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December 28, 2005
Meme time
Yes, Barry, I will respond to the tag.
Just not right now. Just got a new job (yeah, the last one didn't really work out) and the holidays fried me a bit.
I have a cookie photo to post, kitty photos begging for captions, and a goofy story, plus some political commentary coming up.
I'll get there.
Posted by Kat at 09:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas!
I hope you all enjoy your holiday, and thank you to whoever it was that sent the little not-so-anonymous e-card. It was adorable.
I love you, readers, even if you don't do more than lurk.
Posted by Kat at 11:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 23, 2005
Christmas cards!
My homemade Christmas Cards
Outside:
Inside:
Now I have to pray that Staples will print them correctly.
(BTW...does the image on the front need tweaking? I think it's missing something, but I'm not sure what)
ON EDIT: The inside on the actual cards has both our names, but I removed them for privacy reasons.
Posted by Kat at 03:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 22, 2005
TWU says they will go back to work
"We wake up at 3 and 4 in the morning to move the trains in this town," Toussaint said. "That's not the behavior of thugs and selfish people."
No, that's the behaviour of people DOING THEIR FUCKING JOBS. My job entails that I stay up until at least 2am, then sometimes have to get up to go to work on six hours of sleep. I'm expected to be happy, alert, aware, and moving fast. Do I bitch about my wages? Sure. Do I strike to get better ones? Nope. I understand that it's my job and that I'm going to get paid based on how hard I work.
It's when you shut down this city for your own purposes that you become a selfish, thuggish person holding the city hostage for money.
Posted by Kat at 12:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 20, 2005
More Strike News
Over at the TWU's blog they have comments activated.
Stupid.
Anonymous said...I hope the strikers realize that besides the fact that they screw (and really there is no other word for what they are doing) with the money of the people who were worse off then the transit workers were to begin with, they are actually endangering other New Yorkers lives in this weather?
Everybody will know in a few hours what you actually make. And what you make is a lot comparing to majority of New Yorkers. Your strike is hurting financially the people with daily wages, people who usually have no medical insurance, no pension plans, who usually have to take mass transit because they don't make enough money to afford anything else (and who definitely make less then TWU workers). Luckily, some of them are making your sandwiches. So, I am hoping the TWU strikers will find some spit in theirs and some piss in the beer they drink between picketing duty.
More importantly shouldn't the strikers be charged in criminal court for endangering peoples' lives? My worst fear is to hear that some elderly person collapsed in this cold trying to walk to where they needed to get. People (and medical staff for that matter) will have hard time getting to the hospitals. Even if it's not an emergency, have you thought about people who need to get dyalisis or radiation treatments?
YOU WORK FOR PUBLIC. AND RIGHT NOW YOU ARE TRYING TO MURDER QUITE A FEW OF US!
Ouch.
In other news, I seem to have picked up a bug. Nasty little cold virus.
On top of that, I would have to blow more than half my tips from last night on a cab just to get to and from work tonight. I made shit tips for working 13 hours, and I think it's time to move on. I really need to be bartending. Nearly half my tips last night came from a table of three men who just kept drinking.
UPDATE: Welcome, readers directed here from ER, through Insta. Ignore your virus-laden (ON EDIT: I mean flu virus, not computer) hostess and take a look around the site. Cats, diatribes, news, and total bullshit, all wrapped up into one neat little package for your viewing pleasure.
Posted by Kat at 12:16 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
There goes that extra revenue everyone was talking about at Thanksgiving
Strike.
What an ugly thing for the TWU to do to this city at Christmas.
Fuckers. I hope they all get fired and Bloomberg brings in new people.
Oh what a hardship, to have to work until you're 62. Hey, assholes, most of the rest of us have to work till we're 65. You can deal with an extra couple of years of sitting on your ass and driving buses.
Now I'm really pissed.
Posted by Kat at 09:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 17, 2005
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(Thank The Boy for that one.)
Posted by Kat at 12:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 13, 2005
A conversation in my head
I had a conversation with myself on the train this morning. Product of not enough coffee and being very very tired from working last night. I don't know why the other voice is male, that's just how it sounded in my head.
Him: It is our responsibility to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves.
Me: But what about those who are able to provide for themselves, but are just lazy-asses?
Him: That's their choice. It's their life and their right to decide how to live it.
Me: So the rest of us should support those who just don't want to get off their ass and get a job?
Him: Some of them are going to slip through, but most of those on welfare really do need the help.
Me: That still doesn't answer my question. Should we be forced to support those people who are able to work but choose to not get a job?
Him: How do we know if they are truly unwilling to get a job? What if they are simply unable, and we take them off welfare because we judge them able?
Me: That's what checks and balances are for, and that is what appeals are for.
Him: But those rarely work.
Me: But that's a problem with the system, not with the concept of welfare in the first place.
