Makeup exam

Since I've been too busy to post most of this week, and somehow wound up even poorer than I was at the beginning, I'll play a little catch up.  Had an incredible class on Wednesday, I gave them back their mid-term which wasn't what I'd hoped for, and recognized that though they did well on the first script we analyzed they had no clue what I was talking about.  We took Death of a Salesman apart.  It was so much fun. 

Spent quite a bit of time in the studio and make lots of pots. Hopefully I'll have a good selection by the end of this month for christmas sales.

And the impending election is still causing me concern. Though I am relying on the good sense of the  masses, there are still a lot of crackpots out there who might vote for some of the less savory candidates, which could be trouble.  All I can do is urge you to vote on Tuesday  and   hope for the best, all the while wondering what land in Belize costs.

Here are the best and worst I could find:






Why would one need security in an interview?




Vote!

Having immeasurable fun watching the Giants use the Rangers for batting practice.



Nolan Ryan doesn't look like he has much of a sense of humor about it all. And their GM, well he's just a grim looking guy these past two days. Not that I enjoy seeing anyone from Texas be unhappy...hehe.

Ah well tomorrow they're in Texas and we'll see how that goes. Obviously I'd love to see the Giants win the series, but we're not done yet.

Vote!

And so it goes:

I'm a disappointment I know

What're u my dad?

If you had the schedule I have this week you'd be unable to get a post up too.

I do think about you though.

And so it goes:
Wednesday

 

and today

 

See!

No rapper

being a senior citizen AND a white person I do my best not to attempt to rap.  It's unseemly for an old white guy to be contorting and mumbling in public.  Besides we can find ourselves in a nursing home right quick should we get caught.

So today I ran across a couple of young black men who have gifted us with the following:




Last night in class I tried and tried to find scenes for the few remaining students who still come to my class. No luck. Every time I tried to find something it wouldn't work for one reason or another.

Then as I sat there watching two of them stumble through a scene completely over their heads I realized I had three black women and one each a black man and a white one. The Mr Lindner scene from Raisin in the Sun it is!

No worries over language, the white guy gets to be the bad guy, I get to have fun messing with their minds, and at the end of the semester I've accomplished my mission. AND WITH ONE SCENE TO GRADE! WOOHOO!

Now desperately looking for a living situation where I can have a studio and do raku firings. It's a tall order but I really have decided that being an artisan is the only way for me to really make a living. Considering that I play so poorly with others. Besides it's something I love to do.  And after all, that's what's important.

BTW I scored 30 on the aspbergers/autism quiz on facebook this morning.(those with a score of 32 have one or the other) Not surprising, but a bit disheartening.

Start researching your candidate now so you can vote next Tuesday. And go to Washington or your local meet this weekend for the restore the sanity rally if you can.

And so it goes:

Back in the saddle

I was off my game last week for reasons I cannot comprehend. Didn't want to make pots, didn't want to teach, didn't want to work or move. I didn't feel depressed, I just wasn't motivated.

But that seems to have changed.

Hopefully next week's election won't send me back into the doldrums.

There's no shortage of predictions that the election could go any way at all. Last week the GOP was headed for a sweeping takeover of both houses of congress. This week Obama and the Dems have all increased their numbers.

No one knows until we all vote.

Speaking of which, I implore you, gay, straight, republican democrat, whatever VOTE next Tuesday. Please don't vote out of anger, do that thing we Americans rarely do. Make an informed decision. READ about your candidates and your party and know who and what you are voting for. Do your best not to splinter the parties, what we've got isn't working as well as it should but piecemealing new parties isn't the answer either.

Remember what Phil Connors said to the groundhog: "Don't drive angry. Don't drive angry!" just apply it to your vote please.

and so it goes:

some things are offensive some aren't

I read this morning that someone is planning a new website for gay friends. Apparently the idea is that gay people post their profiles and then ask their straight friends to support their quest for civil rights.

I find this offensive.

the notion that I'm a little waif out there needing outreach so some straight person can save me from the perils of the big bad world frankly pisses me off.

I don't need your help to obtain the rights I already have , thank you very much you condescending superior snob.

If you want to do something...well...don't. If you're of the opinion I need you to save me then I'd rather you just went about your business.

Ugh!

Conversely i don't find the following offensive at all:

Thursday

And so it goes:

So smart

I forget exactly when it was that I fell in love with Alec Baldwin, but of all the Baldwins he's always been my favorite.



