Layoffs Causing Remainders to Bail

My employer, under a hiring freeze has fired three workers in the past 2 months. As a result, there are not enough people to cover the shifts of a 24/7 help desk-call center. In response to this, management has redone our schedules and will, come the beginning of March, require us to work different shifts, ranging from 7 a.m to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, to 12 hour shifts from 7 p.m to 7 a.m. spanning weekends. Also, the workers will now be "on call" for covering for evening and weekend workers. To make matters more interesting, employees will not be paid for the on-call time. In short, our free time is now no longer ours.

We were blind sided by the email that arrived yesterday and, according to management, if we have problems with the schedule as it was delivered to us, we are to resolve the issues between ourselves.

It seems that the economic situation is now to a point that the reduced work force is causing more pressure on those who remain employed and many of them are now at the breaking point. For myself, this new schedule precludes my having a second job and caring for my mother who I visit nearly every weekend.

The new schedule almost seems designed to force us to quit. If any more employees are taken from the schedule, then coverage will be impossible. But, being a college town, management will, no doubt, be allowed to hire from the hungry pool of newbies at below fair market wages and save tons of money on wages and benefits.

Conspiracy theory? Yup. No doubt. Whether this is the case or not, the reality is that I cannot work the new schedule, my cube mate, a single mom currently on hemodialysis will not be able to work the new schedule and our former supervisor, a family man with a wife who rides to work with her husband every morning not just to save money, but because they only have the one car, well, unless they can get someone to pick one of them up way out in the country when their schedules diverge or when he is called in after hours, he will not be able to work the new schedule.

That's three of us. Three out of hundreds of thousands of people out of work.

The Sound and the Sway (reprint from MySpace)

The Sound and the Sway
Category: Music

When Dick and I first started talking about working together, before Hormone Junkies became manifest and long before we even mentioned the idea of a project together, we spoke about how music makes us feel. We listed bands, composers, artists and their works that caused that special surge in our internal systems, and those that initiated intellectual movement - soul and substance. We were up front about the fact that music, for us, was not a vapid method of passing the time, it was not a place holder for physical and mental inactivity, but an engaged essential state and process. Music was not to be played then not listened to. It was not to be performed and then not moved to. It was not just artificial environmental decoration - no. It is essential. It moves us on the inside and the outside. It engages us from the top of our brains down, through our eyes and mouths and throat and lungs, down and into our muscles and bones, our hips, our thighs and calves to our feet and our toes. It makes us dream and it makes us dance.

And that is how we got to "dance" music. A dance band. That's what we wanted. We wanted to dance. But, we realized immediately between us that our dancing was not limited to 120 beats per minute, kick drum on the down beat, syntho-throbbing, sub woofer pulsing club tunes, though we by no means dislike that type of dance music - we, in fact, love and embrace it. To us, though, dance music is so much more. We spoke to one another about bands like Talking Heads, the Orb, Underworld, and New Order. Groups that have gotten our hips and feet moving in the past - dance music. But, we realized that we also would dance to Yes's The Ancient or Sound Chaser and to Eno's King's Lead Hat and Energy Fools the Magician. Hell, we'd dance to the music of Elliot Sharp and Henry Cow. Our idea of dance music seems much broader than that of some of our colleagues. For us it's the sound and the sway, the meaning and the movement.

So, the sounds that channel through us, the music that we facillitate and the vibrations that we initiate, that music is all dance music. Sometimes it will make you dance, some times it will let you dance and sometimes it will dare you to. In any case, it is there for your head and hips alike. Al Gore reminded us that an African proverb states "when you pray, remember to move your feet." We offer foot moving music for all sorts of prayers.

PROOF of CONCEPT is OUT

We got confirmation yesterday that Amazon.com has the MP3 downloads for the Hormone Junkies EP "PROOF of CONCEPT" ready. Folks, it's less than $3 for three amazing songs. How can it NOT be worth it?

Hormone Junkies

Hormone Junkies is a new band with great potential. Visit their website at www.hormonejunkies.com and join their Facebook group page at http://tinyurl.com/6gttsf

What kind of music? Kind of Acid Jazz over dance rhythms with a post-prog rock flavor...with some Stockhausen and Cage thrown in.

