Rise Up, Rebel, Wait, What Are We Protesting?

As some of you may be aware, some kids are taking to the streets in protest as the U.S. Congress is considering immigration reform.

It happened here locally in Austin and while I admire them for their moxious maneuver, I can't say that these protests will have any real lasting effect. What politician will honestly listen to anyone who can't even vote yet? Hell, it's hard enough getting them to listen to those who can.

I happened to witness part of this march as the Del Valle crowd meandered towards downtown. I had heard something about them progressing down Hwy 71 (which is by far the most dunderheaded example of numbskullery ever since 71 is a BUSY controlled access FREEWAY) on the radio, but was rather surprised to see that they had made their way all the way up to Airport Blvd. Airport is another busy street but at least Airport has sidewalks.

The crowd was calmly cordoned and escorted by APD as they made their long pilgrimage downtown. Thank the lords of Kobol that someone downtown had a little common sense, even if the crowd didn't.

Supporters honked and cheered as they passed the kids who were waving Mexican flags and enjoying an orderly yomp down the street. Most of their faces were determined, but they seemed to be taking things in stride, literally.

The one question I had after reading the article (especially from the quote of one of the protestors) was about whether or not the kids were really truly informed about what the issues were. I'm not saying that kids are dumb by any stretch of the word, but I can't help but think that a little of the teenage groupthink had a hand in this.

When I was in middle school, about 190 kids also staged a walkout. The issue they rose up about was over certain new rules handed down by the principal that the student body felt crossed the line. I think it was mostly related to the draconian 'tough love' punishments that the guy instituted for such minor infractions ie. 2 days of OCA (ICS or whatever you may have known as during school detention or in school suspension in your day) for chewing gum, or detentions given for forgetting your textbooks and more that the passage of time has driven from my memory.

The plan was to bolt out the doors during 2nd period. The bell rang and the crowd surged for the doors. What ensued was a fiasco. Kids running everywhere, administrators and teachers attempting to round them up to get them back to class.

Eventually, those who made their escape did so and order was restored as those who were caught were herded into the gym for detention processing. They actually held detention in the gym for a couple of days to punish those who were caught attempting to leave campus. Those who succeeded in escape were caught, charged with truancy and were sentenced to 1 week suspension.

Afterwards, discussions were held to discover why the kids left campus. Over half of them didn't have a response other than they wanted to skip class. Some of the kids were sincerely protesting the new policies and the rest were protesting because their friends were.

The lesson from all this?

The principal not only chose to ignore the complaints of the students, but tightened the screws even further. It wasn't until THEIR PARENTS got involved en masse and went to the school board that he was forced to loosen up a bit to save face.

So, in some ways, the kids really did have an effect. While they themselves could not vote, they were able to influence the minds of those who could.

Kids aren't as dumb as people think they are, don't forget that. While some have other motives for actions such as this, it is always a good idea to listen. You may just very well learn something important.

We're Turning Again...

One of my best friends sent this online news article about a restaurant roof that collapsed and killed a 23 year old Texas Tech graduate the other day.

Here's the kicker: my friend knew her personally. They were friends of sorts, having worked together at the same museum while she was still going to Tech.

I sent a response to his e-mail and encouraged him to call me or e-mail back if he needed to talk. Having known this friend for almost half our respective lives, we've shared a lot of conversations working through the bad stuff in our lives as well as discussing the latest fart joke or other such fun happy moments.

The next morning, I received his reply (which has been edited down for respect of privacy):

"It is just unsettling to see someone so young die in such a bizarre accident. One minute you are paying for take-out and the next minute a fucking roof falls on you. In a way, this is worse than dying in an auto accident because of a drunk driver - at least you have *some* control in that scenario. With this accident, she was completely powerless. In a way it is creepy. It is stuff like this that really makes you say, "Seize the day" because you never know just how much time you have."

The message contained in that paragraph rings so very true. Life is uncertain, make your time. I may be taken out by a rogue rabid pigeon assault tomorrow and while that news may make Fark's front page and elicit a laugh from the world, it wouldn't be so damned funny when it happens to you.

Truth is that we hear about freak accidents, disasters, murders and about lives cut short all the time. Whether these may be caused by bad karma, bad luck or by a sadistic Higher Power who get a chuckle, the fact remains that we will all die, some sooner than others.

The message I get is that one should make the most of one's time and indeed seize the day. You can't live your life obsessing over when you die, you must simply make the most of what you've got.

And with that, I'm having a bowl of Grape Nuts in the morning, yesireebob. Hey, it's a start...

Like An F-16 Out Of Galena...

