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I'm smarter than the Washington Post!

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Makin' Sure I Don't Miss the HOMECOMING at Howard!

What's goin on good people? Since we last saw each other, I decided to make the trip back to DC for my 4th homecoming as an alumni (I know, I can't believe it either!) Y'all know I normally do a trip reviews on here, but this time, I'm gonna switch it up and do something all my old school ATL radio fans know about: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of HU Homecoming 2008! So without further ado,  here's my Good, Bad and Ugly:

The Good

The Young Alumni Boat Ride: Ok, so I almost didn't go because I wasn't feeling paying $65. Hell, I didn't go last year because I didn't want to pay $45 or whatever they were charging then (inflation is a beast!). But ya'll know you gotta spend money to have a good time at Howard (though I got in free, but that's neither here nor there...lol). I was talking to one of my neos that went to Morehouse on the Yard Saturday and he was like I dont' understand why people are gettin' it in. I was like, no sir, at Howard, we make the scene first and then get to it. You are gonna see how fly the Bison are first before you see us dropping it like its hot. And sure enough, that's exactly what's happened Saturday. Everybody was taking pictures in their fly suits and sexy dresses, and then before the boat left the dock, people were partying like they were graduating the next day. They don't say it ain't no party like an HU party for no reason! The boat ride was like Bison Ball on water. It was a VERY Howard affair!

Doing the Bunny Hop on the Boat Ride: Talk about taking it back. The one and only DJ Premonition (the official DJ of HU 2001-2005) was doing his thing for a lil' while for a minute and then all of sudden, he plays the bunny hop. Talk about taking it back! It was like LaTex when it still in Blackburn! LOL! Good times, good times....

Love being Love: Love was what it always is: the SPOT to be Friday night. Of course it was nothing that I hadn't done before, but I was still in there tipping cups like it was First Friday senior year! LOL! It was crowded like it was supposed to be, but not so much that you couldn't get around. And as usual, the "stars" were out. Diddy was walking around all night and Big Tigger was playing hype man for awhile.

Seeing Keisha Knight-Pulliam in Person: Y'all know I don't normally do celebrity crushes, but Rudy is definitely one exception. LOL! Lauren London is the other one, but I digress. Keisha was co-host of the step show and she looks even better in person than she does in all those crappy TV movies I watched just because she was in it. Phi-Oop to that! LOL!

Hanging Out With My Bruhs and an Old Friend: This one isn't really related to my HU experience, but it was part of homecoming, so here it is. A couple of my chapter bruhs made the trip to check out the phenomenon that is HU homecoming, and I hadn't had a chance to kick it with them since I moved to Florida, so that was what's up. And also good was hanging out with my homegirl from high school that went to FAMU, but is in DC for a few weeks. We pretty much only see each other once a year at the greek picnic these days, so it was good to hang out and take a few Fire & Ice pics!

Ho Chi on Friday: Ya'll know I can't take a trip to DC without stopping by my favorite hole-in-the-wall chinese restaurant, so Friday, I got some General Tso's chicken after Yardfest. It was GREAT!

More "No Mo' Reverse" pictures with Charity: I'm seriously never going to get tired of taking those! Look at us now! Guess that's what happens when a picture is YEARS in the making! LOL!

The Bad

Feeling Old As Hell at Yardfest: Ok, I can admit that Yardfest isn't what it used to be. Ever since Young Jeezy showed up 2 hours late, Trick Daddy told the crowd to "Kill That Baby, That Baby Ain't Mine" (yes he really said that) and that guy Dirtbag threw that microphone into the crowd, Yardfest has just been missing something. Like the energy. It's probably because the university kinda cracked down on performers, and because they started letting R&B folks perform (it's supposed to be a hip-hop concert!), but the last couple years, they've just had B list performers. This year, the biggest person we had was probably The Franchise Boys. It was all a bunch of people that I have heard of. They probably even have a song on the radio that I like, but I'm not checking for them at Yardfest. It's a long way from Jeezy, Kanye, Nelly, DMX (when he was still hot), etc, all of whom I've seen perform on the Yard for $Free.99. So I'm kinda spoiled. It wasn't just that though. It was that I didn't know anybody out there. I was hanging out with people from my class that I never talked to when I was on campus just because we recognized each other. I was like this is what the old people did when we were here! LOL! So yeah, boo on feeling old. But college days do swiftly pass, so eh....

