Crikey! This old geezerbird just yanked 'er choppers clean out of 'er North and South wit' some pliers!

Oh, the wonders of socialized medicine. Those of you who advocate National healthcare have things like this to look forward to.

Happy?

Some 13 days after having her feeding tube removed for a 3rd time, and eerily some 12 hours after being the indirect subject of a South Park episode, Terri Schiavo is dead.

I'm sure there are many supporters of her husband, or at least those that advocated removing her feeding tube, that feel some sort of accomplishment in this. At least I hope so. Because I certainly don't. I just don't feel good about any aspect of what's happened. A woman has just been allowed, or more accurately, legally forced, to starve to death. Worse still, she was denied her dignity by having her face plastered on the evening news every night. Her parents have just lost a daughter. Her 'husband' (and I used the term loosely because while he was still technically married to her, he has a common law wife and two children) has irreparably ruined his reputation. He'll get Terri's life insurance money, probably marry that woman and go live it up on some beach somewhere. I hope that tool gets hit by a bus, goes into a persistent vegetative state, and is forced to starve to death so his wife can get his life insurance payout and go live with the guy she's been sleeping with while her husband was in the hospital. It only seems fair. But I digress.

I'm mainly upset about the fact that such a drastic decision was made on what seems to be incomplete information. During this whole legal battle, Terri Schiavo was not once re-examined to see if her cognition had changed. She was never given an MRI or PET scan to evaluate the status of her brain. There was never a new hearing despite new evidence in the case and signed affidavits alleging abuse by her husband. And there was no proof or evidence that she had ever claimed to want to die in the first place.

As I've said before, if she'd had a living will, a videotaped statement, anything that showed that this was her desire, there would be no debate. But I simply cannot believe that there are people out there that are content with this decision given the amount of unanswered questions. It just doesn't seem right.

Many supporters of the removing Terri's feeding tube have cited the court decisions in the battle, and have urged that court orders must be followed. Since when? Remember, this is the court system that upheld slavery and found a 'right' to abortion in a 200 year old document. This is the court system that, despite the fact that the vast majority of citizens believe in God, has repeatedly found the public MENTION of God is unconstitutional and illegal. The U.S. Court System is NOT infallible by any stretch of the imagination.

Aside from that, who ever said court orders had to be willingly obeyed? When the Supreme Court ordered that Arkansas schools be desegregated, did Governor Faubus just throw up his arms and say 'Well ok. You win.' Hell no. He summoned the National Guard to literally force segregation. Of course, after that happened, Dwight Eisenhower revoked his access to the National Guard and called in the 101st Airborne to escort the black children to school, but that's beside the point.

A more recent example is the Elian Gonzales case from a few years ago. The court had granted custody to the American family caring for Elian, but did that stop Bill Clinton and Janet Reno from ordering INS agents armed with machine guns to seize the terrified child? Obviously not. In fact, he's probably in school right now learning about the evils of America. Good for him. (Incidentally, after the raid, Janet Reno claimed in an interview to have collapsed sobbing into the arms of a staffer. That was the only time I've ever heard my mother use the word 'dyke'.)

A court order is only as effective as the ability of the court to enforce it. Should Jeb Bush had ordered the National Guard to seize Terri and order her feeding tube reinserted, there's not whole hell of a lot the court could've done about it. There ARE 3 branches of government in this country, and the judiciary is merely one of them. No where in the Constitution does is say that the court is the final authority. But of course, such an action would be too politically damaging, so there are very few if any politicians willing to take such a risk. Hell, over 100 house democrats didn't even show up to vote on the bill to get the tube reinserted. How cowardly is that?

But I guess all of this is a moot point now. The woman is dead, and many of those questions will never be answered. I just hope the people that advocated this, or simply stood idly by, are able to live with their decision. Actually, on second thought, no I don't.

Happy Belated Redcoat Band Day

So yesterday was the innagural Redcoat Band Day in the state of Georgia. Seriously. We just got our own day. I'm not kidding. Check it out..

United We Stand?

I promise I'll post something witty and entertaining eventually, but lately I've been in more of a 'philosophical' sort of mood.

One of my friends posted my last entry on her blog, and it seemed to set of this divisive debate between her friends. And that seems to be pretty indicative of the current political climate in the country as a whole. The country is divided pretty much 50/50 (51/47 if you wanna get technical), and that division is gradually getting deeper and wider. It's rather depressing, and aside from that, I find it exhausting. It's hard work to continuously argue with people.

What I'm about to say is going to sound creepy, insensitive, and maybe even tasteless, but hear me out. I miss 9/11. Now before you start an angry mob to have me lynched, let me explain. I don't miss the attacks themselves, I don't wish that 3,000 Americans had to die, and I don't wish that we were at war in Afghanistan and Iraq right now. I guess you could more accurately say that I miss 9/12 and the weeks following it.

