Monday, March 14, 2005

I Was Gone for a Minute...

How that song go?

What song?

“Don’t look no further..baby I’m back yeah..and dedicated to youuu”

Uhhh..I don’t think I know that song…who sings it?

I don’t know their name, I just heard it on the radio the other day..it sounded kinda catchy..especially that lil hook they got in there that says, “I was gone for a minute.”

Yeah..you should like that hook, cuz yo az been ‘gone for a minute’ on http://www.servinemup.com/. You been kinda stingy lately..you ain’t serving it up as often as you used to.

Well, the quantity may have decreased, but I think the quality is better than ever.

I’ll give you that..everything you drop has been tight..my only complaint is that you don’t drop enough..I check in witcha everyday when I get on the internet..just to see. Cuz sometimes you do some of that crazy sh’t and put a picture up for a couple of days and just have n’gaz waiting to see what the hell you about to talk about next.

Yeah..that’s the way most visitors check in..but it’s not like there’s not material to read. If I published everything I’ve written here on the website as a Best of Servinemup book, it would be a pretty thick book.

I guess you’re right..I never thought about it like that, cuz I was go print out your recent article page and it was so long I had to turn off my printer..plus it wasn’t printing out right anyway.

I know, I don’t format my web pages in a printable format, but I know a lot of people like to print them on paper instead of reading it directly from the computer screen.

Why don’t you do that? I dunno, a combination of things, truth be told, I’m a much better writer at this point than I am a web page designer.

You programmed your website yourself?

Kinda..this current web page is hosted by this company called http://www.1and1.com/, you just go in and pick out templates and it allows you to change background colors, insert pictures, and stuff like that. The biggest problem is that a lot of the editing with the pictures and moving stuff around can be a bit cumbersome. But when I first started blogging, I used this service call http://www.blogspot.com/, it was free and it let me have comments and webcounters and even photos, but it started crashing a lot and giving me days of a lot of down time when people couldn’t access my website, so I switched to a web hoster that was a bit more reliable and gave me the opportunity to add sound.

Sound? I don’t hear anything??

Not on this page you don’t, but I have the capability of adding sound on http://www.servinemup-ink.com/, I did one post entitled I Love the Lord, He Heard My Cry with Yolanda Adams singing in the background..it was jammin. I programmed that using this software called NetObjects Fusion, which gives me a lot more power and control over everything you see on the webpage. If you’ve ever been interested in creating your own webpage, you should check out one of those spots, or maybe http://www.movabletype.org/, all you gotta do is do a web hosting search and hundreds of those different companies will come up.

Is it hard to do?

Nah, not at all. With most of those, ‘Start your webpage TODAY!’ web hosters, all you need is internet access and all the other programming and stuff is taken care of, you just pick your template, which is like a blank form that you fill in with your own words or whatever..voila! You’ve got a website!

How do you know what to call it?

That’s up to you, you just have to submit the URL address that you want and they’ll check to make sure it’s not already registered in the database. Before I bought the web address http://www.servinemup.com/, I tried to get http://www.servin.com/, but somebody had already taken it, so I had to change it and resubmit.

That sounds simple enough.

It’s a great tool for anyone that ever wanted to start their own online journal to explore the writer in them. It’s a lot of in the closet writers that ain’t came on ‘out there’ yet, but blogging is a wonderful tool to step up to that microphone under the spotlight and push your work to a public audience.

I guess I never thought about it like that..the internet is like a big crowd that stops in to check out your work.

Yep..and I know everytime I drop, I’m addressing my largest crowd ever because servinemup is continually growing everyday.

I can just imagine, cuz you damn near be having me mad when you go a long time without dropping.

(smiling) You be fiending huh?

Yeah..I guess I do.

That’s good, that means I’m servin’ it up like a player is supposed to do. I know I’m kinda country and negrofied, but hey, I can only be D. I know that there are a lot of boundaries that have been historically drawn amongst different groups of people, men and women, Christian and Gentile, Player and Haters, Pimps and Hoz, but I know that I have a chance to transcend and touch all sides. The largest tool that a writer has is his experiences, cuz like my fellow Southside writer/rapper Z-Ro puts it, “I can’t teach a mf how to fly a plane, if I ain’t neva been up in the cockpit, ya feeling me mane?” That’s just how I feel, when I write, I gotta keep it real as possible, cuz it’s how I live and I’ve gotta be true to my Lord and I’ve gotta be true to me. So many people look at me with a cocked head, trying to understand the difference between the out of the closet, publicly proclaimed Christian, D.E. Washington from the n’ga they knew from back in the day.

Mane..I didn’t know D was all religious and stuff? Do you read some of that stuff he writes? He putting that Bible out there on them fools.

A lot of people have questioned me about my journey, did I see a flaming bush? Was I visited by an angel in the middle of the night? My common reply is that God definitely convicted me with a miracle before my eyes, but the miracle I witnessed didn’t just miraculously appear one day, it had always been there. It’s just that I finally reached a point in my spiritual maturity when I could finally open my eyes and see the Lord’s amazing Grace and Mercy present in my life. God didn’t just get here, He’s always been there with me, kinda like that Footprints poem, it’s just that I’m kinda hard headed and it took my black az over 30 years of living for me to finally heed the call of my Lord.

