Childish Gambino - So Fly

You are the bestest, I will obey you
They wanna know what, I couldn't say who
You are the only one who's ever really seen me
I know that I'm the reason that you don't watch any tv
I wanna lay on your stomach so bad
And it gets a little quiet in this bachelor pad
And I don't really understand the thing we had
I wanna try again, but it would just be sad
And oh, oh whoa
You are the only one who's ever let me be me

We can make it easy
We can do it simple
I'll be waiting right there
Promise to be gentle
Sittin' by your window

Girl, you're so fly to me
So fly. Girl you're so fly
So fly. Girl you're so fly
So fly. Girl you're so fly to me

I love this song. A very smooth song I sing at night w/ my pandeiro (tambourine). There's something about singing at night to smooth songs that eases the mind especially when it's drizzling outside. Rainy nights have caused me to read at night and begin to write again. I've been on a long hiatus ever since joining the Army last April and I've done and learned so much to NOT share my thoughts and emotions on people I've met and people I've said goodbye to and introduced myself to into this transition to Washington State.

To be continued...

Erick Fromm - HAVING vs BEING

I just watched this episode of CSI and was highly intrigued by this scene. Eric Fromm was definitely right about this. I have a lot of friends who are on both side of the spectrum..I only hope to be somewhat close to the middle but more on the being side. I do appreciate technology like ipods/iphones/smart phones/enhanced video games/nice clothes from head to toe/TV shows/movies/and many other forms of entertainment. But for my life and where I'm at with it right now; I know when I have my own place in September, all I'm going to need is my capoeira music, instruments, books, a couple video games on PS3 and my close friends who are always supportive of me in everything that I do. I'd rather be well off making a living and travelling the world teaching/learning/performing/playing capoeira with capoeiristas from all over the globe and just keep living and learning throughout the culture I put myself into. haha....and when it comes to clothes, I actually wear my capoeira pants or fight shorts around 5-6 days a week. The only time I wear nice clothes is when I go out somewhere nice to eat..haha. I love being simple and not hella obsessed with looking the coolest, or having hella possessions take control over my personality. I surround myself with great, mature and successful people who aren't like that. LOL

-tchau

They don't make love songs like this anymore..

Anyone else feel me on this one? I would love to dance to this song w/ my wife on our wedding day, whoever that may be....lol

Keith Martin - Never find someone like you

2011 new year- better me

I haven't blogged since last month- I've been too busy training capoeira at least 5 days a week, enjoying fam bam time with both my families- Mendoza and Cordao De Ouro Capoeira..lol

Christmas was humbling- my family was gone in the Philippines for a month so I was home alone just practicing my music and hanging out with friends. For Christmas I got a girlfriend! LOL. Anna! love ya babe! You're awesome even though you're a dork about 100% of the time. Dec. 19th 2010 =)

2010 was a crazy year! This time last year I was going through a rough break up and decided to make goals for myself:

*graduate from Sacramento State University
*lose weight/get stronger/live healthier - - lost 30 lbs this year
*improve in capoeira in all aspects - music/dance/kick&techniques&sequences
*travel
*join the army
*teach capoeira

I've completed all goals I've set for myself. I'm in my last stage for processing for the Army- My background check/paper work/lab work & tests & interviews are all done..all I'm waiting for is my recruiter to call me back once he's talked with my Unit Commander and the surgeon general for my last paperwork and I get to pick my job/MOS for the Army and swear in!! FINALLY!

For now, all I can say is that 2011 will be even better than last year..and that's saying a lot knowing how much fun I've had all last year from travelling with my capoeira group, hanging out with great friends who aren't fake, and always running into new people at the gym and staying overall happy with my life spreading my love for life everywhere I go. Until then...much love everyone!

Stay motivated for whatever goals you've set for yourself and do your best to accomplish them. Goals are made to be achieved and for new ones to be set so that you can improve yourself in every way possible. And it all starts with change that has to happen within you if you want to get out of a plateau or feel like you're "waiting for things to happen". Get out there and live your life!

PEACE & LOVE

LOGAN C.D.O.

Gemini - Blue

This song made my night even better =)

Learning is definitely not mere imitation, nor is it the ability to accumulate and regurgitate fixed knowledge. Learning is a constant process of discovery - A process with no end. And when you are learning, you must be aware of your conscience. recognizing that your emotions often err in their over-enthusiasm, and your faculty of reason often is without the warmth of feeling that is necessary to enable yourself to combine justice with mercy in your judgments, encourage your conscience to guide you as to what is right and wrong, but also, never set aside the verdicts it renders no matter what may be the cost of carrying them out.

