Parental Probs

My mom has had me gripped in a small financial scandal for the last few years. As a result taxes are insanely difficult, correspondence of billing statements and presigned checks riddle my mailbox and I become very stressed out. This week, after not calling me for a few weeks my mom called on strict business at early hours with greeting like, "Amanda: Mom" Its very difficult to talk business with people you aren't supposed to have business with, especially if you do not want to have business with them. In short, I have asked my mom to clear my name, to get me out of New York and stop this child dependent scheme. The problem is, this will result in her having a major income cut, which may or may not force her towards grim financial circumstances. Its really difficult choosing between my own self interest and my mom's financial well being. Mostly because if I go against my mom, she will feel underappreciated, like all of the things she has done for me in the past meant nothing. But that is not the case. It is possible to appreciate the past, but to have a limit of extension. This appreciation can come in all kinds of forms and not have to be linked to favors in kind. Like having to tell a story about an admirable person in sign language class, and walking out crying, realizing at that point of awkward language, that trying to explain my mom and her momness was just too much.

True words were spoken by Paulo Coelho

An old man and a boy are sitting on a bench. The boy is reading a book that the old man wants to see. The boy is fluttering between feelings of annoyance and hesitation. He is afraid the man is either going to bother him or be illiterate and embarrassed. The boy is not prepared for either situation. He reluctantly shows the man the book and is quite surprised at the old man's response.

"Hmm.." said the old man, looking at all sides of the book, as if it were some strange object. "This is an important book, but it's really irritating."

The boy was shocked. The old man knew how to read, and had already read the book. And if the book was irritating, as the old man had said, the boy still had time to change it for another.

"It's a book that says the same thing almost all other books in the world say," continued the old man. "It describes people's inability to choose their own destinies. And it ends up saying that everyone believes the world's greatest lie."

"What's the world's greatest lie?" the boy asked, completely surprised.

"It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."

Circles

I have been using the phrase "my life moves in circles" lately. When I say that I mean there are links linking to other links in my everyday life. Usually these circles are coincidences; I talk about something one day with someone and then in a very short time after that, that seemingly random conversation topic will resurface before my eyes in a very tangible way. Does this happen to everyone? Here is an example. My cooworker Schyler and I uphold a continuous dialogue about our existing creative projects. I am currently feeling underinspired and have nothing to share. He currently has an idea that he wants to go to a junkyard and gather up lots of broken umbrellas and construct huge wings out of them. He thinks it would be wise for me to go to the dump to find things to play with. We don't have a truck though, so I wrote off our conversation as a garbage sifting pipe dream. And then this morning on my way to work, I walk one block up the street to the main drag, and there in the middle of the intersection, needing desperatly to be moved, is a decrepit umbrella. Is it blue and missing a handle and perfect for gigantosaur wing construction. How does this happen? I don't know. Did Schyler think of this idea because it had been raining for two days and the chances of me stumbling upon a dead umbrella were therefore greater? What would happen if I did not have the umbrella conversation? Would the umbrella still have been in the street for me to notice? Would it have been there but without meaning? I don't know. The circle is endless.

Culture Jamming

This stuff is great to find out about, but will I ever participate in some form of culture jamming? Time will tell...

Barbie Liberation Organization: Either in 1989 or 1993 (the legend loses the year) talking Barbies' voice boxes were switched with talking G.I. Joes' voice boxes so that Barbie said "Dead men tell no lies" and G.I. Joe said "Math is hard."Article on BLO
Guerilla Girls: Group that speaks out against the white/male dominant art world. This is the official website of the group. This is my favorite poster from 1988:

Christmas Antics

Sometimes I get really overwhelmed and pissed off about Christmas. These are my reasons:

1. On Christmas I receive a lot of presents and the true comfortableness of my financial status comes to light and it makes me really nervous. I don't like to think of myself as well-off, but on Christmas I am really well-off. I choose to think of myself as existing in moderation. I want to work moderately, spend moderately, drink moderately, etc. On Christmas nothing seems moderate.



2. Last Minute shopping is the worst! It is pointless to give a gift that you have no desire to give but do it because you are supposed to. Why does everyone have to be so polite? It just makes a lot of people pissed off in the end because things didn't go how they were "supposed to." It is like having to invite certain people to YOUR wedding because other people are going and you have to invite them if you invite someone related to them. These are supposed to be free and personal decisions. You should be able to invite people to your wedding if you want to and give a gift if you want to or NOT.



3. Exterior decorations. I can understand festiveness, a couple of strands of lights here and there. I can understand decorating as a hobby too, relating to art or as a kind of obsession. But having 15 or more giant inflatable Christmas decorations on your lawn is not a hobby. It is just plain wrong. At a minimum of 50 dollars a piece, that is 500+ dollars that could have been spent on something useful. Why blow it all on looks? Give a cold kid a coat for cripes sake.



4. The must have hot item of the gift giving season. The first time I learned about Christmas season shopping was when Tickle Me Elmo was big in 1996. Wikipedia of Tickle Me Elmo I couldn't turn on the radio without hearing about a Tickle Me Elmo contest. This article describes the toy's success as kind of fluke and I bet some people got very rich and love Tickle Me Elmo for that. Economic Investigation on Tickle Me Elmo phenom But Tickle Me Elmo was only cute for a week at home, and then he got annoying. He is probably sitting lonely on the tops of kids bunk beds with the My Buddys and Kid Sisters. My mom said that's how it was with cabbage patch dolls... CRAZE-y. But this year was much worse than a Walmart worker suffering a broken rib and a consussion. A woman is dead after all...
   
   This story is about a mother who died after she tried to win a Nintendo Wii for the 2006 Christmas season. Associated Press article about mother who dies in radio contest for Nintendo Wii It says she had 3 kids who I bet would rather have a mother than a Nintendo Wii. Isn't it easy to understand that the Elmos will be sold after Christmas and that enough Nintendo Wiis will be kicked out to meet buyer demands? Why is everyone in such a hurry? Article Comparing Contest to College Hazing Death

New Year's Resolutions

My New Year's Resolutions were to stop biting, stop picking, and eat more vegetables. I have a good chance of succeeding at all of these things.