Can I Share My Opinions Please?

     For those of you who didn't know, I'm a member of the world's greatest Air Force. I don't speak about my military career in my music, or blogs too often, if at all, because I typically like to keep those two worlds separate. However, with the recent events of ESPN suspending Stephen A. Smith over his remarks of domestic abuse, I felt there was a need for me to open up about an instance of my own that is very similar to the backlash he's receiving. I was never suspended, or in any real trouble, but I did receive tremendous backlash in my situation.      About a year ago, I attended an annual briefing that we have for Sexual Assault. Usually, this is a really dry briefing, that is aimed at raising awareness to sexual assault, why not to do it, how to respond if it happens to you, and things of that nature. Well, at this particular briefing, there was a scenario being used, where there was a young fella who has a history of trying to make moves on this young lady

     What's goin on everyone? If you're tuned in today, thank you for reading. I truly appreciate it as always. Had a few topics on my mind from the weekend, and I figured I'd come start off the week right with this one.      So a few days ago, I was watching one of my favorite movies of all-time, The Wood, and it brought back a few memories of my own childhood. There's a scene in the movie where the fellas start to reminisce about the "Booty First" bet that they had in high school. Back in 2000, a few of my friends and myself had a very similar bet. It's funny to see it played out in the movie, because the way they went about it there, was almost the same way me and my boys went about it, with the exception of the monetary prize it the end. There was also more of us involved in the bet than there was in the movie. At least double the guys for sure.      I remember when we started the bet, a few of us had girlfriends at the time, so we figured we'd

  W hat's up everyone? I was watching a YouTube video a little while ago, and it was a video by Joshua Vergara from Android Authority, basically introducing himself. It was a twelve minute video, going over everything about him basically, and why he does what he does, what he likes, etc. I'm not sure why, but it became a very inspirational thing while watching it, and I felt like I wanted to do something similar, but in this specific format. So without further ado, here's The Journey of Me.      F or about six years, from 21 - 27, I was on what I referred to as, "The Quest For the Grammy." This was my dream of making hit music, recording great albums, getting a record deal, and being nominated for a Grammy Award, by the time that I reached the age of 30. I was really passionate about my music and lyricism and felt like this was something that I really wanted to pursue. I felt during that time frame that my lyrics could change the game, and I'd really be a

     What's going on everyone? Thank you all for tuning in and reading my thoughts. I truly appreciate it. After my blog about Fort Knox High School the other night, I began to wonder, exactly where is home for me? I've had this discussion before on social networks, and I know where I've considered home for the past 13-14 years, but as a military kid, where do you consider home?      I was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina in May of 1985. My father was in the military for roughly 18 years of my life, so we moved around quite a bit. Texas, Alaska, Georgia, Oklahoma for example. But the place I lived the longest as a youngster, was Fort Knox, Kentucky. Initially, we moved to Kentucky in 1991, and moved away near the end of 1994. In 1997, we moved back to Kentucky, and stayed there until the summer of 2001. After I graduated High School in Georgia in 2003, I traveled a bit, then moved back home to Kentucky in 2004. I've lived throughout Hardin County in apartments, and r

     What's goin on everyone? Hope you all are doing well out there tonight, and thank you for tuning in to my blog. This morning as I got up to prepare for work, a few thoughts crossed my mind. The first was, I really don't feel like going to work today. The second of which was good times from high school. That second thought led me down a path of reminiscing of the good ol days.      I'm a military brat, as we're called, so typically, when you grow up as a military child, you don't often repeat bases, or keep too many of the same friends, or even stay within the same school system. That wasn't the case, to a degree, for me. I completed seven out of my twelve years of school in Fort Knox, Kentucky. I started out at Van Voorhis Elementary school for 1-3 grade, then after a brief run at Bluegrass Elementary in Radcliff, I moved on to Scott Middle School for 7-8 grades finishing up my Fort Knox run at Fort Knox High for 9-10 grades. Unfortunately, I didn't

     What's goin on everyone? If you're out there today and you're reading this blog, thank you for taking time out of your schedule to tune in to me. I really appreciate it. I've received some feedback lately about my blogs being a bit long, so in future blogs, I will try to get my thoughts out in a shorter format, if at all possible. I use these blogs to express myself in longer formats than on Facebook or Twitter, so bear with me while I figure that out.       I wanted to discuss Kim Kardashian (West) today. Why would I wanna do that? Well, she's in the news again, because her video game, available for Apple and Android devices, has made about $200 Million. I hear people say all the time, what does she do? She's famous because she made a porno with Ray J? She doesn't do anything! But they all couldn't be more wrong. Kim Kardashian does do something, and that something is get money!      Some interesting information I found out today while research

