"Holy shit! Someone get that fat ignorant fucker off of my car!" I screamed. The image of the shill man for all that is wrong in the world leered at me through the window. His smiling happy visage, the sort of thing that made me think of a man who sold used cars and liked it. Who might violate a puppy if there was a dime in it for him. The kind of person who lived in Pittsburgh but was a Cowboys fan.
What was this man doing on the windshield of my car?
Kat being the most sensible and sane of us solved the riddle and the problem of not being able to see while she's driving by pulling what I now saw was a poster for that horrible creatures new book off the windshield. She passed it back to me and continued driving as if this was the most natural thing in the world.
I looked it over as Jon peered over my shoulder. "Apparently his latest piece of agitprop comes out tomorrow." He said as I studied the print, the red white and blue colors of the page, and the subliminal messages hidden in the ink telling you that this man would make all your worries go away. His publisher had no shame.
"Well then he must be stopped!" I yelled.
"God dammit!" Kat yelled and swerved to avoid yet another poster. Then another. "Apparently they have cut out the middle man in advertising."I said seeing even more of the dangerous paper objects flying at us.
"True, why bother with a street team and tape when you can speak to his audience so much more effectively with simple littering." Jon agreed reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pill bottle. He looked at it absently then pulled out a specimen and knocked it back.
"What do you have there?" I asked.
"I'm not sure." He said. "They're purple though."
"Oh good I'll take two." Jon was kind enough to hand over two of the little capsules and while I waited for it's effects to take hold I drew my pistol and stuck myself out of the window. Taking aim at a passing piece of paper with that horrible mans image on it. Firing a quick round I caught him right in that pig like furrow between his eyes.
Remember kids the trick to hitting a moving target is to lead it some. Oh and hate. So. Much, HATE.
"Screw you, you festering bag of ignorant puss!" I screamed to the night sky and fired another round.
"What the hell are you doing? Get back in the car!" Kat yelled. Too late though, I saw another poster flying through the air and pegged it on the fly. Paper exploded in all directions and I was momentarily blinded by the muzzle flash. Jon took the opportunity to drag me into the car.
"Dude why would you stop me on such a holy mission?" I said to my partner in crime.
He simply jerked his thumb behind us. Looking I saw a set of red white and blue lights swirling and following us.
"Is anything we're carrying illegal by any chance?" Kat asked.
Suddenly I remembered with startling clarity the provision run John and I had made before hitting the road. We had stopped for burgers, booze and ammo, then stopped by a friends place for other items more exotic. I was pretty sure we could explain the Gatling blow gun, but the two ounces of mushrooms and large Halloween sized bag of bubble hash might take some explaining.
"Ohh only most of it." I said. Imagining some back woods judge who would likely sentence us to five years of Fox News for bringing such dangerous items into his beloved land.
"Well then let me do the talking."Kat said harshly and Jon and I did our best to behave like rational human beings for a short period of time.
The cop pulled up behind us and blasted the interior of the car with his screaming bright spotlights. I slipped on a pair of shades and noticed the lens flares on the insides. Perfect, what a great time for Jon's pills to kick in. Truth be told I was beginning to sweat a little.
It didn't help that the cop looked like a mountain of sculpted muscle and uniform who radiated a sort of dark authority as he walked. Literally back lit with the power lights I was expecting to hear a sound like Darth Vader's labored breathing as he got closer.
The purple pills gave him a dark aura with a life of it's own. following behind him like dark shadowy murder doll.
"Ignore this terrible drug." I thought to myself.
Kat to her credit handled it without so much as a mussed hair and handed the officer her license, registration and insurance card with a pleasant smile. The cop scowled down at her like he had never seen anything that pleased him on any level at any time... ever. He struck me as the sort of man who ground glass into lube to masturbate with just to make himself a little meaner in the morning.
"Can I help you officer?" Kat asked.
"Do you know why I pulled you over?" He asked.
"Was I speeding?" She asked with happy smile.
"No, you were driving at normal speed with a passenger hanging out a window firing a pistol."
"So that's illegal?" She asked. Giving him a sad look like a puppy. "I'm so sorry I didn't know that."
That actually brought him up short. Like no one could have ever taken such a massive refuge in that level of audacity. "Ummmm." He said.
"We're really sorry about that." She said. "We just got excited driving the roads and exercising our 2nd amendment rights. I promise we'll keep it down from here on out."
The cop seemed a little dazed then handed the paperwork back to Kat. "That would be appreciated. Mam, I'll let you go with a warning but I had better not see you driving along firing weapons blindly into the night again."
"Ohh we won't." She said. The cop nodded gravely and walked off back to his car.
"You saw that too right?" Jon asked me.
"Yeah but we better double check." I replied. "It could be some unknown purple pill side effect."
"Good point." Jon said nodding. "Kat did you just talk us out of a possible multiple felony arrest by telling a cop you didn't know what we were doing was illegal?"
Kat put the old car in gear. "Yes, I did, and don't make me do it again anytime soon, the batteries need to recharge." She stomped on the gas and we were thrown back into the seat so hard we couldn't follow up on the question.
The car itself was a marvel of modern tinkering. It started life as a 1986 Aston Martin Lagonda. Which if you want to know looks like a limousine stuck in a three way with either end of a Ferrari. The engine had been replace with an Audi V-10 a while back and the electronics kept getting tinkered with.
Now the weird part is I didn't do or contract any of this. I swear parts just keep appearing in this car. Usually after Jon and I try some new concoction in the basement bar and...
Wait a minute.
I turned accusingly to Jon. "Are you the one whose been fucking with my?..." The question was cut off as Kat took a sudden turn into a bar parking lot. "Holy shi...."
"IT seems like I found the source of all the Rush Limbaugh propaganda."
We saw the truck designed to litter posters across America's roadways parked in front of a seedy dump of a bar called the Double Douche.
Jon and I looked at each other and smiled the warm predatory smile of the lion as it walks through the grass and sees all the Gazelles ahead of them at the watering hole.
"I see a sacred duty." Jon said.
"Let's go to work." I replied.
Kat merely sighed as we stopped off into a parking lot full of wrangler jeans, cowboy boots, pickup trucks and prom queens turned strippers.
It was time to do the world some good.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Midnight at the Double Douche
(I'm in a goofy mood and frankly the allegedly real world is far too terrible and weird of late for me to get a mental line on. So today I give you a moment of strange fiction that passed through my brain, so I figured I would pass it on to you. I'm giving thought about doing a fictional stories blog, if there is any interest let me know.)
(One more note, some people might think my take on the Republican primaries is a bit mean, but after the audience in 2012 yelled "let em die!" I am allowed to make fun of the mind set of their "base" however much I wish.)
How do you explain the reasoning behind the terrible events of that evening? Well I could rationalize my behavior and tell you all about how it made sense at the time, but I respect you dear reader far too much to insult your intelligence in such a way.
If the truth be told it all began as it always has, at home. There I was, too high to move without assistance. Relaxing and watching the second round of the Republican primary debates. The previous contender for the role of Republican presidential wanna be had answered a question about healthcare issues by dropping puppies onto spikes, not to be outdone the next candidate was kicking a homeless person in the nuts for a nickel a shot. Ahhh appealing to the base, such a fun thing to see.
My cell phone rang but I was busy. The next contestant was bringing a leper on stage which of course bode well for all manner of family entertainment. My assistant Kat was kind enough to grab it for me and answer. Her sensibilities are a bit sensitive for this sort of thing but I'm working on getting her to see the joy of low brow humor. Where the key is not to laugh at the joke but the people who think it's funny.
Kat extended the phone to me. "Call for you."
"I figured as much." I replied and watched as the next icon of conservative family values whipped the leper to the over amazed joy of the rabid crowd of deranged family values voters.
"Answer the phone it's your editor." I extended my hand and Kat dropped the phone in it, rolling her eyes as she turned away.
I held the phone six inches from my ear and waited.
"WHERE"S MY FUCKING COLUMN!!" Came the voice on the other end.
"Hi Shelby." My Erstwhile editor had managed to track me down to yet another pre pay cell phone. Her sources were amazing.
"I need 2,000 words on anything, and coherent words. Something that forms a narative and tells a story, not like that time you sent recipes for Hash Brownies and fish cakes."
"Or You'll what?" I asked.
"I will come down there with three hot chicks have them tie you down and mass ignore you. You know me I'll do it." She said. It's such a shame when people know your weaknesses.
"When do you need it?" I sighed.
"Two Days." I sighed deeply.
"I'll have it for you." I replied and hung up.
Slumping I was thought hard about the pressing issues this presented for me. I was too stoned to drive, not stoned enough to think properly, under equipped and severely under motivated. To my warped and twisted mind there was only one solution to this problem.
