In reality we have these little things called "facts." It is a strange concept for those unfamiliar with the term, a number of alarming size and could be fit to include the President of the United States. Let's take a look at his State of the Union address and critically examine this speech, with as little applause breaks as possible. Full text of the address can be found here.

"During the last two years, we have seen what can be accomplished when we work together. To lift the standards of our public schools, we achieved historic education reform - which must now be carried out in every school, and every classroom, so that every child in America can read, and learn, and succeed in life."
During the last two years, Bush has done very little indeed to lift actual standards in public schools. Though he does seem to talk about the subject a lot, his only real concern seems to be in moving more federal education dollars into religiously controlled concerns. In fact, very little of Bush's "historic education reform" seems focused on public schools at all.

"To protect our country, we reorganized our government and created the Department of Homeland Security - which is mobilizing against the threats of a new era."
Osama bin Laden has not been captured. A ranking CIA officer admits that the "war on terrorism" is so horribly inadequate and misguided that he refers to is as a myth. And nothing has been done to cure the sources of the growing global anti-American sentiment. Bush seems content in ignoring the only current real threat against the security of the United States, simply because the man has proven exceedingly hard to capture. Handing out money is not working. Ignoring the problem is not working. With the millionaire playboy's two known forms of action exhausted, how will he go on?

"To bring our economy out of recession, we delivered the largest tax relief in a generation. To insist on integrity in American business, we passed tough reforms, and we are holding corporate criminals to account."
An existing deficit, a further $600 billion "stimulus" package, and a major invasion of a Middle Eastern country does not compute. Two-thirds of his tax cut was centered on the upper 10% and Bush's proposal to eliminate the stock dividend tax is more of the same. Kenneth Lay is still a free man. Under his administration, the rich have gotten richer and the rest of us have gotten economically screwed. Investor confidence is still low, unemployment is still high. This is not a "good record" and if it is a "good start," the economy will suffer further decline through the next two years.

"If this tax relief is good for Americans three, or five, or seven years from now, it is even better for Americans today."
It didn't work for Reagan, and it is not going to work for Bush.

"Instead of bureaucrats, and trial lawyers, and HMOs, we must put doctors, and nurses, and patients back in charge of American medicine."
Then, why is Bush's healthcare proposal suggesting the exact opposite? In Clause 17(g) of his healthcare bill, seniors will have to abandon their Medicare doctors to the "tender mercies of HMOs."

"Tonight I am proposing 1.2 billion dollars in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles."
A transparent bone thrown to environmentalists that not even school children would believe. Instead of addressing the very real problem of current automobile pollution, he elects to revive a program initially created by Clinton. There is nothing remotely original about this idea, and again ignores the pressing current problem.

"The gravest danger facing America and the world … is outlaw regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons."
It a danger that has never been consistently address by George W. Bush, but it is increasingly clear that his interest in Iraq is about one thing and one thing only: oil.

In the State of the Union, Bush referred to historic precedent constantly as the rationalization for his insane policies. But, if there is one thing that has been proven in the history to which he so ignorantly refers, it is that empires always crumble by not facing reality. America, I fear, will be no different.

Did some more work on the bulletin board today. I think I've resolved a problem where apparently literate internet users completely bone the themes. Many thanks to thelilone81 and Kitten for helping with testing.
I also moved everybody over to the new mailing list using the Mailman program. This way, subscribes and unsubscribes can occur with complete automation, both increasing security and reducing my administrative load. Plus, users can now just sign up for the list on the right-hand side of the sidebar. I'll be sending out the first email with it tomorrow.

In other news, my paternal grandfather recently underwent his third colostomy (sp?) surgery. I haven't seen him since I graduated and am nervously awaiting more news on the subject. Apparently, he is through the worst of it now and it is all a question of whether or not his system can maintain weight. The number of issues this brings to immediate attention are many, and I find myself wondering if I have the resolve to see them through.

Bejeezus! Chandra has a metric shit-ton of killer art up at her new gallery. Definitely worth checking out if you liked the cover art from Yes, Ray and Blades of Vengeance or really any Shaft related art you have ever seen. She is an amazing and versatile artist; far better than Arturo Got The Shaft deserves to have drawing the occasional graphic. Check it out and be awed.

Big thanks to everyone who came out to hear Thom's class lay down the fat rhymes in a wicked collection of poetry reading. This is definitely something I think should be added on a much more regular basis down at the Blue Moon. Tonight proved evidently that the power of geek is high in Hastings; a power that should be extended through the hills and valleys of this land as sure as the shadow of a solar eclipse. The tools are starting to form together to make that happen.

