Howdy! Welcome to my new blog. I used to have a blog over here but now I don't. I just felt like I had more to write about than just marching band and drum corps, and so here we are.
Most people know me because of my work with local marching bands or my associations with various drum corps...mostly the Bushwackers, of which I've been a member, staff member, and/or administrator (sometimes all at the same time) for 13 years. This past season I was the drum major and the brass caption head. In 2008 I was the program coordinator and brass arranger for the Fusion Core Drum & Bugle Corps. We came in 2nd place at the DCA World Championships by just 0.2 and took home 3 caption awards (brass, color guard, and visual). My drum corps experience has been cool, and I will be writing quite a bit about it. So, if you enjoyed reading about that in my old blog don't fret.
In my old blog I talked a bit about my experiences teaching marching bands. I'm still doing that, so I'll have plenty of brain nuggets and random thoughts as far as that's concerned. I used to be at Archbishop Ryan HS in Philly, but no longer. It's unfortunate and sad, but as Neil Peart says, "changes aren't permanent, but change is." I'm now teaching at Penns Grove HS where my lovely wife, Dena Kilian, is the band director. She let's me pretty much run the program side of things...the actual show, the thematic and stylistic direction of the group. I write all the music and drill, a lot of the music is composed, and I help to manage the rest of the team (percussion and color guard) to design for and teach their captions in a way that will be consistent with the overall vision for the show and program. Check out some of the music and info on this year's show, "Ya' Gotta Help Me!"
Right now I'm at a crossroads, which is why this is the best time to start a new blog. In January I got laid off from my full time job...again. I had been laid off twice the year before (including two weeks before my wedding!), and this was just the last straw. I was, and am, absolutely sick and tired of working my butt off so that someone else can get rich. It doesn't make any sense. If I'm the one doing the work...if I'm the one producing, then why should I be the one making the money!?!
Well, out of that came some conversation with a friend of mine about a business idea that I had. He's killer at things that I'm not, so we decided to go in as partners on this idea. I'll have more information on it later, because right now the whole thing is kind of in a holding pattern. If I could, I'd be working on this stuff everyday, but the unfortunate reality is that we both still have bills to pay...and so we're dealing with that. The idea will work, it's just apparently going to take longer than I wanted it to.
The other unfortunate reality is that our government is not exactly friendly to small businesses, and is becoming less and less friendly...if not downright mean and nasty. There are no federal grants to start a small business...just state...and they're going to be taxing the living hell out of us, especially if this healthcare plan gets through. Nevermind that our country is not built on the Wal-Marts, the Fords, the big corporations. This country is built on small businesses and franchises run by hard working people who, like me, got sick of making other people rich and decided to go out on a limb and risk it all to try to achieve the American Dream...finding what you love to do, figuring out a way to get paid for it, and being in a position to provide your family with a comfortable living and everything they need. Car dealerships, Dunkin' Donuts franchises, you name it.
So, instead of encouraging people to start their own businesses and hire the 10% of Americans who are out of work, we'll just tax them and make them pay for the social services we'll create to coddle the Americans who refuse to find work, exploit the system, sue doctors for nonsense thus driving up the cost of malpractice insurance and...therefore...the overall price of healthcare, etc, etc. IT'S BACKWARDS! YOUR "LOGIC" IS BACKWARDS!
They're all liars...both sides of the aisle. Why on earth...WHY ON EARTH would you ever trust anything to the government that you didn't have to? Why would you want to take something like healthcare out of the private sector? Because corporations are evil? WHAT DO YOU THINK THE GOVERNMENT IS?!?!
It all needs fixing, I agree. But the answers aren't as hard as they're making it, and making it harder for Americans to start their own businesses means more and more people unemployed and relying on the government. That is what they want.
No. This is my country. This is my life. I will start my business and I will be successful. I will work hard, and my kids will go to college and my wife and I will go on vacations, and I'll be able to do the things that make life worth living because I EARNED it.
So, yes. I will often go off on rants like this. This isn't a place for us to argue about the issues. This is my blog and it's my place to express my opinion. If you hate it, I cordially invite you to click here. Start your own blog. Go off on your own rants.
Anyway, so now that the partnership thing is on hold until we can find alternate means of paying the bills and raise some capital to really get the thing off the ground (feel free to give me money. I like money), I'm still working on other projects and trying to find another way to work for myself. Any ideas, let me know. I'm afraid I'm probably going to have to find a regular job and be stupidly miserable again and not have any time to work on my business. Sigh.
So, this is all basic information and gives you a little bit of a taste of what Random Brain Food is going to be all about. I'll have long posts, short posts when something pops into my head, I'll be posting from my phone, uploading photos, etc, etc.
Feel free to comment. I do monitor all comments and have to approve them to be added, but I won't block a comment just because I don't agree with it. I'm more concerned about content, as I'm sure students and other folks will be reading this and don't want to see you cursing me out for one reason or another.
Enjoy!
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