I have food,water, shelter, love and community. The rest of it is just STUFF and Clutter.

Emmitt Muckles

I purchased a 2007 toyota Yaris because the minivan I was driving was eating me up financially. On occasion I require a larger vehicle to transport my DJ gear around, but it was cheaper for me to down grade my gear to accommodate the change in cargo space of my Yaris.

I live in Michigan, where the mass transit system is HORRID, the Jobs are not centralized, and you have to have a automobile to function. It is not uncommon for a Michigander to travel 30+ miles one way just to get to work.
YEP, I am ranting.

My little Yaris has 35+ mpg in the winter and almost 40 MPG in the summer, with an eleven gallon fuel tank. Gas prices currently are $3.25 a gallon here right before Christmas. That means @ $33+ dollars a week if I travel strictly to home, work, home and maybe two trips to the grocery store or something. Minimum $132 a month, $1584 a year. Heaven forbid if I had a car with less than 34 mpg. How are people doing it with these car of lower MPG, and making $3 or $4 dollars over minimum wage. I would gladly ride a train, bus , share a ride if I could. Gas at $2.00 a gallon looks freaking fantastic right now.

Even electric cars look good to me, but the initial price tag is too high, and forget if you require battery replacement, drop another $8K.

It is a systematic dismantling of the middle class, on stone at a time, because the price of fuel affects everything we buy, from our food, televisions and the list is endless.

You know what, Life is Great and I am still happy and grateful I live in this country. . I have the privilege to bitch about things that seem to SUCK, and actually still have an automobile.

I have been keeping tabs with the Occupy New York movement. To me it is about time people began to protest the crazy crap the political/financial system, hell it’s about time people protest the idiotic non virtues of our society. Here America, the most abundant country in the world exist one of the worst education and health care systems. We live in a country where more food is thrown away than consumed. This is unbelievable. People are walking away from their homes because ther is no hope of ever paying the balance to zero.

We are living in absurd times. There is Occupy Detroit ( My city), Occupy New York,Paris, London and various other cities across the land because people are fed up.

There is ONE OBVIOUS PROBLEM. There is no ends to justify the means, there is no leader.

For this movement to be fruitful, there must be a concise agreement of the terms. Yes we have issues with 1% controlling the wealth, but what is the solution. Without a solution, or a demand to be resolved, the protest is just a bunch of people literally occupying space while being a little pissed off.

I have stated this and the importance is dire, You have to know exactly what you want before you get it.

Please don’t get me wrong, I feel their plight, but an objective is required.

Love you all Emmitt

From 2010-07-20

This is a Creepy Picture, I took in Milwaukee!

That is not the point of my topic. The brainwashing continues to evolve in our society that things have to have a negative spin.

I am referring to admiration. There is a wonderful feeling to get confirmation about how you live your life has impacted another person as an example of how to live. I was an only child, therefore I really did not have a model to live by i.e older brother, sister, or cousin. Much of my early childhood gave me few examples I though were worth wild, so I turned to the thing in the world I felt were good and just.

I grew up in Detroit during the heyday of the Young Boys incorporated and the arrival of Crack cocaine.  I was an only child with a strong presence from my mother, I knew caution was my friend… actually extreme caution was my friend. I chose to follow the path of the narrow, since the path that was broad had too much risk.

I have followed this philosophy to this day. There were a few times in my life when I slipped and followed, but it turned out to be a lesson to fortify a reason to stay in my own lane of life., and just do  ME.

The reason I started to write this post started from a memory that put a smile on my face. There was a kid who I though had the world by a string when i lived in Detroit proper as a teenager. He was a musician, the girls loved him and he made friends easily. Some 20 years later, we met again and spent some time together over several months. ‘

I realized our lives had taken drastically different paths. His path led him to the penitentiary, while I had built a family and a career. Other aspect of our early child/teen years came to light as well. One thing that he informed me of was how for the longest time admired the way I carried myself and my life when we were young. Blew my socks off to hear that, because this guy is and was talented and displayed great confidence. I kind of looked up to this guy because during our teen years he had so much confidence, was very respectful, and had freedoms other could not handle.
To find out that He was looking up to me was a shocker. During our mid teens my path changed and we began did not see each other much.

Example # 2

I was a guitar player for a local church when I was 29 years old. During a revival the church brought in a young keyboard player and drummer from a different congregation.  They were AWESOME musicians.  I played guitar to fill in the sound and the keyboard player and I hit it off . I found out this guy was only 19 years old, but carried himself  like a man many years older.  He was marred with a small daughter, and played for his fathers church.  As time passed and we played more gospel functions together, I asked if his family would like to have diner with my family, I would cook.  We had a nice time., and we continued our friendship for a few more years. Then paths separate me from people again. The temporary factor set in.

Years later I had an inkling to visit the church where the young keyboard player father was pastor. Things had changed, II walked into the church, took a seat. Watched as my old friend played the organ with such grace and felt good that he was doing well. Just as he noticed me , he stopped playing, the music stopped and he walked over  hugged me, and introduced me to the entire congregation. Then he proclaimed this is Brother Emmitt. He changed my life,  then he thanked GOD and went back to the keyboard and began playing  for the rest of the service. (wait,WHAT!)

After the service he informed me that I gave him direction because of how I lived, and until that point he had not seen a young black man who had his own house, took care of his family and lives a decent life without being shady.  He told me that I let him know the dream was possible. GOD works in mysterious way.

