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RainbowPhoenixWI

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  1. RainbowPhoenixWI

    Trigger warning ... religion VS slavery

    By RainbowPhoenixWI,


    Yup, cram all night and break your brain
    This one is one heck of a run, with no prewritting done. So rough ride ahead. Go figure, it all started from watching a tictak. What I was watching was a young dark skinned woman talking about how she left her faith because the Quran has rules and laws for how to treat your slave. So of course, my book collection being what it is, I had to dive into this rabbit hole head first. To elaborate, my personal library has enough religious texts from hundreds of religions. A large enough spread to make the library of Alexandria proud. Now, to drag you down this rabbit hole with me because I have to get it out of my head. 
    Now first step I had to grab my Quran and look up the passages this lady mentioned. I could not believe my eyes, the passages existed. So now we have a big bump. If something is in the Quran, it's usually in the Bible and the Torah as well. And yes, I will gladly discuss the how and why of why those 3 books are really the same thing at another time, if that idea gets stuck in your craw. Alas, back to my rambling point. I found the same passages in my Bible, as well as in my Torah. By now I have been cramming passages for 8 hours now from several religions. Yes I know there is google, however I am old school and can not personally accept a source unless it is physically in my hands. But I am currently astounded, even my Buddhist texts have passages that refer to slavery as if it is an accepted norm. I am kinda blown at the moment. It seems to be that religions based on texts seem to be based on slavery. 
    If you haven't figured out by now, via the bad grammar and spelling, this entry is how I have decided to process this information. I have a feeling that by the end of this it will be something that should be shared. Also keep in mind, I am no translation expert. I barely can handle American English, let alone another language. 
    Cramming all these texts, I have noticed that the older texts handle slavery more as a concept. The "newer" texts handle slave and slavery more as a direct person. Now, I am no professor of history. I just love history, archeology, anthropology, and religion. But I do know that populations being enslaved has existed for pretty much all of recorded history. It is only recently that a person being enslaved has begun to be unacceptable. I also know that in that same amount of time language has changed so massively that a literal translation is useless. 
    So that brings me to the word slavery. As I interpret it, it equals The Devil card in the tarot deck. A cruel figure with a man and a woman chained and bound before him. And yes, most of my faith and religion is based off the Tarot. But back to the devil card and slavery. According to the lessons of that card, enslaving another person is impossible. However you can enslave yourself. You can allow yourself to be controlled by another person, addiction, faith, or several other things. Now, most of the oldest of the oldest texts handle slavery with similar context. 
    Now, to the newer texts and their lessons. I have noticed that most of the laws of how to handle slavery read like a course on addiction. But also that where it does talk about slavery as a person, it also mentions laws about when the slave has payed off his debt and what he should be given when his freedom is returned. But ultimately, it comes down to indentured servitude. There does not seem to be any law or rule that allows a person to be kept as a slave from birth till death. Quite the opposite, at the best of how I can interpret this all, it seems the longest time a person can be enslaved is twenty years.
    So now I am stuck with the questions, does belonging to a religion entitle you to being able to enslave another person? How is it that a religion could allow a person to be sold, bartered, and treated so cruelly? 
    To put it simply, it isn't the religion itself. It's the religious leaders and such that have made this happen. Yes I am pulling the cop out of "blaim the pope". Sadly though it fits. It doesn't take long to look at things and realize that against gods will, scripture has been weaponized and used to allow so many atrocities. I mean even today, how many fingers do you need to count the number of people you know that have actually read a bible/Quran/Torah, from cover to cover? I am willing to bet my paycheck that most of you won't fill one hand. I'm also willing to bet that most preachers, pastors, ministers, and priests have the same count. I've been through seminary classes. You don't read the bible and interpret, you memorize how to use the bible to display the churches narrative. 
    *sarcasm warning*
    But I mean a large scale church, corporation, or government would never twist a holy scripture to enslave or control a population. That is such an impossible missuse of authority. A man of faith would never intentionally misstranslate or keep his people from reading a book themselves. I mean words don't change meaning, truck has always been truck, queen has always been queen, biting your thumb has always been biting your thumb. 
    *sarcasm over* 
    I do honestly wonder now, how is it that a person can think that a 5k year old book should be followed to the letter. I mean the constitution and bill of rights no longer makes sense or fits my country, and those pages aren't even 500 years old yet. *big sigh* Faith is one of the best things in this world. Blind Faith, is easily the most dangerous thing in our world. 
