no ever reads this shit. i don't even kid myself about that. it is the simple fact that i am one of many voices on teh interwebs who is posting mindless ramblings. it is what it is.
a good friend of mine passed away this weekend. it was sudden and terrible. and i'm still shaken up. i found myself checking facebook statuses the past couple days. seeing what people are saying about the whole thing, reading my other friends' feelings about what happened. all of which were and are very touching, in a mass eulogy sort of existence. it made me wish there was some way to get all of the thoughts and put them together for us and his family.
it is kind of odd how much time i have spent looking at facebook on my phone and my pc. i could get up on my interwebbed soapbox like i love to do, but this time i won't.
i just wanted to use this space to type out how much that jerk meant to me.
when i first met him, he seemed jovial and quick witted...always with some smart assed comment or off-kilter joke. certainly my kind of bad apple. we worked together for close to 4 years, and in that time, we both got to learn about each other; through worktime conversations broken apart in 2 minute segments, to last call stories at various dive bars that drew out until the bartenders threw the bar stools on top of the bar. there were times we'd butt heads, and times he was just being dick (but anyone that knows me, knows i am also a dick at times.) at the end of the day, he was a great man, with a great heart, that i always thought had his eyes on something greater. he had an appointment to do some work on his tattoo with me yesterday. i kept waiting for him to walk through the door of the shop, even though i knew he wouldn't. it left me at a loss for words....so i got drunk. which leads me to today, where it all finally sank in. he's gone. i won't be able to punch him in the nipple ring because of how pissed off he made me. i won't be able to hug him and tell him everything will be okay and that i love him. he won't ever be mad at me because it took 8 minutes to get the queso to his table. he won't ever make me down a pitcher of guiness with him in 5 minutes because we shouldn't waste it. i'm gonna fucking miss him and his huge heart. i'll always fucking love him, and the things he made me see in my life......beyond shitty djs and bar gossip. rest in peace, mutha fucka. rest in peace.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
1 future. 2 choices.
it's sunday. after a long, hot, sweltering week of bus rides and ass numbing boredom it's finally time to do nothing. drinking an ice cold beer for breakfast and looking myself in the mirror; i'm confronted with the same question that haunts me everyday. my bloodshot eyes asking back at my blurred vision.....almost nagging, in a voice that is much like my own, "json, what can you do about it?" this question that weighs on my mind like 3 elephants riding in a sherman tank. every-fucking-day. "what can i do about it?"
what am i jammering on about? the state of affairs of our fine nation. the steady decline of our society over the past 30 years for the sake of money and corporate greed. they keep us fucking oppressed and we don't even realize it anymore. mother fuckers obsessed with facebook and google+, too busy with their fucking iphone/android every moment of their life to look up from the steeringwheel and pay attention to where they are going (HEY! that was an unintentional, yet fucking awesome metaphor!) and too upset that netflix raised rates on their privilege to watch "jersey shore" dvds.
our government is run by big corporations(period) they dictate what laws will be passed, what "regulations" (LOL) are acceptable, and they could give two fucks about any of "us"....the lower class. the lower class is me, it is you, it is your mom, it is my mom (an accomplished public, high school teacher of 20 years). we're merely consumers to them. fleshbags to funnel money back into their insatiable mouths. they've taken our jobs overseas to third world countries where they can pay less than minimum wage (which congress is fighting to do away with. they're already on the manhunt to destroy unions and the abolition of minimum wage is also in the crosshairs. it only took 10 years to raise the minimum wage from $4.25 to $7.50. yet the "customer service representative" we call about problems with our cellies who lives and works in india makes less than the minimum wage rate from ten years ago.) "what can you do about it?"
i'm taken back to a conversation i had with my good friend around 2003, in the middle of bu$h jr's reign where i felt overwhelmed and powerless to what i was witnessing from our government. "what can we do about it?" nothing, he said. just be a good person and enjoy the life we have for the moment.
no. i've milled over that statement for years, and i can't sit quietly by and watch. it disgusts me to see what we've become as a society. their plan is greater than any conspiracy theory. we are all just pawns in this game and there is no stopping their machine of greed.
"what can you do about it?"
nothing. it is sunday. i worked 60 hours this week. i'm tired and exhausted. broken down just like they want me to be. it's time to do nothing.
