Hello? Is Anyone Out There?

It's been a while since I last wrote. A lot has happened, I've changed too. I would like to think for the better and its evolution.

A while back but after Nisha was born, I said to my wife, Kesh, I wanted to keep a journal for Nisha. If or when I'm gone, she'll have my thoughts and wisdom I couldn't share in person.

For my birthday and Father's Day, she bought me a beautiful notebook and a journal as gifts to get me started.

I still love the idea, but getting started is harder then you think, especially of you are not a writer and don't have any time. Right now for me to type this post, uneditted, unproof read is a lot for me. I'm typing it on my little iphone on the toilet. 

 
Anyway the first step in a journey is always the hardest, and this post is intended to be my first step in writing down my thoughts into a space that can later be recieved years later, like a science fiction movie.

Covid Vaccines and Us

What’s on my mind? Covid vaccines. One Montgomery County, the richest and one of the largest counties in the state don’t have a mass vaccination site yet. Still waiting because phase 2 & 3 are going to be a battle royal is MC residents have to keep “take up appointments” across the state. Two, the truth about America. Hard work is an ideal and stepping stone for how America really work. Connections and influence. Best things in America comes from access. It’s the best kept secret. How do you really get a good deal? A hook up. How do so many people get scholarships for school while so many others have student loans? Knowledge yea but how do one person know about stuff one hundred others don’t? Covid vaccinations are stepping in line with the truth about America. Look at who is getting quickly vaccinated. There are people along the people that is supposed to be line for them also getting it. I’m not mad at that at, this how America works. I am mad at people to try to discourage others from getting there’s. Don’t knock the hustler on this one. From my observations, this one of those rare times when black and brown are singling ourselves out because of well earned mistrust of out society and shouldn’t be. The way I see it being in a Western Country right now is blessing. In Africa and other places they are begging for vaccines to save lives and our countries have the lion share while the rest of the world fights for scraps. This is not like Tuskegee or secret birth control programs. They are not trying to give the vaccine only to black people, almost the opposite. Like your voting rights, it’s not made easy for black and brown people in general. Computer based appointments, limited sites, and uneven distribution To all my woke brother and sisters, if you see white people from the richest county in the state strolling in to the blackest county in the state to get all the vaccine appointments and left over shots, wake up, there is something to it. This is America, they found out how to get something that’s valuable. Black and brown people we should be sharing tips on how to each other appointments and left over shots instead of discouraging each other. Please excuse any misspellings and grammar, I just want to get this thought down before I move on with my life. Love, Peace, and hair grease. ✊🏾

A First!

Today, I was truly honored to find out someone liked one of my photos enough to have it professionally printed. I am so moved by it. We all appreciate approval in different fashions.

How I First Learned To Program

I been asked many times, is computer programming hard?  My answer is always no, anyone can learn.  I taught myself my first programming language in early in the 9th grade after randomly finding this BASIC Games Book in the used bookstore in Downtown Wheaton, Maryland.  On the family old 286 PC, I would sit there an type out programs and run them on the MS-DOS BASIC Interpreter.  I never learn how to save the files so I would have to retype the programs every time I got on.  It wasn't just about playing the games, it was the correlation of what I typed and how it translated in to actions on the computer.  And with further understanding, I would be able to write programs that do what I want them to do, like those in the book.

At night, I would lay in the bed and study the programs...relating what one line might mean to another.  And that's how I learned BASIC.  I didn't have anyone to teach me or any idea of what it was I was looking at, but I liked it.  I was able to figure out what the keywords meant through mostly trial and error and relational analyst.  Now that I'm older, I don't think it was a process too different from someone learning another speaking language through immersion.  Learning is learning no matter what the subject is.  You can learn the laws of physics by using and observing them.

Today, I know several more programming language and have a Computer Science degree.  Also, I am doing what I learned to love years ago for a living.  It feels good.  But the bottom line, it wasn't hard to learn; it only took one book, and it wasn't even a how to book.

*Disclaimer* Learning a computer language is not difficult at all but being good at writing computer software is mainly the reason why you paid what you are paid.  Just like a writer, knowing how to put words together will only get you so far, the talent is how well you put the words together to achieve your goal.

William Washington Photography

Years ago, I was given an SLR camera as a birthday gift and since then I have taken thousands of pictures.  That camera has long been put to rest but the hobby has continued.  For a couple years now, I toyed around with the idea of creating an online website to showcase some of my pictures in a portfolio style.  But not really to generate business, only because photography is still a hobby for me.  I just want to simply to have a calling card for opening future doors.  Last week, I took a couples hours to collect some pictures and throw together a website.

