A blog about Arts & Entertainment, Family & Home, and Food & Eating.
Real Name: Miles Johnson Member Since: April 23, 2008 Last Signed In: July 03, 2008 Profile Views: 274 Blog Views: 814 I Think I've Had Enough....... For Now. Leave In Love What If......... Remember This Face! *SIGH* So Much To Do... This Ship On a Scale of 1 to 10..... It's All About the Numbers Downtown Business Association Bordering on Thugs April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 
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Been a while, eh? Not much has happened in the World of Johnson lately. Mostly working on the house (we are ALWAYS working on the house). But I've decided to start making some changes in my (our) life. See, Stephen and I have really been beating our selves up for being fat, lazy, spending too much money on nonsense and in general not living the way we'd like. So I've decided to start making some plans and make some changes: Plan #1: Stop eating out. Period. Ever. I estimate the we spend $200+/month eating out because we are just too damned lazy to cook. That's $2,400/year- or two whole house payments. Enough already! Plan#2: No more soda. Even diet. I haven't had a beer in like 4 days! It's killing me. Plan #3: Start getting into some sort of better physical condition. I'm not talking gym and working out and all that crazy talk. Maybe just walking around the neighborhood every evening for a while. Maybe a cute little pink tandem bike- that'll get the neighbors a-chattin'! I'm still working on the rest. We don't have a plan for the future- like when Stephen retires and all that. We have no idea where we'll be in 5 or 10 years and not knowing has really started to bug the crap outta us. I just feel like maybe we could be more in control (not complete control- that's weird) of where our lives are going. Maybe my "old age" is finally catching up with me. Dunno.
Finally managed to upload my one-and-only song I'v ever recorded to some conclusion. Here's the information in case some of y'all care: Miles Johnson: Writer, producer, piano, vocals and keyboard (bass line) Percussion by the owner of Spectrum Studios, Ft. Lauderdale Accoustic and electric guitar by someone FAR more talented than I could ever be. Comments welcome- just know that this is not a passion nor something I even do anymore. It merely represents a time- oh, about 12 years ago- when I still had passion for doing something I loved. Now I just care about paying bills. So the score is: Life:1, Miles:0 Thanks for listening. I've really got to pull myself together. This whole Prop 22 / Ann Barnett / Jean Fuller has begun to take more of my time, passion and energy than I thought I'd care to give it. But some comments have continued to needle me in unsettling ways. They got me to thinking- you guessed it- what if we all got our way? Either in tandem or as seperate issues. What if gay marriage were here to stay, upheld by the CSSC? If the November vote kept gay marriage, what would happen? What would you do personally? What would happen to the county? Thet State? OR What would happen if same-sex marriage were voted out of law in November? OR As one person suggested, why don't the gays just go somewhere else and get married? For that matter (and taking that logic to it's ultimate conclusion) why don't the gays simply leave Kern altogether? What about the Jews, or blacks or hispanics? Describe a Kern County to me where everyone get's their way. Isn't that the essence of a kind of "Bakotopia"? Look at this picture. Committ it to memory. This is the face of the enemy. As many of you already know, Ann Barnett has put her foot down and decided (on behalf of all Kern County residents- she is an elected official, you know) that if gays are allowed to marry, by gosh NO ONE will. Well, not in her office anyway. Can't you almost here the tantrum now? Sadly, she also controls who has the ability to officiate over ANY weddings. Quite literally, this person has the ability to decide who can get married and who cannot. Apparently California Law stops at the Kern County border.
