Beautiful secular poetry by Prof. Anton

What I’m thankful for – Part 3

As the Thanksgiving holiday comes to a close and we now move onto Christmas, there I still one thing that I am thankful for.  I am thankful for this thing everyday of my life.  I am thankful for Salvation – without it I don’t know where I would be.  I am so very thankful, that the God of the universe, sent his one and only son to this earth to live and die, just for me.  THEN HE ROSE AGAIN, just for me.  It may sound like a cliche to you, but the reality is that we probably don’t think about it enough, we probably don’t thank God enough for it either.

On this Black Friday, thousands of Americans are out shopping and trying to get the best deals for gift giving.  It is a riotous occasion in stores everywhere.  It was almost ten years ago that I received the greatest gift ever.  That gift was given freely to me.  That gift has set me free.  That gift defines what it means to be free.  That gift is why during this season of the year, I don’t need to give or receive lavished worldly gifts, or look for the “greatest deal.”  Why not?  Because I have already received it, and it is absolutely free to others.  That gift is the gift of Salvation which is God’s gift to us.

What am I thankful for?  I am thankful for Salvation:

^“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” – Romans 6:23

Dustin

About a month ago, a little newspaper landed on our doorstep.  It’s delivered “FREE to 385 000 HOMES NATIONWIDE” whether they want it or not.

Ours was the wrong house to deliver this little missive to. 

Now, I know how this works, these things are distributed with the unspoken understanding that you’ll just chuck it in the bin if you don’t like it, but for some reason the headline really got under my skin.  Ireland is still a very Catholic country, and I appreciate that in spite of that, there’s a very live-and-let-live attitude around me.  I ignore the religious statues and pictures in the kids’ schools, they read books during religious lessons, I laugh off the fact that a priest was let into the school to bless the classes.  Why I feel so miffed about this little newspaper is a bit of a mystery.

I think it’s possibly because in the years we’ve been lucky enough to live in this country, I’ve always had this understanding that while we accept our adopted country’s plethora of religious intrusions in public, our home has always been sacred.  Um, I mean, unsacred.  Not sacred.  I mean – oh ffs, what I’m trying to say is that the acceptance and respect for the country’s religious nature has always stopped at our front door.  Inside the walls of our home was our space, where we didn’t have to continue the tolerance of something I disagree with.

The delivery of this paper was like a violation of my personal space.  To say I didn’t like it, is an understatement.

Against all odds, I managed not to lose the little paper during our move, and now I’m finally connected and set up with broadband again, I’m dying to respond to some of the statements I feel were shoved under my nose.  Yeah, I’ll show ‘em.  I’ll use the power of my mighty blog, with its readership of something like six on average, and show those dress-wearing grandpas a few things.

I’m sure Rome is trembling with fear, but they’ll have to wait until tomorrow for my brilliant and insightful comments.  Right now I have to go clean out the cat litter tray.

“Of course, right now it is easy for me to feel a sense of unshakable resolve about my refusal to vote in the next election. Obama is busy implementing neo-conservative policies that the Republicans failed to achieve when they were in power, even though his dirty talk is vastly more eloquent and soothing as he shoves it in balls deep. I’m angry at the Democrats for being Democrats and failing to live up to my expectation that they would at least use lube, even though they’ve always made it clear that their ultimate goal is to loosen me up enough so they can start fisting me.”…Elian Maricon…Back (In Blackwater)

This essay can be found by clicking HERE. Put on your thinking caps friends and let it roll.

This wonderful quote comes from a new essay by Elian Maricon and found over at Queers Against Obama. Need  a reason why Obama isn’t all that? How about 9? Remember all the reasons that a McCain/Palin ticket freaked you out and you said “Oh, NO!! gotta go and do my job to stop these fascist from taking over my demockracy. Well check out the 9 reasons that freaked you out that drove you over to the demonrats arms. We can only say to anyone who is still considering playing footsie with either political party, brighten up baby. Why do some continue to love the master and join with the enemy? Are you all that stupid?  Able to be fooled by smooth talking? Want to take the easy way out? Well nobody better talk to me that way and try to fill be up with that smell. I got enough smell of my own to last me for the rest of my life.

