To: James Foreman, Ass-Kicker, World-Changer

From: Resident Faculty Assistant, Arnold Hall, WVU

RE: Cake Batter Wrestling

Dear sir, this program will not occur and all advertising has been removed. I wish your sister and her friends had come to us immediately to discuss her concerns. In addition, the program was planned by the young women on Jason’s floor-not by him. At no time was the plan for anyone to wear bathing suits and both males and females were going to participate. The original program was just to include both male and female residents, but again, it will not be held. Rest assured that in no way was this meant to hurt females at Arnold in any way. I am sure you are aware that the Leadership Team for Arnold is comprised of two females. I also have a daughter and do not want females belittled or harmed in any way. We sincerely apologize that you, your sister and her friends. Please encourage her to come to me or to Gaby whenever she has a concern. We are always available and would be more than happy to listen to and act on her concerns. Again, please be assured that all advertisements have been removed.

Fuck yes!

Oh, by the way, the RA of that floor is feeding this Resident Faculty Assistant a line: I seriously doubt anyone would wrestle in cake batter in their clothes. I had it on good authority that the fuckhead RA was being pretty mysoginistic with this crap.

Oh, well. I’ll chalk it up as a success.

To: The Directors of Various Departments Within West Virginia University’s Department of Housing and Residents’ Life

From: James Foreman, Ass-Kicker, World-Changer

RE: Cake Batter Wrestling

A few hours ago, I was informed by my sister and her

friends that Mr. Jackass Dickhead, RA of Arnold Hall Floor

1, is planning a program in which the women of his

floor would dress in bathing suits and wrestle in a

wading pool full of cake batter. Apparently, Mr. Dickhead

is openly advertising his intentions to hold this event

on WVU property.

As a WVU alum, with two family members still in

attendance at WVU, I find the the idea of Mr. Dickhead’s

“program” for his floor at Arnold Hall to be

despicable on the basest human level.

This is not, I believe, an activity that WVU should

sanction. This should in no way be encouraged on a

modern college campus. I find it disgraceful that WVU

would allow this sort of event to take place.

My problem begins with the assertion that this rank

objectification of women is in any way acceptable. I

fail to see how any pleasure can come from it for any

parties involved, but especially for the women. The

concept alone is revolting, and I think that many

parents and family members would agree.

The dorms of WVU are a difficult place to live. Many

of Arnold’s residents are freshmen, spending their

first few months away from home. I do not believe

that these important first few steps of independence

should be celebrated in this way.

Dormitory programs should be used to encourage

sociability and friendly community activities, not as

a means for one RA to leverage his authority in a way

that will no doubt lead to humiliation, emotional and

possibly even physical injury. I do not know what Mr.

Dickhead intends to gain from holding this disgusting

activity, but I sincerely doubt that he has his

residents’ best interests in mind.

Please do not allow this mysoginistic exercise in open

lasciviousness to happen.

Thank you,

James Foreman

Class of 2000

Normally, I wouldn’t care about shit like this. But this is my sister, folks. I can’t let this kind of shit happen

In a town called Whitefish, this sort of thing probably happens more than we hear about.

But it’s still pretty damn ridiculous.

You see, a 15 year old girl has been banned from school because she has dreadlocks.

Note: she’s not an anarchist, she’s not wearing shirts that say “fuck whitey,” and she’s definitely not bringing a gun to school.

Is the prevention of certain clothing and hair choices really accomplish anything? Or is this yet another case of a previous generation lording itself over the minds of the next?

The power was out again today. This time it had to be out for at least four hours, in which time I still pretty much did what I usually do, thanks to my trusty old HP Pavilion N5445 notebook whiz-bang. The dogs were decidedly nonnonplussed with the whole affair, and spent much of the day sleeping.

Becky blogged on her blog, so I figgered I should probably start posting on my own a bit. Come to think of it, that’s three different blogs hosted on my poor little domain, and I doubt anyone but the authors actually visit them, for the most part (though I hope I’m wrong).

Anyway, Enterprise is about to start, and I desperately need to recharge my geek batteries. See ya’ll soon.

