Let’s check my head out.

If all goes according to plan, I should be back to menial tasks tomorrow. I’ll go to the DMV, get lunch, hang out with Miles, go to McArthur and get my Mac looked at. This makes sense, but there’s still the fact that I feel mentally awful.

I’m not at the worst level I was years ago, or even more recently. I just don’t know how to feel, really?  The people who want to talk to me, do. It’s great, but some of the people I want to talk to, don’t want to talk to me -or do they? Sure we make face time in real time, but are we just doing this as a means of manners? I want to be of some sort of value to everyone. I don’t know if I can be.

After the GM fallout, I didn’t know what to do.  It now seems to be clear as hell. I need to see if I can take a couple summer classes and get aid for them, and then take a normal courseload and graduate. I need to get away from college. It’s starting to turn out like high school. I get it-I’m not very good with human relationships and I’m a lonely person. I need to get a job and worry about doing what’s good for me, I guess.

I’m making as many new friends as I am losing old ones. Well not losing really, they’re just going other places. There’s still time, but I don’t feel like there’s anyone I can open up to, anymore.

What’s my worth? I don’t know.

Maybe I’ll graduate early, maybe I’ll get a new car, maybe I’ll get a job, maybe I won’t have to deal with all this.  People keep letting me down, I suppose.

Maybe.

I have some time to spare, so this is a quick post.  Today, I was hungry and decided that I would head over to Subway.  During my year-and-a-half in Blacksurg, I  had never been to that fine chain establishment. Not that it quite mattered, but I found myself at the University City Boulevard location.  I went in, expecting to orate my order to one of the employees.Personally, I loathe this because I just want a damn sandwich, preferably without a “funny” name. What did I see when I walked in but three podiums that looked like a combination of an ATM and those dais (sorta?) from The Weakest Link.  On it, you touch your order and choose what you would like. The best part is the toppings. Instead of just picking the graphic you hit it and it gives you options. The option, from left-to-right are “less” regular” and “more”. Why yes, I would like Less pickles! This has made my day, I can eat less pickles. After this, you get a ticket to take to the cashier, where you pay. Yes! It’s the return of the deli number system, as made famous by thousands of”your mom” jokes! Then you wait. When you hear “Number 26!”,  you can get your sub, some Sun Chips and your 24 oz Coke and book it. Thank you, Subway, for limiting human interaction.

Producing something for JBAC is harder than it looks. I haven’t written a full post since September, and now we’re almost done with the semester-only finals are left. As such, it also means that 2007 as a calendar year is coming to a close, as well. Thus, I feel like I need to name my top albums of the year-but there’s a problem. All of the albums I want to listen to haven’t come out yet. Yes, the Wu-Tang LP has leaked, but I still want to give a listen to the new Ghost, and the new Lupe. No, those are not polar opposites in my mind. Just different approaches to a final goal of a good album. So, I’ll be back over break with my thoughts on stuff. Yeah.

No one in this Town likes the athletic director. This is hyperbole and this is truth. It is not a study in contrasts but rather a blaring look at the truth. He has not inspired us to win on the field anymore than our future Hall of Fame coach. The Athletic Director has caused nothing but protest and rejection in the form of the student body.

Sure, we could be protesting on something else, but that’s too divisive. So, we’re rallying around the actions of someone who pleases no one whatsoever. He is worried that we’re doing something to gross and vulgar for a collegiate atmosphere. Wait, wait, wait, did the Athletic Director even go to college?

It appears he did, going to Penn State. The Athletic Director (heretofore referred to as TAD) wants to put in a “Penn State” mentality for the school? Why the hell would you want to do that?  Virginia Tech does not need to copy the styles and ideas of another University.  Stick It In was all we had, and now that’s gone and we have “We Are Virginia Tech”? That’s too many damn syllables. I digress.

TAD needs to go and do something within the school beyond being a man who fills out schedules and ends cheers because he’s a prude.  Beamer, TAD, Greenberg, all of those that are in the athletic department need to exist as more than  figureheads who can take out the time to do an occasional commercial for extra (and possibly unneeded) money. Our coaches, TAD and the like need to prove they’re human. Exist within the student community-get a damn sandwich at West End with the Defensive Backfield. Have TAD just stop in and audit a 1000 level lecture class.  Prove your existence, let us see your insecurities. We are all adults at this university, and our administration should not act as our parents. We might be young, but we’re not stupid.  Show us that side of you.

