schmaylight schmavings

WHY!!

Why does the sun come up before I wake up and go down before I even get home? I hate this crap.

peace

craving

some people get cravings for choclate. I get cravings for music. I've had "In the Light" stuck in my head for three days. Yesterday I went to the local record store, but the only Zeppelin they had was the 2 disk greatest hits release. Who the hell wants that? No wonder local record stores are dieing. I mean, I want to support locally owned everything - like teh coffee shop near school rather than Starbucks - but if you don't have what people want, what do you expect them to do? While I was there I bought Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsies, so it wasn't a total loss.

The problem is that no matter how loud you play Machine Gun over & over, it still isn't "In the Light." The same thing goes for chocolate or food or whatever. No matter how many budwisers you swill back, they won't fill that deep down thirst for the season's first Guiness.

So this morning I went to Barnes & Noble and grabbed Physical Graffiti. This is actually the first copy I have ever owned, and I feel much better.

(sorry for the lack of links - no time today. But that is why god invended google. There is a reason both words start with G O you know.)

rearviewmirror

Rather than get straight to the point, or mention the one-hit-wonder pop tune I heard on the radio that inspired my earlier post that was taken over by Tom Cochrane, I will beat around the bush a little more.

I was crankin' Pearl Jam's sophmore release "Vs." on the way home last night and thought to myself "man, this is/was one of the most underrated albums of all time." Then it occured to me that I didn't finish the sentance. I should have said "this is album has for years been greatly underappreciated by ME." Tons of people love(d) the album, and it was all over the radio when it came out.

Why didn't I dig it then? Because 1)- I was too concerned with Pearl Jam changing their sound from Ten and "selling out" and 2)- I was too worried about all the 'posers' who were latching on to the radio friendly version when they didn't even know what the song Porch is about, that I didn't recognize that by rejecting something just because other people liked it, I was equally as guilty of being a poser.

I could go on about my preference for Pearl Jam over Nirvana, respect for teh artistic integrity Pearl Jam showed by makig music that almost no one liked (and not giving a shit), how their suit against Ticketmaster marked a jumping-off point for concert goers, and the politically active roll they have played in trying to make the world better; but I won't. I'll just say always play it loud, it is good:

i took a drive today
time to emancipate
i guess it was the beatings made me wise
but i'm not about to give thanks, or apologize
i couldn't breathe, holdin' me down
hand on my face, pushed to the ground
enmity gauged, united by fear
forced to endure what i could not forgive...
i seem to look away
wounds in the mirror waved
it wasn't my surface most defiled
head at your feet, fool to your crown
fist on my plate, swallowed it down
enmity gauged, united by fear
tried to endure what i could not forgive
saw things, saw things
clearer, clearer
once you, were in my...
rearview mirror...
i gather speed from you fucking with me
once and for all i'm far away
i hardly believe, finally the shades...are raised...
saw things so much clearer
once you, once you...
rearviewmirror...
saw things so much clearer
once you, once you...
rearviewmirror...

Kahn v. Department of Motor Vehicles, 16 Cal. App. 4th 159

Surely this is good for a laugh...

"Petitioner is a certified court reporter employed by the Culver City Municipal Court. In approximately 1972, when petitioner received her shorthand reporting license and launched [***2] a new career in midlife, her nieces and nephews asked her to show them the court reporting shorthand symbols for the phrase, "if you can." This phrase had great personal meaning to petitioner, in that her mother had adapted a [**8] song using the phrase from the story of "The Little Engine That Could." Petitioner had used this phrase as a motivator throughout her life. Her nieces and nephews purchased a personalized license plate for petitioner which bore the court reporting symbols "TP U BG," which can be translated as "if you can." She used this license plate thereafter on a series of automobiles.

In 1989, Pamela Reed completed a "customer inquiry form" at the state fair in which she registered a complaint concerning the following license plates: TPUBG, TPUBGIT, TPUBGOF, TPUBGU and TPUBGUP. She noted: "In stenographic shorthand TP=F [and] BG=CK." She demonstrated that "TP U BG" thus would read as "F." "U." "CK" or "K." and stated that this was "not exactly what should be on our roads." After the DMV received this information, it asked petitioner to surrender her license plates.

