AHHHHHHHH

I am beyond good thought, I have lost all patience, virtue is thrown out the window along with my laptop, subscription to Netflix, and wireless internet that costs 110 dollars a month. What a huge waste! Its over...I am done...God please give me patience tomorrow....goodnight cyberspace

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Its Off To School I Go

June, July, August, Where have you gone? Wasn't it just yesterday I was basking in the glory of a long, eventful and exciting summer? How young you looked, bright, glittering in golden rays of hopes and dreams. All shattered by the looming coming of September...11th. As if that wasn't enough I signed up for 4: Tuesday, Thursday classes and some bright intelligent administrator decided to change one of the classes to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday class. This late in the registration game little hope in finding a replacement. Yet I am amazed...I found a replacement. From Chicano experiences in the US to Irish History from 1800 on. I love it! Miracles never cease to amaze me. Now if I could only find the money to pay for the $300 book bill. Do you think I could pawn my laptop, Ipod and Pac Sun Sunglasses to get the money? Maybe they will take Monopoly money?

Stereotypes

My blood boils when I hear stereotypes. One of the most stereotyped groups in American history is the Native Americans. First of all not all Native Americans wear feathers, hunt bison, or collect scalps. They don't all live on dusty plains or ride horses. Please this is the year 2007, lets try living in the modern world. Certain groups such as the Iroquois a league of 7 different tribes had a complex system of government and social structure with laws, a written language of wampum belts and elevated matriarchs. Some Native American groups were and are lead almost entirely by women such as the Navajo. The first mistake people most often make is that we they refer to Native Americans as if they are one universal group, tribes of Native Americans are as distinct and different as The US is from Papua New Guinea. In California alone their were several hundred tribes with that many different languages.

The "Bad Indian" image of scalps, war bonnets, and kidnapping white women and children is as equally dehumanizing as the "Good Indian" image of a child of nature which is just a romanticized story much like the idea of an Uncle Tom . Simply put, Native Americans are people the same as any other group of ethnicity or race, they are not entirely blameless or savage. To stereotype a people is to deny their humanity. Each time a people or person is denied humanity, we deny and kill their culture, unique, faults, successes and purpose of life. America speaks of Native Americans like a people of the past, a picturesque quantifiable historic record. There are more Native American remains in storage in the Smithsonian than their are living Native American people. How can we explain this away? We name sports teams the Redskins, the Braves, the Indians. We act as though its all in fun and games...yet calling a Native American a Redman or Redskin is the same as throwing out a racial slur. How dare Americans continue injustices of the past by labeling and stereotyping living people. We remember the Japanese internment, we remember the Holocaust, but we choose to forget the Trail of tears.

Help!!!!!!!!

I don't have a little brother...or I didn't until about a month ago. Surprisingly my parents aren't having another baby, they didn't adopt, they aren't foster parents. This little brother adopted me. Actually my cousin his parents are going through a divorce. He bugs me until I want to pull out my own hair. Lets refer to him as V.F. He is a little crazy, there can be no other explanation, every time I go anywhere he stows away some how one way or another. Inside the store he tells everyone he is my little brother and does the most embarrassing things. He told one clerk that I was his mother and he didn't want to be left alone again.....take a deep breath and count to ten.

I wonder what goes through the boys mind. No he isn't five he is fifteen. Yes, I am serious...he is like a human garbage disposal that talks non-stop 24/7. He is really cute...when he is asleep. He is kinda like a puppy he needs lots of loving care, attention and looking after. You must feed, water and make sure he goes to the bathroom frequently. When he needs attention he pelts me with a pillow, bites my arm, pinches me, throws a book at me.....1...2...3....I try to be a controlled person. I am 20 years old...I shouldn't be pillow fighting with a fifteen year old boy. Yet, that is what he wants...he wants attention focused one on one attention. You have to be careful because you never know what is going to come out of his mouth. He would tell a bad joke to a nun, (he has tried).

