Let It Rain

It's been quite the Kentucky weather as of late. Not more than last week it was ~17-23 Fahrenheit, yet yesterday it was no less than 60 degrees and today--almost 70 degrees Fahrenheit!

It's quite the predicament, I do say. Do I embrace the weather and enjoy all that spring is/has/will entail, or should I accept it all at face-value and hope I don't get to attached to the wonderful feeling that is seventy degrees, sunny and slightly breezy? Well, that was an easy one. I should freaking hope I don't get attached and expect shitty-ness tomorrow.

In fact, as it goes, tomorrow will be shitty and I don't expect I'll be anything other than affirmed come this time tomorrow afternoon.

This semester has become something of a blur. I'm not sure how to handle 'blurs' and likely I'll treat these feelings as I did the original 'blurs,' thus continuing some sort of evil scheme to uproot all collegiate types in the hope of offsetting the bliss that is intelligence. Seriously, though, I've been taken aback recently at how fast the semester has gone. On one hand, I've already had an exam in Psychology and Quant Chemistry (yet, not Physics or Buddhism) and this is mind-boggling. I need to study...essentially I feel like an ant and I'm not sure how long until I get squashed.

The past few days have been both therapeutic as well as unsettling. I've finally come forth with those little nagging (and by little I mean impossibly huge) feelings that seem to bother me EVERY GOD DAMN DAY.

It's all true.

All of it.

I'm afraid the truth hurts. I'm afraid that, somehow, putting out the truth is something equivalent to the kiss-of-death.

Spring is almost here.

I need to go to sleep, but tomorrow (or when it's pretty again) I'll celebrate that fact.

From Senator Obama, Just Now:

Aaron --

We learned something extraordinary since I wrote to you last night.

We've crunched all the numbers and discovered that we are within striking distance of something historic: one million people donating to this campaign.

Think about that ... nearly one million people taking ownership of this movement, five dollars or twenty-five dollars at a time.

We're already more than 900,000 strong, including over half-a-million donating so far this year. This unprecedented foundation of support has built a campaign that has shaken the status quo and proven that ordinary people can compete in a political process too often dominated by special interests.

Unlike Senator Clinton or Senator McCain, we haven't taken a dime from Washington lobbyists or special interest PACs. Our campaign is responsible to no one but the people.

One million donors would be a remarkable feat -- something that's never been done before in a presidential primary and something no one ever thought would be possible for us. And your generosity made it possible.

But it's going to take an incredible organizing effort to bring in 100,000 new donors before March 4th.

Be a part of this historic effort. Make a donation as part of our matching program, and you will bring in a first-time donor by doubling the impact of their contribution. You can even choose to exchange notes and let them know why you are part of this movement.

There's less than two weeks until March 4th, but you can be part of this historic push right now. Make your matching donation here:

https://donate.barackobama.com/promise

We started this improbable journey a little over a year ago in Springfield, Illinois.

And because you've joined together to make your voices heard, this journey isn't looking as improbable anymore.

Since our victory on February 5th, we've won ten straight contests.

But on March 4th, we face a huge challenge in Texas and Ohio, who will vote along with Rhode Island and Vermont. We are behind in the big states and need as many people involved as possible if we're going to win.

If we can reach our goal of one million donors by March 4th, we can send a powerful message that the Washington establishment and big-money interests cannot ignore.

As one million people with one voice, we can tell them that their days of dominating Washington are coming to an end -- the old politics are crumbling and a new voice is breaking through. Our voice.

Will you make a matching donation now to make it happen?

https://donate.barackobama.com/promise

I learned the power of ordinary people coming together as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago.

I worked side-by-side with people who had been laid off from steel plants that were moved overseas. These were people who needed new jobs to rebuild their lives, and their political leaders were ignoring them.

But even though the odds were stacked against them, they discovered that by coming together with one voice, they could no longer be ignored.

When we launched this campaign, we knew we were up against similar odds. We knew we'd be running against a massive political machine with deep ties to the Washington establishment.

We knew it wouldn't be easy.

But if we can do this, we're not just going to win an election. We're going to change our country.

