Space Suit

Space Suit
(Jan.23.2009)

I was over to my neighbor's house (Radio Roxanne) and we were working on computer stuff, and she asked me if I had ever heard of a Wacom drawing tablet --it's a pad and pen that you can use as a pointing device (like a mouse but way different). I told her that I had one collecting dust at my house. My mother got it as a birthday gift for me at least ten years ago. I told her that I really couldn't make heads or tails of the thing.

So next she tells me that her friend Stephanie McMillan, creator of the comic strip "Minimum Security", had a similar experience (had a drawing tablet sitting around collecting dust) but had decided to give it another try and now found she could draw her comic strip much faster.

So I got home and decided to give it another go. I draw a few really aweful sketches with the thing and was just as frustrated as ever. Then I hunted around the internet for a bit and found a few tutorials and then things started to improve and a few attempts later I had come up with this picture here. Space Suit. Which I really like. One of my first "successes" with the thing. Best of all, it's like one last gift from my mother.

Yay team!
-Alex

Fatimah

Fatimah
(Jan.19.2009)

Hey, hey, hey.  Welcome back to my Blog.  Sorry it's been so long; life's been happening to me... a lot. 

So, anyhue, this is the digital diary where I write about my interests.  And I have a new interest. 

Painting.

There's something about "starving" and "artist" that just goes together.  A couple months ago I lost my job.  But my ex-boss told me to wait a month and see if we got called back to work.  So I waited a month.  Growing poorer by the day.  But while I waited, I explored a desire of mine that I've had for ages.  Ever since I was little I've felt like I could draw.  And back when I published a comic magazine for three years I felt like I could color on the computer fairly well.  But I always wished I could paint.  Like really paint.

I tried taking a painting course in college.  I had to withdraw so that I didn't flunk.  I've gone to the web forums at forums.sijun.com/ for almost 10 years and just lurked around and stared in awe at the things people there can paint.  But I've always felt rather hopeless when it comes to painting on my own.  Well, no longer.  This painting I've posted here, "Fatimah", is one of my latest.  Not bad for only being two months in on this new endeavor.  I'll post more on the specifics of how I got into painting next time.  For now I just wanted to show some work.

Peace & Love,
-Alex

Inspiration for You

Inspiration for You
by Alex Mead
(Nov.08.2008)


Can you feel the change? There are a lot of folks tossing around that word, change, lately. So much so that people are starting to believe in it. When lots of people actually believe they have to power to change things...they actually do.

Can you feel it? Feel the change comin? I wanted to put together a list of songs I've been listening to lately that deepen and intensify my belief.I recommend adding these folks as friends, visiting their pages often and listening to the songs that appeal to you as you need them.

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Baba Israel and Yako 440
http://www.myspace.com/babaisraelandyako440
"feel the change"
Beatbox superstars Baba Israel & Yako 440 from New York build positivity with this track. This is the perfect song to set it off with. Lays the choice that's before us out there quite concisely.


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My Rap Name is Alex
http://www.myspace.com/myrapnameisalex
"Peace & Love"
Before I get to far in I wanted to do a bit of what they call shameless self promotion. My song Peace & Love isn't even a real song. I got asked to play a benefit show to raise funds to help send people to the RNC protests in September and my friends in the band Ibis and I were just improvising around. I just quickly threw the lyrics from two different songs together and this is what came out. Peace & Love.

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the BloodThirsty Vegans
http://www.myspace.com/bloodthirstyvegans
"Be Peace"
And my musical Family the BloodThirsty Vegans and I still have this song up from the first show I ever did with them. Oldie but goodie.

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Michael Franti & Spearhead
http://www.myspace.com/spearheadvibrations
"Hey World (Don't Give Up)"
It always surprises me when people haven't heard of Michael Franti and Spearhead. They are so popular among my friends that I sometimes forget that they are still slightly obscure out in the general population. The majority of their music is very inspiring, you can pick most any song, but Hey World (Don't Give Up) is a good place to start if you've never heard of them.

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Kevin Wykoff (Slug's Revenge)
http://www.myspace.com/slugsrevenge
"Rubber Tramp Family"
Slug's Revenge is a bit different from most of the music on this list, but different people draw inspiration from different places. I, personally, find Kevin Wykoff's music to be very inspiring. I met him a couple times here in Buffalo and he really does play the guitar that fast. I traded him one of my books for his CD and Rubber Tramp Family is one of my favorite songs on the CD. Two minutes of earthy bliss.

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The Human Revolution
http://www.myspace.com/humanandtheotherhumans
"Public Servant"
I met human and his friends when they were traveling through the area in their biodiesel car. I got to play the Countries Game with him and I have to say the guy truly knows a lot about world geography. Knows a lot about a lot of things. It's quite evident in his lyrics. Public Servant seems like the kind of song that could really shift people's perspective since a lot of people aren't used to thinking in these terms.

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Mystic
http://www.myspace.com/thatgirlmystic
"Beautiful Resistance"
Usually any song with the words "you belong to me" in it over and over again would go in one of my ears and out the other. But when it is talk of how we all belong to each other it's somehow beautiful and perfect. Every once in a while you run across a song where every word seems to be in just the right spot and like the lyrics are a sculpted work of art. This is just such a song. Almost every line in this track could stand alone as a beautiful and thought provoking quotation.

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Ozomatli
http://www.myspace.com/ozomatli
"Can't Stop"
Ozomatli is another really popular band in certain circles and they keep right on keepin on and doing their thing. They are well worth checking out. 'We've got faith in what love can do. Don't look back we gonna make it through, got to keep movin.' Can't argue with that. They have a LOT of their music posted up on their page, so after you listen to Can't Stop you might wanna do some digging. I recommend flipping down to their Street Signs CD and listening to the 1st track "Believe". It's definitely inspiring.

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Luminaries
http://www.myspace.com/luminariesmusic
"Peace"
The luminaries seem poised on the edge ready to break through and spread light into the dark corners of the Earth. They have a big band that makes a big sound and lots of great voices bringing a unified message of peace.

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Slo Mo
http://www.myspace.com/heyslomo
"Shine As You Are"
And last but far from least is Slo Mo featuring Mic Wrecka. "Shine as You Are" is one of my favorite songs of all time. They have a transcendant sound. And I find myself flipping over to this page and clicking on this song to draw inspiration all the time.

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Peace & Love,
-Alex (My Rap Name is Alex)

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Public Domain, feel free to circulate this list and lists like it. Add, edit and modify it as desired.

Water + Rates + Cameras

Water + Rates + Cameras

(this news item posted on April.25.2008)

Dirty Water

If you would have told me in 1978 that in 30 years the tap water was going to become "too dirty to drink" and that everyone would eagerly fork over a dollar for a bottle of water, I would never have believed you.

Annual Percentage Rates

If you would have told me in 1998 that some day I would be paying more than 29% APR on credit cards, I would never have believed you. Back then my mother was helping me establish good credit and explaining to me about credit cards, and how you NEVER EVER want to get in trouble on your credit cards because the credit card companies will gouge you for 15% interest per year. She made that sound like a very awful thing, so I wanted to never have that happen, but at least that was as bad as it could possibly get. She explained that that was the most they were allowed to charge by law, and besides they wouldn't be able to get anyone to pay any higher APRs than that anyway. My mother was very, very smart. Genius. But I guess she underestimated what they'd be able to accomplish in 20 years.

Police Cameras

If you'd have told me in 1998 that in 10 years we would all start to have police spy cameras going up in our cities I would have looked at you skeptically, but if you'd have told me that our general attitude toward this reduction of privacy would be "Well, hey man, we need those cameras to make sure we behave." I would have thought you were on crack. Did I get to vote on this? I'm pretty sure I would have voted that I don't need a police spy camera to make sure that I behave.

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and PS: if anyone would have told me in 2004 that Brian Higgins was going to help them charge me crazy APRs and help constrict bankruptcy and help make my credit records available to all these creditors I would have never voted for him. Not even on the Working Families Party line.

movement + functionality + comparison

movement + functionality + comparison

(this news item posted on March.29.2008)

3 things that I often say, the meanings of which might not be readily obvious:

"Movement is a gift. Don't give it all away."

"It ain't broke, but it's vitally important that we fix it"

"Compare yourself... to yourself"

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Movement

Movement is a gift. It's one of my favorite gifts. I am so grateful for all of my movable body parts and all of the useful and interesting ways they can move. To show my gratitude, I actually move them.

They LOVE that!

My mother was an enemy of movement --of sorts. For all of her other wonderful attributes, she did not like to sweat, move, exert... She was always giving her gift of movement away to others: to me. I don't know that she even recognized it as a gift. A lot of people don't. People are so shocked that I accept the gift of being able to ride my bike 5 miles to work every day, of eagerly receive the gift of helping them move heavy things around their house. What can I say? It's what's been working for me.

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functionality

From time to time I hear people expressing consternation: "why isn't it 'working'". The it, of course, being the great American experiment. The question takes many forms; "How come America is the only country that can't figure out how to provide health care for people?"; "How come so many kids are graduating from college with so much debt and can't find any good paying jobs?" I even heard someone ask recently "How come the war didn't stimulate the economy like war usually does?" So many people are out there scratching their heads trying to figure out how it all became so dysfunctional? "Why isn't it all 'working'" I got news for you, folks. It ain't broke, but it is vitally important that we fix it.

Yeah, you heard right, it ain't broke. The system is not broken. At all. The system is doing exactly what it was designed to do, and it's doing it better than it ever has before in all of recorded human history. The system is designed, engineered and driven by elites (rich people), and the functionality that those elites want out of the system is "make the rich even richer". And man are they ever having a lot of luck with that.

At no time in human history have the masses of humanity been so willing to allow for such wealth concentration as we have now without having a revolution. How is it working so well for them now?

First, there's a lot of geographic separation. A lot of the desperately poor people are in the southern hemisphere way to far away from the wealthy elites to carry out an effective revolution against wealthy elites, and where possible, they are educated with money from those same wealthy elites about how those wealthy elites really are pretty nice people if you get to know them.

Second, the poorest among the people who do live close to the wealthy elites and the people who would have been inclined to revolt in the past, are now stupefied and nullified by debt (which is worse than poverty). The revolutionary who was revolting against the French Aristocracy in the 1700s has contemporaries that today are fully engaged with how to pay off the hospital bill from the emergency surgery last year. The college student that was out in the streets railing against war in the 1970s is now fully engaged in trying to work their 3 part time jobs to even make a dent in their college loans.

So, yes, the system is working perfectly. The rich are richer than they've ever been. The people who own and control and create our system could not be more pleased with the results they're getting. Their war against Iraq did stimulate the economy a lot by the way. Only now they've figured out how to not share it with the working poor and John Q. Public or even the soldiers fighting the war. The money from the war went directly to the pockets of executives and defense contractors and politicians, consultants and engineering firms that are down with the program. The program, again, is making the rich even richer. It working. It's not broken, it's completely functional.

But it is vitally impoartant that we fix it. Replace it. Push it off the table and let it smash against the floor. And build in its place a system that will educate without enslaving, heal the sick without incapacitating them, and study war no more. I'm just so ready to stop wasting humanity's potential.

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comparison

Compare yourself... to yourself. Or don't. I mean, if there's a talent, skill or ability that you want to make sure you NEVER develop, the best way to go about it is to make some first attempt (try it a little bit) and then compare your results to somebody that is already really super good at it. Next, tell yourself "I'll never be as good as them." Now you can simply give up, and never try again and you won't ever have to worry about developing that talent, skill or ability that you don't ever want to have. You'll be safe from those pesky abilities forever. Nobody can ask you to use a skill you don't have eh?

If, on the other hand, you're like me and you enjoy having skills and abilities, you might want to try comparing yourself to yourself. Start out small, set yourself some goals that you can easily accomplish so that you can have some easy early victories. Be quick to forgive yourself for your attempts that don't turn out quite right. That's just a part of life. Record your results if possible, and stick with it for a while, and then go back and compare your abilities to your abilities when you were starting off. The more skills and abilities you acquire the easier it will be to develop more abilities that build off of those abilities. I'm not a big believer in "Talent is something you're born with or you're not." All of the talents people accuse me of having were developed over time and with the assistance of other talents that I developed earlier through working to acquire them.

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be Peace,
-Alex