Machine @ MindSay 
We decided to go shopping before the zoo, my sister and I! What a great day we had planned. And it was going so well! Out of the six major Thrift World Stores in the Metro area of Omaha, we hit two. The two nicest ones with the Brand Name clothes! One on the Northwest side of Omaha and one on the Southeast side of Omaha near the Zoo.
What a great way to end our mini camping trip that just turned in to being a mini stay at my sister's house due to the varying weather that kept popping up! Instead of staying at the really nice free camp grounds we stayed at my sister's house for a few days, I wasn't going to chance being caught near a big man made lake that had extermly high levels near the banks of the camp ground!
Anyway, after a GREAT haul of a summer woredrobe for both kids from two different thrift shops and then treating the kids to lunch, we headed to Henery Dooley (sp?) Zoo for a nice afternoon. It started out great! We hit the Jungle, the Sea Lions, the Garden of Senses, the Cat House, part of the Avaiary, the Gorrila House, the Cat Complex, the feeding time for the smaller tropical birds, the Desert Dome, and the Giaraff House. With smaller enclousers along the way of course! Of course pictures are on here! Enjoy!
While we were just ouside of the New Butterfly House and the Aquareme deciding which one we were going to go in first before we started heading to the town were my van was sitting so the kids and I could head home and my sister and her kids could head home, we heard the tornado sirins go off! Now I know why so many ppl get killed in public places during storms! The tornado sirns go off and the majority of the Zoo visitors head for the Goddess Dayum parking lots! I kid you not! Well being country girls, my sister and I herd the kids to the aquarememe (sp?) house under the canapoy and bust out our cell phones. Each of us respectively calling our hubby's, asking them why the hell neither one of them called to tell us there was a storm system heading straight at Omaha! We informed both of them that we were heading for the storm shelters in the Fish house and we would call once the storm passed. Then we hearded the kids towards one of the Zoo Workers holding a door open to the basement of the complex leading to the exective offices and we were one of the first groups down.
There were a few other ppl down there already but what we found the most funny out of this was that everyone single person down there including us, were NOT from Omaha persay but from the surrounding communities and areas! We are NOT fools! While the main secruity guy was telling us and the few zoo workers what the plan was, he was getting reports from the weather radio and the few of us that stopped and made calls. Then he asked us to sit tight, while he and his other crew went outside to go round up the rest of the Zoo visitors and get them inside various zoo complexes till the storm passed.
We had a couple of upset kids of course, my daughter being one of them, and a lot of upset ppl, including ball players that stuck around after the College World Series before they went home. Those of us from the midwest were laughing and joking and calming the kids down. We kept telling everyone that we are in one of the safest buildings and don't worry about the animals they know what to do and the zoo workers were making sure they were safe also. Once all the zoo workers got in the main secruity guy came back in to our basement and said it was pitch black out and winds up to 90-100 miles per hour and they would not know if a tornado hit till after it was clear out. The lights did go out and thankfull the generator kicked on right away.
After we got the okay to clear out and leave the zoo, we got some pictures of the damage done in side the zoo. Down trees and one of the heavy glass safety entrance doors to the Wild Kingdom Palliviallion was completely blown off and laid gently down in front of the Pavillion! I missed that picture! There was hail everywhere! We had to make our way out of the Eastern Side of Omaha back towards the I-10 exit so we could head to Freemont NE which is an hour Northeast of Omaha, where my van was sitting! Damage everywhere! While driving the news said, the Art Festival got hit hard downtown Omaha, there was a boat taken off of a dock in the Missiouri and was dropped on the roof of a house, trees blocking roads, and down electrical poles all over Omaha downtown/metro area! We stopped on the outskirts of town to feed the kids and the Taco Johns we hit had running TVS. The area heading to Fremont NE was hit hard also and a semi rig was entangled in electrical wires! Cars of the road, rigs off the road, and major damage. This system worked its way into IA and massive damage and two killed on the IA side.
