This Is Halloween

the 2011 Halloween Display

Time for VODAK!

It's Friday night, everybody, Vodak time. Actually dinner time for Tom, then Vodak and a blanket, because for the next 36 hours, it's Winter in Houston. Wheeee

Exciting opportunity for Graphic Designer!!

Wow, it's so sad to see someone offer $2-$5 an hour for an "experienced graphic designer". It's actually sadder to see how many people are willing to go that low. I'm pretty sure I can make more money collecting cans.

sickened

I can't write much about this without sinking into hopeless depression.


The police action on the peaceful non violent OWS protests has darkened my view of this country and our future. AS is the glee with which many Republicans view the injuries and pretend that somehow these kids with face paint are some great threat to our union, and the gun-toting tea party is our savior.


Every day my respect for my Conservative friends diminishes as they choose to mock the cause and laugh when people are hurt, or just say "they were asking for it".


It's deeply sickening and I really have no hope for the future of the United States citizens. WE are locked into the downward spiral, but that is not the worst part of it. The WORST PART is that about half the population seems to believe, or at least supports candidates who believe:

• No one is poor unless they are lazy.
• Asking for oversight of banks is asking for a free handout; banks are your buddies.
• Veterans of the Armed Services deserve to be beaten if they participate in the protests.
• If one guy is wearing a goofy costume, it invalidates the view of the thousands who aren't. Unless you are talking about the tea party, then painting your face with a flag and dressing up as the Staue of Liberty is patriotism.
• Free speech yes, as long as you stay in your damn house.

Just because you are not mad at the banks, just because you think everything wrong is Clinton and Obama's fault, even if you still are driving around with a W bumper sticker..


This is wrong, un American and horrifying. If you don't speak out against it - shame on you.

Not Much Really

So how did I spend so much time posting my thoughts at Facebook? I don't have a dang thing to say here. How about an update on life without Facebook?


My vacation from Facebook is not permanent, I am simply experimenting to see if avoiding it helps cut back on my mood swings. So far, YES, IT DOES. I have been watching the same pages I used to post on, and seeing the same things but not responding allows me to forget the irritation or trigger fairly quickly. So it doesn't get under my skin, I don't spend any time regretting posts, or formulating arguments in my head. This is indeed helpful.


It's a side effect of being jobless. When I am re-employed, no doubt I can Facebook without letting it become so "important" to my disposition. But as my only source of less-than-surface human interaction 6 days out of 7, it was helping me lose it, lately.


I am "missing out" on photos and drawings shared by friends and family. I look at them and so want to comment, and don't, unwilling to break my own rule so soon. However, if I can learn to be more like sis and niece - post an occasional picture, joke, link - and very little "serious" content, just fun - Facebook will be more of what it originally was for me. A fun place to be funny.


Today is a good day for 3 reasons:

http://bites.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/24/8467559-7-crazy-gut-busters-for-national-greasy-foods-day

BIOPHILIA streaming on Spotify

Wow, I was unimpressed with Bjork's Biophilia album (live show a whole nother story - it's a package deal) but holy cow "Mutual Core" is the Bjork I love. You can listen to the whole album on Spotify. Please do!!


http://bjork.com/#/past/discography/biophilia

red Jack

VODAK! 10-21-11

Welcome to the new home of VODAK!! Every Friday near dark!


click to enlarge!

The Almost Compleat Jack

Wow. He is very pleasing to look at. I will work on lighting after dark. He is not really fully done - the weight of the arms prevented me from raising them high, and though this positioning looks good, too tempting for tiny tots who want to grab his hand.


This really will make my house stand out.. eh?


as always - click any image for larger version and slideshow

Is Facebook Making Us the Krell?

A follow up on my decision to see if not participating in Facebook will help keep me less prone to despair. These thoughts ran through my head last night so why not use them?
I was sad to "lose" the comments, posts and wit of dozens of truly fine people, and was beating myself up, "Why!? Now you have no humans left in your life!!"
But the why is simple - every day for I don't know how long, I have been having terrible lapses of mood and been really really overwrought. I traced it back to a half dozen or so triggers, and within those, FB kept cropping up.

