this is what my bed looks like when cornified.

Unicorn Happiness #13609 | Cornify

The Good Soldier played at the Tivoli this past weekend, and revealed to Kansas Citians the experience of veterans who have fought in the war. The soldiers have a solid foot in the reality of war and share the pleasure and the pains of their experiences. They describe the thrill of killing missions, and the addiction of hunting other human beings. Stories are shared about innocent civilians that were killed; and the work the soldiers must do to get their souls back after experiencing these atrocities. I liked how it wasn't until the mid to end of the film that the soldiers revealed their position within the Veterans for peace movement. This helped convey that all soldiers share a common reality of war; regardless of how they chose to deal with it. I am happy and grateful that these people have recovered enough that they are able to take actions against the war to get bits of their soul back from the system.

An eleven minute clip from the film can be found here:



The film was followed by a discussion led by a few Veterans for Peace members.

I took some notes during the discussion and will be sharing some the statements and thoughts that stood out most.

The discussion was opened with a statement about who creates wars:

"Warriors don't make war, politicians and corporations do"

Counter recruitment was a huge topic of the discussion, brought up by many in the audience. One shared that the state of Kansas is experimenting with recruitment in middle schools. He cited some news about recruitment being up due to the downfall of the economy.

A parent shared strategies for counter recruitment by being involved in your children' schools. For example, find a history teacher that would be open to the Veterans for Peace speaking to students during class time. Demand that students get a chance to opt out of sharing their information with military recruiters. ( Otherwise, all the information of the students is given to military recruiters as part of the No Child Left behind act.)

A women asked a veteran what he would say to someone that felt pressured to join the military in order to make money during these hard economic times.  He responded by sharing a wide-scale approach:

" we have to come together as people and support each other by setting aside our differences. Set aside our differences and unite!"

Reflecting on this statement led me to thoughts about community support. We've got to get to a point where people support each other so that there is not a need to join the military for survival. We need to help each other out and provide our own alternatives for teens, young adults, and the less fortunate in society that feel pressured into risktaking by joining the military for income. Relying on the system to provide alternatives for our people is getting us no where. It is possible to create own support system that doesn't rely on the government or industrial military complex to sustain us?

Further expanding upon the veteran's call to unite: We are divided by race, sex, culture, religion, profession, neighborhoods, associations, social groups, interests, beliefs. We have allowed ourselves to become divided and conquered. If we came together as "brother and sisters" of humanity, and supported ourselves -- could we empower ourselves collectively and individually to live without governmental support and allegiance?

More tangential thoughts: It seems there is a need to quit playing mutual aid with the governmental corporation. It asks too much of us. It asks us to sell our time in order to pay property taxes and mortgages so we can own a piece of the land and have a home. The time left to ourselves is taken away by 40 + hour work weeks. Our government asks us to give our children up so they can be used as pawns for the advancement in war, careerism/ professionalism, enterprise and institutionalism. When we are slaves to the system, we fund the war by selling our lives and times.

 When asked what we can do to stop the war, a veteran replied: 

"I don't think the system will change until we take the streets. The only thing the system is afraid of is people joining together and collaborating"

"We need to set aside differences, unite, and hit the streets. We have to learn to get beyond gender, [class], and race and realize how to work together or we will hang individually."

Question from the Audience: Has the Veterans for Peace movement ever received harassment from the pentagon or government?

Answer: During the 2008 Veterans for Peace convention in Minneapolis, 22 armed and uniformed SWAT team members came into our convention to make their presence known.

In regards to fighting the system and dealing with stress related to this, one veteran commented:

"You reach a point where you don't care anymore what people think. All you are trying to do is get your soul back".

And more on the topic:

"There are no innocents in america. you are either guilty of doing something or nothing."

"It's time to take of your Obama shirt and tell it like it is, and show what we really are"

I think one of the most powerful statement spoken was,

"We are the system".

Everything counts, every moment, every choice, every decision.

Some interesting and shocking news: Military intelligence has revealed atrocities, in which independent new reporters were killed by US military, so that these independent reporters were unable to document and share information about the war.

This concludes my blog post about watching the Good Soldier and attending the discussion thereafter.

