Thursday, October 21, 2010

Moving On.

To the handfull of you that have read my blog. I will be moving my hosting to wordpress. I came to this decision after spending over an hour trying to format my last blog post "lost" and still having it look like hot blueberry shit when posted.

Please visit me at

ikcewicasa.wordpress.com

give me a couple days to get something up there for you guys.... and reposts of the sugar glider post with art this time.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

LOST! A Story about Mudheads, Navajos and Goat Leggings

When I was in my late teens and living in Durango my mother had a bad accident and took advantage of a vocab rehabilitation program and went back to school. She was taking an American Indian art course a Ft. Lewis Collage. She learned that in the 1960's there was very little demand for Indian art and Hopi baskets could be purchased for only 60 dollars. She told this to her live in boyfriend and constant tormentor Walter and he latched onto the "Hopi Baskets for 60 dollars" bit but seemed to ignore the whole "in the 60's" caveat. He looked at me and thought "Hey David is Indian; I bet he can help me get one-o-them 60 dollar Hopi baskets." This was his first mistake. Not all Indians are alike. I am Lakota. I am not Hopi, and I know nothing about baskets and I do not know much more about the Hopi people.


So early one cold winter morning Walter boots me out of bed, straps me into the passenger seat of his pickup truck and tells me his plan to use me to somehow get a 60 dollar Hopi basket. "Your mother likes the mudhead baskets" he stated. "OK" I replied and we set off to the south and the Hopi reservation in search of a 60 dollar mudhead basket. I tried to tell him at this point that there was no way in hell that we would find a basket, mudhead or other, which could be had for 60 dollars in 1988. I guess in his mind I was just a stupid kid and he was absolutely convinced that he would find one and that I would have some magical Indian mojo that would cause a Hopi artist to hand over a piece of work like on the left for 60 bucks.


We head south into New Mexico with the eastern sky starting to lighten. It is a several hour trip to the Hopi reservation and with the sun finally up in the sky I was getting hungry. I turned to Walter and asked if he had brought anything to eat. He looked at me like I had 3 heads and wanted to know how I could be hungry. It was at this moment I had to come to terms with the fact that Walter really did not have a well thought out plan. No food. Walter was not going to stop just because I wanted breakfast or lunch or dinner for that matter.



We get to the Hopi reservation and Walter looks at me like "Ok do your stuff!" I suggested bypassing the trading posts on the desert floor and heading up to the mesas and find the artists directly. I no longer remember which mesas we drove up but I think it was 2 of them. The 3rd would not allow tourists. On the second mesa we found a few tables set up with people selling cheap tourist grade Katsina Dolls and sterling silver jewelry so I chat with them about how Walter wants a basket with mudheads on it. At one point someone waves to me and motions us to follow them into the restricted section of the pueblo. Walter and I entered a private dwelling. The living room was packed with people. From great grandparents to newborn children it was a full extended family, very tradish. And older woman handed Walter the beginning of a basket. Only the base was complete. Walter asked if it was a mudhead basket and she responded. "It could be" and smiled. Walter then asked "How much?" 2 thousand dollars she quickly replied. Walter looked like someone had hit him over the head with a baseball bat, as he was gasping for air everyone in the room started laughing. I grabbed hold of Walter's wrist and pulled him out as I mumbled some apologies.

Walter was still in shock as we drove down from the mesa. The closer we got to the desert floor the closer Walter came to realizing that there was no way he would be able to get a 60 dollar mudhead basket for my mother. Surprisingly his rare manic state did not collapse into his more consistent depressive state and he was determined to get something for mother and we pulled into one of the many trading posts at the base of the mesa.

Authentic Hopi and Navajo art the signs blared. We walked in. Walter found some small basket work wall hangings. One was about 4 inches across and had a turtle design. It was a nice little piece and priced at 50 dollars. Walter was victorious I guess and he bought it for mother. But the day is not done yet we are in the middle of the Hopi reservation and there is lots of daylight left so Walter gets another brainstorm and another well thought out plan.

We are currently on the Hopi Reservation, the grey star. Walter decides that he wants to go to Canyon De Chelly National Monument which is near Chinle, the green star. Walter decides that using the marked roads is too long and that there must be a yellow brick road to the land of De Chelly and he would find it. See the yellow line on the map; it is Walter's dream come real by using MS Paint.



Walter asks at the trading post if there is a shortcut to Chinle. Of course there is and the man behind the counter starts giving directions. Local directions. You have all heard them and even used them. Take this road about 3 miles to where the Johnsons barn was it burned down 4 years ago. Take a right and drive till you hit the Williams farm. Take another right at the tree that used to have the tire swing hanging from it….. I had slunk away to buy a piece of fry bread at this time.

I got back into the truck, happily munching on my fry bread and off we went on Walter's yellow brick road to…. It took a surprisingly short amount of time for Walter to realize that he was lost on the dirt roads crisscrossing the Navajo reservation. We continued to bounce along even though we had no idea where we were and where we were going there was no sense in being late. We found someone alongside the road and Walter asked again how to get to Chinle. A long train of local directions followed and Walter headed off with even more encouragement.


Somewhere along this drive we topped a ridge and there was a trading post and a couple houses and outbuildings. I do not remember the name but it was a large adobe structure with a sign painted on it that listed what they offered. In big red letters the sign stated ANGORA! I am a northern traditional dancer and part of our gear is angora hide anklets. I jokingly call them my goat leggings. For some reason I have the worst time with angora anklets, I always have and it continues to this day. I walk inside to enquire about getting a pair of angora anklets for dancing, I start explaining what I want to the woman behind the counter and she is looking at me like I am from Mars. It was my turn to forget that all Indians are not the same. Navajo's generally are not pow wow people. The do not dance or have pow wows in the middle of the reservation. I am getting more and more frustrated, as I point to my ankles and describe yet again what I want. I want two pieces of angora goat hide. The woman is still looking at me like I am insane and why would I want something like that when a young man gets my attention. "I have what you want." He says and I follow him outside.


We go behind the trading post and into a musty smelly shed where he pulls out a dried and salted sheep skin. It is at this point that the absurdity of my request begins to sink in. They are not dancers. They have no idea what I am talking about and there is no reason they should know. It then hits me that the angora sign panted on the trading post was for angora wool to make rugs not anklets for dancing. I thank the young Navajo man, tell him that is not what I am looking for and go to find Walter who had gotten yet a 3rd set of local directions to Chinle and we head off on the dusty trails again.