• Post a rant or wail, and make a relative or friend worry about me, and then feel like crap for being such a whiner and making people sad.
• Read a post that makes me sick to my stomach by someone I know as humane, thoughtful and kind. Reel in Horror at the thought that so many nice people can be okay with murdering illegal immigrants, telling the poor they just aren't working hard enough. Get depressed over the fact that humanity is by nature cruel and selfish.
• Overreact to a right wing post and offend someone, or get caught in a never ending circle jerk of thoughtless parroting. Waste hours and gain despair arguing with people who are only interested in arguing, not discussing.

Now, there have been great moments. Sheri's AC. Vodak. JP, Leslie, Paula, Irene.. I won't name you all. BUT..
It's changed. It's as if I found, a few years back, a really cool diner to hang out at where I had a lot in common with the other patrons and we had cool discussions and fun and laughed and made each other feel good. Then, the word started to spread, and a bunch of strangers started hanging out there. They'd take the good seats, and in loud voices, annoy the regulars, abuse the staff, and fart a lot. They leap up from their table and insert themselves into your conversation to tell you you are full of shit. They have loud, obnoxious conversations on their cell phone. The diner is no longer so much fun, as there are now a whole lot of assholes in the joint and you can't keep them out.


Uh, TOM, you mentioned the Krell? Remember?


I am getting there.


Many of my friends know the movie Forbidden Planet by heart. The ID MONSTER. For my sci-fi hating family, I will elaborate: The Krell was an advanced race that at the height of their existence, built a massive machine to "free themselves from physicality", to be able to will things into existence. A Utopia.
What the Krell did not count on was the primal portions of our brains, the "mindless primitive" that we all tamp down to fit into a society. The part that fears, hates, seeks revenge, on primal triggers. If you are an introspective sort you know your mindless primitive and keep it chained up deep in your mind. But when you dream, the cage often unlocks. In their dreams, the Krell destroyed themselves expressing their rage and jealousy and fear.
Morbius fell into the same trap. His conscious mind knew killing people was not an appropriate reaction to worrying about his daughter falling in love. But at night? His Id Monster, with the endless power of the Krell machinery, went on a rampage of selfish destruction.


See?

If Facebook isn't the Krell machinery, it's too close for comfort. Massive power, no responsibility, no accountability, pervasive. We have surrendered our physical interraction for the many positive aspects of cyberspace friendships. But many, myself included, find that the brakes and cautions we exercise in actual social situations disappear in Facebook, and the result is a whole lot of ugly going on. Cruel attacks and abusive reactions that would never fly in the real world.


If I was dining with friends and talking about, oh, say, OWS, there's little chance someone I do not know would get up from his table, walk over, sit down and tell us we are all full of shit and need to get a grip and calm down or we'll have a heart attack. Either because they are participating in society, don't know if we are carrying concealed or are too lazy to walk over. But I guarantee you, they would not behave the way they do in Facebook.


So that's my analogy. Freed from personal, instant, physical reaction to bullshit, plenty of people now spew bullshit without a second's consideration. The mindless primitive gets equal airtime with the thoughtful sage. The one screaming the loudest and typing the fastest takes center stage. You can't tell who is wearing the "911 truthers" shirt or masturbating to Palin. It would be easier to dismiss if you could.


Anyway,that's my thought today. Facebook is the Krell machinery, and may destroy us all. Perhaps an overreaction.


Come back later tonight for Vodak, won't you?

The Jack that Tom Built

All the pieces are together - somewhat loosely. The weight suggests I will need to fasten things more securely rather than make him extra posable. A light wind at this point would destroy him. So he looks great but not yet ready for prime time. Hopefully by tomorrow eve he will make his neighborhood debut.

The NEW home of Tom Stazer

My previous blog started as place to express anger and mutated into a place to spread joy. This left it with a really ugly, incoherent url and a loss of interest by yours truly. I am attempting to shake off Facebook and use my computer to bring value to the world instead of pain to my existence

THE PLAN is to use this space to post VODAKs, my weekly boozey in-joke. To let friends chat at me. To share the cartoons, art and photos that are what people really like about me. To create, not destroy.


Lofty goal - no chance at all of success, really!


Here's some scans from the personal archives