Doing the Maker Faire Dance

This past weekend was Maker Faire, which is easily the coolest event I've ever been to, made even cooler by pulling friends from all over the country here for a visit. Being around people who actually DO things and love novelty and innovation as much as I do was like medicine for my soul. I feel like I have been shaken awake from a long sleep and I am ready to take on new projects and goals to make my world one I want to live in. In the spirit of this event (and damned Mercury no longer being in retrograde) I would like to do a little review of those impact-reducing resolutions I made six months ago and outline my ambitious long-term plan to help make the world I want to live in. Why wait until the new year to make a resolution?

My 6-month report card:

• Complete power-down/heat-saving measures/light switch vigilance: It is now a reflexive habit for my partner and I to completely power-down when we are leaving the house/going to bed. Our electric bill plummeted from $125 to $25 within the first 2 months of doing this and no longer running the heater.
• Farmer's Market: this has been a little slower becoming a habit, which is stupid on our part, because every time we do go, we end up saving at least $50 on weekly groceries and spend way less time at the grocery store.
• Sushi: when I do eat sushi, which is a rarity now, I only order sustainable types.
• Stuff I have not accomplished yet: The Diva Cup is quite an initial investment, which I will get around to at some point when I am working more regularly. As far as disposable razors, some day I will be confident enough to stop shaving, but I'm just not there yet.

My ambitious long-term plan, as inspired by the brilliant people at Maker Faire, is to get to the point where I am not buying any completely prefabricated products. It is my goal to be competent enough to make everything I need (barring, of course, things I absolutely cannot make, such as medical products). It will take years of learning and experimentation to get to a fully DIY lifestyle, but I am very excited for the journey. I also hope that I am able to inspire others to empower themselves with self-sufficient living while fully minimizing their carbon footprint.

I would like to do a shout-out to a few of the amazing makers I met (some I already knew) last weekend at the Faire. Please check out their awesomeness and support DIY culture.

• Alex Peake at Tactical Corsets. Sexy, functional and empowering. I'll be saving my pennies for his products, for sure!
• The talented Jill-of-all-trades Libby Bulloff. Please check out her breath-taking photography.
• Bay area alt-artist Suzanne Forbes.
• The good folks at Sparkfun. Open source development platforms and parts/plans for microcontrollers. They call themselves "electronic enablers." Enjoy!
• When science is adorable: Solarbotics! They have plans and parts for solar powered bot-making. I need to get a soldering iron so I can make the cute bug-bots they had on display at the Faire.
• The Crucible: a non-profit, Bay Area organization that supports the love and continuation of DIY industrial and fire arts through classes, public awareness, and space providence. I will be taking their Intro to Fire Performance class very soon and you should too! Or at least check out their extensive class listings for something more to your liking.

Here is the full list of makers present at the Faire. Please browse and support! If you'd like, share links to your favorite makers in the comments.

Yeah, it's Been a While

Okay, I have an explanation. In late January, a family member's chronic health condition had a month and half long flare-up, the care of which took precedent over everything else for a while. Then I had a pretty nice, yet exhausting temp job for a few weeks. Finally, I was struck with the immense task of following up my last post, which was arguably the biggest news story since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. I mean, really, what can immediately follow the Obama election without seeming fairly inconsequential?

Oh, I know. How about North Korea launching a test missile in a grand display of fear-monguering and penis waggling. Yes, we get it Kim, you're a crazy motherfucker, but this is no way to go about earning anything resembling respect or legitimacy in the international community. Between North Korea wanting to blow everyone up, the unrest in Pakistan getting worse by the day, the economy, and the general doom, gloom, end of days crap that's going around, I think the world needs a little bit of levity. Seth Rogan, what have you got for us? An elaborate stunt to put date rape humor into the mainstream?

Really, Seth? Really? I quit. ::headdesk::

Thankfully, I can always look to the scientific front for news that doesn't make me want to jump off a building. The 2009 Medical Design Excellence Award winners were announced this week and they are really exciting. This year's winners include a body-suit that quickly cools the body temperature down to hybernation in the midst of a heart attack or stroke to buy time against brain damage and a bunch of other freaking awesome devices that you should just check out yourself. Also, scientists have determined that eating baby broccoli might prevent stomach cancer and other digestive ailments. Yay science! Now if they could just find a common food that defends against severe spring allergies, I'd be good to go.

