Sunday Is My Fun Day

San Francisco: Financial District, Civic Center (Asian Art Museum and City Hall in lights after dark.)

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Many of us see at least our spam folders (and plenty, our inboxes), flooded with e-mails our good sense knows originate with those who have no compunction about defrauding the well-intentioned, the (for whatever reason) embarrassed, the hard-up, the isolated or lonely, those who are not yet wise to the tricks employed, or those who are developmentally disabled or aren't yet mature.

These criminals seem to operate without conscience, and seem to think doing wrong turns to the vulnerable is acceptable; they rely on public apathy and the reputation law enforcement and the government often have for an unwillingness or failure to act.

If you or a loved one has been taken in by any such scam (and the scammers might be in another state), please know that plenty of people and organizations are around to offer their assistance. Here are a few contact options:

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/scam-alerts (reporting scams)

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us (Internet Crime Complaint Center)

https://www.justice.gov/doj/spam (Justice Department,  spam)

https://www.usa.gov/stop-scams-frauds (more links, info)

https://www.treasury.gov/services/report-fwa/Pages/Report-Email-Scams.aspx (reporting to the Treasury)

https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/report-phishing (For those scams reputing to be the IRS contacting you)

https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/scam-emails (In the UK) 

IT IS MOST IMPORTANT THAT YOU NOT BE DISCOURAGED BY ANY CONTACT YOU HAVE WITH OTHERS IN WHICH YOU ARE TOLD YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER, AND DO NOT BE SHAMED: MOCKERY OR UNWILLINGNESS TO HELP ON THE PART OF THOSE YOU TALK TO IS NOT THE FINAL WORD - KEEP TRYING. IF THAT HAPPENS WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT, INSIST ON SPEAKING WITH ANY SUPERIORS, CALL BACK, WRITE TO THOSE DEPARTMENTS OR INDIVIDUALS HANDLING OVERSIGHT. YOU KNOW WRONG FROM RIGHT, AND YOU DESERVE JUSTICE.

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The rest of Sunday better be a breeze. Tons of lamb from Jenny U. (yay!), might bother Joyce next door for some of those ripe olives so I might cure them (I prefer salt to lye, myself), and... IF YOU'RE FEELING SINISTER, JUST LOVE BELLE AND SEBASTIAN RIFFING, OR FOR ANY OTHER REASON (SPITE IS A GOOD ONE, AMONG OTHERS), FEEL FREE TO DONATE TO MY GOFUNDME, PAYPAL, OR VENMO LINKS TO THE RIGHT-->>

Sellout

Here I am, pimping for hot swag Ilze gave my Mom a couple weeks ago during our trip to the City; Mom brings good Korean snack seaweed for her. (I had Ruffino and lytchee nuts and guavas for whomever I ran into on the way to or back from my appointments...)

This time, we have the beautiful, 100% cotton kitchen towels made by Kei & Molly Textiles, LLC, who clearly took a correct turn at Albuquerque. (I'm assuming Ilze didn't buy them online, but rather acquired them shopping at some inner Richmond storefront...) Lovely, lovely. Look at these patterns:

PS Who ARE you, Jon Gierlich? Walter Shitty? Prince Charming? Somebody who hates the real Jon's guts?

PPS Whatever opinion Joan Crawford might have relayed to Ingrid Sischy (could she have) about the trend of lifehacking is what I think of some people's bullshit around here.... Reality bites, Gomez and Morticia....

Of Approximately 4,100 I Once Was One

Unfortunately, TNDC saw fit after an expedited and highly dubious process to evict me October 22, 2014. My rent was always paid, there were no complaints, no inspections by City or County workers, and in fact, on the day I was to be exited, the Sheriff's department was nowhere to be seen -- instead, five Tenderloin Station uniformed sergeants were there to scream at me and keep their distance...

I'm not sure what is due me, but something must be. TNDC and Donald Falk broke every law known to man in the City and County of San Francisco regarding tenants and recipients of HUD low-income housing.

Most recently, I've discovered that there is an affidavit at the Grove St. courthouse that demands I sign it. Not sure what to do there...

