I have decided to head West to Los Angeles. Not because I have a particular affinity or romance with the city, but because I have good friends there whom I want to see again. My general game plan is to go there and try to find a job, and should that not happen and I become too poor, I'll pack up the Scion and head back to Texas and meet my dear friends returning home from Africa.
Word on the street is that I won't be compensated for the work I've done this year any time soon... my company's money owed is now in litigation and whatnot. And that brings questions of lawsuits I could press and lots of things I don't want to think about. I wish it was like the old days where a pair of nun-chucks would settle the score.
My life is again, for the third time this past year, packed up, labeled, and compartmentalized into little boxes.
- Music (instruments)
- CDs, DVDs, etc
- Books (a new box almost full with books i brought/bought over here)
- Photography
- Geekery
- Winter Clothes
- Video Games (this is a new one! i've made leaps and bounds in Nerdonomy)
Other than that I just have a suitcase, compy-chan, a guitar, a 32-key keyboard, 2 hard drives (1 for backup, 1 for TV shows), my rice cooker, my dvd player, my wii, toiletries and my box of "super important documents".
looking at this list of possessions i can kind of identify what's important in my life. at least the stuff that important enough that i'd stick it into my wagon and nomadically travel around the country with it. i can't help but think it's a pretty good summation of things i like. if i could put my friends in boxes and take them around the country, i'd do that too. but that would probably land me in some trouble with the law....
i think that it's my duty as a transient to find a mutt that i insist on carrying around with me everywhere.
moving is never fun and my circumstances have been less than favorable. one nice thing is that for the past few days my dad and his wife have been in town to pay a visit. originally, they planned on being in town when i had a job, but circumstances have opened up my schedule and allowed me to spend some more time with them. it's been good.
well... i better quit effing blogging and finish up the packing. why do i keep every scrap of paper that touches my hands?!?
Oh. P.S. >> I will no doubt come back from LA as all of the following: a movie star, a successful commedian, a talented rock star, the lead man in an Otis Redding cover band called White Otis, an up-and-coming politician, and to top it all off I'll wear my solid gold tuxedo with my solid gold top hat and drive my solid gold Hummer that has replaced its wheels with miniature solid gold mercedes benzes - all this while MTV films a reality TV show about me (in my crib).
NOW SELLING EXTREMELY RARE/ MINT CONDITION/ LIMITED EDITION/ UNUSED/ DAVE RUPERT BUSINESS CARDS! ONE PRESSING ONLY! BE THE ONLY ONE ON YOUR HOUSE/ BLOCK/ CITY/ STATE/ COUNTRY TO HAVE ONE! COULD BE THE INVESTMENT OF YOUR LIFE! ONLY SERIOUS BIDDERS!
look out ebay. here i come.
around the 1st of the month when my boss decided we didn't have enough money to pay everyone he sent a text (not to me, mind you) and said the following (paraphrased).
can't pay you on the first. waiting on a check. best case scenario is you'll be paid on Monday the 5th. worst case scenario is you'll be paid on the 15th
....
...
....
No. the wost case scenario would be that THAT THE COMPANY WOULD BUST AND I'D LOSE MY MOTHER-EFFING JOB ON THE 14TH!
rawr. are you ready? (ready for what?) ready for the unemployment blog-0-thon!
my company just folded. i'm out of the job. the paycheck will come eventually, but it's date is uncertain.
All I can say is: O-M-G, dude.
Now the question at hand is more pertinent: East? or West?
I come at you tonight with a story as true as true can be. though it may seem unbelieveable, it's very very true..
About a month ago my roommate and I scheme up a plan to go get some delicious spicy chicken wings and french fries for lunch from one of the local eateries in town. we enter into the open air bar and saunter up to the counter to order chicken wings and (because it was "one of those days") beer.
food comes and our conversation about the Bear's chance in superbowl comes to a halt. food supersedes conversation in all circumstances. so what does one do when mouth is stuffed with food? eavesdrop naturally. now, it wasn't like i was trying to eavesdrop (though i do do that. i like to know what's going on in a room, it makes me feel like i have superpowers).
the guys next to us start talking -loudly, i might add- about some kind of wedding going on next month.
"where's the wedding?"
"in costa rica."
"oh man! the hookers there are awesome!"
"that's what i've heard!"
i'm surprised the chicken didn't just fall out of my mouth in one of those clumsy, awkward movie moments. call me naive, but i've never heard folks talking so nonchalantly about 'hookers'. i couldn't believe this is a topic you just chat freely about. this is where it gets a step weirder.
"my mother-in-law is coming to babysit the kids."
?!?!?!?!!!?!!!???????????!?!?!!??????????? wtf?!?!
this guy's wife, kids, and mother-in-law are going with him to costa rica and he's going to hire a beach prostitute. the two guys, co-workers i assume, eventually left the bar, but not before i felt the weight of the awkwardness of the situation.
True story.
why this, why now?
The reason I blog this now is because I just heard a relevant podcast about a new book out called Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade--and How We Can Fight It. In an interview, the author told a compelling story about him travelling to Cambodia to a place where they auction off young 13, 14 year old girls into the (sex) slave trade. Just listening to these stories my heart broke.Living in Japan and becuase of it's approximity to South East Asia, I can't begin to tell you about how many people would go to Thailand and come back with "crazy stories"... I'm sure you can imagine. And I can't help but think, one of those women might have been one of those little girls. Her and others like her, stolen out of their homes or orphanages, and forced to do unimaginable things with the thousands of dirty old western/european men who go to South East Asia by the plane-loads. Slaves. Money paid by white men that will eventually be used to indenture more young girls.
The Amazon Book Description says:
Human trafficking generates $31 billion annually and enslaves 27 million people around the globe, half of them children under the age of eighteen.
On the podcast, he estimates that nearly 100,000~200,000 people in The United States are "living"/working here in some form of slavery. NPR also broke a story about Latinos immigrants into the United States are wrapped up in Human-Trafficking.
I can't help but be moved for this cause. long time readers of my blog might remember back in January of 2003 when i bought a slave or two and wrote more about it later. though i now realize buying christian sudanese slaves' freedom isn't the best method of rescuing slaves, because it ultimately enforces human-trafficking, I don't regret my contribution at all... because, ultimately, something has to be done if governments aren't going to intervene. This is something that people don't understand - governments will never intervene! why would they!? too many hands in too many pockets to stop the slavery and bondage of millions of individuals worldwide.
forgive me to speak boldly. why would we -the Good Ol' US of A- lose one of our precious boys trying to rescue slaves in Sudan, when there's oil to be had in Iraq? And I suppose we've tried some, but don't get me started on how the UN resolved to place only African forces in a place where Africans (non-Arabs) are the ones suffering from ethnic cleansing (sorry no source, it's 1am and I'm too lazy to find it). That would be like putting an all black police force to defend civil rights protesters from the KKK.[/end tangent][read more]
Today I read about Hawaii trying to pass a bill to legalize prostitution. Though legalizing prostitution may seem like a fiscal cash cow for governments and would seem make everywhere as fun as Las Vegas, who really pays the price? What insurance is there that all "employees" are there on their own volition? I know Japanese businessmen, how long will it be until Hawaii is Japan's new China? Is America trying to get it's hands in the sex tourism pot?
What social catalyst is there for those who do not have a voice, and are so far from us we do not hear nor do we speak their language? It's mindblowing to me to think that we as human beings have the power to stop slavery (rather, the demand thereof) on a global scale by truly "keeping our dicks in our pants".
I hope you'll think about this. And I hope you'll find a way you can help. Maybe i'll put that ol' activist section idea up on wimpkiller one of these days... Think about the daughters. The orphans and the fatherless. please. Let's Stop the Sex Trade. Make it uncool. Thanks.