We got detoured outside of a town between Omaha and Fremont due to massive damage and accidents. Where I got a phone call from Randy when he got home. My dog Spud died during the day yesterday! Randy was upset and of course the kids and I were very upset also, but we also knew the dog was going to end up dying on us. Spud was the dog with the unknown seizures. At first Randy thought he somehow choked while he was outside on the chain but when he went up to examine Spud, there was plenty of slack in the chain and the collar would have slipped right off of his neck (we made sure that it could slip off if he was caught up when running or on the chain if something would have happened). The way Spud was laying and his facial features, you could tell he had a massive siezure. So trying to find our way on back country roads and county paved hiways we didn't know to get back into Fremont, we had upset kids and nobody was out directing the traffic. My sister and I again being country girls said fuck it and got on a country road and started heading towards the sun because Northwest was where we wanted to head. We picked up a truck in front of us from our home area just a different county and he had the same idea. We got rerouted via the roads with no help from anyone due to big trees, silos, fencing, and other debries in the mushy gravel roads! A normal 1 hour drive from Omaha to Fremont took 2 hours!
Once we got to a lil town Southeast of Fremont which would have been the quickest route we got denied by a State Trooper directing traffic. Nobody was allowed into town where a small lake was surrounded wiht houses and such due to the damage! They weren't letting anyone through not even family members of the town or land owners with no houses. Ambulances and Fire trucks were all over the town and two of the rural fire trucks were making their way towards the other road leading to Fremont. We just turned around and followed the fire trucks into Fremont. Finally! Fremont NE had no major damage. Some trees down and some windows broken but no major damage. Then we pull up into the truck stop where we left my van. I got a lovely suprise! My rear windsheild was blown out or a rock got kicked up in the storm! I have no rear windshield now! Nothing was stolen. But everything was glass covered clear up to the front seat and everything was water logged! Thank GODS I had what ever paperwork I did have in there in sacks and covered up! My Leadership Manual alone would have cost me 100 some dollars to replace if it got water logged or damaged somehow!
So I called Randy yet again and told him we FINALLY made it into Fremont but I would be still a lot later because we had to clean up the glass and find places for the kdis to sit with out getting cut up! Thankfull we were able to pull a couple of the pillows from underneith my tent that dind't have glass on it and give those to the kids to sit on. My sister handed over one of her towels so I could sit on it while driving. And then we rearrange the back so none of my Thrift shop finds, my tents, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, or other camping gear would go flying out for my hour drive home! I ended up pulling over twice on the way home to rearrange my back but FINALLY my normal two hour drive ended up being a 4 hour and 45 minute drive and we made it home at 8:45pm. where we promptly unloaded the van and shop vaccued it out so I could get some plastic on the windshield due to more storms coming this weekend.
After we got that done, we gave Spud my Fat Man Dog a burial worthy of a King. See we couldn't bury him. The ground is too wet and his smell would draw the local wild dog pack and the local coyote pack. Not to mention all the other wild critters int he area. So we took my lovely burn pile Randy made up for me this weekend and gave Spud a Funeral Pry. We didn't want any other anmals digging him up and eating on him. Randy loaded him on the bonfire and I threw some sage, cedar chips, and sweet grass all over Spud and we said a lil blessing for him and said our goodbyes.
Now today, I get to call his old family and inform them that he is gone. I am doing laundry from the back of my van and going to take the kids down to my girl's house because they are still stressed from last night. A lil fun down at Aunties house and coming home about the time Daddy gets home from work will do them good.
Now I am off to throw another sleeping bag into the wash! Pictures to come after this post!
Rage Against the Machine “Take the power back”
Bring that shit in! Uggh!
Yeah, the movement's in motion with mass militant poetry
Now check this out...uggh!
In the right light, study becomes insight
But the system that dissed us
Teaches us to read and right
So called facts are fraud
They want us to allege and pledge
And bow down to their God
Lost the culture, the culture lost
Spun our minds and through time
Ignorance has taken over
Yo, we gotta take the power back!
Bam! Here's the plan
Motherfuck Uncle Sam
Step back, I know who I am
Raise up your ear, I'll drop the style and clear
It's the beats and the lyrics they fear
The rage is relentless
We need a movement with a quickness
You are the witness of change
And to counteract
We gotta take the power back
Yeah, we gotta take the power back
Come on, come on!
We gotta take the power back
The present curriculum
I put my fist in 'em
Eurocentric every last one of 'em
See right through the red, white and blue disguise
With lecture I puncture the structure of lies
Installed in our minds and attempting
To hold us back
We've got to take it back
Holes in our spirit causin' tears and fears
One-sided stories for years and years and years
I'm inferior? Who's inferior?