Creating this chart for the kcfreeskool project helped me realize where my priority should be in working on this web site.

http://bubbl.us/view.php?sid=450997&pw=yaG2TjvRJ2CJ2MjNROXVsNGxtbXhRcw

The red bubbles represent objects i want to tweak, but these tweaks are not mandatory in order for the web site to be functional. Therefore, I can let these things go as long as I want to. Maybe i can let these go completely in order to focus on other aspects of freeskool such as promotion.

The grey bubbles are the task themselves that can be let go are done another time.

Yellow bubbles are objects I am happy with, thus finished working on.

Green bubbles are things that need to be worked on immediately in order for the site to be fully functional.

I've gotta give props to a recent training course that mentioned this mind mapping tool. This tool is a great way to prioritize work, and let go of (or post-pone) aspects of projects that are not so critical.

 This is part of a series to chronicle a week of vacation from the 40 hour day job!

Weekend

Saturday
Attended the monthly $3 pancake breakfast at a church in Southern Raytown. This was our first time joining my mother's side of the family for this monthly tradition. The vegetarian fair included pancakes, hashbrowns, quiche bites, and oatmeal/cereal. Young teens and elderly ladies warmed up our coffee cups with church caffiene. Classical guitar and old tyme banjo hits brought the room full of friends and strangers together. I am appreciative of the fellowship and community that churches create so easily! They seem to get "community" just right.

Photo of the community breakfast, with my family front and center.





Photo of the musicians playing while we gathered and ate:



It's been a long time since I've connected with my family in general, due to both personal reasons and being busy with committees and projects. Now I'm finding a desire to reconnect and I have a schedule that makes this possible. It was a delight to see Ben connecting with family members that we rarely see. During the breakfast, he offered to provide the music for my great aunt's 50th wedding anniversary.

My grandmother mentioned a shared interest in a vegan diet. She heard about 28-day vegan diet where someone lost 25 pounds! She and asked me to make a list of acceptable foods. Never would have saw it coming!

After breakfast, mom and I went for haircuts. It's been about six months, and I decided I needed a cut to show my loyalty to the profession. You know, needing to look respectable. Otherwise, i'd probably let it go wild -- forever!

Photo of new haircut. Of course it looks excellent here with all the hair product and styling that WON'T go into my hair after day one.




We had plans to go out dancing, but got a little side tracked with other matters. Finished the last episode of Lost.

Sunday
A lot of errands and cleaning up around the house. I finished up some work on the greenhouse (Here's a link to door frame belonging to "the door garden" that shows the type of structure i built). What surprises me is how long it takes to do this simple construction work.  Have to admit to letting some things go, such as proper aligning and measurement--and it still takes forever. Usually I'm racing daylight because of working in the late afternoons.

The next step in the greenhouse will be to secure the plastic roof and attach it to the new door frame. Oh, then we have to build a door to go with this door frame!

Here's a complicated looking door frame plan:
http://doorgarden.com/11/building-greenhouse-doors

And a simpler version here:
http://doorgarden.com/11/building-greenhouse-doors#simpler-door

It should also be noted that I successfully completed 25 t-spins on Tetris friends, to complete the Spinmeister challenge.

Navigation  for this blog series:

• Monday - speckled lights over aged rooftops
• Tuesday - magic hiding in working class neighborhoods
• Wednesday - experimenting with infrastructure for a freeskool
• Thursday & Friday - 25 blocks 
• Weekend - community pancake breakfasts with church caffeine
  

This is part of a series to chronicle a week off from work. 

Thursday

Did a little bit of work around the house, installing curtains and straightening up.

Friday

Worked on building the end frame for the greenhouse. The frame includes a door, which is needed to ensure the plants get fresh air every now and then.  Without an airing the plants will grow v e r y   s l o w.

Ben joined me for lunch and we went to some second hand stores. Ran into an old friend, and then spotted a decent deal on some studio furniture.

Walked down to first Friday, attended a few art openings, and then pushed myself to walk back. Total 25 blocks walked? Lots of obnoxious stories were shared in addition to a few frank frowns with hands on hips.





