My rainy day craft box

I've been wanting to update for weeks now. So much has happened. Finally, it's just reached the point where I need to tell folks what's going on.

Back in September I was involved in a serious car accident. Due to bad weather I got into a serious wreck on the highway. Thankfully no one was hurt, but it has left me with serious legal fees that are due in a matter of days. I simply cannot pay these and my other bills unless I get help. So I have created a GoFundMe page to ask for donations and help cover costs. Those who donate can select a reward level and receive an original piece of poetry, fiction, or artwork from me in exchange for the assistance.

Despite the fact that I'm offering something for peoples' money, it still feels like I am begging. But I don't know what else to do. I simply need the help too much. If you are interested, or can pass it along to someone who is, here is the link to my page below:

http://www.gofundme.com/50xhu8

Subject line is a quote from Pulp Fiction and it's how work has made me feel the last two days. Last night - less than 24 hours after my last post - I had to sell bullets to some shitty, self-satisfied old man who couldn't walk away from the register without whipping out his conceal & carry permit with so much pride you'd think it gave blowjobs and dispensed $1000 bills. And of course he then started to sermonize about how if somebody licensed to carry a concealed weapon had been concealing one in that theatre...

I couldn't do my normal customer service autopilot and just nod and go along with it. I cut him off and told him that such a person would have died like everyone else, that they wouldn't have stood a chance against a heavily armed and armored assailant with the element of surprise. From the look on grandpa's face you'd think he was a five year-old child who just had his macaroni picture criticized. "Well," he muttered, "not if you got a head shot."

I just said "Yeah, you might get lucky," and wished him a good night. I knew better than to keep arguing. There was no need anyway.

So today I get to work and I see a real live skinhead wearing an anti-Semitic shirt. If you're really curious what it looked like, go here to this NSFW Nazi punk rock record label who sells it. I had no interaction with the man, although I'm sure if I had it would have led to an interesting conversation about my Mjolnir pendant that I wear; a conversation that would have been unpleasant for everyone. What haunts me about it is that he had with him a wife and two beautiful, very young little girls. They were a normal family in every sense except for dad going around broadcasting bigotry on his chest. I can only imagine the kind of talk those girls are going to grow up thinking is normal.

Finally tonight I had a customer rush and tell me there was a man trying to force a child into a pickup truck. Long story short it turned out it was the guy's own kid, but it was pretty rough and suspicious-looking and I could see why the woman and her husband were alarmed. The woman at customer service wanted nothing to do with any of it and washed her hands of it, so I went outside to sort of keep an eye from a distance while the couple phoned the police. The cops came and I left it to them. Apparently the guy saw me snooping around because he assumed I called the cops and he came inside ranting at the aforementioned customer service woman, wanting to speak to my manager, etc. I'm not in any trouble, but she did make sure to stress to me that our company policy is "we don't get involved."

Yeah. I don't think so. I may know I can't win a firefight in a crowded movie theatre but I also know a LOT of the shit in the world that goes down is able to go down because people don't want to get involved. I did what was prudent in the situation and I don't apologize for that.

But yeah, we should have fucking shotguns.

I found this on a conservative friend's Facebook. The image was posted with the text that accompanies.

( Cut due to blood and injury. )

For those who'd rather not look, it is a photograph of a police officer bleeding freely from a serious head injury kneeling on the pavement, struggling to lift his radio to call for help. It is followed by a statement implying the poor man is the victim of "peaceful protestors," although it does not specify who, where, or when. Finally it is accompanied by a quotation by none other than the Big Bad himself, Adolph Hitler.

It really is a chillingly masterful example of propaganda imagery. You have a) an image so horrific and shocking the viewer can easily miss its lack of context. (Was the officer beaten by anti-capitalist rioters or did this happen while trying to stop a bar fight or other act of violence?) b) An incendiary accompanying statement that tells the viewer where to direct their enraged reaction before they begin to question the image's context ("Those PEACEFUL PROTESTORS!") c) A statement that at first seems be a stock argument of the designated villains, followed by d) the shocking twist that it was actually said by history's most notorious villain of all.

The thing I find most disgusting about it is the shameless propagandizing of a real person's real injuries. And that happens all the time: remember the protestor/military veteran who took the teargas canister to the head? But if you have to do it, have the decency to tell the truth: say who he is, where it happened, and why; as much information as you can. Someone who has been hurt deserves that much, no matter which "side" they are on.

So at the Iced Earth concert I did indeed run into my ex-bandmates. I didn't really believe I would yet there they were. They were about twenty feet in front of me the whole time. When Iced Earth's set ended they walked right past me, and I mean within inches. One of them looked directly at me, I nodded and she instantly did the whole "look away really fast and pretend I didn't see you" thing. Later I ran into the other one out in the lobby. I said hi to her and she just stared into space like a wooden Indian, pretending she couldn't see or hear me. I can't decide if I feel pissed at being ignored like that or proud that I'm apparently worth that much effort to ignore.

I also saw my ex-boss who ran me out of my job as a security supervisor years ago. He too looked right at me but I could tell he genuinely didn't recognize me. I have long hair and a beard now so perhaps that's understandable. Plus he always was kind of a clueless douche.