I present William Washington Photography.  Feel free to check it out.

http://photography.willwash.com

The Will Wash Podcast - Video Test

The Will Wash Podcast - Video Test. Special Guest Joey

I know the audio drops out, I am testing to make sure the video automatically downloads to iTunes users and can be seen.

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Yes, Vegas Baby!!

This Spring there was a guy's trip to Vegas and it was EPIC!!!! Lol drug, sex, and drum and bass. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas but I can give a peek at the fun and test out this blogger app for the iPhone at the same time. 

The following is the pictures from my iPhone. 

On the plane I was seated next to a heavy set couple. However, the stewardess had compassion for me and gave me a row by myself. Winning. 

Over Big Bear, California. 

I had a layover in LAX. Followed the sun to the ocean.  

I love Los Angeles. I always promise to come back. 

After a long flight I got pizza at the airport. 

Wood fire grilled pizza. 

Goat Cheese Veggie Pizza.  

Las Vegas. 

My hotel, The Cosmopolitan

. 

Vegas days & nights!

It was a great amazing trip!

Good Kid, M.A.A.D City: A Short Film by Kendrick Lamar

This is a repost from Tumblr, clarify the instant classic hip hop album by Kendrick Lamar:

Good Kid, M.A.A.D City: A Short Film by Kendrick Lamar

Setting: Compton

Characters:

Kendrick Lamar (present Kendrick)
K.Dot (young Kendrick)
Sherane
Kendrick’s Mother
Kendrick’s Father
Dave
Dave’s brother
Keisha’s sister
Demetrius (Sherane’s favourite cousin)
The Two Brothers (Sherane’s younger brothers)
Granny (Sherane’s Granny who she lives with)
Sherane’s Mother (a crack addict)
Uncle Tony (Kendrick’s Uncle who was killed)
Joey (either childhood friend of Kendrick or cousin)
L, Boog, Yaya, Lucky (friends/family members of Kendrick when he was 9)
Unknown Woman (who gets the boys to pray)

The Story:

Sherane aka Master Splinter’s Daughter

The story opens as a flash-forward. K.Dot has known Sherane for a number of months by this point. He met her at a party where they flirted and exchanged numbers. They kept in contact with each other over the summer and got to know each other pretty well, he talks about her family’s history of gang-banging that made him wary but didn’t stop him from hooking up with her.

At the end of this song K.Dot is driving to Sherane’s house in his Mother’s van, he has sex on the brain. But when he turns up Sherane is outside waiting with two dudes in black hoodies (possibly her two younger brothers, or her cousins, one of which could be Demetrius).

Skit #1 - as K.Dot pulls up at Sherane’s house his Mother tries to call him but instead gets his voice-mail. We learn from his Mother that K.Dot said he was borrowing her van for just 15 minutes. She warns him not to mess with “them hoodrats” especially “Sherane”.

****, Don’t Kill My Vibe

The content of this song doesn’t actually follow the Sherane narrative. It is a song told from the perspective of Kendrick Lamar the rapper and how as he gradually gets more recognition as an artist he sees people around him changing, “I can feel the new people around me just want to be famous.” He also talks about trying to maintain his credibility while becoming a more mainstream artist, “I’m trying to keep it alive and not compromise the feeling we love/You trying to keep it deprived and only co-sign what radio does.”

Skit #2 – The narrative begins. K.Dot’s homies pick him up in their white Toyota with a pack of blacks and a beat CD.

Backseat Freestyle

The most self-explantory song on the album. Young K.Dot cruising around town with his homies, getting high and dropping freestyles in the backseat. This is a life is good moment, living free, no troubles. The calm before the storm. 

The Art of Peer Pressure

The narrative begins to build. The pressures of hanging with the homies becomes more than simply having a laugh and freestyling. The usually drug free and sober K.Dot is brought in to a world of drinking, smoking, and violence when with “the homies”. Cruising around in a white Toyota, hitting up girls, jumping dudes wearing rival colours, and bragging about what they just did.

The stakes are upped when K.Dot and his homies rob a house that they had been stalking for two months. Cops pursue them but lose them.

Skit #3 - K.Dot is “faded” because he “hit the wrong blunt”, this a true story of young Kendrick hitting a blunt laced with angel dust. The homies talk about dropping K.Dot off back at home, so he can take his Mother’s van and go hit up Sherane – and then they can all meet back up later on the block.

