Au Canada

Greetings from the home of hockey, poutine, and all things maple leaf, eh!?!!

Well I made it. I did not think it would happen at one point but here I am. The entire thing was an adventure that MUST be documented for posterity. It has been a trial of my patience, a test of my resolve to accept the fate that I alone am responsible for, and a chance to get on with things back into a 'normal' life.

The over all details of my adventure will have to wait my return. I made it; the hard part is over for now.

Tips for Travelers to Canada

Tips for Travelers to Canada:

"Drunk Driving Driving under the influence of alcohol is a serious offense. Penalties are heavy, and any prior conviction (no matter how long ago or how minor the infraction) is cause for exclusion from Canada. A waiver of exclusion may be obtained from a Canadian consulate in the United States, but several weeks are required. There is a processing fee for the waiver. "

Umm... Huston we have a problem. Do they mean there or here or in general?

I went online to determine what the latest requirement for business travel to Canada is. The travel agency referred to a letter that I needed to carry with me, but I have never needed anything of the sort before and trust if I haven't been to the great white north (or south as the case may be) tonnes of times before without any documentation aside from my passport; which is itself overkill for Canada. I read the letter but was more confused than before so I went to the source and that is when I discovered an entirely new problem. Well suffice to say that this evening will be quite entertaining, between the rental car and this I had better not forget my "banana".

If possible I will update tonight, otherwise I hope to see ya'll soon.

speaking of dark light...

Q & A

In a recent interview I provided some insight into what becomes of a blogger and how they come up with the topic of their writings.

We met at a local retreat were I often hang out.

BLOGSPOT: So tell me about the name of you’re blog “The Darkness of Light” how did you come up with the name?

DL: Well it is rather simple and complex at the same time, and I suppose that is the point.

BLOGSPOT: What is the point?

DL: That it is many things. Simple and complex , everything and yet nothing. You see?

BLOGSPOT: Not quite but go on.

DL: Well. Take the title literally “The Darkness of Light” as though to imply that light could be dark, or at least have qualities to it that are dark. Once you start to take that apart and look at it in different ways you should see my point. But it doesn’t stop at the first level of what it really could be. Perhaps dark isn’t the absence of light, just as light isn’t a source of energy. Approach it from a different angle and darkness represents the absence of everything, not just light; and light is the collective of all being.

BLOGSPOT: Interesting. Could you not also interpret them to be the opposite of what they are?

DL: Yes, precisely. The darkness of light or the evil in good, or rather the bad in religion. But that is only a part of it. Darkness can be sad or depression as well. They are something of extreme opposites if you follow me?

BLOGSPOT: It’s different I’ll give you that. So tell me where do you get your inspiration?

DL: Again it is from everything and from nothing. The topic I choose for a given moment may not at first appear to have any relevance to the previous posts whatsoever. But a pattern is there almost imperceptible that ties them all together. I write of the day, comment on other happenings, and link to my own findings on the web. A sort of trail of bread crumbs that I leave behind.

BLOGSPOT: Did you get lost?

DL: Have you read the first half of this interview?!? Seriously though that is the point; it is a journal of where I have been, pointing to where I am going. The trail is my mark. It is provided for me to learn from my past and to allow others to discover my present. As I said from the beginning I do this as much for myself as I do for others. There will be times when only I will completely understand what is written, and there have been times when perhaps I was the last to comprehend what was going on. It represent of that I wish for and aspire to attain and allows me to realize that perhaps I already have what I am looking for and perhaps I do not know what I want.

BLOGSPOT: Well that is all that we have time for tonight but perhaps you will take time for more questions in the future?

DL: Sure. Drop me a line any time. I’ll do my best to enLighten you.

Detroit Represent!

Detroit surely showed them all a good time!

This past weekend delegates from the Detroit Regional Queers Union made visits to several outlaying metropolitan areas.

First up was:

Louisville, KY for Thunder over Louisville. Mr. Withipey, Skank, The Drug Twins, Kentucky’s sister-son, and a few new additions made their way onto the scene for a weekend of disco, drugs and debauchery. Early reports where there is a new bar on the tour “Q something” as it was foggily referred to, there was a Dumbo, aka “Rob” sighting, I wonder if he got to know the Detroit boys any better this year. Rumor has it he doesn’t have a gag reflex. I did not know that!

