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FTW... people really piss me of sometimes.
2006-03-28 12:48:15
Yesterday there was this big student march on city hall (a few blocks from where I work) .
Basically it was a whole mess of high school students that used the chance to get out of school. What it devolved into was a shitload of people driving up and down waving mexican flags, chanting mexican slogans and so on . If they saw an American flag in front of a business they would tear it down. If they saw an American flag on a car, they would rip it off.
So tell me... what do these people know about immigration reform? Are they even aware of the fact that the new laws essentialy echo the old laws? I doubt it. If they really wanted to fix the problems, they should be working to make Mexico a better place, not running around tearing down flags.
I stood out in front of my school and yelled at them, "fuck you all, every one of you."
As far as I'm concerned we can send all 12 million of them back to mexico, where they can apply to be citizens like everybody else. They can take their families if they are concerned for them. Seriously. California needs to figure out how it feels about these people.
Here is my solution: Pay them the same exact wage and benifits that you pay regular citizens. Require the employers do a check on employees. Offer a copious reward to anyone who pinpoints employers that are using Illegal workers.
Suddenly there is no real benifit to hiring illegal workers. Don't give me shit about: "they do jobs that Americans won't do" I dont' believe that for a minute. The only real reason they get hired is that they work like slaves, and sub-par wages. On top of the sub-par wages, since the employer doesn't keep records, he also doesn't have to pay out benifits, or wage related taxes.
So here's the problem, in a nutshell.
People want to be in the United States. They can make a better living here, and we have social services to help them. They come illigally in many cases.
The people IN the United States have to pay for those social services, and it costs a LOT.
The people in the United States like the availability of a cheap labor force, and the businesses that benifit from them are powerful enough to lobby for their own interests.
Communities are getting upset at paying for people to leech off of their system. Politicians see this and pass unreasonably harsh laws that will never be enforced, while at the same time pissing off the very population that is borderline, or benifits from these people.
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I hate new laws. Every time we make a new law it constricts us tighter and tighter. If politicians want to make news laws, and spend resources on that, they should just enforce the existing ones that do the same thing. Either that, or laws should have expiration dates. -
thoughts on life... my bike adventure (sort of) and a Concert Story.
2006-03-25 01:06:17
[clipped stuff]
there will always be students that succeed and those who don't. My job isn't to make someone succeed in life. It's to make then realise that they CAN succeed in life. When I'm teaching somone how to do 3D animation, or how to make AMVs, I don't expect that any of my students are going to go out and get a job doing it. No. I'm expecting that my students will learn that class, cultural and money differences do not mean that they can't achieve the same degrees of skill as someone from a rich school, or wealthy parents.
Not everyone is equal, this is a fact. What makes us unique is the decisions that we make when we are faced with a question.
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I got a bike.
I rode my bike home from work today (about 17 miles).
At about mile 15 my bike broke down and I had to walk it the rest of the way.
My legs, are really really tired right now.
But... I feel good.
I'm gonna try to do it at least once a week, and if it gets easy, I'll try both ways, or several days.
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I was telling a couple of old concert stories to one of my students today.
I was talking about an older Ozzfest that I'd worked at. My position in this particular concert was the main stage. The think about this particular stage is that it's really high (like 7 feet up) so mostly keeping people off of it is pretty easy when they try to jump on, and believe me... they do try.
The think is, for me I really love to have a lot of 'action' during a concert. Big rough mosh pits, nasty crowds, vicous fights.. knife fights, that sort of thing. It forces people to break themselves down to a really basic level and how people respond to emergencies and danger at that basic level is really very interesting to me. Personally, I tend to become very deliberate. Not 'slow and thoughtful'.. more like when I respond I find that my responses tend to be very practical. One time I was ejecting someone from a concert and he turned to spit in my face. I quickly moved my forarm right in front of his, so that his spit bounced back and splashed him in the eyes, I then rubbed the rest of it on his hair. He was pretty mad about it, but the thing that got me a moment later was when his (I think) brother attacked me from behind. Right for a split second when I felt the guys arm going around my neck I knew that I had to do something and fast. I tripped the guy that I was walking and ducked under/behind the arm around my neck, forcing the person in front of me, and hit that fucker with my forearm on the back of his head for all I was worth. He fell forward onto the first guy. Buy the time they both got up, other security was able to jump in and we hauled them off to be arrested. That sort of thing happens ALL the time at the rough events.