To my dedicated readers, if I have any left, I just want to say thanks for your patience and your continued support.

I Never Thought It Would Happen ("My Favorite Things" Edition)

-A liberal realist president
-A black president
-An articulate president
-A president with an intelligent sense of humor
-A strong, inviting First Lady
-The end of Bush's reign of terror
-A return to a focus on service and social equality
-The opening of honest conversations on race and racism
-The hope of peace
-The death knell of Neo-Conservatism
-A brighter outlook for my little brother, my nephew, and my future kids

These are a few of my favorite things!

I am so inspired today to make positive changes in my own life to live up to the standards our new president has set in the realm of dignity, honor, courage and tenacity. The success of his struggle and the outcome of his hard work and humility make me want to be a better person and work even harder to make my corner of the world better. We all need to acknowledge our responsibility to lift each other up and ensure that every person no matter their age, race, gender, nationality, or socioeconomic class has the same opportunities to life, health and education. And now, we might just have an administration who will back us up in those goals.

Good morning, friends. Open your eyes to a new, beautiful day for America and the possibilities therein.

Post-Rally Pondering

Tonight's rally to bring justice to Oscar Grant and all others lost to police brutality was moving and gave me a lot to think about. Most important to note was the joy, hope and determination felt with the knowledge that the officer involved was apprehended in Nevada earlier in the day. I will continue to keep you posted as things develop, but for now, I leave you with my favorite images of the evening.

It's hard to convey the magnitude of people in attendance. Early estimates suggest close to 500 attendees around Frank Ogawa Square.

The place was crawling with media, but the faces of the community shone through.

A sea of signs, cameras and consternation

Even the youngest participated in the "Lay In," nearly 100 people laying face-down, emulating Oscar Grant, chanting "Please don't shoot," while the names of victims of police brutality were read off along with Oscar Grant.

An event organizer calling for donations to support Oscar Grant's family.

The rally marched from city hall to the courthouse to listen to a rousing speech by Keith Muhammad, a minister with the Nation of Islam.

Protesters push back to City Hall after making the rounds of the march.

A handful of assholes decided to directly defy calls from organizers and the Grant family by following the peaceful, positive rally with further violent action against local businesses. It is appalling that they continue to appropriate Oscar Grant's memory and the energy of this positive moment to fulfill their own misdirected need for destruction. Shame on them and shame on the local media for ALREADY equating these miscreants with the movement and giving them more coverage than the rally itself. For once, I'm really glad I am not with a mainstream media outlet where in I would be forced to cover that insanity. Fuck sensationalism and fuck needless violence.

An Update on the Quest for Justice

Well, I said I'd update with news and images if situations presented themselves, but things have been oddly quiet since the mayhem of the other night, on account of the city's response being swift and appropriate. The people were heard; the violence has ceased; the authorities have made the first step in doing the right thing. If that's not news, I don't know what is. The BART authorities have publicly apologized and the Oakland PD have now opened up the shooting as an external, criminal investigation, instead of permitting the BART authorities the opacity they are so used to enjoying. I'd make a wager that the officer involved will not walk away without an involuntary manslaughter-criminal negligence charge, as it should be. The authorities are also seriously considering developing a community oversight committee which would be lead by members of the public to be a much-needed check on the historically trigger-happy group of bullies that are the BART police.

All of this positive response begs the question, would it have happened without the violence? Would the movement have been taken seriously if they had merely stood at the BART stations handing out fliers, blocking the entrances and singing Kum-bi-ya? Sadly, I doubt it. The violence against private citizens and the damage to local businesses has been roundly decried by both the community and the original rally organizers. I wonder, though, if the city's unexpectedly swift, appropriate response is evident of a real change of heart, or rather a knee jerk move to shut everyone up and prevent a second wave of chaos, a move that just so happened to be the right thing.

