I know it's been a while since I posted last. The past month or two has been hectic in way too many ways between a death in the family (and all the dealing with grief that comes with it), the 100th Issue Show, and a short term job that kept me busier than expected near the end. As such I hadn't been posting on here as much as I used to.
I'm trying to change that and get more on the ball in the near future. However, things might occasionally slip through the cracks. For now, its time to get back to this.
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Friday, June 25, 2010
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Just Checking In - NOW UPDATED
Hey! I know it's been a while but things have been a bit crazy around here. Between getting the 17th anniversary issue done, trying to survive, looking for work, and other obligations I sometimes forget to get my head straight. Add to that coming down with a cold the week of Halloween and you have an idea why I've been a little distracted lately.
On a more serious note, the House passed its health care reform bill. Unfortunately it contains the anti choice Stupak Amendment, which not only keeps abortion care out of the "public option" but could keep it out of private insurance plans as well. While I have strong feelings on this misstep, this article at Pandagon states the case far better than I could. So does this post from Shark Fu.
I'll be trying to post more regularly in the future.
On a more serious note, the House passed its health care reform bill. Unfortunately it contains the anti choice Stupak Amendment, which not only keeps abortion care out of the "public option" but could keep it out of private insurance plans as well. While I have strong feelings on this misstep, this article at Pandagon states the case far better than I could. So does this post from Shark Fu.
I'll be trying to post more regularly in the future.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Checking In, Deadly Crash etc - Catching Up
Hey! Hope all is well with you. First I want to offer belated condolences to the family friends of those who died in the crash of Continental Connection flight 1349 in Clarence Center, NY Thursday night. I was going to post another piece in my battle against the exploitative and wretched pseudo holiday today happens to be. However, in the big picture that doesn't seem as important.
Why is it only when a tragedy happens that many people tend to find perspective? We all fall into these ruts at one time or another where the day to day drudgery we have to endure to survive gets in the way and drags us down (and yes, I include myself in that). As a result we often don't tell people how we feel and what they mean to us unless something really horribly bad happens. I wish I could say I've successfully broken this chain but in a society where honesty and telling people what you think makes you an almost automatic target, there have been times I've fallen into the shit myself.
As for the crash, investigators are still looking into it, though the flight crew reportedly saw significant ice before this tragedy went down. As much as we as a species want to avoid hurt, pain and tragedy, there are times when bad things do happen and there's nothing anyone can do. Realizing that is humbling, angering, and scary. However, it's something we all have to deal with at one point.
So what do we do now? I wish I had the answer. Hell, I wish I knew if anybody is actually going to read this. However, when we encounter a tragedy like this (even if nobody we know is involved), we tend to have an idea what to do. Thus, these are the times when we tend to have perspective and let people know what they mean to us and not take things or people for granted. Even just putting yourself in someone else's shoes and trying not to judge can be helpful. I think we have an idea what to do when something bad happens, we just don't want to deal with doing these things every day until something bad happens and we have to examine it.
I wish I had a better answer than that, but that's all I can figure out. In terms of February 14, think about these things and remember that not everyone may be as fortunate as you regarding what this pseudo holiday represents so please try not to look down on them or judge. I hope everyone has a good weekend. Now go argue about this amongst yourselves.
Why is it only when a tragedy happens that many people tend to find perspective? We all fall into these ruts at one time or another where the day to day drudgery we have to endure to survive gets in the way and drags us down (and yes, I include myself in that). As a result we often don't tell people how we feel and what they mean to us unless something really horribly bad happens. I wish I could say I've successfully broken this chain but in a society where honesty and telling people what you think makes you an almost automatic target, there have been times I've fallen into the shit myself.
As for the crash, investigators are still looking into it, though the flight crew reportedly saw significant ice before this tragedy went down. As much as we as a species want to avoid hurt, pain and tragedy, there are times when bad things do happen and there's nothing anyone can do. Realizing that is humbling, angering, and scary. However, it's something we all have to deal with at one point.