*the title of this blog is taken from the propagandhi song "head? chest? foot?" and ends the line "....oppose them or let them destroy us!"*
what am i jammering on about? the state of affairs of our fine nation. the steady decline of our society over the past 30 years for the sake of money and corporate greed. they keep us fucking oppressed and we don't even realize it anymore. mother fuckers obsessed with facebook and google+, too busy with their fucking iphone/android every moment of their life to look up from the steeringwheel and pay attention to where they are going (HEY! that was an unintentional, yet fucking awesome metaphor!) and too upset that netflix raised rates on their privilege to watch "jersey shore" dvds.
our government is run by big corporations(period) they dictate what laws will be passed, what "regulations" (LOL) are acceptable, and they could give two fucks about any of "us"....the lower class. the lower class is me, it is you, it is your mom, it is my mom (an accomplished public, high school teacher of 20 years). we're merely consumers to them. fleshbags to funnel money back into their insatiable mouths. they've taken our jobs overseas to third world countries where they can pay less than minimum wage (which congress is fighting to do away with. they're already on the manhunt to destroy unions and the abolition of minimum wage is also in the crosshairs. it only took 10 years to raise the minimum wage from $4.25 to $7.50. yet the "customer service representative" we call about problems with our cellies who lives and works in india makes less than the minimum wage rate from ten years ago.) "what can you do about it?"
i'm taken back to a conversation i had with my good friend around 2003, in the middle of bu$h jr's reign where i felt overwhelmed and powerless to what i was witnessing from our government. "what can we do about it?" nothing, he said. just be a good person and enjoy the life we have for the moment.
no. i've milled over that statement for years, and i can't sit quietly by and watch. it disgusts me to see what we've become as a society. their plan is greater than any conspiracy theory. we are all just pawns in this game and there is no stopping their machine of greed.
"what can you do about it?"
nothing. it is sunday. i worked 60 hours this week. i'm tired and exhausted. broken down just like they want me to be. it's time to do nothing.
*the title of this blog is taken from the propagandhi song "head? chest? foot?" and ends the line "....oppose them or let them destroy us!"*
Sunday, June 26, 2011
rage /quit
sigh. . . .
i had a conversation earlier today about something i knew a little bit about, but admittedly, not very much. during the conversation my brain started spiraling into "conspiracy theory" mode and i started to concoct all of these half cocked ideas..... so i took a deep breath, calmed down, and said that i would "look into it". i did. what i found, fucking sickens me.
ethanol.
in the US it is mandated by law that big oil companies use no more than 10% ethanol additive to their gasoline production. you can see the little stickers on any gas pumps around your town. ethanol used in the US comes primarily (or read "EXCLUSIVELY") from corn.... hmmm, corn. again. seems as if i had just ranted about this plant.....
ethanol comes from fermented corn....government mandated moonshine, to be more precise (ironically enough, the gov actually adds a small amount of gasoline to the ethanol after its production so that is no longer drinkable by humans). it is then added to gasoline since it burns faster during combustion and produces more energy and heat in the process. it has been sold to the masses as better for the environment and amerikkka since it is a renewable resource and is grown locally. but there is another side to the sword..... a sharper side. this may get long winded, so stick with me.
so, as i understand it, in 2005 the BU$H administration decided to adopt the widespread production and addition of ethanol to amerikkkan refined gasoline. the acceptable level was 10% ethanol for every gallon. at the time, it was touted as a cheap renewable energy resource for automobiles that was safe for the environment and would drive down gas prices. of course, all of this was lies. in fact, the exact opposite is what happened. back in '05 /'06 we were all distracted with "the war", these changes went virtually unnoticed. the reality of ethanol additive is this:
while initially 10% was the standard maximum allowance for additives to gasoline. . . it has since risen to 15% based on the discretion of the refinery and it is not necessary for those oil companies to disclose the actual percentage outside of what is mandated by the feds (yeah, good idea to let them police themselves. ever notice how much faster your gas tank burns down to empty from some gas pumps than others?). the inclusion of this additive was supposed to help drive down the prices of gas. but, in 2005, it raised the price of gas $.75 per gallon(which was a 1/3 increase at the time, and subsequentialy blamed on the unending war). since then, the cost of manufacturing and shipping ethanol has NOT gone down, it has in fact increased. which in turn is put upon the prices we pay for gasoline.