The shame we find, is that those arms still stroke many of you. Lull-a-bye-baby. Did you ever smell babies breath? Now I don’t mean that cute little wa wa with her butt all powdered up, squeaky clean from her bath. I mean the stinky flower you get in floral arrangements. Nice name but it stinks to high heaven. They say its because of it being packaged.  Just like those demonrat’s who say we are your friends. Nice on the outside but worse than smelly feet. Well there is a way to get rid of the stink from the cut flower and here it is: ”When purchased as a cut flower, Baby’s Breath does have an odour. The odour comes from the treatment and packaging during shipping from the farm. Processing in a weak solution of bleach and common dish soap helps eliminate the odour while keeping the blooms white. Remember to give each stem a fresh, diagonal cut every time you remove and replace it in water.” So now honey if we could do that with those who say we love you that would be something. But the something would only be a nip and a tuck. The same old would be same olding all over the place.

Yep, Elian has done the work for us. He begins the McCain/Palin list by saying, “I decided to make a list of what I found so terrifying about the prospect of a McCain/Palin administration that it made me waste an hour of my life voting for Obama and the Dems, thereby legitimizing the whole fucking charade.” It’ all there in black and white. Then for your reading pleasure he does more work for us by saying: Now, here is the same list detailing how Obama has managed to actualized each of those fears in less than a year in office. Check out this essay, if it doesn’t shake you up then I don’t know what will.

Elain says near the ending of the essay, “I ask you all to do me a favor. In 2012, when the Republican ticket is Palin/Dobbs or Dobbs/Phelps, will you remind me of this little rant when I start talking about how I intend to vote for the Dems because Camel Ultralights seem slightly less likely to kill me than Camel Straights?”

“I’d sure appreciate it.”

Please note dear queer comrade, I promise you one thing that I will have my corn broom ready to give you a good chase away from that polling station if you dare to revert back to being scared by those birds who give us all the same tired old reasons that they have given over the years to get us in line and to try to keep us there with some funny crumbs. How can we expect change, real change within the confines and arms of either twin party?

So I’m sitting on the couch in my sister’s apartment in Grand Rapids, oh so content and thankful.  After a long day of cooking, laughter, a few messes, lots of food, games and pictures and stories and enjoying my first Thanksgiving with family in several years, I am humbled by how richly I have been blessed his past year.  My dad and step-mom are watching a Christmas movie (the new “Miracle on 34th Street”), and every few minutes a commercial comes on touting the amazing sales that will be coming early tomorrow morning.  ”Stores open at 3AM!!!” the advertisements scream.  ”Don’t miss out!!!”

On the other side of the spectrum we have organizations such as AdBusters who promote the day after Thanksgiving as “Buy Nothing Day,” as a way of protesting the rampant consumerism in our society.  I remember reading this story last year, about the worker at a Wal-Mart in New York who was killed – trampled to death – in a mad rush as shoppers tried to get the best prices on televisions and toys and clothes…  A pregnant woman was hospitalized, several others injured…  this is one aspect of Black Friday.

In the midst of these two competing visions, I am reminded of this video that my friend Andrew posted a few weeks ago:

Advent begins this Sunday, November 29th.  Let’s be thinking about creative ways to live and give this season of Advent – of waiting, of preparation…  Let’s try to do things a little differently this year.

What a festive luncheon at the “Plantation House”.  Many thanks to Rose for hosting our year-end get-together!  It was lovely to hear of our collective Christmas traditions including

• shiny shoes in windows,
• a quarter-century of choral events in Toronto,
• multitude of music boxes
• hoping not to find coal in your shoes
• Christmas Eve Chinese food
• Christmas morning breakfast with friends next door
• the joy, laughter and tradition of Advent calendars
• train rides
• ensuring the family connection and enjoying the gathering no matter where
• Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas Tree
• lots of  CHOCOLATE
• ……   …..   ….. and Bailey’s in coffee on Christmas morning!

Our potluck was excellent (as always) – please send Sharon the recipes (and any other of your favourites) and we’ll post them here at the blog.  Check out the “Eat, Drink & Be Merry” Section.

Our Gift Exchange was a hoot!  What great and diverse gifts – much like the variety of the tasty potluck!

