"When you are truly desperate, it is hard to care about anything external to your situation..."
Long time friend Steven Melling has written about the unlikelihood of our generation achieving The American Dream (TM). Well, at least before 40.
As I write this, I am making preparations to relocate to northern California, like a Steinbeck character with a naive hope of a better life. Sometimes I think I'm putting off the responsibilities of adulthood, but is it more that a mortgage and a two car garage and diapers are impossible to achieve in this economy? I was never prepared for adulthood in school, just taught enough to "get by". And that's what I'm doing now. Maybe "getting by" will be more bearable without snow and tornados.
Monday, September 27, 2004
You think smoking the Mary Jane is harmless? Well, think again...
"Marijuana Smoker Beheads Two Women"
Anyone told NORML about this?
"Marijuana Smoker Beheads Two Women"
Anyone told NORML about this?
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Take the quiz: "What Kind of Soul Do You Retain?"
Dark
"You haven't lived an all-so-happy life, and it's taken it's toll. Malice and cynicsm rotate around all your thoughts, and you are always prepared for the worst."
Bet you never could have seen this coming, huh?
Song of the day: "Cruel" - Tori Amos.
Dark
"You haven't lived an all-so-happy life, and it's taken it's toll. Malice and cynicsm rotate around all your thoughts, and you are always prepared for the worst."
Bet you never could have seen this coming, huh?
Song of the day: "Cruel" - Tori Amos.
Saturday, September 18, 2004
The Official Snack of Hip-Hop!
I swear I am not making this up. I picked up a case of "Master P Rap Snacks" yesterday at Harvesters. I got a box of about 150 of them for $1.50. For those of you who are hankering for a snack named after a has-been rapper, try ordering some from Rap Snacks. Master P not your style? Try any of their varities, such as "Paster Troy Hot Cheezie Popcorn", "Pretty Willie Salsa Cheese Chips", "Lil Romeo BAR-B-Quin' with Honey Chips", "Warren G Cheezie Nacho Chips", "BBD Back At the Ranch Chips", and "Magic Honey Dew Cheese Curls". Oh my god. This is too funny. Evidently from the info on the packaging, they sell these at record stores. I guess they don't have much marketing at the record stores I go to. I'm currently hording packages to pass out, so if you want one, drop me an email. They ain't your baby's daddy's rap snacks. Please check out the Snacktrax, too.
Song of the day: "Mo' Money Mo' Problems" - Biggie
I swear I am not making this up. I picked up a case of "Master P Rap Snacks" yesterday at Harvesters. I got a box of about 150 of them for $1.50. For those of you who are hankering for a snack named after a has-been rapper, try ordering some from Rap Snacks. Master P not your style? Try any of their varities, such as "Paster Troy Hot Cheezie Popcorn", "Pretty Willie Salsa Cheese Chips", "Lil Romeo BAR-B-Quin' with Honey Chips", "Warren G Cheezie Nacho Chips", "BBD Back At the Ranch Chips", and "Magic Honey Dew Cheese Curls". Oh my god. This is too funny. Evidently from the info on the packaging, they sell these at record stores. I guess they don't have much marketing at the record stores I go to. I'm currently hording packages to pass out, so if you want one, drop me an email. They ain't your baby's daddy's rap snacks. Please check out the Snacktrax, too.
Song of the day: "Mo' Money Mo' Problems" - Biggie
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Monday, September 13, 2004
Ok...so I saw "Donnie Darko" in the theater a while back. The new additions, especially the further explanation of Roberta Sparrow's Philosophy of Time Travel really clarified things for me. The music changes, however, get me all upset. The opening scene, which originally featured "The Killing Moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen has been replaced with INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart". Now that's a great song, from a great album, and it certainly does evoke 1988 for a lot of us, but it's just not the same. "The Killing Moon" just hits all the right chords. I think it should be the opening song for all movies...perhaps even for every event in life, in a "soundtrack of your life" kinda way. These include:
* Dramatic relationship discussions
* Opening your federal tax refund check
* receiving difficult medical diagnosis ("Oh the humanity!")