My ramblings in this post are this, you don’t know who is watching and admiring what you do and who you are. Yes you are doing all the right things but the wrong things may seem easier. There is someone who loves you for who you are and what you can become . Live that life to inspire others to reach their potential, and your happiness will fill with abundance

Love you All

Be Bless and Happy

Emmitt Muckles

We as Americans and people of most progressive countries have it made and we don’t even know it. Think back to how humans live 100 years ago. The level of comfort was dismal compared to todays standards. Here is a list of daily items we take for granted.

1.) Heat…we don’t have to chop wood
2.) Food…we don’t have to hunt daily
3.) Water we don’t have to go to the well then boil our water
4.) Transportation….Just imagine if you had to ride a horse 30 miles every day.
5.) Hygiene….People use to die because of disease was so rampant from poor hygiene
6.) Education..Kid use to have to work the fields.
7.) Electricity…When the sun went down so did you.
8.) Information..Only select few were allowed to gain knowledge.
9.) Freedom…There was a time when you could be persecuted for any little difference. There was once a time when we could not be with the people we love, because our spouse was chosen for us.
10.) Comfort..I have found the poorest people in industrial nations have it easier (Greatly) than people in third world nations.

Appreciate what little you have to be thankful for, cause there is someone who wishes they were in your situation. If you have issue with depression, heartbreak, or some similar mental/emotional setback, remind yourself the truth about life. All of this is temporary, particularly when times seem rough. So tie a knot in the rope of your life and keep hanging till it gets better.

Be Full of joy and Blessed. Emmitt
www.emmittmuckles.com/howtobehappy

Here is the first of our podcast since we moved to wordpress.com.

I made a simple mistake, I mess up, flubbed, did a dumb thing.

I have another podcast and website that I use to have fun with and spend time with my closest friends producing. The real reason we do the podcast is a scheduled reason to spend an allotted predetermined time together. We have fun doing it, and have been for the last 2 years. Over the last 2 years we created over 50 shows and a great deal of pictures and content.
We have also changed the show since its inception, with the addition of my wife as a co-anchor.

Two days ago in an effort to update the BLOG www.emmittandrick.com to the latest software updates, I CRASHED the sit in a horrible fashion. Now if you got to the website there is a shell of what once was.

Since then I have set about recovering the data that was lost,which may take some time. The great aspect is I have revamped and started new, call it rebirth if you will. Now I can give Kellie the proper credit she deserves on the podcast.

Thanks to wordpress.com, we now have http://erkshow.wordpress.com/

Sometime, mistakes are designed to happen to force you to grow to something better. Once you realize you are better because of the mistake occurring you understand Serendipity.

We live in a very high tech world today. Mobile phone that do everything from giving us our location to sending video around the world. When I was a child and my Dad gave me a digital watch (they were new at the time), he told me that someday everyone and almost everything would have a computer or operate from a computer. My father told me thing in 1976. I though wow, but I have lived long enough to see my fathers prediction come true.

Even though we live in a digital age, sometimes we have to go back to the analogue methods to get thing accomplished. Instead of sending and email, it is more personal to write a litter and mail (snail mail) it to someone. Instead of posting pictures of yourself to someone, it is better to visit them in person.

The same is true for fitness. I am finding out we don’t need memberships to gyms and fitness clubs to lose weight, gain muscle or to increase our overall health. The only real thing we need is drive and our own bodies to become fit.

IF you are unhealthy or unfit your happiness can be compromised. Don’t believe all that you hear, just because someone tell you the latest and greatest is the best doesn’t not make it true. GOD gave you everything you need to to be the perfect YOU! So use you to be perfect.

Emmitt “Dr. Feel Good” Muckles

We spend a great deal of time worrying about our current situation, than maybe enjoying the situation. For some people it is hard to see the forest because those dam trees are blocking their vision. 99% of our life is temporary, having said that about time, why waist it concentrating on thing that are the filler in our daily lives.

Things Just Work out, if you let them.

Remember that test it was so important for you to pass in high school, nope you don’t. Remember that bill that you didn’t have enough money to pay for several months ago, nope.

Do you remember what you were so worried about…?:

• 10 years ago
• 5 years ago
• 2 years ago
• 1 year ago
• 6 month ago
• 3 month ago
• 15 days ago
• 1 week ago

Seriously, chose the good things to look forward to. I know it requires a retraining of your entire outlook, but it is worth it. Most of this we call life is temporary, 99.9 percent of it is temporary, so why worry about thing that are bound to change anyway.

Live well, I love you all

Emmitt “Dr Feel Good” Muckles

Recently the legendary Rapper and hip hop star Heavy D pass away or transitioned to the next level as I like to put it at the very young age of 44. That was a blow to many old school hip hop/rap music fans.

The Over Weight Lover Heavy D

Heavy D was a pioneer in many way, working in TV, Film and recording themes for shows such as MadTV and In Living Color. What I remember the most outside of his music was the fact that you never heard anything negative about him during his career. That is a big one in today’s culture where media figures thrive on controversay and negative information.

The Second and very important fact was that Heavy D was actually overweight. He actually flaunted the fact he was a plus size person, but because he was such a good person and an incredible dance you would  pay little attention to his size. Let me get this right. The name of the group that came to prominence was Heavy D and the boys. Heavy D seem to be a guy who enjoyed life, and was happy with who and what he represented. It just goes to show, if you love yourself, other will love you equally or more.