|
Foxy Jenkins the Jewish Haberdasher
|
|
|
|
[07 Jan 2010|12:13pm] |
another ride
( _____ )
|
|
|
[06 Jan 2010|10:48pm] |
my mom sent me an email today telling me that my uncle, her brother, has advanced stage prostate cancer. he is in his late fifties. his father died of prostate cancer when i was probably fourteen or fifteen.
as my grandfather died from cancer, i contemplated stealing his painkillers. this is how i remember how old i was when he died. i didn't feel much as i didn't know my grandfather very well. he was relatively quiet, salted his food heavily, and began stories with "when i was a little girl". my mom told me later that him and one of his brothers used to go into antique shops and pretend that one of them was deaf and the other one was blind, then cause a general ruckus and chaos.
my uncle (like everyone in my family) is a person who has suffered from various emotional difficulties as well as drug and alcohol abuses. he told me a story once about being on acid and the devil kept pulling up to him in a limo, asking him to get in it. he refused. he also has a story about driving off a cliff and landing in a pasture.
my dad also has a story about driving off some sort of incline and a story about flipping his car, end over end, curiously.
my uncle is the person i am most compared to in my family. he is the person referenced by my mother after she has not seen me in years. he is the same person that my grandmother cites when i tell her my views on the world and life in general, through phone conversations. when i was growing up, there were two periods in which he lived with me.
he spent most of his time whistling in the grocery store, drinking coca-cola, and screaming, "YOU FUCKING LIAR" at people on C-Span. he did yell "FUCK YOU, DREW," to me once when i was young and arguing with him. he was last working as a project manager for johnson & johnson. before that, he was a truck driver. before that, i think he was a librarian or something.
the way it is explained to me, my uncle is a brilliant man who has wandered around doing pissant jobs and being dissatisfied with his life. he received a full-paid scholarship to stanford university and was poised to go to the olympics for swimming. he never went to the olympics, but after marrying a woman to get her away from a bad family life, he went to stanford. he also went to uc berkeley and davis. he was recruited in a think tank, as well.
and this is how the men on my mother's side go. three brothers, each one brilliant and spectacular, but with very dark sides. when my grandfather was dying, he would smile and wave at the ceiling. he told people in my family that he could see little kids in a nonexistant skylight. they were waving at him and beckoning him.
he would also sometimes gesture towards the sky after long periods of silence and then yell, "HOT DOG!" apparently part of his delusions involved seeing flying hot dogs everywhere. not a bad way to go, really.
my grandfather was explained, by my mother, as being the only ethical one of the three. the others have lead very important and secretive lives and may or may not have done awful things, or been involved in the roswell UFO crash (as theorized by my father).
my uncle is the person in my life that i feel a lot of kinship and conflict towards. he is one of the people i admire the most while simultaneously existing as one of the people i fear becoming more than anything. i should probably talk to him before formulating these opinions and views, but it's uncomfortable sitting down with someone and going, "say, buddy - we're a lot alike and i want to know how happy you really are or aren't."
finding out that my uncle could be dying is like finding out that i could be dying in an alternate reality. i have a lot of thoughts.
i asked my dad if he knew what was going on and he said that things were still rather vague at the moment. he also took the time to give me a few pointers regarding my physical health.
"you know, your granddaddy died of prostate cancer and now uncle has it. you need to be careful and when you get older, make sure you check your prostate. but with any luck, you've inherited my genes and you'll die early before you have the chance to get any of that stuff."
later, he went on to address the issue of alcoholism (him and my mother are both long recovering alcoholics):
"i need to tell your sister this more than you, but i just want to make sure you understand how possible it is that you'll become an alcoholic, being the child of two alcoholics. and plus, if you get bad, i'm going to start drinking again just to spite you and so you can see what a real problem looks like."
i got interesting people in my blood
|
|
| Really intense to-do lists |
[06 Jan 2010|06:09pm] |
Found a couple days ago on N. Rampart in New Orleans, LA:
Found last summer, a very thorough analysis of a day at Michigan's adventure Amusement park:
|
|
| DDing at the flea market |
[05 Jan 2010|12:56pm] |
Dumpster diving even lives on at the flea market. Many times, a vendor altering their booth will come up with a portable shelf or whatever they don't need. They put it by the garbage and five minutes later someone, usually me, takes it back to their booth to create an awesome display.
