Monday, March 8, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
yakka foob tubbawup gazork wizzbang coca cola fireman.
Noah Gundersen wrote, "Time is a fast car passing me by. I'm getting older and it feels alright." As I sit here in my 24th year of living in this glorious "*land of the free" I start to realize that although we are all getting older, there is really no reason to feel alright about it. I have tried everything, from taking batteries out of clocks to never turning my calendar over at the start of a new month, but all in all, everyday that I wake up, I look and feel old. Older. My hair is getting thinner, my back is already developing aches and pains, and I am just waiting for the day that my hip goes out and I can no longer achieve an erection without the help of a pill. Don't get me wrong people, that stage of my life is far off from the present, but that doesn't mean it won't seem like just a day ago I was sixteen and running my car into a ditch about the time i reach 80. It seems to me like I am always chasing time, but like a dog on a leash, I ca only chase that fast car to the borders that have been laid out for me. Predetermined. Everything is timing. Fuck time. I think I will just start watching NASCAR in a cut-off Def Leppard t-shirt and homemade jean shorts, drink a shitload of Pepsi and Busch Light, put some Garth Brooks on the stereo and try to find my place here in the midwest, because God knows if I will ever escape this flatland of nothingness that holds me captive, so I may as well get accustomed to it. Drink Bleach, robots are coming to kill us all. What? What? OK Yeah. Dramamine Dramamine Evolution Revolution Retribution Self-Destruction Coitus Coitus Coitus COITUS Octopus arms in a sea of red, Horror Show Horror Show Whorer Show Bedlam Bedlam its all a fucking dream and merrily merrily merrily we float down a river of rootbeer, therefore we are root beer floats. Mare Night Night night nite nite Nightmare its all a nightmare its all a N.I.G.H.T.M.A.R.E. dream dream dream the day away . I love Chai Tea and cigarettes floating in an ashtray on a rainy day in august. I love snowfall in the summer. Absurdity is blissfulness. Blissfulness is Masturbation. Masturbation is life. Sex is Neat. NEAT.
*some restrictions apply
Friday, February 26, 2010
Losing sight of our utopian society. Final Draft.
Author and Journalist Hendrik Willem Van Loon once said, “This world needs Utopias as it needs fairy stories. It does not matter so much where we are going, as long as we are making consciously for some definite goal. And a Utopia, however strange or fanciful, is the only possible beacon upon the uncharted seas of the distant future."
Perhaps its time we start thinking in the past.
Not long ago, it seemed as though Kearney was an excellent place to live and raise a family. It was as close to a utopian society as one could get.
For Generation Y, those of us born between 1970 and 2000, Kearney was seen as a place where nothing truly interesting and newsworthy really happened, yet recently, as in the past decade, the town has been akin to troubles you would see in larger metro areas and on giant movie screens.
Serious issues such as the 2001 Anne Sluti abduction, the 2009 murder of Kelcey Fike, the 2009 robbing of Kmart, the recent hostage crisis at Wells Fargo and the newly developing story about the teenager who, with the aid of his friends, allegedly robbed his 77-year-old grandmother of her pain medication have turned this once quiet town into a feeding ground for the morally dejected.
So what ever happened to the good old days?
Ask any Kearneyite and they will surely tell you, Kearney is a wonderful place to live and has a lot to offer. One can acquire virtually anything they need in order to carry on with their days in a short five-minute drive to the supermarket.
There are movie theaters, parks, bars, a public library and a slew of other places one can go for a good time, so why is it that trouble seems to find its way into our lives, and what can we do to keep it out and restore our utopia?
Society cannot be fixed using a computer or a cell phone, and this may come as the ultimate challenge to us, as our culture has come to terms with a lifestyle that goes along with push-button technology so much so that we tend to forget that it takes us, the people, to fix our problems and society.
It’s about time we took a step back and thought about things with a grass roots approach.
Rather than letting our children run amok whilst we whimsically chat with friends online, we should be spending quality time with them and being there to make sure they live a healthy childhood.
If parents spent more time molding their children and encouraging them, rather than letting them play mindless video games for hours so long as they stay quiet, there would likely be a shift in the crime rates for the better, as most of the crimes we see are being perpetrated by people ranging from young adults to those in their late twenties.
Not to say that it’s the video games fault, but more so the lax upbringing that children are receiving these days.
People have become dependant on technology to a point that it has become a necessity rather than a luxury, and that needs to change if we are to usher in a new generation of moral beings to inhabit this town and make it the place it once was when we were young…our own personal Mayberry.