fun fact number 2! ethanol cannot be shipped through pipelines because moonshine absorbs water. water+gasoline=bad gas. this becomes a problem for our cars.....gas tanks at filler stations are below ground, and in the past, when it rained, the rain water that would inevitably collect in the tanks would settle at the bottom (since gasoline is lighter than water molecules, unless the tank was dry or overly saturated, you'd stand a slim chance of getting "bad gas"). now, however, ethanol just sucks up a good portion of those water molecules. which makes it more possible to get bad gas that can be harmful for your car's engine.
now that i got the "ho hum" facts out of the way....lets get to the meat and potatoes. modern cars' engines are made to process ethanol combustion. hell, some cars' engines are made to run on straight grain alcohol. however, cars made before 2005....the engine parts were not made to withstand the MASSIVE amount of heat generated by ethanol combustion. what does that mean? that means that ethanol combustion actually damages the pistons of a car's engine. so much so that classic cars have special replacement kits that can withstand the damage done by ethanol heat. (what better way to make sure your old beater finally breaks down than from the inside. that way you're forced to buy a new car! YAY GMC!)
ethanol actually cost more money in gasoline to produce. and when burned in your car produces more lower ozone carbon monoxide emissions than straight gasoline. that means that ethanol is actually contributing MORE to global warming, smog, pollution, and lower quality of life than we faced before. so, we were lied to about it being less harmful than gasoline.
this past week there have been debates in congress about cutting the tax credits and repealing the tariffs applied to ethanol. because for the past 6 years there have been tax credits (or free money) applied to companies creating ethanol, and on the other side, there have been HUGE tariffs (fees) charged to other countries trying to import their (cane sugar)ethanol into the US.
so, where does this leave us?
i believe that ethanol was derived by the corn industry, accepted by the oil industry as a means to supplement production (produce 90% but charge for 100%), praised by the auto industry (create a fuel that will destroy older model engines? fucking brilliant!), allowed to pass the EPA because of its "renewable" quality (in spite of its almost double output of harmful emissions compared to straight gasoline), and signed off by the BU$H administration. and every one of these mother fuckers got a nice fat check...or charity donation.
FUCK YOU, AMERIKKKA
i had a conversation earlier today about something i knew a little bit about, but admittedly, not very much. during the conversation my brain started spiraling into "conspiracy theory" mode and i started to concoct all of these half cocked ideas..... so i took a deep breath, calmed down, and said that i would "look into it". i did. what i found, fucking sickens me.
ethanol.
in the US it is mandated by law that big oil companies use no more than 10% ethanol additive to their gasoline production. you can see the little stickers on any gas pumps around your town. ethanol used in the US comes primarily (or read "EXCLUSIVELY") from corn.... hmmm, corn. again. seems as if i had just ranted about this plant.....
ethanol comes from fermented corn....government mandated moonshine, to be more precise (ironically enough, the gov actually adds a small amount of gasoline to the ethanol after its production so that is no longer drinkable by humans). it is then added to gasoline since it burns faster during combustion and produces more energy and heat in the process. it has been sold to the masses as better for the environment and amerikkka since it is a renewable resource and is grown locally. but there is another side to the sword..... a sharper side. this may get long winded, so stick with me.
so, as i understand it, in 2005 the BU$H administration decided to adopt the widespread production and addition of ethanol to amerikkkan refined gasoline. the acceptable level was 10% ethanol for every gallon. at the time, it was touted as a cheap renewable energy resource for automobiles that was safe for the environment and would drive down gas prices. of course, all of this was lies. in fact, the exact opposite is what happened. back in '05 /'06 we were all distracted with "the war", these changes went virtually unnoticed. the reality of ethanol additive is this:
while initially 10% was the standard maximum allowance for additives to gasoline. . . it has since risen to 15% based on the discretion of the refinery and it is not necessary for those oil companies to disclose the actual percentage outside of what is mandated by the feds (yeah, good idea to let them police themselves. ever notice how much faster your gas tank burns down to empty from some gas pumps than others?). the inclusion of this additive was supposed to help drive down the prices of gas. but, in 2005, it raised the price of gas $.75 per gallon(which was a 1/3 increase at the time, and subsequentialy blamed on the unending war). since then, the cost of manufacturing and shipping ethanol has NOT gone down, it has in fact increased. which in turn is put upon the prices we pay for gasoline.
