Do you know what’s worse than being sick?

Being sick the day after Labor Day, or any major holiday that falls on a Monday. For one, nobody actually believes you when you call out sick from work. Hell, I don’t believe people when they call out sick on Mondays.

Even when I do it I don’t believe myself.

But alas, that was me. Sick as a dog. And I was even sick over the holiday and in a city where walking through the rains that Ernesto wrought was required.

Viva la storm season!

Two things I learned from being sick:

1) A grown ass man should never have to rub Vicks Vapor Rub all over his own chest. That is a woman’s job. I stand by that; and

2) Being sick alone blows ass. No, I’m not advocating for people to pass on their meningitis to their friends. I’m just saying that when you’re sick it’s always good to have company or at least somebody to tell you that you’re not going to die over a game of Parcheesi, or perhaps Trouble!

I like Trouble!

So I did what any well intentioned sick ass individual would normally do…went to sleep as early as possible and shunned the world.

I also realized I’m not much of a mama’s boy since I didn’t call either of my mothers and I know full damn well how to make my own Hot Toddies. Then again, I like to drink and a Hot Toddy is a mixed drink…just one that folks use to clear congestion and the like when folks are sick.

How many folks out here have no idea what in the Hell a Hot Toddy is and why I’d be drinking one when I’m sick? Maybe it’s just a Southern thing. Me no know.

[***SIDENOTE: Omarion's song "Entourage" is a really good damn song. And the video is hot too just for his dancing. I know folks often hate cuz he was part of B2K...and well, yes that's a very good reason. However, just like with his last album, the songs I've heard sound like his album is going to be good. Oooooooooo!!! Don't be hatin...! I also like Ray J. Just thought I'd kill any credibility I might have upfront this time instead of folks finding out later and then wanting to slap me with a Honeybaked Ham and a side of extension cord. ***]

[***SIDENOTE 2: Have you ever heard of this singer named, Choklate? I had vaguely heard of her until yesterday when I was perusing HoneySoul's site and there was an interview up with her. I figured what the hell, I'll listen to it. I listened to about half then went to iTunes and bought her self-titled, CD. It's really good people. You should check her out, not because she's good, but because I'm telling you she's good. Quality. Goodshit. You'll like it is I suppose the main bullet point I'm trying to get across...word to Family Guy! Check out her MySpace page: Listen2Chok ***]

As you can see already, this post has very little purpose thus far. However, I do want to share a little something. I was driving back from NY on Monday with two of my boys. One of my boys, Doc (he used to be The Great…but now he’s a Doctor of the Ph.D. variety), got to talking to me and my other boy about our various side hustles. In case you didn’t know, I have about 5 or 6 different side hustles. Well, Doc, got to discussing about people being on their grind the way they should to make things happen. For instance, he mentioned how much he liked We The Voices, the currently stalled like shit e-zine I founded well over a year (or two) ago with my homegirl out in LA.

You know, it had a good run initially. It wasn’t perfect but it was fun. Thing is, I didn’t even realize how many folks were actually reading and shit. Yeah, I looked at the stats but what really got me was the inordinate amount of emails I received from folks telling me that we needed to hurry up and bring it back because I was disappointing the fanbase. Like, no shit, I was seriously taken aback. I knew we had a good product (or at least I thought it was) but I didn’t realize that folks actually liked it enough to be mad at me personally when it went under.

That made me smile.

Nothing lets you see that you’re successful like pissing people off. Word to 50 Cent.

And for good measure…why are there dandelions in the parking garage?

So Doc got to talking and everytime he does that, he gets me re-motivated all over again about getting on my hustle. Maybe it’s the fact that I know he believes in me and the shit that I’m doing. Or maybe its the actual validation that what I was doing was actually something that folks I know were checking out…

Whatever, he has managed to light a fire under my ass and make me realize how unfocused I’ve been. I’m working on quite a few different things right now with different people and you know, I’m probably holding them all up in some way shape or form. True we have no deadlines for anything, but still…I can’t operate like that.

I might not even be alive tomorrow.

I’ve always treated my actualy real job as my hobby while I was out trying to make things happen with everything else. And I’ve slacked on that. In the words of the Doc, I suppose if I need to be up until 2am everyday doing what needs to get done to get where I want to go…then so be it.

