Austin on the map

This time of year I get to thinking about Austin's notoriety. Back in 1986, a little thing called SXSW started here. There were 170 bands and about 700 people attended. I was so wrapped up in finishing school, I don't even remember if I knew about it or not.  At the same time, Austin proper was about 350,000 people and the economy was just starting to tank. But it was better here than a lot of other places, so...we got an influx of people looking for work. Austin grew. By 1990, we were just under 465K in Austin proper. If you just did the math, that's 115,000 in four years.

In the wake of the most recent economic tankage, the media put it out that Austin had jobs and the economy was still clicking. Well, until all the out-of-workers from California, Michigan, and all points across the US got here. The 2010 census numbers of just under 800K  I'm betting are now tens of thousands higher. And of course, we got a huge lump of new citizens after Katrina in 2005. Traffic is phenomenally worse and it wasn't that hot to begin with, due to Austin's tendency to stick its collective heads in the sand when it comes to expansion: everyone wants new business, but no one wants the infrastructure in their neighborhood (can't say as I blame them there).  And, like some sort of growth gauge,  SXSW featured 2400 performers and drew about 36,000...and that doesn't count all the "unofficial" bands and people who didn't actually buy tickets to the SXSW venues. There were hipsters stopping traffic on major streets, gawking, as if Austin were some kind of bizarre museum exhibit. The metrorail, usually slightly anemic in ridership, was packed to the gunwales with riders and bikes.Even though Austinites are rather laid back and easy-going, we still have jobs and kids to get to school. In a way, it reminds me of living in New Orleans. The rest of the world just thinks we party all the time. Uh...no.

I think it's cool that people think Austin is cool. It rocks that we are still labeled "the live music capital of the world" (as much a misnomer as that might be), but sometimes I wish people wouldn't enjoy Austin quite so much. In addition to everyone flocking here to take our jobs, there are about 50 kabillion festivals, sometimes two or three on any given weekend. Oh...in addition to SXSW, the rodeo was on, too. Hipsters and c'boys. I keep picturing this huge pile-up with skinny jeans, pink sunglasses, cowboy boots and manure all piled up and everyone looking rather confused.

The icing on the cake was realizing that some departing SXSWer, sometime Saturday Sunday night decided to take a souvenir. The lanyard for the Texas flag pole on the WWI memorial here in front of the UT stadium was cut and the Texas flag stolen.  You read that right, from the WWI memorial. Really, people? Some folks just have no shame.

If you come to our home to party, please behave yourself, and don't steal from your hosts.

Have we always been this nuts?

To put it simply: this country has gone insane. I'm really beginning to believe that the apocalypse will not come from outside, from some foreign invader, but from the inside. We will self-destruct on stupidity. Just as scientists are discovering that homosexuality is caused by a number of biological factors, I think we'll discover that conservatism is biological in origin, too. It must be...I mean, just how far can one go with no brain? With the caveat that one is just a different kind of human, the other is a defect. Yah...I know which people will read that one way and who will take it the other way.

I'm not dead...really

I had told myself I wasn't going to be one of those web/blog people who started a site and then just disappeared off the face of the earth. Well, I suppose that's true, because here I am, but it's been three months.  Several times I said, "I need to go make a post, but I just don't feel like it." and blew it off.  I'm paying for this g-damned site, g-damn it!

Part of keeping a website/blog is to chronicle the things that happen (especially in my case, since my memory resembles nothing so much as a screen door...with holes in it...) and it would have been nice if I'd been on top of things...oh, well.

In today's news, it's cold. Friggin' cold.  I know those of you up in Yankeeland don't think 23 with a wind chill of 10 is all that cold, but in Central Texas...for the record...that's cold.  And it's icy. But it's business as usual (BAU). Bleah.  My van stopped blowing warm air halfway into work...I'm hoping it's just a confused thermostat...we'll see this evening.

My dryer has been eating clothes for some time now. The drum is loose and things catch in the space between the drum and the housing. Minor damage being rusty marks, major damage being holes in things, like a starving moth got hold of them.  And now the washer has decided to stop running. It cycles, water runs and drains, but the drum doesn't turn. The dishwasher conked out a year ago. So..I'm wondering who'll extend credit to a credit weenie like me.  Farg.

