Friend of a Friend

This is how i feel today

2009-02-06T10:44:00.002-05:00

sick of sick

2009-01-30T13:32:00.002-05:00

I was wiped out sick since Sunday. My life has been a hazy blur of watery waking and fitful dreams. I slept for 12 hour stretches followed by a couple of lazy hours I spent awake on the couch watching bad cable movies and Malcolm in the middle, I ate a fistfuls of potato chips, and passed out again. I took Air Shield and tried to drink water, blew my nose, peed a lot, and slept some more. So to answer that question as to whether or not i got any sleep, yes, sleep took revenge on me like a woman scorned and showed me who was boss! Darn sleep!

Sleep and my lack thereof

2009-01-21T12:15:00.001-05:00

I don't know why I can't sleep lately, I t could be my upcoming joint show or that the idea of sleep is repugnant to me that my body rejects the idea all together. I don't feel so bad but I look like shit. There is just some much to do and everything takes more time than anticipated.

I finally finished adding my slide player to my website. It wasn't difficult to do it was just all of these little thing kept being messed up. For instance, I decided to add a title page in front of each section of pictures but didn't notice the insert option that would have made it easy. What I did messed up the spacing there were all these gray lines showing. It also hid the words and the controller. So I fixed that and then noticed the black in picture was lighter then the black in the background on some of them. So I had to go in and change that, however even after fixing the picture in Photoshop and saving back to Flash it would change or went back to an even older picture I had up loaded with a colorful background… so I had erase a bunch of slides re-upload them, resize them, add the words again …etc. After all that it still looks crappy to me. The controls don't line up the way I want them to; the auto play only plays through ½ the images…I guess other then that I like it. It is just so hard to make a creative website that doesn't look like everyone else's and not pay a lot of money. I should just get light box and be done with it but I am bored of it.

It's too busy at work today and Bobby is out so I have to so the mail and shit. I have some much to do for the sow yet! I am getting nervous.

Yoga

2009-01-15T11:30:00.006-05:00

I took a Vinyasa class with my pal Danielle, last night. I was told Vinyasa is like cold Bikram, so I thought no problem! Yo, that shit is hard! It really works out your back and arms; they do headstands, backbends, and shit! I am in pain! The instructor was much nicer and more encouraging then Bikram instructors (who are drill sergeants). Afterwards I didn’t feel as great as I do when I take Bikram and I am much sorer.

I wish being in Bikram didn’t feel like being in hell! It feels so good afterwards, but the 90 minutes are the longest minutes ever.

(First diagram shows Bikram poses the second shows Vinyasa)

Monday

2009-01-12T16:19:00.005-05:00

One extra hour and I will be free again. Sitting here at my desk the morning craziness has died down and time is growing noticeable. There are so many things I wonder about, but not one of them is apparent to me now. So I sit here idly searching for something fill up my last hour. I don’t feel like reading or drawing or shopping or writing really … So I will make a picture list:

I just watched a documentary on HST, it nearly brought me to tears.

I finshed all the punk rope pictures and began working on my pictures of Enid from Christmas.

I bought this coat today. I like it!

Ursula is out sick today so I am staying late.

2009-01-09T18:08:00.004-05:00

It's looks blue here but in reality and hopefully on my card it will be a pinkish color. I don't like it so much in this hue, but they were only $18 so if they suck I still have time to get new ones!

Three Minutes

2009-01-08T22:06:00.000-05:00

As soon as you got to the corner and as you were crossing the street, just when you began retelling the story in your mind, you see him. He is a 60something looking guy who was probably only 48, but has lived hard. He was wearing a ski cap, his Hispanic skin was something other then a healthy brown tone, it was in fact ashen and wrinkled, and he had whiskers sticking out of his chin like, Poopdeck Pappy, bright white. He was pushing a blue shopping basket, like the one your grandmother had only hers was red and narrower.

Just as you were deciding whether or not he was homeless or just borderline homeless, you could see him stumbling. He went down kind of slow and you noticed that he almost seemed to propel himself forward, when he could have probably stopped himself from falling over into the gutter completely. It was like he gave up as soon as he tripped and let the momentum have its way with him. You find that you don’t want to get too close to the man, you worry that he purposely flipped himself over to gain your sympathy, when you bent over to give him a hand he’d mug you, and Suzie would get run over by a car.

Still you can’t just leave him there. No one else is around, in a city where every fucking person is up your ass, until you want them to be. You ask if he is ok and he slowly rises nodding his head and saying yes. You wait until he is on his feet. He says thank you as you turn towards your door. That makes you feel guilty for thinking he was going to rob you, not guilty enough to turn around though.

Losing steam

2008-12-18T08:24:00.003-05:00

I have been a bad blogger, it's been a bit crazy around here with MD reviews and I got FB back for a few days on the DL but it gave my computer so much mal-ware it hardly ran. I don't know why it happens it here and doesn't at home (knock on wood), I had not up/down/all around/loaded anything! OH well.

I am going to post an article later on called "A boy named Hitler" so tune back in later today.

The passion of Wood

2008-12-11T11:51:00.004-05:00

I am zoning out, things look contrasty & pixely when my eyes relax, in that way you are supposed to relax your vision so you can see the hidden pictures in those magic eye books, that drove me crazy, because as soon I relaxed enough to start seeing anything I became aware of my soft focus and in trying to consciously hold on to it, I would lose it. There is a metaphor about relationships in there.

I wanted to talk about my new found respect for Woodrow Wilson, about how I misjudged him, branded him a cold fish, how when I was hot in the summer time I would visualize Wilson to cool off. I thought him a a pious, self righteous, rigid, austere, phlegmatic, iceberg of a man. Boy was I wrong, sure that was his façade, but inside Wilson was a passionate man. Many people would be shocked to learn just how passionate he was about, women, god, the League of Nations. Just a month after his first wife died, he proposed to another woman because he was so damn passionate! She turned him down but that didn’t quench his concupiscent heart.

But that will have to wait for another day for I fear I couldn’t do him justice today. 2 and ½ hours just aint enough sleep, much to my chagrin.

Blahhhh

2008-12-09T15:23:00.001-05:00

I feel like poop today. I hope I am not getting sick.
Still no facebook here at work, and I am losing hope faster than a cow at a slaughter house, that it will ever return. Today is one those days where I could really use its no attention span pretty pictures approach to life. But alas…they took it from me.
Shit I am supposed to pics out 10 photos for my show by tomorrow, I better email Alison. I am going to be in a group show in January, btw.

Tree-rific

2008-12-08T23:46:00.006-05:00

The champagne in the champagne punch was about $85 a bottle but we spared no expense for our annual tree trimming party. Fun was had by all, esp. the two little Jew girls (myself and Merryl) who, deprived of decorating pine trees as children, really enjoyed the hell out of doing it now.

With BFF's like Tom...

2008-12-03T11:58:00.004-05:00

Tom Cruise is to merge his family with Victoria and David Beckham’s in a special ceremony.
Cruise proposed to the Beckham’s that they make their BFF-ness official – to show the world how much they mean to him,Cruise asked that the Beckham’s have a commitment ceremony, during which the families vow to be brothers and sisters and exchange heartfelt speeches - at his wife Katie Holmes’ New York town house.