I looked up at Kat. "Gather the crew. We're going on a road trip!!"
Kat looked me over. "So what you mean is grab Jon and the car."
"Well yeah if you want to be all matter of fact about it. We are about to embark on a great adventure."
"So I should also have the lawyers on speed dial." Kat said and walked off.
"It's scary how fast she's getting the hang of this place." I thought and watched her go. The view was pleasant. Kat was short for Katherine, but truth be told she looked more like what her name sounded like. lean and graceful with a head of reddish brown hair that framed features one might call refined or She had arrived here as a result of orders from on high and it took about five minutes for her to assume the essential role of Wendy to my Lost Boy. She had far too much sense to be around here, yet stayed out of some sort of warped notion of pride or duty. She wouldn't be driven off and she was too good at what she did for me to get mad at her and fire her.
"What will I need for this trip?" I thought and rifled through my pockets which were woefully short of Cash, weapons of any destruction, drugs, or even pieces of aluminum foil left overs.
This clearly needed to change.
Looking up I saw the crowd at the primary debate about to go into a ravenous drooling fit over the clearly inbred son of a well known political family. Sitting there smiling to the crowd as if he wondered why all these people were so happy to see him and when he might get his next meal.
It's all a bit of a blur after that, I remember rescuing Jon from a pack of people of various gender identities all of whom wanted to do some sort of horrible carnal thing to him. For some reason he didn't seem to be all that happy to be rescued.
If you were to take an image of the former angel Lucifer I bet he'd look like Jon, he had a face best described as somewhere between handsome and pretty. With Blonde shoulder length hair that gave off an image that reminded me of paintings of angels from my days where I went to church. Mind you he made up for all of that in his desire to figure out all things technological and a stronger desire than most to attempt to mate with anything that could walk on two legs.
But the less said about the goat incident the better.
Kat had decided she was the only one sober or sane enough to drive and off we went.
Everything was fine until we ran into Rush Limbaugh.
(One more note, some people might think my take on the Republican primaries is a bit mean, but after the audience in 2012 yelled "let em die!" I am allowed to make fun of the mind set of their "base" however much I wish.)
How do you explain the reasoning behind the terrible events of that evening? Well I could rationalize my behavior and tell you all about how it made sense at the time, but I respect you dear reader far too much to insult your intelligence in such a way.
If the truth be told it all began as it always has, at home. There I was, too high to move without assistance. Relaxing and watching the second round of the Republican primary debates. The previous contender for the role of Republican presidential wanna be had answered a question about healthcare issues by dropping puppies onto spikes, not to be outdone the next candidate was kicking a homeless person in the nuts for a nickel a shot. Ahhh appealing to the base, such a fun thing to see.
My cell phone rang but I was busy. The next contestant was bringing a leper on stage which of course bode well for all manner of family entertainment. My assistant Kat was kind enough to grab it for me and answer. Her sensibilities are a bit sensitive for this sort of thing but I'm working on getting her to see the joy of low brow humor. Where the key is not to laugh at the joke but the people who think it's funny.
Kat extended the phone to me. "Call for you."
"I figured as much." I replied and watched as the next icon of conservative family values whipped the leper to the over amazed joy of the rabid crowd of deranged family values voters.
"Answer the phone it's your editor." I extended my hand and Kat dropped the phone in it, rolling her eyes as she turned away.
I held the phone six inches from my ear and waited.
"WHERE"S MY FUCKING COLUMN!!" Came the voice on the other end.
"Hi Shelby." My Erstwhile editor had managed to track me down to yet another pre pay cell phone. Her sources were amazing.
"I need 2,000 words on anything, and coherent words. Something that forms a narative and tells a story, not like that time you sent recipes for Hash Brownies and fish cakes."
"Or You'll what?" I asked.
"I will come down there with three hot chicks have them tie you down and mass ignore you. You know me I'll do it." She said. It's such a shame when people know your weaknesses.
"When do you need it?" I sighed.
"Two Days." I sighed deeply.
"I'll have it for you." I replied and hung up.
Slumping I was thought hard about the pressing issues this presented for me. I was too stoned to drive, not stoned enough to think properly, under equipped and severely under motivated. To my warped and twisted mind there was only one solution to this problem.
I looked up at Kat. "Gather the crew. We're going on a road trip!!"
Kat looked me over. "So what you mean is grab Jon and the car."
"Well yeah if you want to be all matter of fact about it. We are about to embark on a great adventure."
"So I should also have the lawyers on speed dial." Kat said and walked off.
"It's scary how fast she's getting the hang of this place." I thought and watched her go. The view was pleasant. Kat was short for Katherine, but truth be told she looked more like what her name sounded like. lean and graceful with a head of reddish brown hair that framed features one might call refined or She had arrived here as a result of orders from on high and it took about five minutes for her to assume the essential role of Wendy to my Lost Boy. She had far too much sense to be around here, yet stayed out of some sort of warped notion of pride or duty. She wouldn't be driven off and she was too good at what she did for me to get mad at her and fire her.
"What will I need for this trip?" I thought and rifled through my pockets which were woefully short of Cash, weapons of any destruction, drugs, or even pieces of aluminum foil left overs.
This clearly needed to change.
Looking up I saw the crowd at the primary debate about to go into a ravenous drooling fit over the clearly inbred son of a well known political family. Sitting there smiling to the crowd as if he wondered why all these people were so happy to see him and when he might get his next meal.
It's all a bit of a blur after that, I remember rescuing Jon from a pack of people of various gender identities all of whom wanted to do some sort of horrible carnal thing to him. For some reason he didn't seem to be all that happy to be rescued.
If you were to take an image of the former angel Lucifer I bet he'd look like Jon, he had a face best described as somewhere between handsome and pretty. With Blonde shoulder length hair that gave off an image that reminded me of paintings of angels from my days where I went to church. Mind you he made up for all of that in his desire to figure out all things technological and a stronger desire than most to attempt to mate with anything that could walk on two legs.
But the less said about the goat incident the better.
Kat had decided she was the only one sober or sane enough to drive and off we went.
Everything was fine until we ran into Rush Limbaugh.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Really?
So sometimes you see a piece of news and your brain just simply refuses to process it on the first try. Today had one for me. A group of anti abortion protestors calling themselves "Operation Save America" decided to crash the service at a Unitarian church, taking an opportunity to speak their beliefs while the congregation was observing a moment of silence for a member who had passed away.
The story in a nutshell.
Because ya know I always feel like I might change my spiritual path when confronted by ranting half wits who crash my community.
Whoever organized this little excursion to loony land was well aware he wouldn't win any converts. Not by standing up in the middle of a service and acting like a jerk, or later when they pressed pictures of aborted fetus's to the churches windows.
It's a simple rallying of the troops by engaging in activity to isolate them from social norms around them and unite them in a common drive toward their goal.
Kind of like what groups described as "cults" do to their members. Cut people off from sources of information outside of your own, indoctrinate them, and then train them to follow the leader.
As the world becomes less and less like a vision of America that coincides with what some remember, groups of people are trying hard to find anyone who will give them a vision of what they want. And these people are used accordingly.
So far these citizens of the far right have for the most part stayed non violent. Although there was that time someone shot up a Unitarian church. Or the time that guy shot the doctor in the doorway of his church. Those have been isolated incidents but I find myself worrying.
So if I may offer some advice, a vision if you will. If someone is telling that another group is totally wrong and needs to be adjusted to their way of thinking. Nod, smile and hit the back door as fast as you can. Soon this person will want you to be a mirror of their hates and desires. Acting as another appendage of their will.
I attend a Unitarian church, admittedly not often but I do enjoy sitting down and knowing that behind me there's a jewish couple, a christian beside me, and a humanist on the other side, with a muslim ahead of me. Afterword we'll all hang out and have coffee, and we'll talk to each other as people and as fellow travelers in this world.
I have no desire to change their views and they have no desire to change mine. Amongst us there's a belief that faith is a good thing but in the end our actions will determine how God (s) punish or reward us or not.
That people are different or something different from you does not make them your enemies, it does mean they know something you don't. So take the time to walk up and get to know them. Not only do you meet a possible new friend but in the end you also break the spell of the cult leader who spends way too much time looking for things to keep us apart when he should look for the things we can all agree on.
All too often we let ourselves fall prey to conflicts simply because we fail to understand the people around us. So take a few minutes, learn. And like I said if the nice leader wants you to go do something hateful to another group it might be time to go elsewhere quickly.
Todays add on is inspired by seeing the Talking Heads movie "Stop Making Sense" last night. Enjoy.
