Other than the really boring speech, I had another problem. Our graduation is not well-organized. The university is supposed to mail every student a card with their name on it that the student presents to a speaker before they get their diploma. The speaker reads the student’s name, the student walks across the stage, shakes hands with some old guy, and takes his or her diploma. Well, I didn’t get my card. No big deal. Our university website told us to let someone know if we didn’t get one on graduation day. I let someone know. They directed me to someone else. Then I was directed to someone else. That person told me to take a seat and someone would come around in 10 or 15 minutes to take care of all students with this problem. No one came.

As I sat through the ceremony, during my waking states, I was near freaking out. What do I do when I get on stage? Do I now whisper my name to the guy? If I do that, would the mic pick up my voice? Oh my God! Oh my God! Since I’m a fairly smart guy, I figured I’d just hand him my student ID, and let the speaker read from that. Problem solved. Though I shouldn’t have had that much anxiety on graduation day.

What I have I been doing for the last week or so? After getting all of my company out of the house last weekend (I had people over from Wednesday through Saturday), I decided I needed a week’s vacation. I must note that a week’s vacation for me, since I don’t have much money, means staying at home and being lazy. This works well for me.

I’ve made it through seasons one and two of Stargate SG-1, a few movies I’ve seen countless times, and now I’ve started watching Battlestar Galactica again. I’ve got to get some new stuff.

I have been educating myself though. Reading books. Keeping my mind sharp. I finished reading The God Delusion, which I wrote a review of. Interesting book. I’ve since read I Robot, Running With Scissors, and Pledged. I read the firt book of The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and four pages of Einstein’s Relativity (too heavy for me to read right now).

I’ve decided to finally get on the Harry Potter bandwagon and read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which is the second book of the series. I figured I might try to catch up before the final book is released. I’ve been on a four-year hiatus since the first book. And to think I run Books In Bed.

What’s on the agenda from here on out? Next week I have to see about getting some kind of employment that doesn’t involve burgers and fries. Review all the books I’ve read. Continue building this website and Books In Bed. Maybe have a little fun. Live life.

I honestly don’t know what’s next, but I’m kind of looking forward to it. I finally feel at peace with the thought of something different, and I think that’s the point I needed to get to. This doesn’t mean I’m not scared to death about what’s coming. I’m just oddly ready because I don’t have to know what to expect, just know to be expecting something.

He also said he was a “Christian,” and he “has to listen to loud-mouthed women every day.” That was Wednesday.

Today, he was shouting back at Auburn University students who were traveling between classes or ones that simply had nothing better to do than listen. He stood on his two-foot high wall just past the concourse (a place for hanging out and club recruitment and other stuff for you non-Auburn students). I would argue that he had more than a hundred students at several points during the day.

They were shouting back at him.

The highlight of the day? The The Gay Song (It’s Not Okay To Be Gay).

He is Micah Armstrong. He is the “Open Air Bible Thumper,” according to his website. He is radical. He is in your face.

He’s been on campus all week long, every day from around 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. He’s been preaching the “Word.” He’s been preaching against homosexuality, masturbation, and sex. Those are apparently our only sins.

Today, just after 2 p.m., he was escorted off the campus by police.

The crowd was riled up. Some were merely taunting the preacher bearing dark news (I like to think of him as the Dark Preacher). Others were preaching back at him. He was telling them about hell. Others were telling him about Jesus’ compassion, freely masturbating, and being openly gay.

“Every girl that has premarital sex with a guy is a W-H-O-R-E,” he shouted at the laughing young adults. “Every masturbator is a potential homosexual” because it is sex with the same sex.

He was there today to make sure we knew we were going to hell for the things we’re doing. He was there to tell us that Martin Luther King Jr. is in hell. That Ghandi and Mother Teresa were burning too. And, about the only person on campus today that wouldn’t burn would be himself.

The students took that message well.

Of course, there were a few opposers to stand on the wall with him.

This student reads an issue of Cosmopolitan. The story was something about how to gratify your partner sexually. “You can’t get your own audience,” Armstrong responds. The student then goes on to lead a group of students to another spot to read the issue, but they were few.

This is not an uncommon event. We usually get one radical preacher every semester who tries to scare the student body into religion, which is entirely the wrong approach. He was preaching against the Christians there that were trying to go with the Jesus’ love angle. No. That’s not allowed, that kind of preaching. It’s all fire and brimstone. That’s the only way to preach it.

My favorite person to take a stand against Armstrong is this guy, sporting a shirt that reads “Plays Well With Self” and an arrow pointed toward the man. This fit so well with Armstrong’s rampage against masturbation that you could not help but laugh. Well, and the t-shirt guy just looked funny.

“Your problem is not your testosterone or gender. You got a wicked, perverted heart. You’ve masturbated one too many times, you’ve watched one too many porno movies, you’ve had premarital sex,” continued Armstrong.

He never let up until the police arrived. I guess he was lucky he didn’t make a scene about “freedom of speech” at that moment. He was clearly harrassing those students who were gay, Muslim, Christian, women, and well…every one else. One seemingly devout Christian was near tears arguing back at him. This was what he was doing to his brothers in Christ.

Aside from the t-shirt guy and The Gay Song, the funniest scene of the day was when a student poked Armstrong in the butt with a stick. “Don’t turn your back on this guy,” Armstrong fired.

I’m not condoning this kind of childishness from grown people, but what Armstrong said incited an uproar of laughter.

It’s been a war all week. Christians vs. Armstrong. Muslims vs. Armstrong. Athiests vs. Armstrong. Students and Faculty vs. Armstrong.

I should make a Facebook group. I wonder what I’ll call it…

This in no way is an anti-Christian or anti-religion post. It is simply a post about a man who made a scene.

Here are some files I’ve uploaded for your viewing and listening pleasure. I would’ve uploaded the hour worth of recorded audio I got today, but it’s hard to hear since there was so much noise. Enjoy.

• The Gay Song Youtube Video – Link provided by Daniel Morgan
• The Gay Song (It’s Not Okay To Be Gay)
• Pictures from today’s events