For a short time, we weren't Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, northerners or southerners...we were Americans. You could walk past someone on the side walk, or sit next to someone on the bus, give them a little nod and you would both get the feeling like 'We're both hurting, but we're in this together...' Now that, I do miss.

I miss getting a lump in my throat seeing congress sing 'God Bless America' on the steps of the Capitol Building.

I miss the Candle-light vigils on the Myers Quad and making connections with people I'd just met.

I miss the barrage of American flags on people's cars, front porches and windows.

I miss getting all weepy listening to Lee Greenwood during halftime in Sanford Stadium.

I miss the roar of the crowd when we played 'Stars and Stripes Forever', and Tim 'Gunner' Smith conducting us in his Marine Corps uniform.

I miss the unique sense of unity and closeness I felt with every American, and them with me. And it's all the more depressing to think that it took the deaths of 3,000 of our fellow countrymen to bring all of it about.

I'm not going to point any fingers at who might be responsible for the division; I'll only say that I pine for the time when we weren't arguing about social security, gay marriage, and the right to die...we were just glad to be around each other. I dunno. Maybe I'm too nostalgic.

Yes Virginia, he's your president, too...

One of my major pet peeves is people who go around saying 'George Bush isn't my president'. That's stupid. Yes he is. You might not have voted for him, you might not like him, you might wish bad things upon him, but he's your president.

Like it or not, George Walker Bush is the President of the United States, and if you are a citizen of the United States, George Walker Bush is therefore your president. Saying he's not just makes you sound like a friggin' retard. And you know who you are.

Now I know that you feel some sort of fraternity by hating Bush. It gives you a sense of belonging and camaraderie, especially with the socialists of Europe and American 'intellectuals'. Why, anyone who's anyone hates Bush, right? I guess. It's gotten to the point where hating Bush is like a club, and you're only cool if you're in it. Hating Bush is this year's Ug Boots.

Whatever floats your boat, I guess. If your self esteem is so low that you feel the need to identify with European socialists and American leftists to make yourself feel smart and important, by all means... But if you're going to hate Bush, hate him for an actual reason. He's not a murderer, he's not a liar, and he's not a moron; but he IS your president.

I often wonder if those people ever stop and think how stupid they sound. Probably not. How's that saying go? A witty saying proves nothing? Seems pretty applicable. Anyway...just an observation.

Red, White, and Idiotic

A lot of times while I'm waiting for my bus (that comes every hour), I'll go hang out in the bookstore and browse whatever book catches my eye at the time.

Today, that book was 'Red, White, and Liberal' by Alan Colmes -- leftist co-host of Fox News' Hannity and Colmes. He's substantially more tolerable than other liberals, mostly because he doesn't yell, and he'll admit when a conservative has a point. Plus it's pretty funny when Hannity slaps him around...figuratively, of course.

It seemed to be a decent enough book, but I'd never buy it. Mostly because it costs $25, and I don't have $25. But even if I did, I'd spend it on a book that wouldn't give me an aneurysm.

I skimmed the chapters, and made notes on the more interesting (entertaining) points.

His major point was that dissent wasn't unpatriotic. I'll agree with that. But dissent for the sake of dissent is pointless, and dissent that wishes for your country to fail is, by definition, unpatriotic.

First was the chapter on 'The Myth of the Liberal Media'. Not only does Alan claim that the American media isn't liberal, he goes the other way and says that the media is conservative. Come on. He uses the fact that Rupert Murdoch, known conservative, owns Fox News and the New York Post. Ok. So the media isn't totally liberal. No rational person would argue that. But what about flaming liberal Ted Turner? He owns CNN. And I don't think anyone would argue the liberal slant of the New York Times, or pretty much any other major newspaper aside from the New York Post and the Wallstreet Journal. What about Time and Newsweek? They're pretty liberal. Peter Jennings cried after Al Gore conceded the election in 2000. Dan Rather went on air shortly before the election with a negative story about President Bush that wasn't properly vetted and eventually turned out being wrong. Not to mention the fact that a recent poll of journalists showed that something like 80 or 90% of them are self-described liberals. So, maybe the media isn't totally liberal. But conservative? Come on.

Then was the laughable chapter titled 'OJ is Innocent'. Colmes says that since OJ was found innocent in a court of law that we should just accept that and move on. He also says that the wrongful death civil suit after his murder trial was unconstitutional. Gee Alan, the way you talk it sounds like the court system is infallible and that criminals NEVER walk on account of loop-holes, technicalities, or the social agenda of the jurors. I don't think any intellectually honest person who witnessed the circus that was the OJ Simpson trial can honestly say that the racial/socio-economic make up of the jury didn't at least have something to do with the verdict. (Just to refresh your memory, there were 9 blacks, 10 women, 2 college graduates and 1 high school drop out.)

