i`ve got purple haze stuck in my head this morning and it contains one of the most misheard lyric in all of creation, so i though i`d add a bit of whimsy to the post.
last Thursday i went to the graduation of a friend from the Nashville Peace and Justice Center Leadership programme. i have to say, i must be developing social skills in my old age, because i went, i interacted and i participated and that`s a big deal for me.
my mother concluded about the time i was about thirteen i was anti-social and told me so and i really had no retort. i pretty much grew up around adults in a time where the belief was that children were to be seen and not heard, so i learned to keep myself occupied; mostly with a book. it`s not that i lack social graces; my mother instilled those in me early on; it`s just that once the preliminaries are done, i`ll find a quiet corner of the room and stay there.
if i have a book or access to a book i`m pretty much lost for the evening, however if i don`t have any reading material, i observe people. i took two years of sociology because observing people en masse fascinates me. i don`t like to make generalisations, but i think i have a disdain for people because the conversations tend to be insipid and my own bias against stupid people. stupidity, in my humble estimation, has nothing to an education or lack thereof, but an inability to form opinions of one`s own or accept the validity or entitlement of other opinions.
the point of the leadership programme is to help you get involved and help organise grassroots campaigns in your community. and the good wife and i have signed up for the next session. part of my rationale was that i can interact with these people. i may not agree with everything all the people in the programme stand for but i can learn something and it will also help me get more involved in something that i have a vested interest in; immigrant rights.
i had a detailed conversation with one of the recent graduates about immigration rights; which was her forte; and she was tell me that the USCIS sanctioned doctor i went to for my medical has a habit of having female immigrants get nude for examination without a female assistant or family member in the room. as far as i know that`s illegal. what makes this worse is that i had the same medical recently and i didn`t have to undress.
today marks the second anniversary of my time here at JS and what a long strange trip it`s been.
i actually started blogging a week earlier at blogspot and somewhat dissatisfied i moved here. i`ve seen people come and go, seen the member rolls grow from 4000+ to whatever epic number they`re at now.
over the course of 2 years and nearly 1200 posts, i`ve participated in quizzes and memes, shared my life down to the tiny, trifling details, i`ve waxed poetic about my love, i`ve railed about the inefficiency of bureaucracy, i`ve bitched about my job; i`ve tried my hand at satire, voiced my opinions and stood up for what i believe in and i wonder, where do i go from here?
i don`t want to stop but i fear that i may be repeating myself or just unable to articulate some of the thoughts that are bouncing around in my head. i have all these ideas for brilliants post in my mind but the minute i sit in front of the computer the most cohesive portions of those thoughts flee leaving with an outline but no body.
even a post as whiny as this has suffered rewrites and deletions to numerous to mention. writing posts used to be an effortless exercise. thoughts flowed as fast as i could type, driven by some inner need to be exorcised, now i must chase them down, trap and tame them before they lend themselves to be shared.
ello my name is keifel and i`m a recovering Catholic.
ever since they prematurely announced that John Paul II had died, i`ve pondering who they`re going to select as the next pope. JP II was elected when i was eight and was sort of a defining moment in my career as a Catholic. i had just started preparing for my first communion and his ordination was my biggest religious experience at the time. of course, i got older and more cynical and disenchanted with the Catholic church, but the politics of it will never cease to fascinate me.
i firmly believe that he was dead on Friday and the extra day was just to give the cardinals enough time to figure out whole the candidates are going to be. there is an electoral college type vote for the next pope and somewhat like the electoral college the greatest populations are under represented. the old school and massively declining European Catholics have the largest block of votes, while the Central, South America and Africa with the largest populations of Catholics have the smallest number of votes.
i have no idea where i managed to pick up the information but i managed to pick the four front runners for the papacy, spot on. although in light of the long reign of the second non-Italian pope, i don`t think the hierarchy are quite ready for a black pope, but it may be in their best interest to go `brown`. if only to ensure they don`t ostracise the only growing Catholic populations. whoever they pick, there probably aren`t going to be any radical changes to church policy anytime in the near future.
`may cause drowsiness` is always an indication that taking that medication will put you down like a rabid dog.
my urologist prescribed an Atavan for me to take half an hour before the vasectomy and 15 Lortab to take as needed if the pain was overbearing. i have to say, that i`m not in much pain.
the getting kicking in the testes analogy is correct, but in my case it`s been the dull throbbing after the kick as opposed to the sharp savage pain of the kick.
i took one of the Lortab as soon as i got home as a pre-emptive strike and kept by berries cool with some frozen cranberries vic had in the freezer. i took another Lortab last night at the first twinge of serious pain and passed out almost immediately on the couch.
this morning there doesn`t seem to be much swelling and i heroically or stupidly depending on your perspective didn`t take any medication until we got back from vic`s coloscopy; she is in perfect health, but has been banned from sex for two day — that works out well. returning home, i decided against more Lortab this morning in favour of the ibuporfen and those seem to be working well.
i`m supposed to go back out to work tomorrow and i think i should be up to it, in two to three weeks or 10 – 12 ejaculations, i`m supposed to drop off a sample at my doctor`s. once there are two samples without semen in it, the vasectomy will be considered a success.
this contains more information that you may want to know about me, so if issues of sexuality and penises are likely to offend; move on now.
caveat emptor.