The gesture serves as a Thanksgiving present from Tom - who has gotten creepier and creepier through the years.

A mole close to both families slipped us a copy of Tom’s first draft of the vow he will recite at the ceremony.

‘I Tom Cruises, take Victoria and David Beckham to be my Thetan brother and sister in the name of L Ron Hubbard.
To travel with them in essence to our home planet and in our next lives
To fight against the evils of Xenu in their honor. Today and from this day forward.
Cruises and Beckhams BFF!’

X-mas is high tailing it this year..

2008-12-01T14:39:00.003-05:00

I can't believe Thanksgiving is over already. It's now on to our annual tree trimming party and that's Saturday! The speed of time is progressing rapidly...time is such a crazy thing. We are or at least I am affected by everything that happens but at the same time isolated in the moment.

I start yoga Wednesday, I am a bit freaked out. Alison & I are doing this 30 day Bikram yoga challenge and I have never done Bikram before (it is 90 minutes in a room that is 110 degrees).

I hope i don't faint, if I can stick it out it is supposed to make you feel amazingly healthy and energized.

Yawning

2008-12-01T12:21:00.003-05:00

Looking up why we yawn is like looking up the meaning of the. Vague at best. I get that it has something to do with oxygen, but what?

The theory is that yawning helps us bring more oxygen into the blood and move more carbon dioxide out of the blood. Sounds logical, but studies have shown that breathing more oxygen does not decrease yawning. Likewise, breathing more carbon dioxide does not increase yawning.

I yawn mostly when I am tired, sometimes I get uncontrollable yawn fits, they make my eyes run and drain my body of energy. Why? No one knows, for sure. What’s up with that shit? They can split an atom, clone a sheep, and invent a cell phone that hears a song and can take you to the i-store store, where for .99 it will play it for you! All this and still no one knows why we fucking yawn, how to cure the common cold, or why we need to sleep and how to create a machine that simulates 8 hours in 10 minutes?!?! Why? Because some rich philanthropist has a family member who has hydrocephalus, so they hire a B-list comedian to represent the cause and paints his mural on the side of a building in Sheepshead Bay!!! But I digress. I guess, much like the female orgasm, no one really cares that much about yawning, and so it remains one of life’s little mysteries.

On a side note about yawning, studies show contagious yawning appears to involve the very human trait of emotional empathy. Humans, uniquely, are able to imagine what someone else is thinking or feeling, therefore when they see someone yawn they yawn too. Consequently, people who do not contagiously yawn are usually autistic, schizophrenic, or psychotic.

Lacuna

2008-11-25T14:45:00.008-05:00

Emma hadn’t thought about that night for a long time now, but then she caught sight of Rudy on the train. She hid herself behind some fellow passengers and remembered. Her boyfriend, Charles, was out late at some kind of meeting; so they hungrily agreed to meet at her apartment. Rudy had this conservative façade, but was really tormented by contradictions, he liked to piss people off, but at the same time, when he liked, you or wanted something from you, he was whatever you wanted him to be. Inwardly they were the same, but ostensibly she stood to the left.

Rudy and his wife had just moved to NYC when she met him. Charles and Rudy were close friends once and Rudy was eager to be close again. He hung around all the time to the point of annoyance. But eventually Emma and Charles grew used to him and began to enjoy his omnipresence. Emma was also flattered by Rudy’s growing infatuation with her. Especially since her relationship with Charles hadn’t weathered their recent tragedies well. Rudy’s puerile affections were a nice diversion, for both of them, from the unpleasant realties in their daily lives. Rudy told his wife that Charles and Emma were his ‘best friends’ and time passed.

Such as all imbalanced relationships go, such as everything in life goes really, things could not stay the same. So Rudy and Emma began to have an affair, it was all consuming and destructive, but so were they. It went undiscovered for three weeks. The night they were caught started off as usual for these sinful lovers. They were at her apartment downing alcohol and chain smoking; sex was not an act they committed sober. That night Emma only had a drink or two before she began to feel nauseas. Maybe she skipped lunch, whatever the case, she suddenly dismounted Rudy and ran, to the bathroom. Rudy followed her and started fucking her from behind, her head still over the toilet, her lips still connected to the water by strings of mucus like hot glue. This seemed somehow okay, life had ripped down all of Emma’s notions that compassion was really anyone’s motivation. In fact it was the perfect crescendo because …suddenly the door handle was shaking and they knew there was no way they could possibly escape. Rudy pulled out of her and cowered behind the door. Emma put her head between her legs and waited for all hell to break lose.

The weird part was Rudy wouldn’t leave, even though Charles asked him, even implored him to several times. Rudy stayed and answered all of Charles questions about the affair. Rudy even told Charles things he didn’t ask about, details that were unnecessary and cruel.

Emma wondered for a long time after why Rudy had betrayed her, and purposely taunted his so called best friend. She hurt her boyfriend as he hurt her, but neither had wronged him. Rudy couldn't even say why, when she asked him about it later.

That morning he slunk back home into the warm open arms of his safe wife, she got him hot chocolate, and held him tight. Soon he thought he was a big man, he got away with it, and because he did it actually made him more self righteous about the affair. That provincial, constipated, coward, dipped his toes into the ocean and now thought he could control the sea. Often Emma wanted tell his wife, just to knock him down a few pegs.

The three of them tried to be big about the situation and remain friends, it was futile. Years later on the train, hiding behind the commuters, Emma realized how little it mattered to her now. That horrible day she thought would linger forever, had evaporated so slowly she didn't even notice it had gone.

In Lieu of FB...

2008-11-24T11:35:00.001-05:00

Still no facebook! My hope that it will return is fading as fast as the likely hood of a kidnapped child returning after 72 hours. I am trying to keep my mind off of it; I just finished our annual tree trimming Christmas party invite and now I am searching for things I want to for Christmas so as to compile a list for Josh to shop from. It was his idea, but it's too hard. I don’t know what I want. I am torn between sweaters, camera accessories, and saving up to go on a European vacation, aka instant gratification vs. bigger picture.

I am meeting up with Micky for lunch soon, but first I have to train the temp who is filling in for Ursula this week. Training temp flashbacks are evoking uneasiness, but if nothing else it will remind me how good I have it with Ursula, as annoying, loud, and anal as she can be, she is still my little German workhorse.

I am looking forward to being off Thursday and Friday.

Rob & Jackie took us all out to dinner on Saturday at this really good restaurant in the West Village called Jane. It was really scrumptious. On Saturday morning Josh & I took them to brunch at Pete’s Tavern (it reminded them of an English pub). I actually miss them. They were the most considerate house and enjoyable house guests. Plus there were unstoppable, on the go all day and night soaking in as much as they could. They invited us to visit them in London. Since they are both retired principals they explained how their schedules were wide open, so if we find cheap tickets we are so there. Funny how things turn out sometimes. They left before we woke up on Sunday, leaving behind a lovely note of thanks, a bottle of red wine, and a box of fancy chocolates.

Yesterday my step brother Jason brought his new girlfriend by. They make a lovely couple. They stayed for quite a long time too.