By Alan's logic, the men who murdered Emmitt Till are innocent, too. For those of you who don't know the story, Emmitt Till was a 14 year old boy in Mississippi that was accused of whistling at a white woman. He was pulled from his grandfather's cabin in the middle of the night, beaten, shot, sodomized and thrown into a river. Two white men were charged with the crime and were later acquitted by an all white jury. But since it was a court of law, I suppose we should follow Alan's logic and forget about it. We should especially forget about how they later confessed to the crime. Besides, according to Colmes, trying them again would be unconstitutional.

Then came the chapter "Bill Clinton, Our Greatest President". Now, there's enough argument over this to fill an entire book, so I'll be brief. What exactly did Bill Clinton DO? (No intern jokes, please.) I honestly can't think of any lasting impression that Bill Clinton's presidency had on America. He inherited a strong economy, the Cold War was over, and we weren't battling terrorism. Hell, I could've run the country with those conditions. And I was in high school at the time (well, during the second term anyway). Just because you can keep a house clean doesn't give you credit for building it.

He also devotes an entire chapter to the mean things conservatives say. Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that some conservatives don't say mean things. They do. But it's not a tenet of the ideology. There are just as many examples of mean liberals, but of course that hurts his argument so he leaves that out.

Probably my favorite chapter was 'Jesus was a liberal'. It was actually a satire of the way the 'religious right' claims that Jesus is on their side. Using religious figures to justify a political ideology always makes me nervous. While I don't believe that Jesus would be a fan of abortion or gay marriage, I also don't believe he'd be a fan of screwing up the environment or CEO's that get rich while giving their employees the shaft. I think we focus entirely too much on whether or not God is on our side and not enough on whether or not we're on God's side.

To his credit, Alan Colmes does admit conservatives are right on certain issues, namely Reparations and Illegal Immigration. It's refreshing to hear a liberal admit that Reparations is a stupid idea and that our borders shouldn't just be open to anyone who wants to walk across them.

Sadly, that's where his logic ends. Much like the rest of the liberal ideology, his arguments just didn't stand up to scrutiny. But at least he's not a prick about it. He might be wrong, but he's not all James Carville or Michael Moore about it. That's at least respectable.

A few random insomnia-driven thoughts

-Sometimes, when you're pissed off that your friend blew you off on a Saturday night, a few hours later you end up glad that they did

-That cheesy Joe Jackson song 'Is She Really Going Out With Him?' doesn't seem as cheesy anymore.

-Thunderstorms are awesome, except when you're flying through one and it causes turbulence. I hate turbulence.

-I still don't get the whole Easter thing for several reasons.
1. What do rabbits and colored eggs have to do with the ressurection of Jesus?
2. If Jesus was in the tomb for 3 days and 3 nights, how do you get Good Friday and Easter Sunday? Shouldn't it be like Good Thursday or something?
3. Not really Easter related, but what's the deal with the Trinity? How does that work? Didn't Jesus pray? Was he talking to himself? And how does the whole 'No one knows but the Father' thing work if they're all the same person? Just curious. Just got done with a philosophical discussion that got me thinking about all these questions.

-That bird outside my window is getting annoying.

-My bed is way crappier than the one at the Sheraton last night.

-My blog and facebook are the reasons I'm going to get a C average this semester.

-I want a digital drumset with headphones. That way I could rock out in the middle of the night and not wake anyone up.

-I often get the urge to rock out in the middle of the night.

-I should probably at least try to go to sleep before 5 so I don't screw up my sleep schedule for next week.

Let's try this one more time, with feeling...

Since November, I've been making a big deal (at least in my own head) about my last band 'moment'. First it was my last regular season practice, but then we had a practice on the bowl trip, so that didn't really count. Then we had the last game in Sanford Stadium, but that was pretty unceremonious because it was 40 degrees and raining, so my main objective wasn't to hang out and reminisce, but to get warm and dry as soon as possible. Then I had my last football game, which was a little more nostalgic and had a little more fanfare, but still wasn't the end of the road because basketball season was just starting. Then there was the last game in Stegman, but that was no big deal because Tournament Season was starting. Then Tournament Season started, I went to Dallas and figured that was going to be it. It was a nice way to end it, I thought. So I felt pretty good about going out like that. But then I got a voicemail from one of my friends in the other traveling band that went something like this:

'Hey Charles, it's Floyd. I was excited to see our victory over Texas, and as you know that means I'm supposed to go to Chatanooga. However, as you might also know, that's Easter weekend, so I really need to go home. You're a great Jewish friend, so I figured you wouldn't really be doing a whole lot, so I was wondering if you could sub for me.'

