The Rodman Blog!

Blogger's in Spanish. Weird.

I just finished reading CNN's testimony on Michael Brown's testimony in front of a congressional commission. The last line of the article is:

"In part of his testimony, Brown pumped his hand up and down for emphasis."

Like, what the hell? It's just randomly placed at the end. It's not even there in relation to his testimony. But I guess it's kind of funny...

But right. In the journalism world, in my NeverEnding journey at the DTH, I bravely travelled to the N.C. Pride Parade in Durham Saturday afternoon. It was, I must say, FABULOUS. Kristina warned me before I go that there'd be a lot of dogs there. I mean, I guess gay people, like the rest of us, are fond of their pets. It's only natural. If there were, like, a Pan-Adam pride parade, I'd probably take Lucy, though I'd have to tell everyone that her name was Adam also, or maybe Adamina, or something like that. But, I mean, wow gay people like their dogs. And dressing them up also. Human to dog ratio -- well, maybe 1/3. Which isn't THAT shocking, but then imagine all the dogs in rainbow suspenders.

Well, you can read the article online if you want. I had some drama getting it in the paper -- took over four hours, when I had it written in an hour and read with Julia and Torrye in another hour (it's kind of sad it takes as long to read is as it does to write it, but hey, whaddya gonna do?). My lede initially had these quotes from these really funny guys Connie and I ran into at the festival. They were pretty obviously a couple, and decked out in rainbow bandanas and "Pride" shirts.

Me: So what are you two doing here today?
Mike from Raleigh: Oh, we're just scoutin' out for the ladies.
Me: Uh, and how you doin' with that?
Mike from Raleigh: I don't get it! They're not biting at all. Must be him (pointing to his LOVAH); he always cramps my style.
David from Charlotte: swoons (he didn't actually say that. He swooned)

And then I went into the article. But the problem was, they didn't give me their last names, and I REALLY wanted to keep the lede, so I had a fight with management over it (mainly because I didn't want to have to rewrite a third of the article -- there was another quote from him, and from a high school kid too), and I lost. And then they cut me down from 18 inches to 12, which is a lot to take out. So yeah -- that's my story. If you want to compare it, you can read the Duke Chronicle's story or the News & Observer's.

I have a bunch of photos that I might upload this evening from the Parade, if you have a hankering for seeing bunches of gay people. Connie had a blast. She likes gay people like cookies. Er, she likes gay people like a normal human being likes to eat cookies. Except she doesn't eat them.

So what else? The Naturals' gig on Thursday was pretty awesome, though me and Lara left before it got really rocking, apparently. Jared says that Devin and Jason talked with Yeats' owner, and he said they were a major act now and could be moved to doing on Friday and Saturday night shows, so that's pretty awesome. The Chuck Berry, Weezer, and 12-bar songs all apparently had the best reception, so yeah, I guess they'll be doing some more covers.

This weekend I went home for Lara's birthday (except for my jolly jaunt to the Pride Parade), which was pretty uneventful. Didn't get much work done, which is bad, because this week I have three tests, three quizes, and two papers due. Well, one test down as of this morning -- just a whole lot more shit to do before I can relax. At least I don't have to write anything this week (though I should have a story on front tomorrow, except it's got a huge graphic with it, so they keep holding it, so, yeah, maybe not).

And that's about it. I'll post up those photos later! Adios.

Jared just wiped my spit on his face. That's disgusting.

I am just trying to excite anyone who may be a Natural and reading this. Anyway, last night, Adam and I went to see The Naturals play at WB Yeats and I thought they sounded really good. There was one point (the most exciting of the evening) where Jason looked like he was going to play the "talking song", but he didn't. Well, he played it, but he did not sing it. Everyone in the audience was tapping their feet, so I know that baby will be a hit one day. And oh, what a glorious day that will be when I can listen to the "talking song" anytime I want to. The only times I can listen to the talking song now are after I've begged Jason to play it after he's been hanging out in Jared's room on Friday nights. But that's alright. I wait all week for it.

Just kidding! Anyway, I dropped that stupid Psychology class so now I will never find my power animal which makes me kind of feel depressed. We are going home today everyone because tommorow is my birthday! And I am turning 19. I think I sound like a little kid. I wish I knew how to put pictures up here, but oh well. See y'all on the flipside!

My dad had wanted to see all the DTH stories I've written this far, so here they are (I'm just coming back from the DTH now -- I wrote my last story really fast, only took me about 90 minutes, and I'm pretty happy about it). Anyway:

New undergraduates savor first collegiate weekend - This is for that stupid freshman series I hated so much. It was the first week, so there's no stories on backlog, so me and Emily were working everyday for quite a few hours to pump these out. It's all fluff, no real content.
Specter of weight gain haunts freshmen, women - Really, no shit? Stupid title, stupid article. Another bunch of fluff.
Website eases collegiate laundry woes - The concept is slightly cool, the story is not. It's just not that interesting to write an entire story on, especially when it's the first week of school and no one has actually DONE their laundry yet. But Ryan wanted to raise publicity before anyone knew about it -- guess that's why it was on, page, like, 12.
A fiesta without borders - So this one was sprung on me at the last minute, and I was spirited away to Raleigh. But I'm actually pretty pleased with how it came out. It's an event story, so it's by definition fluff, but I think it's fairly good fluff, and at least colorful (that's the big word at Features now).

