SURVIVAL LIFE SKILLS 101

[CLICKCLACKONER]

Originally posted by KaBar

Sometimes I read shit on here that just amazes the shit out of me. I think of my own experiences as not being all that different from the rest of my generation, and I think of myself as just being kind of Joe Average Boomer, but when I read stuff like Moe Lester not going to the doctor because he doesn't have insurance, I get this sort of "Who TRAINED you motherfuckers for life, anyway?"

 

Truth is, probably: NOBODY.

 

Everybody with "NO DAD," raise your hand. That's what I fucking thought.

 

You can put your hands down now.

 

Okay. First things first. The idea is to live life as well as you can, and to be happy and satisfied. You want to be an intelligent, worldly, somewhat sophisticated person who has compassion for others and who reaches a condition in Life that roughly approximates Maslow's "self actualization" level in his Hierarchy of Needs. If you've never heard of Maslow or his goddammed needs, don't worry. Maslow and Erikson will dog your every step in college, so you can defer worrying about them until then.

 

Basic needs first: Oxygen. Gotta have it. A satisfying sex life don't mean shit if you are gasping for every breath. (SMOKERS TAKE HEED and I ain't lyin'.)

 

Water. Food. Clothes and Shelter. SAFETY.

 

Once you got the basics, then you can start elaborating.

 

Love. Affection. Education. Meaningful Work. Spirtual Enlightenment.

 

ART.

 

Bottom line, you can't expect people to be compassionate towards others if they are hungry all the time. You can't expect people to work on their relationship with their conception of God, or Nature or Whatever if they are subject to being beaten or raped or emotionally tortured. It's just not very likely to occur. If you are fighting for your life, you don't have time or energy for "enlightenment." It's all about "eliminating that threat to my life, and by any goddam means necessary." You can worry about God once you got Hitler safe in the ground.

 

What I have in mind here is some frank discussion about HOW TO SURVIVE and I'm not talking about making fire with a bow drill.

 

LET'S HEAR IT. What a ya got?

 

I would hate for you to be my dad. seriously. the most pompous guy on this board.

[KaBar]

Hang in there Jesus Machine

 

The thing about being convinced you're right and that everybody and everything else is wrong winds up being erroneous.

 

SEVENTY-FIVE PER CENT of African-American children in the U.S. are born out of wedlock and with no father figure.

 

TWENTY-SIX PER CENT of Caucasian kids are in the same boat.

 

These kids are having a hell of a time living anything close to a normal life. NO PLACE ELSE ON EARTH, with the exception of Scandanavian countries, are children being abandoned and neglected by their fathers in such huge numbers.

 

Why do these kids not understand that taking dope, drinking to excess, having sex without love and responsibility, hating the world are all fucked up and guaranteed to ruin you? Why not? I've had scores of teenagers tell me "Why should I care about the world? MY OWN FATHER DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT ME."

 

LOW SELF ESTEEM

NO COMPASSION

NO SENSE OF MORAL DIRECTION

NO IDENTIFICATION WITH THE LARGER SOCIETY

NO BELIEF THAT SUCESS IS ATTAINABLE OR EVEN DESIREABLE

NO LOVE FOR KNOWLEDGE OR BOOKS OR EDUCATION

 

NO LOVE.

 

Pompous? Fuck, maybe I am. What's the alternative? Just sit back and watch the whole world TURN TO SHIT? NO FUCKIN' THANKS.

[CLICKCLACKONER]

Don't worry about me. I'm fine. Those factoids you just dropped had nothing to do with me.

[amItoolate?]

Originally posted by KaBar

I get this sort of "Who TRAINED you motherfuckers for life, anyway?"

 

Truth is, probably: NOBODY.

 

Everybody with "NO DAD," raise your hand. That's what I fucking thought.

 

You can put your hands down now.

 

 

whats having a dad got to do with learning how to survive? us folks without dads had to learn to survive quicker.

[CLICKCLACKONER]

KaBar-- You fit the stereotypical boomer to tee.

[Guest optimo]

eating out is expensive, especially at sit down resturants.

 

smoking is very expensive, so is drinking not to mention illegal drugs

 

paint is expensive,,,,,,,,, rack it!