It actually made me laugh. Not in a bad way -- I was just trying to imagine the reasoning that led to that phone call. 'Hmm...it's Easter next weekend, and I need a sub -- someone that doesn't celebrate Easter -- a Muslim, Jew, or Atheist -- there aren't any Muslims or Atheists in the mellophone section -- a Jew -- Charles!'

Anyway, so I said I'd do it, just to squeeze out one more band trip. There were other reasons, but I'm not going to tell you what they are, so let's just pretend I just wanted one more trip. So we went up to Chattanooga last night. The hotel was awesome. I got my own bed, and it was the best bed I've ever slept on. I tried to bring it home, but it was heavy so I gave up on it after about 3 seconds.

The trip was short because we lost. It was kinda disappointing because it really had potential to be a fantastic trip. But such is life.

At any rate, I have a feeling this is really it for me as far as band goes. I can't think of anything else I could possibly need my mellohpone for in the foreseeable future, and I'm not going to have to be at any sporting events, well, ever again if I choose not to.

It hasn't really sunk in yet, and it probably won't for a while. Actually, it probably won't sink in until I go to a game next season and actually have to pay to get in, and don't get to sit with the band.

It's a pretty surreal feeling. I mean, I've been in band for the past 12 years of my life. It's been my primary means of socialization since I was like 9. Every friend that I have now is either in band or a friend I met through someone in band. And now to think that that's over is a little unnerving. I've never been much good at making friends, and band gave me a pretty efficient vessel through which to do it. I actually just now feel like I was coming out of my shell and letting people really get to know me. It's a little frustrating and feels almost unfinished or unresolved. Like ending a song on a diminished 7th chord. Anyone not in band or involved with music isn't going to get that analogy.

Which brings me to my next point. People who have never been in band just don't understand.

If I have this conversation one more time:
'You're in band?'
'Yeah.'
'Huh huh huh. So you go to band camp? Huh huh huh. This one time, at band camp, huh huh huh.'

I'm going to kill that person with their own shoe and eat their children. That was funny for about 3 seconds 5 years ago, and has gotten exponetially less funny ever since. Let it go. It's over.

There is no social experience that compares with marching band. I mean really...what other scenario is there where you can walk into a room and automatically have something in common with 400 people? Especially when those 400 people are the only ones you know that understand your passion, hardwork, and reasoning (or lack there of) behind what it is you do. And when you spend 12 hours of practice every week, all day every Saturday during the fall, a week in the summer, and a week in the winter with these people, you form a kind of bond that is truly foreign to those who have not themselves experienced it.

Tonight at dinner, we were talking about how, as musicians, we actually feel some sort of barrier between the members of our family that aren't musically inclined. Brett made a good point that it's hard to relate to people when they genuinely don't understand what you're talking about or why it's important to you.

For me, the barrier extends beyond my family to pretty much everyone I meet. Much like I'm sure people think I'm weird for getting goosebumps when I hear certain songs, or that I'd rather spend Friday night with a piano in my living room than with a beer in a bar; I think people are weird for not understanding why I do that. Though a beer in my living room is rather appealing. Anyway.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I've spent more than the last decade of my life in a 'society' of people that at least understood where I was coming from, and where I felt like I could always go to get a sense of belonging. And the prospect of having to leave that place and enter the 'real world' where most people don't 'get' music isn't all too appealing. Especially at 4 in the morning when you're AC is broken.

In other news...

I finally broke down and joined facebook. I'm such a conformist. Feel free to look me up and add me to your friends list...provided you consider me a friend, of course...

Well screw you too

Remember that nice, conciliatory post from yesterday? Yeah, I was just kidding. Now I'm pissed off.

In what seems to be a continuation of 'Jesus Day' (which I suppose now is more accurately described as 'Jesus Weak'), there were two 'preachers' today at Tate Center to condemn more or less everyone to hell. Each one was holding a rather large sign with quite a thorough list of all people that are apparently hellbound. One sign had the heading 'God is angry with the sinner', and the other read 'You make me sick'. The younger of the two preachers was sporting a stylish 'Jesus saves from hell' T-shirt, with 'Repent or burn' on the back.

The lists on the signs were much too long to list ver batim, so I jotted down a few of my favorites -- lazy Christians, sports nuts (actually spelled "sport's nuts", make your own joke), sex, drugs, and rock music, computer freaks, party animals, Dykes on Bikes, rebellious women (well, maybe they weren't all wrong...haha), Roman Catholics (duly noted), child molesting homosexuals (though no mention was made of heterosexual child molesters), and my personal favorite -- "Jews from the synagogue of Satan".

I'm not sure I even understand that last one. Is there some secret sect of Judaism that I don't know about? Or are all Jews considered to be from the Synagogue of Satan? I've been in several synagogues, but don't really remember Satan being mentioned...is this where people get the idea that Jews have horns?

