Well, we've been working our asses off at the KOIpound this week. I've been in a couple days after work and many people have put in an incredible amount of hours.  There has been tremendous progress on the space all in preparation for tonight.

We're having a benefit to help finish the rehabilitation and renovation of the building tonight at dark-thirty (9ish). There will be music, merriment and a 30 foot hyperdome in the courtyard (come and see!).

I can't suggest enough that we have sweat and bled for this  project and you should really come see what we're up to.

Suggested donation is ten dollars. BYOB. Musicians bring your instruments.

Hope to see ya'll there.

2008 Freeman in Cinci.

-Pokes

I am part of an arts collective that just took over an industrial space over on the west side of Cincinnati. We're in the process of rehabbing it into workshop space, rehearsal/performance space and studio space. We will have VERY inexpensive memberships for those who want to join the collective including options to have access to tools and storage if individuals so desire.

We're hosting a work/party bbq this weekend to prep for a big fundraiser next Saturday at the space.

We'd love to have some of ya'll come by and see the space and if you feel like pitching in and helping, that'd be especially awesome.

All of us in KOI Burners (Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana Burners as in Burning Man) are makers, performers and artists

I myself do leather work, installation art and found object art, mainly steampunk style.

Hope to see ya'll.

Feel free to contact me on my cel or just come on down today or tomorrow. If not, we can schedule a time for anyone who is interested in seeing the space.

The KOIpound is at 2008 Freeman in Cincinnati.

Please feel free to forward this information on to anyone else you think might be interested.

So, Kentucky passed a new set of taxes on alcohol and tobacco, which take effect April 1st, in order to make up for budget shortfalls caused in great part by our current economic slowdown aka the great recession.

I knew that the increase was going to be fairly large and had planned to buy a fair bit of tobacco ahead of time (I make my own cigarettes using an injector) to cushion the blow. I finally asked the good folx at One Stop in Bellevue, my corner store that I love, what the increase was going to look like on my tobacco. When the woman told me, I was dumbfounded. She followed me out to my truck and handed me a sheet of paper with a chart on it to dispell my disbelief.

I buy a tin of American Spirit natural tobacco every other week or so. It costs me $12.99.

That's considered a 1/2 lb (even though it's only 150g or 5.29 oz, about a third of a pound).

The current tax per pound on roll your own tobacco:

$1.10

The new tax starting April 1st:

$23.68

Yes, math fans, that's a 2,159% increase, taking my price from $12.99 to approximately $24.38, just short of DOUBLE, even if they only charge me the tax for a third of a pound, we're looking at $20.89 or so, which is still a ludicrous increase.

So, basically I can either pay these taxes and continue to smoke, thereby supporting the state of Kentucky and this tax increase or quit.

I'm big on boycotting and voting with my feet.

I'll be quitting.

So...if I bite your head off in late April or early June...please take it easy on me. I might be a little testy from taxation withdrawl.

...since the Stockton (CA) Record endorsed a Democrat for president...you may not care what they have to say...but, don't you think that's kind of remarkable? Maybe you should read their editorial endorsement and see what you think.

Story Here

The only arguments I hear against Obama lately are the tired statements that he lacks experience, which is code for "he's black." I would say a vast percentage of those voting for McCain are doing because of race. Read the arguments FOR Obama and against McCain in the story above and tell me that you don't agree. Or, better yet, come up with real, substantive reasons why he's unqualified.

LIFE: Finally got work through a temp service, continuing to look around for additional part-time work, etc.

I'm finally going positive on cash flow even though times are still tough. I'm still living on pancakes and rice (will date for food).

Other than that, going for a lot of walks to start getting in shape again. Planning on going back into training (Krav Maga) and start making again as soon as funds and time permit. I'm looking for folx interested in training/working out together hitting the bags, lifting (if I can get access to weights), etc.

Speaking of...I'm also looking for people interested in sharing a rented workshop space in Northside, Cincinnati. I need a space for making clothes and leather goods, dyeing, building stuff, breaking stuff, etc. as I have a new room mate moving into Yaw and my place and won't have space to set up here anymore. Please pass the word to anyone who might be interested.

I am broke and underemployed. Help!