I’m beginning to think that I should reenginneer the site design again. I seem to get sick of them quickly, even though this one has looked the same forever, and Fanboy will probably never change very drastically. I’m not sure what’s drawing me toward that, excapt maybe a stirring in the CSS muscles that felt cheated out of some decent excercises since I banged out my girl’s blog. It didn’t take long at all, and it really needs a do-over. But if Becky is happy with it, so am I. Or at least I’ll pretend to be.

I’m going to write a bunch today, and I’ll keep ya’ll posted as to how much progress I make. I may even post an excerpt here. Stay tuned.

It’s not really my intention for this blog to become a sounding board for my sometime libertarian opinions. Having said that, I’m now going to talk about civil rights.

I’ve been sorta following this story about the three medical students whose nonexistant explosives shut down a major Florida highway for half a day.

The article I linked above bears a CNN interview with the three medical students (all of them American citizens). Here is where I quote them:

How is it that one person can pick up a phone and make any statement that they will and we end up [in custody]?” said Ayman Gheith.

Asked if they made any comments about September 11, joking or otherwise, he said, “Of course not.”

“Would you lose control of the conversation and joke about September 11th?” Gheith asked members of the news media. “Is that even an option?”

Gheith added: “I have one message, I think it’s time for us as Americans to put down our big sticks and pick up our books and read about other people and read about what they believe before we jump to conclusions.”

My commentary:

So now it’s a year after the televised death and destruction in New York. I find it odd that people remember that but not the death and destruction at the Pentagon.

A year ago I was staring, dumbfounded and coffee-ridden, at a big screen TV at my parents’ house in Wheeling, WV. My mother had urged me out of bed with half-worried description of what she had just witnessed: “they’re flying planes into the World Trade Center.” I stumbled out of bed just after the second plane hit.

I remember watching the proceedings in a daze (as I’m sure many people describe their own experiences). I smoked a lot of cigarettes, using that time to scribble down my thoughts, as if having my minute-by-minute reaction would make the memories of that day more immediate. I realize now that I witnessed those collapses and considered them historical not by my own deductions, but by the proclamations of the news casters. I’m not sure they’re totally aware of their ability to shape history like that. But in sending my mind back a year and thinking about 9-11, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that TV is going to be a consistent theme throughout my life and the lives of those in my generation: we’re all linked to the same tragedies because we all watched them on television.

But anyway, I turned on the TV the moment I woke up, just to see what the coverage was like. Not surprisingly, the news stations were covering some kind of religious ceremony in New York. I turned it off immediately.

I find it profoundly disturbing that we, as Americans, think it’s perfectly reasonable to meet Islamic religious zealotry with Christian religious zealotry and find nothing at all wrong with it. It’s not who you worship, it’s how you worship.

Oh, well. The power was out last night for about three hours. It felt like an entire week, even though I managed to do what I usually do after midnight (read), thanks to Becky’s Lee Majors-like snap to action and her candle finding/lighting instincts. But she took some Benedryl and was out like a snuffed candle by midnight. Allergies, I’m led to believe, do not rock.

Myers came over and drank some beer with us. We tried some of this new-fangled beer from a distant land, and even some old-fangled beer. I consumed less than I used to, which is a theme of sorts for me. The drugs I’m on don’t like it when I mix them with alcohol.

Again, this is much more boring than I intended it to be. I guess that’s another theme for me. The boring writing I get out of the way to make room for the fun stuff.

This is the first post on my new weblog! I already have one that I post to, but this one is just for me. My compadres will have their own (although two of them already do), but this is just mine.

Nothing much is going on tonight. Zak is here, Becky (of course) is here, and so are the dogs. We ate some pizza-like products, Becky’s drinking some new-fangled beer product (from Minnesota), and I’m just typing away on the computer.

I doubt any of this is ever going to interest anyone, except maybe my descendents, who will read the words herein and laugh at their stupid, stupid ancestor with the immense head.

Sometimes, I’ll even post a photo of me and the things happening around me. Like this one: