I am...

...10 graphic novels.

Ok. In truth, I'm only like 1 page of a graphic novel. Here is my fambly as a graphic novel.

(IadoptedadogHisnameisRangerHe'sgot2differentcoloredeyesThatmeanshe candomagicI'llprobablypostanormalpictureofhimlater.







Thank you for your neat camera and built in effects, Lil' Animal 2.0. Macs are clearly for idiots with too much time on their hands.

-the kevmen

Spicy Food....

...Makes Your Nose Drip.

This is not about that.

This is about the restaurants that are close to my house.

There are 4 notables.

1/ Subvay Sandviches
2/ Cali N' Titos (enjoy our Latin Thing) food stand.
3/ Casa de Wafle (Waffle Home)
4/ Kelly's Jerk Wings.

Generally, I think all 5-10 of you agree that big corporations are not that cool. Hence, we probably shouldn't eat their food. Clearly, my readership, not really all that politically diverse. That's ok, the people who aren't reading this are jerks. In that spirit, I do my darndest to eat at the two that you can't find anywhere else. Just one location in the whole wide world.

Stepping outside of an obvious conclusion, I also choose to eat at these two even though in some instances the others taste better. I've had conversations with Th' D about this before. It is and will continue to be my contention that if a person running a restaurant is awesome, people should eat there, even if their product (foodness) is average, or, to a reasonable extent, sub-par. I could talk at length about Calientitos, given that they let people who otherwise don't work up front in Georgia work up front. But I'll leave it at what I just wrote.

Kelly's, on the other hand, deserves an extended comment. I've never eaten much Jamaican food, so it's not something I wake up, go to bed, or spend the parts of my day between those two things (waking and dreaming) craving. And, honestly, even with a profound love for jalapenos cultivated over the last few years, everything on their menu makes my nose drip. Seriously. Chicken (drip), cabbage (drip), goat (drip drip), spicy squash (fw0000sh).

Still, the food's pretty good once the pain subsides. More important, Kelly (there actually is a Kelly, dope) has the most infectious smile of anybody I've ever met. Moreover, he makes a special point to know the name of everyone who goes there on a semi-regular basis (he asked mine today). MOREOVER, he and his wife are the only two people that work there. He's friendly and laughs and jokes, she's no-nonsense and looks tired all the time (finances?), but clearly loves her husband and how happy it makes him.

Short story, community is as important to me as delectable stufffoods. Short of multiple bouts of food poisoning, I will walk to these restaurants at least once every couple of weeks, if only because it's like visiting friends. By paying to hang out with them and use their napkins as tissues, I can keep them around.

drip drip drip *sniffle*,

-kev-may-can



Ps. I secretly eat at Waffle House once a month. ummMmm...Wafful.

Human...

...Amusement.

Quick nod to a giggle-fit inducing part of this Washington Post article.

'The rhetoric grew so heated yesterday that Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) suggested in a radio interview that AIG executives ought to "follow the Japanese model . . . resign, or go commit suicide."

An aide later explained he does not actually want executives to kill themselves.'

Can't decide if it's funnier with or without that last part.

Sun's out!

-Kevpoku

Walk...

…Juan Crow.

It’s finally arrived. The moment when my anticipated run-up against a far more bigoted place at a less bigoted time resulted in legislation I’ve only read about the potential for in small, isolated towns or upper-crust towns trying to prevent inevitable demographic change.

Two new laws passed through the some part or both of the Georgia Legislature last week. One, which forces individuals to present valid state-issued identification at their polling place when voting, and Senate Bill 67 which states that Georgia drivers tests will now be printed exclusively in English.

The first of the two laws is an attack on civic participation intended to reduce fraudulent voting by undocumented immigrants. This, however, is a thinly veiled effort to reduce voter participation overall. When more people vote, more progressive politicians and legislation tends to result. By making voting laws more stringent, less individuals will be prepared to participate in the political process, and therefore more will be driven away. People who are interested in civil rights and the like generally fight this kind of legislation because it represents a new block to civic participation among a bunch of others that already exists.

Possible instances include:
a/ Elderly people who have been voting for years without ID, now turned away.
b/ Newly naturalized immigrants, who yet to be issued identification can’t vote
c/ Forgetful people (me), and folks who want to vote, but consider themselves too busy to go home and get an ID probably won’t vote.

To me, this is all fucked up.

Emily talks about this business on the television here.

The second piece of legislation is similarly disturbing, but far more fascinating to me in its intended target. Arguments in the past have attempted to say that undocumented immigrants pose a threat to drives due to a lack of car insurance and other factors, but this is a blatant denial of basic necessities to non-English speaking citizens. Among the far-reaching number of possible implications of this law is more racial profiling, wherein an individual who does not appear to be an English speaker is pulled over on the grounds that they likely do not have a valid drivers license. Here, people who have every right to be in the United States are either denied the necessary means to earn a living or are criminalized for attempting to do so.

You can watch a short piece on this here.

It’s hard for me grasp all of this, because I’ve really only lived in places where there were substantial numbers of allies for New Americans and significant legal challenge to bigoted laws. When something like this came up in government, there was a fight. I’m sure there’s one starting here, but I’m waiting to hear about it. I want a fight. I hope it comes soon.

Georgia on my mind,

-kevnin’

couldn't run far...

...enough to escape the wintry world of the upper midwest.

In georgia, we had a bona-fide blizzard yesterday. Powers out. Can't drive places. Can't do a dog-gone thing.

I'm writing this from my arch nemesis Earthfare, the overpriced yuppie food paradise.

(I get looooost, in a food paradi-iiise)

I'll send picture. This is fucking ridiculous.

-cold-kay

PS: Happy Birthday Bee Bee.