"You're wearing the shirt for the band you are going to see? Don't be that guy!"

Blogging is quickly becoming my favorite "downtime at work" pasttime. And to avoid the Internet police, I usually write up my blog on Microsoft Word and paste it into the blog. Although, I am not sure if the agency really looks at internet use outside of normal business hours. I mean, it's 9:40pm, for goodness sakes. They gotta figure we have SOME downtime on this shift.

So I was perusing the internet briefly to find out information about the Acacia Strain, a metal band whose new album I am interested in purchasing at some point. I am doing this primarily because I am trying to calm down after the case I just dealt with at the Lynchburg General ER (I will get to that in a moment). Apparently, the Acacia Strain is not allowed to play anymore gigs at the House of Blues in Orlando, Florida. The reason for this is because there was a brawl during the concert, but not during Acacia's set. However, the proprietors of the club identified that several brawl participants had Acacia Strain shirts on.

I have two problems with this. First, why punish the Acacia Strain when the brawl didn't even occur during their set. Second, why were the Acacia Strain fans blatantly engaging in the most cardinal sin of concertgoing, that being "Don't ever wear a t-shirt for the band you are going to see!". So now I'm thinking that House of Blues, Orlando has banned the Acacia Strain because of their dorky, Acacia Strain shirt-wearing fans, not because of some brawl. It is a well known fact that when you go to a metal concert, you wear a shirt from a band that is not performing at that concert. If you don't have any metal shirts, then you wear a camoflage t-shirt, black jeans and white high tops like this idiot Roman and I saw at an Obituary concert once. The dude looked like Cha-Chi, and he started hitting on the wife of Obituary's bassist Frank Watkins, who promptly stared Cha-Chi down and gave him the throat slash gesture.

So back to that ECO case I worked at the ER. I like to believe that there are no bad cases in crisis work, and by bad I mean "wastes of my time". 99.9% of the case I see are at least rooted in some valid concerns by family, friends or other CSB staff. However, tonight's case was a waste of time and resources. I can't go into all the details due to confidentiality of course. But suffice it to say, the case had me scratching my head as to how the Magistrate in Appomattox County even decided there was enough evidence to issue an ECO. The client and his wife have a marriage that has long since been dead. I think the wife made up a whole bunch of stuff to get the client ECO'd and subsequently evaluated by mental health. And this gentleman I was evaluating was completely flabbergasted about what happened. The more information I obtained from him, as well as his daughter, the more I realized that his wife had gotten an ECO under false pretenses. I felt sorry for the man after that, but moreover, I was pretty livid inside.

The reason I was so angry was because this woman wasted a lot of time and resources with her little escapade. First, she wasted the magistrate's time. Then, she wasted time and resources of the Appomattox Sheriff's Department, who had to use one of their few on-duty deputies to transport the client to the ER for assessment. Third, she wasted time and resources of the ER staff, by taking up an ER bay with an "ECO for spite" case. Finally, she wasted my time because I still had to do all of the same paperwork I would do for a legitimate case.

Needless to say, I have had to process this incident in my head. I feel better now, but my drive back to the office consisted of me ruminating over it in my head. I can rest easy tonight and contemplate going to an Acacia Strain concert at some point in time. Unfortunately, it won't be on Mickey Mouse's turf.

REAGAN!! REAGAN!!

That's what I was screaming at the television today. While our new Air Conditioning unit was being installed by my brother-in-law's HVAC Technician friend Aaron, I was watching episodes of JEOPARDY I had recorded on DVR. I watch that show religiously and my work schedule does not allow me to watch it during its normal timeslot. This week is "Kids Week" on the show. So I get to feel a lot smarter watching Jeopardy than normal because the questions are catered to 10-12 year olds. But on one of the episodes, the one from Tuesday, the kids really upset me!

I forget the category now, but the clue asked the contestants to identify who the U.S. President was that was shown in a picture wherein he is shaking hands with a Chinese politician. Looking at the picture, I clearly identified that President as Ronald Reagan. I THOUGHT the kids would all know this as well. However, I was sorely disappointed, and later, a bit depressed. First off, none of the three kids knew who the President was. What made it worse is that they went ahead and took a stab at it anyways. One kid said "Who is Nixon?". Nope! Another kid said "Who is JFK?". What the heck? When Alex Trebek informed these youngins of the correct answer, he had this dispondent look on his face. I agree, Alex. I thought they should have known that too!

The reason I felt a bit depressed later on is because I am now starting to feel a bit old. God, I am only 33, but I feel like such a lamer. I find myself talk about what kind of crap passes off as music these days, and how can today's kids listen to that junk? I reminisce about "good" music, like Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and old-school Nine Inch Nails, and how today's bands can't hold a candle to those legendary artists. I mean, there is a whole generation of 16 year olds who never saw Kurt Cobain alive. And now, these same kids apparently have no idea who the hell Ronald Reagan was. Love him or hate him, he was one of the more iconic Presidents we have had. And these young Jeopardy contestants took a (failed) stab at it!

I know I am not a young, idealistic 17 year old boy anymore. The gradual disappearance of hair on top of my head is certainly evidence of that. But when I start talking about how I can't believe these kids today don't know who Reagan is, or how I can't stand the music today's kids listen to, I start coming to the realization that I am showing my age a bit. What's worse, I am starting to sound like my parents. They bashed my music and talked about how Elvis and the Beatles kick my music's ass. And I would just laugh at them because there was no way Elvis is better than Alice in Chains.

Let's face it! If you are currently in your 30's, you were primarily brought up in the 80's and 90's. The world has changed immensely since those decades. We didn't have the Internet, iPods, or cell phones when I was in high school. Life was simpler. We didn't have to worry about kids getting in trouble for sexting, we didn't have Emo (we had Goth, but not Emo). We knew how to use a pay phone, and in some cases, a rotary phone. With everything going on in American schools these days, I am almost scared to send my own kids to public schools. School violence continues to be a growing epidemic, kids having sex at younger and younger ages. And it all starts at home!

Here is my plea to all the parents out there who are raising young kids. Do right by your kids. Today's parents are my peers, and we were all raised with Mr. Rogers telling us "You're Special!" This gave my generation a sense of entitlement, and therefore, when my generation becomes parents, they are more lax when it comes to raising their kids. They let their kids get away with a hell of a lot more than my parents let me get away with. Though people from my generation may be starting to feel old, we still have a lot of growing up to do! Our kids depend on it. We have to have the right balance between letting our children grow up to be unique individuals and dishing out proper discipline when necessary. We need to emphasize the importance of the past with our children, if only to help them learn from the mistakes of the past so as not to repeat them. Overall, we have to arm our kids with the knowledge they need to be successful in life. And we can start by making sure they know who Ronald Reagan is!