And so it goes:

well let;'s see...

et's just see how bad it really is for those poor bots and girls in the military who will, at least for now, have to put up with faggots and dykes in the armed forces, as though they never have before.

And so it goes:

Freud may have been on to something

Had a dream last night. 

Standing on a train platform, waiting...

The platform was inside. No weather, no place marker.

I was standing there...waiting.

Like Estragon and Vladimir.

Waiting...

WTF?

And so it goes:

It's starting again

Another week in which I'm playing catch up.

By the time I had coffee the morning had suddenly filled up and I need to be off.

The weekend was busy.  Dinner Friday with a friend from the library days. After that drinks and hot tubbing. Saturday was spent in the studio until about noon when I had to go install an exhibit at the shop I was askd to display in and then a meeting with my web designer about the website. She did exactly what I wanted her to do.  She kind of cut me loose.  We set up a blog which I can manage and she can help me with, and I no longer have to put up with her procrastination and poor design.  Yeah! So feel free to come look at the development of Rising Sign Pottery

Then I was off to the fete at the store where my pottery is.  In the 90 minutes I was there I got offered a gallery and a show.  Um Yeah!

This brings up yet again methods by which I can get what I'm after in the way of artistic recognition, and yet it tells me yet again not to jump on the highway outta here just yet. Oh, I'd go given the chance, but if things remain static I now have alternative plans that could work quite well indeed.

Then I went to a production of Talk Radio at the college and was very pleasantly surprised.  The student production was quite good. There were a few things missed, but that speaks to inexperience.  The evening as a whole though was very well done.   Very happy with this group of students.  I hope we can recruit as well for next year. 


And we can all rest easy about bullying and homophobia now.

Justin Beiber is on the case.

And so it goes:

hgf

hmmm

First, it's not a mosque.
Second, they have a right to put it anywhere they want.
Third, It's not a mosque.
Fourth, the politics of fear must stop ruling our psyche at some point.
Fifth, did I mention that it's not a mosque.
Sixth, We all know what Bill O'Reilly is, so why give him the honor of walking off the set?
Seventh, don't we have more important issues to consider?
Eighth, Today on NPR Teabaggers were interviewed and said all manner of uninformed, simple-minded things. A teabagger candidate called her opponent a Marxist in a debate.  It's Joe McCarthy all over again.
Ninth, There was a magazine called "The Canon" in the chiropractors waiting room today.  It appeared to be a treatise on re-imagining education.

Tenth, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.

How unfortunate that this country is devolving into a theocracy ruled by hate and mistrust, and bent on electing conservatives naively creating it's destruction, who'll then look to find someone to blame. It'll likely be us.



And so it goes:

Why so serious?

I'm not feeling particularly engaged right now.  Sort fo coasting through things and not really feeling much applies to me or my situation. Odd.

I need to make some changes, and I need to realize that when I work in the studio I feel not only empowered, but that I'm doing work that matters to me and work that makes me feel like I'm accomplishing somehting I can be proud of.

Giving someone a free quiche because the last one had eggshells in it doesn't put a lot of wind in my sails.

Doing an installation in a shop here today of my pottery and I can't wait to see the results.  The wares I have to display right now aren't my best work, but it's passable and it seems the muse has returned because I spent a lot of time in the studio recently and it was very gratifying, so when that stuff is ready I'll be able to replace this stuff with more better stuff.

Thinking I need to start working on a way to make the car disappear at the end of this academic year.  by disappear I mean be owned by someone else.  It's just an expense I don't need right now and it's impeding my ability to make necessary adjustments to my life.

The miners are coming to the surface in Chile, Yeah!   The teabaggers are going indiscriminately crazy, Yeah! The weekend is closer, Yeah!

And so it goes:

Endgame

Well, here we are at the precipice once again.  It appears that this time the reaper may actually collect. 

It's not difficult to watch from a distance, and that puzzles. I've no wish to insert myself in the process,yet I feel that at some point I'll be asked to do exactly that.  Still conflicted over the past, yet completely unwilling to make it a current event.

I suppose when asked I'll go as I always do.

Being dutiful can be  trial.

And so it goes:
 

OOOh! that durned Rabbit!

Someone is right.  Sometimes change has to be forced.

Recent obligations need to be met, and then it's packin time, it'll take a while but it's a comin.