fun fact number 2! ethanol cannot be shipped through pipelines because moonshine absorbs water. water+gasoline=bad gas. this becomes a problem for our cars.....gas tanks at filler stations are below ground, and in the past, when it rained, the rain water that would inevitably collect in the tanks would settle at the bottom (since gasoline is lighter than water molecules, unless the tank was dry or overly saturated, you'd stand a slim chance of getting "bad gas"). now, however, ethanol just sucks up a good portion of those water molecules. which makes it more possible to get bad gas that can be harmful for your car's engine.
now that i got the "ho hum" facts out of the way....lets get to the meat and potatoes. modern cars' engines are made to process ethanol combustion. hell, some cars' engines are made to run on straight grain alcohol. however, cars made before 2005....the engine parts were not made to withstand the MASSIVE amount of heat generated by ethanol combustion. what does that mean? that means that ethanol combustion actually damages the pistons of a car's engine. so much so that classic cars have special replacement kits that can withstand the damage done by ethanol heat. (what better way to make sure your old beater finally breaks down than from the inside. that way you're forced to buy a new car! YAY GMC!)
ethanol actually cost more money in gasoline to produce. and when burned in your car produces more lower ozone carbon monoxide emissions than straight gasoline. that means that ethanol is actually contributing MORE to global warming, smog, pollution, and lower quality of life than we faced before. so, we were lied to about it being less harmful than gasoline.
this past week there have been debates in congress about cutting the tax credits and repealing the tariffs applied to ethanol. because for the past 6 years there have been tax credits (or free money) applied to companies creating ethanol, and on the other side, there have been HUGE tariffs (fees) charged to other countries trying to import their (cane sugar)ethanol into the US.
so, where does this leave us?
i believe that ethanol was derived by the corn industry, accepted by the oil industry as a means to supplement production (produce 90% but charge for 100%), praised by the auto industry (create a fuel that will destroy older model engines? fucking brilliant!), allowed to pass the EPA because of its "renewable" quality (in spite of its almost double output of harmful emissions compared to straight gasoline), and signed off by the BU$H administration. and every one of these mother fuckers got a nice fat check...or charity donation.
FUCK YOU, AMERIKKKA
Sunday, June 19, 2011
fuck this weekend.......in it's gaping weekend arse
well, the good news: my girlfriend is fucking amazing and i don't think she knows how much i appreciate her and everything she does for me. i also now have a new computer that is up and running and kicks some serious ass, so i can get back to creating art on photoshop and getting the new and equally awesome adventures of PowerJeff updated again.
the bad news: the battery died on my car this afternoon, on my way to my 1pm tattoo appointment (which i actually woke up early for and was excited to get a sammich on my way to the shop). no one was home to give me a jumpstart and i had one hell of a time getting to the shop. i mention this, because i lost my shit in the middle of the fiasco, and proceeded to kick the ever-loving-shit out of the driver's side door. now, i have always had anger issues. over most of my adult life i have learned to control my temper, it took some time, and a lot of mental fortitude but i live a pretty normal life without putting my fist through walls or blowing up televisions. but then, days like today happen, when everything that could go wrong....goes wrong, and i end up flipping my shit. over something that is out of my control......and then what i have under control (i.e. my anger, in case you're not following along) goes out of control. "holy fuck", i told myself, as i sprinted downhill towards the bus stop. "holy fuck, i just let myself get unhinged over my car battery dying.....and then proceeded to accent the door panel with multiple boot sized dents!" while it may have felt good, it served no real purpose. to lose control over something (while a major dilema) so trivial, raises in itself a separate question: why do i (and the reader can substitute "we" or "me" or "she" or "it"), why do I let things in life that are out of my control, control my life so much? fucking conundrum!
as i am typing this on my shiny new powerbox, my ferrets are fighting. they do that. it's fun for them. but i saw a flea on chewy earlier (this is part 2 of bad news). those little weasels can die from fleas! not to mention, i fucking hate fleas! i was worried for my boys. i love these little knuckleheads....the fight is getting out of hand...........okay, i won the fight. anyway, here again, is something that is out of my control: parasites (not the pop-punk band). and i am able to stop, assess the situation, and find a solution (thanks to the magic of the interwebs!). the impending demise of my 2 action figure stealing fuzzy-shits and i oh-so-calmly find the remedy....................