Yeah, we need to check the interior
Of the system that cares about only one culture
And that is why
We gotta take the power back
Yeah, we gotta take the power back
Come on, come on!
We gotta take the power back
Hey yo check, we're gonna have to break it, break it,
break it down
Awww shit!
Uggh!
And like this...uggh!
Come on, yeah! Bring it back the other way!
The teacher stands in front of the class
But the lesson plan he can't recall
The student's eyes don't perceive the lies
Bouncing off every fucking wall
His composure is well kept
I guess he fears playing the fool
The complacent students sit and listen to some of that Bullshit that he learned in school
Europe ain't my rope to swing on
Can't learn a thing from it
Yet we hang from it
Gotta get it, gotta get it together then
Like the motherfuckin' weathermen
To expose and close the doors on those who try
To strangle and mangle the truth
'Cause the circle of hatred continues unless we react
We gotta take the power back
Yeah, we gotta take the power back
Come on, come on!
We gotta take the power back
No more lies (repeated)
Yeah!
Take it back y'all
Take it back, a-take it back
A-take it back y'all, come on!
Take it back y'all
Take it back, a-take it back
A-take it back y'all, come on!
Oh Machine, Machine
I washed it for you...
What shall I type today? What great concepts will I delve into and astonish all who read by the depth of my understanding on the subject that I have presented herein?
And the light bulb has been illuminated and shall shine upon the whole of my existence for I have uncovered the subject of this entry by just typing stuff without a purpose or direction. It is a subject that my new boss has discovered about me though I have tried to keep it from sight - the fact that I can understand machinery, and this understanding is something that I cannot deny, I cannot turn it off, I cannot make it stop - it just is and I can do nothing but accept this fact...
Maybe this fact stems from when I was young and I received a great deal of enjoyment out of disassembling everything I possible I could and using all the accumulated parts to make other things. But it may go deeper than that, it may be something in my genetic make up that first manifested itself in the form of my problem as a youth and now manifests itself in the fact that I understand machinery, mechanical processes, hardware, gadgets, gizmos. I know what they do and what they are capable of though there are times when I have wish that I did not possess this ability for I wish that one day a company would hire me for any of my other abilities, but the only ones who wish to pay me a wage are those who wish to use the fact that I know who machines function...
Alas, I suppose that this is a blessing and a curse, and being that it is part of my nature, I do not have any choice but to accept this fact even if I wished that others did not know that I possess such a skill, but others know and they call me and ask me if I would like to be part of their team so that this ability could make them money of which I would receive a small percentage on a regular basis...
And my joints are lubricated with grease, my hydraulics keep my fluids pumping, the motors move me about, the pneumatics keep the air flowing, the CPU keeps me writing all this that few will understand, and yet I continue to tell the world all that I have within my brain, and stranger still is the fact that no one asks me to stop - they just allow me to ramble on and on like some lunatic whose world is far different than most. And maybe I have gone insane and I am too crazy to realize that the reality I perceive is not my actual reality, but rather it is a product of my psychosis...
Now there is an interesting concept, how would I know if this reality is real or if the reality I perceive is actually the ravings to a lunatic institutionalize his own protection? Which leads to the question of what is reality and how do I know if I have ever experienced it?
And now that I have overloaded the CPU, it will shutdown for sometime. Thank you all for stopping by and now I shall bid you adieu so that I may reboot my system...
This is the Word of the AntiCrust...
Praise be ye who Read the Word for ye are Blessed amongst humans...
And sometimes machines...
The rage is relentless, we got move it with the quickest (Rage against the Machine. See right through their right white and blue disguise. Keep raging against the machine. To stand up with your fist in the air a “fuck the system” in your mind you have ascended to dissention. Feel good my friend because with out the critical awareness we would be lost in the comfortable, yet ignorant bliss of control, dominance, oppression, and be forever comatose to the world around us (See Orwell’s 1984). Our fist is not meant to be a weapon but we must protect ourselves. Raise your middle finger as an extension of your angst, turmoil, and relegation to slave. Yell from the top of your lungs and bottom of your “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me.” It is not out of pure hate, but anger. A distinction between the tow is critical. Anger is the natural emotion that we feel when we are discontent. Hate is the frustration of not being able to understand the system of oppression upon us or those that are different from us (See Sleeter and Grant, 1994 Ch.3 “Human Approaches” in Making choices for multicultural education).
