[color=green][b][u]Leo’s Parade Diaries: Olympic Parades[/u][/b][/color] ---------------- Leo the Tiger speaking. You also know me as the Marching Wonder. I was hoping that the L.A. Rams winning the Super Bowl by a score of 23-20 was actually a blessing in disguise, considering how many people were after Chuong Cho Soi of Vietnam, the head of the UN1024s, angry at him making a prediction about it being the Year of the Tiger, and thus, the Cincinnati Bengals were going to win. Well, they beat the Kansas City Chiefs to win the AFC Championship, but they did not win the Super Bowl. Still, just getting to the Super Bowl is an accomplishment in itself, so they should have nothing to be upset about. Clearly, the defense dominated the game if it was only 13-10 at the half. The halftime show for the game featured rap performs such as Snopp Dogg and Dr. Dre, but as other performs had done so in the past, these artists commented, “Even if he wasn’t our President, Leo the Patriotic Lion’s influence still would ensure that the pre-game show, with the military bands and these Drumbums, would get ten times as loud applause as we get.” However, they were not bothered by that. They were right to say so, though. The Drumbum Tigers and Rams performing made it all the more spectacular, and made the crowds feel even prouder to be American. Timpani Tiger says it was one of the best moments of his life, getting to experience that kind of spectacle, and performing for the people was a reward in itself for all the hard work and long hours Drumbums spent practicing. (A typical Drumbum, if they are on the musical payroll system, but do not work another job, spends no less than six to seven hours practicing if they are a strings, brass, woodwind, or keyboard player, and no less than nine to ten if they are a percussionist. If the Drumbum is a marcher, they will alternate marching while drumming, and standing still.) A similar feature happened at the Pro Bowl one week earlier, where Drumbum Bears, Bulls, and Bison were the performers. As a special act of kindness, Liu the Confucian Lion invited them to Beijing, China, for the rest of the Olympics, where they held a big parade to announce their arrival, and salute Leo for the success he and his administration had as President so far. To the Chinese, it might have sounded a little unusual because they were beating their football drums, but they still enjoyed the music. (The modern marching percussion of today is percussion we Forsythian G-52s, as well as those such as Corps Coon, like to call “football drums.” The rope-tensioned drums military bands use for ceremonial purposes, or used for battle re-enactments, are drums we like to call “soldier’s drums.” We’ll be using these terms all throughout this and all future journal entries we publish.) These Drumbums later joined me, Cripto, Tom the Patriotic Tiger, and a few other Rams and Bengals fans for a special watch party in Beijing, where we got to watch the Super Bowl. Many were more interested in the pre-game show than the game itself, due to the fact they wanted to see if Wildcat City would lose its honor of holding the biggest marching band performance ever, and it did. In fact, Guinness World Records confirmed it and said it was the biggest ever. I do not think Wildcat City is all that upset about it. We take pride in being the marching band and drum corps capital of the world, but we realize records were meant to be broken. Plus, it led us to see where Furry Fury would perform, because the band promised to do a show for the winning city. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out,” Cripto said in a YouTube video to Bengals fans, “but that was the arrangement we made. Still, I’m hoping all you Bengals fans will live stream it if you’re not planning to be in Los Angeles. And who knows? If we’re able to work something out, we can still come to Cincinnati and rock out with all of you. We’ll keep you posted.” A few days later, the Drumbum Tigers and Rams who performed at the Super Bowl were also brought to Beijing to perform for Leo and his administration, where the crowds also welcomed them with open arms. Although they were playing their football drums, their cadences were militaristic in nature. The bears, bulls, and bison lined up likes soldiers on the side of the road and saluted them as they marched past. “Wow; you sure take your music seriously,” Liu commented. “How could we not take it seriously when it’s like second nature to us?” Timpani Tiger replied. “We still practice; it feels wrong not to do so. On the other hand, we’re not doing it for show or for money. We do it because we love to do it.” ---------------------- Meanwhile, Cripto checked as many social media platforms as he could to see if the hatred towards Chuong was ending. Some comments were still aimed at him, stating, “So much for your Year of the Tiger.” The majority of them, however, were asking him for forgiveness; these were the same people who were accusing him of being a sorcerer or wizard. (He has superpowers as a D-19 fire eternal, but that doesn’t mean he’s a warlock, sorcerer, wizard, or any of those other characters you see in fantasy settings.) In fact, they were even writing to