And so it goes:

 

hgf

fight on...or simply move on?

It's tough to say if I was just discriminated against in hiring, but I think I was.  I can't decide if I want to pursue the issue or just move on.  most of me wants to pursue it to ruin. 

But that's just me.

and so it goes:

The evil of Catholicism

The poor poor Catholics, who have recently cried foul over all the money they've had to spent on lawyers and settlements over all the pedophiles they've harbored for centuries rummaged through the couch cushions and came up with enough spare change to send out over 400,000 dvd's to Catholic Minnesotans telling them how bad gay marriage is, and why they should stand united against it. 

What evil bullying bastards these people still are!  I remember when I was young and a student at a catholic school, the clergy would show up unannounced at your house, and tell everyone to kneel down so they could bless you and then proceed to tell you exactly what you were and were not going to do.  (It really happened in my house I swear.  It did not go well.) These presumptuous bullies think they can teach us to hate each other and that we'll just stand there and accept the indoctrination. 

Fuck You Bennie, and the altar boy you rode in on.

Fortunately for the thousands of gay Minnesotans there are those who understand that their church is preaching evil and they've organized a campaign to return the dvd's (postage due I hope) and then raised over 5k to feed the hungry, which, they say is much more in keeping with the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

This was of course, not the end of the matter.  The bully's had to retaliate and they were given ample opportunity.  A group of students showed up at a Mass officiated by the Archbishop, John Neinstedt, wearing rainbow buttons in protest of the dvd mailings. 

The son of a bitch refused them communion. 

And another thing.  What idiot editor, not that all editors are idiots, mine is a nice guy, thought it a good idea to allow a Rutgers reporter to write an editorial telling one and all that we're exploiting Tyler Clementi's death for our own agenda? 

I was looking at Rutgers as a college for my next Master's but now...

It's unconscionable that this line of reasoning could be encouraged.  The reporter is obviously young, there are rookie mistakes like the statements that celebrities are exploiting the suicide for gain, and the statement that Tyler was barely known since he was  freshman and it's not even mid-terms yet. but the clincher is the plea to allow them to mourn him privately.

How does one mourn someone one doesn't know?  How does one know the motivations of others who have lived with bullying and hatred?  How does one encourage the suicide of gay youth and get it published in a college newspaper?  I'm sure someone will be meting with the President of the college today.   And they will not leave happy.

And so it goes:

 

capriciousness

Oddly, though the employment situation is somewhat dire and things financially, though workable are ridiculously fraught with complication, I find myself feeling rather independent. 

No idea why. 

Political foolishness is abundant, the nutjobs are getting their 15 minutes, and no one seems to care.

I still need to lose 20 pounds and get back into the gym.   No one seems to care.

The temps are going down, and it appears we might just have a nice Indian Summer.  I so hope for glorious fall colors, I love that time of year.  That's when I really love to be on a horse, they're well ridden out from the summer and relaxed on the trail, and I can just enjoy the scenery and not have to wrestle with a horse.  And it means riding in the snow is coming soon, which is even more fun.

Yesterday while I was launching a full scale attack on the disaster that was my apartment (it looked like someone with chronic depression lived here) I ran across some photos I thought should be scanned  so i can stop worrying about their disposition.  The following pic is the view south from my deck in San Francisco back in the day.

Incredibly good  times, and incredibly terrible times were had there.  I was looking at pictures on Flickr this morning and was reminded how much of a young man's town that really is.  Thank the Gods I was there when I was. 

This was the north view:

On the right side of this photo you'll see a church steeple and directly below it the canopy of a palm tree.  It seems that my ex lived under that palm tree at the same time I lived in this apartment.  We didn't meet for another decade and not until we'd both returned to the Midwest.

Thinking of escape again, yet last nights class was so much fun!  I've never found, in any of the 110 jobs I've had in my life, the kind of energy that gets created in a classroom.  How can I give that up?

And so it goes:

"Never forget"...this

The church I was forced to attend as a child was little more than a country club.  It was a place for everyone to come and show off.  They displayed their new Lincoln's and Cadillac's, their new suits, new wives, whatever they had that was shiny and impressive they brought it to Jesus' show-and-tell for a little Sunday gloat. 

And being human they completely forgot the purpose of their visit.

It's happening today still, yet it's happening on a larger and more morally important scale.  People are forgetting what Christianity is about.  They don't even try to pretend they listened to the sermon.  Come with me on my Sunday morning bike ride and watch them come driving out of the church parking lot. 

