"I'm throwing orannges in an apple cart, and the ties that bind are tearing me apart!"*

Alright people,

Let me first welcome you to Boone, North Carolina! Boone is a booming (not booning) metropolis of about 12-14,000 people sans college kids. Boone is a unique and intriguing place for many very good reasons**:

1) Daniel Boone founded Boone, North Carolina. Rumour has it that Dan was walking through the Blue Ridge Mountains one day about 150 years ago. As he was walking, he ran afoul of a bear taller than the tallest pine tree, and with the girth of a dozen oxen. The bear roared at Daniel Boone. Unfortunately for the bear, he (or she-I didn't get that part of the story) didn't know that Daniel Boone held the most prestigious title of 'hella-tough'- a phrase coined by early settlers of the Western North Carolina Mountains. So this bear roars, and before it can even finish its roar Daniel Boone lets for the most blood curtling, soul eviscerating yalp that not only knocks the bear over, but also causes it to cry. Seriously, it cried real tears! After composing himself (or herself) the bear mumbled 'Roary roar roar'. Any guesses as to what that means in bear language? That's right, he said: 'Daniel, this land I acquiesce to you heceforth unto eternity'. That's exactly how Daniel Boone founded Boone, NC I bet my life on it.

2) Boone is the county seat of Boone county
3) I just made that last point up
4) Boone is the home to Appalachian State University, home of the 2005 Division 2-A football champions...the Mountaineers. It's a sprawling campus that is home to about 13-15,000 young academicians, depending on who you ask.
5) Boone is where I now live, because I'm one of those 13-15,000 academicians. I'm starting my graduate studies in a couple of weeks and could not be more excited about it.
6) Boone is home to the APPALCART!!!!

For those of you who cannnot wrap your mind around the concept of the APPALcart, please reference this website . It's full of other wisdom and insights as well.

As you all know by now, I will serve as your liason between calamity and humour, tragedy and comedy, drunk and sober! I'm going to be plopping myself right down on the APPALcart and cataloguiing for you, the faithful blogging reader, exactly what goes on in the APPALcart. I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but I'm really excited to get riding on the APPALcart. Up to this point, I've located the closest APPALcart stop to my house, and am plotting out which route will maximize my exposure to social diaster and melee. Before I get officially rolling on the 'cart, however, I do want to lay down some ground rules that we can both abide by:

I hope that the tales I tell will be somewhat humorous and intriguing; if they aren't, I'm not going to claim any responsibility. I try to depict life as comedy. If it turns out that life isn't being funny, I can't help that. I'm not going to lie here, there are probably going to be times where I don't blog for a few days/weeks. As I mentioned before, I'm actually going to be doing school work down here...a lot of it. I'll try to post as often as possible. Most of all, I want your feedback. If you like the way things are going, let me know. If you hate me, that's fine too, so long as you tell me about it. I'm basically a glutton for glory, good or bad. So let those comments fly, and I'll see YOU, on the APPALcart!

*kudos to you if you know who sings this

** the kids in the library next to me are plotting a way to effectively utilize their white magic spirit card against their Yu-Gi-Oh enemmies...HAHA!!