Also the new 2010 list of organizers by month will soon be listed here.  If you need to switch with someone, please notify Sharon once it has been arranged, and it will be changed here at the blog.

In closing, wishing all of us a very Merry Christmas 2009 and Happy & Healthy 2010

These electronic times are scary.

Everything you type and/or view is stored somewhere.  This changes the rules of the game somewhat.  Before this electronic age, people did things and had a probability of getting caught.  In other words, it was a question of if you would get caught.  But today, it’s not a question of if.  It’s a question of when.

Everything online is monitored.  Everything is saved, cached, and archived.  There is no anonymity unless one takes great pains to purposefully create another identity.  Then again, if you had the skills to do so, you wouldn’t be worried about Big Brother anyhow.

Where does lawful surveillance end and individual privacy begin?

Throughout America family and friends gather to eat a large meal and “give thanks”. In light of the recent economic downturn Americans, many of whom have less to be thankful for in years past are seemingly more thankful than ever. Losing one’s job, car, house isn’t cause for celebration, in fact it is a sad bi-product of uncontrolled spending. However, those that have lost any, all, or even more are digging deep this year to find reasons to be thankful – and they are coming up successful.

Chalk this up to any number of reasons but in my humble opinion it is perspective. Though they have less they realize how much indeed they actually do have and even though things are “bad” they are not as bad as they thought. The problem was they were so caught up in trying to maintain their lives they forgot to stop and take inventory of all they have.  When pieces of their lives were forcibly taken away they had to reexamine the remaining contents – and found that they still had quite a lot to be thankful for.

This year I am as thankful as I am every year – I try and remember everyday that I’m extremely fortunate for all I have – today is no different. However, since I don’t want to sound like a heartless jerk (because I’m not) I am thankful for all the amazing people that have left an impression on me this week, month, year, decade…

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. The holiday of glutony. And historically the beginning of the end for me when it comes to weight loss. This is the time of year where I tend to gain weight back that I lost over the year. Everyone has the New Year’s resolution of losing weight. I am no different. I try hard to lose weight throughout the year, but when Halloween hits, I start ignoring the rules I adopted over the year and eat everything in sight. By the end of the year, I’ve gained weight, and then New Year’s resolution time comes again. Ah, the wicked cycle.

This year will be different. I have a plan of attack for these food-fueled holidays.

1. Definitely eat breakfast. A filling healthy breakfast. In years’ past, I “saved” myself until dinner was ready just so that I could stuff my face with as much turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc, as I wanted. The bigger the plate the better. Plus, I had to save room for dessert. With breakfast in my tummy, I will be fuller and will be less inclined to eat so much.
2. I have to be aware of portion size and how much I’m putting in my mouth. And this includes any appetizers that might be out to munch on before dinner. I never really pay attention to appetizers like cheese, crackers, dips. These things count too!
3. Only 2 pieces of dessert. And one of them will be pumpkin pie—technically the healthiest kind of pie you can eat. I am still deciding on what my other choice will be. And only small-ish pieces! I must have willpower.

I think with these 3 things I’ll be able to manage and get through this holiday without feeling guilty about how much I ate. And hopefully I’ll be able to stay on track. I don’t think it’s too crazy to hope that I will get under 150 lb this week.

Food choices today (which admittedly are not on the good side, but it was a tough day):

• Breakfast: 2 eggs w/2 pieces of whole wheat toast, 2 cups coffee
• Snack: 1 cup shredded wheat
• Lunch: A pear & 6 Oreo cookies
• Snack: Rice Krispie treat
• Dinner: 3 pieces of homemade mushroom pizza
• Exercise: Got up for an early morning run. Did about 2 miles. Felt good!

I’ve always stood behind the small guy, the underdog, the independent. In fact, the smaller you are the better. Being small means you have the unique ability to provide an essential ingredient to your method of doing business; a vital component that is facing extinction through survival-of-the-fittest, big business mentalities. I am talking about commitment to the customer.

I’ve recently noticed the demise of commitment to the customer in business today…a pandemic that seems to be spiraling towards the ground, completely out of control, mirroring the turbulence of our economy. What I am talking about has been happening more & more lately as companies are forced to shrink overhead in order to maintain healthy profit levels in this weakened economy. I don’t know about you, but I am getting fed up with it. And no, I am not that arrogant demand-it-all customer; I am simply someone that asks for a commitment to assuring value in exchange for my hard earned buck.