At any rate, I was rather alarmed to find myself on the lists more than once. But I quickly got over it when I realized how stupid these people were. In fact, the only people that looked stupider than these guys were the godless hippies trying to argue with them. There's no arguing with people like that, and all that happens is people getting irritated and going around in philosophical circles.

Now don't get me wrong, as a follower of the Old Testament, I'm all for having a God that's into hellfire and brimstone. That's just how I roll. He turned a whole city full of gays into piles of salt for crying out loud. He doesn't mess around.

That being said, I defer the job of condemnation and anger to God himself. 'Cause I've read the Bible (give or take a few pages) and no where in there did I find anything about yelling at people for being sinners. Because everyone's a sinner in one way or another. (Seriously...there's something like 613 Biblical laws...odds are you're breaking one right now. Stop it.)

Like I said yesterday, yelling at people isn't going to change their minds. It's just going to piss them off. There's a ton of things that those preachers probably do that I think are wrong, and apparently they believe I'm down with the devil. But I'm not going to change for them, and I really don't see them giving up bacon and Christmas for me. They're going to interpret the Bible however they want to confirm their beliefs, and I'm going to do the same (no matter that my way is much more logical...) and that's just how it is. I'm not much for saving other people's souls. Maybe I'm a horrible person, but it's your soul. You do what you want with it. But I will say this...Hell's not nearly as scary and threatening when you don't believe in it.

Man, we're all gonna feel like dumbasses when we die and have to answer to Vishnu.

Happy Jesus Day, everybody

Every so often, the various Christian groups on campus get together and have a day-long 'tribute' to Jesus at the student center. There are bands, speakers, dance groups, and even rappers. It kinda fits hand in hand with the whole anti-abortion, pictures of aborted fetuses presentation they had yesterday.

These things always make me a little uncomfortable and even kinda rub me the wrong way. Let me start with the abortion thing. First of all, I don't like abortion. I believe that a life is a life, even in the womb, and all that. That being said, I don't want to see pictures of dead, dismembered fetuses on the way to lunch. I don't need to be shocked and disgusted to affirm my believe that the practice is wrong. In the same vein, I don't think you're going to change anyone's mind by showing them such pictures. The majority of Americans are already against abortion. Those who aren't probably won't change their collective minds by way of shock and disgust.

I also had a problem with the comparison of abortion to genocide in places like Rwanda, and specifically the Holocaust. In my humble opinion, abortion does not come from a hatred of the children, but rather ignorance of what their actions mean. The Holocaust had no such reasoning. Hitler hated the Jews. He saw them as a 'problem', and sought to 'solve' that problem by exterminating the entire race. Grown humans were enslaved and slaughtered due to hatred of their race, not because their mother was so ignorant as to terminate them for the sake of convenience. Both things are terrible, don't get me wrong...but they're terrible in different ways. Lumping them together like that takes away from the gravity and awfulness of both.

As far as the Jesus love-fest...I'm not a big fan of that either. I don't much like hearing how I'm going to hell for this or that, or how much those particular people love JE-sus-ah. That's all well and good, but religion is such an intensely personal thing for me that hearing people talk about it in public like that is like hearing them talk about this rash that they have or standing up there naked because they're proud of their body. It just makes me uncomfortable. Plus I guess I feel like people wouldn't want to hear me up there yelling about how eating pork is wrong, the real Sabbath is Saturday, and you should fast for a day and eat crackers for a week. The way I see it, you get your God on the way you want, and I'll get my God on the way I want. So long as you getting your God on doesn't involve killing me and followers of my religion, we should be fine.

However, should your 'God' call for killing people like me over my God, I will kill you first. I've got more guns.

:::sigh::: Not again

So I had this profound thing about love I'd written, but then my IE froze, so I'll have to rewrite it tomorrow. Just so I remember, I'm going to summarize:

-I've been thinking about love alot for various reasons
-I do it alot on band trips because several people use band trips to be flirty and do one-night-stand kinda things
-Flirting and one-night-stands aren't my thing. I'm too shy and awkward to flirt effectively, and one-night-stands make me feel used and guilty.
-I normally end up alone in my hotel room pondering the workings of the universe
-I'm 21, but still not sure what exactly love is, but I have a good idea of what love isn't
-Love isn't academic
-Love can't be reasoned with
-Love isn't physical attraction
-Love isn't painful
-I'm tired
-I'm hungry
-I should've bought Pop Tarts when I had the chance
-I think too much and don't sleep enough

To err is human, to really screw up takes the US Court System

I haven't made any social commentary is a while, so I guess now is as good a time as any.

In the news lately, you've probably heard a lot about Terri Schiavo and the 'Right to Die' debate. For those of you who haven't heard about it, I'll summarize. There was a woman in Florida that, several years ago, had a heart attack and lost consciousness for a while, causing severe brain damage.

