Matisyahu (born Matthew Paul Miller, June 30, 1979) is an American reggae musician.
Known for blending traditional Jewish themes with Reggae, rock and hip hop sounds, Matisyahu is most recognizable for being a hasidic Jew. As such, Matisyahu stands out for wearing the traditional clothing of Hasidic Jews and not performing on Shabbos. Since 2004, he has released two studio albums as well as one live album, two remix CDs and one DVD featuring a live concert, and a number of interviews. Through his short career, Matisyahu has teamed up with some of the biggest names in reggae production including Bill Laswell and duo Sly & Robbie.
Hasidic reggae… Matisyahu is the only guy in this tiny niche and it works really well… so well that even an atheist can appreciate it. Also popular: King Without a Crown, Youth.
I wanted to share this comic from one of the geekiest web comics on the Internet. In relation to dating, which is better? A depth-first search algorithm or a breadth-first one? Hover your mouse pointer over the comic for the author’s opinion. I tend to agree. xkcd: DFS. And for those who don’t want to bother…
A breadth-first search makes a lot of sense for dating in general, actually; it suggests dating a bunch of people casually before getting serious, rather than having a series of five-year relationships one after the other.
I took the GRE a few weeks ago. Interesting test, I suppose, but I should have prepped for it a bit instead of winging it. The results came back to me today showing that my quantitative score (math) was only in the 42nd percentile. Ouch. Haha. Funny thing though… my verbal was in the mid 80s and my analytical writing score was in the 95th percentile. Strange how math and verbal/reasoning have swapped positions. Traditionally I’m much stronger in logical, mathematical areas, but I don’t nurture my math skills much… so maybe I need to buy a few textbooks and start going through them. Math is fun when you don’t have to do it as an assignment or a test.
It is said that two of the most important images ever taken by man are Voyager’s picture of Earth as seen from just past Saturn and Hubble’s Deep Field. Both images demonstrate how absolutely tiny we are, how insignificant all of the wars, hatred, glories and failures are on the true stage. By understanding the larger scheme of things, perhaps humanity as a whole would be able to put aside our petty nationalism and realize that we are all one… joined together by a common ancestry, struggling to eke out a meager existence on a minuscule lump of dirt, rock and water in a cosmos that is truly inconceivably immense. Watch these two videos and, for at least a moment, be completely humbled.
Yesterday, continuing with my life-long effort to continually improve and achieve, I registered for both the Graduate Record Examination and the Law School Admission Test. The GRE is a typical requirement for most any post-graduate degree program and the LSAT should be pretty self-explanatory. All I really know at this moment is that I want/need to continue my education, but I haven’t chosen a program or even a course of study. So I’ll take both tests and see where to go from there. I’ll be taking the GRE this coming Wednesday the 14th and the LSAT is scheduled for 7 June 2010. Supposedly I’ll have scores back from the LSAT three weeks after that. I don’t plan on studying ’cause I tend to do well on these types of tests. I do plan on reviewing the provided sample material, but that’s about it. So here’s to winging it; it hasn’t failed me yet!
You know how that cliche ends. But ’round here change is the only thing that’s at all standard. So new layout, new emphasis. I’ve removed the photos from the main page of the weblog and put them under the “Photos” link above. As if that weren’t obvious enough. And when I get around to it, those photos will be displayed in a different manner all together. So look forward to that. Additional changes… there’s now an “About” page. Currently holds a bunch of lipsum, but will eventually have some basic information about me and how awesome I am. There’s now a contact form available… hopefully the bots don’t’ figure out how to use it and i remain pretty spam-free. Et cetera, et cetera. Shameless promotion of yourself is a cornerstone of success… make yourself seem bigger than you are. So that’s what I’m going for here while still maintaining a wicked simple design.
Just a heads up. I’m converting this site to photos only. One picture per post, more regular posts. Reasons: 1) I rarely get comments on any post about opinions and other stuff. Yeah, my writing is mediocre. Whatev. 2) I take a boatload of pictures. 3) And the single photo per post thing… By posting 12 pictures at once, I blow my entire load all at once… not conducive to repeat visitors. So standby one as I work out the details on the whole thing.
Denzel Washington plays the stoic hero role pretty well, but that’s not all Hollywood’s latest post-apocalyptic film, The Book of Eli, has to offer. Mila Kunis, great videography and great Oakley sunglasses pull it all together quite nicely. But man, I’m really getting tired of standardized movie shit. Have we exhausted the reservoir of new movie ideas or are we forever going to rehash the same old stuff?
Accompanied by my friends Mike and Kim, I spent the 2nd of January exploring Chaco Canyon National Historical Park in northwest New Mexico. The park contains the largest and grandest example of ancient ruins in America, the pueblos of the Chacoan people who inhabited the area approximately 1,000 years ago. For more on the history of the region, check Wikipedia’s article.
The three of us spent about six hours roaming around the various sites within the canyon marveling at the masonry, petroglyphs and shear immensity of the constructions. Yeah, we broke a rule or two by climbing on nearby rocks and accidentally ending up inside areas that were roped off, but it’s not like we were disrespectful. These structures, having survived at least a millennium exposed as they are, now face increased erosion brought by the many visitors to the park in addition to the increased littering that comes with them. The park is maintained fairly well, but obviously the entirety of it cannot be patrolled all the time. So inevitably there is some littering that occurs… whether intentional or not. I did my part by removing some trash I found along the way. Consequently, if a picture surfaces of me perched on a wall at Pueblo Bonito, don’t worry. I earned it.
The day after seeing Separatist Faction play live, I chose to head to Sandia Peak, home of the world’s longest tramway, for a day of hiking and photography. Built in 1966, the Sandia Peak Tramway is the longest continuous jigback tram in the world, which means that as one tram car is ascending, the other is descending. After a wondrous ride that provided breath-taking aerial views of Cibola National Forest, I disembarked the tram at Sandia Crest which sits at an elevation of 10,378 feet. From there you can spend the day skiing down the eastern slope of the mountain, having lunch and drinks at High Finance or hiking through Sandia Mountain Wilderness as I chose to do.
I actually stumbled upon the hiking thing. I honestly knew nothing of the place aside from the fact that I’d be riding the world’s longest tramway to the top. I was pretty pleased to see that there were multiple trails at the top and, choosing to take advantage of it despite my less than ideal outerwear, I set out for Kiwanis Cabin and then the peak. The trails were pretty icy which made the going a little slow initially, but they became less so as I got further along. The views were pretty spectacular varying from wide-open meadows that provided views of the valley below to heavily wooded areas that reminded me of the Brothers Grimm story Hänsel und Gretel.
Ultimately I spent five hours hiking around up there only turning back when I thought I might get caught out on the trail after sunset. I didn’t have gloves with me and the bottom of my jeans had already frozen solid. My feet were a little chilled and soles of my shoes no longer flexed as I walked, but the views and the pictures my amateur hands managed to capture made the cold more than worth it. Below are my favorites chosen from the over 500 I snapped. The one with “breathe” written in the snow is probably my favorite. I ran across that while out of breath trying to make the peak. At about 10,500 feet, it seemed pretty fitting for how I felt.
I’m still a fan of the two-shot panoramas as you can tell. Which ones do you guys like and why?