Good morning all. I debated with whether I should start a new blog since my attitude has somewhat changed from yesterdays crappy one. But I think I will be addressing some of the thoughts expressed in my last blog so here goes: I didn't know Chris Page. And after much thought yesterday I have resigned myself to the fact that I have, in fact never really dealt with death and the dying. In fact, my friend and I were just talking about this a couple days ago: I come from a relatively small family and people only die when they're like 90. I've only attended two funerals in my life so my experience is kinda minimal. Why bring this up? 'Cuz I have this preconcieved tv-like notion about how people (I?) should act towards others in instances like this. Very recently, my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (breast cancer). Her prognosis, truth be known, isn't good. So lots of dark things have been going through my mind in the past couple of months. Let's toss in my own chronic/manic depression (I take meds for it) and a bevy of other, less-important issues... I guess it all adds up to my lack of experience and some bad timing. Despite my pessimistic nature I have rare and fleeting moments when I think people (average everday people like me) "should/could" do the right thing. If for no other reason than it's what the heart and soul begs for, no? I believe I now go through life relatively guarded, definately jaded and somewhat medicated against the ills that pervade our culture. But sometimes, a tiny little spark of "something" goes off in me and I wonder (and rage) about what could've been; what should be. Silly? Perhaps. But I think if that spark ever really goes away, I'll be dead inside. Yet another reason why I completely understand why Chris did what he did and how easy it can be to get there. My recent reaction to Chris' passing stems from a surprisingly deep affinity I feel for the man though I never heard of him until recently. We are both writers, similar age, similar interests, passions and struggles... Assessments of his writing are exact duplicates of the critiques I have received all my life. It's like I'm looking at myself and I wonder: Could that have been me? Could it still? Maybe this news and subsequent internal revelations are harbingers of bigger hurdles yet to come. Perhaps I am being warned, or prepared in some way. Perhaps I'm thinking too much on it. Perhaps. From this dead-weight shark to anyone interested in receiving it: My apologies for the ruckus. Well, ya had to know it was coming. I don't think two minutes passed after the California Supreme court wisely overturned the vote to ban gay marriage before I was looking at china patterns and color schemes. So before that inevitable referendum is put before our Governor (something he publicly promised he would not endorse) we- Stephen and I- are planning on getting hitched. I'm tired of living in sin. But there is sooooo much to do. Where to tie the knot? I know I don't want to get married in a church... Who to invite? Do you think Harvey Hall will come? Where to register? Besides the obligatory Home Depot and Macy*s... Where to hold the reception? I know who I want to have as my Best Man, but I think Stephen might have a tough time choosing. Fall or Winter wedding? Should I wear white?
This Ship
Remnants of the old Bakersfield barely peeking through.
A thinned-down glaze of the almost-new
Hanging up in the crevices to show the real depth and character of a city
with much conflicting identity.
Paint slathered on old brickwork.
Over unhealed wounds of thoughtless repairs to electric
and windows
and awnings.
Skeletal remains of what used to be important.
Reflections of what was follow each window, reminding us that memories sometimes outlast the physical structure.
Behemoths of dessert architecture
seem almost resigned to a fate
less than half of their builders' intention.
So there might be coffee shops, and clothiers
and blasphemous prophets that spew humility while sipping $4 coffees.
Downtown Bakersfield- an amalgamation of inanimate memes that are fading,
scaring over with time.
Crumbling under the kindness of owners and patrons,
but will outlast us all.
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the least, 10 being the most....
Feel free to add your own questions. Enjoy!!
25% I have stopped going to First Fridays (previously First Thursdays) because of the Downtown Business Association. My understanding was that First Friday was developed to promote the downtown business and cultural scenes. Instead, IMHO it has become a money-generating opportunity for the BDBA. Collecting $10 per person (non-DBA members) is insane when you are trying to promote an area of town already struggling with an identity. I avoid any business opening in which the BDBA is involved. I went to a branch opening for Kern Schools Fed. Credit Union as an invited member of the CU. When we walked into the new branch we were asked to pay $10 each. Are you kidding me?! WTF is up with that?! I told the lady that we were Credit Union members invited by the Compliance Officer. She wouldn't budge. I paid the $20 and then heartily complained to the CU. They told me they had no idea people were being charged to get into a Grand Opening- the BDBA didn't tell anyone at the CU about what they were doing- and they refunded our $20. IMHO the BDBA is turning into a clique-ish band of thugs that seem to take advantage of every opportunity to drain the pockets of it's community members while lining their own. If I were a member of the BDBA and had dues to pay or something, that would be one thing. But as a general public consumer, I don't think I should have to support the DBA with added door fees. Isn't supporting the business enough? Anyone have another enlightened perspective I'm not seeing? Thanks for reading. |
Local time is currently Fri Jul 4, 2008 4:01:08 pm PDT
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