This site administrator has a confession: I am a Libertarian. Fiscally conservative and for the most part, socially liberal on the left—I am a middle of the road type person. I am a pragmatist. This drives my friends and colleagues to explode in anger at me often.

Well, not necessarily explode, but we have very heated debates. I don’t be believe, I know anybody who is an IED (Intermittent Explosive Disorder).

I am believer in self-promotion, and personal responsibility with the “corporate entity” of society, of the people, to sustain the rule of law. In essence, that we, as a culture, define our character, as a civilization, by the deeds we do as a people in terms of the social contract by the treatment of each other, well or poorly. We, (the collective), as individuals, as groups, as “corporate interests” ought to try to aspire, and inspire to be better than the “we” both the group and the individual aspect of the word.

This is not always possible. I certainly can attest to that, however—and what is important—is that we try. Sometimes a person’s may be hurt by a simple misunderstanding. We, they, or I may feel bad –but in the moment of controversy-we find the generosity of the heart. For me, this year it is the Blogathon 2006 on July 29^th twenty-four hours of blogging for charity.

To give to a charity is one of the most socially responsible acts one can do for their community. I do believe the government, at time, ought to lead the way to aspire, to inspire the citizenry to recognize and embrace the differences of individuality, expression, and the promotion of free liberty of “consenting adults.”

This means for me that, government’s role is limited to support its citizenry, to provide defense, and to impart and apply the laws put forth by its citizenry—and to know that it is tempered by the people who entrusted it with the power to enforce those laws. This temperament is not to be found by the Executive, or the US Congress—but the Courts.

Needless to say, and to return to my point, charity is best expressed through the individual. Recently, Warren Buffett, American investor, stock speculator, and entrepreneur will donate the bulk of his wealth nearly 85 percent of it to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (that dedicates itself with the disenfranchised and providing educational opportunities to all).

In my case, I am not a billionaire, not yet anyway. Not a millionaire, or a thousandaire, on a good month yes, but I feel compelled like Buffett to contribute toward my community en masse.

So, I return to Blogathon 2006 to illustrate the part of this participation with my community. At present, I have been part of the world of online blogging. I am addicted, may be compulsive, a traffic exchange site that I spend most of time with BlogExplosion (BE). This is a place where one is suppose to be able to view other blogs.

Although, at times, I haven’t always agreed with my fellow BE’ers or adjoin their perspectives, I do believe in their organizations they are representing and that trumps associations. In essence, to aspire and to inspire for a better world even if I do not agree with their politics or world view, what matters are those ideas, ideals, and beliefs that can move a community forward together despite polarizing differences. I have chosen the Maryland branch of SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), WWF (World Wildlife Fund), WHSA (television station) Crusade for Children.

First up, referred to as B, by most, and Ano by others. She has two blogs one of them as a personal journal, All-Nite.org and the other, a expose of serial killers, Dead Silence. She is also NASCAR fanatic—and she is an animal lover.

This is our common ground—the animals—not the NASCAR. A few years back, I had to give away my cats due to change of a living situation (too long to recount). Anyway, it is our love for animals that we share, she has expressed on a number of occasions, both public and privately, that if she had the money she would start a pet sitting service or an animal shelter. Recently, I found out the she is a bit of a crime buff. As I mentioned before, her blog Dead Silence, she does a very good job relaying the aspects of the crime stories of serial killers.

Needless to say, B’s passion for animals endears one’s heart, these are the words she uses to describe why her charity is the Maryland SPCA:

“Their slogan is “We are their voice” and I couldn’t agree more. Animals depend on us. They can’t tell us “hey, my owner beats me” or “I’m not feeling too well.” They depend on us to keep an eye out for them, to watch out for their welfare. I don’t see pets as just another animal. To me, they are furry little people and it breaks my heart to hear about abuse and neglect. The ASPCA website features many ways to help raise awareness about the abuse that goes on in this country. On their website, they list ways to help fight and prevent cruelty. The first thing is just to be aware of what’s going on around you. Does your neighbors dog look a little too thin? Is he/she outside 24-7 with no shelter, food or water? Have you actually seen someone hit or abuse an animal? Remember, if no one reports it, is it happening? No. If it goes unreported it will continue to happen. Step up and report it!

