Michael Kindt's Blog, page 150
February 12, 2015
move west.
I want to. I want to move to Oregon to be closer to my son. Honestly. I wouldn’t live in Portland, but a much smaller town, as I am a small town boy, but I REALLY WANT TO!
My family is worried about me. They think my marriage went to hell and I'm living in a storage unit.
Just got a phone call, “We can get a spare bed and put it in that back bedroom. Jesus, Mike, why didn’t you call me?”
So, I need to make a statement: the events in the writing presented over the last few weeks above the quid infantes sumus tag ARE NOT CURRENTLY HAPPENING. If you click the link it will take you to the beginning of what I have so far posted. They are excerpts from my forthcoming new book. You will also see that I changed my name to Ned to protect the innocent.
But thank you for caring. Love you guys!
February 10, 2015
Just LOOK at this fucking pipe rack and tobacco cubby! My...
Just LOOK at this fucking pipe rack and tobacco cubby! My birthday’s coming up in April, and, as has been pointed out to me by several recent unfollowers, I am getting old. PM for my address so you know where to ship it. And thank you.
You love me. You really, really love me.
Brian Williams suspended for 6 months (and probably for good), and Jon Stewart leaving the Daily Show.
This is a terrible day for fake news.
Texas, which already allows teachers to carry firearms on school...
Texas, which already allows teachers to carry firearms on school grounds, is considering a bill that would allow them to kill students without repercussions.
Texas Republican Dan Flynn has introduced legislation that will allow teachers to use deadly force if they reasonably believe they are in danger. Bill 868, which is similar to Stand Your Ground legislation, states “An educator is justified in using force or deadly force on school property, on a school bus, or at a school sponsored event in defense of the educator’s person or in defense of the students at the school that employs the educator.” The bill also allows for force or deadly force to protect school property. Under the proposed legislation, teachers who use force or deadly force will be granted civil immunity, meaning they cannot be sued.
Texas has allowed teachers to carry guns since shortly after the Sandy Hook Massacre in Connecticut, which occurred in 2012. The intention of that legislation was to allow teachers the means, via guns, to defend themselves and their students against an armed intruder on school grounds. Bill 868’s intention is to allow those teachers to defend themselves or school property against the very students they have armed themselves to protect.
Upon first glance, the proposed law looks like it would be controversial. After all, what could possibly go wrong? But there appears to be widespread support for it, and among a surprising group: Texas teachers.
Bill Hudgens, a high school English teacher in Corpus Christi, said the bill will help him feel safe and will go a long way in restoring order to classrooms. “The bill is written in such a wonderfully vague way that I can simply ‘interpret’ an unruly student’s behavior as threatening. I mean, who’s to say what is reasonable? I wouldn’t want to do it a lot, but perhaps once at the beginning of every school year. I’m pretty sure it will guarantee a respectful, well-behaved, and focused student body for the remainder of the year.”
Caity Bryce, a middle school geography teacher in Amarillo, said she has felt threatened by students on numerous occasions throughout her eleven year career. At one point a student even stomped on her toe, ruining a pair of nearly new pumps. “This law will be a Godsend in such situations.”
Shantee Mills, an algebra teacher in Dallas, finds the proposed law not a little ironic. “They take spanking away from us, but give us guns. With these kids, though, guns are a necessity. I can’t tell you how many fantasies I’ve had about shooting the little bastards.”
Even teachers outside of Texas seem to echo their support. Holly Woods, a teacher in South Dakota, said from the 1994 Toyota Corolla where she lives with her boyfriend and four cats (South Dakota has the lowest teacher pay in the United States), “If we only had enough money for a gun or some gas, we’d totally move to Texas. I got into teaching because I wanted to help kids, but four years in all I can think about is killing them.”
Not everyone is sweet on Bill 868, however. Emily Scheisskopf, a recent graduate of a Tyler, Texas high school and a first year gender studies major at an eastern university, said the law is just another way for evil white males to kill beautiful, helpless minorities. “Even though it’s where I grew up, I hate Texas. It should just secede already. Conservatives are so racist and stupid and backward. Not like liberal, enlightened me. For example, every time I drive by homeless people in the car my parents pay for, I feel sorry for them. The homeless people, I mean, not my parents. Then, later, I’ll write a post about the tragedy of homelessness and capitalism on the internet because all it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.”