Bruce Lee

When you pull your own weight, your mind will never fail you. There's a huge difference between the two. It's only when you keep going-even though your body isn't quite cooperating-that you'll find inner strength. You'll be utterly amazed at what you discover if you visit that space often enough.

Matisyahu - One Day (live + beatbox)

I've had this song in my iPod since January but I still love it! It's such an uplifting and real song! Take a listen ! Check the beatbox too!!

What makes me truly happy inside....

Miudinho capoeira games like this inspire me to keep training and eventually have great control, expression, balance, coordination, strength, power, agility and speed like this. Capoeira always takes me away from anything I'm going through in life; whether I'm having a great week or down week, capoeira still takes me away from my daily life for hours at a time letting me focus on having pure fun w/ expression and control of my body. The musical aspect of brazilian songs and singing in portuguese inspire me as well to really find songs that lift my spirits up day to day. It's crazy how certain songs can really change your mood or even enhance them. Anyways, I just thought I'd share this clip of some people from my group. CAPOEIRA!!...Cordão de Ouro!!!!

Capoeira Song - Mea Patua

http://capoeirascience.com/pt-br/node/108

Contra Mestres Casquinha and Xuxo of CDO wrote the verses to go with this beautiful song. Watch the tutorial with clips of Casquinha himself in action, learn the lyrics, discover more of capoeira's rich mythology and become a better musician yourself.

A patuá is a sacred amulet, magical protection to achieve the famed 'corpo fechado' (protected body) and stay safe in capoeira.

As Casquinha tells us a patuá can be anything that is sacred - his berimbau, his friends and the songs that accompany him on life's journey.
This capoeira song tutorial was filmed in High Definition around the time of the last Dec 2009 Batizado. Thanks to Kia for the cameras and all the participating Mestres in this video Mestre Gil, Mestre Simon and of course Mestre Poncianinho who not only hosted the event but really helped to make this video happen.

Giving thanks

I don't give thanks solely on Thanksgiving day. I give thanks and show appreciation every chance I get. This year has been pretty amazing despite that the beginning of this year didn't start off so great. Since the Spring of this year I can't be thankful enough for everything that has happened to me. I graduated college, improved a lot with my capoeira, made friendships stronger, took people out of my life that I don't need, kept my family bonds stronger than ever by being a better son, uncle, brother and capoeira irmão to my C.D.O. fam bam. This year has been a non-stop fun ride with so many road trips with different friends, celebrations from Sacramento to San Diego! I'm thankful for my friends in Sacramento, Fairfield, Oakland, Vallejo, San Francisco and all over the world like Seoul and Okinawa/Tokyo. I've met so many people this year from local to internationally and realized there are so many good people out there that share a common ideal- be happy with your life and spread your positive energy and knowledge to those around you. By doing this, the world will be a better place. The goal I have for myself every year is to ask whether or not the world was a better place with me in it. And each year, I always make sure I achieve this goal because I honestly believe we're all here to achieve a set of goals for ourselves and in the future look down the road we've created for those behind us. Although, this road is created however it may be, those bumps in the roads make us realize how we're getting through life and give thanks to everyone around us for making us who we are. Each year is a new chapter for me and I cannot reiterate enough that I am always thankful for everyone I love and everyone that has affected my life, positively or negatively.

Thank you everyone for being you,

Your acts are fully recognized!

Love & Peace Everyone

change

we're all looking for the same thing
something to complete us when we're dreaming
of what life could be like- no hesitating.

with all the love and hate in the world
I try to find my balance somewhere in the middle;
because to live on one side is to know the other exists.
steadily living my life with full appreciation, I still find bumps on my road.
while the change in my life will never happen with me sitting alone,
I act upon every detail that I want to progress to be known.
for you, but more importantly, for me.
the change will not be seen by those who refrain
but only to those who are not afraid.
to be outside of the box and out of the comfort zone
because sometimes the comfort zone can keep us in a plateau
so why sit down and keep writing this..
I have to make changes right now
so for now I have to......go

