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Obama and Days to Remember
Ask anyone in my parents generation where they were when President John F. Kennedy was shot and they could tell you. My aunt, for example, heard the news upon returning from recess in second grade. Because of a conversation she had just had with a classmate while at recess and catholic guild she had for years thought she was responsible for the tragedy. I think most GenXers could tell you where they were when the challenger exploded. Mrs Nolan’s 4th grade class for me.
In each life I think we have a finite number of these events that somehow mark our being. And in a few short hours I think all Americans are about to witness another one of these moments. Yes I will be getting up extra early to watch President-Elect Obama become our leader. Never before in my short life has there been a time when I felt history was being made at such a great way. I personally remember 5 other presidential inaugurations and never has one seemed so important. I like so many other Americans I will roll out of bed and sit in front of my TV and watch history being made. I know when I watch that moment I am not going to be able to keep my eyes dry. Even with the challenges we face as Americans I can’t think of a better time to be alive.
Posted in Politics 6 Comments
Happy New Years 2009
This post has been bouncing around in my head for about a week. Originally it was going to be about how 2008 was simply the worst year of my life. It really was trust me. Then I read this post over at Blogography. It reminded me that even though my life has been pretty fucked this year there are plenty of reasons to be thankful. Secondly one of my managers at work asked me a question that kind of thew me for a loop the other night. She asked me what my Environmental New Years Resolution was. Do people really compartmentalize New Years Resolutions into categories of different aspects of their lives. In case you are wondering I told her that I was actually going to go shopping with those cloth bags I bought and use that aluminum water bottle I bought last year.
I do hope that everyone else found 2008 to be a great year for them. And for all of you who have befriended me this year thank you. I am really happy to have so many wonderful people in my life. No New Years post could be complete without a list of resolutions.
School
- Get a 4.0 GPA at least one semester this year.
- Get involved with a school activity
- Tell my story of going to Art School on my blog.
Work
- Achieve high enough sales numbers to make the transition to staff and out of training
- Get all three making it happen bonuses
- Resolve the issues with my previous job and clean out my desk
- Resolve the legal issue with my former employer
Reading
- Read at least 20 books this year not related to school
- Read Alice in Wonderland
- Read Dante
Art
- Design and create my own Halloween and Krismas card
- Create a custom Holiday card for one blogger to send to their friends
Charity
- Find two gay charities that I would feel comfortable supporting
- Find an art charity that is worth supporting
- Volunteer because I want too not because I have too
- Get involved with a political campaign besides the one I currently work for.
That is my list whats on your list. Leave my links to your blog of your New Years Resolutions. Have a safe new years.
Posted in Blog 7 Comments
I don’t understand Facebook
I must be the dumbest person on the planet earth. I have tried to play with Facebook a few times but it just is not well designed. I have an account that has been around long enough for me to gather a dozen or so friends. But other than adding friends I simply don’t get the point. My friends all seem to post updates and their blog posts but I have no idea how they do it. I figured out Avitable was using the Twitter application to do his updates. I even got far enough to find the application and try to set it up. It of course doesn’t work with protected updates. I have figured out that the fun of Facebook comes from adding applications to your page. Of course I can’t find an application directory. I guess I am just supposed to ask for random things in the search to see if there is an application that I want. Oh yeah and I am playing on face book at 5:00 and it is still slow as fuck when most of us are asleep. I would hate to see how well it works when when it is prime time on the internet.
If anyone out there thinks I am missing the point please feel free to tell me. Or better yet send me some instructions on how to find something kewl on facebook.
Edit: Okay I played around a little more and found a couple of menus that I can undersand but I still want to know what is so fun about facebook.
Posted in Blog 6 Comments
Tuesday Update
Twilight: After reading Miss Britt post Nice Guys Finish Last, Go Team Edward, And This Is A Literary Pile Of Poo. Yay I decided that I would read Twilight
Work: I quit my job working as a political canvasser. It was clearly not the job for me. Tomorrow I start another job that will test my sales skills. This job will also be another fund raising job but this time for clean water. Today I got me meet a couple of my co-workers and they seem to be much more normal than the last group.
School: If you are new around here you might not know that I have been accepted to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I am terrified about returning to school. The reason for my fear is not the $8000 tuition bill that I currently have hanging over my head, but the fact that I have no training in drawing. I am about to learn something completely new. I know that my very raw drawing skill can be trained into something, but what is scary is that my first semester I take an intro to drawing and figure drawing. I mean really who thinks those two classes should be taught at the same time. I am going to put trust in the fact that the school knows better than I do. At least I hope they do.