Since then, she's been pretty much vegetative, and has to be fed through a feeding tube. She can still breathe and do basic bodily functions like that without help, but she isn't capable of feeding herself or eating solid food.

Her family wants to keep the feeding tube in on the off chance that she'll improve or one day be able to subsist without it. Her husband wants to remove it because he claims she wouldn't want to be kept alive artificially. In the interest of full disclosure, her husband is already living with another woman with whom he has children, and stands to make a substantial amount of money off of Terri's life insurance policy in the event of her death.

After numerous court cases, Terri's feeding tube is currently removed and it's been 3 days since she's had food or water. Congress is working on a bill as we speak that would get the tube reinserted, but it will be Monday at the earliest before that happens.

Anyway...enough background. Now for my $.02. In cases like this, it's always better to err on the side of life. Terri Schiavo is not on life support. Removing her feeding tube does not prevent her from breathing and does not allow her to die quickly. She is currently literally starving to death for no other reason than she cannot feed herself. In my opinion, that is shameful. Absolutely shameful. A woman is starving to death in an American hospital because of a court decision, and the people who want to keep her alive have no ability to do so because it would go against court order.

Once again, the US Court system has made an ass of itself. Now we can add 'allowing mentally handicapped people to starve to death' to an already stellar list of achievements that includes 'upholding slavery' and 'legalizing abortion'.

Reflections and observations on the twilight of my last journey into the realm of the Band Nerd

So as I was saying yesterday, our band director Brett is leaving after this year to pursue a career in songwriting in Nashville, making this his last band trip as well (unless we beat Texas tomorrow).

I don't know what it keeps happening, but whatever band I'm in seems to really go to crap after my class graduates. Same thing happened to me in High School. We would always get perfect scores at Concert Festival and stuff, but then after I graduated, they started sucking. That might have something to do with the fact that our band director was banging his secretary and both him and the assistant director bailed, but that's beside the point.

You always have these romantic notions about your organization having the prestige it did while you were in it, but it doesn't often work like that. And I'm afraid something similar is on the horizon for the Redcoats. With Brett's departure, most responsibilities will turn to Dr. Romines, the substantially more uptight, older, less personal director of bands. (Brett will have a 'replacement' and all, but whoever it is won't have the amount of responsibilities he does now.)

With this in mind, I can see Redcoats a. Being a lot less fun, and b. Having a substantial drop in membership. They've already taken away our trip to The Landing during the Florida trip because too many people are hungover to rehearse the next day. Now, from my own experience, this is a bit of a problem, but come on...we always got through it.

He also made us change certain vocal parts of our cadence (for those of you who haven't heard it, during the breakdown of 'G...E... is a hO...RRRR...G, I got your G...I, I got your I...A, we'll kick your ass...) which upset a lot of people. And he just isn't as cool and fun as Brett. I mean, I don't see him being thrilled to see the entire band show up in his hotel room at midnight, and I don't think he would've sang Strawberry Wine for us.

I also don't think Dr. Romines would be the kind to be cool with nicknames like 'Coach' and 'El Poos', or with explaining the differences between Viagra and Cialis on the bus.

A little discipline might do the band good, but it's just not going to be the same without Brett. It certainly won't be as much fun. Anyway...I know the vast majority of people reading this have no idea what I'm talking about, so I'm sorry. I'll post something more general interest later.

Brett Bawcum, we hardly knew ye

In my 4 years of the Redcoat Band and 2 years of basketball band, I've spent a great deal of time, either directly or indirectly, with our director Brett. He's been with the band in one way or another for 13 years or something like that, so he lives and breathes UGA bands.

He's only 10 years older than me, so he's not much like any other band director I've ever had. And I much prefer it that way. I can honestly say that he's the only director/professor I've ever had that was really into Outkast.

Being the kind of person that I am (shy and with a tendency to blend into the background) I don't really get into personal relationships with what I see as people of authority (or anyone else, really). But by virtue of the fact that I get at least one band-related e-mail a week from Brett and have spent at least one semester with him for the last 4 years, he's a little more personal than most. He refered to me by name over the intercom at a practice towards the end of this marching season, and I seriously did a double take. I had no idea he even knew my name, and I figured that out of 407 people, that was a pretty impressive feat.

Ironically enough (I'm not sure if this actually qualifies as irony, but it sounds good), he was the one that I had to audtion for in order to get into Redcoats. The person I was supposed to audtion for wasn't there that day for whatever reason, so Brett stepped in. Of course at the time I had no idea who he was, but he talked to me about living on campus, what the band was like, and just generally made me feel comfortable; which was exactly what I needed being a 17 year old kid about to attend a school some 34 times the size of my highschool. When I saw him on the podium the first day of band camp, I figured he was a drum major or TA or something. But after a while, I figured out that he ran this show.

