Return to Activity (Hopefully)

 Site Related & Meta  No Responses »
Jul 042011
 

Aside from a couple of posts in the end of June, this blog has been sadly silent.  The majority – actually the entire reason for that is that I have relocated from the Detroit area to the Chicago area.  It’s much the same, except Chicago’s downtown doesn’t have a ring of abandoned rubble surrounding its core, nor is the area entirely dependent on the auto industry, and there’s also many more jobs and opportunities here. Locals I’ve talked to here find it hard to believe that it could be much worse as the streets aren’t exactly paved with gold out here (current unemployment: 8.9%, Michigan at 10.3%, Detroit Metro area at 11.6%), but I digress. I’m now settled in and plan on getting back to the business of writing much more often this week and beyond.

First, though, an entertaining distraction from all of this.  A sign, perhaps?  Definitely something that will get your attention – in my first couple of weeks of living in my new apartment, I was nearly hit by a tornado. The night was June 21st and while I thought I was at a safe distance from the storm, it turns out the track was within half a mile of where I was standing. Moral of the story: don’t judge distances at night.

I had my camera with me and took some video. It was at this point that I learned that my Canon SX130 IS has pathetic nighttime shooting abilities, especially when it comes to staying in focus. Still, even including that misfortune, the videos definitely get the picture across at what was incoming. Like this, for example…

Also, this…

There are a couple of more in the series (3, 4, 5), and there’s a nice write-up from the National Weather Service. Compared to the other more notable tornadoes of this year, certainly nothing major, but definitely an eye-opener, and a hell of a welcoming to the state of Illinois for me.

Silence broken!

 Site Related & Meta  No Responses »
Aug 232008
 

After a crazy couple of weeks led to me unplugging myself from a few online outlets for a week, I’d just like to say that I’m not dead – in fact quite alive and soon to start writing again.

In the meantime, while unplugging, I managed to go on a nice trip through the thumb area of Michigan and relax a bit. As introduced in the last account of my Canada trip, I like to take pictures. Why hide that anymore, I suppose. So from here on out when I go on a little photo adventure I’ll mention it here. Just because.

So while I write new things, and watch the coverage of the new Obama/Biden ticket, here’s some pictures:


( 86 total pictures )

The Minimum Security Prison of America (aka “Fun Times at the Canadian Border!”)

 Site Related & Meta  6 Responses »
Aug 032008
 

For those just tuning in here, I live in the state of Michigan. As such, I am surrounded on two sides (north and east, a little south if you want to get trivia-esque) by Canada. While I haven’t gone recently (a few years) due to a lack of funds, earlier on this decade I would go to Canada when I had the chance – especially when I spent a couple of years in northern Michigan in the tiny city of Sault Sainte Marie, MI, which is a stone’s throw from its twin city of the same name in Canada. The border crossing process had usually been rather simple for me, with the most that I got asked is “Where’d you go? How long were you there? Bringing back lots of money? Alright have a good one.” I suppose it was a bit naive of me to think that things would go south in the couple of years since I’ve been to Canada, especially in lieu of revelations that Homeland Security can take your laptop at the border if they feel like it.

Like most things in life you stay naive of it, happily nested in a world of “it can’t/won’t happen to me” until – sure enough – it does.
Continue reading »

…because non-Christians can’t cut lawns or be trusted?

 Site Related & Meta  No Responses »
Jul 302008
 

Ahh now here is a post that can get me into some controversy. With the aid of black marks, hopefully not in any actual trouble.

So after another rather lengthy day at my job, I came home to this letter taped to my front door. Tired and not scanning ahead as I read like I typically do, my reaction was linear and surprising:

- The first line (which is blocked out) named the lawn care company they were. I thought tempting, keeping up on the yard is getting tedious
- I saw the hand-written advertisement for a $15 new customer special. I thought and affordable, too!
- I read “you have probably seen us in your neighborhood. For over 5 years we have been a local, Christian family owned and operated lawn care business. I would have done a spit take if I were drinking something.

I scanned over the rest of the letter but I kept coming back to that line right there, the line about being a Christian family owned and operated lawn care business. As if family owned and operated lawn care business wouldn’t have had quite the same reaction. As if Atheist/Muslim/Jew/Hindu/Buddhist family owned and operated would have been notable to mention (and well, living in Detroit’s suburbia, separated by race as it is, I suppose it might be of note).

