To start off, I have to let everyone know about my latest purchase.  Is it a new TV?  A new car?  Maybe even a new house?  Nope...it's a bumper sticker.  But this isn't just any ol' bumper sticker...it's one I had custom made and is a thing of beauty.  Whenever you see those moron hippies driving around with 50 bumper stickers on their cars, the people who made those try SO hard to be all witty.  Like the one that says "Endless War" where it originally said "End This" but the word "this" is crossed out and replaced with "less".  Wow...how clever.  Or how about the take-off of the "W The President" stickers where it will have the "W", but under it says "Wrong Again".  I bet HOURS were put into that one.  Well mine is a wee bit more direct.  I wasn't going for witty or clever at all...I was going for blunt and I think I achieved it.  So what does mine say?  It's a blue sticker with white letters that states "Al Gore Is An Idiot".  Best $4 I have ever spent.  I drive around with pride knowing that it just really ticks off the tree huggers.

I believe I had the greatest theater experience this past Friday I have ever had...and I deserved it with all the crap I usually put up with.  Because the project I was working on at my job was completed a day early, the team that was working on it was given Friday off as a reward for a job well done.  See, as much as I dislike corporate America, I really can't complain much about my job because they do stuff like this for me.  So I got up Friday morning LATE...oh yeah...nothing better than sleeping late on a weekday...and decided to go see a movie.  What was the flick?  The remake of "Halloween".  Now I had read a lot of bad stuff about it online, but really wanted to see it and my bud Jason told me it was pretty friggin good.  So I went to a noon showing, and not ONE person was in the theater!!!  I had the ENTIRE room to myself.  Man...what bliss it was.  Me, my bladder-buster sized Diet Coke, and a bag of peanut M&M's...and NO ONE else.  How was the movie?  Let me just say that anyone who thinks it sucks is a moron.  First off, have you seen the original "Halloween"?  Yes, I know it set the standard for the whole slasher genre, but it's honestly a little boring at time.  This movie had SO much of a story to it...you actually see the origin of Michael Myers which added an incredible amount to it.  I'll never forget reading an interview with Gunnar Hansen (the original Leatherface) talking about the remake of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and his biggest beef with it was that there was too much back story on the character of Leatherface.  This may just be what appeals to me, but I actually think it's more frightening to see the killer as a real person...not just some psycho who shows up.  Just like the last two "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" movies did where you learn more about Leatherface and the family, this remake of "Halloween" spent a lot of time showing Michael Myers as a kid, what drove him to do what he did, and so when he's an adult and escapes the asylum to go on his killing spree, it makes SO much more sense.  Rob Zombie did an incredible job with this movie...it was dark, gritty, and very well done.  The scenes with Michael Myers as a kid when he goes on his first killing spree are honestly pretty grisly because it's a kid doing all of it...and the actor that portrayed the young Michael Myers did an INCREDIBLE job.  After I saw it, I called Jason up to let him know how awesome I thought it was, and we both talked about how we found ourselves cracking a smile during the movie because of how well things were done...smiling at times that others might deem inappropriate...hahaha.  And you know what else I did Friday?  Oh I ROCKED!

We had a gig in Murfreesboro Friday night, and I probably had more fun at that show than any of them.  When we first got to the club I was a little worried because it seemed like a local watering hole...older people listening to country music while sitting at the bar on a Friday night.  When the other bands showed up and more people arrived, the atmosphere changed a lot as the locals started leaving.  The only other band on the bill we've gigged with before was Mindsplitter, so I was curious as to how the other bands sounded...and I wasn't let down.  Holy crap...you talk about a night of balls to the walls metal...that was it.  No disrespect intended, but I can't remember the names of the other two bands on the show.  Of course if I would actually walk down the hall to look at the printed flyer on my table I could say who they were.  Let me finish my train of thought first.  Ok, so we go first.  We're jamming as only we can, and I break one of the three picks I did that night during "Never Meant To Die", so I missed a few notes and made a joke about it after the song saying how I broke a pick.  The singer for the second band was standing near the front and goes "That's because you are one hardcore motherf#cker".  Oh yeah, I was on that night...full on rock god mode.  And man we all sounded great and I had a blast.  There isn't a better feeling than to be jamming and look up to see a bunch of people near the stage all rocking out in their own way.  And our new drummer Ben SLAMMED!  We are so lucky to have him in the band...and especially because he can not only take a rip on him, but can dish it out...nothing is personal...we're just all joking around.  I swear, we're a friggin rock band...none of us are out to change the world so we don't take ourselves seriously at all.  Anyway, we finish and the next band goes on...BRUTALITY!  Man these guys were playing some incredibly tight thunderous riffs.  Like I always say, the sign of a great metal song makes me want to start smashing stuff in a good way and these guys had a couple of those.  The third band was more full-on metal...their singer even did a POWER SLIDE!  Now, it's a club gig and all, so some might think it's goofy for a long-haired guy with big leather wristbands on to be so into it to do a power slide...but when the guy hit it I turned to Jason and yelled "HE DID A FRIGGIN POWER SLIDE!"  I loved it!  Why?  Because he was putting on a show...and that's what it's all about.

