So this is what we call fun...

Well, fixed the toilet and now it's even better than ever... Instead of doing a plastic handle I did one with brass so this puppy is going to be around for awhile..  As for the plug/stopper thingy, I got one that doesn't have a stupid chain to keep getting caught trying to close after a flush.. Instead it's got a rubber like ribbon and works every time.  Woo Hooo..   Guess it makes sense to use the noggin sometimes when fixing things.

We traded in the '09 80k Corvette sitting in the garage with a dead battery for two years cuz Wynn couldn't drive it anymore with his neuropathy and also the nissan truck and got a Chevy VOLT and man this puppy is truly a luxury car for people with geek DNA.  Wow...  turns on a dime, quick acceleration, lots of bluetooth and geeky shit. I just learned that it's a true EV and not a hybrid car.. This means the engine in it only runs to charge back the battery with no acceleration or deceleration.  Quiet and not a peep or a rattle and handles all the crappy Dallas pothole streets even better than the damn truck.

To think all of these other little-dick buttholes who spent so much money on their gas pigs as they cry at the gas pump each week and we don't have to fuck with that anymore.  Wow...  Sure the car was pricey at 42k but Chevy had to pay us 10k back with the Corvette and Truck trade-in.  And the damn thing is paid off in full. Fini... over and out..  

Wow..   Just plug the fucker in and you're good to go later.  For me, it's handling reminds me of a Triumph Spitfire me and my ex. Kenny had years ago.  Very very fun to drive and quickly maneuver around the assholes that always seem to cut in front and go slow in front of you while in the fast lane. (still don't know why they do this but...)  I can whip around them in seconds with no worries.

I don't know if I'd use the things for a cross-country trek but for here in this screwed up city of Dallas it sure makes driving a pleasure especially when you need something at the spur of the moment. It might even encourage me and Wynn to go out more and romp around to places like the Dallas Aquarium or more social things.

Well, no, I wouldn't count on social stuff to much. For years here in the gay dallas community I've been the one to plan and arrange all kinds of social stuff but today, in a group of 40 or more queers, you can't even get 5 of them to show up for a weenie or burger roast in the back yard.  Let alone never get invited over to one of the multitude folk who have pools.  Guess they have to work too hard all the time just to make the mortgage payments or something. Or they're just not much of a friend to being with in the first place.  Ahh well, don't care, no worries... their loss.

Meanwhile, I got a shitload of stuff done on MysticWays... I even put up some YouTube videos on how use things like Pendulums, Candles, and so on... The Godaddy company deliberately changed the admin password on our account because the credit card we used expired and I didn't update it.  Wow, only a week's time and they were sure to cut us off.  Funny, I called the support line and asked for information on how to download the 1,700 product images from their system following a compute crash and I was told that there was no way to do it.  So let's see, you pay them $80 bucks a month for a shopping card system that you spend years uploading, tweaking and refining product images and then learn that if you ever have a crash, there's no way you can download all your stuff???  WTF??  What college kid came up with this method? So I politely told the support dude to kiss my ass and then hung up after informing him that I have no intention of renewing my payment method.

Nope, I love BigCommerce.com and these guys truly rock.  Yes there is somewhat of a learning curve, but their help system will walk you though most things item by item unless the piece of shit Godaddy system which is nothing but pretty fluff and (nope, can't do that from here) remarks.

I think the really cool thing about the new store is that I can arrange things the way I want and not have to kiss ass or fuck with hidden HTML code to make it happen. Hell, I've stopped using the stupid QuickBooks merchant account to process credit cards and go full throttle with PayPal instead.  This holds the sale money for ransom for a month to protect against charge-offs etc. But heaven help the scam artist that tries to do that on one of our sales.   I've got the FedEx shipping log to prove delivery of everything we send out and if they lie saying they never got it, I have proof they did and in return PayPal is going to reverse the charge-off fee back to them instead. How's that for a nice "Fuck You Very Much" end to their scam?  And bitch all you want... you want that $1.98 product? Maybe you should buy a few of them if you're gonna pay the base rate of $7.00 for shipping.  Don't ya think? None the less, I know you got it and there's no way you're gonna screw me out of it.