Burning Down the House
The story in a nutshell.
Because ya know I always feel like I might change my spiritual path when confronted by ranting half wits who crash my community.
Whoever organized this little excursion to loony land was well aware he wouldn't win any converts. Not by standing up in the middle of a service and acting like a jerk, or later when they pressed pictures of aborted fetus's to the churches windows.
It's a simple rallying of the troops by engaging in activity to isolate them from social norms around them and unite them in a common drive toward their goal.
Kind of like what groups described as "cults" do to their members. Cut people off from sources of information outside of your own, indoctrinate them, and then train them to follow the leader.
As the world becomes less and less like a vision of America that coincides with what some remember, groups of people are trying hard to find anyone who will give them a vision of what they want. And these people are used accordingly.
So far these citizens of the far right have for the most part stayed non violent. Although there was that time someone shot up a Unitarian church. Or the time that guy shot the doctor in the doorway of his church. Those have been isolated incidents but I find myself worrying.
So if I may offer some advice, a vision if you will. If someone is telling that another group is totally wrong and needs to be adjusted to their way of thinking. Nod, smile and hit the back door as fast as you can. Soon this person will want you to be a mirror of their hates and desires. Acting as another appendage of their will.
I attend a Unitarian church, admittedly not often but I do enjoy sitting down and knowing that behind me there's a jewish couple, a christian beside me, and a humanist on the other side, with a muslim ahead of me. Afterword we'll all hang out and have coffee, and we'll talk to each other as people and as fellow travelers in this world.
I have no desire to change their views and they have no desire to change mine. Amongst us there's a belief that faith is a good thing but in the end our actions will determine how God (s) punish or reward us or not.
That people are different or something different from you does not make them your enemies, it does mean they know something you don't. So take the time to walk up and get to know them. Not only do you meet a possible new friend but in the end you also break the spell of the cult leader who spends way too much time looking for things to keep us apart when he should look for the things we can all agree on.
All too often we let ourselves fall prey to conflicts simply because we fail to understand the people around us. So take a few minutes, learn. And like I said if the nice leader wants you to go do something hateful to another group it might be time to go elsewhere quickly.
Todays add on is inspired by seeing the Talking Heads movie "Stop Making Sense" last night. Enjoy.
Burning Down the House
Monday, July 21, 2014
#jadapose or sometimes I wonder why the black death may not be a bad thing.
Social media in a strange way is casting a light on an element of culture that I, as a man had remained blissfully unaware of. Namely rape culture and just how awful people can be.
Background. A young lady goes to a party, has a couple of drinks, wakes up with a huge gap in her memory and naked with evidence that she'd been sexually assaulted. At least one of her attackers posted a picture of her naked. Then it went viral as people began mocking her by taking pictures of themselves posed like her with the hash tag #jadapose.
Now the first thing that comes to mind for me is, that this one of a now growing list of incidents where a woman has been victimized then mocked, harassed and belittled in social media for it.
My second thought is what sort of sub conscious group thing have we as a society developed that makes it seem okay to trash someone who is quite clearly the victim? Are there so many people in our world who are so insecure in themselves, so blindly hateful of others or uncaring that the notion of someone defenseless and damaged is a matter of amusement?
Maybe I had the meanness gene in my mind bullied out of me early but I can't quite fathom how it is people can see a person in that position and not feel for them. It baffles even more to consider that a lot of jadaposers were girls and women. Who could all find themselves victims of the very same crime and harassment.
It would be interesting to sit down and have a word with the ones I think of jadaposeurs, and ask them what made it funny? Do you simply enjoy the suffering of others or are you so afraid of seeming weak to the rest of the herd that you point to someone weaker than yourself to make the predators not notice you.
Do you follow in the wake of social predators picking up scraps left over like a remora attached to a shark, and when will you notice that it's simply a matter of time before the rest of the herd you have gathered under this banner would happily turn on you for their enjoyment.
I don't know how to convince others that part of becoming a mature rational person is moving away from acts like this. Or how doing things like this simply makes the rest of us look at the one who does it as if they are simply a small child occupying a body that's grown large. A tiny soul in an adult body, best avoided and passed over and left in their own little world where someday they too will be the victims of crimes they perpetuate.
I do my best to see the most incredible things in people. Their creativity generosity and good natures when they have them. Sadly Jadaposeurs and their ilk remind us that we as a people have a long way to go before we can declare ourselves mature as a species.
Background. A young lady goes to a party, has a couple of drinks, wakes up with a huge gap in her memory and naked with evidence that she'd been sexually assaulted. At least one of her attackers posted a picture of her naked. Then it went viral as people began mocking her by taking pictures of themselves posed like her with the hash tag #jadapose.
Now the first thing that comes to mind for me is, that this one of a now growing list of incidents where a woman has been victimized then mocked, harassed and belittled in social media for it.
My second thought is what sort of sub conscious group thing have we as a society developed that makes it seem okay to trash someone who is quite clearly the victim? Are there so many people in our world who are so insecure in themselves, so blindly hateful of others or uncaring that the notion of someone defenseless and damaged is a matter of amusement?
Maybe I had the meanness gene in my mind bullied out of me early but I can't quite fathom how it is people can see a person in that position and not feel for them. It baffles even more to consider that a lot of jadaposers were girls and women. Who could all find themselves victims of the very same crime and harassment.
It would be interesting to sit down and have a word with the ones I think of jadaposeurs, and ask them what made it funny? Do you simply enjoy the suffering of others or are you so afraid of seeming weak to the rest of the herd that you point to someone weaker than yourself to make the predators not notice you.
Do you follow in the wake of social predators picking up scraps left over like a remora attached to a shark, and when will you notice that it's simply a matter of time before the rest of the herd you have gathered under this banner would happily turn on you for their enjoyment.
I don't know how to convince others that part of becoming a mature rational person is moving away from acts like this. Or how doing things like this simply makes the rest of us look at the one who does it as if they are simply a small child occupying a body that's grown large. A tiny soul in an adult body, best avoided and passed over and left in their own little world where someday they too will be the victims of crimes they perpetuate.
I do my best to see the most incredible things in people. Their creativity generosity and good natures when they have them. Sadly Jadaposeurs and their ilk remind us that we as a people have a long way to go before we can declare ourselves mature as a species.
How to spot a moron.
Just a quick post before work.
So got a comment from someone on IM who said. "You're only posting this pro women stuff because you're trolling for pussy."
No captain dumbass if I should get pussy for espousing a feminist view that's called a happy side effect.
I post thoughts about why it is we should re evaluate our societal attitude toward women because I take time to wonder how I would feel if I had to dodge land mines of social slights, possible sexual abuse, and often 2nd class citizenhood on a daily basis. Truth be told I'm pleased that a lot of women haven't freaked out and gone looking for a nice semi automatic rifle to straighten someone out.
If we're going to have a free, open and actually just society, then we have to address the notion that the role of women has been of subjugation for quite some time. So much now that it's something that we fail to notice as it's an everyday thing. And that really needs to change.
Next post is a request. #jadapose
Or seriously I am rooting for the zombies.
So got a comment from someone on IM who said. "You're only posting this pro women stuff because you're trolling for pussy."
No captain dumbass if I should get pussy for espousing a feminist view that's called a happy side effect.
I post thoughts about why it is we should re evaluate our societal attitude toward women because I take time to wonder how I would feel if I had to dodge land mines of social slights, possible sexual abuse, and often 2nd class citizenhood on a daily basis. Truth be told I'm pleased that a lot of women haven't freaked out and gone looking for a nice semi automatic rifle to straighten someone out.
If we're going to have a free, open and actually just society, then we have to address the notion that the role of women has been of subjugation for quite some time. So much now that it's something that we fail to notice as it's an everyday thing. And that really needs to change.
Next post is a request. #jadapose
Or seriously I am rooting for the zombies.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
umm words...The quest for something to say.
Seriously I should not attempt anything that requires more thinking than say pouring coffee on a saturday morning. My fridays and saturdays are weird. It works like this.
I get up at 645 am. Which for me is kind of an accomplishment in and of itself. I've been working some variety of second shift for 20 some odd years with the exception of the five years I was going to school. For an associates. Yeah, look some of us take more time than others.
I then throw on some clothes, grab my goody bag. (Loaded with my macbook, ipad, microphone and other stuff and make it to my car. Then I do my best not to hit pedestrians, irritate cops or draw fire from soccer moms who are likely more stressed than me. After that I stop by Hy Vee for some truly horrible breakfast food substitute and a large mug of coffee. (Although sometimes Hy Vee has a plastic jar of Pineapple for sale at their gas station, and when they do the day is declared a win.)
