Whuddup Blog....


GIFs of me crankin it up:
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http://faysalphotography.com/temp/animike/mikedance-2.gif
http://faysalphotography.com/temp/animike/mikedance-1.gif


 Peace, JW Sharp

2013

Whuddup Blog....

Well, I clearly did not follow up on my resolution for 2012. So let's try this again. 2012 was a quite mediocre year honestly. Although progress was made at work in regards to improving my pay, and making myself noticed for one of our premier products, I also took a step back in the relationship category. After ending a 2 year on-again-off-again, it's back to the drawing board in 2013. My resolution this year is to improve my overall way of life. There are a few things on my list, but hopefully i'll get back here to jot down a detailed list. Looking forward to the new year!

 Peace, JW Sharp

1/19/11 Haiku

Haiku Style....

Found keys in hamper

Basketball tired me out.

I am getting old.

Peace,JW Sharp

I wanna Jam

Whuddup Blog....

So i'm going get started on my New Years Resolution Early this year. At least one of them. I'm going to exercise my creativeness more often. Admittedly, i want to get this started on account of beginning school in January, but i also need to find more constructive ways of expression. I won't get into current outlets, but i'm sure this is much healthier. So i'll be urging myself to read, write, and photograph more. The photograph part should be easy with the recent purchase of my Nikon D70 camera. i'm excited to learn how to use it, and i definitely plan to. Frequently. Hopefully, i'll love it and pursue it professionally. If people tell me that i'm any good at it that is.

So hopefully i can start getting people to check in here and leave some feedback. Marketing Strategy Go!

Peace, JW Sharp

Whuddup Blog,

This year Halloween fell on a weekend. Me and Geto Boys are trik-or-treating... But really, we decided to roadtrip it up to DC to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Muni, Katie and I rented a Nissan Armada, appropriately named, because this thing was a beast. Friday was spent running errands and prepping for the trip. A solid 6 hours of running to stores inappropriately around Metro Atlanta we were finally ready to hit the road around 8PM.

We headed out on 85 north and immediately hit Gwinnett County evening traffic. Everything past that was fairly clear 'Night Driving' as i like to call it. Few cars on the road, and fewer cops. We used the Pandora on my phone for music purposes which was cool, but because i couldn't edit the quickmix, Otis Redding Radio was making the late night driving a little rough. No problems though, we made the trip in 9 hours, and rolled into the hotel at about 5AM.

Katie's co-worker Dom had booked a double room in Arlington. Dom decided to hit the road at 5 for an early start. I thought leaving 7 hours before something started and 18 minute train ride away was dumb. Especially in the cold DC fall weather. It was about 35 degrees at when we arrived, and Dom was leaving the room in only a suit. The suit was for his pretty cool costume; Joaqin Phoenix, with the beard and glasses and "Joaqin for President" sign. So Dom leaves, and we sleep. Until about 8:30 and even with two females and one bathroom, got out of the room by nine.

The streets of Arlington were already bustling. More than any average day in Atlanta anyway. First things first, we had to find food. We started toward Subway, but then headed over to a sandwich/coffee shop called Cosi instead. There were three blue collar dudes ordering their food as we got there, and the Hispanic cook was having trouble taking their oder. His coworker had been out in the seating area cleaning tables, and came back to take our order. I should say my oder, as Katie later informed me of some possible health code violations, as well as a 'growth' on the coworker's lip. Thanks for the warning. I ordered, two breakfast burritos, one italian sausage and provolone, and one Santa Fe. Not sure what was in the Santa Fe, but it was good when i eventually ate it. Then went to the other side to pay and got a coffee and a banana nut muffin. Ate the muffin, threw the Santa Fe in my Camlebak, (which was holding Everclear, Gatorade, and two cans of Redbulls. The Tucker Death Mix) and started to eat the other burrito as we searched for the Metro.

