Excuse Me While I Praise This Song

This has always been my favorite rendition of the national anthem. The dissonance and distortion, just the unapologetic noise of it, perfectly embodied the social strife that was the 60s. And yet no matter how crazy Jimi got, no matter which tangents he decided to go off on, which strings he decided to bend in half, he always came back to the melody in all of its beautiful melancholy. It was the discord over the war, civil rights, and everything else, and yet it was our continued patriotism too. It was our vowing to keep trying, to keep the democracy experiment alive, even while seeming to fail. It is the acknowledgement that we are not perfect, that sometimes the cacophony of our imperfection is deafening, but that despite that we stand for something beautiful, something worth trying for even if it hurts.

And the ending is perfect too; after settling back into the final bars of the melody, he proceeds without pause to launch into Purple Haze. In other words, he keeps on rocking. Times are tough, but get back to work; this is too important to give up on now. If we stop fighting for it, they win. It is the musical equivalent of what Bush told us to do after 9/11. And it's something we need a little bit of right now.

Hang in there, America. God bless you, Jimi, and God bless the United States of America.

Blogging is So Last Year

Or at least it is for me, apparently. It just occurred to me that I haven't posted on here since December. I guess I got a little involved in that thing we call life. And by "life", I mean Facebook. Naw, but I do spend a lot of time on there. However, I am thinking about picking it up again, and maybe I'll use the power of Facebook to actually get some of you jokers to read this drivel. Stay tuned...

Btw, what's up with me, you ask? Just adjudicating away, and taking the Foreign Service exam on Tuesday. I'll let you know how that goes on here, even if I don't post about anything else.

In Search of a Place to Rest My Head

Since I moved to Missouri with only what would fit in my car, I have virtually no furniture and have been sleeping on an air mattress since I moved in to my new apartment last Saturday upon returning from Dallas. I am therefore off in search of a bed today. Ideally I am looking for a sofa bed/futon situation, so that I can kill two furniture birds with one purchasing stone. However, I want to avoid the whole bar-in-the-back situation also, so I need one that isn't cheapass. On the other hand, I'm working with a budget of about a couple hundred, so I may have to go with cheapass. Wish me luck.

Back in KC

I have finished my 6 weeks in Dallas. Between partying nonstop and nonetheless still managing to finish first in my class, I didn't manage to post very much, as you can see. I have no tv here in my new apartment, but I do have free wi-fi, so regular posting will resume shortly.



Ummumm, 904 bitch!

Why Does Everybody Love USC?

I am by no means the first to bring this up, but I just don't get the USC love in the BCS. Unbelievably, they are ranked HIGHER in the BCS now, at 5, than in the human polls. Why, because of their win over Ohio State? I just don't get it. They lost to Oregon State, people. Nevermind; if we beat Florida, we will pass them, but it still pisses me off.

Dallas

I have arrived today in Dallas, well technically Ft. Worth, for my six-week BASIC training for my new USCIS job. I am hoping to use these six weeks as an opportunity to meet some new people, learn the immigration law backward and forward, and also to relax a little bit, as weird as that sounds. I don't feel like the exams will be that difficult for me; of course I'm going to study enough to make sure I do ok, and also enough to learn the law really well, but I also ought to have time for some recreation.

Rocky Bottom

It wasn't the stomping I would've liked (in fact it was way too close and closer than it should have been for most of the game), but this still feels pretty good after what they've done to us the past couple of years. Besides, a win is a win, and at 5-1 and #10 (or however much we may move up tomorrow), there's still plenty of time to think about creeping back up into BCS territory. If Florida loses to LSU tonight, we'll be playing Vandy next week straight up for the lead in the East, as strange as that sounds.