...Petitioner argues it is not enough that the translation of the court reporting symbols as the four-letter epithet be offensive; there must also have been [*170] evidence that "TP U BG" in itself is offensive. This is the equivalent of arguing that, in [**13] order to be rejected as a license identification symbol, "puta" must be understood as offensive in that form by all those who know no Spanish and thus cannot translate it as "whore."

stripe...

I was pullin for him.

down the drain

One day, when I own a house & convert the basement into a Carolina Panthers sports bar theme, I think I'll remodel the bathroom just like it's s a real bar. I plan on 2 urinals & one stall (of course with the door ripped off) and I'll frame newspaper above the urinals so you can read it while you take a leak.

And I won't go with those newfangled small urinals- hell nah. I'll have the old school ones that go all the way to the floor, just like we used to have at Eastover Elementary.


Or maybe I'll just go straight up trough style...

Hey zeus Kriste'

I just heard on the radio that an ass load of Katrina evacuees are facing eviction from the apartments they have been relocated to because FEMA mailed relief checks to their old New Orleans addresses. What a bunch of Morans.

After the extent of damage because evident, I said I thought the government should rebuild New Orleans. In theory I still think this is the kind of disaster they should address - the problem is simply too large for private free market forces to be effective. There are houses in Pensacola FLA that still have tarped roofs from last year's hurricane.

But it has become painfully clear that the government, as currently structured, is wholly inept and incapable of such a task - at least FEMA is. I heard of a proposal to move responsibility from FEMA to HUDD. The E in FEMA stands for "emergency," not "long term" and they clearly can't keep up.

From the Winston-Salem Journal:

Katrina evacuees face eviction without checks

CHARLOTTE - Hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees face possible eviction because their federal relief checks haven't arrived - four weeks after the money was promised.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was to send checks of $2,358 to cover three months' housing. But evacuees said that FEMA has mailed checks to former addresses in New Orleans or to the wrong address in Charlotte, which never reached their recipients.

Social workers fear that the delay may leave many hurricane evacuees homeless when there is a shortage of affordable housing. Social workers estimate that hundreds of the 4,000 evacuees in the area are at risk of eviction.

FEMA has dispatched teams of workers to North Carolina to investigate the problem.

Those who have visited Charlotte said that half of the storm victims they have assisted in North Carolina have not received rental-assistance checks.

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128767715178&path=!localnews!article&s=1037645509099

sweaty palms

It is incredibly hard to get a band-aid to stick to any part of your body that moves - knees, elbows, fingers - but the most annoying I have experienced is the palm. It doesn't help that the only band-aids CVS carries are big enough to cover my gaping wound (which finally scabbed pver yesterday) are plastic rather than cloth, so your hand starts sweating - destroying whatever effectiveness the adhesive would have had.

frankenstein (Bad Music 1)

This was going to be a post about how I consider myself fortunate to be able to enjoy one hit wonder crappy radio music.

But after doing a little prep work, the post has taken over and commands me to focus on a particular one hit wonder - well, 2 hits really. These days everyone out there will turn up the radio and roll down the window when they're drivin down the road and a little Tom Cochrane comes on - doesn't matter if it's "Life is a Highway" or his first break through - the semi-psycadelic 80s rock song you used to listen to in highschool with 8 of your buddies crammed into the back of a minivan that looked like the mystery machine leaking pot smoke from every crevice - "Lunatic Fringe."

Do you remember in what years those songs were released? Answers at the bottom.

But throuogh your reminicing sing along or stoned introspection, did you ever really think about the words that he is singing? This dude is singing about Jesus & the Rapture.

Lunatic Fringe: 1981
Life is a Highway: 1991

Lucky

Sometimes I think internet radio could change the world.

Bill & Rebecca Goldsmith started Radio Paradise years ago and just did it for free, accepting donations. Within a few years the donations were pouring in at a pace that allowed them to do this full time. But rater than take the money & run, they invest an adequate amount in upgrades to the site. For more history / background, click on their "Info" tab.