Here are links to all the crap I'm selling on eBay. I realize the odds
might be slim, but if you can think of anyone who might be interested,
let me know.


My brand new Stihl Chainsaw is still up for grabs as well. I've
lowered the price as low as I can. It's one of the small, light,
powerful professional model MS200Ts.

https://accounts.craigslist.org/post/shwpst?pii=781717030&db=lv


eBay:

WWI German "Butcher Blade" Bayonet:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=300247055054

Vintage Coleco hand held Pac-Man video game. Yes, it still works:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=300247418990

New Motorolo Q9c smartphone with extras:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=300247425537

Marjane Satrapi books (Persepolis, Persepolis 2, Embroideries) plus
Farsi language system (5 CDs), Lonely Planet phrase book and Funny in
Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=300247429449



Thanks if you can help, much love to you all either way.

So, I am beginning to have this BIZZARE feeling of having my finger on the pulse of the collective conscious...or collective subconscious, really.

The intersections and resonant "coincidences" Raf and I have been having in our daily conversations and seeing around us just keep getting thicker and thicker for both of us...he had a bunch yesterday and after my sis and I had a long talk about graphic novels and animation last night...

My buddy Timmy, who's been going through a lot and mostly out of touch for months, sends me the following link.

I strongly recommend dimming the lights and full screening the video. Pay special attention to the plot setup in the beginning...there's no plot in the second half...just visuals.

http://www.illuminated.com/

Then read this from the website:

http://www.illuminated.com/index02.html

I'm on the trail of some big game...let's hope I can keep the scent and report it back to all my loves.

Oh, and when all that gets to be too heavy and we need to unplug for a bit...I need a group to join me and see THIS:

http://www.myspace.com/trailerpark

YAY!!!

It's SO rare that a comic I love gets translated even palatably, let alone well. The first one was SOOO much better than I thought it would be. Can't WAIT. That's gonna be a veritable gold mine of pithy one liners. Wheeeee!

(It looks longer than it actually is. Isn't that always the way?)

So, I've been feeling unresolved about the semester. One class, totally fine, probably an A-, maybe a solid A, no worries. The other, totally up in the air.

I spoke to my prof at 11:20 AM, forty minutes before grades were due, to check in with me and make sure he had everything from me. He knew he diddn't as we had gone over this in a meeting a week ago. There were two parts of a group assigment that didn't get completed because of the aforementioned pesonal issues, which I am not at liberty to discuss further than to say that I have never had that kind of personal conflict in a work or academic situation and surely hope never to again.

Anyway, basically my grad still hangs in the balance. If I get a C, I'll have to take the class again, which is fine because I love the material. Seriously LOVE it. If I get a B, screw it, onward we march.

Suddenly, as he said he was going to calculate my grade, my lack of resolution started melting. It's all over but the crying anyway and had been for some time. Somehow that finality was what I needed to start putting that baby to rest and I'm sure when I get the grades in the next couple of days it'll be complete in my mind.

All of this has been going on as I move through my "break."

Break is in quotes because I have already met with my (awesome) profs for next semester and have a reading list and one assignment to work on over the break so that I go into the semester ahead, with some sort of cushion.

I haven't started on the reading for classes yet, but plan to get some done next week and a WHOLE lot done the week I get back (last week before classes), culmintating with reading and writing most of the weekend before classes start.

I have, however, been doing some leasure reading. Unsurprisingly, it's all ended up tying into my school and my life rather neatly, thanks in no small part to my buddy Raf, with whom it appears the new year is going to bring some projects.

He's been reading a lot about attraction (I'll post what later) as I have been reading about Buddhism (Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen) and sustainable activism (The Lifelong Activist by Hilary Retig).

Our thoughts and works are congealing around my ideas about the power of the subconcious and his experiences getting his life in order, willing things to happen and staying strong. In the end, much of what he's reading centers around learning what you want and don't enumerating and refreshing it by reading it every day so that you begin to act it out and attract those people and things you want and need, instead of those you do not...can you see where I'm going with this?

Ends up a lot like the Buddhist concepts of living awake, mindfulness, etc. More to report as it solidifies...or doesn't. It's all coming together and coming apart, as it always does.