All I Want for Christmas (and the New Year) Is for People to Come to Their Senses

Well it's that time of year again. Christmas - that sad excuse for a holiday that used to mean something, but is now a sickening orgy of consumerism has passed and soon the New Year will be upon us.

Sometimes I think about resolutions I will try my best to honor, like frequenting more dive bars or bingeing on donuts or finally getting up the nerve to sexually harass a man in public. Though I'm not too sure about that last one. The dudes might enjoy it too much.

Other times, like this year, I think about all the crap society should vow to purge itself of. For example, it would be so wonderful if corporate culture could be seen as passe, once and for all. How refreshing it would be to hear people in cafes chatting and saying things like: "Corporate culture? Yeah! That was pretty disgusting!" It would give me such a warm feeling inside.

And car culture. I still hate it, even though I am now driving. As a matter of fact, I hate it even more now. Maybe some of you have seen romantic moments in an automobile. Or perhaps you even feel so affectionate towards your vehicle as to actually name it. Sorry, I can't identify on that one. Living in the US at least, it's just too rough if you ever plan on being a pedestrian for more than ten minutes. And to me, that has all kinds of nasty side effects, from making folk more anti-social, to aggravating the obesity crisis. My estimate is that Americans have a walking deficit of 8,000 steps a day thanks to car culture. That's not good news. I've walked 140,000 steps this month, and that has only burned off two pounds, a pound consisting of 3500 calories. On average, if you only walk 2000 steps a day or less, chances are those tasty burgers you like so much will end up living permanently on your hips. And then while in traffic, you'll have even more of an excuse to rage at other drivers. See what I mean about the negative effects? Fortunately, Google will soon solve this problem for us, by building self-driving cars. Fantastic! Then we will all get to sip milkshakes while having our lazy butts carted around... you gotta love the madness of modern drivelization.

I'm sure I will think of other things I'd like to see changed. Of course, in the meantime, the solution is to change myself first. So of course, I will continue spitting on corporate culture. I plan to get even better at that. I will also keep up with the walks, in spite of the fact that Americans seem to think I am a bum for insisting on taking such long hikes. Oh hell America! What do you want me to do instead then? Get one of those awful Segways? No thanks. I saw how the inventor of those ended up. It wasn't pretty. Kind of hilarious though if you know the story.

Way hey, Marina del Rey!

Wow, this recession is really taking me places! :D My family and I are now officially frickin' nomads, going from city to city in our job search. Thank you corporate Murka! Remind me to send you the contents of our litter box (we have two cats). Hey it's the least I can do, my friend ;) It's all you've ever given me...

I don't know much about Los Angeles and its environs at all. I know for a fact that the drivers are a little nutty. They rarely signal when changing lanes and seem to get a wee thrill out of cutting in front of other drivers in general. Don't know what that is. In Oregon the driving style was almost meditative.

I wonder if folk here are as superficial as everyone in the Bay Area seemed to think? But heck, San Fran had its little snobberies and airs about it, that's for damn sure. For one thing, I felt I was the odd one out looking for work, and everyone else was sitting comfortably as trustafarians. "Job searcher?! Haha! That's very blue collar!" So I think they can shut up and stop criticizing other cities.

I do get the feeling that there are more industries to choose from here, job-wise. After all, Jane or Joe Schmo needs some kind of job if she or he ever plans to make it in Tinseltown.

It is pretty here in Marina del Rey, where I now live in a small one bedroom with my mother. Weather is pleasant. I get to be a beach bum and watch the other bums dancing about in the sun. I suppose the advantage to having such a huge population of bums is that they can outnumber the yuppies and perhaps dine on them if they get really hungry :) Mmm, expensive, but so very tasty! We like our meat rare!

He's mighty miffed!

So I am playing around with Cafepress a bit. Not that it would necessarily bring in a profit during a recession, but I like being able to customize and personalize things, as I suspect many folk do.

I've added a 'humor' section and the first image that came to mind was the 'angry bankster' dollar bill image I created a couple of weeks ago. Laughter is so many things, isn't it? Medicine, weapon, relaxant...

So then, get your angry bankster stadium blanket (or other angry bankster merchandise) while they are still available. And if the featured angry bankster decides to sue me, you know I'll still be laughing like a maniac behind bars :) Capitalism is pretty much the worst joke ever.

Come and get it! Angry bankster stadium blanket

LYNCH CORPORATE CULTURE NOW!

Yes, it has come down to this. I'm not usually one to advocate violence. But if you're not one of the lemmings who has bought into the corporate paradigm, you must murder it. There is no other way. If you think there is, think about what your children's futures will look like under this kind of oppression. Such false and callous authority. It can only get worse if allowed to fester.

