I've given up drinking. No one in the family seems to believe me. I think my 20 year old expressed the general sense of surprise and disbelief best when she said, "Wait, wha.. what, wait what, huh? Nahaa!" But I'm serious. Not that I drank much to begin with. But lately it's just taken a turn for the worse. Normally, I'm the happiest damned drunk in the world. Just ask the minions of tiny leprechauns that seem to come out of nowhere to join me. I know this to be true, I've seen the bar tab. But I'm sure they bought their share of rounds as well from their cute little gold coin filled pots. Especially that Karl, funny name for a leprechaun, but I digress. Anyway, lately even the leprechaun's have abandoned me due to my less than happy demeanor. I was turning into a mean drunk whose drinking buddies degraded from happy little green guys to those mean soldiers from the evil camp in Lord of the Rings. The ones that were created underground in vats of mud. I'm not buying those bastards anything. I quit.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Hindus Chrisitans and Magic
I, along with my wife, Daya, own the Indonique Tea & Chai company. Our first venture into the tea business was a packaged tea store in ultra-conservative Mandeville, Louisiana. It was a cool little shop, if I don't say so myself, that sold, in addition to packaged teas, imported Indian textiles, spices, clothing and other unusual items. The teas filled a shelving untit just behind the counter resembling an old English tea shop. In the center of the shelving unit, a large brass statue of the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesa. Very cool place that attracted many locals for the atmosphere and a few with less pleasant intensions.
One customer, more accurately called a visitor, as he regularly came in to sample the free teas but never bought a single item, will forever remain in my mind. A devout, I soon learned, christian, he asked one day what the Ganesa statue was all about. Well versed in hindu mythology, I was happy to tell him the story of Ganesa and how he as a young man/god lost his head and had it replaced with an elephant head. The visitor stared emotionless at the statue as I detailed the ancient myth. When I finished he shook his head as if understanding and offered, Yeah, those hindus believe in a lot of CRAZY MAGIC (HIS EMPHASIS) and stuff". I shrugged and offered, "Yeah, religion ya know". Then he continued, "Of course we know Jesus was our Lord and saviour because of all the MIRACLES (AGAIN HIS EMPHASIS) he performed". I nearly fell over laughing at his comments until noticing he was staring at me in a somewhat confused and indignant manner. HE WAS SERIOUS (MY EMPHASIS). I offered a "magic' with one hand then raised the other "miracles". "Wait you're serious"? "of course I'm serious", he responded somewhat physically and verbally defiant. "Just leave - please", I asked. He did and that was that.
Unfortunately, many more indignant visitors would peruse the shop, scowl and leave. After a Rinpoche visited and offered a lecture on Buddhism, the visits turned into a full scale boycott and verbal assaults against my employees. We moved to New Orleans a few weeks later. Ironically, our first customer in our New Orleans cafe was a Bourbon Street stripper, the second a Catholic priest. Neither had issue with the Ganesa nor each other. The shop was an instant success and customers included muslims, priests, rabbis and ministers from a variety of protestant faiths.
Unfortunately, many more indignant visitors would peruse the shop, scowl and leave. After a Rinpoche visited and offered a lecture on Buddhism, the visits turned into a full scale boycott and verbal assaults against my employees. We moved to New Orleans a few weeks later. Ironically, our first customer in our New Orleans cafe was a Bourbon Street stripper, the second a Catholic priest. Neither had issue with the Ganesa nor each other. The shop was an instant success and customers included muslims, priests, rabbis and ministers from a variety of protestant faiths.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Peacock Feathers - A Novel
Although their meat was more than an adequate substitute for goose, my Russian friend Vadim's family had instead, for generations, raised Indian peacocks for their colorful expensive feathers and, due to the bird's tremendously annoying screeching, as a means of lowering neighbor's property values to an attainable level.
I think is an opening to a book that needs to be written!
Connie George
Sunday, February 21, 2010
What Sells?
Sooo, maybe a posting/campaign, "pics of live nude girls with every purchase" will work. Huh, ya think?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Blogging While Drunk (BWD)
Blog that you're trapped in a burning building and it won't be discovered until a week after your charred lifeless body is found in the cinders, at which point some ass will post how dumb you were not to have tweeted your distress call instead. This post will be read by millions the instant it's posted. Likewise, any honest assessment of meddling in-laws or casual comments about annoying relatives to close friends over secure networks will magically find their way into vast social networks - copied, forwarded and posted everywhere at speeds that would frighten Chuck Yeager.
The new communication tool, the social web, unlike the phone, not only keeps a copy of your ramblings for all unintended to see, but bestows upon the series of ones and zeros - life, allowing it to multiply and evolve in milliseconds. And like many offspring, a life that will eventually turn on the parent. The internet has become a dangerous vehicle that can careen off a cliff with the slightest turn on the wheel or in the case of texting, tweeting and emailing, a misplaced comma or emoticon.
