My butt is on fire…..

(Just a boring, run of the mill, blog post today but I felt like writing and rambling.)

Yes, today was the day of my bi-weekly risperidone injection and for some reason today was especially painful but I am a big boy and survived. The nurse apologized profusely. I guess she just hit a nerve. As usual, I had to help prepare the injection as they forget the procedure almost every time. That or I get a rotating slew of nurses unfamiliar with how the injection works.

I did have to wait an hour to be seen. A very elderly lady recruited me in helping her mark out the mailing labels on some magazines. She brought in stacks of large print reader’s digests and I used a black marker to mark out her name and address. She was donating them.

I know I don’t talk about my illness much. It embarrasses me. There is much more of a stigma associated with mental illness then with other diseases of more mundane body parts. I also dislike reading a blog where the author continually complains of their physical ailments and a few I read do this constantly. It gets really old and makes me think that the author is sympathy mongering.

They have a large screen television in the waiting area at the doctor’s office. It was tuned to Fox News. They repeatedly showed pictures and amateur videos of a tsunami that hit Southeast Asia ad nauseum. I do not watch much television, especially the news, so I was unaware that this happened. They did their part to sensationalize this event to its fullest. It hit home to me why I do not watch live commercial television or visit websites such as CNN, Fox news, etc. The media in my opinion thrives on disharmony, war, disaster, and death. My life is interesting and hard enough with out adding a daily dose of depressing news to the mix and the news is nine times out of ten going to be negative.
I wish they had a positive news network. I might just watch that but in all reality it would fail due to poor ratings.

Today is supposed to be a beautiful day and will get well up into the sixties. I am going to use this opportunity to get all the leaves up in the yard. I have been procrastinating over doing this project. I was telling myself that I was waiting for all the leaves to fall so I could get them in one fell swoop. The two large water oaks in the back yard are refusing to drop any more leaves for the time being so I guess that is no longer an excuse. I dread this but it needs to be done. I am tempted to go borrow my father’s mulching mower and just mulch the shit out of them and be done with it.

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A rant about the vagabond that is my neighbor’s cat…….

He is now spending more time at my house than theirs. He will sit outside the door and cry until I let him in. It will drive me crazy. I now know why my neighbors do not let him inside. He is, by far, the most vocal cat I have ever experienced. He cries constantly despite having plenty of food, water, and warmth. If I even move and he notices it he will cry for my attention. There have been quite a few times that I have gotten fed up with him and shoved him out the door. The only time that he will be quiet is if he is in my lap but he feigns nursing so hard that it is very painful as his claws dig in. I think I may have just inherited the world’s most needy and aggravating feline.

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A short commentary on The Homeless Guy™ aka Kevin Barbieux……

(These are just my opinions so take them for what they are worth. I just wanted to air them and to think about this.)

I thought it interesting that he closed one of his latest blog posts with, ‘FYI: My Birthday is January 5th’. He is milking this cow for all it is worth. I find it interesting and noteworthy that he had a more expensive Christmas than I did and I have a home and a stable income. The problem is that his popularity is waning and only so many people will give and many only once. Once the cash tree has been shaken and all the money has fallen to the ground there will be no more. I wonder if he realizes this and if he is planning ahead or just living in the present without thought for the future.

I was talking to a friend on the phone the other day about him. I said that Kevin had won the homeless equivalent of the lottery. They got a big kick out of me saying this and agreed. He just happened to be quirky enough, odd enough, and in the right place at the right time. He was also savvy about marketing his blog. He left a trail all over the internet in forums and other blogs promoting his site.

I find that he has carefully pandered to a certain type of reader for the past few months and the material on his blog has subtlety changed from counter culture, anti-job, anti-consumer, anti-capitalism, and anti-mainstream material to more mainstream appealing fare. He often uses religion to garner support and sympathy and this has become a recurring subject. It is my opinion that readers of a Christian mindset are more likely to give if you pander to their sympathies and beliefs. You will also find that he rarely writes about the realities of the streets. If you have been a long time reader of my blog and kept up with George and the Piggly Wiggly gang, you know that life on the streets is harsh and not so feel good. There is panhandling, racism, cursing, stealing, conniving, addiction, and drug dealing. Kevin carefully omits these kinds of details about the streets and sugarcoats his blog to cater to his intended audience.

It will be interesting to watch this unfold for sure and I will read along. I look at it as an interesting experiment in online panhandling and he has been very successful at it; only time will tell if he uses the good will and support thrown at him to get off the streets. I fear that in a year’s time he will still be blogging in internet cafes and libraries and sleeping in the rescue mission. He will lose his voice and identity if he gets a home. It is my opinion that he feels he will become just another cog in the machine that is society. As “The Homeless Guy” he stands out and has something to write about and can also gain things from others.