His latest stunt: 3:00pm today I get this call on my cell phone, "please come pick me up, please these Mexican boys are going to beat me up, they are waiting outside of the library...please" I'm thinking gosh, what did you do to them...but I promise to come get him. I drive all the way to the library about 23 miles. Pick him up taking him to get a slushee so we can talk. V. F. tells me this long story: "I was walking down the hallway and these 4 Mexican kids asked me @!!$%^ ( a colorful expletive) what are you staring at, so I said You fagots... "

My mind is racing....1...2...3...oh my gosh, what is wrong this boy. Didn't his parents teach him that first of all not all Hispanics are Mexicans and secondly that fagot is a bundle of small sticks not a group of angry little boys, furthermore not an appropriate way to respond to people? I was about to preach to him about his wrongs when he twists his face into a huge clown face smile saying in a voice as sweet as honey, "I made this all up to get a ride home so I didn't have to take the bus." 1....34....67....100...My face turns three shades of red, what could I do, tell him the story of the boy who cried wolf? Something tells me that it wouldn't make an impact unless the the boy was a rapping kangaroo and the wolf a gangbanger Lion.

Honestly, if anyone has any suggestions on how to keep your temper and enrich the life of an attention starved fifteen year old boy who needs a friend to talk to...offer them up. I need all the help I can get. I am not a saint and I am too old to learn new tricks...but I'm willing to give it a try.

Song of Note

I've never been a fan of popular music. You could say I live in the music archives of the 20s through the 80's. Everything from Classic, Celtic, Rock even Pop. Yet, once in a while I find an awesome song that I praise for its social relevance, power and human decency value. My current love is the Black Eyed Peas song "UNION." When I heard this song for the first time, the power of the lyrics and the beat took my breath away. If only we could live by the words :

"God made us all equal in his vision
I wish that I could make music as a religion
Then we could harmonise together in this mission
Listen, I know it's really hard to make changes
But two of us could help rearrange this curse
Utilising all the power in our voices
Together we will unite and make the right choice
And fight for education, save the next generation
Come together as one"

What a world would it be if we could come together as one. I'd love to explain my theory on religion and life, but I don't want to color the pure impact of this song on all those who listen. Maybe in a later blog. If you'd like to look up the lyrics here is a good website: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/blackeyedpeas/union.html
Contact me and I will try to send you the mp3 file.

Enjoy Life!

Ink'd

What is the charm of injecting ink into your skin? Having ingrained images of teddy bears, scorpions, dice, stars, naked women, names permanently implanted on your lower back, bicep, ankles or face. I by no means intend on being offensive, but the idea is somewhat disturbing. Tattoos seem to be crowding the skin of people from 16 to 105. Is it peer pressure, is it a beauty mark, or is it a sign of power? The ability to set through hours of pain and have something to show for it? I find that tattoos do not enhance the appearance of beautiful women or handsome men. Actually to me they are ugly accessories, too many tattoos cover up the importance of the human underneath.
How much do they cost? 80 to 100 dollars an hour ! The average time for a extensive complex tatoo: several hours. What really is most abhorrent to me is that tattoo ink isn't regulated by any type of health or human safety organization, no FDA or initialized government department. Often tattoo inks contain several heavy metals, carcinogens, and nasty additives that if ever released into the blood or exposed to the right conditions can cause poisoning, cancer and hepatitis. Do people realize this when they go into a tattoo parlor, that it's like playing Russian roulette with your blood stream? Bertha, Julia, Mona and Marissa, might someday divorce, leave or move on and then you have to get that ugly monument to lost love lazered off?

Urgent Update...Resilence Hides In Strange Places

Amazingly, My Sister's laptop went back together with only one left over screw. Can you believe it? I couldn't. Do you believe in Miracles? You should now, IT WORKS! Do you need a laptop? Pick a Dell XPS M1210, they can survive anything! I had to give her congratulations, I don't know that I could have accomplished that feat. My only question is What did that screw do?

The Master of Innovation must be Stubborn Craziness! If you see flying pigs...or ice in death valley during the summer...let me now...Life never ceases to amaze me.