Him: And what about those who aren't able to understand how to appeal?
Me: Again, that's a problem with the system. We need to be fixing the system itself, attempting to get those who are able off welfare and into a job.
Him: But then the issue of unemployment rates comes up.
Me: That's because creativity isn't fostered enough in schools. Kids are told to follow the book and learn the test rather than actually learning skills they need to be able to start their own businesses. With the advent of the internet, there are so many more opportunities which schools don't take advantage of. Just look at Pajamas Media. If they become a true blog wire, like the AP, but without the bias and hype, then there is a whole avenue for people. Web design, blogging, online companies - all of these are providing amazing opportunities that are not being exploited by schools and work programs.
Him: But then kids aren't trained for office jobs and manufacturing jobs. The material world will collapse in favor of the online one.
Me: Manufacturing jobs are rapidly being taken over by machines and automated. The industries that still require a personal touch won't fall by the wayside because people will still prefer that over creating their own business. The internet simply puts people in control rather than forcing them under someone else's control.
Him: So how do schools train kids in this new world?
Me: In the early grades, teach them WHY something works instead of just HOW. Kids want to learn. They're sponges. Give them projects every week to draw and create, and they'll lap it up. Start teaching them programming and foreign language early, and they'll be skilled by high school. It not only creates a better-educated workforce, but it also gives adolescents and teens more say in their own lives. All of a sudden, we will have a workforce that starts at 12 instead of 16, and those kids will be exploding with interest, love, and energy. It will move people off welfare, and it will solve this oft-commented on "problem" of apathetic youth (which I think is bullshit, but that's another conversation).
Him: And how do we pay for it?
Me: We will probably have to eat the costs early on, but once the economy skyrockets and new businesses are created (with the taxes that come from them), then the costs will be reabsorbed and negligent. Less money put into welfare and more on education and training, and you have an ever-increasingly productive system.
-----------
Yeah, so I'll probably have more of these conversations in my head. They happen all the time, I just rarely transcribe them.
I still have one on apathetic youth and another on social security.
Posted by Kat at 10:43 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
December 12, 2005
Job, Part Deux.
Eugh.
Tired, aching feet, and no money to show for it. That's what I get for training as a waitress.
But damn did I have fun. I love serving customers. There's just something really nice about it. There's a sense of having done something good for someone, and it's the reason I enjoy waitressing and bartending. There's skill involved in making people so happy they decide to stay, have another drink, and keep spending money.
Cause, in the end, it's the money that counts. If I can bring in a shitload of tips, I'll be ecstatic. And if I can move up to bartender soon, I'd be even more ecstatic.
So, if you're in NYC, and you want to help move me up to bartender from lowly waitress, let me know and I'll tell you when I work.
I don't want to get fired though, so I'll probably keep things fairly mum on here about it.
Posted by Kat at 10:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Job!
I'm headed off to my first day at Joshua Tree, on 3rd and 34th. If you want to stop by and try to pick me out (hah), feel free.
Let's see if my online persona and my offline one mesh.
Posted by Kat at 10:33 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 11, 2005
Christmas is coming...
I'm listening to the Vienna Boys' Choir sing Christmas songs and getting ready to go out shopping for Gingerbread Cookie Makings.
They will be homemade, they will be delicious, and if people want some, (no, you don't get to pick the decorations) leave a comment!
They'll be done sometime this week...presumably.
Posted by Kat at 03:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 07, 2005
What I learned from South Park tonight
AA makes people into alcoholics.
Posted by Kat at 10:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Memories lost and found again
Sissy sparks a memory, one I hadn't expected to be thinking of for a few months.
This coming February marks 12 years since my father passed away. I will officially have lived half my life without him.
There is nothing harder than losing a parent, no matter what age you are. Most likely the only thing that rivals it is losing a child. Neither one would I wish on anyone, even OBL or Saddam.
You go through these waves of pain. One moment you're fine, not thinking about him at all, then the next, a whiff of cologne or a flash of color will remind you, and the pain comes back, fresh. The world around you stops for a second, and you fall into a memory. Your body keeps moving, you continue interacting with the world, but it's autopilot. Your brain isn't there.
So you wade through life, from moment to moment, waiting for the next memory of helplessness or joy. In the back of your mind is always that question of "when." Not if, when. Because it's guaranteed to happen. There will be a face in the crowd, or a voice, or even just a bit of hair that reminds you of him. No matter how well you've dealt with it, completed your mourning, it's never really over. You never get over it, and you never will.
I was 12. Precocious, overly mature, and suddenly having to grow up a hell of a lot faster. Dad was an older father, having been married twice before, with four sons. I was the first daughter. His little girl. Princess. When he was home, I made every effort to hang around him. He was much more gentle with my hair, patient enough to work out the tangles without ripping my scalp. He rarely raised his voice, but disciplined well.