Losing the Game the Way We Did: I know you're probably like you should be used to the football team losing, so how is that bad. But I'm used to them getting blown out, like they did when we went to Hampton and lost 51-2....lol. I'm not used to them losing in double overtime after coming back to force the game to overtime. We were losing 17-14 until we kicked a field goal to tie the game in the 4th quarter. In overtime, we scored first, so they had to score or we would have won. So of course, we let them score. Then they scored again, so we had to score or we were gonna lose. Surprisingly, we did score a touchdown that would have tied the game and kept it going. If we made the extra point after the touchdown. We didn't. We lost the homecoming game on a gimme extra point! Give me a break! lol

No AKAs in the Step Show:  Ok, now we all know that the only reason people pay for the Howard step show is to see the AKAs and the Deltas go at it. Hell, even now that I'm an Alpha, that's really what I'm trying to see (though the bros did SHUT IT DOWN!). But this year, for the first time in the 8 homecomings I've been to, the AKAs didn't step. I had spent the weeks leading up to the show explaining the back and forth to my chapter bruhs, cuz you know they always reference last year, but this year, there was no back and forth. Even when there were only 2 girls on the yard, there was an AKA team in the step show. Now there's like 200 and no show. No one is even really sure why they didn't step, but I know plenty of people who sold their tickets when they did. Y'all know we need our white suits and pumps (with the press of course!)

The "Hurry Up, We Gotta Get to the Boat Ride" Feel of the Step Show: The Howard step show is always an event. It's the only campus show I've ever seen that gets thousands of people from all over the country to come out to. And in the past, it's been long as hell. One year, it went past midnight after "starting" at 7 (the only things that ever start on time at Howard are graduation and the football games, so it was on CP time. it really started at 7:45...lol). But they didn't really have a big event afterward like they do with the boat ride now. Last year was the first year they had one, of course, and people were leaving in mass when the last team was on stage cuz they had to go get fly for the boat. But they kinda over-corrected this year. There was almost no break between the teams. No time for folks to get up and stroll or walk around and see people. There was no intermission for the crowd to get crunk. It was just let's give it up for so and so. Ok, now let's make some love for so and so coming out. Maybe it was because I just wore what I was wearing to the boat ride to the step show, but I really wasn't feeling the rush.

Leaving From Jacksonville, Which is 2 Hours from My House: So this year, I decided to take my brother up on his free flight deal (he works for United). The free ticket was a great look, because the recession is real and I'm still a poor black journalist (lol), but to get it, I had to drive from Tallahassee to Jacksonville. The other alternative was paying $350 to fly from here, but still, I had to leave my house at 5:45 in the morning to catch a 9:45 a.m. flight. UGH! Coming back was bad too, because the last thing I wanted to do after flying two hours was drive another two.

Leaving D.C. 2 Hours After We Got Back from the Boat Ride: Another downside to the free flight thing was that I was flying standby, so my best shot of getting a seat was to get on the first flight of the day. Unfortunately, that flight left Dulles at 8:45, and if you know D.C., you know Dulles isn't really in D.C. Or anywhere near it. So I had to leave my neo's house at 6:45 in the morning, which would have been bad enough, but was terrible because I got home at 4:45. So generally it was a mess and forgot things because I was packing with a slight hangover.

People Who Still Live in D.C. Complaining that I Didn't Come See Them: This one isn't about any one person in particular, but i've had this conversation with more people than I would have liked to since I got back to Florida Sunday. Maybe they don't understand how hard it is to relive 4 years in a weekend because they're there all the time, but when you're coming from out of town, homecoming isn't about extended visits. It's about hitting all the events with your crew. It's about eating at your favorite restaurants. It's about seeing people and taking a quick pic. The people that spent the most time with me this weekend were the people that were at the events I was at. I went to Yardfest, Love, the step show and the boat ride, and I was back on the Yard Saturday for the game. If you wanted to see, that was were you could have found me. It's not really possible to go to 5 events in 2 days and have much extra time left over. 

The Ugly

Terrance Howard Performing with the Band at Halftime: Ok, for the first time since I got to Howard in 2001, I didn't go to the homecoming football game. By the time I got serious about getting a ticket, it was sold out. And I didn't really feel like gettin disrespected by somebody selling theirs for twice as much, so I decided to just watch it on the Yard. I got there after halftime, so I missed the show, but everybody kept talking about Terrance Howard's terrible performance with the band, so I looked for it on Youtube. Sure enough, it was there and it was as bad as everybody says it was. I'm surprised he didn't get booed. We're good for that at Howard, ask Amerie and Kanye, who all got the "who the hell are you" treatment from HU before they blew up. Hell, legend has it, we even booed Biggie back in the day. But anyway, watch the video for yourself. Ol' boy clearly needs to stick to acting!