* Walking into any club or restaurant at any time where you're trying to locate the friend you were to meet that didn't show
* Any staff meeting where admin pulls some kind of bullshit and you realize your life is a hollow lie (just picture the zoom in on your face as your frustration festers)
* Any time Grandma Death tells you that everyone dies alone (which happens all the time)
In other news, I have strep throat. Whee. I'm always sick. You know why? Because I never get a break from work. My company only has three subs for 25 houses right now, which means no one gets a break. There are people who have children's weddings to attend, other folks who are going into labor soon, and then those of us who have communicable diseases with fever, and we're all being told to just deal, because there's no chance we're getting staff in. We already work an average of eighteen hours a day (but get paid for eleven!), do back breaking work that includes pointless paperwork, cleaning up bodily fluids, getting beat up on a weekly basis, and running "teaching programs" that are entirely out of the scope of ability for our clients and then have to try to explain to people who've never done direct care a day in their lives why it's not working...and now we can't even use our PTO's when we need to. This is not a job you can choose to just not show up to. Social service can be very rewarding, but not when you're practically slave labor. And here's the best part: our director is having a seminar this week entitled "Turning Over Turnover". Pardon me while I laugh myself right off this chair. There's only so much you can ask of employees, and when you're asking triple or quadruple what can be reasonably done, and then treat them like they're expendable on top of that, of course you're going to have turnover. (Editor's note: She's ranting again.)
Ah well. We can get a big phat referral bonus check for getting other people hired...and man, I wouldn't wish this job on my worst enemy. Except possibly the few government officials who cut federal and state funding for this population. And the strangers who have to tell me how "special" I am to work this job when they see me in public with my guys. Or people who think that all MR/DD people are like Corky from "Life Goes On". Oh man, I hate those people. I think they think that every time I work I learn some important life lesson or something. Ha. I'm just trying to duck the chair being thrown at me while making sure someone isn't bolting out the front door while trying to teach someone how to prepare dinner while reminding someone that it's not appropriate to walk around the house without pants on. I'm thankful if at the end of a shift I still have my glasses intact and no one's eaten off the floor or flushed the medication administration records down the toilet. The only life lesson I'm learning here is, and pardon me if this sounds coarse, is the value of birth control.
Song of the day: "Bukowski" - Modest Mouse ("...who would want to be such an asshole...")
* Dramatic relationship discussions
* Opening your federal tax refund check
* receiving difficult medical diagnosis ("Oh the humanity!")
* Walking into any club or restaurant at any time where you're trying to locate the friend you were to meet that didn't show
* Any staff meeting where admin pulls some kind of bullshit and you realize your life is a hollow lie (just picture the zoom in on your face as your frustration festers)
* Any time Grandma Death tells you that everyone dies alone (which happens all the time)
In other news, I have strep throat. Whee. I'm always sick. You know why? Because I never get a break from work. My company only has three subs for 25 houses right now, which means no one gets a break. There are people who have children's weddings to attend, other folks who are going into labor soon, and then those of us who have communicable diseases with fever, and we're all being told to just deal, because there's no chance we're getting staff in. We already work an average of eighteen hours a day (but get paid for eleven!), do back breaking work that includes pointless paperwork, cleaning up bodily fluids, getting beat up on a weekly basis, and running "teaching programs" that are entirely out of the scope of ability for our clients and then have to try to explain to people who've never done direct care a day in their lives why it's not working...and now we can't even use our PTO's when we need to. This is not a job you can choose to just not show up to. Social service can be very rewarding, but not when you're practically slave labor. And here's the best part: our director is having a seminar this week entitled "Turning Over Turnover". Pardon me while I laugh myself right off this chair. There's only so much you can ask of employees, and when you're asking triple or quadruple what can be reasonably done, and then treat them like they're expendable on top of that, of course you're going to have turnover. (Editor's note: She's ranting again.)
Ah well. We can get a big phat referral bonus check for getting other people hired...and man, I wouldn't wish this job on my worst enemy. Except possibly the few government officials who cut federal and state funding for this population. And the strangers who have to tell me how "special" I am to work this job when they see me in public with my guys. Or people who think that all MR/DD people are like Corky from "Life Goes On". Oh man, I hate those people. I think they think that every time I work I learn some important life lesson or something. Ha. I'm just trying to duck the chair being thrown at me while making sure someone isn't bolting out the front door while trying to teach someone how to prepare dinner while reminding someone that it's not appropriate to walk around the house without pants on. I'm thankful if at the end of a shift I still have my glasses intact and no one's eaten off the floor or flushed the medication administration records down the toilet. The only life lesson I'm learning here is, and pardon me if this sounds coarse, is the value of birth control.
Song of the day: "Bukowski" - Modest Mouse ("...who would want to be such an asshole...")
Saturday, September 04, 2004
Thursday, September 02, 2004
I have had a terrible, awful, really bad day, and tonight's RNC pep rally did nothing to improve it. As if any of us need reminding, the Republican Party is dangerous and scary. All of Bush's empty promises mean little when so many of the citizens of this country try to sleep tonight while agonizing over how to pay bills, how to procure health care coverage for their child, or wondering if and when they'll find a job. What makes all of this worse is I know he will win again. I, and roughly half the population, can get as angry as we want. It's not going to change a goddamn thing. I can't wait to see how beaten down we'll be in another four years.
Song of the day: "American Idiot" - Green Day.
Song of the day: "American Idiot" - Green Day.
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