which takes us back to bad day issue #1....and the ultimate point of this blog. why is that when something is an inconvenience (traffic, being late, etc) it incites rage, but when something more threatening and severe (blood sucking parasites) happens, rationale and reason takes over? is it that we let the routine of our day to day lives take more precedence over our emotions? and when there is a monkey-wrench thrown into the gears, we've been conditioned as a society to freak the fuck out? the threat of little chewy dying from fleas is horrible, but i didn't break down into a barbaric state like i did when my car wouldn't go vroom vroom. i need to sit on this thought, i think.........
the bad news: the battery died on my car this afternoon, on my way to my 1pm tattoo appointment (which i actually woke up early for and was excited to get a sammich on my way to the shop). no one was home to give me a jumpstart and i had one hell of a time getting to the shop. i mention this, because i lost my shit in the middle of the fiasco, and proceeded to kick the ever-loving-shit out of the driver's side door. now, i have always had anger issues. over most of my adult life i have learned to control my temper, it took some time, and a lot of mental fortitude but i live a pretty normal life without putting my fist through walls or blowing up televisions. but then, days like today happen, when everything that could go wrong....goes wrong, and i end up flipping my shit. over something that is out of my control......and then what i have under control (i.e. my anger, in case you're not following along) goes out of control. "holy fuck", i told myself, as i sprinted downhill towards the bus stop. "holy fuck, i just let myself get unhinged over my car battery dying.....and then proceeded to accent the door panel with multiple boot sized dents!" while it may have felt good, it served no real purpose. to lose control over something (while a major dilema) so trivial, raises in itself a separate question: why do i (and the reader can substitute "we" or "me" or "she" or "it"), why do I let things in life that are out of my control, control my life so much? fucking conundrum!
as i am typing this on my shiny new powerbox, my ferrets are fighting. they do that. it's fun for them. but i saw a flea on chewy earlier (this is part 2 of bad news). those little weasels can die from fleas! not to mention, i fucking hate fleas! i was worried for my boys. i love these little knuckleheads....the fight is getting out of hand...........okay, i won the fight. anyway, here again, is something that is out of my control: parasites (not the pop-punk band). and i am able to stop, assess the situation, and find a solution (thanks to the magic of the interwebs!). the impending demise of my 2 action figure stealing fuzzy-shits and i oh-so-calmly find the remedy....................
which takes us back to bad day issue #1....and the ultimate point of this blog. why is that when something is an inconvenience (traffic, being late, etc) it incites rage, but when something more threatening and severe (blood sucking parasites) happens, rationale and reason takes over? is it that we let the routine of our day to day lives take more precedence over our emotions? and when there is a monkey-wrench thrown into the gears, we've been conditioned as a society to freak the fuck out? the threat of little chewy dying from fleas is horrible, but i didn't break down into a barbaric state like i did when my car wouldn't go vroom vroom. i need to sit on this thought, i think.........
Sunday, June 12, 2011
WAR DANCE!
it is sunday funday! what better time for more ramblings of a mad man?
so, if you're like me, you like to stay at the top of the fashion game and what the hottest hew fashion trend is sweeping the scene! i mean, i'm not gonna go out in public looking like a fool wearing something that was SO 2010! get real!.....who am i kidding. i fucking loathe fashion trends. so much so, that i don't even bother to talk about them, much less sit at the computer whilst eating my noodles and write about fashion trends in my blog.
but this latest trend is a special case.
rooster saddle feathers. unless you never venture out of the house or watch television, you've seen women (and steven tyler) rocking these long colorful feathers in their hair. for those that do not know, these feathers are used by fly fishermen in the construction of fly lures. they come from a specially bred rooster's tail feathers. these bird breeders, up until recently, had a very small demand for feathers to supply fly fishing enthusiasts. now that it is trendy to rock feathers like tonto, these breeders are facing a HUGE demand for feathers. this isn't the news worthy story. in fact, anything i've found online or on television "news" always seems to gloss over the REAL story here....
