in the white

Macy’s 2007

big ass balloons and santa

I’m heading up to NYC on Sunday for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I’ll be back on Thursday in time for an exciting Iron Bowl (let’s at least hope as much). I hope everyone has a great break!

cars not starting and frederick douglass

I woke this morning with the intention of eating a solitary breakfast at the BBQ House and working for a few hours on my Am. Lit. seminar paper. My car didn’t crank–no big deal, just the battery right? Ehhh kinda. After trips to get cables and a drive to Advanced Autoparts, I found myself in Express Oil Change, unshowered with no money (it was a stressful morning). I ended up needing a new battery cable because my current one had been eaten away by corrosion (I like the passive voice). The guys at the shop took good care off me, but as expected, they didn’t spare me the “boy you are a dumb shit who knows nothing about cars look.” The car is working fine, just in time for my trip to north Alabama this weekend. Now to Frederick Douglass, the Irish hating bastard…

goodbye pup

Sadly, my mom had to put down pup, our family German Shepard, today. She had thrown out her hip somehow. My mom thinks she was trying to get up on the couch or another piece of furniture. Her hearing and her eyes went bad about a year ago. We never knew exactly how old she was, but we guessed it was somewhere around 13 or 14 years old. Pup adopted my family the day after Hurricane Opel came through Auburn. She slept on our porch steps and never left. She was the kindest dog I have every been around. She will be missed greatly.

football

I think I need a break from college football. Yes, one could say that I am just hung-over from Auburn’s devastating loss in Athens yesterday, but this is something that has been coming on for a while. The emotional drain these games put on me is extreme. Just before kick-off I anxiously wait for the circus of emotions ahead of me. Sure, the team sucks, and this fact has a large impact on my feelings toward the game, but there is another aspect of the game eating at me. I don’t like the person I become during Auburn football games. I become a victim of the mob jekyll-hyde phenomena. Rival fans taunt, curse, and throw things at the band, and I want to snap their necks and curse their mothers. I start to hate them–hate people who I would usually have no problem with. The band, which cannot respond to rival fans, is always a target for assholes, and my association with this visible embodiment of Auburn probably has something to do with my less than pleasant experiences in away stadiums. I still love football and Auburn, but I need this season to be over. Luckily, we are almost done.  

With the current

I have decided to restart my blogging (oh how I wish there was another word) with an entry like so many others published today, October 10, 2oo7, the digital release date of Radiohead’s newest album, In Rainbows. I woke up this morning with the link in my in-box. The album is good, possibly great. I paid retail price for it. If you live in a cave void of any cultural knowledge, you would not know about the unique distribution the band embarked on: pay what you like for the digital album. I didn’t want to write about how new and cool the whole shtick is, just that I thoroughly enjoy the 10 new cuts form York and friends. 

sorry sorry sorry

With the summer session of class winding down, I have been really busy with school. Along with this madness, my Mom is having neck surgery (yeah sounds bad huh?) on Wednesday. So, I have been absent from the blog sphere. After this week is over, I anticipate a speedy return to normalcy. Till then, check out what I am been reading. (yes, I have had time to read. There is always time to read. If you have time to poop, you have time to read.) Velvet Elvis (*****)The Golden Compass (*****)Sex God (****)

AU, shafting the arts once again

In late June the AU Board of Trustees approved plans to build a new basketball arena that will cost $92.5 million. Read more about it here.

My hopes for a performing arts center fade into the hazy distance.

Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum, our current basketball arena, does suck. I have been playing in the basketball pep band for five years; I know it is not the best in the SEC, or Alabama for that matter. But what about the other things this campus needs? Yes, we are getting new student housing, and this is a good thing; however, this campus is in dire need for an adequate performing arts center. The top instrumental ensemble at Auburn, the Symphonic Band, has had to hold concerts in the Auburn High School auditorium. This is both sad and insulting to AU’s musician-students and arts faculty. Opelika, Auburn’s bi-city, has a performing arts center, but the city with a major public university does not. How is this possible?

Granted, I know that athletics are a major priority on this campus– it brings in the money, but if the university can spend $92.5 million on a new basketball arena, when it already has one, it can shell out less than half of that for a decent performing arts center. Besides, they threw a ton of cash at a lame art museum, which nobody goes to because it has nothing worth seeing. A performing arts facility would be used throughout the year by a myriad of groups and individuals.

If I win the lottery (that is, if ass-backwards Alabama legalizes it), you will see a Sinnott Center for the Performing Arts, and it will be massive. Until then, I will watch our sorry basketball team not make the NCAA Tournament in the comfort their nearly 100 million dollar arena.

at least they spell better in the U.K.

This photo was taken right down the road from my Mom’s place. Some old, paranoid man has constructed a spy camera to keep a look out for all those pesky kids who kick his gnomes and trample his railroad tie gardens. Please, take note. Such a fine example of the English language is rarely seen in these parts.

try driving a car into this airport

 

As a result of my unplanned move home, I purchased a wireless router for my new residence. I decided to go with the Apple AirPort Express. So far, I am very pleased with it. Like most Apple products, I opened it up and was online in just a few moments. If anyone knows anything cool and nifty I can do with the AirPort Express, please pass along the knowledge.