He and his girlfriend were late arriving to our place because they were having a leisurely lunch at the Olive Garden. About an hour into our deeply enriching visit Micky and said we were off to sushi when Jason brazenly invited himself along.

Didn’t you just eat!?!?, I nervously inquired.

Yes, but he just want to hang out some more. As lovely as that sounded we were meeting friends who had made reservations at the busiest sushi place in all of Manhattan.

Josh and Suzie luckily got the pleasure of Peter and Jason’s vaudevillian type antics and was able to tell me all about it when I got home.

Now I shall get back to editing my story.

2008-11-21T12:00:00.003-05:00

I keep rereading my story and there is something not right about its flow. It’s a good concept but I just…don’t know…perhaps I shouldn’t be reading Portnoy’s Complaint while trying to write this, I think over lunch I will read a few Bukowski shorts.

Of course Jackie and Robert (no longer strangers) are wonderful. They just adore Josh (he is quite charming) we all talked for hours and they took us out to eat. I feel bad about not wanting them to stay, but I must be true to that law I declared,

“Zelda's Law: “As soon as you stop worrying about something it usually happens, chances of it occurring triple if you say it out loud.”

Example: Jenny auditioned for Cats, she thinks to herself 'I did really well'. She most likely will not get the part.

BTW: Still no Facebook!

If she tells her friend Mary "I rocked the audition, I think I am going to play Tabby the trash cat." Her chances of getting the part decrease by 3 times the original amount she had against her just by thinking it.” (ZB-June 4, 2008)

Uneasy

2008-11-20T14:37:00.004-05:00

Not only is facebook not working, possibly blocked forever, but we are having house guests tonight. They are friend's of my brother's wife's father, don't ask how they came to be staying at my place, for those of you who know me know. They are in from England for a few months and decided to cap off their American adventure by coming to NYC. The most unsettling part is that I have no idea what they expect. Do they have plans or are they gonna be parked in my couch for 4 days? They're 60 and it's fucking cold outside. This just sucks and to top it off as they leave my brother arrives. It would be better if we had another room to hang out in, but the living room is really it. 11 days of visitors....

Well, instead of rereading my FF I worked on photos. I will get on that now.

NOOOOOOOOOOO

2008-11-20T12:09:00.005-05:00

Facebook is being blocked at my office. Some dumb asses downloaded an application that was really a virus so we all have to suffer! They just had to have the super duper, extra special, ultra hug application!

Since I have no inspiration, for a new comic right now and what is the point of working on pictures in subpar Gimp if I can’t upload them here anyway!? I wrote a flash fiction story. I am not sure how I feel about it, it’s been a while since I have written anything, and the topic is bit heavy. Josh said I should reread it after lunch and decide whether or not to post it. So I will. Until then here are pics I can’t post on Facebook.

The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks

2008-11-12T15:42:00.005-05:00

refers to a circus fire and is the title of- until now- an unpublished work co-authored by Jack Kerouac and William S Burroughs, based on actual events involving the murder of David Kammerer by one of their own, Lucien Carr.

Click here to read an article about the book and actual events.

I can't wait to read it. New York in the 1940's/50's sounds so fucking cool. I had such a crush on Kerouac when I was in college, I read most of his books back to back. Soon I found it hard to distinguish his world from mine.

Anyhow I gotta run, but Carr is really interesting character too. You should read the article.

Rain Rant # 10,669

2008-11-08T14:40:00.003-05:00

It rained most of the week, trying to be positive, I thought with all this weekday precipitation surly it will be sunny by Saturday, but here it is Saturday and it's still raining. It's supposed to rain tomorrow too. I am ready for it to end. It's depressing already. It just reminds that moving to Portland is just a pipe dream. The rain & I enjoy each other, but only in small doses.

This isn't really a rant now that I think about it. Okay, here I go, since I don't feel like renaming this entry here my rant; fuck this i hate the rain it always ruins everything. Why hasn't anyone invented a machine that can control the rain! I know we need it but not this much of it. With said rain control machine (RCM) the rain would fall only were is it is needed and only until whatever needed it was sated.

C'mon people I am giving you gold here!!!!

Sleep Rant #4,855

2008-11-07T12:25:00.002-05:00

I feel so spacey I guess I am just tired and in denial about it! Fuck I hate sleeping, I don’t hate the act itself, I just wish it was optional or that we needed less. 8 hours a night is a huge chunk of your life. I know I have bitched about this before, but since the last time I complained there have been no new advances in artificial sleep technology (AST). You’d think other people would be on this, richer people, smarter people, more motivated people; the kind who get shit done. Even 7, even 6 hours of sleep per night… just too much!!!! Then on top of that, get this, you have to go to sleep the same time every night to reap total benefits from sleep. WTF? So it’s like you can’t even stay up till 4 on Friday and Saturday because you will pay for it all week. AND you can't make up sleep, so if you only get 4 hours of sleep a night for 3 nights, then you sleep 20 hours the next day to make up for it, you feel even worse! I just would think humans would be on it by now. It seems like it would be a profitable idea, if people were up more they would spend more money and so on. Plus think of how wealthy the company that manufactured this product would be????

Just under the wire- My Ode to Sarah Palin

2008-11-04T21:53:00.010-05:00

Click on any image to see a larger version.

Some images need to be seen large to experience all the nuances

Park Pics-Madison Park

2008-10-30T17:52:00.003-04:00

Flash Fiction Monster Story by Lisa Kramer & Josh Koehn

2008-10-29T10:20:00.003-04:00

Marty tossed the bag of charred fingertips he fished out the dumpster over his shoulder. They weren’t worth dealing with the cops over. There was no reward for fingertips and with his luck he’s somehow get accused of snipping them off or worse. Marty suddenly heard a scuffle from the very bottom of the dumpster, he was used to dealing with rats but the fingers had put him on edge. He pushed further in, slowly, to find something not quite animal but not quite human. It was Tom Cruise, or at least it looked exactly like, him only he had circuits and wires poking out of his chest. Marty didn’t stick around to figure things out, he ran as fast as he could down the alley never even seeing the garbage truck turning the corner, he was struck from the front, feeling no pain.

He awoke in a dark room, as his eyes adjusted he saw the Tom Cruise machine lying next to him.

“You are finally awake,” he heard someone say in a deep gravely voice.

“I thought you’d never wake up.”

Marty tried to speak but he couldn’t. He felt like he was in some horrible dream, the kind where you scream but nothing comes out. He began to panic. He thrashed about only then realizing he was tied down. A bony set of hands went to work on his right arm pushing a needle into it. He began to feel his conscience sway and soon passed out.

When Marty opened his eyes next he was back in the alley where this crazy day all began. His head hurt and his eyes were having a hard time staying focused. Was it all just a dream or some bad dumpster meat? Marty worried he would soon wake up still strapped to that table. Then he felt a sharp pain shoot through his left arm. He pulled up his shirt sleeve and saw that he was more machine then man! He found he could easily bend an iron pipe, or crush anything in his path!

He was beginning to piece it all together, Tom Cruise’s fame, Scientology’s power, and how Sarah Jessica Parker became a sex symbol.