So what do we do now? I wish I had the answer. Hell, I wish I knew if anybody is actually going to read this. However, when we encounter a tragedy like this (even if nobody we know is involved), we tend to have an idea what to do. Thus, these are the times when we tend to have perspective and let people know what they mean to us and not take things or people for granted. Even just putting yourself in someone else's shoes and trying not to judge can be helpful. I think we have an idea what to do when something bad happens, we just don't want to deal with doing these things every day until something bad happens and we have to examine it.
I wish I had a better answer than that, but that's all I can figure out. In terms of February 14, think about these things and remember that not everyone may be as fortunate as you regarding what this pseudo holiday represents so please try not to look down on them or judge. I hope everyone has a good weekend. Now go argue about this amongst yourselves.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
New Years yadda bloody yadda
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was working on this as a blog for my my space page and realized that it would fit in well here as well, so enjoy.
So 2007 is almost over! So what?
Just kidding, folks. As you already know, the year is pretty much over and we have a new one on the way. With it, many see a new chance to wipe the slate clean and put aside the problems of the past. Others make resolutions they may intend to follow but fall short of and abandon long before the year ends. Either way it's a change for many of us.
As for me, I'm personally glad 2007 is pretty much gone. It was a blah year for me and I really hope things are better in 2k8. Nothing serious wrong went down with me,
but nothing really great happened either. Now before you leave this and go on to something more upbeat, let me explain.
When the year started I was reeling over the end of a friendship - at least I thought
it was a friendship. It finally caved in over the holidays and managed to really darken my Christmas season. I'll describe this in a little more detail later on. From there it was mainly work when it happened (unfortunately, a merger at the paying job meant that there was more down time than I planned on) and not much else.
Don't get me wrong, there were some good times as well. A venue I tried to make it
to when I can (the late lamented No Coast) was a respite for me amidst the bullshit with some killer shows (a couple of examples: I Object, the second to last show of Los Loco Motives) and some good company. I learned who my friends actually were and went to some other cool shows. A ships passing situation made things a little easier to swallow. However, it was hard to get perspective given the black cloud the year
started on.
Needless to say I don't exactly have fond memories of the past 12 months. In fact, I think I existed more than lived the past year. I realize it was necessary to go through this shit to see the other side but it still sucks.
As I head to 2008 you may wonder what my hopes for the New Year are? There are the big things (world peace, a move from the currentidiocy in our system to something
more humane and a lot saner, etc) that some may find issue with.
However, if nothing else, I just hope that the people I care and give a shit about are happy, doing well, and creating (if they are so inclined). I know it's not a revolutionary concept but it's how I feel right now.
As for the former friend, this is someone I met a while back and was actually interested in possibly getting involved with. That blew up in my face and a troubled and flawed attempt at being friends (at least I thought it was) emerged from the ashes. While a lot of the pain from the incident had faded some of it still lingered. Then I came across a text file of some emails from her I thought I deleted. At first it seemed things weren't so bad, then I saw the pattern emerge by the end of her replies and my emails: she told me once she felt she would never get to know me yet when I had free time to possibly hang out (and thus get to know each other) she blew me off each goddamn time). I knew any chance of friendship was on life support, but realizing itmight've never been there in the first place cleared a lot of cobwebs and helped heal a lot of festering wounds. It should've ended a long fucking time ago.
With that mostly in the past I hope to embrace 2008 with open arms and hope
things get better. Meeting new people and having new experiences might
be good for me. Will it actually be better than last year? I have no
idea but things change and sometimesal you can do is hope for the best, do what you can, and see how the ride turns out (yeah, I know it sound hella cliche but it's true). Other than that, we're just in the crsshairs waiting for things to go down.
With that in mind, I want to wish everyone reading this an excellent New
Years and hope that everything works out better than you wanted it to.
Peace!
So 2007 is almost over! So what?
Just kidding, folks. As you already know, the year is pretty much over and we have a new one on the way. With it, many see a new chance to wipe the slate clean and put aside the problems of the past. Others make resolutions they may intend to follow but fall short of and abandon long before the year ends. Either way it's a change for many of us.
