Confidants and Liaisons

2:42AM - sipping on the nectar from the 9th sector

alternating between porn and canzo empyrean is weird but strangely satisfying.

i "should" be doing "important" things. like packing for a two week road trip.

WHATEVER.

6:10PM - Birthday Post

I really don't have a whole lot to say about my birthday this year.

Being old enough to buy alcohol doesn't mean a whole lot to me. I can't really think of anything else that comes along with the age.

Lars and Andy are supposed to be coming down tomorrow for a bike ride in the canyon, and maybe some dinner. Sunday I will be going up another canyon with my family to eat cake and enjoy the beautiful cold springs.

Today I let Kacey be in charge; breakfast in bed, fresh Krispy Kreme donuts, an amazing pedicure from Emily (one of his roommates) at her salon/spa, and a delicious fettuccine alfredo dinner. I'm thinking now might be the time for a hot bath. I'm worn out and tired. It's been an emotionally draining day.

7:41PM - Strobel truly a former atheist?

Does anybody know if it's possible to find documented evidence on whether Lee Strobel was ever truly an atheist? I thought I recall seeing something somewhere where someone had found evidence that he had been a church goer for most of his life except for a gap in his teens, but I'm having trouble tracking that down?

2:34PM - twitter twits

join me on twitter. the name is . . . cydniey.

4:27PM

yup..... pretty much.

8:27AM - Sunland.

i know that i am probably preaching to the choir about this, but i would just like to raise my voice that this "Sunland" utopia island fantastical anarchist dreamworld love party is utter and complete nonsense. there are many reasons why it will promptly fail if it ever actually gets off the ground, which is unlikely. but i want to focus on just one. the idea for this utopia rests on the notion that the interested party will negotiate and essentially ask for an island from the British government or whoever.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ASKED FOR SOMETHING?

DID YOU FEEL THAT THAT PERSON KINDA SORTA OWED YOU SOMETHING AFTERWARD?

HAVE YOU EVER ASKED SOMEONE FOR SOMETHING?

DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAD AN IMPLICIT (OR EXPLICIT) OBLIGATION TO THAT PERSON AFTERWARD?

this is called human interaction and it establishes the continuation of an uneven give/recieve relationship. you are subjugating yourself from the very start and you will keep that position for as long as you are dealing with that person. SO...

it is not a good idea! to ASK for anything! this is my advice as a human being with BASIC EXPERIENCE IN HUMAN INTERACTION.

thats all.

1:28AM - President Obama Threatens to Veto Intelligence Bill

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/07/president-obama-threatens-to-veto-intelligence-bill.html

President Obama threatened to veto the Intelligence Authorization Act Wednesday, asserting that Congress was unconstitutionally pursuing information about executive branch deliberations.

It was the third veto threat the president had issued since being elected last November. The first, made before he was sworn in, was to those lawmakers who wanted to block release of the second $350 billion in TARP funds to bail out financial institutions.

Currently, the White House is required to report on certain covert actions to the "Gang of Eight" - the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, the Senate Democratic and Republican Leaders, and the top Democrat and top Republican in both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

The legislation being debated would amend the National Security Act of 1947 in ways, the Obama administration asserted, "that would raise significant executive privilege concerns" by requiring the disclosure to the Gang of Eight "internal Executive branch legal advice and deliberations. Administrations of both political parties have long recognized the importance of protecting the confidentiality of the Executive Branch's legal advice and deliberations."

The new legislative language would run "afoul of tradition by restricting an important established means by which the President protects the most sensitive intelligence activities that are carried out in the Nation's vital national security interests," said the statement, issued by the Office of Management and Budget. "If the final bill presented to the President contains this provision, the President's senior advisors would recommend a veto."



I would, of course, point out that Congress pursuing information =/= US getting said information. But still.

12:21PM - Honduras

Excuse me in advance, if the attempt of this poetry translation from Russian into English lost some necessary poetical expression. We all should to help someway to the fighting Honduras people.

