How is it that you have no problem paying your bills on company time using company equipment, or even spending 20 minutes using the phone to place an order to your favorite catalog, but you think it’s a damn shame that the Administrative Assistant took $10.00 from petty funds to buy gas as she ran errands?  You might even support her dismissal for such brazen dishonesty. You may also rationalize that what you are doing does not directly cost your company. It isn’t? Damn skippy, you better believe it does!!! Time is money! The question of ethics for most of us is gray rather than black and white. This is due to how we individually define values and morality and the rules may differ from culture to culture and from one period of time to the other. These standards give meaning to behaviors called ethics. Ethics tells us why we should behave in a certain… [Read more]

Are you into Martial Arts? Do you wish to become a better grappler? Or maybe you have a youngling in training to be a badass, roundhouse kicking Jedi. Then there’s a new product coming out to help you become said badass. The  Tommy Boi by inventor Tommy Jubei Knight is a solo grappler’s dream come true. You know, It’s one thing when you have a friend talk out his ass about what he plans on doing and then there’s another thing to have them actually do it. Tommy Jubei Knight (yup that’s his name) worked out at the same gym as me and we got to know each other through martial arts. As one of the only people to refer to me exclusively as “black dragon”, Tommy would recount to me his misadventures of sparring, fighting and squaring off against real opponents in multiple situations. Being of a stocky, hard and solid fighter’s stature, you… [Read more]

Now, if it’s one thing that you learn early on in business, it’s that there are people that walk the walk and those that talk the talk. The talkers are many and the walkers are few and far between. Mostly, what you get is a ton of wannabes and posers. Now, these wannabes and posers, they will congregate, make themselves feel good, and share ideas that hardly ever go anywhere. A lot of these ideas are very unoriginal or aren’t very good. I like to use an analogy for them, I call them spinning tops, if you’ve ever seen a top when you pull it’s string, it’ll set in and spin, and spin, and spin. You could pull the string harder or faster but the most it’ll do is just spin faster without really going anywhere. Now, if you manage to tip that top over, it’ll actually gain some velocity and start moving. This is… [Read more]

Ever felt like Atlas the Titan bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders? Sure you have, we’ve all been there at one point or another. Last year was probably one of the worst years any of us will ever experience in terms of large-scale issues (not those standard personal ones) and for me it was no different. The Hall of The Black Dragon was one of the only positives going for me in 2009 since business yielded more than a few unpaid invoices and an occasional rip-off artist here and there. The money flowed south but I found my stability through writing and of course maintaining this beautiful site. We were lucky to get a few friends on-board, namely Nia Syrah and Niambi Dawn to add a female perspective to our testosterone laced opinions, Beauty and the Eats told us which restaurants were worthy and The Marksman helped build articles for you dating… [Read more]

Years ago I was asked the age old question “what type of man do you want to marry?”, and I, at the time being on level one – the fantasy girl – in my single woman plight, would rattle off about 10 “must haves” on a list that only Superman can live up to.  The list was very specific about his personality, but the man having a hefty paycheck was never mentioned.  My friends were always critical of this issue and I often wondered what was better, the age old saying “it’s better to have loved and lost” or the fact that they were losing men constantly but walking away with parting gifts. Recently I had a discussion with a close friend of mine about the fact it seems that people who tied the knot way back when are now going through, or already went through, a bout of regret that seemed to stem from… [Read more]

Recently I was involved in an email discussion with some good friends in regards to two new albums being released: The Blueprint 3 by Jay-Z and Only Built 4 Cuban Links 2 by Raekwon Da Chef and Ghostface Killa. What started out as a funny moment of reminiscing (being that we all at one time had been engrossed fully into the Hip Hop culture) degenerated into a bout of ageism and elitism. Some of them had apparently outgrown Hip Hop, here is a quote from one of my more successful, respected and intellectual friends: “I’d only share that the majority of hip hop music (both now and in the “golden age” too) rang empty to me once I personally matured to an extent.  The musical celebration of themes like misogyny, substance abuse, drug trafficking, gunplay, misogyny, homophobia, pride in incarceration, satisfaction with poverty, misdirected territorialism (aka a stolen people reppin’ their stolen land to the… [Read more]

There are many vices that people use to make the lull of their everyday lifestyle have a sort of purpose. Some people choose religion and make sure that at the root of their efforts they do what is best for their chosen church. Others lean on family, that is their drive, and it is what makes the lull all the more liveable. But as a whole, I think the biggest vice to living the lives we do, is the cliché. People ue clichés unconsciously as if it is an ironclad law for life and the way we live it. Parents say “eat your food, there are starving kids in Africa”, as if to guilt a child into not wasting food – which wrongly asserts that the consumption of it all would do the starving kids one better than if it was left uneaten. Then as you get into your teenage years you get the “I… [Read more]

“Thinking about boycotting the NFL until they stop allowing thugs to play in it. I mean if you are an attorney and you commit a crime you go to jail + get dis-barred, why are murders and dog killers allowed to make 6 mil a year? Aren’t there like at least 5 current players in the NFL who have like literally killed people?” This sentiment seems to exist in much of the public, and I believe people have this sentiment because they make the common mistake of comparing sports to an everyday job.  To use a cliche, this is like comparing apples to oranges, you can’t compare sports to being an accountant, the environments are so far apart there is no way you can make that comparison.  Let me start by saying that I don’t believe killing someone is right, or fighting dogs and other crimes should be overlooked by society.  But the legal system… [Read more]