Roadies

I am fascinated by roadies.

At CY Stephens, often they schedule calls to load in and set up a travelling show before performance. If you are signed up for the whole thing (load in, performance, load out) it can be a very long day. Especially for the big shows. I haven't gotten on a performance call yet. But anyway, a load in call needs things like electricians, lights, and your basic stagehand (me). The stagehands are basically at the beck and call of the roadies.

Most shows run with one or more roadies. These are people in the employ of the show and they know how everything goes together, where everything should go, what they need for power, for lights, for rigging. They tell us what to do and we do it. This sort of thing has a decent amount of specialized language, most of which I don't know. The most basic thing they ask is that you know your stage directions: stage left (left facing audience), stage right (right facing audience), downstage (toward the audience), upstage (away/back from the audience). When you unload stuff, they will tell you where to drop it. Often with stage directions.

Some roadies make the stagehands do all the work, some don't want any help, some are really nice and teach you and learn all your names, some have short tempers and are rude.

Roadies travel with the show. They spend long days setting something only to rip it down that night, load it back up, sleep on the bus on their way to the next show, rinse and repeat. That's crazy, I don't know if I could do that. I have moral issues with both setting and striking. I don't mind one or the other, but if I built it, I don't want to be the one to destroy it. A day off is a day of travelling. And the people that choose that life, that are away for weeks and months at a time, are going to be unique people.

The first one I worked with was a wiry guy with tattoos, glasses, a tam in Jamaican colors (possibly hiding dreads), black tank top, black Dickies shorts, reddish blond sideburns dangerously close to mutton chops. He went by the name Scarecrow.

Unfortunately they aren't all quite that interesting.

I asked and I guess there are sometimes girl roadies, generally lights or electricity.

Maybe I'll get really good at stagehanding and then I can join Jacob's band as show crew when he gets famous and see what it's like.

Small Spaces

I mentioned I have a fear of heights. That's pretty normal. Another thing people are often afraid of is small spaces. And I have the opposite of that. I love small spaces.

Forgive me, I'm writing on my phone and I can't type as fast and I have auto correct. So on one hand my sentence construction is stunted and on the other hand I may have totally weird autocorrect.

But what would the love of small spaces be? Claustrophilia? I suppose that depends on whether claustro actually means small spaces or means being confined. Not really into being confined.

I think it comes from growing up in small spaces. I rode on a lot of airplanes, with their cramped seating and tiny bathrooms. I liked the efficiency of a place for everything in those tiny bathrooms, a nook for the toilet paper, a slot for soap. We lived in small apartments at one point, six of us in a three bedroom. I actually dislike large open rooms to some extent. I'd rather read in our small study than in the open living room.

I went spelunking once. I can bravely charge into all sorts of small holes as long as I know I can get back out again. I do remember once when I was a kid and some friends were digging a tunnel in snow. Not my thing. You go in head first and you are face into a blind tunnel, bundled up in thick clothing, unable to turn around, only hope you can wiggle your way backward without space. I don't like that small space.

Basically, I was just pondering this odd trait recently. At CY Stephens, we were setting for a show and a section of portable stage from the show had been set down, and then the roadie discovered we should have shoved some plugs that were running under the stage through a hole in the stage. The roadie was standing there, stymied, and I volunteer, "I can get it." I'm not good at measurements, I don't know how big the space was, but I can tell you that out of a crew of mostly heavy a lifting men, I was one of the skinniest and smallest, and one of maybe two that could fit. The other being the skinny roadie, but he didn't seem eager. I was.

I don't know why, but that is fun.

I remember setting for a big event at Hilton once and me and another girl spent a full day running cables under a stage. My knees ached, but I loved it. I feel special being able to disappear and appear elsewhere.

So maybe I can't be an uprigger. I just need to find where we keep our crawl spaces and volunteer. As long as they aren't filthy I guess. Don't want that stuff in my hair.

Sci Fi

I wish I could think like this.

"A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam." - Frederik Pohl

Sci-fi, technology, get's me excited. I wish I could somehow bind and publish the way I feel about it.

Motivated geeks

So I play Zombies, Run! I believe I've mentioned it before. It's a phone app that is also a game of some sort. When you run, it plays you clips of a story between songs to make it seem like you're a runner for a post-apocalyptic township, dodging zombies and finding supplies. It's GPS, so it keeps track of your speed and distance and time and you can use the supplies to upgrade your township and you can get achievements and so on.

What can I say, I'm a gamer.

I mentioned once to somebody that I didn't think I could run without it being a game and they replied, "That's sad."

That's sad?

I didn't start running because it was a game. I used a phone app for the intervals for the Couch to 5k program so I didn't have to run with a watch, but that wasn't a game and it didn't track anything.

But I kept running, partially because I knew I'd lose all my gains if I didn't, and partially because I'm playing Zombies, Run! What? Why is that so bad that I found something that motivates me, that works for me because it happens to be a computer game? I honestly don't think I could keep going if all I had to look forward to with running was a half hour of the same streets I run over several times a week and trying to find music I liked and hadn't already heard or gotten bored of. I found something that gives me a new story, gives me motivation to keep going outside. I can put the story off, so I still run because I want/need to run, run because it's good for me, but as an added bonus I hear a story, one that I feel like I'm directly involved in, and I get supplies to build my base, and I earn achievements. It's a game that's good for me.

I thought we'd mostly gotten over the part of society that judges people for liking computer games. Don't get me wrong, there is always a place where that can get unhealthy and where you can spend way too much time and money on computer games, but the same is true of pretty much any obsession.

In college once, I was talking to a guy I knew from one of my classes and I told him I played World of Warcraft. He told me that made him think less of me.

It wasn't unhealthy. I got all my homework done. I had a part-time job. I went to most of my classes. I had friends (several of whom played with me). Why is it that computer games are considered a lesser form of entertainment that somehow corrupts?

Granted, I suppose I think less of people who watch reality TV, so fair enough.

I can calculate my obsessions.

I think I'm about done with zombies. For this time. My interests tend to go in waves.

Briefly, I'd say my interests follow a few different themes:
Zombies/post-apocalyptic
Magic/Fantasy
Star Wars
Sci-Fi
Steampunk
Paranormal

Anyway, the zombies kick has been on for a while now. Because I'm still running to Zombies, Run! it never gets very far away. What do I do on these kicks? Well, for zombies, I make up post-apocalyptic survival stories, I read prepper and survival advice, I make a lot of zombie references, I read a lot of zombie books (I now have a zombie shelf on my Goodreads), reading post-apocalyptic YA books like Uglies, Divergent, Hunger Games, and I maybe, maybe, talk myself into watching Walking Dead.

As a side note, I started the Walking Dead because my mom said it was a great show. I actually quit after the first episode because of the gore, and I eventually came back and finished the first season. My mom recently quit at the beginning of the third season for the same reason. I don't really know if I can continue after that.

But the other day I had a long shift at work that involved sitting on ground floor during a wedding and making sure nobody left with alcohol. They always advise bringing books. So I finished off one I'd been putting off for a while called Monster Island. Zombie book. And... vivid. I want to tell people some of the scenes so they understand what I mean, but I won't because I don't want to put them through that. If it was a movie, I'd be really scarred. As it is, all that is haunting me is my imagination. So, I'd say it's about time to call it quits on this one.

Where should I go next?

Magic/Fantasy tends to involve Fantasy books, which I've been pretty much avoiding since the end of Wheel of Time. I just don't want to get that involved in a fantasy world for a while. I'm not quite up for re-reading Harry Potter. This section also involves the computer game Dragon Age, and the next one of those is on my Christmas list, so probably won't play until after that, if I get it.

Star Wars involves, obviously, the Star Wars movies, which I'm not quite ready for again. It could also involve the computer game Star Wars: The Old Republic, but I'm not going to play that as long as I'm playing World of Warcraft. I can't handle two games with subscription costs, and WoW is better.