Columbus, OH - is next on the list with a random get away weekend by Mr. K-hole himself. Word on the street is he may have been looking to distract him self from thinking about our next group of delegates in:

Toronto, ON – An at the last minute trip put together by the pastor he and a “pretty” boy made a go of it. A* and Richie-Rich joined in the late (and do I mean late) evening. A* went to escape, because well what else… and Richie because his bo is now in;

Seattle, WA – Where she will tell you that nobody has a job, and rightfully so!

Canton, MI - Closer to home Bi-Polar Betty (BPB) and B-diggity celebrated BPB’s graduation from grad school with a degree in something or other. I begged off attending as I was tired from the work I did on the upstairs renovation project. Which leaves us with…

Bring it HOME - I did nothing. Exciting isn’t it? I suppose given everything else that is going on right now having too much of a good time may be asking for trouble but still it would have been nice. Nevertheless someday this too shall pass.

helpful hint for today

Try to avoid dropping a hot iron on the carpet to avoid damaging the carpet and bringing your morning ironing to an abrupt halt.

It is a GM thing!

Filling out the various and sundry forms and requests for access to the different applications that I need to use to do my job I have noticed the following set of questions.  Please tell me if you think someone is over paid too.

 

1. Street Address
2. City
3. State
4. Country (and trust if there isn’t a drop down with 200+ names)
5. Region (as if to imply that the specific State/Country combination has different locations on the globe)  I was half tempted to select Africa for grins…

 

They play a similar game with Job Title/Job Responsibility/Business Function/Job Level.  And they wonder why they are sucking wind financially?!?

 

Hello!?!

Any minute now...

Waiting for the pre-election campaign finance statement to print. I have to make certain that it prints completely cause well I'm not a morning person and well it just won't be pretty if I get up in the morning and the computer decided to f*ck me. I need to make a noon time rendez vous with my candidate so that he can sign off and then I get to deal with the County Clerks Office. My tax dollars hard at work I'm sure.

I hope to make some major progress on the upstairs this weekend. I'm so close I can taste it and had it not been for the filing deadline I probably would have been up there tonight, although certainly not this late. Or is it early now? At any rate, the dry wall is complete save for the half wall which we have decide will wait until after some of the larger pieces of furniture get placed. Not that they couldn't go up afterwards but heck this will be far easier and with any luck I won't have to think about bring the sh...tuff down any time soon.

Nothing too entertaining to report. Lately things have been humdrum due to my aforementioned circumstances. Bare with me, eh.

Earth Day: 22 April 2005

Happy Earth Day

Living Will

Living Will

I, _________________________ (fill in the blank), being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a beer, it should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day.

Under no circumstances shall the members of the Legislature enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the millions of Americans who aren't in a permanent coma.

Under no circumstances shall any politicians butt into this case. I don't care how many fundamentalist votes they're trying to scrounge for their run for the presidency in any future election. It is my wish that they play politics with someone else's life and leave me alone to die in peace.

I couldn't care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don't know these people, and I certainly haven't authorized them to preach and crusade on my behalf. They should mind their own damn business.

If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and haunt them until I make his or her existence a living hell, just like I did when I was alive and in close proximity to them.

random thoughts

I've only been at my new job a week and there are already little things that bug me. First is my co-worker. He is Indian or Pakistani or something of that like, and while I don’t have anything against foreign nationals or Hindi type peoples it bugs me that they, by and large, seem to completely lack the understanding of certain nuanced cultural norms here in the USA. I asked for help on an issue this afternoon, because as I was told he had more experience than most others in this particular matter, and therefore, would be logically the most appropriate source for information. Unfortunately he was only capable of telling me how to do it for his particular cases and was unable to explain why, or why not, a certain piece of information was needed. Further he was befuddled when I asked for further clarification as to what the rational behind some of his direction was. I surmise that he merely guessed and it has, heretofore, worked for him. Let’s hope it works for me. Secondly there is the matter of travel. My current situation requires that I provide prior notice of my intent to leave the state and so I have already do so with respect to a trial to be run at a supplier in Ontario. Unfortunately the aforementioned co-worker has taken the lead on scheduling and all last week did not provide a firm date, save that it would be the latter part of this week. Yesterday it was this Thursday and/or Friday. This afternoon it has been rescheduled to next week at a date to be determined. There is the issue of the location of the run – Concord, ON – which is part of metropolitan Toronto. In the e-mail, again from said co-worker, he stated outside of Windsor, a difference of more than two hundred miles. I could scream. Add to that the lack of a computer all last week, no access to voicemail yet and all major economic signs that lead me to believe I could be laid off any day and it isn’t the place to be. So yes auntie I am still looking.

