I had an interview with a recreational cannabis company today. I believe it went well. I have no reason to believe I’ll get the job but I don’t think I made a fool of myself. Small victories. Continue reading Pot Shoppin’
Category Archives: Large Events
Closure
It feels like I lined up a row of cars. Something expensive. Like Jaguars or Beamers. I lined them up while wearing white spandex bedazzled with jewels, bragging about how I can use this magical motor-bike to leap over them. Why cars? Why not jump spikes or sharks or alligators? Why is there an image burned in my mind of things soaring over vehicles to varying success? Obviously I watched the little boy cartoons in the morning. Continue reading Closure
The HUMP Film Festival
Go see Dan Savage’s HUMP Film Fest if you ever get the chance.
If you need more endorsement than that – I hope to be in it next year!
Welcome To PAX!
This new video series actually deters me from trying out cosplay at PAX. I’m starkly off-center from the average con-goer and old fears emerge when I’m among them. Greatly enjoying all my new-thing trying, I still don’t excel in a large group. No reason to call any attention to myself. I tend to get bullied by Gamers. Just as a 4-year old is excluded from the 10-year old’s party games, it’s a circumstance that simply exists no matter how much she wants to change it. That’s how I feel, showing up late to the gunfight with my knife.
Simulated Reality
At Disneyworld in the 90s there was a state-of-the-art ride that offered a multi-sensory experience inside an alien spaceship. An arena of futuristic chairs encircled a holographic tour guide in the center. Our seats were armed with as many doo-dads as a Dr. Seuss invention and the basis of the experience hinged on reduced visibility. Clever lighting and timed release of things like mist or hot air accompanied the narrative and in-seat surround sound gave the impression of things happening all around the cabin. At one point I even felt an alien brush against me. My 12-year old disbelief was suspended almost the entire time. Continue reading Simulated Reality
Get Off Our Lawn
The Memphis Zoo is run by the Memphis Zoological Society. Established in the early 1900s, they are a private, for-profit association that started with humble concrete cages. In 1986, the Zoo came up with a plan to expand. Since then, the amount of party space the zoo provides has increased exponentially while adding a dozen or so major exhibits. One HUGE problem – they don’t have enough parking to accommodate this long-term master plan. I love the Memphis Zoo and have spent years there as a patron and volunteer. I saw this picture of the new zoo parking solution in Overton Park and it makes me sick.
The Greensward is the only truly open, grassy area available to the public in Overton Park. The old forest trails are more valuable than anything in that area. That doesn’t mean we should sacrifice the iconic grassy lea at the center of Overton Park. Everything else is golf course, art stuff and the Levitt Shell. The east side of the park has the pavilion but losing the greensward and Rainbow Lake limits options for enjoying the park in general. The amount of space left for team sports, recreation and relaxation is a fraction of what we had a couple years ago. Let them keep parking there now and that’s where they’ll build the parking garage in the future.
The Zoo gets paid for every car that passes through their gates. Currently, $5 per car. They should at least raise the price of parking to $20 a car and see how many people choose to walk less than a mile from the free street parking just outside the park grounds. What about the brand new garage in Overton Square? Make the the garage free and charge for the shuttle to the zoo. It would boost the Square economy and account for the overflow parking. Or see if Rhodes wants to go halfsies on a North Side Parking Project? I’m sure they need more parking too and Snowden school hardly uses that big patch of grass they call a field.
Wearing Down
I’ve had a daily obligation to yoga for about 7 days now. From 2pm until 7pm I am in yoga class. Only about an hour of that is actually doing yoga. The rest is getting myself clean, dressed and transported to the studio in time for the 4:30 class and then there’s another hour on the bus after class to get back downtown. It’s a big daily time commitment for a hobby. Something only the privileged can really manage easily. So ironically, if I had a job by now, I’d never be able to enjoy this yoga intensive. That’s my silver lining to unemployment. Continue reading Wearing Down
Health Cares
I just finished a 5 minute phone call with the most compassionate robot I’ve ever met. Continue reading Health Cares
From the Dugout
I’m technically a smoker. However, I detest cigarettes. A few times a day I excuse myself, step outside and take a couple hits off my bat. Just one inhale, sometimes two out of a small pipe that resembles a cigarette. A wafting smell of something that’s not tobacco and I step back inside. Usually this is 25 feet away from an entrance or on mostly private property but sometimes I’m just walking down the street. No one notices or cares. Just another smoker on the street. When I pull out a blown glass pipe in the same situation, the entire tone changes. Stares, whispers, attention.
The paraphernalia carries a connotation – you know, the doing drugs kind. I transform from a smoker into a junkie. Okay, not quite as extreme as that but what if I change the venue to a public park? The movement for medical marijuana has foundations in children’s medicine while smoking pot next to a playground is illegal? Marijuana is supposed to be available to anyone 21+ and yet holistic medicinal applications are forgotten in the gleeful rush of recreational use.
I understand the desire to protect children from scenes of unfettered drug use and debauchery but that’s not the situation we’re talking about. The difference is in the user, not the substance. I choose to smoke because that’s what works for me. All I ask is the freedom to inhale with the same impunity as cigarette smokers. That’s what I already do with my stealth method. I’d rather be able to use a pipe because it’s easier on my throat. That shouldn’t be too much for the general public to swallow.