TJA Live

29 Ways to Be Creative

2012-01-26T21:33:00.001-08:00

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.

Political Test

2012-01-26T12:53:00.001-08:00

You are a

Social Liberal
(73% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(18% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Socialist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Picture of FM

2012-01-26T11:49:00.001-08:00

Artistic rendition of fibrosing mediastinitis

Home Visit

2012-01-25T18:25:00.000-08:00

I am going to be in Ohio March 2-22.
My birthday is March 10.
I like German chocolate cake.

Things I want to do while I'm in Ohio:

Visit Whisky Bar
See Jake Speed and the Freddies at Bockfest.
Get Skyline
Get Graeter's
Have Indian food

Get Me Out of the Pasture

2012-01-25T17:38:00.000-08:00

Leap year. Time for the claws to come out. It's only January and already the political rhetoric is in full force. With politics comes religious fervor. Since I don't subscribe to neither a particular political party nor a religious affiliation, every bit of it makes me cringe. I don't claim to have all the answers as many people do. I think there are a handful of my friends who share my views on things and those who don't think I'm a queer heathen socialist. I don't care. I just don't support big corporations, organized religion, flag-waving nationalism, religious wars, and hiding behind Christianity to support violence, greed, and suppression of human rights.

Facebook aggravates me because it is platform for peoples' stupidity. For instance, I read this hogwash recently. Here's an "original" status update:

SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT ... If you cross the North Korean border illegally, you get 12 yrs. hard labor. If you cross the Afghanistan border illegally, you get shot. Two Americans just got eight years for crossing the Iranian border. If you cross the U. S. border illegally you get a job, a drivers license, food stamps, a place to live, health care, housing & child benefits, education, & a tax free business for 7 yrs ...No wonder we are a country in debt. Re-post if you agree..

Really? Did I really read this? The same people who demonize countries like Afghanistan and North Korea want us to emulate their policies? What kind of sense does this make?

I'm sick of games. I'm sick of politics. I'm sick of hypocrites touting religion. I'm sick of repetition and unoriginal thought. I'm sick of seeing abused/neglected animals. I'm sick of people telling me to copy and repost a worn-out status. I figure if anyone really gives a damn what I think or feel about anything, they can read it on my website. Most of the time, FB feels like I'm talking to myself.

Thoughts? Leave a comment at the bottom.

Postal Rate Increase

2012-01-24T16:06:00.001-08:00

Summary of the 2012 USPS postage rate increase:
First Class Letters (1 oz.) will increase by one cent to $0.45 from $0.44. Each additional ounce will cost an extra $0.20 (no change)
First Class Flats (1 oz.) will increase by two cents to $0.90 from $0.88. Each additional ounce will cost an extra $0.20 (no change)
Postcard rates will increase by three cents to $0.32 from $0.29
Priority Mail retail rates will increase by an average of 3.2% and will start at $5.20 (previously at $5.10)
Express Mail retail rates will increase by an average of 4.4% and will start at $12.95 (previously at $12.85)
Parcel Post rates will start at $5.20 (previously at $5.10)
Media Mail rates will start at $2.47 (previously at $2.41)
New Product! Priority Mail Regional Rate Box C is being introduced with a 25 pound maximum weight limit. Prices start at $14.44
New Product! Express Mail Flat Rate Box is being introduced at $39.95 with a 70 pound maximum weight limit

We are not Second Class Citizens

2012-01-19T21:08:00.001-08:00

2012-01-18T16:42:00.001-08:00

Say Cheese

2011-11-25T21:34:00.000-08:00

I really like cheese. All kinds of cheese. It was probably a cheeselover who came up with the phrase, "Ignorance is bliss." Take, for instance, this excerpt from an article about popular cheeses of the world:

Taleggio:
Country of Origin: Italy (Lombardy)
Type of milk: Cow
Aging: Six to ten weeks
Tasting Notes: At over a thousand years old, Taleggio is one of the world's oldest soft cheeses. The washed rind cheese is in a family of cheeses created by monks who made cheese from the milk of their grazing cows in order to eliminate waste. The story is that the monks repeatedly washed the wheels clean of any mold that began to grow on their surfaces. Little did they know, they were actually fostering the growth of a slew of new bacteria on the inside and outside of the cheeses, contributing to pungent flavors and even more pungent surface smells. Taleggio smells sort of like... feet. Rich, buttery, meaty, feet. Its soft rind is edible, though it acquires a grainy texture from its repeated wash with salty brine.

Classic Henry Rollins: Walmart

2011-11-01T15:32:00.001-07:00

Relaxing at Yachats

2011-10-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do on the Oregon coast is to sit here on the rocks and watch the waves and spouts at high tide.

Pulling a Crab Pot

2011-10-28T20:27:00.000-07:00

Digging for clams

2011-10-28T20:18:00.000-07:00

Jennifer digging for clams. I had no idea it was this complicated.

Ugly little suckers, aren't they?


Monica chases her first clam

The Monkey Tree Always Makes My Day

2011-10-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

Stop Teaching Your Children to Hate

2011-09-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

A family has lost their son because other families teach their children that being gay is bad. This week, I was saddened to learn about the death of a young boy named Jamey Rodemeyer who was driven to suicide by bullies at his school who taunted him with gay slurs. He was 14 years old. It is disheartening to me that this happens in the 21st century.

I know a lot of people who were bullied and taunted in school. One boy who wore hearing aids who was tormented by his classmates. Other kids were teased for wearing glasses. One girl in my class was bullied mercilessly by other girls because she had an accent and an unusual first name. I was bullied by a girl in elementary school and I have no idea why she chose me as a target to physically kick, hit and humiliate. I was teased for wearing glasses and for developing earlier than other girls my age.

Some kids were called "queer" and "fag" but no one ever really seemed to know what that meant. We just knew it meant something negative. Later, those words would sting when I realized that the slurs they were hurling resonated with me because I knew I really was one of those despised people. I kept it to myself for a long time. I knew I was different from most of my friends, but I never understood exactly why. In the late 70's we didn't have the resources and support groups that young people have today. We kept ourselves hidden. We denied. We pretended. We tried to fit in. We tried to change.

When I was a senior in high school, a boy I knew killed himself with carbon monoxide because he was gay and he felt that his family would be better off without him. Many years later, I met one of his teachers who was also gay. She asked me about him. She told me that she had always wanted to reach out to him because she knew he struggled, but, as a teacher, she could not. Perhaps, if she had been allowed to say, "You're not alone and things get better," he would still be alive.

Like many people I've met in my life, I turned to the church. I thought I could change. I thought I could become "normal" like all my Christian brothers and sisters who seemed to be marrying at an alarming rate. I waited. I prayed. I went to counseling. I was bullied for wearing glasses in grade school, but the most perturbation of my life came from the church members that I had regarded as closer than family. And it was not kids who were the bullies. It was the adults. I was badgered by constant questioning, closely watched by members who would report any "suspicous" behavior to the elders, and vexed about my lack of desire to change. They told me it would be best if I was not around other women in the church and one time I was "counseled" for casually touching another woman while I was talking to her. Change was not coming fast enough and I became very depressed and had thoughts of suicide. Being gay was one of the worst things I could be. Other Christians would say, "it's all right if you're gay, you just can't act on it." This made no sense to me at all. I thought it was some kind of cruel joke. Who were these arrogant self-righteous people who could declare that? There was absolutely no biblical basis for that. That was when I decided I was never going to change and, frankly, I liked the person I was meant to be. I consider myself one of the fortunate ones because I didn't let their prejudice drive me to take my own life.

My heart breaks for the families and for the lives cut short by ignorance and bigotry.