Sci-Fi is a separate section because, for some reason, my sci-fi kicks don't go over to Star Wars, and vice-versa. Sci-Fi tends to involve Firefly, being sad about Firefly, wishing I could play Wildstar, and trying to find good sci-fi to read. I tend to prefer cyberpunk-style, more of the nitty gritty, back-ally deals and black markets and hackers. More Firefly than Star Trek. Wildstar is also a computer game that's a space western and has a great sense of humor and is a really good idea, but not really marketed at me. I think they have a few things to iron out. And the same thing about the subscription fee applies. I could re-read Neuromancer. I don't recommend that book to people because of the sexual references, but it has some of my favorite descriptions of place I've ever encountered. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is also good, for entirely different reasons.

Steampunk, which I tend to define as "Victorian Sci-fi," involves reading Steampunk books (such as the Boneshaker series, the Parasol Protectorate, and the Leviathan series), role-playing with friends, and looking at pictures trying to come up with costume ideas. I should probably attend more events.

Paranormal is basically vampires, werewolves, fae, etc. I tend to like so-called Urban Fantasy, which could probably summed up by the song "Werewolves of London." Paranormal creatures in modern environments. One of my favorite book series is the Mercy Thompson series. Obviously got to be careful with this section, as it can degrade into slutty romances fast. Twilight encourages bad relationships and I read the first book of the Sookie Stackhouse series (on TV: True Blood) and I'm not reading any more. Included in this category are obviously things like Anne Rice's Vampire Lestat series and Dracula. Underworld is an entertaining movie, but none of the sequels measure up to it. Not quite ready to re-read all the Mercy Thompson series yet, so I'd have to find something new.

What world am I going to live in?



"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
-Neuromancer, William Gibson

First Chapter (just to see what I'm talking about)

All the worse to hear you with...

You know how sometimes people are a little different, physically? And I'm talking a really really tiny thing. For example, one of David's ears is slightly pointed. I think a lot of people have those differences, something that just developed oddly. I personally have one of my little toes that is shaped a little weird, different than the other one. David said it was cute when I worried and compared it to Gus Gus, the mouse from Cinderella.

Some things shouldn't be said.

Also, some people have genetic variations of these oddities. On my mother's side of the family, they have what they call the "Grossnickle ear," Grossnickle being the family name. One ear is normal, the other one tends to stick straight out to the side. It's endearing to everyone who doesn't have it, and frustrating to those who do.

I like my ears. They are small, laid back. The lobe is small and detached. Overall, I'm pretty happy. However, there is one thing that is really annoying, and that is the size of my ear canals. I don't know if this counts as a developmental oddity or a genetic oddity, or just the extreme side of the normal range, but I don't like it.

First off, I also have waxy ears. Narrow ear canals combined with waxy ears means that plugs have built up and need to be flushed and can affect my hearing.

Narrow canals can retain water easier and I've had "swimmer's ear" before.

I have had very little luck with ear plugs.

And now this.

Some people complained about Apple's earbuds. Supposedly, they were modeled off of Steve Job's ear, which seems like a somewhat pretentious thing to do, but they were my favorite. They fit me perfectly. My first pair started pulling the cord out of the connections and I managed to finagle another pair from product replacement when my iPod broke. When the second pair finally wore out, I went to the Apple website and discovered it was around $40 to replace them. I went to Wal-Mart and got a $15 pair of white headphones that could maybe fool people. Also, I liked white because my hair is so dark people might not see black cords and then talk to me and think I was rude or something for ignoring them.

I've had that pair of white off-brand headphones ever since. It's got to be like six or so years. They hurt my ears originally, but either my ears got used to them, or I don't listen to music on a device as much. I also use them for running. Until they shorted out two days ago.

I'm still using Zombies, Run! for running and it's a stereo sound system, meaning if someone in the story is talking to me over the radio, it comes in mostly right ear, and if someone is running with me, it's more central, but also somewhat left ear. Well, the right ear shorted out. I can't have that.

So I went to Best Buy and discovered that apparently, the cool thing with earbuds are the plug style. I've had about as much luck with that as with regular ear plugs and so generally avoid them. But there was only one style that wasn't plugs and it was cheap-o. I was thinking along the $20 range and those were like $5. And the Skullcandy ones looked really cool... I ended up getting a pair of $20 Skullcandy ones with a red cord. They come with smaller size plugs as well and I was hoping...

Yeah, they don't work. My ears are too stupidly small. I spent half of my run shoving them back in my ears, my ears feel weird now. A few times I was able to hit that sweet spot where the stereo doesn't seem like it's running in each ear, but in the middle of your head and I realized these headphones have bass ranges that my old ones could never achieve, but after ten seconds they would start to slip again. It makes me sad.

Pros: Look sweet, have great sound, have microphone/remote, noise blocking
Cons: Doesn't fit, noise blocking

Yeah, I don't like my music leaking all over the place and I was able to turn my cell phone down another three volume steps because I could actually hear, but one of the nice things about not having noise blocking headphones is the ability to hear cars moving, doors slamming, people, etc. When you're running, sometimes those things are important. I usually always look before doing anything, so not too bad...

Dang it. I just want them to work. I wrote customer service at Skullcandy to see if they make even smaller ones. Well see.

Acrophobia

I'm not much for phobias. It seems too psychological, and I don't like problems that reside largely in my brain.

I will admit to having been "toxiphobic" when I was a kid. I went on an OCD hand-washing spree, didn't like touching anything I thought might have been dirty, really didn't like chemicals. I honestly didn't get out of that until I got a cat and I knew that she was "dirty." She played outside and cleaned her fur with her tongue. Her paws had touched the kitty litter. But she was my cat and I loved her and I knew I couldn't stand to be around her if I thought she was dirty. So I performed some mental gymnastics and convinced myself she was, in fact, "clean." And once you ignore a glaring possible germ hotbed like that, everything else kind of fades. God made dirt and dirt don't hurt.

I still don't like chemicals.

So I knew that I was scared of heights, but never considered before that it might be a phobia, not until last night. Last night, I went on a stagehand tour of CY Stephens, our theater building that hosts all the larger shows in Ames. I'm going to be taking some shifts there, hopefully pick up stagehand skills. It's a pretty tall building. You stand on the stage and look up and there is row after row of drapes and pipes that can hold drapes and pipes holding lighting. Didn't bother me. Not until we got up to the top, to the spotlight room, then the catwalks in the ceiling. The ceiling wasn't too bad, as we were mostly hidden from the actual auditorium. But being on one of those little catwalks and looking down at the ceiling below you and knowing that all those boards are nailed in from the opposite direction, so if you fall, physics aren't going to be with you... The catwalk wasn't that skinny, but I was holding both bars on either side of me.

Then there was the uprigger position. Above the stage, above the pipes and the drapes, there is a mesh made of metal bars, the gap mostly too skinny to get a foot through. Mostly. Sitting there, there is also a gap over the edge, with a few bars of railing in the way. Am I top heavy, I wondered? Could I tumble over that? On another walkway, they manage the weights of all those things attached to those ropes. Sometimes stagehands climb up on the railing. It's next to a wall covered in ropes, but there isn't anything under those ropes. If a human fell, could they manage to catch themselves, I wonder. Sometimes the stagehands have to climb higher, to a bar behind the ropes. People would hand iron bricks up to balance the weights.

"What do you yell if you drop one?" I ask.

"'Heads.' As loud as you can. But you aren't going to drop one." His eyes are earnest.

"Oh, good," I reply.

They repeat many times that if we aren't comfortable, we don't have to do it. I don't know at what point I could ever be comfortable. Looking down that impossible distance to the stage below, my feet start tingling. My knuckles on the railing go white. Could I have acrophobia?

