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DigitalRonin
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Name: Ryan
Country: United States
State: California
Birthday: 4/10/1974
Gender: Male
Interests: -Instructing the Independence High School Marching Band and Winterguard
-Gaming
-Writing Music (mostly Jazz/Funk Hybrid charts, some clasically oriented stuff)
Expertise:
- Product Marketing
- Conceptual Design
Occupation: Marketing
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
8/25/2003
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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| These guys are pretty damn badass.
Found several links to them on YouTube..some really damn fine arranging going on for this brass combo. Yeah it's marching bandy style stuff..but these guys groove.
Plus it looks like one of the trumpet players is like 7 feet tall. (Or the others are all damn short!)
Check out some of the other stuff from them as well. Really fun stuff. Makes me wanna bust out the Sousa again!
EDIT: Here's the original one that I came across. It doesn't seem to be on the sidebar when you hit up the YouTube link. Impressive.
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| Longer entry about Miriyas Christening and party this weekend later.
Quick props to Melanie, Kelly, Jessica and Izzy for showing up =) Was cool to see you guys there. Hope you had fun!
Just wanted to post two of my fav pics to date of Miriya up here. The girls just got charisma! (And it's getting stronger every day!)
Oooooohhh!
Yeahhhhhhhhh!
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| Ok...so we're pushing for the concept I'm in love with officially. Woot.
Oh and I already said what it was in one of my earlier posts. Haha.
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| Ladddiiies And Gentlemen...you are witnessing the cusp of armageddon. Sit back and watch as the world slowly begins to unravel.
So this guy...in Virginia...or rather I shall refer to him as an animal...or perhaps a "minion of evil". Regardless of race,or sex or whatever. He stole the lives of 30 people (and thankfully removed himself from the gene pool in the process which is the ONLY SHRED of good within this whole thing).
And now we shall watch as America begins to debate about what drove him to this. Video games will probably come up as one of the first culprits. Pushed by the movie and TV industry of course...because they love having someone else be the scapegoat. Then of course there will be all the psychologists and psychiatrists who talk about his "inability to adjust to a social climate" or some other bullshit terminology. There will be the endless retelling of the story on the evening news. Time lines, where he got his guns, why he filed the serial numbers off, and all types of wondrous detail about the story as it unravels.
And 30 people died.
Yes 30. Not 31 because number 31 was not a human. He was a monster. He lost his fucking right to call himself a human when he decided whatever angst he was going through warranted calmly pulling that trigger at least 90 times to execute 30 bystanders to his rage. AT LEAST 90 times. EVERY victim had at LEAST 3 bullets in them.
I don't care if he was beat up, or his girlfriend was having sex with the entire lacrosse team, or if he was pissed because he didn't HAVE a girlfriend (or boyfriend), or if he was a "loner" and was isolated. He's not a human. He's the modern day Grendel come to life, here to slay and be a harbinger of murder and death.
And someone. Somewhere. Somehow. Will justify his actions. Or sympathize with him. Because that's what we Americans do now. We sympathize with evil because we're afraid that some day WE OURSELVES might need an excuse for some horrific action we will take. And we want people to feel sorry for us when we do it.
We're a nation of excuses. A nation of people who hide behind everything they possibly can to shirk the responsibility of being a decent human being.
We use religion as a shield and our reasoning for making decisions, and look to an ancient book more and more every day because we're forgetting what the line between right and wrong is.
We need laws and more laws and more lawyers and more judges and grand juries and DA's and federal prosecutors and Patriot acts to help us determine that line when religion fails us.
And the twisted twist these religions and laws to their own means. Their own justifications for the fact that they are NOT doing the right thing in their lives.
We're sheep. Most of us can't stand our current leadership...and yet we tolerate. We don't go to the polls when it comes time to make our decisions because we my friends and fellow countrymen are lazy and could care less.
Sure we'll bond together in this moment of terror, just like we did after 9/11. And just like 9/11 when "business returns to usual" we'll sit comfortably numb and return to our everyday apathetic lives as terror surrounds us and tightens its grip around our necks.
And the devil knows this. He's a patient son of a bitch. And every now and then one of his minions slips from his grasp and almost ruins his master plan for him. Every now and then one of them blows up a building in Oklahoma, or flies planes into twin towers in New York...or kills fellow students in Colombine, or slays 30 fellow flawed human beings in Virginia. And dammit those minions almost ruin it every time. They ALMOST get us humans to remember what that line between right and wrong is. Between being a member of the human race versus a byproduct of the technology age. Between caring more about our fellow MAN more than our brand of car we're driving. It's SO CLOSE almost every time. But the devil knows...she knows...she knows that time is on her side. And sings that tune. And knows that apathy will once again set in. She's been here before...she knows how it works. Let some time pass and the crying will stop. The words will stop. The plans will stop. The caring will stop once again and they will all go back to their everyday selfish pathetic lives.
