Man! Its been a minutes since I was able to sit down at my desk and write a blog post.  For that I am truly sorry. There are lots of reasons why I've been away. The BIGGEST reason is getting adjusted to being a full time dad. The days of Hudson sleeping the day away are long gone and now this little guy keeps me on my toes and I always have to have an eye on him. (Can you believe he is already 6 months old???) The second factor has been my lack of focus and indecisiveness about what I want this blog to be and what information I want to share with my audience (if any of you guys are still out there. PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT and let me know if you're still hanging on to this blog of mine.) Three, I have taken on so many projects that my head has been spinning. I have a basketball clothing line and multi media company with my buddy Kyle called HARDWOOD BRAND and we also have a weekly podcast linked here. I have been working on my photography website for the longest. Who knew customizing a Wordpress theme would be so challenging? I sure didn't! Maybe I'm an idiot but I am determined to get this site up by myself before this year is up. The fourth and final factor has been just making time to create entertaining and informative content for you guys. I want to post quality content, not just put out lame post just to be posting. 

See I have struggled with what I wanted this blog to be about since I started it last year. (CRAZY!) At first I wanted it to be kinda like a Hypebeast where I post things that I found on the internet that peeked my own interest. But then I thought that was lame and there are millions of blogs that do that already. After months of thinking and brainstorming and more thinking and more brainstorming, I now have a clear idea of what I want this blog to be. 

It will be unquietly D.HILL! I'm gonna start off posting once or twice a week. Tuesdays and Thursdays to be exact. You should expect content that revolves around fatherhood, adventures that Hudson and I go on, Hudson's favorite things, food spots that I love, Music that I am feeling, places I love to go, alittle style, possibly some vlogs from time to time and lots and lots of photos. This blog will be a place where I can be open and honest about the things that are going on. My hope is that you get to know who D. Hill is through the content that I post here. I want this to be real and authentic, and it will be. I want to take this blog to higher heights. So I hope that you all follow along and forgive me for being a freaking inconsistent, horrible blogger.  

(Photo Credit: Brian Demby)

Soooooo yesterday was the first time that Hudson and I would spent most of the day without mommy. We had no plans really, the only definite was going to Whole Foods to re-up on my favorite cookie dough (Eat Pastry). I love that stuff. 

I know this happened on Sunday but this speech is still replaying in my head. Jesse dropped so many gems during his speak that hit home for me. Being an BLACK in the US is hard, but being a BLACK MALE is harder. If I were to sit here and list all the situations where I was treated differently because of the color of my skin, I'd be here all day typing. I give Jesse a standing ovation for what he did on Sunday night at the BET awards. Dude got up there and spit that real. He didn't let fear stop him from really speaking the truth about the mistreatment of black people in this country. He stood up there and threw gut punch after gut punch and then delivered a ridiculous knockout punch when he stated that white folks are "gentrifying our genius". That statement resented with me. I can't seem to get it out of my head. It felt like we were all witnessing a moment in history that we will be talking about for years to come. Jesse's short speak was reminiscent of the speeches that were so commonly delivered in the 60s. It saddens me that these types of speeches aren't delivered more frequently when injustice is allowed to run wild within our society. Thats got to change. Its time to stand up for our rights. I am so inspired and proud of what this man did with the platform that he was given. Now I just hope that his words spark change within this nation and the world. Change is long overdue. 

If you'd like to read the speech here it is transcribed. 

 Thank you Debra, thank you BET. Thank you Nate Parker and Debbie Allen for participating in that. Before we get into it, I just want to say, you know, I brought my parents out. I just want to thank them for being here, for teaching me to focus on comprehension over career — they made sure I learned what the schools were afraid to teach us. And also I thank my amazing wife for changing my life. 

If you would like to watch the speech click here

Boy O Boy time has flown by. It seems like it was last week when Hudson entered the world and changed our lives. It has been a learning process for sure! Our sleep has been taken away from us. LOL! Feedings every couple hours at night and trying to figure out why Hudson is hollering like someone is torturing him. (Which breaks our hearts) I will say that I wasn't prepared for this part of parenthood. I'd been told to expect this part of the process but it's a totally different ball game when you are dealing with it on a day to day bases. Hudson has taught us patience and to enjoy every moment even the frustrating ones. 

Happy First Month of life little Huddy! Mommy and Daddy Love You!

So I wrote this blog post awhile back and forgot to post it. It's a look into my thoughts and feelings about my wife's pregnancy and my feelings about becoming a father.  As some of you may know, my son entered the world a couple weeks early. He was born on May 27th at 3:53am. He was a healthy 7lbs 13 ounce and almost 19 inches long. I never imagined that that moment of seeing my son born would be so emotional and life changing. I wanted to still post this because I thought it said a lot about where my head was at. (I'll tell the story about his birth in another post.)

  

I have to admit, I was nervous to try this stuff. What if its gross? Maybe you should do some more research before you just go buy this stuff. All of these thought ran through my head as I was walking through the aisles of Bristol Farms. This was it, I'd found the package. What was I going to do? Was I going to take a chance on a vegan cookie dough? Or was I going to just stand there and look at the packing and decide not to get it?....WTH! I drove all the way over here and they have it so let's give it a go!

As soon as I got home I popped the packaging open, got and spoon and dug in. This was the moment of truth. OMG! when I tell you that this cookie dough is good, I mean its AMAZING! Vegan cookie dough tasting this good? How? All I know is I wanted more. 

I even contacted Eat Pastry asking if it was standard for them not to fill the container all the way up with their cookie dough goodness. The rep who I spoke to explained that they had just switched packaging and the new container was bugger at the top and the bottom. But it was still 14oz worth of their product. I had to make sure I was getting my rightful share of goodness. I think I enjoy eating the dough raw over making cookies. Don't get me wrong when baked this dough make a great cookie. I just like the dough solo. 