I've always defined phobia as a "crippling fear." Something beyond just uncomfortable, beyond afraid. To the point where you can't release that grip. Yes, I've always been afraid of heights. It's been more about the fear of falling from heights. Maybe that seems like a silly distinction, but it makes all the difference for me. For explanation, I am not afraid of roller coasters, or any other ride that goes high and fast. They lock me in so tight that if the system broke, I don't think I would ever get out. They'd have to jaws-of-life me or something. I know they have emergency releases and all that, but you get what I'm saying. I am not afraid of rock climbing when in a harness. I am really afraid of free climbing. I don't think I'd be afraid of sky diving. One of the hardest things I've done is jumped off a 45-foot cliff into water. That is entirely falling. I've fallen wrong before and gotten a horrible bruise. It can hurt. And it is so hard to make my brain, which is telling me all the reasons that stepping off a cliff is a horrible idea, to make it shut up, and just will my feet forward until there is no space left, and then that terrifying half-second where nothing is holding you up and the flat surface of the water is rushing at you...

It just occurred to me that either my dreams are trying to torture me or they have some sort of meaning... I have dreams of flying. But flying is never easy, it always takes effort, and mostly, I can't get off the ground. So I go to a tall building, or tree, or something, and I jump. I try to fly before I hit the ground. Maybe the meaning of my dreams is that if I just take a leap of faith and face my fears, I will end up flying...

Ok, that's too cheesy, even for dreams. Really, subconscious, I expected better.

If I can make myself jump off that cliff, maybe I don't have a crippling fear. But I'm wondering if I could ever be an uprigger.

Either way, I could go all Phantom of the Opera on this joint.

Don't you send my brother to Iraq

Quote of the Day

I was reading an article posted on Lew Rockwell Blog by an agnostic who has doubts about evolution, saying he thinks it's the political correctness of science. While he is an agnostic, he writes,

"To my eye, the damned place looks designed. By what, I am clueless."

That rather cracks me up.

Prepping and how it makes me feel bad

As I encountered preppers both in the libertarian interest and the zombie interest parts of my life, it's got me thinking.

I'm not a prepper. Not remotely. If the power went out, I would probably die of frustration in a few hours for not being able to Google things, like, "What to do when the power is out?" Or IMDB that actor. Although I guess the TV won't work either.

Nah, I'd probably read books. But you get the picture. That TV show Survivor? I hope they come save you if you're gonna fall off a cliff or eat poisonous mushrooms or whatever.

But thinking about it past the initial panic, be it from a zombie apocalypse or major tornado or the economy collapsing. Say life isn't going back to the way it was anytime soon, your day job is no longer valid, and that grocery store isn't opening back up anytime soon. We'd have a barter economy and all of a sudden need, say, gardeners and hunters way more than receptionists or lawyers.

The thing about prosperity is that we've been able to outsource most work to specialists. Instead of having to maintain our own cars, we take 'em to the car guy. Instead of having to garden, we go to the grocery store or farmers' market. We've gotten so specialized that up the ladder of jobs are people who know a lot of very specific things that are very useful for a society like ours, but might not carry to being useful if we were dumped back to the level of a third world country. Like aforementioned lawyers.

So I thought about my skills. I have a degree in journalism, I've worked as a receptionist, food service, and oil change service. I have a decent grasp of the English language in writing. Which means I will have no services to barter with and probably starve. I certainly don't have any skills I can use to keep myself alive.

David is in architecture. Complex, he needs to know a lot of things. However, he'll even lose much of his usefulness come apocalypse. Maybe as people start to rebuild, maybe to recommend fortifications against bandits or zombies. But not really skills to pay the bills. His experience in roofing might end up being more helpful in that case.

On a prepper website, I saw a page at ReadyNutrition.com that listed 10 essential skills for survival. We'll start with survival of yourself first, and then those are probably useful for the barter economy once you get to that holdout and have to demonstrate you are worth keeping around.

In short, and you can read the actual article if you want more, the page recommends learning:

Outdoor Survival Classes
Medical
Hunting Skills
Disaster Training
Gardening Skills
Firearm Certification and Training
Canning and Food Preparation
Amateur Radio Classes
Sewing Classes
Candle/Soap-Making Conventions

I keep sitting here having the CDC's zombie poster staring at me saying, Get a Kit, Make a Plan, Be Prepared. Yeah, I totally printed it out and hung it up because it cracks me up that there's a poster implying you should be prepared for a zombie apocalypse with the official CDC logo in the corner...

So say I wanted to start with a few of those skills, maybe have a group of people (a lot of prep stuff seems to suggest groups) with varying skills. Outdoor survival seems too... vast. Probably should learn it. I was on board with medical until it mentioned stitches, and then I was off. Can't do needles into flesh. Not much of a hunter either. I get sad killing the worm to fish, and then hurting the fish by ripping the hook out. Disaster training seems vague, more like telling you what you should normally expect and how to prepare. Gardening, while not a current skill, would be a useful thing to have. Even minus the apocalypse. I do want to know how to use a gun for self-defense (although I'd rather learn Kung Fu). Maybe Mom can do the canning. Amateur Radio Classes sound like awesome. I wonder how long it'd take to master ham radio? Mom can do the sewing too. Basically, I think Mom should survive first. I have no idea about candle and soap making. Could be fun I guess?

So out of those ten skills to survive... I can't check any off. If I bought a first aid kit, I wouldn't be able to identify the use of everything in it. I can sew a button on, but not much more. I don't know the first thing about outdoor survival (I read about what to do in event of lightning, but I couldn't recall it next time I was in lightning. Just figured I'd go down with my bike).

And that's why prepping makes me feel bad. Maybe I should get on that. Get A Kit. Make A Plan. Be Prepared.

Zombies on a Plane

I wonder how far I could get off of making a blog devoted to current events, libertarian thought, zombies, and apocalypses.

What, you don't think those are connected?

Ok, fine, it's a tenuous connection at best. So I read Lew Rockwell Blog which has libertarians who comment on current events, some of whom are preppers who have an interest in preparing for disasters like apocalypses which may be zombie related.

But seriously, some of the stuff I could write about.

Ok, today's conspiracy theory is so out there that I don't think most conspiracy theorists would give it credence.

A little background. I'm reading a book called "Patient Zero" by Jonathan Maberry which is about the world post-9/11 and Islamic terrorists and big-pockets guys who fund them. They cook up a zombie plague and deliver it in the form of infected people to the US and then our hero must form a crack-team, blah blah, too bad it's not a season of 24. But anyway, I'm saying this to show where some of my thinking comes from.

An article from Lew Rockwell blog posted a chain of events and conjectures that are seriously far fetched, one of the claims being from something the Boston Globe reported, titled "Rebel leader suggests victims were dead before plane took off."

He basically said a lot of the bodies found in the wreckage of downed Malaysian Flight 17 weren't fresh, that they had been drained of blood, and reeked of decomposition. Also, blood serum and medications were found in the wreckage. I heard the plane was carrying AIDS researchers, maybe their luggage?

Anyway, the Lew Rockwell article suggested the former prime minister of Malaysia had been saying rude things about Israel, calling them murderers and accusing them of genocide. Malaysian Flight 370 disappears off the face off the map. Then Malaysian Flight 17 gets shot down and some reports say the bodies were... old.

A conspiracy theory site claims that the Malaysian Flight M17 is actually Flight 370, complete with passengers.

Another site indicates that the plane and bodies could have been a form of bioweapon, intended to spread contamination.

A plane full of zombies...? Patient Zero?

And even some of the websites themselves drew odd zombie connections. The Jimstonefreelance site wrote, "It is said that dead men can tell no tales, but when they are a planeload of rotting bodies that should have been perfectly fresh, THAT ALONE SAYS IT ALL, from THAT ALONE you can declare this plane to be flight 370, HOW ELSE COULD IT BE? Undead Zombies DID NOT board MH17." (Emphasis theirs)

The bioweapon-claim site writes, "In a worst-case scenario, and the facts thus far point to a hair’s breadth short of worst case, the MH17 crash on the Ukraine-Russian borderlands could have been the start of a real World War Z. Conversely the shoot-down could have been an act of twisted heroism in a desperate last-minute strike to prevent biological warfare on a global scale." (Emphasis mine)

I honestly can not make this stuff up.

