I met Necrophagist!

OMG I'm so excited! Last night we saw the Summer Slaughter tour, which ruled. All the bands were amazing to see, except Ion Dissonance.

After the show, we went around the back of the Hawthorne Theatre. Quite a few metal heads, roadies, etc were wandering around. I really wanted to meet Necrophagist. So we meandered around the tour buses until I found a spot in front of their bus. A guy was standing there waiting as well, he says to us, "Yeah they are right there in the bus, see?" and he pointed to a small slit in the curtain where you could barely make out a guy's figure there. They started to come out of the bus and I immediately moved toward them. I got to meet all 3 of the main players in the band, especially and most awesome, meeting Mohammed the lead singer/guitarist. We asked him about his new guitar, the zyphos, we talked about how they will have a new album next year, as well as a new summer slaughter tour. We told him to use the Roseland next time, he said he would try to change venues, it will bigger next year anyway. It was so great to meet them, shake their hands, and tell them how amazing their music is. I was so excited and couldn't contain it. In fact, we were so excited we forgot to ask them so many questions we've had the last couple years while we've been obsessing over their music. But we did let them know its the second time we've seen them and that we drove 5 hours just because they were the head liners. THEN! I got my picture with him!! Woo hoo! In addition to that, they invited us to go to the bar with them. We were so tired and it was late, we had driven 5 hours and then stood in a concert hall at 90 degrees for 7 more hours. Sitting in bar sounded like crap to me. I would have loved to spend more time with Mohammed and ask him more questions, but I am not afraid to wait until next summer to talk to them again. They were totally approachable and completely open to answering any questions we had. Just amazing guys to meet and talk to. This has been one of the greatest experiences in my life. Thank you, Necrophagist, for being THE most BRUTAL band out there!

The strangest thing

Today I came to work. I got 3 messages in my voicemail inbox. One of them was from a woman in Ashland. She was asking about "the Ethernet". I called her back to explain that ethernet is a system for cabling in networks. We started having a conversation about what the difference between the internet and ethernet was. She said she was glad I could clear it up for her. I asked why this topic had come up and she said a boy on the internet was talking to her in a chat room, I assume, about this subject. I thought this very odd. She then asked if she could ask me another question. I said didn't mind. So she explained one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard. She asked me if there is a way to broadcast yourself on the internet. I said I knew of some way for outgoing broadcasting, things like radio stations, etc. She asked, "Can someone direct that signal toward someone else?" I said I didn't know. This woman hears voices all around her 24/7, in her home, in her car, in the super market. She swears that she's not crazy. She had her ears checked last fall and doesn't have any hearing problems. I asked her about her cable modem set up, whether she has a router. I explained that routers are on specific frequencies which match those of cordless phones, microwaves, etc. She said she had a wireless router. I thought this could be the culprit. But then she added that she can hear these voices in the car, as well. I'm thinking, wow, this woman sure is crazy. I told her to try to contact her phone company, Qwest, and see if they knew of a electronics diagnostic test she could have of her home. There must be someone around here that can check it out and see if maybe there are some rogue signals somehow berrating her with voices. She said she was glad I listened to her so long. WOW!! What a crazy phone call! A day in the life of the Computer Science office manager, lol!

My Celebrity Look-a-likes

Unbelievable High School decision over commencement ceremony

I am LIVID over this. A high school is refusing to give 5 students their diplomas because their families CHEERED FOR THEM at their Commencement ceremony!!!!!! WTF!!! This is so ridiculous! If you think this is as stupid as me, please email their principal and tell him what an idiot he is. Here's his email address: tchiles@galesburg205.org

Here's what I said to him:

"This is outrageous. You cannot deny diplomas from students over something this trivial. In addition, YOU CANNOT expect them to do community service when it was their families who did the dirty work to get them in trouble. This is unbelievable. If you want a quiet audience, you better televise your ceremony next year. Why don't you TURN UP THE VOLUME on the PA system?! OMG, this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. You cannot ruin their high school experience doing something like this to them. This makes your school look incredibly bad. Your all over the news, I can't even believe that I'm seeing something like this. People died in their schools this year, and you care about something like this? Are you crazy? People like you shouldn't be administrators. All you do is make children's memories terrible for the rest of their lives.
Can you believe one of YOUR students said, ""You walk across the stage and then you can't get your diploma because of other people cheering for you. It was devastating, actually."
UNBELIEVABLE! This will go down in history as the STUPIDEST decision EVER MADE by a high school. Give them their diplomas. If you have any ounce of compassion in your body you will give them their diplomas that they rightfully earned through hard work and academia, NOT A GRADUATION CEREMONY!!!"

