I begin with this young lady because the combination of her talent, her chosen surroundings and the look on her face give the impression that she is expressing actual sentiment rather than singing simply for the sake of hearing herself which, to me, is always worth a few extra points. Regardless of whether my interpretation of her 'tude is correct, it pleases and comforts me to share this little bit with the few people in my life who I know enjoy this song. Btw, this young lady's sobriquet is thebathroomgirl and she has quite a few covers and original pieces on her site... they are all worth investigating.
Hey Ya -covered by Obadiah Parker. I recently heard Ted's rendition of this cover on an episode of 'Scrubs' and while I always enjoy Sam Lloyd's musical stylings, Matt Weddle's version is still my fav.
Flagpole Sitta -covered by Julia Nunes. I was introduced to this artist as my friend Brian's "Ukulele-playing girlfrend who lives in the internets".
The Climb -covered by Tiffyiffyiffy. The other night Blonde-girl and Angry-girl were both waxing rhapsodic about a Miley Cyrus song they had heard so when I noticed that one had been covered (and greatly appreciated) I thought I would give it a shot. While I enjoy this cover, I have yet to hear the original and it's not likely I will unless something extrordinary occurs.
3AM -covered by Mike McBee. While I've never been a big fan of Matchbox20, I find myself really enjoying this young man's soulful rendition.
Brothers in Arms -covered by MrLoupiot. Although his ability to sing is far outweighed by his impressive guitar craft I still found myself listening to this cover over and over. It serves as a potent (and painful) reminder of the limitations laid upon me by The Cosmos and my own filthy, clumsy human hands.
Fast Car Acoustic Guitar Lesson -brought to you by Handsome Alvin. The lesson is so comprehensive and yet easily followed it's now distracting me from my current project.
*To Rabbit: I hope you noticed that 3 of the 7 artists listed here are female.
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*To There4: I hope you noticed that 3 of the 7 artists listed here are aZn.
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*To Tanner: Thank you for introducing me to James Blunt. You shipped out almost immediately after we graduated from whiskey w/10thMTN and that was the last I have heard of you. Wherever you are, battle, I hope you are well.
Ambition, fighting, war, courage. Destruction, danger, fall, ruin.
The Tower represents war, destruction, but also spiritual renewal. Plans are disrupted. Your views and ideas will change as a result.
The Tower is a card about war, a war between the structures of lies and the lightning flash of truth. The Tower stands for "false concepts and institutions that we take for real." You have been shaken up; blinded by a shocking revelation. It sometimes takes that to see a truth that one refuses to see. Or to bring down beliefs that are so well constructed. What's most important to remember is that the tearing down of this structure, however painful, makes room for something new to be built.
What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.
It’s a bit slow here in the clinic this afternoon so I thought I’d share with you, my hypothetical reader, a few of the things that have been going on here in my world.
With the vast majority of cadets on vacation or doing training off-post during first block, we are left with only a handful of ‘brokens’ to (have to deal with) help rehabilitate. That’s just fine by me, at least in the short term, as I have another class to prepare and deliver. This time it’ll be on Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome (CECS), another lower extremity malady that I am personally acquainted with. I am a bit reluctant to bring up my symptoms as the orthopedic surgeons here all seem a bit bored and are all too eager to cut a brother open. No thanks, guys; I’ve gots stuff to do, not the least of which is being prepared for the EFMB come October.
Lets see, what’s been going on since my last update? Ah, I am now stationed at the US military academy at West Point, NY. The barracks they have us in are nice, although anything better than a cardboard box or shelter half is a definite step up from the barracks at Ft. Sam. They are single person rooms, non-smoking, of course. I have a bathroom that I share with my next door neighbor, four storage closets, a desk and a king-sized bed. The bed is definitively the high point after months and months of sleeping on a hard single-sized bed although I do find myself picking a spot to sleep on and staying there all night long, lol. Literally an acre of bed to roll around on and I invariably end up next to the clock every morning. There are no restrictions on food or alcohol in the barracks and we can have overnight guests for up to a week before having to inform the chain of command. All in all, not so bad for this guy.
What can I say about the academy that hasn’t already been said? I know, this: The cadets are, without exception, retarded. Oh yeah. See, I had a solidly preconceived notion about the, er, quality of the kids that are selected to go here. Indeed, aside from the arduous first year, the hardest thing about this place is getting to come here. So, the kids that come here know a bit more about perseverance and responsibility than their counterparts at colleges and universities. That is where the differences end, no joke. Now, I live in a party-college town, CSUC is in fact THE party college in California. As a result, I am familiar with the asshatery that comes of college students who are given their first bit of freedom and subsequently lose their damn minds. Yup, they’re retarded. And so are the kids here, by and large. This example is a snippet of an actual conversation I had with one of my patients:
Them: My knees hurt.
Me: Well, did you do anything this weekend that could have possibly caused this?
Them: No, nothing out of the ordinary.
Me: What’s ‘ordinary’? (This question proved to be too complicated so I decided to simplify it by asking, “What did you do this weekend?”)
Them: I ran the Boston Marathon.
Me: You ran a marathon?
Them: Yeah, I’m on the marathon team!
Me: And you say your knees hurt? -This is followed by several moments of me blinking at them and them blinking right back at me. Its this whole blinking thing and it takes a bit of effort to break free of it.
Me: Stop running marathons.