And a mouth full of teeth

You might know, but I hate cheesy graphics with cheesy sayings on them that people share all over Facebook.

One I saw today said, "The most useful asset of a person is not a head full of knowledge, but a heart full of love, ears open to listen, and hands willing to help."

Yeah, that will get you real far during the zombie apocalypse.

I know nothing about it, but I know Russia did it...

Can we hold the propaganda, please?

Before I start, I'd like to point out what I'm not saying. I'm not saying Russia or the Ukrainian separatists for sure did not shoot down the plane. I'm not saying that Kiev did or didn't shoot down the plane. I'm not saying if it's an accident or intentional, mistaken identity or a false flag operation. I don't know of that. And neither does anyone else, excepting the people who actually did the shooting.

And yet I've had several conversations here in Iowa where people just toss out, "Russia shooting down civilian planes..."

Guys, the US government lied to us about WMDs, about who used chemical weapons in Syria, and somehow managed to get rid of not one, but two hard drives with email records and blame it on routine. Their business is to do what they want and make sure we think they're doing it for the right reasons. Obama's "not a smidgen" of corruption isn't true, it's just what they want us to believe: They aren't corrupt at all, trust them.

As far as the Malaysian plane goes, my first thought was that we should send a group in to investigate. But who? You have to immediately rule out all the parties who have taken sides in this conflict prior. That includes Kiev, the US, the separatists, Russia, and the EU as they just want to play nice with the US. So how can we just automatically believe everything the US is throwing at us as evidence against Russia/separatists? The propaganda is too early. The US government is sitting there, having John Kerry say things like "It’s pretty clear that this is a system that was transferred from Russia into the hands of separatists. We know with confidence, with confidence, that the Ukrainians did not have such a system anywhere near the vicinity at that point and time, so it obviously points a very clear finger at the separatists."

I don't want to get into a huge discussion, going through all the evidence that we know and trying to point fingers. I've read a lot of things that question the official US story so far, and if you want to ask questions, here are some good articles:

Guilt by insinuation: How American propaganda works
Awkward Questions for the US-Ukraine
What happened to the Malaysian Airliner?
What the Media Won't Tell You

Remember, I don't know who did it. I'm just saying that the US is jumping the gun by point blame, and they are far too involved in this incident to unbiased or maybe even honest. Don't trust what the mainstream media trumpets as fact; they're in the government's pocket.

Also consider: The missile was made in Russia, but Ukraine using a lot of weapons made in Russia. The US has a satellite over Ukraine, but haven't released any of the images (why?). The YouTube video purporting a discussion between Russian military and the separatists talking about accidentally shooting down a plane is claimed to have the data marks of being made before the event. Just because someone says something is a fact, a damning piece of evidence on the news, doesn't mean it is, doesn't mean that's the only way to look at it.

I think we should wait to hear what an independent committee finds in their investigations.

Biking in Ames... some more

You know what makes me mad? Well, yes, a lot of things. But one thing that gets me steaming is people who pull through crosswalks at intersections. Even worse is when they aren't even turning on red, so just sit there in front of me.

Incident 1: Guy pulls through a crosswalk. He sees me coming and backs up. He doesn't get glared at, even gets a wave.

Incident 2: Lady pulls through crosswalk. I glare as I am forced to swing wide either in front (if there is enough room and they see me) or behind. Even worse is when I'm forced to get off my bike and hike it onto the curb.

Incident 3: Guys pull through crosswalk and block it so completely that I can't get to the other side. I sit on the sidewalk and glare.

Incident 4: Cyride bus pulls through crosswalk and isn't turning. The light changes, and I only know by the pattern that it is a walk sign, because I can't even see it behind the bus. I have to swing wide in front of the bus. I write an email to Cyride telling them to remind their drivers not to do that.

Incident 5: This is typical of right-on-red and right-at-stop-sign turners, and I always have to watch to make sure they see me before I go in front of them. But anyway, I was waiting at a crosswalk for a light to change. It changes to red and I get the walk sign, but the lady driving up is a right-on-red turner and she doesn't even stop. She doesn't look at me once, sitting right there waiting to cross, she just looks at oncoming traffic, and while she slows, she doesn't stop. Failure to stop at the line on a red, failure to look for pedestrians (who have the right of way), failure to yield. I was mad for another half an hour. If I had just started crossing when I got my walk light, I would have been hit, because she clearly has a blind spot big enough for a girl on a bike.

Ugh! I'm following the rules, waiting at crosswalks for my light to change and I still have to watch like a hawk to keep from being hit by drivers who aren't paying any attention. I'd win the court case, but I'd lose the game of chicken.

More on the Zombie thing...

Last post, I wrote on why I was on a zombie kick again, how it might have started with running, and a lot about my Zombies, Run! app. This post is for non-app related zombie things. What other things have encouraged me toward a zombie obsession?

Books -
I still had the Max Brooks Zombie Survival Guide sitting on my desk. I wanted to add it to Goodreads as "read," so I kept reading it. Which made me interested in more books. I have "Patient Zero" sitting on my desk. I want to read "The Last Bastion of the Living," if I could get my hands on a copy. (Update. Don't read Last Bastion of the Living. It's poorly written, she "tells and doesn't show," and has profanity and sexual content. And that's all in like the first two chapters.)

Also, Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. I had heard of it before, and I really enjoyed Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer as being equal parts accurate and absurd. In hindsight, I probably should have read the actual Pride and Prejudice first, but I think zombies rather improve on the book. It's pretty funny, although Lizzy isn't half as good humored in the zombie book. Lydia is still a pain.

Movies -
I watched Zombieland with David, since one of my brothers gave it to me for Christmas a while back. If there's any place I'll take a comedy, it's Zombieland. It was pretty funny, and rather gory. Then we watched World War Z. For those of you who know it's based off a book, know this: It's nothing like the book. I'd say the only things that remained similar are that it's got a global perspective (how the world is dealing with the zombies by different countries) and Israel shut itself off from the world. Oh, and I guess zombies, but those aren't even like the book. In the book, the zombies don't walk faster than a shamble, and turning comes by bite and the person bitten starts to get sick, lapses into a coma, dies, and a few hours later is reborn, the whole thing taking from 12 to 24 hours. In the movie, the zombies actually run, and it takes them only 10 seconds to change. Now, in the movie it's scary because things are changing into zombies right around you, in the book it's much more creepy because people wouldn't know they were going to change, or hide their bites, or whatever, and you'd think you were all safe and then there's a zombie. Maybe doesn't work as well on the screen. Also, there is no central character, no Brad Pitt of the book. The book is a bunch of different accounts of the zombie war from all over the world, many different people. You're lucky if any two actually refer to each other.

On a side note, World War Z is very statist, as in capitalism made it worse and only the government coming in and laying down the law gets the world back together again.

Dreams -
Most things I read about don't invade my dreams. I've had no Mr. Darcy dreams, no werewolf dreams, no wizard dreams, etc. But I've had zombie dreams. The most recent involved being in a building, surrounded, zombies on the ground floor, trying to get higher and higher, but out of the roof it's snowing and freezing outside and I'll die if I stay out there but there's zombies... I woke up panting, my heart pounding, and promptly wake David up and make him tell me there's no such thing as zombies.

Preppers -
Also known as homesteaders, survivalists, whatever, preppers are those who assume something bad is going to happen someday and they plan on being ready. That would include zombie apocalypse, nuclear war, collapse of the economy, and Hillary Clinton being elected president. In case of emergency... They make me slightly uncomfortable because I have no skills, and in the event of any of those things, nobody is going to let me into their bunker. But I had a conversation with a prepper recently (in progress, he's in the theory part of it), and apparently he was inspired by being prepared for zombies. I guess there are websites online about being prepared and using zombies as a theme. Even the CDC jumped on the bandwagon and making a comic and posters encouraging people to be prepared, assuming anything that's good for zombie prep is good for overall disaster prep. I'm guessing they're not thinking about the wide variety of firearms generally advised to deal with the horde. But they are encourage bug-out bags.

