I have long enjoyed the art form that is lighting. Back in college, I worked at a lighting store (Portland Lighting, now Lighting Works) and really enjoyed it. Light and lighting fascinate me in so many ways – ranging from photography, which is really a way of painting with light – to the art form of light fixtures themselves. It’s a great melting space between the technical and the artistic.
I’ve been debating – for well over a year – how much of this I should thrash out in public. But knowing that there are a great deal of young people in the world struggling with this, and wanting to tell them how wonderful their pain can be, I think I’ve finally figured out a way to put it out there without hurting anyone.
My father abandoned my mother, brother and me when I was very young. I know now that there were many reasons – the situation he was in personally at the time, his own psychoemotional capacity, his perception of what was best for my brother and me, and his relationship with my mother. I have seen him once (an awkward and near-wordless exchange in a courthouse in 1987) in the last 25 years.
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There is a new “public service” advertising campaign in Texas called “Criminal Cocktails” – designed to teach young women to “watch their drinks.” Apparently, the fear is that they might get something (such as GHB or rohypnol, I guess) slipped into their drinks that’ll put them at risk of rape or other bad situations. The underlying assumption seems to be that women should make sure their alcoholic drinks are unadulterated – as if that way, no one can take advantage of them, hurt them, or put them in otherwise sketchy scenes doing something they would never dream of otherwise.
Could that concept be any more absurd? No drug in human history has facilitated more rape, violence, murder, death and other horrors than alcohol. Nothing even comes close. So yeah, kids – play it safe – and don’t let anyone screw with your booze!!
Communications expert Sonya Hamlin says that texting is stripping our young people of their communications skills. Hamlin was interviewed on MSNBC recently by my secret lover Contessa Brewer, and it went something like this…
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I’ve had some petty rants and painful quotes bouncing around my head lately – so, in order to dispose of that mental clutter with all speed, I’ve clumped them into one piece.
First and foremost: who are you mental defectives who throw burning cigarette butts onto the ground and/or out your car window? Please stand up and explain yourselves. What kind of childish gesture is this? This has irritated me since I was a kid. I mean, I will absolutely defend your right to smoke. Tobacco ain’t my thing – but if it’s yours, fine. But do not ask me and my fellow taxpayers to clean up after your habit – that is your responsibility. If heroin shooters were discarding their used syringes on the street, there’d be little difference. These things start fires, look disgusting, cost public and private dollars to clean up, and you look like an ignorant ass when you toss one. Is there no ashtray in your car? Can you not walk the extra four feet to a waste receptacle? I cannot think of a legitimate defense for this behavior. Anyone?
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I ordered a new MacBook Pro yesterday and will probably get it next week. I took the first step in my Mac conversion about a year ago and have never looked back. After twenty years with DOS and its Windows dressing, OS/X is a huge leap forward and I love it. As I mentioned last summer, it was Tiger that really changed everything. Microsoft Windows XP feels dead to me, and early indications are that Vista may be another gasp – and too late.
I am becoming more of a “sensualist” as I get older – being far more likely to groove on aesthetically amazing things than I would have been a decade ago, and this has certainly helped fuel my appreciation for Apple products.
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