A lot of religious folks will try to tell you that if you don’t go to church or participate in some form of organized worship service, then you’re a heathen and you’re going straight to hell. I’ve never believed that. Although I was born into a Protestant family, a Southern Baptist Protestant family to be more exact. The kind of folks that if yo black az go live under THIS roof and eating THIS food, you’re getting up going to chuch evra Sunday mo’nin.

I rarely got much out of the church service, I always thought that it was rather boring, save those occasions when somebody ‘caught the spirit’ and started doing something wild and out of this world.

Did you see Sis. Jankins start shouting during the service this morning??

Yess Lawd!! She started jumping so high and screaming so loud that the pastor stopped preaching and was staring at her.

Do you REALLY think that was the Spirit in her..or do you think she was faking it just trying to put on a show??

I dunno..I hadn’t even thought about it like that..but I tell you what, if she was at herself, I couldn’t see her wig coming off without her stopping to put it back on.

Yeah..I guess you’re right..she was flopping all out her clothes too..I know she didn’t want everybody to know what them raggedy draws she had on looked like.

When you look at my religious bloodline, my father was born into a long standing line of Southern Baptist, but my mother grew up in one of those sanctified churches of the Holiness persuasion. For those unfamiliar, I’m talking about them folks that’s go make a joyful noise until the Lord all day and all night long, playing every instrument they can get their hands on, dancing, catching that Spirit and talking in tongues..giving their testimony..

Bishop Scott, I just want to say one thang to the chuch..cuz the Lord has been SOOOO good to me.

AMEN! GO HEAD NOW!!

Yes –suhh..I KNOW the Lawd has been good to ME!!!

Talk now!! HALLELUIA!!!

Cuz I steal somethin’ EVRA day…and I ain’t been caught yet!!!

(pause for audience laughter) Yeah mane, my family has a treasure trove of ‘church stories’ just like that..people clowning, ladies falling out and not having on no draws, men in church talking crazy on the microphone, whenever you start worshipping with other folks, you’re subjected to their own reality of fellowshipping with the Lord as well as all the other gods out there in the world that people worship. So I guess you can say my walk as an agnostic began at an early age. I saw so many janky and phony people in the church, from the pulpit,through the choir stand, through the deacon board, the ushers, I saw so many people IN the church who seemed to be demon possessed that it made me back up and become wary of all ‘organized’ religion. So instead, I kinda got into that transcendental thang..God was in ALL of us.

Now the path it took from me to go from being a solo spiritual soul, picking up on all the other folks with good energy and staying away from folks with all the negative energy is a bit of peculiar sprinkled on to a whole lot of ordinary. How I got from being kinda like my man Kung Fu and just roaming the globe as a singular soul that was unplugged from the matrix and able to discern others who had swallowed the red pill of truth from those who were still blinded in ignorance is a wild story in itself. But for all ya’ll who don’t believe that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ didn’t get up out that grave..well, even if you don’t believe that Jesus is God, then obviously you haven’t seen the agents of evil that I’ve seen. Some of ya’ll may not believe in Jesus, but you d’mn shole know that Satan is real, we’ll see where you run to when them walls start calling your name. The world can be a very cold and lonely place mane..you betta find you a Rock to hold on to..the storm is coming and that’s fa sho.

Since I’m a convicted Christian that upholds the full gospel of Christ, I believe that this world is not going to last forever. There will be a new Heaven and a new Earth, now whether that happens in my life time or maybe when that trump blows it will awake me from my rest in the presence of the Father, no matter WHEN it is, I know that the King is coming back. Some of ya’ll don’t believe the Bible to be the complete and inerrant Word of God, don’t let your pride and laziness keep you from pursuing Him. How can you disagree with something you haven’t even read? How can you discredit a walk that you have never tried? Some have problems with the exclusive claims to salvation and ‘life eternal’ that the Christian path proclaims, but why are you letting something that’s worrying you about OTHER folks restrain YOUR thirst to grow closer to God? When judgemant day comes, He ain’t go be asking you about what other folks did, He’s going to be talking about YOU ng’a.! Hmph. Ya’ll n’gaz tripping. I was gone for a minute.
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So..what do you think of that?

Mane…yo az is WILD D!!!

What do you mean?

The church lady didn’t have no draws on mane?? (laughing) Sis. Jankins!!?! Is she related to Rev. Janky???

See, that’s what I’m talking about right there. Everybody is ready to start laughing and clownin, but as soon as you read some of that real, ‘anchor your soul in the Lord’, your eyes get blurry and you act like you didn’t see it.

Naww..I saw that. You had a nice lil flow going on there, breaking down blogging and web hosting and stuff, then you opened the crowd up with a few good church jokes, then you flipped gears and went evangelical knocking on n’gaz hearts, I see ya mane..but you already know, everybody ain’t trying to face that soul in the mirror..some folks are still hiding in their own world, acting like they go live forever, not even beginning to prepare themselves for that last ride..I FEEL ya D, you’re definitely keeping it real (smiling) but you still be having them JOKES mane..it’s all good. That’s why a n’ga be ready to get ‘served’, you gotta keep feeding the audience mane..you’ve got some good soul food here!