Just last week, in fact, I was trying to contact a distributor that has been servicing another business of mine for quite some time now (The specifics are irrelevant to my point, so I will spare you the fine details). Now this particular supplier once had an account rep that was assigned to my business. I knew this rep by name & periodically they would check in to see how things were going, what was new, talk shop, whatever. Just clean, simple business ethics that kept my business in their hands. But last week, I make a call to their offices & after being filtered through a string of phone options I come to find that I no longer have a rep assigned to my account. I am then asked to visit their website, login to my account, locate the contact section & email the help dept. I do & I get an instant reply stating that my message has been forwarded to “the team” for review in order to better assist my inquiries. There is no longer a rep for me to speak to, but rather, a team that will diligently fulfill the needs of my requests. Awesome. So I do as I am told, I wait. A couple of days I wait, nothing. I wait some more, nothing. I wait a full week to be exact & still, nothing back on my end. No call. No email. No help. So I ask myself “If my distributor claims to be independent, how can they eliminate their customer commitment fulfillment?” Simple, they have acquired “other” interests.

I have noticed that more & more companies are starting to eliminate the one true asset of their business (customer service) in order to maintain profit rake yields. It is ironic because the only motivating factor I would have to leave such a company would be they don’t take care of my needs. They do distribute my goods correctly, commit to updating my online dashboard with sales activity reporting & cut checks regularly. But if they can’t connect me with a knowledgeable, empathetic human being to handle my claims or assist with on-the-fly modifications to my account, than they are dead to me. Simply dead. And I can’t be the only one that feels this way as I am sure I my business is not the only victim here.

Let me get one thing straight. Not everything is about money with me. I launched & ran an independent record label out of my garage, for years, while working a full-time job, just to stay afloat & scrape by. Commitment of that caliber is simply a testament of devotion to delivering what you believe in. And as big business gets bigger & revenues rake more profits, something ugly happens. They lose sight of why they started in the first place, the customer.

I don’t care what service or product you offer. If your commitment to customer service is anything short of outstanding or revolutionary, your days are numbered. It is simple. As the world shrinks & companies get larger, the human elements get removed in order to supplement cash flow & maintain high-yielding margins. Instead of providing more cost-effective solutions & solving problems to heighten the customer experience, they are actually promoting chaos by design & digging their own grave. It is a total joke. I have witnessed this as a consumer. I have witnessed this as an employee. And I have witnessed this as a business owner. Don’t believe me? Book a vacation with Travelocity & call back an hour later to change the itinerary. Or pay a visit FedEx Office to have them assist with assembling your next business presentation. Or maybe stop by your own boss’ office & throw ideas at him/her on how the company’s customer service commitment model should reflect Zappos.

I have always been a huge advocate for customer service. To me it is the life-blood of any business entity. Your product can totally suck wind. Your provided service can be faulty, riddled with holes. Your business could be broken, constantly in need of service, diminishing at the seams. But as long as you have a hands-on relationship with your customers, and you match them with a name & a voice or a face, chances are they will stick it out with you. They will help you to help them. People need people, period. And people need to feel good; they need to be made happy. And now more than ever, in this economy, business needs people.

photo from the Speed Of Dreams.

I will be doing 7 things this thanksgiving or more to the point tanksgiving when one starts to read the history of this invented holiday. No this blog will not be showing those cute little pictures of pilgrims, cranberry sauce or fat turkeys. I won’t be gathering together to give thanks for a win in a war and I am not going to stuff myself to sleep. All of that is for sure. So what is this queerartist going to do on americka’s high holy day that proclaims we love our families oh so much we’ll drive a hundred miles, we like the homeless, the indians and everyone gets a turkey who can’t afford to buy one. Well as mentioned I will do seven things. I will go to work as if it is any other day, (oh my!! what a sin,) I will fast all day(jeepers-creepers, Me want food!!), I will read several selected essays that are linked below, and I will listen to a singer who helped to mold my political conscience many many moon ago and who today I still love dearly.