The Girl Who Was So Drunk She had to be Carried Off the Shuttle to the Boat Ride: Ok, so in an only-at-HU moment, somebody organized a party bus. I don't even know where it came from, but it pulled up at the dock with music blasting and strobe lights going and everybody came stumbling off. Clearly, everybody was already having a good time. One girl though obviously had too much fun. She had to be literally carried off the bus. No, not helped down the steps. She had her arms around this dude's neck and her legs around his torso. She was damn near unconcious. They tried to stand her up after they got off the bus and she almost fell. Her friends had to catch her and sit her on the sidewalk. When she tried to move over there, she took the biggest step forward ever, like she was about to do a split. But she had a dress on, so she only ended up putting all her business out on the waterfront. I was like I don't even know you, but I just saw your damn draws. A mess! I'm pretty sure she didn't end up going on the boat ride.  

Saturday Morning: Umm yeah, the less said about Saturday morning, the better. Let's just say that I was still drunk when I woke up and stayed that way until about 2 o'clock! LOL!

So anyway, that's it, that's my good, bad and ugly of Homecoming 2008. If you went, let me hear yours. If you didn't go, let me hear what you thought of mine. And if you didn't go to Howard, well then let me know what the hell you were thinking! Of course, I'm joking. I love your school too. I just love mine a lil' more! Aww HU!  

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Sing for the Moment

I'm finding my groove with this whole blogging thing again, so here goes today's stream-of-consciousness:

Anybody who knows me knows that I absolutely love music. I'm a regular hip-hop head, love r&b and jazz, sprinkle in some reggae and an occassional rock song here and there (there's a Saliva song called Always that I love...don't judge me LOL!). So it shouldn't come as any surprise to you that I live for my I-Pod. When I was in grad school, I had it with me when I was taking the train to campus, and now that I'm a working man again, I have one earpiece in my ear while I'm typing away all the News You Can Use. I have over 1,000 songs on my I-Pod, including a lot of stuff that I don't regularly listen to anymore, so every once in awhile, something will come on and my mind will go straight to a particular place in my 25 years of life. It's funny too, because the song doesn't even have to be about the event (though it often is), but if it's something I was listening to at the time that some memorable happened, the two are probably intertwined in my mind's eye forever. Mind you, most of these are pre-cell phone ringtone, so the association wasn't as natural. But anyway, without further ado, here's a list of some of the songs that are thumbnails in my mind:

• Kissing You by Total (1996): This is a funny one, because it makes me thing of a girl I never dated. In fact, I never even kissed her. But the beginning of my 8th grade year of middle school, I REALLY wanted to. And everytime this song came on, I smiled and thought of her. Ironically, I lost touch with the girl during that year (I got moved to a different team and that was that), but through facebook, we got back in touch while we were both in grad school. And she ended up dating my line brother for a little while. But to this day, Kissing You makes me think of her. Funny huh?
• Go Head by the Lox (2000): This is one of those I was talking about that has nothing to do with the memory, but this makes me thing of my grandfather's funeral. I'm pretty sure I had just gotten the Lox's album right before we left for New York for the funeral, but after listening to it for the whole 16 hour drive and then drives back and forth from the city, where we were staying, to upstate NY, where he lived, it is seriously etched in my head. I think its the beat, really. It's just a dramatic, brooding kind of thing that captured how I was feeling in those days.
• Got It All by Eve feat. Jadakiss (2000): This is another one that just happened to be playing when something happened. This song always makes me think of the day I brought my first car, if for no other reason than it was on the radio the day I drove it home. I was so excited that day, as only a 17 year old first time car owner can be, and now, whenever I hear this song, I go back to the place in my head. And what a simple place it was. Now that I'm paying a car note for the first time (my grandmother brought my first Jetta), I'd love to play this song and go back to the days when I drove for free (and gas was $1.29 a gallon!) LOL!
• Girls, Girls, Girls by Jay-Z or the Bunny Hop (2001): When I first got to Howard, the southern hip-hop explosion hadn't happened yet, and I swear I was the only person on campus who knew who T.I. was. But HU did know Jay-Z. Boy, did they. The Blueprint came out a couple weeks into my first semester, but you wouldn't have known that move-in weekend. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in my dorm was listening to that CD, and so was every car that drove by. Girls, Girls, Girls just happened to be the "new" song at the moment, so hearing it always take me back to my freshman orientation.
• I Luv It by Young Jeezy (2006): This one makes me thing of my second car, not because it was on when I driving it home, but because it was new when I brought - and I had just moved back to Atlanta, which was going crazy over Jeezy in general - and it was what I was bumping when I was drive those first couple of weeks with my Mazda. Even though I have a new car now, plenty of times I miss my little Protege that could, so this song has become a little bittersweet for me. Still, it makes me think of how happy I was to have wheels again in the beginning of my grad school tenure.
• I Tried by Bone Thugs 'N Harmony (2007): This one makes me think of my LB. Wherever we had to go during our journey toward the Light, we rode together, and when we did, we listened to this. We even remixed it. It went something like "I'm trying so hard, to cross those sands into A Phi A, man I'm trying so hard, that's why I'm studying everyday, it ain't my fault, cuz I try to get away but Alpha's calling me, still I try so hard, hope one day it'll come rescue me." lol...what can say? we had to have some fun along the way. Seriously though, this always takes me back to those days when it was just me and my LB trying to find our way into this thing neither one of us fully understood yet. We're probably closer now than we were then, but man it was more fun then (crazy, i know). Three's Company stand up! '06
• Good Life by Kanye West (2007): This one makes me think of my Fall 07 neos. Ask them why! LMAO! What up Conspiracy Theory aka Destiny Phourfilled! '06