What once displayed makeup now displays G.I.Joe figures.
|
|
| Organize victory! |
[05 Jan 2010|08:38pm] |
|
 When the Pacific Rescue Plan was published, one so-called "socialist" from Australia said: "Why do you think that the peoples of Oceania would draw attention for your campaign as you're strangers to them?” And the bourgeois liberals think the same... Indeed, there are no persons from the Oceania countries by origin in the PUL now. But these people overlook one thing. All oppressed people around the world understand each other because they have a common cause, because they have common enemy - the oppressors, because they have common goal - put an end to the oppression. If the victory over the oppressors occurs in one corner of the world it causes joy in the hearts of the oppressed in another one.
One can recall an example of Marx and Engels in this regard. They did everything to bring their ideas to Russia, which was reactionary at that time. They engaged in polemics with Russian Populist revolutionaries (so-called "narodnik movement"). They ideologically supported first Russian Marxists. And when harvest-time came, this sowing has yielded rich fruits...
The most powerful weapons of the oppressed in their struggle against their oppressors are the strength of organization and the strength of solidarity. "At the banquet of nature, there are no reserved seats. You get what you can take and you keep what you can hold. And if you can’t take, you can’t get. And if you can’t hold, you can’t keep. And without organization, you can’t take" said A. Phillip Randolph, African-American civil rights leader and the founder of the March on Washington Movement.
To the victory of the people's democratic revolution in Oceania countries we must create political party or movement in every country of the region. How? Who will be the skirmisher of the cause?
|
|
| Milk but no cookies |
[03 Jan 2010|10:14am] |
So I went out again last night. At dAli's I found tons of half gallon chocolate milks (pull date Jan. 2, 2010) so I brought home 5. All of my other locations really sucked but I think I may have found a bike at one of my spots. I'll go back today to find out for sure. I did find a office chair but I didn't bring the bolts home with me so I have to go out today and spend money.:( I much prefer not having to spend the money when I don't have too. I guess it all comes out as a wash when you consider the desk that I'm using came from a dumpster too and when I put it together (it was brand new in a box) I didn't have all the drawer fronts so I called Bush and they sent them to me free of charge.
More finds to come.
*dAli's name was changed to protect the location from corporate watchdogs. My suggestion to people is to change names to keep your locations safe to dive. Compactors, and Damaged product are only a click away in many cases.
|
|
| Advocate uses texting to warn of AZ crime sweeps |
[04 Jan 2010|12:10am] |
Advocate uses texting to warn of AZ crime sweeps
SendSharePrint
Sun Jan 3, 6:50 pm ET
PHOENIX – An advocate for immigrant and civil rights has started using text messages to warn residents about crime sweeps by a high-profile Arizona sheriff.
Lydia Guzman, director of the nonprofit immigrant advocacy group Respect/Respeto, is the trunk of a sophisticated texting tree designed to alert thousands of people within minutes to the details of the sweeps, which critics contend are an excuse to round up illegal immigrants.
Guzman said the messages are part of an effort to protect Latinos and others from becoming victims of racial profiling by sheriff's deputies. Deputies have been accused of stopping Hispanics, including citizens and legal immigrants, for minor traffic violations to check their immigration status.
"Everyone is responsible for sending it out to their own networks, and that is how it spreads like wildfire," Guzman said of the text messages.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has repeatedly said his deputies do not engage in racial profiling, and he publicizes the details of his crime sweeps ahead of time. He said he suspects the real goal of the text messages is to help illegal immigrants avoid arrest.
"This little group of people is (in favor of) open borders, and they don't like what I am doing. That is the bottom line," Arpaio said. "But it isn't interfering with our operations because every time we do it, we still arrest a good number of people, including illegal aliens."