     What's going on everyone? Thank you all if you're reading this right now. I really appreciate it. Today, the topic of discussion was given to me by a good buddy of mine who I refer to as Elroy. With all the commotion caused by Lebron James and his decision of where to play basketball, there's been a lot of talk about "bandwagon Miami Heat" fans, or "bandwagon Cleveland Cavaliers" fans. But the question here is, what makes you a "bandwagon fan?" I'll be glad to share my opinion here.      Let me get this out of the way first and foremost. I was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Through my father being in the military, I grew up on Fort Knox, Kentucky, and at some points, Hardin County, Kentucky. So as it relates to sports, my loyalty has pretty much always remained loyal to those two states. For college sports, I cheer for the University of Kentucky above any team, and The North Carolina Tar Heels, as long as they aren't playin

       What's up everyone? Hope everyone is doing well this Saturday morning. If you're tuned in to me here, again, thank you for the views and for the support. If you enjoy what you're reading, hit that follow button there at the bottom of the page. It may require you to create a Google+ account, but you should do that anyway, because Google+ is awesome! Anyway, today I wanted to get into my second Dear Raf segment, and answer a few questions from you, the readers.       Q. Raf, what are your thoughts on coworker rivalries?       A.  Well, coworker rivalries can be a good thing and a bad thing to me. In the good case, a little friendly rivalry where two coworkers are competing against one another to do better than the other can work out great for the greater good of the office, company, or wherever they work. I actually encourage this kind of rivalry amongst my subordinates at work, because I believe each of them should want to outdo the other and compete for awards. N

      What's up everyone? If you're reading this, thank you once again for tuning in to my thoughts. I truly appreciate it. Tonight I kind of want to jump out of the norm, and ask the question, can you love more than one person at the same time? And not like, hey, you're my friend, I care about you, I love you. No, I mean genuine, I love you, I'm in love with you type of feelings, for more than one individual? My answer is, yes you can, and here's why.     As I type this, I'm watching an episode of "The Wonder Years," ( Season 2, Episode 11) where Kevin is trying to figure out if he can possibly like two different girls at once. Kinda ironic that this episode came on as I began to write this. Anyway,  I believe that you can genuinely be in love with more than one individual, simple because I feel as if you can't control the way you feel about someone. I've been in this situation before a long, long time ago. In my days, I can remember there be

First off, let me say thank you all for reading my blog over the past few days. I was looking at some of the page views, and I've had 283 views here recently. That's pretty awesome to me, and I really appreciate it. I hope you all continue to tune in, and spread the word to others.       A few days ago at work, I was chatting with my good friend Nay Nay (not her real name, but that's what I call her.), and she gave me the idea to do a weekly segment of Q & A's titled, "Dear Raf," where my readers can shoot me their questions or concerns, and I answer them here. I thought it was a pretty good idea, and since I'm wide awake right now (it's 12:30 a.m here in OKC), I figured I'd get started. So here's the first bunch of questions and answers for the new Dear Raf segment.      #1. Dear Raf, Q. How do I end an unhappy relationship, when kids are involved? A: Wow! This is a dilemma that I hope I never encounter, but I will give it my best shot

Women.     I work with a majority of women, I'm married to one, have three daughters, my mother, a step-mother, a godmother, a mother-in-law, and countless female friends. While we as men will probably never quite understand women ( women understand women, which is why they hate each other... or so I've heard.), I for one try to study them, and learn as much about them as I can. This not only helps me know their likes and dislikes, but, it also teaches me MY likes and dislikes about them. One major thing that I've come to really dislike about women in my 29 years on this earth, is women who think they're attractive, and act that way as well. Let me explain.      I have met plenty of physically beautiful women  in my lifetime. I couldn't even come close to counting how many I've come across. But in all that time, there's not very many that I've met that were beautiful physically, AND mentally. It's gotta be a combination of the two ladies. Sure, you

So it's been a little over five years since I last blogged, but today I begin my new blogging journey. A few of my friends told me I should get back into it, due to my good ideas and writing ability, so I'll give it another shot. While at work, I was trying to figure out a good topic to discuss for my return post. I went over a ton of different options from work, sports ( particularly Lebron James today), music, movies, etc, but I finally decided on one topic: Dipping your pen in company ink. Let me say, that prior to 2011, I had never even heard this phrase before. It was around that time, that a female coworker, who lived close to me, needed a ride home. I said sure, I could take her home, especially since it wasn't out of my way. Once she left from my office, my other coworkers started teasing me, and saying I had a little work crush. You know? Typical work stuff. My boss, who was in on the jokes, says to me, " All right, don't go dipping your pen in com