‘What do they want with me?’ he wondered, but wonder quickly gave way to panic. Why didn’t they just kill him when he discovered their dirty secret?

Marty hightailed it out of the dank alley and slipped into the nearest coffee shop. Once inside he fumbled through his pants pockets and to his surprise Marty managed to fish out $3.62 in various coins, enough to get a black coffee and oatmeal raisin cookie.

After he sated is newly chiseled stomach, Marty realized it didn’t matter why or when, they were going to come for him. He couldn’t bear the thought of playing the sitting duck; he had too much time on his mechanical hands. The paranoia would set in and he’d go mad. Marty had no choice; he had to run and hide, like a stalked hare in a hungry, cold, gluttonous, village, one that couldn’t afford beef or wool and liked to hunt.

Guess who sent me this?

2008-10-28T08:49:00.008-04:00

So I sent this one back

Omni bathroom self love

2008-10-27T23:21:00.000-04:00

Just Right NYC

2008-10-22T21:57:00.005-04:00

Pagan's Sukkot

2008-10-20T18:04:00.005-04:00

Tonight we are having a bastardized Sukkot celebration. Merryl is a Jew that never went to Hebrew school and I am a Hebrew school drop out, so when she came to me with the idea of having a Sukkot party, I thought I might as well put all those wasted years to good use. Besides Sukkot is really a celebration of the harvest, autumn solstice. Most of our friends are Goys (non Jews), so we thought we could do whatever we wanted they won't know the difference anyway. Goys think Jews are cool and exotic, mystical even. This is our chance to shine! We can make them do whatever we want!!! I can't wait.

FYI: A bit about Sukkot- The holiday commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert. Sukkot is also a harvest festival.

In honor of the children of Israel in the wilderness, people dwell or at least eat their meals in temporary shelters. This shelter is called a sukkah. The sukkah has at least three sides and a partially open roof covered with greenery. Part of the fun of sukkot is decorating the sukkah with fruits and, in the United States, autumn vegetables like corn and squash.

Another observance during Sukkot involves what are known as The Four Species or the lulav and etrog. The lulav consists of a palm branch, a myrtle branch, and a willow branch bound together. The etrog is a citrus fruit native to Israel and is held separately. With these four species in hand, one recites a blessing and waives the species in all six directions (east, south, west, north, up and down). We substituted the lulav with a celery stalk and the etrog with a lemon.

Another View

2008-10-20T17:46:00.002-04:00

On the Porch with Pan Hat

2008-10-17T21:16:00.003-04:00

Tompkins Sq park countinued

2008-10-15T23:23:00.003-04:00

Light headed

2008-10-15T08:44:00.008-04:00

The poison is leaking to my brain...must get last thought out...Ringo Starr you ungrateful bastard, why do you have to announce to the world you will be tossing out all your fan mail from now on??? Are times getting so tight that you can't afford to keep the staffer who's been reading and answering your fan mail for 45 year? And did you really need to be so graphic about what you are going to do with any fan mail you receive after October 20th? “I am going to spit into a jar from now until the 20th of October and pour it on the pile of adoring fan mail I receive posted mark after October 20th of course, then I am going to have a big Elax cake party and me & Eric Clapton are going to take loose, squirty shits on the pile. We’ll use the letters on the fringe to wipe our crap filled asses. After that I was thinking about maybe gang raping a nun on the pile, but I really haven't worked out all the details yet…I say this with love and peace in my heart, I love you all, I would take bullet for each and every one of you, but if you ever send me another piece of fan mail again I will come to your house and slit your throat, peace man! ”

Sick thumb!

2008-10-14T20:38:00.001-04:00

My thumb has an infected hang nail! :( It's amazing how much a thumb can hurt and how often it comes into contact with things.
A few summer's ago I got a really painful hang nail, so I thought. I even blogged about it, foolish child I was. That pain is like a message compared to this pernicious ouch causing thing! Oh to be young and foolish again...

Josh has impressed me yet again. He has not only written in his blog once but twice! And I think in consecutive days to boot!

Ursula is out sick, this means I am working all day tomorrow... pooh! I have gotten so spoiled.

Saturday I take my last teaching test, I should really study for it a little. I passed the last one in case I forgot to mention. Good times!

Friday in the Park

2008-10-14T00:26:00.006-04:00

She's comin'...

2008-10-09T11:39:00.003-04:00

There's so much...too much, she's awesome in her style, influence, and down home bein'! I can't just do the same ol' comic it's got to be a maverick strip worthy of her...so i am still piecing it together i will post it as soon as soon can be!

She's comin' she's coming she's comin'

2008-10-05T22:44:00.004-04:00

Here comes Sarah in control women dig her glasses and her gallant stroll...

She loves babies special needs babies, she loves babies but not aborted babies, she loves babies but not gay, Jewish, black, or unwed single mamma's babies....

She's comin', she's comin', she's comin'...

One of Many Angry Palin Rants I am sure

2008-10-03T09:27:00.007-04:00

I get so mad when I think about that debate, I don’t know if I even talk in complete sentences about her. I cannot believe that people think Palin did great, because she didn’t a make complete a fool out of herself again. I am sorry but a soccer playing, six-pack drinking, abstinence preaching, knocked up daughter having, beauty pageant runner upper is not who I want running the country if our President should die! The fact that ing doesn’t exist in her world makes me wonder when America became so dumbed down that it wants a six pack slugin’, soccer mom, who isn't quite sure she knows what the VP does, to be our VP?!?!? And do you think she mentioned energy enough? Because I am not sure she did. When asked about most things her answer went something like this, *“I want to talk about again my record on energy versus your ticket’s energy ticket also. I think that this is important to come back to with that energy policy plan again that was voted in ’05. When we talk about energy, we have to consider the need to do all that we can to allow this nation to become energy independent.” (*Actual quote) What????

She referred to the U.S. general in Afghanistan, twice, as “General McClellan,” his name is General David McKiernan (perhaps during her undoubtedly intense Pygmalion style training for this debate, they should have had flash cards with names and pictures of important military personnel). I have to admit she was very good and unapologetic when she blatantly did not answer questions that weren't in her notes and in stickin’ to her issues (energy and what the other soccer mom’s in Alaska think about while drinkin’ six-packs). Yet she came off as hardly more than McCain/Plain commercial, her answers were so rehearsed, and did she look at her notes much? GRRRRRRRRR she is an asshole, what is wrong with people, she an embarrassment!!!! Maverick much?

Nouns

2008-10-02T15:21:00.002-04:00

Extreme Dogs-Enid Ok

2008-10-02T11:59:00.003-04:00

Toys in Red Koney

2008-09-30T23:05:00.003-04:00

Jocelyn & Me

2008-09-30T10:40:00.002-04:00

We look so well adjusted in that picture.

Wedding # 2

2008-09-23T22:37:00.007-04:00

I am off to Oklahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain, and the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet,when the wind comes right behind the rain. Hattie is becoming Mrs. Bland, this is wedding two in our marathon of weddings, although most people our age have normal friends who marry at around 26-30. I am sure they go to way more weddings then one a month for 3 months. We have tired hard to cultivate the odd, non-marrying kind of friend and few of those to boot. So this is quite a lot of wedding for us.