Money Trees

K.Dot recaps the story so far.

He talks about robbing the house, “Home invasion was persuasive/From 9 to 5 I know its vacant.”

He mentions ****ing Sherane and bragging about it to his homies, “I ****ed Sherane then went to tell my bros.”

He references Backseat Freestyle when he talks about rhyming to beats, “Parked the car and then we started rhyming, ya bish/The only thing we had to free our mind.”

And he talks about jumping dudes who looked like they had more money than them, “Then freeze that verse when we see dollar signs/You looking like an easy come up ya bish/A silver spoon I know you come from ya bish.”

The line in the chorus “Everybody gon’ respect the shooter/But the one in front of the gun lives forever.” is deeply important, not just as a life motto, but in regards to the events that later take place in this story regarding Dave and his brother. It’s also a reference to Kendrick’s Uncle Tony, who was shot and killed at Louie’s Burgers; this event is a snap back to reality from the “dreams of living life like rappers do.”

Skit #4– K.Dot’s Mother leaves another voice-mail. She wants her car back.

Poetic Justice

K.Dot has been dropped off back at home by his homies and is about to go see Sherane. He’s probably driving on the way there in his Mother’s van. He talks about her and their relationship so far - it appears they may have had some arguments, he talks about her meeting up with her girlfriends to curse him, and going out partying rather than talking with him.

Skit #5 – this is when we catch up with Sherane aka Master Splinter’s Daughter. It starts where Sherane ended, and you can tell because that haunting female vocal (used in the beat to Sherane) comes back in this skit. The two dudes with Sherane approach K.Dot and ask him where he and his family are from (trying to work out what gang he is affiliated with). They force K.Dot out of the van and jump him.

Good Kid

This really sets off the theme of the second half of the album and it is all to do with - realisation.

K.Dot talks about getting jumped, “For the record I recognize that I’m easy prey/I got ate alive yesterday.”

He discusses the negative effects of gang-culture, and being unable to escape the pressure of people wanting to know what gang he represents, “But what am I supposed to do/When the topic is red or blue/And you understand that I ain’t/But know I’m accustomed to.” Red or Blue obviously refers to the LA gangs of Bloods and Crips.

The red and the blue in the second verse become police sirens. K.Dot talks about getting no sympathy from the cops because they stereotype him as a gang-banger, making him lift up his shirt in order to look for a gang affiliated tattoo, “I heard them chatter: “He’s probably young but I know that he’s down”/Step on his neck as hard as your bullet proof vest.”

K.Dot is trapped in a violent culture and can’t get a reprieve from the gangs or the police.

M.A.A.D City

More self-awareness and realisation of the corrupt city that K.Dot lives in.

K.Dot’s recent beat-down brings back early memories of similar situations, witnessing someone with their brains blown out at a burger stand back when he was 9 (I’m not sure if he is talking about his Uncle Tony again, or someone else), he thinks he knows the person who did it but he censors his name. He also talks about how his cousin was killed back in 94.

He talks about his Father telling him to get a job but he got fired after his friends pressured him in to staging a robbery.

In the final verse he tries to let the good shine through and offer respite for the youth and how they don’t have to succumb to the temptations and pressures of the street. He hopes that his experience and intelligence can do good for the youth living in similar situations. “Compton, USA Made me an Angel on Angel Dust.”

Skit #6 – K.Dot’s homies meet back up with him later as planned. They try to boost him back up after his beat-down, and they offer him alcohol to take his mind off it.

Swimming Pools

An anti-alcohol song, that again plays in to the second half of the album’s realisation about the vices previously holding Kendrick back. Kedrick talks about growing up around alcohol both within his family and group of friends.

Skit #7 – this is the big impact moment of the narrative. The plan is to take revenge on the dudes that jumped K.Dot. One of K.Dot’s homies (possibly Dave) talks about maybe dropping K.Dot back off at home, but this idea is turned down, and K.Dot stays. The homies see the dudes that jumped K.Dot and a shoot-out begins. During the battle K.Dot’s friend Dave gets shot. The dudes that shot Dave drive off and K.Dot is left holding Dave as he dies in his arms.

