Storm's coming, where's Toto?

April showers bring May flowers.

April hail storms just beat the shit out of everything.

Took this shot from the front porch of el hogar de jalapeño rojo the other night. The research paper I was working on needed a break, plus I was worried about losing power.
Said research paper FINALLY finished and turned in last night.
After many late nights at the library and taking notes and all that, I polished it off with 4 straight days of coffee cake and Italian roast. A sushi fest complete with Kirin and sake occurred right after turning it in.
I-n-d-i-g-e-s-t-i-o-n, but happy.

The topic of the paper you ask? The Scopes Trial.

Turned out to be the largest paper in the class. The professor asked for a 6-8 page research paper and gave out a bunch of topics and of course I chose the Scopes Trial.

Twenty-five pages later it's done BUT, I have asked my professor to critique it thoroughly with the idea that I will continue to work on it when it is returned. I'm having my Lit professor take a look at it too.

My plan is to keep working on this project until I've explored and thoroughly analyzed and documented all aspects of that trial as well as the current and ongoing struggles that relate to it.
There was no way I could even begin to dissect that trial in 8 pages, no way.
What I did produce is still lacking in some aspects that I just could not fit in the paper given the time frame. I wound up reading 7 books in two weeks, plus had to look up a bunch of scriptures in the Bible. Five of the books concerned the Scopes Trial specifically, one book was a sociological study in the Puritan settlement, and one was a sociology text book that covered a wide range of subjects. Of course, I introduced the current battle of the war: intelligent design.

Might not sound like a lot of time and effort but I do have a full-time job that requires travel, and I do go to school full time at night... Needless to say that towards the end there I was fairly stressed and uptight. Lack of sleep combined with excessive amounts of caffeine and sugar can make even the most peaceful and laid back individual a time bomb waiting, no looking, for the fuse to be lit. Whew, can't wait 'til grad school...

My head was about to explooooode! I loved it though.
Here's a shot of the author (me) sitting in front of the computer just before I went outside to take a shot of that storm. The look of someone that has been awake for far too long:

At any rate, now that I am back in the swing and spring has sprung, I hope to bring some more of my hard-hitting and thoroughly biased commentary on the state of our once great nation.

I guess our nation is still great, it's just suffering badly at the hands of the conservative Republican party, aka warmongering - most corrupt - lying - greedy - anti-gay - anti-choice - anti-American - xenophobic - heartless - fundamentalist-religious-zealot - fraternity of idiots.

Did I leave anything out?

Actually I did. There is a student in my Lit class that was in Iraq as an MP guarding and escorting fuel convoys. She has agreed to allow me to interview her and post the interview here. She has also volunteered to turn me on to other soldiers that have come back, for more interviews. After initially speaking with her about it, it is quite clear that the story the administration is attempting to feed the American public is complete bullshit.

The interviews will be Q and A style, and I will offer no opinion. She and her cohorts have been there, seen it, lived it. It will be my questions and their answers in their words. I don't know when the first one will be up, but I'm anxious to get that ball rolling.

In the meantime, please visit Dr. C, Gorilla Guides, fizhog, Old White Lady, and all the other blogs on my tiny blogroll link list. There's a lot of good stuff out there that will make you think.

Gonna warn ya though, the Doc, Gorilla and fizhog don't fuck around. ,