Continue reading »

This is me aboard the Hopemonger Tour

 Site Related & Meta  No Responses »
May 142008
 

Yesterday I had the distinct honor of attending an exciting rally for Senator Barack Obama in Grand Rapids, MI.  Myself and a friend tracked across the state from the Detroit area in hopes of catching a glimpse of the man, and we made out pretty well.  The breaking news that Senator Edwards was going to endorse Obama at this very meeting, we never knew about that.  I first learned from overhearing an older lady’s conversation over the phone behind me.  My friend and I were extremely excited at this revelation and even more excited to see Senators Edwards and Obama together at last.  The following is a series of pictures with some narration taken from in and around the Van Ander Arena in beautiful Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Continue reading »

We really just want to live in peace? (Or: Why extremism drove me away from religion)

 Site Related & Meta  No Responses »
Feb 212007
 

A recent poll carried out by the BBC World Service has found that a majority of people around the world do not, in fact, wish members of religions they are not a apart of to die in a firey hell as we would be led to believe by worldwide talking heads and military actions. Whether you want to look at data from Australia (which found out 52% of Islam-Christian tensions are caused by conflicting interests, 58% by extremist minorities), from Lebanon (78% of tensions politically motivated, 68% for the hope of common ground between West and Islam), Egypt (54% possible to find common ground), Nigeria (63% for the same), the list goes on, and the common theme is that out there lays a great silent majority of people who want the conflict between the West and Islam to not be inevitable, and to actually live together in a peaceful world. Warmongers, conservatives, and dogmatic religious puppeteers who control their respective flocks through a steady diet of fear of the coming apocalypse be damned – their efforts still have not paid off after decades of terrorism and conflicts around the globe.
Continue reading »

May The Good Lord bless this toilet and all its piping

 Site Related & Meta  No Responses »
Sep 262006
 

Just the other day as I was driving around in my car I heard a radio advertisement that made me want to do a double take. I didn’t exactly believe what I was hearing, but I really was. The advertisement was for a new search portal for people here in the Detroit Metro Area called My Christian Contractor. The purpose of the website is, as the name might explain, to help prospective customers for home improvement look for the perfect contractor to work on projects in their home based on the most important qualification of all – the religion of the contractor. We all know that Jewish, Atheist, or Muslim contractors are out to hurt the homes and families of poor, innocent Christian customers. Somebody must protect this minority that makes up a scant 79.8% of America’s population! Either that, or my previous sarcastic assumption is just about as stupid as the concept of such a portal to exist in the first place.

Continue reading »

Five years of a brave new world

 Site Related & Meta  No Responses »
Sep 112006
 


I could explain how my day was, but in fact after 9am this morning, it was centered in watching the news. Nothing happened to me, and my daily trials and tribulations are meaningless facing the disaster that has, and is about to, hit this country. On the way home from work i noticed gas has gone up $1 – $2… which is just the beginning of a lot of hell that people haven’t even begun to fathom yet. I hope and pray that things will be better soon and life can return to normal.

Those were my thoughts that my seventeen year old self wrote down in my journal late in the evening on September 11, 2001. I remember the extremely clear skies in the days after – there were clouds, but no airplane contrails from flights leaving Detroit Metro Airport. Considering the entire national airspace had been shut down, it wasn’t that surprising – but it still seemed rather odd. I remember the first weekend after the eleventh at my K-Mart job, when people poured into the store by the dozen, all clamoring for anything colored red, white, and blue. We ran out of every single flag and flag-ish thing we had in the store, and then were yelled at by angry customers for not having it. I was a bit put off: “Seven days ago there’s not a chance in hell you would have cared to buy a flag for yourself, why are you patriotic now?”, was a recurring thought in my head as those days went on.

Continue reading »

The day the prices were here to stay

 Site Related & Meta  No Responses »
Jun 222006
 

I am not foolish enough to remember that in many matters in this country, in the end it is money that does the talking – whether it be in the event of political campaigns, public welfare improvements, cost of health care, so on – once the huge money is committed, nine times out of ten it is hard to go against that.

I had been paying attention to the price of gas and oil since September 11th – when I was, as many other locals were, shocked to see prices spike all the way to above $2 and $3 a gallon that nervous evening after the attacks. Prices quickly fell back to normal, crisis adverted. Starting in 2002, prices began to slowly creep back up. The local news began to talk about the pinch on consumers as prices crossed $1.50. There seemed to be a psychological barrier at each quarter dollar – prices would flirt with $1.50, finally cross, then flirt with $1.75, take a very long time at $2.00, cross, and continue. There’d be breaks in price, of course – each “low” being what was just three our four months ago something that would be considered “high”.

Continue reading »

This life has been censored for content

 Site Related & Meta  No Responses »
Apr 112006
 

At the not-so-ripe old age of 22, I’ve come to realize that a great deal of censorship issues don’t mean much to me, being an adult and all. While for most people the fact something isn’t directly bothering them is good enough to stop worrying about it, I’d like to think about the impact policies done now could effect future generations from the one growing up directly behind me to many more that have yet to be born.

I am fairly happy about the time that I grew up in. I came before the Barney revolution, before there were tailor-made blocks of family friendly programming on cartoon networks that were designed for me, back when if I felt like learning, I could watch PBS. I saw Looney Toons cartoons that were apparently too racist for children of today to see. I never put two and two together that the guy with the funny looking eyes was supposed to be making fun of everyone from Japan and I missed the boat on the deep-speaking, dark colored… he looked like an oversized mole, I’m not sure… but whatever he was, he was supposed to be a stereotype for Africans. Could have fooled me. Perhaps I was just a dumb kid.

Continue reading »

 Older Entries