As for me, I'm personally glad 2007 is pretty much gone. It was a blah year for me and I really hope things are better in 2k8. Nothing serious wrong went down with me,
but nothing really great happened either. Now before you leave this and go on to something more upbeat, let me explain.
When the year started I was reeling over the end of a friendship - at least I thought
it was a friendship. It finally caved in over the holidays and managed to really darken my Christmas season. I'll describe this in a little more detail later on. From there it was mainly work when it happened (unfortunately, a merger at the paying job meant that there was more down time than I planned on) and not much else.
Don't get me wrong, there were some good times as well. A venue I tried to make it
to when I can (the late lamented No Coast) was a respite for me amidst the bullshit with some killer shows (a couple of examples: I Object, the second to last show of Los Loco Motives) and some good company. I learned who my friends actually were and went to some other cool shows. A ships passing situation made things a little easier to swallow. However, it was hard to get perspective given the black cloud the year
started on.
Needless to say I don't exactly have fond memories of the past 12 months. In fact, I think I existed more than lived the past year. I realize it was necessary to go through this shit to see the other side but it still sucks.
As I head to 2008 you may wonder what my hopes for the New Year are? There are the big things (world peace, a move from the currentidiocy in our system to something
more humane and a lot saner, etc) that some may find issue with.
However, if nothing else, I just hope that the people I care and give a shit about are happy, doing well, and creating (if they are so inclined). I know it's not a revolutionary concept but it's how I feel right now.
As for the former friend, this is someone I met a while back and was actually interested in possibly getting involved with. That blew up in my face and a troubled and flawed attempt at being friends (at least I thought it was) emerged from the ashes. While a lot of the pain from the incident had faded some of it still lingered. Then I came across a text file of some emails from her I thought I deleted. At first it seemed things weren't so bad, then I saw the pattern emerge by the end of her replies and my emails: she told me once she felt she would never get to know me yet when I had free time to possibly hang out (and thus get to know each other) she blew me off each goddamn time). I knew any chance of friendship was on life support, but realizing itmight've never been there in the first place cleared a lot of cobwebs and helped heal a lot of festering wounds. It should've ended a long fucking time ago.
With that mostly in the past I hope to embrace 2008 with open arms and hope
things get better. Meeting new people and having new experiences might
be good for me. Will it actually be better than last year? I have no
idea but things change and sometimesal you can do is hope for the best, do what you can, and see how the ride turns out (yeah, I know it sound hella cliche but it's true). Other than that, we're just in the crsshairs waiting for things to go down.
With that in mind, I want to wish everyone reading this an excellent New
Years and hope that everything works out better than you wanted it to.
Peace!
Monday, December 3, 2007
New Issue Finally Done
It gives me a great amount of both pride and relief to note that the 15th
anniversary issue of The Trouble
With Normal is finally complete. It's a double issue (we
list it in the chronology as issues#85/86) that has some new material
but also, for the first time in our history, reprints some older
articles and has some snippets of past interviews that we found
interesting. I should have it at the stores around this weekend. Yeah,
we had to have a higher price for this double issue, but I think it's
worth it. I just hope readers appreciate the spirit and effort of the
work overall (at 80 pages it's our largest issue yet).
As for
getting it done. I'm glad it's done. I just wish I didn't have to be a
shut in all damn weekend to finally do it. I need to work on my
procrastination.
anniversary issue of The Trouble
With Normal is finally complete. It's a double issue (we
list it in the chronology as issues#85/86) that has some new material
but also, for the first time in our history, reprints some older
articles and has some snippets of past interviews that we found
interesting. I should have it at the stores around this weekend. Yeah,
we had to have a higher price for this double issue, but I think it's
worth it. I just hope readers appreciate the spirit and effort of the
work overall (at 80 pages it's our largest issue yet).
As for
getting it done. I'm glad it's done. I just wish I didn't have to be a
shut in all damn weekend to finally do it. I need to work on my
procrastination.
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