 

always wear a condom,,,,, kids are very expensive, so is treatment for STDS.

 

"keep your head up" --- word baby

 

maybe some more later

[yoshy]

Originally posted by KaBar

. . . Bottom line, you can't expect people to be compassionate towards others if they are hungry all the time. . .

 

 

kaBar

 

i really hear what you are saying, and i think it is important, as

a young person to understand these things. i think you have an

excellent point about how "being hungry" affects the rest of your life.

 

being that this is posted on a graf message board, i wonder what think

about pushing your ideas keeping graf in mind. so rarely in graf are

people compassionate to other people, and to those people who are

outside the culture, or who fail to see its beauty. sometimes i even find

myself challenged (negatively) with the things people do with their

writing.

 

do you think, that "The idea is to live life as well as you can" should be

pushed to also discover the rage which drives your writing? most of the

time, writing can be dangerous, whether it is to your safety, your

freedom, or to your well being...

 

what do you think?

 

y

[Ford Prefect]

I'm still alive, so all of my needs must be being met.....................................

[!@#$%]

one more...

 

don't take anything for granted, especially your health and your friends/family

 

you never know when they'll be gone

[Hate Therapy]

The thing about being convinced you're right and that everybody and everything else is wrong winds up being erroneous.

 

That being said, would you say that you're right or wrong in drawing this conclusion?

 

... Just kidding.

[vinyl junkie]

Re: Re: SURVIVAL LIFE SKILLS 101

 

Originally posted by JesusMachine

seriously. the most pompous guy on this board.

way to be pompous kabar... personally, i would take a week of hands on "lessons" from kabar over al the years i've spent in school...

 

as for survival, if you're around other people you'll never starve... for every 100 assholes that turns you away, there's at least one nice fucker that'll buy you a meal... or there's a restaraunt that gives a way food... or a free box or something...

keep looking, keep trying... that applies to most everything...stuff will always work out in your favor if you give it enough time...

[Guest --zeSto--]

there's some great stuff going on in here, but 1 point really needs to be cleared up.

 

"NO DAD" is not as bad as it sounds. I have both parents, and have lived with both at different stages in my life,

and I've got to say that of all the really important lessons I've learned...

80% of them came from the maternal side.

 

things like (but not exclusive to) ; manners, anger managment, cooking, gardening, respect for health, finding pleasure in the simple things, the need to do away with clutter, the art of travel, how to communicate with women, respect for personal property, how to share, keeping your temper, and on and on....

came from Mom, not Dad.

 

some times a little "LESS DAD" is what people need. (Dubya included!)

 

simply... before you do anything questionable ask yourself "what you mom say?"

[amItoolate?]

im not saying its a bad thing infact i totally agree with every word you just said^^

[Vanity]

never trust a woman... esp. emotionally.

[SleepAnDream]

Originally posted by Cracked Ass

understand this: doing drugs is like getting pleasure on credit. You're going to have to pay later...and in this metaphor, "declaring bankruptcy" to avoid payment equals death.

 

good words...

[KaBar]

Yoshy

 

A challenging set of concepts, and definately worth exploring. From my viewpoint, there seem to essentially be two very broad and loosely associated groups of graff writers: those who view graff as essentially vandalism (one guy told me that if the owner of the wall allowed him to paint there, then he wouldn't bother), and those who view graff as essentially "art." I am definately an aficianado of the "art" viewpoint. To me, graff's value comes both from it's function as a medium of expression, and also it's communication of the artist's identity. It's somewhat like the artist's signature IS both the art, and the identifying mark of the artist.

 

In this regard, I see the graff itself as more important than the act of vandalism (assuming that the piece is not on a legal wall, etc.) and I would place much more importance on the colors used, the style, the consistancy with which the writer performs his work, etc.

 

The artistic nature of graff is much more valuable to me than whatever message is sent. Gang tags, in my opinion, should be relentlessly and immediately buffed, by everybody. No neighborhood should tolerate gangbangers seizing control of public spaces. Those spaces belong to everybody, and here in Texas, some neighborhoods actually have ARMED anti-graffitti patrols that buff in groups, with some people rolling on paint and some just standing by watching for trouble, with a CB or a cell phone in their hand and a shotgun on the seat of their car.

