Today I made lasagna for the first time but it’s really hard to get a good picture of lasagna so I’m using a picture from last Thursday. This is the dance floor at Embers, my favorite place to dance.
My housemate’s parents came over and I cooked for all of us. The lasagna turned out okay. I was pretty unsure about it. I had a coupon for pizza just in case. It probably could have used more salt/pepper and maybe some veggie sausage. But hey, it was edible, just not very pretty.
This morning, there was a lunar eclipse. I got up at 3:30 am to see it. My housemates were already up and outside. It was fascinating only because it doesn’t happen very often. I’m not sure it was worth getting up at 3:30 am to see. I haven’t done that before and I’m not sure I’ll do it again.
I don’t know what I was expecting. I guess I was hoping to see something a little shinier like a solar eclipse. Okay, that’s a lie. What I was hoping for was the sudden realization that I had super powers like those on Heroes. Is that too much to ask?
I feel phony at work sometimes, like I am playing the part of someone who should be in my position. I think a lot of it has to do with my clothes. We have a 'casual' day at work on Fridays but every other day is business 'casual.' I usually wear short sleeve button up shirts and slacks which I feel do not represent me at all.
Tonight, we took our Chi Kung class outside. They are paving the road outside the dojo and the smell was wafting in through the windows and was almost choking us. We exited the building for a park upwind across the street. While we were doing our thing outside, I had two primary thoughts.
First, as we were doing our shaking exercise, I thought we must look like freaks. The shaking exercise consists of us standing in one spot and shaking our whole body like we are puppets suspended by a string with our feet secured to the ground and being bounced up and down. My friend Arturo has expressed concern about looking ridiculous doing this in particular exercise in public. Fortunately for him, he wasn’t at class today. On the other hand, I reveled in making people stop and stare. I love to let my freak flag fly.
My second thought was: “I am a rhino.” While doing the shaking exercise, I tend to go with whatever image pops into my head with my eyes closed. Usually the perceived shape of myself and those around me are distorted in my mind like they would be in a funhouse mirror. This time, with the tall grass tickling my bare calves, standing underneath a half moon, I thought of myself as sturdy and alive in the present and for some reason, I associated those ideas with a rhinoceros. The point of the exercise is to shake off any diseases or illnesses. I also let any bad mojo go. My thought drifted to my financial tightness right now and the fact that I may not have money when I get back from
My friends the Eclectic Bastards returned from their nation-wide tour tonight. To wrap up their tour, they played one more show at the Ash St Saloon here in
I love the Bastards and I really wanted to go ape-shit dancing to them but it was a “school night.” I have to be up at 6:20 am to work tomorrow. I ended up leaving around 11:20 pm which is early and I didn’t even get to see them play. I did get to watch Renegade which is this multi-media performer who apparently makes his own videos that go along with the song that he plays next to the video being projected. It was…unique.
Seeing the Bastards right as they returned did make me a little more anxious to go back to touring
When I cook, I still add a “meat” even though I’m a vegetarian. By “meat” I mean soy chicken, tempeh, tofu, veggie sausage or textured vegetable protein. It’s weird how we still cling to old habits like that.
Tonight, I made a pesto pasta with green beans and potatoes for the first time. It was okay but nothing spectacular. I had an excess of green beans and potatoes at the house and a hankering for pasta so that’s what I went with. The recipe didn’t call for any veggie meat and I didn’t have any that would taste good so I made it without any. There’s some protein in there with the cheese I put in the pasta but it’s wasn’t quite the same. It’s strange because it’s all vegetables anyway. I guess these are the concepts (meat for supper) that we’re raised with that are difficult to shake even though we have a completely different diet.
When I was thinking about what I was going to write about earlier today, I thought about how much I can enjoy the punk crowd. While watching MDC play at a street fair today, I thought, “I really like this.” However, by the end of the night, I was back to my mantra of “F-ing punks!”