Sing About Me

Verse 1 – from the perspective of Dave’s brother. He says the blood is on Kendrick’s hands because the whole situation happened out of revenge for something that happened to Kendrick. But he says he appreciates that Kendrick was there for his brother and held him while he was dying. Dave’s brother wonders if he will ever discover a passion like Kendrick to get him out of the hood – he says he hopes Kendrick will remember him and sing about him when he makes it big, and if he dies before the album drops…pop, pop, pop – he gets killed.

Verse 2 – from the perspective of Keisha’s sister. She is mad at Kendrick for putting her sister on blast (on Section 80) without even knowing her properly. She talks about how she is living the same life as her sister, as a prostitute, and is proud of her living and what she does. She claims not to be just another woman lost in the system. She says her sister died in vein. Unlike Dave’s brother she doesn’t want to be sang about on the album. She feels great and says she’ll never fade away….but then she does, her vocals slowly fade out in to obscurity…perhaps she died or just became another nameless “hoodrat”.

Verse 3 – from Kendrick’s perspective. Looking in the mirror. His fear of death. He speaks to Dave’s brother, agreeing that Dave was like a brother to him. He speaks to Keisha’s sister saying that Keisha’s story was the one that drove him to write something that powerful and real – he didn’t mean to offend. He talks of how music saved him and pulled him away from the drugs, money and guns.   

Skit #8 – K.Dot’s homies talking after Dave has been killed. Some of them want to go back and get revenge. K.Dot finally snaps and says he is tired of this ****.

I’m Dying of Thirst

Kendrick talks about been tired of running and gunning people down. It’s just a circle of death. The perpetual struggle.

Skit #9 –(EDITED) K.Dot is still angry and upset over Dave’s death. An unknown woman (perhaps a passer-by/shop-keeper) approaches the boys, she sees that one of them has a gun “That better not be what I think it is.” She tells them that they are dying of thirst and that they need to take a new path and let Jesus in to their lives. She makes them prayer. From here on K.Dot begins to live a new life as Kendrick Lamar.

Real

This is Kendrick disregarding the street life and turning his back on gang-banging, drugs, alcohol, violence etc. The different meanings of being “real”. Are you real because you represent your hood and shoot people? Are you real because you try to escape that life and make something of yourself?

Verse 1 – about certain girls (but could be Sherane). She loves handbags, French Tip, bank slips. But what love got to do with it when you don’t love yourself?

Verse 2 – about certain homies (but could be Dave’s brother). He loves fast cars, fast women, beef, streets, ducking police, hood-life. But what love got to do with it when you don’t love yourself?

Verse 3 – about Kendrick. He explains the previous two verses - “I love first verse cos your the girl I attract.” and “I love second verse cos your the homie that packed burner.” “I love what the both of you have to offer.”

He wonders if he should hate her for what happened or should he hate his homies for convincing him to seek revenge. Or should he hate the fact that none of that **** makes him real.

Skit #10 – voice-mail from his Father. He tells Kendrick not to make the same mistakes he did, and that none of this stuff makes him real and that he should get out and make something of himself. His Mother tells him that Top Dawg called and wants him in the studio – she tells him to take his music career seriously – that it is his chance to get out and tell his story to the kids of Compton so that they have hope. This is technically the end of the story in a narrative sense - the tape is ejected and then rewound.

Compton

The narrative is over. This song is after Kendrick has made it and is now giving back just like his Mother told him too. It’s a positive outlook of a city that is often full of darkness and violence.

Skit #11 - the narrative starts over again when K.Dot borrows his Mother’s van.
I found this here: http://www.kanyetothe.com/forum/index.php?topic=313845.0
I only feel one difference, The last skit of this album is the start of this entire “movie” that’s why you hear it rewund at the end of Real. It’s also a symbolism of how life keeps repeating itself.

The Will Wash Podcast - Episode 9

The Will Wash Podcast - Episode 9. Special Guest Damelia

Check out D-Mills here: Dmilss on Twitter

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Quick Review of 2011

2011 was a great year in Will Wash history.  God truly favors me and my friends and family.

• The homey and my brother both gave birth to baby girls.  I love them both.
  
  
  
  
  
• Celebrated my birthday and my little cousins turning 21 in Las Vegas.
• Got to sit on the edge of the Grand Canyon.
  
• Cousin Lisa from Germany came to visit and I got to show her the east coast.
• Me and the boys put on great fireworks show on the 4th of July
• Niece Sydney, godson CJ, and Lil Nigel have grown exponentially.
• I got to travel to Ireland again, and Jamaica for the first time and have grand adventures.
  
• I bought another Mac.
• I started learning to play the bass guitar.
• Changed my tags.