Let me explain a bit here: after joining the army I had to learn how to run and now its a regular part of my life. I don’t hate it, its good for clearing your mind and it’s a great cardio workout. I run 2-3 miles every day. I do NOT run marathons. Every single long distance competition runner I’ve met has a lower body malady of some sort. 100 percent serious injury rate. And they all look like they need a YooHoo and a sandwich, stat. /sigh.
An MRI was ordered and after four short years of running marathons as a collegiate sport, this particular cadidiot needed meniscus graphs on both knees. 6-9 months of painful rehab later and she will likely want to start running marathons again.
Hmmm, what else? Ah, my counterpart (we will call him ‘Therefore’) and I visited the Big Apple and took in some of the sights. The thing I liked the best was Chinatown, it was awesome. We had lunch at a dimsum restaurant that offered cart service. If you have never had the pleasure, you should check it out! It was a fun way to be served and the food was amazing. Overall, the city was much cleaner than I was led to believe, probably thanks to ex-mayor Rudy. Times Square was magnificent and the NY public library was incredible. I rode a lion. Apparently, there’s a big statue somewhere in the harbor, but we’ll have to check that one out at another date.
I have also recently realized that while I am not especially fond of sick people, I seem to have a knack for medicine. The next big step for me education/army-wise is to submit a packet for the PA school. The only sad part is its back in San Antonio again for the didactic portion and then an internship at any of a dozen crappy postings. All told, it’ll be 2 years that I am out and about on Uncle Sam’s dime. That’s okay by me. Luckily, the soonest I could be accepted is spring of ’10. That leaves some wiggle room with regards to family and friends back home and, hey, it beats the hell out of 18 months in the big sandbox, ja? The more I realize that the army is a significant portion of my life, the more comfortable I become with the various rigors and challenges that are presented to me.
Not all has been good news, however. Recently I have had to mourn the passing of a wonderful relationship. Truth be told, it didn’t die so much as evolve into something different, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that my understanding of it evolved. Either way, it is not the same as I had once enjoyed and its loss saddens me. I still occasionally feel ghost sensations from it like the amputee who still feels his wedding ring.
Bah, enough of this maudlin nonsense.
Music-wise, I am still listening to the same stuff as always with the exception being the introduction of stripper-music, thanks to Therefore. My latest love affair is “Paper Planes” by M.I.A. There’s just something compelling about the music combined with her accent contrasted by the subtly adult lyrics. Her whole album is a bit off center, interestingly so.
Tonite the cigarette craving is upon me, its dirty, smelly hooks driven in deep. Normally, if its after 8 pm on a school night and I get a craving I would find a little private time (iff’n you know what I mean) or go to sleep or both. Tonite, I cannot. I foolishly thought I could do a little reading while simultaneously doing a little laundry. As luck (or the Cosmos) would have it I found myself reading about smoking and the net effect was/is devastating. I am unable to go to bed as my stuff just got put in the dryer and, as anyone who has ever used a public (military) laundry can attest, the world is teeming with thieves so it must be guarded.
*as a side note here, I can say that I am truly and honestly baffled by the idea of underwear theft. Personally, I don’t want anything that has been near another guy’s junk. (Women, for my part, are obviously excluded here. I mean lets face it: if a woman wants something of yours to wear there’s just no way you can stop her.) When, in basic, someone had to borrow my towel, I told him, “Sure… just buy me another one when you get a chance.” This is because, if it rubs against your junk, it belongs to you now. No amount of chlorine or disinfectant will change this fact.
I suddenly realized that I am literally surrounded by smokers and I wonder to myself if now is the time to quit. Ive got birthdays and road trips and finals to do still. Ive got to give a class on Patella-Femoral Pain Syndrome while somehow faking Subject Matter Expert-level knowledge in front of a panel of folks who know a hell of a lot more about the knee than I ever will.
Anyways, that’s my bit of whining for tonite. I hope you all sleep well in your addiction-free beds and dream of the things that make you smile.
-ps, if you all are wondering, I’ve recently added Dropkick Murphys and Drivin’ N Cryin to my playlist. If you’re familiar with me and/or either of these 2 groups you can probably figure out which songs in particular.
Easter Greetings, all. I hope this holiday Sunday finds you all happy and relatively comfortable. I am having a pretty good day, personally. Actually, all of my days have been pretty good as of late… you know, everything being relative and all.
Why is everything so peachy for me? Well, for one thing, I am now able to talk to my family every day, and for me, that’s a very good thing. The other day my darling wife sent me my wedding band in the hope that I had lost enough weight at Ft. Sill to be able to put it on. Well, friends, on my finger it now resides and forever there it shall remain. For just under four years it’s been staying put, quietly passing the time in drawers or on a hook near my workstation and whenever I would run cross it, it would always feel as though a piece of my soul were detached. Four freakin’ years! Never again, lol.
On a more materialistic level, I got my hands on this zippy new laptop and broadband card! Also, I’m not getting yelled on every dern day for other people’s mistakes. That’s a big win for me. Also-also, I was able to spend a bit of time with my darling wife, in the flesh, so to speak. It was awesome, definitely the high point of the year.
I don’t know how much longer all this relative freedom and happiness will last (it’ll probably end rather abruptly this Friday and go back to the way it was for a few weeks) but while it lasts I’m a-gonna take advantage of it. Phone calls, e-mails, letters, comics, books (Thx Ev and J) and movies are in my future, you know, along with push-ups, boots and classes.
Thank you to everyone who wrote and sent happy thoughts to me while I was in that awful place (Oklahoma was and is pretty sucky)as I honestly believe it was your support more than anything internal to me that got me through it. Thank you thank you thank you.