And that's all I can think of. I still have a thing for post-apocalyptic fiction and zombies is a good medium for it. Is the world too full of zombie books? How 'bout a zombie book that included vampires who are zombie hunters because they can't be turned in exchange for blood from the dwindling population of humans? Hey, blame the dreams for that one.

Zombies, Again. Run!

So, you know how I said I was "mostly over" my zombie kick, I dunno, like six months ago? It's kind of resurfacing. Why?

I'm not really sure. I think this time it was because I was running.

For health and fitness reasons, I recently picked up a C25K app. Couch to(2) 5K is basically just a running program that starts with short run-walk intervals and works you up from jogging 60 seconds to jogging 30 minutes in eight weeks. If I hadn't done it myself, I wouldn't think it was possible. But then, when I started, I didn't think jogging 90 seconds was possible, not for me. I'm not inactive, but I'm really not a runner. So I got an app (from Zen Labs, if you want a basic one that works well) and was using that to train and I eventually asked myself, "What's next?" Because even if you can run, if you stop, you'll probably lose a lot of that stamina. The app was three times a week and I didn't miss a day since I started it because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do the next day after that. So I have to keep running.

Well, Mom told me about this app before it came out around two years ago. I thought it looked cool, but I run Android and they were making it for iPhone. Here's a trailer from pre-release.

So for whatever reason, I remembered it and looked it up. I found it in the Google Play store, meaning it's Android compatible. It costs a few bucks, but I figure it's my reward for running 5k.

My first run was Monday, and since then I've worked out a few of the features. I play Pandora in the background instead of using a playlist on my phone, the GPS was off, whatever. But I was also being dropped into Abel Township during a zombie apocalypse and my helicopter was shot down by someone and I survived the crash, having to run for the base, and being coerced into making a stop at the hospital to retrieve important documents before they would let me in.

And I couldn't stop thinking about it. Thinking about the story, what was in the CDC documents, who shot at me with a rocket launcher, and how many zombies I would have to evade to keep going. You can activate an interval training mode, which means periodically, you'll get chased and have to increase your speed by 20% for a minute to evade them. I haven't turned that one on yet... I can run 30 minutes, but that doesn't mean I can run any longer or faster.

Also, they have a 5k version. I really wish I would have known and gotten that one instead. I'm halfway considering paying the two bucks and redoing it just to hear that story. Maybe after I slack off this winter.

So today isn't a running day. I'm going to run tomorrow morning. I didn't work out today. I ate too much food and had a really great dinner. My mom was going to go do a quick walk for 30 minutes to get some exercise in and invited me. I declined, saying that I was running tomorrow, although it's mostly the fact that while I can jog, I can't really walk fast. I fairly certain I couldn't keep up with her and fairly certain I'd get shin splints. Walking fast is not my thing. Although running wasn't my thing either.

By the time she drove me home, I was thinking about the zombies, Abel Township, and the mission. It was great weather outside. And I'm like, "Why not?" So I ran.

Don't run on a full stomach. Makes you feel sick. Better than getting eaten by zombies, I suppose.

Righteous Outrage is my Hobby

People keep telling me to relax about current events. The seem to try unusual tactics like, "the world is corrupt and God is coming back anyway."

I still get mad about injustice. But that's ok, because getting mad about injustice is my hobby and passion.

Speaking of hobbies...

A recent Supreme Court case decided in favor of Hobby Lobby 5-4. For those not following the news, Hobby Lobby was contesting the Obamacare requirement that they provide some certain birth controls they feel facilitates abortion, that is preventing an embryo from embedding, and they argued religious reasons. They were willing to provide health care. They were willing to provide birth control in the form of condoms, the pill, and other contraceptives.

Hobby Lobby could have just not provided health care and paid a yearly fine. But they wanted to give that to their employees. Also, they pay $15 an hour. Hobby Lobby treats their employees really well.

And America goes crazy. Just watching my Facebook feed I have seen some of the most ignorant responses I could think of. Hobby Lobby apparently hates women and doesn't care about women's rights. People are calling for boycotts. People are arguing that they are an exception to the rule and need those birth control things for non-sex related reasons. Someone said it was just one step farther in Hobby Lobby's plan to install a theocracy. Someone posted a graphic that said, "Oh sorry, but paying my student loans violates my religious beliefs... The Bible says, 'All debts shall be forgiven every seven years' So I'll stop making payments."

I almost feel like I'm lowering myself by dignifying these absurdities with any sort of response. That's why I'm writing here and not on Facebook. I make it a general Facebook rule to not reply to belligerent opinions I don't agree with.

First off, I've already noted that Hobby Lobby does care about it's employees, male and female.

And, the decision was made because the Supreme Court intended a narrow ruling not necessarily applied to anything else, basically saying that Obamacare had so many exceptions for so many other things, then why can't they add this one on? Not going to hurt the law.

Let's see...

Women do not have a right to birth control. As far as I'm concerned, you have the right to life, liberty, and property, and the right to be free from aggression on said life, liberty, and property. The word "right" is getting thrown around a ridiculous amount these days, and I believe we have forgotten what rights mean. If you wish to go purchase birth control, that is your own business. But you are aggressing the rights of private businesses by demanding that they provide something they do not believe, or demanding they provide anything at all, beliefs aside. We shouldn't have to use religious beliefs to keep from doing something we think is wrong. This used to be a free country.

Hobby Lobby employees are paid well. They feel the need for that morning-after pill, use some of your money and go buy it. You know, like people used to do when they wanted something? Before trying to make everyone else pay for your pet desires? Really doesn't work for you? Go work somewhere else. Somewhere that supplies it. Cause that's how things should work.

Hobby Lobby has no intentions for a theocracy. Notice they haven't tried to be involved in anything political until the political things came after them. Please.

And as far as that graphic goes...

Sigh.

The seven years thing was for a particular Jewish society (actually a theocracy) with particular rules and not a command in general. Student loans are signed up for voluntarily. You voluntarily promised to pay them back and cannot go back on that promise.

Also, to the people saying that somehow everyone's religious beliefs are running rampant on everyone elses' rights... (please see paragraph on rights)... The Supreme Court made it fairly clear this was a limited ruling. The Supreme Court has not ruled for religious rights in many other cases. And they can (and probably will) continue to rule against religious rights in the future. They get to do whatever the hell they want because they are the Supreme Court. I find that Supremely scary, but people should chill and take comfort in the fact that chances are, in the future, they are going to get their own little selfish agendas pushed on other people who don't believe in it, whether for religious reasons or just because they don't believe that anybody should go around forcing anybody to provide things they don't want to provide.

Roots

My pastor is talking about a deep human need to know where we came from. Adopted children often seek their birth parents. People set up family trees, walk through graveyards, visit the countries of their ancestors, have reunions, heirlooms, etc.

Maybe it's because I grew up in another country, where my family culture was a mix of American and Korean and Turkish and my extended family wasn't related by blood but by their jobs as missionaries and the fact we were all foreigners in foreign countries... But I've never cared much about where I came from. Just because my great grandfather came from Germany doesn't mean I have any interest in Germany. I probably identify less with Germany than I do the Middle East.

I like history, culture, and connections. They just don't have to be bound to me by blood and land. Why do I need my ancestors to be involved in something to justify my interest in it? What matters to me is what I have experienced and grown up with.

But I'm weird. I'd rather live in a camper and travel across country than in a house that's weighed down with a ton of past.

Just some thoughts.

A traveling band of people by any other name...

To start with, I mean no offense. None. I guess I'm just trying to understand.

Where to begin? I guess to sum it up, I am musing on the word "gypsy."

I almost feel bad for typing that. The thing is, I don't find that word offensive, don't consider it offensive, or mean it offensively.

Growing up, gypsy to me meant band of travelers with a distinct style (I probably got that part from Hollywood) that may be related to things like fortune telling. And they had to have little cart-houses. I thought the carts were cool. I never really associated it with a modern people and while I understood that in some places, some of these bands were considered thieves, I didn't usually connect that in my head.

