We are back out of the wilderness and fun that was PAPA fest. It was a good time, I might blog about it a little later, good and disappointing, but overall it was a nice little trip. The kiddo did great with tent camping and handled the hot summer days pretty well.

We aren’t home yet, we stopped to visit our good friends in Iowa, praying they have a baby before we leave, but not sure if that’s gonna happen (no pressure). It’s just been great to sit and talk and relax and spend time with them.

I sat down and checked my email yesterday for the first time since last Wednesday and something profound occurred… none of it was all that important. I mean there were some voicemail (I get it through email) and a feel emails I replied to, but overall, I probably could have gone another week without checking it.

Another thing occurred to me as I checked my blog as well, the one thing driving my consistency in having a daily blog post is that I know I have an audience. And though that’s definitely a good reason, it shouldn’t be the only reason. There are a lot of local projects and groups I’m trying to get involved in and that means turning more of my attention in that direction. That might result in less attention here. We’ll just have to see. Sorry, for the rather random personal update. But thanks for continuing to read.

Hmmm… What do you think?
(HT [that means ‘Hat Tip’ by the way]. Nick, Pete and JR)

It reminded me of the image I pieced together for my final paper for my art survey class.
Which is obviously not even close to the artistic ability of Nadia Plesner who made the above art piece.

If you found my blog post last month on art interesting, you might be interested in reading my final paper, nothing special but I posted it online.

A Story in six sentences. See if you can figure out the inspiration for this story.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I- just give me a chance…I’ll make it up to him, I promise!” He trembled, the waves crashing against the dam below where he stood 200 feet above the choppy waters, the full moon illuminating his plight, two mafia henchmen standing before him.

“You had your chance, it wasn’t an idle threat, you should know that: you mess with the boss, try and pull one over on him, sooner or later, your gonna sink…”

“But I didn’t know he was the boss, honestly, I mean, I’m sure plenty of people make that mistake, he’s so sm-”

“Look, I’m not the Judge, heck, I’m not even the executioner (you did this to yourself), there’s certain certainties in life, cause and effect, it doesn’t matter how small the Boss is, just because he looks sweet and innocent, in fact, maybe that’s the point, you think it’s something to take advantage of, but, well, look where you ended up…” The enormous anchor tied to the man began to slip from it’s place on the ledge beside him, the henchman, done with his impromptu speech, gave the anchor a solid push with his shoe, and turned back toward his car, as the weight dragged the man into the waters below.

Photo Credit: David Zellaby

Interesting PSA using Spoken Word

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

A Brief preview of a performance called Jesus at Guantanamo

Police provocateurs (That’s short for cops posing as protesters and inciting violence which allows the cops in riot gear to ‘attack’ protesters)

It’s not the two-bit petty criminal whose causing the real danger in our lives and neighborhoods, it’s the Corporate criminals. The guys in suits, two steps removed from the people they are inflicting life threatening damage to that are wrecking havoc on our lives and our nation.

Corporate crime is often violent crime with very real victims. Mokhiber points out that while the FBI estimates that 16,000 Americans are murdered every year “56,000 Americans die every year on the job or from occupational diseases such as black lung and asbestosis while tens of thousands of other Americans fall victim to the silent violence of pollution, contaminated foods, hazardous consumer products, and hospital malpractice.” –Gene Racz

Literally thousands of people dying because of purposeful oversight and ignorance by those whose only concern is often the bottom line. And your probably thinking, “It’s a good thing are government is taking care of them,” wondering how many CEOs will come to the same fate as Skilling and Lay (of Enron). And then you find out this tidbit:

The New York Times recently reported that the government has basically stopped prosecuting corporations for crimes despite the fact that costs of corporate crime far outweighs street crime. Eric Lichtblau, writing for the Times, noted that during the last three years, the U.S. Justice Department has put off prosecuting more than 50 corporations on charges ranging from bribery to fraud. Instead, it has been entering into so-called deferred prosecution agreements and non-prosecution agreements, in which companies are allowed to pay fines and hire monitors to watch over them.

Now, this isn’t to say that all CEOs are corrupt, but simply that it’s a terrible statement about our society that those with money are allowed to keep stealing from the rest of us and not be prosecuted for it. Seriously, they are stealing from all of us, not only on the product side of things but also in our tax dollars:

Health-care fraud alone, he said, costs Americans $100 billion to $400 billion a year. The taxpayer bill to clean up the savings and loan fraud was anywhere from $300 billion to $500 billion.

Not only do we need to speak up to our Justice Department about how this is unjust and unfair, but this knowledge should change and challenge the way you talk about and think about criminals. You should either conjure up the same disgust and suspicion of CEO’s as you currently have of street criminals and those you think look like criminals, or you should try and balance your perspective on both to a more understanding, but equally just perspective on both.

ht. Nate

Next Tuesday the wife and I and a friend or two (oh, and the kiddo) will be heading south to PAPA Festival. We attended two years ago as well, it’s where we met our good friend and awesome house mate Chris (from last year). We are excited about going simply because it is a good chance to be rejuvenated and encouraged, and it’s camping, which we love.
I’m helping organize a little, and we’ll be helping set-up when we get there. Guess now I’m just wondering if anyone else who reads this blog is going?

I’m hoping to maybe do some interviews with people, possibly for future podcast here or at Nick and Josh or something. We’ll see. Keep in eye out for me, I’ll be the guy with the baby (there should be a few of those I hear).

Here’s another six sentence story, trying to get creative with them. If you haven’t read my previous ones they are The Triumphal Entry and Acceptance and Murder.

“Gimme that!”

“Stop it!”

“No, You stop it!’

“You better stop doing that or I’m gonna tell on you and Momma’s gonna catch you and then she’s gonna be mad and if she whoops you and someone tells on her and she gets in trouble then they’ll take her away just like they did to Rosie’s mom and then they’ll make us go live with aunty or grammy on the other side of town or maybe they’ll make us go live with some family we don’t know like Chris had to but either way they’ll take us away from our school and our friends and we won’t know anyone and we won’t have anyone to talk to except maybe each other, but if you don’t stop it, I’m not going to talk to you when that happens, and then will be all alone.”

“Whatever, you stop it!”

“Mom!”

(Further thoughts on the blog) Continue reading Six Sentences: No, You Stop It! →