a huge chunk of an already small cap space which sits at $17,799,553 for the 2013 season. Only time will tell if Green Bay’s choice to empty their wallet for Rodgers will pay off. As for Rodgers, I don’t think he could be any happier.
The Masters Championship at Augusta National in Augusta, Ga. has completed the first round and what a round it was!
Surprises took shape in the opening round with an Aussie and a Spaniard leading at the end of the day with 6-under scores. Marc Leishman from Australia and Sergio Garcia from Spain, lit up the scoreboard at the 77th Masters which had many golf fans scratching their heads collectively and asking two questions: First) Who is Marc Leishman and Second) Sergio Garcia?
“The first time I was here,” Leishman says, “I was like a bit of a deer in headlights, I guess. I found myself looking around a little bit too much and not concentrating on getting the ball in the hole.” Well the concentration level was with him on Day 1 as he carded 7-birdies against 1-early bogey on the very first hole. We’ll call that nerves. He then lit it up with birdies on holes 3, 8, 10 and then four consecutive holes on 13-16 to finish with a 6-under 66.
Sergio also had a day of days for he had a bogey-free round, his first and best ever at the Masters in all his 14th appearances. Garcia, still seeking his first major title at age 33, has often struggled with Augusta’s tricky greens. He has only two top 10 finishes in 14 previous Masters.
“It’s obviously not my favorite, my most favorite place, but you know, we try to enjoy it as much as we can each time we come here,” Garcia said. “Sometimes it comes out better than others, but today it was one of those good days. And you know, let’s enjoy it while it lasts. A very quick start for Sergio but a tournament is not won on Day 1. It takes four days of consistent play and I don’t think Sergio has that consistency in his bag.”
The feel good story of the day: Guan Tianlang, the 14-year-old from China. He played a nervously steady 1st round after he rammed home a birdie putt on 18 to complete a surprising 73. Yes, he made bogeys here and there but he also made some unbelievable recoveries with long par putts and birdies that brought him back into the mix of conversation. A 1-over par from a 14-year old is amazing on such a stage as the Masters. Let’s see how he fairs on Friday.
Our ‘Favorites’ didn’t knock themselves out of the tournament by any means.
Rory McIlroy struggled with his short game and missed some makeable putts but finished at -1, 71.
Phil Mickelson was Phil Mickelson. Birdie, bogey, errant drives, spectacular shots from impossible locations, finished -1, 71.
Defending champ, Bubba Watson struggled all day and finished at +3, 75.
And my favorite to win the 77th Masters Championship, Tiger Woods shot a -2, 70. And the 70 bodes well for Woods, who has not won a green jacket since 2005. The four-time winner — tied for second most in tournament history with Arnold Palmer — has shot 70 in five opening rounds in his career in the Masters. He won three of those years so we won’t press the ‘panic button’ yet.
Dustin Johnson also had a great start along with Jim Furyk so again, stay tuned for a great Friday.
Thursday, 16 Republican senators voted to move forward with debate on gun control legislation. Texas Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman’s response: hang them.
Smitherman, a Republican who oversees the state’s oil and gas industry (the name is a bit of an anachronism) retweeted an image listing all 16 GOP senators, along with an image of a noose with “treason” on top of it.
Smitherman still has a long way to go if he wants to claim the biggest overreaction to gun control legislation. Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) alleged that national firearms databases could lead to “evil consequences”—such as genocide.
Update: The image has been taken down, but here it is:
h/t Mother Jones
I’m certain many of you remember the Central Park West Jogger case in New York. I sure do. “Wilding” and “wolfpack” were words used the media used to describe it. In 1990 five Black and Latino teens — Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray and Kharey Wise — were wrongfully convicted of raping, sodomizing and brutally beating a white woman who was jogging in Central Park shortly after 9 p.m. on April 19, 1989. They spent from six to 13 years in prison for a crime they did not commit. Keeping up with the trial I was shocked at how it was allowed to continue on with no direct evidence or even circumstantial evidence that could put those boys at the scene of the crime.