I then arrive at school and help students or do what Bob Maas asks me to do, within reason. If none of this shit is going on I write. To date I have finished the first drafts of three novels here. Seriously I love this job, no sarcasm. I am either helping people with their projects or working on my own.
Then once this job is done I hop in my car and drive a mile to women's hospital. Where I do my best to make sure the doctors and nurses all have what they need to bring new life into the world or keep the lives that all ready exist from floating away. It can be interesting but thats a story for another time.
So by the time I walk out the door at 930 pm I have pretty much been at work from 730 to 930. That's a 14 hour day for those of you keeping score at home. By the time saturday night rolls around I am underslept, usually a bit over stressed, tired beyond reason and kind of cranky. Go ahead ask me if I want to go out for a beer, if I say yes prepare to enjoy the show.
Sunday is currently my only actual complete day off for reasons that are hard to explain. (The short version, Women's Hospital is experiencing an explosion of incoming moms. All of whom apparently need stuff, this stuff is provided and inventoried by yours truly.) Monday and tuesday I work half days.
At this point I am dead tired and looking forward to Sunday where I will meet friends, talk about video editing, and paint stuff for an upcoming project. (Anyone got old CRT monitors they want to get rid of for an art project?)
In other news I am working on a trailer for a book which seems pretty awesome. I was going to work on that today and do some voice overs but, the air conditioning wont turn off here, and that makes recording difficult. Unless you're seriously into the sound of buzzing as a duet with my voice then you can get all you want.
Ohh like I said I have three first drafts done. I was thinking of putting one or two of them up online for people to read but before then I would love to have some editing help. Anyone interested. Hit me up in the comments section.
So when people ask me why I rarely do things on weekends thats it in a nutshell. My days off tend to be odd ones. For example I got this wednesday off specifically to go see the Talking Heads Concert film "Stop Making Sense." Which in my humble opinion is one of the few concert films that works as an actual movie.
The fact that there's a new whiskey bar and shop opening the same day is merely a coincidence.
So hope you enjoyed the rambling. I figured I'd break away from the serious stuff for a bit. Next time we'll talk about music, or art or maybe rape culture, we'll see what kind of mood I'm in. If you have a suggestion hit me up with a comment.
As a final note I am about to take hostages if I don't get a nice long back rub soon.
Big Business from Stop Making sense.
I get up at 645 am. Which for me is kind of an accomplishment in and of itself. I've been working some variety of second shift for 20 some odd years with the exception of the five years I was going to school. For an associates. Yeah, look some of us take more time than others.
I then throw on some clothes, grab my goody bag. (Loaded with my macbook, ipad, microphone and other stuff and make it to my car. Then I do my best not to hit pedestrians, irritate cops or draw fire from soccer moms who are likely more stressed than me. After that I stop by Hy Vee for some truly horrible breakfast food substitute and a large mug of coffee. (Although sometimes Hy Vee has a plastic jar of Pineapple for sale at their gas station, and when they do the day is declared a win.)
I then arrive at school and help students or do what Bob Maas asks me to do, within reason. If none of this shit is going on I write. To date I have finished the first drafts of three novels here. Seriously I love this job, no sarcasm. I am either helping people with their projects or working on my own.
Then once this job is done I hop in my car and drive a mile to women's hospital. Where I do my best to make sure the doctors and nurses all have what they need to bring new life into the world or keep the lives that all ready exist from floating away. It can be interesting but thats a story for another time.
So by the time I walk out the door at 930 pm I have pretty much been at work from 730 to 930. That's a 14 hour day for those of you keeping score at home. By the time saturday night rolls around I am underslept, usually a bit over stressed, tired beyond reason and kind of cranky. Go ahead ask me if I want to go out for a beer, if I say yes prepare to enjoy the show.
Sunday is currently my only actual complete day off for reasons that are hard to explain. (The short version, Women's Hospital is experiencing an explosion of incoming moms. All of whom apparently need stuff, this stuff is provided and inventoried by yours truly.) Monday and tuesday I work half days.
At this point I am dead tired and looking forward to Sunday where I will meet friends, talk about video editing, and paint stuff for an upcoming project. (Anyone got old CRT monitors they want to get rid of for an art project?)
In other news I am working on a trailer for a book which seems pretty awesome. I was going to work on that today and do some voice overs but, the air conditioning wont turn off here, and that makes recording difficult. Unless you're seriously into the sound of buzzing as a duet with my voice then you can get all you want.
Ohh like I said I have three first drafts done. I was thinking of putting one or two of them up online for people to read but before then I would love to have some editing help. Anyone interested. Hit me up in the comments section.
So when people ask me why I rarely do things on weekends thats it in a nutshell. My days off tend to be odd ones. For example I got this wednesday off specifically to go see the Talking Heads Concert film "Stop Making Sense." Which in my humble opinion is one of the few concert films that works as an actual movie.
The fact that there's a new whiskey bar and shop opening the same day is merely a coincidence.
So hope you enjoyed the rambling. I figured I'd break away from the serious stuff for a bit. Next time we'll talk about music, or art or maybe rape culture, we'll see what kind of mood I'm in. If you have a suggestion hit me up with a comment.
As a final note I am about to take hostages if I don't get a nice long back rub soon.
Big Business from Stop Making sense.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Persecuted? Ummmmm....
Before we begin, A quick disclaimer. I'm not a Christian. I went to church as a kid and for a while as an adult but over time I fell away from it. There were quite a few reasons but we'll get into those below.
There's a film coming out later this year called "Persecuted." Basically it's a tale about ... oh hell I'd explain the plot but I'll let them do it.
Persecuted trailer
And of course being a leftie I'll let these people describe it too.
Right Wing watch on Persecuted
Okay, So, got it. Nice Christian dude, bad government, bad other religions, etc etc. I kind of hate to be flippant but perhaps I've been following the far right wing of the evangelical movement for a little too long. Since about the 1980's when they kept trying to take my music away.
The film and the concept tell us a lot about how the Conservative Evangelical movement sees the world and their place in it. That they are the people with the pure knowledge of the love of God, and all those other people are out to get them. That being Christian in America is a reason to be persecuted.
So if I may make a statement. Not getting what you want all the time does not mean you are being persecuted it means that you are being treated like every other citizen who lives in this country. To those of us watching you flip out when someone says "Happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas", or when other religions are allowed a space near yours to have their own place of worship or, when you're beliefs have to share space with others rather than being paramount. Well I tend to think you look like a three year old having a fit of temper.
Freedom is not a zero sum game. Allowing others to experience the same rights as you does not take away any from you. What it does is put you in the same place other beliefs have been for some time, in a free marketplace of ideas. Nows the time for you to do a better job of selling your intellectual product. Not having privilege is not the same as losing rights, it means that now other have them and you have to play at their level.
It's a shock I know, and you'll likely moan about it for a long long time, but frankly this ones been a long time coming. I mean when you were by and large the only game in town it was pretty easy. You went to church or your local community thought you were weird and made you an outsider.
Ahhh the good old days. Which if you were white, male, straight and Christian were pretty awesome. If you were not one of those things well things kind of sucked by various degrees, and lets be honest the reason for a lot of that worldsuck came from religion.
Now you have to exist in a world were the truth about how it is Christianity spread across Europe and America is far easier to find than the myths you spread are. Where you have to coexist with systems of beliefs that do not make people feel bad for being gay, or weird or even for just having sex and linking it. Like I said your gonna have to up your game.
I knew the church and I weren't going to have a long lasting relationship fairly early on. At one of the churches we attended one of the ladies there would look at the books I would bring to catechism class and sniff at names like Joesef Heller, and Robert Heinlein. Telling me I was engaging in sin by reading them. To me though, they were broadening my world. And it was painfully obvious that she was annoyingl rude and probably batshit crazy. Then I looked at the rest of the congregation and saw various permutations on the same theme. People with perpetual blinders on, unwilling and afraid to look past what the preacher was teaching them.
By the time I hit the 7th grade I was pretty much ready to hit the back door on this whole experience. I liked the community but I hated what the teachings often did to the people in it. Limiting their ability to to see the world in a bigger picture.
Now those very people are saying they're being persecuted.
So I sigh and say the following. If you want to know what being persecuted means ask a Shia Muslim in Iraq and A Sunni Muslim in Iran. If you want to what it's like to be persecuted go out and find out what Tibetan Buddhists experience every day just for having a faith, or what it might be like to have to hide a Jewish identity should you live in Saudi Arabia where the penalty for being Jewish is death.
That's real persecution.
What you're going through i growing pains. The other siblings are no longer going to just sit there and take their place as second class citizens. Now that they're grown up it's time to act like an adult, because frankly the way you are acting now is not helping your case any.
