So, i have a shitload of work to do, but last nite some buds and I skipped out to what was going to be Hollins but wound up being Sweetbriar. It was a fairly intense driving experience: we covered nearly 300 miles in one evening.

On Saturday headed up 15 to the MAR Rover event just south of the James river which was a shit ton of fun! Got to hang with my brother and help him rag the crap out of his truck which was cool...

Tons of fun man.

The best part of my weekend was definitly hanging with my lady, going to various longwood parties/concerts for their Oktoberfest and watching her sisters corrupt the young and innocent... RDRR. I find the more time I spend with her the more I like her, which I hesitate to say makes me a bit nervous. I just hope she's happy.

Well then there sports fans, other than that, I'm so damn busy I can barely hold down the stress and papers and midterms are beginning to stack like so many gains of dirt to form the anthill of my life. I hope this semester comes out OK!!

I think its about time that I start wearing flanels and plad... lots of plad for the winter. This week has taught me well that life is fragile, strange, unpredictable and most of all, good. I beleive that all works out in the end and that the good lord indeed has a purpose for all of us. It doesn't seem to me that I'm alone here, and I don't think anyone else is either... there are to many coincidences in life, too many goods and bads that all seem to even out to a strange contentness that cant be substituted with money... there is indeed to much of this sort of thing for all that we know to have simply spawned on its own.

So, a little bit of tolerance, a little bit of love, a little patience and lots of friends... I think this right here is life. We are alive, we will not give up, we will find some way to bond despite our differences, and we will, on occasion, eat nachos and watch football, whether we like football or not. So, be nice to that guy who's always been an asshole to you, think before you seriously insult anyone, and pick your arguements. Me, I'm gonna sit right here and do what I have to do to get out of school and live the 'ol life as best as I know how. I'm falling up, and it feels good...

Great evening again this evening... good clean fun. For the most part anyway.

"for the wrath of the unritous shall raineth down upon theee
and scatter thy conciousness as it doeseth,
and it shall maketh the sound "kapoweth" as thou art smashed upon thy head!!!
Then i shall use all mine strenght to puteth thee back together again!!"
-The knights to humpdy dumpty

Thats right sportsfans. Went to a bible study at sweetbriar last night, it was pretty cool. I so freakin busy... havnt had a break in near three weeks now, been painting and researching and summerizing battles and workin out... carzy shite. I think things are just about to slow down a little though. What i think seems to mean about nothing however. Awsome. Lookin forward to this weekend, hope it will be fun... ALMOST finished painting freakin fences and just about done with all other commitments from the summer... good stuff. Heres a little img of the farm....

Love it out there... UGH!!!! Cant wait to be able to go there and RELAX though. hehe. Later honkies!

J'ai retourne a Hampden-Sydney.

Greetings sportsfans! I have finally arrived at school and loaded all my crap in. Crap now includes a velvet covered kickass chair felt I should have after we mover her into her new place... Last night we all got hammered just like old times. It was muchas amusante. My camera has weasled its way up to NOVA and I will get it back relatively soon. Put pics online again etc.

So I'm taking 21 hours this semester (hopefully) and it looks more and more like the next few month are going to be some of the busiest of my entire school career, which is both good and bad. Some of the stuff I'm taking looks really cool so, and I look forward to it.

Had an awsome time living at the farm out in the country south of the Star City, and getting to love, hate, and love the horses again... It was fun. Kind of depressing though, because as soon as I get to Know Rocky, I find out that he has bunches of problems with him, is living in severe pain, and will probably be put down this week or sometime soon after. Thats ok though I suppose, he had a good run. He's like 23 or 24 I believe... Anyway, he as old as a horse needs to be.

I got my drumset set up in downtown 'Noke and all my bro's old Giggin equipment (shout out to Kevin and Blaker for dat one yo) and once its all hooked up and rarin to go I'm gonna have me an amature recording studion of not too bad quality. hopefully i can gross some profit, enough to pay for all the crap I bought and maybe some more.

If you guys havn't seen the Blues Brothers, you need to.

All who are in school, Good Luck with the semester, and to the rest of you, later!

Im back from europe!! I know you all missed me... I'll have some pics up from the trip as soon as my bro gets around to moving them from his cameras.

