Monday, December 11, 2006

Why I am Done Giving to Charity

I'm done, I'm done done done!!! I can't take it anymore. I give to one, I try to do my bit and help an unfortunate soul, a cause, give something, my drop in the bucket hopefully adding up to a bucket of assistance. But no good deed goes unpunished and now I'm being punished; you're wondering how, well I'll tell you. I am being buried in a sea, more like a tsunami of mail. Each one, begging and beseaching, pleading for a donation and fee, crying eyes, sad faces, convincing causes. But I am so disgusted at the shear waste! The address labels, the pens and even the 5cent piece, how many mailers went out with how many 5cents that could've gone to the same charity that they're so earnestly begging! grrr that makes me insane! I spent about an hour shredding all the beggary shit on Sunday and I became so infuriated! And when I think about the fact that I give nicely from the heart to one organization and they have the gaul to then sell my name onto other orgs almost like, hey here's a sucker for you to bother - I want to yell even more. And with that it makes me so jaded to all these causes, Darfur, women in impoverished countries, children with medical disorders, human rights, civil rights - everything, I'm burnt out and now I don't care and don't even want to. So thanks to the charitable organizations, not only have you overloaded me with too much and now I don't care! Don't care about anything anymore, DON'T CARE, starve, die do whatever, its sad but they did the opposite of what they were supposed to be - they made me uncaring and an evil scrooge - Thanks all!

Sunday, December 03, 2006

The Beauty of Travel




Travel is a beautiful thing, you get on an immense metal bird machine that is capable of trasporting you in a matter of hours to a whole new world, new people, things, sometimes even a different language. It is amazing and awesome. I like travel and love to travel. So here I am in London, wandering around, exploring a city that I a quite fond of. Observing the differences between here and where I live, the good the bad and the ugly. I tipped over to Holland by boat too, and even thought that foray was 3 hrs away by boat, another world of difference there. First thing I notice in London, toilets, toilets everywhere. It is bliss for a shopper. One can actually find a bathroom to use and if one is not in a store or shopping center well they're always nice clean ones you can pay to use. Why do other countries, especially the so called old guard countries; have it together on this toilet issue. Wandering around in NY you might be hard pressed to find a public toilet, and God forbid you've to ask to use at the nearby KFC or McDonald's - well let the curse of the Gods befall you for even thinking this! You shouldn't be surprised to see notices posted at restaurants and fast food joints in NY declaring - "Restrooms for Customers Only" of course this declaration is usually made in the various forms of a now butchered English language.




The attitude is "don't even think about it!" you're on your own, walk around, do the pee pee dance and whatever. It is not strange either to see streams running from walls of that familiar color and not know if it was from a human or dog reliveing itself. Shameful - in this most advaced city, bathrooms, only for those who patronize businesses all others can go against a wall, behind a tree or well I guess just pee yourself if you're not lucky to have a gym membership for you to pop into a chain. And make no mistake, these public toilets are impecable! Clean, fresh and smelling quite ok.

The one that blew my mind was the one where one pops in the 50p coin, door slides open and boom, a toilet big enough to kick your legs up in. Door closes with the press of a button and you've 20mins to do your biz! I think that these are periodically cleaned throughout the day so no messy mess or suprises upon entering. Holland is a little advanced with 2 sliding glass doors opening futeristically after popping 20cents in. The bathrooms there are more fool proof on collecting their dues than the public transportation, where a free ride on a train, bus or tram is as common as well - Equal sugar at Starbucks.