The brush of your steps.

What a time to make a new post on my blog. My wife and I are expecting our first child, and we decided on one final trip to the panhandle for our baby moon (the panhandle is a nickname my wife is keen to point out is   absolutely ridiculous given the rest of Florida is not pan-shaped   — even as a Dali painting ). We have been to the panhandle a few times since we have family in Mexico Beach , and we absolutely love that area. We figured we’d treat ourselves to a fancy hotel & spa experience for the time away, and Rosemary Beach ’s The Pearl fit just the bill. On the road down here, we’ve started a tradition of stopping by White Oak Pastures for a good American grass-fed single-estate burger. Single-estate is a joking reference to the book A Bold Return to Giving a Damn , written by the owner of White Oak Pastures, Will Harris , which is, no exaggeration, how we save America. First thing — read the book, and eat some good local meat from animals that have lived a damn go...

The Food Guide: Volume 2 August marked the start of my 10th year in Atlanta, Georgia. My first 3-4 years were arguably a waste in the context of visiting places (still remember being blown away when I first ventured into Decatur), but I wanted to revisit my Food Guide now that I have frequented many locations around Atlanta and found the pockets that I really love. Before I had structured the guide from cheap to expensive, but this time I will break it down by neighborhoods, since I think that better represents Atlanta. Disclaimer, I also love beer so some of these may be bias to the beer world. I explicitly won't be mentioning breweries or bars because this would just get insanely long, but hit up Hop City, and check out every brewery in town. I particularly have been loving the atmosphere at Atlanta Brewing Co. so go check them out! Updated lightly in January 2021 to add PERC Coffee, otherwise intact so forgive if anything is stale, and another update 5/10 I removed Le Fat ...

I kind of came to the conclusion that I needed to write this when I realized that I had gotten a little lost at work. I can go a little crazy with the number of things I try to do at any given time and well, that kind of work can easily overwhelm me. However, over the past few days I have realized and resparked my desire and love for the process. It may sound a bit abstract but its a common theme among those who find themselves fortunate enough to enjoy every minute of every day of work. You see, a lot of life is a matter of perspective. A quick glimpse into consumer behavior and the study of a capitalistic society will tell you that people are very predictable and marketable beings. A few years ago Matthew McConaughey gave a fantastic talk to the University of Houston, where he stated the following: "See, joy is always in process, under construction — it’s in the constant approach, alive and well —in the doing of what we are fashioned to do… and enjoying doing it." and ...

I wish I could But I spoke nonsense I wrote it rather To speak it back to you. The trees spoke quietly I looked from above and smiled The sun tucked away and I hoped It would spill its secrets. The picture was rightfully painted Had I blinked, I would have missed it. Do not use sincerity It is not becoming of usage. Learn to become And you will see the world As it was born It will smile once more. x

She was right. I could hardly sleep at night For every waking moment I was distracted by the beats. Scrolling through history Passing each Kodak moment I had purposefully silenced my own The grid was feeding my veins. An addict at best, I saw the ticker go down A minor twitch Branded jeans. I landed. The writing finished. The grid connected. My addiction blinded me once more. Note: Going through my phone and posting the pieces I wrote over this summer, posting a lot today given my prior frequency haha.

i didn't know you up close and yet your smile being gone shattered me to pieces no blood, and yet we were. i couldn't help but think of the irony it felt undeserved and disrespectful and yet it brought me comfort knowing that your joy would have wanted the smiles i do not wish to be disingenuous i am not one to say many things but with every laugh with every laugh i'll stop i'll think and i'll add a little more joy a second laugh, a second smile i'll think of what the world is now missing with no intent to fill the gap but with every intent to remember to remember that life is precious life is gentle and life will go may you rest in peace.