Several hours go by wandering in hopeless confusion when we finally drive into a town. Kayenta, which is a very long way from our stated destination of Chinle. Blue circle on the map. Walter/Coronado never did find a 60 dollar mudhead basket, or his shortcut to Chinle and I did not get my goat leggings. Walter then made the first rational decision of the rapidly ending day and took off on the main roads back to Durango. Red arrow.

I wish I could say that the day was a bonding event between me and Walter but it was not. I have never forgotten that there is no such thing as a typical Indian. We all have different cultures, traditions, languages, and expectations. There is no overall European culture just as there is no overall Indian culture. Even those of us who are Indian can forget that.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

How Not to Get Tech Support

I work in technical support, usually on the phone. I like my job there are some quite rewarding parts of my job. One of the reasons I like it is that I am given the freedom to work on a problem until it is fixed. I do not have time limitations and when the phone rings I am working for the caller more than working for the customer. Some customers however do everything in their power to not get good support.


 

Here is an example from earlier today.

Ring ring

Me: This is David with "Super Awesome Company"!

C: CAN YOU TELL ME WHY I HAVE NOT BEEN RECIVING DATA FOR 2 MONTHS WITH YOUR PROGRAM!?!?!?

Me: I would need to connect into your system and determine what the….

C: I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT! *click*


 

Ok so I understand that many of my customers are serious type A personalities but let's break down this simple and short conversation and see why I was not able to give good service to this customer.

  1. There was no hello, no social niceties what so ever. I am ok with that. Customers do not have to be polite to me.
  2. Customer demanded an instant answer. Now I have a good handful of reasons why this would be happening to him but I do not have ESP. The closest I have is ESPN. My satellite tv provider gives me multiple channels but it is of no help in this situation.
  3. When I offer to help refuse that help. In fact refuse to answer any questions that I ask.

I do not have a crystal ball, I do not even have a magic 8 ball or a "fix the customer's pc" button, or a magic wand with which to fix a problem. It is a funny thing that people think these magical solutions exist in the computing world. It leaves me wondering about the caller and if his car did not start in the morning would he call his mechanic or dealership and behave in the same manner. Somehow I doubt that he would behave in the same manner.

Computers and computer programs are complicated sometimes the fix is not easy or quick.

I am aware that dealing with tech support can be difficult at times. I recently had a bad experience myself just last month but was able to reach a good solution. Not all tech support people know what they are doing… sometimes I have no idea what I am doing but I know who to ask if I am clueless.


 

It is the calls like the above that suck everything great out of life.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Stupid Pet Tricks #1



Cinnamon is a 14 year old Scottish fold cat. She is very small and we call her MinMins.


Even though we put fresh water down for her every day this has recently not been acceptable to her. She has also discovered that there is water in the toilettes. Many times I head into the bathroom to see the back end of Mins sticking out of the bowl and I must wait for her to finish before I can do my business.

Now a cat drinking out of the toilet is not all that amazing. Many cats do it but her recent behavior of meowing as loudly as she can into the bowl at 4 am has got to stop.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Yay Sugar Gliders..... In honor of Chewy

Over a decade ago I was working at a job in Colorado Springs. It was a long commute and on my way home one night I was listening to the radio. My favorite show at the time was called The Sports Zoo, and it was a Zoo with a bit of sports worked into it. As I drove the hosts were interviewing a fellow that was selling sugar gliders at a local sports show event. He described them and how they were so small and cute and friendly and could soar through the air.

Right after the segment ended my cell phone rings. It is my wife.

wife: "Do you know what a sugar glider is?"

me: "Funny you should ask because I just found out about them myself you must be listening to the Sports Zoo."

wife: "I want one!"

me: "Are you sure? they sound all cute and fuzzy and all but....."

wife: "Oh it will be mine, I will feed it and take care of it you will not have to do any of that."

By this time I am thinking that my wife had regressed into a 6 year old wanting a puppy.

wife: "well I want one."

I get home and suddenly we are headed into downtown Denver for the Sportsman's Expo to check out sugar gliders. We get there pay our 20 dollar entrance fee and spend the next hour or so wandering around asking random strangers about sugar gliders. Most of them look at us like we are insane but we did find... the glider man. He had Shakespeare in his pocket, no not a long dead English writer, but a small gray animal that was jumping between him and delighted children.

Most sugar gliders are grey, 6 inches long with another 6 inches provided by a fluffy tail. they have big eyes and big ears and very very soft fur. They are adorable and charming little critters that we were assured were easy to care for and lots of fun after they bond with you. My wife cooed over little Shakespeare.

"I must have one" she stated, so we asked the glider man how much. He said that a glider joey, gliders are marsupials so their young are called joeys just like kangaroos, and cage was 400 dollars. My wife panicked. We were short on cash at the moment and tomorrow was payday. She asked the glider man if he would take a check. The glider man did not accept checks. I went home with a very sad wife.

The next day I get a call at work.

wife: "I have 400 dollars!"

me: "How did you... No I do not want to know."

wife: "I want a glider!"

me: "Are you sure...."

wife: "Yes! yes! I am sure! I will be responsible for him and take care of him and feed him. You will not have to do anything. It will be mine."

me: "Ok if that is what you want."

Once again we head back into Denver on the train and hand over another 20 dollars to access the expo. she runs up to the glider man and hands over 400 dollars. In return we get a 3 foot by 3foot by 3 foot metal cage, a cloth bonding pouch, some glider kibble, glider propaganda, a cdrom about gliders, an exercise wheel and she is directed to pick out her joey.

The glider man picks up a small cloth pouch and inside are several very small sleeping grey furballs. The wife sticks her hand in and all hell breaks loose. There is a sound like a dozen chainsaws and she pulls out a squirming and screaming bundle of fur and she puts it in the provided bonding pouch and proceeds to suck on her bitten and bleeding finger. The glider, who the wife will happily name Zathras is in the pouch making an ungodly mechanical whirring chainsaw sound that we will find out later is called crabbing.

