michael's posterous

I can honestly say you have never met a person like me.

First Fridays at Epiphany

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When I woke up today I knew it was going to be a long day, not because of work but what I will be doing after work. With it being the first Friday of the month there will be First Fridays at Epiphany Fellowship. I also have to do (still haven’t done yet) is edit the quarterly newsletter for our youth at my church, Nazarene Baptist Church. I know you’re thinking if the newsletter comes out 4 times a year why are you waiting till the last minute? Its not me, the contributors of the newsletter wait till the last minute. I know it doesn’t make much sense but oh well. While at work I notice that I got my Apple Care agreement for my MacBook Pro verified with Apple. I waited so long to get it activated but with my battery doing a mini explosion I had no choice. I immediately went to set up an appointment to get a new battery but realized Saturdays are the worse time to go into an Apple store. I thought for a quick second that going after work today would be the best but that means I would miss First Fridays. I clearly didn’t want to do that so I scheduled it for Saturday. I know it will be rough in the King of Prussia Apple store but I had to do it. I said to myself I will get my sleep tomorrow when I come home from Apple and before the Villanova game.

After work I immediately went to the bank, stopped home to freshen up and met up with the fellas at Qdoba on Temple’s campus. It was the first time I’ve eaten there and it wasn’t that bad. The burritos were huge and I had to be schooled on how to eat them. When I sat down I tore off the aluminum foil but was told you needed to keep it on while eating. I had the stripped beef burrito with rice, black beans the Roja salsa (don’t remember the actual name but it was classified as HOT) less cheese and sour cream. I almost got it for free but one of fellas Qdboba card was ONE burrito away from a free one, so close!

As me and the fellas were eating (John, Connor and Dan-O) I found out that Connor is a professional football player! Before the AFL cancelled its season he was the kicker for the Philadelphia Soul! That got me excited. Not only was he just a player with the Soul but he played in NFL Europe and was in several training camps with Saints and Steelers. As we walked back to the car to go to Epiphany I asked if he had a Wikipedia page and John was like, yup! I popped out the iPhone and hit up Wikipedia and pulled up Connor's page. I think its safe to say that Connor is the first person I know personally that has their own Wikipedia entry. I told him we need to take a picture and post on Wikipedia. Sorry Connor but that cat is out the bag now!

After fine dining at Qdoba we headed over to Epiphany but was early which means we had time to let the food digest. We chilled in the basement of the building (just like we did at Tea Time). While waiting we met a lot of friendly people who introduced themselves and actually got into a nice conversation with a young lady who moved from New York City to Philly. Her daughter was too cute, walking up to everybody and saying hi.

We went upstairs to the sanctuary and the speaker of the night was Matt Chandler of The Village Church in Dallas. Before tonight I never heard of him before but he gave us a great sermon about how he used to see the church and how it changed over time. His flow and delivery was different, something I haven’t seen before. John mentioned to me that I should check out his podcasts (I’m subscribed). The night was based on legalism in the church. Honestly I never heard that term before but knew and understood its definition by the end of the night. Legalism is something that we have to make sure that’s not in the church because we can give off the wrong impression of the church. I have seen it in my church where people get wrapped up in doing what we are supposed to do but not doing it for the Lord. They are doing it just because its the right thing to do. I am not well versed in this area and will not attempt to sound like I am but after hearing Matt Chandler my eyes have been opened.

What always keeps me from taking the next step in my faith is stepping out of my comfort zone. I know for a fact I will have to change some areas in my life if I really want to say I am living for the Lord. When I get a room full of people who striving to be closer with the Lord like what happened at Epiphany tonight and hanging out with the fellas, it stimulates me so much. I know it can be done and its only myself to blame on why I am not doing anything about it. The Lord is awesome and all we have to do is live by his word. Its easier said than done but I’m not going to let that stop me. The attached song is by Derek Webb – A New Law. They played this tonight at Epiphany and I was immediately drawn to the lyrics. It has been playing on repeat as I wrote this blog post. Its almost 2 in the morning and I still have to edit the newsletter. Goodnight to my east coast peeps!

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Everybody should buy their own domain name

You see it all the time with politicians, movie stars, sports players and etc. The main reason they have purchased their own domain name is to protect their brand, which in most cases is themselves. Just because you're not a celebrity doesn't mean you cant buy your domain name. It only costs $10/year to do so. Its your name why should someone else take it? God forbid, you type in whateveryounameis.com and pull up a gay midget porn site. It probably won't happen but in today's world you never know. I feel $10 is a cheap price to pay on an annual basis to protect your name. You might not do anything with the name in the near future but you never know what you might want to do down the line. 

A couple of my friends said they liked my personal blog and was thinking of starting one of their own. I tell them its really easy to get it up and running thanks to Posterous! Then I explain to them to buy their domain name. They kind of look at me funny but when I break it down to them they understand. Even with the massive amount of internet users and domain names already purchased there is still a lot of domain names out there. Those domain names are people's names. I feel in the future more and more people will set up shop on the internet with a blog. Yes there are tons of blogs out there but just imagine if everybody had their own blog, it would be crazy! Thats why I say snap up your domain name right now. Check out this site to see if your name has been taken. 

So, I Didn't Get The Twitter Job

Earlier today I received an email from the good folks at Twitter saying they went with a different candidate for the Founder Associate position. I have to give it to Twitter because it was well written let down email. They learned from their mistakes and used a BCC when sending it to the applicants. It was little let down that I didn’t get the job but I knew it wasn’t in Gods plan. I am starting to learn that its not what I want but what he wants. I am not upset, just gotta put that behind me and look ahead. I really felt good about getting the job and potentially moving out to San Francisco but for whatever reason God wants me in Philly right now. I've talked with a very close friend and she said the same exact thing. Just as long as we keep doing what he wants us to do there will be something even bigger down the line waiting for us. Its hard for me to believe that all the time but I've been doing it my way and haven't had much luck.

I am still praying and talking with God on seeing what he wants me to do. I know for now I will probably be staying put in the family business. I love the “startup culture” that small businesses have when hitting the scene. Thats what drew me to Twitter, a company with about 30 employees and a killer product looking to grow. Over the past couple years I would look at the family business like that but everybody in the company didn't have that same mindset. Most of the people in the company look at it as a 9-5 and that’s it. I look at the family business as more than that, not just because my father owns it but because of where the company can go. To fill you in, the family business is Ingram’s Plumbing and is the largest black owned plumbing service company in Philadelphia.

Right now, I will go hard in taking Ingram’s to the next level. I feel I am sitting on a gold mine because of how fragmented the “plumbing game” is in the city. Open up the yellow pages and you will find tons of plumbers BUT nobody has taken over the game. It seems that every company is content with how they are doing. I have been working with the family business for about 8 years now and it is still the same as it was back then. I always say that one day some big company will come through and take over the plumbing industry just like Rite Aid did with the mom and pop pharmacies and Home Depot with the local hardware stores. That day hasn’t happened yet.

I am not a “plumber”, I know plumbing terms and whatnot but I don’t perform any plumbing work. I know how to run the company and been involved in every aspect of the day to day operations. I have my “journeymens” license but that’s just for credentials as you don’t have to perform any plumbing work to get licensed in the city. There aren't too many young bodies who are winning to change the game in Philly. There are so many ideas that run through my head each day that I can see happening in the future. Paperless paperwork, signing for an invoice on a tablet to paying for your plumbing work online and implementing a service plan program. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have been coasting the past year. Sometimes I have to remind myself of not living for the moment. Yes I am young and thats what young people should do but those wanting to make a change think differently. I know I will have to be the catalyst that makes the change at Ingram’s. I know its not going to be hard and maybe that was what has been preventing me from doing it already. Enough is enough and I can’t talk about what I could’ve or should’ve done. Its a new day and time to bring the startup culture mindset to Ingram’s.

Fantasy Basketball Championship

I’m working on my fourth straight fantasy sports title, 07 Football/08 Baskebtall/08 Football and now 09 Basketball. I’m in tons of leagues every year. The only sports I play are football, basketball and baseball. I tried hockey once and didn’t like it, well I just don’t follow it. In the league where I show complete domination is the league I have the most fun in. There is always some shady stuff going down, i.e. trades, commish control and etc. I’m the most vocal league manager and when I win I make sure I let everyone know. I used to talk a lot of trash during the regular season but I’ve come to notice that the Fantasy Gods do not like that. As soon as I talk trash a player on my roster gets hurt or goes into a deep slump. So I try my best to keep quiet instigating other league managers on the message board. As I go for my fourth consecutive title the manager that I am going up against thinks he will win. I love competition as it brings the best out of everybody involved but in this case he has no chance of winning. We had a little chat earlier today and I just want to make sure we have record of it just in case he has amnesia in a couple of weeks.

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Ultimate Chill Music

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I always chill out to this song when I need to slow it down. It also gets me in the mood when I’m going to be doing a lot of work on the computer. I heard it off the Elemental Chill album. Below is the original mix to the song by Jaffa.



Mr. Chi City

Over the past weekend I stumbled upon a Chi City Video. If you don’t know Chi CIty he is this random twenty seven year old guy living in the suburbs of Chicago who records videos of his daily happenings who loves to laugh! When I first saw his video about his $300 parking ticket on College Humor I thought it was a one time thing. Come to find out he has about 20+ videos posted on YouTube. His videos aren’t for everybody as it contains explicit language and derogatory statements but if you can get past that you will find his videos very funny and entertaining.

While watching one of his videos I saw that he had a link for his t-shirts. I was like wow, the guy is pushing his own t-shirts, so I had to check them out. At first I thought it was some homemade shirts but when going to the site I realized they looked pretty cool. Granted I didn’t understand any of the sayings on the shirts as I only watched one of his videos. After watching a few more of his videos the sayings on the shirts made sense to me.

I did a little research on Chi City and pulled up an interview College Humor had with him. After reading it you start to see what type of person Chi City is, a regular dude who makes $7.63/hour (more on that later) and is content where he is at in life. He also got a “shout out” on G4 from one of his videos that got over 1M views. Oh yea, I forgot to mention this, you never see Chi City’s face in any of his videos. Some of his commenter’s want to see his face but I could care less, the dude’s voice and what he is talking about is all I need. What I don’t understand is how he lives off of $7.63/hour. He lives in a nice furnished place and has two cars (not exactly new though). I don’t think he is telling us the whole story but who cares just as long as he keeps putting out funny material. Chi City is on twitter, check him out. One more thing, the dudes language can be very explicit, if you cant put that aside I'm sure you will be laughing.

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