As unfortunate as the violence truly was, I think that it ended up being necessary for justice to be served and accountability to be shown on the part of the BART authorities. Without the fear of further political and social unrest, I believe the movement would have gone the way of the Berkeley tree sitters: irritating, but ultimately unheard. The peaceful protests, nonviolent dissent, and sit-ins of the civil rights movement don't do jack squat in our society anymore, and that's a real shame. That speaks to the deep lack of respect our government has for its people. Our traditional lack of long-term memory as a culture has convinced our overlords that if they ignore us, our passion will fizzle out and we will go away. Our apathy has proven to them that they don't need to listen to us unless we're really going to mess things up. They can ignorance a nuisance; they can't ignore a riot, which means it takes nothing short of a riot to be taken seriously these days. What a sad, sad state of affairs.

We hope for peace in Gaza, at the same time we responded to violence on our country with magnitudes more intense violence on Afghanistan and Iraq. Our mouths say, "Live and let live," while we support widescale displacement of peoples in Gaza. We try to teach our kids that violence and fighting don't solve anything, but the overwhelming message sent by the authorities' response to calls for peace and transparency are deaf ears and blind eyes. Would we hear the plight of the Palestinians without Hamas' mortars? Would there be a criminal investigation into the shooting of Oscar Grant without Wednesday night's riot?

I think you know the answer.

Calm Like a Bomb

Today was a peaceful breath, the calm before what is expected to be part two of last night's dangerous riot. Last night a peaceful protest turned into an ugly, dangerous riot that has caused upwards of $500,000 of damage to private property in the neighborhood where I live. The people of this city are furious at the shooting death of a 22 year old father of two by a police officer with the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART). The officer, who claims to have been reaching for his taser, but instead grabbed his gun, shot and killed the young man when he was already laying face down on the ground, apprehended. The protest was to bring the public transportation system to a halt to force awareness and bring about justice for the victim. What followed was a terrifying scene reminiscent of a war zone. Cars on fire, looting, SWAT teams, riot police, tear gas, explosions, at least 12 helicopters circling with search lamps for 5 hours. It's the most bizarre thing I've ever seen, a sea of people roaming in the streets, breaking into cars and store fronts, halting traffic; fearless brutes lurching and devouring cars like so many insects stripping a carcass and moving on.

Who is to blame for this scene? The angry, seething masses grasping to be heard? The police officer who pulled his gun when he meant to pull his taser? The economy? The history of police brutality in this area? This city is a powder keg. Racial tensions, economic strife, a culture of turf violence; it is hardly surprising that the response to white cop on black youth violence would quickly turn to into this.

As much as I wish I would have gotten some photos of last night's insanity, when the burning cars began to explode down the block from my apartment, I decided to stay inside. I'm glad I did. Talking to a San Francisco Chronicle photog this afternoon, I was informed that the handful of media journalists who were on hand during the riot did not fare well. Most of them received damage to their equipment and one journalist ended up being beaten for taking video coverage. Yep, glad I kept me and my uninsured equipment at home.

This afternoon I roamed around my neighborhood taking pictures of the aftermath and talking to people waiting around for something to happen outside of the BART offices, 3 blocks from my home. In my neighborhood, there were 200 police officers stationed just waiting for something to happen. Here is a very detailed timeline of what has been going on in the past 24 hours, courtesy of the Oakland Tribune. They have been updating very regularly, so keep checking back there.

I was really impressed by the rapid clean up in the wee hours of the morning. By the time I got out and about mid-morning, much of the devastation had been swept up and hidden away, but whispers of the conflict can still be seen everywhere. (Sadly no skeletons of burnt out cars. They scuttled those away right quick.) Below are a few shots from the day.

Busted window at a shop two blocks from my apartment.

Somebody should have invested in safety glass.

Completely shattered shop window a block away from my apartment.

What appears to be the handiwork of a bullet in the window of a cafe I frequent.

A sample of the police presence downtown today.

A cop preparing his riot gear for a conflict that never materialized this afternoon.

Another cadre of officers waiting in the park near my house.