Anyway, I was talking about Ozzfest to begin with.
SO here I am at this Ozzfest watching this stage and Ozzy dance around. I actually got in trouble for a few minutes because I'd let his family stay down in that area for a few minutes, but that's another time. I'm standing here watching the crowd watch Ozzy run back and forth. He's getting DAMM old these days. It's like watching your grandfather take off his shirt and sing mr crowley.
Here I am.. hot, bored and well.. bored. The crowd seems to be enjoying his antics though.
Suddenly, out of nowhere... with no warning whatsoever I feel something on my back!
It's COLD! Ozzy Osborne has decided that ME, the guy standing in front of the stage, looking at the 35,000 people looking at him needs to be sprayed in the back with the fire hose that he now has with him on stage. JUST ME. So I cover up my head and wind up running back and forth like a chicken for a moment to stay out of the spray while he continues to spray me. I'm sure the crowd loved it. I was just wet.
After a few moments he turned the hose out onto the crowd so it was all in fun since it was a really hot day.
What I was trying to explain to my student wasn't the blatant sillyness of things like that, but what it feels like to have an entire arena of people watching YOU, your every movement. Laughing, or yelling but still watching YOU.
It's unique.
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Damm. I'm off rambling again. You can always tell, because I start breaking out my boring ass concert stories. -
Sorry world for not speaking the language of starbucks.
2006-03-23 20:41:40
So I see one of those drive through starbucks on the way home from work and we pull in.
[super cheerful starbucks guy]: HI WELCOME TO STARBUCKS!
[SCSG]: WHAT CAN I GET FOR YOU TODAY!?
[me]: I'll take a medium chai latte and..
[SCSG] SO A GRANDE CHAI?!
[me]: No, a medium, latte.
[SCSG]: A grande chai latte, hot or cold?!
[me]: A medium, hot.
[SCSG]: right. Anything else?
[me]: A large mocha frappachino
[SCSG]: what size?
[me]: A large.
[SCSG]: A venti then?
[me]: no, a large. The big one.
[SCSG]: right. pullforward.
[me]: ok then. -
damm... it's late.
2006-03-19 05:38:48
Ever been sitting around late at night.. getting kind of sleepy....
eyes closing....
AND THEN SOME REALLY AWESOME SONG COMES ON AND YOU GET REALLY REALLY AMPED??
Well that's happened to me tonight. Whoa black betty... bam-ba-lamblack betty... The spiderbait version, not that travesty that was remixed for the dukes of hazard movie.
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@Jaddzia I'm kind of wondering about Alternababe myself. Hope it's not a full on meltdown.
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part one
2006-03-09 01:35:05
I've been noticing that in the 'reveal yourselves' AMV thread that there are lots of goofy looking guys on the site here. All skinny and stuff, and that there are a surprising number of female editors. I've also noticed that most of the girls that posted their pics are on the cute side of things. Not, that I mind looking at cute girls or anything, but I wonder if it's intimidating to the other girls that don't think of themselves that way. So I started thinking about it a bit. I think women (and probably girls) are way to harsh on themselves when it comes to what they look like.
Here's a secret about guys: mostly we're shallow and notice pretty things first. After that, if you are an interesting person we dont' care (what you look like) anymore. I'd love to meet a lot of people on the .org, and I have no idea what they look like. Of course, I'm also married and thus have no ulterior motives either.
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I finally got out and hung up my heavy punching bag in the back. It's been so long since I've just gone and whaled away at a heavy bag. It's been sitting for so long, all the padding has settled and it's all solid now. (anybody that's used a brand new bag, or has one knows what I'm talking about here. It felt great! I'm glad I can still lift the bag (150lbs) and send it flying with my hooks. There is something really satisfying about it. Back to martial arts 101 for me. I've been working on basic punching repetitions (50 heavy jabs, 50 left hooks etc... ) Now I don't have to be all pent up at work anymore, I just come home and beat the crap outta my bag.
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Next step: get back into doing some of my kata.
I've got my military press up to 200 lbs now.
I've been doing stair step excercises with a pair of 70 lb dumbells for reps.. damm that's hard. I need to be able to pick people up and lift them over barricades at concerts, so that's about right for most of the girls (most girls weigh less, but they are packed in so I have to work harder)
JOURNAL: madbunny
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