When should you wear a suit without a tie? I believe the times have changed enough that if you wear a nicely tailored suit, a nice dress shirt, and appropriate shoes (Do not wear sneakers with a suit. You’re not hip, you’re out of touch), you are most definitely the best dressed person in the room.

I love ties, but I feel over dressed when I wear one unless it’s a formal gathering. I do however, wear a pocket square stuffed into my suit pocket as though it was a last minute thought. I love the puff pocket square look because it appears as though you’re not trying too hard, but it can add color, or a little flare to the look.

Yes, wear your suit without a tie. You still look good player. Gary Oldman pulls it off nicely too.

It’s my new favorite app for biking, and it can be used for running as well. Listen, there are tons of these iPhone apps keeping track of your bike routes and distance. But I love this interface. It’s simple and works seamlessly. It keeps track of distance, elevation, time, max speed, average speed, and has a map of your route.

The app is linked to the Strava site where you can see all of your rides, however you can see all them right on the app as well. I’ve tried a few of these apps and this is my favorite.

Honestly, this is the struggle many men (including myself) go through once they hit 40. I don’t feel 41. Or at least what I had thought 41 would feel like. I’m sleeved up on both arms, and I don’t regret any of it. Mine are extremely well done and true body art.  But I do have those as permanent fashion accessories to work with, which sometimes makes it more challenging.

While I think fashion age has expanded because so many of our most famous and most hip celebrity trend setters are actually in their 40′s, we do need to step back and examine some of the clothes people 20-30 wear that we simply should not. I’ve found a video that says it as well if not better than I could have. Gavin McInnes with a very funny, yet true narrative on fashion and age.

Friday May 4th 2012, the music industry lost an icon. MCA, one of the founding members and driving forces behind Beastie Boys passed away with his family at his bedside. He was 47 years old and had been battling salivary cancer since 2009.

For those of us in our late 30′s to early 40′s especially, Beastie Boys reflected the times, and our moods. I would always pop Beastie Boys music in before going out for a good time. It was the sound of our youth, our craving for life, even our sex. As we and they got older, their music matured but still captured the same feeling of youth in our generation. I would argue that Beastie Boys represent my generation more than almost any other band. I don’t know if this is the end of them completely, but I would understand if it is. With MCA gone, it feels like the end of an amazing ride.

Mr. Adam Yauch, thank you greatly for enhancing my life through your music.

Caffeinated Buddha is hosting a Stand-Up comedy event in Coxsackie NY after MANville broadcasts The Jimmy Pigfeet Challenge live from The Cask and Rasher 245 Mansion st. Coxsackie NY.

Hilarious comics and an amazing event.

to see last years Jimmy Pigfeet Challenge

Found this article on Fast Company‘s site. It’s an enlightening piece.

In his 2010 book Decoded, prolific rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z (a man who has more number one singles than the Beatles) wrote about why urban youth are attracted to the drug game:

“I hit the streets for the same reason a lot of other kids do: I … loved the idea of cutting myself loose from the rules and low ceilings of the straight world. The truth is that most kids on the corner aren’t making big money … The kid on the streets is getting a shot at a dream. The dream is that he will be the one to make this hustling thing pay off in a big way … they’re working because they think they’re due for a miracle. The kid in McDonald’s gets a check and that’s it. There’s no dream in fast food. Manager? That’s a promotion, not a dream. It took me a long time to realize how much courage it took to work at McDonald’s. … But at that time, it seemed like an act of surrender to a world that hated us.”

The passage underscores an essential question: How much is it the job of education to provide not only the skills for but a belief in the possibility of the future?

We’re in the midst of an epochal shift in the delivery mechanisms and content of education, thanks to a set of converging factors: the rise of wireless Internet in schools, the proliferation of low-cost web-enabled mobile devices, the massive financial pressure schools experience to deliver more for less, and the specter of a world catching up and surpassing the U.S. in global student performance.

In some cases, the new opportunities of how educational content is delivered are actually changing what content kids are seeing. Perhaps the best known example of this shift is the Khan Academy, which produces accessible, micro-lessons about important topics. Beyond Khan, dozens of other startups such as StudySync and LearnZillionare producing high-quality next-generation lessons. As educational games mature, they increasingly become a form of content themselves–no longer just an exercise for practice, but the actual vehicle through which children learn new concepts.

The nonprofit and for-profit innovators, teachers, and administrators who are collaborating around these technologies are weaving a tapestry of education strategies that can provide better efficacy at lower cost for students. Yet in the midst of this excitement and activity, there is a question that is being drowned out: Why are we educating our children?

There are so many obvious answers to the question that it hardly seems worth asking. We educate our children so they get into college, understand how to think, and are able to get good jobs and have a successful life (whatever that means).

