Apocaylpse Not

Today was, from my perspective, remarkably calm. I mean, the American southeast is still recovering from massive tornadoes, and the Mississippi is having the biggest floods in decades, but today, it seems that the flooding is lower than expected, and it didn't do as much damage as was expected. A volcano is exploding in Iceland, but rather than being a repeat of the April 2010 eruptions that closed several European airports, it seems to be rather run-of-the-mill.

It seems to be as boring as a day can possibly be. In my life today, I woke up and went out to breakfast with friends. After breakfast, I picked up some cute things at a yard sale, and relaxed all afternoon. After a nap, Steve and I headed downtown to see Bridesmaids at the Shattuck Cinemas. We got some fro-yo, and waited in line, only to hear that the 7pm showing was sold out. That was disappointing for us, but good for that movie. There were no other movies that we wanted to see, so we decided to go to the park by the high school and chill on the grass. After that, we headed back to my place, had some sausages, and watched some television. Right now, we're watching IFC free on On Demand, and we'll be turning in shortly.

So, now it is your turn. How eventful [or not eventful] was your May 21st, 2011?

The Ultimate Votive

These were never part of my Catholic upbringing, probably because my family wasn't sufficiently Spanish, but when I saw this in the bathroom of a party I was at in July, 2010, I knew that I needed at least one. Granted, the teachings of Catholicism are painfully outdated at best, but the pageantry and artifacts of the religion can be beautiful and fun. My friends told me to poke around my grocery stores to find them, but I live in Berkeley and go to hippie Berkeley grocery stores, so I didn't think I'd find them there.

Actually, I never looked for candles a those stores, but one afternoon that fall, I went to a Safeway in Oakland to get groceries and see if they had these candles. I found two, one with Jesus, and the one I got, with St. Jude. I couldn't get the Jesus candle, because it didn't exactly scream "Catholic" the same way that any saint candle would. An added bonus to these candles is that they all come with prayers on the back, in Spanish, then English. Over the next few weeks, whenever I lit the candle with friends, we would recite the prayer for fun.

Having been an atheist for now nearly half my life, I have absolutely no idea what it must feel like to say something, light a candle, and assume that something or someone can actually hear me. I've had experiences that could be considered religious, like the time I "found inner peace" on a cross-Atlantic flight after some significant sensory deprevation, but I've never heard voices or felt presences. Not that I am lamenting my lack of mild schizophrenia. My approach to solving my problems involves things like talking to real people about how to realistically solve them.

Of course, a pretty candle is a pretty candle, and I have been determined to build a respectable votive collection. So in the following months, I found the ultimate in Mexican Catholocism, the Our Lady of Guadaloupe candle. That was when I allowed myself to buy a Jesus candle, but I decided to go for the gory angle.

But today, after taking Steve with me on my weekend morning walk, we stopped at the corner store to mainly get some B&J, but browsed through the store too. We saw the votives section, and found the goriest, creepiest votive, that I obviously had to buy. The prayer on the back is more or less a prayer to exact revenge on someone. It seems like some kind of fusion between Catholicism, Aztec death stuff (a la Day of the Dead), and maybe a bit of voodoo. So, I present the Zombie Votive.

Trump's Bluff

When Donald Trump first came out with his presidential bid, I saw some show on MSNBC berate the bid as a publicity stunt for his TV show. I looked up whether or not Trump supported Obama, and came up with one comment he made in 2008 that was complimentary to Obama and less so to McCain. My search also revealed that Trump's alliance was clearly Republican, so he still could be genuine.

However, I remain unconvinced that he's not just stirring up stupid people just to laugh in their faces later.

Atheists Can Get Up Early Everyday

I like this post, but Amanda's footnote on the atheist benefit of being able to sleep in on Sundays made me think....

I get up early on weekend days, no matter when I go to sleep. For instance, last weekend, I went to sleep around 3:30am. Four hours later, I was fully awake. You could probably find other evidence of my early morning weekend habits by looking at my Facebook activity.

What's more, I actually like that I get up this early, and I like having things to do on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I just don't need to listen to the same old ancient stories told over and over again, followed by meaningless comparisons between modern events and misinterpreted hallucinations.

21st Century

Thursday, I bought tickets to a presentation happening that same night with my smart phone. Today, I am watching live footage of the African wilderness.

An Open Letter to the Guy Who Laughed When My Friend Said She Couldn't Stay Because She Had Therapy

Fuck you.

Do you think it is funny that someone has mental illness? Are you going to laugh at me for going to therapy? What about when I tell you that part of the reason that I go to therapy is lasting effects of a brain injury from a car accident that I don't even remember and that put me on life support, jackass? You think its funny? Fuck you.

Background: While tabling for SANE on Friday, two smug, middle-aged men came up to me and started asking me about the sign I was holding, which stated "God is a myth". Sensing my inability to explain myself very well without ample preparation time, a friend came over to where I was to take over the duties of dealing with annoying middle-aged men on a college campus. At one point, another friend of ours walked up and we shifted our attention away from these guys as she stated that she could not stay and table because she had to go to therapy. One of the smug bastards chuckled, and I wanted to kill him. I didn't say anything though, and its eating at me.

My Freedom

Support Choice for your Mother and choice for your father.
Choice for your children, your sisters and brothers

The inability to plan parenthood would rob me of the liberty to plan my life. But don't support this just for my sake. I am wealthy (for now), but most of America is not. I have used Planned Parenthood once, when I was switching insurance providers. My friends and family have used it for essential services.

The activities of this Congress are stripping us of our essential rights.

The Price of Freedom

We have paid with blood before, but it would be nice if rich people would invest in us a little more. They could take that money they've been holding on to and just start hiring more people to do things. I mean, the infrastructure needs help, our city sewers could use an upgrade, schools and public areas need upkeep, and millions need simply put their skills to good use by doing something.

Oh, I forgot - only government does those things... I guess, then, that we need to figure out how to increase the revenue of the government. The best way to do this is to remove the tax break they got during the bubble that isn't doing shit to create jobs right now.

Warren Buffet and Bill Gates want to be taxed more. They know that the best charity out there is the US Federal Government. Only that body can reach all needy people because it is required to. Grow up, teatards. Stop demanding that people that make thousands of times more than you do get to keep more money than you make in a decade. They get to do this each damn year, while you get nothing.

We lowered taxes on the rich so they would create jobs, but they aren't creating jobs. They're waiting for housing prices to go up first, but those won't go up until the unemployment rate is cut down from 10%. So, are we just expecting a mass die-off of the unemployed? Why not just create some damn jobs???!

Seriously? Spending cuts? That's the policy you think is vitally necessary for economic growth? Spending cuts? Because — what? Unemployment is too low for your taste? God save us.

It is time we grow up and take responsibility for our country. We need governance, not politics.