1. ANGRY ORCHARD – “CRISP APPLE” CIDER

This is my favorite beer thus far. Because it is made with apples and only apples, it is naturally gluten-free and its 5% alcohol content is sure to get you a nice quick buzz after just one bottle. Although Angry Orchard comes in three flavors I have only tasted their Crisp Apple and their Apple Ginger (which is a close second on the “delicious” meter). Angry Orchard’s Crisp Apple has that good ol’ apple cider taste with that crisp mouth puckering finish that is sure to enhance any meal. But, for a sugar overload I suggest pairing it with something sweet like apple pie or carrot cake.

2. WOODCHUCK DRAFT CIDER – AMBER

Yes, yes, yes, I know what you’re probably thinking: “Another hard cider?” And if you ARE asking that question the answer is yes. I’m sorry, but I find deliciously sweet apple nectar that can give me a buzz very alluring. Although Woodchuck’s brand of cider is not as tasty as Angry Orchard, I still find it pretty irresistible. A couple of these during happy hour and your taste-buds will be doing the tango while you experience that grand old bubbly, yet airy feeling in your head. (Probably from that 5% alcohol content in every bottle.) Woodchuck has quite a few different flavors of their “Hard Cider”. I have only tasted the Amber and the Granny Smith, which I must say has more of that beer taste to it than I would have liked. So I would advise those of you who don’t like the taste of beer to steer clear of that one. However, I will be trying their Pear, Raspberry and their version of the “Crisp” cider. Who knows? It may even be better than Angry Orchards.

3. LEINENKUGEL’S – BERRY WEISS

This is the definition of hybrid brews. Leinenkugel’s “Berry Weiss” is a nice blend of “pale and wheat” malts with “Logan, Elder, and Blackberries.” (Source: http://leinie.com/berry_weiss.htm ) And trust me, blackberries never tasted sweeter in this ode to fresh and sweet flavors. With a 4.8% alcohol by volume, it may take an extra brew to get you where you want to get. But oh is it worth it and what a sweet victory it will be. So for all of you fruit drink lovers, try this one on for size. No bitter beer or “hoppy” taste here.

4. BLUE MOON – BELGIAN WHITE

I discovered this sensation during happy hour at cornerstone – my favorite bar across the street from the University of Maryland campus. Blue Moon’s “Belgian White” is unlike any other brew. Like Hoegaarden and Shock Top, it too is spiced with coriander and orange peel. But, unlike those two, its taste is superb and more refined. Shock Top wishes it was Blue Moon and Hoegaarden just wishes it could share the same bar conversation. When garnished with an orange slice and poured into an ice-cold mug, its cloudy goodness can be seen in its splendor. I like to eat the orange and drop the peel in the mug to allow its natural flavor to really shine. Pair it with grilled chicken, shrimp kabobs or fish tacos and you’ve got yourself a great experience.

5. BUD LIGHT – LIME

For those who don’t like the original Bud Light, the additional lime flavoring will surely change your outlook on the Budweiser brand. Adding lime was the greatest thing they could have done to improve the taste of Bud Light. That 100% lime flavor gives it a summer kind of feel; A strong upgrade from a Corona with lime. Bud Light Lime is what Miller’s “Chill” looks up to and hopes it can someday achieve the magnitude of crisp, refreshing flavor that its Bud Light counterpart achieves. Pair this with tequila-lime chicken, nachos, or a pepper-jack cheeseburger and you will fool your brain into thinking the bar could become heaven. Do it!

6. SAMUEL ADAMS – CHERRY WHEAT

I came across this jewel while perusing my favorite beer and wine store. I was in search of a new brew and wanted something that wouldn’t taste too hoppy and would be memorable and I definitely picked a good one when I grabbed a six-pack of Sam Adams “Cherry Wheat”. This is a great addition to the Sam Adam’s brand. It is not too sweet, yet not too hoppy. A great neutral beer with a nice cherry finish that refreshes, never overwhelming the palate. Pair this with a turkey, ham or roasted chicken dish to take the meal to new heights.

7. SHOCK TOP – BELGIAN WHITE

Although Shock Top does not taste exactly like Blue Moon it is a close second. While it is also a Belgian style wheat ale, Shock Top’s “Belgian White” has lemon peel, lime peel and coriander spice added in the mix for flavoring . And those distinguishing citrus accents are what make it unique and tasty. Pair this with a catfish seafood club and some beer battered fries. Ahhh, good times!

Now I know some of you avid beer drinkers may be thinking, “What about the I.P.A.’s, and the dark lager’s?” Or you may be thinking, “he didn’t include Heineken, Amstel, Stella” or something like that and if you read the intro paragraph to this post you would know why I didn’t mention any of those beers. This is the guide for the non-beer enthusiast who doesn’t like the taste of beer. And while I am certain I will be able to make a more extensive list in the future, at this point these are my seven favorites.