In fact, I have a stronger connection with that for the "Tinkers" in the fantasy series "Wheel of Time," a group of traveling pacifists who mended pots and pans and would rather sing and dance than ever fight, even to defend themselves. They supposedly would steal everything in sight, including children, but that turned out to be a rude lie. But those are Tinkers. Probably modeled off of the historical idea of gypsies, but obviously not the same thing.

So basically, my point is I don't consider gypsy offensive and when I say it, I don't mean it offensively at all.

So what really baffles me is that some people out there are making that term offensive. I don't know who exactly, but the Wikipedia article reads like this:

However, many Romani people and academics who study them believe the word has been tainted by its use as a pejorative connoting illegality and irregularity, and some modern dictionaries recommend avoiding use of the word gypsy either entirely, or as a negative modifier.

First off, not everyone uses that word to imply such. I don't and it wouldn't enter my mind. When I think of gypsies, I think of like Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame. Sure, she wasn't on the right side of the law in that case, but the laws were stupid and the authority evil and corrupt and in the end, nobody was on the right side of the law and the gypsies were mostly good misunderstood people.

Maybe back in the day it meant that, but words change over time.

I think many Americans really have no idea that it is even supposed to be offensive. I mean, if you search Wikipedia for the word Gypsy, you'll find that it's a name, a play, a movie, a DC Comic character, several different bands, song names, names of towns, the names of some actual Romanian traveling groups, a word-processing program, name of a ship, etc.

I think we've romanticized it far enough that none of us (I guess Americans, anyway) mean it poorly. We like the thought of traveling bands of people, free to roam wherever they wish, mysterious.

But I've heard of someone I know who had a "gypsy" pony, a paint with feathered legs that the breed is actually called gypsy and a group found and blew up her picture feed and she was totally caught off guard. She had no idea it was offensive, and it's not like she made up the name for the breed of horse. She couldn't understand why people were saying such rude things to her.

Also, the author of a webcomic series has a set of comics going on right now which has readers vote on the story. One of the votes was on the name of the spaceship and one of the options was "The Gypsy Sol." My favorite option, the one I voted for without thinking. He was also informed that "gypsy" could be considered offensive and he had no idea.

Basically, what I'm saying, is that do we really have to go and make sure everyone knows that a certain word is offensive when a lot of people have no idea it's offensive and certainly never use it offensively? Can we accept that language changes and perceptions change? Wouldn't it be better to either lose the negative connotation, or simply rename/redefine the group in question than to rename and make all previous names somehow rude and bad? Do we need more offensive/off-limits words to tip-toe around?

Mostly, I just don't want to get in trouble if I sing any one of the 19 songs titled "Gypsy" or "The Gypsy" on Wikipedia.

Could you tell me on which shelf I can find a new life?

So, because I was depressed, I biked to BAM, that being "Books-A-Million," our current Borders replacement. I'd never heard of them until they replaced Borders, but other than the fact that they don't have a free loyalty program, you wouldn't know the difference.

Seriously, it's eerie. Same layout, same setup, even some of the same employees.

I was depressed because I am a lazy lout with no point in life. I was more upset when I discovered that they didn't have the Quinlan Vos Omnibus which documents my favorite Jedi in graphic novel form and I was totally planning on reading it for an hour or two...

Didn't there used to be chairs? Maybe that's one thing that's changed.

Anyway, now I'd have to spend my time doing something else. And hope if someone gets it for me for my birthday (it's on the list), they account for shipping time.

So I wandered around. I reacquainted myself with the last Song of Ice and Fire (books behind Game of Thrones) I'd read and the reasons behind why I hadn't picked up the next one. I looked at a guidebook for Turkey and tried to keep from crying. I blame hormones, I've been crying a bit. My phone has tearstains on it, it's ridiculous.

And I tried to find something to inspire me on what to do. I was kind of looking for a "Dummies Guide to Fixing Bikes" so I could learn everything about it and go work for Bike World. New current dream-plan. Bikes have to be easier than cars.

I didn't find that and was scared to ask, but I did come across other "inspiring" things.

What could I do with my time? Why, I could learn to play harmonica! They have a kit, includes book, CD, and a harmonica. In what key, I don't know. Or, I could learn hot and cold stone massage! Comes with book, CD, rocks, and a bamboo spoon for some reason. Origami? Learn to make dog treats and then sell them online? Learn how to pan gold? Learn survival skills? Travel? Learn a language?

I didn't come out with any clear answers, but I did get enough material for another blog post, which is win.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

So, Cliven Bundy again. I'm not sure if this means he got the media attention he needed and as a result, they caught this faux pas, or the media is glorying in smearing someone again because that's the media's favorite thing to do. I hope you never committed thoughtcrime, or they will come after you if you stick your nose into the public sphere.

Thoughtcrime? It's from 1984. Just what it sounds like, it means you think something out of line.

Anyway, Cliven Bundy made a statement about his opinions on black people today that was rather racist and now all the politicians that supported him are running the opposite direction. Here's the first story I read on the Washington Post that actually quotes him. The article on Politico doesn't even do that.

But since I think a decent amount of it, while rather misled and insensitive, isn't what everyone is making it to be.

As quoted by Truth Revolt:

"Let me tell, talk to you about the Mexicans, and these are just things I know about the negroes. I want to tell you one more thing I know about the negro. When I go, went, go to Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and I would see these little government houses, and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids -- and there's always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch. They didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

"And because they were basically on government subsidy -- so now what do they do? They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never, they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered are they were better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things? Or are they better off under government subsidy?

"You know they didn’t get more freedom, they got less freedom -- they got less family life, and their happiness -- you could see it in their faces -- they wasn't happy sitting on that concrete sidewalk. Down there they was probably growing their turnips -- so that’s all government, that’s not freedom."

Now, while I don't agree with his conclusions (I will not say they were better off slaves. No man should ever be the involuntary slave of another), you can argue that some of what he is saying is just expressing concerns about black Americans and their condition, which, while a generalization, isn't entirely wrong.

However, I think Bundy got his history a little bit wrong. It wasn't freedom from slavery that took their family life and work ethic. They had that after they got freedom. It was a collection of things, and I'm sorry, but I don't have quotes for all of them.

Thomas Sowell muses on many of the issues that face black Americans, and as a libertarian, he often ends up blaming the state. I think it's from reading some of his stuff that I heard some things. He's the one that pointed out that the black family remained strong until around 1960.

A few things had been and were working against them. Margaret Sanger began her plan of eugenics against the unfit. I read somewhere that she walked into the house of a poor person with a lot of kids and concluded the best way to help them was to take away the children aspect. She is the founder of Planned Parenthood.

Laws were passed that didn't make people equal, they promoted one group over another.

An academic argued that a woman didn't really need a man in the house, she just needed his income.

And the welfare state got bloated and mutated, claiming many people of all colors. Really, I primarily blame the welfare state which can make it far more profitable to not work than to work, and has incentives to remain in the welfare state, and went from being a temporary thing with stigma to something that is promoted and people feel is due them. I've read the number of people in poverty is going down, but the number on welfare continues to rise.

Some of this I learned from an article by Dr. Walter Williams. Another lewrockwell.com article on this recent thing with Cliven Bundy quotes Dr. Walter Williams as saying,

“The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery could not have done, the harshest Jim Crow laws and racism could not have done, namely break up the black family.”

And, if we actually allowed to acknowledge there might be a problem, I think that is some of what Cliven Bundy's concerns were about.

Return to Go

Today is rainy. I didn't sleep well last night and after I woke up, I sent an email to Mom entitled "complainy email" where I basically said everything that annoyed me at that moment from my persistent cough to political differences.

I was ok. Still waiting. It seems like I'm always just waiting for something. Waiting for David to get home, waiting for supper time, waiting for bed time, waiting for the weekend, waiting to see my parents, waiting for Dragon Age III to come out, whatever. So this morning I was waiting. Probably for Pizza Night, this weekend, and church on Sunday where I might be helping out with camera again.