This is why expensive essential oils and fragrances over an ounce are shrink wrapped so they can't replace the bottles with water and mail them back..  (yup, they did the in the past too!)   No shrink wrap, no refund...  Would you ilke me to re-sell an oil you're going to use in food that your aunt Martha  returned after opening the bottle with her germy fingers she just cleaned the cat littler box with? Didn't think so.

My next hobby project is my dinky little microwave glass fusing kiln that I bought a year ago on sale and still haven't had enough free time to play with.  Been doing lots of research on youtube and around on the net and learned that I can fuse a piece of jewelry in about 3 minutes instead of 25-30 using my paragon quick fire and I'm looking forward to fusing some of my witchcraft pagan decals to them for unique one of a kind pendants.

Right now I have a table full of Sculpy/Fimo/Primo pendants I'm finishing in the kitchen (which looks like a bad nightmare at the moment) to get online of reasonable prices. The Key to MysticWays stuff is to be UNIQUE or LIMITED or RARE. The kind of shit you don't just walk into a store and buy off a shelf from a multitude of competitors. I also learned about www.Etsy.com and have made friends with several of the artisans there too doing the same.  Who knows, I might even put a few things up there myself in the future.

In a heated discussion with Bob, ( Robert Evans ) who called my stuff kitchy, it really hit me hard but I politely remind him that I've sold tons of my stuff over the past 10 years to very appreciative buyers vs. the small handful of his so-called art. That seems to be more of a message in itself no?

In the past, I always had dreams about meeting other crafty people and having glaze painting parties, or polymer clay fiddling events, or even some of the other cool things I've done but not have to be the "only one, or the head daddy, or lead artist" that everyone followed and relied on. You mean I'm the only person in Dallas who has a fucking serger or sewing machine?  The only one who has a microwave and a $100 fusing kiln?   or a 5 gallon bucket of busted stained glass in his shed? Puhlease

Gosh, back in the day, I used to love being around mentors like myself trying to learn as much as I could about the hobbies I did.  It seems like that kind of mindset has pretty much vanished.  Even the music industry is a pile of high school graduates screaming "Uhh Huh..Yo Yo Yo, That's right" instead of telling a true emotional message.  (Is this what my grandfather experienced before he died? Don't know...)  today you hear a song that's nothing more than a copy of one made 25 years ago or a pile of gibberish about someones junk, in a trunk, and how juicy is that coochie.  Most can't play a real instrument but they know how to use Garage Band on their Apple and program electronic looping riffs.  (Yawn... boring.. it's been done.. move on.)  Even Boy George couldn't play an instrument but at least the dude hooked up with a bunch of people who could but maybe that's a thing of the past. Even Rock music is so full of negative depression (you did me wrong, you're such a bitch, I hate your guts, can't get outta this.. blah blah blah..)   Does anyone write songs about impossible love, or being thankful etc? No, I'm not talking about bible thumping shit either.

Well, I'm done jabbering here... nobody reads or comments on this shit anyhow but it makes me feel good to vent to myself. I'm truly one of a kind and I like that. I don't have to impress others or kiss someone's ass for a job.   I'm good at what I do and I've earned everything I have from hard work and focus. I always dreamed of connecting with others seeking similar things but I guess that was just a fantasy. I've got a wealth of wisdom to share with those who seek but when they're too chicken to ask honestly, then they just don't deserve to learn from me.  Guess 'silence is golden' after all.

My Life Lessons have made me who I am today and I'm thankful for them. As horrible as some may have been they taught me to understand others and prepare for the unknown without negative feelings or judgement.  All the twisted brain screw-ups, all the wonderful things I got to finish always bitching about never having enough time in the day and all the people I came in contact with throughout my life.  Nope, I don't want to reverse or change them. I don't have a problem saying I'm sorry for something I did a decade ago unlike so many other people. I don't want to be the best, I don't want to be the king or the focal point in other people's conversations.  Here today gone tomorrow.. no thanks..  I just want to be loved, I want to love back in return and have a way to experience new things all the time offering to share it back in return.