Ok, that's enough of a list for now. I'm sure I can think of others, but I'd much rather here some of yours. Hit me up and let a brotha know! DEUCES!

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Guess Who's Bizack

Ok, I know it's been FOREVER since I updated this here thing, but trying to graduate, introducing the next generation of Bison to HU, looking for a job, buying a new car and moving were all pretty time-consuming. I'm just saying is all...lol. Seriously, if you haven't talked to me since my last post, here's the Quick-N-Dirty:

• I turned 25: my frat brothers threw me a GREAT birthday party, which was, of course, a drunken good time.
• I finished Grad School: Praise everybody Holy, I finished up my master's program this spring. In case you're wondering where the graduation pics are, I haven't walked yet. My paperwork got screwed up, so technically I'm a summer graduate, even though I finished my program in May. Unfortunately though, they don't have summer graduation ceremonies at GA State, so I'll have to wait 'til December if I wanna do the whole cap & gown thing. The jury is still out on that one (more on why later...)
• I brought a new car: Ok, so this one probably threw you for a loop. I'm sure you remember how excited I was in 06 when I brought my Mazda. Well, life happened and the Mazda was kinda, sorta totaled by my Dad. So I spent two months carless while I looked for a suitable replacement before I settled on this: 

It's a 2004 Volkswagen Jetta. Now, if you go back with me further than this blog does, you remember that my first ever car was a 1992 Volkswagen Jetta, which I LOVED. I can only hope this one serves me as well as that one did, because once again, I'm planning to drive it 'TIL THE WHEELS FALL OFF! The downside to the new ride, though, is that for the rest time in my life, I'm caught up in the car note haze. I didn't have the money laying around to just buy a car outright like I did back in 06, so I had to suck it up and finance this one. I guess it was bound to happen sometime, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

• I got a new job and moved to Florida: This is the biggie, I guess. If you remember, I started grad school at a bit of a crossroads. Well, like a wise man once said, I drove by the fork in the road and went straight (that's Jay-Z for you non-Hova people! lol). After I graduated, I accepted a job with an online wire service that covers the Florida State Capitol. So, as of Sept. 8, I am now an employ of The News Service of Florida and a resident of Tallahassee, FL. Umm yeah, I'm as shocked as you are. I can honestly say I wasn't trying to move to Florida. Halfway through my job search though, I realized what I knew all along: I can't have the career I want to have in Atlanta. First, the U.S. Capitol probably isn't moving South anytime soon, and that's where I ultimately want to end up. Second, unlike most places in the Northeast, where there are two newspaper competiting in major cities, in the South, there's usually just one big dog in each town. And Atlanta's big dog - the AJC - is sick. They currently have a hiring freeze because they are losing money hand over fist, since YOU keep getting your news from yahoo (LOL), and making matters worse, they laid off 180 people this year and 70 last year. And since they're not hiring, the smaller newspapers and magazines in the area can either be super picky or super cheap (or both), making it hard for a young scribe like me. Even when the AJC is hiring, they want 5-7 years experience. So yeah...that's that. But anyway, this opportunity came along to cover the 4th largest state in the country and I saw it as a logical step in my progession to the White House press corps. I went from covering a city and a county to now a state. Next stop, Congress right? Let's hope, unless the entire business goes the way newspapers have been. That's other advantage by the way. As newspapers reduce their staff, they have to rely on wire services like us to get information on the things they can't afford to send people to write about. That's why the AP is like a government job in journalism. It's stable and pays relatively well, and most of all, it's not going anywhere, because Yahoo needs their news too! LOL! So I'm back in the journalism business, for now. Wish me luck (and buy a newspaper so I can keep a job! THANKS!)