Because I had to have more, yesterday I went to Whole Foods to see if they had more flavors. And they did. So I picked up the Peanut butter one (which I was looking for the first time) and another chocolate chip. It took everything in my not to open up the Peanut butter one and try it as I walked out the store. But I used restraint. Lol

Do yourself a favor and go found out where you can get Eat Pastry cookie dough in your area. Thank me later. Im hooked. 

I am a perfectionist which a lot of times prevents me from just going for it and just doing. I can proudly say that I now have seen the benefits of just going for it and not thinking so much and wanting everything to be so perfect. Don't get me wrong, if you can make something as perfect as you can, go for it. Just don't use that as an excuse for not creating and doing. I learned this lesson when I FINALLY decided to stop planning, perfecting and waiting for the perfect time to launch a youtube channel. A buddy of mine (Cue The Critic) has been on me about posting to youtube for about a year now. I always had so many excuses why I couldn't do it. I don't have all the equipment I need, will people want to be apart of my series? I don't know enough about the youtube creator platform for me to create content. Those were all things that kept me from DOING! So one day I had enough and I called my buddy and said "What are you doing tomorrow? I'm ready to start this series on youtube" The next day we knocked out the very first episode of my series APPRECIATE. 

SO WELCOME TO THE NEW D.HILL'S THE NAME

"I'll take 3 tacos, 2 chicken and one Veggie Please!"

 Man I haven't said that is so long. Thats because back in October/November of 2015 people claimed that they were getting sick with E. Coli from Chipotle. When I heard the news I didn't want to believe it. NO not Chipotle! Chipotle was one of my favorite places to eat. It was my wife and my default place to eat when we couldn't figure out where else to go. So you know we ate there quite a bit. But this would all stop for fear of getting sick. I mean people were hospitalized! They were even closing restaurants in the Pacific Northwest. I felt so strongly about not going to chipotle that I didn't even use my 3 free burrito/taco or burrito bowl cards that I had received. It was a shame. When I got them I was so pumped! I was visualizing me walking in and ordering my food and hitting the cashier with my free meal cards. But that didn't happen at all. Instead I let them expire. What a shame!

After I got over the initial shock of the news I thought this might be a set up by those GMO pushers trying to get back at them from announcing that they weren't going to be providing food that was Genetically Modified. And no evidence of where the strand of E. Coli same from, something wasn't right. Then there was news that dog and cat remains were found in their factory. I never believed this one for one second.  With all this news coming out, Chipotle shares were falling fast  and they needed to do something and do something fast. They responded to all this by adding additional deep cleaning, replacing ingredients and providing supply chain data to the investigators that were snooping around. 

My wife and I would play alittle game when we'd drive past Chipotles.  We would guess how many people would be in each restaurant as we passed by. I would usually go with 3 and she would say 2 or 3. Then we would drive past and see that there would be 2 or 3 people in the restaurant or sometimes even no customers. It was a weird sight to see because usually every Chipotle would have a line of faithful customers waiting to get their chipotle fix on. 

Today Chipotle has closed its doors at all their locations until 3pm Pacific time in order to train all employees on food safety. CEO Steve Ells will field questions from employees during this meeting. The meeting is going to cover Chipotle's "From Farm to Fork" safety program which they implemented in January. Some of the things that they will be going over are, DNA-based testing of ingredients before they’re shipped to restaurants, and some changes in food preparation protocols. Now the chain will cut/wash their tomatoes, lettuce and cheese at a central location instead of their previous practice of doing these task at each individual restaurant. They will also be blanching their avocados, onions and limes. And will explore new ways to marinate their steak and chicken. Hopefully implementing all this will see a return in the Chipotle faithful. 

As for me, I have not decided when I will make my return to one of my favorite places. My parents have already gone back, going on Saturday night. They said the food was great and they aren't sick after eating it. LOL! Those are good signs to me. I must admit that I have been craving my 3 tacos and those amazing tortilla chips and the feeling seems to be getting stronger with each passing week. Sooooooo, I'm guessing it won't be too long before you see me and my wife back stuffing our faces with Chipotle. When I do return, I will be sure to post a photo, letting you all know that I went back and didn't get sick hopefully. (fingers crossed)

Let me know if and when you are planning on going back to eating Chipotle. And let me know what you order when you do go back. 

Thanks for your time!

Sorry for the lack of post. It's been hard to sit down and blog with the many holiday festivities going on around these parts. Please forgive me. Now that we are in a new year I'm ready to take this blog to the level that I would like it to be at. The blog will be more of me. More of my interest and my thoughts. My experiences, My motivations, My influences, My inspirations. My intentions for this blog was to create a platform for the world to get to know me and what D. Hill is all about and the things I stand for. I never wanted my blog to become just some blog that was regurgitating material. I apologize to my readers if this blog has begun this way. 

Yes I will continue to post about the things that I find cool and interesting. I'll just be adding more of my personal experiences as well. I hope that's cool. 

So with that said, please be patient with me as this blog goes through its growing pains. I'm still finding my way as a blogger. So PLEASE bear with me during this time. I know you will enjoy the products/material that I put out. 

I also wanna hear from you guys who follow along. Let me know where you are and what' you're up too. 

Sincerely, 

D. Hill

If your'e like me and you aren't going to see The Force Awakens on opening night and you don't want the movie spoiled for you, some genius has created an extension for Google Chrome that blocks all star wars related news that would come across your browser. The extension is called Force Block: the Star Wars Spoiler blocker. Remember this will only work if you use Chrome as your browser. 

GOOD LUCK! MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!