The road to hell...and all that jazz

I can't figure out if I've really been that busy or if I have a mental block against posting...or if there's just so many ideas running around in my ADHD-addled brain that I can't figure out what I want to post on.  If I posted on every little idea that staggers along, there'd be a kabillion and one little, disjointed posts. I have a notebook with me, but usually when I'm thinking about such things, I can't write...you know, potty breaks, on the bus, etc. (I can't read, write, crochet, or use the computer in a moving vehicle or I get seasick).

Recently I've had posts in mind about obesity, politics, religion...huh...what else is new...but also my house, products, decorating, sewing, etc, etc. *sighs*  I guess if I can't actually DO those things, I can waste time writing about them eh?

In tech news, Microsoft has done some king of weird merge with Instant Messenger (IM) and all your social media. The result...crap. I use my Hotmail account for two things (well, three, if you count IM): Facebook and for those things online where you don't want to put your REAL email account. I don't want it, or FB connecting to everything else I have. It's not that I have anything to hide, per se, but there are elements of my life I'd just really not like terribly public, you know? FB is my public face. I have friends who are co-workers, students in our department, relatives, friends who are not necessarily in my "inner circle," as it were, and I'd rather the two worlds not collide. although a couple of my close family read this site, I'd really like to keep the rest of the fambly blissfully ignorant of it. R says-re work and the 'net--to get ready for the "cloud." WTF-ever the "cloud" is. I neither want nor need my life clouded, thank you very much. There is a sufficient number of people, were they to stumble across this site and read it, who could quite handily figure out who I am. That's fine, I have no problem with that, but I don't want to advertise.

I have an LJ account and I've not posted out there in ages. Every once in a blue moon, I go out and catch up on everyone's posts (I have about 6 or 7 friends there), but haven't felt compelled to post. I've even been half-tempted to delete my FB account recently, after a mutual FB/LJ friend (and a very close personal friend) posted that some of her FB friends should "shut [our] cakeholes" in response to a comment on FB, and a vicious attack by a guy I went to HS with. (Did you know, all you liberals, that we're un-American, stupid, ignorant, uneducated morons? Makes me wonder how the hell I graduated from one of the top universities in this country in a fairly difficult degree, with a high GPA and how I got the job I have, with the military, no less...dang...I'm such an un-American moron. Ppfftt)

The cakehole thing is a perfect example of the anonymity of the internet. While this friend might have gotten testy with me in person for saying something (and trust me, it really wasn't that bad), she never would have gone off on anyone the way she did on the 'net. (To put my feelings in perspective, she said several people had made comments, but as far as I could see, I was the only one.) Perhaps I'm overreacting; it has been known to happen and I will admit the post was not directed at me personally, but I still was hurt.

(For the record, I find the terms "piehole" and "cakehole" to be extremely rude and offensive, so perhaps that added to the overall feeling of hurtness. Dunno. They're just words I never use, kind of like "scumbag," or "douchebag."  Just.plain.rude.)

I find, in general, that we say things--well type them--behind the shield of the 'net that we would never, ever in a million years say person to person. Makes me wonder if WWIII will be caused by two or three heads of state going at each other via e-mail some day.

And then again...

I had some brilliant discussion going in my head (I won't tell you where I was, but I've heard it said 'tis the seat of all brilliant thought) and had no paper suitable for writing, so of course, now hours later, I can't recall it. Something to do with questioning the authority of That Book.

There are many misbeliefs concerning religion, spirituality, and religion vs. spirituality. The best definition I heard--I'd credit it, but I can't remember where I read it, although I'm pretty sure it was Dianne Sylvan's preliminary intro for her maybe new non-fic work, but she's taken the link down, so I can't check it--is that religion is public, what you do in a group, it's the trappings, the ritual, the building (if any), codified thought, etc. Whereas spirituality is private, between you and your deity(ies). It could, therefore, be argued that an Atheist has a religion: public "averrance" (is that a word? Apparently, a lot of people think so on the 'nets, but in fact, it's not) that there is no god, goddess, higher being, deity, divine one, insert euphemism of your choice, and that by the very nature of that faith, there can be no spiritual side to Atheism. On the other hand, I suppose it could follow that spiritually, the Atheist believes there's no god, that is his/her personal belief and because there is no god, there cannot be a religion because there's no church, no dogma, ritual or buildings....except that they DO have dogma, trappings, a library...so it fits the requirements of a religion.

