Hopin'-n-Prayin'

For me, the Rutgers reject was expected (my wife is more bummed, cuz her family is in central Jersey)...my real news will come hopefully via post later today, when I hear from UW-M, and for good news in that regard, I am Hopin'-n-Prayin' P.S.: Monster, you sound so much warmer...and closer today...remember, this AINT Brooklyn missy- minimum of SPF 15 at all times!!!!

And another one bites, another one bites, another one bites the dust: Rutgers I think its clear at this point that I'm no Safferz or emerald54 or telemaque or...you get the message... come on UW-M funding!!! I understand these letters have been mailed...

Hooray for SToF!!! we are in the exact same boat- great admit, now waiting on funding decision/info... ...welcome to the great-wait, phase 2! (stupid empty spam folder of mine!!)

I am administering a world civ mid-term as we speak...I love the smell of sizzling brain cells in the morning...

ha ha... getting ready for the 305, I see (where it will be 80-85 and mostly sunny all month...)

classic...and you have great writers...

oseirus, Can you be the ghost of frederick jackson turner and call UW-M and tell them that if they dont give me guaranteed multi-year funding, you are going to sick the ghost of joseph mccarthy on them...

Thanks for the info...I guess we'll see what 'real soon' means in the land of ice and cheese... if you don't mind me asking (and I guess more importantly, if you dont mind answering...) does your alternate status for that award mean that as of now you have no funding, or that you have some lesser funding that doesn't hold up to the UT offer?

I will also say that Jay Z is a fine producer and one of the better marketers of my generation...I'd much rather be him than me...all I can do that he cant is rhyme at will ...i also think that most rap fans (especially the younger generation) have little or no idea of the inherent connection between rap and rhyme and the history of rap (and hip-hop, which is not the same thing) on the streets of NYC, it may be different these days, but from the late '70s through well, Jay Z, rapping and rhyming were necessarily conjoined, they absolutely defined each other... any way, reasonable minds can differ...gotta go nite-nite- feel free to rip me in abstentia, I'll read about in the morning...

reasonable doubt was defintiely Jay Z's best album, but it also came out like in 1994, and he was being mentored by Biggie- when Biggie was killed circa 1997, Jay lost his flow...big-time...he 'jumped the shark' ...you know when I was 10, "the A-team" was my favorate show and my favorate person in the world was B.A. Baracus. When my mom had the nerve to tell me that Mr.T was not a great actor, I boycotted dinner for a week...in the entertainment world, talent and popularity sometimes run askew, and growing up, we tend to become convinced of the greatness of our favorates...

Good luck goldie- sure was a long time ago that you created this thread (back then, I was just a lurker- round here...)

that makes the disjointed lyrics sound better...

Ok! Ok! Ok! The self-professed musical connesieur of the forum readily acknowledges the error of, and retracts in its entirety, the Jay-Z/Ja-Rule fiasco. Lets pretend I never mentioned Ja-Rule! Jay-Z still can't rhyme...lets do this...go listen to an eminem song and then listen to Jay-Z- who is the better lyricist...now do the same with Snoop and Jay Z... then Biggie and Jay Z...Jay Z gets housed every time its an uncomfortable reality for many: being Beyonce's husband does not make him a great rapper- and neither does his rapping ability...

CnI- one of the things that distinguishes rap as a creative art, is the rhyme, the two are hard to separate...Snoops then ground-breaking spell rhyming (S-n-double-o-p D-o-double-g-y D-o-double-G ya see) is still copied by nearly all rappers today...young kids on the corner are convinced they are the next big thing because they can rhyme...street rapping, aka free-styling, is totally about the rhyme... ...is it possible to rap effectively and entertainingly (?) without rhyming? I suppose, but not the way Jay-Z does it...at least not for me...fool's multi-platinum, though, so I am in the minority on this one I guess...

remember, I pre-emptively declared myself correct in my assessments....but seriously, what was I thinkin... Ja-Rule? what about eminem and ludacris...these two cats went crazy with jams about 10 yrs ago...not a big Jay Z fan, or 50 or lil wayne or nas or kanye...