In 2002, their convictions were overturned, and they were acquitted following a confession by the actual rapist, Matias Reyes, a murderer and serial rapist whose DNA actually matched the evidence found on the victim’s clothing, unlike none, and I repeat NONE, of the DNA samples taken from any of the five following the NYPD’s unjustifiably botched up, bullet hole-ridden investigation of the case. It was a horrific crime, that I as a female and a fellow human being felt to the core of my soul…but Kevin, Yusef, Raymond, Antron and Kharey hadn’t done it.
After being exonerated, the young men filed a federal lawsuit for $250 million that claimed, amongst other things, that they were railroaded, maliciously prosecuted, wrongfully imprisoned and that their civil rights had been violated. But instead of exacting justice, the lawsuit has caused the five to be victimized a second time by past and by the present Bloomberg administration who refuse to acknowledge the Five’s proven innocence and contend that the NYPD and the District Attorney’s office did nothing wrong in arresting the teens, coercing confessions from them and prosecuting them back in 1990.
For the last 10 years, requests for records and documents from the case have been met with statements such as the files cannot be located or are too old and deteriorated to read. This bull has resulted in major time and money wasted by the prosecutor’s office. It is for these reasons that U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis, who presently presides over the case regarding the lawsuit has now set specific deadlines for records to be presented. The bureaucracy is suffocating.
You would think Bloomberg would want to go out on a good note with a city that has made him a billionaire. You know, show us and other large city municipalities what an administration looks like when its wants to improve relations with its citizens by rectifying once and for all, the sloppy crudeness in which this case was handled in the bygone era of the 90’s. But I suppose that kind of thinking opens up way to many closets hiding way too many skeletons. This may be 2013, but we’re still a long way from initiating change to some things that are in desperate need of it.
The pressure is on though, with the broadcast of a documentary on the case by filmmaker Ken Burns. It airs on PBS on April 16.
The film ‘The Central Park Five’, opens with an audio of Reyes describing how he savagely beat and raped the jogger late that night in 1989, in New York’s Central Park. Starting the film off with that horrible, truthful preface it then proceeds with the story of how five totally individuals, unrelated to Reyes and unrelated to any part of the incident other than being in the park that day, were picked up, held and grilled for 24 hours and ended up being convicted for one of the most heinous crimes in New York City’s history.
It’s not difficult at all. Just be able to kick the football this way. This man’s name is Havard Rugland. He’s a Norwegian kicker and after his video went viral, the Detroit Lions quickly signed him to a contract.
T-Mobile USA Inc., the fourth- largest U.S. wireless carrier, began offering Apple Inc. (AAPL)(AAPL)’s iPhone for the first time today, providing the biggest showcase yet for its new installment-plan approach to selling phones.
Customers line up to purchase the Apple Inc. iPhone 5 from a T-Mobile USA Inc. retail location in New York. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Customers with good credit can buy the iPhone 5 for $99.99 down and 24 monthly payments of $20, the Bellevue, Washington- based company said, breaking from a tradition of subsidizing smartphones in exchange for two-year service contracts. T-Mobile also will take old iPhones as trade-ins for a new iPhone 5 with no down payment and a credit toward future bills.
The strategy “could resonate with customers,” Walt Piecyk, an analyst with BTIG LLC, said this week in a research note. At about $100, the upfront costs for an iPhone 5 through T-Mobile are lower than the $199 typically charged by rivals.
T-Mobile, a division of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE), is counting on the Apple device to help reverse an exodus of subscribers. The company was the last of the four major U.S. carriers to get the iPhone, and T-Mobile has trailed competitors in adopting a speedier network standard called long-term evolution, or LTE.
h/t Bloomberg
A man fell onto the subway tracks in Times Square this morning and was electrocuted by the third rail, authorities said.
The fire department first received a call of a person on the northbound 2 and 3 train tracks at 6:55 a.m. at the 7th Avenue and 42nd Street station. A second caller reported that the man had been electrocuted.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, the FDNY said.
Two and 3 express trains will be running on the local track between 14th Street and 72nd Street, the MTA said.
The details surrounding the incident were not immediately known.