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Missing Cat in ZIP 95979: Jonesy

It's been over a week since someone abducted my 8 lb., blue-eyed seal point cat, Jonesy -- they might even have broken into the house to do so. Every time I call local law enforcement, I get worse than no help (is that even Colusa County or Glenn County sheriff's deputies who are picking up the phone...???)

Jonesy is almost eight years old and has been with me almost all her life. She has been altered (a cursory examination of the abdomen should reveal two small arrow-shaped tattoos), and has had her shots (her papers are on file with San Francisco's SPCA under my name, William R. Way as well as her own...)

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Gardening II: The Upside of Walmart

Just to prove I'm not some bad egg who got lucky with some foreign matter-contaminated ground beef from the EVIL CORPORATION THAT CANNOT GET ITS SHIT STRAIGHT, I'd like to point out that store #02053's (Willows, California) nursery is bangin' for Spring 2017. Here's a look at today's offering -- get those violets while they're hot! (And yes, plenty of herbs...)

Petunias

Bougainvillea

Some generously proportioned daisy -- variety name begins with a "C"

Geraniums -- the real thing, just like Drew Barrymore's in E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL (1982)

Dianthus (Sweet William -- that's me!)

Some sort of golden calla lily -- probably wants more shade than we get in 7B...

See, Doug McMillon (Duke left with a $140,000,000 kiss behind the ear years ago -- my bad), you evil hillbilly, I'm not just out to fuck over Walmart. But clearly, I ain't fixin' to be no Nova Lee Nation, neither... I got you by the balls, fuguratively, my grip being my possession of certain stuff that never should have been sold at your stores yet was. (Pony up, pretty boy! You owe me more than $30 for that shitty hamburger -- can I get an "Amen," readers?)

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Aviso

"Anything can become excusable when seen from the standpoint of the result." - 三島 由紀夫 / Mishima Yukio

Because I Got High...

Any enterprising, vicious attorney out there who might think of styling himself or herself the antonym of San Francisco's Jonathan Bornstein? Now that things are getting more straightened out in my life, I'm looking back and seeing the need for a sort of reckoning on my behalf. Not just getting that eviction off of my record to ease my way into new housing when my name gets drawn in the next few months, but I'm talking a possible palms-up, full-on litigious retaliation: harassment, discrimination, defamation of character, emotional damages, theft, assault, and wrongful eviction for starters... Really looking into TNDC's horrible behavior towards me, especially during my last year at the Alexander. Justice!  (E-mail william.robert.way@gmail.com if you've got a good lead...)

Three Jewels

बुद्धं सरणं गच्छामि।
दम्मं सरणं गच्छामि।
सङ्घं सरणं गच्छामि।

Reminisce On The Love We Shared...

Dreadful, deeply unfunny joke within a joke ad infinitum:  Condoleeza Rice was Secretary of State; her main claims to fame were that she was a Sovietologist in a post-Soviet world, as well as a conservative black woman possessed of a damn regrettable 'do.  America went to war in Afghanistan anyway, precipitously and forgetful of the Russian example there.

Great moments in history, which should always terrify considering history's inescapable grip on our lives and the world we aim to live in.

Well Slap Me And Call Me Philip K. Dick

I just had an idea for a story in which someone invents a drug to combat cold and flu symptoms that's also a somewhat addictive euphoric.  One of the side effects of the drug is that it reveals to everyone else in the world who the person on it is and that person's psychological and intellectual make-up.  The situation inspires certain people to torture, persecute and kill by proxy those on the drug who are intelligent and good, while leaving alone those elements on the drug who engage in antisocial, undesirable and criminal behavior so that the drug develops a bad reputation among those factions in society who would see it prohibited -- the prohibitionists of course also having the motive of wanting to enrich themselves via the systems that arrest, prosecute and incarcerate those who either purvey the drug or use it.

Secrets Can Be Hard To Keep

And sometimes, when you feel good, don't you just want the whole world to know, so everyone can be happy for you?

So what we have is a situation in which we've established that telepathy is real, and yet people still get arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated for getting high.  That's so fucking retarded, I feel like kicking everyone's asses.

