twoapennything

Pursuant to this post on the former Judge Larry Manzanares, also former City Attorney for Denver, I was saddened to read of Mr. Manzanares's apparent suicide yesterday afternoon. The reason I am sad is because I feel for the children and family he left behind to deal with the overwhelming embarassment and shock of not only his suicide, but also his inexplicable actions that were the catalyst of this ultimate, unfortunate conclusion.

I definitely know the shame and horror of a parental suicide driven by egotism and misplaced values and priorities, as my own father -- from whom I was basically estranged at the time, due to his raging alcoholism -- killed himself after making a series of disasterous financial decisions (no doubt exacerbated by his chronic intoxication) by hanging himself in rehab. He himself had a profound lack of accountability when it came to anything other than dispensing funds. No doubt he thought himself a good father merely because he wrote a hefty support check to my mother every month. Without engaging in an emo rant, it is fair to say that he was indeed NOT a good father. He was obsessed with how others perceived him; I think his family was merely an extension of his image -- he had little use for emotional attachment. When he finally took his own life, hanging by his stupid belt from a showerhead, surrounded by pink tile, it was really only a relief for me.

It is not my intention to compare the former judge to my father, but I do find it interesting that men in positions of power sometimes seem to have the least amount of resiliency. There also comes with power the tendency to egrandize one's own limitations and boundaries. Judge Manzanares undoubtedly thought he could steal a laptop and not be held accountable for it, and felt entitled to do so -- likely due to his position of trust. That's the egotist at play. While the end result of suicide is unfortunate, there was no witch hunt at play here, as some may assert. The judge was treated as any other person in his situation would have been treated after having been found in possession of stolen property, probably with more leniency than John Q. Public would have been afforded. In fact, the D.A. that originally investigated the theft didn't want to file charges (undoubtedly the benefit of the doubt extended through a bit of nepotism), yet her supervisor appropriately overruled her and placed the matter with an independent investigator. I'm of the belief that people in legal positions of power, positions of power that can directly impact peoples' lives, should be held to a bit of a higher standard than John Q. Public -- not the other way around.

It's funny, but when the charges were filed last week, I had a fleeting thought of I wonder if he'll kill himself. . .

I inquired as to the status of these two pewdles this evening. I must be mad but, oh, I've wanted a poodle for years and years. Two males, one black, one silver, apparently the victims of a nasty divorce where custody could not be decided.

The poodle is a seriously underrated dog.

. . . to steal a phrase from NPR. This I Believe.

( THANK YOU )

( MENTAL ILLNESS: ONE PERSON'S (COMMON) EXPERIENCE )

( WHEREIN I RANT: MENTAL ILLNESS AND PHARMACEUTICALS AS BLOOD DIAMONDS )

( DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION )

( BASIC HEALTH CARE FOR ALL -- WHAT CONSTITUTES 'BASIC'? )

( LIMITED RESOURCES )

( SCHIZOPHRENIA: QUICK FACTS )

. . . wherein I engage in retail therapy of the M*A*C variety. Oh yes, my friends, I hit M*A*C for my annual makeup extravaganza, and hard. Here's what I got:

( || MAKEUP || )



( || SHOPPING || )



( || WORK || )



( || SHOWS || )

ETA: My Favorite Purged LJ Names! ( Come on, you know you want your LJ name to be  )

At the request of longtimegone: Things that Shouldn't Be Funny, But Are . . .

Why do none of the goth clubs in Denver have karaoke? I want a goth karaoke night. Woe.

( || Why Jesus Would Make a Ineffectual President || HUMOR || )

|| FLORIDA HOUSES SEX OFFENDERS UNDER A BRIDGE || The Florida Department of Corrections says there are fewer and fewer places in Miami-Dade County where sex offenders can live because the county has some of the strongest restrictions against this kind of criminal in the country.

Florida's solution: house the convicted felons under a bridge that forms one part of the causeway. The Julia Tuttle Causeway, which links Miami to Miami Beach, offers no running water, no electricity and little protection from nasty weather. It's not an ideal solution, Department of Corrections Officials told CNN, but at least the state knows where the sex offenders are.

I've done home visits in some pretty skanky places, but I have yet to do one under a bridge. I'm not familiar with Florida's sex offender laws, obviously, but one would think there would be group homes.

So, yeah, Sisters of Mercy concert last night . . . it was an all right show. Andrew is Brit-twiggy and bald and chain smokes while he sings, and the rest of the band was . . . well, who cares about the rest of the band, right? The smoke/fog machine was turned up on high *coughcough* and they are still into lots of multi-colored lights. The only complaint I have is that they didn't perform This Corrosion, which is akin to Laura Branigan (were she still with us) not performing Gloria or somesuch. Highlights for me were Dominion: Mother Russia, Ribbons, and Lucretia. Yeah, they played Temple of Love, but I don't really like that song.

I wore my black ballgown skirt and a top very similar to the one the model is wearing in the picture (no, that's not me with the blue dreds). Like, where else am I going to wear this? I received quite a lot of compliments, though, from random strangers and friends alike, so all-in-all it was a fun exercise in costuming! I chatted with a rather nice man named Randy in the smoking area -- he was wearing a full skeleton suit, with matching gloves. We had a nice conversation about Bauhaus vs. Love and Rockets, both of us actually erring on the side of Love and Rockets.

After the show we went to a club and danced the rest of the night away at 80s night -- it was so much fun! When I was in high school, being tucked away in the middle of Nowhere, Arizona, we had dances quite a lot as weekend entertainment because we weren't able to just pick up and go out to movies or out to dinner or whatnot -- our campus was in a very isolated location. Last night was like a flashback those fun times, where we would just dance until our faces were shiny and our hair was soaked through and our feet fell off. Those were good days. Anyhow, a bonafide hot guy asked me to dance, which was fun and flattering, and, as one of my friends said, it's always fun to watch the goths cut loose a bit and not be able to resist smiling while they windmill-dance to Tom Jones's Kiss! ♥

I got home at 2:00 a.m.

Next up on my concert calendar:

Ministry -- May 12th -- Ogden Theater

Erasure -- May 16th -- Boulder Theater

Nine Inch Nails with Bauhaus -- May 30th -- Red Rocks Ampitheatre

I know I just saw Bauhaus this past November, but a NIN/Bauhaus show is just too good to pass up. Especially at Red Rocks.

And, finally, because I'm older than God, I just have to say that it really kind of sucks to have to ice one's knee after a night out, or to actually hold an empathetic conversation with someone about how your clodhopper clubbing shoes exacerbate your bunion. -.-

A night like last night is always worth the ice pack, though!

Rose Patterned Wellingtons. Cutest. Wellies. EVAH.

Hahaha, my personal disease is certainly apropos today! Gakked from queeniex:

Doctor Unheimlich has diagnosed me with Twoapennyosis
Cause:	dancing
Symptoms:	slightly high blood-alcohol level, extreme earache, mild toe pain
Cure:	fresh air
Enter your name, for your own diagnosis:

Google Image Search Meme. ( MEME )