The Magic Flute

Here's our first entrance where we don't even sing. This is (from left to right) Jen, Me and Kate

Our first song! Tamino, be a man!

Now eat some food, and that Papageno has to shaddup!

OMG we are SoooOOooo cute!

No pretty lady don't kill yourself! (Suicide attempt #1)

No silly Papageno don't kill yourself! (Suicide attempt #2)

The Sun in it's radiance has vanquished, wait conquered, wait, what is it? (inside joke)














Now you can watch the opera on Google Video at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5688502567464486532&q=Rogue+Opera

Chinese writing '8,000 years old'

Chinese writing '8,000 years old'
Chinese archaeologists studying ancient rock carvings say they have evidence that modern Chinese script is thousands of years older than previously thought.
State media say researchers identified more than 2,000 pictorial symbols dating back 8,000 years, on cliff faces in the north-west of the country.
They say many of these symbols bear a strong resemblance to later forms of ancient Chinese characters.
Scholars had thought Chinese symbols came into use about 4,500 years ago.
The Damaidi carvings, first discovered in the 1980s, cover 15 sq km (5.8 square miles) and feature more than 8,000 individual figures including the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing.
"We have found some symbols shaped like both pictures and characters," Li Xiangshi, a cliff carving expert at the North University of Nationalities in Ningxia Hui autonomous region, told Xinhua news agency.
"The pictographs are similar to the ancient hieroglyphs of Chinese characters and many can be identified as ancient characters."
Until the discovery, the earliest characters included 4,500-year-old inscriptions on pottery from Henan province in central China.

Obama is a bomb-a

Obama on the Table Posted by TOM BEVAN
My favorite exchange from the weekend shows came between George Stephanopoulos and Barack Obama:
Stephanopoulos: You've also said that with Social Security everything should be on the table.
Obama: Yes.
Stephanopoulos: Raising the retirement age?
Obama: Everything should be on the table.
Stephanopoulos: Raising payroll taxes?
Obama: Everything should be on the table....
Stephanopoulos: Partial privatization?
Obama: Privatization is not something I would consider.
To steal a famous line from The Princess Bride: "Senator Obama, you keep using that phrase. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Pot 2.0

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The marijuana being sold across the United States is stronger than ever, which could explain a growing number of medical emergencies that involve the drug, government drug experts on Wednesday.
Analysis of seized samples of marijuana and hashish showed that more of the cannabis on the market is of the strongest grade, the White House and National Institute for Drug Abuse said.
They cited data from the University of Mississippi's Marijuana Potency Project showing the average levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in the products rose from 7 percent in 2003 to 8.5 percent in 2006.
The level had risen steadily from 3.5 percent in 1988.
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, fears the problem is not being taken seriously because many adults remember the marijuana of their youth as harmless.
"It's really not the same type of marijuana," Volkow said in a telephone interview.
"This could explain why there has been an increase in the number of medical emergencies involving marijuana."
The pharmacy department at Mississippi has compiled data on 59,369 samples of cannabis, 1,225 hashish samples, and 443 hash oil samples confiscated since 1975. "The highest concentration of (THC) found in a cannabis (marijuana) sample is 33.12 percent from Oregon State Police," the report reads.
'This is pot 2.0'
Hashish and hash oil concentrations are far higher, as they consist of processed plant product.
"Researchers and treatment experts have argued for some time that today's more powerful marijuana has more harmful effects on users. This report underscores that we are no longer talking about the drug of the 1960s and 1970s -- this is Pot 2.0," John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy, said in a statement.
Volkow said demand has driven growers to cultivate the stronger stuff. "It is the market," she said. "Like in the market you favor the best tomatoes. When people buy marijuana, they don't want a weak cigarette."
Volkow's institute has been studying the effects of cannabis, whose active ingredients are very similar to important brain chemicals called endogenous cannabinoids.
"It clearly is addictive," she said.
If children and adolescents use marijuana, it could affect their still-developing brains, she said.
The report said more than 60 percent of teens receiving treatment for drug abuse or dependence report marijuana as their primary drug of abuse.
"Although the overall number of young people using marijuana has declined in recent years, there is still reason for great concern, particularly since roughly 60 percent of first-time marijuana users are under 18 years old," Volkow said.
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health 4.1 million Americans, or 1.7 percent of the population, report they use marijuana.