Driving out in front of people, cutting them off, and looking as though the only reason they don't flip them off or cuss them out is that others from the mega-church would see. I've mentioned before that there are televangelists who preach to their faithful that God wants to give them stuff.  That their savior is waiting to bestow on them all the material stuff they ever wanted, all they have to do is ask.  No wonder these fools are flocking to the mega-churches.

ESPN has long been a benchmark of LGBT respect, when it comes to broadcasting so it's no surprise to see this article appear on CNN from one of their senior writers.

But it's nice to see nonetheless:

Editor's note: LZ Granderson is a senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, and has contributed to ESPN's Sports Center, Outside the Lines and First Take. He is a 2010 nominee and the 2009 winner of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) award for online journalism, and a 2010 and 2008 honoree of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) for column writing.
Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) -- Long before Focus on the Family, the 700 Club or even the Bible, there was a basic spiritual hunger: A hunger to know where we came from, a hunger to know what happens when we leave, a hunger to know if there is a God.
And somewhere along the line, that hunger was spun into religion, and soon the desire to find God became mutated by the desire to protect a particular belief system about God. Religion became monetized, politicized and militarized as the hunger to know the meaning of life slowly was replaced by rules by which we are to live our lives.
Now don't get me wrong, I am not anti-religion. In fact, I love my church. But as Sen. John Danforth said in his book "Faith and Politics," "If Christianity is supposed to be a ministry of reconciliation, and has become instead a divisive force in American political life, something is terribly wrong, and we should correct it."
Indeed, sometimes Christians get so caught up in the business of being Christians that we lose track of Christ. This was the case in The Crusades. This was the case when the Roman Catholic Church transferred pedophiles from city to city. And this is the case involving the Christian community's response to the allegations surrounding Bishop Eddie Long.

Any church that cares so little about people who might be victims of sex coercion should probably re-evaluate its mission statement.

More than 20 pastors in Atlanta, Georgia, got together to pray for Long recently, but I have yet to hear about an organized prayer group for the four men accusing Long of using his position as their spiritual adviser to coerce them into sexual relationships.
"Be quiet and pray for Bishop Eddie Long" tweeted Grammy-winning gospel act Mary Mary, as if the soul of the man who took the picture of himself wearing what looks like a black sleeveless cat suit is in more need of prayer than the person who might have received the picture. The duo could've easily asked their followers to support all involved in 140 characters or less, but instead only mentioned the pastor.
Why?
Very few people know what, if any, aspects of the accusations are true. But what we do know is the song suggests God has the whole world, and not just embattled preachers and his followers, in his hands. Praying for Long does not negate a person's ability to pray for his accusers, not if being Christ-like truly is that person's desire.
For if Jesus can find it in his heart to pray for Judas, those who claim to be his followers should be able to look inside their own hearts and do the same -- regardless of their view of homosexuality, regardless of how the truth may affect their church, regardless if no one else joins them in such a prayer.
Yes, it would be terribly disappointing if Long is indeed guilty of abusing his power. But what I also find disappointing is the desire to pray that the allegations are not true seems to be equal to, if not greater than, the desire to find out the truth. This hope for Long's innocence is just another example of how people are more comfortable choosing religion -- or in this case, a religious figure -- over the spiritual hunger and desire for truth that supposedly prompted religion to be formed in the first place.
But more damaging to the Christian Church is that this response also communicates a complete lack of compassion for the young people who may have come to Long for help and ended up manipulated, confused and alone.
Again, we don't know if what they say is true, but if you look at the example of Christ's life as it is illustrated in the Bible, when it comes to showing compassion, that's irrelevant. And any church that cares so little about people who might be victims of sexual coercion, regardless of the nature of that coercion, should probably re-evaluate its mission statement.
In the film "Dead Man Walking," the faith of Susan Sarandon's character, Sister Helen Prejean, is pushed to the limit when a death row inmate asks her character to be his spiritual adviser at the same time she's attempting to minister to the needs of the families of his victims. When the father of one of the victims asks Prejean how could she "sit with that scum," she replies "I'm trying to follow the example of Jesus ..." Sister Helen Prejean is a real person. Amen sister.
Now, if only more Christians were willing to do the same ...
The opinions in this commentary are solely those of LZ Granderson.

And so it goes:

hot guy friday