The trip was tons of fun! I was really appreciative of my bro and his girl to drag me around like that and though i spent much of my time traveling i was able to relax a WHOOOLE lot. I spent most of the time drinking and relaxing save for a trip to the mariners museum in amsterdam and l'Hotel les Invalides in Paris which were both amazingly cool and stunning. I saw the overcoat Napoleon wore on his Russian campaign and the neclace he wore at his coronation. Hardcore.

More stories and pics to come...

UGH! Okj sorry all. This past month, blogging has been cut to a minimum to make the way for other time expenditures. May term's over, got a B and an A, so now, my GPA may be all the way up to a 2.9 when i Graduate, but from a 2.2 to a 2.9 in two years aint too bad if you ask me!

So there we have it. I go to france on wednesday, about eight hours after i pick up my passport from the DC passport agency. Oh what fun... went up there at 5:00 this morning to apply and paid WAY too much for the damn thing... dont be lazy when you need to get your next passport, btw. It sucks. the people there are busy disgruntled breaucrats also. What was I expecting, eh?

I helped move a bunch of crap for a bunch of other people this weekend which was also alot fun, suprisingly. Also got my sound studio set up (or rather, i threw all the crap i have so far for my sound studio into the room, and it awaits my return from france). Had a pretty crazy and partially scandelous date this weekend too, also lots of fun. Even more so than moving furniture! HA! So thats relationships cruisin right along, though is gonna have to be on hold for a few weeks. I can wait to get the hell over to france and get away from the stress that, well, really preparing to go to fance is creating. lol. Ok, so one last post before Europe... ya'll take care, and don't you go changin!! See you July 5th punks!

This is a sampling of every set of pics i've gotten on my set... Was doing it for a drumming forum, thought i'd let all you guys see it. =)

Awsome. So yesterday my truck got towed. Today, my first class got cancelled, and I was sitting trimming/repairing my reenacting had and i lopped into about a cm. wide piece of the end of my finger with my wire/finger cutters, and slopped out about 4 ounces of blood or so. So yeah, that was fun. And it only took me like 5 mins to stop the bleeding. So, after i got the blood cleaned out of cushing (now staining the floor of the oldest contunuously used dorm in the nation, Giggity gigity) i bandaged the MF'r up. Now im dizzy and recouperating... that f'n sucked. Should pay closer attention when repaaing buttons...

So, there you have it. It's finally almost the end of May term, and this has been one of the longest months of my life. Lots of intense class, too much work, too many bad days and not nearly enough beer. Oh, I did buy a watch though, and i got my ring refitted, so that only leaves 3,422 things i have left to do before I go to France. Not to mention finding something to do when I get back.

Interesting though. I seem to have stumbled upon something though, this person. Very strangely similar to myself she is, and it seems to be less and less a coencidence, though our meeting was something a bit strange. Indeed... "Hey hey, what can I do."

Wedding in Washington this weeked, promises to be quite interesting, thank you very much Sara, I owe ya one ; )

Sorry, folks. no pics this go round, but I will leave you with these few imoportant words, my father told me when i was but a small boy: you can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friends nose.

BLWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHhahahahaha!!

Man, last night was odd. I had a really long conversation with some gal I just met. Appaerently i had met her before, but it was Greek Week... you know how these things go. Anyway, I obviously felt that was worth mentioning...

I've been crusin the drumming forums hardcore again, and learnin more about that. I just really wish I had a place to put my set and practice again... I know I'm driving everyone around me freakin nuts with my leg-drumming. I cant wait to get back to it. This is a Peavy Radial Pro 1000 drumset that they didn't make too many of, and It's supposed to be of really good quality. Good sound and nice and sturdy. It sure as hell looks funky enough.

Here's a different view of another set, same model. [*Drools]

I'd love to play that bad boy.

So, I was at the white oak living history this weekend and had a bunch of fun. It was interesting. We didn't have as any people as we normally do, but we still had a good time trying the first person living history attempt. Hoorah!