Arpaio has conducted 13 sweeps since March 2008, and deputies have arrested 669 people, about half of whom were held on immigration violations.
The sheriff said his opponents are walking a line between exercising free speech and breaking the law by helping immigration violators avoid detection. He said the texts are possibly even tipping off human-smuggling organizations.
Guzman said she sends the messages to a wide range of groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, Copwatch and various immigrant-rights groups such as Somos America and Puente. She concedes that some who receive the text messages likely use the information to avoid being caught and deported.
Andy Hessick, a constitutional law professor at Arizona State University, said sending warnings to people who might be subject to racial profiling would likely be considered free speech. But sending messages with the specific intent of warning illegal immigrants to help them avoid arrest could be akin to being an accomplice after a crime.
David Hudson Jr., a First Amendment scholar at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, said the messages are protected free speech because they are merely letting people know what Arpaio is doing, similar to publicizing DUI checkpoints and speed traps or flashing your headlights when police are nearby.
"That is not unlawful," he said. "It's the conveyance of truthful information."
___
Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com
|
|
| minnesota |
[03 Jan 2010|08:23pm] |
i went to DC this weekend and had fun. i was supposed to go to north carolina but the flights were full. i got "real psyched" to go and see people and hang out in weather that is still cold by most people's standards, but tropical by mine. minnesota's weather is renowned for being unkind and shitty. one word that people usually don't tie in with a minnesota weather is "stupid". the weather is terribly fucking stupid.
the roads here are out of control. i can't think of a reason that cars were ever introduced here when clearly there is some sort of skate-vehicle that would be vastly superior - or even just snowmobiles. over christmas, it snowed. then it rained. then it froze.
when you drive, it feels like you are on one of those car rides at an amusement part, but instead of gently floating by in your carefully limited antique car while your family waves, you drift forward into an iceberg while passerbys look on in a mixture of fright and amusement.
i hate this state. i do. most people who live here seem to tolerate or even like it. but not me. i hate it. i hate minnesota and i want to leave. no, no - scratch that: i want minnesota to leave.
the weather is a problem where there is no solution. this is too familiar ground that anyone is capable of covering. but what i want you to know is that when i sat down to write, i did not do it with the intention of, "hey, lemme complain about the place i grew up in." i actually wanted this to be a journal entry about being the son of two flight attendants and the way it has shaped my life.
one of the ways it has shaped my life is provided slight teasers of relief from this environment of introverted, awkward hicks, and the 8-month fear of FALLING PIECES OF ICE. the ice falls and you die. probably with enough force to pierce your skull and exit out the soft flesh behind your chin.
the snow in minnesota can be beautiful at times, like a nice layer of creamy shimmering frosting on a garbage pile, but the best comparison i can make is that of a 400 pound gorilla in an evening gown. behind the glass, it's an incredible sight to see. face to face, in the real world without any barriers, you're quite possibly going to lose a limb.
and someone losing a limb would be a blessing to people with honest, active social lives and interests that lie beyond the confines of small talk. at least people would have something to say to each other or god forbid, maybe have a story to tell.
minnesotans are pegged as being "nice". the truth is, minnesotans are civil. if you ask them the time, they will tell you. if you are standing in line and you only have one item and then have twenty, they might let you go ahead. so long as you are white and don't have a funny haircut. minnesotans are racist, frightened, uptight, and socially inept.
they are the type of people that will stand behind you, with your back facing them, waiting for you to move instead of saying, "oh, excuse me," like the rest of the planet. if you look them in the eyes, they look away. if you say hi on the street, they assume you are talking to someone behind them.
i'm being overly harsh - i know that. i guess i'm just a little angry by how isolating this place is at times, especially as someone who thrives in social situations and person-to-person interactions. if anyone should be able to pull it together, it's me - but i still feel out of place here. it would be one thing if i had only been to a couple of places, but damn it, i've been everywhere. this place is different.
at least it's not Iowa or something.
i feel lucky in minnesota. the people i know here and the friends i have may as well be the only people who have been able to shed these tiring traits and become something great. i want to sweep the good ones up in my arms and pull them away, all while apologizing that the sleeves of my polyester shirt give them skin rashes during my embrace.
this place bums me the hell out.
|
|
| January 5th Fez Ballroom Lounge~ No Cover!! |
[01 Jan 2010|02:17pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
ethereal |
] |
| [ |
music |
| |
Elizabeth Fraizer- Moses |
] |
We are feeling the anticipation for this night.... Shoegaze, darkwave, ethereal, goth and post-punk all night. Tuesday, January 5 at the Fez. Downtown Portland, on SW 11th between Washington and Stark. 21 and over, no cover charge, doors open at 9 p.m.
