Talking with the homie Wendell on MSN Instant Messenger has caused me to recall simpler times. Those good old dorm days at Morehouse, Freshman year.

When I wasn’t in class or trying to get noticed over at Spelman, I was having the time of my young life living like a Freshman in the Penthouse, 4th Floor of DuBois Hall.

Just about everyone on my floor had a nickname. I hated mine. See when I started college it coincided with the rise to stardom of one Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs. This was RIGHT when he started using the nickname P. Diddy (first time I heard it was on the song on his first album “Victory” when Biggie Smalls is like, “P. Diddy run the city/show no pity”). A few people have always held the belief that me and said Diddy have a physical resemblance, including my pops. I don’t see it, but whatever.

Before I knew it, people started calling me P. Diddy. Like some people knew me as P. Diddy WAY before they knew my real name (like the homie Zach whose roommate was “Black Rob (join the mob)” coincidentally). Anyway one time I was out in the hallway playing football when this dude Agaba came out of his room and he was like, “Yo Joe” (he was from DC and called everyone Joe) “Look it’s Shotgun P. Diddy!” And just like that, the name stuck like glue.

Now I didn’t have the worst nickname on the floor. Hell I lived two doors down from The Fly and Crustache. And we had The Lemur and Gritface by the stairwell.

The nicknames were hella creative and most were the result of collaborations between the homie Nile and Agaba. One dude was named Midnight Man for his sour demeanor and the fact that he looked like he hadn’t gotten to bed before midnight since he was 4 years old. You had the Brow aka the B-Row (pronounced Bee - Rwow) who had a funny eyebrow/forehead combination.

Other nicknames came out of experiences we had during the year, like when the East Side (a story for another day) of the Floor all went to see Halfbaked. There is a well known character in the movie named Nasty Nate who had a bodybuilder type frame of body, well it just so happened a certain conk-haired dude on our floor was also into bodybuilding and was named Nate. So of course he got that nickname!

We had a Steppen Wolf and a Sabrewolf, both because, well…they had wolfy characteristics. We had a HoneyBear because he looked like Winnie the Pooh, and a Big Bird. We had two dark skinned roommates called “Black and Blacker”.

I wasn’t the only rapper on our floor, we also had “Method Man”. Method Man’s roommate was named after one of his famous sayings. He would go around kicking people’s doors as he walked by, so one day someone comes out and says, “what the hell?” and he’s like, “What happened???? Who’s room is this??” in a thick New York accent. So that became his calling card.

Man we had some colorful characters. Tomorrow I’ll tell the story of the East Coast/West Coast battle in the hallway!

Why do I have a sore throat and an ear ache like a 6 year old? This sucks badly!

Why did it occur to me so early in the morning to take some nyquil so that I could get some much needed sleep?

Why is the Wire getting better and better when I thought it got as good as it could possibly get at the end of season 3? All I can say about Episode 3 (yes I’ve already seen it…OnDemand at Midnight baby!!) is WOW. I’m going to fast forward parts of the opening (heterosexual man warning….HBO trademark male nudity….I feel it’s my duty to warn other guys since they got me with it), but I’m going to watch it again and again. It’s my favorite episode of the show yet…and that’s saying something!

Why do I keep taking bad beats in ESPN poker? I swear the powers that be there have made it so that people with a pair of kings are ALWAYS matched with a pair of aces, and then get a king on the river for maximum drama. It sucks to be on the other end though, it makes you change the way you play!

Why are the Falcons 2-0 and setting franchise rushing records? They are running the college option as Brian Baldinger pointed out about 200 times yesterday! The old Bucs probably would have beaten them, especially after 4 missed field goals, but hey, I’ll take it!

Why won’t the baseball season just end already? All the Braves realistically have to play for is a .500 record and frankily that doesn’t look likely!

Why am I becoming a Johnny Cash fan? Or better yet, why didn’t I become one earlier? What a great artist he was!

Why do I keep torturing myself?…I’ll just leave well enough alone on this one…..

Why did I cut off my nose to spite my face? I need to take some anger management courses.

Why am I all of a sudden so cryptic in this entry?

Why did Marques Houston take that picture of himself on myspace? I’m not going to go into details or even link it….but man….my eyes will never be the same!

Why did I watch all of Sin City last night? I only meant to watch the first part with Bruce Willis and Michael Madsen….I always manage to get sucked in though once they start Marv’s story!

Why am I about to start a facebook group for fans of The Wire?