I guess those are the highlights for the last 6 months. I know I should have done better with the updates, but I had so many things running through my head, I couldn't think straight, let alone write something that would make sense to you. Now that I generally just have one thing to focus on - the job - I should be able to put a few thoughts here every now and then. Hope you're glad I'm back! DEUCES!

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Thoughtful Is As Thoughtful Does

What up Xanga? I know it's been forever and a day, but I figured I'd dust off the old blog for another one of my "random convos with a friend that inspired food for thought" deals. So as you know if you read my last couple of posts (I know they were months ago, but bear with me y'all...i'm tryna graduate!), you know that i miss my line brother ALOT. Everytime I hang around the neos, I think about how me and my back were right after we crossed. But LYPHE took him back home to LA for awhile, so its just me holdin' it down for Three's Company the H.A.R.D. way. That's just a little context, for those of u who've been out of the loop, but I digress. So anyway, the Aphtermath's 27th birthday was last week and his sister called me up a few weeks ago and asked me what he wanted. At first, I couldn't think of anything, but then I remembered how much he liked a scrapbook my friend put together for me of all of my 1,906 "i'm such a NEO" pictures on facebook as a crossing gift (thanks again Lil' Mama, it was really one of the nicest gifts I got!). Mind you, had I done it, it would have just been a straight photo album, like my HU book, and I would have just had to sit next to you and tell you the stories being the smiles. But she broke it down with captions and all our ridiculous "we're COLDER than you" sayings, so 50 years from now, when I'm rocking on my porch talking to myself (or Eric, whoever agrees with me more! ), I can look back and remember every important moment of my phirst year in Alpha. So basically, she really hooked it up. So anyway, I decided my line brother should have one too. I gave his sister all the pictures I had on my computer and we sat down and put together a "Coldest Summer Ever" book for Arthur.

Unfortunately though, we didn't get it in the mail until after his birthday, so I had to wait 'til yesterday to see what he thought, but he called me and I honestly don't think I've ever heard him happier. He was just like wow, i can't believe ya'll did this. And it made my day! Which brings me to my food for thought. I was telling my dear dear friend about the book and how happy it made me that he liked it, and she asked had (jokingly I think...lol) had I ever done anything that thoughtful for any of my girlfriends. I was all prepared to say of course I had, but then I thought about it really hard. I couldn't. But I always say there's a reason for everything. My sad and sorry relationship history is well-document in the archives of this little-used blog. I'm coming up on a year since me and my LB found the Light of Alpha together. I've only had one girlfriend come even close to lasting that long. Now, had we made it to her birthday, I'm sure she would have gotten something just as thoughtful. I'd like to think I was plenty thoughtful before that anyway, though she may disagree!  Other than that one relationship though, most of my "relationship" have been pretty short and hella rocky. In the beginning alot of that was my fault, mostly because I was young and stupid and afraid of commitment (hey, the male-female ratio was 2.5 to 1!), but the last couple haven't been on me at all. The last two or three girls I've been serious about talking to probably would have gotten all the thoughtfulness in the world if they'd stuck around long enough. But each decided to go back to guy's from their past before we really got going, so I never had a chance to be very thoughtful. Maybe one day, that will change, but for now, there's no one close to being around as long as my LB (no homo of course!). And that's why no one's gotten a gift like the photo album!

Anywho, that's my .06 cents on that matter. The convo really made me think, which is exactly what good friends are supposed to do! I'll try to do better with updating this darn thing, but I can't make any promises! I'm trying to get a sexy Master's degree as soon as possible and be employed afterwards! So forgive me if Xanga slips my mind! DEUCES!