This is a good buddy of mine, Mark Godby. He used to be in Florida and drove up to GA when they were filming Sweet Home Alabama, and he's in the reenactor scene of that movie. He said that during one of the takes when Witherspoon was looking for her dad, one of the reenactors yelled out "What's my motivation?!" And everyone dropped to the ground laughing. His head is in the movie, and yo ucan see his face for just a second.. I'd like to get my hands on the dvd and check that out.

This is a pic i doctered up fairly well of my buddies Pete and Moose cookin up some chow. We had fatback, sweet potatoes, onions, bread and some mash stuff that was all really good. The bread at events is often homemade and the food is usually quite delicious. Save for my salty shweeets... Thats hardtack, not gentleman's relish.

The tasty morsals of dirty mortals.

I Dunno that the Coast Guard's gonna work out, and if not, I intend to spend the remainder of the summer with my friend Chris Sacash at the Goshen camp reenacting. Its lots of fun, helped him with it before. Its alot of work and not alot of pay, but what the heck. I could use some more labor torture.

Been talking to my bro in France, and I'm looking forward to Paris, and now I'm gonna go to Amsterdam and Greece as well, so that should be a load 'o fun. What's that? Not going to France? MWAHAHAHAHA... suckas.

Peace out,

- Your Author....

Its late. I just finished a paper alot faster than I thought i would, so now i'm all caffed up with no work left. Hoorah. At last its Friday.

The past two days have sucked.. probably the worst few i've had in a long while. Stupid people, lots of stress, unexpected changes in plans. I hope things even out.. i'm sure they will, they always do.

Yeah, the power went out last night at like 9:00, which would've been fine cause we were playing trivia over at Wing Shack, but it stayed out for three hours. Nedward, myself and T-Rev all sat around drinking by light of tea candles (the most masculine lightsource on the face of the earth) and made the kind of stupid pointless arguements we easily amused undergrads so often argue. It was enjoyable. Good chips too.

It went out again at about 5:00 in the morning, so my alarm didn't go off. Great way to start the day, if any of you havn't tried it. UGH.

So, yeah, living history at White Oak Museum this weekend.. good first person, promises to be lots of fun. Its off of 218, not too far past Belle Palins, at the old school house across from the firestation if anyone feels like going. You should see the museum SOMETIME if you dont come to the living history. Its one of the largest personal civil war artifact collections in the world.

Ever feel like you wanna break free of everything thats expected of you and just go fuck around for a while? Maybe hitchike across the south or just plain walk to Tennessee or something? Maybe put off a career for a decade to get a low paying job in a small town, just to be content? Or go live in a big city doing the same just for fun? Yeah... Yeah me too. Ha.

Peace out sports fans... Hope you all have an awsome weekend! And many more to come!!

I just spent the morning reading my cousin Rus' blog, and its fuckin HILARIOUS. just look through his archives, there are some interesting things in there. Could just be me though. After almost putting my shoes on and walking out the door (sans shirt or pants) this morning and spending 5 mins parting my hair because i was zoned out, I'm feeling a little discouraged about today. Oh, yeah, and its raining out... the intelligent guy I am, i wanted to trim down on the amount of crap I brought with me back to HSC, so I have no coat, umbrella, longsleeved shirt or even hat. Awsome. Well, all you peoples out there, you have a GREAT day. !!!

May term is lots of work!! I have so much crap hanging over my head- reenacting Cravats, suck up letters to former bosses, reenacting schedules AND my school work and independent classes. Boo hoo hoo... hehehe.

Enough about that. May term is busy, but its been really pretty (when it hasn't been raining). I actually went to church this past sunday, and it became the best day I had in a long time. Had an awsome dinner at a professor's house, and some mighty fine beverage as well. It was a beautiful day in every way.

I just copied a bunch more sources for my independent study on the lifesaving service. I'm looking forward to being able to start writing it, but it seems as though that could be a few weeks away. History is such an infinite thing... God i love it. Spent some time with my cous in C'ville while I was up there as well. Good times.

Well, hope summers moving along as steadily for all of you as much as it has been for me. For those of you who've been slacking and find yourselves to be bored or incomplete, i suggest you start getting up at a regular, reasonable hour!! Lazy bums. ; ) hehehe.

