Recent Blog Posts: Bakotopia

Dammit

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 22:38:50 PST

So I just typed up a good page and a half (single spaced) commentary on our local FOX news sensationalized journalism that they are parading about all of a sudden and how eventually sex offenders will have nowhere to live and there needs to be better modification to the system. But here we go, fucking laptop touchpad triggered a couple back clicks and thus deleted my writing. Whatever, it wasn't that good anyway. I'm holding down 19 units at BC this semester so I'm going to be swamped, hopefully not too bad though.

Bako exorcism?

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:41:59 PST

View on Paperback Writer

-n.l.

Rock Oout To Knock Out RSD

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:45:57 PST

Come out and Rock Out with us! There are about 20 bands playing, something for everyone’s ear, bounce houses, food, drinks, raffle, and tons more.

You will be having a great time, and all funds earned will go to Rock Out To Knock Out, Inc. Ashley will be purchasing durable medical equipment for those who can not provide for themselves, also a percentage will be going to UCLA’s research for RSD, and also to spread awareness.

If you are a vender and would like to sit up a table, the fee will only be to cover the cost of us renting the table. Donations are always accepted. Come show off your merchandise, there will be plenty of people there to buy.

If you would like to donate a item for the drawing, please send to the following address

Rock Out To Knock Out RSD

P.O. Box 5332

Bakersfield, Ca 93388-5332

Did any one hear Ashley on KRAB last Thursday? Rocky and Meathead where so cool to Ashley, they are great people!

See ya on March 24

Lorie,

Secretary; (and mom)

Rock Out To Knock Out RSD

Challenge 1 done!

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 13:29:54 PST

Hi it's been a while since I posted in here sorry bout that.

I finished Challenge 1 and did pretty good. I lost 10lbs, 6.4% Body Fat, and 8 overall total inches! I can do cardio for 25 min without needing my inhaler now too!

I still have a lot to lose and a ways to go but I started Challenge 2 on January 1st!

Natalia Trip to New York

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:44:38 PST

Jr. Pain in the Neck

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 10:49:28 PST

A Delano middle school teacher is facing battery charges for allegedly choking one of his 8^th grade students. The story got me thinking about how I behaved in the 8^th grade. I was rotten. In fact, I have no doubt there was a yard duty teacher who would have loved to have choked my neck. I’m not sure why, but I made it my personal mission to make that woman’s life a living hell. I reveled in it.

I don’t know what it is about Jr. High. It’s a very difficult stage for most kids. Hormones are raging, and your body goes through awkward growth spurts. Or at least mine did. For some reason my nose grew faster than the rest of my face. I had a big nose, buck teeth, and freakishly boney knees. I was spent many an afternoon crying to my mother over how ugly I was. I think I took my anger out on that poor yard duty teacher. (Although part of me still thinks she deserved it.)

All I know is if that teacher really did choke that kid he probably deserved it. I felt like choking my kid when he was in Jr. High and I have the most well behaved child in the world. Somehow I doubt he really stood in front of all those other children choked him with the passion and conviction to kill. He probably just really wanted to shut him up. And as long as that kid isn’t dead, I say no harm, no foul.

Of course, if it was my kid I would totally kick his ass.

For more from Bake Town, click here.

I ImporTUNE U: My new blog series will introduce you to fresh, new bands from Canada and the U.K.

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 07:04:49 PST

Are you bored to death of listening to the same old music from the same old bands and artists? Would you like a breath of fresh air from your Northern neighbors in Canada? I'd like to ImporTUNE you. That's right, and I will, import tunes and bands from Canada and the U.K. to Bakersfield. Bands like today's I ImporTUNE U featured band, Vancougar:

http://www.vancougar.ca/

Visit their site, sample their tunes (like Way It's Gon' Be), then let me know if you'll let them into your world. Stay tuned: I ImporTUNE U!