Vermont Senate calls for impeachment of Bush

MONTPELIER, Vermont (AP) -- Vermont senators voted Friday to call for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, saying their actions in Iraq and the U.S. "raise serious questions of constitutionality."
The non-binding resolution was approved 16-9 without debate -- all six Republicans in the chamber at the time and three Democrats voted against it. The resolution was the latest, symbolic, effort in the state to impeach Bush. In March, 40 towns in the state known for its liberal leaning voted in favor of similar, non-binding resolutions at their annual meetings. State lawmakers in Wisconsin and Washington have also pushed for similar resolutions.
The resolution says Bush and Cheney's actions in the U.S. and abroad, including in Iraq, "raise serious questions of constitutionality, statutory legality, and abuse of the public trust."
"I think it's going to have a tremendous political effect, a tremendous political effect on public discourse about what to do about this president," said James Leas, a vocal advocate of withdrawing troops from Iraq and impeaching Bush and Cheney.
Vermont lawmakers earlier voted to demand an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq in another non-binding resolution.
Democratic House Speaker Gaye Symington has kept a similar resolution from reaching the floor in her chamber. She argued that an impeachment resolution would be partisan and divisive and that it would distract Washington from efforts to get the United States out of Iraq, which she says is more important.
In the Senate, Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie had opposed the resolution, but he was absent Friday. That left Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin in charge, and he immediately took up the measure.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/20/bush.impeachment.ap/index.html

Our rights as women are jeopardized again

(From Hillary Rodham Clinton's mailing list for her campaign.)
We already knew how important this election was for every American. Yesterday, the Supreme Court raised the stakes even higher.
The Court took a dramatic departure from decades of rulings that upheld a woman's right to choose and recognized the importance of women's health. Let's be clear: this allows the government to dictate to women what they can and cannot do about their own health.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg disagreed with this decision and warned, "This cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this court -- and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives."
When the Senate debated the nominations of Samuel Alito and John Roberts to the Supreme Court, I spoke out on the Senate floor about the danger they posed to our constitutional liberties, including the right to choose. I urged my colleagues to reject them, and I voted against both of them. Yesterday, unfortunately, we saw the consequences of failing to stop their confirmations.
The decade of work that the far right has done to chip away at our rights was paid off in this Supreme Court decision. They worked hard to gain the presidency and the Senate so they could shape a Supreme Court that rewarded them by putting a narrow ideology above our constitutional rights. In their ruling, the conservative majority even used right-wing code language, referring to obstetricians as "abortion doctors."
There's one way we can respond: redouble our efforts to win the White House and more seats in the House and Senate. We need a president who understands that the best way to protect women's health and reduce the number of abortions is to expand access to family planning -- not to threaten doctors and patients. We need a Congress that will say no to rolling back the rights of women.
And here is my promise to you: As a senator, I will do everything I can to make sure women can protect their health, and when I am president, I will treat the health and well being of women and our constitutional rights once again as true American values.
I hope you'll pass this message along to your friends and talk with them about why this issue is important to you. I'll follow up with you soon with ways you can take direct action to protect our right to choose.

Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton

What would Jesus really do?