They also list ways to help teach your children about animals. Remember, kids are the future and they need to learn to respect everyone, including animals. It’s well known that most serial killers started out by abusing and killing animals. Don’t take things like that lightly. Talk to your kids, teach them that animal’s breath and live just like we do. They need to be treated with kindness and a soft touch.”

I met this next blogger, in the BE shout box and she is one of the nicest persons thus far in the blogosphere. There are those who claim to be sweet as peaches, but are pitted people throughout even holding grudges from a third grade rival. Ahem, sorry I digress. She, however, is not as far one can tell these things over a cyberlink. Her passion is for children, our interest to help kids physically and mentally challenged, therein lays our common ground.

She is another blogger of the personal journal type, known as the Long, Slow, Beautiful Dance, has her, Laci, also known as ProducerChic, aesthetic design blog illustrates one of the childhood transition from the world of wonder to the world of change. The feel of blog is if one is pondering to go through the “looking glass,” but is waiting for Alice in Wonderland returns. Well, this Alice is all grown up. It has a populist Matrix feel. As for Laci, her personality is well communicated throughout her blog. She is an outgoing, no bull type that, encourages, and helps other bloggers when she can. She is a big hearted person.

In that vain, the charity she has chosen reflects that big heart, although it is related to where she works. She is sponsoring WHSA Crusade for Children. It was established by the local television station in 1954 that she works at, and has raised over $115 million during the years. All the money stays locally, in the state of Kentucky, and 100% of the money is used in giving children in need charitable grants.

As a Libertarian, this is kind of “corporate citizenry" I speak of, in which, the citizenry provides the services needed to the community instead of relying on the expansion of government to do it for the disadvantaged and displaced.

This past year, the station rose over $5 million in its annual weekend of fund raising. So, if you come across her blog send a contribution via her (link), or to the WHSA Crusade for Children directly.

End Part 1.

Posted at 9:57 PM 1 comments

Monday, July 10, 2006

'aancakes, aaancakes'

by Irena the Croatian

I think I've lost all faith in humanity. Sometimes I think that if it weren't for my daughter, I wouldn't believe in the sheer notion of 'good' as it exists... or does it? This very moment in time, she just finished eating her 'ancakes'. The movie Cars is playing and she's walking around carrying Lightning McQueen in her hand wearing my pink ballerina shoes, and nothing else but a diaper. Her hair is a blonde mess of curls going in about 30 different directions, she has my sunglasses on and she is perfectly content. :) And I wish, I pray that it will get better... for her. Maybe it will, who knows. She now has a different pair of shoes on and Lightning McQueen has been replaced with Woody from Toy Story.

Anyway... everybody lies. I'm finding that my daughter has more character then some (30 year-old) adults that I happen to have the pleasure of interacting with. And I wish it weren't so. I imagine that at one point, this world was selfless, that people were kind because they meant to be and not because it benefited them to be so in one way or another. Its time to step backwards.

Good morning to my favorite capitalistic society with many a crack in its medium. Does anyone want aancakes? I made extra

Posted at 2:52 PM 1 comments

56K Beware... Photoshop Overkill

by Irena the Croatian

Current mood: exhausted

So, I figured I'd look at all the promo that I've done that I don't have printed out. And the growth is kind of odd.... anyway... here is some of it for you to amuse yourself with. Starting with the oldest... I'd rather not even go into the tangent of what inspired me to do this. It would take forever, and I have to go spam the streets with the last 3 JPEGs. If you see them, know that they were put there with love and utmost lack of energy.

