Perfect Day

Ok, so I realize the picture on the left may seem a little strange, and you may wonder how this equates to a perfect day, but I'll explain.

This morning I set my alarm for 10:30, I didn't want to get up too late. I call Dave to see if we were going to play hockey, but due to the condition of his skates, that wasn't going to happen. Instead, he, Andrew, and I went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast where I had biscuits and gravy. Dave on the other hand had three eggs, a thick steak, biscuits and gravy, fried apples, hash browns, and grits. He downed it all, that man is a monster in a sprites body.

From there, I left my rent check with Jon and then went to the humane society of Champaign county. It was a beautiful day outside and I suggested we go walk some dogs, they shouldn't be stuck in cages indoors. The sky was beautiful and clear with puffy white clouds everywhere, and the dogs had a blast being taken outside. I took a collie breed named Lila around the ground for half an hour or so, she was super excited to go outside. Ten minutes after I let her back in, amazingly somebody showed up and adopted her. So she had a great afternoon as well. I love dogs, I miss my dog Tula at home.

From there we drove all around the country side east and southeast of Urbana to enjoy the scenery and get some photography in. During the afternoon a BEAUTIFUL set of storms developed on the Indiana/Illinois border and we found a perfect field to park our cars (Andrew was with us) to watch them just explode in the sky about 10-20 miles away. I found out later in the night that those storms dropped a LOT of hail (64 reports on the SPC page). Dave and Drew probably got some excellent photographs. It was perfectly relaxing, just standing outside on a fence near a cornfield at the base of a nice hill, and looking at the sky with unlimited visibility all around us and massive, towering, billowy storms ahead of us. They were mushrooming up into the sky at an incredibly fast rate; the cloud formations were quite a sight to see.

From there we drove a short distance to Kickapoo State park. After getting some good photographs of the Vermillion river, we stopped to watch about a dozen or so great looking white tailed deer. Of course, Drew decided to chase them down on foot, which was also quite hysterical. We saw a whole lot of great wildlife today including wild turkey, ducks, geese, deer, hawk, and some songbirds.

To finish off the day we went to Sidney to stay at Andrew's place and hang out, play video games, use his drum set, just chill out. His dad made homemade pizza for us (apparently its what he does after he's gone drinking). The first picture is me getting my face licked clean by Matty. Dave happened to take an incriminating looking photograph of me with the dog. She is a very energetic dog, but I thought she was cool.

Otherwise, it was a great day. Go to hang out with my good friends, be outdoors in beautiful weather, see some great scenery and wildlife, eat good food, overall had a good time. Tomorrow and Sunday I have to work but I need the money anyways, so it's A'OK.

A post on another person's blog made me think pretty hard about some stuff. I hope you know who you are if you read this.

I was thinking, why am I doing what I do? At this point in my life, why am I doing what I am? Why should I be doing what I want to do? For myself, or for other people? My parents would have me think that there's two reasons I would do anything with my life right now; to make money, and to make them happy/proud. No way, I am going to do what makes me happy in my life. I want to do something that has a purpose, that achieves something, and if it comes at the expense of money, fine. I hold nothing against people who want to make a lot of money first, its not what I want to do, even if its my parents wishes.

Sure the job I have now is only a step, that's what I need now. Why should I follow a set plan, do what my parents want me to do if it won't make me happy? Graduate high school, get my undergrad degree, go to grad school, get a high paying job, get married, have kids, etc. etc. I just try as hard as I can to do well, be happy, and achieve something that I find fulfilling. Wouldn't it be nice if they appreciated that much?

I was stuck in a rut that last semester of school. Change is good, change is so important. Spontenaity is great, doing the unexpected and feeling good about it is important. Trying hard, even failing at stuff, it feels ... well.. alright if I know that I put everything I had into it. Lastly, doing something with a purpose that I find fulfilling is pretty important to me.

President's Role

Two quotes from the President's speech today in Cleveland (I think) as broadcast on CNN.

***

"But also understand my most important job - the most important job of any president today, and, uh, I predict down the road, is to protect America. And so, uh, I told the American people that we would find the terrorists and bring them to justice and that we need to defeat them overseas so that we didn't need to face them at home."

"I take a practical view of doing the job you want me to do, which is how do we defeat an enemy that still wants to hurt us, and how do we deal with threats before they fully materialize, what do we do to protect us from harm? That's my job, and that job came home on September 11 for me loud and clear. I think about my job of protecting you every day, every single day of the presidency. I'm concerned about the safety of the American people."