    Thank you for taking this rambling ride. I promise, one of these days I will actually pre-write, edit, and properly put together a post .... eventually .... maybe ...... probably not.
  2. RainbowPhoenixWI

    Banks in america

    By RainbowPhoenixWI,

    I guess this one is more venting frustration then anything. I guess the best way to show how deep this frustration goes, is to fill in some back story. Right out of high school I started working in the food service industry to work my way through college. I was in for the long haul to pursue a doctorate in archeology. I have loved the field as long as I can remember. I still do to this day. While I never did make it to PhD, I did get as far as two masters degrees. But along the way, I fell in love with food service. I learned the skills to be a great waiter, bartender, and cook. My customer service skills are the envy of several coworkers over the years. After 30 years in the industry however, I have realized I am aging and slowing down. I can no longer run circles around other pros in the field. So I decided to take my skills, and start the venture of running my own slower paced business. But I don't want to leave the customers behind. Along the years I have picked up a lot of knowledge in the herb and natural remedy department. What better idea then to open up a tea and coffee shop that sells great teas and coffees. Other then the fact that in my opinion my earl gray and lady gray are better then anything anywhere else, except in England. I would have to get several lives of practice to beat those chaps at the tea game. I would also plan to sell herbal remedies and cosmetics all made from the same plants I used to make the tea blends. Add in a sitting parlor where you could sample the teas, or just sit and have coffee with your friends, how could this be a bad idea. So I spent a couple years making recipies, researching costs and licensing. Built a great business plan, and saved up almost $8 grand to go for this. I took all the paperwork to a few banks a week ago. All of them impressed with my business plan and research. I even have a pharmacist on board to work there so I can delve more deeply into the alternative medicine aspect. I finally today got calls back from the banks. Even though I spent 30 years in a service industry, have worked my way up to district manager. I am no stranger to ordering, rotation, supply and demand, payroll, accounting, taxes, insurances, all of them way to familiar to me. However the all turned me down. Since I have no experience in retail, there is apparently no way I could know what I am doing. Since my 8 years of university did not include business management, I am apparently clueless to what it would take to make this work. But apparently I have a great business plan, and my knowledge in teas, cosmetics, edible plants, and medicinal plants was quite astounding to them. But I don't qualify for the loan because I have no knowledge or experience. I've done test sales through friends stores, and sold out of product in less then 3 days everytime, over a dozen trials. But alas, that doesn't matter to them. Like seriously, what the **** you **** ******* *** licking **** crunching, **** faced, (insert several more expletives) wanker morons. I've always been told, bust your ass, work hard, save for a rainy day, enjoy the little things, and love your job. I guess that just isn't enough. To get money, you have to prove you don't need money I guess. That's ok, once our economy and health care crash with in the next year or two, I'll be in high demand, so I guess take that bitches, lol. But sorry for the babbling folks, and I hope the rant was at least somewhat entertaining. Enjoy your day/evening, and have a blast wherever you are. 
  3. RainbowPhoenixWI
    I can honestly say that I don't enjoy how my country is being hit by cries and protests to defund the police. But, I can't blaim them. Today I neither trust or respect law enforcement in my state. It didn't use to be that way. I remember when I was growing up, most of our city and county officers were like Andy Griffith and Barney Fife. They helped us when we were lost. When I drove alone for the first time and wrecked my mothers car they helped me and the car get home, granted I still got a ticket for driving with out a license. When there was a bad break up, the police were there to help and make sure a person got all there stuff and no one got out of line. My first time changing a car tire, was actually an officer on duty checking to make sure there wasn't an accident. She took the time to show me what to do and how to do it right. 
    Today's law enforcement is different. If you have a blown out tire and no spare, they will sit in their car with the lights flashing and not lift a finger to help you. They seem to love the tactics of ensnaring and entrapment. If there is no evidence they will fabricate and plant what they need. There is corruption that has grown like a horrid cancer of society. They now have a stalking culture to them. Once they have you for a fine for something small, they follow you for days and weeks and nail you for every citation they can find. I can't help but think about the decepticon police car Barricade from transformers, with the phrase "To Punish and Enslave" in bold letters across his side. It's a sad reality that our law enforcement has turned into that. 
    That leaves me with the wonder of what do we do about that now? Sadly all I can think is comparing to movies like V for Vendetta. Our society is not that far from that type of dystopia at all. Is there even a way to bring back what use to be? Now I do understand there is actually quite a few good officers that do everything thing they can, to serve and protect. But alas, their hands are often tied by regulations and insurance issues. I started looking into that side of the issue after my best friend showed up at my work still in tears after an eight mile walk. To shorten the story, there was a domestic dispute that escalated to the boys in blue being called. As the conflict had not turned physical there could be no arrest. She was told she had to leave the premise immediately and could not go inside to retrieve her things. The closest place she had to go was my house, a fourteen mile walk. The cops refused to give her a ride, or even call her a cab, or call me at work or anything. She was on her own and hoofing it. Long story short, being this was my "sister" and I am offen defined as a "mama bear" I went to the precinct to simply raise hell, speak my mind, and brow beat every officer I saw. Thankfully for the department the first officer I encountered was my cousin. I screamed, I ranted, I cried injustice, I hit him more then once, he hit me more then once. I found out a couple months later that several other officers were making bets on who would be left standing. But I'm digressing again. At any rate, after everything was said and done, a few officers showed me the paperwork and requirements for why they did what they did. I was surrounded by heart broken faces as I realized they were not allowed to help because of the insurance company and fear. If they had called me or the cab, and one of us had picked her up, and then there was a car wreck involving her, then the precinct would be responsible for paying 100% of the damages, insurance processing and all other manners of fees, and the officer deemed responsible for the interaction would be suspended with out pay, and eventually terminated. 
    That insurance clause applies to so many of the aspects of an officers job. It brought me back to my clinicals in college, and my choice to drop out of the medical field. So many choices of what could be done came down to insurance companies and not what the situation demanded to make sure people were ok and going to survive. The worst clause in my opinion, was the one I read about using firearms and deadly force. Basically to sum it up and paraphrase how I understood it, if an officer was in a situation against an armed individual the insurance company would only cover damages if the officer fired first. If the armed individual fired first, and then the officer returned fire, the officer could be held responsible for medical bills and damages to the armed individual. 
    As you can see, there is corruption and there is faulty policy and procedures. And I can understand why several European countries have law enforcement that is unarmed. But the bottom line is there has to be a better solution then defunding the police. There has to be a way to fix things so that we have more Barney Fifes, and not so many Boss Hogs. 
  4. RainbowPhoenixWI
    Todays requested topic is camping. I decided to take a comical approach to the topic and relay a few mishaps that have happened on camping trips. Yes, some of them happened to me, and some of them happened to friends. When I was younger I was a member of cub scouts, and then boy scouts. That relates to a lot of camping experience. Once I received my Eagle Scout award and my bronze and silver I aged out and became an active member of a GO (gay outdoors) chapter. Over twenty years later I still get out as often as I can. 
    Our first snip is from my first adventure with Boy Scout summer camp. As I was only just a Tenderfoot I had to sleep with out a tent mate, and I was responsible for starting the morning fire and getting breakfast going. On the third night I had a rather bizarre awakening. As my eyes opened I realized that not only was I tight against the tent fabric, but I was buried under all my camping gear. I fumbled around and finally found the tent zipper. I was simply terrified. I thought my tent had come lose in the storm and rolled down the hill. When I finally got the zipper open and my gear had all fallen to the ground, almost me along with it, I realized I was ten feet in the air. The rest of the troop had strung my tent up the flagpole with me inside. For years it was joked that I managed to sleep through the whole ordeal, in fact when I got tapped out a few years later I was given the title "Great Sleeping Bear". Lesson learned ..... It is a fun tradition for new tenderfoots to go through, however in a year where there is two tenderfoots it turns into a real chore. 
    Many years ago, when I was an active member in my parents churches youth ministry program, our program leader decided that a trip into the Boundary Waters would be a great way to teach us team work, leadership, and give us a great experience as a platform for future sermons when we all moved on to seminary. For those of you that don't know, the Boundary Waters is a vast wilderness that is situated between Canada and Minnesota. It's a beautiful area that is several hundred connected lakes, or lakes with very short portages in-between them. We all met in Wausau Wisconsin, as this group was teenagers from all over the state. We then drove up to Duluth Minnesota for a stop over, and then on to the wilderness. All I can say is I am very thankful to the god and goddess that most of us were boy scouts. We got to our second portage and were about to break for lunch when we made a massive realization. The trip leaders had accidentally looked over and forgotten food supplies for the two week adventure. We had no fishing poles or hunting equipment. Since most of us were actually well trained boy scouts being from the northern part of the country, and not those city scouts from New York or L.A., we talked the leaders into pressing on anyway. Lessons learned .....boy scouts is just really learning how to do the right job with the wrong tools. Pulling threads from a worn shirt and braiding them makes great fishing line. At the age of seventeen it is amazing how much knowledge one person can have on medicinal and edible plants. 
    Our next adventure doesn't involve camping at all. One year I had decided to volunteer to organize and handle all the calls for a GO event. My planned event was for a hiking and camping trek, one week going through the porcupine mountains, and then getting picked up at Lake of the Clouds. I do suggest you google it and maybe plan a trip, it's a very beautiful area to visit. I had been very careful about planning the trails we would take, and campsites we would use. Some of our members were low activity people so I had to make sure to avoid some of the more strenuous trails. About two days after I posted the information on the trip; the route we would be taking, gear needed, and proposed camp sites, the nightmare began. My first call about the trip went something like this: "Hi, I'm calling to inquire about the hiking and camping trip to Lake of the Clouds" "Great, there are a lot of us excited about it. What can I do for you" "Well my boyfriend and I are planning on joining, but we have a few questions that your information didn't cover." "Glad to help, shoot away." "Well for starters we were wondering which hotels we would be staying at? I checked online and didn't see any five star hotels anywhere in northern michigan." "Well I'm sorry to say, but there are no hotels along the route, it's straight up one hundred percent camping at sites. Each day we plan to hike ten to twelve miles to the next site, with the last night camping beside Lake of the Clouds. The route passes along quite a few fabulous water falls, and some grand natural formations including a short trip into a cave/tunnel system." "Well that does sound like a grand trip, what do the camp sites offer for RV amenities? Do they have electricity plug ins and piping for fresh water into the RV?" " I am sorry to say, but there is no way to get an RV to any of the sites. All of the sites selected are hike in only. Maybe you could look into planning your own adventure and meeting us on the final day at Lake of the Clouds? We also have several weekend trips planned over this summer along Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. Most of those are in campsites with RV spots." "What the f**k are you talking about you little snot? This is GAY OUTDOORS. That means that all the trips are supposed to be designed for all members of the gay community! How dare you expect us to sleep on the ground like some common breeder! We are gay men, you will not disrespect us like this! We are dropping our support from your chapter and calling the national GO board to complain about how you crude breeder wannabes run your show!" "I am very sorry you feel that way. Enjoy your day and I hope you break a nail and that your heels snap while you are on the subway. " "phone clicks off". That was only the first call. The second call was just as astounding ... "Hi, how is your day going? I'm calling to make my reservation for the trip into the Porkies." "Fabulous, let me ask you some questions first, Are you planning on bringing an RV and do you care what restaurants we eat at along the way?" "Why in the hell would someone bring an RV camping on a hiking trail?" "You would be amazed, that's all I'm gonna say about that." "I take it that means Ricky and Matt aren't gonna make it?" "No" "Good, poor Ricky would probably break his tiara anyway on a trip like this." " .......anyway, any questions about this trip?" "Actually yes, just a couple of them. I didn't see any rules on clothing options, like if they are optional or not?" "I'm sorry, but this is not a nude event. I was not even aware GO hosted events like that." "That's ok, not a problem at all. nudists scare me anyway." "Glad to hear that, what else ya got for me?" "Well I was wondering about sleeping arrangements. Like I don't like sleeping with the same guy every night. When I go on these outings I like to fully experience everyone that comes along. So basically I wanted to make sure there was at least seven single guys going so I know what kind of options I need to plan for." ".......I'm not sure how to respond to that. We do have several members that are under the age of 18, and a lot of our members are couples. Our focus has always been to help gay men find a community that thrives in the outdoors." "Well I'm assuming that if they are under 18 that they have parent consent to be there. I don't want to end up in jail for getting turned on my a minor. I guess I could deal with couples. Three-somes are usually pretty fun. I hope no one accuses me of being a home wrecker." ".....Apparently I wasn't clear enough. This is not a sexual excursion. I mean yes, some people do end up creating relationships on these trips, but that is not the point. This is a trip for camping and hiking with friends, NOT a hookup group." "What the h**l do you mean? It's in the title of the group GAY OUTDOORS, well the only things gays to in the woods is fuck at field parties. I mean seriously, you feel me. What is better then f**king a bunch of random guys out in the woods next to a waterfall. That is seriously what you guys should be about." "I am sorry you feel that way sir. Please remember that this is a family orientated group. for us to build and grow with our families and allies. This is NOT a sex group. After this conversation I do believe it would be best for everyone involved if you DO NOT ATTEND. Enjoy your evening, goodbye." Sadly I fielded about thirty calls like those two. It definitely made for an amusing couple weeks before the trip, and we had a lot of great campfire stories.  Lessons learned ...... When labeling anything as a "gay" group, plan to deal with people that think with either the wrong head, or have no stake in reality. 
    My last camping story actually has to deal with somebody besides me, but I wish I would have been there for it. My friend Mark from college was taking his girlfriend on her first camping trip to see Lake Superior. From what I was told it was a great trip all things considered. Anyway, Mark's girlfriend was working on setting up the tent, while Mark was parking the car. The site is a really beautiful site, all the camping spots are on the lake side of the road. There is a hand carved wooden fence that runs the length of all the campsites. Each site has it's own STAIRS down to the beach, as well as an individual parking spot for one vehicle. Mark had gotten the bright idea to back into the spot so he could watch his girlfriend work. He preceded to roll down the window and lecture her on the art of putting poles and tarps together while the vehicle was moving in reverse. He failed to stop when the car went through the fence. He failed to stop when the car went down the stairs. He spun the tires as the car slide down the sand. He finally stopped the car when it was halfway into the water. Man I would pay to go back in time and see everyone's faces. Lesson learned ......When setting camp, focus on your job. wait to check if anyone needs help AFTER you are done. 
    That's all I have today for you guys. Make sure you enjoy the rest of your week, and I hope you have a great weekend planned. 
  5. RainbowPhoenixWI
    I'm not sure if i look at things differently because I've never raised my own kids. I've spent a lot of time raising other peoples kids. I signed off on my son when he was three years old. With all that considered, I don't think i count as anything close to a parenting expert. However I can't help but wonder what has happened to parenting these days. I've seen quite a few atrocities and sat there and wondered how a parent could get to that level. Let me give you a few examples of what I've seen just in the last week, and then I'll break down what I think the cause is and what I think could be done to help shape a better generation. 
    I was grocery shopping in wal-mart a few days ago. With all the directions and arrows to try and control the flow of people to account for social distancing it was an interesting experience. Mostly because for some reason most americans think the arrows on the floor and the vertical signs at the end of each isle doesn't apply to them. At any rate, I got stuck walking the rows of food behind a woman with an excitable toddler that was constantly trying to grab and look at everything. You would think someone with a toddler like that would try to keep the cart in the middle of the isle and all the food towards the front of the cart. Sadly this woman wasn't that intelligent. The child kept grabbing things off the shelf and throwing them in the cart and giggling like it was a game. The poor woman was getting so frustrated. I decided to open my mouth and suggest she keep her cart in the middle of the isle, it would save her some headaches and probably help calm the toddler down. Of course she didn't want to hear it and promptly told me off. Thank the gods I work in customer service so my feelings don't get bothered any. When we finally got to where there was room I went around her and kept going. I passed her again later on, and she was screaming at her kid and throwing things in the kids face. She then pulled the kid out of the cart and started wacking his behind and screaming loud enough for the whole store to hear. At least the manager and staff were a quick response. I got the gossip when I got to work as a sandwich artist the next day. The woman never got her groceries and had to deal with the police and social services. 
    A girl I work with recently had her kids taken away for negligence. She is court ordered to pay child support to her parents that have custody, and she gets visitation once a week for six hours. She decided to complain at work that her boyfriend was a total asshole. She was thinking of breaking up with him because he refused to leave work to give her a ride to visitation. She was so pissed that she missed visitation again this week (I think the last time she made visitation was about three months ago). Just to show a point of reference, her parents know she doesn't have a car. They arrange visitation to start at a park that is only a block and a half from her house. Part of the visitation is that the parents take everyone out for supper, and plan on giving their daughter a ride home after. Seriously, all you have to do is walk 500 feet to visit your child. How the hell is that too much work for a parent to endure?
    The last thing i always see way to many times to count on a weekly bases, toddlers with smart phones and tablets. Every where I go, whether it's a friends or relatives house, the babies and toddlers all have technology in their faces. The kids have these devices, and the parents are engrossed in the tv, personal phone, computer, or video games. How can a person ignore their child like that?