For more on the subject I'll let this gentleman speak for me as he's way funnier.
Marcus Brigstocke on the three Abrahamic faiths.
There's a film coming out later this year called "Persecuted." Basically it's a tale about ... oh hell I'd explain the plot but I'll let them do it.
Persecuted trailer
And of course being a leftie I'll let these people describe it too.
Right Wing watch on Persecuted
Okay, So, got it. Nice Christian dude, bad government, bad other religions, etc etc. I kind of hate to be flippant but perhaps I've been following the far right wing of the evangelical movement for a little too long. Since about the 1980's when they kept trying to take my music away.
The film and the concept tell us a lot about how the Conservative Evangelical movement sees the world and their place in it. That they are the people with the pure knowledge of the love of God, and all those other people are out to get them. That being Christian in America is a reason to be persecuted.
So if I may make a statement. Not getting what you want all the time does not mean you are being persecuted it means that you are being treated like every other citizen who lives in this country. To those of us watching you flip out when someone says "Happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas", or when other religions are allowed a space near yours to have their own place of worship or, when you're beliefs have to share space with others rather than being paramount. Well I tend to think you look like a three year old having a fit of temper.
Freedom is not a zero sum game. Allowing others to experience the same rights as you does not take away any from you. What it does is put you in the same place other beliefs have been for some time, in a free marketplace of ideas. Nows the time for you to do a better job of selling your intellectual product. Not having privilege is not the same as losing rights, it means that now other have them and you have to play at their level.
It's a shock I know, and you'll likely moan about it for a long long time, but frankly this ones been a long time coming. I mean when you were by and large the only game in town it was pretty easy. You went to church or your local community thought you were weird and made you an outsider.
Ahhh the good old days. Which if you were white, male, straight and Christian were pretty awesome. If you were not one of those things well things kind of sucked by various degrees, and lets be honest the reason for a lot of that worldsuck came from religion.
Now you have to exist in a world were the truth about how it is Christianity spread across Europe and America is far easier to find than the myths you spread are. Where you have to coexist with systems of beliefs that do not make people feel bad for being gay, or weird or even for just having sex and linking it. Like I said your gonna have to up your game.
I knew the church and I weren't going to have a long lasting relationship fairly early on. At one of the churches we attended one of the ladies there would look at the books I would bring to catechism class and sniff at names like Joesef Heller, and Robert Heinlein. Telling me I was engaging in sin by reading them. To me though, they were broadening my world. And it was painfully obvious that she was annoyingl rude and probably batshit crazy. Then I looked at the rest of the congregation and saw various permutations on the same theme. People with perpetual blinders on, unwilling and afraid to look past what the preacher was teaching them.
By the time I hit the 7th grade I was pretty much ready to hit the back door on this whole experience. I liked the community but I hated what the teachings often did to the people in it. Limiting their ability to to see the world in a bigger picture.
Now those very people are saying they're being persecuted.
So I sigh and say the following. If you want to know what being persecuted means ask a Shia Muslim in Iraq and A Sunni Muslim in Iran. If you want to what it's like to be persecuted go out and find out what Tibetan Buddhists experience every day just for having a faith, or what it might be like to have to hide a Jewish identity should you live in Saudi Arabia where the penalty for being Jewish is death.
That's real persecution.
What you're going through i growing pains. The other siblings are no longer going to just sit there and take their place as second class citizens. Now that they're grown up it's time to act like an adult, because frankly the way you are acting now is not helping your case any.
For more on the subject I'll let this gentleman speak for me as he's way funnier.
Marcus Brigstocke on the three Abrahamic faiths.
Friday, July 11, 2014
I'm kind of glad I grew up.
Well not entirely. If you some of you know me just through reading this you might get the notion that I might be more mature than I really am. Believe me I have plenty of witnesses that can tell you all about how goofy I can be even now halfway into my forties.
A very wise person and brilliant writer named Travis Heerman once wrote a piece and performed it where he read notes he wanted to send back to his past self. It was amazing, acknowledging mistakes he made that he could now rack up to not knowing any better at the time. I really respected him for laying himself bare like that for us to see.
It reminded me of all the stupid things you "learn" as a kid from the people around you. Mostly other kids, but let's be honest adults create the world children live in.
I grew up during a rather barbaric era in country's culture. Called the late 70's and early 80's. We had kind of sorted out issues of race by then, but you could still hear kids making nigger jokes whnever they thought they could get away with it. And as I went to primarily white schools as a kid they kind of did it a lot.
Thankfully my parents took a dim view of that sort of thing and discouraged me from picking it up.
Keep in mind that period wasn't exactly kind to the LGBT community. Which was either kept out of the public spotlight or were portrayed as deviants and weirdo's by and large. So to my mind as a high schooler anyone in that group were a bunch of "fags".
The fact that I liked seeing two women making out in magazines and films however did not strike me as ironic at all. Let's be honest we're kind of confusing in our attitudes in those things.
Anyway all that changed when a good friend of mine came out to me not long after my first and not exactly successful attempt at college. Now by the standards we had back then I should have just shunned him and moved on.
On the other hand. For about three years from fifth through seventh grade I was the weird kid who got picked on and bullied all the time. I still have a hard time looking back on that period as it was just one long exercise in isolation. So after that when I started making friends they were really important to me. The notion of actual human contact and being in a crowd of people who got you was refreshing and revitalizing to say the least.
This guy had helped me out in the past, looked after me when i was being a drunken fool, which back then was way too common of an occurrence.
So rather than viewing it through the lens of the lessons I had been "taught" by my peers I saw it through the lens of someone who had been pretty damn good to me. At that moment the notion of looking down on someone because of their sexuality became a moot point.
I kind of think of it as me starting off on the path to the dreaded "M" word. Maturity. Which if I were to be honest usually involves unlearning all the old false hoods you've picked up socially through the years, and learning to overcome a fairly long self possessed streak in my own mind. Looking back on it I kind of mentally groan when I think of my behaviour in the past and am really grateful I got out from under a lot of it.
I do kind of shudder at the notion of how I would be if I held onto a lot of those things, and the incredible amazing people I know now who would not be part of my life if I had just gone with the flow.
There's still plenty of room for work on it, but I do enjoy trying. It gives me the room to learn something new, or to at least listen to view points I had not considered in the past.
Long story short it made my world a much larger place, and a much bigger playground for me to romp in when I'm done working. Growing up doesn't mean you forget how to play, it means learning how to play better with others. In the end I find that makes it a lot more fun.
A very wise person and brilliant writer named Travis Heerman once wrote a piece and performed it where he read notes he wanted to send back to his past self. It was amazing, acknowledging mistakes he made that he could now rack up to not knowing any better at the time. I really respected him for laying himself bare like that for us to see.
It reminded me of all the stupid things you "learn" as a kid from the people around you. Mostly other kids, but let's be honest adults create the world children live in.
I grew up during a rather barbaric era in country's culture. Called the late 70's and early 80's. We had kind of sorted out issues of race by then, but you could still hear kids making nigger jokes whnever they thought they could get away with it. And as I went to primarily white schools as a kid they kind of did it a lot.
Thankfully my parents took a dim view of that sort of thing and discouraged me from picking it up.
Keep in mind that period wasn't exactly kind to the LGBT community. Which was either kept out of the public spotlight or were portrayed as deviants and weirdo's by and large. So to my mind as a high schooler anyone in that group were a bunch of "fags".
The fact that I liked seeing two women making out in magazines and films however did not strike me as ironic at all. Let's be honest we're kind of confusing in our attitudes in those things.
Anyway all that changed when a good friend of mine came out to me not long after my first and not exactly successful attempt at college. Now by the standards we had back then I should have just shunned him and moved on.
On the other hand. For about three years from fifth through seventh grade I was the weird kid who got picked on and bullied all the time. I still have a hard time looking back on that period as it was just one long exercise in isolation. So after that when I started making friends they were really important to me. The notion of actual human contact and being in a crowd of people who got you was refreshing and revitalizing to say the least.
This guy had helped me out in the past, looked after me when i was being a drunken fool, which back then was way too common of an occurrence.
So rather than viewing it through the lens of the lessons I had been "taught" by my peers I saw it through the lens of someone who had been pretty damn good to me. At that moment the notion of looking down on someone because of their sexuality became a moot point.
I kind of think of it as me starting off on the path to the dreaded "M" word. Maturity. Which if I were to be honest usually involves unlearning all the old false hoods you've picked up socially through the years, and learning to overcome a fairly long self possessed streak in my own mind. Looking back on it I kind of mentally groan when I think of my behaviour in the past and am really grateful I got out from under a lot of it.