 

Regular graff, without the ugly, threatening "187" component, may upset property owners just as much, but it doesn't normally lead to murder. I believe that regular graff, in the right areas, actually adds life and color and artistic expression to an otherwise dreary, industrial landscape. But I don't like it at all when people hit houses, etc. in a residential neighborhood. It's a paradox for me. Somewhat like riding a motorcycle on the sidewalk, or across people's lawns--it's possible, and it may be fun, but it's dangerous and it's not appropriate.

If you want to tear ass around on a dirt squirter, do it away from where people live. It's not that dirt bikes are all bad (I love 'em) but I am adamantly opposed to doing doughnuts on some citizen's lawn.

 

Same thing with graff. You want to express yourself? Fuckin' great. I'm all for it. Just don't hit my fence or my garage door, that's all.

 

One of the best thing about hitting rail cars is that although somebody does own them, hardly anybody gets upset about graff on them. So you can express yourself all you want, and if you stay off the numbers, the piece will run for months, maybe years, all over creation, but nobody will be pissed except some bureaucrat at the railroad.

 

I don't know. Maybe it's expecting too much. The guy who is out vandalizing shit cannot see that it is him that has a problem. If he could see that, he probably wouldn't be doing it at all.

 

From my viewpoint, one of the great drawbacks of this view is that graff is so non-commercial that it is actually anti- commercial. You cannot sell a piece of freeway overpass. Therefore, you are denying yourself one of the just rewards of artistic expression. People are often willing to pay serious money to "own" a particular example of artistic expression, regardless of how fleeting it is. So instead of being the graffitti vandal, one could be the "urban artist." Of course, once you begin making money from your work, you are no longer as "free" as you once were, artistically, but musicians do it, and gallery artists do it--why not graffitti writers? Art is art, and it has a certain value to people who admire it. So one could express one's anger at the inherent unfairness of The World As It Is, and still enjoy rewards of a more material nature than the pride of seeing your shit up all over American railyards.

 

I don't know. What do you think?

[yoshy]

kaBar

 

thanks for replying,

 

in my opinion, i see graf being a whole of the two different sides that

you see there to be. not only do i value the artistic skill and merit of a

piece, but i also value the risk in painting it illegaly. for me, if it is not

illegal, i wouldnt do it b/c it doesnt fully encompass what i am trying to

achieve with my writing. when i look at bombs in the city that look like

shit or that are poor quality, i dont think much of them. when i see crazy

legal wall painting, or permission stuff, it doesnt do anything for me. i am

not saying that either of those two arent good, or dont have skill or a

point behind them. what i am saying is that they are not succesful to me.

 

so i guess i disageree with you here b/c i think the vandalism aspect of

writing is very important, it is what sets it apart from other forms of

expression. every art form has its pains, lessons, losses and sacrifices;

but it might take a great deal of time to discover them. it seems to me

that writing wears a very obvious form of pain on its sleeve and that is

what it is about.

 

Regular graff, without the ugly, threatening "187" component, may upset property

owners just as much, but it doesn't normally lead to murder.

 

this is true, although there have been scores of writers who

have passed away at the hands of writing. what writing can normally

lead to is incarceration, hardship, stress, fear and injury and a good old

all around abnormal lifestyle. i guess what i am getting at here kaBar, is

 

<<do you think that in order to live a "good life" you have to discover

would lead you to stop writing, and to pursue other things?>>

 

i think that "struggle" in an artists life is terribly important, b/c with out

it, the urge to pursue pain and hapiness and express them to other

people becomes muffled and it is the art which suffers with the loss of

integrity.

 

with that said i wonder if the struggle that writing carries can be so

overwhelming that it doesnt sometimes outweigh the artistic expression.

 

 

 

Same thing with graff. You want to express yourself? Fuckin' great.

I'm all for it. Just don't hit my fence or my garage door, that's all.

 

One of the best thing about hitting rail cars is that although somebody does own them,

hardly anybody gets upset about graff on them. So you can express yourself all you want,

and if you stay off the numbers, the piece will run

for months, maybe years, all over creation,

but nobody will be pissed except some bureaucrat at the railroad.