Destination weddings are great though. Last year I went to Israel for a friend's wedding. This year Jocelyn got married in Montana and now ENID Oklahoma. Good times! Here is a retrospective of Hattie through the years.

World's oldest man has 113th birthday in Japan

2008-09-19T10:48:00.016-04:00

AP-Fri Sep 19, 2:58 AM ET

The world's oldest man celebrated his 113th birthday Thursday in southern Japan, telling reporters he wants to live another five years. Tomoji Tanabe, who was born Sept. 18, 1895, received birthday gifts, flowers, a six pack of Bengay and $1,000 cash from the mayor of his hometown of Miyakonojo, on Japan's southern island of Kyushu.

Tanabe told reporters he wants to live "another five years or so," according to city spokesman Akihide Yokoyama. That was a slight downgrade from last year, when he said he wanted to live "for infinity."

“I am 113 years old when I was 112 it was different, I get more tired now, I think 118 is respectable age to die,” Tanabe told reporters yesterday at his birthday celebration.

He also called the Mayor’s gift of $1,000 “cheap” saying that that although he remembers when $1,000 could buy him a new house and 10 “pretty, hardly used” whores, today it wouldn’t get him a new pair of orthopedic sneakers.

The former city land surveyor, who lives with his son and daughter-in-law, is in good health and sticks to the habits that have gotten him this far. He rises early and reads the newspaper each day, drinks milk every afternoon and eats regular meals. He also avoids alcohol and does not smoke, well at least tobacco, opium on the other hand he’s says is “mother’s milk,” and he feels it has played a large part in his longevity.

“Opium and a lot of wild sex,” Tanabe said.

The world's oldest person is 115-year-old Edna Parker, who was born on April 20, 1893, and lives in a nursing home in Indiana.

“I will outlive that bitch, if it’s the last thing I do,” Tanabe spit at reporters when they asked him what he thought of Parker.

Speaking of BenGay, did you know...

Akwardness

2008-09-19T10:48:00.011-04:00

Josh as paparazzi hounded rock star

2008-09-17T11:20:00.001-04:00

Whachoo lookin' at?

2008-09-16T20:20:00.004-04:00

Important service announcement for women-fixed

2008-09-15T11:15:00.014-04:00

How to Tell if a Guy Is Cheating

Here are the surprising signs a dude is being unfaithful
By Holly Shitt

1. He’s superprotective of his gadgets. “The main way that trysts are found out is through the discovery of incriminating e-mails, IM chats, cell phone texts, or bills,” says Belisa Vranich, PsyD, a clinical psychologist in New York City. So if every time you are about to touch his Blackberry or IPhone, he punches you hard in the face or gut, that might be a sign cheating.

2. He steps up the grooming.“This is so obvious, but it’s a sign many women miss: If your man starts grooming down there without you requesting it, that could be an indication that he’s spending more time naked,” says Vranich. You can actually thank porn for this tip-off. Guys today are used to viewing manscaped dudes onscreen, so if he has another chick to impress with his sexual prowess, he may emulate those ultra-trimmed guys. Another clue: he shaves a letter into his pubs and it’s not the first letter of your name, he begins showering regularly, and/or he starts buying GQ.

3. He is secretive and spends more time out of the house. Even if he has legitimate excuses, like he claims one of your friends is throwing you a surprise party and he was helping, that’s why he has been whispering on the phone, really secretive, and staying out really late. Then he swears you to secrecy because, if she knew you knew, she’d be so upset that all the planning was for naught, but then the party never happens. So you ask him ‘where’s the party?’ and he says that the friend is hurting financially so she couldn’t afford it anymore and she figured since you didn’t know about it anyway, it wasn’t a big deal, but makes you promise you won’t tell her you know because she’d be mortified. "Don't believe his skanky lying mouth, he's a goddamn cheater," Vranich insists.

4. He smells different. “When he comes home, if he doesn’t smell the same as he did in the morning, he has a fishy pussy smell or he stinks like ass, but not in his ass, more like on his penis, fingers, or mouth,” warns Vranich. Also if you find different textured or colored pubic hair and/or scratch marks on his back that are not yours, as strange as it might sound these too can be signs he is cheating.

5. He doesn't seem jealous anymore. “He was jealous before, but now he suggests you wear a lower cut top when you go out drinking with your friends. Or when he walks into the bedroom and you are fucking the plumber, he simply backs up and shuts the door, but not before giving you a wink and a thumbs up sign. Oddly these are clues that he is cheating on you.”

Vranich adds that if he starts bring home single men your age from work and talking them up after they leave, he might want a divorce.

6. You find him in a compromising position. “If you see him having sex with a person other than yourself,” says Vranich. “You can bet your bottom dollar that he is cheating. No matter what excuse he might give, take it from me, he is a cheating sack of shit, shoot him! I know a great attorney.”

There are a lot of Virgos

2008-09-12T15:14:00.003-04:00

I am working on the Virgo Toga Party invite here's what I have so far...what an eclectic group!

I've been upgraded

2008-09-09T10:12:00.003-04:00

I got a new computer today and no matter how much of it is transferred over it’s never the same. I have spent this morning trying to make my new computer act like my old computer, which I have succeeded in, as much as I could, but still I am forced to learn new places for things that were just fine where they were. It almost seems like technology is designed now and days to keep the general public occupied relearning MS word and excel every couple of years when they are forced to “upgrade”.

Like facebook, I don’t like the new version. What’s the point? It looks mostly the same, but things are in all differently places and other things are randomly huge. Oh well I guess it keeps you sharp. At least that is what they say. They say doing crossword puzzles, reading, learning something new, and /or thinking hard in general is good for your brain. Sounds logical.

The best quote from the movie Avenger; “it’s better to have your enemy in your tent pissing out, then it is to have him outside the tent pissing in.” –Sam Elliot as Calvin Dexter

Josh and I made up our own Deterisms;

“It’s better to eat the candle on the birthday cake then it is to eat the candle off the birthday cake.”- Josh
“It is better to pick your ass in the woods then it is to have the woods pick your ass in your pants.”- Lisa

Wild West Zelda

2008-09-05T09:39:00.007-04:00

My father came over for dinner last night, to collect on my promise of mounds of mashed potatoes as far as the eye can see...He and Di (actually Di, but since he chose to marry her everything Di does for me is thanks to him) watched Suzie while we were in Montana. They brought her home yesterday. Oddly, my father bonded with Suzie and threatened to keep her, much to Josh’s delight.

We showed my dad & Di some of our trip pictures. My father was most surprised about the pictures of me on a horse. I am a city girl, in a city where wild life consists of rats and squirrels, but I think I looked natural on a horse and even though I have to admit I was not feeling countrified when my horse descended a steep mountainside at full speed, but it wasn’t so bad when were on flatter ground. Anyway, here I am with Tracker the horse. What do y’all (that is country speak for "you all") think?

A Palin Scorned

2008-09-03T15:18:00.001-04:00

Sarah Palin’s a bitch! Back as Mayor of Wasilla, Palin was nearly recalled, for firing the Police Chief and Library Director for not supporting her in her 1996 race for Mayor. Yes, that's right. Hack n' Sack Sarah didn't even try to hide it. She fired them for "not fully supporting her efforts to govern" (not endorsing her for Mayor). This on the heels of the investigation into her abuse of power as Governor, firing the Public Safety Commissioner when he wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in-law, lied about pressuring the guy to do so, and then showed keen judgment by replacing him with someone who had to resign in two weeks because of sexual harassment problems.

If McCain is elected she has a good chance of becoming President too, since he would be the oldest President ever elected, chances are higher then usual he might croak while in office. Personally I don’t want a President who will hold my lack of support for her party against me! Grow up Palin, maybe if you watched your daughter instead of throwing a hissy fit, because someone dumped your sister and chose not to vote for you, she wouldn’t be an unwed pregnant teen.

Back East

2008-09-03T11:45:00.005-04:00

The Republican VP pick is so funny, she's all pro-life, yet premarital sex seems to be cool with God in Alaska. Hey it is really cold, you can’t blame an environmentally conscious junior Palin for finding an alternative heat source. I hope she loses him the election, but knowing the GOP they will win, because eight years of GWB has made us a stupider country. I bet if the whole country took an IQ test 8 years ago and then took another test today the scores would be 12% lower.

Montana was great! The sky is obscene! I went horse back riding and bruised my ass checks! Jake & Jocelyn’s wedding was perfect. And even though it wasn’t my idea to play Hava Nagilah, being the only Jew, I got all the credit. The gentiles loved it we even put Jocelyn in a chair and carried her around a little. Nobody had ever heard Hava Nagilah before! It was great; they were also really shocked that I was Jewish. It was fun to say “oh I filed my horns down before the wedding,” and have people stare, silently searching my face for a smile, before laughing uneasily. They were really nice though, it’s not their faults Jews don’t move to Montana. We like to be near the water; it makes it easier to flee if we have to!

Here are some pics I will post more soon.

Think about it...

2008-08-25T18:05:00.003-04:00

"I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world."

"The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry."

"It has become almost a cliche to remark that nobody boasts of ignorance of literature, but it is socially acceptable to boast ignorance of science and proudly claim incompetence in mathematics."

-Richard Dawkins

Spoiled

2008-08-25T15:22:00.003-04:00

I said I would work late tonight since Ursula had to go on an unexpected trip to Florida. It seemed like a good idea at the time, some extra dough and since it is so slow this month I could work on something like a new comic or whatnot. Well now that the time is here I don't feel like staying at all! I have so much to do before leaving for Montana. I can't believe how things just creep up on a person. And I am not at all inspired by any one or thing in the news...Montana looks pretty, it will so nice to get away, there is too much sickness and death surrounding A&M. I just heard, after lunch, that an MD's son died suddenly over the weekend, he was 22. And about two weeks ago I found out that a 25 year old who works in Admin had a misdiagnosed brain tumor. She is doing well with radiation, but still!!!

My dad and Di are watching Suzie (my dog) while I am in Helena, I am sure that's going cause my dad to complain for years to come.

AST-W

2008-08-25T12:06:00.002-04:00

I couldn’t tell you how I did on the AST-W for sure (it was a four hour test, but I finished in three, is that a good sign, I can’t remember). I nailed the essay but the multiple choice part gave me a headache. First off there is so much rhetoric and bullshit. They try to trick you by putting two correct answers, but one is more correct, according to the practice test guide they posted on the DOE website. Hopefully the majority of the answers I picked were more correct answer.

After that I was walking home minding my own business when who do I see…Juan Valdez and his mule! I had to get my picture taken with him. So I waited in line with baited breath. He was a man of few words, but his eyes spoke volumes.

Pictures from Rasha's Memorial

2008-08-25T01:58:00.004-04:00

The rest of the images are posted at picasa

Nodding off at the front desk...

2008-08-22T09:14:00.006-04:00

I am oddly, incredibly tired this morning. No particular reason I can think of, but I can't keep my eyes open or a thought focused in my head. It sucks too because today is one of those rare days where the phone is quiet and the people are sparse. I could get so, much done up here, like studying for my ATS-W test (which some how creeped up on me and is suddenly tomorrow). I tried doing jumping jacks because Josh said that they would get the blood flowing, but now I think he was just fucking with me. It seemed like a good idea until one of the MD's passed by mid jack. He didn't say anything, but if looks could be translated into words his said "what the fuck you crazy bitch?!?"

While I am trying to dust off my slumber read this:

"A friend, an intelligent lapsed Jew who observes the Sabbath for reasons of cultural solidarity, describes himself as a Tooth Fairy Agnostic. He will not call himself an atheist because it is in principle impossible to prove a negative. But "agnostic" on its own might suggest that he though God's existence or non-existence equally likely. In fact, though strictly agnostic about god, he considers God's existence no more probable than the Tooth Fairy's. Bertrand Russell used a hypothetical teapot in orbit about Mars for the same didactic purpose. You have to be agnostic about the teapot, but that doesn't mean you treat the likelihood of its existence as being on all fours with its non-existence. The list of things about which we strictly have to be agnostic doesn't stop at tooth fairies and celestial teapots. It is infinite. If you want to believe in a particular one of them -- teapots, unicorns, or tooth fairies, Thor or Yahweh -- the onus is on you to say why you believe in it. The onus is not on the rest of us to say why we do not. We who are atheists are also a-fairyists, a-teapotists, and a-unicornists, but we don't' have to bother saying so."-- Richard Dawkins, following a list of excerpts from hate mail sent to the editor of Freethought Today, after she won a separationist court battle, in "A Challenge To Atheists: Come Out of the Closet" (Free Inquiry, Summer, 2002)

Isn't he smurfy!?!

I have a crush…

2008-08-21T14:23:00.000-04:00

On Richard Dawkins

“Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labeled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful!" R.D. -Septemeber 2001

I picked up The God Delusion the other day at B&N and I always knew I like Richard Dawkins, but now I am in love.

5 Reasons you should love him too:

1. is a really smart guy

2. is an atheist

3. has his PHD from Oxford which gives him tons of creed, I have to admit I am turned on by intellectual prowess. Plus, he is a professor there too, who doesn't want to do an Oxford professor (your are only lying to yourself if you say you don't)

4. has a bloody cute British accent

5. believes Atheists can be happy, balanced, moral, and intellectually fulfilled and they should be proud, not apologetic, because atheism is evidence of a healthy, independent mind

Sorry Teri Garr, but I think I found a new bedroom poster. I will always love you but…it’s time.

"...isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" -Douglass Adams from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Velvet Bore Mine

2008-08-20T22:26:00.001-04:00

In order be less of a homebody, and see the people I care about more, I went to McCarran pool to see Blue Velvet, well much to my chagrin it turned out Blue Velvet was last week and this week’s film was actually The Velvet Goldmine. Not a movie I was interested in seeing, but I was there, the film was there, it just sort of happened. It cost me precious time and a little more respect for Christian Bale. This the second movie he’s been in, where I found my self thinking more oftern then not, 'when will this fucking movie have mercy on my soul and roll the credits?'

