Random stuff and what not

I’ve been meaning to write a lot of posts lately, but I just haven’t gotten around to it.

I’ve been meaning to write about homeless people–specifically the scavengers of society. A couple weeks ago my wife and I saw a dude really sorting out the garbage, looking for stuff to recycle. Now, I know this a white person thing to think, but I couldn’t help feel proud that i was doing something. Here was this person making choices to support himself by digging through trash for recyclables. Not only was he weening trash from hitting the landfill, he was working for a living. Much better than drunkenly asking for change on the street. He was self sufficient (or at least to my deluded mind). We did, however, decide to shred every piece of paper before tossing it.

****

I’ve also been meaning to write a post about the band. I feel I can write here, rather than on the website, since the website should be reserved for more official matters. We’re looking at booking for the studio for mid-March. We have the final round of the battle-of-the-bands on March 6th. Apparently, the winner gets $1000 cash, recording time, fliers, and a clothes certificate.

As all the other bands have observed either in their websites or in person: the metal/heavy bands made it to the finals more than likely on the sole strength of having the same set of metalheads voting our scene in. While this is awesome, as we will actually get paid for playing a show, our group of metalheads are not big enough to vote one band to win.

The competitive part of me really wants to win this shin-dig, just like I’ve wanted to win every game or contest I’ve entered. The other part of me realizes that if one metal band wins, the potential for scene jealously and fracture is an all-too-real possibility.

I suppose the best way to look at this would be that the metal scene is getting strong enough to vote our own into the finals of the contest. We’ll use this platform to try to expand the scene, maybe hook some people in that wouldn’t have ordinarily seen us.

****

My mom’s kidney’s are failing/have failed. Basically they don’t work well enough anymore. Though I’ve known about this for a while, I have yet to write a permanent post about it. My mom, who reads this blog, wonders why. I guess I don’t know. It’s sort of a hard thing to write about. Writing is a means by which I can organize and elucidate my thoughts. My thoughts on this are relatively blank, as if the reality hasn’t sunk in or perhaps sunk in a while ago.

My mother, more than most people in my life, has always taught me to be self-sufficient. I learned how to cook and prepare food at about ages 6 or 7, to do laundry at 10, to get myself to school starting in the 1st grade. Her fear was that she wouldn’t be around forever.

I don’t believe in such a thing as an idealized childhood. To try to insulate a child from the hardships in this world delays any mechanisms to cope with hardships later on. My parents raised me how they thought best, and since I’m not a complete fuck up, I think they did a pretty good job.

They don’t know why her kidneys are failing. I’ve had lots of armchair doctors tell me to tell her what to do, whether it’s change her diet, exercise more, blah blah blah. They usually quit asking me about after I snap at them and ask how many years of med school they went through to diagnose a patient without even examining her.

I guess that I have fear too. Since they don’t know what caused it, the thing could genetic. Her siblings haven’t gotten it yet, but that doesn’t mean much since she’s the oldest. Maybe I could get it. I guess that’s what all fear comes down to, right? This could happen to me.

Me and the wife will be heading down to Denver when she gets her transplant to help take care of her and make sure she gets her medicine.

***

I guess that’s really all for now.

Mr. Smith Goes to Billings

My wife and I just went to Billings to visit my family, in particular my brother who was also in town. It was the first time in a couple of years that the whole famn damily was gathered in one place and it went off fairly smooth imho.

Though I won’t get much into detail about the trip, especially family specifics since I don’t like to publish all my secrets for free, I did want to share some random thoughts about the trip.

#1) Billings is getting spruced up. I remember growing up on Russell Street two blocks off of Broadwater Ave. The streets surrounding our house were decrepit at best. Pot holes plagued the streets, but that never seemed to stop my brother from driving full bore at angles to miss the worst of the damage.

The streets seem to be a lot better in the city. Maybe I came at the right time of the year, but it suddenly struck me how pleasant it is to drive in Billings (especially when you know how to get around). People’s yards look nice. Almost too nice. I wonder how many Billingites are actually concerned about the possible ecological damage that those lush lawns pose. In Western Montana, we’re looking at an aquifer that might be drained within my lifetime. Though, it is nice to have some shade in that blistering sun. Coming back to Missoula was a shock. Partly because it was rainy, and partly because we barely noticed it was rainy.