Navigation for this blog series

• Monday - speckled lights over aged rooftops
• Tuesday - magic hiding in working class neighborhoods
• Wednesday - experimenting with infrastructure for a freeskool
• Thursday and Friday - 25 blocks
• Weekend - community pancake breakfasts with church caffeine

 This is part of a series documenting my thoughts and experiences while on vacation!

NOTE: This post is an accumulation of thoughts and feelings and should not be viewed as some kind of critical presentation.


Wednesday.

Wednesday was a day for tweaking the kansas city freeskool web site. I'm really happy with the way the forum and calendar are integrated into the web site. I'm not so happy with the way the link pages look right now. And the next feat will be creating the layout for the main page, and then one for the blog. 

Working on freeskool has got me thinking about what this project will be. I don't think its predictable right now. All i am doing is setting up a web site that could be used as a resource to connect people that are interested in freeskool-related events. The events promoted on this web site will support free thinking, personal development, and relationship building for a better Kansas City. We can only promote the events that are already going on... so if there are few things that fit the criterea then there will be few happenings promoted.


Working on the web site has got me thinking about web sites in general. Can a web site truly be revolutionary? Can it be this magical, spiritual thing that connects human beings and brings them together for a common purpose? I think this is definitely possible... Think about how facebook has connected you with opportunities to meet people and do things that you wouldn't otherwise know about. The success of this web site would be measured in terms of the actions that take place due to its existence.

We must not be short-sighted, however. Not everyone gets their news through web sites. There are other methods such as word-of-mouth, flyers, networking, etcetera. Obviously sticking to the web site as a way to deliver information would be exclusionary and elitist, because it doesn't take into consideration the variety of way that people get their information.


Another thought circulating is in regards to my control over this web site. I am building this by myself, with little to zero input from anyone! You might be asking how I can build a community web site without community input. My answer is that the web site will be driven by CONTENT created by the freeskool community. There will be a blog, a link aggregater for sharing resources, and a google calendar used to spread news about events. These resources will be created by those that want to particpate in the resource and community building. So in short, I'm only building the infrastructure. The content will come about if there is a "desire" and "need" from the people to build it.


I imagine that at some point some of these content creators might want to get together and define what's freeskool related and what's not. And perhaps someday someone says, We dont have a discussion group or class about ------, I'm going to start one! And the idea is that somehow things would organically evolve. So if KC wants and needs a class on a certain topic, it would happen. If not, then it doesn't. And hell, if nobody finds this web site useful as way to communicate information, then it won't get used. But wouldn't it be awesome if it could be utilized as a way to connect about freeskool related things and to build towards a widescale freeskool movement? I guess time will tell. And I admit to experimenting and going on a whim with this project. We'll just have to wait and see how things work.

I'm just trying to play a small part in getting the connections started. Feedback is welcome and encouraged right now!

Navigation for this blog series

• Monday - speckled lights over aged rooftops
• Tuesday - magic hiding in working class neighborhoods
• Wednesday - experimenting with infrastructure for a freeskool
• Thursday and Friday - 25 blocks
• Weekend - community pancake breakfasts with church caffeine

This is part of a series to document a vacation.


Tuesday
On Tuesday, my whim pointed towards thrift store shopping in Kansas City, KS. What I discovered there pointed to something ethereal and lovely.

The working class neighborhood exuded loveliness. My feelers began to sense traces of community and magic. I don't know how to explain it other than it was a beautiful day, the people were friendly and seemed to be enjoying themselves or at least doing the best they could. And there didn't seem to be an issue with me being white or middle class. We just all fit together like a puzzle.


I couldn't resist driving around and soaking in the feel of Kansas City KS. The drive gave me a broader connection to the area. I imagined that KCK is a place where people value human relationships, maybe it's because they've realized it's all they really have. You didn't have to work at being someone's friend, they simply accepted that since we were both human we had something in common and a respect was given. The kindness I saw there was coming from the heart, as opposed to the a docile Midwestern personality -- a fake kind of nice based on mild manners.

When I returned to my neighborhood, I realized my perspective of Kansas City was much broader. The spirit of KCK followed me home and pointed towards the isolationism in my own neighborhood. Midtown is cliquey and middle class people want to be left alone. My challenge is to begin initiating a sense of community and humanity in my own neighborhood, which involves evaluating my own actions in relation to the concept.