It is at this point where I should say that when people find out we have sugar gliders someone will speak up and say "My daughter wanted a sugar glider so we....." They get this far in the story and I am laughing so hard I can barely see knowing the tale of pain and terror that is coming.

It is February in Denver Colorado, sugar gliders are from Indonesia and Australia so we head as quickly as we can for home, Zathras needs to be kept warm. Because the wife has the little whirring wee beastey in the bonding pouch around her neck I have to care for the cage on the the train ride home. Every few minutes Zathras would quiet down and the wife would get worried about him open the pouch and stick her hand in. Zathras would crab "NEE NEE NEE NEE NEE" and proceed to try and eat my wife. The "NEE NEE NEE NEE" is at a sound level like standing 30 feet away from Air Force One taking off and yes the other riders did notice that something was up.

We get home, Zathras is ok, and the wife is more or less still intact but the bandaid box will not survive the night. We set the cage up in the bed room. I attach the bonding pouch and set up the exercise wheel, a dish of water and another dish of glider kibble. The wife is busy with the glider brochures and all that kind of stuff when she says that there must be more information about them and directs me to do research. Zathras is now mostly quiet, he is sticking his head out of his pouch and looking suspiciously around. If he sees us, he dives back into his bag with a sharp NEE NEE NEE!

I start researching and the more I research the more I begin to dread what we have brought into our house. Yes, yes sugar gliders can be fun and charming but to get to the fun and charming part of owning sugar gliders you have to get the glider to bond with you even though you are not small and floofy with big eyes and ears. If you happen to be small floofly with big eyes and ears you should see a doctor.

It takes months to bond with your sugar glider. It takes many boxes of bandaids to stop the bleeding as your small furry but surprisingly loud ninja tries to eat you. Gliders are also a lot more work than the glider man let on. they have a special diet consisting of mostly chicken baby food, yogurt drink, honey, hard boiled eggs, and grain cereal with calcium supplements. The glider kibble Zathras was sent home with is not an acceptable food for gliders. Now for the quiz. Who as two thumbs and was immediately tasked with preparing the glider food, feeding the glider, watering the glider, cleaning the cage etc? ... yea that would be me.

We found out other things about gliders.

1. single gliders do not do well, they are colony animals and need other gliders for emotional health. - we now need a second glider.

2. The 3 foot by 3foot cage was way too small for a glider - we now need a bigger cage

3. Once your glider is bonded they absolutely live to poop and pee on you. It is their greatest goal in life. - more laundry

4. some states do not allow you to keep sugar gliders. - Colorado allows people to own sugar gliders

5. oh and they throw their food.... everywhere. baby food, yogurt, and honey is sticky.

Over the next couple years we increased our colony. We added Chewy. The wife declared that Chewy was my glider so I could no longer bring up the "you promised to take care of them" defense while cleaning the cage. Next came the sisters from a glider rescue place... Lilo and Nani. we added Gabby, another rescue who had her tail chewed off before she came to live with us.

Yes gliders are fun, and cute and cuddly, once they stop trying to eat you. Playtime is always great, after they poop and pee on you. They love toys and a well bonded glider is a great thing to have. I would however never suggest that gliders are good pets. and they are definitely not good pets for children.

A well cared for glider will live for over 10 years. some will live to be 12 to 15 years. They are a big responsibility. You have to feed them the correct food. You need to find a vet that will not look at your glider and go "what the hell is that thing?" They need lots of space, they make messes. When your wife leaves the cage open they get lose and jump on your face in the middle of the night.

Over the past couple years we lost, Lilo, then Nani, then Gabby. Zathras died last year in my hands, he was old. Chewy was just rehomed with a glider rescue group here in Denver. He was very lonely with out his buddy and it was best for him.

Most people get gliders without knowing much about them, Yes my wife and I were one of those people. If you want gliders.... Do research, lots and lots of research find a local glider rescue, too many people get gliders and can not take care of them so they give them up. They need good homes.

PS. Got a note from colorado suggie savers regarding chewy. He is healthy and was integrated with another glider his age. Chewy now has a glider buddy and is doing very well and is happy.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

I need a theme....

Not just a theme a purpose.... maybe even some encoragement in regards to my blogg.

I have one... now what the hell do I do with it?

I can not eat it... *throws some salsa on the screen and tries to nibble on it*... nope still can't eat it.

I do not want this to be a place where I rant and rave. I work in customer service so I have truckloads of stuff to rant and rave about. some of them are even funny. Is that what you guys want from me? I hope not you can get that stuff elsewhere. Plus if my employer found out I could get fired. I may not be all that thrilled with my job but it is mine and jobs are hard to come by these days.

blogg about my cats? well Mins is 14 and spends her day sleeping, begging for food, eating and vomiting. Not much there. Catzilla just lays around and is all floofy all day.

Politics. Meh yes I vote. yes I care but I really do not want to blog about it. There are enough blowhards out there.

Indian stuff? well there is possibilities in that but there are things that are so personal that I will not tell complete strangers and the last thing I want is a bunch of ruck rubbing bliss bunny crystal twinkies drooling all over my blog. New Agers make me want to kick kittens, they really do.

I need something different, something new and fun.

to my friends out there... what do you want to hear about? what do you like? with what I have done so far? what do you hate?

help.

Please comment... let me know you are out there.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Is it Art?

I am not an artist. I can not draw or paint. If someone held a gun to my head, put a pencil or paint brush in my hand and said make me a picture the blood spatter on the wall would be better than anything I could create with pencil and paper. I can not play a musical instrument. I tried back in grade school. I took up the saxophone with dreams of playing John Williams music stampeding through my young mind. I dropped it after a couple years of playing Mary Had a Little Lamb and Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. The most interesting thing we go to "play" was Ode to Joy and we were not very good at it. with both drawing, painting, and music I will have to be content just looking at or listening to those that have far greater skill than I have.




I have heard a description of art being something that is beautiful but has no real use or purpose. I can create items of leather, beads, and feathers they are beautiful I am not sure if they are art.




I think I created art yesterday. I used fire, heat, and smoke to turn three racks of pork ribs into what I will happily call art. Now just throwing some mammal flesh on a flame pit and putting some char on it is an easy thing to do. Hamburgers, brats and hot dogs are child's play. Steaks take a bit more skill but it is essentially the same thing. Getting the items finished correctly and to order is a nice trick. My wife is easy she likes her hot dogs and brats dead... DED dead, I call them 3 Mile Island or for those of you a bit younger Chernobyl dogs, no matter what you call them the end result is the same.