He knows his seeds of doubt will spread again. His words of "understanding" the slayer will spread. There will be excuses made and found for WHY the trigger was pulled over 90 TIMES. There will be mourning for the dead...and monetary compensation in civil suits where those laws we love so much as a country will come in handy. The very fact that Ryan Clark will never play his instrument again in his Marching Band at Virginia will somehow be expected to be compensated through the almighty dollar. Or Kevin Granata and his research into muscular dystrophy was stifled...all at the end of a 9mm bullet constitutionally protected to be put in our hands as Americans.
The rhetoric of the slayer will include things like "rich kids" and "they made fun of me" and other wonderful concoctions all the result of the fact that these are now being accepted as reasons to pull the trigger by us humans. The fact that we're devolving to the rate where someone RAGES enough over a jest or even incessant teasing is where our armageddon shall stem from. The fact that we as humans will get to the point where we can justify us killing and maiming an destroying all shreds of humanity because of our own selfish pathetic self-loathing ways. When we as humans decide that OUR PAIN is greater than anything else...and to hell with those that would cause us that pain.
There will be calls for revenge and hate and furthering of the devils deeds. And when I speak of the devil I don't speak or her/him in the Catholic sense. Fire brimstone and devil horns with a pitchfork. What a novel concept. No I speak of that shadowy mass that slowly moves around this planet...and makes us call for revenge and hate. Pits us against each other over decomposing animal remains in Iraq or "holy" land in Jerusalem bloodied and defiled by tyrants and murderers. I speak of that cloud of pestilence that grows larger every day on this planet...and is fed by our fear and by our own lack of willingness to take responsibility for our own actions. And can't be beaten back until we DO accept that responsibility and stop wallowing and reveling in the "Emo" world we live in. Where being pathetic is CELEBRATED and accepted as a way of life versus fighting for virtue and self-confidence. Our weakness feeds its strength.
So to animal Cho Seung-hui. Who lost your right to be called human the moment you pulled that trigger for the first of many times. I can only say...I forgive you. Even though it's not my place. Even though I am not directly affected by your actions monetarily or through loss of life. I forgive you for your pathetic actions of ultimate selfishness. What little good it does for ME to issue this to you...I have no idea. But to FIGHT that cloud of pestilence and perpetuating death I forgive you. I choose the hardest thing imaginable, because I know the trap. I know the hate and anger only will fuel more of the same. So I choose to take my stand against doomsday and forgive you for your actions as a member of the human race who IS desperately trying to do his part in this seemingly godforsaken world so that his daughter may some day look at a day like this in astonishment as a human and asks her father "Why would someone want to do that Daddy?". And for me to be able to say.."I don't know princess...some people USED to do strange things like that."
I can dream of that day. And hope that in my heart she can see it.
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| Ok if we DON'T do the show that I've been researching takes on for next season...unless it's something frakkin amazing I'm going to be disappointed.
This is one of those..."Grows on you a LOT over time" things.
I think I'm just really looking forward to a creative distraction again (wow that's a pun) as the the day job has been stifling with pressure lately to say the least.
Haha..I started a new trend with my previous entry. Sometimes I do things just to amuse myself.
On the baby front..Miriya absolutely blows me away every day with her advances. She's pretty much got a great sense of balance now...and reacts to her name. She finds the funniest things amusing. I can't decide if it's just colors and shapes or actual "things" that amuse her..but she genuinely seems to "get it". Sometimes she throws this wicked grin my way (when she knows she's up to something no good) and it just makes me think that perhaps babies know a bit more than we remember when we're that age. Who knows? It's a mystery every day...and it gets harder and harder every morning to drop her off. Sometimes I just want to play hooky to hang out with her and watch her literally grow in that day.
I've come to the conclusion that a baby of your own is the biggest mortality reminder you will ever have in your life. You literally can see your own life ticking down while another one is growing. The ironic part of it all is...it's strangely comforting to watch this unfurl before your eyes. Perhaps it's just our evolved instinct finally jumping off our back. I mean death is something most people begin to fear in their teen years...or at least think about. This is at the same time hormones are raging and a mere 250 years ago teens were having children of their own (and no we're not talking about the statistics now..we're talking about full blown households here...). Life expectancies were 40 years old and if you pushed past that you were either
A: Rich
B: Lucky
C: Both of the above
So I think once you've done your "duty" as a human being and popped out that genetic offspring of yours. The instinct simmers down a bit and the edge comes off somewhat. At least you know your DNA concoction has a pretty good shot of keeping your DNA going.
This could all be written so much more eloquently and wrapped in metaphor. But its super early on a Monday morning...and metaphors on Monday suck.
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