Emerging from the loss Saturday in Baton Rouge was not just the rebirth of my prose, but a complete change for the Virginia Tech offense. As expected, Hampton High (757, VA) product Tyrod Taylor was named the <a href=”http://www.hokiesports.com/football/recaps/20070910aaa.html”>starting quarterback</a> for the game against Ohio.  Frank Solich and the visiting Bobcats (high school mascots ftl) went to a bowl last season, but should prove to be a great setting for T. Train-as the kids are calling him-to showcase his skills.

As anyone who has watched Virginia Tech football in the last decade knows, a mobile quarterback is key to running the offense. Even the most unheralded guy, Williamsburg’s Bryan Randall, had some mobility to go with his under-appreciated passing ability. When asked to comment on the matter, the man with a sandwich named after him on campus said “This is not a reflection on Sean”.  Of course it’s not, that would defeat team morale. Remember, NONE of us is as good as ALL of us, and that’s how we’re going to win the Atlantic Coast Conference. We have to face the facts: Glennon was boring and made us cringe every time he touched the damn ball. As soon as we were on offense, we thought “Dammit, I hope Eddie catches it” or “C’mon Branden”, something to that effect. Of course we loved all the wins last season, including the great Thursday night victory over Clemson.

But we wanted change, someone more something, more exciting.  Saturday night, we got Tyrod.  Saturday is 5 days away, and we’ll see what we get. I will be there, in person.  The atmosphere will be electric as always, but even more so. Saturday is rebirth.

The above quote has passed my presence at least twice in the last three hours, once at the place where I watched the Tech-LSU game and another on a friend’s away message. It is that we can take from this week’s game, one of the toughest Virginia Tech has ever been in. LSU’s defense is for real, and the the Bayou Bengals deserve their number two ranking. Talk before the game was of a slow, grinding defensive battle. Matt Flynn, Jacob Hester, and Brandon LaFell went right through the vaunted Tech D and put up just short of 50 points.  The Hokies looked out of bright spots in most of the first half.

Frank Beamer then decided to the unthinkable: start a true freshman.  Highly touted prospect Tyrod Taylor came in and took over. At that point, everyone I was watching the game with cheered. What <i>we</i> saw was a star in the making, making a vast improvement over Sean Glennon. No one liked Glennon, it seemed, from the first time he took a snap for Tech. Maybe it was the play last year of Tim Tebow and Matt Stafford last year that convinced Frank to play “T-Mobile”.  We students didn’t care for the reasoning, we just liked it. Tyrod’s first play was a handoff to tailback Branden Ore, and we cheered for him getting positive yardage.  Tyrod threw an incomplete pass, he made some passes, and he did this other thing.

The Hampton alum scrambled.  When feeling pressure from the defense, he took the ball into his hands and ran with it. He didn’t simply run for a yard or two, no, he ran for first downs.  In a blowout, he gave us hope. A true freshman, in one of the loudest stadiums in the country, against a top 5 team, showed poise.  Are we pissed we lost? Yes. Are we pissed that we didn’t score more? Yes. Are we still mad at the O-Line? Yes.  Are we still going to support our team, no matter the outcome?

Yes, because at least we’re not Michigan.

So it’s surreal. Every sound from the outside of my apartment does not make me think I am going to class today. The fact that class starts in less than an hour is even more odd-I refuse to believe these things are going to happen. I am not going to begrudgingly trek across the road, up another, and into a building in which I am too familiar with at this point in time. None of this is going to happen.

Honestly, I wish I didn’t have to endure the sounds of what sounded like a dump truck this morning. That was annoying.

Throughout the course of this rarely visited blog, I’ve had the pleasure of changing its theme over and over again. This does not make for a consistent, readable product. Dammit, I’m going to live up to the tagline. This WILL be a “narrative of life in Blacksburg”, and mostly the football. Blacksburg is a university football town, and I feel the need to make that point.