I'm left with some spoils which include red cowboy boots a lamp for my bedroom. I hope these goods will capture a sense of the excitement felt in downtown Kansas City KS.

Navigation for this blog series

• Monday - speckled lights over aged rooftops
• Tuesday - Magic hiding in working class neighborhoods
• Wednesday - experimenting with infrastructure for a freeskool 
• Thursday and Friday - 25 blocks 
• Weekend - community pancake breakfasts with church caffeine
  

This is part of a series of posts to chronicle my week off work.


Monday
Fresh out of bed, I finished looking into a job opening at a local community college involving web design and computer support. This gave me the opportunity to revise my resume, which is always a must!

Did a little cleaning, and then I walked up to the Filling Station to meet Ben for lunch. During our conversation, he shared some thoughts about a situation that had him real worked up.We strengthened our resolve on how to handle a matter on the homefront. In a nutshell, we would like to limit our risk of being involved with irresponsible people.

After Ben returned to work, I sipped slowly on an excellent soy mocha and began developing the infrastructure for a Kansas City freeskool web site. Working on the freeskool web portal seems like a natural fit for me because I am able to make use of my libarian skills to organize and present information in a meaningful way.

Throughout the day I checked in with several people that I don't know very well, but have befriended on facebook. It was nice to branch out a bit and talk to some new people. (Hi Alex, LaVanna, and Ed!)

Left the coffee shop and made a mental note of how sexy i felt with my exposed unshaven legs and my natural smell free from cancerous beauty products. Paced the steps to my room and opened the bedside window to soak-in the change from dusk to nightfall as little specks of kansas city popped-out from a horizon of aged rooftops.

Ben is blowing things up on the XBOX right now, and I've got plans to start the weekly mission on Tetris Friends. We'll wrap things up with Lost, about the only TV series I claim to watch!

Navigation for this blog series

• Monday - speckled lights over aged rooftops
• Tuesday - magic hiding in working class neighborhoods
• Wednesday - experimenting with infrastructure for a freeskool  
• Thursday and Friday - 25 blocks 
• Weekend - community pancake breakfasts with church caffeine
  

The first frost has arrived in Kansas City, and I am resisting this cold weather by working with the stove. This blog post will feature some soups that we made this past weekend.

I think it's the coolest thing that soup can essentially be made from kitchen scraps. The stock can be made from vegetable scraps collected throughout the week. I found a spotted apple that was ready to be tossed. Sweet! Now it goes in the soup. Ah-HA! Soup can be a way to combat wastefulness, ensuring that your food scraps go the extra mile. Live off the garden!

Vegan Mulligatawny Soup

1 MED size carrot
1 MED size onion
1 MED size potato
1 MED size apple
2 TBSP oil
1 CUP tomato juice
5 CUP veggie stock
Salt to taste

1) Chop veggies & Apple
2) Heat oil, saute veggies & apple until onion transparent
3) Add garlic and curry powder, cook, stirring 2 minutes
4) Add all liquids, bring to boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 30 minutes
5) Allow to cool and blend
6) reheat and adjust seasoning to taste

p51 of the Crank's recipe cook book

Vegan Cream of Leek Soup
2 LG Leeks
1 SM potato
1 MED carrot
2 TBSP vegan butter
5 cup Veggie Stock
Salt & Pep to taste
1/2 cup heavy vegan cream

1) Chop veggies
2) Melt "butter" and saute veggies
3) Add stock, bring to boil. Reduce, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes
4)Cool & Blend
4)Reheat, add "Cream" and seasoning. Serve

Adopted from p 49 of Crank's recipe book

Notes
I blended the soup with a hand-held blender. It's worth the investment if you plan to cream many soups and saves a hell-of-a mess in the traditional blender.

My husband dislikes blended soups, because his tummy often feels empty after eating them.

Solution: Eat a freakin salad or bread with the soup. -OR- blend a small portion of the soup to give the base some color/taste and leave some of the cooked vegetables intact. -OR- make some stew /pottage instead.

The soup recipes came from Cranks Recipe Book. it has some sweet "basic" and tasty recipes. (another reason that collective living rocks: Sharing cookbooks!)

Link to Photos on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sisterstephie/tags/houseonholmes/