Bro comes back in less than a month from Angola, going to see the other in Paris in about the same time. Been driving the GTI, havin tons of fun in that little guy, which my bro is gonna fix up when he gets back. That little car's been a real trooper! I have hopes that I can write this next paper well enough to be published, but I doubt it will be... maybe i'll rewrite a few times and finish it post-masters/phd/law degree and get 'er done. Maybe i'll write another. Who the hell knows... Its a story that needs to be recognized though.

Skype Telephone Service This thing is free and looks like it kicks ass!! Check 'er out if you have a mocrophone. Drumme_USLSS

Oh yeah, and check out the links in the left sidebar, my cousin's blogs are every bit as entertaining, if not more so than mine are! On is in Kyrgistan working for the peace corps, and he has a really good sense of humor about it. One is in California and the other is at UMD gettin 'er law degree. If i know you and you wan me to put one up there, lemmie know!

Goodnight! Godbless, Godspeed, and may god be with you. No matter what you thing of this or him, he loves you and all us sinners equally. =D

Damn. Gaul dernit!! THIS IS GONNA BE ALOT OF WORK!! Some people need to have a little more faith. I'm frustrated. Cant wait to go to UVA thisafternoon.

Along with the two classes I'm now taking with May term, I'm conducting research on the Mass. Humane Society which was the precursor to the US LiveSaving Service, which was one of two precursors of the US Coast Guard. The Humane society was formed before the radification of the constitution in 1786, and had support from many of the founding fathers. It established houses of refuge, small shacks with provisions of breads, hard tack, and other foodstuffs as well as hay for bedding and firewood and lanterns. Many a sailor's life was saved because he could find safety from a storm not far from the beach on which he would find himself stranded once his ship went down. The humane society eventually raised enough money to buy boats and organize volunteer crews that would man stations during storms and rescue shipwrecked sailors.

This organization eventually gained support from the federal government and was responsible for a movement that saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Anyway, I think thats a topic worthy of research, espically since vey few if any people know of its existance.

Begin May Term.

May Term is lookin awsome! It already seems to have confirmed for me the relaxed superfun reputation it has earned itself. I'm a few beers in now, and looking forward to tackling the workload that lies ahead of me over the next month. Reviewing French in preparation for going to France afterward and I'm gonna have to work really hard over the next month to party my balls off and keep in contact with all these people I havn't heard from in a bagillion years. Thanks Facebook... hehe. I'd like to send a shoutout to my Richmond peeps Alison and Moose for first getting me drunk then making sure I didn't die.

Went to reenactment the other weekend, McDowell which was a whole lotta fun, and went to see my Phili friend which was equally as exciting. Hehe. Lots of walking, lots of driving over the past few weeks...

McDowell was freakin AWSOME! Lots of marching, lots of fun... some things on Saturday were a little dissapointing, but the realism of the situation definitly made up for it. On sunday, we drove up the mountain in trucks and marched to the side of the peak opposite the town. We (Confederates) Marched a very long way to the top of the ridge along the same routes as those soldiers had done over 140 years ago. We walked over the face and carried out the battle against the Yankees in the exact same manor as both opposing sides did during the war. The feeling was beyond discription.

After the battle we marched up a second peak to a clearing which allowed us to see for miles in every direction. We, Yankees and Confederates lined up in order and said a prayer, then sat and talked for a while. We conversed with the tool/officer who had been placed in our command and he thanked us for coming out, then we marched down the mountain. The sights and experience were nothing short of awsome. Very powerful. I should like to return to that place as soon as possible and look forward to the next reenactment there.

Private H. Willis,

47th VA, Co. I, In For The War Mess.

Well kids, it sure was fun!

Good times during Greek Week, awsome parties, new friends at the end of the semester, meeting old friends on Facebook, and doing more work than I have all semester long in the course of three days... priceless. All the beer we went through to make all that shite possible... a whole lotta fucking cash. I think we went through close to 40 cases greek week, and we've been through at least twenty since then. Wow. MMMMMM... beer.



AAAALLLLLRIGHT- Giggidy Giggidy... OH!

I can only hope that next year is this much fun man...

Hope everyone has an awsome summer! I'll be here for May term, so don't you go changin!