The Metro wasn't far at all, and was easy to find; Follow the people. We jumped on the escalator down to the station, and it was officially the 'attendance is too damn high party'. The lines to each of the 8-12 ticket machines was about 40 ppl deep with another 100-150 people standing around looking lost. The trains worked on some sort of payment by distance system, so i just put in 10 dollars and hoped that would do what i needed.

We got down to the platform, and there were at least 300 people waiting for the train. The first train comes and its packed. Packed like maybe 20 of the 300 got on the train. The trains were running about 10 minutes apart, so we head to an empty spot on the platform and wait. The next train pulls up. Packed. More so than the last. I didn't see anyone get on. More than half the people head back up to the streets and we stand there and talk about waiting it out for an open spot. Some people are starting to head to the other side of the platform, and we consider option B. Option B is going over to the other side and riding the train back to the starting station which is about 5 stops back. As were talking, the next train comes, and no one gets on. Option B in full effect.

The first train comes, and its gotten pretty full from so many others catching on as well. We jump on the train, and it starts to quickly fill up as we travel backwards. We get two stops, pick up what has to be the last load, and the doors seem to remain open for an unusually long time. The operator comes on the speakers and tells who ever is holding the doors open on the last car to stop. We sit some more. He says that if he can't close the door, he has to clear the train. We wait more. The operator says the train is now out of service and we must clear the train.

The next train arrives, and it's a mad dash for the doors. People trying to get off the train had an uphill battle. We make it into the train and it's immediately pretty unbearable. Theres nothing within direct reach to hold onto, it's hot from the forced body contact, about 8 of the 25 people in a ten foot radius displayed some sort of cold symptom, and a little mad scientist looking dude kept junk pressing me. Munira somehow got a seat on the train and was able to excgange in pleasant conversation with some people. I think she's a witch. We rode this way back the remaining 3 stops, then the entire 45 minute ride to the National Mall. We arrived at about 1:15. Ridiculous.

We exit the Smithsonian train station, and once again follow the crowd. Theres a lot of people. I can't really see how many, but theres a ton. Some people are dressed in costume, and a lot of people had some pretty good signs. When we got to the mall we could see that we were a good way from the stage, so we started heading down. We didn't get far. Muni and Katie started trying to get through the crowd, and i decided to wander around on my own. I tried the advancing zig zagging method to no avail, and ended up about 600 yards from the stage. Couldn't quite hear, and couldn't see at all. The main entertainment became sipping on my death mix and cheering for the kids climbing up into the trees.

After the rally was over i wandered around talking to people and looking for the girls. I find them in the sculpture garden and and start looking for the rest of the group that we were to meet up with. There's still thousands of people walking around, so i ask Katie if she brought any of her stuff to hand out. My deathmix was starting to kick in, and i started mingling while shoving postcards and stickers into peoples hands. Thats how we met JohnBoy and Frank, two guys who were up from Tennessee that started chopping it up with us. They seemed pretty cool, and there's always room in the party so they came along for the ride. They helped as we started promoting our way to the eastern market to find people. JohnBoy's go to move was asking people if there grandmother was alive then telling them they should send her a postcard. When one girl said her grandmother was alive but had schizophrenia, he told her to take two for each of her personalities. We walked around for an hour, then gave up and grabbed a cab.

We got over to the Eastern Market part of town and met up with Anand, Liz, Drea, Conor, Kaila, Salim, and Ibhar. We stopped at Popeyes to get a stomach base before jumping directly into the bar scene. I didn't eat, but decided to sit in a booth with a young local. She was about 22 years old, and beared a striking resemblance to Precious, the character, not Gaborey Sidibe. There is a difference. I sat with her while she provided absolutely useless information about the DC party scene, and devoured what must have been at least a six piece meal. My deathmix was really kicking at this point, but i wasn't quite at the point to ask her how much chicken was in there. There were 3 sides though.