Yes, I could have left, but then I wouldn’t have been able to say with total unabashed certainty that, Velvet Goldmine SUCKED! It was an excuse for Todd Haynes [Molesting...I meant directing Jonathan Rhys Myers, left] and Michael Stipes (who co-produced this snore feast) to see a lot of hot boys making out and waving their cocks around. It was like soft core porn, with a good sound track, A-list actors, and full- frontal. It had this wanna be Citizen Cane thing going on (blatantly) except there was no mystery to solve, or maybe there was but I lost interested. The flashbacks got so convoluted I didn’t know who was having them anymore. In one scene Bale’s character has a flashback to a flashback that Toni Collette’s character had earlier. And Collette was having flashbacks to events she wasn’t even there for. Plus Collette, who is British, was supposed to be American; but half the time she had a British accent (which I hate, if you can’t do the accent don’t do it, but please don’t go in and out of it, thank you Helen Hunt!). It was so bad it made me want to assault people. Maybe that is why Bale beat up his Mum; perhaps he caught a scene on Showtime as he walking out the door.

Bottom line:By trying to encompass the lives of multiple characters and achieve a dream-like menagerie, "Velvet Goldmine" gets lost in it own confusion. Though it strives to be "Citizen Kane," it's only a glam-drenched, decadently, adorned toilet, that Orson Wells might have shat on while writing some of his masterful script.

In: J.Lo Out: Michael Phelps

2008-08-20T19:01:00.000-04:00

Poor Jennifer Lopez. The new mom is training for a triathlon, but everyone is too busy watching the Olympics to notice.

Lopez, who appeared on "Good Morning America" Aug. 18 to discuss her preparations for the Malibu Triathlon, was overheard saying after the segment that she “couldn’t understand why everyone is talking about that swimmer,” according to a GMA source. “She couldn’t come up with (eight-time gold-medal winner Michael) Phelps’ name, and then she yammered on about how she was the one training for a triathlon just six months after giving birth, and how that was the big story right now, not ‘the swimmer.’

“She said, ‘I am Jenny from the block, who the hell is he?’ and she was pissed!” a GMA insider told MSN.

Later we received part of the tape from GMA, sent anonymously. Apparently the camera never stops taping, even during commercials, however, the footage is not allowed to be aired or sold without all parties’ permission, an MSN rep was told when investigating the credibility of such a tape.

J.LO: I sing, I act, I dance, I grew up in da Bronx…on the block and I get a new mattress when ever I stay at hotel! Does that pussy swimmer do all dat? I didn’t think so, and I had two babies while training for a triathlon, that is three different sports not just swimming. It’s because I am a strong Latin American woman, dat’s why I don’t get the attention I deserve.

Lopez is planning on donating money raised for her race to the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

J.LO: I bet Mr. Swimming beauty is not donating his gold metals to sick children; he doesn’t even care about his fans. But Jenny from the block does, she remembers the little people! She remembers where she came from…the block!”

To help drum up attention, she started a blog to share tips on training. “Touch up makeup prior to your run” hasn’t made its way into any posts, despite Lopez being spotted arriving in Central Park with her makeup artist later in the day.

one funeral and three weddings

2008-08-19T11:40:00.000-04:00

This year has been full of death. My mom in November, Peggy in June, and Rasha in August. But for the rest of the year (or at least next three months) my life will be full of weddings, preferable but still a kind of a death, a death of something I can’t quite wrap myself around. It’s hard to think anything but ‘what’s that point’?!? A downer I know, but life is so conventional. I am tired of the rites and rituals that we deem civilized. Besides none of them will be as life affirming as Rasha’s funeral. And now that it’s over I feel kind of depressed. There’s nothing to work towards anymore, nothing I can do that would be extreme enough, everything is slow, and takes time and dedication, my mind is so fragmented! There is never enough time! How do people do it? Work, make art, take a class, and have a social life? I am such a proponent of prescription speed, I know it would be dangerous, but what isn’t, I would be so productive!

I am sure the weddings will be great and I will have fun and look pretty in my dresses, but it is hard to change modes, go from down to up (maybe it’s a gravity thing). I have to finish the pictures form the funeral so I can post them, but the sunlight was so bright, I have to fix a lot of them. I need a polarizing filter.

Rahsa's Memorial coverage

2008-08-18T09:20:00.000-04:00

This article appeared in print in the Sunday Agusut 17th edtion of the New York Times

Press Release/Memorial Service

2008-08-15T08:56:00.000-04:00

August 14, 2008
Rasha Shamoon: Celebrating a Life
Rasha Shamoon, 1976–2008
At about one a.m. on Tuesday, August 5, Rasha Shamoon, 31, received what would be fatal injuries when she was struck by an SUV while riding her bicycle home to Greenpoint, Brooklyn. When the paramedics arrived, she was not breathing. They revived her and transported her to the hospital.
For the next several days, her friends and family gathered at New York Presbyterian/Cornell Medical Center and waited for news. She never regained consciousness. On Saturday, August 9, Rasha was declared brain dead. On Monday, August 11, she was removed from life support after many of her organs went to help other people.

In the days since then, an amazing force has come together to honor Rasha and the deeplove of life she embodied. Her many, many friends have all worked tirelessly with herpartner, Josue Cedeño, also a longtime resident of Greenpoint, and with their families to put together a celebration of Rasha’s life in her community. We are having a New Orleans-style parade and wake that we have put together for this Saturday, August 16, 2008. The Hungry March Band will play the processionfrom St. Anthony–St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Greenpoint to Coco 66 at 66 Greenpoint Ave. Rasha’s family and friends will come together to celebrate her life and the love we all have for her.

Rasha was a special person, and the love and concern that have surrounded her and her partner and family since she was first struck by the car are not surprising. She was born inBaghdad, Iraq, on September 1, 1976, to an Iraqi Catholic family. The Shamoons emigrated in 1978, going first to the United Kingdom. They lived in Edinburgh, Scotland,for a year and Coventry, England, until April 1982, when they immigrated to the UnitedStates, living first in El Cajon, California. They moved to Massapequa Park, New York,on Long Island, in 1985.

Rasha graduated from Massapequa High School in 1994. She attended James Madison University, in Harrisonburg, Va., where she earned a dual bachelor's degree in biology and psychology in 1998. She moved to New York City, living first in Manhattan, then the Bronx, before she and Josue came to Greenpoint in 2003.

In 2004, Rasha earned her first master’s degree, in biology from Hunter College of theCity University of New York. In May 2008 she earned another master’s in psychology(mental health counseling) from Brooklyn College. She was also a popular instructor of biology and human anatomy at LaGuardia Community College, Pace University, and Hunter College. The Department of Psychology at Brooklyn College and the Brooklyn College Foundation are establishing the Rasha Shamoon Memorial Scholarship to honor Rasha’s dedication, intelligence, and spirit.

Rasha was very active in the Greenpoint YMCA, where she and Josue were soon to receive their black belts in shotokan karate from Sensei Brian Singh. Rasha was a talented musician who played bass guitar and drums in several bands in New York City, most recently Quick Release. Rasha and Josue were also members of Transportation Alternatives and Times Up, progressive cycling organizations in New York City. She rode in several citywide bicycling events, including the Transportation Alternatives Century, a hundred-mile ride around the five boroughs.