I have no issues with Atheism, it's as valid a belief system as any out there. And just as filled with misinformation, hatred, and misunderstanding as the next set of beliefs. I think the funniest thing I've seen on their "official" site is "religion is ridiculous." *snorts* Well...you've just said your belief system is ridiculous. Like it or not, if you believe "religion" is a belief system, then Atheism does in fact fall into the category of religion, although etymologically, I'm incorrect. I will continue to think of a faith in the absence of [euphemism of choice] and the public trappings of that faith constitute a religion, a religion without spirituality.

It would be amusing, if it weren't so scary, to watch the two sides, the RTCs* and the Atheists slug it out, metaphorically speaking of course. And...the RTCs wouldn't be alone. There would be the RTMs, the  RTJs, the RTPs** to name a few, all against the Atheists, and then when the As had been suitably reprogrammed, the RTXs would start on each other. I think we Pagans would just kind of roll our eyes at all of them and hare off to the woods to have a bit of fun, letting everyone else self-destruct.

Ah, such fancies I amuse myself with. Where was I? Oh yes, That Book. I don't knock That Book (TB), it has some rather worthwhile things in it, neither do I think it's a record of who hung the moon and stars...well, perhaps Who, but not how.  I do not see TB as the be-all, end-all, definitive authority on AEU*** Objectively, how can it be? I mean really, if the RTCs would get their collective heads out of their collective asses, they'd realize this.  Hey, far be it from me to try and convince them...as long as they return the favor. I think that's my take on almost all religions. As long as you aren't sacrificing small children or animals, do whatever the fargle you want to do, just don't try to push your twaddle off on me. If I'm...whoa...I just had a lightbulb moment...If I'm destined to be one with X-faith, I will find it.  Someone correct me, but I believe that the Xtians are the only religious bunch who proselytize...everyone else takes the stand that you can come seek us out. Pagans don't, Muslims don't, I know Baha'i don't... Jews don't, neither do Hindus, Buddhists... The lunatic fringe groups don't count, btw...being lunatic fringe by definition requires you to seek out adherents and then suck them in by whatever means. I would list those I consider dangles in that fringe, but lunatic trolls are not my faves.

As  you can tell, none of this is very intellectual, or researched; really more just ramblings about the absurdities in the world. Why is religion so important? Why have so many died in the name of religion, yet we keep coming back to it? I can't dismiss the idea of the Whole being greater that the sum of its parts. The Divine is that which ever was, is, and ever will be....everything, every neutrino, atom, molecule, person, place, or thing.  Throughout the Universe, not just in our tiny speck of a galaxy, let alone this microscopic rock we tenuously hold onto. That solidarity makes me connected to the RTCs, the As, the Agnostics, the lunatic fringe...the whole lot of them, here and on planet Xenon. My atoms are filled with the Energy that became the Universe, whether you believe it just banged into existence, was created in six days by a curious Old Man with a Beard, or carefully orchestrated into a dynamic,self-supporting mystery by a Source so unimaginably vast that the Universe just giggles every time we state "By God! This is the Way It Happened!"

*Real True Christians as out-lined in Slacktivist.
**Muslims, Jews, and Pagans, respectively (pardon me while I omit the other 90 kabillion recognized faiths of the world)
***Absolutely Everything in the Universe

Where does it go, this time....under the carpet?

I've been thinking, oh, it's just been a week or two since I posted...and yet the comments are off on my last post, which means that it's been over a month. Yes, indeedy, over 30 days, y'all. I'm a slacker of the nth degree.

Of course one might assume that slacking in posting means righteous activity in other areas.

*long blink*

One might assume many things. I would be the last person to stop you.

I've been playing mostly computer games and re-reading Harry Potter from the beginning. I have the first five books in the UK version and I need to order the last two to complete my set. At some point, I'd like to the get the first five in hardback, too. I prefer the UK versions, even though they end up costing me a bit more--pounds to dollars and shipping; I order them from Amazon.uk. Here's your Brit-slang trivia quiz for today. What are the following things called in the US: Skip, Alice band, fringe, pudding.*

I've actually had a number of things I wanted to write about, but at 1:40 AM after having spent hours reading the comments on one of Slacktivist's posts, I'm a bit ragged 'round the edges and can't remember what I had for breakfast, let alone what I wanted to write about all week.  I suppose I really should take to carrying a small spiral and pen with me everywhere...I have these ideas, super ideas...and then POOF! Artichokes.

This, then, is a kind of placeholder...I know, I know, I said the same thing over a month ago, but I will try to do better. Right now it's almost 2 in the morning (dang you, Fred and the fredbots!) and my artichokes are tired!

*A dumpster, head band, bangs, and dessert. :)