MAAAN I'm freakin tired. Just got my SCUBA PADI certification so now if I ever want to I can dive down to 60 feet, which kicks a whole lot of ass. The lake we went to (Rawlings) was awsome; it was a filled in quarry, and the water was amazingly clear. There were tons of fish, some of them more than a foot long, and the organization that runs the place had put a bunch of old electric appliances and a school bus and other stuff down at the bottom. Forty feet deep was about 45 degrees F, which pretty much feels like freezing one's genetals to a metal pole in Alaska without a wetsuit. My wetsuit however was sufficient to keep me plenty warm.

The fish in the lake are used to being fed by divers and the lake allows no fishing (wetsuits are not rusty hook proof) so they're about as brave as anything in nature can get. They'd float right up in your face and sometimes even look you right in the eyes like they wanted food, which was very distracting during training exercises. They'd come right back after being swatted away, like a 2 poud gnat trying to stare you down. They were fun to watch though.

Trying to loose weight for the coast guard is a pain in my ass but if I don't, then my whole summer, along with next year, is fucked up royal. Goals are important.

The workload before the end of the school makes me wish I could just coast through the semester without having to climb this wall before break. Ugh, it'll be nice when it starts to get warm. I hope I get to go to France this year.

I have to write my history thesus this week... It should prove to be quite interesting. Everything gets so busy at the end of the year. Ugh. Frelinghuysen, Gilbert Tennent, John H. Goetchius... If you were sitting in a church and a young man threw open the doors during a sermon, accused your preacher of being unconverted and told you if you didn't go outside and listen to what he had to say you were going to burn in hell sometime very soon... what would you do? Ahhh, yes, the great awakening.

George Whitefield

I've been thinking that it would be really cool to make a TV show on the history channel wherein people would act out scenes from the past in modern setting just to get people's reactions. Maaaaan that would be fun, huh? Well andway, don't you go changin!

Gilbert Tennent

After my buddy and I played a few tracks in my basement, i've put my set into storage for the sumer, for i have nowhere else to put it =( . I am currently tackling with a recruiter to join the Coast Guard reserves. Its like i'm recruiting myself, i swear.

ugh.
The ASVAB test was really easy by the way. Very rewarding. Well, anyway, I'm buckling down for the last month of the semester cause I have alot of crap to take care of, so If i know you and you dont hear from me, dont feel insulted.

My poor cousin is working with the Peace Corps in Kyrgistan (sp?) and their having civil unrest and may have acoup sometime soon, so thats exciting. I hope he gets through everything ok. Heres his blog. Taylors Kyrgish Blog or something to that effect
I'll tell ya what, with a brother in Africa, one in Paris, a cousin in Kyrgistan and one in California... well thats like 4 different countries. Its makes ya think, the stories you hear.

Well anyway, I'm out for a while peeps, y'all keet 'er real and all that jazz till i come round again!

-H

So i went home for Sp. Break instead of going to Bocca Ritan Florida with all of my frat bros. and i'm curious as to what kind of time the're having/if they're gonna get arrested. So, anyone else been raped by a Macado's waiter? Guess not. heh. Anway, life is static, i bombed a test in Jap history b/c my prof gave it on the least likely of q's, so hooray for that guy and all others like him, eh? Oh, and by the way, my new Piccolo snare KICKS ASS.

This post is a little more random than the rest. This is the first time I've posted on request. I suppose its nice to know that some of you are reading, but i bet there's plenty out there that would rather be bleeding. So here's to happyness for all and lots of beerless fiestas. I hope you have a good spring break, and lots of time to make the best of.

Thank you, and goodnight!!!

I finally got some pics of me on MY drumset, so here's one. I just bought a Remo Master Touch Picollo snare on e-bay, and i'm really psyched about that too. Grades are up, things are swell, everythings going great!

Here's a little story about a guy that did something neat...
There was once a scotch-inuit man by the name of Ronald MacDonald who went east from Washington to sail on a whaling ship. His ship left from NY and went to the seas around Japan. A few years earlier some Japanese fishermen had washed up on the shores of his home and MacDonald had interacted with them for short periods of time. This interaction bred within him a strong curiousity about the largely isolated island, so he told the captain of his whaling ship that if they were ever to come near to Japan, that he wished to leave the ship and set out for the island. The captain, thinking MacDonald was nuts, agreed, and they set sail.

When they reached Japan, MacDonald reminded the captain of his promise, and was given permission to purchase a small whaling boat and provisions from the Captain, and set out on his way. When he came close to Japan, he found an unoccupied island and practiced skuttling his boat, for he knew the Japanese would treat him harshly unless they believed he was ni distress. In his practice, he lost a good number of his provisions, but was able to successfully scuttle and rited his boat. He spent the night on the shore, and set for the mainland. When he came to what he believed to be a large inhabited island, he scuttled his boat and made it ashore, only to find where he landed uninhabited. He again rited his boat and set sail, this time heading for an island from which smoke was rising, sure to encouter some locals. As he skuttled his boat a third time, the Japanese on shore began to swim out to rescue him.

The Japanese took MacDonald prisoner and catagorized all his goods, but treated him very kindly. They kept him isolated and diod not let him see outside any of his quarters. Soon, he was transported all the way to Nagasaki, where he again was placed in ver small quarters and allowed few freedoms. He was asked many questions, but was treated harshly when asking about Japan. The yearly Dutch trader left just a few days after he arrived in Nagasaki, so the Japanese held him, gaining knowledge of the wes as time passed. Eventually, a US ship arrived to pick up a handfull of sailors who had mutinied against their captain, and were treated very harshly by the japanese, two of their shipmates dying in the transportation to Nagasaki and harshness of their captivity.

The captain of the ship that rescued MacDonald and the sailors kept very detailed notes on their accounts, and of his treatment in the harbors of Japan. These accounts along with coaxing by several officials within the US government, are what lead to Perry's expedition and the opening of Japan.

Interesting, no?

Thank god the cold war's over huh? So do you guys think we'll invade Iran? Syria? My brother is returning to the third world. He'll be in Africa till April... I can't remember which country. I think its Angola or something. How great is that? We're so powerful some countries arent even important enough for us to remember their names.
"One more kid never get to go to school, never get to fall in love, never get to be cool..."

"All those precious waisted years..."

Whenever we get what we think we want we wind up only wanting more. When those that know what we truely desire deliever, we are happier ever more.

This weekend, went home and hung out with an old friend (After the post below) And had an excellent time...

The sun seems a little brighter today.

I washed my truck today as well!! It was awsome. It's a sexy bitch.

Now I'm sick.

I can only hope that life seems as clear for you all as it does for me now.


Your author.

Here it goes.
So I call a buddy of mine to hang out a few weeks ago and he tells me he's been hanging out with this group of guys, jamming playing bass and drums. So i go to this crappy warehouse behind these run down auto businesses wherein lies a series of garages, on of which contains the "recording studio". So I'm hangin out, meet these two guys who are obviously stoners (theres a huge bag of weed on a table as soon as I walk in the door), and I wind up jamming with them fairly hardcore for about an hour or less.

Turns out what I call "jamming" is me wanting to be in their band, at least according to their bass guitarist. So the next day I get a call and this lead band guy makes it clear he thinks I might be their next drummer, encourages me to quit Hampden Sydney to join his band and stop living off my parents. He then informs me that he's really glad his job is stable now, and that he's settled up all his PO stuff from his last jail sentence, and he's getting his life back on track. After this segment of the conversation, he casually reminds me that he thinks that i'm spoiled. I'm at this point, still optimistic.

So tonight, I head over there to jam once again, and while we're playing this guy sells some pot to a guy I knew from YEARS back, who was really good to see again... just never had to stop a practice so that the pot could be dealt. So then, the leader of this group and me and some 19 year old kid start jamming and we're not getting too bad a sound. The lead guy messes up a few times, I mess up a few times, and the guitarists style is such that you (and possibly he) cant really tell if he's messing up. (Sounds like Ler from Primus mixed with Clapton and Hendrix, and then a LOT of distortion) The lead guy seems frustrated after we practice, and tells me i need to "tighten up". So i'm thinking, we just need to practice more... right.