She is survived by her partner, Josue Cedeño, a business analyst for Citi, of Greenpoint,Brooklyn; her mother, Samira Shamoon, a retired homemaker and social worker, and her father, Dr. Adel Shamoon, a retired orthopedic surgeon, both of Marion, Massachusetts;her sister Dr. Suhair Shamoon, a dentist of Marion, Massachusetts; and her sister and brother-in-law Dr. Saba Shamoon-Michaud, a pediatrician, and Dr. Jeff Michaud, an OB/GYN, and their children, Mira Cristina Michaud, 7, and Joel Shamoon Michaud, 5,of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.

-Mike Haskell

_________________________________________

A Celebration of Rasha's Life

St. Anthony-St. Alphonsus Catholic Church862 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222 US
Saturday, August 16, 11:00AM
This celebration and tribute will be an all-day event at multiple locations. Please join us in saluting our beloved Rasha.

Date: Saturday, August 16th from 11 am onward
Host: Josue Cedeno, 917-664-6672

Saturday's Schedule:
11 am: Catholic Funeral Mass at St. Anthony-St. Alphonsus Catholic Church
Location: 862 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222

11:45 am: New Orleans-Style Jazz Parade with the Hungry March Band
Click here for map/route

In case you can't view the link, the procession walks from church south on Manhattan Avenue to Noble St., then to West St. and north to Greenpoint Ave., ending at the wake location, Coco 66.

12:15 pm: Arrive at Coco 66 for wake celebration:
Location: 66 Greenpoint Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11222

At the wake there will be presentations, readings, live music, speeches, reminiscences and food and drink. Coco 66 will run a cash bar, and we will have snacks. Full meals from the menu will be available from the restaurant next door.Please contact Josh Koehn, the emcee, ASAP at celebraterasha@yahoo.com if you would like to speak, sing, or perform at the wake. If you would like to write something for Josh to read, he will be happy to do so.Please bring:Brightly colored umbrellas and scarves for the New Orleans-style parade and any printed pictures of Rasha that we will add to a large collage at Coco 66. We will also have some extra umbrellas and scarves available.

Condolences for Josue Cedeno and the Shamoon family can be sent to:Josue Cedeno146 Freeman St./Apt. 2-RBrooklyn, NY 11222Josue asks that any memorial donations in Rasha's honor be made to Transportation Alternatives. Use this link to their support page and please ask that a notification be made to Josue at josuecedeno@yahoo.com.

Thank you,

Alison Domzalski

I miss you Rasha

2008-08-13T09:35:00.000-04:00

September 1, 1976-August 9, 2008

Void

2008-08-07T10:29:00.000-04:00

A close friend of Josh & mine got hit by a car yesterday. She is now brain dead. She is gone but still there. I can’t believe it. She lived with such a zeal for life and experiences. She loved her friends sincerely. She got or was about to get her black belt in karate, she just finished her second masters. Her first was in biology her second was in sociology. She drew and painted, played bas and the drums, she was good at everything she tried. She was so opened I never felt judged or embarrassed when I shared some of my insanity with her, in fact I believe it made her love me more. When I think about her family’s anguish about what her boyfriend of 8 years is going through I get sick. Her mother reminded me so much of my grandmother yesterday (my grandmother lost her son and you could see it in her face always).

There is so much pain in this life, so much random inequity. Life is all about learning to lose things. If we live long enough we lose control of our bladder, our minds, our independence. I have always felt like I didn’t quiet belong here, not like I am an alien, but when I was really young 4/5, I was convinced everyone was hiding something from me. I thought they took another form when I left the room, like they became furry monsters (I guess Sesame Street shaped my reality then). I wasn’t scared of them I just felt left out, like I was the only person in the world that didn’t change. I used to try and sneak up on people, to expose their ruse, but they were too quick. Anyway, I have a point and although this will sound self absorbed, pointless, and not what one is supposed to take away from these tragedies, I feel like I should have died instead. If there had to be one less person in the world why take someone who loved to live so much, why not take someone who just sees deterioration? Yes life is not fair we all learn that one way or the other.

When my mom died in November I felt imbued with purpose. I missed her and still do but I felt like life was short and I needed to try and make mine better. Now I just feel angry and closed off. Like I want to go live in a padded room and be as isolated as I feel, no joy no pain. It’s kind of Zen really. If I replace padded room and medication for green forest and meditation people would think it was a good thing.

I know I will feel better in awhile and maybe inspired by her lust for life. I just don’t right now.

Straight Talk 2

2008-08-05T08:41:00.000-04:00

Grrrr

2008-08-04T21:19:00.000-04:00

Blogger won't let me post my comic, it keeps saying internal error!

According to that sad lonely lady, Jewish lightning is when an owner sets their house or business on fire to collect the insurance money. My father, looking ready to bite this woman's head off, actually remained calm long enough to hear about her fucked up life. By then he was too interested to alienate her. Besides whoever thinks of a Jew committing insurance fraud? I can see if she said cheap Jew or small dicked hairy stingy Jew, but a Jewish arsonist insurance frauder ...that's just silly. It's like saying sober Irish or abortion pushing Catholic conservative.

The Dark Knight sucked!!!

2008-08-04T11:33:00.002-04:00

Was Batman’s voice too deep? No he just talked too much. Since when did the mysterious, dark, brooding batman become such a chatter box? And who edited this prolix picture? It was like someone started to edit it, but then they got bored, so s/he stopped. There was no pay off at the end, except that is was over. Heath Ledger was fine as the joker, but geezus he people think he is second coming of Christ because he OD afterwards. Just thinking about the movie makes me both angry and sleepy so I will just say; my father (who abhors corny feel good films and musicals) said he wished he had gone to see Momma Mia instead.

My father had these thoughts on the Dark Night; he said Rachel was a slut because she kissed two men in the same movie, he wanted Batman to die, he felt Morgan Freedman under used; he thought way too many people knew Bruce Wayne was Batman so he shouldn’t even bother hiding his identity, and he almost cried when the Joker burnt all that money!

I know this is going to be an unpopular position to take but who wants to be popular with people that genuinely enjoyed that movie? Not me!

Aside from that I had a nice time upstate, my father took me to eat at the Lobster Pier, this seafood restaurant we used got to with my mom. We got there and found it didn't open for about 40 more minutes. This odd woman told us if we got out of the car she would knock on the back door and they would let us in early, I could already tell she was lonely and wanted to talk to us. Over the the next 40 minutes we learned what Jewish Lightning was, all about her daughter who either was killed by her abusive boyfriend or killed herself, about both her husbands, and her son who had a drug problem.

I will elaborate on the Jewish lightening comment, but after lunch, because Ursula will be in soon and she is all encompassing. Also I am finished with my new comic strip but I sent it to myself in the wrong format. Either Josh will figure out how to send it to me at work or I will have to post it later tonight.

A new comic strip coming soon...

2008-07-31T15:55:00.001-04:00

Can you guess who this political figure is?

Sorry for the change sudden change

2008-07-31T10:50:00.000-04:00

I know change is scary but sometimes it can be fun too. Thanks for coming along.