It would be easy to look to the recession as a scapegoat for all the recent headlines that have shocked our town into a state of fear, but the blame could more squarely be placed on our own shoulders, and its about time we do something about it.
Perhaps its time we start thinking in the past.
Not long ago, it seemed as though Kearney was an excellent place to live and raise a family. It was as close to a utopian society as one could get.
For Generation Y, those of us born between 1970 and 2000, Kearney was seen as a place where nothing truly interesting and newsworthy really happened, yet recently, as in the past decade, the town has been akin to troubles you would see in larger metro areas and on giant movie screens.
Serious issues such as the 2001 Anne Sluti abduction, the 2009 murder of Kelcey Fike, the 2009 robbing of Kmart, the recent hostage crisis at Wells Fargo and the newly developing story about the teenager who, with the aid of his friends, allegedly robbed his 77-year-old grandmother of her pain medication have turned this once quiet town into a feeding ground for the morally dejected.
So what ever happened to the good old days?
Ask any Kearneyite and they will surely tell you, Kearney is a wonderful place to live and has a lot to offer. One can acquire virtually anything they need in order to carry on with their days in a short five-minute drive to the supermarket.
There are movie theaters, parks, bars, a public library and a slew of other places one can go for a good time, so why is it that trouble seems to find its way into our lives, and what can we do to keep it out and restore our utopia?
Society cannot be fixed using a computer or a cell phone, and this may come as the ultimate challenge to us, as our culture has come to terms with a lifestyle that goes along with push-button technology so much so that we tend to forget that it takes us, the people, to fix our problems and society.
It’s about time we took a step back and thought about things with a grass roots approach.
Rather than letting our children run amok whilst we whimsically chat with friends online, we should be spending quality time with them and being there to make sure they live a healthy childhood.
If parents spent more time molding their children and encouraging them, rather than letting them play mindless video games for hours so long as they stay quiet, there would likely be a shift in the crime rates for the better, as most of the crimes we see are being perpetrated by people ranging from young adults to those in their late twenties.
Not to say that it’s the video games fault, but more so the lax upbringing that children are receiving these days.
People have become dependant on technology to a point that it has become a necessity rather than a luxury, and that needs to change if we are to usher in a new generation of moral beings to inhabit this town and make it the place it once was when we were young…our own personal Mayberry.
It would be easy to look to the recession as a scapegoat for all the recent headlines that have shocked our town into a state of fear, but the blame could more squarely be placed on our own shoulders, and its about time we do something about it.
Facebook: the unknowing crimefighting vigilante of the internet
My mother always told me to be careful what I put on facebook because I may never find a job if future employers see me slamming beers and smoking hookah. I never really took those words to heart until I read this story in the Kearney Hub about a Nebraska State Penitentiary guard in Lincoln who made a post stating “When you work in a prison a good day is getting to smash an inmates face into the ground ... for me today was a VERY good day,” which sparked replies from two coworkers who agreed with him. Now all three find themselves in a very uncomfortable spot as former State Senator Ernie Chambers is calling for their dismissal from service. This proved to me that not only was my mom right, but also that the inmates may not be the dangerous ones to watch out for in prison. Its going to be Abu Ghraib all over again if they aren't mindful of what they put on the social networking powerhouse, and it is a valuable lesson for our facebook generation to take note of.
one bad morning drive...
Just west of Minden at approximately 7:57 am, a Kearney man died after colliding with a semi-truck. The deceased was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, whilst the unharmed semi-driver was. This may sound like an attempt show my backing on the issues of seat-belts and the importance they have in our day-t0-day commutes, but mainly I just want to point out that there was no reports of rubberneckers slowing the pace of our county police and ambulance aid. Perhaps this can be attributed to the fact that this wasn't happening in downtown Kearney and didn't involve a gun, or perhaps it is because it was too early for all those people that dont have jobs to be up and looming, waiting for some kind of drastic event to take place so that they can all run down to the corner and stretch their necks to search out the macabre. Too often in our community, and virtually any community around, if there is an instance of trouble that reaches the radio and internet fast enough, swarms of people will find their way to street corners and sidewalks surrounding the happenings, clogging up any chance of help to have easy access if need be.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Kearney, you disappoint me.
What in the hell is happening to this town? Growing up, Kearney was the nicest place in the world. When a scuffle broke loose you half expected Barney Fife to come ambling in, take a slow walk around the room, shifting his eyes then squinting hard, saying in an all too cocky voice, "Gun-drawing practice, ten minutes every day. If I ever have to use this baby, I want to teach it to come to papa in a hurry."