Here again the military uniformed gorillas.
They grabbed you by the throat, O Honduras!
Under the tropical sun, for many centuries
Your people carry ordeal
And yet...How long it to bear?
Swollen-headed grandee-demons
Long ago took away
But greedy gringo came…
That’s scarcely better.
For freedom, for truth
Arise Honduras!
Sweep off that bloody pack
With your own horny hand!

Dmitriy Kremnev.

Гондурас

Вот снова гориллы в военных мундирах
Схватили за горло тебя, Гондурас
Под солнцем тропическим многие веки
Народ твой мытарствует
Доколе ж терпеть?
Чванливые демоны-гранды
Убрались
Не лучше их алчные гринго пришли…
Восстань Гондурас
За свободу, за правду!
Мозолистой дланью
Всю свору смети!

Дмитрий Кремнёв.

9:01PM - Writer's Block: Little White Lies

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

5:58PM - Dave is sentenced.

Friends, right now there is no smile on my face, & I'm feeling down & in a grim mood. Today, a bit before Two P.M., Dave Mahoney was sentenced to 90 days by Ramsey County Judge Paulette Flynn in Saint Paul. This was the result of his plea bargain, which I've spoken of in this community previously. I recall that that post was on One June,'09.

I truly hate it when the Man's machine gets one of us in its steely grip. Dave, in my book, is a hero, as were all who were in the black bloc on the Marion Street Bridge during the R.N.C.

Below is a link to the Twin Cities Indymedia article by Haloka. He's done a fine job of reporting & I don't have much to add. I'm in too much of a grim mood to say more, eh. Having to sit on a hardwood bench & watch the charade made me gnash my teeth.

http://twincities.indymedia.org/2009/jul/mahoney-sentenced-90-days-will-likely-serve-56

Free All Political Prisoners!

Billy Kropotkin

10:39AM - Yes, gods do have a reality

This is just something I wrote for school. Wondered how anarchists would respond to it...
_________________________

If you grow up in a time, in a place, with a tribe, they will show you how to live based on what has been passed down from generations upon generations, aeons upon aeons, of tried-and-true methods of living. They will pass them down to you in the form of stories. Those stories will probably involve gods. That is where they become very real to the peole who believe in them.

Those gods died a long time ago.

Today the gods have been reduced to things you buy in books and boxes, kits and trinkets. They teach you virtually nothing. They have things they want you to do that are nothing more than superstitions that have virtually no real merit, nor change in any way of your daily life. And that's due to the advancement and invasion of civilization.

When the people of one land invaded another, they brought their gods with them. Those gods taught them how to live in that land from which they came. Although chances are, because they're invading, they need more land. So those gods taught them poorly. Thus they're transferring bad gods onto good people. And they usually always insist on imposing their gods.

But to the invaded, the gods teach ways that make no sense whatsoever. Why would a desert god's teachings have any bearings on the ice-dwelling peoples of the north? It is for this reason that, for a world where everyone now lives in apartments and condos, shops for food rather than growing it, and shapes their entire world on how they earn and spend money, none of us understand what a god actually is. We pick our gods eeny meeny miney moe out of vending machines and give them no real special place in our lives. They teach us nothing. We make them a cute ritual that has no bearing on our lives. We still earn, spend, and sit in our condo watching TV.

To the people growing up, gods were not consciously chosen. Choice had nothing to do with it. It was simply the language. It was simply the method of communication. It was the air they breathed. They weren't really trying to explain how everything happened, they were simply explaining what was happening. The why wasn't really a concern. If you asked them what story they created, or what religion they had, they'd stare at you with absurd faces. What the devil are you talking about?

That is the same response as you'd get if someone asked you the same. Yet your story of how things came to be this way is historical. Believe it or not, your gods are the media, pure and simple. And your media tells stories to preserve your life, but are absurd to the other people.