Me and Alex Houchin (sp?) are having an ongoing conversation about the selection of the triforce as the symbol for Arturo Got The Shaft. He thought it was dumb that I was copping an existing logo and just changing the color to use to promote the band. I, naturally, disagreed and think that the background on that decision might be good to put here:

"A little more thought went into the selection of the triforce for the band's symbol. The black triforce with a shadow represents a specific song, "A Link to the Past," that was essentially the way I first started getting shows for Arturo Got The Shaft. Give a listen to it and I think you'll see what I mean. The whole idea that what we left behind is what keeps us geek inside; our worldviews were shaped by the games we played. It is the past but it is still a part of us.

It provides the general thesis for what I'm trying to accomplish in this particular musical project. This "geek rock" idea is spoken only half-jokingly. The ultimate purpose is to give a certain group of people who are generally outsiders feel a part of something special. The triforce is obscure enough (though what little obscurity remains will likely be destroyed by the next Zelda game) that it is easily recognizable by most all different types of geeks our age but still just three triangles to the guys who were busy playing football and shit. It demonstrates where the intellectual ante is in this particular discourse; these songs are specifically for the nerdly set.

I don't think the triforce as a symbol is dumb at all... In fact, I think it is the only logo appropriate for Arturo Got The Shaft. Kinda like Dinosaur Jr's use of the Klingon symbol from the old Star Trek series, it gives geeks something immediately to identify with and a reason to pay attention.

A little more thought went into it than might be immediately obvious, but either way I like it and I have no intention of getting rid of it."

What a busy little bee I've been.
1. Tunes page has been updated with all BoV stuff.
2. Fixed the What's New box; added date of last post on board.
3. Fixed link over at Chivalrous Productions.
4. Alienated girlfriend from all this dork web stuff.

*shrug*

Phew. Tons of little detail work on the site. The only thing I wasn't able to totally fix was the What's New box up top. I finally got #flastmod to work, but the #config command I was using to put the date in the format that I desire apparently wasn't working. If anyone knows the reason why, give me a yell.
1. New XMB Message Board to replace the ezboard one.
2. JC removed from mention in the site. Fans of jc.plan can still be see the archive of his entries here.
3. Email address changes.
4. URL specific changes.
5. chivalrousproductions.com redirect.

Here's a song concept I've been working on. Let me know what you think. Zoe.

It may not be fulltime rock and roll, but it is still a great job none the less. The hours are good, the work is stimulating, and the benefits... awww yeah. Being a computer guy at Data Software and Consulting is good. Today I had to go to Dairy Queen for some more computer work. Darn it. *snap* "The usual Rob?"
The usual. I've been there *twice*. I shouldn't have a usual. But, before I even had the chance to set down the machine I brought it, I got a big fat doublecheesburger, fries, and a massive Oreo Blizzard. Name the last time a kid at Wal-mart got that.
As a slurp down the last of this Blizzard with a nice hot cup of coffee, I feel pretty awesome about existence. Though, admittedly, every day I have to remember where I was this time last year. This may not be Ireland and the contents of this cup may not be Guinness, but I'm still having one of those simply inspiring feelings in my chest... Being a rockstar is great.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that the site is finally in a place where I can do some neat stuff. As I impatiently wait for DNS propagation, I'm busy expanding my PHP knowledge base and marveling at SpookyMedia's kickass toys. And dude, am I ever hooked up... Unlimited MySQL databases with PHP and Perl support, mailing lists, email accounts, ftp accounts (without SCTelCom's damnable IP ranging), and most importantly... two domain names that I can actually promote at shows. We're talking Christmastime yo. I got arturogottheshaft.com obviously, but also geekrockmusic.com so that it will be easier to hear the URL and remember at shows. I put together a list of stuff I'm going to implement:
1. A new goddamned message board.
2. Content administration backend.
3. Quick Quotation changer.
4. Show database.
5. Rob's Senses box: the last mp3 I listened to, book I read, film I saw, show I attended, etc.
6. Easily updatable photo gallery system.
7. Self-contained news and .plan system.
8. New recording section - updated weekly.

This seemed to more fit in a the .plan than the main news. Today JC Casillas left Arturo Got The Shaft. The story is pretty simple really; he was just too far away and involved in too many other things. After multiple moves and jobs and dealing with a pretty rough family situation, JC is still on his feet and throwing punches, but he'll be throwing them separately from the Shaft. Pursuing his degree and getting back into academia, I personally wish him all the best in the world and only wish we could have played some more shows together. The decision really is not much of a surprise, as he really hasn't been around for much of the fall schedule... But, those who got the chance to see us play together understand why I was so reluctant to make it official. But, the good news is he is kicking ass at the Big Kat, in school, and, more importantly, in life. You're doing a hell of a job, JC. Keep it up.

Hey. The RIAA owes you $20 bucks. Make sure those fuckers pay up. This is guaranteed legit; I've done the research myself. Either you get a chunk of the $67 million those assclowns have to pay out or all of it goes to charitable causes. Either way, this is one of the few ways we can actually win in the current music industry.

Jesus fucking Christ.

Is SCTelcom ever going to get this site back up?