    Sadly i must say, I feel this problem started with my generation. A lot of people raised in the late 70's and early 80's seemed to miss a lot in the moderation and proper parenting education. A lot of us were raised to be rebels and activists. I can't deny that when I became a teenage goth with a megaphone and crying out for gay rights in wisconsin that it was a blast. Sadly most of the people I grew up with were raised the same way, but they didn't have a cause to fight for. As americans at this point we pretty much had everything. Now about this time, america had these lovely tv shows that were educational for grade school and younger. When my generation started having kids we were encouraged to engulf our children in them by pediatricians and the media. So why not trust these people and stick the kids in front of the tv for hours a day. We can't take them outside to play because they still have to watch sesemi street and telitubbies yet. We started failing the next generation right there.
    So now we have hit the point were our kids have been having kids, and for some of us our grandkids are in their late teens. The big difference now, is that tv no longer exists. it's all youtube, podcast, streamers and the like. Not to mention all the "educational" games that can be downloaded to phones and tablets. We have taught our kids that this is the proper way to raise a kid. We have taught them that a parent is not responsible for their child. We have taught them that it is media and the school system that are supposed to do everything. All they know how to do is pop out a kid and hand it over to the system. Now don't get me wrong, i know there is a lot of good parents out there yet. But they are getting fewer and fewer. It just scares me to see that my niece at 6 years old has her own facebook, snapchat, instagram, and twitter. And now she is begging for her own phone so she can talk to her classmates since she can't see them in school anymore. Does anyone else see the problem with this, when we have raised our own kids to give their kids devices and walk away? 
    I know there are more problems then just technology, but with the younger crowd getting more and more disconnected these days it's scary. I have a coworker that is a 19 year old snowflake. you even mention the word diversity, or different then what he understand and he has to leave work because of panic attacks. Heaven forbid what happens when he has to deal with an aggressive customer. Two weeks ago he disappeared and I couldn't find him. Come to find out he hid in the freezer in a panic attack and he cried enough to actually freeze his pants to the floor. The kid couldn't figure out how to get out, so he decided to just sit there for over an hour playing candy crush. How the hell have we managed to fail the younger generations so bad. As parents all we had to do was make the choices to teach our children to be better adults then we are. 
    Sadly there is no easy fix for this. I really do believe the most effective would be for us older folks to just get out there and teach our kids, friends, and families how to interact with others and their own children. Show them how to take kids on a play date and how to experience things outside. My favorite is dragging my siblings and their kids up into the waterfalls and mountains in northern Michigan. only an hour drive and once you get up there cell phones and other technology don't work. It forces you to sing with the kids if you want music. If you want to watch a sitcom you are stuck watching squirrels, or watching trout fight the rapids. And the beautiful hikes, such great exercise. Just make sure they forget their cameras so that they have a reason to come back. 
    We have two generations that need our help to learn how to survive in this world. All they really need is the gift of our time. Lets give it to them and fix society.
    and don't forget, Wednesday is readers choice for a blog topic. Let me know what you want to hear me babble off about. 
  6. RainbowPhoenixWI
    I know everyone is tired of hearing about covid-19. I'm not here to talk about how dangerous it is, or voice my opinion one way or the other on masks. I'm here as a front line worker venting my opinion on how capitalism and this virus are a mix for destroying my country. In all honesty I should probably have titled this entry more accurately, but I want your attention. But let's get to my point. I realize that some of you reading this don't understand and can't fathom a job outside 9-5, weekends off, paid sick leave, and a salary under $5,000 a month. But here is the reality of our world. In my industry that I love (even though customers are getting more and more rude these days and I would rather slap more of them then serve them), there is no such thing as paid sick leave. Yeah, if I get sick I can take the time off to rest. In fact I am required by law to not show up for work if I am showing any symptoms of a possible food related virus, no matter how mild. However, it doesn't work out that way. Most food service workers hide their symptoms and we have to keep working till someone finds out. Partly because at our pay, if we miss even one shift of work, there goes our rent payment, or our utilities, our food, our transportation. If I miss even half a shift at work, my life is on the line. There is no such thing as sick pay to protect me from making ends meet. There is no such thing as paid vacation days that i could use to cover things. From what i understand from watching friends get sick with covid, they are sick from 2-4 weeks. That is a whole month of pay. If i get covid, my house, car, and food are gone. Another reason my line of work doesn't allow for getting sick and staying home is how management works out. Now, before you grumble to yourself about how much of a slave driver food managers are, and how hypocritical we are, let me explain something to you. Most of the people we hire are under the age of 25 and not very mature no matter how they act. I have had employees call in for things ranging from a hang nail, to a sick pet, one of my employees had the same grandma die 4 times in one month. That is one hell of a feet for that old woman, although I do wonder how she got back out of the coffin each time. So as you can imagine, corporate has put in rather asinine rules for handling call ins. We are required to ask for doctors notes, copies of obituaries, copies of wedding invitations, so on and so forth. I hate the process, but thank your children for fucking this one up. Now we get to the point of this part. So how come I don't just go and get a doctors excuse I'm sure you are asking. Let me fill you in. For us food service lifers that truly live and breath the industry, health care is impossible. At $12/hour, I make to much to qualify for government funded healthcare. I am exactly $42.78 over the monthly allowed income cap for badgercare in my state. But surely there is the affordable care act, there must be something I can get to cover my doctor visits. No, there isn't. I've spent hours searching, the cheapest health insurance I could find is $400/month and comes with a $5,000 deductible every 6 months. ........ yeah, I'm not gonna detail my bills and income here, but there is no way I can afford that. So how come I don't just pay out of pocket like I do for my glasses and dental (oh yeah,side note, the plans I could find didn't cover eye care and dental). So my yearly check up for my eyes, thankfully coincides with tax season, and takes about 1/5 of my tax return depending on if I just get glasses, keep my old frames, or decide I want contacts this year. The eye doctor usually runs me about $200, unless I decide to go the fancy route, but that will probably change this year. I have developed a slight stigmatism, so my glasses will go from $150 to about $250 just for the lenses, I'm not diving into frames right now. Why is this important? Have you ever gone to the ER? Walk in? Or made an appointment to get checked for cold and flu? No matter which way you go, it is $300 just to walk in the door. Then $150 for the doctors time, $75 for the nurses time, $500-$1,500 if the doctor decides you need blood work, depending on what else is going on, even more services are added on. Thank you, I think I'll skip the doctor and skip calling in. Last time I went to go for a doctors excuse the total bill was $1,276.42. Oh yeah, hospitals will not let you make an appointment of any kind if you owe them money. So you are stuck with life saving events and that is it. However there is a fun loophole me and my employees use, if I get sent home from work for being sick you don't need a doctors excuse. So all ya gotta do is go to work, make sure a manager sees you throwing up in the back kitchen. Now you get the rest of the day off, and can go home and rest. No doctor, no test for food poisoning, no bills. If you are still sick the next day, rinse and repeat. So how does this add up. Well, for most food born illnesses, and cold and flu, this is not a big deal. With how often we clean surfaces, wash our hands, wear gloves the environment is really hard to spread illness. However there are some like food poisoning and covid that are highly contagious and spread very very easy. But hey, what's wrong with sharring the love. Now you can keep me company while we both get sent home from work. Total side note before I get off my soap box, quit bitching about food poisoning, the name is scarier then the bug. The average person gets food poisoning 2-3 times a week, and over 90% of the cases are from the food in your own home and how you handle it. 24 hour bug is food poisoning, those cramps you are having out of nowhere are probably food poisoning. Hmmm, lose stool today? Yup, that's food poisoning, probably from the homemade yogurt you tried making 2-3 days ago. But I'm shutting up now, thank you for listening.
  7. RainbowPhoenixWI
    Opinions, everyone has one. Today is no different then yesterday. We all have an opinion, and we all want to be heard. There are so many voices online. Writting your opinion today is very much like shouting into a crowd trying to find your friend. I realize I'm showing my age here, but I remember opinions before the age of internet. Back when I was a kid, and back when I was active in the gay rights movement. Things were so much simpler to be heard. There was a lot more work involved, but it was so much simpler. There was no "hashtags" or "key words". You either needed a megaphone, or the ability to get published. When you shouted into the crowd, everyone listened. Opinions use to have clout. I remember speaking at rallies, so many people hanging on silence for every word that dropped from my lips. I remember when I would write an opinion piece for the paper, thousands of response letters would flood in. The first time I got published, was actually because a person that worked for the publisher was at a rally I was speaking at. When you wrote back then, you had to have a grasp of grammar. Well unless you wrote poetry, my grammer doesn't suck I ment to do that. Have you read the news articles today? The grammer and spelling is so horrible, it's like it was written for and by a first grader. Today you just type on your computer and click send. There is no thought of grammer. There is no thought of quality. There is no thought of meaning. Your only thought today, is how many pound signs you can add to make sure your piece stands out. The art is hurting, no one cares if their piece stands the test of time. A writer today, only cares about the number of views. Too many voices coming from the crowd. You would think the art of story telling would last ages, I'm beginning to think our art is dying. Our stories are slowly fading to time. All I can think about, is comparing our world to "Fahrenheit 451" and that's a dreadfully chilling thought indeed. 
