That cloud of dust you see was that which had accumulated on a song recorded in 1993 by Audio Adrenaline on their sophomore album, Don't Censor Me, from whence I derived the title of this entry.

Yes, Audio Adrenaline has been around 15 years. And I've been able to follow them for the last 13 of them. It's bad that they must go, but Bob Herdman (lead singer) is literally losing his voice: listen to the difference between "Big House" (recorded in 1993, yet can still be heard on K-LOVE), "Hands and Feet" (recorded in 2000, off of the Underdog album), and "Goodbye" (recorded in 2006, off of the Adios album). You can hear the difference side-by-side-by-side.

Know why opera tenors all sound the same [to the untrained ear]? It's because that's the only way guys can sing that high, consistently, and not have happen what's happening to Bob Herdman.

P.S. If you want a good laugh, listen to "The Hairbrush Song" recorded live at the Gardens on the "Some Kind of Zombie" single cut in 1997. It's the same lyric, but that's about where the similarities end.

But Audio Adrenaline is not what this entry is about.

It's about the song whose lyric gave me the title, whose name I've yet to mention.

I guess I should go ahead and say it, though:

"A.K.A. Public School"

Anastasia C. Alexander elementary school, the school right across the street from my office, opened for classes today. Not the first time since Katrina, but today will be starting the first (hopefully) full year of classes since the storm.

I've never been to private school. My parents couldn't afford it, and there was no need: my dad had to send off child support checks until my junior year, and my mom was a substitute teacher. In that vein, I suppose I was homeschooled as well, because I had a teacher at home, but really, it's not the same. I got a head start going into pre-K, and just coasted through, ahead of the curve, well into college. Poor study habits did eventually come back to bite me in the backside, but right now, that's neither here nor there.

I do want to say this: there's a dynamic about public school that gets lost when going to a private school, or being homeschooled.

*stops Lady K, Turakii, Turakii's mom, and countless others* Hear me out on this.

Homeschooling is not better or worse than private school is not better or worse than public school.

They're just different from each other. Not better. Not worse. Just different.

There are different experiences to be had, and that's all there is to it.

Had I been homeschooled, I might have been able to go through coursework quicker, and gotten into college earlier, but because I went to public school, I got to be in a marching band, and now I have 219 classmates to meet at a 10 year reunion at the end of September. (I graduated 6th of 221, but one in the class died in a car accident in Westlake back in June. I only found out last week; he and I weren't close buddies or anything.)

To quote the ever-quotable Forest, Forest Gump

And that's all I have to say about that.

<life category>

I played bumper tag yesterday after church. One of the deacons, who also happens to play 2nd/3rd base for the softball team, was over the line and I hit him backing out. Busted the right rear lens and tore up the bumper of my less than 6 month old car. Pardon me if I'm snappy for a while, but this frustrates me to no end. I can't keep ANYTHING of value from breaking. I'm pathetic, really.

If my Brickfest registration and plane ticket weren't already paid and non-refundable, I might have changed plans and ended up not going in less than a couple of weeks.

Oh, and ophidians are swarming in Napa Valley right now. If you want to help beat them back (in Ultima Online), please, be my guest. Give you a chance to do something other than level in WoW.

-KIE