A small group of protesters hassling the cops outside of the BART offices.

One of the protesters being handcuffed after throwing a cigarette at a cop.

I have the feeling that this is nowhere near over. I will faithfully communicate information and images to you as I gather them. I still hear helicopters and sirens as a pregnant pause descends on the city.

Is it safe to come out?

A new day has dawned; the holidays are over!!! The new year is within eye-shot! Like I mentioned in an earlier post, the Christmas spirit eluded me this year. I gave an honest try, baking somewhere around 300 cookies last week, but my steam sputtered out early to until I didn't even have the energy to go to Midnight Mass at the cathedral 5 blocks from my house. Sorry, God, but between not being able to afford Christmas presents, getting a heating bill for twice my average amount due to the recent cold snap, and being too broke to get home for Christmas, I'm inclined to convert to Judaism just to avoid ever having to deal with this crappy holiday again. Blah.

So let's just pretend the last month didn't happen, shall we? Yes. Looking ahead with slightly more optimism, we can convince ourselves that an arbitrary change from 8 to 9 does actually reset the clock to a brighter tomorrow. If nothing else, it's one number closer 2012, to which I say, "Bring it on."

Now, I normally boycott New Year's resolutions on account of my irritation with putting any special significance for life changing decisions on any particular, arbitrary day. However, this year I have decided to partake in this cultural phenomenon. I resolve to seriously reduce my environmental impact, questioning every decision in terms of what's best for the environment. I've always been militant about recycling and only eating organic/free range (my mom totally did it before it was cool), but there are so many more ways I can do better. This line of thinking was sparked by my future mom-in-law giving me one of those super hip metal water bottles, easily my favorite present this year. I was so excited, because oh my god, I have an easy alternative to plastic water bottles now, yay! Even though I always recycle them, this is even better! Now, what else can I do? Well here's a list of things I vow to attempt:

• Completely turn off and unplug everything in my apartment for at least 2 hours every day
• Insulate my windows to cut down on heating use (and cost, double win!)
  
• Get off my ass and go to the farmer's market every Saturday for local produce
• Invest in a Diva Cup to minimize my monthly gift's impact
• Utilize candle light
  
• Watch less TV
• Turn off my computer at night
• Patronize enivronmentally conscious stores
• Sacrifice my individually wrapped string cheese sticks
• Cut down, if not completely eliminate, my sushi consumption
  
• And finally, the hardest one of all, ween myself off smooth, hairless gams
  

Alright, here's hoping for a better, greener and more gainfully employed year for all.

Good riddance 2008, you lousy bastard. 2009, I welcome you with green, open arms!

Impromtu Video Game Review

Have you guys played Little Big Planet yet? It's one of the most challenging games I've played in a while, but also the most rewarding I've played possibly ever. You're a cute little sack poppet running around solving puzzles and trying not to explode in weird little worlds with gorgeous graphics and innovative physics concepts. Even the credits portion is pleasing to the eye. It's beautiful, stimulating, sciency and non-violent all at the same time! Squee!



With all of this weird, chilly weather hitting the bay area, you better believe I'm spending my days curled up on the couch with hot chocolate playing levels of Little Big Planet in between job applications. It's supposed to get down to 33 degrees tonight and it might even snow, which makes kind of happy because it's more like home, but it also makes me really sad for the homeless tonight. The wind coming off the water is bitter cold. Maybe I'll find a soup kitchen that needs a volunteer, because in these sad economic times, we all need to come together and do what we can for each other. Stay warm out there.

Yay Rain!

I think the rainy season finally hit the Bay Area and it's beautiful! It's not snow, but I'll take it. The clouds, I should have taken pictures earlier. Ah well, I am a sad waste of a photojournalism degree. Next time maybe I won't suck and I'll remember to take pictures. Speaking of a sad waste, I'm still unemployed. Oh boy! I graduated a year ago, I've put in hundreds of job applications and STILL haven't gotten an interview call yet. Ha! I feel like such a winner! (A winner is me?) Boo. I'm so broke in fact that I've had to stop spending as much time as I'd like on Etsy and Boing Boing, because they keep showing me the perfect gifts I can't afford to get my loved ones. Thanks guys.