The top right of the webpage shows the recent playlist and if you click on a song, you can rate it, request it, and find out the discography information - as well as buy the album.

When I first got turned onto the station, the guy was traveling with a webcam & broadcasting from his laptop. Now that's the fuckin life. Maybe internet radio won't change the whole world, but it sure did change Bill & Rebecca's world. And if you listen, maybe it can change your's.

Radiohead song of the day (inspiration courtesy RP):

I'm on a roll,
I'm on a roll this time
I feel my luck could change.

Kill me Sarah,
kill me again with love,
it's gonna be a glorious day.

Pull me out of the aircrash,
Pull me out of the lake,
I'm your superhero,
we are standing on the edge.

The head of state has called for me by name
but I don't have time for him.
It's gonna be a glorious day!
I feel my luck could change.

Pull me out of the aircrash,
Pull me out of the lake,
I'm your superhero,
we are standing on the edge.

We are standing on the edge.

Once it hits your lips...

There are few things as polarizing as what octane milk people drink. If you are a 2% guy or gal, you wouldn't be caught dead with a glass of that white-water skim stuff. People also rarely shift levels. If you were raised on whole milk, there is simply no substitute, and you won't trade down. Probably the only people who shift are those who were raised on powdered milk.

Well yesterday I showed up at the grocery store to grab a few things - including of course milk - and they were out of 2%. How could they be out? I asked a guy to check in the back. No dice. I guess that is what I get for going to the grocery store at 9:00 on a Wednesday when I should be at the bar. So, those people who know me know that I was paralized with indecision. They had cholate milk, whole milk, 1% milk, and of course I had the option of going to a different store. The different store grabbed me first, but I decided to indulge myself and bought the whole milk.

Let's just say that my cherios have never been so filling, my coffee never so creamy. Yummmm. I probably won't stick with whole milk (which actually only has 38% more fat that 2%, even though you'd think that whole milk would be 98% more than 2%). But I will go home and mix up some Nestle's Quick in a frozen mug and enjoy it with a double decker PB&J for snack.

...it's just so good.

Oh, to be fifteen again...

I was talking with one of my fellow students who has an 11 yearold son and she mentioned that he came home the other day and asked what "gay sex" is. Apparently it's all the rage on the playground to accuse people of gay sex. The conversation took its course and I reminded her that kids are getting younger and younger when they have first sexual experiences. The thought that her 7 year old daughter is almost half way there was quite shocking for both of us, although obviously to her more than me.

The vast majority of girls that were having sex when I was in highschool were seeking approval and popularity. The guys were just seeking a good time. I don't have kids yet, but I would rather my daughter have sex at 15 because it feels good than wait until she's 18 or 21 or whatever and do it because all her friends were making fun of her and she wants some boy to like her.

Sexual activity increases among youth
Studies show adolescents have intercourse earlier without feeling guilt
By Stephanie Nehmens, Senior Staff Writer

People are having more sex, and they like it. An analysis, based on 530 studies, shows an increase in premarital intercourse and oral sex at significantly younger ages than ever before without a feeling of guilt.

The average age of one's first intercourse has dropped from 19 to 15 for females and 18 to 15 for males between 1943 and 1999, San Diego State associate psychology professor and co-author of the analysis Jean Twenge said.

"Sexual guilt among young people has gone down considerably, especially among young women," Twenge said. "I think women are feeling more comfortable sexually and it's part of the trend of men and women becoming more equal.

"What's really happening is that young women are doing the same thing as young men have always done."

The availability of birth control and legal abortion has probably made a large difference in that women feel they can have sex and not have to worry about getting pregnant, which makes a huge difference, Twenge said.

"If you start having sex when you're younger, then you're going to have the chances of you getting pregnant and having either an abortion or a baby at a very young age go up," business administration senior Corey Travis said. "So the overall equalization is OK, but women are ultimately responsible for the decisions they make, and it puts a lot of weight on young minds that are a lot of times still in the adolescent stage."