Join DJ Curatrix and DJ Wednesdays....This night will remind you why you love music.
http://www.fezballroom.com/
|
|
| Our first dives :) |
[29 Dec 2009|10:58pm] |
Yup, my roommate and I went on our first few dives, starting just before Xmas. I did a lot of reading up on the web first, and decided that less conflict suited me better, so we go at night.
Our first dive, we brought home 4 grocery bags of stuff from Trader Joe's. I wish we'd taken pictures - it was some serious bounty! Lots of fresh meat, cucumbers, bananas, apples, 4 boxes of mushrooms, and some lovely yellow and red peppers.
I went back on my own a few days later, and brought back some frozen lasagna, some pre-packaged salads, flowers, and some holly for Xmas!
A couple of nights ago we got more bananas, some more meats and fish (including packages of marinated meats), and some bread. We kept that haul short, since the night shift arrived.
I've had to teach my roomie to go for variety instead of quantity - the bins there are always overflowing, we can always get more. Better to have the variety than to have 30 bananas alone!
Will try to post pics next bounty - but I get a little tired by the time we get home!
I'd like to find a few more divers in my hood who are reliable & neat - I want to share the bounty there, but I don't want to intro people to the bin who might mess it up & end up seeing the bin locked!
|
|
| "Civilians" my ass! 8 U.S. CIA agents killed in Afghan blast. |
[30 Dec 2009|10:51pm] |
They were CIA agents! They were in Afghanistan to serve the interests of U.S. imperialism and to prop up the U.S. puppet government of Hamid Karzai. CIA=Central Imperialism Apparatus.
8 U.S. CIA agents killed in Afghan suicide blast
BY JONATHON BURCH, REUTERS
DECEMBER 30, 2009 9:46 PM
(from antiwar.com via The Ottawa, Canada Herald)
KABUL — Insurgents intensified their campaign against military targets and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, killing eight U.S. CIA agents at a base and four Canadian servicemen on patrol and a journalist accompanying them.
U.S. officials said the dead Americans — killed in a suicide bombing on a military base in southeastern Khost province on Wednesday — were CIA agents.
It was one of the highest foreign non-military death tolls in the eight-year war against the Islamist Taliban.
The four Canadians and the journalist from the Calgary Herald were killed when their armoured vehicle was hit by a bomb in southern Kandahar province on Wednesday, the Canadian Defence Ministry said.
The base in Khost province, Forward Operating Base Chapman, was engaged in reconstruction projects, a key part of U.S. President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize the country.
Some people were wounded in the explosion, defence officials said, but no U.S. or NATO troops were among them.
Asked whether the suicide blast occurred inside the base, one official said: "That's my understanding." Another senior official confirmed the attack involved an explosive vest.
U.S. President Barack Obama is sending 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan in an attempt to stem the violence, with NATO allies also contributing thousands more.
Washington has pledged a "civilian surge", adding hundreds of U.S. experts to support work on development projects that aim to undermine support for the Taliban and other insurgents.
An Afghan army official on Wednesday said the United States had pledged $16 billion to spend on training and equipping Afghanistan's army and air force.
The blast in Kandahar, about four km (2.5 miles) outside the city, struck the Canadian patrol as it was visiting community reconstruction projects, officials said.
The journalist killed was Michelle Lang, 34, on assignment for the Canwest News Service. She was on on her fist assignment in Afghanistan and had been in the country since Dec. 11.
