We finished up painting the neighbor's house last week. It was good to be done with that, and I don't think I want to paint another house any time soon.
Today the mum-in-law and I went up to Limestone County, Texas where her family is from to do some research. Some of her ancestors were here when Texas was a Republic. We went to the county clerk's office and looked through probate records. We wound up with more questions than we answered.
We went to Big Hill. That's where her ancestors lived, but there's not really anything there any more. She wasn't sure where the houses had been, as she'd been a little kid when she was out there last.
Then we went to Fort Parker Cemetary and got chased around by a swarm of mosquitoes. We went to Mexia to get some deet and then went back to the cemetry. The deet worked for about twenty minutes, long enough to find all the graves we were looking for, and then the mosquitoes got bold so we got the heck outta there.
The drive was long, but we want to go back again... supposedly, there's a deep dark family secret that caused two previous researchers to stop doing genealogy. I'm not sure which side of the family it was on though, so maybe it's not the side we're researching. All I know, is I don't care about pretenses, and want to know everything.
I know why I like history and genealogy so much. Because it allows the dead to speak.
* Life * Food * Money * Travel * Fun *
Monday, June 30, 2014
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Outrage vs. Faux-rage
I've decided that we have a new concept, given birth to by the internet: Faux-rage. What is faux-rage you ask? Faux-rage is outrage without direction, purpose, and sometimes without a firm grounding in reality. For examples of this, see the comment section of almost any news article.
Back in the 60s, when people were protesting the Vietnam war (while my father was risking his life there in the Marine Corps, right or wrong or indifferent, the way the people who went there were treated when they returned home, was horrid, but I digress), one couldn't just sit in their house and protest. You actually had to go outside and risk getting injured or arrested or even killed.
Nowadays however, the youth get to "protest" from the safety and comfort of their own mother's basement. And there's plenty of things to protest too. Lots and lots of things that are unjust. Mind you, they don't cause injustice to any particular person, but rather injustice to amorphous ideas or entities. You see, the real injustices are ignored because they're difficult, if not impossible, to deal with and actually opposing them could get you in trouble, or dead as the case may be. I mean, dealing with actual homeless people or trying to help victims of human trafficking isn't the safest thing to be doing. It's so much safer to sit at your computer and have faux-rage over the name of a football team or what some celebrity tweeted on twitter.
Stop it with the faux-rage. It's asinine and ridiculous and makes you look like an idiot to anyone with half a brain. If you really care, and really want to help people, then get off the computer and go do that. Otherwise, shut up. As my brother was fond of saying, "put your money where your mouth is."
Back in the 60s, when people were protesting the Vietnam war (while my father was risking his life there in the Marine Corps, right or wrong or indifferent, the way the people who went there were treated when they returned home, was horrid, but I digress), one couldn't just sit in their house and protest. You actually had to go outside and risk getting injured or arrested or even killed.
Nowadays however, the youth get to "protest" from the safety and comfort of their own mother's basement. And there's plenty of things to protest too. Lots and lots of things that are unjust. Mind you, they don't cause injustice to any particular person, but rather injustice to amorphous ideas or entities. You see, the real injustices are ignored because they're difficult, if not impossible, to deal with and actually opposing them could get you in trouble, or dead as the case may be. I mean, dealing with actual homeless people or trying to help victims of human trafficking isn't the safest thing to be doing. It's so much safer to sit at your computer and have faux-rage over the name of a football team or what some celebrity tweeted on twitter.
Stop it with the faux-rage. It's asinine and ridiculous and makes you look like an idiot to anyone with half a brain. If you really care, and really want to help people, then get off the computer and go do that. Otherwise, shut up. As my brother was fond of saying, "put your money where your mouth is."
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
What it means to be an artist
Today I helped change the pump on my sister/brother-in-law's aerobic septic tank. (The sister-in-law was calling it Pump Day instead of Hump Day. Get it? LOL Don't boo me!) I volunteered to do this so I'd know how it's done. Why? Because when you're an artist, you don't make a lot of money, and add to that our debt from school, and you have a recipe for really not having any money. Sure, we're paying our debt off as fast as we can, but we might need to know how to do something like change a pump on an aerobic septic system one day. It wasn't too hard, just a little dirty and there was a slight learning curve and it was hot as blazes. If we do it again, I'm sure it would go faster. Before doing it, I was joking about starting a business changing pumps, after, I wished I had gone to school to be an oil and gas engineer, so I'd just have to fork over the money for someone else to do it.
My husband and I are also painting our neighbors house. I think I mentioned that before. It's taking way long than we imagined, but we'd never painted a house before. I think we should have it done in a few weeks. We need the money, and basically, freelance is just that. Unpredictable and unreliable. And lately I've had a good bit, but that could change at any moment. Which is why if you want to be an artist, you should NEVER go into debt to do it. Not for any reason, no matter what anyone tells you to the contrary. No. Matter. What.
In our over-sensitive whiny PC world, stereotypes are usually unacceptable, but whether you like it or not, stereotypes are often stereotypes for a reason. And in this case, there's a reason why starving artist is one of them.You want to be an artist? Plan on waiting tables, changing aerobic septic pumps and painting houses while you're at it. I've actually never waited tables. I'm too much of a klutz, I'm sure I'd spill stuff all over the diners.
Anyway, I haven't written in a while because finals were pretty busy, I went to visit family in North Carolina on May 20th and the Friday before that fell and hurt myself pretty badly. I had the worst bruise I'd ever seen on my lower stomach. I was grateful though that I didn't break anything or hit my head or knock my teeth out. The plane ride was amazingly horrible on the way, but the TSA was very nice. Maybe I'll try to write a little more often now that I'm feeling better. I hurt like hell for over a week. Did you know that you can dent dog food cans with your chest and not break a rib? LOL
My husband and I are also painting our neighbors house. I think I mentioned that before. It's taking way long than we imagined, but we'd never painted a house before. I think we should have it done in a few weeks. We need the money, and basically, freelance is just that. Unpredictable and unreliable. And lately I've had a good bit, but that could change at any moment. Which is why if you want to be an artist, you should NEVER go into debt to do it. Not for any reason, no matter what anyone tells you to the contrary. No. Matter. What.
In our over-sensitive whiny PC world, stereotypes are usually unacceptable, but whether you like it or not, stereotypes are often stereotypes for a reason. And in this case, there's a reason why starving artist is one of them.You want to be an artist? Plan on waiting tables, changing aerobic septic pumps and painting houses while you're at it. I've actually never waited tables. I'm too much of a klutz, I'm sure I'd spill stuff all over the diners.
Anyway, I haven't written in a while because finals were pretty busy, I went to visit family in North Carolina on May 20th and the Friday before that fell and hurt myself pretty badly. I had the worst bruise I'd ever seen on my lower stomach. I was grateful though that I didn't break anything or hit my head or knock my teeth out. The plane ride was amazingly horrible on the way, but the TSA was very nice. Maybe I'll try to write a little more often now that I'm feeling better. I hurt like hell for over a week. Did you know that you can dent dog food cans with your chest and not break a rib? LOL
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