By Roland MartinCNN Contributor
Editor's note: Roland Martin is a CNN contributor and talk-show host on WVON-AM in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith."
NEW YORK (CNN) -- When did it come to the point that being a Christian meant only caring about two issues,­ abortion and homosexuality?
Ask the nonreligious what being a Christian today means, and based on what we see and read, it's a good bet they will say that followers of Jesus Christ are preoccupied with those two points.
Poverty? Whatever. Homelessness? An afterthought. A widening gap between the have and have-nots? Immaterial. Divorce? The divorce rate of Christians mirrors the national average, so that's no big deal.
The point is that being a Christian should be about more than abortion and homosexuality, and it's high time that those not considered a part of the religious right expose the hypocrisy of our brothers and sisters in Christianity and take back the faith. And those on the left who believe they have a "get out of sin free" card must not be allowed to justify their actions.
Many people believe we are engaged in a holy war. And we are. But it's not with Muslims. The real war -- ­ the silent war ­-- is being engaged among Christians, and that's what we must set our sights on.
As we celebrate Holy Week, our focus is on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But aren't we also to recommit ourselves to live more like Jesus? Did Jesus spend his time focusing on all that he didn't like, or did Jesus raise the consciousness of the people to understand love, compassion and teach them about following the will of God?
As a layman studying to receive a master's in Christian communications, and the husband of an ordained minister, it's troubling to listen to "Christian radio" and hear the kind of hate spewing out of the mouths of my brothers and sisters in the faith.
In fact, I've grown tired of people who pimp God. That's right; we have a litany of individuals today who are holy, holy, holy, sing hallelujah, talk about how they love the Lord, but when it's time to walk the walk, somehow the spirit evaporates.
A couple of years ago I took exception to an e-mail blast from the Concerned Women for America. The group was angry that Democrats were blocking certain judges put up for the federal bench by President Bush. It called on Americans to fight Democrats who wanted to keep Christians off the bench.
So I called and sent an e-mail asking, "So, where were you when President Clinton appointed Christian judges to the bench? Were they truly behind Christian judges, or Republican Christian judges?
Surprise, surprise. There was never a response.
An African-American pastor I know in the Midwest was asked by a group of mostly white clergy to march in an anti-abortion rally. He was fine with that, but then asked the clergy if they would work with him to fight crack houses in predominantly black neighborhoods.
"That's really your problem," he was told.
They saw abortion as a moral imperative, but not a community ravaged by crack.
If abortion and gay marriage are part of the Christian agenda, I have no issue with that. Those are moral issues that should be of importance to people of the faith, but the agenda should be much, much broader.
I'm looking for the day when Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Joyce Meyer, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, James Kennedy, Rod Parsley, " Patriot Pastors" and Rick Warren will sit at the same table as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Cynthia Hale, Eddie L. Long, James Meek, Fred Price, Emmanuel Cleaver and Floyd Flake to establish a call to arms on racism, AIDS, police brutality, a national health care policy, our sorry education system.
If they all say they love and worship one God, one Jesus, let's see them rally their members behind one agenda.
I stand here today not as a Republican or a liberal. And don't bother calling me a Democrat or a conservative. I am a man,­ an African-American man ­who has professed that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that's to whom I bow down.
If you concur, it's time to stop allowing a chosen few to speak for the masses. Quit letting them define the agenda.
So put on the full armor of God because we have work to do.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/04/martin.jesus/index.html

New Job

Tomorrow I start a new job at SOU. It is temporary. We are transitioning our School of Arts and Letters/Science/Social Science into a huge College of Arts and Sciences. This turns 3 deans into 1. I am assisting the Dean of Social Science, who is the acting dean of the CAS. I will be helping them get all the filing, appoinments, and paperwork done for this transition. During this full time endeavor I will be in the Magic Flute, doing recordings for SORS, and participating in my church choir. Hopefully I will make some extra money from this. I'm excited to see what happens and will probably post more through the process.

Cloned animal products might enter the food supply

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/fwwatch/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6521

Tell FDA: No Food From Cloned Animals!
Just as 2006 was drawing to a close, the Food and Drug Administration announced it had finished its long-awaited assessment of the risk from eating milk or meat from cloned animals. The agency said it found no significant health risks to humans eating these products, despite the fact that no long-term studies have been done and cloned animals often suffer from serious defects and health problems. The agency’s announcement kicked off a 90-day comment period on their draft “risk assessment” document.Right now there is a “voluntary moratorium” on the sale of milk and meat from cloned animals or their offspring. The FDA could lift that moratorium, allowing the sale of cloned food products, after it finalizes the risk assessment. This means that the agency is likely to approve the sale of food from cloned animals sometime in 2007.FDA’s support for animal cloning ignores widespread scientific concern about the health problems suffered by clones, and the uncertainty about whether or not it is safe to eat milk or meat from these potentially sick animals. The FDA’s position also ignores the ethical and animal welfare concerns that come with the cloning process. To make matters worse, FDA has said that cloned food will not have to be labeled, so consumers will have no way to avoid these controversial experimental foods.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/fwwatch/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6521

A Widening Scandal

I've joined Senator Hillary Clinton in her call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign. He is at the center of a widening scandal over the firing of several U.S. attorneys -- firings we now know to be political. These attacks on the impartiality of the federal government's prosecutors are a genuine threat to the foundations of our justice system.