If you feel you no longer have the strength, understand that you have more power than some dead, fictitious entity. Understand that life is stronger than anything man-made, because it has the incredible force of spirit behind it. If it helps, think about animal totems. Use the power of brother hawk to get the larger perspective, then zero in on your prey and make your kill. Use the energy of sister panther to claw at and kill all that is excessive and unhealthy in your environment. Right now, that would probably be the fake constructs of money and business. Take inspiration from raccoon to secretly investigate all that is wrong with this culture, and plan accordingly. Get that little black mask out! Be a ninja in service of justice. Use the amazing wisdom of owl to master silent flight past your enemy, so you can carry on uninterrupted. Take an example from squirrel or mouse and observe their awareness to detail.

Use the power of the changing seasons to recharge your own energy. You are powerful and dynamic. These dead systems are not. It's time we all saw the light. We can do this. We can finally be in service to life, and only life. Let the corrupt old men cough up blood and finally die off. That is the way of nature, life and spirit. There can be no other way.

And finally, if corporations are indeed persons (as was decided in the appalling Citizens United ruling), we should indeed be able to reach our respective verdicts and have them lynched :) Oh, silly me! Lynching doesn't require any verdict! Well all the more simple then :D We can get right to it.

Weirdly, I am writing this on the anniversary of Steve Jobs' death. I had no idea until I was reminded by the news. Well what a happy coincidence then. Are you enjoying whatever circle of hell you are now inhabiting Steve? I hope so. It pleases me no end to think of you there, fucker.

An Update

Twitter has now done something that would make Apple mighty proud - it suspended the account attached to the petition to repeal Citizens United. Why does this not surprise me? And why is there so very little outrage over it?! By now, we've really sold our souls to the devil. Why don't we care? Are we simply too exhausted? Is there so little fight left in us, that we refuse to even mock them anymore? Lord, are we in trouble...

For anyone who cares, disregard the link to Twitter in the previous post. Or click on it if you don't believe they've suspended it. There is now a new Facebook page regarding Twitter's action:

Twitter Quashes the Campaign to Repeal Citizens United

Repeal Citizens United - Please sign if you can...

All right, even if you happen to be a rabid Apple fanboy, you still would probably prefer that corporations not be defined as natural persons. Unless of course you are deeply anti-social and feel you have more in common with an unthinking, non-breathing, entirely fictitious entity. Then, yeah, I would get it.

So my appeal is to those who believe in the power of the people not to be bought. Get back to the original definition of democracy for a change. Breastfeed actual infants, not CEOs! You get what I'm saying?

Here are the links:

The Petition

Twitter

Facebook

Let's get things 'simplified,' so we can all breathe a little more easily!

Beautiful piece

Found a wonderful article by Chris Hedges today on Truthout. It was uplifting in a real and promising way. No New Agey stuff about 2012, just the facts on the inevitability of collapse of corrupt systems. We need more like this:

Don't say you weren't warned...

"America is immune to all appeals. Her people do not understand the language of the poet. They do not wish to recognize suffering - it is too embarrassing. They do not greet Beauty with open arms - her presence is disturbing to heartless automatons. Their fear of violence drives them to commit insane cruelties. They have no reverence for form or image: they are bent on destroying whatever does not conform to their pattern, which is chaos. They are not even concerned with their own disintegration, because they are already putrescent. A vast congeries of rotting sepulchres, America holds for yet a little while, awaiting the opportune moment to blow itself to smithereens."

- Henry Miller

Hardly surprising, but in case you haven't heard...

Really? Apple a tax dodger? Wow, what a shock! Well no, not really. The tactics mentioned in this New York Times article are some of the story. Apple's hoarding of permatemps is the other part, and you know that thanks to me. The others are too cowardly to tell the story. Again, that may be why Apple dropped me like a hot potato after using and abusing me for three years. But so? Better that the truth come out. I think it's sad that the remaining permatemps are allowing Apple to continue its shenanigans. I wish I could somehow do a calculation as to how much Apple saved by not paying out benefits or social security contributions to thousands of 'invisible' workers. I'm sure if I knew that amount, I'd really lose it.

Well here is the article. Note how Crapple defends itself in its usual haughty and arrogant manner. Again, what a surprise! Not...

Apple, tax evader

"Where young people go to retire."

If any of you have watched 'Portlandia,' you know what I'm talking about. And I think the comedic team from that series is spot-on with that observation, for the most part. Yes, I have relocated to Portland. And I've noticed that unlike folk from the Bay Area, people here, especially my age (late thirties) and under, are not quite so easily impressed with high tech gadgets, or high tech anything, for that matter. There is a retro feel to life here in the Northwest, to be sure. Powell's Books is a store I have yet to visit, for example, but I have been to some great second-hand bookstores. Bought the book 'Reamde' by Neal Stephenson. He's a lot like me. He does see the value in technology, but only when it is used as a tool to truly empower individuals or groups. He has no reverence whatsoever for tech companies, as he caught on early that they are just copycats of earlier versions of software/hardware/malware, you name it, from other tech pioneers. Pirates, to be precise.