I have a confession to make here. The first time I tried to make ribs on a grill I totally fubared them. I was a total neanderthal and had not discovered the properties of indirect heat. The recipe said to grill them for 45 minutes and that is what I did. I came back to a slab of charcoal that disintegrated into a pile of charred bones when I touched it.... It was a fail of epic proportions. My wife still brings it up to this day in an effort to embarrass me but I find the whole thing universally funny.




I have learned a lot since that evening. I have created cedar plank salmon. for some reason I cooked it till the cedar plank caught fire and to my wonder the salmon was perfection. I have also made a couple Christmas roasts on the grill. But even after all that it was an LP or natural gas grill. Gas is easy. The heat is steady and reliable, real skill comes with using live fire.





Today I have a basic yet classic Weber charcoal kettle grill. No more electric start or knobs to turn for heat control. Now it is all amount of charcoal and airflow. Yet I can do more with that kettle grill than anything else I have ever done.




Yesterday Jonette made the rub, a mixture of sugar, salt and home made chili powder and liberally coated the racks and then it was all mine... my show, my creation. I put 33 charcoals in the chimney lighter and waited 15 minutes. I poured the lit coals over a bed of unlit ones on one side of the grill and a pan of water on the other. sprinkled on some wet cherry wood chips, put the racks on and slammed the lid down.




With the help of an electric probe thermometer stuck into the top air vent I now regulated the temp between 250 and 275 degrees for 45 minutes. The only way to do this is by carefully regulating the airflow from the bottom vents to the top. More air = more heat, It can take some time but once you get it all is good. After 45 minutes you pull the top off, turn the ribs over and switch their positions and mop with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and apple juice. Unfortunately the act of doing that allows a large influx of air to reach the coals and you have to start again with adjusting the airflow.




After another 45 minutes I cheat... true BBQ masters will snarl at me for this but I remove the ribs and put them in a 300 degree oven to finish off for another hour and a half. Yes that is cheating and I fully acknowledge that. A couple more mops with the cider and juice during their stay in the oven and....







Now the reason for the smoke, and using the grill in the first place, only become apparent when you cut into the ribs.



The pink area around the edges of the ribs is the holy grail of BBQ. The smoke ring, that is what makes all the work worth while.

I think it is art, it takes skill, patience, and time. The results are beautiful but temporary they do not last and as much as something might be to good to eat. You need to just eat it before the microbes get a hold of it. No use letting something so good go to waste. I ate my fill last night and will eat on the rest of them all week long.

Some still say that art can not have a purpose and if that is the case then what I created is not art in the classic sense but you can not debate it is good. Something that could turn just about any vegan into a T-rex at 20 paces is a great thing. I like my art to have a use. And like any art if you try and put sauce on my ribs I will knock you into next week. You do not take a sharpie and draw a moustache on the Mona Lisa, that just ain't right.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Come on Down Everything is On "_________"

You know the word that is missing. You are human, and the goal of most humans is to fill the empty spaces of their homes with stuff. I do not have to spell it out for you, unless you are an animal and even the smartest animal can't read. If you are not human and not an animal but can read then you must be an alien. If you are an alien become a citizen, not only is it the right thing to do but it comes with some great benefits.... what was this post about? Oh yea.

Garage Sale....

10 years ago my wife and I lived in a gigantic house. It was over 3 thousand square feet of living space, not including the 1,700 square foot unfinished basement that held 2 furnaces and 2 50 gallon water heaters. The two AC units lived happily outside. It was grand, I never ran out of hot water and the heat and ac were controllable on each floor. I could store sides of cow in the upstairs to train for my, never got off the ground, boxing career while living in tropical luxury on the main level. The point is that 10 years ago my wife and being human filled it up with stuff.

Well we no longer live in the Brown Eyes palace and are moving to a townhouse that is 1,200 square feet. I have spent the last two weeks filling a 3 car garage with 10 years of accumulated detritus that I now need to eject. There is some great stuff there.

Two very large overstuffed leather chairs and couch that have survived a constant 10 year assault by 4 fully armed and operational cats. I believe that they are completely indestructible and need a good home.

an ice cream maker that I have had for 9 years. I love ice cream and thought that an ice cream maker would be a great thing. I once had a friend who wanted to make chocolate, but he discovered that actually making chocolate was very expensive and time consuming and rapidly discovered that it was better to buy his Hershey's bars than make them himself. I have successfully created ice cream once and then decided that picking up a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food at the local market was not only less time intensive but much cheaper than trying to make it on my own. I also discovered that my name is David, not Ben or Jerry and they are much better at making ice cream than I am. I took a big breath and blew the dust off the ice cream maker and it too was added to the mountain of stuff in my garage.

The mountain contains various decorative stuff, bowls, candles, candle holders, Fluuuufffaaaaaay stuff animals that just make you want to die, old tech, geeky toys, fake plants and ivy, 2 beds, an assortment of other small furniture, unused dish sets, place mats, a shocking assortment of implements used to extract info from terrorist prisoners or to make various bar drinks. I rarely ever drink so why do I have them in the first place? I do not even know what most of them are for. The mountain grows like my own personal Kilauea.

As the mountain of random cra.... err my wife says it is all good stuff and I agree that most of it is good stuff, I feel better and better. I am not meaning this to be a rant against excess but I guess it is. It feels good to buy things to fill up the space but it feels just as good if not better to unload all the stuff.

I feel lighter with every arm full I add to that pile.

The sale is next weekend. The good feeling is tempered somewhat as I look at the pile of stuff and realize that now I must sort, price, and stage it all. But the sense of lightening my load, will become even better when humans come to the sale to pick up stuff that they will use to fill the empty places in their homes. In time they will also shake off the accumulated possessions just as I am doing... It is, in the end, a grand circle....

pssst wana buy an ice cream maker?

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Attack of the Green Police

This morning I came into work and noticed that the trash can at my desk no longer had a liner in it. I figured someone took it or that the cleaning staff just forgot, no big deal really. I then found out that the entire building had initiated a mandatory recycling policy.

The "trash" cans at our desks are no longer trash cans but "recycle" bins. Only washed recyclable materials are allowed in the bins without liners. They have provided 4, standard desk sized trash bins for us to use for non recyclable material. There are over 100 people in this office who now have only 4 small trash cans. The amount of trash that will be in 4 piles around the office is going to be epic.

Now I am all for recycling, it is a great idea. However I do not like things that become mandatory. If they had put a green colored bin next to my desk with a note saying, "put recycle stuff here" I would happily put any scrap paper, plastic and whatnot in there. But this is " you will put recyclable material in the bins... you will wash or wipe out said materials before putting them in the bin" I don't like that.

Recycling only works if the process is made easy and voluntary. I had heard that a building wide recycling program was coming and was trying to figure out the best way I can participate. I thought they would provide a couple recycle bins for us to use but the actual program is the exact opposite.

It is too much trouble, and the implementation of a mandatory project is causing me to reject the whole thing. Is that bad? am I somehow broken that when someone says "You must do this" my first reaction is "fuck you buddy!"?

Now I have to train myself not to put everything in the bin. I am too lazy to wash or wipe everything out and I guess I will bring a plastic grocery bag from home to put my waste in and throw it on top of the inevitable trash piles that will form when the scarce trash bins overflow.

I wonder how long this will last. How many will comply? are there enough people who have reacted like me that this will be abandoned quickly?

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

GO Fever!!!!!!!!

I am still processing my Philly trip and everything that lead up to it. In short it was a disaster and a lot of it was my fault. I was not careful enough in the preparation and I made some disastrous decisions over the course of almost an entire year. I made decisions that overrode some serious internal alarms. NASA calls it "Go Fever" and when go fever sinks its teeth into any project or endeavor it never ends well.

My first lesson from the fallout is that there is good reason why many Lakota spiritual leaders have an Indians only policy regarding ceremony. Yes some of them just are not fond of white people but there is another deeper reasoning. Most non Indians have not been raised or understand the base culture. It is not that non Indians can not learn the proper expectations and cultural attitudes but that people new to our ways have not spent enough time at or in ceremony to understand the how, whys, and whats of ceremony.

My first and greatest mistake was that I could instill that understanding in a person who had very little exposure to Lakota ceremony in less than a years time. It is entirely my fault to think I could adequately prepare someone, and their family, for a major ceremony in so short a time. This is not the fault of my former friends and I should have said. Maybe we do this in a couple years, but no, everyone wanted to push forward as quickly as possible.

I provided as much information as I could. I figured that by carefully explaining what was going to happen, how it was going to happen, and what materials, provisions, and facilities were needed that my friend and his family would be ready. I know now that lists, and speaking are just not enough. Someone must experience the ceremonies as helpers for years before a true understanding can begin to occur. Even fullblood Lakotas are expected to assist with ceremony for 4 years before jumping in themselves. This four years of assisting, watching, doing and learning is important, especially if one has not had much previous exposure to ceremony. I took a short cut. I, in a prideful way, believed that I could have this man and his family ready in 10 months. Go Fever!

Mistake 2

I had to teach too much. I had to carefully explain the basics of preparation of the materials needed by the person going through the ceremony. The fact that I had to assist so much was a warning sign I should not have ignored. They were my friends, they wanted this so very badly. In an effort to not fail them I did fail them. I should have said "Not this year". I am quite sure that statement would have caused trouble but the result would have been less painful than what eventually transpired. I ignored serious gaps in basic knowledge. To my friends credit he did many things right. He carved his own canumpa or pipe that he needed for the ceremony, a task many Lakotas do not perform. It was the small details that we all take for granted that were lacking. I had to teach him how to make prayer ties and the flags necessary for the ceremony. This was a red flag that I ignored. Simple details that I take for granted because I have lived this way for decades and though it may be basic knowledge for me were beyond the scope of experience for my friend. Go Fever!

Mistake 3

The ceremony was to take place here in Colorado on land owned by mutual friends. To use this land we had to make the facilities necessary to perform the ceremony. That would take time and effort. That time and effort would have helped to prepare him and his family for the ceremony to come. Unfortunately my friend broke his leg in early spring and he was unable to do any hard labor for about 6 weeks. That was a major set back and once again I should have said "Not this year." We were not able to build the sweat and gather the materials on the land that were necessary for the ceremony. However they came up with a solution, Go Fever!

Mistake 4

My friends are from PA. Our mutual friends who own the land in Colorado also live in PA and they have a sweat lodge and a place to run ceremony. My friends planned a full family vacation to the east coast and wanted to include the ceremony into the trip. They would use the facilities in PA. They would fly me out to lead the ceremony and fly me back to Colorado when it was complete. Once again I should have said "No way, bad idea" but once again everyone wanted it, even I wanted it at this point. I had worked nearly a year to get my friend and his family as ready as I could. For final preparation I went over the list and expectations yet again.

"Do you have everything you need?"
"Yes"

At this point I should have insisted that I be shown the ceremonial materials, but I am a trusting person. If my friends say they have everything they need well I will believe them. I called the couple in PA with the land.

"Is everything ready?"
"Yes"

Ok we are all good to go. I just need to get on a plane and get to PA.

I need to go on a tangent here but it is an important one. I am very grounded I know the land out here. That is not the case with the North East. Everything is different, vegetation, birds, is and completely unfamiliar.

I get off the plan in Philly, It is hot and very humid. I meet up with the family on the land and realize that things had gone wrong. The sweat lodge was attacked and the covers destroyed. We need to get replacements. I also discovered that my friends did not have everything on the list I provided. A mad scramble is initiated to get the necessary items. Time is ticking away, my friend wanted a 3 day ceremony. Because this whole thing was wrapped up in other activities there were hard deadlines to be met.

Ceremony should be ceremony, you can not wrap it up with other activities. also trying to do the obvious easy way or trying to cut corners can result in bad outcomes. By this time everything is rapidly starting to fall apart around me. Once again I should have said "No, not this year" but we were all there and minus a few small but important details everything was ready to go. To much had been invested by everyone so we all attempt to push through it.