I know I'm in good company though. While yet another Wall Street scandal has hit the presses, the Detroit papers have decided to stop home delivery, California's Republicans are calling for mass layoffs, and even the Gawker affiliates are having to cut back staff and hours, it's not feeling much like Christmas. I've canceled all of the holiday movies from my Netflix queue and I'm inclined to just take down all what little decor I've put up and call it a year. As a state and a country, we are fucked and we're going to continue feeling the drippy, stretched-out, sore orifice of said fucking for quite some time, probably still long after Obama takes office. While I'm looking forward to January 20th as much as any raging liberal, it's going to be long time before Obama will be able to implement his proposed changes in a way that you and I can actually feel.

Sorry for the downer post. Maybe it's the weather; maybe it's the bourbon-spiked eggnog, but I'm cranky and contemplative tonight, so this is it, my triumphant return to news analysis. But just because you all know that I hate to end on a sour note, I give to you the most pleasing intensely NSFW photo gallery I've seen in a long time. Maybe the best things in life really are free.

Sorry Guiz

So, I realize I completely disappeared for a while and I apologize for that. I really couldn't handle the weight of the world for a long time, but I'm back now. I'm STILL unemployed, so I really just don't know what to do next or where I will find myself, but I do know that I need to come back here and write and analyze the news or I'll go crazy again.

Be on the look out. I'm back bishezzzzz!

LSAT of DOOM!!!

It is 10pm on a Wednesday night and I am officially a basketcase. This week has been me drilling for the LSAT I am [finally] taking on Saturday. All the worrying about the test and those damn logic puzzles have completely consumed my brain, and even though I am starved for social contact, I doubt I would be any fun to be around at all right now. I literally can focus on nothing else right now, because I am so paranoid about the exam. Not Sarah Palin, not the starving children of Africa, not Russia; only whether or not I have practiced the right types of puzzles and if I know as much as I think I do. Thankfully, I have a friend taking it the same day as me who has a brain much better suited for the logic puzzles than I and has been giving me help when I start freaking out too hard. Maybe I should just say fuck it with the studying tomorrow and go to the beach. I haven't left the apartment since Sunday ::bangs head on desk repeatedly::

The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

Who else is burnt out on the news this week? Raise your hands! Between the terrifying state of the economy, Palin-Watch 2008, and threats of a "New Cold War" with Russia, I am actively avoiding the news. I feel like I have the basic gist of anything that could possibly be said: The economy is in the shitter, it's not going to get better for a long time, any past headway gained against terrorism in the Middle East has been completely invalidated, Google is taking over the world, McCain-Palin are incompetent and the apocalypse is nye. Did I pretty much cover it? So yeah, no more news for me for a while. Not even the Daily Show.

This morning, my partner and I were trying to remember who has been bought out by what and who is still standing and between the two of us we could not sort it out. What a mess! The one comment I will make, however, is that I truly hope the $700 billion bail-out does not get approved, because all of those greedy, incompetent boobs made their beds. Let those pigs go lie in them so the fall of capitalism may usher in the revolution! The oligarchical demise is so close I can taste the blood of the guilty and it is yummy, like cotton candy and dreams.

Last week, we got a cat, and today he ate my purse. (If that's not an approriate metaphor for the economy, I don't know what is.) Besides the purse eating, air mattress puncturing, and fish tormenting, he is pretty damn adorable. To distract you from the end of the world I give you:

(I don't actually have any pix of him yet, but that's a pretty accurate representation of The Honorable Sir Worchester Noodle)

Emerging from the Cave of Doom and Gloom: Contemplating a Significant Day

Today is September 11; a sad day of remembrance for many people, but my reason is a little different. It's been a month to the day since my dad died and every day the emotions and realizations are different and raw. The first week I was certainly numb, which was helpful in being a rock for my family, overseeing all of the preparations so no one else had to. The second week, when I returned from Indiana, I was angry, resentful and lost, doing very little beyond watching TV and sleeping. Last week, I started making decisions again, missing my friends and my life. This week, I've made leaps in rejoining the human race, both joining the SCA and becoming the likely candidate for the East Bay representative to the SF IU Alumni Association. Yesterday, I was inexplicably, explosively sad, yet ended up shaking hands with Michael McRobbie, the president of IU and of whom I am a total fangirl (I also met his wife, who is an exquisite lady). Today, I am quietly thoughtful and gearing up to hang out with new SCA folks tonight. Some days I feel really pathetic, but stepping back like this, I think I'm doing remarkably well. Each day is a process and I've just got to embrace the flow, recognizing that some days will be much harder than others.