Women now hold professional career roles and aren't so confined to the house and home, said Brooke Wells, who holds a master's degree in psychology from SDSU and co-authored the sex analysis.

Women's personalities are also changing. Studies show women's assertiveness has gone up over the years, and that includes in the bedroom, Wells said.

"By the late 1980s, 80 percent of people said ... it was OK for two people who aren't married, who are consenting adults, to have sex," Twenge said. "People stopped asking the question after the late 1980s because it kind of topped out."

Liberal studies senior Kristen Dan said she comes from a religious area and a lot of people wait until they're married.

"I think the age this is happening is too young now..." Dan said. "It's taking kids' innocence at a lot younger ages."

The study also found an increase in oral sex, Twenge said. People didn't start asking questions about oral sex until the '70s because before that it wasn't quite as common, she said.

"In the '70s, about 50 percent of people engaged in that behavior (and) by the 1990s it was 75 percent, so that's another behavior that has gone up in popularity," Twenge said. "A lot of previous generations of people, people now in their 60s, viewed oral sex as not proper.

"They thought it was disgusting, but of course young people now see that as something that is a pleasurable activity."

Dan said it depends on the individual and what they believe is acceptable.

"I know some people think it's a lot bigger deal than other people and so it just depends how you look at it." Dan said. "I'm not opposed."

Twenge said what people think now is if it's a pleasurable thing, then it's worth pursuing and there's no reason to listen to rules about what one is supposed to do and what one is not.

friendly reminders

Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Don't know what you've got till it's gone.

Don't piss into the wind.

Don't stop thinkin about tomorrow.

Don't wanna be a bum, you better chew gum.

Don't play bump & run coverage when the football field is concrete.

long cold lonely winter

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
Little darlin' it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darlin' it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right

Little darlin' the smiles returning to their faces
Little darlin' it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Little darlin' I feel the ice is slowly meltin'
Little darlin' it seems like years since it's been clear
Here come the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
Here come the sun, here comes the sun
It's all right, it's all right

Just like Tom Thumb's Blues

I know I've been leaning on the music lyrics a little too hard lately, but I am sticking with the rain theme until the sun comes out - besides, this is a pretty upbeat feel good song. The best version I've ever heard was not Dylan, but Neil Young shredding it at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert. That collection also includes Eddie Vedder doing Masters of War acoustic and Clapton's incindary version of Don't Think Twice.

Incidentally, one of the best pages on the entire web is here, where you can do a word search of every Dylan song ever published.

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez
And it's Eastertime too
And your gravity fails
And negativity don't pull you through
Don't put on any airs
When you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there
And they really make a mess outa you

Now if you see Saint Annie
Please tell her thanks a lot
I cannot move
My fingers are all in a knot
I don't have the strength
To get up and take another shot
And my best friend, my doctor
Won't even say what it is I've got

Sweet Melinda
The peasants call her the goddess of gloom
She speaks good English
And she invites you up into her room
And you're so kind
And careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice
And leaves you howling at the moon

Up on Housing Project Hill
It's either fortune or fame
You must pick up one or the other
Though neither of them are to be what they claim
If you're lookin' to get silly
You better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don't need you
And man they expect the same

Now all the authorities
They just stand around and boast
How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms
Into leaving his post
And picking up Angel who
Just arrived here from the coast
Who looked so fine at first
But left looking just like a ghost

I started out on burgundy
But soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they'd stand behind me
When the game got rough
But the joke was on me
There was nobody even there to call my bluff
I'm going back to New York City
I do believe I've had enough

blaze of glory

EC Issues Subpoena To Frist, Sources Say

Records Sought On Sale of Stock

By Carrie Johnson and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 13, 2005; Page A01

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has been subpoenaed to turn over personal records and documents as federal authorities step up a probe of his July sales of HCA Inc. stock, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued the subpoena within the past two weeks, after initial reports that Frist, the Senate's top Republican official, was under scrutiny by the agency and the Justice Department for possible violations of insider trading laws.

