Ring Around The Leader And We All Fall Ashes

If anyone is excited for this Sunday, it is me. Warped Tour 2009 is only a few days away and my underpants are stained yellow from the excitement. Warped Tour always punctuates my summer, however, it is kind of bitter sweet. The event and everything going up to it is simply amazing. But Warped always marks the tail end of summer, it also means that on Monday we all have to go back to the real world, and lastly it means that I will be a full year away from the next Warped Tour. This year might be my last Warped for 2 years if everything goes according to plan and I go teach in Korea next year. Teaching in Korea seems like an opportunity and experience I can not miss. My underpants are brown from the excitement and the fear. But that is still a down the road a little bit so I try not to think about it.

Here are the bands I plan on rocking out to at Warped if the set times permit:
-Chiodos
-Underoath
-The Devil Wears Prada
-Senses Fail
-Meg&Dia
-Scary Kids Scaring Kids

And I will probably catch some All Time Low, Thrice, Saosin and maybe The Ataris.

At the beginning of summer, Dean and I joked about getting free passes to Warped this year. Well, I dreams have come true as our group won 6 free tickets. I won a pair through Warner Bros. Records and the Meg&Dia context, Richard won a pair through the John Lennon Education group (bless that man), and Dawson got two free tickets through an AT&T associate. This will be Ben Lee's first Warped experience. Saved myself $40 and all I had to do was put name in a drawing. That imaginary guy named god must have been on my side this time. I'll write my annual Warped blog sometime next week.

I saw a bumper sticker towards the beginning of my indefinite summer vacation that read, "God Bless The World, No Exceptions." How excited I was to read it! I get upset when I read bumper stickers that say, "God Bless the U.S.A," because that implies that everyone outside the U.S of A is excluded. Now if there was a god, I don't think he would be the kind of guy to pick and choose who is blessed. We are all his children and I would bet that he loves us all. At least these are the stories I was raised with at church. I suppose there actually has to be a floating man in the sky before any of these blessings can happen. I get confused when christian childern are not allowed to read Harry Potter because "he uses witches magic." Didn't Jesus use magic? Oh right! When he does magic tricks we call them miracles. There is a difference. Anywho, don't listen to people when they say, "god bless America." It's dumb in so many ways.

I have been kind of struggling with race these days. It is something I never struggled with, but lately I've been very sensitive to how white people treat other races. I think it has gotten to the point where I don't see things clearly and objectively. When ever a white person makes a comment about race, I pretty much assume they are wrong and racist. A white person could come up to me and tell me, "I love black people and Asians! I think they are the best!" and I would think he is being sarcastic. Really, I should be thinking, "what the fuck is wrong with this guy!?" haha. I think I started changing after I was a victim of racism. I started thinking after the incident, "What if I was being victimized and didn't know it until now only because it was so explicit?" So I promised myself from that day after I would be more aware of racism toward me. After that promise, I have caught many smaller acts of racism toward me and I think slowly the acts started to build up. I still think race shouldn't play any part in judging a person. I've always been a person to treat people on a human to human bases. It is just that I am more "snappy" when it comes to white people now. I don't think I hate white people, but I can't help but feel a little Black Panther-ish about situations now. Makes me appreciate MLK even more now. How he could preach peace when white people have been fucking him and his family over and over and fucking over is something I don't think I am strong enough to do. When I see a white person act racist toward anyone now, it always catches my attention. It doesn't even have to be toward me anymore. I feel guilty because by feeling this way, it makes me as bad as my racist white counter part. I am especially paranoid around old ass white folk. It always feels like they have something against me, like they don't want me in "their country." How come people always tell people to, "go back to China," but people never say, "go back to Europe"? If I knock a old white person out, will the police attack me? Going by that statement, I would agree they should. What if an old, NRA loving dude pulled a gun out on my and I knocked him out? Will the police still attack me? Probably. This is kind of a sensitive topic and I am not trying to offend anyone. Especially since race relations have been in then new with all this Obama shit. Our president is racist! What is new? This is an issue I am trying to fix. I think I am overly sensitive and seeing racism now when racism isn't even there. I need to return to my objective state so I can judge things fairly. Right now, I'm about as crazy as Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck and I do not want to be in that company. At least I know I'm a little crazy and paranoid right now. I don't think those guys have a clue. With all this said, I still have fun playing around with these already created stereotypes. I think it is important to have fun with these made up stereotypes. Maybe "important" isn't exactly the right word, but I don't think we should be overly sensitive about race (like I should be the one saying that right now, haha). However, it is an issue that obviously needs to be fixed. I'm just not the person to fix it right now. Maybe after I beat up some white people I'll feel better! I only joke! Jesus...

