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Dec 27

The Birds are Up to No Good.

Posted on Sunday, December 27, 2009 in Uncategorized

That isn’t a euphemism for anything – my three cockatiels are plotting something. I don’t know what it is but they are hard at work on whatever -it- is. This has been on my mind for the past few days. I don’t have any idea what they are up to but I know they are all up to something! They get this guilty look on their face when I look up from the computer to them and quickly scurry away. Their mohawks go up and they get this big grin on their face. I go over and inspect their cages and I don’t see anything amiss. I get confused. I sit back down. Once they think the coast is clear, they are back to work.

I don’t think they are plotting escape – as they chirp innocently back and forth to each other. They don’t like leaving their cages. When I open the doors for them to come out, they just sit inside. They are very happy to be just where they are. The birds sing all the time.

My dad called and I mentioned that the birds were plotting something to him. He didn’t seem concerned. He said they do the same thing with him too. I told him they must be plotting something. World Domination, maybe? I wouldn’t put it past our three cockatiels.

Dec 21

Genderfork + Free Music: Ryan Harvey

Posted on Monday, December 21, 2009 in Uncategorized

My fifteen minutes of fame has come – my profile was posted on genderfork. Check it out here.

In other news, I’ve been listening to some riot folk. I really like the album The New Enclosures by Ryan Harvey. It’s political and sounds good. You can download the album for free at http://www.riotfolk.org/?m=ryanharvey&p=music. Enjoy!

Dec 14

Pills: Is America Over Medicated?

Posted on Monday, December 14, 2009 in Uncategorized

Today I kept getting confronted by pills.  My friend is sick and needed anti-biotics.  Her insurance decided to disappear and there went $50.  I went downstairs to eat lunch and I was confronted by my dad’s wife sorting pills for the upcoming days of the week.  Lots of pills.  All rainbow of colors.  She made a comment, about something she thought was funny that her brother said, “Gee… you need to retire by the time you’re 65 because you need to go to the doctor, the dentist… pick up the medication, and sort it.  No wonder why you don’t have time to work when you are old being so busy taking care of yourself!”  I just stared at her blankly and she shrugged it off, “Maybe you had to be there for it to be funny.”  I didn’t know how to begin to explain what the hamster wheel in my head was formulating.  Are you saying you are so sick and broken with old age that you can’t function like a normal human being by the age of 65?  That you need these many pills to function properly?  I don’t want that to be my life.  I glance at all the pills and she comments, “I don’t know what I would do without my doctor and herbalist.”  I thought, didn’t say, “Maybe take less pills?”

I did some research and found that almost half of America takes at least one prescription drug with one in six taking three or more. About 130-million Americans take medication every month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. People in the United States buy much more medicine per person than any other country. According to an article written in 2005 by World and Nation, sales of prescription drugs were up two-thirds from the last decade to 3.5 billion yearly. Shockingly, more than 125,000 Americans are killed by drug reactions and mistakes which makes drug reaction the fourth highest killer in the United States. Most people are grateful to have a pill to take but is it really necessary?

For some people, pills are necessary for their condition but for others, it’s just abuse. Exercise and diet can fight diabetes and heart disease just as well as drugs – but popping the pill is easier than changing yourself. Maybe if people ate less meat filled with hormones and vegetables full of pesticides, we wouldn’t need as many drugs. Maybe if we lived in a world that didn’t confine you to a cubicle and force you in front of a screen for 8 hours a day, we’d have more freedom. Pre-historic man used to spend about four hours a day gathering food and the rest of the time playing. Modern man spends so much time at work and is so exhausted from his day, that the last thing a person wants to do is exercise. Modern man usually just plops down in front of the television to relax and go to bed without doing much movement. Maybe if we incorporated an hour or two of exercise into the day – people would be healthier. For now, drug companies are making billions off people’s misery and pain.

Dec 11

Liberals are Useless – A Link to an Article by Chris Hedges

Posted on Friday, December 11, 2009 in Uncategorized

I just discovered a new author, Christ Hedges, he seems really cool.  I am going to go out and buy his book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.  Check out the article he wrote about Liberals are Useless – we need more than just lip service in this day and age.  My opinion of politics: right wing and left wing are still attached to the same man.

Read the article Liberals are Useless – it’s a good read.