Riot Cop and MDC played at the Laughing Horse Bookstore block party today. It was a decent show and it was the first time I had sold merch outside (and incidentally sat behind the bands while they played. It was going great when Ohnny showed up. Ohnny is a little punk who has been around the scene for a couple years now and who has been ostracized for his fondness of saying, “faggot.” Ohnny is not queer but thinks that he can reclaim the word being used as a joke. Ohnny IS a joke. Anyway, Ohnny has been asked to leave the space before and was asked to leave again. Instead, he sat like Ghandi and refused to move. Yes, I did somehow manage to refer to Ohnny and Ghandi in the same sentence. A concerned person came over to me and asked for help with security because Ohnny has a history of not respecting the safer space policy. I stopped the show and we tried to get Ohnny to leave. Ohnny wasn’t so much the issue as his friends were who were so quick to defend the word ‘faggot.’ After a while, MDC said we should chill out and the show should continue. Riot Cop held off for a little bit, the drummer told Ohnny to get out and then they continued with their show. The Ohnny ordeal wasn’t huge but there was little in show of solidarity from the performers which was disheartening. Luckily, several awesome activists were up for
After the show, there was a stand-off on the corner between Ohnny’s crew and a bunch of activists. One little punk who I thought was a girl and turned out to be a 13-14 year old boy asked me who he was hurting by just sitting there. I asked the punk if he would just let a Nazi sit there and he said yes, he would stand in front of a Nazi. “What’s one Nazi going to do?” The punk then said that he uses the word ‘faggot’ and wanted to know if I have a problem with him. I said, “Well, yeah I have a problem with you. You’re a Nazi sympathizer.” That’s when the little shit shoved me. I’m not a violent person but I could’ve broke him in two. However, assaulting a minor was not on my to-do list so I stood back and someone held him back.
I'm looking forward to going back to Europe simply for the punks. American punk as a culture can be so fucked.
I DO hate TV. I hate commercials and I hate the persistent sexism and heterosexism that is so prevalent in mainstream media. However, there are certain shows I like. I appreciate good writing and cool action scenes. I don’t usually watch shows on TV though. I will download them and watch them without the ads. They are much more tolerable that way.
I know it’d be all bad-ass of me to say ‘Fuck TV’ altogether but I love Battlestar Galactica, Lost and Heroes. However, there was never as sharp of dialog as there was in Joss Whedon’s shows Firefly and Buffy. Yes, I am a big damn dork but I can recite lines from random Buffy episodes. Firefly was awesome and it was put down before it’s time because it was so awesome and because they put it on a bad night to try to get viewers. But there are still legions of fans out there, even though it didn’t make it one full season and last night, I hung out with a selection of them.
The
There’s nothing like waking up to the view of an awe-inspiring mountain and a beautiful blue sky. On Sunday, I crawled out of the tent, faced the mountain, stretched, took three good breaths and I was healed. Wishing works because I was ready to go again. I washed up in the creek, we had a breakfast of scrambled eggs with bits of bread mixed into it and packed up our things to head back.
The hike back up the ridge was difficult but I made it through. My legs began to ache slightly but nowhere near as bad as the day before. The view from the peak of the ridge is simply amazing. Mt Jefferson is the mountain in the above picture and the ridge is in front of it. From the top of the ridge, I could see Mt Hood, Mt Jefferson (obviously), smoke from a forest fire in the hills to the left of the mountain and more mountains than I could fathom beyond that. Since my legs didn’t ache as much, I was able to enjoy the scenery that much more.
Plus, the majority of the hike back was DOWNHILL! YAY!! I did a LOT better going back, barely needing a break at all. Arturo’s neck was bothering him though so we did take a break of two but we made it back in great time. When we got back to the car, we had to drive down through the river bed that passes for a road. I got out of the car several times to move large rocks out of the way.
When we made it down the road, we had to go towards
It was an adventure. I don't know how soon I'll be up for repeating it but I know I won't be forgetting it any time soon.
I’m in relatively good shape. I like to think that I get enough exercise. Yet, on Saturday, I was sure that the hike was going to kill me. We hiked ½ mile to the Jefferson trailhead and then another 5 ½ miles up to this ridge that overlooked
On the other hand, Arturo was a fucking jack-rabbit. I don’t know where he gets his endurance but sign me up for a double dose of it! The guy was always about 20 to 50 yards ahead of me and I was the one that had to call for break all the time. He literally cheered me on at one point. When we got down to the park, I could hardly move so he volunteered to run around and find a camp spot for us. All I wanted to do was get off my feet, take the backpack off and sleep. And as soon as we found our spot, we set up the tent and that’s what I did. I felt like I wasted the evening but I was tired, cold and in pain. When nightfall came, Arturo and I laid out under the stars and watched the beginnings of the meteor shower. Arturo was sweet enough to let me use his mummy bag while he laid there in layers of clothes. I used up eight of my falling star wishes on fixing my legs and giving me the strength to get back to the car. Either that or I wanted a helicopter to come down and get me.
