I am extremely disappointed. Usually, I find SCOTUS as a rational mind within the chaos of partisan politics, adhering to the Constitution and upholding the rights of the minority. Yesterday/Today, they changed that. They have decided that, regardless the ownership of your property, the government can uproot you to the highest bidder….

High court OKs personal property seizures

Update: Kennedy shows potential for being a swing vote should the issue be re-visited

I had another deep-thought post in mind for today, but I’ll get to that later today or tomorrow….

At anyrate, I hit Blonde Sagacity and off-shot link to a video clip of a stoning. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but I will knock the site itself for the propaganda soundtrack that was completely unnecessary. I think the video clip itself, speaks louder than any soundtrack would.

The reasoning behind the visit was, first and foremost, morbid curiousity. The same thing that made me download the clip of the Nick Berg beheading. But the underlying reasoning is always the need to be reminded that humans are indeed a brutal animal. Regardless the sugar coating that various individuals can put over themselves (and I don’t doubt that they are indeed nice and wonderful people), at our core is the capability to mutilate and brutalize others. The good thing, is that not all people are devoid of the emotions that keep that ability in check, the sad part, is that enough people are.

At one point, war was something that was sanitized by the media, due to lacking access, no one knew the real facts that people faced. Nowadays, it’s gone the other direction, to the point where it’s so in your face, that we fail to face the fact that people are in a kill-or-be-killed environment, and we wish to hold them to some standard that ceased to exist when the environment was created. We become arm-chair commanders who know better than those who see the reality in front of their eyes. We make judgements on a real-life events that are filtered through a tv screen so that we can only get “surround sound” effect, but we are not watching the people who are our brothers and sisters, people we depend on for survival. We are watching “actors” in an unscripted movie, but yet, we make our judgements.

We all have our hidden compartments that lie at the bottom of a dark, creaky stairwell. Some of us have explored those parts, some of us haven’t. But deep down there, this exists in us all. It’s just a matter of the right elements coming together to light those stairwells. Know they are there, because if mindfulness is not heeded, there’s no way to maintain them, and there’s no coming back.

Ok. Got them done….

The trip was wonderful, the first couple of shots are the Catbox o’ Doom being prepped (and yes, that is a bed you see in the back). Most of the shots are actually there, as I ran into the same problem as I did on Deal’s Gap, few places to stop and take pictures. The dam that I did get a shot of was beautiful on the way down, they were releasing water, but no place to stop and shoot. The theme music on the way up was Depeche Mode, as provided by eternalredneck. Great driving music, btw. I got a few pictures of myself, so please feel free to laugh as I think they’re pretty dopey, and you can see the shot where I learned to wear my flip-flops in the water, as my shorts are quite wet. Next time I’ll have to grab the WT so he can take pictures (as I know I won’t get any of him).

So have at it…. The Blue Hole, Tenn.

And mntnlaurel, I was just over the GA/TN border, that’s why I didn’t stop by.

And just because I like to leave teasers like this…the drive home was great. Swimsuit and wife beater, quite a liberating experience, if you ask me.

My site hit 10,000 hits today. That pops me up to around 100,000 + since I started this thing in 1997. I’ve undergone many growths and renovations to reflect it, and will continue in that vein as life goes on. I think the best thing I added was my journal, in both its incarnations on my own server and here at LiveJournal.

This site originally started as a project of me, something to give me a creative outlet and a means to speak out with the voice I’m still working to use. At first, it was just a single page about me, then I added poetry and links, then my rant essays, then the religions page, onto the religion revamped and then a journal and a guestbook that no longer works (but I’ve figured out the problem). This site has seen people come and go in my life, pictures of them fading in and out on various pages, the ones that mean the most still surrounding, ghosting the place.