I find myself spending more time on things that distract me from what I'd rather be doing. This is perhaps the most generic and overly commonplace way that I've ever started a Blog entry with, but then again I can't start every one off with a literary Big Bang such as overtly plagerizing the Declaration of Independence in an attempt to aid a friend in achieving a sense of renewal. I also find myself desiring to construct sentences that don't resemble paragraphs.

So, here we are.

It used to be easy for me to sneak a few extra bits of creativity out in any given day, whether these bits resulted in a new comic (and yes, I am aware I'm 4 days behind on that), a short story, a Photoshop worthy of the name or even a witty and informative Blog entry. It also used to be easy for me to construct sentences that didn't require the use of four or more commas.

But, I digress.

As time has been slipping through my fingers lately, I find myself filled with a strong desire to reclaim this lost time. I feel like I am nothing without my creative side and I'll be damned if I'm going to let it languish any further than it has.

In the old Blog, I found myself talking a lot more about what I didn't do instead of what I was actually doing (and in some cases, doing extremely well). I think a lot of that was due to having been in relationships and situations of my own where I compromised myself down to a shadow of my former self.

This is a lot of the reason why I decided to create this forum for airing my issues, for ventilating my frustrations, for bringing them into the public doman without throwing a monkey wrench in the upward motivations that one should embrace in such a fun and hilarious endeavour as the QTV website. I am serious when I say that writing in the old Blog was pretty painful at times, especially since I had a lot to say yet didn't want to be such a buzz-kill.

The next month is really going to be a busy one. I am in the process of making some really major life changes and while I'm very optimistic of the outcome, it's going to take a lot out of me. Perhaps I will elaborate further as events transpire, but for now I'm doing just *that* much better than I was doing yesterday and that's a damn good start.

Time to kick the tires and light the fires. The Phoenix shall rise again.

These Things Have Claws For a Reason...

I was stroking my pussy the other day and, much to my surprise, she made a few quick swipes at my hand and totally killed the mood. As much as I love whiling away a few moments petting and playing with my pussy, it has been made perfectly clear that this particular pussy belongs to nobody but herself. She is her own pussy and if anyone wants to stroke, tease or play with her, it'll be on her terms alone.

Perhaps I should take this moment to remind my gentle readers that before you think that this is a post of a more risque nature, please remember that I am currently living with a cat.



Cats are indeed funny creatures, as I've discovered. I rarely have met a beast that could both melt one's heart as well as to make one their servant. It gets to the point where you realize that a cat's love is a gift, not a guarantee.

Which actually seems to parallel many relationships I've had with their human female counterparts, but that's a story best left for another day. For now, this brief feeling is all that I have as I type this with a purring pussy in my lap.

Saga of a Star World...

I find myself unable to listen to the radio between the hours of 5 AM and 11 PM. Indeed, the only saving grace that I've found that prevents me from ripping the antenna from my vehicle is Coast to Coast AM, mostly because if there's one thing that insomniacs such as myself crave, it's six hours of alien invasions, remote viewing and talk of how the Illuminati will rule the planet forever.

Yep, good times.

Truth is that modern radio is a farce and has been for many years. And before I journey further, let me preface that if you are a fan of modern terrestrial radio, I'm about to launch a salvo of snot-nuggets on your parade.

First off, the music stations bother me. I used to have a link that I would refer to from time to time that would breakdown each local station's playlists and let you know how many times a certain song was played each week and the numbers were astounding! The link has sadly gone stale mostly because the guy who ran the site that contained such concise information couldn't afford to subscribe to the commercially run playlist info sites that kept track of the numbers. Apparently, the commercial site realized that there was actually entities out there who'd pay an arm and a leg to have access to that information so as to better plan their own advertising campaigns.

Why I mention this is important because it is something that, if you had the desire and spare time in the day, you could count for yourself. Listen to your local average hip-hop station or 'alternative rock' stations and you will notice what I am talking about. It was not uncommon to hear the same three songs played at least once or even twice per hour.

Add in the fact that most of the larger communication corporations are slowly, yet surely, homogenizing their content and consolidating their operations and it is not uncommon to travel from coast to coast and hear the same dj's playing the same playlists and attempting to "entertain the masses" by performing stupid pranks and acting like they are the coolest thing on the planet since the last Ice Age. Truth be told, their schtick is about as played out and as old as the time of the wooly mammoths.

Regardless of the company line, the truth is all there in front of you if you have half a mind to use your good senses. The "music" today is what the industry wants you to love, crave and purchase. True artists were shown the door long ago in favor of the 'flavor of the week' and the no talent hacks who cannibalize other artists' works for the sake of adding a few choice 'uh huh, girls' and a barrage of colorful metaphors.