I may have a visit soon from a friend in Oakland who will come up here to race on vintage motorbikes with his buddies. What isn't cool about that?! I love it. Though my heart is still aching for many of the people and places I knew in the Bay Area, I think Portland has its heart in the right place, on many fronts. Artists are loved and held in high regard, and they've also got great food and culture to inspire them. In fact, the food is a little too good. I may have to strap on my hiking boots a little more often...

Well, I have much to explore. Voodoo Doughnut might be a good start. Apparently, there's a pretty crazy competition that takes place there, which men participate in to get a year's supply of free donuts. Oh do I really have to tell you what they have to do to win? Use your imagination, man! As Steve Jobs had a fear of donuts, I think it has now become a personal quest to witness this event.

I've had the usual challenges anyone will experience when going through a big move. Living with family again has been a challenge. But for now, I am safe from the 'boom and bust' culture of northern Cali, and can take a break from the overall high cost of living in California in general. Mark Zuckerberg can have it. I'm so relieved that few of his ilk live here. Companies like Intel, Nike and IBM have big offices in and around Portland, unfortunately. But it's easy to avoid them if they are not your cup of tea. In the Bay Area, there was no escape from their oppressive presence. Every night on the news, I was reminded of Apple's latest stock value. That is the opposite of fun, at least for me. I want to have a real life, whether it is in Portland or elsewhere. And you cannot live authentically when you are surrounded by nothing but yuppies and trustafarians. I know that now, and I will never make that mistake again. If I'm going to compete, it will be with people who have really earned their living, and who got work on their own merit, not because they have a good connection with some 'highly networked' corporate whore on 'Linkedin.' Better to be poor and have real friends, I say. So consider me retired! Retired from all that is fake and has no real substance.

"...NEVER underestimate your power"

This is a powerful piece indeed. Reading it feels like sweet relief after what happened to me today. I was accosted by several men in suits as I went about town to run errands. Twice, it was a group of two or three men in suits, nearly knocking me off my feet, and not even offering so much as quick word of apology. On the second occasion, I had my grocery bags in hand, and two executive men steamrolled me, basically. 'Just a poor woman with her groceries', they must have thought. I am a human being. You suits are no better than me, though many would agree you are a great deal worse, with your horrid, entitled attitudes. Your aggression and your money will not buy you any more years on this earth than myself or anyone else, for that matter. You may end up being buried in a fancier box than I, but still, dust will be dust. You are dying now. And so am I. The only difference is that you do not feel humbled in the face of the Great Leveler. Or perhaps you do, and your insecure and obnoxious behavior is proof of your feeble state of mind. To death then! I am not afraid, for I know my place. And that place is not in the miserable human pyramid scheme of things. It is only for the universal mind to know. And for that I am grateful. It's a lucky thing that humans are only in charge of their wretched lot on earth, or I truly would fear for all creation. To the author's comments in this article, I would add 'Never underestimate Chaos.' Along with death, it is the only assurance we have that all works out equal in the end.

Read it here. It is absolutely worth your time.

Staying to fight the good fight?

This has been such an exhaustingly long fight for me - the longest and most painful of my life. I'm sure it is for countless others as well. After all, how much steam can you really gather to fight that proverbial 'good fight' while you are living from paycheck to paycheck or worse, not quite sure where the next meal will come from? I know the simple answer, that we have to push on, because our surrender to despair is what the 1% are really counting on. And I still am carrying on in my usual, feisty manner, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a pretty huge strain on every part of my being.

I sometimes have more humorous thoughts, like imagining aliens coming down and abducting the so-called 99%, to leave the elite to battle it out and the CEOs, banksters and politicians to rape each other to death. I certainly like thinking of a certain ex manager in that situation, who hadn't even the courage to look me in the eye when he fired me. As he was indeed such a wuss, I never harbored any thoughts of threatening or torturing him myself. Who gets a thrill out of beating up a complete wimp? It would be a lot more fun watching his own kind do him in, in the same way a true, radical feminist would rather sit back and eat popcorn while being treated to the spectacle of a couple of alpha males shredding each other into so much fleshy spaghetti. And yes, I am also guilty of imagining the same alien abduction scenario for the beleaguered females of this sad, sad little planet. It's likely a very popular, secret fantasy of most oppressed persons, now I think of it.

But alas, no extraterrestrials are coming to the rescue. So the average person still must struggle on, fighting to be heard, with every fiber of his or her being. Thankfully, those at the top are also human (believe it or not) and even they cannot hope to be saved by their mega millions should a serious health issue crop up, for example. You can probably guess, from my current state of mind what my reaction is when one (or several) of them finally falls. Hey, I'm human too... If not for Schadenfreude, at least in this economy, despair truly would get the upper hand.