So, the kicker is, come to find out this lead guy who i was thinkin is at most 22 or 23 is almost 30 years old, and has spent thousands of dollars on this "band" idea, who is the proud owner of a recording studio which consists of a carpeted garage, a fridge and two boomboxes. So, now i'm a proud member of a sucky band with a 30 year old basist whos trying to "make it" with a couple of boomboxes and pot wages, and some job which I imagine is only partially legitmate. From what I hear, he like to make it clear to his friends (who are mostly a decade or so younger than himself) that he doesn't live with his parents. He also once again so gleefully implied that those of us who are getting education and grew up with families of higher income than, well, i guess his, are worse people because we don't know/have (factor x). At these moments i remindmyself that a guy who's served jailtime and serving pot is telling me that he's better than me. I've only known this guy two weeks.

I'm no longer optimistic.

Well, the tendency of some people of lower status than the GIANT american middle class to berate people like myself and my fellow Hampden-Sydney students for being spoon-fed, spoiled and not knowing a hard days work do so often without any knowledge of personal histories. I have met more people that I'd like to admit that I judged as being rich or spoiled, who turned to be people of very troubled backgrounds who worked their asses off to get where they are. I have also met quite a few who grew up with ample means, but still worked some rough jobs as any other student or teen would. I'd actually say that these sorts would fit into the majority of people that I've met. I don't sympathize with such generic criticism, espacilly from a 28? yr old stoner.

That aside, this whole situation has had one really awsome benefit. I've been logging time on this awsome little Pacific drumset that sounds pretty badass, even with the shitty ass rim job (no pun intended 8P ) these guys did installing the heads. It plays great, looks SHWEET and sounds so good it almost made me regret buying my Remo Mastersound... ALMOST. Unfortunately, these guys have NO clue what they're doing with a drumset of that sort, and have makeshifted a brand new set together... the heads were installed off center, which before this point in time i thought wasn't even possible. Its kinda like meeting a kid you really like and finding out the kid has abusive parents. If I had 100 bucks and two hours, I'd have that baby soundin 10x better and looking shweet.

This is me on the set.

"When the personal life is cultivated, the family will be regulated; when the family is regulated, the state will be in order; and when the state is in order, there will be peace throughout the world. From the Son of Heaven down to the common people, all must regard cultivation of the personal life as the root or foundation."

