Hello, my name is Jamie Bishop, and I'm reporting for (journal) duty.

Since I made the mid year's resolution a few days ago to update my journal more often (at least once a day until the end of July), I decided to start this entry off with a slight modifaction of John Kerry's hokey address to the DNC tonight. While his salutation was a little "overboard," it was a clever means of hammering home two points: 1) John Kerry has the military background that Bush lacks, and 2) Kerry will, as president, take that job - that service - seriously. By and large I think Kerry made an excellent impression and left Bush and his cronies with very little to work with when the Republicans go to a very hostile New York.

(To put the whole thing in a pop culture perspective, I tongue-in-cheekily liken Kerry's performance to that of Rabbit, Eminem's character, in the movie 8 mile: By going first in the final rap battle, our "raptagonist" throws out everything that his opponent would surely have attacked, effectively laming the waiting-to-pounce challenger. I think the Republicans are going to have an equally hard time making a villain out of John Kerry, especially since he's pulled the trigger on a lot of traditional American values and issues that the dark side has ostensibly mastered in the past. May they be as verbally-challenged as Rabbit's opponent.)

One last comment, however, about Kerry's speech before moving on to the non-political. Contrary to what all the pundits on PBS were pontificating, I'm not so sure that Kerry did THAT much to convince voters that he's not stiff and aloof. Certainly the man was emotional and evinced a true conviction to America, but he still didn't strike me as any more charismatic than Al Gore. I would like to think that - considering who he's up against - such a deficiency wouldn't matter much, but look who "won" last time.

I regret having missed Bill Clinton's mellifluous address to the DNC on Monday night. I've heard that he was downright incredible and the big question afterward was whether Kerry had a snowball's chance of matching the ex-Prez's oratory skill. I've done a cursory search on the web in an attempt to find an archived audio file of Clinton's speech but with no hits at all.

***

OK, since it's late, I'm going to finish this off by stating that, about 3 weeks ago, I received a letter from Harris County High School's Reunion Committee. Turns out that 2004 marks our graduating class's 15th anniversary. So, today I sent in the - ulp! - $90 for Steffi and I to attend the festivities on September 25 in Hamilton, Georgia. That Saturday apparently will include a family barbecue/picnic in the afternoon plus a dance and dinner (with live band) in the evening. I worry, though, that - considering the location and my knowledge of the people attending - Steffi, a vegetarian, may have a hard time with the down-home, country cuisine. (I've sent in words pleading for vegetarian options, so we'll see what we get.)

Honestly, I have no idea what to expect from attending this event. High school was only a walk in the park for me on an academic level, and that didn't really help my social life. (Being a 5'1" tall guy during my freshman and sophomore years surely didn't help, either.) In any event, I anticipate that I'll enjoy seeing a couple of old, distant friends and (secretly and superficially) taking pride in having a full, flowing head of hair and a washboard stomach. (That last adjective, I'd like to think, isn't a self-aggrandizing one: I'm so skinny that NO fat exists to prevent my abs, or any muscles for that matter, from showing through.) I just wonder if we'll be able to fend off the inevitable questions about kids and why-oh-why we don't have them...