Posted in Blog 4 Comments
Political Canvassing
Last Thursday I started a new job as a political canvasser for the Human Right Campaign. Never in my life did I find a job that I hated so much on the first day I wanted to gouge my eyes out. Usually thoughts like that don’t start for at least a week. My job was to go door to door in San Francisco asking random people to become members of the HRC. While the job was truly bad, what was worse was all the extra things that happened on my first day.
The day started by going into the office and meeting most of my co-workers. My new co-workers were much different than the person who interviewed me the night before. My new boss seemed like he had gotten stoned so many times that his natural state of being was that of someone who was stoned. He seemed to laugh at anything. Then I met the rest of my co-workers. Half of them seemed like they had gotten stoned right before coming to work. Not only did my co-workers all appear to be stoned, but they all looked as if they has not showered in a week. Except for one of the new kids like me. He looked truly angelic except for his messed up hair. If these people came to my door asking for money I would send them away.
After our orientation it was time for lunch. Lunch consisted of meeting with up with one more employee at a Burger Meister eating a burger while I watched this new co-worker pick up on every chick that walked by and borrow all our cell phones so he could try to score more pot. He couldn’t use his phone because he was on a pre-paid plan and had run out of minutes.
After lunch we went to our neighborhoods and got to work. Since it was my and the angelic boys first day we had to shadow our boss. It was still early and most people were still at work. At maybe our tenth house the door was answered by a half naked guy. He was good looking and it was pretty clear we had interrupted something. He was nice about the whole thing and listened to our sob story. Luckly it was not my turn to give the speech because I am sure I would have been more than distracted. The whole time we are out my boss keeps getting phone calls from his girlfriend. One one call it becomes clear that she is grilling him over line items in their checking account. The line item is question is $0.85 spent at Walgreens. He explained to her that he was filling a little light headed and stopped and grabbed a candy bar to bring up his blood sugar a bit. To which she had the appropriate response of hanging up on him for. Clearly these people that I had the pleasure of working with were harder hit by the economy than I was.
After a couple hours it was time for us to split apart and go canvas by ourselves. I knocked on the first door and promptly got my first donation. This job was going to be easy. I continued door to door. I talked to several people and convinced several of them to hand over their hard earned money. The best excuse I had for the night for not willing to give me money was by some old guy that used a walker. He told me that he was not going to give me money because he was pissed off that his legs didn’t work. Finely my night was over and it was time to head back to the office to turn in our money. As we waited for the Muni that would take us back a homeless guy physically assaulted my boss. Clearly this job was going to be more dangerous than I had thought.
Many more events happened that night. Unfortunately every hour something new happened that made me forget what had happened the hour prior. I should have taken notes. Next time I promise.
My Mormon Journey: A faith of my own
Childrens conversions are an interesting thing. So much of our testimony of god is based on that of our parents. When we joined the church I knew the church made me feel good. I also knew my mother had faith in the church and I knew my mother would never lie to me. So it was easy for me to join. As I got older though the testimony of my mother was not good enough. Like most teens and young adults I question my faith. I had already had several problems with the church and now having a week testimony was becoming an issue for me. I was working at Boy Scout camp and found myself away from my parents watchful eye. This meant I was on my own to figure everything out. Since I was 18 at the time, I found the perfect solution in sex, alcohol and gambling. See at the time I was dating the camp medic. She was older than I was but she was willing to have sex as much as an 18 year old boy could. The alcohol and gambling came courtesy of the casinos in Lake Tahoe. While I was doing about every bad thing that a Mormon could do, I still wouldn’t drink coffee. When the summer ended I found myself living in Anchorage. I was visiting my father that I had not seen in a few years. I had to prove to my mother that my father was not a bad influence. I knew the best way to do that was to attend church.
I found myself attending the Single Adults ward. I even met a nice girl who was originally from California. It was time to find my faith again so I turned myself in to the bishop up in Anchorage. I set a meeting with him and confessed all my sins. I was sure i would be a church outcast for months. The bishop listened to me and gave me a slap on the wrist. I have to admit there was a moment of regret there when I thought I could have been having sex all though out school if I would have known nothing was going to happen to me. I knew that thinking was not going to restore my faith in the church. I did as I was instructed. I prayed, read the Book of Mormon, and fasted. While I enjoyed hanging out with my new Mormon friends I never found the answer to my prayers in Alaska. I eventually moved to from Alaska to southern California. I tried going to church there but felt more out of place. There was no singles ward their so I was mixed in with the married people and just felt totally out of the mix. Eventually I stopped going to church. Even though I was not attending church I was living a rather good life. I didn’t drink or smoke and I no longer had a girlfriend so no more sex.