Ingredients

1. Ranch Dressing
2. Cayenne Pepper
3. Black Pepper
4. Hot Sauce (Preferably Louisiana Style Crystal Hot Sauce)
5. Garlic Powder
6. Onion Powder
7. Salsa (Diced Green Peppers, Diced White onions, tomato sauce or paste)

To increase or decrease the heat in this sauce, simply increase or decrease amounts of each ingredient at your leisure. You can also add hotter peppers to intensify the level of heat in this sauce.

MEN IN BLACK 3

AMERICAN PIE 4: AMERICAN REUNION

UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING

SAFE HOUSE

GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

CLASH OF THE TITANS 2: WRATH OF THE TITANS

SAFE

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

G.I. JOE 2: RETALIATION

JACK THE GIANT KILLER

BATTLESHIP

CHRONICLE

THE HUNGER GAMES

Source: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

“This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last-minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.”

#4 There is an S.G.A recognized Hip-Hop Club on campus: UMD Undergrounduates

#3 There is a radio show that provides free concerts every Friday: DMV Live Radio

#2 Many talented alumni and current students attend UMD: Jim Henson, Peter Rosenberg, Connie Chung, Aaron McGruder, Abel Battery, DP, The Official, Kriss Mincey, Kayla Taitz, Shegaw Productions, Camille Michelle Gray, Simisola, Ike DA Kid, and many, many more.

#1 I graduate from UMD in December! Yeeeeeaaaaahh!

Cool – Kendrick Lamar “A.D.H.D.”

Provocative – Beyoncé “1 + 1″

Filet O Fish

8. FILET O FISH = TOO PRICEY! Here is my plight with McDonald’s on the Filet O Fish sandwich. In recent years the level of quality in its taste and presentation have decreased significantly. As a boy, the Filet O fish was always one of my favorite items on the menu. But as of recently, it has been slowly but surely losing its once great flavor. Not only is its taste suffering, but the portion size of the actual filet has decreased as well. And let’s not forget the fact they are cutting back on the amount of cheese you get on the sandwich now. Who the hell wants a half of a slice of cheese on their sandwich? Needless to say, I feel that their $3+ dollar price tag per sandwich is too much. I think that the filet o fish should be on the dollar menu. Once or twice a year they allow the filet o fish to sell for a dollar. I think they should keep it a dollar all year ’round. Then I wouldn’t feel so cheated after every filet o fish purchase.

Chicken McNuggets

7. THEY DON’T HAVE A DELIVERY SERVICE! As unhealthy as McDonalds food is for an ever-expanding morbidly obese population, I feel that you can not be the king of fast food restaurants without providing something that other fast food restaurants don’t already have. And that of course is the ground breaking fast food delivery service. Of course, I pity any person who would end up having that s%&##! job. I can just imagine being asked what I do for a living and having to respond with a  disappointing, “McDonald’s delivery man.” But hey, someone would want or for lack of a greater opportunity, need to do it. Come on McDonalds! You need to sustain us McNugget lovers  by driving to our homes and providing us with those delectable crispidy, crunchety morsels of cluck cluck goodness in 20 minutes or less at any time of the day. Just imagine what wonders it would do for your average 2am pot smoker.

French Fries

6. SUPER SALTY FRIES! As much as we spoiled Americans crave sodium (Side note: My boss actually adds salt to his McDonald’s Fries. Yeah, he’s practically begging death to come for him like a cast member of Final Destination.) I for one do not appreciate the barrel of salt they dump on my Mickey D’s french fries. That s%&# is enough to give a newborn high blood pressure. (Extra Side note: Never drink Hi-C orange while eating McDonald’s french fries. Your taste buds will not only be confused, they will separate themselves from your tongue, leap out of your mouth and curse you out as they exit.) On many occasions, I have watched in horror as the McDonald’s employee grabs the industrial sized salt shaker and begins their assault on those precious spuds and I almost want to jump over the counter and commence the whalin’ on that unsuspecting french fry Nazi. Yes, I despise the level of sodium those golden brown’s endure after that salt shower. Come on McDonald’s! Just put the salt down and no one will get hurt.

5. CALORIE COUNTER MENU! As much as I am pro-anything that enlightens people of the repercussions of their actions and choices, I do not like the empirical evidence of the pre-meditated damage that is going to be done to my body within the ten to fifteen minutes it will take me to devour my 2600 calorie combo. Nor do I like feeling like a fat ass when I decide to add a 250 calorie apple pie or a 1200 calorie shake to that meal. And the amount of time it takes other people in line to decide what to order so that they don’t appear to look like fat asses is truly slowing down the fast food process. I think I speak for us all when I say that if we have made the choice to eat at McDonald’s in the first place, we could care less about the onslaught of calories we are going to ingest as a result of our visit. Just give me my 10 pack of nuggets with one of those four new dipping sauces without notifying me in advance that I am eating over a quarter of the required daily calories and let me live in nugget bliss.