The Case Against Racism in 2008

Never thought a speech from a leader of the AFL/CIO would ever bring tears of pride to my eyes - here it is:




Click on the TITLE to take you to Andrew Sullivan's "The Daily Dish"

Don't Vote

It's Sarah Palin Again

I've got a bite on my arm
From teeth with razors of sin
Gushing blood all around
It's Sarah Palin again

I feel the cold in the room
Can't you feel the heat flee?
The caring mother's have died
And sent their sons out to sea

It's Sarah Palin again
It's Sarah Palin again

Now I'm finally feeling warm
I see the flames from a pyre
Oh my God! What has she done?
She's throwing books on the fire!

It's Sarah Palin again
It's Sarah Palin again

She's just simple and small
Just a bug in my eye
I'm still bleeding from her bite
I guess I'll never know why

I won't demean the pigs and fishes
By using them to compare
I still fear for our lives
She makes me not want to care
Somebody's got to care....

Not Sarah Palin again
Not Sarah Palin again

©2008 Stuart Dummit/DEStudios.net

Class

This is a billboard near my home in Columbia, Missouri. Ain't we got class?

The Great Divide

I know these things to be true:

I am a coward. I am a whore. I am an excuse waiting for a broken promise. I am an atheist who prays to God out of fear.

I am a professional seeker of convenient truth. I am a reader of self help books. I am a denier of self help techniques. I am a theist who won't accept God's choices. I am the tongueless singer, I am the ear-less listener, I am the eyeless observer.

I am an embarrassed Oprah-holic.

About as well intentioned as a jerk like me can be, I try...I actually try to be the kind of man that I espouse as superior. "...he turns his attention to himself and molds his character."

I have been reading Eckhart Tolle's books the Power of Now and A New Earth. It's all an exercise in reflexive perception and awareness. "Be aware of yourself being aware." I do that and I feel inadequate. "Thought causes pain and suffering" I think, therefore I hurt.

But, he's right.

The line, which is an abstraction created by the human mind, is drawn in the air that surrounds my being and thereby manifests the space on either side of the line. And in those spaces we can place the good and the bad, the effective and the ineffective, that which works and that which doesn't.

Which side am I on?

Gotta Find Something Better (repost from Tribe.net)

Hello folks.

It's Tuesday morning and this is the second day in a row that I've called in sick to work. I'm actually not feeling well, but it's not medical - it's emotional. I hate my job. I really hate it. And what's more is that I find that I like hating it. The negativity fuels that hatred and it just continues to grow and grow. The cycle must come to an end.

I had decided that I would make it to the end of May at the current job and then quit. That would mean that I had fulfilled one of my New Year resolutions - to not be working at my current job by the time I turn 50. I reach that milestone in early June. But I don't think I can make it, folks. I have to find something different and I need to find it fast.

The major issues I have are 1) Health Care - I live in Missouri and the options for someone with a chronic disease without insurance are few and not particularly encouraging. 2) I owe lots of money, mostly due to the fact that my current insurance doesn't cover all my medications, so I've put them on credit cards and I don't currently make enough money to pay them off. Out of pocket I spent over $2500 last year on medication. And then there are the hospital and physician costs that insurance doesn't cover. 3) General expenses - I have over $1250 a month in just general expenses. That' not counting food and clothing. Just rent, car payment, insurance and general bills.

Soooo...I need to find a way to make money, be happy and move forward with my life. Any suggestions?

Think good thoughts.....

New Music

I really want you folks to listen to my music. I want feedback and I want to know that I'm not kidding myself. I've uploaded an industrial piece called IND01 to my MySpace page. Help me out and visit the site, make a comment, tell me that you believe in me!

What I'm Doing

Hello Friends!

Just a fast note to let you know what's up. I'm working on music quite a bit lately, and if you want to hear some of it, go to my MySpace site...the link is up in the title. Otherwise, I'm doing some writing, looking for ways to get out of my job, and, as always, looking for a partner in crime...or organic bed warmer or...well, you know!

Max is doing well. Total sweet-pea! I love him to no ends.

Family is doing okay. Dad's health isn't the greatest, but we do what we can to keep him comfortable and Mom is putting the Saints to shame with her selflessness and love. God, I admire that woman!

Here's a recent picture for all that care. Peace, Happiness and Fulfillment!

Stuart

Leopard Mac OS X (v. 10.5) Review

Okay - last night I stood in line to get a copy of Apple's latest major upgrade to their UNIX based operating system OS X - Leopard. If you're into the numbering game, this is version 10.5 and it's been around 2 years since a major upgrade.

Now, for all of you Windows folks out there who are stunned by Vista, imagine that Mac users have had many of those "wow" gizmos as a part of their computers for the last 24 months, and with the release of Leopard, the icing has been sweetened and any doubts have been put to rest. And before you say "Hey! But you're a Mac user anyway. What do YOU know about computers? You're just a Microsoft hater!" Well, I've been working with computers since 1991, I started on a PC with just DOS, then Windows 3.1, then IBM's OS/2 (which, by the way, is still pretty damn cool) and then, by 1996, I was in the computer biz and still make my major living as a desktop support agent for a hospital that uses primarily Windows XP. I also have experience with Linux, various flavors of UNIX and, believe it or not, just got my first Mac less than a year ago. So, I'm not prejudiced. I'm just amazed.

I'm not going to tell you that it's all good. It's not. My FTP program doesn't work and when I launched Yahoo! Messenger, it automatically shut down. I was able to find a suitable Open Source FTP client that works fine and an update of Yahoo! seems to fix that problem as well. I'm sure that I'll find other applications that have a hard time with the new OS, but for the most part, everything is working fine - and FAST! And because Apple is constantly working to improve they system and upgrades are delivered seamlessly and securely, I really can't complain.

It took about 2 hours for my MacBook Pro with 1.5 Gb of RAM to upgrade to the new software - it really was one stop shopping. What's great is that immediately I was able to be productive again, with printing in place, all of the drivers necessary for smooth work flow were functioning and I was able to take advantage of some of the new totally cool features.

On a Mac, there is an application Dock that usually resides along the bottom of the screen where you can set the icons for your most used programs. You actually do just set them there, like on a shelf. You can ask the Dock to stay put or hide itself when not in use to maximize workspace. You can even stack things up on this shelf - just like stacking magazines you can stack documents or even programs - just put the stuff in a folder and place it on the Dock. When you click on it, you can either see it fan out directly from the stack, or you can have it show up in a grid pattern.

You can also create separate work spaces on the computer so you can have all your web apps on one screen, and all of your office apps on another, and then move between them with a keyboard shortcut or the click of a mouse. Keep your games up and running and switch to your work screen quickly when someone comes into the room. Sweet.

There is also an automatic backup feature that allows the system to take a periodic snapshot of your system, keep a copy of it remotely (like on an external drive) and then you can browse through them like files and choose the right one if you need to get back to an older state on your computer.

And, if you own a freestanding copy of Windows XP or Vista, you can run it right on your Mac.

Now, all of these things have been written about before by folks who are far better at it than me, but here's the dirt - despite some stumbling here and there, this thing works and it works well. I have yet to actually explore some of the finer tweeks to the system and I'm sure I won't experience some of the "under the hood" changes until application developers start integrating them into new applications. But, for now, I'm a happy computing guy and I don't really have to spend a week or so learning how to use the new operating system or downloading replacement drivers or replacing old programs that don't work anymore. No. I got the best that technology has to offer right here on my laptop. And it's one virile cat!

New Project at Scented Shadows

Hey friends! There is a new project started at the brother site of Dangerous Enlightenment, Scented Shadows. Here's the url: http://meta4.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-project.html - clicking on the title will also take you there.

Doing Fine

Sorry that I've neglected to post regarding my health. I've been busy trying to catch up with the world and trying to renegotiate the way I deal with it. Not a particularly easy task.

As it turns out, there is no tumor in my lung - only fungus. The fix as it was presented to me was a bottle of very expensive pills. 60 of them for the price of about $2140. That's one month's worth. The side effects are not particularly fun, but I'm thinking that I may be near the end of the course of the treatment. The prescription allows for another 30 days of meds, but I am hoping that the docs will say I am free to get back to just 4 pills a day. Whatever they say, I go back on the 16th of October for another CT scan of my air sacs to see how things look.

Now, I mentioned above that I'm trying to renegotiate the way I deal with the world. What that really means is that I'm trying to find a new way to support myself. Some way that will pay the bills, give me appropriate health care and offer me a way to spend more than a fraction of the day with a smile on my face. I'm thinking that the answer may be freelancing. Freelance writer, artist, musician, teacher, hobo, bum.