Then my brother, Nathan, the marine, called me cause he hasn't talked to me for a while and wanted to know what's up. Well, nothing is up.

Nathan is one of the most real people you'll meet. Talking to him usually is equal parts conviction and inspiration. Conviction for not being as real, as motivated, as he is, inspired because that's what I want to do after I talk to him.

I was less ok after that.

He asked me if I was looking for another job and I said no. Why not? Well, I went and got a job and look what happened. He told me I couldn't just give up, but that's not really what I'm doing. I'm just not sure what I should be doing. I still have a few volunteer gigs, but nothing to really occupy me.

I have like no responsibilities and as a result, I feel like a leech.

What SHOULD I be doing? That's what I keep asking myself, asking God.

I wish I had a skill. Almost any marketable skill. There's a girl in my connection group who makes crafts that she labels "Nerdy Decor and Wearable Art" and has an Etsy store called Peels and Posies.

Not that I want to do exactly that, but failing at the piano and writing World of Warcraft fan fiction isn't going to get me anywhere. How do I start over and gain marketable skills? Say I wanted to work in a bike shop, or become a forester, or get involved in local government... where do I start? I'm turning old again this year, but have no direction, no real skills, and little experience. What do I do?

And do you capitalize marine (Marine)?

Imagine a dusty, Old West street, tumbleweeds, cowboys facing off with guns.

I am writing this post in advance of me posting it because I've discovered I have moods for writing and often several ideas all the same time before I then lose all ideas and don't post anything for a month. This way I am making more use of the few moments that I do feel like writing.

That, and the World of Warcraft server is still down. And I already finished my book, cleaned part of the freezer, dusted my bedroom and the study, wrote a vignette, read or skimmed all the recent posts on LewRockwell.com and drank several cups of tea and it has not yet come back online.

Word of caution: The above link is to a very libertarian website with very libertarian views. It can open your mind and then fill it. Beware, and enter if you dare.

It was from that particular website that I saw a link to a certain news article on a rancher in Nevada named Cliven Bundy. Apparently, he keeps his cattle on this sort of public grazing lands his family has been using for a century or so and got his access revoked in 1993 when federal government classified the land as federal property to protect some sort of rare desert tortoise that seems to have persisted despite there being cows this last century. He stopped paying fees and kept his cattle on the land.

I'm a bit confused on this point. As far as I can tell based on the structure of the language, he was paying fees, and then they ordered him to get his cattle off, and he didn't do that AND stopped paying fees. Which, if you aren't allowed to keep your cows somewhere and you decide to keep them there, that makes paying fees seem a little silly, doesn't it? Like paying rent after you're evicted and hiding under the porch.

Anyway, somehow things came to head recently and you should probably read the article to get the feel of it. From what I've read, and I find this whole thing hard to believe, federal forces stormed the property with helicopters and snipers and started seizing his cattle. Meanwhile, private militias of gun enthusiasts, anti-federals, and others in the area and from nearby states poured in to stand with Cliven Bundy, dressed in camo, flak-jackets, and bringing guns.

The feds ended up releasing the cows after a standoff and backing down.

You look at the pictures and read the story and it makes no sense. When reading it, I kept saying, "This doesn't happen in America." People don't just group up, armed, against the government and make the government back down. I didn't even think anybody would ever consider that option.

Obviously, it's a rather libertarian track of thought. Government is oppressive, citizens have the right to bear arms against oppressive government. And nobody got shot, in this case.

But this doesn't happen in America. Does it? I still have a hard time believing this story.

Although, you know, if this story is true, the government isn't the type to back down. Maybe Cliven Bundy and the militias won the day, but that doesn't mean it's over. But it's nice to see that people can think outside the box.

Nerd fan fic something or other

To let you in to a little bit of my life, I play World of Warcraft. I am a nerd. If you want a little bit more, the servers are down for maintenance this morning, and so I was prowling around the forums because I wanted to play and couldn't. And I found a little writing challenge for writing a Vignette, a short moment in time, 500 words or less, obviously WoW themed.

So I wrote a moment and then had to slash it mercilessly to get it under the word limit. I was 840 originally.