I do kind of shudder at the notion of how I would be if I held onto a lot of those things, and the incredible amazing people I know now who would not be part of my life if I had just gone with the flow.
There's still plenty of room for work on it, but I do enjoy trying. It gives me the room to learn something new, or to at least listen to view points I had not considered in the past.
Long story short it made my world a much larger place, and a much bigger playground for me to romp in when I'm done working. Growing up doesn't mean you forget how to play, it means learning how to play better with others. In the end I find that makes it a lot more fun.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Seriously, I hate celebrity culture.
I have a dream. That someday I will be successful in my chosen fields. reasonably wealthy and happy, while at the same time not being famous. It seems as though the current standards of media and the needs of large media companies for content has created a cultural situation in which we are willing to entertain ourselves with any human rain wreck with wash board abs, or a funny accent or who will simply abase themselves in any way to be on TV.
So please allow me to say, fuck that. I hate that whole business, not only does it lower the cultural bar , it also creates a situation where people who are professionals in the business find it hard to get work. (Writers and directors for example.)
For a brief moment I was excited to see the History channel would be running a show similar to Discovery's Biker Build Off. The original version of this show had two custom motorcycle builders making an original bike in ten days. from the ground up. Now being a motorcycle fan, and a lover of quality craftsmanship I loved that show. It had enough drama to fill most any given show. Making a motorcycle is anything but easy and doing it in ten days causes plenty of drama. I loved this show because it featured people actually showing skill and building things.
So I read the description for History channels show and in about three sentences lost interest. Long story short its much like the old discovery show, but you can feel the fingers of the producers adding new elements. Where the builders are sniping each others team members to work for them or sabotaging each other. Long story short, to anyone who knows the business, a whole lot of fake stuff added by the producers to keep things interesting.
It's what they like to call "enhanced reality."
I'm kind of sick of enhanced reality, I have a very profound fear that it, and it's world view are beginning to effect our own. If you think I'm over stating that take a look at "Dude/bro" culture for a while then compare it to the old Jersey shore or a number of other shows.
Maybe it's just me but there used to be a time that to be a celebrity you needed to do something that was worth celebrating. Negotiate a treaty, win a war, cure a disease something that people could actually be impacted by.
Now we have people who are famous for being famous. You know who they are, so no need to drop names. We are in a world surrounded by sex tape diva's, stars famous for punching out their girlfriends, Joe the plumber types who people actually listen to and of course more and more reality show stars who frankly seem to have no other functional skill then showing up on time and being willing to do anything for the camera.
The annoying part about Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame comment is that by and large most famous people these days either can't fill the fifteen minutes or have you praying to see 14:59 on the clock five minutes after being introduced to them.
Meanwhile there are so many people doing amazing things. Working to end hunger, going out to parts of the world and vaccinating people so they don't get or spread diseases, and helping the world to be a better place.
Ya know the sort of folks you're average reality show producer could give a fuck about. A while back two friends of mine told me they watch "Here comes Honey Boo Boo." because it made them feel better about themselves. I love them both but seriously I did nothing to hide my world sized level of disappointment at them as people.
Here's what makes me feel better about myself. Going out and doing stuff, and encouraging others to do so. Maybe we should help convince some other folks to do the same. Then we can all smile as this horrible culture of celebrity dies off like the dinosaurs.
If not my biggest fear is we are headed toward this very quickly.
Idiocracy "OW my balls!!"
So please allow me to say, fuck that. I hate that whole business, not only does it lower the cultural bar , it also creates a situation where people who are professionals in the business find it hard to get work. (Writers and directors for example.)
For a brief moment I was excited to see the History channel would be running a show similar to Discovery's Biker Build Off. The original version of this show had two custom motorcycle builders making an original bike in ten days. from the ground up. Now being a motorcycle fan, and a lover of quality craftsmanship I loved that show. It had enough drama to fill most any given show. Making a motorcycle is anything but easy and doing it in ten days causes plenty of drama. I loved this show because it featured people actually showing skill and building things.
So I read the description for History channels show and in about three sentences lost interest. Long story short its much like the old discovery show, but you can feel the fingers of the producers adding new elements. Where the builders are sniping each others team members to work for them or sabotaging each other. Long story short, to anyone who knows the business, a whole lot of fake stuff added by the producers to keep things interesting.
It's what they like to call "enhanced reality."
I'm kind of sick of enhanced reality, I have a very profound fear that it, and it's world view are beginning to effect our own. If you think I'm over stating that take a look at "Dude/bro" culture for a while then compare it to the old Jersey shore or a number of other shows.
Maybe it's just me but there used to be a time that to be a celebrity you needed to do something that was worth celebrating. Negotiate a treaty, win a war, cure a disease something that people could actually be impacted by.
Now we have people who are famous for being famous. You know who they are, so no need to drop names. We are in a world surrounded by sex tape diva's, stars famous for punching out their girlfriends, Joe the plumber types who people actually listen to and of course more and more reality show stars who frankly seem to have no other functional skill then showing up on time and being willing to do anything for the camera.
The annoying part about Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame comment is that by and large most famous people these days either can't fill the fifteen minutes or have you praying to see 14:59 on the clock five minutes after being introduced to them.
Meanwhile there are so many people doing amazing things. Working to end hunger, going out to parts of the world and vaccinating people so they don't get or spread diseases, and helping the world to be a better place.
Ya know the sort of folks you're average reality show producer could give a fuck about. A while back two friends of mine told me they watch "Here comes Honey Boo Boo." because it made them feel better about themselves. I love them both but seriously I did nothing to hide my world sized level of disappointment at them as people.
Here's what makes me feel better about myself. Going out and doing stuff, and encouraging others to do so. Maybe we should help convince some other folks to do the same. Then we can all smile as this horrible culture of celebrity dies off like the dinosaurs.
If not my biggest fear is we are headed toward this very quickly.
Idiocracy "OW my balls!!"
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
When did we?
So Im curious, at what point in the greater internet timeline did people simply lose the ability to communicate effectively? I'm genuinely curious because lately more so than ever it seems like the level of debate we see out there in the world of social media looks more and more like a riot sponsored by Jaegermeister and the makers of fresh minty crack.
If I may give a humble opinion part of it can be summed by an image macro I saw on a friends page on the might Facebook. Keep in mind, this is a friend of mine who has the biggest heart in the world, but is fairly conservative. Yet we still talk to each other like people because, ya know, personal respect and all.
The Macro had text that went something like this.
"If someone says you have offended them, GOOD! That means you have stood for what you believed in, keep doing it."
I'm paraphrasing, my memory is a bit dodgy on the specifics but that was the message. Now what this message really does is encourage people to limit the ability to communicate. If you pass along some sort of horrible shocking thing that offends people, you'll get a lot of attention. Some serious flaming, and heat from people who read it and lost the ability to think, but in the end what you won't get is a coherent discussion of whatever the subject of your thing was in the first place.
Communication happens in a area where people feel free to speak to one another on a more or less playing field. That field tilts pretty hard when one of the people is going out of their way to make the other person unreasonably angry, before the conversation even begins.
Lately it seems as though social media is empowering people to have a voice, which would be awesome, except that the first they tend to do with it is announce something really loudly and can't believe when others don't share their views. Then it kind of degenerates into a battle of who can spout what piece of information at the other. And by information I mean "Something I read on an op ed page so it has to be true."
Seriously I have seen three major post fights break out on my Facebook this weekend. Often spurred on by some individual who either has chosen to view their opinion as fact, decided not to notice when someone else posted a refutation of their argument. Or simply jumped in and trolled the posts for the lulz (I know who you are, and you will pay.) But usually by about the third or fourth posts the battlements have been manned and the war is on.
Which in a way would be okay if we could have a war of ideas that was about actual communication than turning a discussion into yet another on line version of a Jerry Springer episode, where one person stands up and acts as dysfunctional as possible and then everyone else stands watches and replies, finding it hard to believe that anyone would talk like that.
So here, let me give ya some hints as to how to maybe approach a online, social media discussion to keep it interesting but reduce the amount of dysfunction?
Okay first off let's remember a basic thing, somewhere on the other end of the fiber optic line is another person. Maybe you might want to scale your statements with the idea of how you would speak to them in person. The lack of proximity to the people you are talking to often reminds of George Carlin's bit about how much of an asshole a person is based on how far away they are.
If you are about to hit enter and you feel smug about the message you're going to send? Yeah read it again. Most likely you're message is going to make it worse rather than better. Might be time to re edit your comment. Try some wit, watch Stephen Fry, or Eddie Izzard. They could tell me to go fuck myself and I'd likely ask them where they keep the lube. The smug guy just makes me want to paste him in front of his family.