Indemnify the asinine. Take it back. Make a profit. It's just pocket change. Don't wish, keep quiet, and make it happen. For preemptive boasting Is definite fragility. Don't let them shatter your hidden incompetence. Lay it on the table. Serve it cold. Realize that honesty poisons the fearful. Understand that truth will tear down that wall. Detail with actions Step over those who detail For substance is rare But taking down the producer That's the norm in this hell.

i never really knew what i'd feel going through the words of an angel my eyes cried into my heart i struggled to breathe i'll never be the same so thank you for her words  you pointed me that way once then twice then again and when i finally got around to clicking ship i broke down in her style i must say she broke me open and then kept tearing me apart to remind me that what is outside blinds our eyes so we can see with our heart it's crystal clear now

The light came through, Your peaceful smile, in truth. The surreal was still at bay But I did not know what my words would convey. I heard the silence pedal, I spent the days winning medals Hoping to protect my heart By covering it with metal. I'm trying to explain these walls, The shields and simple fears, I hope they don't reflect you away, But I do not know if you can stay. I buried myself deep within Behind this thick armor My wounds had frozen As I lay there, I burned the roses. A little heat was a sweet reminder Of my burnt past The loving pleasure and pain I ran from what would always remain. So when I glanced at you in disbelief, It was hard to mutter past my walls, But you saw past them with your own, By admitting what I had never known. The vulnerabilities we touch Let us know we are loved They acknowledge our shame And let us play our game With a silly smile, I finally got the courage I finally had the nerve, To yell past my wall...

First my apologies. Perhaps I gave y'all the idea that it was all spit without the gears We aint about that shit Words can leave you salivating But sweat builds the fucking mountains So don't ever forget that in a heartbeat I could carry your dreams and forget I even did You're swimming in it, but you can't even float The irony of words is that they hold the strength of plans Without the gunshot You'll never be grand. We can all aim high but precision does the talking It's all too simple these days With the chatter and spread of information We're suddenly heroes and activists But we haven't even blinked, the AC, It's still running. It's near silence but its not. The inaction, It's deafening. Heck I've gone mute, I can't even rhyme shit that could emphasize the prolonged dream of a typeface, the letters were blank. It was always that way, It was always silent because at some point We stop pinching ourselves a...

"Click". It switched. Unequivocally different. Through those hardships We finally turned around. Perhaps reflections and glimmers Gave us sight when we could not claim But the panoramic put the shimmer To shame. Thank you. In this brilliance we rose Hoping to understand why the routine drifts away in prose For every detail and every insight The neurons kept firing in question, Let us speak for it is time To mark this audacity in rhyme. Although subtle The cues went noticed The portrait tact And yet somehow, Obtruded. But lets digress from these colors Let the light paint our shadow For the steps keep calling with a subtle vibration We know its time.

Ever flip a coin hoping to choose What never had a side? Ever hope it fell on its side Not yours or mine, but its. Its the introspective gamble, The bet we never made The thoughts we shattered Hoping their rebuilt selves would float away. But instead we find ourselves walking on shards Hoping to find the worlds' balance We rebuild in pieces But the scars never leave us. Walking taller the worlds would never propitiate. The past plays thinking it knows best, The present checks for an all-in future, But inaction has killed us before. Fallacious wisdom rises to fail For the trust of more over better. We sacrifice the selfless For the self to have less. I wish I could make you understand The direction our hearts dream of. But with every step You seem to forget This was never your game You gave me the chips Now please, let me play. I'm all in.

Microscopic particles In the blossom of the sun Preemptive But vacant The rays of light Selfishly absorbed the night. A gentle whisper, An honest fight. Recycle the misunderstood Dabble in and run away Tease but make sure you forget That never, stood every day. I've been split apart Petal by petal To the roots of my sake, I welcome but hate Rebirth. Rebirth that never lived The intricate venom of a facade Peace painted in dimes Hiding the war with the excuse of time The seconds made the canvas, The minutes let it be forgotten, The hours let it rot away, But the days gave it life. The days gave it meaning And who am I to redefine what is written For a moment does not define its beat The rhythm does. So don't forget to stop and listen. Don't forget to stop. And listen. For every tune needs just that, Or it will go misunderstood, Fading out as we readjust Our melody of life.

A small quote I came up with as I was going to bed last night, felt it was worth sharing: Don't buy depreciating assets unless they are a necessity and if so, buy them depreciated.