Mistake 5

The ceremony was supposed to start on Friday morning, the hours were spent getting the final materials for the ceremony together. finish the sweat lodge, cut wood, find a wool blanket. I was told that this was all taken care of. I pushed on, and so did everyone else. It is near sundown and I get my friend to his ceremony spot. My instructions regarding prayer ties were not followed and what resulted was a tangled mess. We spent the next hour and a half trying to untangle the ties and then decided that it would be a good prayer full job for my friend. We came down and he was up and rolling.

that evening we discovered that one of the kids was not only allergic to the cats in the house but the walnut trees in the yard. Need to find a place for the kids now. The temps for the weekend were going to be in the 90's with very high humidity.

There was conflict over the blanket, there was conflict over allergies, then there was conflict over the weather. It was a never ending assault on Sat. All day Saturday I had Riders on the Storm in my head. I had no idea why at the time.

My friend wanted 3 days on the hill, but we missed one day due to getting stuff together. so on Sunday morning we broke protocol and went up and spoke with my friend. The schedule was to bring him down on Sunday evening but to complete three days that would now by Monday evening. I compromised yet again and said we should bring him down Monday morning and call it good. Considering the conflict and how everything was going wrong I strongly felt that I should just pull him off the hill on Sat morning but that was not going to happen. I was the only one who felt this way and I did not listen to even myself at this point. My friend had to have his 3 days no matter what.

My friend's decision to stay 3 days and come down on Monday and not on Saturday caused a final massive explosion from his wife. My friend comes racing down the hill, contrary to his wife's cry that he was in serious physical danger and was either dying or going to die at any moment.

It would do no good to go into any further details of the incident other than the final outcome is.

My friend spent only 2 days on the hill, not the 3 he wanted.
Lots of hurt feelings and mistrust.

In the end it was all for nothing, all that time, energy, materials, money... poof gone. all due to massive cultural misunderstanding, attempts to cut corners and make things easy, and my own pride and unwillingness to listen to my own internal alarms.

Never again will I succumb to Go Fever in regards to ceremony, there is far to much at stake to do so ever again.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Art of Predicting the Weather

Today I was taking a break with a coworker and I asked if he had ridden his bike into work today. He said that he had and asked if I thought it would rain. I replied that it was very likely we would get rain this afternoon and in fact I felt that it could be storming shortly. It had been warm and sunny all day with scattered clouds but they were starting to build a bit. National Weather Service had posted a 10% chance for showers and thunderstorms.

I am Oglala Lakota and I get asked about weather all the time. Some even ask if I do rain dances and such. NO Lakotas were hunter gatherers, not farmers, so rainfall, although important, was not so important as to create a ceremony to encourage its arrival. I usually respond to this by saying, "If I want to make it rain I just wash my car."

When I was 5 years old I was struck by lightning. From my point of view it was not much of a big deal. I was inside a building in Stillwater MN and holding onto the door when a bolt hit the structure. I did not see or hear anything other than a woman in a red dress, who was also holding onto an other, door fly backwards. My mother and others around me reported that sparks flew from my hands as I was blown off my feet to land flat on my back.

An event such as this has great significance with Lakota people. I have not only dreamed of but been touched by wakinyanpi, thunder beings. Those that dream of or are touched by the wakinyanpi usually become Heyoka, sacred clowns. Heyoka are considered very powerful and some people even fear them. One of the primary characteristics of a Heyoka is that they do everything backwards and act out the ridiculousness of situations. They are carnival mirrors that reflect everything back in an exaggerated and reversed way. I am not a Heyoka, I have chosen to not follow that path. I am however severely right left dyslexic. I do not know if the lightning strike caused it but It could be a factor.

I can not control the weather. I can not make it rain or storm on command but I think I understand weather. I know that lightning and thunder is not created by a giant bird but charged particles in the atmosphere and that the heat generated by the resulting spark creates thunder. It is fascinating stuff but rather dry, the idea of wakinyanpi is more fun. I understand weather because I have taken the time to observe it.

Not only do we rush around so much that we do not pay attention but we also seal ourselves away from the world in our houses and cars. We rely on the news or radio to get our weather reports. It has been a about 45 minutes since my friend asked me about rain, the sky is now dark. A look at the local weather site shows the storms building over the mountains to the west and moving North East. It is not raining yet but it is only a matter of time.

Anyone can learn the weather. Go outside spend a few minutes take note of how the air feels, what direction the wind is from, the temperature, what direction are the clouds moving? If you pay attention you will learn the patterns of weather. No one is right 100% of the time and you can also use the national weather reports.... How does the map look today? Has it ever looked like that before? To know the weather you must observe it, feel it, and remember it. Before long you to can give the meteorologists a personal run for the money.

Monday, June 7, 2010

The Must Watch List.......

We all have one. It is Saturday afternoon, you have your chores done and you sit down with a frosty beverage and a snack, flip on the TV and see what is on. Now that we have cable, satellite TV and even Internet TV we have hundreds of channels to watch, what makes you stop going through the list?

I am not talking about "OH we will watch this later" but what movie or movies cause you to stop in your tracks?

For me I have two movies that are must watch under any circumstances. I think my house could catch fire and I would just sit there and burn to death before getting out of the chair or couch, so great is the need to watch these films.

The first film is Hunt for Red October. I have no idea why this film captivates me so. I am not a particular fan of submarine movies or of Sean Connery. I can shrug off Crimson Tide or a Bond Film. I do not care if it is just the last 15 minutes. I have to watch it, nothing else in the universe matters to me but ooooo Hunt for Red October is on.

Hunt for Red October seems to go into heavy rotation on TNT or TBS. I am not sure which station, I do not care, I am watching Hunt for Red October.

The other movie is Backdraft. Once again I have no real affinity for the cast, even though it is excellent. I also like Towering Inferno, but that is not a drop everything and go all slack jawed and drooly when I see it on my guide listing. Backdraft also seems to get heavy play on the secondary movie channels.

The real funny thing is that I do not own either of these films of DVD. I did own Red October but was forced to sell it, I have never owned a copy of Backdraft.

Do any of you have Must Watch movies?

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

How to completely annoy your friends on facebook

This is not another post about the popular privacy issues regarding facebook. It is a rule that anything posted online is public in one way or another and there is no way to ensure or even assume privacy. This is a post about a more insidious facebook issue, that of applications.