It’s kind of amazing to think back to Skorpyon’s Lair (the original incarnation of this site), how it grew and then transformed into Freakchylde’s Playground when I left the chapter of Skorpyon behind me. I still have the final incarnation of that site on disk here. Sometimes I go through it and reminisce about things back then, the person I was, to see what changes I can still apply today. It just amazes me sometimes. The one thing that I’ve been able to fully dedicate myself to, besides my religion, is my website.

It’s kinda funny, and a few that visit can laugh at this one….when I find someone online who sparks my interest, instead of the “Here’s who I am” intro, I admit I suck at intros, and send them here. I’ve found it’s a good means for them to get info about me without me being self-conscious about letting too much out (as I have a habit of doing). But, it also manages to branch out the one-sided view of who I am. Yes, there is the outside persona that I tend to show to the general world, like the scorpion. Hard, ready to attack, guarding and watching those around me till I can get comfortable enough with them. Of course, that has been the point of this journal. Learning to open up, letting complete strangers into the workings of my mind and seeing the other parts of me. Bare and naked as I came into this world. And, for once in my life, the only real person who stiffles my interactions with the world, is me; not someone else.

Awwwwww yeah….

House blocks FBI library access

*nakedlaravictorydance* The House rocks, they’re intelligent for once, The House rocks *nakedlaravictorydance*

Congradulate me. I managed to keep my mouth shut, for once. See, last night, my area in the bar was taken up by a group that didn’t leave until about 30 to my leaving. So, I hooked the chair up in this corner I hate to work on two of my fav clients (they’re the only reason I got the chair out that night). While working on the last one, this chick with the most fake looking of bleached out hair came up to ask how much a massage was. Of course, I was completely zoned, as I usually am, and gave a half-assed answer of $1/min. She walks off, I finish up, and another guy walks up. At this point, my arms are killing me and I look dead. So I explain to him that we’re there from 7P – 10P and he’s cool with that, and I expect to see him next week. I start packing things up, taking them out to my car, and this bleached hair chick follows me out. CB catches her first, and she’s wanting to know where I’m going, he explains that I work from 7 – 10 and we’ll be back next Tues and he’s willing to cover her next week for a 10 min. He gets a phone call and she gets in my face saying she’d just gotten $60 out of her account and I look at her like she’s nuts. No way I’m working on 1 person on a chair for 10 min. She says it’s for her 6 clients, then proceeds to push the money into my hands. I push it back, saying I’m done for the night and I can’t stay for another hour. CB realizes something’s going on, and explains to her that we already told someone that I’m done working, and if I were to continue working, I’d have to take him first. Well, it’s true, because I’m not going to blow someone off and then come back because someone else had more money. I don’t work that way. Yeah, makes me fairly poor, but hey, it’s the way the world works and my money is not going to be the result of practices that go against my own grain. So she turns around and says I’m not cut out to be in my line of work, to my face. It took a good bit to keep from politely making her feel like an idiot, so I just explained I had to go home and ice/heat my arms because they were hurting me, and left it at that. I so wanted to sit there and explain to her that being a therapist means I’m putting energy into working on these people, and sorry, but I refuse to put my own well-being above that of a stranger who’s trying to make it about money. They do not rank on the scale of sacrificing my health so that they can feel all nice and comfy. Hell, my Scotsman gets even less work now than previous, because of this. In fact, it’s down to him doing drainage work on my forearms instead of me working on his feet. She got pissed and stormed back in. I do not hope to see her next week, while it’d be nice to have a full hour of non-stop work, I’m not going to kill myself for it.

So, I get home, after the initial getting home small-talk, and I get a chance to check out the link iriedanym sent me. Now, does anyone know where I could find a cute pair of cammo underwear? I’ve got a couple of shots in my head for this shirt (if you want to see it, check yesterday’s commentary, it’s cute). Anyway, my Scotsman noticed my arms were a little puffy last night. So, cold shower and 3 Aleve, and I slept like a baby.

Now, I’m looking forward to my trek to the swimming hole next week, a good soak in a stream should do them good.

Also, pyynk, reminder – tomorrow is “the walk” in Gwinnett. 😉