 

i have a lot of difficulty with this statement kaBar. dont get me wrong,

i love trains and i would be fucking pissed if someone tagged my house

but i think the point of graf is to write on whatever you want to write on,

so to say one thing is OK, and another NOT OK ultimately does not work.

i see writing as a beast, the underbelly of a lot of angry young people

and i see that anger as uncontrollable. that is the fear that people have

of graf and why writing is ultimately so powerful . . .

 

if you have read this far kaBar, thankyou, i appreciate you taking the

time!

 

yoshy

[CestoChango]

treat your parents well, they control your life.

[Guest --zeSto--]

^ mostly...

 

treat you parants well because one day they wont have to stick up for you.

[Guest 150's~]

Carry a gun if you go to the hood, they don't like you white people, and we is all strapped.

[Guest 150's~]

Just kidding man. World Peace! ;}

[curious]

Everyone has to have piece of mind, and all the other good stuff.

[KaBar]

Yoshy

 

I'm not sure if I can actually answer your question, because I'm not sure it is answerable. There is definately a risk-taking element to writing graffitti, and i agree, that's definately part of the fun of it. I am mostly interested in trainhopping, and only interested in graf as a side issue, but I definately can see how a little adventureous risk-taking can add a lot to it. However--if one had to damage the railroad in some way to ride trains, it would be a lot harder to justify. I think of trainhopping much in the same way that I think of parachuting off of tall buildings and bridges and towers and whatnot. Yes, it is tresspassing, but it doesn't damage the tower for some crazy parachutist to jump off of it.

 

Hitting somebody's personal property is not cool. In fact, it's dangerous as hell. Down here you could definately get shot, although I've never heard of that happening. I think that graffitti writers should have rules, just like the rest of the world, and one of them should be no hitting residences or residential neighborhoods. But, realistically, plenty of graff writers enjoy vandalizing people's property too much to stop, and so the public hates graff and, in general, writers too.

 

Areas of the city where there is no social cohesion and where the people have no personal investment in their environment are places where local people could probably not care less if somebody writes graff all over. But in a neighborhood where the people that live there own their own homes, anybody doing vandalism is taking a serious ass risk. Would you go down to the local hang-out and hit somebody's ride? That's the reaction one can expect--murderous indignation.

 

Those people own those houses. They bought them, they worked hard to earn the money to pay for them, and they will very likely defend them. To hit them with graff is every bit as serious a moral transgression as racism, sexism, etc. It's extremely disrespectful and in the state of Texas during the hours of darkness, any vandal is fair game. These laws were written specifically to stop criminal mischief by the Ku Klux Klan in 1876, and they are still valid and still on the books. Writing on somebody's house is like burning a cross in their yard. You're really asking for it, to do that. And judges down here take the exact same viewpoint of criminal mischief, regardless of the motivation. Some idiot who spray paints "Rollin' 60's Hoover Crips" on somebody's home is exactly the same kind of person who would light a cross in front of that home, and in Court, will get a comparable sentence. But worst of all, it generates deep-down hatred for anybody the offended home owner identifies as probable vandals. When you fuck with somebody's home, you are setting things into motion that you have no idea about. It's a real bad idea. I say don't do it.

 

Hitting property like freeway overpasses or warehouses or abandoned buildings is much less likely to cause such outrage and anger.

 

People who write on banks or large corporations, trying to make a statement, are creating less of a problem. But institutions like schools or churches, mosques or synagogues should definately be off limits, because hitting them causes people to be furious about it.

 

I know very well that a whole series of people will post and say "FUCK school! Hell, yeah, I'm gonna write there and tell them how much they suck!" All I can say is that when these guys get caught, they'll be the first ones to whine and cry about how unfair it all is, and how the Court is being so cruel and vindictive. I wouldn't expect mercy, because the rest of society sees graffitti as a serious problem, especially gang tagging. Those people that get caught can expect to get punished pretty hard. I know a couple of people that got both fines and public service out of tagging.

[Guest --zeSto--]

hey kabar... and retort to my 'no dad' point ?

[Hate Therapy]

If this is a "survival" post someone should drop some definitive ghetto knowledge--how to get by on a loaf of bread, 3 boxes of spaghetti and a racked stock-pile of grape kool-aid. Shit like that.