Hash Browns

4. $1 GETS YOU ONE HASH BROWN! Okay this one has bugged me ever since I first started getting McDonald’s breakfast after work. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought that Mickey-D’s hash browns used to be packaged in a two for $1 deal like those ultra delicious apple pies of theirs. When did some bright person get the idea to give us less for the same price? Argh! The plight of the breakfast enthusiast and hash brown connoisseur. The day McDonald’s returns the 2 for $1 hash brown deal will be the day I buy 4 for $2. Come on golden arches, you know you want that extra buck.

3. EMPLOYEES NO LONGER SPEAK ENGLISH! Okay, before I go into what may seem like a racial rant, I would like to inform you that this is nothing of the such. I love my United nations members. With that said, I hate how none of the current McDonald’s employees speak English as their first language. As much as I like puzzles (Side Note: I once took an art of Africa course where the professor spoke with a super strong German accent and if I recall correctly I didn’t do so well in that class. College Woes! Argh!) I do not like having to decipher what the person responsible for my food is saying to me. What happened to the days when you would get to the drive thru box and actually be able to communicate with the person on the other end? McDonald’s you must institute an English-speaking policy. I don’t like realizing my order is messed up once I get all the way down the road because rather than extra queso on my sandwich there is extra lechuga. Ay yay yay!

McGriddles

2. THE MCGRIDDLE! First of all let me start by saying that whoever thought it would be a good idea to put salty, greasy sausage between two fluffy, sweet, syrup filled pancake like pieces of bread is truly a sodium and glucose craving fat ass. As much as I like sweet and salty things, I cringe at the site and taste of a McGriddle. While it may be a big person’s fantasy, I just don’t see the beauty in it. I think it was created by “The Man” as a weapon to give us all high blood pressure and diabetes, better known as population control. But you didn’t hear that from me.

1. W-T-F IS THE MCDOUBLE? Double Cheeseburger= Yes! McDouble=WTF? Whose idea was it to give us half a slice of cheese between two beef patties, giving it an entirely new name and replacing the double cheeseburger with it? Probably the same money hungry mammoth who thought it was a great idea to charge $1 for one hash brown. Seriously McDonald’s just add the extra 1.5 pieces of cheese back to the McDouble, re-name it back to the Double Cheeseburger, stamp the dollar price tag back on it and good times will be had by all.

After months of hearing great music projects from DMV (DC, Md., & Va.) music artists, I decided it was time for someone to start a series of mixtapes that would expose the rest of the world to the DMV’s music scene. “Playlist the DMV” is the product of that idea. Organized by me, Arteest and released under the ArtLyfEnt (Arteestic Lifestyle Entertainment) brand, this series is a collection of songs from talented artists all over The District, Maryland, and Virginia. This is my attempt at helping artists from the area by providing an additional outlet for getting their music heard.

Each mixtape explores a broad range of vocal, production, and collaborative abilities. Artists range from amateur, unsigned hype to musically seasoned, signed entertainers. Songs will range from the more mainstream sounds we are used to hearing on radio and TV to the more underground type of appeal appreciated by true music enthusiasts. Every volume in the series will give listeners a musically diverse project from one of the most profitable and listened to genres in the world: Hip-Hop.

The title “Playlist the DMV” came from the idea of searching the genres “hip-hop” or “rap” in iTunes to create a playlist and this mixtape is what you would get; a playlist of various music artists who rap about diverse themes and have a wide array of styles and sounds.

All available internet resources will be utilized to make each volume of the series more accessible. Every mixtape in the series will be free and will be uploaded to websites like Datpiff.com and Bandcamp.com and also downloadable via Hulkshare and various blogs. It will also be promoted via facebook, twitter, and word of mouth. Under the ArtLyfEnt brand with the help of music lovers everywhere ArtLyfEnt hopes to become a major influence in music, organize and host quality mixtapes, and help elevate unsigned artists to gain national if not global attention. That is the mission of ArtLyfEnt and the “Playlist The DMV” series and I hope everyone enjoys volumes one through four and future volumes of the series.

ArtLyfEnt Presents Playlist The DMV Vol. 4

This is the fourth installment in ArtLyfEnt’s Playlist The DMV series. It features talented music artists from the DMV (D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area). Most of the artists from this mixtape already have mixtapes and musical projects of their own. This project provides a sample of what their mixtapes sound like. PTDMV 4 features songs from such DMV music artists as Black Cobain, UCB, Nike Nando, DTMD, Muggsy Malone, and Kid Musiq to name a few. With 19 tracks that prove the DMV music scene is hungry and thriving, volume 4 packs some bass heavy, super lyrical songs and some laid back, suave jams that are guaranteed to strike a moment of nostalgia for the ol’ school hip-hop head and yet intrigue the average neo hip-hop enthusiast. Curious? Download ArtLyfEnt Presents Playlist The DMV Volume 4 and find out what the DMV has to offer.

To download volume 4 click cover art above

To download volume 4 click cover art above

Follow: @ArtLyfEnt , @Arteest1 & @DMV_LiveRadio1

For mixtape placement inquiries contact: ArtLyfEnt@gmail.com

Cool

Steph Castro – Clear Water Chillin

Creative

EQ - The Great Escape

Crazy

Sketch – Virginia Tec-9