Well, you know, I try to get down focused on my purpose. Whenever I pick up my pen and write for my Lord, I know that He has a calling for me. And being able to feel and KNOW what your purpose is in life, knowing what the Master has commanded you to do..it’s the most liberating feeling in the world to be set free through Christ. Serving Him.

Kinda like some of that Blues Brothers, ‘Mission from God’ type stuff huh?

Already.

Well..I can honestly say that I’m just glad to be a part of all this D. Seeing how you’ve grown as a writer through your blog these past years has been a wonderful ride and I for one thoroughly enjoy everything you put down on paper. I’m really looking forward to reading your first book and hopefully many more.

Yeah..I’m eagerly looking forward too, cuz my purpose is starting to crash into my present reality and I’m starting to have some problems.

What do you mean?

Well, I’m still pretty much a ‘moonlighting writer’, I have a full time job that I have to go to everyday. And we’re in the middle of a huge power move, expanding our name through the industry, so I’ve been spending a lot of time on the road lately, taking care of the business with all of our new distributors and stuff, so my time has really gotten crunched lately.

So..when do you normally write?

Usually at night, after the children have gone to bed. But the life of a writer is split, you don’t just write, I actually find that I spend a lot more time reading. Besides my daily walk, getting into that Word, I also read other authors and writers that have put it down over the years..I read and I learn. I learn different ways to express myself and different forms of literary devices that can aid the effect on the reader.

Yeah..that little thing you did on Ray was right on point, you’ve got your own unique flavor that’s 100% .D.E. Washington.

Yeah..but you know the ultimate goal is strive to be 100% Jesus. D must decrease while He increases.

Aw c’mon now, ain’t NOBODY go be 100% like HIM!! That’s impossible.

Realistically it’s impossible, but that doesn’t mean we should ever give up in our pursuit..the Scripture says we move from glory to glory. No matter how righteous you THINK you are, you still have room to grow.

I see what you mean. So is your book gonna be like one of those Christian Self-Help- Motivational type things?

I’m not going to promote it like that..I’m going to push it for the street..with some of them thangs that will make a street n’ga stop and hopefully read what D. Washington is talking about…. ”I got that HOT sh’t in my hand!! Right here..getcho some Real Game in yo life!!..book brother?

Huh? What’s that you got??

It’s a book! Gone and get this book so that you can catch up on your game mane!!

Game? What kinda game??

See..that’s just it right there podna..the game is to be SOLD, not told! This book was written by a n’ga born and raised right here on the Southside! One of them real n’gaz that know how to pimp that pen..gone and buy you some game mane..cuz if you don’t stay up on your game, you betta believe yo gal is go be up on hers!

My gal??

Yeah mane! These books sell the hottest in the beauty shops and nail shops and places like that, where them women be sitting around under hair dryers with nothing to do BUT read, while they wait. We can’t keep them stocked enough they be fiending so hard for that D. Don’t let yo gal have some game that you don’t know nothing about..tighten yo sh’t up player..gone and buy one of em and see! He’s got this one in here called Lock Like A Pit…it’ll make yo spine start tingling n’ga this sh’t is so real. You sitting up there paying $20 for lap dances and ain’t coming away with nothing but a hard on..gone and put less than that on some game and you go be able to get them lap dances for FREE after you read this n’ga here!!

Gone and let me get one of em then.

Just one? You ain’t got no nephews or brothers or cousins or somebody like that that need some direction in their life? Maybe somebody that’s ‘out there’ a bit that may need to be steered toward some of that real that can only be found in the Lord? Don’t be selfish mane, once you get the game, you gotta make sure n’gaz who don’t know know. Cuz only a hater would find something fresh and not let their homeboys in on it. Snoop wasn’t lying mane, it ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none…wazzup?

Alright, let me get 3 of em then.

(smiling) Shiiii….MY n’ga!!! That’s what um tawkin bout!! Three is the magic number! True players ALWAYS know what it do...cuz if you ain’t servin’ Him? Then you don’t know what’s UP!!

That little street corner marketing pitch basically sums up my plan of attack for distributing my books. I’ve got one of my childhood Southside podnas managing all of my distribution on the street, beauty shops, barber shops, hustling on the sidewalk pushing books out the trunk like DJ Screw used to push his tapes. Those who are true to that Screw know that his post-mortem success was advented by a daily grind while he was here on this earth. Seemed like every real n’ga on the Southside was always fiending for the next new Screw tape to drop. So I ‘jacked’ Screw’s and Fat Pat’s distribution model and I’m applying it to the realm of the written word. Like Pat says, ‘A n’ga got a million dollar function’..I know what I am, and I know the task that the Lord has set before me here in my life on this earth. I don’t know if I’m gonna go platinum in the first year or if it will take me 10 books just to reach gold. But what I DO know is that I’m dead game and no matter the reward that the Lord has in store for D, I know ultimately I have already received the greatest blessing, and that is my salvation through Christ which I treasure more than any commodity or status that the world could ever give me.