Back from New Orleans… had a pretty decent time. Wondered around the French quarter and Bourbon street until about 2am. Taught a palm reader in Jackson square a thing or two… also showed her how to correctly interpret my palm. Talked about reading and such… all for free because it was a slow night and I saved her from having to deal with a drunk that was harrassing her… In the end she almost accidentally gave me her real name, but remembered to correct herself and tell me who she “really” was.

I also harrassed one of the guys who plays chess for money. that was lots of fun. And, of course, you can’t walk down Bourbon street without seeing at least half a dozen pairs of brestestes.

The best part of the evening, in my opinion, was watching people watching me. I didn’t really plan it, but when I went out, I was wearing my black shirt with red writing that says “I saw your mom on the internet.” I walked the length of Bourbon street watching people alternately laugh and get very offended at me. One guy even got up and got in my face saying things like “that’s just low… that’s just @#$@$^ disgusting, man”… to which I replied, “well, I wouldn’t wear it, but my mom bought it for me…” His poor drunken mind couldn’t handle it… In the end, he stumbled off to think about it for a while.

I also would like to add that on this trip, I saw two things on a bus that I have never seen before on a band trip. The first… I’ve heard people joke about playing strip poker on a bus before… but I’ve never seen a game take place… until now. I thought they were just joking… right up until someone became topless… then all the catcalls and whistling got the attention of the band director in the front of the bus who promptly charged back there and made everyone put (and keep) their clothes on.

In other news, I’m apparently not Christian anymore… at least according to the two Southern Babtist students I talked with on the bus ride home. They were fine with a few of my beliefs right up until I questioned the whole idea of the trinity or “tri-unity” as potentially being nothing more than another outcome of the Catholic Church’s “religion for the masses” movement a few centuries ago. I explained it’s why we have Christmas in December dispite the fact that taxes were collected around march or april… and why Easter is celebrated on a different day every year… .because they’re both layed on top of pagan holidays… maybe the trinity is just a layer put on top of the pagan beliefs in mother, father, deity (contact your local wiccan for more information). Why doesn’t the scripture support the trinity? the Word says, “for God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son…” not “for God so loved the world that He sent Himself.” Jesus’ dying words weren’t “Me forgive them.” John 1 says, “In the beginning, there was God… and He was with God”, not “and He was God”… there are hundreds of examples… plus… why is the Holy Ghost only mentioned twice in the scripture? (maybe 4 times, not sure). Wouldn’t something as important as the third piece of this puzzle be mentioned and/or explained more? [I think I'll stop here, but please see me if you want the rest of this rant.]

Ultimately, though, when I was finished explaining this, at least three people said that it threw me right past the boundaries of mainstream Christianity, and at least two people said it threw me right out of Christianity all together… Never been called Pagan before… Isn’t religious persecution supposed to come from outside your own religion? or should I go the other way with that and say that it is more evidence that Southern Babtist is, in fact, its own religion? Well… let me not go too far here, and just add that I’m not out advocating everyone switch to my beliefs… but it is something worth thinking about… How would we know if this was a core belief of the church in the time before the Catholic church became so dad gum powerful…. ?

ok… gotta run… more later