Thank you so much,

Barack

An Open Letter to the Superdelegates and Undecided Voters of America

Dear Esteemed Superdelegates of this Great Land:

I am a twenty year-old guy who is currently attending Berea College in Berea, Kentucky studying--amongst a wide variety of subjects--Biology and Chemistry as a Pre-Medical Student.

Last time around, circa Fall 2004, I was unable to voice my opinion on who should be the Commander-in-Chief of my favorite country on Earth. I begged those of my peers who were at least 18 and not interested in voting to go vote. I felt that if I could somehow persuade others who could vote to vote for whom I thought (and still truly believe) would have been the better candidate out of the two options, I could somehow have some satisfaction in something close to actually casting a ballot.

I was not as fortunate as I had believed we might be as my candidate was not chosen. I was heartbroken, I honestly did not understand how so many people could have voted for the wrong person. I agreed with nothing he stood (stands) for and every part of my body was against his re-election. Yet, here I am four years later and I am old enough, two years to spare! I do, in retrospect, look at the election four years ago and wonder to myself was it meant to be that Bush was SUPPOSED to be re-elected? Is somehow our country in the need of a revolution? What if Bush wouldn't have been re-elected? Where would we be? I'm not sure, however I do believe that we would have been better off than we are now.

However, I am not fully convinced of this. I really do believe that Bush was SUPPOSED to be re-elected just because Barack Obama was SUPPOSED to be the change we all crave and long for so much that it hurts to think of what would happen if we got a Bush 2.0!

I have never been so strongly political in my beliefs until I first heard Senator Barack Obama speak. It was perfect, I felt his sincerity, his earnest, his desire to bring change, but most importantly, I could FEEL his pain--the same pain I feel and as do most Americans at the state of our Great Union.

I do not know Barack Obama, nor will I probably ever personally know him. It does not matter, however. What matters is I have found the one political figure that my entire family can agree on and whom all my peers, colleagues, college professors, enemies and people I will never know can really stand behind.

We need someone to restore our credibility, our global voice that once was held with such high regard and respect. We were the "do-no-wronger's" of the world. Of course I'd be arrogant to believe that it was just so Utopian. Yet, I'd be a fool to believe that we are not THE superpower of the world. The most capable union of like-minded colonists who strove to tear our bindings from an oppressive dictator and form a piece of earth devoid of that kind of oppression, that kind of political back-stabbing, that kind of totalitarianism. The perfect ideal of perfection in any sense of the Human condition. I feel that we have become the enemy we once hated, the enemy our wise Forefathers stood against in the name of freedom and justice and peace.

It is not just this country's reputation that needs Obama's prowess, it is not just the economy that needs Obama's conviction, nor the dreadful war, the health care atrocity, the housing crisis, the impoverished people's, the pre-college students, the people who still live in the hell that was Hurricane Katrina's destruction, nor myself.

Who really needs Obama now, more than ever, is the common person--the person who does not have endless money in trust funds, inheritance, or enjoy the fruits of life like royalty.

However, I also do need Obama, and I would be forever grateful if you decide to pledge yourself for Senator Barack Obama so that he may truly prove himself worthy and become the Fourty-Fourth President of the United States of America and serve his well-needed time in the 56th and maybe 57th terms of United States Presidency.

Please, FOR ALL OUR SAKES, help Barack Obama in any way you can, especially with your decisive pledge.

In pursuit of the American Dream,

Aaron Fidler

Finals Suck

Word from JackJohnsonMusic.com on Jack's new album:


Jack will be touring Australia, New Zealand & Europe in 2008!! Check out the Shows page for more information...

"Sleep Through The Static" hits stores in the US on February 5th. Here's the track-listing:

1. All At Once
2. Sleep Through The Static
3. Hope
4. Angel
5. Enemy
6. If I Had Eyes
7. Same Girl
8. What You Thought You Need
9. Adrift
10. Go On
11. They Do, They Don't
12. While We Wait
13. Monsoon
14. Losing Keys

Also, because 99.999% of us missed the greatest reunion of the this and last century, here's a couple videos of the monumental occasion.






