These kids at Urban Outfitters are like hungry Zombies. I think the sale was only 50% clearance, which is usually over picked trash.

I love me some waffles, I might fight someone for a $2 waffle maker. If I was in the crowd I’d let out a fart to try and clear out a few people.

It’s a shame people fight over some towels, maybe if they were Versace or even some Ralph Lauren towels I’d understand but this is Wal Mart.

People actually use those crappy Straight Talk prepaid cell phones??

Fighting through people for a $30 Madden game isn’t worth it. I see that game for $40 all over the place

Over a 4GB Memory Card? You can find those online for like $5 all the time

I went to Potomac Mills at 9am and Tysons Corner around 8pm and both were surprisingly not that crazy. Parking was easy to find and there were no long lines. The 12am openings is a good way to weed out the crazies and leave breathing room for the normal shoppers who aren’t seeking the door-busters and $2 Waffle Makers.

The only thing I really had my eye on were Ikea Expedit Bookshelves for $19.99, usually $40. The Expedits went on sale on Sunday instead of Black Friday but people were going crazy over them as if it were still 12am Black Friday. We luckily made it out with 2 even though we only planned to get one. Here is a photo  of the bookshelf madness courtesy of Ronalyn

Lesson Learned: Don’t go to Wal Mart on Black Friday! I try to avoid Wal Mart anyways, ESPECIALLY on the 1st and 15th of every month. After 5pm on a payday is like black friday twice a month at Wal Mart.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Rebecca Black does NOT Suck
• Allen Iverson to play in Turkey…a sad fall from grace
• Why Filipinos LOVE Buffets
• You Shouldn’t be Driving a Luxury Car If…
• Happy Birthday to Me

DOWNLOAD HERE: MP3, AAC (w/Skip-able tracks), or STREAM On Mixcrate

1. Snoop Dogg – Wet
2. SBTRKT – Wildfire ft. Drake and Little Dragon
3. Martin Solveig ft Dragonette & ASAP – Hello – Rock-It Scientists About My Business 808 Remix
4. Katy Perry ft Kanye West – Feed Me E.T. – Rev Kev Poisonous Dubstep Remix
5. Rihanna – Man Down
6. DJ Khaled ft. Lil Wayne, Drake and Rick Ross – I’m On One
7. DJ Khaled – I’m On One featuring Drake (Its Overture Remix)
8. Kelly Rowland ft Lil Wayne – Motivation (DJ Phlipz B-More Remix)
9. Waka Flocka Flame – No Hands – Mike D Remix (Dirty)
10. YC – Racks – DJ Mike D Remix (Clean)
11. Chris Brown – DJ Danny Diggz – Look at Me Now (Diggz Uptempo B-More Banga v2.0) (Clean)
12. Yolanda Be Cool & Dcup – We No Speak Bmore-icano (Dylan Sanders…
13. AyoMurderMark1 – Attack of The Horns
14. Mattie Safer Ft. Ninjasonik – That Your Girl (Skeet Skeet Remix)
15. Kenna – Chains
16. Kreayshawn – Gucci Gucci (Rock-It! Scientists Remix)
17. Richard Vission & Static Revenger ft Luciana – I Like That (Original Mix)
18. AMGEsquires – God of Joy (Dionysus)

Possibly Related Posts:

• SoundCrave – The Summer Soundtrack Series 6-24-2011
• Official Music For The Summer!! THREEEEE MIX!!!
• Cupcake; A Bit of Sugar For The Soul. Brought to you by BittenSweet and Mixed by DJ Chris Cruz
• DJ Chris Cruz presents Dance With Tight Pants
• The Hard Times of DJ Chris Cruz Presents…Heartaches and Schooldates

Here is the promised 2nd installment of the Summer Soundtrack Series. It’s still 100% club music mixed in with a little international flavor. This is a weekly series throughout the summer and I will hopefully have the podcast up this weekend. Be sure to visit SoundCrave.net