But yeah, those are all the articles published so far. If you want to see all 22 articles I've written for the DTH (the number's actually more like 45, but a few don't show on the website, and a bunch were tab stories, which we don't put up), you can go to www.dthonline.com and search for my name.

But that's it. My international TAs will be running tomorrow or Monday, hopefully pretty high.

And the NATURALS are playing tonight. ROCK ON!!!!

So I've put pictures of the Wisconsin game on Webshots too, but here they are too, just for you guys! It was pretty pitiful. But you'll notice the UNC shirt I'm wearing, which I bought JUST for this occasion. First UNC paraphanalia I've ever owned! And Connie even bought UNC beads! What school spirit! Except we had to suck ass.


First we have Lara and her boo. No school spirit, but Jason kept making poop jokes about his shirt, which, you will notice, is brown. HA HA HA.


And Jason was managing to get in pretty much every shot I have of the game, even the one Lara tried to take of the moon. How he does it, I don't know, but he's a talented feller.


And there too! Wow! Notice my Carolina blue! I'm proud of myself.

But yeah, those are our football photos. Nothing too exciting. Except, at the game, these big group of assholish Frat boys cut everyone in line (because student entry is free), and this one pissed off student stood up in front of the rest of the group (since they were hopping a wall) and didn't let any more pass. Which was really good of him, but they were really yelling quite loudly back and forth. Whatever, that's a stupid story.

Anyway, I have an 8 AM tomorrow, so good night!

I don't have balls. But, if I did, he COULD NOT blow them! Because I hate him. Well, not hate, but I think he is an ignorant foolish old drum beating man who believes in chakras, or at least teaches us about them. Anyway.

He had this drum made for him when he was 41 or so and it's a special Native American drum. It helps you meditate. Someone named Silver Eagle or something made it for him. After telling us that he was going to play the 200 beat per minute drum thingy (I don't know what it's called), he instructed us to search for our "power animals". What the hell...What the fuck is a power animal, you may be asking. A power animal, well, I'm really not sure. I think it is like some sort of animal that you have a special connection with. It's stupid. His power animal is an eagle. So, he did the drum thing for eight minutes. I am going to drop that class because it seems like we meditate everyday. And I don't want to waste my time meditating during class.

I think that I am an angry person. Adam has fun times with the King of Sealand and their correspondence and I just get angry. Oh well.

This morning I had to go to a PITA class (that's Preparing International TAs) for the story I'm working on about foreign TAs who have trouble speaking English and the problems it creates. Emily pointed out the chief contradiction in my story when she heard about it: "If they can't speak English, how are you going to interview them?" Well, fortunately they do speak English, and pretty good, uh, English at that. But the class is obviously taught in very SLOOOOOOOOW and clear English so they can understand what their teacher is saying. I was waiting outside the door near the end of class, and since the teacher was speaking so loud I could hear everything was saying. Which was, basically warning them about me.

"A reeeeePORTER is going to be coming"
"You donnnnnnn't HAVE to TALK to him"
"He'll put what you SAAAAYY in the NEWSSSSPAPER"
"He might try to make you sound DUUUUUUUUMB"

Like, right. She even had me on the syllabus for the day. But two of them agreed to talk to me. One was really nice -- he went to college (in Beijing) about five minutes walking distance from my school. Purdy cool.

But the highlight of my day, by far, was my correspondence with the King of the great nation of Sealand. Never heard of it? Well, you can read the Wikipedia article if ya want. In fact, here's a picture of this momentous monument to Lady Liberty's labors:



So basically, yeah, it's some crazy guy who's had control of an old British military fortress for the past thirty years and declared himself King (or, sorry, Crown Prince). It's crazy shit. I mean, it's in the English Channel, but the British just let him be there -- apparently, when he "founded" it, it was in international waters. He fires at approaching ships, he's had a terrorist takeover and recapture that brought the German and Belgian governments to send diplomats, he issues stamps and coins and passports and whatnot, and has a pirate Internet Service Provider run off of it. Crazy stuff.

So I think His Majesty sounds like a cool enough guy, so I decided, hey, why not ingratiate myself with some royalty. So I sent him the following post card today:





So with any luck, within a month or so, I should be receiving a reply from my dear friend, His Majesty Prince Roy of Sealand. And THEN who'll be cool, huh?