Why do Historians always insist upon using words that are WAY outside of the average reader's vocabulary? I mean, sometimes throwing a $4 word in is necessary, but some writers just don't realize that using too many words that are outside of the vernacular just slaughters a piece of work. I'm convienced that a Napoleon complex is all that seperates those types from regualer historians. After all, if you truly wish to try and prove yourself or convience society of some finding or new point of view, you want as many people as possible to understand you, don't you?
Perhaps this is symbolic of a greater conflict, between those who set forth in life to be intelectual and think for a living, and those who work an honest days wage. Should we trust our government to a select group of overconfident intellectuals who overthing situations and cant make up their mind, or do we melt down the democratic process and set motor skills, not intelligence as the standard of voter ellidgability?
How is it that an intelligent person's point of view is worth more than that of the working man? The "open minded" intellectual community of our society often rejects the standpoints and opinions of the very people they claim to be trying to help. This does not mean right or left, liberal or conservative, it just means that people assume that their college education gives them the intelligence to assume they know how we all should live.
The distinction between left and right in this nation is appauling and distorted with no real boundries or distinctions outside individual issues. If you're a christian, your a right wing conservative and vote republican, and if your pro-abortion, your a left wing democratic liberal right? So what if I'm a fundimental christian that believes that tolerance and open minded ideals, forgiveness, and kindness are the princeples by which we should live? Then, of course, because I oppose a law forbidding gay unions and because I don't believe in the death penealty I'm a leftist. But wait, then I also don't believe in abortions, high tax rates or gun control, so then I'm a right winger.
Choosing platforms on single issues forces the voter to compensate at leas some of his/her ideals when they cast their vote. If they refuse to vote, they are for some reason not considered to be pulling their weight in society. I have been told that because I missed a ballot that I had no right to complain about my politicians. This is utter hoarsecrap. Perhaps the most ironic thing about this whole system is the fact that if someone does perfectly match the platform of either party and agree whole heartedly with right or left views, than they are deemed TOO conservative or TOO liberal: they cant be voted into office.
Is this sort of compromise good for our nation? Perhaps the fact that politicians lie about their views is what saves our political structure from total disruption. If they stuck to what they said and never compromised, nothing would EVER get done. Our politicians seem like snakes, but the world inside that dome in D.C. is completely different than ours, and has been finely tuned over hundreds of years to serve the nation in the best manner possible. Its everyone else we have to worry about.
(From my perspective) The left has it in their head that the conservatives in this nation are all as bloodthirsty as Bill O'Riley and Michael Savage and they wine. They complain and they bitch and moan about consevatives being dumb and angry and not knowing whats best and trying to push everyone around, and they complain about conservatives being CLOSED MINDED. The Democrats CAN'T unite, they cant stand up and take being a minority in Congress and they accuse their opponents of crimes.
The conservatives, meanwhile seem to have forgotten that this is a two party system, and have sold themselves out. They have raise our deficit, ignored domestic issues, and oh yeah, created a diplomatic nightmare which will probably take the next five decades to clean up.
The stupidest thing of all seems to be the mass media as a whole. Everyone's up in arms about Bush and the state of affairs in this nation, and the same people who are acting like nothing has ever gone wrong in this country are the same ones complaining that we aren't educated enough as a people. Work through the system and change things if you have a problem. The state of affairs is not great, but its still better than anywhere else on this planet. That doesn't make it ok, but the world is not coming to an end.
No media is more bias towards one side than the other, some are just more casual about it. News has an inherent bias because THEY HAVE TO CHOOSE WHAT TO REPORT. Some person or group of people making those decisions will invariably follow some pattern of prefrence. We know what those are, so why do people still complain? So what if Fox News wants to report good things about Bush all day long. So what if CNN wants to make images of cats in trees seem as important as our soldiers dieing abroad. WE KNOW THEY PREFER ONE SIDE OR THE OTHER. Watch them all, or watch what you like.
The system has worked for a LONG time and we are the most prosperous nation in the world. We are in a "recession" and are economy is still growing. No peoples in the history of the planet earth have had it as good as I do, sitting here typing what I think about my government and my society, knowing that if i REALLY wanted to I could become rich doing it. Here at school, learning at others expense with all my meals paid for, and the ability to travel the world in about a day, and the ability to communicate across the globe in only seconds.

I am not right, I am not left. I am not a Republican, and I'm not a Democrat. I'm an American, and thats how I vote, or don't vote.

This has no real point. These are just thoughts and rants. If you have some response, or feel that you want to skin me after reading this, please, contact me! I'll post your comments.

Oh, and i dont worry about typos when dealing with the internet.

Good Day, and God Bless (The United States Of America).

My Truck



Nissan rocks. I've put this little guy through hell and it still runs like the day I bought it-
even better since I put on the K&N filter, took the cap off, and put descent shocks and tires on it.



This was awsome. Me and my bros headed west of Roanoke and went up some mountains- a fun but cold ordeal. My bro drove his Disco across a three inch thick puddle- and it broke once he was over it. Watching four tons of truck fall two feet into a puddle: priceless.



If our cars were people, they would sue us.

Its snowing outside.
http://www.timalexander.com
http://www.primussucks.com
http://www.2112.net
http://www.hsc.edu
http://www.drumdogs.com

God bless our Internet. Here's to reconciliation and getting back in touch with old friends.

Locusts in Australia? Hurricanes in Florida? Tsunamis in Asia? Floods in California? Dropping crime rates in NY and DC?
Is the world really coming to an end?

These are some more pics of me hobbying/waisting time/money.


This is me autoxing at the Augusta Gov't center near Staunton. This was awsome... the first time I've actually autocrossed. My cousins and brother are way better than I am, but I still have muchas fun with it.



This is me reenacting with the 5th Va, who were gracious enough to have me for the weekend. My impressioin in this photo is truely farb, but it was right when i learned better ;-)



I'll put up pics of my current uniform up later.
47th Va is awsome-
www.47thVa.com -my pards.
-H

This is my drumset in all its glory. One of my many hobbies. I am currently browsing a few drummin forums to get a better feel for what I am doing and to learn more. I feel I have already made some progression in the past few days.