Jon Bon Jovi - ode to Billy Frist:

I wake up in the morning
And I raise my weary head
I got an old coat for a pillow
And the earth was last night’s bed

I don’t know where I’m going
Only God knows where I’ve been
I’m a devil on the run
A six gun lover
A candle in the wind

When you’re brought into this world
They say you’re born in sin
Well at least they gave me something
I didn’t have to steal or have to win

Well they tell me that I’m wanted
Yeah I’m a wanted man
I’m colt in your stable
I’m what cain was to abel
Mister catch me if you can

I’m going down in a blaze of glory
Take me now but know the truth
I’m going down in a blaze of glory
Lord I never drew first
But I drew first blood
I’m no one’s son
Call me young gun

You ask about my consience
And I offer you my soul
You ask if I’ll grow to be a wise man
Well I ask if I’ll grow old
You ask me if I known love
And what it’s like to sing songs in the rain
Well,I’ve seen love come
And I’ve seen it shot down
I’ve seen it die in vain

[chorus]

Each night I go to bed
I pray the lord my soul to keep
No I ain’t looking for forgiveness
But before I’m six foot deep
Lord,i got to ask a favor
And I’ll hope you’ll understand
’cause I’ve lived life to the fullest
Let the boy die like a man
Staring down the bullet
Let me make my final stand

[chorus]

fork in the road

It's still raining.

One of the more under appreciated albums of the last decade is Pearl Jam's "Versus." I have long been an advocate that Ten is better than Nirvana's Nevermind, and the Pearl Jam is a better band, and that the only reason they are not recognuzed as such is that Eddie Vedder & crew had the balls to move forward and try to make things better rather than suck on the end of a shotgun.

Along those same lines, do you ever wonder what Marylin Monroe would be if she were still alive? Elizabeth Taylor was one hot mama back in the day, and look what happened to her. Would Marylin have turned out like Liz?

aint no sunshine

It started raining last Thursday I think. Today has been the least grey since then:

It is supposed to be rainy from now until Saturday.

Bill Withers is the man:

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
It's not warm when she's away
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
and she's always gone too long
Anytime she goes away

Wonder this time where she's gone
Wonder if she's gonna stay
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
and this house just ain't no home
anytime she goes away

And I know, I know...

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
Only darkness everyday
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
and this house just ain't no home
anytime she goes away

today's Boondocks

(click to enlarge)

couldn't have said it better myself...

the towel

When do you scrap your day as useless and wasted and just throw it in?

Really, any day that you think has been wasted has indeed been wasted, because not only have you failed to get anything done, but you failed to relax and enjoy time off. It's almost 10 and I still haven't accepted the fact that I am not going to do any school work whatsoever today. I don't have to get anything done, so putting it off isn't the end of the world. Sometimes, I'm just too tired to work. Not sleepy, but tired in the head and tired emotionally.

But who wants to read blogs about people just bitching about their life? I don't.

Something I haven't written about thus far is my enigmatic addiction to super geek tv. I try to limit the shows that I get into to one, and since I started school last year that one has been Battlestar Galactica. It comes on at 10pm on fridays, which unfortunately is generally an ideal time for me to take a study break.

They're showing reruns of the second season right now, but that is just as well since I didn't watch over the summer (I'm not THAT much of a loser). In the episode this friday, one of the characters (Starbuck, who is a woman in the new series) returned to her war torn home planet and went way out of her way to go by her old apartment. Once there, she popped in an old tape, lit a cigar, and sat back and listened to what I have now identified as Philip Glass' Metamorphosis 1 from his 1989 album "Solo Piano."

This is one of those shows that really works if you let yourself believe. If you don't, then it is just a dorky Sci-Fi show that comes on at a time when no reasonable person would be home. But if you do, the characters are engaging and complex and the story line has meaning that you can sink you teeth into and should give you something to think about in life. The contrast of this song with the chaos & pain that is going on rivals Goodfellas' use of Layla as the one of the best theatrical uses of music of all time.

At the time of this post, you can download the song here - apparently it is public domain piece.