Let's face it, Kearney was our own personal Mayberry, tucked away safely away in the heart of the Midwest. It was what Dobytown would have been like...safe.
Recently, over the last few years, Kearney has been home to a lot of trouble.
A murder of a young woman, her trailer burned.
KMart is robbed at gunpoint.
Wells Fargo has a hostage situation, and now today we have teenagers robbing an innocent old woman for Oxycontin, one of which was her grandson. These people are staining the sheets that Kearneyites sleep on each night, and we should not stand for it.
Let's face it, Kearney was our own personal Mayberry, tucked away safely away in the heart of the Midwest. It was what Dobytown would have been like...safe.
Recently, over the last few years, Kearney has been home to a lot of trouble.
A murder of a young woman, her trailer burned.
KMart is robbed at gunpoint.
Wells Fargo has a hostage situation, and now today we have teenagers robbing an innocent old woman for Oxycontin, one of which was her grandson. These people are staining the sheets that Kearneyites sleep on each night, and we should not stand for it.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
For the love of money...it's time to ask "why?"
With Nixon there was Watergate, with the (2nd) Bush administration there was Abu Ghraib, and the New York school system had the Queensbury Town Board.
For longer than we probably would even care to know, the government has been keeping the us in the dark, acting on secrecy and spending millions in taxpayer dollars for budget plans that, because of "confidentiality agreements," we as the general public have no idea about. So why are we so concerned with it? The answer kiddies is the fact that we, the people of this once great nation now teeming with scandal-stricken headlines gracing the front pages of almost every major publication, we are the ones paying for these scandals. We are the ones paying the money the government is spending in secret, and when we try to ask why the money is being spent the way it is, big brother tells us to simply shut our gaping maws and go back to our daily lives, AND FOR THE MOST PART WE DO! After reading through the editorials, I was happy to find that some people still care about the happenings that go on behind closed doors with our high ranking officials, but for the most part, it seems, people are indifferent or too afraid to voice their opinions. I think it is our definite right to know what the hell is going on, and why for instance $80,000 was paid to a teacher to end a contract. Sure, I dont live in the area and I was virtually unaffected by this, but if it is going on elsewhere, God knows it is happening here. Isn't it about time we stand up for ourselves and be the men and women we were born to be. Isn't it truly time for change...and I am not talking allocating Billions for health care here, I am talking about the simple right to know what our hard earned money is being spent on and why. It's time for some answers, but, as the articles prove, answers WILL NOT come if questions aren't asked. I say we go into these sorts of situations with the same mentality we had as children in a toy store. If you ask for a toy (answer) and your mom (government) says no, as again and ask louder. Keep asking until she either buys the damn thing or drags you out of the store in sheer and utter embarrassment. It always worked well for me anyways....
For longer than we probably would even care to know, the government has been keeping the us in the dark, acting on secrecy and spending millions in taxpayer dollars for budget plans that, because of "confidentiality agreements," we as the general public have no idea about. So why are we so concerned with it? The answer kiddies is the fact that we, the people of this once great nation now teeming with scandal-stricken headlines gracing the front pages of almost every major publication, we are the ones paying for these scandals. We are the ones paying the money the government is spending in secret, and when we try to ask why the money is being spent the way it is, big brother tells us to simply shut our gaping maws and go back to our daily lives, AND FOR THE MOST PART WE DO! After reading through the editorials, I was happy to find that some people still care about the happenings that go on behind closed doors with our high ranking officials, but for the most part, it seems, people are indifferent or too afraid to voice their opinions. I think it is our definite right to know what the hell is going on, and why for instance $80,000 was paid to a teacher to end a contract. Sure, I dont live in the area and I was virtually unaffected by this, but if it is going on elsewhere, God knows it is happening here. Isn't it about time we stand up for ourselves and be the men and women we were born to be. Isn't it truly time for change...and I am not talking allocating Billions for health care here, I am talking about the simple right to know what our hard earned money is being spent on and why. It's time for some answers, but, as the articles prove, answers WILL NOT come if questions aren't asked. I say we go into these sorts of situations with the same mentality we had as children in a toy store. If you ask for a toy (answer) and your mom (government) says no, as again and ask louder. Keep asking until she either buys the damn thing or drags you out of the store in sheer and utter embarrassment. It always worked well for me anyways....
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