The attack brought Canada's military deaths in Afghanistan to 138. Canada has a 2,800-strong military mission in Afghanistan, but the mission has become increasingly unpopular at home and it is scheduled to be withdrawn at the end of 2011.
UNPRECEDENTED VIOLENCE
The Taliban's armed campaign is at its bloodiest level since the militants, in power from the mid-1990s, were overthrown by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.
Civilian and military casualty tolls have reached record levels. Suicide attackers even targetted United Nations employees at a guesthouse in Kabul, killing five.
Many civilians working outside Kabul have retreated into army bases as the security situation has deteriorated. Bases are heavily fortified and require extensive security checks to enter.
Foreign aid agencies warned earlier this year that the shift into the military bases, and the use of military personnel to carry out development projects, risked a dangerous blurring of the boundaries between troops and civilians.
But intensified activity by the U.S.-led force has also bred resentment among Afghans, particularly as local civilians have been killed in several attacks.
Hundreds protested on Wednesday against the killing of 10 civilians, mostly teenagers, in a raid by foreign forces that NATO forces said occurred in a battle in which nine insurgents were killed.
That attack heightened tensions between President Hamid Karzai's government, under pressure since his disputed re-election last August and NATO. Karzai condemned this week's civilian deaths and ordered an investigation.
Khost is one of the areas of Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, and most foreigners there are troops or working under military protection.
In September, a suicide bomber rammed a car into a military convoy of foreign forces there, killing one American.
© Copyright (c) Reuters
|
|
| Israeli police arrest nuclear whistleblower Vanunu |
[30 Dec 2009|01:51am] |
Trivial sidenote: The Orlando connection to this is that the Israeli intelligence agent who lured Vanunu to that hotel room in Rome was the daughter of a local man who owned a very well-known shoe store and was the spokesman in commercials for a local tire company who popularized the slogan, "Tires Ain't Pretty!"
Israeli police arrest nuclear whistleblower Vanunu
Israeli police arrest nuclear whistleblower Vanunu for violating terms of prison release
AMY TEIBEL
AP News
Dec 29, 2009 09:49 EST
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu was ordered to be put under house arrest Tuesday after being charged with violating a condition of his 2004 release from an Israeli prison.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Vanunu met with "a number of foreigners," something he was ordered not to do for fear he might divulge classified information.
Vanunu, who has been charged with violating this order before, flashed a "V" sign and unleashed a rambling tirade against the "impotent" Jewish state as he entered a Jerusalem court.
His lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, said Vanunu was arrested because he has a Norwegian girlfriend whom police have already interrogated.
A court spokesman said Vanunu would be released from jail Tuesday evening and was ordered to stay under house arrest through Thursday.
Vanunu was a former low-level technician at an Israeli nuclear plant who leaked details and pictures of the operation to the Sunday Times of London in 1986.
Israeli intelligence agents kidnapped him in Rome and brought him back to Israel to stand trial. He served 18 years in prison before being freed, but he is not allowed to leave the country.
Upon his release in 2004, Vanunu was banned from leaving the country and having unauthorized contact with foreigners.
Following a policy that it calls "nuclear ambiguity," Israel has never acknowledged or denied having a nuclear weapons program. But experts concluded from the material that Vanunu divulged that Israel had the world's sixth-largest nuclear arsenal.
|
|
| Kops: Accused shoplifters cause chaos at Walmart |
[30 Dec 2009|12:10am] |
i found this mildly amusing except for the violence. i have heard of anarchists and autonomists in Germany and Italy doing the same thing. If not perhaps for the bad luck of running into an off-duty officer as they were lamming they might have gotten away with it; although given the fact that Wal-Marts have dozens of ccc inside and out they might have been caught eventually.
Police: Accused shoplifters cause chaos at Walmart
35 mins ago
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Chattanooga police said a couple they believe tried to steal a cart full of TVs and a computer caused chaos at a Walmart. According to a news release, Officer Josh Wright was off duty when he saw a man trying to force his way past a greeter with about $2,000 worth of stolen goods Sunday night. Wright displayed his badge, but the man said it was fake and tried to force his way past him. Wright then tackled the suspect and arrested him.
