Strange
Day

Belfast Blast Rattles Schoolgirls
um. yeah.
In order to protest violence perpetrated by Cathloics, the protestants are shoot and bombing young Catholic school girls.
This isn’t even an eye for an eye (which only leaves both people blind). It’s more like a head for an eye.

I cannot believe they (mis)quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.
Bite me — it’s not like there is a whole lot of intellectual entertainment to be found on evening televion Friday nights. I can’t help it if my remote gravitates towards young, poorly dressed women.

For those of you who need to get a life, you may have noticed the succession of names this little diatribe has taken.
The current incarnation is “Shakespear’s Monkey”. Barring the probable misspellings, I had two main reasons behind this shift in names. The first being the well worn quote that if an infinate number of monkeys worked on an infinate number of typewriters, one of them would eventually write Shakespear’s plays. And this being my own seemingly infinate verbal meanderings, maybe someday I’ll actually wrtie something worth reading.
On a similar idea, though through a less direct method, I have been thinking about writing lately. Well, photography first, and then writing. In photography, very few such artists get their amazing pictures from singular attempts at a composition. Every photographer I know has said, once you get yourself set up, you take as many pictures as possible of the subject. Film is cheap, and you never know what detail will make or break a shot.
Yes, writing is involved here somewhere. Basically, I applied the same photography philosophy to my writing. (Well, I am starting to apply it). Words are cheap. If you write a lot, you only improve your skill and chances of happening upon an interesting thought.
So overall, it is very similar to the SHakespear’s Monkeys quote.
Excuse me, I need a banana.

Imagine you’re a man. Work too much, spend too little time with your family. But you’re fooling around with a younger woman. She’s not bad looking. She cooks for you, cleans, waits on you hand and foot. She doesn’t mind being the other woman. And you’re wife, wether she suspects or not, doesn’t seem to care.
With a position like this, why would Rep. Condit kill Chandra Levy? Let’s not be stupid people.
And since the girl’s connection to the congressman is the only reason this story is still in the news, and he obviously didn’t do it, can we please all get on with our lives?
There are over 2000 people a day in the USA reported missing. In the 4 or so months since this all started, that amounts to over 240,000 people.Is anyone else offended that there are half a dozen police forces who are devoting significant resources to finding this one woman who by the most optimistic estimates will only be found dead now?

They can all fucking bite my ass.
I call to make a claim on my Personal Accident insurance policy and get told no payment has been made on the premium since last July. I would bring this up with the people who’ve automatically been deducting payments from my paycheck, but no one is answering the phone.

If you’re gonna call me at 7 in the morning to sell me crap I don’t need, you should at least have the decency to talk to me in person so I can tell you where to go.
would you guess I’m not a morning person?

ug… just got home… bout 4 hours after i left.

😛

needed to go out to montgomery mall to get some things. (is the mall in Bethesda… dont remember if we ever went). So i get out to Medical center metro station. stood there for maybe five minutes when i realized I didn’t have any cash on me… no bus fair. So being too stubborn, I started walking in the rain, the mile or two up to the grocery store above where my uncle lives… near the Hamburger Hamlet. Was the closest ATM, and a place to get change.

finally from there i caught the bus to the mall. they had an antique show, which i usually like… but all they had today was jewelry… mucho boring to me. but i got what i needed. bought a alarm clock and a moustache trimmer. my old alarm clock didn’t seem to appreciate 5 years of being dropped, kicked, and slammed. but it makes a good wall clock now. as for the moustache trimmer… dont laugh at me till you’ve tried trimming your eyebrows with a pair of hedge clippers.

anyyyways…

made my way back from the metro through the average assortment of beggars and bums. they asked for cigarettes tonight. I pretty much never give to the beggars. Too many people that I see sitting on the same corner, day after day. Never actually trying to get off the street… if they’re actually on it. but on the reverse side, I also try not to ignore them. Initially, I just didn’t want to annoy them into a confrontation. But it occured to me, it would be pretty rough in their position, to be ignored. When someone walks by without even looking, they’re trying to ignore the existance of a PERSON. no matter how lowly they may live, they are a person. And the idea of having people ignore my existence is pretty damn scarey.

god my apartments a mess. all the packages arriving and going out in the last week took their toll. personally i cant deal with it in this condition. I tend to start acting like my surroundings. When my place is a mess, my life gets terminally unorganized. Being organized makes it easier to get anything done, not just physically, but mentally. And when things like cleaning get put off, I start getting really lazy. Never a good thing. Would be all to easy for me to just go to work, come home, and watch TV till I go to bed.

be back later…

……………………..

okay… we wont even go into the race thing here. I wholeheartedly agree that racism exists, and that it’s a stupid, awful thing. But I just got done watching one of the most annoying shows ive ever seen. was one of those low budget, public access shows. “Black Women on the Light Dark Thing”

They claimed the ‘oppressors’ where teaching children as they grew up, that european, and only european features are beautiful. And this is causing undo self-hatred in all black women.

There are so many things wrong with these ideas, its scarey. these women have he wrong end of the stick. they are saying that because black women in general dont fit a popular idea of the perfect female image, that black women are feeling bad, and that we need to change that image. We dont need to change any image. And you cant. If this many black women really are feeling cheated and have such a low self-image… they need to work on that… their self-image. I hate psychobabble personally, but even i will agree that you have a problem if you spend your time trying to change yourself to fit in. We need to be teaching people to be happy with themselves. Wanting to change is a normal, good thing, in my opinion, as long as it is towards improving yourself in your own eyes.

I have been watching a woman very close to me change over the last couple of years. Her color doesnt matter. She went from being a fairly typical college freshman, to an very special lady. She learned she didn’t need to make other people happy. She learned she needed to do things to fufill her own dreams. She is finally starting to see her own beauty, inside and out. She knows she is in charge of her own life. That’s all anyone has.

I am also personally offended to be considered an oppressor because of the way I was born. why is it nearly blasphemy if i insult a black person on the basis of their skin, but the color of mine means that I am responsible for all the sins of my fathers. the person claiming to be fighting one form of racism, is using her own prejudice to support her arguments. I think clinton was a moron for apologizing to ‘the black community’ for american slavery. If I was a black person, I would have been offended. Almost no person alive today has ever experienced that slavery. To think that you can lessen todays troubles, or make a modern person happier by apologizing for something you had nothing to do with, and no control over, and directly affected no one in your audience… just doesn’t make any sense, and has no meaning.

And for gods sake… let me smack the next person that uses the term african american, or talks about the african culture among american blacks. Same goes for most jewish and some chinese people in the US. to 99.9% of you out there, I say “WAKE UP” … look around… notice… almost no resemblance to that whole other continent across the sea. You are an american. I am an american. That is your culture. kaput. thats it. any claim to africa or israel or wherever… is an INTEREST. I dont care if your great grandmothers aunt did come from there. If scientists are to be believed, we all did. Its a matter of timing. You cannot and will not make a place for yourself in this culture until you admit you are a part of it. If you want an african culture, you should be looking in africa. but watch out… ive met enough africans to know that a lot has changed there in the last 150 years. your going to find a culture more american that the fake one you’ve set up here.

having said that, I also want to say… im not asking anyone to abandon their past. By all rights be proud of your families history, and origins. But pull your head out of the past, and realize where YOU are right now. Take those wonderful ideas and actions you find so inspiring, and apply them to the current situation. Because if you refuse to progress with this culture at the same rate its going… well… take a look at the mennanites and such. they have their ideals.

this case in the news recently, of two white men, dragging a black man from the back of their truck until he died, has just been… ridiculous. These two guys committed murder. An awful, disgusting one. On that basis… throw em in jail, hang em from the yard arm, whatever the jury decides. But I dont think the racism issue should have ever been allowed to enter this case. I think the idea of hate crimes and giving stronger punishments on the basis of the biases of the offenders is wrong, and too close to totalitarianism. It is a simple act of legislating morals. It trys to tell people what is and is not RIGHT. and this is not something you can teach people by forcing their hands. The murderers with the truck… I personally dont wanna see em in public ever again. And I hate racism down to my very core. But I would defend to the death their right to have a different belief, even one so contrary to my own. This country is founded on freedom to live your life as you want. I dont think you have a right to do one thing to a racist (or such) until they put their beliefs into an illegal action. and at that time… judge them on that action and that action alone. you dont cut a murder slack for believing in god wholeheartedly, why do you further condemn the same murderer for their other beliefs, no matter how offensive?

I think Ive pissed off enough people for now.

im getting sick of having all these cool thoughts throughout the day, of what I can write about, and when I sit down, they all disappear.

so im watching this miniseries on the 60’s. seems like everyone in it is trying to find themselves, and failing miserably, or fighting for a cause they arent sure they believe in. doesnt keep em from fighting of course.

I used to say that the people in my college were overly apathetic. But i havent seen much change since retruning to the “real world”. At least in school, I could hold a conversation. When was the last time you were so engrossed in a topic that you could sit till 5 in the morning talking?

nothing gets to people anymore.

in my life?

I saw us overrun a country to protect oil. weigh this on your moral scale: black fluid verses human lives.

I saw the bodies of servicemen dragged through the streets in africa.

Ive seen nearly every important woman in my life deal with rape.

I had to be careful on the streets of my hometown when I walked with my girlfriend, because we werent the same shade.

Ive personally had to watch the most beautiful little children leave a preschool and go home to families where theyll be abused; mentally, physically, and sexually.

I dont know.

morons… theyre all morons.

(I think i like that word)

anyways…

if someone from ProLease ever shows up to talk to you about managing your officeworkers… run for your friggin life.

They done nothing but caused me trouble.

tell me a doctor right out of their book doesnt exist… make me resubmit his name FIVE times! Get the name and address wrong on all my paperwork. Forget to pay my taxes, cancel our 401k’s and dont start new ones.

And Im just one person. Other people in the office have their own horror stories.

anyways…

got my new check’s in the mail today… very cool. Funky Retro geometric graphics. And no more updating the address on my old checks.

have i mentioned that client meetings make me nuts? very seldom do they work out well. had the wanna-be client today. As he sits their in his brown three piece suit and Alan Alda perm, he’s telling me his company isnt like the rest; theyre ‘less-structured, young, creative’. I suppressed the smile I think. Then I got the hell outta their building that all but smelled of cotton balls.

have I mentioned I have a beautiful girlfriend? that smile alone lights up my heart. I can still see every curve, every flowing wave of hair, the light in her eyes that lets me know she’s okay.

we wont mention how intimidating her intelligence could be too.

but I love her… everything about her.

(granted, i could do with a muzzle for her dog)

i figured out what happened today, where everything went downhill. I put on a tie this morning. Boss wanted to impress Alan Alda. I shoulda known it woulda been trouble.

The best show in the world for one-liners, Will and Grace:

“You know what those rocks need? A little Scotch”

“You’re like a spoonfull of whoopass”

Ignorance is bliss?

nahhh…

Ignorance is annoying as hell.

Was talking with some friends the other day. Me, being oh so subtly sarcastic as I am, I was asking, since we always hear about Muslim terrorists, why dont we ever hear about Christian terrorists (ie. Timothy McVey).

After people stopped being offended that I would say such a thing, they really started swallowing their foot.

“But their religion is what causes them to be terrorists!”

*cough*

“I dont understand why they’re so violent. They don’t get to watch violence on TV like us”

*hack*

“You know what those people over there are like”

*choke*

It’s amazing how many they‘s there appear to be in the world. And they’re always so much more deprived than us. And not quite as intelligent. They live in grass huts, with no indoor plumbing. They dont have cars or microwaves. They worship either Satan or a close relative of his.