[Guest --zeSto--]

ok...

 

If you've got to make soup out of stolen ketchup and hotsauce packets, dont forget to add lots of black pepper.

 

Buy day old muffins, but never day old donuts, they dont have the shelf life.

 

on laundry day... you can easuly swipe those soap pucks out of a machine before they dissolve.

No body's going to notice that they didn't get any soap until after the clothes dry.

 

Rice is super cheap to buy and those same free packets of hot sauce will add a great bit of flavor.

[KaBar]

Zesto

 

You got a right to your opinion, bro. I'm not trying to disrespect anybody's mother. My beef is with the biological fathers of all these kids, who got the mom pregnant, but are not standing up and taking responsibility for their actions.

 

It's not every man. It's not even every father of a baby who ain't "married/ hooked up/ living with" the mom. Lots of men who father kids out of wedlock still do right. They come see the kid, they support the kid, they act like a father should act.

 

But plenty don't, too. They act like toys--no responsibility, no loyalty, no maturity. Twenty-five years old and has the emotional maturity of a twelve-year-old. I got no respect for a "boy" that won't stand up like a man and discharge his responsibility to his own blood. The same guy that will leave his own little baby hungry and unprotected to the World talks tons of shit about respect.

 

REAL MEN LOVE THEIR CHILDREN.

 

Pussy ass punks ditch their girl when she's pregnant.

 

If he doesn't have what it takes to be a DADDY, then he needs to keep his wee-wee in his panties.

 

For the most part, the mothers do the best they can under trying circumstances, but if she gets pregnant by a guy that doesn't act like a stand-up man, she's already fucked up her part of the deal--by sleeping with a gutless, disloyal punk loser to START WITH. Her job is to PICK A WINNER. That means A MAN WORTHY OF RESPECT. And I am NOT talking about some idiot with a pistol and a stupid attitude.

 

These men that refuse to stand up and take responsibility are killing their children with their bullshit. The boys are running the streets thinking you have to be a heartless monster to be a man, and the little girls are thinking that no man will ever love them--her OWN DADDY didn't even love her enough to see that she had enough to eat.

 

It's destroying us. Our Nation is DYING because of this shit. The message is clear as a bell---Don't make no babies unless you want to BE A DADDY.

 

I don't know what to tell you, Zesto. I'm sick of living in a world where gutless, disloyal assholes are permitted to fuck up the lives of innocent children. The men that act like this are less than dirt. NO EXCUSES. A man worthy of the name TAKES CARE OF HIS OWN. A man is a provider and a protector. He leads his family. He teaches his children. He serves as an admirable example. He acts as a man is supposed to act. That should be crystal clear to everyone, and yet---the world is full of "playas." It makes me want to hurt some motherfuckers.

[Guest duffman]

"A man that cant spend time with his family can never be a real man..." - Godfather

[whiskybar]

Yea since a lot of my problems earlier in life were directed from an asshole dad I could of passed on that shit. I'm a man now and no longer can I say its not my fault I'm on drugs or don't work or am abusive. I kept my art and college as a goal always.Even though at some points I was no where near accomplishing them. I had enough sense and luck when feds raided my crib and my friends were junkies (now 10 years later half are dead at least) to change and know that I wanted more outta life. I deserved more then the whole stoner loser psychology of -"Well if it doesn't happen then it wasn't met to be," is bullshit. A couple things kept me aware of what I was doing. If your the 4th person out of 3 losers/drug addicts/convict(whatever) your guaranteed to be the forth. Keep reasonable goals and accomplish them. Don't focus on things you cant change. I still get high sometimes but I have a career and college education and bunch of other shit I wouldn't have if I kept running with my caps and dope crew of 1992.Fuck quitting and letting the bad hand and your demons win. Fuck that! Some people have rougher stories then others but that makes you tougher. Being open minded and understanding all views of your and family/friends mistakes can help you. Don't be pussy and let life beat you. Suicide is low and selfish.

[xwibxonex]

good post kabar.. on a side note.. why would you be in the desert and have a coffee can and saran wrap.. i mean jesus what are the chances of that happening.... i would reply with some half-assed intelligent reply to the actual topic... but i have a headache