I joined facebook through my employer, my company wanted everyone on facebook so I jumped in. I like facebook as a way to contact and interact with friends, family, and co workers. It does have its useful purposes. However the signal to noise ratio on Facebook is distressing. I have to hide multiple applications and game every day or my homepage is filled with.

I found a lost calf on farmville -
Please help me build a what-the-hell-ever on farmville -
I have 100 million billion coins in treasure hunt -
I have signed up to get a free iPad, how about you -
I got a galactic high score in plug my bung hole -
I am attacking the castle, come have fun with me -
so and so sent you an electric walrus polisher send him something back -
here is my horoscope for today -

I know the games are fun. I played mob wars for about a month or so and had a good time. I am sure that I also annoyed my facebook friends with constant updates on my moby activities. Today I got an update "so and so is at Walgreen's, tell all your friends where you are using foursquare" Oh good for you, and why do I care?

Now to facebooks credit you can click on hide and hide the application but once I do that I have found that a suddenly do not hear anything from more than half of my friends. I love facebook for sharing information or pictures or fun videos, but the game and gift applications are way out of control.

The other scourge of facebook is the pre made updates. "Dog breath is a major problem in dogs. If your dog has dog breath or a dog that you know has dog breath please copy and paste this as your status. 90% of you will not copy and paste this message so if you care about your dog's breath please post it for an hour." News flash; if 90% of facebook users will not put your "lets increase awareness of dog breath" message as their status, it is probably for a reason. If you really want to increase awareness or help fight something, a facebook status is not going to help out. A facebook status update is not going to give your dog minty fresh breath, nor will it cure brest cancer, or AIDs in Africa. There are ways to combat these things that have real value.

I try and follow some rules regarding my use of facebook.

1. If I am playing a game and want to post updates, I post those updates to friends who also play the game. My friends who play Farmville will be more interested in my lost calf. You can do that, it takes a bit of work.

2. I try and make my status updates my own. Yea a lot of people may shrug their shoulders and go "I don't care" but at least it is my status update.

3. I try and not use facebook as a political or social platform. I do not like being scolded or preached to. I try and not do it to others.

Facebook should be fun and we all use facebook in different ways and for different purposes. I do not want to annoy people least of all my friends and coworkers. If I do or say something on facebook that ticks you off, let me know.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Movie score fan

I am a huge fan of movie scores. My love started when I was young and my mother was a member of Columbia House Music Club. I am not even sure if they exist any more but every month they would send a flier in the mail and you selected an album or many and sent it back. If you did not want anything offered you could not just ignore the flier. If you ignored it Columbia House would send their monthly selection. One time my mother neglected to fill out the "No thanks" and we received an 8-track tape of the Star Wars score. I played the tape and it was love at first sound.

My dear mother hated it. Part of it was that as a child I played that 8-track tape almost every day. this became expected as I learned that she would automatically show disdain for anything that I enjoyed. I guess that is for another blog post at a later date.

I have no classical music training. I played the sax for a couple years in grade school but you can imagine how my love of John Williams and my frustration at playing Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater over and over and over again. With the eyes and understanding of age I now lament the fact that I did not stick with it. If I had there is a chance I could be playing the music I love so much. As it is I listen and enjoy.

Star Wars was a gateway drug that lead to a love of Jerry Goldsmith, my first CD was Star Trek The Motion Picture, John Barry, and James Horner. I can not speak to why the music is good. I can not give any real reason other than "I love it" or "I hate it" Movie scores are pure emotion for me.

My love of movie scores also moved me into an interesting hobby, the collection of movie scores. Music stores always have the popular music but the soundtrack sections are usually pretty small. Finding soundtracks could be difficult at best and many times impossible. Movie scores, if released at all were usually small runs making some of them extremely rare.

I have had successes. I found a site called filmscoremonthly and they had just put The Towering Inferno for sale. 25 dollars for the only official release of the score and limited to 3,000 units. I could not get my credit card out fast enough. That cd is selling on the second hand market for about $250 now. It is the crown jewel of my collection.

I have had failures as well. I once found a cd of Quigley Down Under. I held it in my hand and thought I can pick this up later. I never saw another one and the secondary market was asking $145 dollars. I kicked myself for years for not laying down 17 bucks to pick it up when I had the chance. I now have a copy for the score was re-released a few years ago after Basil Poledouris passed away. The remastered and extended edition was 25 dollars.

Today the landscape for score fans has changed. there are now specialty online retailers that only carry movie scores and even produce their own limited edition releases just for fans. The world is bright and sunny for us fanatics and it is only getting better with companies like www.screenarchives.com

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

To Dance Gazing at the Sun



I am a sun dancer.....

To most that means nothing.
Some recognize it but their only exposure has been from Hollywood.
A select few know exactly what I am saying. To those the know I ask them to relax. I will not be giving details, this is not a how too.

Sun dance is not the correct term. The Lakota word is Wi wang yang wacipi, it means to dance gazing at the sun. The dance is not a right of passage. It is not a right of anything but a deeply personal choice and expression of faith and love. It is a demonstration of thanks, a sincere request for help, the completion of personal vision. Each man and woman who commits to the dance has individual reasons for doing so.

Many Nations of the plains have sun dances. They are all very different yet are all the same in that those who commit to perform the ceremony must suffer greatly. They go without food and water for 4 days in exhausting prayer. Dancers are isolated from friends and family, their world is the dance arbor, the songs, and their prayers.

People ask what it is like to sun dance, and I am at a loss for words. How do I describe the indescribable? I would think that Neil Armstrong feels the same way when asked "what is it like to walk on the moon?" I struggle to find a common reference. Most people do not go 4 days without liquid and those that do certainly do not do such a thing willingly. People understand hunger but the idea of a thirst so strong that you do not even think of food....

so what is it like?

The sun is relentless, there is no shade and until recently no sun block. If the stones are not bruising your feet the grass is cutting them to ribbons. Your body is exhausted, sleep deprived and cramped. By the end of the dance you feel as though your entire body is shriveled up, the saliva in your mouth becomes a thick foul tasting paste. I am Lakota so along with that is the piercing.

The piercing gathers the most attention. It is real and people can relate to it better than the thirst. It has also been featured in some films in a highly exaggerated fashion. The skin of the chest is pierced and a small piece of wood or bone is inserted. a rope is then tied to the pin, the other end is tied to a tree placed at the center of the dance arbor. The dancers then dance and pull against these ropes till the skin breaks thus freeing the dancer.