i`ve made out with another man, i`ve been dressed as a woman, i`ve shaved my pubes for sheer excitement; as opposed to currently — for medical reason; but the gayest thing i have ever done is my life, i did last night; i wore a jock strap; sorry the politically correct term is athletic support; for the first time.
i could google the history of the athletic support but i have my own theory. i wear boxer briefs that give me more support than that. i believe that support was invented by someone that want to believe the young man he was having sex with was just a really lithe woman. think about it; the brain bleach is over to the side there; all the support does is prevent the testes from hanging down while giving unencumbered access to the ass, from the back with a lot of lube and a lot of imagination…
i suppose me being flippant and snarky is my way of dealing with my first major surgery ever. i`ve never owned an athletic support before but i had to buy one to wear after the vasectomy. i`m just fascinated by how pointless it looks and feels. i`m off to take my pre-surgery drugs to `calm` me, the procedure is suppose to take 45 minutes and then i`m going to feel like someone has kicked me in the groin, for two days. at the same time i am to become very intimate with some frozen peas and abstain from sex for a week. hell week begins now.
or is science fiction an imaging of science fact.
a friend sent me an article from Rolling Stone and as i was reading the section about suburbs, the burbclaves of Neal Stephenson`s Snow Crash came to mind and i wonder how far away from that particular vision of the future we are.
i wonder how influenced early cell phone and PDA designers were by Star Trek and what these items would look like if it weren`t for them. is the Orwellian nature of the US, as a result of us having a fictional point of reference?
i wish this train of though was more coherent of cohesive. my brain has latched onto the idea and it`s spiralling off in myriad directions and i can`t seem to find the words to corral them into a cognisant post.
i am paying the INS, BCIS, USCIS, Department of Homeland Security, whatever you want to call them to be inefficient and as an anal retentive planner, that just pisses me right off.
i`m currently living in the US on a K-3 visa; which allows for the spouse of a US citizen to regularise their living situation while the await applications in process. currently we have my change of status application in process for me to become a permanent resident. my K-3 visa was issued last March and is valid for two years, which means it expires in March 2006. keep this date in mind, there will be a quiz later.
according to the receipt i received when my application to change my status was received, this application takes between 120 -180 days to process. so if my math is correct, my application should be approved some time between September 7 and November 30, using a 5 day work week plus a couple of days for holidays in between, which means i should need to renew my K-3 visa or the attendant work authorisation right?
i wish, nothing related to bureaucracy is ever simple. i had to call to make an appointment for biometric services; read photographed and fingerprinted; and asked what the current processing time was on my application; as of March 25, 2005, the Memphis office is processing applications received on September 13, 2002. that`s a two and a half year backlog. which means i have to apply to renew my current visa and work authorisation.
and now it`s going to cost me at least another $310 in actual fees and who knows how much in time and just sheer frustration to get this done and all over again. all thanks to the bureaucratic inefficiency. isn`t there someone i can sue for this?
i was thinking recently i had not linked any images in a long time and lo and behold nerve linked to a gallery by Leonard Nimoy for his second book which features the women of the Fat Bottom Review.
references to Alanis aside, i do know the meaning of irony.
and in a case of irony writ large i saw the trailer for The Honeymooners movie this weekend and i am afraid. who thought it would be a good idea to remake one of the most racists programmes in television history and by making the cast all black it would somehow make it right.
they did this last year in a manner of speaking with Walking Tall. i was mildly amused to think that there were a number of good old southern boys that were getting their panties in a bunch that that their folk hero was being played by someone that weren`t white. but that amusement was not enough for me to get over being appalled.
when it comes to race, i try to avoid generalisations and to reserve judgement on an individual basis but i`m going to make one now, i`m appalled by the state of movies, particular movies marketed to black audiences. they are the most insipid and trite pieces of crap. i`m sure there are the good individual flicks but for the most part if you want to see movie with an all black cast you`re saddled with movies like Soul Plane which only serve to reinforce stereotypes.
i hadn`t planned to mention Guess Who, because the concept alone makes my blood boil but i couldn`t leave it alone. are there no original ideas left? who the hell thought that it would be a good idea? the original film has been one of my favourites for a long time and now it`s image is forever tarnished by this crock of steaming faeces.
i know i have another post about it, but i thought this was funnier and more to the point.
drove from Kingston to DC on sunday, followed mapquest got lost in DC, sort of. went to a trini restaurant for roti, no roti on sundays had curry goat instead.
walked the mall, went to the american history museum, took vic`s picture in the julia child exhibit, went to the Smithsonian air & space, went into the flight sim with the boychick, went to dinner at this asian diner, Raku; great food.
went for doubles; not the best but it`s been a year, had 5, went to the Smithsonian hanger extension near Dulles, saw cool planes and a space shuttle, went home, host cooked dinner; yummy.
went to Silver Springs to see a Bill`s Buddies perfomance; Shakespeare for kids, went to the National Cathedral, farted on Wilson`s sarcophagus, took lots of pictures of the stained glass, got drenched looking for Vader grotesque and getting the car, went home, went back out for roti; good not great. went on a night time drive with vic to see the monuments, drive by only, no parking because of tour buses.
got up thursday said goodbyes, went for doubles, escaping DC swerved to avoid a car turning, had a guy have my wing mirror rub off on his door, paid him some money to get it buffed out, while i was negotiating some other asshat passed too close and whacked my wrist and finger; they`re fine. escaped DC and drove almost non-stop to Knoxville.
