Fix your scratched discs with… a banana?

Recently my copy of Madden 09 had been giving me problems, with my Xbox 360 claiming that the disc was unreadable.  I wiped it clean, but that didn’t help much, and there were still visible marks on the DVD’s surface.

When searching the interwebs for best way to repair scratched discs at home, I stumbled across a little video on Youtube, claiming that you can fix a scratched (i.e. minor scratches) disc with a banana.  Now I’ve seen many “creative” uses for fruits on the internet (especially bananas) but never for repairing electronic equipment.  Desperate to fix what was currently a $60 coaster, I decided to give it a shot.

For those who don’t want to bother watching the video, the steps are as follows:

1.) Rub the disc with a freshly cut banana (just the fruit part).  Work in small circles as you move around the disc.

2.) Rub the disc with the peel of the banana (the inner part of the peel that was close to the fruit).  The claim is that the wax from the peel (which I always thought was on the outside of the peel), will help fill in the scratches.

3.) Buff the disc with a soft cotton cloth until the banana is gone.

4.) Clean the disc with a glass cleaner to remove any remaining banana residue.

That’s it!  Hopefully if you’re lucky like I was, your game/movie/cd will be readable again.

This maybe a good candidate for Mythbusters, as I seriously doubt that the inside of the banana peel has much wax in it (I really think the glass cleaner is what does the trick).  If you decide to try this method, let us know how it worked out  in the comments.

Mysterious Ways: The steps

I went to the library on a saturday. i told myself as I got to the middle of the strip – fair st. – ‘It’s prolly closed.’ ‘So what,’ I responded, ‘I might as well look up and be surprised.’ I got to the steps and noticed the lights on. ‘That’s right,’ I was like. I was hype, a lil. I even gripped my balls on some semi-subconscious shit. By the time I got to the tope of the steps, my hands were to themselves and I saw the cubbies under the drop boxes. ‘That’s strange.’ Then I saw the chains on the doors. ‘Damn…Closed til January 5th?’ So I resigned myself to the top step. i looked around, and realized I was dead center, well a bit to the right of the rail. I wondered for a minute what I looked like. ‘I don’t give a fuck,’ I replied. Nels once caught me on the steps and told me girls would think I was bummy and/or thirsty since I was just out there lookin for somethin, I guess. I wondered as I sat there alone on campus what message was I encoding. So…I stopped talkin and listened. (Oh yea, I had my trusty headphones on.)
“…from the staarrrt
I’m all alone daaaarling
so far from hoome suuuugar
girl I need you in my liiiiiiiife,” Earth Wind and Fire said.   

Dang, mysterious ways. i was definitely lonely and far from the house any way you cut it. Man, what if someone comes by and sees the kid sittin here lookin like I lost my best friend? I started writin this cuz I still aint give a fuck. It rained so I closed the book and got on my way…

Cadillac Records Unloaded

G.R.I.T.S.M.W.

Walkin into my dorm’s lobby, I saw legs – all brown legs. Judging by the girth and shininess of them trunks, I knew immediately that it was a rap video on the big screen. In a trance, I made my way into apt viewing range to be able to see every toe and dimple. Car wash, chrome rim, old school, some nigga in shades, gun store, gun store, liquor store, gun store – I knew where they were takin me. I thought I did. ‘Them big legs,’ I said, ’should be comin up any second now…any second…what the fuck?’ I was surprised. I saw Murphy Lee and every nigga from the Lou. I saw the whole Spring collection of Lee’s new brand, U-City. I actually attempted to really pay attention to the video for the first time in a long time. ‘Hey that girl’s face is-HOL UP HOL UP there go some more legs.’ They almost caught me slippin. But even those took like a full 45 seconds to see since the last ones. I watched the video for another 40 or so seconds lookin for some more legs or titties or somethin and eventually got bored. I saw somethin I haven’t in a minute, if ever…

a rap song on primetime BET with many girls that were fully dressed, I’m talkin bout some of ‘em had their necks covered. And even they weren’t even on display like that. Granted, the hoes was replaced with rims and more niggas in the hood – you know…’thugs’. But it was quite a chance taken by not packin every scene wit female parts, and these niggas is known for that, damn near famous for it. I been to St. Louis quite a few times for family visits and I’ve come to find out that folks up therrr aint as inauthentic and ignorant as the media would have folks think. It’s actually pretty gutter for people to take it so non-seriously. I digress; Ultimately, niggas from St. Louis have hardly been followers in the game, and now they may be settin new trends with positive implications. Maybe they figured they’d cut down on the video vixens what wit all the Top Model/Beyonce dancer syndrome plaguing the game right now. (See ‘fucked up rumors’ for an explanation). Whatever the case, my hat’s off to the land of my father’s upbringing – the south MidWest.

P.S. I watched it on mute.

Reel Love: “Australia”

“Australia” isn’t a totally racist, historically inaccurate, decadence-driven epic like I thought it would be. It’s a mild, Disney-style pseudo-epic that utilizes racism like a comic when his act is bombing. Oh, and I don’t know enough about the continent to comment on the historical accuracy.

“Australia” occurs at the crux of World War II, Australia’s colonization, and the age of English love in the air. It’s as if the writer (who also directed, produced, and even contributed to a song on the movie) asked a film class to put themes into a hat and kept pickin until everyone felt like they contributed. In short, the 2 hour and 35 minute show could’ve ended after 95 minutes.

The story starts with a story and sticks with that theme for at least 25 minutes. Director Baz Luhrmann unleashes a trite, TV-like montage complete with Ducktale map graphics to introduce the characters, setting, and conflict. While the first 10 minutes awaken a bit of interest in the viewer, it’s actually kind of confusing and since the story isn’t that deep, it’s like killin’ itty bitty ants with a sledge hammer.

