Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Conversations with the homeless, #341

Waiting to cross street.  Voice behind me:

Homeless:  "Hey, you want me to tell you three, uh, funny jokes about black people for, uh, 1 dollar?"
Me: "No, that's OK."
Homeless:  "How about two, uh, jokes white people for 75 cents?"
Me: "No, I'm good."
Homeless:  "How about one funny joke about Michael Jackson..."
Me:  finally light changes, I start walking across.
Homeless:  "...cigarette..."

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Conversations with the homeless #132

#1 Playing guitar that is hopelessly out of tune: ” Hey you got a dollar?” Me: ”No sorry” (true) ”That's ok some people ha ha ha ha you know it's all good.” Hands me a dollar (!!) from his dirty pocket. ”That's a tip you know what a tip is? You speak English?” I nod, take the dollar. ”That's what we call a tip in English. I thought you might ha ha ” Keeps playing. #2 Same person, different day about a week later playing same guitar, nods in recognition to me. ”Ha ha some peoples got troubles ha ha you can't complain because ha ha #3 Scruffy young guy with bushy beard and mustache: ”I'm a full grown man,not a boy white boy.” I ignore him, I'm not even sure it's directed at me. He catches my eye and says, ”You've never had to feel fear eh?” I smile brightly, cheerfully and ask, ”Why?” He frowns, says, ”Have a nice day sir.” I smile cheerfully as possible, ”Thanks!”

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Notes from a conversation with a four year

*blues guitar music playing in the background*
Me: Do you hear that?
She:  Huh?
Me:  You hear Lucille singing?
She:  Huh yeah.
Me:  You know what it means,Lucille singing?
She:  No, what?
Me:  Lucille's the name of the guitar.
She:  Oh.
Me:  That's B.B. King making Lucille the guitar sing by playing her.
She:  Is she human?
Me:  SHE'S A GUITAR.
She:  Huh?

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Republican race 2012

I really hope Michelle Bachman won't be the republican nominee for a very simple reason:  I can't vote for her.  First there's the whole woman thing.  Then there's the whole religious nutcase thing.  A lot of republicans have the religious nutcase problem and that has made my political choices for my adult voting life very difficult.  John McCain lost my vote because of Sarah Palin (another woman and religious nutcase as well as just plain nutcase), and my feeling is that a disastrous pairing is about to take place again.  Get ready for for more years of Obama badness.  The damage he and his friends has caused will become even more permanent.

Truthfully, if things don't change with the republican candidates I'm likely to waste my vote Libertarian again.  Come on, somebody save us!!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Christianity is bullshit

John Lennon (may he rest in wonderful peace) said that ”God is a concept by which we measure our pain”.  And I have to agree, having been raised a protestant christian most of my immature life.  The main problem is that christians claim to offer relief from human suffering through the simple act of belief.  Believe that your sins are forgiven, trust in the Lord, give all things to Him, etc., and you shall be saved.  Well, I believed, I really did.  I turned every thing over to him, accepted him into my heart, believed all things in him.

And I was completely, thoroughly miserable.

Belief in a higher power doesn't relieve suffering.  In fact, belief is itself a form of attachment or desire.  And we know that desire is the cause of suffering.  Turning all things over to someone else, higher power or not, doesn't relieve anxiety,it in fact creates it.  And I think the higher ups know this and perpetuate it because unhealthy, sick people need churches and religion.  If a priest truly gave his followers true, working advice on how to end suffering once and for all, he'd be in danger of not having butts in the pews.  I wonder if that's why Buddhist priests are so poor and have to literally beg to make a living.

In all my searching and questions Christianity never offered me any help or remedy for my suffering.  I wasn't worried about my immortal soul or what will happen when I die.  I really didnt give a shit.  I wanted to stop hurting so much.  Belief just transfers the locus of control even further from where it should be.  And the very christian so called ”brothers and sisters” who were supposed to help me were themselves suffering just as much (or more) than me and weren't feeling any relief from the sugar pills they were pounding down.

I'm not even saying that Christianity is a conspiracy to keep people sick, but my experience is that the average church congregation is full of chronically ill patients and the doctors are handing out aspirin and saltpeter, if you're lucky; mostly they're selling grape juice and matzo.

Once you start to realise the real cause of suffering and work to remove it, you'll see how sick and infected the whole setup is and hopefully you won't patronise those cuckoo nests.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Carmaggedon, my ass

What a big overblown piece of hype.  Roads were clear, freeways wide open.  Which is fine except the entire city is overrun with coppers and CHP officers sitting around and wondering what to do with their useless selves.  Almost every intersection on the west side had a useless traffic cop in high viz standing on the corner with no traffic to direct.  We're in a recession, yeah right.  We can afford to pay time and a half to some hand-wavers and fat moto cops to watch traffic get handled by the  automated traffic lights?  Send them all home and I bet the 405 opens 12 hours early.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

First post from mobile device

Your intrepid author is posting from a new Toshiba thrive tablet.  Mobile android devices are awesome but having a bigger screen makes it even more awesome!

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