After Popeyes, we stepped out to survey the streets to see where the drinking would begin. The streets were lined with about 20 bars as far as we could see. We stepped across the street to a cantina style piano bar, and went upstairs where there was a lounge style bar with reasonably priced drinks. We took up a corner of the place and went in on some margarita and beer pitchers. After about an hour we notice a blind guy making his way over to the piano in the corner. He announces himself as the entertainment for the evening, and starts playing. Pretty good. Two songs in, he picks up a sax and starts playing it. Impressive. Three songs in, he picks up a trumpet and starts playing that with one one hand, and continues to play the piano with his other hand. Amazing. We hang out a bit more and talk about the day so far, then decide to go find a more upbeat bar.

We head out and decide to head over to Dupont Circle. We jump on the Metro, and get there in about 20 minutes. Dupont doesn't look too different from Eastern Market. Once again theres bars and clubs lining the streets. We try one bar but are turned away because of an expired ID in the group. Dude, 12 people want to come get ripped in your bar. Your loss. After leaving here, we come across not only one of the biggest dudes I've ever seen, but he's dressed up as Alice for Wonderland. It's a fairly ridiculous sight. Munira's face below pretty much mirrors mine the whole time.

We find another bar which turns out to be a Russian club. It was set into a block of buildings like most other bars i had seen. It took me about half an hour to figure out why everyone had an accent. But the music was good, and we found some tables on the top floor. There is kind of a brown out situation at this point, but i think we stayed here for about an hour or so before people started peeling off. Ibhar had to find some people he needed to meet up with, and JohnBoy and Frank had to get back to their room to head out in the morning. Conor was getting tired and had the way back for the rest of the group, so we started heading out.

The rest of the night is pretty much remembered through flashes of memory ranging from :30 to maybe a minute or two long.

...JohnBoy had a jacket. Not his, but perhaps that of a teenage girl or middle school child, and proceeded to squeeze into it. And lift his shirt for some reason. Then make Frank hold is 'keg' for pictures... there was picture taking near a train station...I climbed into the cargo area of a SUV...I woke up at 8AM...

Damn... White boy wasted yet again... oh well.

Although we pretty much missed the events of the rally, it was a great trip, and i can't wait until the next.

....Peace,JW Sharp

Holy Greenville Batman!

So, Moe and I go way back. Manny too. The three of us had served together at Ft Hood then been deployed to Iraq for a year. So when Manny said he could scoop me up for Moe's graduation I said "sure, sounds fun". Well, graduation day is today. And Moe is graduating from Bob Jones University in Greenville South Carolina. The "buckle" of the bible belt. The male students here at BJU are required to wear a tie at all times while the ladies must don knee length skirts or dresses. Upon our 7:45 arrival, (ceremony starts at 9) I couldn't help but notice the lack of "color" in the crowd. Not just black, but anything. The majority of the crowd looked like Bill O'reilly swear god. I kept having the urge to shout "Where the white women at!!" Looking around, it's an overwhelmingly conservative crowd. No facial hair, and I don't think i've seen so many brunettes in one place. But jeez, every body looks so damn plain. I asked Moe about the bible classes he was required to take as, and he said he took a cult worship class. When i asked him what that was, he said "everything else". Hilarious. They actually just opened the ceremony by denouncing all the heathens in the crowd. 30 minutes in, Manny asks me via text if it's just him or if all these kids seemed brainwashed. I told him brainwashing is like rape, doesn't work on the willing. Plus I think BJU is importing new recruits from other countries. Half these kids are from Russia and Japan. it is now 11. I think there is another hour left. I've been asleep two different times, and I don't think I can make it.

Whuddup Blog,

There is absolutely nothing like a country summer day. Maybe a few dogs off in the distance, birds, crickets, some kind of insect I don't know. But it's all so soothing. Just finished up a quick 9 at the fairly nice Fuhrman University Golf Course, and am relaxing on the porch with a smoke and a beer. Honestly, this is one of the most relaxing and cozy towns I have been to, but Greenville is damn boring.

Peace