The narrator of the story is a Aborigine and European child who portrays the plot, his story, with an indigenous flavor that gives insight into the ins and outs of dark-skinned life on the fledgling continent. We find Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman, who delivers an especially ditzy performance even for her, stewing in the lap of boring English luxury as if awaiting an adventure. Luckily, she’s presented with an opportunity to go down-under, and of course, it’ll be no sweat, she imagines.

Within minutes of getting off the plane, Kidman becomes acquainted with the realities of sexist society and Anglo-Australian culture – the other white meat. The scene in which the pale, pompous Kidman encounters the wild, dark, and unkempt Hugh Jackman aptly communicates another couple themes – the gap between Brits and Aussies and the attraction that can arise between such “opposites”.

The setting may be the strongest suit of “Australia”. Besides the obvious pristine landscapes, smaller-scale settings, such as the main homestead, reveal the modest yet intricate trappings of the infant Australian culture. The camera angles embellish the already colorfully lush scenes. There is adequate character development, too much perhaps.

When the audience thinks that the story has just enough motivations and perspectives, the writers present two or three more characters into the plot for good measure. The Brit and the Aussie cultivate a relationship while raising an adopted mixed kid on their mission to avenge a death and save a ranch, salvage the female pride, master the elements, and spite high society. Oh and then WWII comes to town.

There’s every sort of conflict you can imagine in “Australia”, including conflicting themes. There’s something to be said for holding the viewer’s attention, but there are points in the movie where it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on. I would imagine that the characters deserve Oscars for packing 18 motivations into every scene. There are far too many dramatically cliché moments in which the character slowly and with amazement looks up to preface some astounding event. And those landmark quotes that get repeated like inside jokes throughout the movie to sum everything up – yea, well there’s at least 6 o’ those. Mr. Luhrmann put his everything into this movie.

“Australia” combines big-budget excitement with some indie-style content. It sounds like the ticket for a hit; it better be because it also combines no less than two huge Hollywood salaries with explosions and special effects galore. But I don’t think it will be a hit – there’s simply too much going on without enough fluidity and sense made. All in all, if you wanna impress the heck outta some preteens, take em to see “Australia”. It’s not bad – I gave it one eye open. Peace

~I Don’t Love Spelman Women~

I enjoy reading notes from Facebook, but I don’t read all of them. I read a selected few. This particular one was so well written that I had asked permission to publish this on my blog. Its entitled “I Don’t Love Spelman Women” by Brother Zamir Green Tea W. Enjoy!

This note was inspired by the self righteousness that is imposed on our people via colleges. After reading a note titled “Dairy of a angry Spelman woman” which pointed out that one of the Spelman Male staff members was at a local bar joking or being real about running through Spelman girls. Then there were a few comments that disturbed me… not made by the staff, but by the students who responded. One in particular was that a young ladies said “I do not pay over 30 thousand dollars a year for anyone to disrespect me or my fellow sister” and the other comment called the the Staff member a Self Indulged Egotistic (which I think can only be said by an egotistical person). I understand that this note may make me unpopular, but fuck it…. It needs to be said.
Moral Of this Poem: “Too Much Pride in anything that doesn’t sustain life and create it, is foolish Pride that blinds one from there own spiritual purpose”

I Dont love Spelman women
Not to fund of the ones a Clark
Could Care less if you go to Emory
Or Atlanta Institute of Art
Morehouse Men I dont get along with
Me and G State Alum Never hung
I dont get Down with Morris Brown
Of UGA women I aint Fund.
You See I cant love Spelman women
Because I love a mother who never graduated
and raised 4 kids on her own
I love a sister who graduated in 6 years
because Accreditation hit Morris Brown like hurricane
Katrina Making students evacuate
I love a little cousin with a speech Impediment Who
16 and Speaks like she’s two
I love the young lady who had a baby at 17
who drives a old chevy to pick her kids of from school
I love the sista’s in the Westend with Diesheki’s
and the one’s who wear weaves
The Kim’s, Cookie’s, Ke Ke’s
I think the girl at McDonald’s Drive thru is cute
I even think the stud chick is pretty if she didnt dress like a dude
I love the Circumstances that make us different
But hate the ones that make us think we better
Wether it be your religious belief
Or if you pledge Alpha, Omega, Or Delta
you see a Delta Cant fix me dinner
But the sister in red will
I cant love an A.K.A.
But I can rub the feet of the woman who wears Pink and green
After I take off her heels
You Can’t take an Sigma no where
you can step out with Que’s like probating
Because none of the entities are 1 person to love
They just incorporated
We so quick to rep a school, blocks, cities, and a states
but when we go put this bullshit aside and Rep the whole human race
Aint nothing Special about Morehouse Men
So dont break your back trying to marry him
Chose a man that will take your kids on his back to the park and Carry them
Seems because we got a little cash, we put our heads in ours ass
We try to unify inside the gates of spelman
When the Gates divide us from the mass
We so secluded, and unrooted, in what should be claimed the truest
that we desire the same things to live wether you are the blackest or the bluest
or the brownest, or the redest,or the whitest, or lightest
because when all these colors dont have the answers
Then What will unite us.
My love for woman in general, wont allow me to love spelman women
because when we pride ourself in what doesnt sustain life
Thats when the situation gets grimace.
I got to much love for women, to say i love the ones from a school
I love all my brothers too much to say i only fox with Morehouse Dudes
Your College dont make you special
Only Your spirit makes you unique
And if you forever label yourself something that aint your spirit
You’ll never find the self you seek
So lets not Praise the name of our Colleges, but praise the names of eachother
Put your religiosity aside, and talk about how we can make things better
I love my sisters more than you know and this love has no limits
Thats Why I have to say “I dont just love Spelman Women”