  8. RainbowPhoenixWI
    So it has been decided by my friends, they request two blogs a week. They also decided for me, well my husband decided, that Wednesday would be fans choice. What little "fans" i have decided that today's topic is "magic". Any of the readers that are not monotheistic know that this is one hell of a doozy, and that fitting that into a simple little blog is pretty much impossible. To accommodate the relatively condensed setting of a blog I decided to focus on my monotheistic readers. I guess the best place to start this is simple definitions. For starters monotheistic, this word simply means a religion that believes on one all powerful God. the most common of those are the ones that follow the bible, torah, and the like. Being raised catholic myself, I know very well what the bible and torah say about witchcraft. However, magic and witchcraft are not the same thing. The simplest definition for witchcraft that I can find, is a polytheistic religion that uses magic for religious intent and personal gain. Now, before anyone starts asking for heads to be rolled on one side of the isle or the other I want to take a moment to address the polytheistic readers. I personally fall into a category that is best described as a shamanistic catholic mystic. Basically that means I was raised catholic and pagan at the same time. My families book of shadows goes back fourteen generations. What that basically means is that on the subject of magic and new age topics, is that in my opinion I am a higher authority of knowledge then any new age book mongering mad extremist author. so yes, I know better then silver ravenwolf or scott cunningham. I am simply asking that you all remember that faith is like the center of a diamond that we are all trying to get to. Each facet represents a different religion. Each religion is it's own path to true faith, which most scholars consider to be spiritual enlightenment. What that simply means is all religions are right, and all religions are wrong. 
    I digress a little to far though, we are talking on the subject of magic. The definition of magic is simple. Magic is using ones own energy to experience or manipulate the world around you. Almost any activity you can think of falls into this definition. The most powerful uses of magic by this definition for our monotheistic friends is a toss up between Sunday Mass, and prayer. I know all of you know that feeling when you are in church, when the choir starts going and the priest or pastor has just said something that hits your heart. You feel like something is pulling you up out of the pew. You swear you can feel the hearts of the people around you. You can feel the good being projected out of the building and into the world. When I was younger, that feeling was every service. As I get older, I get that feeling less and less often when I attend church. The strongest I get for that is when I avoid mass for a few months, and then go on a special occasion. That feeling right there, is magic in it's purest form. That web of energy that flows from one parishioner to the next, and then overflows the building. There are times where I could swear I could see that web. My Great Grandmother always taught me, that web was the reaction of all the auras of the parish becoming synchronized on the simple goal of pushing Gods love and work into the world. In the simplest term, I was catching a visual glimpse of the power of prayer. 
    Ultimately the belief and acceptance is between you and your faith. Nowhere in the bible have I found a passage that I interpret to say that magic is the power of the devil. I have found several that I interpret to mean that magic is one of our greatest gifts from YHVH. What you do with that gift is up to you. you can strive for the positive, or have it corrupted by the negative. The only thing I know to be 300% true, is to ever feel that connection to the divine you must learn what it truly means to be a child. Even Jesus stated at one point, "We are all infants before the Lord." There are as many ways to interpret that as there are to look at it sideways. Me personally, I view that as one of the most important statements to faith and magic. In the end it comes down to the fact that magic is not anything like it is portrayed in a fantasy novel. Magic is the energy created from life. We all hold magic, we all project magic. Magic and life are the true gifts from YHVH, and that is all there is too it. Just beware the devil and don't let him corrupt your gift.
  9. RainbowPhoenixWI
    today was fun and amusing. on this site for a few days, and already making mistakes, lol. ADD and writing always make a fun mix. I have quit a few projects saved on this site already, just not any that were set to be published. talk about amusing and embarrassing when you get an email about something being denied for publishing for whatever reason and not realizing you had clicked to publish rather then save to finish later. at least on the fun side I did actually publish a piece of work that I wanted to rather then just save it. The joys of being technologically declined. On the plus side I have found this site to be full of tons of polite and helpful people. and of course once I become more familiar with this site I will be having a blog that is actually worth reading .... hopefully ....
  10. RainbowPhoenixWI

    Intro Blog

    By RainbowPhoenixWI,

    Hello everyone. It is a pleasure to join your community. A publisher recommended joining this site to get my works out and about. I do a lot of poetry, short stories, and blogging. I am currently trying my pen at a full length novel. I do look forward to interacting with all of you
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