him and saying that they lost their jobs because of these social media posts, as some companies had strict anti-bullying policies. One person in particular was due to get a big promotion. Instead, he was fired; his wife divorced him and took custody of the kids (note that marriage was already suffering), his parents disowned him, and all these other bad things were happening. It left him to wonder if CNG was bound to kill him, because he couldn’t even get a fast food job, or a job as an airport or hotel janitor, because he had such bad references. He lost all his friends on Facebook as a result of his post as well. Scenes like that upset me, but it is the harsh reality we live in, folks. Make one vital mistake like that, and your life basically comes to an end, even if you live for 40 to 50 more years after you make that mistake. That’s assuming CNG doesn’t kill you first. It wants to; it claims all of humanity is “too savage for the planet.” Too many industries would suffer if the humans are extinct, and all the economies would suffer if all the remaining animals in the world lived like Kriegland, even if there was no pollution. So what was that man doing now? Nothing but picking up trash along the street; that’s what. Why? His ex-wife lied to the police about his behavior and managed to get him arrested, but he wasn’t willing to fight it. He explained to the police about how their marriage was suffering, and that it might have ended in divorce anyways; his parents arranged the marriage as well, only to discover they picked the wrong woman. (When his ex-wife was discovered to have been lying, she was arrested, but she was sent via one of T2’s recall pods to Riker’s Prison in New York, while her ex-husband remained in L.A. That way, they could never see one another again, or cause trouble.) “I’ll never have anybody hire me because I really did make that Facebook post,” he said. “However, there is no doubt that Uma, my ex-wife, didn’t want to marry me. She would have gotten death threats from her parents if she dumped me at the altar.” “So even though you are guilty of accusing the wolf of being a wizard,” the police replied, actively listening, “you aren’t guilty of what your wife said you were, because that was just her trying to get rid of you.” “Exactly.” “Do you plan to fight it in court?” “I don’t know. She’d just deny everything; then again, she’d get dinged for perjury, wouldn’t she?” “Yes.” ----------- The specific case we described above made the national news, since it was featured in a story of the consequences of social media posts like that one, but it also revealed that social media as a whole, except for YouTube, was dropping alarmingly. Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, and Instagram were all on the verge of going out of business forever because of incidents like this, and because everybody assumed Leo wanted them to go out of business. “Do you?” the press asked. “No, I do not,” he replied, although keeping calm while doing so. “All they are doing is putting words in my mouth, and I hate that! It has to stop, and it has to stop now! Social media is so unforgiving, and it never lets anybody live anything down. Why else do you think I hate it so much? But it also proves that the media itself isn’t the problem. How you folks are using it and exploiting it like this? That’s the problem! People like you! That’s why these things turn me off!” “You must have gotten your message through to somebody,” they said, “because all those tabloid magazines and newspapers went out of business forever. It happened all over the world, not just in the U.S.” “Well, that explains all those political cartoons of me.” -------------- In any event, we chose to focus on the rest of the Olympic Games, and the five sets of Drumbums voluntarily played the national anthems for each of the winners, in the event it was an anthem the U.S. Coyote Drum & Bugle Corps (led by Zachary Chandler and another Drumbum Coyote) did not know the anthem. (The coyotes in the corps are all Drumbums, but they all come from the same hometown as Zachary: Norfolk, VA.) But we were keeping tabs best we could to see if that man would be exonerated of any wrongdoings, although we also tried to figure out why he was content with being in prison, instead of wanting to get his name cleared. The police who made the arrest, however, wrote a message to Super C on the G-52 app and said they wanted to see his name cleared. “If there is one thing you absolutely should not do in life,” they said, “it is lie to the L.A.P.D. He’s still screwed for life, though, because he made that Facebook post. But his wife shouldn’t have lied to us about him.” “I feel for you,” Super C wrote back, “because I hate dishonesty more than anything except profanity and innuendo. If my recruits do something rash like that, they risk instant excommunication. The key word being ‘risk,’ because I’ve been revising my policies quite a bit so that it isn’t so strict. Meanwhile, let’s just wait and see how it goes.” ---------------- We’ll keep you posted on both sets of events, folks. Thanks for your time, and please enjoy the rest of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games. [b]THE END[/b]