Before I close this blog, I just want to remind everyone that Sarah Palin is the dumbest bitch alive. EVER. Not because she is white, but because she is dumb. Just plain stupid in the head. She makes me want to stuff my stained underpants in my mouth.

Is This Real Life?

I've taken two showers within 4 hours without having done any real physical activities (unless video gaming is considered a physical activity). Kind of a waste of a lot of stuff. But I'm a stupid ass American and I'm allowed to live in luxury at the expense of others.

I haven't been very loyal to my blog and I've been absent for over two months. That makes me sad. The days seem to go by so quickly even though it seems that I don't do much. Typically, I get my 8 hours of sleep, do some chores around the house, relax a little bit before going to work, come back home and relax a little and try to get some work done before bed. The weekends go by so quickly they just seem like a blur. The only thing I remember about this last weekend is that I went to church but I can't recall any fine details. Okay, so I actually can, but still, to enhance my story, let us just go with it. If anyone has read "The Things They Carry" this is the "story truth." I am thinking about cutting my average hours of sleep to 7 hours. However, I know that my mind must receive rest as that is the most important part of my functionality. How am I suppose to learn how this world works if my mind isn't at peak performance? How awesome would it be if I actually found the answer to that question? Maybe some day.

It may not seem like it, but I actually love being an American. Really. We have a lot of bad things going on, but let's not forget all the good things we have too.

I'm going to keep this blog short. I just wanted to blog hoping that if I just do this short one, I will get into the routine of doing these more frequently. Usually come 2:00 I am ready for bed, but it seems that I have some extra energy today. Must have been that Monster energy drink I had this morning. It seems that I have an action packed day tomorrow (technically today). It begins with a viewing of the new Depp movie, "Public Enemies" which I am hoping is better than the last two movies I have seen in theaters. Terminator was a complete disaster and Transformers was obviously made to make an extra buck capitalizing off the success of the first one. These lame ass summer blockbusters can suck a big...fat...long...popsicle. I have found rekindled love for popsicles lately. I've been more of an ice cream guy, but the popsicle has served me well these few weeks. I am hoping this movie tomorrow remind me why I love movies so much (like I need reminding, pwah!). If it turns out to be another failure, I quit going to the theater for the rest of summer. I'll set the bar at at least 3 out of 5 stars. Any lower, and I quit seeing lame summer movies. No movie and dinner dates for the rest of the summer, and I am a man of my word (unless I am somehow pardoned by a small jury). But no big loss, like I go on dates, haha. That last sentence isn't a cry for attention, but it was suppose to act as a segue to my next statement. However, by detouring so off course, it is once again a cry for attention? Have I completely lost my chance to set it up as I had originally intended? Damn, I love going on little tangents that pop into my little fucked up head. I'm pretty sure I already know the woman I'm going to marry, now my only task is meeting her and tricking her into liking, or even falling in love, with a crazy ass man.

I'm going to throw this out there right now - Dan Haren is the fucking man. Dude is even getting it done with his bat. If my memory serves me right, he is batting a solid .280 as a pitcher. Sure, I could have just Googled that stat and made sure that I'm not crazy and could have avoided sticking my neck out, but there is no fun in that. If there wasn't a guy named Albert Pujols, the first half MVP in my mind would be pretty easy. If you don't agree, I don't care, I'm stubborn. Actually, I do care.

Alright, I'm going to squash this here. I hope to be back on this tomorrow, hopefully with more meaningful words. But even I know we can't take life seriously always. If we did, we'd all probably commit suicide! Yaaay!

G'night!