Sunday, June 26, 2005

war is shit; shit is war

I go into the back yard a few days back and there's an elderly woman who is not the homeowner next door in the back yard. I'm assuming it's the homeowner's mother, but The homeowner walks out of her house and I give a friendly wave... she walks over.

She begins to complain about the dogs in the back yard. She claims that we don't pick up the dog shit often enough and that it keeps her and her mother from sitting in the back yard. She points to the older lady in the chair and says that she doesn't like the smell and she's sorry she has to say anything.

I'm like... this is my back yard... I'm not going to be dictated as to what I can and can't do in my own back yard.... especially by a bed ridden older lady... I appreciate the fact that she comes outside to "warm up" because she has no blood, but it's not my problem she doesn't like it. She doesn't like anything... she's old.

I basically ignored her and walked off. I came out the next day and she had put moth balls all up and down her fence line... I guess the scent of old people is preferable to dog shit... ok, whatever.

So I'm out there this morning and she makes a big production of walking outside, taking her box of moth balls and dumping them on the ground. ... of course you realize... this means war.

Friday, June 24, 2005

Pride (in the name of love)

if you haven't heard about Rhonda-gate, then you haven't been reading the news in Tampa Bay over the last 2 weeks.

On several occasions she has mentioned "black history month is different" because of slavery.

I believe, however ...and correct me if i'm wrong here... black history month has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with slavery... Black history month is about honoring the contribution of a minority to the continued betterment of the whole and slavery is just the first act in that story..In the same way, Pride, honors the contribution of a minority of citizens to the betterment of the whole. It seems Mrs. Storms doesn't think Earnest Hemingway and Truman Capote have contributed to the american experience.

Slavery is the first act of the black story in america, but she made it sound like it was some sort of payback... white people locked black people up and considered them animals... therefore they get a "history month".... intellectual rubbish and somewhat insulting.

Her action was a knee-jerk reaction to being presented with the idea that gays and lesbians are part of the mainstream of society. She doesn't like that fact and doesn't want hillsborough county to recognize it.... and here's the kicker... I think she really believes what she's doing is right.

It pains my heart when well-meaning people put their efforts into COMPLETELY pointless exercises that they truely believe advance their cause. It cheapens them and to quote a better writer than myself:

Apparently it never quite dawned on anyone at the library that when you have something called Gay and Lesbian Pride Month designed to advance greater understanding and tolerance of homosexuals, it sorta defeats the whole purpose of the exercise by treating a benign library display on the subject as if it represented a recruitment campaign for the Boy George Fan Club.

<sigh>... will christians ever come to the point when they're secure enough in their christianity to allow people to serve God from their own conscience? I guess that's too much to hope for.

In the name of love...
one more in the name of love
by U2

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

I lost a client

Two weeks ago I lost a client. The project had experienced delay after delay and the client and I were unfocused and undisciplined. I knew in my soul the relatioship was coming to a sudden end and felt powerless to stop it. The site just needed more time and attention than I could give it.

Needless to say I felt like a failure... And to a certain extent I was. Not to a certain extent... I did it.

What else is there to say or do other than try to accomplish something to get rid of that feeling.

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Ca-ching

I have this fantasy of going to a fabulous city I've never been to like london or something and opening a southern-style barbeque and calling it BIG TEXAS BAR-B-Q... Using the almost universal recognition of texas' association with all things big and the recipes of my youth and that I learned while living in nashville. Selling american culture around the globe has become easier even as selling american politics has become more difficult. I think it could work.

Anyway, it's my fantasy to one day open a restaurant. To create the menu myself and develop the concept start to finish the way my fellow pinellas countians the Hooters 6 did in the eighties and to develop it into a national brand.

Its funny how tampabay has spawned 3 or 4 different restaurant fortunes... Hooters, the Outback, Carrabbas, Bennigans, hops... I think I can do it and I think I can do it from here. The question is, will I?


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