#2) Billings is still growing at a clip. Yet, it is still affordable. Sort of. Sure, it has the half a million and million dollar houses, but my cousins managed to buy a house for less than a hundo-thousand! That category does not exist in Missoula. It doesn’t matter what part of town you live in, how bad the house is. Nothing. Those houses do not exist over here.

#3) Eastern Montana thunderstorms are still cool. Our last full day in Billings ended with a barbeque. Rain threatened the entire day. I would go stand outside to watch the impending clouds, seeing and smelling the rain, knowing that it was on its way. In Missoula, if you can see the storm, you’re about to get wet. With valley living comes the inevitable fact that the weather has no place to go except for the valley. In Billings, though, the storm seemed to split up. Half of the storm went north while the other half went south. We were spared and the barby was a success!

#4) Our “new” car (an 89 Camry) gets great mileage. On the way down we got an average of 33.5 mpg even with some random in town driving whenever we felt like stopping. We got this in part because we actually drove 75 mph instead of my usual 80. Plus we weren’t blasting heat (like during our last trip in the winter) or AC. What a difference that 5 mph made! I tried going a little bit slower when possible, but 334 miles is a long drive to take real slow. Trust me. I know. And not because I remember when the speed limit was 55 on the highway (which I do, though I was too young to drive it), but because I had a van that could only go 55. Eight hours is far too long of a drive between Missoula and Billings.

The thing was, even at 75 we were passing people. It used to be that I went 80 to 85 and lots of people passed me. I saw truckers pass more cars then I’d ever seen before. It made me think that perhaps other people are trying the same tactic: driving slow to save fuel and money.

I read in USA Today that people are actually on average driving less than they were. I’d believe that. We already drive less and only keep a car because it is a bit cheaper than taking taxis or buses to all of our hard to reach places (my band practices outside of Missoula).

I’m still working on ending, so I’ll just abruptly say this: Johnny Cash, 50 Cent, Ludicris, Britney Spear’s bald head.

Politcal Labels Part II

I did manage to take some notes from the lecture on Political Labels.  One of my notes showed a sort of diagram that stated Conservative = pinnacle.  Liberal = progression.  I think what I meant when I wrote this is that within a lot of conservative strains that I read, conservatives believe that we have either reached the pinnacle of history or that we have already reached it and must work hard to go back to it.  One example can be found within evolution.  Many anti-evolution advocates believe that humanity is the pinnacle of God’s creation.  It doesn’t get any better than this.  Animals may or may not evolve, but they will never reach the excellence of humanity because God doesn’t want them to.   Liberals believe that evolution is a process.  Humans, too, will change give enough time or climate changes.  We have discovered that we have “dark DNA” — DNA that can be switched on or off given the right circumstances.  In the liberal’s world, humanity is quite capable of destroying everything and is already in the process of doing so.Capitalism can be seen this way, too.  In conservative thought, the free market is the pinnacle of all economics.  Nothing better will ever come along and nothing better could ever exist.  Any inefficiencies within the system can be explained by the market not being free enough, no matter pervasive human tampering with the system.  Any more, the democrats seem to be indistinguishable from the Republicans in this regard.  Both sides want to squeeze as much as they can from the economy as possible.  The difference comes with non-political liberals.  These liberals believe that capitalism, as practiced now works, but is in the process of working better.  Humanity, and earth, needs to develop a better system, one that takes care of our neighbors and respects the environment.

But the above argument seems to have switched places with classic conservatism and classic liberalism.  Today’s conservatives believe that this man-made idea, capitalism, can magically solve any problem if left alone, while today’s liberals believe that a little more finger-in-the-pot is necessary to make sure we don’t suddenly wake up in a hand-basket.

 However, one of the things the lecturer admitted over and over again, is that he’s not sure exactly what today’s liberals and conservatives stand for.    I’ll share some more of my thoughts about this in part three.

Do You Have a Permit for That?

Recently, scientists documents Chimpanzees sharpening sticks to go hunting little furries. This flies in the face of everything I had been taught about the uniqueness of humans. Humans were unique because of our intellect, more than any other physical characteristic. But it seems that the more we study animals, the more we find that we are not the only intelligent creatures or even the pinnacle of creation, but that we were the first to develope tools, weapons, and other “human” things.