When I was in sixth grade, my dad started up a Boy Scout troop in our small town. Since I wasn’t into sports or anything like that, he figured this would be a good way to connect with me. I really did enjoy it and I have always been grateful to him for making that effort. I was a lousy camper though. Early on, my dad saw that, whenever we would go camping, this other scout Drew and I would always go goof off while everyone else set up camp. Dad then split us up into small groups and left us on our own to make it. He put Drew and I together and it was amazing that we survived. I barely remember how we came through it. I think that we got help from one of the other groups. I still enjoy camping but I still usually leave the hard parts for someone else. I’ll go gather firewood.
On Friday, Arturo and I went to the Willamette Wilderness area to go camping. It was nice out. For Friday night, we drove up to a spot and set up camp there. Arturo has become quite the outdoorsman so I pretty much relied on him to keep us alive. We discussed where the tent should go and he said he was going to go take care of the fire. I decided that was my cue to set up the tent. I have set up tents before but never on my own. I have “assisted” others in setting them up. This time though I was on my own. It was not a challenging tent or a difficult setup. However, I did it (for the first time) without help (or instructions) and it didn’t collapse on us. Dad would be proud.
Also, this picture of the tent was taken with my digital camera on the night scene setting. I did not alter it to look this spooky. This is just how it came out. When I first saw it, it was a challenge to put the Blair Witch out of my head.
My former supervisor once summed me up in one sentence to his boss. He said, “His best and worst quality is that he doesn’t have an ego.” I’ve always considered that true. I’m not full of myself but I could stand to demand a little more respect and think a little more of myself. Today, I met someone who helped me do just that.
My good friend at work brought in her best friend Janine from outside to come see our job today. It was interesting because it gave me a fresh perspective on my friend and also on how odd our job can be. We’re all used to it but Janine was taken back by it all. Also, my friend told Janine about me and had me tell her stories about
I don’t think of my life as that exciting but when I looked at it reflected in Janine’s eyes, it looked downright fascinating. I thought, “Damn, I AM pretty cool.” I don’t think this is going to give me an over-inflated sense of myself but maybe a little ego is healthy every now and then. From time to time, if I can see in myself what Janine saw today, maybe I’ll be able to hold my head a little higher and have more of a positive reflection.
I actively try to disarm stereotypes and to work against the mold built to generalize people so I surprised myself today when I fit into a cookie cutter of a stereotype almost exactly. I went to the Dancing Beans coffee house (for the first time) on my break from work with a book to read. I was dressed rather nice because I was at work and it is close to laundry day. So there I am, an anarchist reading a political theory book at a coffee shop while sharply dressed all in black. All I needed was a long cigarette and someone to discuss Bakunin with and I would have been set.
I will think about my wardrobe and where I will be going more carefully tomorrow.
Today I rode in a little trailer home while it was being pulled about town. I know, it’s not really necessarily legal but someone had to be with it in case the hitch came undone and it ended up in the middle of
We didn’t take it that far. We towed it to the Red and Black café for our benefit rummage sale. It turned out to be a great sale. We made some decent money for them. All of the money came from free items too. No overhead! After the sale, we hung a sheet over the side of the trailer and projected “Sicko” onto it. It’s still an awesome movie and I urge everyone to go see it and to take eight of their friends!
The weather has been very odd lately. I know it’s due to unnatural climate changes and it should have me more upset but…I hate the heat! I like a break from the rain but if there’s light cloud cover and it doesn’t get above 80, you won’t hear any complaint from me.
However, today felt like summer. It didn’t feel like a HOT day but it was warm. I rode my bike around a lot. I cleaned out old junk for our rummage sale the next day. Then I went to a bonfire garden party with good food, friends and musical entertainment by Victory and the Lads. That feels like summer to me. It’s nice that, despite what the weather says, we can create our own summer.
Oh, and my new thing was trusting Beez Restaurant when I ordered a breakfast burrito there for the first time and asked them to substitute bacon for veggie sausage. Yes, it’s a cop-out.
I was going to blog about this funky soy fish I had for the first time but Arturo told me that was a cop out so here we go:
