DID YOU REALLY WRITE IT FOR ME???

"I need you to understand something. I wrote this for you. I wrote this for you and only you. Everyone else who reads it, doesn't get it. They may think they get it, but they don't. This is the sign you've been looking for. You were meant to read these words."

These are the opening lines of the blog 'I Wrote This For You'... What exactly is this blog about? Search me, because according to it, I wouldn't understand.

The basic premise of the blog is to muse about an array of issues, in a pseudo-philosophical and poetic manner. This, the blog fulfils substantially. I find the blog quite appealing in it's ability to target only one person at a time and yet by the very act of being a blog, remain public. The blog allows you to carve your own meaning because the author (who is nameless) "wrote [it] for you and only you". At any one time when reading it, the only viewpoint that matters is your own.

What I don't like about the blog is that it focuses on the 'you' figure too much. Everything seems to revolve around it. Whether it is a means to motivate readers, to make them feel special or whatever - it gets quite irritating. Especially when some of the posts are as overused or cheesy as: "Forget the air. I'll breathe you instead". I can imagine a hero saying this to his love-interest, in a romantic black-and-white talkie, while jazz music plays in the background and they then proceed to kissing passionately - on the veranda... I could even take this image further but the point is it is too common.

But the blog makes up for it - USUALLY... Try it out. See what you think. It was written for you anyway. Who am I to judge?

UPSIDE WHAT? UPSIDE WHAT?!!!

WARNING!!!

ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION: BASICALLY AWAITING BLU-TOOTH TRANSFER OF PHOTO FROM CELLPHONE... BUT WHILE WE WAIT...

Let me tell you what I did to keep my DP... Something that I've never done before. Are you ready? Are you on the edge of your seat? Because I was! I WATCHED MY FAVOURITE MOVIE UPSIDE-DOWN!

"Wow... What a let-down," you think. I'm sure it is. You might have been expecting that I went bungee jumping. Or maybe I set myself on fire. But sadly, this is not "Jackass" or any of its sequels. I don't get paid millions to f*** myself up. I get paid in stitches and pain. So I gave it a pass...

Rather, I took the lame-ass, "I really don't wanna get hurt before the exams" route and watched "The Butterfly Efffect" upside-down. Obviously, it was unpleasant. It was VERY unpleasant. I felt dizzy for most of the hour; I kept on laughing because people look so different upside-down - You would swear Ashton Kutcher was never an underwear model the way he looks upside-down - and I think I fell asleep somewhere in the middle. So all in all, it was a waste of a night. I'm definitely not trying that again.

I would have loved to pull some Jackass-esque stunt. Still do... Will you be my sponsor???

TO CLARIFY: (NO. 2)

Well, well... It seems it's necessary for me to clarify myself again. It seems that some of my posts are not as entertainment based as I would have liked them to be. Why, aren't they, you ask.

It's the Journ department's fault. They give us assignments that I find hard to join with our blog's regular biznaaaaaaaaaas. Ag... I can't really blame them hardcore because it is their job to make us work. Rest assured - ENTERTAINMENT IS OUR FOCUS. IT IS MY FOCUS TOO. I simply have to fulfil some other requirements too.

Watch out for our next entetainment post... It's on its way!!! And maybe this time you will get all three perspectives - HALA AT SUGAR-HONEY! YEP, ICE JUST CALLED YOU OUT!!! (EvIL LauGH)

AM I THAT STUPID???

Who knew that a mistaken action – namely clicking on one of the side-bar adverts while on Facebook – would lead me to one of the few things about which I have a strong opinion: the issue of IQ.

This is a matter in which I actually have a vested interest because being a student – there are times, sitting in the back (or the front) of a lecture theatre, listening intently to your lecturer, when you think: “What the hell are you talking about?” And you look around, expecting at least a few people to share your sentiments only to find, lo and behold, THEY ALL SEEM TO UNDERSTAND. You ask yourself: “What’s wrong with me? Is this section that difficult?” You sigh. You deliberate. You ponder... This has probably happened more than a few times in your life. But the actual issue is not whether you are smart enough to understand or not, it’s the fact that you doubt yourself in the first place.