Just Thinking

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:28:38 PST

My Spare Tire and Second Chances

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:26:28 PST

My last article that N.L. Belardes featured on his blog Paperback Writer about the Tav Cam Adventures and the girl on drugs who was arrested prompted further discussions between my friends and I via email. We started sharing our own experiences and “wake up calls” and so I’m sharing mine right now. It’s not as bad as the drug thing, but it sure woke me up about drinking and driving.

I had finished my evening shift as a waitress at Mossman’s Restaurant on Buck Owens Blvd (way before it was called Buck Owens Blvd.) There was a country bar attached to the building where my friend was a bartender. That particular night I promised her a ride home. My shift ended before hers, so I decided to wait around while having a few beers.

On our way to take her home I see the dreaded lights asking me to pull over so I do .

The officer walks over to my car and says, “I’m an officer with power…bow down to me! ” OK so he didn’t really say that but don’t most officers seem to have a “bow down to me” sort of stride?

With his notepad in hand, he leans his head down and says in his very man-with-authority voice, “The reason I pulled you over is because you were swerving. Have you been drinking tonight?”

Of course I immediately freaked out! I stared at him for what seemed like an eternity. I didn’t know what to say. I could feel the tears start to fill my eyes and I was sure I was going to start bawling like a scared little baby.

I had beer breath. There was no denying it. I felt so embarrassed and ashamed and scared to death. What do I do? What do I say? Do I lie? Do I tell the truth? Do I try to make a run for it? Nah, my little four cylinder Hyundai S-Coupe was no match for this guy. He could probably skip faster than my cute little wind-up car.

Finally, I took a deep breath and decided to be as honest as possible without really ratting myself out and said, “Well, I did have a beer (meaning three) at the bar after work. But that was about 2 hours ago (meaning just a few minutes ago). And now I’m on my way home (meaning after I dropped my friend off.) There! I was quite happy with my answer. I looked at him to see if he bought any of it.

Of course having confessed to the drinking he wasn’t about to just let me go. Or perhaps because I had been swerving? Either way, he explains to me that he was going to have to give me some tests to make sure I wasn’t over the limit. So he says, “Follow this pen with your eyes, without moving your head.”

I could feel my heart racing a million beats per minute. My face feels flushed and suddenly my hands felt extremely clammy. I freaked out!

“Please calm down Norma , please don’t cry,” I think to myself while taking deep breaths. Then I realized cars are driving by witnessing my humiliation.

Suddenly, instead of crying I start giggling and couldn’t stop. I started saying between laughter, “Oh my goooooooooosh, officer I am so embarrassed. I am sooooo not that girl.” Still laughing, I say, “ I am not the drunk driving girl. I am not the girl that gets in trouble with the law. How embarrassing! I am just a single mom of two kids that rarely goes out, and in fact only stayed after work today to have just ONE beer (*coughLIE cough) because my friend needed a ride home and her shift ends after mine.”

He doesn’t believe me. He is standing there watching me laugh with a serene look on his face, motionless and completely not finding the humor in the situation. I can’t say I blame him. He moves the pen, right to left and I’m still giggling like a little school girl.

I say, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I just can’t stop laughing. This is so embarrassing! Oh my God, eeeeek! I can’t believe I’m getting the drunk test.” I try to stop my silly immature giggling but I just can’t..

He forgives my laughter, but isn’t letting up on the tests. He slowly moves the pen again. His face is now concentrating on my eyes. I can tell he means business. I’m sure he’s very annoyed at me and I start to panic. I try very hard to follow it… while giggling.

“Hold still Norma , follow the stinkin’ pen with your eyes. Don’t move your head. And for God’s sake, STOP LAUGHING,” I think to myself.

Once again… I moved my head. I say, “I’m sorry I’m sorry.. give me one more chance! Just one more! I swear I’ll get it this time.”

He moves the pen again.

I shriek and say, “Oh my gooooooosh, I can just see the headlines now with my ugly assed mug shot in the paper!” Then I “pretend pose” for my mug shot.

So now he finally lets up and starts laughing. I said, “I’m just nervous. You’re making me nervous. I can do this, I promise! But first do you mind if I go across the street to go pee. I really gotta go. Please?”