Lastly, I saw the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There last weekend and I have to say I was unsure of it at first. I believe I was expecting a normal Hollywood story of his life a la Walk The Line or Ray, however after getting over this realization within the first half-hour (it's two and a half hours long) I was quite pleasantly disappointed. I really think it was one of the best music-based films I've ever seen, it was so refreshing in a way that I can't even describe. Alas, the soundtrack was possibly the very best part of the film.

Jack Johnson, Stephen Malkmus, Los Lobos, Sonic Youth, Jeff Tweedy (amazing), Black Keys, and my personal favorite, Jim James & Calexico performing one of the best Dylan tunes ever: Goin' To Acapulco. It was a show stopper, the entire scene featuring this song--not to mention the fact that Jim and Calexico were in the damn movie to perform it--was by far the best 10 minutes of the movie based on this part alone for myself.

Finals week is upon me (and most everyone in the nation) and I must get back to studying for Microbiology and Physics tomorrow and Thursday respectively. Thankfully

It's too damn hot outside....

So, to cool off I'll have a little confessional:

I think I'm in love.

And not just some minuscule fluttering of the heart--i mean drop-dead heart stopping in love with this girl. Now I'm no fan of pop music or anything that is anywhere near the over-produced junk that pollutes the FM waves. Yet, I do have a very delicate soft spot for all things English: especially the women and the music.

What happens when you get both of those things together in a nice poppy feel-good album!?

Lily Allen-bliss that's what!

Damn good album--I still can't get over "LDN" though...oh it's the best summer song in a long time.

Lily Allen - LDN

The best news today is credited to Andy Gadiel and his Phish Blog. A video of Trey playing with DMB at the SPAC center in NY on the 14th of the month:



Good to see 'ol Red rockin' out still after all that's occured this past 9 months. Trey's latest solo album The Horseshoe Curve, a complete instrumental record liken to Seis de Mayo has proven to be one of his best solo releases second only to the 2001 self-titled release. Trey's original solo band (for the most part) returned for this compilation of winding jazz and rock compositions based mostly on a relaxed, congruent feel that seems to stem from the first track, "Sidewalks of San Francisco."

Hope to hear from Trey sooner this next time around and hopefully he's still doing good and has kicked the habit. Much love, Trey.

For tonight I've got Lily and this vid of Trey with Dave to keep me satisfied.

Apparently, NASA has discovered extra-terrestrial life.....

and apparently, that extra-terrestrial life is the Empire's most powerful space station:

"We got Death Star! We got Death Star, knock 'em out the box Luke"

Home and Again

So...after a long, whirlwind summer at good 'ol Berea, I'm finally home for some much needed--and wanted--R & R.

A little background: I spent this past spring's semester in BIO 313 Experimental Zoology with Dr. Ron Rosen and turns out I did pretty well and I enjoyed the course immensely; I've never had a zoo course and never really studied parasitic and animal physiology and pathologies. Come the end of the term, Dr. Rosen asks me to study with him this summer on his life's work: the parasite Proterometra macrostoma. Cool beans, right? Right! Spent most of the summer gaining quite a bit of knowledge and experience not only in parasitology but also in research and lab work. Spent a total of 10 weeks: June 11 to August 17 researching and to no surprise I was glad to be done with it. As much as I loved it, enjoyed the comradery I was quite ready to rest for a week before this fall semester begins (which is next Wednesday the 29th FYI).

I suppose I'm looking forward to this semester, I'm rested from academics, missing my Berea kids (whom all are doing great things too this summer), and quite ready to get my med school regiment back online. I've never been so set and resolved on something like my passion for med school. I've spent quite a bit of my thoughts and learning focused on this ultimate position...however, only just recently have I really contemplated not getting into med school or the like. Likely I'll also apply to the D.O. school in Pikeville and try out some Vet schools possibly, but if those don't work out I suppose I'll find my way to grad school and do some biochemistry or microbiology degree.

Though I've found my biggest problem is the reality that I am in love with everything and want to do and try everything; piloting, sailing, mechanic, fly-fishing, yachting, languages, cooking fine foods, wine making, beer brewing, guitar, electronics, computers....to say the least.

Maybe I should just stick to one thing?

......

Oh, hell no.