Stand up man!

We've entered a whole new ballgame folks...the little man is pulling to a stand without help from us.

Aggie Tirades

Well, I guess all Oklahomans are weighing in on Mike Gundy's postgame meltdown over Jenni Carlson's column questioning QB Bobby Reid's attitude. No secret I'm a Sooner fan so I'm not exactly impartial. All I have to say is that Carlson is a sportswriter who's written dumb things for years. But I don't think her column was that far out of line. Poorly conceived, as all her columns are, perhaps...but not worthy of such a performance from Gundy. And Mike Gundy (who I always liked in the past) is acting like an idiot ("A mother of children!!!"). But hey...the whole thing's been fun to watch...even if you're not a sports fan it's worth taking a look at the Gundy explosion on youtube.

Rocket Boy

Here is a video of Jackson as an astronaut.

Move On To Something Important

I'm so glad to see my senator, John Cornyn, spending his time drafting and introducing a Senate censure of a website. Why spend time trying to solve immigration issues, epidemic foreclosures, spiraling housing markets, rising gas prices, endemic poverty, third world Texas colonias, lack of health care, political corruption, campaign finance reform, unending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nuclear ambitions in Iran, genocide in Darfur, earthquakes in Indonesia, and whatever and so forth...

Yes, I'm glad to see my honorable senator from Texas and all the other yokels in D.C. spending time censuring a website that now has even more attention because our highest legislative assembly dignified it with an official rebuke from the United States of America. Way to go...That's the way to show 'em!

College Life

Notes from my Moleskine during a UIL Competition Conference (Saturday 9-15-07):

Sitting in the student union at the University of North Texas in front of a 'Mean Green for Obama' poster reading "The Dharma Bums" while listening to Coltrane on the iPod feeling a bit like a college student...but those days were long ago.

Now I'm outside because inside can be so stifling and its beautiful outside. I'm sitting on a bench under trees facing a gazebo with a fountain splishing and splashing nearby. I'm next to the Independence Hall looking admin building and the trees have been planted in rows like that scene in 'House of Flying Daggers' where a cool fight takes place. The benches are all lined up like the Central Park ones where George Peppard sat on in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" when he confronted the Barnaby Jones Bev Hillbilly guy. (turned out he was Holly Golighty's husband).

It's nice until three of my students spot me and want to gab but they let me use a cell phone to check on the fam in Forney and all's well. I get rid of them by convincing them to splash around in the fountain. They're relunctant at first but I appeal to their inner 'Rage Against the Machine' Zen lunatics. So they're gone now and it's so quiet that when I sneeze (one time!) a butch coed feminazi soldier a few benches up whirls around and gives me a if looks could kill glare. I just smile and say "Hey...how bout a God or whatever you believe in Bless You?" She's not amused.

I saw two guys, one faintly south Asian with a digital camera, taking action pics of a pasty white dude with a taliban beard carrying a black furry stuffed monkey as he walked up the hill with the massive screaming eagle statue.

Others doing Tai Chi or somesuch in unison on a mean green lawn. I love college campuses cause weird stuff's normal and on campus weird is not weird...it's normal. I also love college book stores but I need to stay out of them because I can't afford anything.

Now I drink green tea just about every day. I've even blogged about green tea in the past. But I'm not sure I would go far as Jack Kerouac when he writes in The Dharma Bums...

"The first sip is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth ecstasy." Maybe he was putting something in his green tea besides honey.

Hurricane Jackson

Here's a short video clip of Jackson being destructive and attacking the paparazzi.

Beatific Paths

Today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac's literary masterpiece, On The Road. I couldn't let today go by without comment. Kerouac is one of my favorite authors and I have read On the Road at least seven or eight times. I read a variety of stuff in a year but I always save time for at least a couple of Kerouac reads. There is something tragically poignant in Kerouac's search for meaning and joy. As a fan of jazz music I appreciate his free form improvisational style and frequent mentions of Bird and Dex. And I look forward to traveling to Austin when the original Kerouac teletype scroll of On The Road goes on display at the University of Texas in March.

The White Man Crawleth

Yes, Jackson's crawling now. Here's video to prove it. Unfortunately we are still using our analog camcorder. So any video I download to the computer comes from my digital photo camera. So it's a bit primitive. Yes, Jackson is chasing Ringo and Simba. No, there has been no injury in the pursuit of the cats. He is everywhere now. We are now in the mobile Jackson phase.