Wise men don't seek students... the students seek the wise men.  Wise men aren't better than you, they just have more hands on experience in what you seek.  Sharing = Growth for us all.  You don't get a medal or door prize for being the best when you die.  Instead, you're judged by how much you shared with the human race along the way.  Yup, I'm good... That's me..  all the assholes in the world can't steal what's in my head no matter how hard they try and they'll never possess it if they don't bother to ask either cuz I have no intention of forcing it on them either.  Funny how these were the kind of Mentors I always respected throughout my life and I've become one myself.   Buhhh Bye...

Well, after all this time I finally got my Dragon NaturallySpeaking to work on my MacBook air.

I have all the stuff sitting around in a pile and just never put aside enough time to hook up the headphone and do all the voice training.

Now, as you're reading this, I'm typing this message with my voice not with my keyboard. Originally, I was planning on doing some story writing the things become so busy around here that the free time  seemed to be nonexistent.

Today, the flushing thing for the toilet in my bathroom broke. So now I have to make a trip to Home Depot to buy parts.  So off I go.

New Day and My New Home Page

I found this awesome upgrade to a web designer I used to like using when I had my old PowerPC mac. The problem was when I upgraded to the Intel based ones these guys were slow to adapt and I was kinda forced to use something else.  Well, I took a chance and I was totally blown away at all the hard work they did.  The program is called SandVox and it's very similar to the iWeb program that Apple made and later discontinued.  So I spend the work porting all my junk over and so far I'm really impressed at how well it came out...

I was clever enough to build a test area to make sure I was good with it and just did the final publish to my active site...

http://www.OaklawnRick.com

Why is fitting in so important?

Why are people always so worried about "fitting in" with others?  Doesn't it make more sense to embrace the things that make us unique and share those abilities with others willing to learn more about them?

Imagine for a second if we all looked the same, we all dressed the same, we all had the same profession, we all ate the same food and spoke the same language with the same customs.  What would this do to the concept of Art? How could we strive to be 'better' or 'superior' if we were all the same like a bunch of carbon copied robots?

Instead, society teaches us to hate that which we don't understand or that which is different. Why? Doesn't it make more sense to embrace those differences in the 'other' and try to enlighten ourselves more learning and respecting this unique being? Is it better to vanquish them instead as not to corrupt or cloud the robotic gene pool?

And what about the one who's 'too fabulous' to fit in? They're left to face a world of lonliness, hatred, scorn, and ridicule just because they don't meet the status quo?  If the Christian God created us all in his own image then which of the two beings is or is not the element to build friendship with and why? Technically they're all god's creatures right? Don't they have a right to be happy too so long as they're not harming others?

So what is the harm of two male doves falling in love and spending the rest of their lives together? You know this happens in real life right now as we speak right? Should we shoot and kill them because they don't fit the norm? Are they harming the other doves?  Last I checked they were supposed to be the symbol of peace so why should we care about their gender? Do they molest other baby doves and can't be trusted at a baby sitter? If a neighbor parent dies, would the other doves prevent those males from nurturing and raising the dead parent's children regardless of who they choose to love?

How many of you reading this know the true difference between SEX and LOVE? SEX is something you do with the shit between your legs. LOVE is something you do with your mind and your heart!

So what's the difference between the words "PLAY" and "INTIMACY" when it comes to the Gay Bear community? Which of them is more likely to lead to a future spending the rest of their lives with one another?  Do you play or do you get intimate?

Next, if you were going to have a picnic would you only invite your Gay friends? Your Str8 friends? or Both? And WHY?

Yes, these are truly things that make ya go hummmm with wonderment huh?

Hate group leader vs. Log Cabin Republican about Romney

Hate group leader vs. Log Cabin Republican about Romney

Yardwork is such fun

Spring is here and it's time to take down all the overgrown hedges so the people can walk along the sidewalk oh joy better do it before we get a citation for having it blocked.

Facebook fails, but blogger works?? Go figure!