What the hell happened…?

…To all of our lovely rain? Who ordered this arctic blast? Damn Canadian cold front finally pushed over the continental divide and now Hellgate Canyon has opened up. I was heading over to the University Pool to get some much needed exercise. The wind almost blew me off of Van Buren Foot Bridge! Needless to say I didn’t get much swimming done. I was too afraid that I’d turn into an icicle when I left. Instead of swimming, my wife and I just hung out at the U.C.

Yule Year

So this Christmas was still fairly interesting. We went to my in-laws for Xmas Eve but couldn’t stay the night. The bloodsuckers wanted my wife to work Xmas day.

It struck me during the presents how much waste goes into Christmas: the wrapping, packaging, etc. We filled up bag after bag of junk and still had a ton of boxes leftover to burn in the fireplace. Reduce, reuse, recycle seems to have little place at Christmas. We did our best by wrapping presents in old newspaper and paper bags. It wasn’t super fancy, but it did the trick. Though sometimes I have that little voice in the back of my head say, “You old grinch. You scrooge. Who are you to take away the glitter and pizz-azz of the holidays ?”

I distrust that voice. That voice reeks of commericialism. It’s the same voice that tells me to buy more presents than I can afford. The same voice that tells me I need a five thousand square foot house all for my very own. That I need a new car. That I need all these new cds, books, clothes, etc. I say fuck that. I don’t need every little thing that I see. I can barely read all the books that I have now, much less the magazines or teh internets. I listen to music still and I still like to collect cds, but as far as most anything else, I just hate filling up landfills with more packaging from me.

Monkey See…

Apparently, India also believes that it’s emissions don’t contribute to global warming.

Environment Minister A. Raja said, “We are not doing any harm to the entire world. We are, in spite of the developmental activities taking place in this country, very categorical that our emissions are below three percent which is within limits.”

The bucket of global warming is filled by many drops. Regretably, some countries contribute more drops than others, but just because your country doesn’t fill the whole bucket doesn’t mean you escape responsibility

The Best Waste of Money

I’ve always been a space junky, so I almost pooped my pantalonies when I saw that NASA was planning on building a permanant base camp on the moon. The sci-fi kid in me is thrilled. This seems to be the start of a permenant colony on another terra. If a self sustaining community can be established, it will increase the chances of mankinds survival in the case of some calamity devestating the Earth.

However, the emerging adult in me wonders why we should burn more money in a space program that does little to improve the quality of life on Earth. In fact, by contributing fuel and pollution it seems to diminish the quality of life. We could be using that federal money on better things: health care, redistribution of wealth, buying better armor for our troops, and hell, maybe even reducing the tax burden.

Besides what good does it do to start a mini-Earth when we can’t solve big Earth’s problems? The new community better be self sustaining and non-polluting. I don’t want to look through my telescope at a planetary garbage dump (though that’s an interesting function for the moon). Granted, any kind of developement, especially terra-forming will change the make up of the moon. Imagine seeing a moon with blue skies and oceans. Our stories will change. Our mythologies will evolve. We’ll tell our grandkids, “I remember when the moon was just a chunck of white rock.” They’ll say, “how boring.” We’ll say, “No. How beautiful.”

Automakers Gnaw on Dino Bones

Oh wah. Oh cry me a drop in the bucket syndrome. So what if U.S. vehicle emissions account for only 7% of global warming emissions? That’s a large drop that we could take out of the bucket if only the paleoconservatives would stop whining about the cost of a brand new car going up $3000. That’s $3000 that I still won’t pay because I still can’t afford to buy a new car. Meanwhile I wait the ten to fifteen years for the new technology to “trickle down” to me, but in the meantime the small percentage of new car buyers can help jump the gun and cut that 7% as much as possible. I’m too poor to vote with my dollar, so instead I’ll just have to vote with my vote.

And yes, I still do walk and bike to work. Hell, I walked to work this morning and I believe that temperature clocked in a 15 degrees. It’s not just a short walk either, but about 1.5 miles.

Mmm… Tasty!

A world without fish? I think it’s just another hoax from those pseudo-intellectual vegan elitetarian liberal hippy scumbutters. They would want to take away our God given right to eat whatever we want, whenever we want, however we want. I like mine in a Taco del Sol burrito.