Notions From the Left of Far Right

I was reading Jeanette Eats Spaghetti and her experience with the notion that “the perception is the reality.’ It reminded me of a time, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, when I entered the seminary in preparation to become a priest. One year was all I lasted. I had an issue with celibacy, but that’s another blog for another day. The more important part of this story is Fr. Cal.

His actual name was Father Calixtus Lopez, so you understand why he preferred Fr. Cal. He taught philosophy at the Junior level, which explains why I never had him as a professor. Fr. Cal was a petite, eastern Indian man, who held his cigarettes with his palm turned up, if you get the picture. Anyway, if you wanted to perform a passable imitation of Fr. Cal, you just had to hold your palm near your face, squint your eyes (against the presumed cigarette smoke) and state, “The perception is the reality gentlemen. Truth is truth.”

I have often reflected on Fr. Cal’s declaration. Most make no distinction between truth and reality. Ask many, and most will tell you they’re the same. That’s probably why you get statements like, “Your truth is your truth, and my truth is mine.” I think it more appropriate to state, “Your reality is your reality, and my reality is mine.” The statement that “perception is reality’ seems to indicate that although different people can look at the same truth, you can have different perceptions of that truth. Witness the blind men and the elephant.

Four blind monks encountered an elephant for the first time. The first felt it’s trunk and declared “an elephant is like a snake.” The second felt its leg and disagreed. “No, it is like the palm tree.” The third, who touched it’s flapping ear, declared “you are both wrong. He is like a large fan, cooling us with his breeze.” The fourth, who touched first the elephant’s broad side, laughed at his companions. “No, my friends. He is like a house, broad and wide.” However, the owner of the elephant laughed quietly to himself, thinking “What fools. Surely, they must see that the elephant is an excellent worker and sturdy mount.”

As for the elephant, she just simply thought, “I’m thirsty.”

So what, then, is the truth in the story? Well, that our inability to ’see’ the truth creates for us a limited reality. Of course, that’s my perception…

Technorati Tags: truth, perception is reality, reality, seminary, understanding, philosophy

Filed under: God and Religion, Life 101 | 3 Comments →

I was surreptitiously staring at the wif today, recalling an episode from the first year of our marriage.

I was being a twit, acting very badly at the time. My wif asked me what was bothering me. To both our surprises, I admitted to her that I wrestled with the thought that I might someday say or do something that would cause her to no longer love me. Her response? “Get over it.”

Apparently the shock on my face forced her to explain herself. “Whether or not I love you has nothing to do with you. The truth is, you don’t get a say in the matter. I choose to love you. Or not love you. Today, right now, I choose to love you. Tomorrow, I could wake up and choose not to love you. And there isn’t a damn thing you could say or do about it.”

“By the way”, she concluded, “I love you.”

I’ll leave you with this. I’m not sure if it was Alan Loy McGinnis in his book, The Friendship Factor, or if it was Leo Buscaglia in one of his books on love. However, I do know that the following is a word perfect quote.

“Love is not a feeling. It is generally associated with good feelings, but in itself is not a feeling. If love were a feeling, it would be a very fickle reality and those who construed it as such would be very fickle people. Rather, love is a decision and a commitment. ”

Yeah, I got over it.

Technorati Tags: love, choice, Alan Loy McGinnis, The Friendship Factor, Leo Buscaglia

Filed under: Life 101 | 1 Comment →

I was thinking the other day. People steal from others every day. People steal time. Time. And when people steal time, it is, in a convoluted sort of way, a small act of murder. Consider this: when a person kills another, we say that their lives were cut short. In essence, their time on earth was stolen from them. Thus, when some narcissistic fob decides to keep me waiting 20 minutes because this is the earliest he’s ever been late, he has taken time from my life. Time that I can never get back.

Yeah, I know, I’m being fairly existential. It’s just that I’ve begun to appreciate the value of another day, or another hour. I find myself measuring the days not by the date, but by the number of times the wind gusts in the mid-morning, or the number of birds that visit my patio in the afternoon sun. The fact is, my days are getting longer as my days are getting shorter.

And every moment, every breath, every flutter of a leaf in the afternoon sun reminds me that time is indeed a precious commodity. Time is a treasure that I am becoming less willing to waste on the inconsequential or the mundane.

Now, stop laughing, because I KNOW you’re thinking “This blog is completely inconsequential and mundane. In the big picture of things, the time I spend on this thing could be considered a waste by some.” Yeah, you’re right. It could be. However, I enjoy the time I spend writing. Even if I were writing for an audience of one, I’d still write these things. 

For me, I consider writing time well spent. And I hope you consider our time here together well spent too.