I'm tired of this shit, Been wasting cells on trivialities When people in cells want trivialities The river is thirsty but this spit aint right. What can I give you when the prechewed became preprocessed And the preprocessed got raped in the process. I wish we were alive but in this institutionalized hell It feels like we're picking on stale crumbs for their quality. But lets recycle that magnifying glass, Take a step back and change the analysis With different eyes we can smile or cry But do we slap on the progress label or question its creation. I struggle with these feelings of falsehood, The feelings that every thought requires a microanalysis A thorough breakdown, three hundred essays and tears from hundreds of miles away We broke the heart of someone that sprinkled ill intent to shield their fragile conception This is my tribute to the wary, My dried up tributary to a lake that sits still, Its surface unmoved and every leaf that trembles its core G...

I wrote this while awaiting a ferry to go to my friends' wedding in Poros, Greece. It was an enlightening moment fueled with a bit of travel exhaustion -- but at this point I'm happy to say that's become the norm. Maybe it was never about the traveling. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this is my drug of choice, but maybe the initial thought of traveling, of visiting new places and cultures, of immersing yourself into the curiosities of centuries of great and poor decisions that create what we call cities, maybe that was just a facade. I begin to realize this as I type away in some bench at a bus stop in Athens, Greece. My flight into Athens landed at 4:00am, which was essentially the worst time one can arrive at any city, although i’ll give New York and Barcelona props on being one of the few places i’d leave the airport knowing the city was inexplicably still alive. Anyways, back to my point: as I sit in this bench, I observe people from everywhere, some rushed a...

Their screaming to come out of me, I open the page and we go from white to black with nobody to stop me I'm just spitting, maybe lyrically, hysterically They don't even hold hands but word per word its what I could land But fuck it, what does it matter It's a twisted spin on when I use to utter gold But I guess we go back to basics when the truth unfolds All we see is the need, the greed, and honesty holding strong. So here we are flowing down the purity Cruising like we've already forgotten, We have it in us but why look deep inside when we're standing in a house of cards So pick a card any card Here's where the magic from a shooting star Motivated me to move past the opposing war I rose in silence painting it black to get it out of me But at the end of the day lets realize one thing We fought to stand on the shoulders of our ancestors, We climbed the walls and looking down realized, The first man we stood on was our former self. So le...

It comes down to this. I judge myself harder than anybody could ever judge me. I firmly remind myself that I am my biggest enemy, my biggest hurdle, and my biggest obstacle to success. I control the perceptions of others so that no matter what anybody says or does it all comes down to me and once I realized this, that I was in control, I realized that I needed to run my ship to its finest capabilities if I was to be the best I could ever be. I must note that at the end of every day I acknowledge a few truths that have remained true to me. The main one of those is that death is imminent. We will die, and the clock is always ticking. We can waste time, or we can fill it with the steps to our dreams. The rest of those truths highlight the things which are important in this world. Based on what I continue to learn and read, there is happiness, there is wisdom, there is love, and there is sorrow. These are a few of the many emotions and virtues which define us. Out of all of these, I h...

As I was growing up I learned many things, but one thing very well. I learned that everyone has a set of unique beliefs and that many of us hold those beliefs firmly over the course of our lives. We all believe in some idea, a monotheistic, polytheistic, or atheistic religion, a set of moral rules that you have developed over the years, a core set of family values, we all have some type of rules we live by. We all have this unique foundation. I found the selection of this foundation, be it a religion or otherwise, to be something that I would spend the rest of my life deciding. It made no sense to pick a belief without thoroughly understanding who I was first and that task alone would be a hefty schedule to do within a single lifetime. I realized that many people claim the choice of this foundation is the key to finding oneself so I would definitely not neglect opening myself up to the understanding of these ideas, but identifying myself as part of an entity before fully u...

I wish I knew. ... It's the cyclic passion of a dream, Sucked dry by society's deranged attitude, The essence of a title, Miss Conception. It made no sense but it was the perfect reality, It was the lesson I sought after As a beginner and a master, Bumping up the skymiles, I couldn't go any faster. But cut the dream short, The curtains are closing, the act is over, This isn't some ecstatic fantasy, This is the crude world, its all sprinkled bitter. Don't believe what they're saying The painters had it right for a moment, But that's all it was, It was a frame, that's all we could cherish. In this lyrical endeavor I've cut away the sprinkles, I've left it raw, I've left it bitter. For there is one purpose to this litter, I want you to turn trash into cash. Take in this mash, let it age, Serve it as beer and party my dear, For dealing with stress is a mess And god forbid you taste a crazy IBU. God forbid I step ...