In regards to that other reason today is significant, I can't believe it's already been 7 years. The way the politicians and pundits keep talking about and summoning fear over it, you'd think it happened last week. Though what happened was tragic and I don't mean to be callous, we as a country need to move on. Every mourning period must evolve for it to be a healing process, but we keep getting sucked back into the yearly loop of desperation and fear. For the people who lost loved ones in World Trade Center attacks, I'm obviously not talking to you, but the rest of us need to let the true mourners have their sadness and we need to move on in regards to foreign policy and homeland security goals. It's tremendous that we have not had another attack since then, but this culture of fear and anxiety is an unhealthy atmosphere to raise a society and it has clouded our judgment on issues like the economy and funding for education. There are other ways to prove our strength as a country that have nothing to do with our military. I hope as this election cycle draws closer to the big dance, the country's eyes can be opened to the possibility of a new day without fear. Be well, America.

My Life is a Dark Comedy [edited]

I decided to delete the original post on the matter, because it was too raw. This was the day my dad died and everything changed. Here is the obituary I wrote. Dad, I hope you have found some sort of peace, because here, you have left everything a mess.

Depression is [not] a Funny Thing

To all of you on whose del.icio.us accounts and RSS feeds I have resided, silent, for the past three months and those who have been subjected to accidentally reading "George Bush Hates Black People" multiple times (Gi), I humbly apologize. I have a handful of dedicated readers and fans who I have let down and frankly there's no damn excuse for my shoddy performance. My bad, kids; it won't happen anymore.

To be perfectly honest, I have been miserably immersed in one of the most serious cases of depression I've experienced since perhaps high school, and though I do not see a light at the end of a tunnel or have any hope that I will someday "get better" and be magically cured of my chronic ailment, I do recognize the profound need for social interaction, no matter how acutely unappealing. Somewhere in my addled brain I love my friends and am thankful for the good things that do exist in my world.

Not being able to find a job in the past 8 months has truly shaken me. I look at my resume and it's perfect. It's sharp; it says things like "2 years at a major publishing house" and "nearly 4 years at a critically acclaimed newspaper." On it is my dual degree and my excellent GPA.
After the "sure thing" at the group home fell through dramatically and painfully, I've applied for every job listing I see that's even remotely related to my experience, but not a single place has replied. My temp agencies have even stopped returning my calls. I feel like a joke. Incomplete. A waste of life.

Now my family is falling apart back in Indiana. Between the floods destroying my hometown and washing away a beloved family pet a month ago, my dad's mental state deteriorating and my grandmother dying a slow, agonizing death of esophageal cancer, things are rough and I am having a really difficult time even getting out of bed. I feel like I've abandoned my family when they need me most and for what? The colossal failure that has been my post-college experience? Despite the love I have for my partner and my friends, was coming out here a mistake? What is wrong with me that I just can't seem to make the right decisions? Just some heavy questions I'm dealing with.

So, I cleared out my meager savings at the urging of my partner, and Wednesday I will be heading home to Indiana for a week to say hello to my family and goodbye to my grandmother. Maybe then I'll be able to put some things to peace and regain some semblance of confidence. I don't know, but I hope something better will be waiting for me when I return.