I’ve been in my own way on a lot of this shit. Whether it be lack of focus or lack of motivation or worrying about something not coming out right. And that’s not even in my personality. I’m usually the kind of cat who does shit because I know I can…then lets other folks catch up and figure it out.

Of course, I’m random as hell so most folks are left scratching their chin but still. No point in trying to figure shit out. Might as well be like Nike and just do it.

So…to Doc, thanks. Like I told you in the car, I might need you to keep it up. I spend so much time trying to motivate other people that at times I forget that I need my own motivators.

To The Champ…it’s coming. I was sick and it fucked me up something proper, but I’m going to get it together. My apologies for slacking like shit, pimpin’. Truly.

To my boy Harold Clemens…we gonna get some of this shit we’re ALWAYS talking about together…too much talent and besides, we need to get you out of Boston.

Liz…me and you pimpin’. We got this. Somebody is going to make millions, it might as well be us.

And to builtfromwax…I’m really going to get on it. Can’t make money unless we got something to put out, now can we? In the famous words of one of my hometowns most famous artists…I be on it…

And to my folks who are very supportive and come out to events I’m apart of or read here daily, or whenever I post, I appreciate it. I really do…I feel like I can be a lot bigger than what I’m doing here but I can’t stop blogging because it caused me to realize these things. Circle of life, bitches.

But thanks for sleepwalking with the kid.

We The Voices. Coming soon. For real. To those folks who are apart…posse up.

Dandelions In The Parking Garage.

And umm…people in DC are rude as fuck. I just wanted to emphasize this. Rude as THE FUCK. I went grocery shopping yesterday to get some shit for my sickness and the folks were just all ornery and mule-like. Nobody says excuse me or anything, or acknowledges you…this is how bad it can be:

While checking out, I said, “thank you ma’am” to the cashier and she said, “son where are you from?”

Me: Down South.

Her: I can tell. You have a nice day, hear?!

Chuuuch!

And for my DC folks, tonight looks like it will be a good night talentwise up in Bohemian Caverns (corner of 11th and U Streets, NW). We’ve got some folks coming in from Texas and some comedians from LA. Doors open at 6pm. Show should start around 730-8pm ish. Hosted by the Kid, Panama Jackson. I bet ya can’t do it like me…shiiiiiiiiit, what else are you going to be doing? Party with Panama Jackson or sit and watch television? The choice is yours…

One of my favorite folks from Atlanta, T, dropped off this little article in my comments section this morning courtesy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the fine folks at Black Enterprise Magazine:

Morehouse loses top spot in ranking

Not only did Morehouse, my beloved alma mater and locale of the best four years of my life, lose its number one spot…

…it tumbled down to the #45 slot.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Now I know that a lot of people out there are talking reckless, and you can bet your bottom dollar people are talking shit since folks love to knock us Morehouse fellas down a peg or two from our self-made pedestal in the Black community and HBCU universe.

Every time these bogus rankings come out (and I’ll get to why their bogus in a minute) every body who went to an HBCU loves to toss around their ranking or tell Morehouse that we ain’t shit. It’s a standard ritual. I remember when I was at Morehouse and Spelman overtook us for the #1 slot all the mudslinging that was going back and forth between the ‘House and the fine upstanding women at Spelman.

But alas, these rankings really don’t amount to shit. They didn’t amount to shit when Morehouse was ranked number one and they don’t amount to shit now.

And the crowd said…”jigga what?? jigga who??”

“Panama, what you talking about Willis?”

First of all, let’s discuss this rumble (young man rumble) from the top slot all the way down to the 45 slot. Do you mind? Then let us tally ho..

The Atlanta college, ranked No. 1 for the past two of the biennial rankings, fell to No. 45 on the latest list, in part, the magazine said, because of its comparatively low graduation rates.

This year, the magazine surveyed more than 500 African-American education professionals who rated the schools based on their black student graduation rates, academic and social environments, total black undergraduate enrollment, percentage of black undergrads and 2004 ranking.

And according to the article and an editor for Black Enterprise Magazine, graduation rates were given the highest priority.

Everybody here can read right? Good. Then let’s discuss this.