In school, we were made to take IQ tests to help us choose our careers – I was told I should be a political analyst because my IQ score was above ‘average’. I HATE POLITICS! I think the main problem with IQ tests is that they are discriminatory. Firstly, most IQ tests are in English. Who is to say that a child would not perform better if the test was in his own language? IQ tests test only the things that a few ‘learned’ old men consider as important: mathematics, language, spatial recognition etc. A farmer may not know calculus but he knows the right time to plant his carrot crop, how to remove aphids without damaging his crops – and the list goes on.

With organisations such as Mensa, the Mega Society and the Omega Society around, claiming to have the most intelligent members in the world, you would expect that most of the developments in the world would come from their members. But all they do is sit around, discussing lofty ideas and telling people – not showing them – how clever they are. All this based on a biased test. Real progress comes from the man on the street, the journalist, the teacher... Real progress knows no IQ. To me, real progress is about heart. IQ TESTS ARE AN INSUFFICIENT MEANS TO QUANTIFY ALL THAT A MAN CAN BE THROUGH ALL THAT HE HAS BEEN.

The Rhodes We Travelled: The History of ICE

THE "BLUEPRINT 3": iN reTRosPEcT

#rublogs Jay-Z's "Blueprint 3". Da verdict is out from the ICE perpective. Peep dis: http://tinyurl.com/ycdyh2z

Before Sugar-Honey, Tea and I bombard you with our honest opinions, we believe that in the interests of objective and fair journalism we must at least represent Jigga fairly.

Track List:

1. What We Talkin' About
2. Thank You
3. D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)
4. Run This Town
5. Empire State of Mind
6. Real As It Gets
7. On To The Next One
8. Off That
9. A Star Is Born
10. Venus VS. Mars
11. Already Home
12. Hate
13. Reminder
14. Young Forever

So here are some stats from billboard.com (http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100#/search/blueprint):

• Jay-Z has recorded a total of 16 albums


• Many of them have reached the number 1 spot on the charts and stayed there for some time


• Currently, "The Blueprint 3" is chillin' comfortably at no. 2 on the Billboard 200, no. 1 on the Rap Albums chart and no. 13 on the European chart.


• The album has been on the charts for a total of 3 weeks.

Now... As a person, you should know that when a thing is good or bad, you're probably not the only one who can see that. So... Being the Ice-man, you not what opinion I'm going to have. All day, every day. But before I delve into the gunk that is "The Blueprint 3", some valued opinions from a few like-minded individuals:

From Culturebully (http://www.culturebully.com/jay-z-the-blueprint-3-review):

"So what does 'innovation' look like to one of the greatest emcees of all time? Pretty much the same ol' sh*t, except with more synthesizers..."

"In hip-hop, 'that next level shit' is almost always based around how the music sounds... Very rarely do artists try to be innovative by saying something new..."

From Prefixmag (http://www.prefixmag.com/reviews/jay-z/the-blueprint-3/21904/):

"He's like a classic rock group (like, say, U2)... we expect him to keep delivering same-old, same-old new music.."

And finally, from rap.about.com (http://rap.about.com/od/reviews/fr/JayZBlueprint3Review.htm):

"[Timbaland] the man who once provided the ultimate backdrop for Jay's futuristic flow sounds stuck in an early millenium time warp..."

(RoLLInG mY eYES)

Here we go folks:

So, my initial listen of the album went sportingly. I listened. I held my tongue. I was as good as good can be. But something became all too obvious: THIS ALBUM LACKS COHESION!

Sure Jigga's beats are sick. Sure he has the right to call himself one of the best rappers of all time. I hand him all these freebies. (cHeEkY grIN) But to have an album whose tracks are not at all related to each other is not what I'd consider worthy of the self-proclaimed 'best rapper alive'. (HAHA - NOTE THE QUALIFIER 'ALIVE'). From songs about New York, to a song about reminding people that he's still got his street edge - IT ALL DOESN'T ADD UP. Jigga goes from electro, to hardcore, to pseudo-soul, back to electro. This in itself is not bad - it worked well for Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool". But even that had a central theme/focal point of reference. Jigga's attempt is just all over the show.

Other than that, I can't hate on the old man much. Joe Camel - as he's called by most hip-hop headz because he can go on and on and on - has made a fair attempt at reinforcing his (somewhat imaginary) position as King of hip-hop. This SHOULD BE HIS LAST ALBUM. Any more after this will just be a waste of time and money. And I doubt that as an audience we're stupid enough to keep buying the same ol' gimmicks.