May be too intense for some viewers.

If you ever take up freelancing, or work a part-time job on a regular basis, no matter what kind, you will have to contend with how astonishingly self-centered and myopic your closest friends and family are. They don't realize it, and niether do you until you are not working full-time. Even if you are freelancing full-time hours (or more!) they still don't get it. Do not think your dearest kith and kin will be the exception to this, they will not. It is not an "if" type of thing, it is something you can count on.

They will not see what you are doing as actual work. You might be better than a welfare case in their eyes, but once they know you have extra time in your week compared to others or that you have control over your schedule you instantly become A: a slacker or B: their imagined errand boy or C: all of the above.

Oh sure, they will never come out and *say* that they don't value what you are doing or respect your choice of work/ lifestyle, but trust me, they don't. They will show you in their actions and unconscious attitudes. "I know you are doing what you love" is what they say but the unspoken end of that sentence is "by being a lazy bum or feckless dreamer."

God forbid you actually do spend a lot of time with them on a regular basis because then you are fucked. If you start working full time after they get used to being able to call you up on a moment's notice to help them or visit them, and then suddenly you are no longer at their back and call...well, get ready for a shitstorm of guilt as they whine and cry about how you are alienating them and how you are so aloof now.

Finally got a real job? Great! Now quit being so inconsiderate and service their insecurities! Its not like you miss having all that free time to yourself! Losing an extra 20 -25 hours a week off your previously flexible schedule couldn't possibly mean you need to spend any less time with them, right?!

YOU SUCK . ( SPOILERTASTICNESS AFTER THE JUMP! )

So, if you put on your sign that you are offering $0.99 slices on Saturday & Sunday, and then people come in to partake of said offer, do not:
 

• Fail to post any information about the special inside your restaurant
• Say that the special is only offered for a subset of your posted business hours
• Get snarky and say "there is only so much room on the sign" when your potential customer rightly points out that the sign did not say anything about limited hours.
• Point out that you close in 35 minutes and report that there are no slices left anyway, but your customer may choose to purchase an entire pie.

FAIL.  If I'm not mistaken, this is known as "bait & switch."  I ain't havin' none of your attitude OR your slices.
Too bad for you since you are conveniently located to me and my hungry bear roomies' apartment.

Surfing the internet is like having uncontrolled telepathy. It makes you aware of what is inside the "minds" of people everywhere. And that is NOT good. lol

On the way to work I was listening to my local NPR affliate and they had a little segment on called "youth radio" or something like that, which they do from time to time. It is a short essay read by its author, a young person of high school or college age, typically from a disadvantaged background. Most times they speak about subjects of social relevance from their perspective - one that is commensurate with youth, i.e. generally hopeful, often idealistic, sometimes callow. That's fine. It's to be expected, and its nice to hear "regular people" on the radio too. The segments run without commentary or disclaimer on the part of NPR.

Today, however, the segment was by a young woman whose issue was with gentrification. She blamed the middle class for running poor people out of their homes by fixing up her blighted neighborhood with "million dollar condos." I have some news for you, chica, middle class people don't live in million dollar condos. Nor is it their fault your neighborhood is so run down, and it isn't their nice new houses and shops that have run poor people out of the ghetto. It is taxes that have done that. Taxes levied by the same government that you would turn to for a solution to the "problem" of people with some money using that money to improve a decayed area. Bend your congressperson's ear or lobby the local government to adjust property taxes based on owner income and not percieved value and you might be on to something.

But take your blame finger out of the middle class' face. "Think of the poor" is the new "its for the children." It's manipulation and frankly it doesn't help. You will not improve your lot in life (or your neighborhood) by demonizing people with means. Why not enlist them to your cause instead?

As disdainful as I am of her screed, I'm even more disappointed in NPR for running it. I listen to NPR as an antidote to Fox News and Rush, Hannity etc. Sometimes I forget that NPR is not an antidote to irrationality, it is sometimes simply an opposing flavor of it.

Remember Animal Man? And New X-men? And that run on JLA? Remember how everyone thought Grant Morrison was some kind of alien super-genius that mortal man could scarcely imagine, much less comprehend? I have a different theory.

What if Grant Morrison were actually a giant douchebag? Not just any giant douchebag, but a giant douchbag full of suck. Suck so deep, dark, and cavernous that not even light could escape. After Batman R.I.P. and 5/7 of Final Crisis, this is my best theory. Tossing out ZOMGWEERD terms like "quantum blunderbuss" and "krona protocol" while your characters react with horror and dismay might once have been edgy and mysterious, but now it just sounds like items I have to turn in to complete a quest in Warcraft. Yawn. Move along already, dude.

Note to self: Next time don't rant and run. Next time elaborate your rant into a full-on screed instead of venting and heading out the door to work.

OK - here's my beef with some of the "sides" of the prop 8 divide, as brought on by reading through the blogosphere of late:

For people whining that placing blame upon those who are to blame for Prop 8 passing is in itself a form of intolerance: Grow up. Everything is not cotton candy and kum-ba-ya in life. Being sweet is not going to get the job done. Also, being called out on that which you are responsible for is NOT intolerance, it is accountability, and sometimes that stings a little. Wah.

For people whining that suing / calling out the leaders and decision makers of churches and other organizations who funded and supported the Yes On 8 crowd is "hateful"...Wise up. It is entirely appropriate to levy any and all legal consequences upon those who enabled/organized/encouraged the passage of Prop 8. If you want to go play patty-cake with them instead, be my guest, but you may want to move your head a little to the left cause I'm trying to aim.

For people who get all butthurt and sniffly (and worse, preachy and shame-throwing) because there are pissed off angry faggots out there on a tear over Prop 8? Grow a pair. If you don't feel angry about it, fine. If you want to hold a love-in over it, go for it. But don't you presume to criticize those who are hella pissed over this slap in the face to our civil rights. Our anger is not only justified, it is necessary.

Oh, ACT UP, where are you now?

I just had an epiphany as to why so many gay guys go on about how they aren't into "the gay scene" / acting "gay" / politics, etc.

They don't want community, or freedom, or dignity, or respect, or equality, or even tolerance.

They just want cock.

Duh.