I hope you'll join me and Senator Clinton in calling for Gonzales to step down.

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/resignnow

My elementary school

This tree, here to the left, is the monterey cyprus outside my elementary school. It's huge, amazing and beautiful. It looked like this in 2001. I am so glad I found this picture, Because the next picture is what it looks like now.

Wow.
This image is from the back, but it's almost the reverse perspective. (180 degrees) It's like my childhood had this happen to it. I grew up with this tree. The snow broke it's branches in a surprise snow storm, late February. It's really tough driving by this tree everyday. I'm glad though that I can show others what a little snow can do.

What is happening to Journalists?

The AP banned Paris Hilton news for a week. (During my birthday, thanks AP! Great present!) They wanted to see what would happen if they didn't talk about her for a week. HAHA! What the hell has happened to our country? I mean, this kind of crap has been going on for years but why do they now all of a sudden notice how petty they've become?

The fifth story on the list on CNN.com is Anna Nicole Smith's casket moved to grave. Wow. Can't we just leave her be? Why does anyone care about her and her poor, poor family? Death, drugs, TrimSpa, Beauty, vanity, plastic surgery, etc. I don't give a shit about these people. I never expected her to die this quickly but I guess I should have. Our culture is rewarding idiot blonde women with no brains. Have any of these women done anything useful? No. They are all pretty and pretty slutty. That's what gets them their fame. Unbelievable.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/02/ignoring.parishilton.ap/index.html

Jesus's Family Found

Alrighty, here's some interesting news.
Some say these have been sitting around for hundreds of years. They are saying that since the names on these are "common" for the time period, there's no way that these are representing the family of Jesus. I saw an interview with a guy who works in probability and he said it would be extremely rare to see these names grouped together. It's like getting "Paul" "John" "George" and all your missing is Ringo to know it's the Beatles. Except here, we've got all the different names you would need for it to be the family of Jesus. He said the odds of these names being grouped outside of the family of Jesus would be too rare. On March 4th at 9ET/PT they will have a documentary on the Discovery Channel. James Cameron put it together. (?) Some are saying he is doing this for money. James Cameron doesn't need any more money than he already has. I think James has good intentions.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/25/tomb_arc.html?category=archaeology&guid=20070225073000

MySpace no more!

Ok, I'm not using MySpace anymore. It is done. It used to be fun to use, it's still a good place to keep track of my friends, but I don't want to check it anymore.

Here's an update of things that have happened recently.

• Last year I got my Bachelor of Arts in Music from SOU.
• In the summer I was hired to work at SOU, which I still do.
• I sing in a church choir for $200/month, and I LOVE it. =)
• On New Years Eve 2006, Phil Springer proposed to me, which I accepted.
• I've lived with Phil since June 2006, and we are very happy, and are blessed to have the most metal keet ever, Icarus. (He's a parakeet.)

As things go on I will post messages here. Hopefully I will get some readers. I expect anything from theories on where Atlantis might be to stubbing my toe on the fridge, you know, stuff like that.

What is going on in the world?

It seems to me that things just get worse and worse. Today I was on CNN.com and saw this article. http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/02/27/self.centered.students.ap/index.html
I was part of this generation raised to think that I'm special, that I'm worth it, that the world should respect me, etc. The world isn't like that. So now we have a generation of kids who are completely obsessed with themselves and their myspace profile, and how many friends they have, and if they have the most friends somehow they are better, etc. It's disgusting. They all want to be movie stars and American Idols. How can we fix this problem? Why is beauty so important to us? Why do I feel like my hair has to be perfect everyday, that I need to be stylish, that if my clothes don't fit exactly right somehow I look bad to others. Why do I care about this crap? It shouldn't matter at all! I should be able to be perfectly happy with myself, regardless or what others think of me.