Oyate yanipi ktelo - So that others my live

The piercing is an offering, a sacrifice of the only thing that a person truly owns for the good of others. Does it hurt, well it certainly does not tickle but it is also far from excruciating. I have hurt myself more at midnight stubbing my toe getting ice cream from the fridge. It is more symbolic than anything else. It is not cruel and it is not torture by any stretch of the imagination and it is all by choice. No one is forced to dance.

You bond with your fellow dancers, they become closer than brothers. At the end of 4 days of suffering you take a few bites of your coming out feast, it is amazing how little you eat after a 4 day fast, push the plate away and start making plans for next year. You forget about all the conversations you had on the 3 day about how insane you are, how much you hurt, how much you miss your family, how much you just want water and how you could be doing anything else but baking in the sun....

I danced for 8 years. I am pretty much retired now. I sit on the drum. It is my job to sing the songs that keep the dancers in prayer. I may dance again, I might feel the need to give of myself in such a way again. I would not give it up for the world. This is what I do, if you wish to do it too, I will spend many hours trying to talk you out of it.

Now if you think the dance is hard, wait till you have to follow the sun dance way the other 361 days of the year.... but that is another post.

For all you dancers thank you
For all those pledged to the tree thank you
For all those that support their dancers thank you.


Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A Whole Different Animal




I have very little faith in corporate intelligence, but today something hapened that has made me ridiculously, stupidly happy, and it is all related to a local airline called Frontier. I am not a frequent flier by any means. Last time I stepped foot on an airplane was back in 02 for a trip to Hawaii. I have never even flown on the current incarnation of Frontier.


Frontier is a local carrier, they filed for bankruptcy many many years ago and after a long time being gone they reappeared bigger better and stronger. They returned and in a stroke or marketing genius they put pictures of animals on the tails of their aircraft.


Old Frontier


New Frontier


The animals are awesome just on their own. But what came next was an amazing TV and radio ad campaign. Over the years we got to know.

Larry the Lynx

Flip the Dolphin

Grizz the Bear

Jack the Rabbit

Sal the Cougar

Foxie the Fox

Hector the Otter

and the Penguins

A couple months ago Froniter was acquired by Republic Airways. There was great concern about the future Frontier's branding, the beloved animals and their advertising campaign that has been entertaining locals for many years. Today it all came to a head with Republic making the decision of what branding to use going forward. Midwest "Care in the Air" with their chocolate chip cookies for all fliers, and Frontier and their "Whole Different Animal" There has been a large amount of anguish over this in Denver the past month. "Save the Frontier Animals" was chanted at rallies in front of the capital and with marches down the 16th street mall. The Frontier Animals are a big deal here.

Republic has decided to go with the Frontier branding and animals, along with the chocolate chip cookies... everybody wins today. I can see the next Frontier commercial now with Griz jamming cookies in his mouth.

Still the One



Monday, April 12, 2010

Avatar Sound Track

I guess I will start with a Sound Track post for my friends at SST.

Hey guys, girls, and whatevers!

Yay Avatar. I wanted to hate this movie. I really wanted to hate it. It is an old story. Outsider sees primitive culture and then inserts himself into that culture and then saves that culture. The story is not new. Man Called Horse, Shogun, Dances With Wolves, Last Samurai, we have all seen them, but I had to see it. I had to see why I would hate it as much as MCH, and LS. I give DWW a pass because it is about my people and the details are great, but the overall story still annoys me.

Ok back to Avatar. I decided to go all out. IMAX 3D the whole bit. I ended up really enjoying it, the story was old and tired but told extremely well and the graphics were amazing. Yea I am a sucker for the flashy stuff on the screen. fantastic. I also really liked the music by James Horner.

I am a sucker for James Horner. I have been since Star Trek II, and the music in Avatar was some of the best I have heard from him. I ran out and purchased the Avatar Sound Track. 12 bucks, BTW the cost of sound track cds is a topic for another post in the future. I liked the Avatar release but there was a lot of missing content and major cues. Other tracks seemed combined. It was just ok but not what I remembered. I mentioned my displeasure to a friend of mine and he came back to me later in the day with a cdr that contained a .rar file.

I unzipped the files on the cd and was astonished to find a 3 disc promo release of the Avatar sound track. Ok ok it is a boot, and that is bad, No I am not going to tell you where to find it and I did not ask my friend. I did some research and discovered that this 3 disc promo release was sent to some academy voters.

I played the tracks... My jaw dropped. There it was, a bit rough around the edges, but it was all there. It is amazing, like LOTR Complete Recordings amazing. The LOTRCR is what I want from ST releases, and I think they are worth every penny of their initial 60 dollar release price. I would gladly hand over 60 dollars for a full official release of the 3 disc Avatar promo set.

But I can wait.

Rumors are that there is an extended version of Avatar in the works for a Nov DVD/BR release and possibly an extended re release of the movie in theaters this summer. The extended release will contain 20 to 40 minutes of added content... that means more score.

I have seen Avatar twice in the theater.
I have purchased the current ST release
I will purchase the barebones DVD to be released on April 22nd.

I want the option to purchase an extended ST along the lines of the epic LOTR releases.

So Here I Am

I have decided, after prodding from friends at http://www.streamingsoundtracks.com/ to start a blog of my own. I have no idea how this will work out but lets start with a bit about me so you get some idea of what you are in for when you read this.

My name is David. Ikce Wicasa means Common Man in the Lakota language. I am 1/4 Lakota and follow the traditions as best I can. sometimes it feels as though I am walking in 2 very distinct worlds and that can be difficult at times. I sing, I am a Northern Traditional dancer, I can work with beads, leather, and feathers. My religion is traditional.

But that is not all that I am. I have a degree in Computer Information Systems. I work in an office. I enjoy, movies, movie scores, fancy cars, good food, and technology.

My politics are Libertarian, for the most part, but no true political philosophy matches my belief structure.

I live in Castle Rock Colorado, and I work in Denver Colorado. I love Colorado and think this is the absolute best place on Earth.

I have missed quite a bit but I hope that by reading you will get an understanding of who I am and the sometimes bizarre world I live in.