“Take me to the apothecary at Darkholme”,
but It had already been arranged.

Zod knew that he would receive comfort in the doting arms of Yekaterina.

But Zod was not comforted,
And left to his own tortured mind,
The waiting for a respite soon turned into a brooding hint that it was gone.

Zod farmed deeper into despair and he planted the first seed of his flowering heart-brokenness inside the chamber his rediscovered heart.

Zod found a heart inside his chest again, but it was too late for comfort.

And so longing for the life he had before he met her,
and not being able to turn back time
He left, and left, and left.

It was in the middle of dusk when Theodora drank down the yellow lotus potion. And just a few moments later she could feel her third eye begin to open, and the drug taking hold of her senses, making her more irrational and impulsive, that space wherein she believes she can see into the future…

It was shortly after that a man appeared on Theodora’s unfinished doorstep.

So Theodora, being superstitious, took the man’s appearance, at just this moment, as an omen of good fortune, for her benefit. Turning to the man she said: “greetings stranger, you wish to know your future”.

When the man didn’t reply fast enough for Theodora, she continued… with her eyes closed, and in her drugged, dreamlike state said “do not fall into my trap, you can stay a while with me” The man, calm, nonplussed, steady, replied “By Ymir, I suppose I could help you build this “hall”, replied Herger.

Somehow Theodora had learned the man’s name and she was happy to have a friend, and curious about why Asura would bring a Nordhiemer to stay with her, and build her house.

Later, while Herger was working, and Theodora was fretting in the mirror, Theodora asked herself, “why does he want to build just the “hall”, I hope he builds the whole house for me… with me, I am going to help him, he is so lovely to stop by and visit me. What can his visit mean for me??”.

After a while Herger, sweaty and tired, came back to camp to rest…

but Theodora had left camp and gone to the market. She wanted to buy some incense to burn for her gods. But when the shop keeper wouldn’t give her the incense, Theodora began to shout and say: “Give me the incense on credit and Herger will pay for it!”

Herger, being kind, ran to the market to see what was the matter. That’s when Theodora turned to Herger and said, “Herger, they won’t give me the incense and you know I need it! Buy it for me Herger!”

“By Ymir’s orange beard!” said Herger, as he slung Theodora over his back and walked back to camp.

I’m a junk artist. So I am going to take some of my junk and put it out on the lawn. Stop by and look at it if you want.

I resolve to get worse this year.

You might say, “gdi, look at that junk”, and then turn away.

if Role-playing is containing and rationalizing our imaginations—>>
and Imaginations are full of all kinds of interesting junk—>>
then My imagination is native, feral, irrational, and stars ME.

I want to celebrate the new year on my own terms. Fuck resolutions.

If you don’t like my junk I’ll let it hurt way more than it should—–

*posts a sign*
“free junk to gawk at: Spicewood, Tx”

Happy New Year yall!

Zod hates his oar.

But being bound to his oar in a slave galleon, Zod (发音) the son of Kaghan the Khitan, pushes himself towards a death sentence, to be nailed to a wooden cross in a wasteland.

Zod is familiar with what will become of him on his cross. He has witnessed his father condemn hundreds to torture and death on crosses; crosses which would dot the landscape of the burned, ruined villages.  Villages whose leaders dared to withhold tribute from the ‘great and terrible’ Kaghan.

But now it is the warlord’s son who will face the tragedy of a wooden cross.

Zod’s memory races back to his childhood as he pushes.

Zod broods about how his hands and feet will be pierced with nails. How his flesh will burn in the sun and how the carrion will devour him.

Zod recalls his mother the Yoggite, and then flashes to memories of her, and then to a certain memory of good feelings, of peace, and his father’s estates.

Zod lingers in his mind on how his mother dotes on him, and how she loves him… how she loved him… with tears Zod pushes his oar and remembers her, a Yoggite. Her strange religion fascinated him and he would listen to her tell the stories of her Darfari people with fanatical interest.

Suddenly Zod remembers that father is not religious!

This memory of his father snaps Zod out of his mental revelry. —Snap! Crack!– “Get back to yourself Sir Zod! You’re to ROW not DREAM and WEEP!”;  —Snap! Crack! — “You are not in your father’s house anymore! You are in the belly of my hell for you!… your Lordship!”– Snap! Crack! –“So row!!!!, or I’ll break your back and throw you overboard, you dirty Khitani thug!”– Snap! Crack!–

Zod steadies himself and employs his full strength against the oar to avoid another lash just as his shipmates start to sing, drowning out sounds of lashing and cursing —Snap! Crack!–:

Here ye’s are me mateys
And late for mother’s supper, we push the oar

For gruel and dried boar, we push the oar
For Mitra, or Set orn’ ore, we push the oar

So here ye’s are me matey’s
Avoid the lash, push the oar

Singing, Zod pushes, and beside him his “clan of hyenas”– a nickname that Zod has recently given his shipmates, collectively.

The “hyenas” and Zod push, and sweat, and curse the day that they were brought to be in the bowel of such a dark ship, on an equally dark voyage.

Happy new year 2019!

Welcome to here (place), now (time), and my re-purposed blog (medium).

Recently I have been reading C. Wright Mills’ The Sociological Imagination for the first time. It was in this classic Sociological text that Mills both christened the concept of “Sociological Imagination” and demonstrated how to use it as a guide in answering questions about who we are as homo sapiens. Mills’ place was the United States of America and his time was 14 years after the end of World War II.

As Mills put it “…the individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate only by locating himself within his period, [and] … he [sic] can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all individuals his [similar] circumstances” (Mills 1959).

Today is December 29, 2018 (three days from 2019) and it’s been 15 years since the beginning of the conflict in Iraq/Afghanistan and the start of “Global War on Terrorism”. These 15 years have reshaped, again, the same cultures and societies that Mills observed and wrote about.

For me it’s 14 years since I returned home from the war in Iraq.

I, like Mills, seek answers about who homo sapiens are, specifically the ones who happened to land in the lap of privilege, i.e. “us” North Americans who live in this time and in this place;  “us”: snowflakes and tough guys, “us”: naughty and nice girls, “us” gamers, addicts, and role-players… us, US, US(A).   Who are we rn?

But in order to get to the question more specifically and academically,  I intent to boldly attempt to answer the following questions from Mills, and thus derive my work from his, attempting to build on the foundation laid by him and many other social scientists.  Here are Mills’ questions:

“(1) What is the structure of this particular society as a whole? What are it’s essential components, and how are they related to one another?  How does it differ from other varieties of social order?  Within it, what is the meaning of any particular feature for its continuance and its change?

“(2) Where does this society stand in human history?  What are the mechanics by which it is changing?  What is its place within and its meaning for the development of humanity as a whole? How does any particular feature we are examining affect, and how is it affected by, the historical period in which it moves?  And this period– what are its essential features?  How does it differ from other periods?  What are its characteristic ways of history-making?

“(3)What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and this period? and what varieties are coming to prevail? In what ways are they selected and formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and blunted?  What kinds of ‘human nature’ are revealed in the conduct and character we observe in this society and period?  And what is the meaning for ‘human nature’ of each and every feature of the society we are examining?” (Mills, 1959, pg 6-7)

Should be a lot of fun.  Now Kneel before me!

Randi Weingarten’s comments below are an insult to the people who are increasingly making their will known through supporting candidates like Senator Bernie Sanders and the ideals that he represents. And that is a shame because Labor leaders are supposed to be courageous and visionary, not “pragmatic” (aka “gutless”) and myopic.

Consider for a moment the life and work of the relatively conservative Labor activist Samuel Gompers. Gompers, who championed American style Labor practices and collective bargaining, still staunchly and openly criticized the bankers and other Capitalists in the 1890s during a period of massive inequality. Gompers asked: ““Why should the wealth of the country be stored in banks and elevators while the idle workman wanders homeless about the streets and the idle loafers who hoard the gold only to spend it on riotous living are rolling about in fine carriages from which they look out on peaceful meetings and call them riots?”

Gompers asked this question because the 1890s were a bad time for working class people and inequality was massive– just the way things are now for us working class people in 2016. Bernie Sanders asks this question too, just like our Labor forefather Samuel Gompers did.

In fact it’s been noted frequently that inequality in the United States is **worse** than it was in the 1890s. Nevertheless, in striking contrast to Randi’s paternal “pragmatism”, late 19th century Labor, and other progressive leaders, chose vision and courage over “pragmatism” and led our nation out of those desperate times. How did they do it? I couldn’t possibility outline all of the ways that activists changed the political landscape but I can tell you that 5 Constitutional Amendments (Articles 16-19) were passed during this period of activism called the Progressive Era (1890 to 1920). 5 Constitutional amendments passed seems like a Revolution to me and I didn’t have to falsely claim that the only Revolutionary change we’ve had in America led to the Civil War — what nonsense! Anyway, 5 Constitutional Amendments being passed is a far cry away from the “pragmatism” that the leader of one of the largest teacher’s Unions in America is dictating and campaigning for…

Randi should know this history, understand the times we live in, and lead us into our future instead of “pragmatically” mandating for us more of the same old broken economy that’s led to a massive decline in our movement.

In Solidarity,

___________________________________________

“The difference between Sanders and Clinton is a matter of degree more than any fundamental ideological disagreement. They both advocate moving in the same direction, but by different methods. Bernie Sanders says he will bring about a political revolution to make his dreams of a democratic socialist society come true, which seems an unlikely proposition given that the GOP is sure to control one house of Congress and may well control both. Hillary Clinton advocates a pragmatic approach: protecting the progressive gains won under the Obama administration, taking what new gains may be possible in a divided government and setting the political table to back for more later.
Historically, it is this latter approach that has produced change. In any democratic system of government, progress is incremental. Only one time in our history as a nation have we seen such sweeping ideological change at a fundamental level happen in a brief span of time, and that change came at the price of five years of bloody civil war and some 500,000 deaths”

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/26/i_have_had_it_with_naive_bernie_sanders_idealists/

 

I believe that American students are frustrated. They are frustrated with a public education system (k-12) that gave them only a surface level education because of our national obsession with tests, measurements and data points.1 They’re frustrated because all their lives they’ve been told that “in order to make it in America you need to go to college”, and that they or their families, or some benefactor, must pay for it as if higher education was optional and not a public good.

Also, they’re frustrated that the banking industry has been allowed to capitalize on the system and amass fortunes through exploiting the for-pay higher education system we’ve created. Indeed, we have allowed and encouraged these financial predators to loan money, backed by our government, to pay for this “necessity” as a way to “help” them, as we say, “Get There” — to the point that now national student loan debt is higher than credit card debt and has reached a staggering figure of 1 trillion dollars.2This makes our collective “need” their personal, crushing financial burden right at the beginning of their careers.3

Students are also frustrated that the cost of this educational necessity has risen immorally faster than family income rates so that bankers, and now the US government, can benefit from this aforementioned student loan scheme. 4 And they’re frustrated with publishing companies that have been allowed to exploit their captive customer base (students), year after year, on our college and university campuses all across America.5

Because of these reasons, students in America are frustrated; yet, despite this frustration, most students go along with the flow, do and pay as they’re told, spending money that they have not yet earned with the hope that the degree that they will earn will give them access to a job that will make them enough money to pay off their debts to the banks and the government, and allow them enough left over to support themselves and their families.

Compliance, however, does not indicate agreement.

When I ask students if this system is fair to them, overwhelmingly they say that it is not and I would challenge any of my colleagues to find a student who believes that the present condition of our for-pay higher education system is Just with respect to our student’s financial part. And that, I believe, is because the system is not only unfair but exploitative and immoral in its present condition.

So what is the solution to this ever expanding, ubiquitous cycle of depriving our children of their future incomes for the purpose of enriching the financial industry and expanding a failed Education-Industrial Complex?6 Organize, confront, and demand that those in power change the system so that it is “Student Success” oriented in reality and not just as a matter of sloganeering. In other words, students should organize for social justice!

Why demand Social Justice? Because our nation was organized around some noble ideals in the abstract, but these abstractions rarely have been a normal and natural part of the American experience for everyone. Our history of state-approved slavery, a widely accepted institution of American culture and economy when our nation’s founding documents were written, is the most notable example of this contradiction. From this contradiction we know that the United States was born into inequity and that this inequity is part of our history just as much as are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. In fact, it is my belief that inequity is a more central American experience for the poor than any noble ideal that we might find in those documents, and that the status quo in America accepts inequity, and its close cousin social inequality, as a collateral but cosmically inevitable part of the system. Therefore, in the ebb and flow of our history as a nation there have been periods of lesser and greater inequity and thus periods of greater or lesser struggle against it; and despite the fact that our standard of living is much higher than what we might be experiencing if we were protesting inequity in the 19th or early 20th century, social inequality in the United States is greater than ever before.7

Today, income inequality in the United States is staggering and the effects of this inequality are being felt more and more apparently by the poor.8 Furthermore, in 2008 a small but significant portion of the so-called middle class started to experience firsthand the morality of a system that accepts as inevitable gross social inequity when Wall Street was “bailed out” by our government and then, like the wicked, unforgiving servant of Matthew 18 refused, except in rare exceptions, to forgive or even help those who were indebted to them. 9 And the people were powerless to do anything about it because in the endless pursuit of power and money, our political “leaders” are very often, as the great Bill Moyer’s aptly noted: “… little more than money launderers in the trafficking of power and policy – [with] fewer than 6 degrees of separation from the spirit and tactics of Tony Soprano.” In this current political context I believe that citizens (students in this case) have every legitimate reason to be disillusioned, but that through this disillusionment they are thereby silenced. 10

Yet in spite of this, there has been from the very beginning – starting with our own Revolution – and is now undulating, a spirit of dissent, of struggle and revolution. And it is primarily this spirit of dissent that has moved us as a nation towards, and ever closer to, the ideals written down, i.e. “Democracy through Representation”, “freedom of expression”, “freedom of religion” and “the pursuit of happiness”, etc. By tapping into this spirit of dissent students must organize and demand that the system change, and that it serve THEIR interests, which are in alignment with our true National interests, and are not necessarily the interests of bankers and corrupted politicians in Washington DC.

And now I want to speak directly to students, colleagues may listen in…

So how can you as a student begin to organize and demand Social Justice? You must “Start Here”: believe that you can change things. We have the tradition and victories of the various Social Justice movements: The Civil Rights Movement, the Labor Movement, The Anti-War movements, the Environmental Movement, Consumer protections, and so on. We take heart by considering these victories and through embracing a vision of a better, more Just society instead of embracing a disillusionment that, as noted, serves the status quo by keeping you silent. Believe that through organizing and refusing to remain silently obedient that you can stop the madness and even create a government and society that is in actuality “for and by the people”—a societal condition that is, and always will be, distasteful to tyrants, whether they be autocrats, “Representatives”, CEOs, or billionaire “philanthropists”.

Once you really believe that through organizing and participating you can actually change things, you must then start talking about how the system needs to be changed with your classmates, and anyone else who will listen. Don’t just talk about what is wrong with the system, but also talk about solutions you can imagine that don’t assume that the present immoral system is inevitable, because it is not. Once people start talking to each other on campus, that’s when you can start organizing some actions for change!

What needs to be changed in higher education? Lots of stuff, but primarily it’s the issues that I have presented at the start of this article that affect you most while you are a college student. These are the problems that you face as students and it is more than apparent to me that if you do not want to continue to be robbed of your financial future through student loan debt and outrageous textbook and tuition prices, you must start talking to each other and demanding Justice from those in power. 11
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. ~Frederick Douglass,

1 There is substantial and growing amount of data that highlights the negative effects of the current “test obsession regime” currently in control of our public schools. See http://www.fairtest.org/whats-wrong-standardized-tests-infographic

2 Texas Student Loan Debt data
3 Student Debt Nearly Tripled In 8 Years, New York Federal Reserve Reports

4 The Student Loan Scheme
5 To Cut the Cost of College, Start with Textbooks [#Infographic]*

6 Today’s Education-Industrial Complex

7 http://inequality.org/

8 Wealth and Inequality in America

9 How America Bailed out Banks rather than its citizens

10 Why aren’t more of us protesting inequality?

11 For a nuts and bolts guide on organizing on college and university campuses I recommend Campus Organizing Guide for Social Justice Groups.