Lemony Snicket on Occupy – repost

  • user warning: Table 'cache_filter' is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: UPDATE cache_filter SET data = '<p>For me one of the richest pleasures of anti-nuclear organizing is the characters who take on this work.  It takes a very peculiar kind of person to commit to fighting a reactor complex which has the support of the state, some of the countries most powerful corporations and giant banks, often campaigning for years concluding with a high chance of failure.</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://paxus.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/lucifer-at-gorleben.jpg\"><img class=\"size-large wp-image-13905\" alt=\"With Lucifer at Gorleben protest in Germany Circa 2008\" src=\"http://paxus.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/lucifer-at-gorleben.jpg?w=519&amp;h=345\" width=\"519\" height=\"345\" /></a><br />\n</p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">With Lucifer at Gorleben protest in Germany Circa 2008</p>\n<p><a title=\"Meanwhile in Moscow - Lucifers report on protests\" href=\"http://funologist.org/2012/05/15/meanwhile-in-moscow/\" target=\"_blank\">Vladimir Slyviak</a> is one of these unusual people.  He has been fighting reactors in Russia since before the wall came down.  In 1988, he and another activist corked a smoke stack and locked themselves to it over 100 feet off the ground, shutting down the plant for hours.</p>\n<p>But you need to read that sentence again, because you were likely distracted by the action and perhaps missed the most important part, which is the date. In 1988 the KGB simply disappeared many people they found politically problematic.  To be a direct action activist in this era you needed to be unusually daring or crazy or both.  Vladimir might well be both.  Though his flavor of crazy, is like a fox.  I have been calling him Lucifer since 1991, he calls me goddess.</p>\n', created = 1371629836, expire = 1371716236, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '3:09f703a4c069afa444fe204424b0569b' in /home/thefec/htdocs/includes/cache.inc on line 109.
  • user warning: Table 'cache_filter' is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: UPDATE cache_filter SET data = '<p class=\"reblog-from\"><img alt=\'\' src=\'http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/14e93856b6902c2e313d80a7af156b0e?s=25&amp;d=identicon&amp;r=G\' class=\'avatar avatar-25\' height=\'25\' width=\'25\' /> <a href=\"http://runninginzk.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/dance-parties-love/\">Reblogged from Running in ZK:</a></p>\n<p>I can\'t remember a time that I didn\'t love to dance. I was one of those little girls whose mothers carted them to weekly ballet and tap lessons. My friends and I choreographed dances after school and fawned over the cheerleaders at high school football games. My dreams were shaped by the Star Search dancers and some quintessential 80s dance movies: Dirty Dancing, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and Footloose.</p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"http://runninginzk.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/dance-parties-love/\" target=\"_self\">Read more… 570 more words</a></p>\n<p>Kathryn was a dancing fool, took a break to have a baby, and now that family life has settled and shifted she is back with some fancy steps and some personal thoughts.</p>\n', created = 1371629836, expire = 1371716236, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '3:33a3d4a29bd0410e2beb2c8e2a8d9aef' in /home/thefec/htdocs/includes/cache.inc on line 109.
  • user warning: Table 'cache_filter' is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: UPDATE cache_filter SET data = '<p>I can’t remember a time that I didn’t love to dance. I was one of those little girls whose mothers carted them to weekly ballet and tap lessons. My friends and I choreographed dances after school and fawned over the cheerleaders at high school football games. My dreams were shaped by the Star Search dancers and some quintessential 80s dance movies: Dirty Dancing, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and Footloose.</p>\n<p>By the time I was starting high school, I realized I was a Smart Girl and not a Cheerleader, and I started to deliberately dance silly in order to avoid the possibility of being mocked for trying to dance well and failing. In college, I chose the goth club because people actually went there to dance, and didn’t mind if you danced a little differently. After college, clubs in the city were expensive (for me on my grad student stipend) and filled with cigarette smoke and guys who thought I should want to grind with them. Ugh. I stopped dancing entirely.</p>\n<p>I didn’t realize that I missed it. Yeah, yeah, so I watched Save the Last Dance like 10 times… My life was full. I did yoga. I discovered contra dancing, which was a blast – in a structured sort of way.</p>\n<p>And then I moved to Twin Oaks. My first Twin Oaks dance party was when I was a visitor at Halloween, and it was a revelation. The people filling the dance floor ranged in age from 2 to 78 or so, and I got to watch as many dancing styles as there were people dancing. Everyone was out to have a good time, no matter whether they danced well or awkwardly, hip hop or hippie, boisterously or demurely. It was safe to make eye contact while dancing, and share the joy of moving my body to music, without worrying that I’d have to defend my boundaries later. I was quickly hooked.</p>\n<p>For my first 6 or 7 years of membership, I made a point of going to every dance party I possibly could.</p>\n', created = 1371629836, expire = 1371716236, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '3:cabc2f74d04ec46f126e7604975f375a' in /home/thefec/htdocs/includes/cache.inc on line 109.
  • user warning: Table 'cache_filter' is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: UPDATE cache_filter SET data = '<p dir=\"ltr\">This post was written by Paxus and originally appeared at <a title=\"Official Comm Conf website\" href=\"http://communitiesconference.org\" target=\"_blank\">www.communitiesconference.org</a> Sections in italics are additions to the original post.</p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\n</p><p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>1. Reconsider your living situation.</strong>  If you let it, the Communities Conference can really shake you up.  Daring people who are trying new or untested lifestyles are presenting or in attendance.  Step outside your comfort zone a bit and start from the assumption that you could live somewhere else, or with other people and see what this event has to offer and demonstrate.  Let go of the assumption that your next year has to look like your last year and go back to your own personal values.  What do you really care about?  How could this be better experienced in your daily living situation?</p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>This is a call to be daring, which i think is the most under nurtured revolutionary trait.</em></p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><img alt=\"\" src=\"https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/MlYJFErljS9j3u6y6WRVo0iBCXDZJwpTyYWEDvrWb2vpq-yicsSTFbj-OdjwR7hhnLnrhD4f8kVb2uWn0vUFDl_QsP_MmQfuhHYFbM0Qa6UK-i6fMrzmrjIMWQ\" width=\"NaN\" height=\"NaN\" /></p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>2. Chat with a rock star.</strong>  There are a bunch of inspiring personalities at the Communities Conference and they are more accessible in this relaxed 3 day event than they are at most times in their busy lives.  Seek out the people who say something that excited you and ask to have lunch or a more private chat with them.  If this is your first time attending, read the entire set of workshop descriptions upon arrival and find out which presenters sound like they are doing stuff you are excited about and then get any of the event organizers to point that person out to you.  This conversation might just change your life.</p>\n', created = 1371629836, expire = 1371716236, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '3:1a0cae9ea7d8413500e25214684ad887' in /home/thefec/htdocs/includes/cache.inc on line 109.
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  • user warning: Table 'cache_filter' is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: UPDATE cache_filter SET data = '<p>Several people have said the most useful piece of the <a title=\"Official Loud Love event\" href=\"http://loudlove.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Loud Love</a> event was the transparency tools workshop.   i was powerfully reminded that while the tools are useful, what appears to be really happening is that people are longing to be asked these revealing questions.  With the smallest opportunity most people will share deep feelings and vulnerable information about themselves, even with people they dont know very well.</p>\n<p>We have re-started the transparency group at Acorn.  There were a few people excited about it and a number of people who showed up when it happened who seemed to like it.  My original thought was that we should try to fuse Acorns more festive culture with this tool set and instead of having the classical, slightly formal transparency discussions.  We should have transparency parties, where the format is more relaxed, less full group oriented and more smaller conversations.  Distracting food and drink could be part of it as well.</p>\n<p><a href=\"http://paxus.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/picsasso-girl-in-mirror.jpg\"><img class=\" wp-image-13883 \" alt=\"Picasso\'s girl in the mirror\" src=\"http://paxus.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/picsasso-girl-in-mirror.jpg?w=363&amp;h=450\" width=\"363\" height=\"450\" /></a><br />\n</p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picasso’s girl before a mirror</p>\n<p>Instead, at the first Acorn transparency event this year, we stuck to a more conventional format, with the group in a circle and a single person revealing themselves to everyone using several <a title=\"This blog transparency tools list\" href=\"http://funologist.org/2010/12/27/liberal-transparency/\" target=\"_blank\">different tool sets</a>.  And i was blown away again.</p>\n', created = 1371629836, expire = 1371716236, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '3:eec343b01362d659c6c6422356f34349' in /home/thefec/htdocs/includes/cache.inc on line 109.
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  • user warning: Table 'cache_filter' is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: UPDATE cache_filter SET data = '<p>Scabies sucks, but it was fun when people got excited about applying each other’s permethrin and the subsequent “prolonged skin-to-skin contact” parties we’re now green lighted to have.</p>\n<p>And having strep is not fun, but it’s nice that I don’t worry about losing my job/money/childcare/house because I’ve gotten sick and need to stay in bed for a couple days.  And people will bring me food.</p>\n<p>So maybe intentional community breaks even.  We infect each other with every transmissible ailment, but then we take care of each other while people get back to normal.</p>\n<p>Cue inspirational music.</p>\n<p> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/runninginzk.wordpress.com/629/\"><img alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/runninginzk.wordpress.com/629/\" /></a> <img alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=runninginzk.wordpress.com&amp;blog=51640857&amp;post=629&amp;subd=runninginzk&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" /></p>\n', created = 1371629836, expire = 1371716236, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '3:ecef4d3a4c260902733e7beecb9958ad' in /home/thefec/htdocs/includes/cache.inc on line 109.

Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance 

1. If you work hard, and become successful, it does not necessarily mean you are successful because you worked hard, just as if you are tall with long hair it doesn’t mean you would be a midget if you were bald.

2. “Fortune” is a word for having a lot of money and for having a lot of luck, but that does not mean the word has two definitions.

3. Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.

4. People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter—it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices.

5. There may not be a reason to share your cake. It is, after all, yours. You probably baked it yourself, in an oven of your own construction with ingredients you harvested yourself. It may be possible to keep your entire cake while explaining to any nearby hungry people just how reasonable you are.

6. Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they’ve been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.

7. Someone feeling wronged is like someone feeling thirsty. Don’t tell them they aren’t. Sit with them and have a drink.

8. Don’t ask yourself if something is fair. Ask someone else—a stranger in the street, for example.

9. People gathering in the streets feeling wronged tend to be loud, as it is difficult to make oneself heard on the other side of an impressive edifice.

10. It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.

11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.

12. If you have a large crowd shouting outside your building, there might not be room for a safety net if you’re the one tumbling down when it collapses.

13. 99 percent is a very large percentage. For instance, easily 99 percent of people want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and the occasional slice of cake for dessert. Surely an arrangement can be made with that niggling 1 percent who disagree.


Hollywood's Lemony Snicket

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Indeed.  i rarely do pure reposts, but this is fun enough for it.  Thanks to GPaul for pointing it out.

Here is  a summary report on how many of the US Occupy sities are doing