I like to remind myself every year that February is always my hardest month. Though its not that cold here (portland or), I just find it rough. I hope the new rulings go our way. Public sentiment changes sides grain by grain until it overwhelms the scale.
I saw that you already knew and wrote from your own perspective.
Sometimes, when we've been in a struggle so onerous and appearing so defeating, we tend to lose hope. I don't blame you, Amy. I'm not telling you how to feel.
I see the nullification of the Covid injection requirement as extremely positive news. I don't have your expertise in dealing with the Thai immigration process. I don't know what kind of obstacles they may or did create.
Situations in our lives often have their own current which can become a whitewater torrent. However, nothing created the torrent except the volume of water and width of the river. We might intuit that River Gods punished us, but indeed, they didn't. We assumed the challenge.
Bureaucracy everywhere is an insatiable animal. I worked for years in administration at UC Berkeley. I was damned good. Why? Because I learned very rapidly how to get action and achieve results using the bureaucratic system.
One way I achieved success over others involved knowing the person. E.g., I had to fulfill certain requirements for postdoctoral candidates from foreign countries to execute H1-B visas (these were highly technical fields in solid state physics with few truly qualified candidates). I would establish great relationships with the person to whom I submitted the application materials through the University. In many cases, they'd end conversations with "Oh, by the way, we no longer need Form XXXX but now require Codicil XYZ. Don't forget your candidates passport copy."
When I filed the papers, they were meticulously done. I'm excellent with detail. Nothing was ever remiss or returned after my first 1-2 early attempts.
So, impersonal, onerous systems can be abridged and serve us well. Maybe take some time off to reclaim whatever you need to tackle this issue again. I can't help but feel that you'll be enormously successful beyond your wildest dreams on this upcoming attempt.
Thank you for the updates. Lovely to see you and your girls spending time together. Praying that your and Ka's situation sorts out. Somehow things will sort out, in time.
I LOL's at your memes and photos. They are so very apt! :)
There are good things happening, bad things happening, and holding patterns. We can't tell yet how things will go, but there sure is a hell of a shake-up happening now. A much needed shakeup. Where the pieces will finally land is anyone's guess.
Despite the difficulty for many I do have to agree that the children of illegal immigrants, born in the USA, should not automatically be granted citizenship. That is passed with a 30-day notice. No other country does that. Here in the Philippines (and surely you as well) I have to jump through many hoops every year just to stay legal.
Philippines follows the USA in many things... there is much angst here over US moves... not least the fact that many illegal migrants will be returned....
My oldest turns sweet 16 today. She wants to study medicine. She cannot be vaccinated. I am trying to divert her to allied fields - she is considering biomedical engineering, and pray we can find a way!
I will write about PH news when I have a chance to breathe after the next few days.
For now, I have a presentation tomorrow on Pandemic Health outcomes to a big group of church leaders... which is critically important. For some of the attendees, it might be their first time to see that something is wrong! I must be top of my game!
Good luck with your presentation! My older daughter is not a Thai citizen due to obstacles following her birth in Thailand. I am aware that many countries do not do birthright citizenship. The USA I think should absolutely keep the system as it is. I suppose I default to the miracle of life and therefore cringe at the degrading of the sacrifice of motherhood via terms and ideas such as “elfare queens” or “anchor babies.”
I also wonder when executive orders by presidents became so much more important than Congressional or legislative action. It’s become a spectacle unto itself…like a king of old.
I have several Bibles my mother reads mine every night. It has been a few weeks since I was directly going through verses, except my daughter asked me about the origin of the number 666 being Satanic so I read some verses in Revelation 13 around there regarding the Mark of the Beast. LOL I needed a new Las Vegas based phone number, which they randomly assigned to me as 702-666-3847. I just rolled my eyes like you people just like messing with me.
I have been feeling a desire to review Buddhist tenets lately. I have been trying to parse the idea of an all loving, all forgiving, all knowing creator with the vindictive psychopath version of God featured in the Old Testament, who clearly has chosen and not chosen people and clear winners and losers. This seems like the work of man...
You follow Naomi Wolf, right? She figures the New Geneva Bible puts God in a gentler light than other versions that seem to intentionally make God scary.