And since I like it, I'm going to share it with you. Don't feel obligated to read it. Good chance it won't make sense if you don't play WoW.

~~~

Quaint round clay buildings squatted together in circles around a central clearing with a firepit, like companions camping together, under a brilliant sky, blue and thick enough to hide what was outside. The grass was bright green, fur over the rolling body of the land, with unfamiliar curving trees easing their way out of the ground. Pieces of earth floated above, separate from the land, but adding their features like a crown to Nagrand.

This was my ancestral home.

Chesra looked around, trying to make the words fit. Trying to summon some feeling of belonging to the little village.

A head popped out from one of the buildings, followed by a fleshy body that had to stoop to get through a door designed for something much smaller. A feral growl escaped the uneven teeth in the pinkish face when its single eye caught sight of her.

Chesra hefted her axe. It whistled as it cleaved the air. The ogre gurgled as it slumped.

"Ho... home..." Chesra tried. It still didn't make sense. She scratched the shaved part of her scalp, letting her hand creep up and tug at her mohawk. She caught herself, and used her other hand to pull it down, leading to an inspection of her nails, then palms.

"You get out!" a voice bellowed. Her right palm was briefly occupied. A flash of scorn crossed her brain for the pinkish skin of the ogres. Her light green was much more pleasing.

Green. It followed the lines of her palms, burrowed under the edges of the nails, and stained the backs of her hands, going under her armor up her arms and there to coat the rest of her body.

Green.

And there was the difference, the barrier. Green was all she had seen in Durotar, and fighting all she knew as she cut out her survival from the heat and the dryness and the scorpions and whatever else tried to kill her. It had not been her home. Her people had come from somewhere else, Draenor, before the desert and the humans and the demons and the green.

She had seen them, the other orcs, the ones who had not touched the demon blood, not been exiled. Their skin was brown, as natural as the earth, untainted.

Her feet crunched over the dirt around the firepit. Her eyes, a rare blue color, darted among the shadows and the doorways, looking for a piece of the past, of her past. Her fangs worried her lip and she felt something rising in her, a feeling familiar as heat. Her heart started to pound in her ears and the world became sharper, more real, swelling in her senses as her steps quickened. The feeling reached her throat and she crowed, a mix of a growl and a roar and a taunt.

Ogres burst into her vision and her axe sang, every time it met their bloated bodies, parting the skin, releasing the blood, Chesra felt something in her rejoice, drinking in the violence until the bodies piled up and nothing else moved to challenge her.

She was here alone, which suited a warrior like her just fine. She had been brought up to fight alone and it had challenged her to keep herself alive long enough that survival had become her ability. She didn't mind being alone, but it nagged at her now. She was alone because they couldn't fight.

The town washed out in her eyes, the houses once owned by the brown-skinned orcs taking on a soft hue, clay just short of melting from too much water. Her hand gripped her axe handle until it hurt. How could this be home? Orcs raised in Durotar became strong and fighters. They had to fight because the harsh lands were not where they came from, and if the humans had their way, were not where they would stay. But all orcs who made it to adulthood were like the land: spiky, dry, and hard. The brown-skinned orcs brought up in this land were soft, soft like the sky and the grass. They had no blood rage in them.

She realized she had been pulling at her forelock again and used her left hand to bat her right hand away. She distracted it by hoisting her axe over her shoulder and heading back toward the brown-orc town of Garadar, affecting an easy, rolling walk. All confidence, not hiding, for she was sure she could take anything that might leap out at her.

Because she was an orc. A real orc, skin scarred green by their mistakes, hard from the deserts in Azeroth and the fight with the humans, blood surging with rage that kept them alive and made them strong. Because this wasn't their home, just a mark on their past, a blip on her timeline that she would eventually leave behind her.

The edges of her lips curved in a smile around her jutting sharp teeth from her lower jaw. She was an orc. And the world could BRING IT.

Free Thing: Something I guess you can't do in Ames

Prior to last Tuesday (04/08), I was totally planning on going to this and then SOME IDIOTS decided to ruin it for all of us.

I am of course talking about VEISHEA.

VEISHEA is a big Iowa State University part, originally designed to showcase the college and be fun for everyone. It is preceded by Greek Week which is full of fund-raiser competitions between the Greek houses.

The week of VEISHEA typically has tons of events and shows running all week such as cookouts, crafts, art marts, plays, competitions, etc. culminating on Saturday with a parade featuring local and campus organizations, booths all over campus, fair foods like cheese curds and funnel cake and cherry pie, a big concert, campaniling, and in the past, fireworks at midnight.

Unfortunately, this event being a college event, you get a lot of students coming in from out of town, drinking, and getting stupid along with the students from in town. VEISHEA is a huge party week. Being a good legalistic under-21, I did not drink during VEISHEA while there, and so hunted down the events I was interested in.

The parade is the best parade in Ames and you can get tons of free stuff, and all the booths give free stuff as well, along with a fun look into a variety of college organizations and you get to find awesome things like slingshot super monkeys and tiny venus fly traps in a sealed jar (which I proceeded to kill because I have a black thumb). The fireworks were awesome. There was the mid-campus run. And I love cheese curds. I had planned to go to the parade this year and probably get sunburnt again (you should see my ISU ID picture... it was shortly after a VEISHEA parade). And most of that stuff is free. The big concert cost money, but good luck NOT hearing that if you are anywhere on campus. The food costs money. But you don't have to buy that stuff.

However, in the past, there was a big riot where people set stuff on fire on the streets and VEISHEA got cancelled for a while. It was just coming back when I got to college, with the stipulation that if there was another riot, it was over for good. The police were present and they would check any bags coming on to campus. They were actually fun, running campaigns that gave out t-shirts and hats to the students, making people aware of their presence and that they just wanted to have a safe, fun VEISHEA just as much as anyone. We understood.

I guess too many years has past and people don't remember that anymore. I even have some Iowa State Alumni friends who were practically rejoicing about the riots and it getting cancelled. "I don't know," one said, when questioned. "It shows the students VEISHEA isn't invincible."

I found that highly unnecessary. But even so, a bunch of students rioted this year, on a Tuesday of all things. They knocked down light poles, flipped cars, and were complete idiots.

And VEISHEA got cancelled. Go figure. And at this point, we don't know if it is coming back. Some people disagree with the decision. I only disagree with it in as far as I am unhappy it happened. I understand it.

Depending on the news source you read, you can hear about the students with the heart of VEISHEA holding their own events to make up for it, and that cancelling VEISHEA is a bad idea, and that it hurts Ames businesses, or you can talk to people with the police who are still dealing with troublemakers even later in the week and if you drive through Ames on a nice day like Saturday turned out to be (would have been a great day for a parade), you can see people sitting on lawns in front of a bunch of houses, drinking before noon.

I really just upset I missed the parade. It has rained in previous years. This year it was 80 degrees and sunny.

Free Thing: Eco Fair

There are maybe three parts of Ames. Three categories for the population.

The first are the casuals. People like me who only really know the surface of Ames. I know where Wal-Mart is, the Iowa State Conference Center, and a lot of grocery stores and restaurants. We have Sam's Club and Best Buy and Perfect Games.

Then, there are the students. The students pretty much have their own parts of Ames that they use, such as student housing areas like down on Coconino and the Grove, and then Welch Avenue, the Greek houses, campus, and a large amount of Lincoln Way. There's obviously some overlap with the casusals as students will go to Wal-Mart and so on, but I think a large amount of the casuals won't use some of the more student specific stuff, like going to gigs at the M-Shop, eating at the Student Union (parking), and probably won't be in the know for a lot of the student events. After I got out of college, I stopped keeping track of the various talks, games, celebrations, classes, and other things that cater to students and happen on or around campus. Student Ames can be more in depth that casual Ames, but is still far separate from what I consider to be Ames proper, the part of Ames that exists when the students all leave for the summer.

Townies/locals are the third catagory. Under the surface, Ames has a strong Buy Local, Main Street, organic/hippie population. This is Ames for the involved. The Main Street committee likes promoting local things and will do summer events like art walks, bands at the half-shell, farmer's market, and so on. This is the part of Ames that has the city government (which sometimes overlaps onto the student part) and establishes things like the aquatic center. There's the whole Main Street area which includes Main Street itself, but I stretch to involve the city government, post office, old library building, and so on. Main Street of course has charming little shops and awesome hole-in-the-wall places like Downtown Deli, my favorite sandwich shop in town. Better than Jimmy Johns or Subway in my opinion. And when you start delving into one of those, you find the Buy Local people, like spidery lines between many of the small businesses. Go in to get a sandwich from Downtown Deli and you'll see flyers for other services in Ames, bands at some local bars, and other events. Ask them where you can get a watch fixed and they can direct you. And related to them are the hippie/organic people, the ones who are targeted with events like the Eco Fair, who shop at the Farmer's Market and Wheatsfield co-op, the ones who seem to know what's going on locally and ride their bikes around to get to it.

And so, I want to delve into the deeper part of Ames this summer. And I already missed my first event.

Last year I went to the Eco Fair. Because I have hippie aspirations (which probably means I'll never be a real hippie if I have to aspire to it) and because it's FREE.

I biked there to lend me a little hippie cred and it was a whole bunch of booths in the back of City Hall representing local environment-related things. Like people willing to lend you goats to trim your back yard, Ames energy producers, and people who like LED lightbulbs.

The City of Ames has a section on their website for this event. It says

The City of Ames is excited to once again hold the annual Eco Fair. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 30, the Community Center Gymnasium, 515 Clark Ave., will be filled with educational booths and vendors. Ames residents can find the answers to energy-efficiency, conservation and sustainability questions.

The Eco Fair featrues City displays, community organizations, and vendors who offer energy-efficient products, programs or services. In addition to showcasing electric conservation, Eco Fair has expanded to include water conservation and watershed protection, landscaping, and transportation efficiency. Get useful information on products and services from vendors, see interesting displays, register for door prizes, play games, and join us for free food.

And so, I should have gone. Because swag.

(Notice: Swag means free stuff you get a trade shows, like lanyards and pens with logos. It does not mean bling and stuff rappers talk about)

Things to do in Ames for free?

Well?

No, that's not rhetorical. And it's not something I can answer. I'm asking you. What can you do in Ames for free?

See, I rather lost my job recently. I'm only mentioning that because it will explain why I suddenly need something to fill my free time. As soon as it gets summer out. Or 50 degrees, whatever works.

Did you know I am cursed when it comes to jobs? I considered myself smart, competent, and hard working. Past tense, I had a bad experience. But I always have a bad experience. Granted many of my jobs have been entry level, but it seems those are usually coupled with overbearing bosses, crazy bosses, micromanaging bosses, unethical bosses, and so on. And usually, all the other coworkers hate them too, so I don't think it's just me...

This wasn't about my boss this time, but the point is I'm cursed. So I'm taking it slow this time. People, when trying to encourage me, say there are lots of jobs out there, I'll find one soon... I thought I had a good one this time, so I don't want to go rushing in. We're fine.

But, what am I going to do? Last week, I did spring cleaning. Eventually, maybe I could do more cleaning, more in-depth cleaning, I don't know. But there is only so much cleaning one can do on one's own house.

I'm on the dreaded Allowance, so I can't exactly go about picking up a hobby, learning an instrument (from an instructor), planting a garden that the rabbits won't eat, etc, as I can't afford that stuff.

So, for today, I guess my free thing is the Library. Located in the convenient lot right next to Hobby Lobby, Pizza Hut, and HyVee, the library is nice and free. I've got a movie on hold right now, so I'll probably bike down there and get it and watch it for the afternoon. They also have a lot of books. I should get my butt into gear as far as reading goes.