When I was in Virginia

I had this secret place in my neighbor's backyard. They hadn't cleared most of it, and what remained was a wonderful, tangled forest - uninteresting for adults and hours of fun for kids. Along with the boys next door, I had created a small clearing, completed with a few logs for seats (there were fewer logs than there were in our group, but you can bet I never sat on the ground).

We would keep secret things here from time to time - a praying mantis in a jar, a candle and some matches, candy, etc. But there was something there that my friends didn't know about, something I wouldn't share even with them. Behind where our seats were arranged there was a box, disguised by leaves and scratched into the soil. It was mine - my secret box in my secret place. It was mine more than anything else - I consulted no one else about its contents, showed them to no one. Even if someone else had found it, they would have been nonplussed - odds and ends, broken dirty things, sad lonely orphaned things. Small pieces of wholes.

I haven't been there in a long time. The box is there, forgotten by those who pass over it, cobwebbed and dusty, hinges rusting. Holes appear and grow; slowly.

But I'll never forget. It's there for me still.

I'll never forget.

Pirating music

I wrote that title, and then wondered - am I setting myself up? But, oh sigh, I'm sure I do that in so many other ways I really shouldn't worry that much about it.

So, a while ago my friend and I disagreed about copying albums we owned and giving them to other people. (Among other things), she felt it was an important way to share a precious resource that might not be easily accessible - after all, CDs are pretty expensive. And then there's the fact that artists don't really make that much money off of them, anyway. When it comes to supporting an artist financially, the sale of CDs doesn't really help out much. My response was that CDs (and recording contracts) serve other purposes - visibility, advertisement, a guage of how popular the artist is. And these things truly have value.

However, I got to know many of my favorite artists throught illegal sharing of music. I have been to shows, bought CDs, and made other people fans, all directly as a result of being given music I most likely would not have found on my own. So sharing music is very important, too, and can expose us to music we might LOVE, but was prohibitively expensive (before we knew we loved it).

So, at this point in time I have decided that it's okay to give people music from bands when you also buy tickets to see them perform (I intend to buy tickets, but not always attend - I hate crowds, and music is not always good enough of a lure). And for other stuff, I have a 30% rule - I will copy or accept 30% of any album - this way I can get a good idea of the artist, and decide if I want to support them myself (and so be deserving of more of their music).

This is a really important question for me, because I think that it is really important for artists to be supported, and that their fans should be able to show them appreciation. If we want a society that supports the arts, that values them, then we need to create an environment where people can work on them - that means they need to be able to make enough money to earn a living. And I think playing music is quite a deserving way to make a living.

VOTE RESPONSIBLY OR NOT AT ALL

i will only say this once, because i'm so passionate about this i probably can't even talk to you in person about it - i may appear rude or judgemental, and that is absolutely not right of me.

as your blogger friend, as a fellow citizen, i IMPLORE you to not only vote, but to be informed about the consequences of your choices.

for example:

if the proposition you're voting for requires money, where will it come from? and should we be spending money on it when our state budget, and indeed the national economy, is in such disarray?

is what you are voting for simply a good idea, or something that is SO NECESSARY we should pursue it despite the challenges our state already faces?

do you know how the person you are considering voting for has voted/made decisions in the past? is their platform clear enough to understand and specific enough to hold them accountable for?

so far i am:

1a: no
2: yes
3: no
4: no
5: yes
8: no
11: yes

if you want to know how/why i have come to a particular decision, please ask me! i absolutely will tell you clearly. if you have opinions AND thoughts about any of the propositions, please tell me!

- your fellow citizen, who also wants a better future

grass

When I went to type in the title of this post, as usual I had no idea what to say. Okay, that's not really usual, but it does happen often. That is, when I am writing something which I'm starting in a web browser and not on .pages, I usually don't know exactly where it's going to go. In fact, at this very moment, I know I had some sort of idea in mind for what to write about when I clicked "new post," but it has since floated, unnoticed, right out my ear.

Oh, lookie, that wasn't a boring sentence! Woo!

So, NaNo is coming up. Yay, NaNo! And that explains my above excitement - fasten your seatbelts, because my writing for the next month is going to be SO AWESOME.

I have NO IDEA what I am going to write about. I partly haven't thought much about it because I'm lazy. But I also... I want to see what happens. I was listening to..... hm..... that woman..... on NPR...... Terry something? It's really silly that I can't think of the program, but anyway she interviews people. Haha, I just remembered, because I played the opening ... thing... in my head: "I'm Terry Gross, and this is Fresh Air!"

I always think about how she says "Fresh Air." She always says it in the same, very obviously affected, way. I wonder about how she feels about saying it in this same silly way, everyday. I wonder how it was decided that she should say it just so. I wonder if she'll ever say it any differently, and would be quite disappointed if I missed it.

Anyway. So, Terry was talking to the guy who wrote House of Sand and Fog, and he said that everytime he tries to say something in particular with his writing, every time he tries to force it, it comes out... unnatural. Inorganic (my word). I feel the same way. But plus, uh, 50,000 words is a helluva lot! And I reserve the right to write porn if I can't think of anything else!

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P.S. Actually, it wasn't Fresh Air I was listening to. It was KQED's City Arts and Lectures

P.P.S. The OTHER point that got lost as I wrote this - "grass" came up when I accidentally hit "G" on my keyboard (or U, in actuality I hit U, but my computer interpreted it as G, because I'm extrafancy like that), and that is why it is the title of this post. And I will unabashedly blame the pointlessness of this post on that accident of circumstance.

P.P.P.S. Vote! And I really will put up the breakdown of the ballot, promise. Some things are important.

Blank Pages

I'm doing the same thing with this blog that I try to do with my journal - I say to myself, "You can't post that! It's not interesting/long/thoughtful/passionate enough!"

Well, this is what I say to that voice inside my head: Shut up.

*Deep breath*

But no, really, it's too late for me to write anything of substance. I have a class to skip in the morning, and dishes to look at in the sink. Busy busy.

Subjects of upcoming blogs: Hormonal birth control, disability advocacy, duct tape purse, responsible capitalism, and balanced information about the upcoming election (with information specific to the City of Alameda).

Stay tuned (oh all right already, watch something else during the commercials).