I'd be good, wouldn't I?

So, I'm working that angle and I'll let y'all know how things are going. More regular posts will be coming soon.

a thought from early this morning

Gladly I would trade one vision for another
Until I realized that they were actually the same
And then it would be too late -
But, at least I would know

Doing Well, Not Doing Well

What's been happening in my life? Well, I've been sick. Yes, I've had a bout with some sort of bug that slapped me down for a few days with a 103 fever and a headache from the dark side. And sweating...never thought a human could produce so much water through their pores. Enough fluid to put out a medium sized fire!

I took a trip to the ER where I was poked, prodded, bled, x-rayed, CAT scanned and tapped. Yes, they stuck a spigot in my spine and took some fluid. I'll write a detailed piece on the whole episode later. It was not a good PR experience for the health care system.

A real downside to the visit was that they found a dark spot on my right lung. It's hard to tell, so they say, if it's pneumonia, fungus, tumor or what. The doctor's response? A needle biopsy. That was supposed to happen yesterday, but in the infinite wisdom of the machine of the hospital, no one told me not to eat past midnight the night before, and I was led to believe that I would be able to drive myself home after the procedure. That was so much not the case that it was decided to postpone the biopsy. Now it will happen on Friday and I will meet with my doctors on the next Friday.

In the meantime, I've decided that I no longer can work at my present job. The stress is enough to kill a man and, though I don't really have a plan for making money I have come to the conclusion that there has to be a better, healthier way.

So, today I visit some social service institutions and try to arrange some assistance. If working part time is the way to go, then that's what I'll do. I need to be able to pay my bills and pay off my debts - no small feat - and I need to be able to take care of the Max Monster - the astounding Beagle who shares my life. He's getting older, too, and sometimes his health is not what it could be. I need to make sure he gets the best care that can be afforded when he needs it.

Okay. Enough for now. I will post more when I know more. My spirits are high, though perhaps artificially propped up for the time being. I am scared, but that isn't such a bad thing. I have Max to protect me - right? Right.

Save Internet Radio

I will not, at this time, mount the soap box and preach to you. There should be no need for that. Instead, I offer a web link to a site that might help educate you on an important issue. The question is: Do we, as citizens, want the government to regulate forums of speech, communication and artistic expression using charges and fees that will force individuals and small, inadequately funded organizations off the internet air-waves?

Please, educate yourself on this important issue that needs to be addressed immediately - before the government sweeps it under the rug. Please comment on your thoughts about Internet Radio, copyright laws, fair usage, intellectual property and other related issues!

Save Internet Radio!

Welcome to the New Technology!

Okay. Here's something interesting. This blog is being created using a Widget from the Mac OS X Dashboard - I haven't even had to log into Blogger to get this up and running! Very Cool.

In other news, the DEStudios website will be undergoing a major upgrade in the next few days. Please be patient with me and I promise it will be amazing once it is up and running!

In the meantime, let me thank all of you for visiting and there will be REAL blog and website updates soon!

It's HERE!

Starlight & Darkness
the New Album from
STUART DUMMIT
is now Available!

Well folks! It's done. The album is up on the internet and ready for download. It is available in its entirety at three of the most popular internet music sources: iTunes, eMusic and Rhapsody. And you can download some of the individual tracks from those locations or from my MySpace site.

I want to thank two people specifically for their help in getting this thing off the ground - Jeff Wheeler for his technical and spiritual support, and Eric Letourneau for his encouragement. Couldn't have done it without either of them!

Most of this album was recorded in about a three week period on a Macintosh laptop computer in my apartment in Columbia, Missouri. One track, the long "Fluid Metal" was actually recorded way back in the early 1990s on a Fostex 4 track cassette machine in my apartment in San Francisco. Jeff Wheeler assisted in cleaning up the sound a bit and encouraged me to include it. An edited version of this piece was on my previous album Ecce Homo, which will be re-released later this year.

I hope you folks out in the universe of data packets and electronic impulses will help me out and pay for a download or two. It will go a long way towards getting me out from behind this desk, out of this tie and into my jeans with a guitar in my hands - the way I'm supposed to be!