Yes I remember when Naomi Wolf was doing Bible readings a few years ago. I have on ocassion looked into different versions of the Bibles which we have here in Las Vegas and noted slightly different wording in different eras on key texts. My Mother defaults to the Bible my aunt gave me for Confirmation when I was 12 or so she likes that version best.
Fire and Brimstone has been used by many on the pulpit to scare the congregation into submission while at other times they lean on the benevolent all forgiving loving God to expand their ranks. I’ve never been able to reconcile the smiting version with my personal experiences…
Considering the depths of human depravity, cosmic justice looks equally horrific. Makes me wonder about the difference between personal and collective relationships with God. The collective problem is like a schoolroom where one or two knuckleheads cost recess for everybody.
Amy, if you had a better understanding of what is happening in the Old Testament, you would never say He is a vindictive psycho. Please. He is not the "sky bully" you are making him out to be. I am re-discovering author Gary Wayne.
His second book has just recently been released:
The Genesis 6 Conspiracy Part II: How understanding prehistory and giants helps define end-time prophecy.
This book might be of interest to you.
Here's the website; MUCH of the book is also here.
I will check it out SAMO. I’ve been pondering the New and the Old Testament quite a bit in the past several days. I balance out lively debates which contrasted a loving benevolent creator of all life against one with many proscriptions for being among a chosen set who are favored. Ultimately I think we need to make peace with death and its place in life…
As a funny and sad side note I have been listening to a Christian radio station exclusively while out on deliveries lately. Perhaps this is because January is a depressing time of year, or perhaps it is other reasons, but I’ve noted the alarming number of people who have called in to the station mentioning the anniversary of the death of their spouse or a major medical event with a loved one in the past 2-3 years. One mentioned her husband’s inexplicable stroke at 28 years old two years ago and how she felt he was saved by prayer. That’s beautiful but I couldn’t help but wonder if he was jabbed..
I'm with you... your first thoughts on politics... I never partook until 2020 as well. Glad I was able to live 46yrs without b/c the last 5 have been exhausting. As they designed. Happy to have found your inspirational writings here. Thank you 😊
Super-duper post, Amy. Prayers up. So much mind-bending stuff. Cool colonnaded cabana. Thomas Merton is a great read. Immigration issues are a huge mess. First Black Senator reminds me how some say the parties switched policy positions over the years. All that tells me is parties are unstable.
Trump singling out antisemitism seems puzzling. I thought DEI taught us that equal protection is every individual’s right. He needs the pro-Israel camp on his side, and I want to assume he isn’t Fauci-caliber evil (I contend he never mandated the vax), so that EO seems tactical, like Stargate. Surely he has dirt on BP like he has on big tech. Aimed the right direction, their money, infrastructure, and brain trust is raw MAGA material. Throwing everybody a bone makes them happy, and now they owe him or he owns them.
I like to remind myself every year that February is always my hardest month. Though its not that cold here (portland or), I just find it rough. I hope the new rulings go our way. Public sentiment changes sides grain by grain until it overwhelms the scale.
Thinking of you and Ka when I heard this. Hoping and praying good things come your way. 🦋
Thank you and God Bless JuJu
I came swiftly to your site, Amy, when I read ZeroHedge earlier. They reposted The Epoch's article. https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/federal-government-drops-covid-19-vaccination-requirement-for-legal-immigrants-5797493
I saw that you already knew and wrote from your own perspective.
Sometimes, when we've been in a struggle so onerous and appearing so defeating, we tend to lose hope. I don't blame you, Amy. I'm not telling you how to feel.
I see the nullification of the Covid injection requirement as extremely positive news. I don't have your expertise in dealing with the Thai immigration process. I don't know what kind of obstacles they may or did create.
Situations in our lives often have their own current which can become a whitewater torrent. However, nothing created the torrent except the volume of water and width of the river. We might intuit that River Gods punished us, but indeed, they didn't. We assumed the challenge.
Bureaucracy everywhere is an insatiable animal. I worked for years in administration at UC Berkeley. I was damned good. Why? Because I learned very rapidly how to get action and achieve results using the bureaucratic system.
One way I achieved success over others involved knowing the person. E.g., I had to fulfill certain requirements for postdoctoral candidates from foreign countries to execute H1-B visas (these were highly technical fields in solid state physics with few truly qualified candidates). I would establish great relationships with the person to whom I submitted the application materials through the University. In many cases, they'd end conversations with "Oh, by the way, we no longer need Form XXXX but now require Codicil XYZ. Don't forget your candidates passport copy."