In 2004, Morehouse was ranked as the #1 best college for African-Americans. Which means that in 2004, all of the criteria that were used placed Morehouse squarely at the top. Including in 2004, an atrocious graduation rate.

Let me tell you all a little something about Morehouse. Our graduation rate blows chunks. I remember reading somewhere a long time ago where our 6-year graduation rate was only at like 66%. A whole 2/3 of all black men that came into Morehouse were actually going to graduate in 6-years. Me and my boys graduated in 4 which makes us something like some wunderkinds or something. Either way, that news isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but its a fact about Morehouse.

A sizeable percentage of men that show up aren’t going to graduate. It’s the case now and it was the case back then.

…Morehouse’s graduation rate fell from 56 percent to 49 percent in the time frame the magazine used to determine rankings…

I’m not exactly sure if that’s the 4-year rate or if that’s the 6-year rate, either way it does blow. However, you’re telling me that in 2004, that shitty rate was enough to get us into the #1 slot, but 2 years later it drops 7 points and it causes you a 44 spot slide? Granted, they said that graduation rates got higher priority, but even still, assuming everything else stayed the same (faulty assumption but without them saying we suck other places I have nothing to go on…they focused on graduation rates, not me, the fuckers), and given all of the improvements Morehouse has made in every other area from their capital plans to academic programs, the professionals surveyed must have only looked at graduation rates.

Hell, it was enough to drop Spelman, a school that even makes it into the US News and World Reports for liberal arts colleges, ranking to #5.

Dude, it’s Spelman. They graduate. And they still get dropped to #5. They were #3 in 2004. Do you really think I believe that?

Hell Clark-Atlanta University was #10 in 2004…now?? Ghost like Patrick Swayze.

But okay, according to those surveyed, Morehouse fuckin’ sucks. Okay…I can live with that.

Then again…it’s a survey. Granted, it’s one that people place a lot of stock in. Not I.

For one…it’s a damn survey. They asked 500 ninja’s of professional stature to rate the schools and assumingly gave them the main criteria to focus upon. According to the 2003 (released in 2004) rankings, they used 1,855 ninja professionals to rate the schools, so I have to wonder why the dropoff in included parties. Any person worth their weight in statistical salt knows that the greater your sample size the better the results.

There were no statistical methods used to determine this here. My guess is that they asked the 500 ninjas to look over the information that they had and give their ranking based on that information.

And maybe that’s good enough, but you can’t convince me that US News does that shit. And you know what, for all the years that Morehouse has been ranked #1 in Black Enterprise, we’ve been ranked like NON-EXISTENT over at US News.

Do you know what kind of shift you have to have in your examination of criteria to cause a school to actually lose 44 slots? That shit sounds like the school lost accrediation or something to me…and of course this all supposes that real stock is being placed in these rankings.

And you know what, people do. And people will. I just did a google search of Black Enterprises College Rankings for 2006 and all kinds of schools placed their ranking on their site. And hell, why not, if you win some shit, fuck it, run with it. Who cares if you didn’t even know if you were nominated.

Word to Michael Jackson.

This is undoubtedly big news in the HBCU community and will be cause for concern at Morehouse and to a lesser extent at Spelman and poor Clark…they just got fucked.

As my boy Maverick just said, “Like, are you seriously telling me that Clark is not one of the top 50 Black Colleges??? There are only 112…”

Indeed.

And half of them you haven’t even heard of before.

Even though I don’t put much stock into this, I did enjoy hearing about how Morehouse College ninjas thought they were the shit…

…oh wait, that won’t change, and we are.

You can tell a Morehouse Man, but you can’t tell him much.

And you can’t tell me that these rankings mean much of shit either. Like I said, they didn’t mean much when we were ranked #1 and they don’t mean much now. Sure, it was good for a little HBCU tension and pseudo-elitism. And yes, I’m sure quite a few folks are foaming at the mouth for the opportunity to put Morehouse on blast.

Then again, those are all the same folks who would tell me that they got a scholarship to go to Morehouse (or Spelman), but went to Tougaloo College instead because it was a better opportunity. And that’s no shot at Tougaloo, I’m just saying that we hear these things.

To anybody who went to another HBCU and wants to take shots at the King…please feel free. We probably deserve it.

However, it’s still Morehouse College.

Two words.

Enough said.