So let’s get going with this remembrance by clicking on over to a very important essay, Is All That Turkey and Stuffing a Celebration of Genocide? written by Laura Elliff, Vice President Native American Student Association. This essay should be read by all of us and is posted over at Rowland’s blog, The Speed Of Dreams, under the great title Cooking The History Books: The thanksgiving Massacre. Please check it out.

The other essay that I will be reading is written by Mike Ely and can be linked from our blog by clicking HERE. This is an outstanding history of what the white man brought to the peoples who had resided here for thousands of years.

Please join me in listening to Buffy Saint Marie sing Now That The Buffalo’s Gone. This song was a very early introduction for me about what was happening to the onkwehonne peoples. The collage of pictures has been beautifully put together by rebel072162 and was found on you tube. Thanks rebel.

I also will be reading a beautiful work called Thanksgiving.  It can be found by clicking HERE. Of course our spirit will be traveling to Plymouth Mass. for the Day of Mourning to stand in Solidarity with those who gather that day. Mary Fern who is visiting this AM just said “I don’t know queerartist you seem to really beat people over the head with this,” and to Mary Fern and others I can only reply, “Some times that is just what is needed.”  We feel that we have to remember with those who have survived this terrible persecution and who still today are being persecuted. For me this response is necessary as I can not be a misguided bloated gloater even for one day.

Oh, one last thing. I am thankful this day and everyday that I met out and about in blog land Rowland who has opened my eyes again and again. Thanks Rowland and much love to you and yours. To read Rowland’s manifesto, First Words from the Speed of Dreams click HERE.

Picture related.

One thing I’ve been thinking while in the shower before returning to play with <!PICTAR RELATEDZ!>.

It amazes me how most people I knew playing MMOs and are having me in party can keep themselves seated in front of their computers without having to respond to a certain call of duty (no, not that Call Of Duty) – in which this means, you’re at home and you’re now on the PC playing a certain online game (be it anything you’re thinking while reading this post) and you’re in your group whacking away at monsters in a dangerous dungeon. Or, you are with your guild going for the frontlines, already at the base where you’ll need to fend it off from would-be invaders and at the same time said invaders are charging inside all out at your guildsmen for a last resort strike. Or, you might be battling a monster everyone wants to kill for the reward it gives.

Basically, anything that needs you to stay on full alert in-game and not even a second of neglect. But wait!

Let’s say your name is Johnny. All of a sudden voices rang into your ear, offscreen, sounding something like this:

“Johnny! Please wash the plates!” Or, it can be something like “Johnny! You need to follow dad out and buy some groceries etc!” Or maybe something mundane like “Johnny! Please hand mom over the spoon!”

And all these while you’re doing any of the stuff I mentioned before in that long fucking paragraph up there.

Not to mention being seconds late to do what you’ve been asked for would grant you an annoying barrage of lectures.

How would you deal with the tension that comes after that, ladies and gentlemen? One thing for sure is that I’m not going to listen to those who say they just ignore it or ask somebody else to do it. Oh, in order to make sure of that I’ll add one more situation: Given that situation, you’re now not in any position to just ignore or ask someone else to do it in your stead.

I, for one, am not free from these “obstacles” (name it something else if you wish) and always have to make a quick sprint to whatever I need to do after getting away from the keyboard, and depending on the number of tasks I’m assigned, will take me quite some time to get back to the screen and see what’s happening.

Of course, if I were a support character going AFK (that’s Away From Keyboard for you twerps, if you still don’t know) all of a sudden and my party members all died (including me) while I was at it, I would get the blame for sure. Luckily enough most of the people I’ve met are pretty understanding people because they know this fact for sure that you can’t blame people who suddenly went AWOL (Absent WithOut Leave if you still don’t know, somewhat a ‘formal’ term for “missing,”) online because he was called for some stuff off-screen.

But it’s still annoying to be suddenly called off in the face of an important moment while playing MMOs, don’t you think?

Somehow I think something else is needed apart from everyone’s AWSUM GODHAXness or ZOMG UBERMULTITASKERZ stuff…

Also applies to those of you playing offline games and got distracted within that one second that determines your loss or victory against a final boss by that certain “call of duty,” doesn’t matter whether the game is pausable or not.