Anyway...I told you that story to tell you this one. I'm currently on a band trip that is very well one of the best, if not the best band trip I've ever been on. Not because of the charter flights, the sweet hotel, or the money, but because of the people. There's only 27 band members and Brett, so we spend quite a bit of time together. Last night, like 20 of us snuck down to Brett's room Mission Impossible style. Half of us got up against the wall on either side, and one person knocked on the door (thus making it look like there was only one person out there). So when he opened the door, we all barged in (oh, and we all had our pillows) and demanded to have a slumber party. So we stayed in his room for a while and had him sing songs to us. He's actually leaving the band after this year to be a country song-writer in Nashville, so he sang some of the songs he'd written himself. They were damn good. I was genuinely impressed. But he also took requests. (If you've never heard a 31 year old man sing 'Strawberry Wine', it's quite a sight.) I think the highlight of my evening was when he did 'If I had a Million Dollars', and we all sang back up. I was also impressed when I asked for the theme to Diff'rent Strokes, and not only did he know it, but he made a medley of it with the theme from Friends and Growing Pains.

Anyway...more on this later. I gotta go catch the bus for the game. Go Dawgs and the like.

Thank you for flying UGA Athletic Association

I haven't updated in a while. Sorry about that. The last two weeks have been incredibly busy. I had two exams and a basketball tournament last week, and this week I had a paper to lay out and a giant painting to finish (which I still haven't done). So this is the first time I've had to sit in front of a computer for any substantial amount of time.

Anyway, the UGA Athletic association has ruined flying for me for the foreseeable future. As a member of the basketball band, we get to accompany the team to the NCAA tournament (should they go). And since the women's team was decent enough to get invited, we got to fly to Dallas. But we didn't fly commercial, no no no...we got our own plane.

We didn't even go inside the airport. The bus dropped us off right beside the plane. If you've never driven on a runway in a vehicle without wings, it's quite an odd feeling. There was no massive line to go through the metal detectors...we got our own. There was no little pack of pretzels and a can of soda...we got sandwiches as we got on the plane, brownies and chips after take off, ice cream bars after that, and any kind of juice, soda or energy drink we wanted at any time.

There was also no 'excuse me you're in my seat...' You could sit where ever you wanted, and there were enough empty seats on the plane that you could have your own row if you wanted.

For the record, all the basketball players are really nice. You would think they'd be all arrogant and stuff, but they're really pleasant people. Even the female cheerleaders aren't so bad. But the male cheerleaders are total pricks. I don't know what it is about being a male cheerleader that makes you think you're such a badass, but geez...you're not that cool.

At any rate, I'm currently writing from my 17th floor room in the Dallas Renaissance Hotel. It's pretty sweet. I recommend it. The room goes for $250 a night, but I haven't spent a dime. I also got $100 to last me til tomorrow, and provided we win, I get 70 more.

I bitch a lot about how our University spends money irresponsibly, but I can see why they do it. When you're on the receiving end of it, it's a pretty sweet deal.

Well, I'm off to go chill in the hot tub on the roof (yeah, there's a pool and a hot tub on the roof, and there's an awesome view of Dallas at night). I'll be sure to spend more of the University's money while I'm at it, too.

You're 9, you don't know anything, shut your mouth

So I was watching the Tonight Show and they had this 9 year old kid on that was supposed to be this political wizard or whatever, I guess he was. He knew a lot of presidential trivia and everything, so good for him. However, when Jay asked him if he was a Republican, he reacted like I do after David Greene finds Leonard Pope in the endzone...he let out a hearty 'OHHHHHHH YEAH!' It was a little embarrassing, but I could deal with it. But when they got to his little video montage, it was painful to watch.

First, they asked him who the greatest President ever was, and he enthusiastically said 'George W. Bush'. Wrong answer. In his defense, he is NINE, so that's probably the only president he remembers. No don't get me wrong, I think W. is a fine president. I voted for him. I would have voted for him twice had I been old enough. But the best ever? Come on. What about his rampant government spending? What about his lack of backbone when it comes to dealing with the press? What about his mispronunciation of the word nuclear, and other general deficiencies in speaking? Far be it for me to criticize someone for not expressing themself well verbally, but if you're the leader of the free world you should probably be a little more articulate. Aside from that though, he's a bad ass. And if he wasn't a former alcoholic, I'd love to have a beer with him.

But for my money, it doesn't get any better than Ronaldus Magnus (a.k.a. Ronald Reagan). Not only did he cut taxes and reduce government spending, but he managed to stare down the Soviet Union in a way that didn't give in and didn't get us all vaporized. He also didn't take crap from the media, and made damn good speeches. So all around, he was the greatest we've ever had. Dubya might get Top 5, but there's no touching the Great Communicator.