He says, “Let’s try another test.” So he makes me do the walk in a straight line test. “Heel, toe, heel toe” he says. But I have to pee so bad that I’m crossing my legs and laughing trying not pee and I’m saying, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh,! I’m gonna pee my pants.” We both start laughing. “I am so embarrassed. Officer, I swear I’m not drunk. You can even do the breathalyzer on me if you want. The reason I was probably swerving is because I am driving with my tiny spare tire on, and so the car pulls really bad to the right.”

This was totally true!

He looks at my spare tire, laughs with me. And says, “OK, well I’m gonna let you go. But you better go straight home.”

I say, “Yes, officer, thank you so much. I will.”

I know how differently that story could have turned out and I feel very fortunate that it didn't. Does anybody else have similar wake up calls or funny/crazy stories about getting pulled over and given a second chance?

Hellcat meeting this saturday!

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 13:48:12 PST

This Saturday, 2pm, Borders.

Hey, check me out...I'm being all concise and to the point.

Yay me!

Anyhoo...hope to see ya there.

<3 Miss Meg aka "The Kitten"

NEW Music Video by American Standard!

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 13:40:19 PST

I just got a message to check out this video by Bakersfield's very own, American Standard. The video for "Pushing Through," was shot on location at The Mint bar in downtown Bakersfield late last year, by Frank Kruz of Kruz Productions, along with asst. Sarah Fiske.

Special guest on vocals is Derek, from Swag 667!

The music is about as metal as you can get. I've seen American Standard a few times, and they always blow me away. The singer can literally strip the paint off of your car. Marc De Leon on the bass is always solid!

Along with the live footage is some lilve footage of local Bakersfield bar brawls. Check out to see if you're in one of them! I recoginzed a few places, including Riley's.

Mehtal. m/

Zoot

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 09:38:32 PST

Rant

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:11:22 PST

As some of you may have noticed, I don’t talk about my job around here. There are several reasons for that but the most important one is because I want to keep it. I would have a very hard time paying my bills if I didn’t have this job. And I’m pretty sure being unemployed would seriously screw up my ability to party, and lord knows we can’t have that happening. But today I am going to make a tiny exception. I feel the need to bitch.

I have a co-worker; let’s call him Mr. Blob, who gets paid the same amount of money I do every month to sit on his fat ass and play solitaire. Everyone knows it. He doesn’t even try and hide it. If you walk by his office you can clearly see his computer monitor and nine times out of ten he is in the midst of a heated game of solitaire. He has been playing the game ever since he started working here two years ago. I don’t understand why he’s not sick of it. I’m sick of it.

Part of me feels like telling the boss lady, but A – I’m pretty sure she already knows, and B – I'm no tattle-tail. Besides, everybody goofs off at work from time to time. Still, I can’t help but feel like Mr. Blob’s blatant refusal to even pretend to look busy is negatively affecting morale. People see him doing absolutely nothing day after day and start to wonder why they are busting ass. And I, for one, can feel the resentment building when I think about him cashing his paycheck.

Obviously he must do some work, otherwise he’d be outta here, but he clearly does not believe in the motto of going “above and beyond the call of duty.” He is the living embodiment of doing just enough to get by. Nothing more. Nothing less. He drives me crazy.

I’ve thought about walking into his office sometime, mid-game, and asking him if he ever wins. Just to let him know I know and I’ve got my eye on him. But somehow I doubt I am much of a threat. I’m not the dude signing his paycheck. I also thought about trying to send an anonymous email to the entire staff asking everyone who has ever caught Mr. Blob playing solitaire to respond. But anonymous things never stay anonymous for long, and I don’t want to be “that girl,” if you know what I mean. So suffer in silence .

Maybe I should introduce him to blogging.

Bako Opera Terror!

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 10:11:58 PST

They're on the loose!

>LISTEN

Ususal Suspects rock the house at Banacek's

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 10:10:35 PST

The party is jumping at Banacek's every Saturday night. Come down and check out our Usual Suspects Band!