Cordao De Ouro Capoeira Bay Area

Meu Mestre, Chicote, gave me the blessing to teach capoeira last week in a car ride I gave after class last week. We were talking about our capoeira group in particular about how we're a fortunate capoeira group that has two amazing capoeiristas, Professor Berinjela and Xango. They're been doing capoeira togethert for 14 years now and whatever capoeira events and batizados that I've been to, I always hear about how lucky I am to have these two amazing people as my capoeira professors. Now it's time spread the knowledge of what I've been taught these past 5 years and 10 months of my capoeira life. Teaching has been on my mind for the past year ever since I received my yellow cordao last November at our Los Angeles capoeira batizado. I hope to learn so much more about capoeira as a teacher as much as I can. I hope to do well because I was a wrestling coach for 2 years and I dealt with 14 year old high school kids who didn't know a thing about high school wrestling and 17 year old wrestlers who still needed to work on wrestling techniques to better themselves. Either way, everyone always has something to learn and progress with when learning a new hobby, sport, martial art, or any other physical/mental activity. I love my cordao de ouro capoeira bay area group. I want to see us grow bigger and spread out knowledge/culture to people and introduce them to an amazing world. I think once people actually know what capoeira is, it's pretty easy to fall in love with it. It's a culture that I feel was made for me! I love martial arts, music, dancing, and a diversity of good people. The past 7 years since our group started in the bay area through Mestre Chicote, I've seen people join and choose to leave the group for their own personal decisions but I only hope now since Mestre gave me, menina and coxinha the push to go out there and begin to teach capoeira that our group only get bigger and bigger from now on. I'm really excited for the next years to come and the potential future for our group.

My situation with my life write now is a little undetermined for the moment because I'm enlisting into the Army this month. I'm going back to MEPS to finish up my physical and find out which job I'm going to be doing in the Army, my boot camp date, and where I'll be stationed at for a possible 1-4 years depending on the contract I sign when I swear in for the Army.

I hope to be stationed in northern California so that I can still be close with my capoeira group because I love them so much and we all treat each other like family. Our group is probably one of the most real, loyal, true friends I've ever had although I've only known them for about 6 years now. Although we all train and are all about the capoeira culture and what it entails as we progress with capoeira, we're also a close group of friends who are there for each other.

When I start to teach I hope to be the best teacher I can be. I'm looking forward to teaching but also learning as well. As anyone becomes a teacher of anything, they learn from their students at the same time; seeing all the mistakes the student makes, and all the hardships and reasonings for the students inability to perceive what's going on. It's the teacher's job to help the student learn and progress and work on the mistakes the student is making, to make them better.

More later...time to drive back home to Sacramento.

on a random note:

Oh yeah, the SF Giants won the world series tonight. haha..I didn't know that until I was at blake's in berkeley w/ my capoeira group and someone told me around midnight..LOL. I'm so out of the mainstream world loop in terms of news, sports and entertainment, I need to pick up a newspaper and see what's going on in the world. LOL. The past month, all I've been doing is training capoeira hella much (training kicks/movements, practicing my berimbau and learning/singing capoeira songs and researching up more capoeira history), babysitting, getting my Army paperwork all set and playing video games. haha..I don't mind though...it's all semantics. My lifestyle is different..lol

Goodnight ya'll

New Songs I Like

Check it:

1. Far East Movement - Like a G6 (Remix) (feat. Jermaine Dupri, Obie Trice, & Adam Tensta)
2. Kanye West f. KiD CuDi, Pusha T, John Legend, Lloyd Banks & Ryan Leslie - Christian Dior Denim Flow
3. Drake - Paris Morton Music
4. Chris Brown (feat. Drake, Kanye West & Andre 3000) - Deuces (Remix)
5. Drake - I Get Lonely Too (Very Hot)
6. J. Cole f. Omen & Fashawn - Relaxation
7. Lloyd Banks f. Kanye West, Swizz Beatz, Ryan Leslie, Fabolous & Pusha T - Start It Up
8. Far East Movement - Go Ape (Lil Jon & Colette Carr)
9. Tyga feat DJ Khaled, Trina, Too Short, Maino, Cam'ron & Nipsey Hussle - I'm On It (Remix)
10. Swedish House Mafia - One (Remix) (feat. Pharrell, Pitbull, & Ariez Onasis)
11. Kanye West (feat. Keri Hilson, Pusha T, & Cyhi The Prince) - Take One For The Team
12. David Banner & 9Th Wonder - What Did I Do (Prod By 9Th Wonder)
13. Rihanna ft. Drake - Whats My Name
14. Big Boi feat T.I., Bun B, Rick Ross & Kuhjo Goodie - Tangerine (Remix)
15. Lupe Fiasco ft. Asher Roth , Charles Hamilton, The Cool Kids, BLU, Diggy Simmons, B.O.B & DOSAGE - Im Beaming Remix
16. Wiz Khalifa, Bones Brigante, Yelawolf, & Raekwon - Cypher 1 (2010 BET AWARDS cypher)
17. Kanye West x Pusha T x Big Sean x CyHi Da Prynce x Common - G.O.O.D. Music Cypher (2010 BET AWARDS cypher)
18. KiD CuDi ft. Cage - Maniac
19. Clyde Carson feat Lee Majors & The Jacka - Way 2 Cool
20. Chiddy Bang ft. Q-Tip - Here We Go
21. Mickey Factz - Paradise (Remix) (feat. Fat Joe & Bun B)