Technorati Tags: Time, beauty, selfish, treasure, precious commodity

Filed under: Life 101 | 2 Comments →

There is a ‘hidden tax’ here in California. They’re called Penalty Assessments. LIke that’s a surprise. Let me explain.

I was in traffic court yesterday (Friday) because I had received a ticket two weeks earlier for expired tags on my car. Unfortunately, I had also allowed my insurance to lapse as well. Thus I was cited for driving without insurance as well. Yeah, I was guilty. I admit it. And a little stupid too. More on that later. So, I spent the better part of two weeks getting my car smogged, getting insurance on my car, going to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for tags, being denied because I had to register my insurance with a special beauracracy in Sacramento (our capital), pay a fee, pay my tags fee, get my tags, get the ticket signed off at the police station (breathe), then head over to the Harbor Justice Center to appear before a traffic judge and show proof of correction. All this in under two weeks. Yeah, I impressed myself too.

So, I stand before the judge, knowing I’m going to pay a big fine for the insurance lapse. After showing things are in order, he explains the tags fine is $10 and the no insurance is $100. I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling like I dodged a bullet. However, he explained there are penalty assessments imposed by the state legislature for these infractions. Yes, these are only infractions - fix it ticket stuff. The penalty assessments? $266!!!! Over twice the amount in fines!!!! Essentially, I was taxed on my fines an additional TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY TWO PERCENT (242%) not on income, but on a FINE!!! They call these Penalty Assessments.

My judge called them a hidden tax. I called it a f@&#ing pain in the arse. I would think it appropriate to pay a fine for my breaking the law. You see, I broke the law. I was driving without current tags and insurance, both no-no’s in California. I admitted that. I pled guilty before the court. I was willing to pay my penalty. What I wasn’t prepared for was to get stripped naked and raped in the backside with a Tonka dump truck. I am, if you haven’t discerned this yet, F*#&ING PISSED OFF!!!!! (no, I refuse to debase myself by cussing out loud)

If you don’t follow politics in California, you are a blessed and lucky individual. This past summer, it took our beloved legislature over three months to pass a balanced budget. THREE MONTHS! Somehow, they keep spending more and more, and somehow can’t find ways to pay for it. If they can’t balance a budget on a 242% hidden tax on traffic fines, then I don’t know who are the greater dolts - the idiots in our legislature or us chowderheads who voted them into office. More sinister to me, though, is the apparent smugness with which the legislature imposes these ‘Penalty Assessments” on us unsuspecting citizens.

It’s tough enough to navigate the waters of traffic court. Admittedly, the court I went before was efficient, even compassionate. The judge understood our plight and did his best, within the law, to help us get this necessary  process over as quickly and efficiently as possible. Still, the stress of the proceedings, plus the possible ramifications on our ability to drive, as well as the cost of insurance being affected, can be overwhelming. In all of this, it is easy to overlook what these “Penalty Assessments” really are - a hidden tax. Pure and simple.

I suppose one could argue that driving is a priviledge, and therefore subject to this kind of regulation. However, if I couldn’t afford to pay these “Penalty Assessments”, then I could lose my driving privledges. And in spread out Southern California, that could mean the difference between being able to get to work or not. In short, those (insert an appropriate dunning name) in Sacramento blithely impose their hidden taxes, I mean “Penalty Assessments” on the ‘bad’ citizens. 

Here’s my thought: Let’s impose a 242% “Penalty Assessment” against the salaries of our legislatures for each day they can’t agree on a balanced budget.  At a salary of $113,098 per year**, that’s $310 per day, or after a Penalty Assessment, $750 per day. At ninety days, they each owe us $67, 518. At 80 Assembly persons and  40 senators, that would be $8.1 million. 

Yeah, say hello to my little Tonka truck.

Technorati Tags: insurance, traffic court, California, California Assembly, hidden tax, penalty assessments, Tonka truck

**http://www.empirecenter.org/html/legislative_salaries.cfm
October 11, 2008

Filed under: Kvetching | 1 Comment →

Crotchety: adjective - given to odd notions, whims, grouchiness, etc.  

Who would’ve thunk it? Even my blog name infers crotchety. So what has me channeling Waldorf and Statler? My bank debit card and receipt checking.

Let me ’splain. Given my ongoing attempt to educate retail clerks everywhere on the giving of correct change (See ‘Don Quixote Rides Again’), I have given over to paying for many of my purchases using my bank debit card. It’s quick. It’s convenient. And I don’t have to deal with idiot clerks dumping my change all over the floor. HOWEVER, given that most clerks don’t think past their ‘procedure’, I’ve noticed a number of clerks swipe my card, then hang on to it until the receipt pops out. Then what do they usually do?!? They wrap the damn receipt around my card and hand it back to me. Now, what the hell am I supposed to do with that? Who puts their receipt in their wallet wrapped around their card? NOT ME!!!!