these birds are killed for these feathers. the plucking of the tail feathers is extremely painful for the birds, and most of the birds have to be euthanized after the process, if not before. these feathers are not casually picked up off the ground after being shed. these roosters are bred and raised for their tail feathers, and then slaughtered; which up until recently, was at a small scale. but as trends become popular and demand is increased......thousands more birds have to die so women can sport a pretty red feather in their hair. fucking disgusting.
equally disgusting, and as a footnote: people sporting fox tails. this was something i used to see at renaissanse faires, which sort of makes sense, seeing as in the 13th century women sported fox tails on the hats, and in the 16th century, fox tails were worn under the waist of a dress. so as a fashion accessory, it is about as historically accurate as anything else at those festivals (as in....not that accurate, if you missed my sarcasm). the fashion trend later started popping up among the "furry" subculture....y'know, as an expression of their "fursona" or whatever. lately it has crept its way into popular fashion as a fancy accessory not only worn out of the back of the pants, but also hung from rearview mirrors, back packs, and purses. these animals were also needlessly slaughtered just so someone can have a fuzzy tail flopping behind their ass as they walk.....
now, before fingers are pointed at me: no i'm not in PETA and yes, i am a fucking hypocrite. i sit here typing this wearing leather boots, and as you can see in my picture, i'm also a handsome gorilla that wears leather jackets. my personal sense of "fashion" is dictated by 2 main factors: durability and comfort. yes, i think it is sad a cow died for the pair of boots i wear, but i have worn them everyday for the past 3 years, and aside from the sole wearing away, they have a couple more years left in them. (after converse was sold to nike and outsourced to china, i didn't think it wise to pay $50 for a basic pair of chucks that would now only last me 4 months if i was lucky, due to cheaper construction.) for me personally, leather for boots that last 5 years or more is a far different evil than the slaughtering of animals for a fashion accessory that lasts a couple weeks at best.
but then again, who the fuck am i?
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
"crystalline fructous" eh?
wow...it's been almost a year since i've updated on this thing! truth be told, i lost my login password/email address, and i was too damned busy working 2 jobs to bother worrying about trying to recover my lost information. oh lazy ole grape soda. life has slowed down somewhat, and since it is the humpday before memorial day weekend, no one wants to get tattooed before they go to the lake for the weekend......
some news as of late: i've discovered that i have an allergy to corn. well, not actually corn, since monsanto has genetically modified that vegetable so much, it is no longer recognizable as "corn" (each kernel of corn has been altered to the point that contains mostly carbohydrates and only about 10% protein). i have subsequentially cut out all corn and corn byproducts from my diet for the past 3 1/2 months. that also includes "high fructous corn syrup" which is presently located in ALL sweets made in the US: candy, soda, pastries, juice. since then i have lost 8 pounds (yippee!) and i don't spontaneously vomit after consuming some buttered "corn on the cob". i've been reading up about studies over the past few months about "HFCS" which, appropriately enough, are saying some not so nice things about said syrup. which in turned prompted the corn industry to launch an anti-smear ad campaign you may or may not have seen or heard about.
this leads me to the main point of this blog....."crystalline fructous". haven't heard of it? click here personally, i had only just recently started to see this corn by-product in some of the supposed "natural" beverages available on the market that proudly proclaim they don't contain HFCS. but do not be deceived, this crap is possiblly worse than HFCS since it is in an even more concentrated form! this shit is straight poison for the human body. the corn industry has now found another way to sneak this garbage into what we consume and keep us subsidizing their farms with our tax dollars to grow copious amounts of high carb trash plants.
don't get me wrong here, i have nothing against farmers or the farm industry. some of my closest friends are farmers and ranchers, and i understand that in hard times, those federal subsidies help farmers stay afloat and feed their families. what irks me is the corn industry and its strength and pull it has to allow over production of its "plant" and how it stifles off any other alternatives (cane sugar, hemp fiber) and keep its grip on what we put into our bodies.
which brings me back to "crystalline fructous". this shit will slowly find its way into more than just "natural" drinks, since it is stronger and sweeter than HFCS. and that only bodes even more poorly for the health of humans. as americans, however, we have the memory of a goldfish and awareness of a parkbench, so it is safe for me to say that it is inevitable.
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