Anyway, back to the stupid kid. Then he was shown in front of the Watergate Hotel, and he said 'This is the Watergate Hotel, where Richard Nixon ALLEGEDLY stole stuff from the Democrats. ALLEGEDLY...they never had any proof! They never had any proof!' This just made him sound ridiculous. First of all, Richard Nixon wasn't doing it. It was people associated with his campaign. Secondly, they did have proof. There were tapes, plus Nixon admitted it and resigned! Idiot!

People like this kid really irritate me. First of all, he's 9. He has no business forming political opinions or associating with a political party. For God's sake, go play a video game or watch cartoons or something. You're 9, you don't know anything. Shut up.

Second, when you try to defend Richard Nixon on Watergate, at the age of 9 no less, you sound like a frigging moron. It happened, he admitted it, and he resigned. He also died BEFORE YOU WERE BORN. It's time to move on.

Third, blind partisans like that, especially 9 year old blind partisans, are ridiculous. I vote Republican, I tend toward the Republican ideology, but I'm not 'a Republican'. It just so happens that at the current time, the Republican party is the best vehicle to represent my beliefs in the government. I don't have any special attachment to the name or the symbol or anything else. If they went by any other name, I'd still vote for them. On the same token, if over night they became the advocates for bigger government, income distribution, socialist healthcare and a weaker military, I would stop voting for them. And if the Green party all of a sudden became concerned with fiscal responsibility, strong national defense and traditional family values, well, then Nader would be my guy.

But there doesn't seem to any sign of a Cold Front blowing through hell any time soon, and pigs are still flightless, unclean, and inedible. So it doesn't look like I'll have a Nader '08 sticker on my car any time soon.

Wait...so you CAN'T fix my computer? Hell of an engineer, my ass...

So I was supposed to write about this hate crime stuff we talked about my Cultural Geography class that really irritated me, but I'm not really irritated about it anymore, so I'm not in the mood to write about it. Suffice it to say that Hate Crime laws are stupid because you can't make the penalty for murder and worse than it is, unless you want to kill people slower and more painfully. At any rate, we'll probably end up talking about it tomorrow, or at least something similar, and I'll be irritated all over again and have plenty to blog about.

Instead, I'd rather talk about the humorous observation I just made. For those of you from Georgia, or at least familiar with Georgia, you know about the rivalry between the University of Georgia, and Georgia Tech (formally known as 'Georgia Institute of Technology', informally known as 'North Avenue Trade School', and personally known as 'Nerdonia of Middle Earth').

Those of us who have found the Promised Land (Athens) tend to look at those in Atlanta as a strange breed. Socially inept, Magic playing, Tolkien reading, computer hacking, electrical engineering, Microsoft hating, Linux using nerds who can't finish their beer (seriously, it's in the song).

Likewise, they look at US as a strange, if not inferior, breed. From what I understand, we're a bunch of redneck, truck driving, illiterate, don't-need-no-book-learnin', hunting, fishing, Nascar watching, Pap's Blue Ribbon drinking, poultry science majors from Podunksville, somewhere south of Macon.

Honestly I've got no problem with these stereotypes. Several of my high school friends decided to wade through the waters of physics classes, chemistry exams, and debates about how much better Dungeons and Dragons is than Lord of the Rings. I can say that for the most part, those stereotypes are at least...::ahem::...well, marginally based in truth. Much like there are indeed people at UGA that could classify as rednecks, we DO in fact have a poultry science department, and some people like Nascar, drinking beer and shooting things.

These stereotypes actually provide hours of entertainment, especially during the last week of football season - so much so that our annual game has earned the title of 'Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate'. However, something happened today that ruined the illusion for me.

I was having computer issues. Apparently, my new anti-virus software was blocking the port Outlook Express uses to send e-mail, forcing me to use webmail. So, there's a guy that works on the staff for the paper that is a recent Tech grad, so I figure he's a tech support gold mine. I send him an e-mail explaining the problem and asking for advice. He sends me an e-mail back saying 'I have no idea. Normally when I have computer problems I just restart and hope it goes away.' My world came crashing down around me. You mean I actually know more about computers than a Tech graduate?! I swear time stood still for a while afterwards.

But then I got to thinking...if he were to ask me something about Nascar or chicken farming, I'd be pretty useless too.

It's just not fair. If we can't make grandiose assumptions about an entire campus, what fun is that? Oh well...I still have Florida. Those jeans short-wearing, mullet-headed, trailer park-living, cousin-marrying, inbreds...

Stupid campus computers

So I just spent an hour writing about how much I hate Hate Crime legislation, but the computer I was using of campus decided to be stupid and erase it. I guess I'll just have to rewrite it later. But now I hate both Hate Crime legislation AND this computer. Plus the fact that I have to go to class now.