Third if you're trolling just to stir shit up, maybe you should consider growing up. There's room for all sorts of behaviour but when it comes to trolling leave it to the pros. The b/tards have a lock on this behaviour, and do it way better than you. What you think gives you a giggle makes me shrug perhaps groan a little, and then makes me think far far less of you as a human being.
Lastly get out and talk to actual people. From outside you're own little world. go hang out see things and do stuff. I see way too many people in this social world who apparently only hang out with others of their own gib. Trust me life is way more entertaining when you have a broad palette of people to interact with.
Sadly I have a feeling I'll be getting back to this subject.
So as I leave let me part with this.
George Carlin discusses assholes
If I may give a humble opinion part of it can be summed by an image macro I saw on a friends page on the might Facebook. Keep in mind, this is a friend of mine who has the biggest heart in the world, but is fairly conservative. Yet we still talk to each other like people because, ya know, personal respect and all.
The Macro had text that went something like this.
"If someone says you have offended them, GOOD! That means you have stood for what you believed in, keep doing it."
I'm paraphrasing, my memory is a bit dodgy on the specifics but that was the message. Now what this message really does is encourage people to limit the ability to communicate. If you pass along some sort of horrible shocking thing that offends people, you'll get a lot of attention. Some serious flaming, and heat from people who read it and lost the ability to think, but in the end what you won't get is a coherent discussion of whatever the subject of your thing was in the first place.
Communication happens in a area where people feel free to speak to one another on a more or less playing field. That field tilts pretty hard when one of the people is going out of their way to make the other person unreasonably angry, before the conversation even begins.
Lately it seems as though social media is empowering people to have a voice, which would be awesome, except that the first they tend to do with it is announce something really loudly and can't believe when others don't share their views. Then it kind of degenerates into a battle of who can spout what piece of information at the other. And by information I mean "Something I read on an op ed page so it has to be true."
Seriously I have seen three major post fights break out on my Facebook this weekend. Often spurred on by some individual who either has chosen to view their opinion as fact, decided not to notice when someone else posted a refutation of their argument. Or simply jumped in and trolled the posts for the lulz (I know who you are, and you will pay.) But usually by about the third or fourth posts the battlements have been manned and the war is on.
Which in a way would be okay if we could have a war of ideas that was about actual communication than turning a discussion into yet another on line version of a Jerry Springer episode, where one person stands up and acts as dysfunctional as possible and then everyone else stands watches and replies, finding it hard to believe that anyone would talk like that.
So here, let me give ya some hints as to how to maybe approach a online, social media discussion to keep it interesting but reduce the amount of dysfunction?
Okay first off let's remember a basic thing, somewhere on the other end of the fiber optic line is another person. Maybe you might want to scale your statements with the idea of how you would speak to them in person. The lack of proximity to the people you are talking to often reminds of George Carlin's bit about how much of an asshole a person is based on how far away they are.
If you are about to hit enter and you feel smug about the message you're going to send? Yeah read it again. Most likely you're message is going to make it worse rather than better. Might be time to re edit your comment. Try some wit, watch Stephen Fry, or Eddie Izzard. They could tell me to go fuck myself and I'd likely ask them where they keep the lube. The smug guy just makes me want to paste him in front of his family.
Third if you're trolling just to stir shit up, maybe you should consider growing up. There's room for all sorts of behaviour but when it comes to trolling leave it to the pros. The b/tards have a lock on this behaviour, and do it way better than you. What you think gives you a giggle makes me shrug perhaps groan a little, and then makes me think far far less of you as a human being.
Lastly get out and talk to actual people. From outside you're own little world. go hang out see things and do stuff. I see way too many people in this social world who apparently only hang out with others of their own gib. Trust me life is way more entertaining when you have a broad palette of people to interact with.
Sadly I have a feeling I'll be getting back to this subject.
So as I leave let me part with this.
George Carlin discusses assholes
Monday, July 7, 2014
That moment
So somewhere in you're life ,if you're lucky, you had a moment where some piece of work hauled off whacked you between your eyes and opened you up to the idea that you wanted to do that. Or something much like it.
I've had a few of those moments so from time to time I'll share. Hopefully someone out there has an experience or two they'd like to share as well.
Let's get something straight, I love music in general, and I am by and large not a genre snob, but rock and roll will always be the form closest to my heart. As an emerging adolescent it helped to give me a means and path to take all that emerging energy and put it into something mostly positive. Like playing the guitar.
To me music had always been some sort of mystery, in junior high I played the saxophone, but while I was an okay player I felt no real connection to it. It was a chore like any other. Those people on the radio or TV obviously had some sort of mystical connection to music that I at the time lacked.
Then the local university began doing a series of one dollar movies at their theatre. So each week I would go and get my mind warped by some new film I would never see on broadcast TV. (Remember it was the early 80's people in town had cable but we didn't.) So I would watch foreign films, horror movies and others that broadened my mind.
So during a summer day I plopped down to go see the latest movie in the series. "The Kids Are Alright" which is not the film about Mark Ruffalo and a lesbian couple, but a documentary about the band the Who.
Now we all have bands and music that touch us and shape us, but my love of the Who borders on religious adoration. Their album Quadrophenia to me was the thing that kept me from going completely nuts on way too many stressed out adolescent nights. So to actually see even a film of them performing was an amazing night for me.
The ending of the film was the moment for me. They're playing "Won't Get Fooled Again." And just after the quiet synthesizer part and Keith's drum solo the venue lights in the film come up as Roger screams "YEAAAHHH!!!!" The camera is at the side of the stage and Pete Townshend is sliding on his knees across the stage which on a movie screen looks like he's about to land in your lap.
To borrow a phrase from UK English I was Gob smacked. It had an energy that to this day still makes my skin turn to gooseflesh.
My dad picked me up and I was losing my mind about this movie. He was always cheerful and quite nice about his son's latest obsession. Then I remembered, my dad had an old sears harmony acoustic guitar in the closet which he hadn't touched since the late sixties.
"Dad can I borrow your guitar?"
"Feel free." He said.
He never got it back. This was at the start of the home video boom, and we had a VHS machine. My folks would rent movies, and I'd rent concerts. One day my dad saw me watching a David Gilmour concert and rewinding the tape over and over so I could learn how to play a part in one of the songs.
That's when he figured this was for real, and started shelling out for lessons.
I still play it to this day, pick it up and play, not just to learn songs but simply to blow off some steam. I lay reasonably well, but in my mind I'm Pete Townshend blasting power chords and writing truth in song form.
It also got me started into writing and art but that's a story for another occasion.
So for the moment I spoke of go to this link and just go to the 7 minute 45 second mark on the video below.
Won't Get Fooled again
I've had a few of those moments so from time to time I'll share. Hopefully someone out there has an experience or two they'd like to share as well.
Let's get something straight, I love music in general, and I am by and large not a genre snob, but rock and roll will always be the form closest to my heart. As an emerging adolescent it helped to give me a means and path to take all that emerging energy and put it into something mostly positive. Like playing the guitar.
To me music had always been some sort of mystery, in junior high I played the saxophone, but while I was an okay player I felt no real connection to it. It was a chore like any other. Those people on the radio or TV obviously had some sort of mystical connection to music that I at the time lacked.
Then the local university began doing a series of one dollar movies at their theatre. So each week I would go and get my mind warped by some new film I would never see on broadcast TV. (Remember it was the early 80's people in town had cable but we didn't.) So I would watch foreign films, horror movies and others that broadened my mind.
So during a summer day I plopped down to go see the latest movie in the series. "The Kids Are Alright" which is not the film about Mark Ruffalo and a lesbian couple, but a documentary about the band the Who.
Now we all have bands and music that touch us and shape us, but my love of the Who borders on religious adoration. Their album Quadrophenia to me was the thing that kept me from going completely nuts on way too many stressed out adolescent nights. So to actually see even a film of them performing was an amazing night for me.
The ending of the film was the moment for me. They're playing "Won't Get Fooled Again." And just after the quiet synthesizer part and Keith's drum solo the venue lights in the film come up as Roger screams "YEAAAHHH!!!!" The camera is at the side of the stage and Pete Townshend is sliding on his knees across the stage which on a movie screen looks like he's about to land in your lap.
To borrow a phrase from UK English I was Gob smacked. It had an energy that to this day still makes my skin turn to gooseflesh.
My dad picked me up and I was losing my mind about this movie. He was always cheerful and quite nice about his son's latest obsession. Then I remembered, my dad had an old sears harmony acoustic guitar in the closet which he hadn't touched since the late sixties.
"Dad can I borrow your guitar?"