***

Two things come to mind when I first see this. First of all, what IS the role of the President of the United States? Is it solely "to protect this country"? The Presidential Oath as written in the Constitution claims:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

There is a great irony in what the President is doing to protect this country and its people from the so claimed vast threat of terrorism. In claiming that it is his job as president, he has repeatedly trampled on our rights as written in the Constitution. A perfect example of this is the warantless wiretapping program. Or how about the various questionable portions of the Patriot Act? This should be disturbing to Americans regardless of political party; a President who abuses his power, openly admits and defends his actions, and then tramples on our constitutional rights based on this "justification". I think our founding fathers are turning over in their graves.

The second thought that comes to mind is the rule through fear. Our President constantly defends his actions through the fear of terrorism. "Its ok for me to do what I'm doing, because if I don't, the terrorists will get us." And because of this fear that's been instilled into us, we've accepted and let slide the numerous violations of our rights by this government. What's worse is that those that dare speak out against this, like Russ Feingold and his censure resoluation, are called not only unpatriotic but "borderline treasonous" by their colleagues. What have we come to that those who dare question the powerful are called traitors?

Two quotes come to mind from the famous Edward R. Murrow, who was as great a patriot as we have seen in this century.

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men— not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular....We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

and...

"If we confuse dissent with disloyalty— if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox— if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the ... confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought."

Considering these were from the fifties and during the time where fear of communism ruled, its amazing how relevant they are today.

Redemption

Well I was offered a position at City Year. I'm pretty sure I would like this job and will accept the offer. Its a bit of redemption from the last two months. Lets recap shall we...

- Parents throw a shitstorm because I graduated
- My girlfriend of 18 months dumps me over the phone and doesn't talk to me again
- I get a concussion at work and embarass myself infront of the enitre crowd
- I lose my best friend of many years

I can't begin to describe the relief I felt when I heard this yesterday. I just wanted to shove this in my parents face and tell them, "Look you cocksuckers, I can do something, I can do this and I'm not going to fuck it up."

Next step, find a place to live and start moving my life to Chicago.

Great Concert

I went to a really great concert tonight at the Krannert center, it was my first time in the Great Hall. All I have to say is that the acoustics are AMAZING.

The program

Commando March (1943) - Samuel Barber
Tulsa (1957) - Don Gillis
Epinicion (1975) - John Paulson
The Hounds of Spring (1980) - Alfred Reed

Performed by UI Concert Band I

Day of the Dragon - Peter Graham
Hymns of Praise - Goff Richards

Performed by UI British Brass Band

Tunbridge Fair (1950) - Walter Piston
Dionysiaques, Op. 62 (1913) - Florent Schmitt

My two favorite songs had to be Tulsa and Dionysiaques. Not often do songs to this to me, but at one point in each song I could feel it in my body. Does that make sense? I could almost feel it resonating through my body, starting at the top of my back and working its way down to my feet. Sort of like an electric impulse. I'm not on drugs or anything, the songs were just that good. Plus I love live orchestral type music.

Frederick the Owl

This is Frederick. Last night he decided to make his temporary home in our rafters. He was there for about six hours (I think). A beautiful bird, the picture doesn't do it justice.

I've never seen an owl like this in the city, only out in the woods or while camping. It is a screech owl, cousin to the barn owl. Eats small rodents and insects. That look on its face though, is very piercing.

He's back tonight and perching up there once again, my guess it that he's staying up there to stay warm. With all the apartments there's plenty of heat in the building.

Props to Jon

I saw this in his away message and I really liked it...

***

"What is it you said to the kid? The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very rough, mean place. And no matter how tough you think you are, it'll always bring you to your knees and keep you there permanently....if you let it. You or nobody, ain't never gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. If you know what you're worth, go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willin' to take the hit."

***

Those couldn't be truer words

Sorry Blog!

So yea, I kind of neglected my blog for a bit. I guess life's just been sort of ordinary the last week, lots of work at the rink, tutoring on occasion, working out every day, cooked some food, and thought about life. Despite the ice storm today, I'm looking forward to the possibility of some thunderstorms next week as well as temperatures in the sixties. Ben called me today and we talked for an hour, its been almost a year since I last talked to him.

Uhhhh, so yea. I'll post more when I have deeper thoughts. Honestly, none too much lately. I'd really like to know whether or not I got this City Year job, starting to get antsy about it.

Wow

This was just too good to pass up, it was from a conversation I had with a friend of mine. He's at West Point, just for some context...

hoit341: man...i keep passing out here on my computer
TBar220: what you do tonight?
hoit341: i hate sleep....i hate that that could keep me from accomplishing things....

Wow.....