He was 60.
Melanoma. There were reasons and screwups for why they caught it at the late stage they did, but I can't talk about that. I wish I could. Maybe someday.
He was diagnosed during the summer of 93. I was at CTY (Center for Talented Youth - geek camp) for the first time, and they didn't tell me until that fall, when he had to go back in for more surgeries. All fall he was in and out. We spent Thanksgiving in the hospital with him while he was recovering from another round of chemo and radiation. Always sick, but never frail.
February 7th, 1994, 5:00 am.
RIP.
Posted by Kat at 12:14 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 05, 2005
I'm evil.
But we knew this already. After all, I'm registered Republican and a woman.
How evil are you?
Posted by Kat at 07:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Blogspot weirdness
Is anyone else having problems getting to blogspot sites? I can't seem to get through to any of them, and it's starting to annoy me.
Posted by Kat at 07:13 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
December 03, 2005
And the award for obvious statement of the day goes to...
It's a TIE! The UN and The New York Times for Torture Is 'Widespread' in China, U.N. Investigator Says!
Yay!
Posted by Kat at 11:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 02, 2005
Ponderings
Do all little kids call him "melmo?"
Posted by Kat at 02:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Scholarship essay
Just so everyone knows, I'm a schmuck.
I wrote a great scholarship essay on alternative fuels. I was going to reprint it here.
I made some edits to the final version. In the submission window.
And I didn't copy/paste. So I don't have the final version to post here. And I don't remember the edits. But they made the difference between a spectacular essay and a so-so one.
Oops.
Posted by Kat at 10:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 01, 2005
More on the parental notification law
Yesterday I attempted to comment over on Jay Tea's entry on the topic, but due to internet problems I was unable to post. Here is the comment, which although pretty much the same, has been edited after further thought.
As a NH native, I feel the need to drop my $0.02.
One of the best things about NH is its take on individual freedom and the right to make decisions for oneself without the interference of government. There is a certain appreciation for personal responsibility.
It is not the government's responsibility to parent or to interfere in parenting, barring situations of abuse or neglect.
As an example, consider a nineteen year old woman and a sixteen year old one. Both are pregnant, neither one has a good relationship with her parents, and both will be seeking abortions. The sixteen year old used a condom that broke, whereas the nineteen year old simply had sex with any male that came along. Why should the sixteen year old be penalized for nothing more than her age?
Age has nothing to do with one's ability to make a mature decision. There is a reason why a woman is considered emancipated when she has a child. If she is old enough to have one, she is old enough to make the decision herself about having one.
Just the fact that the law has come this far upsets me and makes me rethink my opinion of my home state. I'm not so sure I like being known as a native New Hampshirite these days. I have lost pride in my state and its status as a flagship of freedom, which is something I never thought I would say.
Posted by Kat at 06:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Speakout
I wrote to Fox about the New Hampshire parental notification law. The body of the email is below.
I grew up in New Hampshire. One thing I have always been proud of is being able to say I come from the "Live Free or Die" state. That freedom is more important than anything else. With the institution of this parental notification law, New Hampshire is coming under fire from several civil rights groups, including the National Youth Rights Association (www.youthrights.org). It disappoints me to see a state so in love with freedom restricting the ability of women to choose privately based on something as irrelevant as age. A woman under 18 is considered emancipated when she bears a child because she is considered responsible enough to make decisions for herself and her child, and yet that same consideration does not apply to women who are simply pregnant. Why is a seventeen year old less capable of making a decision without her parents' knowledge than an eighteen year old?
Leaving aside the lack of a clause allowing for health of the mother, I notice that it is a notification rather than a consent law. No permission is required from the parents, rather, it simply requires they be told, or that a judge be told. This violates confidentiality laws and medical ethics. We do not require that a parent be told when their teenager is being treated for an STD, quite the contrary. We hold that the doctor cannot legally or ethically tell a parent that their child is taking doxycycline, azithromycin, or ciprofloxacin for treatment. It is meant to act as a deterrent, yet another sign of the nanny-statism which has become so prevalent in our government.
Another concern over the notification law is that it will simply drive abortions back into alleyways and cellars, resulting in a loss of life or fertility. Women are going to have abortions. Many realize that they are not ready to have a child, and make the difficult, but appropriate decision. However, many young women are stuck in a position where they are terrified, unable to approach even a teacher or counselor, let alone their parents or a judge. Unfortunately, sometimes it is the teacher or parent who is responsible.
This law will not act as a deterrent. The only thing that will is to have better, more comprehensive education on prevention, as well as a greater availability of birth control, the morning after pill, and RU-486. Give teens more control over their bodies and you will find that they act with responsibility. If teens are treated as toddlers, not trusted to make their own decisions and mistakes, then they will never grow up to become good members of society.
Posted by Kat at 10:57 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack