I'm a college graduate now. I work full time. I have 2-3 hours of free time per day. It's weird. I wake up, I go to work, and I come home and go to sleep. Luckily, I like the women I work with, Tiffany and Thea, and I like driving cars around all day. I've been playing with Sirius satellite radio, which is neat but doesn't have a punk channel, so I could care less about owning it. Also, I've been playing with this hybrid-manual-auto thing that newer cars have where it's an automatic, but there's a place where you can stick the shifter to play like it's a manual, where you just click up or down to change gears, no clutch included. It's kind of lame but it reminds me of old arcade racing games when you played on manual if you were a loser who played manual. Anyway, new cars do lots of cool things that my car doesn't do. Like on the regular radio, it'll tell you what station you're listening to, what song and all that, right on the dash there. Magic, I tell you. I don't know how it knows that shit.

Anyway, today's my birthday, I'm 22. The girls at work bought me pizza. I've gotten calls from everyone now I think. So overall, it's an OK birthday. I'm going to go play XBOX360 at John's after this (I will have one of those when they become available again, but I don't even have time to play videogames right now really so it's not my top priority ahora.

In the biggest news of my life recently, Against Me! signed to a major record label, Epic Records. I have a couple things to say about this. One, Tom Gabel built this band from scratch, recording solo tapes at home and self-releasing them, and now they're the hottest band in the punk world, and it's genuinely because they write great music. On that count, they deserve a record deal that will give them a chance to be recognized as one of the best and most important bands of our time (yeah, I said it. I'll say this too, U2 is a completely overrated, mediocre band). On the other hand, let's look at the list of bands who've gone to major labels and have made mediocre to bad records: Thrice, Rise Against, AFI, Ataris, Yellowcard, and many more. Let's look at the list of bands who went to majors and made decent, but not quite as good as before, music: Thursday. And let's look at the list of bands who went to a major and made better music than before: Less Than Jake. So... The cards are stacked against Against Me! And then there's the fact that they put out a DVD last year that documented them being chased by majors and turning them all down. And then there's the fact that Album of the Year "Searching for a Former Clarity" is half talking shit about bands on majors. So... stunning news in the world of Adam. I honestly couldn't sleep last night for a while because of this.

Finally, Thea listens to country music, and there have been two songs that have really cemented why country music is what's wrong with America. These two songs are as follows.

Have You Forgotten? by Darryl Worley

I hear people saying we don't need this war
I say there's some things worth fighting for
What about our freedom and this piece of ground?
We didn't get to keep 'em by backing down
They say we don't realize the mess we're getting in
Before you start preaching
Let me ask you this my friend

Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

They took all the footage off my T.V.
Said it's too disturbing for you and me
It'll just breed anger that's what the experts say
If it was up to me I'd show it every day
Some say this country's just out looking for a fight
After 9/11 man I'd have to say that's right

I've been there with the soldiers
Who've gone away to war
And you can bet they remember
Just what they're fighting for

Have you forgotten all the people killed?
Some went down like heroes in that Pennsylvania field
Have you forgotten about our Pentagon?
All the loved ones that we lost
And those left to carry on
Don't you tell me not to worry about Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

Thanks, Darryl Worley, for reminding me why I hate Americans in the red states. Yeah, I think we should totally go to war with people unconnected to 9/11 for no reason. After all, they're not white! Go republicans, and go country!

And finally, I present Carrie Underwoods "Jesus Take the Wheel"
She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati
On a snow white Christmas Eve
Going home to see her Mama and her Daddy with the baby in the backseat
Fifty miles to go and she was running low on faith and gasoline
It been a long hard year
She had a lot on her mind and she didn't pay attention
She was going way too fast
Before she knew it she was spinning on a thin black sheet of glass
She saw both their lives flash before her eyes
She didn't even have time to cry
She was sooo scared
She threw her hands up in the air

Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can't do this all on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
To save me from this road I'm on
Jesus take the wheel

It was still getting colder when she made it to the shoulder
And the car came to a stop
She cried when she saw that baby in the backseat sleeping like a rock
And for the first time in a long time
She bowed her head to pray
She said I'm sorry for the way
I've been living my life
I know I've got to change
So from now on tonight

Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can't do this all my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
To save me from this road I'm on

Oh, Jesus take the wheel
Oh, I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I'm on
From this road I'm on
Jesus take the wheel
Oh, take it, take it from me
Oh, why, oh

I've rewritten this song a little to be more true to life, and it goes like this:
She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati
On a snow white Christmas Eve
Going home to see her Mama and her Daddy with the baby in the backseat
Fifty miles to go and she was running low on faith and gasoline
It been a long hard year
She had a lot on her mind and she didn't pay attention
She was going way too fast
Before she knew it she was spinning on a thin black sheet of glass
She saw both their lives flash before her eyes
She didn't even have time to cry
She was sooo scared
She threw her hands up in the air

Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can't do this all on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
To save me from this road I'm on
Jesus take the wheel

She flew off the road because she took her hands off the wheel and she died, the end.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Feliz Navidad