Let me tell you a few things that are on my mind and have been for a while.

I'll start with the most recent.

Smoking cigarettes sucks. Why do you do it, you lonely, nicotine addicted punks, outside of my window. It used to be fun at the beginning of the semester, with all of you guys out there puffing on Tar Sticks, now its just a habit, that you must obey your body for. You are addicted, you can't go a day, let alone a few hours without puffing on a Marlboro. You sit outside -BY YOURSELF NOW - and smoke. Man, that has to be lonely. Enjoy a cigar, with your friends, ocassionally, in a comfortable setting; not daily, and definitely not bi-hourly and defintely not freezing your balls off outside of your dorm, or any number of buildings. I feel pity for you boys outside my dorm smoking by yourselfs and just looking so incredibly inspired and foucsed on the things you need to get done - like schoolwork and meeting interesting people (things you do in college). I'm sure that you might have great grades and stuff, and have met so many interesting people; but dang, I don't know if i can accurately estimate the hours and hours and hours you have wasted lighting up and inhaling carcinogenic fumes from the end of a lighted piece of paper. When i open my dorm window to get some fresh, cool air into my room, and go down the hall, i come back to find my room reeking of piss-awful cigarette smoke, I get frustrated. Go smoke up your own rooms, just go away from the front of the building. Idiots, gosh!

My trip to Austin.

I left about 9:00 pm (2100) from NW Houston on Thanksgiving Thursday for Austin. I had a nice drive up there and i had alot of time to think. I was anxious to get back up to Austin for a number of reasons.
1. I enjoy the city.
2. I enjoy the people i know there (Chris Riley, Ryan Granzow, Nancy Keucher - just to name a few - sorry if I forgot to mention you)
3. I enjoy the college atmosphere.

I got to the city at about 12:00 am (0000) and parked and jogged to the Capitol for Yell Practice. By the time i got there there were thousands of people - including a bunch of disrespectful Texas fans. (For arguments sake, for any kind of sake, I will not refer to Texas Longhorn fans as t-sips during this blog - i'll say longhorns). When you, longhorns, are having your traditional... well nevermind. We wouldn't go bother you anyhow. ** We had a maroon aTm flag hanging above the Capitol entrance, and we had a great Yell Practice, including a mentioning of the fact that Austin is run by an Aggie Mayor, and the State of Texas is run by an Aggie Governer (Rick Perry '72). It was an absolute blast. I got a few picutres in front of the maroon adorned Capitol, it was great.

Then I went back to Chris Riley's house and hung around, and after watching Legends of the Hidden Temple, Family Double Dare, and GUTS! (all former Nickalodeon shows, if you'll remember) I hit the sack. I got up, put on my maroon t-shirt, and went to lunch with Chris and his friends. When I got to the game, well lets start with walking up to the game. There was - well i can't really estimate how many people with alcohol in their hands walking down the streets of Austin, toward DKR stadium. Half of them were drunk falling over their friends, and sure enough (as expected, I was prepared) I hadn't made it to withing 300 yards of the stadium and i hear "Man, its gotta suck to go to A&M - getting beat by Baylor?! Hey Aggie, why don't you take this stick and shove it 8 inches up your A$$!!!" (followed by drunken laughter and a few buddies saying, "James, let go of the beer.") My new friend next to me - one of Chris' roommates immediately apologized. I reminded him of what we discussed earlier at lunch - how we can't judge each other's schools by some drunken idiots, and how we both adamantly agreed on this point. However, I wasn't expecting more than a few random people to be this way. We entered the stadium and we are walking along towards our seats. We get to our section just as the game is fixing to start, and we get under way. Without recounting every detail of the "experience" in the longhorn student section, I'll just hit some of the high points. Now, mind you - I expected nothing less - I'm not ignorant and did not expect to be hit with some Baylor comments and some "gig this" 's, however, I, along with my friend Wes did not expect to be physically harmed, and VULGARLY insulted. Texas got the first touchdown, which was put together off of a great drive (They are a good football team, I can admit that). I don't know, after most first downs and at random times, we heard "Texas... give 'em hell, give 'em hell MAKE 'EM EAT SH*T" which Chris said properly as "give 'em hell, give 'em hell, Go 'horns Go!". Wow, look at that. These students have twisted around a phrase extolling their own team, into (trying to) humiliating the other team. Lets not forget the T-E-X-A-S (and how the varients between each of those letters, I care not to repeat). MMM, classy! Listen, I know the first thing that you are going to point to is our yell of "Beat the hell outta ____". Call me crazy, but thats the only yell, 1 thing that we have against our opponents. Our war hymn is about beating Texas, our rivals, and that would be 2 count as to the number of contrary things agains this particular opponent. The rest of the yells are encouraging our team, and man, thats what we do. We don't hit beach balls in the 4th quarter instead of watching the game, and we don't leave early once we know we relatively confident in our victory. We defintely don't give the other team's band members and players the finger while yelling "You suck balls you West Point rejects [the Corps of Cadets, and band]" and "Hey Reggie, gig this, F**k you, you c*** s****** faggot!" and then slap our other drunk buddy a high-five while our girlfriends add more whiskey to the 5 dollar cokes, from the bottle of Jim Beam handily kept in their purses, and left under the benches. Do I think that the 4-5 guys in front of me were the only ones doing this? No. Do i think that a vast majority of longhorn football fans, or Texas' student body does this? NO. Maybe they do, but I'm gonna side on not.

My friend Chris, he is the PERFECT example of a longhorn fan. He was sober, he knew the game, he knows more than 3 players names (Derrick Johnson, Vince Young, Cedric Benson), he cheers hard, gets freaking excited when they make a great play, goes nuts when Cedric the Bull runs over 4 guys for an extra 12 yards, gets pissed off that people around him don't care or stand up for their band, gets super annoyed with everyone hitting the beachballs around him, and holds his horns up for an injured player (be it an Aggie or 'horn) and yells when his team is on defense. He proudly wears his burnt orange sweat pants and t-shirt. He is not arrogant, his is prideful; he is not pompus, he's respectful; he's not degrading, he's logical. (You might think those 2 don't go together - but they do to me.) Thanks Chris, for being an example to your longhorn friends who need an example to look at.

Lets be clear for one minute. I know that A&M does not have perfect fans. We have drunken idiots who I'm certain harass the other team, all in "good fun". I have, however, had the experience to sit around the student section in a number of different seats, and I don't see alot of what i just mentioned before. I don't see alot of drunk Aggies (although, i'm well, well aware that there are many) gesturing the other team and cursing at the other team's band. I see respect in our stadium, for every team we face. I see respect when we take off our hats and step off the bleacher when someone is hurt. I see respect in our student body who come in 10s of thousands strong to stand behind our team till the end. Who wear maroon because it means something off of the football field too. I don't expect many of you to get this, I really don't, but I hope in some way you might see how proud I am; how it makes me swell-up with so much pride singing our songs and saying "Howdy" and wearing maroon. I do not hate UT, I do not hate any other school. I just am so ______ to be an Aggie.