Can't sleep

I can't sleep... Could be because I had a Mt. Dew at 4:30 this afternoon and the sugar and caffeine are still coursing through my veins. Could be because I didn't have my "banana" until 9 o'clock this evening; and while that may be the standard direction I have found that it is more effective for me to take it mid-afternoon. Maybe it is because my boyfriend is snoring away in the bed and nothing seems to disrupt his sleep - particularly when he took something for his allergies - and we all know how sound like that can keep me awake. Or perhaps it is everything that I am thing about, which of course would bring us back to the "banana" but still there seems to be an abundance of thoughts, ideas and otherwise unresolved issues to hash through.

I haven't updated about the weekend so perhaps I could do that and then share some thoughts to kill time.

Friday

Had dinner with my mother and sister. It was her birthday a week back and this was the first chance my sis had to host mom. She used the excuse that her car had been stolen and she now doesn't have one to request that mom drive out this way rather than the reverse. Not a bad move if you ask me; in the six plus years I've lived here in Royal Oak I believe she has been out her no more than six times. Where as I have been to their place six times in the last month. I guess I rather do like to drive so it is no sweat to me but still it is the thought.

A* decided to go out with friends to the MB he stumbled in around quarter to four in the morning.

Saturday

What I did do: Mr K and I went to the Fisher Building to do some shopping. After that we met up with my yenta and the three of us went to see the Heidelberg Project, shop at Easter Market, have lunch at Sinbad's on the river and stop in at Pewabic Pottery. All in all it was a busy afternoon. Next time I want to bring my camera along (of course that assumes that I have a camera, nevertheless).

My sis and her girlfriend came over and the four of us bar-b-qued. The twin and gunny stopped by later for a few drink. All in all it was a good day.

What I didn't do: Saturday morning was the annual park clean-up day in Royal Oak. In Past years a group of us had gotten together to either clean up one of the local parks or participate in the street sweep downtown. Marie usually organized it but I suppose she had other fish to fry this year.

The home builders show was Saturday as well. I wasn't looking for much in the way of what new things are out there - I don't plan on doing anything too outrageous with the deck - but it would have given me a chance to speak with code enforcement without having to deal with the city staff at city hall. Neutral territory, if you will.

Saturday night was Jeff-Jack, or the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, which is the annual fundraiser dinner of the Michigan Democratic Party. I haven’t had the money to go but should have tried all the same. I’ve made some good allies and decent connections going to that event and shouldn’t let them go to waste.

Of course one of the thought that I am mulling over is what it is that I want to do in this next phase of my life. I definately think that I have to worry a little more about me and a lot less about other things. So what do these connection do for me if I'm not involved? Not much I guess...

GRAVE IMPORTANCE

St. Paul Cemetery in Grosse Pointe Farms hosts the burial sites of celebrated families. Pretty cool story if you ask me. I will have to make an effort to visit some time this summer. Sounds like there is plenty of family there.

As a side note: Trombley has not only been spelled Tromblay and Trombly but also Tremblay and Tremble.

Pay frozen for auto contract workers

Excuse me what!?!

So yeah if as you will read things aren't going so well here in Automation Alley. Working in the auto industry right now is about as lucrative as collecting cans for deposit money. Trouble is here in SE Michigan what else are you going to do? I think they did themselves in a long time ago and things will never be great around here. There is so much investment, venture capital and initiative needed to break free from the rut that we have gotten ourselves in that it seems nearly impossible to over come.

The governor has the right idea with the cool cities program but that too needs reinforcement from the private sector and the local municipalities to be effective at all. Twenty years from now I will be interested to see what becomes of this region.