George Bush Hates Black People

Sure, Kanye West's post-Katrina rant sounded more like the ramblings of a crazy conspiracy theorist than a qualified expert on urban race relations, but the longer I work with inner city youth in West Oakland, the more I see how right Mr. West indeed was. While there are parts of the country where race divides aren't as apparent, where the substantial majority of the poor and rich alike are white (like where I hail from in Indiana), here in Oakland, the race-class divide is disturbingly apparent. The social service I work for currently gives aid to about 150 different homeless and at-risk youth a month, aged between 14-24. And despite an almost equal percentage of black and white citizens in the Oakland area, all but one of our regular clients at the shelter are black or Hispanic kids. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice the gross imbalance of those statistics. At the moment, we have a government that refuses to acknowledge the institutionalized racism within the education and incarceration systems, which exhibits itself in the social blights of drug abuse, teen pregnancy, and urban violence.

We are losing entire generations of bright, young black men to the machine of anger and violence, perpetuated by a system that shows them on a daily basis that there is no way out of the cycle for them. Incarceration policies unfairly target the poor, which are, in many cases, young black men. The Bush Administrations policy of accelerated defunding of public schools also unfairly targets poor, urban districts, which have a greater chance of being primarily black or Hispanic children. Where rich, whiter schools have a greater chance of picking up the slack with their tax base when the government defunds their districts, these poorer schools are left to keep it together with the scraps left behind. They can no longer fund the extracurricular arts, sports, and music programs that inspire kids to greater things than the street life. They cannot afford even the most basically qualified teachers, because the cost of living is too high to keep them, and even when the qualified teachers stay on account of charity, their creativity is stifled by the curriculum constraints developed for kids whose experiential frames are vastly different from those accustomed to street life and the gangsta lifestyle.

On top of that, the Bush policy of abstinence only sex ed is doing our impoverished kids a serious disservice, promoting the silence and ignorance around the subject of sexuality and sexual freedom that are already rampant in urban culture. Here's a newsflash: Oakland kids are growing up in a milieu where 13 year old girls are frequently lured into the world of prostitution. And you're telling them to keep it in their pants until marriage?! Come on. These kids deserve to know the truth and be armed with the tools to protect themselves from predators, disease, and peer abuse.

It doesn't matter who gets the Democratic nomination within the next few weeks. Neither one of them will be the magic bullet to fix this issue. It's going to take a lot of hard work, love, and grace from the people who have the choice to look the other way. They are just children, but they are shooting each other in the streets, prostituting each other to pedophiles, and spending their entire lives in jail on account of the three-strikes rule, all because the Bush Administration has aggressively looked the other direction. I'm tired of seeing bright kids come into my office, talking nonchalantly of shooting each other and snorting heroin, because they truly believe they have nothing to live for or to contribute to society.

Hello Consistent Month-Long Gaps

I have been without the interwebs for a month. A MONTH! We moved to a beautiful new place, right in the heart of downtown Oakland and it took weeks for Comcast to come hand us a box and a CD. What?! You went with Comcast?! (you might say) Yes, well. AT&T's system was down (the same system you want us to pay for, you can't even keep running? no thanks) the day we were looking to get hooked up and that made us a little nervous, so we went with the more expensive and fascist Comcast. For now, I cringe at the reality of sending money to one of the less net neutral providers out there, but I truly believe that universal Wi-Fi will be a reality within the next decade. Yes I do.

But for now, I am back up and running and you can expect much more of me. Maybe I'll even blog some more when I get off of work tonight; I have a month's worth of things to say.

Ode to the Neighborhood Skunk

I suppose I am not old enough to know any great truths

In the city there are tight expanses
Of light and buzzing and -scapes
But I get back to the page and I'm lost

Look, I wasn't ready to say goodbye, okay?
I just can't finish this

Commence and cry and fuck me
There remain questions too trite to voice
And protests that whither
Under the weight of resolve

Gagged and bound, we stumble
Ever-onward
Toward some vague hope of silence

Um, coolest bed ever

I don't think I've ever salivated over a bed before, but this hits both my tech fetish and my aesthetic button. I don't just want to have sex on that bed, I want to have sex with that bed.

The site is not in English, but the commercial is, so just scroll down and find the video. It's something else.

Teh Question, Redux

To clarify, the question is not how do you know that you want something but the process by which you reach the realization that you desire. Carry on.