New Years Resolutions

Ah, 2008. The fun we had, the things we played, the people we met... good times.

And now 2009 has rolled in. Another new year, and a few new resolutions.

1.) Post more often: This blog has fallen on the way-side, again. Again.

2.) Learn songs the whole way through: I suffer from musical ADD. I get a piece of music, fall in love with it, and start to learn it, only to fall in love with a different song, and get started on that one. As a result, I have a vast repertoire of half-learned and partial songs. Going to try to stick to my guns this year. Starting with "Maybe I'm Amazed," by the brilliant Sir Paul.

3.) Learn to play the harmonica: The poor baby is gathering dust. And watching "Survivorman" on TV makes me want to learn it again.

4.) Watch the movies in my DVD collection: I'm something of a movie nut. So when I find a good bargain on a movie that I've heard is really superb, or already seen, I make the impulse purchase. A Beautiful Mind for $5? Please and thank you! But there are a bunch of movies in my collection that have yet to be watched (you know who you are). I've got to get around to watching these sometime.

5.) Meet new people: A little cliched perhaps, but nevertheless true. Classes are always pretty big up at school, but that is not a good excuse. For the new year, I'm going to say hello to at least 3 new people in each of my classes on the first day.

When She Loved Me- Piano Cover

So I joined the ranks....I uploaded a cover onto YouTube. Long have I debated putting something up on the website... not counting the Smash Brothers combo videos I uploaded for a friend..

The song was bouncing around my head for weeks. It's from Toy Story 2. I was surfing the tubes one night, and I came across someone covering the song the cowgirl doll sings about how her owner left her. And just like that, I was hooked. I had to learn it...no matter how depressing it was.

So I went with a friend to the chapel at my school and recorded this. It's on the Baldwin grand piano inside the main chapel, which gets great acoustics that you really can't hear on the recording.

I was especially pround of the section around the 1:00 mark. Made those chords up myself! :) I was trying to learn the song, and I ended up stumbling upon those chords... there's a very jazzy, Charlie-Brown-Christmas feel to them that I really liked, so I threw out the original chords and used those.

Check it out and be sure to comment! I may put up more in the future! Let me know if I should!

New Jet Force Gemini?!

In Rare's latest Banjo-fest, a little Easter Egg hints at some major news...new installments for a lot of Rare standards. Among them...Jet Force Gemini!!!

Jet Force Gemini...wow...really brings me back. Remember those good old N64 days with that goofy looking controller, and the little robot Floyd flying in circles around Player One shooting away? And don't forget the dog with rockets for paws.

Goooood times.

Sure, Rare may just be toying around with us, but I'll bite.

Bring it on Rare! Make it so!

Vote!

So the big day has come. 2 years in the making, it's Election Day 2008!

We're pretty lucky to live in a country where we have the right to vote and freedom to do so, so don't waste it!

So get out there, people! It's VOTING TIME!

One Nation

If you've followed politics lately (or watched the Daily Show), you'd know that some flat-out strange comments have been floating out of the McCain campaign. Be it a desperate attempt to win over "rural working class" voters or just a desperate attempt to appeal to far-right conservatives, the candidate's supporters (and even that incorrigible Palin) have been throwing around this notion of a "Real America."

You know the one; those great barbecuing, burger-eating Joe Six-Packs who live in those small towns that "make good people." Those hockey-moms and factory workers who can smell an elite coming a mile away.

You remember that one? No? That's probably because it doesn't exist. There is no Real America just like there is no Fake America. There is just America!

The country folk are just as American as the city-slickers. The factory worker is just as American as the urban schoolteacher. The accountant is just as American as the priest. North Virginia is just as real as South Virginia, just as real as West Virginia.

There's this thought that being spread by the dying far-right, that small towns are real, and big cities are fake. That only in the rural areas, patriotism is seen. And those urban folk, how can they be patriotic?

This is the politics of yesterday. The one that slices us up into nice little fragments that can then be played against each other. Divide and conquer is the old maxim. So as our economy sinks deeper, and our standing among nations spirals downward, these people want to show us that the real threat is ourselves. That there is a true America and a false one, and that the fakes want to destroy our great nation.

Call me crazy, but this brand of politics is not going to stick. Not this year. Not this time. After 8 years of these divisive games, Americans are going to realize that we're all Americans. That now is the time to come together, not push apart. That all opinions must be valued, whether they be from liberals, or conservatives.

This election, people will remember that little saying on the dollar bill still holds meaning: E pluribus unum.

Out of many, one.

Colin Powell...

Ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell recently endorsed Obama for prez. While this is newsworthy in and of itself, I found the little speach he gave on Sunday's Meet the Press to explain why he was voting Democrat to be incredibly well done.

I've been debating for a while as to whether I should try to weigh in on these candidates at ASG! But, thankfully, Mr. Powell says it better than I ever could. Give it a watch:

The Second Coming!...

...of our Messiah: Shark Jesus!

A blacktip shark in a Virginia Aquarium was confirmed to have a "virgin birth." The single shark pup inside the female was genetically tested after an necropsy of the mother and had no genes from a male shark. It is the second documented case of a female shark reproducing asexually.

Unfortunately the pup never actually was born. The mother, 'Tidbit' (personally I think 'Mary' would have been more catchy), died from complications of her sudden and unknown pregnancy.

The first shark Messiah, a hammerhead born just a year ago, was quickly gobbled up by his fellow sharks shortly after his birth.

Quote: "By the time they could realize what they were looking at, something munched the baby..."

But really, what does this all mean? Seems clear to me. It's got to be Shark Jesus! Personally, I welcome back our savior with open arms....er.....fins.

So the real question is not 'what does this tell us about the reproductive cycles of one of the Earth's oldest creatures.' Much much simpler than that.

WWSJD?