Day of Silence: 04.13.05

Step 2

"Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

Automatically, when I hear a phrase like that I think "Look out. Here comes the Jesus crap." Now, please don't get me wrong. I AM a religious person, but on my own terms. I am catholic, but I do not go to mass. I believe in God, who is perhaps the same God that I was taught to believe in only I feel that I know and understand him better now that I am removed from the teachings of the church and have allowed myself to think on my own. Now that I have that understanding, call it a relationship if you will, I do not want to let go of it. I do not want to hear the "Jesus freaks" preaching to me on how or why I am wrong and telling me what I need to do to be "saved". That is, or was, one of the primary reasons that I did not want to have to go to AA several times a week. I'm glad that what I have found was not the perception that I had.

It still happens from time to time that a new person will join the meeting and speak of the power of Christ and start to go on about religion as thought that were the answer. Well... It is and it isn't. If it works for that person, great go for it. If that is the belief that you need to make it through the day without drinking then knock yourself out. Please though, don't preach to me, and do not pass judgment on me because I don't ascribe to your way of thinking. I don't think that you are wrong in your thinking; I just think that what will work for me is slightly different.

I believe in a higher power. He, She or It is not the same as others might perceive but I believe.

I believe in good and evil. Everyone, even the best of us, has portions of their being that are good and that are evil. It is only though our intellectual and emotional strengths that we present ourselves as good or evil.

I believe that all prayers are answered just not in the way that most may sometimes like. There are really only three answers to prayers: Yes - which everyone expects; No - Which is what some would referred to as an unanswered prayer. It doesn't even have to be the thunderous, fire and brimstone NO (although it can), even "I'm sorry" still translates to no; and ... Wait, or not yet. Perhaps you will be relieved of whatever stressor has driven you to seek the comfort of some unknown being but the lesson that you need to learn - to make you a strong and or better person - isn't yet over.

I believe that our higher power, God if you please, is in us and all around us. It is comforting to believe that some power, an unseen omnipotent being, could ease our burden. Wouldn't it be even more comforting to believe in a power that while still greater than ourselves was in fact a part of us. That we had no further to go than the innermost reaches of our own being to find greater strength, wisdom, love and courage than we ever thought capable of? That through that inner power when shared with others we could be even greater, and all the while through our good or evil either add to or subtract from the power of all others? It is a scary thought but places much more responsibility in our own selves and will not allow us to defer to or blame others for our lives.

my new job

I cannot seem to get away from it. However the stuff I'm working on now is far superior to anything in the past...


The All-New 2006 Mercedes-Benz M-Class

Well you see mom...

A* and I went out my parents for a brief visit. I hadn't even thought about what I was wearing when my mother says "Catcher, I didn't know you where a catcher." ... silence ... "Are you a catcher?!?" I just gave my mom a hug and A* did his best to stifle a laugh.

Afterwards A* made the observation that the "b!tch" probably explained everything to my mother anyway... God help her if she did.

"You have mail..."

And so it happens... In almost two years of blogging yesterday - Saturday, 09 April 2005 - I received my first comment. And wouldn't you know it that the very first, and presently only, comment in this entire blog is SPAM!!!

Now I understand that at some point the comment feature was malfunctioning and suspect through other's testimony that commenting still may be cumbersome to the uninitiated but I've done it so it cannot be all too difficult. Now perhaps nobody reads this. But I know otherwise as the counter would clearly indicate. In the past I have been intermittent in my posting but have been pretty steady of late so perhaps this will change.

But I mean really SPAM!?! Now obviously it isn't trying to sell me a "little blue pill" but nevertheless, clearly there is no substance to the comment and the blog is as meaningless and/or indecipherable as to the character or personality of it's editor(s) to warrant such a comment.

All the same though it is my very first comment, I will cherish it always...

A sure sign of the coming of the apocalypse

This just in from the You Might Be A Hypocrite If Department

New York Times

Saturday, April 9, 2005

G.O.P. Consultant Weds His Male Partner By Adam Nagourney

WASHINGTON, April 8 - Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts.

Mr. Finkelstein, 59, who has made a practice of defeating Democrats by trying to demonize them as liberal, said in a brief interview that he had married his partner of 40 years to ensure that the couple had the same benefits available to married heterosexual couples. ...