Dec 10

An Anoymous Question: College and Higher Education

Posted on Thursday, December 10, 2009 in Uncategorized

Comments, Thoughts, Questions, and anything else.: i was just wondering if you go/went to college or how you felt about higher education.

I’ve gone to college.  I’ve been to several colleges.  I haven’t graduated yet and currently on leave from my most current school.  I’ve been to a university of California, a private Catholic university, a community college, and two prestigious art schools.  I’ve changed majors so far five times.  I was: theater, painting, illustration, film, and fine arts.  Plus, I was part of and lead several clubs and organizations.  My current GPA is around a 3.5.  I’ve studied on the West coast and the East coast.  I’ve been through about six years of college so far.  I know college very well.  I might graduate someday.  I have enough credits for it just none in the right places.

Overall, I was very disappointed with college.  It was a lot of work but it wasn’t hard.  I was hoping to find intelligent life and people I could relate to.  I didn’t which is why I changed schools so many times because I thought perhaps it was the school and the crowd it attracted.  First university was all sex, drugs, and beer.  I’m straightedge and not into partying so I didn’t have much of a social life.  The people were plastic, superficial and materialistic. So, I tried going to the extreme opposite which was a private Catholic university.  The Catholic university was too Catholic – they taught creationism in the science classes and people thought that was a good thing so I had to leave.  The art schools were pretentious, highly competitive, and cut throat.  My fellow students were mean and jerks.  The community college was something I tried to do to just get a few credits while in limbo but being surrounded by the people who attended it depressed me so much I just had to drop out.

I think college is a system within the System.  It’s part of the capitalistic machine to train the next generation of workers.  It’s also a system of control.  Knowledge is power and the rich don’t want to part with it.  Depending on which college you go to depends on what education you will get.  If you go to Standford, they’ll teach you to be a CEO.  If you go to a state school, they teach you to be a manager.  It’s very classist because college is about the money not about teaching.  If you can’t afford it, you’ll be working minimum wage jobs for the rest of your life with a few rare exceptions.  In college, it’s more of the formal conditional received through the public school system as they try to control how you’ll think and relate to the world.  They fill your head full of knowledge that has their slant to it.  They want you to think in their terms with their ideas.  They don’t want you thinking for yourself.

With that being said, the only way the system is going to change is if the people change it.  The only way the system is going to change is from within.  Have you seen the movie SLC Punk?  Stevo’s realization that you can do more harm to the system from within than from the outside leads him to go back to school to become a lawyer.  The only way the we’re going to destroy the system of control is to become the system then dismantle it.  If the people don’t want the system to be there, it wouldn’t be there.  We could build a new world.

I think college education is important to become the system to fight the system.  I am considering going back to school to get a women’s and gender studies degree and then going on to get a PH.D.  I want to teach the world about peace, love, freedom from oppression and hierarchies, and equality.  However, I recently talked to a former professor of mine who has a PH.D and mentioned my idea, thinking that having a credential would make people more willing to listen to me.  His exact words to me were, “I have a PH.D and it doesn’t make people listen to me.” So, I am unsure right now if I really need school.  It all depends on what you want to do with your life and if school will help get you there.  It’s a personal thing and the answer is different for everyone.

Dec 2

How to make the Holiday good for everyone. No joke. Pass it on.

Posted on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 in Uncategorized

IT IS TIME TO MAKE THE HOLIDAY SEASON GOOD FOR EVERYONE

This has been a real hard year for almost everyone, and we just had a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving and express our thankfulness for what we have with our family and friends.

With the holiday season upon us, we have a real chance to share the joy of this season with those who are less fortunate than we are.  It is often said, that the joy of a gift is not receiving one, but giving one.

My daughter has reminded me of how many people are hungry each and every day, we are reading about how many people are seeking food from food shelters, and such shelters are running out of food.  We discussed this and she came up with a wonderful idea for the holiday.

If each of us decided to tell just one person not to give us a gift, but to buy a gift card to a food store (say in the amount of $25)  which we gave to a food shelter, we could make a difference in the lives of many people.

Please ask someone to give you a gift card, please send it to a food shelter, please truly be part of this holiday season, no matter your religion or belief, this act will help those less fortunate then we are.

Pass this e-mail onto 10 friends, if you do, there is no promise of any riches, but there is a promise that you will feel better and you may help save a life.