The Latest (And If I Had My Say, the Last) Straw

But then, when have I ever had my say?

Oh, right.

Here we go again.  What a sad, terrifying (but is it still mystifying, in 2016?) story.

Of course, if it had happened in San Francisco, the article in the SFGate wouldn't have come out until it could cite a fig-leaf toxicology report from the City's creepy ME at General, cover for the cops, and downplay or neglect to mention the victim's poor grandmother, who also died in a hail of gunfire.

They're lucky I wasn't there, or I probably would have pulled another mean Dark Phoenix number (with of course the little leg up from my usual lovely, anonymous assistants -- always grateful for you guys out there), twisting their porky, hair-trigger asses all over the place.

Goddamn them.  He was just a kid.  And his grandmother!

I don't blame so many people for being afraid to ask for help...

Old Beach Haven Ain't My Home

The old bolsheviks admonished us to kill all the landlords, but in my opinion (one echoing the experiences of Woodie Guthrie), low-income housing profiteers are the worst.  It's ugliest in the middle echelons. #TNDC.

The Thirteenth Step

Drinking, smoking and drugging cover a multitude of virtues -- a valid and proven survival technique for those of us standing on the threshold of nirvana and turning back to help others reach the same goal.

Still, I've cut the drinking back to a pint a week; I'm no Chögyam Trungpa.  I've stopped partying for now, even though methamphetamine has time and again saved my life, and led to much insight and wisdom; I don't need that stuff any more to induce visions or hear voices.  The next project:  cutting back on or quitting the nicotine.  That last one is going to prove rather difficult, but I need to live as long as possible (as long as life is worth living...)

I've Braved 10,000 Hells To Bring This To You, Grasshopper

Basics for survival, sanity and enlightenment.  Read these stories and take them to heart.

When One Is Oppressed, All Are Oppressed...

...Including the oppressors:  "We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions, bound together by a single unity: the unity of freedom and equality.  Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities.  Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races.  Whoever seeks to set one religion against another, seeks to destroy all religion." - Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The time is always right to do the right thing."

Pleading For The Fourth Amendment

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

The Future Is An Open Plain

Janet sat in the lotus position at the base of the acacia tree.  Mara's army was relentless.  It raged, it cajoled.  Among the many lies it told her, a precious few truths sparkled like dewdrops in the dawn light.  The army assailed her night and day.  It teased at her desires, filling her at turns with yearning and revulsion.  For three days and three nights she endured voices that spoke over her and through her, voices that issued death threats and insults, or that tried to tempt her with promises of wealth beyond imagining.  Once, General Mara himself came before her arrayed in a cunning disguise -- that of true love.

He was seductive, but in the end he wafted away on the East wind.  Janet remained silent and unmoved.

Following the three days and three nights, Janet, still in the lotus position, spoke her first words in reply to the onslaught:  a few whispers of gratitude to the worlds of the living and the dead, and of compassion for all beings.  She then fell into a heavenly slumber, her dreams populated by singing birds and honest friends and flowers that swayed to sutras threaded in the breeze.  She felt as though she anchored the world and it pivoted around her.  She could see all the faces on Mount Sumeru; they looked content and serene, their inner fires harmonious with their Buddha smiles.

Janet has dreamed continuously ever since, and it is this dream in which we all live and die and are reborn, over and over again.  Namo amida butsu.

The Book: Introduction

Since 1977 I have written in my heart every sorrow, every loss, every slight, every fury.  I have watched and listened until it cost me almost everything.  Yet somehow I always found still more at the bottom of my purse.

Along the way, there have been such joys.  I felt exhilaration with the thunder, the fire, and the earthquake.  I've thrilled to cuisine, to music, to the company of men.  I've cried at the exquisite perfection of a sudden Spring rain.  I marveled at the beauty inherent in every face on a mid-town bus.  I have carried the dying to their graves and the newborn from their cribs.

There are times I feel I have always been.

Voices carry, but they come and go.  I remain to scribe the lusts and follies, the bonhomie and battles, the history and future of us all in this, the Book.