AFRICA SE UNIU

This is one of my favorite capoeira songs because of the lyrical content of African-slavery history involved in the song. My Master, Mestre Chicote (in the video below) taught us this song in Seoul, Korea to all of us Cordao De Ouro Capoeiristas...and we were LOVING THIS SONG SO MUCH! It brought up the energy in the room (axe) so much that we ended up playing capoeira games all night..so much fun! I LOVE CAPOEIRA =)

AFRICA SE UNIU
CORO:
AFRICA SE UNIU
AO MEU BRASIL

Mistura de raça e de côr,
Mantendo a nossa tradição,
Do povo guerreiro e sofrido,
Por isso não teme o perigo,
Lutar contra a escravidão
Africa!
CORO
Cultura afrobrasileira,
Aprende a plantar macaxeira,
Subir ao pé de bananeira,
Viver a beleza do amor.
Amor que so a natureza,
O negro o aroma da mesa
Tempero que da o sabor.
Africa!
CORO
Negro mulato mameluco
Mistura que deu o cafuso
Em busca da libertação.
Nao so da corrente do açoite
O negro chorava de noite
Com a dor forte no coração.
Lembra do abraço mainha,
Cantando uma ladainha,
Pedindo a Deus proteção.
Africa!
CORO

ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

AFRICA IS JOINED (UNITED)

CHORUS:

AFRICA IS JOINEDMY BRAZIL

Mixture of race and color,

In keeping with our tradition,

Warrior and the people suffered,

So do not fear the danger,

Fight against slavery

Africa!

CHORUS

Read less culture,

Learn to plant cassava,

Up to foot banana,

Living the beauty of love.

Love that only the nature,

The aroma of black table

Spice's flavor.

Africa!

CHORUS

Negro mulatto Mamluk

Mixture that gave cafusosIn search of liberation.

Not only the current whip

The black wept in the night

With the strong pain in my heart.

Remember the hug mainha,Singing a litany,

Asking God for protection.

Africa!

CHORUS

I'll never be materialistic....I PROMISE YOU THAT!

I could never agree more. The past year I've probably bought 4 items of clothing for myself. The rest of my money has gone to other people, service, gas, car insurance, food and presents. FYI: I know I see myself in 10 years living well off but nothing fancy, super baller type shit. I'll be teaching capoeira to my MANY students and being in the army w/ a medical job telling, inspiring, teaching the truth for all my friends and family. For when we get to certain points in our life, we'll later realize that we're here to learn, appreciate and just live a happy life as possible. I'll never be materialistic and never LIVE FOR THE MONEY. I'm already rich w/ the people I know and the things I'm teaching and learning for myself for my own goals in life. God Bless.

Will Smith is inspiring. I love his aspects/perception on Success

Start watching this video every day and tell me this won't inspire/influence you to become a better person?!...DO IT!

Jogos de Capoeira

Here's some good games we had at the capoeira house in Vallejo this past Saturday. =)

Stay educated about your body!

I've been following this guy for a few years now and he always has good blogs and videos on youtube that I find extremely important if you're into your health, fitness level, performance tips, and overall understanding of your body and how it reacts to all types of food, stress, exercise, and overall healthy state of mind. Stay on it!

www.UNDERGROUNDWELLNESS.com

Capoeira CDO..Capoeira CDO!

Life is treating me so well. I've never been more appreciative and happy in my life. This summer so far has constantly been unforgettable and I really can't wait for the next few months of my life to happen already. But time will always be on my side and God has set what he holds for my future to happen when it needs to. I will continue to fight and progress with every aspect in my life but still enjoy each day for I'm always looking forward to the memories or right now. Life is always good when the people in your circle are positive, uplifting, REAL, non-fake, amazing people who always have your back and also share the same passions as you do. Cordao De Ouro Capoeira Bay Area Fam Bam..I love ya'll !

Labor day bbq tomorrow!!
YAYUR!