The point is, gods that are pushed onto others are the bad gods who taught their people poorly and ways of life that do not work. Notice, therefore, how they insist their ways are superior. The people, and the gods, who have to insist constantly that their ways are the best, are usually the self-conscious ones who know that they are not.

And that is where we stand. Our gods are very real, in a way we don't actually expect them to be. They are the language we use to propagandize. They can be the truths that get us through a sustainable reality. But today, in our world, they are the lies we tell ourselves so that we can continue to live a way that we know is killing everything.

And that is why it is considered blasphemy to live sustainably.

8:18PM

11:04PM - Professional Student

In an effort to continue not working, while learning about things that interest me and could possibly provide the means to do something for a living down the line that doesn't suck, I would like to stay in college for quite a while. In the spirit of willful unemployment, I'd like to do so making use of various grants and scholarships, including the federal Pell Grant.

I figure this would be a good place to go for people to prattle on about how colleges are "tools of the system" that "suck out your brains" or some such bullshit that I don't really care about. I also figure it would be a good place to find people that have gone this route or are currently doing this.

So, yeah, advice on how to do the school/major-changing or whatever would be muchly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

6:51PM

5:28PM - Yep, still working hard at the Portland Zine Symposium..

Aaaaaaaaaand, I figured I should let you all know about some of the other fabulous events leading up to and during the Portland Zine Symposium...

• Cut, Copy, Collate - A Zine Construction Workshop: At the North Portland Library on Tuesday, July 14


• PZS 24hr Zine Challenge: At Cosmic Monkey Comics on Saturday, July 18th
Shuffleupagus - A Collaborative Zine Experience: At the Central Library on Tuesday, July 21 </li>

• IPRC Pre-Symposium Kick Off Dance Party!: At Holocene on Thursday, July 23


• Open Mic Zine Reading: At the IPRC on Friday, July 24th


• PZS Movie Night: At the Hawthorne Hostel on Saturday, July 25

In other news, Jeff's visit to Portland was pretty rad. My housemate, Ashley, let Jeff use his bike while he was here, so we biked all around, got some work on comics done (not as much as we should have, apparently we get more done separated), ate a lot of yummy food, and majorly celebrated Canada Day (with poutine from Potato Champion, pies from Whiffies, and karaoke). When he first got here, I still have to nanny for a few days, but then the family went on vacation, which freed up my time.

Jeff left Saturday morning and I spent the 4th of July with my neighbor friends (one who I've started seeing, Dan) and neighbor Dan and I biked to the Steel Bridge to watch fireworks in addition to bbqing and fire blowing.

Today is my last day off from nannying and the past few days I have gotten tons and tons of PZS work done, which is a relief, but not so much work done on comics..

I am feeling like life is moving too fast, there's too much that I want to do, all the time.

5:16PM

eat me.

5:07PM

4:22PM - if every angel's terrible then why do you welcome them

tear. beauty. teardrop. iridescence flecks of gold in hazel eyes. poison.

is this pain innate. is there an answer, an escape.

i don't think so.

. . .

floating orbs. tiny fae. nothing makes it go away. and. that's okay.

~lizo

8:27PM - An open letter to legal President of Honduras José Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

Your Excellency,

We, the group of people from around the world, mostly creative persons and artists (but also common people) express our outraged by unlawful actions of putschists. We believe and hope that the fairness will be fully restored and government in exile under your leadership can return to the motherland. We hope that the lawlessness will be stopped and your glorious country can be able to go forward on the way of progress and democracy still more confidently. We will do our best to support your fair struggle and contribute to the progressive development of Honduras republic.

We are all united by the participation in a project that was named Sunland. Its main idea consists in the following: we want to establish a sort of art-colony and, at the same time, a self-sustaining ecological village. For this purpose we want to create on one of the uninhabited islands a settlement for creative people from around the world.

11:58AM - I love Something Positive

( Cut because I didn't realize quite how big it was )