We have become silenced slaves. We feel our tongue has been removed or that is no longer needed so long as we are fed and provided for (in equal or equitable terms in debatable). The use of our voice is not to communicate disdain but to request, wait fuck that, demand, take, and fight for our freedom (Paolo Freire in Pedagogy of the oppressed). Emancipation is the greatest gift of all. Perhaps you emancipate yourself through education or “momentarily” emancipate your mind through illicit potations. Nevertheless, an enlightened sense of self coupled with community is true elation, a momentarily lapse into what some may call “heaven” (not directly referring to Christian heaven but the metaphysical pane of stillness (Eckhart Tolle’s A new earth: awakening your life’s purpose), contentment in ecstasy, and libratory movement of the essential soul. I want to feel myself with my community as free and harmonious.
Freedom is not governmental it is individual, yet it is a state we try to obtain as a physical apparatus. The free mind can never be caged or imprisoned in such a way that the mind because dulled into a dreadfully declined state much like that moments before death. If we can free our minds (as cheesy as the Matrix movie was) then we will free ourselves. Yet, I would maintain that freedom is a balancing not an absolute gift to be obtained and forever known. We can break the body as well as the soul. When we have broken both we have left man (in oppression) with nothing more [to break] short of exterminating him.
How much can we talk about oppression, change, freedom, and revolution? How long can you maintain it?
Life will eat away at you if you have the burning inside cause by an enlightened understanding of what is and can be. I dream of a different. It is within my heart and my writing that I discuss these topics. People ask me why I do and don’t do certain things. As I will assert and have discussed, there must be a genuine cause. I do not support speculation or “preemptive” movements nor do I participate willingly in vain charity, sometimes deemed as radical movements. There must be an understanding and strategy outlined. That which we do in haste, masked as spontaneity, is often done without considerable thought of consequence. Being and living the pedagogy of humanity requires me to understand consequences and to practice/exercise embracing that rationality. Though quickness of thought and judgment are needed in certain times, wide spread or mass movements that seek to be popular rather than those that are purposeful are without true cause. We were meant to live for so much more…..but we lost ourselves (Switchfoot, Meant to live).
Antonio Garcia
Indiana University
agarciaj@indiana.edu
Yay! Thanks to my semi retired Daddy, I am making some money this week!
My hands are going to look like shit by the end of next Tuesday but by Bridget, I am going to have some ready cash!:D And not have to go to the bank to pull it!
My Daddy is a machinest. When I was younger his shop use to be small engines/machining and as I got older, he slowly phazed out the small engines because he couldn't lift the engines (lawn mower, dirt bikes/motor bikes, chain saws, tillers, and other things with small engines) the way he should because of his knees.
The last year or so my Daddy's buisness has picked up. He has never ran it the way he should have but that is a whole different story there. Well this week he picked up two BIG sharpening jobs (which is his bread and butter) from two different manufacturing companies. One that makes the expandable ladders for Fire Engine Trucks (I got to see the CO Springs Finished Truck in pictures before it was revealed in CO a few years back) and another company that I have no clue what they do. And at the same time he picked up some more crap for a HUGE on going job for a company that makes various agures. Well since the last job is on going, he needs the sharpening jobs out of the shop ASAP and he has been bugging me for a few years off and on to apprentice under him and maybe take over the family buisness. I just have no real want to do that but working for him occasionally is okay!
And that is exactly what I am doing this week and some of next week. Yesterday, I helped clean up his shop and got all the metal shavings swept up and out and then I learned how to sharpen drill bits. My Daddy didn't just set the grinder up but showed me how to do that and then showed me how to sharpen bits. It is hardern then it looks but it is a simple job if that makes since. Today, I am finishing out drill bits and then I am being moved to another grinder where I will be shown how to set that one up and then shown how to grind down the shafts for the argures to the proper deminsion.
My Dad isn't happy that I have to leave early today to get cleaned up and put "Mom" clothes on but he also understands that my kids will come first over any job be it for him or someone else. And I am only working a few hours on Friday also because Randy has a full day off. And we have to go pick some things up from the County Sheriff Department (I'll tell you about that later)
I am just happy that Bridget is with me all this week and next week to help me work with this metal! I am very happy to get out of hte house even if it is down to my folks' place to work for my Dad!
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