I readily admit that I don't move on from things very well. So spending an evening with a few yards away from three people who've backstabbed me wasn't very fun.

I am trying to focus on the positive, namely that Iced Earth were AWESOME. John Schaeffer, Stu Block, and the gang totally ripped the room apart. I've seen a lot of really good live metal acts these last few years but I think I'm going to have to put Iced Earth in the top five. (The other four being Nightwish, Kreator, Eluveitie, and Nile in case you're wondering.) Most of the songs were from their newest album Dystopia but they played a good selection of older material too such as their self-titled song "Iced Earth" and "Damien" which is my personal favorite song of theirs. Hearing that one live was every bit as amazing as I knew it would be. They also have a ten minute musical interpretation of Dante's Inferno and they played that in its entirety too. And it was freaking SCARY. Color me impressed.

The opening act was a thrash band called Warbringer and they actually weren't too bad. I've listened to a few of their songs online and thought they were just alright but they come off as way stronger live. It might make me go back and re-evaluate what I listened to before.

Iced Earth are co-headlining this tour with Symphony-X who are a progressive metal band. They are very good at what they do but I just have a hard time getting into them for some reason. That and because I have to be up early in the morning, I left a few songs into their set.

There are a lot of selfish, cowardly people and people who just plain have no integrity and I don't know why I keep expecting them to be different, or think they might miss me or regret their bad treatment of me, or even think about it at all. But experiencing really amazing music live I think is worth having to see people you'd rather not see again.

http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779

Written by a former GOP staff member about the transformation he has seen his political party undergo into something he never wanted it to be. Please keep in mind this is not ranting by a new convert to Liberalism. This man has no love for Obama or the Democrats. But he does see the Republican party as doing something truly insidious. It's a very long essay but worth the time.

The subject line is my favorite Onion headline of all time and has nothing to do with the post.

Well it's not the power supply on my computer. It's the motherboard. Our Tech Kid (heretofore known as OTK,) can't figure out why the board will accept power but not boot. But it's definitely not a power supply issue. So now I have to order a new motherboard. Apparently no one sells the one I currently have, not even Amazon or New Egg anymore. Which I guess is good because it crapped out after only three years. We found another one that will fit and I'll be ordering it tomorrow when I get paid. Since I have a month of free shipping with Amazon right now I'll overnight it and have OTK put it in on Saturday and hopefully, God willing, that will be the end of this whole sorry mess. I JUST WANT MY COMPUTER BACK! I MISS WOW, AND DRAGON AGE, AND MY PICTURE FOLDER, AND BEING ABLE TO WORK ON MY WRITING!

I had carefully planned to start putting money aside to buy the guitar amplifier I want, starting with this paycheck. I guess that's gonna have to wait one more pay period now. That's fine. Whatever it takes. I just want the damn thing to work again.

Companies that will probably go out of business this year.

I post this because Trans World Media, the company behind F.Y.E. record stores also owns Streetside Records whose demise you probably wish I'd shut up about.

I'm not surprised about Borders. Their sections are tiny and their inventory always sucks. They're able to get me in the store by throwing 40% off coupons at me right and left, but what's the point of doing that if they never have anything I want and I always leave empty handed? Still, I used to like going in there and now it's going to be one more place I won't be able to go into anymore.

Quiznos is a big surprise. I love their food, but yes they are very expensive it and as a result I don't eat there nearly as much as I'd like. I never would have used the word "upscale" to describe them, but yeah they do sell good food at a steep price.

What seriously upsets me in the article are the words "Book readership declining in general." Aside from the general woe you'd expect from me on that topic, at the same time I'm like WHY? You may as well stay home and read. With everything fucking closing it's not like there's anything else to do.

chassit19 and I have both been working a lot and yesterday was our first and only day off together for a few weeks. So we spent it well and had a good time... Except for the animal abuse.

We had just finished having lunch at a favorite restaurant and while leaving the parking lot we witness a man in the car in front of us seizing a small dog by the throat, lifting it up, screaming in its face, and then choke-slamming it into the back seat behind him. We were both too stunned to do anything really practical like follow him and find out where he lived to report to the police, but we did think fast enough to get his license plate and the make of the car. Being good citizens who love animals we set out to right this wrong as best we could.

( It was harder than you'd think and may have been for nothing. )

I love my town, but I can't stand how it's made up of all these little counties and communities all jammed together. It's counterintuitive to everything you're taught to do. Something's wrong, call the police. No, you have to first make sure you're calling the right police. Why can't I call animal control directly? Why don't they have a hotline for animal abuse? Why do they act like they don't even CARE when you finally do reach them with a report of animal abuse?

If anyone is curious about what I meant in the previous post when I said I don't trust Apple - And you all are. Don't lie - Here is a list of reasons from Cracked.com - the only source journalistic source that I really trust.


5 Reasons you should be scared of apple.

One shouldn't need to be a Bible scholar to see how blasphemous this is to they very idea of Jesus Christ.

Defense contractor under scrutiny for stamping Bible verses on weaponry.