So, in the episode while this song is playing, Starbuck comments that "Everyone else is fighting to get back what once was theirs. I'm fighting because it's the only thing I know how to do."

update: refund aproved

I just got off the phone with US AIR. Well, mostly I was on the phone with "hold," but you know how it goes. You may remember that my friends & I had a big trip planned to see the Panthers play the Saints in New Orleans. Needless to say, the trip is canceled and a couple of weeks ago I tried to get my $225 dollars back from USAIR. They balked and said I had a non-refundable ticket.

The short version is that I just invested 40 mins on the phone and they agreed to refund my ticket. The long version is that I had to ask for supervisor, who never actually got on the phone, and when they finally refunded my money it was because there had been a schedule change - not because for all they know half of my 14 family members are living in the Astrodome and the other half have yet to be located. To be clear, I don't have any family down there and my family is safe in their respective locations, but US Air didn't seem to give a shit either way.

I am considering taking $20 of the refund & spending it on one of the NFL's "Be A Saint" T-shirts, but I'm not sure about wearing enemy colors. Of course - it is for a good cause and would be a nice way to show support for the city when we finally do get to New Orleans for that football weekend. (assuming they don't move the team)

money for nothin

Evacuee hits $1.6M jackpot

Lena Anderson
Louisiana Gannett News

OPELOUSAS - The "Wheel of Fortune" finally turned the right way for New Orleans evacuee Jacquelyn Sherman.

On Tuesday, at Evangeline Downs Racetrack and Casino, she was playing a slot machine patterned after the popular game when she hit the jackpot.

Her winnings: $1.6 million before taxes.

"When it happened, I didn't know what was going on," Sherman said. "I had just put in my $20 in the "Wheel of Fortune" machine when it hit. My feeling about this win is better than being blessed. Thank you, Lord."...

------------------------------------------------------
Now, I obviously don't know what this poor woman has been through in the last 5 weeks or however long it has been since the huricane, although I have done what I think is my fair share of doing what I can - and I have tried to spread the word about Operation Eden so that people will realize and remember that the rebuilding process is not just a long one, but in some places it really hasn't even begun.

That being said - I can't believe this woman was playing friggin slots - and not just slots, but $20 slots. Like I said, I don't know anything about this woman other than what it says below, but if she has gotten any money from FEMA or charities that actually help people, she should have to pay it back. That money is for food & diapers & rent - not playing $20 slots.

If she wants to go and blow of some steam and forget her troubles for a while, I understand - but there are nickle slots (I think) and quarter slots. Do you know how many times you can LOSE at quarter slots before you run out of $20? Right - 80! That means, if you drop one quarter every 45 seconds, without leting up until you are broke, you will have gotten one full hour of entertainment.

And I haven't gotten into the whole blasphemy issue. I don't love Jesus or anything, but isn't it odd that this woman thinks winning money is better than being blessed by the almighty?

Hopefully we will get a follow up story like "Evacuee donates half of winnings to huricane relief efforts."

---------------------------------------------------

... Sherman's road to becoming a millionaire started when Hurricane Katrina threatened New Orleans, leading her to evacuate to her sister's home in Opelousas.

It so happened that by Tuesday, after more than a month of living with dozens of displaced family members with no real signs of hope on the horizon, Sherman spoke that morning with her niece, Jamie Sherman, about being depressed.

Together, they prayed.

"I told my aunt that God works in mysterious ways and that I had prayed that something good would happen for the whole family to be happy," Jamie Sherman said.

That "something good" and more would come later that night when Jacquelyn Sherman and her sister Clarissa Sherman decided to take some time out for entertainment and pay a visit to Evangeline Downs Racetrack & Casino. Before she knew what hit her, Jacquelyn Sherman went from having practically nothing to being a millionaire.

"I have to get an attorney and make some decisions about my future," she said Wednesday at a news conference at the racetrack. "It hasn't all sunk in right now. I'm tired. We were up very late last night and back here very early. I plan to go home right now and rest, take a nap. I have so many thoughts going through my mind about what to do and how to do it."