... Mr. Finkelstein has been allied over the years with Republicans who have fiercely opposed gay rights measures, including former Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, and has been the subject of attacks by gay rights activists who have accused him of hypocrisy. He was identified as gay in a Boston Magazine article in 1996. ...

Yet again we are our own worst enemy. This jerk-off (and I don't mean that in a good way) paid for his wedding on the backs of other gay and lesbian individuals that he has made a living repressing. But you know what they say, "Karma's a BITCH" I'm sure he'll get his.

this just in

It's official I'm an idiot. Film at eleven.

Motor City Pride

Sunday, 5 June 2005

12 Noon - 7PM

Downtown Ferndale

Motor City Pride 2005: This year will be headlined by Martha Wash but we hope for sunshine.

Additionally there will be a showing of "Slutty Summer" at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak on Saturday, 4 June 2005 at 7:30PM. You can purchase your tickets here.

And the prince makes three...

Monaco's Prince Rainier III Dead at 81 After Long Reign

Hallelujah

Jeff Buckely - Grace: Hallelujah

Well I heard there was a secret chord
that David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
Well it goes like this :
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah...

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
And she tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah...

(Yeah but) Baby I've been here before
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor, (You know)
I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I've seen your flag on the marble arch
and love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah...

Well there was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show that to me do ya
But remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Hallelujah...

[Instrumental]

Maybe there's a God above
But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
It's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelu...
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelu...
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah

Hallellllluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuujjjaahhhh...Hallelllluuuuuujjaaaaaaaaaahhhh

lyrics by : Leonard Cohen

___________________________________________________________________

hal·le·lu·jah ("ha-l&-'lü-y&), interjection 1. Praise ye the Lord! -n. 2. an excalimation of " hallelujah!" 3. a shout of praise, joy, or gratitude. 4. a musical composition wholly or pricipally based upon the word "hallelujah." [1525-35; Hebrew halleluyAh praise ye Yahweh; cf. ALLELUIA]

Hate continues

Early Results: Kansas OKs Gay Union Ban

Make that now 14 states that have a gay marriage ban in their constitution. Why or how this impacts straight marriages is absolutely beyond me. Codifying hate is a sign that the government is past it's apex. The decline in our own moral supremacy, now waning we could soon expect the utter collapse as society as a whole, just when they thought they were saving all of us from that very destruction.

Stay with me for a second. Either we will continue down this road or we face a radical change in vision and the need for government. Outlawing, or at the least refusing to acknowledge all non traditional relationships is only the first step. What's next? Is it abortion? Do we outlaw that and return to a time when in many instances the only choice available was to have an illegal, dangerous and potentially fatal procedure without adequate medical care? What about sex education? Do we do away with everything other than abstinence only? Once teen pregnancy and HIV+ cases increase dramatically who will they blame then? Will it be too late to do anything? When will it stop?!?

If a job falls in the woods...

Today WAS supposed to be my first day back to being gainfully employed. However, due to a comedy of errors that has been delayed until next week. All in all I think that I have lost about three weeks due to the utter incompetence of several of the people involved. What irks me the most is that these buffoons will be taking a cut off the top from my salary in return for what I'm not sure. I found the job, I interviewed for the job and pretty much had the job locked up before "they" were ever involved. The prices I am paying for health insurance leads me to believe that I am paying for it in full without any help from my employer, and that is about it. Nothing much else is there. Needless to say I will continue to look and may even come up with a major change yet. It will be nice to work again though.

Pledge Week

It's pledge week... have you made your donation yet?

Really though if you listen to NPR, or 'A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor' from Lake Wobegon, or even Click and Clack on Car Talk you owe it to them and to yourself to give something. Thing of it as your own personal subscription, the more you listen, enjoy or participate the more you should consider giving. Inasmuch as it is voluntary we'll make it progressive, let's say $52 or one dollar a week for the year, more if you can less if you can't. If everyone that even listened to public radio made that donation they could have pledge hour or at most pledge day rather than pledge week. And I for one would be OK with that.

Reefer Madness

I cannot wait to see this show. Even before watching the preview I new the original film was just hilarious. To see it with a modern spin ought to be quite entertaining.