Yet each of these answers is slightly different. Each answer is a statement of values and has the power to reshape the entire trajectory of any conceivable education system. An education system designed to maximize employability is different, ultimately, than a system designed to maximize capacity for critical thinking, and so on. How we chose to define the “why” shapes what we do and how we do it.

We simply can’t view education as a system for the provisioning of facts and formulas or even a system solely aimed at preparing kids for the careers of the future. We couldn’t have predicted the shape of industry today 10 years ago, and it is ludicrous to assume that we’re going to know enough about jobs in another 10 years to design education for it today.

Instead, it seems wise to think on a more fundamental level. What are the cognitive and social intelligences needed to navigate any world that comes next? Math and reading, of course, but also adaptability, divergent thinking, and collaboration. And even more than capacities, what are the beliefs about the future that we need to impart in children to have them participate meaningfully in shaping their own destiny?

What Jay-Z identifies in his quote above is one of the greatest afflictions of our education system: the aspiration gap. This is not a gap in test scores, but a gap in the belief about future potential. On the one side of the gap are learners who believe that they have not only the capacity but the right to use their natural talents to engage with and shape their world. On the other side are those who have come to believe that the world is how it is, and their ability to influence it is structurally limited. The aspiration gap is a cancer that could divide society as powerfully as any line of economics or ethnicity. But it is also a gap that could be addressed at the very core of our education system.

The enthusiasm around education reform and education technology is well justified. We are watching the remaking of a system that, if done right, could work better for everyone. But if we fail to attempt to understand the big, inextricable “why” at the core of the system, we limit our capacity for change and do a disservice to the future.

I completely agree with this. Kids are not inspired. They just see school as an obstacle, not an opportunity to learn.

It’s really amazing, but during what is considered to be an economic downtime, voice over work continues to grow. Technology has caused this continued growth. As a matter of fact, IBISWorld USA released a report that puts Voice Over Internet Protocol at the top of a list of industries seeing the most growth between 2010-2016.  Also in the top 10 are video games and internet publishing and broadcasting.

Fantastic news for the Voice Over Industry, as these industries regularly use voice actors. The video game Elder Scrolls Skyrim alone hired 70 voice actors. Yes, 70. Good time to be a voice actor. Not that anytime is a bad time, but my work increases a bit every year. Even from my steady clientele.

The Voice Over Industry is said to be over $11 billion strong including Business voice overs, animation, historical narration, documentaries, educational material, internet voice overs, jingles, movie trailers, podcasts, radio, telephone, television and Video games.

If there’s ever a time to invest in yourself, this would be it. If you have a good voice of course.

Yes it’s true. Continental/United Airlines hates their customers. How do I know? Because I flew on the airline Thursday, or rather, tried to. I had to go from Pittsburgh PA to Hartford CT Thursday on business. I had to be there in time for a lecture I was conducting at 6 pm. Continental/United flew me to Newark, then cancelled my flight to Hartford because of “maintenance” issues.

The flight cancelled around 12:30 pm. I waited in the customer service line like everyone else. I heard people leaving the customer service desk saying the next flight to Hartford wasn’t until 9 pm. Well, as you can imagine, that would do me absolutely no good since I had to work at 6 pm. And that was the whole point of my flight to Hartford.

So, I rented a car and drove the 2 1/2 hours to Hartford with two other people from the flight who needed to be in that destination before Continental/United could get them there. All 3 of us called Continental/United on the way and asked for a refund on the flight THEY cancelled. Each of us was told they do not issue refunds, no matter what. When I called they told me they had rebooked me for the next day without my consent, and since they had rebooked me for a time that was useless to me, they would not refund me. So I said to the representative, ” so let me get this straight, I paid for a service that you did not provide, not to mention, you will sell that seat to someone else because I’m cancelling a flight that I did NOT book for myself, but you won’t refund me. So in essence, you charge people for services you don’t provide.” She replied; Correct sir.

In other words, Continental/United admitted that they care so little for their customers, they will not only steal your money, they will tell you they’re stealing your money. They don’t care what you think of them. Bring it on they say.

Well Continental/United, I’m bringing it. You are a disgusting company. People will not stand for this as you think they will. There should be a firing from top to bottom of that poor excuse for a company. The fact that you despise your costumers enough to steal money from them, especially in these economic times, is unforgivable. I for one, will complain to the better business bureau, and The Department of Transportation. I encourage others who Continental/United have screwed to do the same thing.

Not that they care. After all, Continental/United Airlines hates you.

I know I missed a week, but…anyway. My pick this week is Grynch. An unlikely looking rapper from Seattle Washington. A lot of his music has sampled old soul riffs, which is something I love about it. The song I dig on the most is “Sara” which uses and has revamped the hook from the Hall and Oats song by the same name.

If you can bring Hall and Oats into the hip hop world and make it sound good, I’m a fan.

A web series called The Destination Guy is a product of Caffeinated Buddha. The new episode is out, and we travel to Birmingham Alabama.

www.thedestinationguy.com