If they would just stop to think about it for second…

Even worse, though, is the insidious practice of checking the receipt at the door. It happens at our Costcos, at Guitar Center, Sam Ash, Fry’s Electronics and other stores. What happens? You make your purchase. Then, at the door, you present your receipt and open your bag as some chatty clerk checks to see if you have more than your receipt says. I am told that this is to “cut down on shoplifting.” Frankly, it is a deep insult. The store is practically calling every PAYING customer a thief. If a person is shoplifting, wouldn’t they generally HIDE the item on their person? I thought carrying out your purchase was called ’shopping’. 

Whenever I walk out of one of these stores, when I am asked to present my receipt, I reply “No thank you.” I have been pressed on this once. My reply to this was “are you accusing me of shoplifting?” When the reply is no, then I say “then I do not submit to your request to search my person.”

Yeah, this really pisses me off. I’ve decided to try and purchase guitar strings online, so I don’t have to deal with the music stores. Costco tolerates me, as does Fry’s.

So there you have it. I’m a crotchety old fart. At 43 years old.  Sigh. Well, at least baseball has kept instant replay out of the game. That would completely ruin the…. WHAT?!!?

Technorati Tags: crotchety, old fart, Costco, Fry’s, Guitar Center, Sam Ash, debit card

“crotchety.” Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 05 Sep. 2008. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/crotchety>.

Filed under: Kvetching | 2 Comments →

I feel like crowing right now.

“Rrr, r rrrrr, r, rrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

First of all, I actually managed to upgrade WordPress on my blog to the latest version with NO implosions, loss of data or freaky image rendering. The blog was offline for all of 12 minutes or so. That’s it. Gosh, I love it when it flows.

As for last week, I accomplished something that I heretofore had never done: I broke 100 in a round of golf. That’s right, this duffer shot a 96. Now, for you serious golfers, I know this is still pretty pathetic. However, breaking 100, passing the Avid Certified User Exam and having an eventless WordPress upgrade just pretty much kicks a*# in my book.

So, I hope you’ll forgive a little crowin’. And take a moment to look at what you’ve accomplished over the last few days and weeks. Sometimes, it’s good to look at the little victories. We get caught up in the rush of life and forget to pat ourselves on the back every once in awhile for a job well done. So go ahead and crow.

Technorati Tags: Avid, golf, accomplish

Filed under: Life 101 | Add Comment →

I love Spam. It’s spam I hate.

Really, I do. Hormel’s Spam (spiced ham) is a yummy canned meat. Fries up nicely with cheese for a hearty sandwich. Cube it up and cook with pineapple chunks, served over white rice. Mmmmmm!!! What I can’t stand is net spam.

44. That’s how many spam comments I got to delete from my blog today. 44. These came in between 12:00 midnight last night and 10:15 am. Thankfully, I Word Press does a great job at filtering these useless comments and allows me to delete them before they see the light of day. Still, I had to waste about 10 minutes hitting the spam button in Word Press to delete these bogus comments. I wish there was a way to charge these idiots for my lost time. At my current weekly rate, that’s about $8.33 for the 10 minutes it took me to delete their crap. 

$8.33. That’s a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll. Or, even better, 4 cans of spam.

Yeah, that’s the ticket! Maybe these vacuous dolts would be willing to do a spam for spam trade. 4 cans of spam for every 44 spams of canned crap. It’s the least they could do. My lunches would be covered and I could spread the canned Spam love to my friends and neighbors around me. See, that’s the kind of Spam you should forward to your friends and neighbors. The other kind of spam should simply be deleted.

After all, I love Spam.

Technorati Tags: Spam, spam, Wordpress, blog, Hormel

Filed under: Kvetching | 4 Comments →

Holy mackerel!!!

It’s been a long two months and things have been wonky! After open heart surgery on my iBook, I was able to get things going again…until the same thing happened with my new hard drive. For some reason, my iBook is having trouble reading my hard drive. There must be a hardware failure, somewhere. 

Thus, I have moved everything to my MacMini because, well, two months is just too long!

So much has happened. 

The biggest story from the homefront here is that I have graduated. I have earned my certificate in film and video editing from Video Symphony. Fourteen months of toil and toil, and more toil. What a great process. I’ve enjoyed every step of the way. Even better, though, is that I took the Avid Certified User exam this week and passed it! In editing circles, this is HUGE! Less than 150 people have actually passed this test. Seriously. In fact, going in I had some doubts.

I’ve been offline primarily because I’ve devoted over 5 weeks to preparing for this exam. There was so much at stake for me and my family that, quite simply, I didn’t want to blow it. Having passed it, I feel a tremendous weight off my shoulders.

So, now I’m off to look for work. That’s the next step. Edit a film, maybe a tv show — we’ll see what opens up.

BTW, go USA! We just beat Spain for the gold in men’s basketball. WhooHoo!!!

Filed under: Life 101 | 3 Comments →

Wwwahaaa!!! (gasp, gasp, gasping for air)

Well, this is what it looks like outside. I have to confess, I haven’t really seen ‘outside’ much since last Sunday night. I shot three scenes over the weekend and have spent the better part of this last week editing, working sound design, cleaning up, etc.

Oh, if you don’t know, I’m a film editor. I wrote and shot three scenes (the ones I did last week) in order to create a demo reel for myself. If you don’t know what that is, it is simply a short montage of work I’ve done. It helps demonstrate that, yeah, I can edit. So, that’s what I did this past week.

It was somewhat difficult, but not impossible. See, I was able to resurrect my iBook. I’m at a point right now where I’m reluctant to shut the computer down. Every time I have to restart, I get a blinking question mark. After about twenty minutes of rebooting, repairing, etc., I can usually get the machine back up. I think I need to replace the motherboard battery, but that’s an errand. The bottom line is, I’ve been working on my computer.

In the meantime, I have COMPLETELY backed up every important bit of data to an external drive, as well as on my .Mac account. That way, if the iBook goes completely south on me, I have my data.

Anyway, so I’ve come out of the darkness of the editing bay (my dining room, for now) and am enjoying the sweet savor of success. If my wife let me smoke stogies, I’d be puffing one right now. If you’d like to see the scenes, navigate to:http://www.danielrcox.com. Now, I must admit that my professional website is rudimentary at best, but I’ve been a little busy. That’s my next project.

Anyway, I’m back online and have some things to kvetch about, as well as some observations regarding the slew of gay nuptials be administered here in the confused state of California.

So, until next time…

Technorati Tags: editing, scenes, demo reel, gay, California, gay nuptials, iBook

Filed under: Life 101 | 5 Comments →

There is this great moment in Mel Gibson’s film Payback, where the bad guys have Mel’s character, Porter, tied in a chair, with his feet bare. The bad guy, played by Kris Kristoferson, asks Porter where Porter is holding Kris’s kidnapped son. Porter replies he wants his money, whereby Kris’ henchman smashes one of Porter’s bare toes with a hammer.

Yeouch!!!

Yeah, that’s about how I’m feeling right now. See, this weekend, one of my most prized tools and possessions went south on me. My beloved iBook G4 - my four year old work horse - went belly up. Yep. It appears the hard drive when KAPUT. The machine won’t even boot up. It’s very sad.

Considering my WHOLE life was on that hard drive, I am very nearly devastated. So much of my daily routine and work habits were tied up in that damn machine. And now, nothing. (cue the hammer on my toe). Ouch.

The light at the end of the tunnel is this: This weekend I am also in the midst of shooting footage for a series of scenes that will eventually become my editor’s/director’s reel. If you’re wondering, that’s basically a short montage that show’s your work. This is like the money in the film Payback. Like Porter, who had his whole mind and heart set on one thing - getting his money back - I have my mind on getting these scenes shot and edited. So that I can post my reel. So that I can find work as an editor. So that I can replace my dead iBook.

Damn.

I feel like I’m limping about with half a foot and a mangled arm. This is really very bad. Now, I know you’re wondering how I’m posting. One small bit of silver lining is the Mac Mini I bought my family two years ago. It will have to do, in the interim. In many ways, it is like going from a convertible Mustang to a Geo Metro. Both drive, both get the job done, except one did it faster and sexier. Until it died.

Damn. Did I mention damn? Damn, my computer died.

BTW, my computer died at 11:40 PM on June the 13th. On Friday. Friday, the 13th. I don’t believe in that damn crap. Except it happened. So, I’m gonna take what little luck I have left, and my nifty new iPhone (which I can’t update because it’s tied to a now dead computer. damn.) and go to bed. And dream of a new Macbook Pro, 15 inch.

Damn.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, I am one of those fools who has a .Mac account. And my last backup was Thursday. Which meant that all my data was fully backed up. Thank God.

Technorati Tags: Mel Gibson, Payback, Kris Kristoferson, iBook, Macbook Pro, Friday the 13th

Filed under: Kvetching | 3 Comments →