Posted at 11:59 AM 0 comments

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Unisom and Vicodin

by Irena the Croatian

Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

So I keep having the same scenario in all of my dreams (when I'm blessed enough to sleep or I've taken enough Unisom to). And all of them happen to be bad scary dreams. I'd rather not even discuss all of their contents, but there's one thing in particular that kind of bothers me. It's always the same building that I'm in. Sometimes it's different colors, sometimes it's burnt and all that's left are the walls and black smoke marks on them, and a lot of the time it's blood-colored. But it's always a labyrinth, a maze of a sort. Tonight it was black. Pitch black with black trim and it had a thousand elevators. There were red elevators with shiny steel doors. One of the elevators went right into this grand ballroom where there was a party of a sort. I say 'of a sort' because it really wasn't a party. It was a funeral and everyone was dressed as if for a wedding. Everyone was very young, very young. I don't know whose funeral it was, but I know that the ballroom was underground.

I ran out of there and back into the elevator. I found myself wandering through the building talking to VERY old people now. We talked without exchanging words. They all lived in different rooms, and all of them had such a wide range of decor... one had no walls to the outside. It was gray and it had trees growing out of the ceiling. And spiders, spiders were everywhere. It was a thousand shades of gray. One was bright and pretty and it had an old keyhole. I looked inside and talked to her through the keyhole.

All night, and in all my dreams this labyrinth of a building hides something. And I'm always looking for it in the midst of the bloody walls, black walls, inside a thousand different decors, wandering in and out of the thousand shiny elevators, running up and down the hundreds of flights of shaky stairs. I never find it... I don't know what it is, I don't know who it is and I wish I knew... Not that it would make anything any easier, but isn't that the key? To know what we want in life... everything is symbolic to one another. I wish I could see the outside of the building, I'm always trapped inside. Not really trapped... it's by my own will. "Every drama is controllable and self-inflicted." I said that yesterday, not fully realizing how true it was. Not even analytical enough was that statement, or a quote - rather, it really hit home when I woke up from this dream... this nightmare.

I figured this building and these dreams are my own hell. They say in Islam that when we go to sleep our souls go to God, and that fact scares me now more then ever... I really do need the judgment day on my calendar.

Posted at 9:16 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

A Moment for a Long, Slow Beautiful Dance

Image by Angel

An Ode to Producer Chic

Well, some of you may have notice, I have that I have done something different regarding my sidebar. No? Take notice of this week’s tenant.

It is one of those times, meaning rare occasions, that I get sincere. Some of my friends have used called me Mr. Spock, from the Star Trek television show, when they thought I should be in “raw emotional” state. Sometimes, I admit I should be, but I try to remember the calling of my favorite character—don’t sweat the small stuff.

In any event as person who is currently in retail as I march my way through college for my Masters in Anthropology. This, of course, will be training ground for those insincere moments, when I have to look at a fellow interpreter and say, while smiling, “Would like fries with that?”

Now, what does all this have to do with my guest tenant? Everything and nothing—since I joined BlogExplosion to increase my readership, she has been, known to some of you as Laci, gracious and helpful as a fellow online blogger can be. Her wit and warped perspective of life can be thoroughly enjoyed, even in her short “checking in” segments.

When you first click on the Long, Slow, Beautiful Dance, one is greeted by the image iconic Matrix beauty who led Neo down the “rabbit” hole. The feel of the blog is welcoming and sleek. The author, also known as Producer Chic, style is conversational and one has the feeling that you might be viewing her musings through a “matrix” screen. But her surreal metaphor of using also the “Alice in Wonderland” allegory in her sidebar gives the reader a chance to explore different “rabbit holes.” So, go visit my tenant and click on her for a short trippy visit….-à

Posted at 2:36 PM 0 comments

I love old people

by Irena the Croation

Monday, July 03, 2006 Part II

Like I needed something else today. Ha-ha! OK... well... at least it's amusing. The fire department calls from the lobby. The new place I moved into has some gray-hairs living in it. And one of them thinks she owns the place. Yes! One of those! So she complained to the office about my car being parked in the garage. I've got a slow gas leak and a nice steady power steering leak. Together with an inoperable rear driver’s side window, a non-working gauge cluster, no 1st and 2nd gear, an open circuit somewhere that provides a nice whine out of my right rear speaker (serves as a vocal tachometer and amusement for my daughter), no antenna and some really trippy door locks.