My time in Southern California was really challenging for me. Something was not right in my life. I tried to find it in the church but religion was not what was missing for me. As I got further away from the protective wings of my mother and the church I started to really come out of denial about my sexuality. The reason I say out of denial is because I always knew I was gay, but because of my religion I was deeply in denial. Countless times I told myself, “I can’t be gay I’m Mormon.” Once I left the denial it didn’t take long to come out to my family and friends. When it came to the church though i felt the best policy was Don’t Ask don’t tell
Artwork of John Lennon in the bay area
Walking home today I walked past the poster you see to the right. Imagine my surprise when I saw that Walnut Creek was chosen to host John Lennon’s artwork for a couple of days. The even is a fundraiser for the Food Banks of Contra Costa and Solano Counties. The art installation will be at 1601 Mt. Diablo Blvd in Walnut Creek. The cost of admission is only $2. It is simply amazing for less than the price of a latte you can get to see artwork from one of the most talented musicians of all time. The event takes place Friday – December 12th ~ 12:00 PM – 9:00 PM Saturday– December 13th ~ 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM Sunday – December 14th ~ 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM. If you would like to meet up with me I will be attending the event on Saturday. I will be there with my cousin and her two girls. Afterwards I think we will head to the San Francisco Creamery for dessert.
Now if for some reason you are not familure with John Lennons music or artwork here is the song that inspired the event.
Posted in Blog 2 Comments
My Mormon Journey: Angel of God comdemed
Before my family had joined the church I only knew three things about Mormons. First they believed when they died they were going to become gods on other planets. Second they were bad people though I never understood why. Lastly they put out all these commercials about morals. The commercials were aimed at children and often played at times of afternoon cartoons. This is probably the most famous of the commercials here if you have never had the pleasure.
I had no knowledge of the church’s history of mistreating black members. And even after I was a member I was taught that everything was resolved in 1978 when they church finely had the revelation that blacks could hold the priesthood. My parents tried their best to ensure I was not raciest so I simply didn’t see the racism that was rampant in our church.
It seemed that my step-father got all the home teaching assignments for people who had somehow fallen out of favor with our bishop. One such family was a widowed woman with three children. She was a white woman and all her children were black. Every year this woman would go for her yearly worthiness interview. The interview with the bishop where they ask you all those morality questions. When you are an adult that interview is to determine if you qualify for a temple recommend. I knew this woman every year was some how deemed unworthy for her recommend and it was denied to her. At the time I only somewhat knew the woman I knew she was very poor so I assumed that she was not paying her tithing. But I will be honest it was only a guess.
During my jr. year of high school she became the Yard Monitor at my high school. As I worked as I teachers assistant I frequently ran into this woman as she was checking for my hall pass. Her and I became friends. One day when I was running to make copies I had one of our normal conversations when a student walked up and told this woman that she had just had Norplant installed in her arm. My friend the yard monitor asked her why did she need that. And explained that she was happy to have only had sex with her husband her whole life. You might think hearing this from a older woman when you were a teen girl would come across in a judgmental way. That was the thing I saw about Jenny (The Yard Monitor) every interaction with any student was always in a loving way without judgment. I was really impressed with the way I saw Jenny talk to students. She was there not only to check our hall passes but also to share love with everyone. It became clear to me that their might be something else to the story about her not receiving her temple recommend.
One day when we were alone I got the courage to ask her about it. She explained the reason why she was denied her recommend. She was suffering from racial discrimination. She went on to tell me many things that had happened to her and her family while she belonged to the church. That her whole life as a Mormon she had been an outcast because she married a black man. And now her children were suffering as well. She went on to tell me that while she had been treated badly by people who I thought were my friends that she still had unshakable faith in the church. Then she uttered those words, “The church is perfect the people in it are not.”
It was one of those moments when my faith was tested again. Here was another moment when our Bishop was letting hate ruin a perfectly good saint. I had come to know Jenny quite well and knew she was a better christian than any other woman I had ever met.
Testing my the new twitter plugin on my …
Testing my the new twitter plugin on my blog