Slightly more dangerous with longer lasting effects would be under-aged internet use, as dangerous as the adult use with the added peril of attached photos. You can't get 'em back. They just become forever young-you, multiplying faster the hotter or more embarrassing they are. You're left with the futile option of changing your name and moving far away, which doesn't work cause the internet is everywhere and some nerd with specialized, I never got out to play ball skills will find you, cause you did get out, played ball and had a life and he or she hates you because of it.
And so, like other vehicles, should operating the internet vehicle while under the influence of mind altering substances be outlawed?
NO! We need the entertainment and some of those photos! Yes I'm posting while drunk. Oooo, maybe a nice name for a blog!
The new communication tool, the social web, unlike the phone, not only keeps a copy of your ramblings for all unintended to see, but bestows upon the series of ones and zeros - life, allowing it to multiply and evolve in milliseconds. And like many offspring, a life that will eventually turn on the parent. The internet has become a dangerous vehicle that can careen off a cliff with the slightest turn on the wheel or in the case of texting, tweeting and emailing, a misplaced comma or emoticon.
Slightly more dangerous with longer lasting effects would be under-aged internet use, as dangerous as the adult use with the added peril of attached photos. You can't get 'em back. They just become forever young-you, multiplying faster the hotter or more embarrassing they are. You're left with the futile option of changing your name and moving far away, which doesn't work cause the internet is everywhere and some nerd with specialized, I never got out to play ball skills will find you, cause you did get out, played ball and had a life and he or she hates you because of it.
And so, like other vehicles, should operating the internet vehicle while under the influence of mind altering substances be outlawed?
NO! We need the entertainment and some of those photos! Yes I'm posting while drunk. Oooo, maybe a nice name for a blog!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Name the Blog
The first step to starting a blog is naming the damned thing. It's at this point that I realized how many people there are on earth, how many of them are blogging and how few words we have in the English language. I tried "pointless", as most of my endeavors are, "clueless", clearly I'm not alone here, "random", I frequently am, and "A-D-D writer with nothing to say". That was available, but just too long. I finally, no eventually (not dead yet), settled on my pen name, Connie George (for now). I went with the hyphenated version and www.connie-george.blogspot is born. So what am I going to write about and why on a public blog?
I guess the blog format is simply to keep it somewhere where I can find it, not my job, is blogger.com's job. Blogger.com is good at keep it all organized, together and readily available. As for why ---------- I dunno. I'm working that out now. As an admittedly A-D-D personality, and who isn't today, blogger assists greatly with organizing me. As an integrator, that's what I do best, I'll need to make a list and sort out the reason as I go. Now's a good time:
1. I'm going freakin nuts here in cold rainy New England. I need to focus on small things that keep my mind busy and prevent a melt down. I tried woodworking, worked well, but kind of expensive and requires -- uhm, wood, that is increasingly more expensive and rarely available. And the garage is just too damned cold to work in 6 months out of the year.
2. My troubles are small, but weigh on me. I need to keep busy. I wrote a book for my daughters during a nasty divorce, really helped. I figure this would help with the smaller stuff too.
3. My wife thinks I need to do this because of items one and two.
4. I enjoy writing and would like to develop my skills, or acquire some, through practice. My biggest issue is this damned ADD. I rush through everything I write, don't have the patience to take the time to write fully, much less edit properly. I figure writing in a potentially public forum will force me to slow down and focus a bit. Maybe even read what I've written before hitting the Publish Post button.
Here goes...
I guess the blog format is simply to keep it somewhere where I can find it, not my job, is blogger.com's job. Blogger.com is good at keep it all organized, together and readily available. As for why ---------- I dunno. I'm working that out now. As an admittedly A-D-D personality, and who isn't today, blogger assists greatly with organizing me. As an integrator, that's what I do best, I'll need to make a list and sort out the reason as I go. Now's a good time:
1. I'm going freakin nuts here in cold rainy New England. I need to focus on small things that keep my mind busy and prevent a melt down. I tried woodworking, worked well, but kind of expensive and requires -- uhm, wood, that is increasingly more expensive and rarely available. And the garage is just too damned cold to work in 6 months out of the year.
2. My troubles are small, but weigh on me. I need to keep busy. I wrote a book for my daughters during a nasty divorce, really helped. I figure this would help with the smaller stuff too.
3. My wife thinks I need to do this because of items one and two.
4. I enjoy writing and would like to develop my skills, or acquire some, through practice. My biggest issue is this damned ADD. I rush through everything I write, don't have the patience to take the time to write fully, much less edit properly. I figure writing in a potentially public forum will force me to slow down and focus a bit. Maybe even read what I've written before hitting the Publish Post button.
Here goes...
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