I can't believe I forgot to write about this last time, but I picked up the new CD by The Donnas last week and here's my review - it ROCKS!  Now granted, it is NOWHERE near as awesome as "Spend The Night"...which is like their "Master of Puppets"...but it's pretty friggin good.  If you like 80's rock anthems, you'll dig it.  Giant riffs, gang background vocals, all of it.  And have you seen the new pics of Allison the guitarist?  Man...she is incredible.  Where was she about ten years ago???  Oh well, her loss...hahaha.  Back to reality...the opening track "Bitchin" is so in your face that if you're driving and hear it and your car doesn't find itself speeding up...then something is wrong with you.  My other standout track is "Girl Talk"...awesome full-on rock tune.  All the songs on this release are worth checking out because it's pure rock, all of them.  Now I will say they don't have the balls of "Spend The Night", but I wasn't expecting a CD anywhere near that good.  That in no way diminishes this one, because The Donnas have put out a GREAT full-on rock CD in a genre that really needed this.  I swear, and this in NO WAY is meant to put women down, but it amazes me that an all girl rock band jams with more balls than just about every male rock band I hear.  That's why I love The Donnas.

Ah yes, and now for some politics and stuff.  I was reading an article over the weekend about Diane Sawyer interviewing Jenna Bush on TV one night last week.  Jenna has a book coming out where money from it is going to some charity to help kids, and she does a lot of work to help kids all over the world.  Oh I know, I'm some Bush-bot, right?  No, I really think he's done a pretty bad job on a lot of things because he's not conservative enough, but I don't hate the guy and want him dead like a lot of morons out there.  But I really think that you leave the kids alone for the most part.  Was Chelsea Clinton ever asked in interviews how she felt about her dad having sex with interns and being accused of rape?  Not that I ever saw.  Anyway, Jenna was asked in the interview how she felt about some stupid statement Matt Damon said.  He said something like "If Bush feels the war is right then why aren't HIS kids out there fighting it?" or something like that.  Well first off Matt, it is an all-volunteer military, so it's not like they skipped out on the draft.  Second Matt, by you not understanding the nature of our enemy, you have showed everyone you have zero intelligence and should stick to playing a tough guy in the Bourne movies since you obviously are a gutless wuss.  And now I can laugh even harder when the puppet of that dumbass appears in "Team America - World Police" where all he can do is yell his own name because he's retarded...hahaha.  Ah...once again Trey Parker and Matt Stone nail it.  Here's something else I found VERY interesting.  I was watching an interview this weekend with an economist from The Wall Street Journal.  Oh yeah, I'm full of excitement 24/7 baby!  In the interview, this guy was explaining how government assistance for college tuition has been the number one reason for high tuitions.  How so?  Because the colleges receive so much federal funding, they can raise the tuition so money will still come in from the students.  He gave examples of tuition rates from 40 years ago versus today, and showed how the increase in government aid has directly caused the drastic rise in tuition rates.  This got me thinking about something else.  Remember learning about The Great Depression from the 1930's?  Well I consulted an awesome American History book I have that I read a couple of years ago, because I remembered reading something about government assistance.  This book has SO many statistics and facts from economists that showed how all the government assistance during the 1930's that were supposed to help people actually PROLONGED The Great Depression.  How so?  Because the government was shelling out SO much money that taxes went up, interest rates went up, and this kept those with money who normally make investments, start new businesses and create jobs from doing these things.  You see, it USED to be that taxes were paid once a year, but in the 1930's it changed to where the money was gradually collected from your paychecks.  The reason was so people really wouldn't know how much they were paying out each year and taxes could be increased gradually so it wouldn't hit as hard.  And now we have Hillary Clinton saying that she wants to give every new child born a $5,000 account that can be used when they are 18 to help pay for college or a new house or whatever.  And where exactly does this money come from?  Me and you, that's who.  I despise forced charity.  If I want to contribute to something, I will.  There is NOTHING in the Constitution that gives the federal government ANY authority to use our tax dollars to aid ANYONE.  If someone thinks there is, then please show me where.  Katrina aid, African relief, welfare, all of that is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!  Again, if you think it's in there, then show me where.  You can't govern on emotion.  The Constitution does not say "And if the federal government thinks there is a good cause to throw money at to help people then they have the authority to do so".  It's so simple - this country is SUPPOSED to be a collection of independent states with a federal government to act as the glue.  But if that was taught, then schools might have to teach that The Civil War was not fought over slavery and we can't do that.  Man I could go on for HOURS but I do have a job to go to in the morning...so more another time.

And who needs Michael Vick???  Atlanta doesn't...Joey Harrington has put together four games in a row that Vick could have only dreamed of.  Atlanta got their first win yesterday, and hopefully more will follow.  And this is something I never thought I would say a couple of months ago, but the Atlanta offense is actually playing BETTER than I could have expected this year...it's their defense that's the weak spot.  And this weekend I'll be here in Nashville at LP Field watching my beloved Falcons playing the Titans.  Yeah, it could be scary, but at least I have a few days to revel in the win from yesterday.  Until next time sportsfans...