Representative Dan Flynn knows his bill will likely be a tough sell. “It’s going to need a better name than Bill 868, for one thing, something catchier. Initially, we were thinking of calling it the Post-Birth Abortion Law to get some left wingers on board, but then realized we’d only lose some right wingers. It’s going to be a fine line, but I think we can spin it.”
They were all in love with dying. They were doing it in Texas.
February 9, 2015
Beyonce is a finely tuned product,
run by a giant team of handlers, producers, songwriters, and stylists. There are 17 producers listed on her most recent album, for example. I don’t even know 17 people. She doesn’t take any artistic chances unless she’s programmed to, because it’s good for her brand—and…
Eh, Kanye’s alright. He can be a douchebag, though. Anybody with a big mouth and a lot of passion ends up being a douchebag a time or two a month.
I’ve listened to some of Beck’s album and I don’t think it’s his strongest work, and I never watch Beyonce without hitting MUTE and getting my Kleenex.
The difference between them, though, illustrates the difference between design and art. Beyonce is an artist in the same way that an Ipad or a really cool-lookin’ toaster is a piece of art. As in, not.
Beyonce is a finely tuned product,
run by a giant team of handlers, producers, songwriters, and stylists. There are 17 producers listed on her most recent album, for example. I don’t even know 17 people. She doesn’t take any artistic chances unless she’s programmed to, because it’s good for her brand—and being highly sexualized is not an artistic chance, but S.O.P. for 2014/15. Beck produced his own album, played all instruments on it, wrote all of the songs, and handled Kanye’s douchebaggery with class.
So it goes….
Mindfulness is being completely aware of the present moment, and your activity and emotion in that moment.
I learned this in a book called Buddhism for Dummies, which I forget how I acquired. I sold it at a yard sale we had two years ago. ‘Sold’ is not the right word. I was asking a quarter for it, but some guy tried to talk me down to a dime, so I gave him a buck to take the damn thing away. It’s amazing when you think about it, how eventually everything will turn into garbage. All the factories of the world, which are mostly in China these days, make one thing and one thing only: future garbage. Everything you own will one day be thrown away.
Driving to my first Storage Unit Inspection Appointment, I was experiencing the exact opposite of mindfulness. Everything that was happening was already over. The very present itself was a memory, a live-action memory. In fact, it felt like I wasn’t experiencing anything at all. I was just remembering it as it happened.
My first appointment was with Self Storage, clear out on the edge of town where they keep all the industrial shit. I already knew I wasn’t going to take it. I didn’t want to live clear out on the edge of town where they keep all the industrial shit. Plus, I was familiar with Self Storage, having driven by it several times before. The units were garage-sized, complete with roll-up garage doors. I didn’t want to live in a place where one whole wall was a door. I was still a chooser, damn it, not a beggar.
As I pulled in, I saw the blue truck I was supposed to look for about fifty yards away, but I didn’t drive over. Instead, I sat there a few feet in from the main road. I waved and watched as he waved back. He got out of the blue truck and stood there waiting. He was assuming I was the person I was, the person in need of a storage unit. I put the car in reverse, turned around, and drove away. I looked in my rear view mirror, trying to see him, but the angle was wrong. This disappointed me. I wanted to see him scratching his head.
My next Storage Unit Inspection Appointment was not for another hour, so I pulled over in a Burger King parking lot and stared out the window because there was nowhere to wait. If I had a place to go, I would have gone there and I would have waited. It was a strange feeling, having nowhere at all to go. I saw my car as a transportation device, not as a place, not as somewhere to be.
"Yeah, I’m just sittin’ around the car, wishing I was fucking dead."
I could smell the flame-broiled beef and it was good. I hadn’t eaten since around 2 AM Wednesday morning and it was now nearly noon on Thursday. The Burger King was swamped. I watched people coming and going, coming and going, watched as one car after another connected to the ass end of the drive-thru train. There were hundreds of people and they all looked the same to me. Each person is unique, they tell us, but if so, who are all those people in traffic jams? Each person has a unique genetic code, a life full of entirely unique experiences, so why are they all here doing the same thing? After lunch, they will go off and do pretty much what everyone else is going off and doing. They are feeding at the trough, like cattle, and moving in a herd. They live for a brief time, and as they live, they willingly follow one another to the slaughter without even the slightest stampede.
February 8, 2015
Precisely my situation.I can’t believe I voted for the...
Precisely my situation.
I can’t believe I voted for the eloquent windbag twice. What a dumbass I am.