Haha. Just kidding. I don't say ya'll. Nothing that exciting happened to me today. But some things happened to piss me off. But I don't really want to complain. So, I will just state the things that happened. First, it's really hot out. God, why did you make it so hot? It's alright, I forgive you. I have no idea. I guess I am tired. Anyway, there's no air-conditioning in my Spanish classroom, but that's cool. Haha, not really. It's really freakin' hot. And then, I was waiting in the line to get some money from the ATM and these two stupid guys come up and stand to the side of the line. And then they get in front of me. But it's my fault for not saying anything. At this time, I think I was a little delirious because I couldn't remember if I had been there before them. Anyway, that's not even passive aggressive. It's just passive. And that's pitiful.

But my day was not actually that bad. Then, I decided that I had a lot of energy and anger, so I went running. I don't really like running, so I mixed it with walking. Oh well. That's about it. No one talked to me about Harry Potter! Oh poopers. Alright, that's all. Goodnight!

So today was nothing special. Think I failed my Chinese test (honestly).

But I did have two quite odd people approach me out of the blue. I was in the Top of Lenoir (eating with Lara and Tom) and I was getting some coffee. In fact, I had it in my hand, and I was purdy excited about drinking it. And then someone from behind claps their hand on my shoulder. Not a good idea, at all. It was this little Indian girl (well, I mean, little as in short) I'd never seen before. Well, our conversation went like this:

L.I.G.: Hey!!!! Do you read the Harry Potter books?
Me: Uh, well, yeah.
L.I.G.: AWESOME! Do you realize what shirt you're wearing?

At this point I realize I'm wearing my red and gold rugby shirt.

Me: Yeah, it's Gryf...
L.I.G.: It's Gryffyndor's colors! AWESOME!

And then she left. It was pretty weird.

Later, I was reading boring-as-hell post WWI treaties in the library, and this guy comes up to me. I think he's from the library and wants me to get my feet off the table, but no. He's studying Chinese Traditional Medicine (er, TCM?) and wants to take my pulse. So he's holding my hand for one minute in a crowded library while I just lean back and "relax". Then he finishes, and I think he's gonna go away, but he wants to do my hand. I ask, "Uh, isn't my pulse the same in each hand?" It's the same heart pumping the blood, no matter where it is, unless I got REALLY excited while he was gently, uh, caressing me. But then he's like, "No, in China they're different."

Right.

Anyway, that's the only interesting thing that happened today. And with that, I prepare for a night of homework! Bye!

All these pictures are on Webshots also, so pick your poison.

Anyway, I've been at Chapel Hill for about three weeks now. Sorry for not updating more; I'll try to do it a bit more often, especially since I've been using my camera more now (took pictures of the Wisconsin game -- that was just pitiful. AND it was my first Carolina football game either. AND I went a bought a t-shirt just for the occasion. Too bad they don't warn ya that there's a pretty good chance we're gonna get our asses kicked, because then, mayhap, I wouldn't have wasted the 6.95, or whatever the hell it was).

But first, to recap some summer pics: Connie and I recently had our nice little trip to the beach (Wrightsville Beach and downtown Wilmington). It was her first time since she was, like, three or something like that. I don't know how she managed that one.


Here she is in a moment of beach zen. Making sand sculptures like a little girl'll do that to you :).


And this is a group shot of us on the beach. I got horribly sunburned after that and look red in all subsequent photos. Lara says, and this is really weird, that Connie looks like her in this photo. Riiiiiight.


And of course I wore my sand t-shirt to the beach. It's ironic. Get it? Of course you do.

Speaking of which, today I saw the Marxists selling their little newspapers by the pit, and I made the mistake of making eye contact. The woman called to me, "Interested in Marxism?" and I was like, "Eh, no." But I stayed a little too long and had to ask, "Isn't it a little ironic that you guys are SELLING your newspapers?" And the man marxist, who had been on the phone, looks and me and says, "No, they're only 50 cents. It'd be IRONIC if we were selling them for a million dollars". He sounded pissed. Apparently, they get that a lot. Oh, Marxists.

Now the next set of photos is from the 90s dance. Only Connie and I ended up going to it (at Wetlands on Rosemary), and it was indeed rocking, but Lara and Sarah also dressed up to go.


This would be 90-fied Sarah and her lovah, Jasonian. Don't they make a cute couple?



And of course, this is Connie and me decked out. Okay, I'm not decked out. I had no idea what to wear -- it's not like I have a versatile wardrobe or anything. So I put my sand shirt over a button-up one. Wow, I have GREAT fashion sense. And I was goddamn hot too at the dance. Speaking of which, Connie says I make her dizzy. With my wack dancin' skillz, yo. You betta check it OUT!

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And finally, we have the piece de resistance, Connie's masterwork, what she spent HOURS at the beach crafting while she wasn't getting scared of the waves -- perhaps mankind's greatest work of art since the Mona Lisa -- a SAND TOMATOHEAD:


Look upon me, ye mighty, and despair! That's what he's saying.

And that's it for now. Enjoy the photos, and I'll (or Lara'll) post again soon.