Hi all... this blog is not dead, just resting

If you’re reading this, welcome to my blog! There are over one-hundred articles and entries on this site, so I hope you find something you like.

For those who keep trying to spam their links into comments in any of my posts, please know that all comments are moderated and they will never see the internet-light-of-day. You’re welcome to contact me via the email link should you need to collaborate on a project. I’ve been known to do this a time or two before.

Have a great read! -CPD

Brevity, not tact, is my forté

Hello, illustrious readers. I shared a while back that I have readers from other countries, and so I decided to take an updated screen shot of my stats for the past month.
Once again, I'm excited! I love thinking that this world we call the internet can connect human beings in a way not previously imaginable. Priceless. Just like the way my cat sits like a human. 😼

On another, less exciting note, I feel an urge to communicate with those of you reading. I'm not strong on being long-winded with writing. I was trained out of that habit by my degree programs. Get me in person, however, and you've got another entirely different animal.

I will say this: I do not put all the details I have gathered from my research into my blog posts, because well, who has the patience to read a long-winded blog post from a random stranger? And further, if you are a student or another curious person looking for an answer to a specific question, I attempt to give you just that.

I not only take great care with wording my title (to attract those looking for that specific information), but I also attempt to take a "nutshell" version of the research I've gathered as if I were the one who would be reading the article after finding it in the search results. (And let's be honest here, I had enough trouble eking out over 30+ pages for my thesis, with help no less!)

So, to those reading, thank you. You are my lifeline to other parts of the world. And please, please, please, send comments if you have questions on the articles I write. I'm certain I can give you more information.

It's all in this noggin of mine. 😉

Legalizing Marijuana

Political and personal opinions aside, pot is a drug. So is cocaine. So is caffeine.

Pissed anyone off yet?

Good, now hear this. Why does everyone want to be stoned in this day and age? I know why I would want to be (and I don't smoke pot, but I do have a tendency to want to "check out" quite a bit lately).
Have you picked up a news article lately? Telling a lie has become the norm. Even for the Commander in Chief of the U.S. The "land of the free, the home of the brave."

I take advantage of both freedom and the responsibility to be brave. I have a story to tell. Pieces of this story leak out, which usually prompts the person I'm talking to to tell me I need to get into public speaking. The way I write is the way I speak. Hope you're getting the message clearly.

I don't intend to create unrest. Okay, well maybe a little bit. Snowden, et al, have prompted me to use my social media platform to speak out against the institutional stranglehold taking place on our freedom. Why are there explosions of certain mental illnesses that spring up every few years? ADHD, PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, etc.? It's a lot easier for the powers that be to think that there's something inherently wrong with the populous than to address the real issue at hand -- political unrest.

Sure, these disorders exist. I have personal experience with clinical Depression and beyond. However, what I've realized over the course of my life and over the course of my formal education is that the more I stifle my opinion and my feelings, the more depressed I get. I don't travel because there is an underlying stigma that mental illness creates weakness and fragility and that one suffering with mental illness should remain as close to providers that care for them as possible. I ascribed to this belief for many years. Yet, I want to travel, desperately. How does one cope?

Go for it. I am planning my next trip, albeit tentatively, right now. I don't plan to stay in the area I was raised for much longer. I grew up in a little town on the Central Coast of California. The population was 30,000 when I was a kid. Today it's over 120,000. That's way too many stifled, angry, fearful people in one small space for me.

I have friends who are gay, friends who cuss, and have a large network of culturally diverse individuals (racially, ethnically, sexually, politically, and socially). The more people that enter this area of the world, the more homogenous it becomes. That's counterintuitive in my world. I would think culturally diverse people would be welcomed into a primarily white working class community. Not so. I've often thought this would change but I've been waiting for 40 years, and the traveling must begin.

I love my friends, my family. But I cannot contend with a community that bars diversity. One that denies stigma, defends social injustices. This is morally, constitutionally, and ethically wrong. I cannot concede to this philosophical stronghold. I am white. I don't plan to act white. Join me on my continuing journey. The threads of freedom and diversity will be woven into my new journey. I hope you'll attend.