If you know the answer to any of these questions get at me!

My insomnia is back, big time!

It seems the more I read during the day, the less sleep I’m able to get at night. For this week I’m averaging a little under 4 hours a night. That’s not going to cut it.

Usually when I can’t sleep it’s because I have something pressing on my mind, but that’s not the case lately really. I’m at a loss here. I find myself up late on wikipedia looking for information about the R&B charts in 1987…I kid you not!

In Braves related news, a few weeks after writing their swan song here, it’s just about official. They are about 6 or 7 (I stopped counting) games back of the wild card now. The division is a done deal. Sportscenter had a montage about it the other night. It was nice I guess. I can’t believe there are kids walking around who have no idea that the Braves used to have seasons worse than this one (record wise at least). As I’ve stated before, it had to end sometime.

Have you read my Flavor Flav article on Talkin-Shit.com? How about the other funny articles? I got another one on deck taking on one of my long hated Hollywood figures. Be on the look out for it pretty soon.

Did you hug a thug yesterday? Reading OJ and Max’s entries yesterday made me realize, I don’t know any TRUE thugs. I only know the suburban, try too hard variety. And the REAL thugs I have met, I only “know” in passing. I guess I’m lucky.

Time to crack the books!

If you know a Thug, give em a hug! Thugs out there just need a little attention after all!

So for the Thugzo’s and other e-gangsters out there as well as your local purveyer of menace and general thuggyness make sure you let them know you are thinking about them today! Buy them a mango flavored Philly Blunt and a 40 oz.. Give them your wallet before they ask!

If you see a thug somewhere in mourning, remember that it’s the 10th anniversary of Pac’s death and thugs got hearts too!

Brought to you by the council of negros who care about thugs!

Be sure to visit Uhmah Park and give your thoughts there as well as ErrinHaines dot com.

And remember HUG A THUG!

Man I have GOT to get better with writing here. Between myspace and my new work over at Resha’s Talkin-shit.com I’ve been writing though. Still not as often as I used to, but I’ve been writing.

So what have I been up to? Well for starters, my LCD Flat Screen died on me late Sunday night. The backlight just said, “Eff it” and went out. So I had to spend money I don’t really have to get a new one yesterday. It’s all good though, I got me a nice 19″ flatscreen monster! It’s beautiful!

After getting my monitor and eating some Applebee’s with my buddy Anya I gave my sister a call to check in with her. The conversation is going per usual, we talk about something funny they’ve seen on TV recently (Eddie Murphy’s Raw), we talk about school, etc. Then I talk to Nina and she tells me that while she was in Atlanta she was hanging with Chick X.

Chick X has been written about here before, you can go through an exhaustive search if you want, I’m not gonna link any of them here. Chick X was my great unrequited love of high school. The one chick I really, really liked. She was the Beatrice to my Dante, the Estella to my Pip. In many ways she was the muse for my latest myspace entry, and hell, many of the entries HERE.

Anyway when Nina told me that, ALL of the old memories came flooding back. I felt like a nerdy ass 16 year old all over again. I started asking a bunch of rapid fire questions. Does she still look good? Is she married? Is she dating? Unfortunately Anya was on the phone at the same time as me AND I was on speakerphone on their end so I couldn’t quite hear all of the answers.

But I know this much, I’m not trying to be that guy anymore. She is NOT going to be my white whale. I don’t have time for that and I don’t have the heart to deal with the potential consequences. Nina was like, the next time she calls I’ll ask her if I can give you her number. I told her not to worry about it.

In other news, I watched the first episode of the Wire on Sunday. Yes, I KNOW it was OnDemand the week before and I had a huge internal battle with myself over whether I’d watch it before the actual air date or not, and I decided I wouldn’t so I didn’t. BUT as soon as it was over and they had posted the next episode OnDemand I watched it! The Wire is even better than before. Even without Stringer Bell! I didn’t think they could do it, but they did! Lester Freeman is about to stir up a real hornet’s nest…and those kids have done something I didn’t think possible. They are portraying REAL kids, like kids I grew up with and went to school….with INTERESTING stories. I KNEW a Dukie. I KNEW a Naiman. I KNEW a Michael. Hell, I KNEW a Randy. Life wasn’t QUITE as hard back then, but I mean, some fundamental things don’t change. I can’t wait to see how it unfolds.

That’s all for now. Don’t forget to check out my entry about Flavor Flav on Resha’s site!