So... what'd ya do over the weekend?

I almost never have a sufficient answer for this one, but for some reason this weekend has proven to be different.

1. East Austin Studio Tours

A long-time Austin artisan who I met through a drawing class invited me to show some of my drawings at the annual Austin art festival. While no one bought this charcoal of a naked woman (whoo hoo - this is why I can't get anywhere in life), for the first time I got to be the stuffed shirt on the other side of the booth trying to explain a piece that the patron couldn't possibly care about. I look forward to reprising this role for next year's tours.

2. First Facebook Rejection

Ever since I took the plunge and put up my own page, it's been like one long class reunion. Family, friends, old classmates from way way way back when. In some cases I've even been 'friended' by their spouses. Me become friends with the wife of my former kindergarten buddy? Sure why not? I'm just collecting friends anyway.

Well, it was all fun and harmless until a friend of a friend tried to 'friend' me. This person, who we will call Mavid Missile, is... well, for lack of a better word... a real a## %$le. There I said it.

If you were never a part of the select few who dictated the social order in high school, then you might have an idea of who this person is. He was the one of the head chimps that often 'showed' (as they say on the National Geographic Channel) his dominance over the weaker, nerdier chimps. Not a kind hair on his furry, dirty little body.

Despite all of this background knowledge, I left his friend invite up for a few days and debated. Either I AM a real loser to let this bother me to this day, or perhaps he still is a an a%$ #$le.

Thanks to facebook every stupid little comment on a photo or a wall gets saved (just like this stupid little blog). It seems people never really change. He's still an a## $#le and I'm still a loser. Rejection.

3. Death of the Guy who sat behind me in Woodshop



This isn't something that I did, but it was something that I was made aware of. So, it counts as an activity.

As a former loser in high school, I came across other losers, but I couldn't be friends with all of them. It's impossible for a loser to have more than three friends at any one time.

This particular 'loser' (John Jay Sokol) I met in shop class, exchanged a few jokes, and then moved on. We might have said, 'hello' to each other in the hall, but after graduation he more or less disappeared from my life. Except My friend and I later borrowed his name for comic book character dubbed John Soul Cool. The comic later failed and nothing became of Mr. Soul Cool. What do you expect? We were all losers.

This weekend I found out that John died of liver failure from excessive alcohol consumption. I tried to look his name up on facebook and found three 'John Sokols'. There was no way of telling if any of them were him because neither of them had pictures or friends.

Episode 15 is up!

It's tough trying to keep up with writing, sketching, and class work. Am I forgetting something? Oh yes, work. But it seems that I uploaded Episode 15 a week ago and totally forgot about it. It was labor of love. This continues the 'Stuck in Japan' series with exploring the life of a long term ex-pat.

The First Ten Days

Did I also forget to comment on the elections? I really don't NEED to chime in with everyone else, but with the power of the Internet I CAN and WILL.

After passively witnessing a watershed moment in U.S. presidential politics from the comfort of my PJs in my own living room, I naively believed that I could coast out the Bush Administration on an ignorant wave of bliss.

'not so' said the 'bigot'.

NPR repeated the words of a certain Italian Prime Minister who described President-elect Obama as, "young, handsome and even suntanned." A member of Germany's extreme-right National Democratic Party, released a statement regarding Obama's election titled "Africa conquers the White House." (Ahhh Germany what would we do without you?) And the comments are coming in close from home. A Mexican professional that I know tried to share a joke email with me that Obama's first major decision as President will be to paint the White House black.

I guess the asian would find that funny if he didn't live through the ignorant remarks made at his expense in the 80s and the dogmatic P.C. movment that re-orientated us to tiptoing around the issue entirely. In fact, race has been with us from pretty much the beginning.

My father used to tell stories about getting into fights with some of the kids in his Brooklyn neighborhood over words like, 'chink' and 'slanty'. He said that all he needed to do was beat the crap of a kid, and that would solve it.

According to Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, this is all relatively new to most of the World, and it will have to be brought up speed. I'm not too sure I can handle an other P.C. movement, nor can we attempt an other global ass whooping.