1. Swedish House Mafia Ft. Pharrell – One
2. Kardinal Offishall ft. Pitbull, Lil Jon, Clinton Sparks – Smash This Club
3. Katy Perry -  E.T. (DJ MegaMan and Panic City remix)
4. Britney Spears – Till The World Ends – DJ Kue Remix
5. X-Factor – We No Speak Americano ( Party Starter )
6. Pitbull – Bon Bon
7. Parov Stelar – Booty Swing (Tits & Clits Remix)
8 Major Lazer – Pon De Floor (Afrojack Extended Vocal Remix) (Ft. Grace Regine)
9. Beyonce – Run The World
10. Kanye West & Gilbere Forte – Alors On Danse (rmx)
11. Dev ft The Cataracs – Dancing in the Dark (Chris Anthony Horn Intro)
12. Alexandra Stan – Mr Saxobeat [VM EDIT]
13. Edward Maya ft Vika Jigulina – Stereo Love (Spryte Bass and Drums Refix)
14. Gyptian – Hold Yuh (Major Lazer Remix-JordanMarc Intro)
15. Mr. Vegas ft Wynter Gordon – Take Off
16. Jennifer Lopez ft Pitbull – On The Floor
17. Miami Sound Machine – 1, 2, 3

Possibly Related Posts:

• SoundCrave – The Summer Soundtrack 6-30-2011
• Official Music For The Summer!! THREEEEE MIX!!!
• Cupcake; A Bit of Sugar For The Soul. Brought to you by BittenSweet and Mixed by DJ Chris Cruz
• DJ Chris Cruz presents Dance With Tight Pants
• The Hard Times of DJ Chris Cruz Presents…Heartaches and Schooldates

It’s the first day of summer and EVERYBODY is out of school, beaches are filled, and burgers are gettin grilled. It’s the season of celebration and liberation from being confined inside by snow storms and pollen. It’s time to break out the bikinis and board shorts, let loose, and sip on some Goose! Here’s 3 free mixes to download for your fun summer days.

DOWNLOAD HERE:  MP3, AAC(with Skippable tracks),or Stream on Mixcrate

1. LMFAO- Party Rock Anthem
2. Chris Brown – Look at Me Now (Diggz Uptempo B-More Banga v2.0)
3. Dj Manik (Projekt Junkies) – I can be a freak (Manik Smasher)
4. Lil Jon ft 3OH3 – Hey
5. Kesha – Blow (Diggz vs. Cirkut Hybrid Club Banger)
6. Snoop Dogg – Sweat (David Guetta & Afrojack Dub Mix)
7. Afrojack – Take Over Control (Ft. Eva Simons)
8. Kanye West ft Rihanna – All of the Lights (Joe Maz Remix)
9. DJ Felli Fel – Boomerang feat. Akon, Pitbull & JD
10. Jeremih ft 50 Cent – Down On me (Scene remix)
11. Afrojack – Take Over Control (Ft. Eva Simons)
12. New Boyz ft The Cataracs & Dev  – Back Seat
13. Jeremih ft 50 Cent – Down On me (Scene remix)
14. Rihanna – S&M (Sidney Samson Club Mix)
15. Katy Perry – Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) (Sidney Samson Remix)
16. Usher – More (Red One Remix)
17. Clinton Sparks ft Mike Posner & Big Sean – Ambiguous (DJ Enferno Remix)

DOWNLOAD HERE:  MP3, AAC(with Skippable tracks),or Stream on Mixcrate

1. Regina Spektor  – Little Boxes
2. bob marley  – jammin
3. Bruno Mars  -  The Lazy Song
4. No Doubt – Underneath It All
5. Anuhea – Big Deal
6. Inner Circle – Sweat (A la la la Long)
7. J Boog – Let’s Do It Again
8. Travie Mccoy – Billionaire (Feat. Bruno Mars)
9. Sublime – What I Got
10. Anuhea – Here I Go Again
11. Tamia Feat. Talib Kweli – Officially Missing You (Remix)
12. Weezer – Island in the Sun
13. Jack Johnson – Banana Pancakes
14. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Scar Tissue
15. 311 – Love Song
16. Sublime – Santeria
17. Total feat Puff Daddy – Kissing You (Remix)
18. Aaliyah – Rock The Boat
19. 311 – Amber
20. Lauryn Hill – Turn Your Lights Down Low (ft. Bob Marley)
21. Three Plus – two person party
22. Jason Mraz  – I’m Yours
23. Jack Johnson  – Better Together

DOWNLOAD HERE:  MP3, AAC(with Skippable tracks),or Stream on Mixcrate

1. Samantha James – Rise
2. Katy Perry – Firework (Totally Enormous Dinosaurs Remix)
3. Haley vs. Deadmau5 – Falling In Love With Brazil (Kaskade Mashup)
4. Deadmau5 vs Mike Posner – Please Don’t Go (DOSVEC Mashup)
5. Annie – Heartbeat
6. Austin Eterno – I Remember Shelter (The xx vs. Deadmau5 & Kaskade)
7. Deadmau5 ft. Neon Hitch – I Can’t Behave Myself
8. Bruno Mars – Grenade (Passion Pit Remix)
9. Pharrell Ft Jay-Z – Frontin’ (Mattanoll Remix)
10. the bird and the bee – I Can’t Go For That
11. Lights – My Boots (Single Version)
12. Samantha James – Angel Love
13. Flight Facilities – Crave You (feat. Giselle)
14. Blue Six – Music and Wine
15. Late Night Alumni – Light Reading
16. Janet Jackson – Rock With You
17. Samantha James – Breathe You In
18. Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina – Stereo Love
19. Jlo ft Pitbull – On The Floor
20. Beth Ditto – I Wrote The Book
21. Colette – Think You Want It
22. Rihanna – Who’s That Chick
23. Kaskade – Dynasty (Dada Life Remix)
24. Far East Movement – Rocketeer (DJ Kue Remix)
25. Britney Spears – Till The World Ends (DJ Kue Club Remix)
26. Medina – You And I (Deadmau5 Remix)
27. Samantha James – Waves of Change (Kaskade Remix – Radio Edit)
28. Tiesto – Feel It In My Bones (Feat. Tegan & Sara)
29. Kaskade (featuring Dragonette) – Fire In Your New Shoes
30. Holy Ghost – Static On The Wire
31. The Bird and The Bee – Heard It On The Radio
32. Gemini Club – Ghost (Hey Champ Remix)
33. French Horn Rebeillion – Beaches and Friends (Hey Champ Remix)
34. Martin Solveig – Hello
35. The Knocks – Dancing With the DJ
36. Pharrell Williams & Uffie – Add Suv (Armand Van Helden Club remix)
37. Nina Sky – YOU AINT GOT IT
38. Duck Sauce – Anyway
39. Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars

Possibly Related Posts:

• SoundCrave – The Summer Soundtrack 6-30-2011
• SoundCrave – The Summer Soundtrack Series 6-24-2011
• Cupcake; A Bit of Sugar For The Soul. Brought to you by BittenSweet and Mixed by DJ Chris Cruz
• DJ Chris Cruz presents Dance With Tight Pants
• The Hard Times of DJ Chris Cruz Presents…Heartaches and Schooldates

DOWNLOAD HERE (AAC file with Skippable tracks iPhone/iPod friendly) or DOWNLOAD HERE (Plain ol big MP3 file)

or Listen to Stream on my Mixcrate page.

Here’s the 2nd mix I made for my girlfriends food blog BittenSweet. It’s an upbeat mix of indie female artists along with some badass British soul sangers. The perfect soundtrack to soak up the sun on long summer days and indulge on a Cupcake.

1. Florence And The Machine – Dog Days Are Over
2. Lauryn Hill – Doo Wop (That Thing)
3. Adele – Rolling in the Deep (Villa Remix)
4. Sia – Clap Your Hands
5. Lykke Li – I Follow Rivers
6. Beth Ditto – I wrote the book (Original Mix)
7. M.I.A. – XXXO
8. Natalia Kills – Wonderland
9. Little Boots – Earthquake (Treasure Fingers remix)
10. Natasha Bedingfield – Touch (Main Version)
11. Leona Lewis – Misses Glass
12. Duffy – Well, Well, Well
13. Mark Ronson – High (ft. Aya)
14. Corinne Bailey Rae – I Wanna Be Your Lover [Prince Cover]
15. Little Boots – New in Town
16. Lily Allen – Not Big
17. Amy Winehouse – He Can Only Hold Her

Possibly Related Posts:

• SoundCrave – The Summer Soundtrack 6-30-2011
• SoundCrave – The Summer Soundtrack Series 6-24-2011
• Official Music For The Summer!! THREEEEE MIX!!!
• My Take On Vestax/American Music & Sound Customer Service
• DJ Chris Cruz presents Dance With Tight Pants

After about 2 weeks of searching for fixes and  tinkering with the VCI-300 myself  I came to the conclusion that the repairs were far beyond my knowledge. So I emailed Vestax and they instructed me to contact their US distributor AM&S. I contacted AM&S and they instructed me to go to one of their local authorized repair shops. 2 out of the 3 repair shops I was directed to were retail stores. The retail store/repair shops didn’t give a shit about my repair because I didn’t buy it from them. Luckily there was 1 repair shop that took in my VCI-300 under warranty. The people at Audio Services were super helpful and nice. It took them 3 weeks to diagnose my unit and confirm that the PC board was completely dead. The PC board is pretty much ALL of the internals of the VCI-300, without the PC board the VCI-300 would be just a piece of plastic. So audio services calls AM&S and AM&S tells them they’ll ship a new PC board. 2 weeks later I get a call from Audio Services that the PC Board is back-ordered. It’s already January and my Vestax unit has been in the repair shop for over a month, so I decided to give Vestax a call and complain to them about their lack of service. What’s the point of replacing a whole PC board?? That’s like a TV with a dead screen, why not just make it easier on both of us and just give me a new unit since it’s still under warranty?? So the AM&S rep tells me he’ll call the repair shop. Next day the AM&S rep calls me and says to wait another 2 weeks for the part to arrive from Japan. 2 weeks later NO part at the repair shop and I call AM&S pissed off. They finally concede and decide to send me a brand new VCI-300 unit and even the VCI-300 MKII. After that call it arrived in 4 days! Why couldn’t AM&S just replace the unit in the first place instead of making me wait over 2 months?? I was a bit disappointed because I got the original VCI-300 after they said I’d get the VCI-300 MKII, but I was happy I got a brand new replacement. I brought the unit in the shop mid November 2010 and did not get a replacement until February 2011

With Rane I called, then talked to 1 person, sent in my mixer, and got it back in 1 week! I’m upset that Vestax and AM&S made me jump through so many hoops, talk to multiple people, and wait over 2 months just to get a replacement VCI-300. I wouldn’t give Vestax/AM&S a complete Fail because they actually replaced my unit but they deserve a solid D for making me wait when they could’ve EASILY sent me a replacement 2 months prior.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Cupcake; A Bit of Sugar For The Soul. Brought to you by BittenSweet and Mixed by DJ Chris Cruz
• My Review for the Vestax VCI-300
• What is a DJ if he can’t scratch??
• Rest In Peace to my Mentor DJ Big E
• My DJ Setup

Possibly Related Posts:

• Jack Black as Nacho Libre – Encarnacion
• Kris Kross – Warm It Up
• Wreckx-n-Effect – Rump Shaker: For Sale for 30k!
• B-Real, Coolio, Method Man, LL Cool J And Busta Rhymes – Hit Em High (The Monstars’ Anthem)
• Snoop Doggy Dog – Doggystyle

Two weeks ago Ronalyn and I went to Richmond to watch VCU’s Final Four game. It was fun re-exploring Richmond and enjoying the game with fellow Rams. VCU has had a few NCAA Tournament appearances but usually get knocked out in the 1st and 2nd round. But they have never got as far as the Final Four so we had to go up to Richmond to celebrate. We ventured all around Richmond and enjoyed our favorite spots such as Carytown, Shortpump, and Maymont park. This picture was taken at Maymont Parks Italian garden. Maymont Park is one of the most beautiful and well kept parks in Virginia. It’s a popular spot for weddings, engagement photos, or just a nice stroll through the park. It was a perfect time to visit because the flowers were blooming and all the bright spring colors prevalent. The only bad thing that there were tons of people also enjoying the sights so it was kind of hard to get a good shot without people in the background. But otherwise it was fun to revisit Richmond and enjoy the artsy and old charm of the capital city.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Flickr Friday ECSC Virginia Beach 2010
• Flickr Friday Virginia Beach House at Night
• Flickr Friday Kirby the Elf
• Flickr Friday Busch Gardens Christmas Town 2010
• Flickr Friday Post Numero Uno

So what the hell is Tumblr and is its purpose? It’s a hybrid of Twitter x Reddit x Blogger. Tumblr has the easy microblogging capabilities of Twitter with the community of tastemakers like Reddit and the personalization of Blogger. Some people use Tumblr as their blog, some use it as a Twitpic alternative, and most use it to reblog interesting tid bits they find online. Content on Tumblr is meant to be quickly published and consumed. Interesting pictures, funny videos, and little tid bits are generate the most responses from the Tumblr community. With Tumblr you don’t have to write a long post to generate hits, reblogs, and comments.

Pro’s:

Community: The best thing about Tumblr is its built in community. With most standard blogging platforms you have to build your own following before you start receiving feedback from readers. With Tumblr you can post one picture, and if it’s interesting enough you will instantly receive feedback from the community. For Example I posted a funny picture of Justin Bieber and within 24hrs I received 25 notes(tumblr feedback).

Customization and Asthetics: You have the freedom to customize your tumblr however you want. If you’re a web designer you can design your own theme or you can choose from the endless number of free and paid themes out. Customizing your theme is also VERY easy and takes less than 5 minutes. Many of the free pre-made themes are very well designed and look better than the cheap tacky Myspace designs from 4 years ago.

Visual Media: Tumblr is great for artists, designers, and photographers who do not need words to describe their work. On Tumblr you can just post a picture, tag it with the proper keywords, and gain tons of feedback without the need of a long form article. The fashion community has really embraced Tumblr as its virtual runway.  Just about every big name in fashion such as GQ, Vogue, Jcrew, H&M and many others have a presence on Tumblr.

Cons:

Very Young Community: There are many teens on Tumblr that makes the social network reminiscent of Myspace. I assume that Tumblrs easy customization and no boundaries approach attracts teens to use it as their personal website.

Finding People to Follow: Like Twitter you follow friends and people that interest you, but it’s really hard to find people to follow. There’s no directory nor does every Tumblr page show who a person follows like on Twitter. I found interesting people to follow by doing a couple of Google searches outside Tumblr and exploring tags. I assume Tumblr does this to focus more on the actual content than being a game of who can gain the most followers. As you become more involved in Tumblr, finding people

Long Form Posts: Tumblr’s content is meant to be quickly published and consumed. Pictures, short videos, and interesting little tidbits make up most of the Tumblr community content. If you’re a writer that writes long form posts, I would highly discourage using Tumblr as your sole blogging platform. Posts that might take you days to draft and write up will be quickly buried after publishing by pictures, reblogs, and little tid bits. For my own blog I promote my posts on Tumblr by inserting a picture from my blog post and linking the pic back to my site. This way I promote to the Tumblr community but convert them into visitors on my own blog.

Conclusion:

Tumblr is an easy and more personal way to share things that interest you. I enjoy it more than social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Reddit because it’s faster to consume content and its easy customization lets users inject their personality into their Tumblr pages. Even though many people use their Tumblr as their sole online presence I would not choose Tumblr as my personal website. If you’re serious about developing your name or brand on the internet, leverage the Tumblr community to bring potential readers to your own blog.  The young Myspace like community makes me believe it can possibly be a passing fad like Xanga and Live Journal. Since I like to consider myself a funny man,  I personally use Tumblr to post pictures and mock them with my own funny captions. Jokes don’t need paragraphs so Tumblr is a great space for me to crack quick jokes online aside from Twitter. I always make sure to link back all my posts to this blog, I have since seen about a 10% increase in traffic from Tumblr. You can check out my own Tumblr here.

Possibly Related Posts:

• No time for taxes? There’s an App for that!
• Apple TV + Boxee = FTW!!
• An In Depth Review of Rdio
• How to Send Free Unlimited Texts on Blackberry