"Feel free." He said.
He never got it back. This was at the start of the home video boom, and we had a VHS machine. My folks would rent movies, and I'd rent concerts. One day my dad saw me watching a David Gilmour concert and rewinding the tape over and over so I could learn how to play a part in one of the songs.
That's when he figured this was for real, and started shelling out for lessons.
I still play it to this day, pick it up and play, not just to learn songs but simply to blow off some steam. I lay reasonably well, but in my mind I'm Pete Townshend blasting power chords and writing truth in song form.
It also got me started into writing and art but that's a story for another occasion.
So for the moment I spoke of go to this link and just go to the 7 minute 45 second mark on the video below.
Won't Get Fooled again
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Misogyny and Slut shaming. Seriously WTF?
So I keep thinking about this subject, especially since Mondays ruling, and every time I do my mind coughs up a mental hairball preventing me from really bringing the full force of my more sarcastic neurons to aim at it.
As much as the ruling from the Supreme court really got on my nerves, it was the reaction from a lot of men and some women that left me sitting there alternating between scratching my head and wanting to buy a skateboard so I could smack a motherfucker in the face with it.
The reactions I saw mostly came down to. "Well if you can't afford birth control maybe you should keep your legs closed." Or some variety there of. Continuing a long running trend of missing the point in the whole hormonal birth control debate. Which among other thing includes notions that it's used to regulate women's cycles, relief from acne, endometriosis and other effects, but because it involves sex the hard core narrow minded tend to miss that.
No instead we get these sorts of comments, and I kind of wonder why. Excuse me while I show off my self interest but a world full of women with closed legs does seem to me to be hellish at best, and not the sort of thing we should strive for.
I think it shows off a huge dichotomy in the way we view sexual desire and relations based on which gender is having them. Any guy can wander around looking over the women in any club claim he wants them all and he's a stud, but if a woman announces she wants every guy, she's a slut.
Now we all already know this. We've heard that quote millions of times yet somehow we never really examine why this is.
I would love to grab a group of people who are intelligent and articulate and talk this one out sometime. But in the meantime I'll advance some theories.
First off there's the notion that a woman is in some way shape or form a possession. Brought to us by Abrahamic faiths and a few Milena of patriarchy. Clearly a possession has no use for the notion of her own desires or pleasures, and therefore any woman who does is not acting within her God given societal role. Henceforth if she's acting like a man or showing signs of sexual desire like a man she's a slut simply for not playing the game the way we want her too.
Second it could be physical jealousy. Let's be honest here, barring the use of pharmaceuticals even the most physically capable man is gone start flagging after he gets to the fourth or fifth woman in line. Women on the other hand, if you'll forgive the phrase have a deeper well for the physical aspect of sex and can go much longer and take more partners. Let's face it we as guys tend to be vain creatures with fragile egos, and this is a subject that can hit a guy square in the ole.. well yeah.
From a practical aspect the notion of slut shaming seems to be (At least in this bastion of mid west "values") based upon the idea of a woman admitting she likes sex in general or worse yet has ongoing sexual relations with multiple partners. Something that if a guy said it would get him slaps on the back and a free pint at the local bar.
Which is why I don't really get it I guess. Maybe I'm just the odd one out but the notion that a woman might enjoy sex doesn't bother me, in fact I find it admirable and I do my best to help out with their enjoyment when I can.
For me it's all about a rather sub conscious system of control for women. Something we should perhaps finally acknowledge, confront, and hopefully move away from. The world is full of problems but the worst ones are the problems we fail to notice as they're "just how things are."
Like what ya read? don't like what you read? Got a comment or suggestion? Get in touch, I'd love to hear from you.
And here's today's fun link.
Professor Elemental. "Fighting Trousers."
As much as the ruling from the Supreme court really got on my nerves, it was the reaction from a lot of men and some women that left me sitting there alternating between scratching my head and wanting to buy a skateboard so I could smack a motherfucker in the face with it.
The reactions I saw mostly came down to. "Well if you can't afford birth control maybe you should keep your legs closed." Or some variety there of. Continuing a long running trend of missing the point in the whole hormonal birth control debate. Which among other thing includes notions that it's used to regulate women's cycles, relief from acne, endometriosis and other effects, but because it involves sex the hard core narrow minded tend to miss that.
No instead we get these sorts of comments, and I kind of wonder why. Excuse me while I show off my self interest but a world full of women with closed legs does seem to me to be hellish at best, and not the sort of thing we should strive for.
I think it shows off a huge dichotomy in the way we view sexual desire and relations based on which gender is having them. Any guy can wander around looking over the women in any club claim he wants them all and he's a stud, but if a woman announces she wants every guy, she's a slut.
Now we all already know this. We've heard that quote millions of times yet somehow we never really examine why this is.
I would love to grab a group of people who are intelligent and articulate and talk this one out sometime. But in the meantime I'll advance some theories.
First off there's the notion that a woman is in some way shape or form a possession. Brought to us by Abrahamic faiths and a few Milena of patriarchy. Clearly a possession has no use for the notion of her own desires or pleasures, and therefore any woman who does is not acting within her God given societal role. Henceforth if she's acting like a man or showing signs of sexual desire like a man she's a slut simply for not playing the game the way we want her too.
Second it could be physical jealousy. Let's be honest here, barring the use of pharmaceuticals even the most physically capable man is gone start flagging after he gets to the fourth or fifth woman in line. Women on the other hand, if you'll forgive the phrase have a deeper well for the physical aspect of sex and can go much longer and take more partners. Let's face it we as guys tend to be vain creatures with fragile egos, and this is a subject that can hit a guy square in the ole.. well yeah.
From a practical aspect the notion of slut shaming seems to be (At least in this bastion of mid west "values") based upon the idea of a woman admitting she likes sex in general or worse yet has ongoing sexual relations with multiple partners. Something that if a guy said it would get him slaps on the back and a free pint at the local bar.
Which is why I don't really get it I guess. Maybe I'm just the odd one out but the notion that a woman might enjoy sex doesn't bother me, in fact I find it admirable and I do my best to help out with their enjoyment when I can.
For me it's all about a rather sub conscious system of control for women. Something we should perhaps finally acknowledge, confront, and hopefully move away from. The world is full of problems but the worst ones are the problems we fail to notice as they're "just how things are."
Like what ya read? don't like what you read? Got a comment or suggestion? Get in touch, I'd love to hear from you.
And here's today's fun link.
Professor Elemental. "Fighting Trousers."
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
MOVING!!!
It's really the sort of fun usually reserved for days when you get kicked in the shins over and over.
Thankfully I have the most awesome friends in the world. Big thanks to Bill Dudley who brought by a truck and a trailer, Tom Peterson who brought his own bad self and a big smile. Ann Myers without whom nothing of any consequence ever gets done. Jon Van Kampen for being younger than all of us and therefore did a lot of work without complaints about his back or knees.
Kurt Lambrecht, who despite missing most of a hand still busts ass like three people, Lani Santos who somehow manages to make any project seem fun by her presence. Jennifer for being the newest of my friends to turn up and doing all this with a smile on her face. Bill Lockwood who had not much to do for a couple of hours, stopped by and arranged all my AV gear, cause he rocks.
To Ephemily and Lilly, who came by the next day and showed my how easy cleaning an apartment is. Ohh and they brought food. Good food. Prosciutto, cheese and tortillas for the win.
Ohh and Ann Myers .. again. Who came by on Monday to help me grab the last of the pesky stuff.
I am amused that I will say I am blessed by amazing people in my life as many of these folks are atheists, but I think they get the point.
Beer's on me folks thanks so much.
Thankfully I have the most awesome friends in the world. Big thanks to Bill Dudley who brought by a truck and a trailer, Tom Peterson who brought his own bad self and a big smile. Ann Myers without whom nothing of any consequence ever gets done. Jon Van Kampen for being younger than all of us and therefore did a lot of work without complaints about his back or knees.
Kurt Lambrecht, who despite missing most of a hand still busts ass like three people, Lani Santos who somehow manages to make any project seem fun by her presence. Jennifer for being the newest of my friends to turn up and doing all this with a smile on her face. Bill Lockwood who had not much to do for a couple of hours, stopped by and arranged all my AV gear, cause he rocks.
To Ephemily and Lilly, who came by the next day and showed my how easy cleaning an apartment is. Ohh and they brought food. Good food. Prosciutto, cheese and tortillas for the win.
Ohh and Ann Myers .. again. Who came by on Monday to help me grab the last of the pesky stuff.
I am amused that I will say I am blessed by amazing people in my life as many of these folks are atheists, but I think they get the point.
Beer's on me folks thanks so much.
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