Jacquelyn Sherman's win is the single largest jackpot won since the casino's opening.

they drove olde' Dixie down

The Black Crowes played at the 930 Club this week this week and I could have gone but didn't. OK - so I'm a moran. They encored the first night with the Night They Drove Olde Dixie Down, by The Band.

Perhaps that was in honor of the controvercy going on in Utah. Or maybe it was just because they knew that I love the song, love the South, and foolishly passed on a great opprotunity to see the Crowes for the first time.

It's pretty crazy that a guy from Canadia wrote this song:

Virgil Caine is the name and I served on the Danville train
'Til Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again
In the winter of sixty-five
We were hungry just barely alive
By May tenth Richmond had fell
It was a time I remember oh so well

Chorus
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing, they went
La la la la la la, la la la la la la la la, la

Like my father before me I will work the land

And like my brother above me who took a rebel stand
He was just eighteen, proud and brave
When a Yankee laid him in his grave
I swear by the mud below my feet
You can't raise a Cain back up when he's in defeat

[chorus]

Back with my wife in Tennessee when one day she called to me
Virgil, quick come see, there goes Robert E Lee
Now I don't mind choppin' wood
And I don't care if the money's no good
You take what you need and you keep the rest
But they should never have taken the very best

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing, they went
La la la la la la, la la la la la la la la, la

Feelin' Blue?

Have you lost purpose in your life? Do you feel unsatisfied in a deeper way? Ask yourself...What Would Miers Do?

In Midcareer, a Turn to Faith to Fill a Void

By EDWARD WYATT and SIMON ROMERO

DALLAS, Oct. 4 - By 1979, Harriet E. Miers, then in her mid-30's, had accomplished what some people take a lifetime to achieve. She was a partner at Locke Purnell Boren Laney & Neely, one of the most prestigious law firms in the South, with an office on the 35th floor of the Republic National Bank Tower in downtown Dallas.

But she still felt something was missing in her life, and it was after a series of long discussions - rambling conversations about family and religion and other matters that typically stretched from early evening into the night - with Nathan L. Hecht, a junior colleague at the law firm, that she made a decision that many of the people around her say changed her life.

"She decided that she wanted faith to be a bigger part of her life," Justice Hecht, who now serves on the Texas Supreme Court, said in an interview. "One evening she called me to her office and said she was ready to make a commitment" to accept Jesus Christ as her savior and be born again, he said. He walked down the hallway from his office to hers, and there amid the legal briefs and court papers, Ms. Miers and Justice Hecht "prayed and talked," he said.

She was baptized not long after that, at the Valley View Christian Church.

read the rest at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/politics/politicsspecial1/05miers.html?th&emc=th

that smell

On the way to school - really on the way anywhere - I have to go through an intersection and inevitably sit at a light that has a McDonalds on the left & Long John Silvers on the right. The smell is enough to make me puke.

Whiskey bottles, and brand new cars
Oak tree you're in my way
There's too much coke and too much smoke
Look what's going on inside you
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of death surrounds you

Angel of darkness is upon you
Stuck a needle in your arm
So take another toke, have a blow for your nose
One more drink fool, will drown you
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of death surrounds you

Now they call you Prince Charming
Can't speak a word when you're full of 'ludes
Say you'll be all right come tomorrow
But tomorrow might not be here for you
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of death surrounds you

Hey, you're a fool you
Stick them needles in your arm
I know I been there before

One little problem that confronts you
Got a monkey on your back
Just one more fix, Lord might do the trick
One hell of a price for you to get your kicks
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of death surrounds you
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of death surrounds you

secret password

You know how on password protected sites they always give you a secret question incase you forget your password? Usually they make you chose one of their questions like "mother's maiden name" or "first pet name" or "highschool" or whatever. Well, my undergraduate institution lets you make your own question and at some time in the indeterminate past I made my question "where."

That's it - that's the whole question. I don't know where. I tried "nowhere" and "there" but neither worked. I'll let you know how this turns out for me, but the moral of the story is don't be dumb like me.