More regular updates, more opinions, and absolutely shallow analysis. I am not an analyst of the sporting type, I just know when something is horrible. Take for instance, the performance of projected starting kicker Jud Dunlevy (hokiesports.com).  He missed every single kick. Not just the long tries from 52 and 58, but also what would seem like gimmes at 28 and 29 yards. To his credit, though, Duane Brown blocked the attempt from 28. That’s not enough for a team that prides itself on spectacular special teams. Then again, the special teams last year lacked that special pop, but the defense was something nice. Let’s hope that Dunlevy gets his shit together for the last fall practice.  Kickoff is in 13 days, and with that, a preview for the whole season is needed. Keep your eyes open. Completely.

Originally on www.mog.com/watchbatteries

Many of you are probably familiar with the song “arty Like a Rockstar”, the infectious hit which begs you to well, Party Like a Rockstar. While I could go on with the inaccuracies with the song, I’d like to point you in another direction.
I have a blog about other stuff, called
Just Bought a Car. I did a music-related post, about “Rockstar”. It’s not flattering, to say the least. I moderate comments (to keep out the spam, haha) and this one came up:
“THIS IS “BINGO” CEO OF THE SHOPBOYZ , WE ARE HERE TO CHANGE THE GAME AND UP GRADE THE FIELD ,I THINK PARTY LIKE A ROCKSTAR IS THE BEST SONG TO COME OUT IN YEARS AND A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK THE SAME WAY ,THE ALBUM WILL BE IN STORES 6 -19-07. PS, “WE ARE THE FUTURE ”…”

I can only laugh.

Originally on www.mog.com/watchbatteries

Commercialism is supposed to be the bane of the artist in the music industry despite major label artists taking in all that cash and spending it. When they do that, though, the public expects them to do it for the music-for the music, man. What am I getting at?

Selling out is no longer an act in which you violate your roots (sounds dirty) by taking the money instead of lopving your art, but you know, securing your bank account despite being on a sponsored tour. I say this because of two TRL -friendly acts (one with talent, one that needs to be punched) and a couple recent things. One of the acts, T.I., was recently on, well, TRL , of all places, promoting his new album, “T.I. v s T.I.P”. During the course of the interview, the host asked Cliff what he thought about being considered a “Sell Out” by fans due to his endorsements with brands like Chevy. T.I. responded by talking about how he would “sell out” on the streets and such. The host dropped the old “some people say ‘I sell out arenas’” line. Unless you’re the Kidz in the Hall or the like, I don’t see how you can consider a major label artist a sell out. T.I. constantly raps about how much money he has (Ok, not that much, he’s not a ‘bling’ rapper, he’s the HOVA of the South, et cetera) and doesn’t hide it. he can’t be considered a sell out, but maybe someone should look into head case, with his new album’s idea, though it might be good. Rappers getting money is nothing new, hell, 50 Cent is in no damn way gonna have good sales for Curtis, which has been pushed back to September. But he is gonna make hella cash thanks to his stake in (delicious) vitaminwater, after Coke bought its parent company, Glaceau. Is 50 selling out? No, he’s just getting money no one wants to give him anymore. (Obligatory Die Tryin’ joke).

On the flip side is the Ultimate Foe of Our Musical Existence (UFOME), Fall Out Boy. PT WNTZ and the guys from the UFOME have a new video for their single “The Take Over, The Break’s over”. It’s sponsored by HONDA THE OFFICIAL SPONSOR OF THE HONDA CIVIC TOUR FEATURING FALL OUT BOY COBRA STARSHIP THE ACADEMY IS … PAUL WALL AND HOSTED BY DIRTY and has a message in the otherwise pretty bland video. Fans (real ones!) come up to a dog with signs reading “FOB ARE $ellout$” and such shit. The dog, being the moral high ground, asks them to understand that they’ve changed. Where do I begin? UFOME are in no ways indie, they take their moniez and go, writing superfluous song titles all for kids who are too damn lazy to turn off the radio and do some work on the internet. Or hell, go to a record store that doesn’t also specialize in laptops that run Windows Vistas and refrigerators. Calling UFOME sell outs? How non-original.

Selling out is no longer a valid criticism. When all else fails, the band just sucks.