Anyway... I let the power steering fluid leak out and haven't refilled it in what seems like months. I'm sure it's only been weeks, but I've lost all sense of time that I thought I ever had. But, this lady calls the office and complains about my car CONSTANTLY. I had a chat with the office people about the power steering fluid leak (I had to clean the garage floor) and they told me about the lady and what an anal retentive freak she is. So they were blowing her off. She calls the damn fire department. Ha-ha! Dead serious. So I had to go downstairs and move my car to the street. With the open window. At least it has an alarm. YES! My '89 Nissan Maxima has an alarm. And I set it off. And the fire department people are complaining about the lady. I think she might be angry that I exist.

I think it's time for a new car. Fucking lady. Fucked up my solitaire game. Not even to mention the fact that I had to wake my daughter up from her nap so I can go downstairs and move my car onto the street. It's not a fire hazard there, is it? Of course not.

So, there you have it. Events of my day. I needed this... I really did. It's the one speck of excitement, one thing that took my mind off of everything else.

Posted at 11:51 AM 0 comments

Solitaire

by Irena the Croatian

Monday, July 03, 2006

Current mood: Sad Category: Life

In the last four days, I've spent a lot of time playing solitaire. And the more I play, the more I'm starting to see its parallels to life... seriously. Every deck you get is fully solvable. It's all about strategy, taking chances. Which card to move, which chance to take? You let some cards pass you by. And maybe you'll realize how important that card is and if it's early enough, you can go back and take it. Sometimes you skip through everything else to find that card again, and then you wonder if you did the right thing. Sometimes you get distracted by another stack and forget all about the first one. Then the third one appears. Did I do the right thing? Who knows...?

Sometimes it seems like such a perfect game. Your initial hand becomes two piles, you open up two king slots, and you get all four of your aces in the extra pile. But somewhere along the line, you make it dirty. By taking the wrong chances. And you gotta clean up. Take five steps backwards and hope you can make the leap forward when the roadblock is off...

Back to reality.

Posted at 11:34 AM 0 comments

Monday, July 03, 2006

The Devil Wins Again

By Irena the Croatian

And MySpace is the devil

I thoroughly enjoy people-watching. It's quite possibly one of my 5 favorite things to do... seriously. I tend to think of it as the best way to spend time educating myself on this wonderful masochist consumer culture that I belong in. Thank God that in every median there are cracks. And I think I've found mine, but I still owe it to myself to poke my head out, rise above and remind myself of the reasons to stay where I am.

So, here's some hypocrisy for you: I'm at work. I've gotten quite a few things done already, and I probably would have gotten them done a lot quicker had I not jumped on the devil's back and clung on like a leech: I started people-watching on MySpace again. And I'd almost say that it's really pointless to do so, but I've argued myself on that very statement for a few minutes. And here's why - people only let so much of themselves out on here. But it's the quality of what they let out that can almost certainly fall into the same pattern that I'd witness if I were standing 10 feet away from them.

Before I go off on another tangent about the medium and its shelters and cracks, I'll try to get to what actually inspired me to write this blog: people-watching on MySpace. You find a lot of bit of everything: underage sexually-oppressed girls, overly-egotistical rock star wannabes, gender-challenged emos, mentally-challenged republicans, no-party belongers, hippies, revolutionary wannabes, vigilantes, fake vigilantes, real people, fake people, fake people that want to be real, real people that are being fake, fake real real fake, more republicans, yup - here's another emo, hippy-wannabe, a 16-year-old Rasta, nobody can spell, sex sells everything, and finally... Tila Tequila.

And that's the part of my people-watching session that cracked the cap on the insanity bottle: Tila Tequila. More precisely, it was a song on her MySpace player ... ready for this?

Madame Tequila decided to cover No Woman, No Cry. ..

Not even joking...

I feel the end nearing.

Bob, I hope that there is enough green wherever your soul may be right now.... really...

I need a cigarette…

Posted at 4:57 PM 0 comments