Then the suspect's wife, feigned a heart attack and said she did not know her husband.
After a witness told Wright the couple had been together in the store, the wife followed the witness into the parking lot and attacked her. The witness stabbed her in the arm with a pocket knife, and the wife had to be treated at a local hospital.
The male suspect was charged with theft over $1,000 and assault on a police officer. Charges against the wife were pending.
|
|
| therapy excerpt |
[29 Dec 2009|09:00pm] |
"i'm going to restructure my drinking for 2010."
"why not take new years to exercise your new attempt at self control?"
"no."
conversation with the therapist, 12/29/09
cataloging things makes them seem sort of important, or that they are more influential and meaningful. my therapist asked me to keep a log of what i was eating and how i was feeling, both before and after, to kind of analyze shit. this arises from my concerns about the random times where i just eat a ton of shit that i don't enjoy.
i referred to it as "The Buffet Phenomenon".
i put it like this:
"oh cool, there are twenty things here. i'll grab two of these, one of these, and two of these. then you go sit down and you eat them. afterwards, you say, "that was a big salty mess of bullshit, fuck that. i'm full. oh but wait, i wonder if one of those other fifteen things up there is like, some sort of unknown, precedent setting piece of deliciousness - despite the fact that in my fifteen years of eating at buffets, nothing has ever tasted right, good, or anything but painfully normal. so i guess i'll just grab a few of each."
my therapist understood, but i got this impression that she has never eaten at a Chinese buffet. she once told me an anecdote where she was almost in a commercial for Kashi cereal - which, although she was not, this fact dictates volumes into an invisible microcassette recorder pointed at her instead of me.
scandalous, mult-racial, multi-grain
normally, i am a conscious eater. i cook most of my own food, buy all organic this and that, and refuse to buy anything that i can't identify the ingredients of. but there are these times in my life where something happens and i snap, causing me to eat a shitload of White Castle, forcing me to wake up at 4 AM and drink water until i almost piss myself the next morning.
and it's not just me. everyone does it. we, as americans, overeat in a knowingly comical way while living in a world where people are starving. we eat and we eat and we eat. then, if you're anything like me (and you are because you are sick and awful), YOU CANNOT REMEMBER THAT WHICH WAS EATEN TWO DAYS AGO.
this eating log helped me, though. i think she was trying to seek out what makes me overindulge, believing it was emotionally charged - but the log proved otherwise. what it did do is that it made me remember certain events and what mood i have tied to them. it also taught me something amazing about myself.
I KNOW HOW I FEEL APPROXIMATELY 10% OF EVERY WAKING DAY
i am considerate to the point where i have handicapped myself. i do not pay attention to myself because i am paying attention to you. i inconvenience myself so i can convenience you. i do things so that you don't have to.
"is this a behavior you want to change?"
i couldn't answer that with a sure, "yes", but i figured it must be wrong, somehow. i have instilled a belief in myself that there is something brilliant, noble, and incredible about self-sacrifice. i believe there IS something brilliant, noble, and incredible about sacrifice - but there is also something toxic, devastating, and masochistic about self-sacrifice in a world and society which is "all about gettin' theys".
so i willingly accept your burdens, your problems, your laziness, and your bad ideas and in turn, neglect most of mine like a six year old with a fucking goldfish.
"maybe if i pour in like, half of this container of food, the fish will be ten times happier and grow up to be big and strong."
or maybe if i pour in like, five White Castle Double Bacon Cheeseburgers after dumbing myself down with five beers (brew-dogs), i will be more satisfied living a life that is personally unrewarding.
sometimes when i talk to my therapist, i get in these self-contained intellectual circles of spoken thought. i answer my own questions and i solve my own puzzles.
"i am doing this because i am unhappy doing what i do most of my life, so i am clutching on to whatever freedom and sensation-based pleasures i can get on my days off. wait, wait, wait - this means that i'm going to have problems until i am finally doing what i want, right?"
"um, i mean, yeah. actually, yeah."
"oh, fuck."
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
vampire_sushi's Friends Page
uncomfortable