How long is it gonna be before some people realize that there is no they. There is no them. There is no us.

There is only we.

And there will be no solving of any world problems until we all accept this simple fact.

I’ve heard it said time and again, that your life and personality are shaped by the events you experience. Less seldom said, and what I have distinctly noticed as of late, is that your life is shaped by the people in it.

I remember the people that sat at my table in kindergarten, including the girl who used to show off her muscles by flexing her arms. I remember my first real friend, and all the times we drove our parents nuts. I remember the bully in high school, and the day I stood up for myself. I remember my first girlfriend; who doesn’t remember her. I remember my first love, and how much it hurt when I lost her.

And now, while I am starting my life anew, all alone, I am slowly realizeing who were my true friends, and those who were even closer than friends. Who was there when Anita died. Who listened to me for those long, repetitive nights after Lara left me. Who was willing to admit they loved me.

I can no longer touch any of these people. The closest of them is 300 away. I have to stop myself everyday from buying a ticket to Rochester, and hiding on Lea’s bed for a few more weeks. But those closest to me are still there. Still in me, helping to make my decisions, making me realize what I really want out of life, without being able to say a word to each other.

I am really friggin tired. I only wish it was from staying out late all nite partying. But noooo… I had to fill out more job applications. Responsibility sucks. (okay, maybe Im a little grumpy this morning)
But I guess I’ll live. So now I have someplace to stay in DC while I am down there for interviews. I just need to get the interviews now. I hate making the phone calls after you apply for a job. I always feel like such a putz over the phone. I have a hard enough time talking to people I know, much less people I am supposed to be impressing.
I ussually just follow a hint I heard somewhere once, about writing down what you wanna say exactly as you want to say it, before you call. Kinda like a script. May seem goofy, but it works. Keeps me from having to think (which is always a good thing).
Speaking of not thinking, heard some more tidbits about my *cough* wonderful school yesterday. You see, we got this university president who seems to have the common sense of a hedgehog. Forget the idea that these schools are here to educate people, and the students should have the biggest say in how things are done. Around here the administration seems to take the stance that whatever will annoy the most people the fastest should be implimented.
Our president, Al Simone. The man, and I use that term loosely, doesnt seem to have a firm grip on reality. He has no idea what the common student goes through. I’ve heard him continually spout ignorant, degrading commonts about the art school, which he doesn’t seem to realize, houses one of the biggest majors on campus. What do you want, he was asked to leave his last job at the University of Hawaii. Came here to supposedly help us save money. But most people I know think he was hired to cut and burn his way through the University, lowering their costs by any mean necessary. But while his programs seem to have done little for this school, Ive seen first-hand the kind of waste that goes on. While working for RIT, I saw countless ways money was spent recklessly, or pointlessly. I think people here have just forgotten this isnt supposed to be a comfy job, it is supposed to be a school.
Ah well.
A coupla years ago, they talked about getting rid of a few programs in the art school. But the entire college protested. There where acts of protest across the entire city. Teachers and students were upset. (No programs were losing any money, the administration was just following the theories of Darwin). But in the end, no programs were cut.
Cool, right? EEEEEEEEEEEE! wrong answer.
Over this past summer, while there is only a skeleton crew of students, faculty, and staff, the administration quietly cut at least one of the art programs (textile). I had a friend who wasnt even sure if they were going to let her graduate, because some teachers weren’t sure if they wanted to stay any more.
Its not that the classes were being cancelled. They were being kept. They just werent offering the majors any more. Does this make sense to anyone?
All I gotta say, is that if you’re coming here for an art program other than Graphic Design, be prepared to fight for your classes.
Let’s see nowe if this page still exists tomorrow, or if my account gets accidentally erased. Don’t worry, if it does, you can be sure it will show up again within a week on a private system.