Atomictumor

We here at the ‘Tumor have been pontificating for many moons (well, a few moons) about how Oak Ridge needs to get its act together and make the school system a top priority issue, bigger than a Town Center, or a residential subdivision, because its the jewel of the crown around here.

Well, to that end we’re working on another project, the Atomic City Education Society, which is starting up a bumper sticker campaign in the hopes of raising awareness that our school system isn’t getting the backing it has enjoyed in years past.

Yeah, a lot of people see the school system as a money pit. I see it as one of the best systems in America, and a lot of people agree. Thats a huge, HUGE calling card. The problem is, if we leave it to the politicians to fix, it won’t happen.

We need an organized, grassroots movement in town of people who understand that a declining school system is a city in decline, and if we don’t shore it up we’re going to drop into mediocrity, and thats not going to fill those 4000 houses out west up.

So, hook up with a bumper sticker, and be part of the cool crowd.

“I don’t know anybody who’s made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really”

Dylan has successfully made himself appear old and timid in a quote from a Rollng Stone cover interview. Actually, the whole thought of Bob Dylan, the man the 60’s built up as its spokesman, only to find out that he really just wanted to play his guitar, appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone, the holdover from that decade, wrapped up in 80’s glam, 90’s glitz, and 00’s apathy, is kinda funny.

Rolling Stone is a joke, its Entertainment Weekly for the top 40 crowd, and to see Dylan on the cover, crying back to those days, well, its a little sad.

Of course, if you read the interview, he isn’t necessarily talking bad about the music, as Reuters would have you believe, but the recording. The digital revolution wasn’t good to Dylan, and I can’t say I disagree with him. While I disagree that records have sounded bad since 1986, and think thats a pretty dumb statement, I personally prefer to listen to good music on vinyl. Jack White famously eschewed digital recording, most notably with the White Stripe’s Elephant (which was recorded in a hole-in-the-wall studio in England with 4 track circa 1960s equipment), and the record went on to sound fantastic.

On the other hand, groups like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Of Montreal use modern recording techniques to create music that sounds a hell of a lot like it was produced in 1983 by David Byrne.

Then, on the third hand, you have bands like Radiohead, which completely embrace modern recording techniques and tools to create albums that are amazingly innovative while being easy on the ears.

Just because you have producers like The Matrix ruining music for everybody doesn’t necessarily mean you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sure, one of the more relaxing things I can do is pop Bob’s Nashville Skyline onto my turntable, which is one of the more low-fi records ever created (next to Beck’s One Foot In The Grave), but its absurd, Bob-o, to assume that modern sounds are bad.

Just sounds like you’re getting old.

Edit - later that day.

I found this link at a blog I hadn’t been to before, which helps ease my mind about ol Bob.  Maybe it’ll be OK after all…

So, Joe Powell found this prayer antenna (because God might not be broadcasting on a strong enough wavelength), and it contains this:

Which, in my mind, is the culmination of every art form ever.  This picture just says it all.  In fact, I wish I had seen it before finding out about the antenna, because I would have come up with SO MANY theories as to what it was for.

I want to print this thing up as a flyer and distribute it everywhere I go, or maybe as a bumper sticker.  Its just too damn good.

Then I continued my morning reading, and moseyed into Netmom’s page, where she was discussing, among other things, a growing tendency among some Baptists to be, well, extremist.  We all hear about the Fred Phelps and Pat Robertson wackos (I lump Buchanan into this category), but theres an increasing amount of the rank and file who honestly and truely believe that the country is on a path to damnnation.  They site issues like gay marriage, civil rights, abortion, and immigration (?) as proof that America not only doesn’t espouse their values, but is actively trying to deny them from living a holy life.

Then I read today’s chapter of the Jill Carroll story, about the reporter kidnapped in Iraq who was released after weeks of captivity.  While harrowing, this is some damn interesting reading, with Jill’s story interlaced with the stories of her colleagues and family, and attempts to find her, etc.

The problem is, its easy to start seeing some serious common threads between the people holding her hostage, these mujaheeden, and these fundamentalist far right Christian speakers.  I’ve often said that it would only take an economic depression to turn America into the Christian political equivalent of Iran, and by researching this stuff, it looks like a whole lot of people are ready for that to happen.  It should be scary to anybody who isn’t one of them.

Anyway, enjoy the picture.

I had a talk with Roane State, we mentioned old times, drank some beer, got in a fist fight, cried, spent the night in jail, and finally agreed to live and let live. The AT charm wins again.
In other words, that VP of Financial Aid winked and gave me the all clear.

Thanks for all your support, you all get to watch me fail in real time!
No, seriously, I’m gonna do well. GAC will hurt me if I don’t…

As a return to the post previously (and to put the words “go to hell” on the Rocky Top Brigade board), a quick update on my ever exciting quest for higher education.

After the setback of yesterday eve, I endeavoured to send a quick “pleeeease, pleeeease lemme have some financial aid” letter to the Veep of Financial Aid, but as of the noon deadline today had not heard anything.  I drove down to Roane State to try a little face to face charm, of which I am all up ons.

Unfortunately, they weren’t having it.  Although the admissions girl was into my “damn, wasn’t I dumb?  now lemme have some aid” jive, the financial aid battleaxe had none of it.  However, she did let slip that it isn’t a Regents thing, or federal, or state of Tennessee thing that folks on financial aid suspension have no recourse but to whore themselves out for school mone, but rather a unique quirk to Roane State.

Thats right folks.  Withdraw from classes at Roane State when you’re getting financial aid, EVEN IF THE GOVERNMENT GETS ITS MONEY BACK, you’re cut off for 5 hours, or about 700 bucks.  Now, I’m not going to be the one to call that embezzlement (because it technically isn’t), but I’ll sign up to say that its a dickheaded thing to do.

Lucky for the kid, its not the only game in town!  No, with one day left to enroll, thanks to the impeccable timing of Roane States F.U. department, I’m off to Pellissippi, the soon to be alma mater of my lovely wife.  Its a shame, because Roane State, well, I can look out my window and see it, but who said the path to higher learning was easy?

Seriously, Google it.  Tell me, because I want to kick them square in the balls.

And I’ll tell you one other thing, readers.  If I do get into this, and I do start school again, this is going to totally kick off a new line of bitching on Atomictumor.com, which is the AT thinks that the entire college system is screwed up and in serious need of an asswhooping.  If I’m paying (well, technically, if all works well the federal .gov is paying) for college then by DAMN I expect to graduate.  If a teacher has an entire class fail, his ass needs to be FIRED for not doing his damn job.  If I’m running an IT department, and my computers all explode, I’m not going to get away by saying that “well, they were dells, see”.  Nope, it’d be my ASS.

So, there you go.  In summation:

1) Roane State hates the poor.
2) I’m a last minute person
2) Roane State sucks donkey balls.
3) Yes, those were both twos.
4) Who the hell was it that said that higher education was easy?