The modern popular "artist" is one who relies on mechanical voice enhancers and a somewhat attractive physique to get ahead. I refer to the Dead Kennedys' song "Pull My Strings" as an amusing reference point for this. The modern popular artist is little more than a chucklehead who follows the corporate line and reaps in the adoration of a audience who no longer knows any better, nor cares. I doubt that many of those who worship at the altar of popularity are even listening, er, reading, at this point.

Well, that is most certainly your right. It's not that I am just picking on the 'pop idols' either, just offering a fair warning to the world. I could care less about what music you are into, but I admit sometimes that I am confused as to why. There used to be things called "talent" and "originality" in music and I'll be damned if I can figure out what happened to it.

I've listened to a fair amount of the 'pop (although admittedly not usually by choice) and find myself appalled at the lack of originality. In one song, I hear the 'Knight Rider' theme, in another I hear the 'Stones overdubbed by some guy with a minimal grasp of the human language beyond uttering the words 'bitches' and 'yeah' every few seconds. And don't even get me started on either 'My Humps' or that 'Laffy Taffy,' songs that remind me of ones that would be invented by your average fourth grader when the adults aren't around.

Moving right along, I find Talk Radio disgusting. I am setting my sights squarely on both the 'conservative' radio AND the Air America-type outlets here.

Talk about unoriginality. One side bitches about the liberal mindset and the failure of the 'spineless' Democratic Party to have a standard to rally to while the other bitches about how the 'Bush Uber Alles' Republican Party is leading us down the merry path to Armageddon and eventually to Hell, which is being built by Halliburton by the way.

It's the same five talking points every single day. Has been for years. Honestly, a lot of that is fueled by the political climate of our nation, but it truly wears thin. Especially when these talking points are professed by hosts who either claim to be blessed with talent loaned to him by the Almighty or by hosts who's claim to fame was a mildly successful association with a variety comedy show that has long lost touch with the public mindset.

It's the same thing, all day, every day. "Bush is teh sexxxy hotness!" and "Bush is teh Antichrist extrordinaire." Throw a little Iraq, some border protection discussion, add a sprinkle of 9/11, soak in a vat of journalistic lack of integrity and you've got a recipe for political overload and disgust in the whole process.

Finally, we settle on what I call the leftover stations.

NPR is reasonable at times, although slightly slanted in their own viewpoints, namely towards those who control their budget. Think an audio version of PBS. NPR's Car Talk is still pretty sweet though, even after all the years.

The other music genre stations also have playlists of their own, though they seem to be a little more reasonable with diversity in airplay than their more popular cousins.

What can I say about the religious stations? They typically have one general viewpoint and 25,000 watts of power. I think if they opened their markets to shows that fueled honest multi-cultural debates about the philosophical nature of why we are here and how, they may have a larger audience. Or would the federal 'Office of Religious Instruction' have a problem with that? Assuming that there actually is an 'Office of Religious Instruction.' I guess I'll have to listen to Coast to Coast a little more often...

In conclusion, I have serious doubts as to why terrestrial radio is even considered a vibrant, changing media. Perhaps this doubt is more common than I have imagined and is one of the reasons why the numbers are slowly shrinking as people switch to their car stereo satellite or their iPod.

Or just switch the whole thing off.

Welcome to the Abandoned Land...

I've made a rather startling discovery the other day.

I've read that people write in things called 'blogs' and in these 'blogs,' they talk about whatever floats their boat. They also use this thing called 'The Internet' to publish these 'blogs,' also named 'weblogs.'

Really keen and groovy stuff, right?

Alright. Lemme cut through the Bravo-Sierra and get to the heart of the matter. If you are here via the link that I published in the QTV Blog, you actually somewhat care about what goes through my head besides the usual madcap antics that my colleague Doug & I get into as well as the usual run of site update posts and whatnot.

I would say that I'm flattered, but flattery is best when it's on the dinner table. Oh, wait, that's a platter, or, uh, cutlery?

Heh.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. This is essentially where I shall purge my brain. I shall unleash a plague of emotions, a storm of rant locusts and a firestorm of cheesesteaks here on this very blog. Yessir, good times will hopefully ensue.

Truth is, I'm trying to divorce my more painful posts and dark thoughts from the QTV Blog. I've been thinking for the longest time that the site should be for 'teh funnah' and that my moody or revolutionary posts were better left for a different venue.

So, I'm going to try this out. Thanks for stopping by!