When I filed the papers, they were meticulously done. I'm excellent with detail. Nothing was ever remiss or returned after my first 1-2 early attempts.
So, impersonal, onerous systems can be abridged and serve us well. Maybe take some time off to reclaim whatever you need to tackle this issue again. I can't help but feel that you'll be enormously successful beyond your wildest dreams on this upcoming attempt.
Thank you for the updates. Lovely to see you and your girls spending time together. Praying that your and Ka's situation sorts out. Somehow things will sort out, in time.
I LOL's at your memes and photos. They are so very apt! :)
There are good things happening, bad things happening, and holding patterns. We can't tell yet how things will go, but there sure is a hell of a shake-up happening now. A much needed shakeup. Where the pieces will finally land is anyone's guess.
Despite the difficulty for many I do have to agree that the children of illegal immigrants, born in the USA, should not automatically be granted citizenship. That is passed with a 30-day notice. No other country does that. Here in the Philippines (and surely you as well) I have to jump through many hoops every year just to stay legal.
Philippines follows the USA in many things... there is much angst here over US moves... not least the fact that many illegal migrants will be returned....
My oldest turns sweet 16 today. She wants to study medicine. She cannot be vaccinated. I am trying to divert her to allied fields - she is considering biomedical engineering, and pray we can find a way!
I will write about PH news when I have a chance to breathe after the next few days.
For now, I have a presentation tomorrow on Pandemic Health outcomes to a big group of church leaders... which is critically important. For some of the attendees, it might be their first time to see that something is wrong! I must be top of my game!
Good luck with your presentation! My older daughter is not a Thai citizen due to obstacles following her birth in Thailand. I am aware that many countries do not do birthright citizenship. The USA I think should absolutely keep the system as it is. I suppose I default to the miracle of life and therefore cringe at the degrading of the sacrifice of motherhood via terms and ideas such as “elfare queens” or “anchor babies.”
I also wonder when executive orders by presidents became so much more important than Congressional or legislative action. It’s become a spectacle unto itself…like a king of old.
"A spectacle unto itself." Ain't that the truth. It's become ridiculously autocratic.
Hi, I hope things get better for you. Would you consider obtaining a Bible and reading it?
I have several Bibles my mother reads mine every night. It has been a few weeks since I was directly going through verses, except my daughter asked me about the origin of the number 666 being Satanic so I read some verses in Revelation 13 around there regarding the Mark of the Beast. LOL I needed a new Las Vegas based phone number, which they randomly assigned to me as 702-666-3847. I just rolled my eyes like you people just like messing with me.
I have been feeling a desire to review Buddhist tenets lately. I have been trying to parse the idea of an all loving, all forgiving, all knowing creator with the vindictive psychopath version of God featured in the Old Testament, who clearly has chosen and not chosen people and clear winners and losers. This seems like the work of man...
You follow Naomi Wolf, right? She figures the New Geneva Bible puts God in a gentler light than other versions that seem to intentionally make God scary.
Yes I remember when Naomi Wolf was doing Bible readings a few years ago. I have on ocassion looked into different versions of the Bibles which we have here in Las Vegas and noted slightly different wording in different eras on key texts. My Mother defaults to the Bible my aunt gave me for Confirmation when I was 12 or so she likes that version best.
Fire and Brimstone has been used by many on the pulpit to scare the congregation into submission while at other times they lean on the benevolent all forgiving loving God to expand their ranks. I’ve never been able to reconcile the smiting version with my personal experiences…
Considering the depths of human depravity, cosmic justice looks equally horrific. Makes me wonder about the difference between personal and collective relationships with God. The collective problem is like a schoolroom where one or two knuckleheads cost recess for everybody.
Amy, if you had a better understanding of what is happening in the Old Testament, you would never say He is a vindictive psycho. Please. He is not the "sky bully" you are making him out to be. I am re-discovering author Gary Wayne.
His second book has just recently been released:
The Genesis 6 Conspiracy Part II: How understanding prehistory and giants helps define end-time prophecy.
This book might be of interest to you.
Here's the website; MUCH of the book is also here.
https://genesis6conspiracy.com/
I will check it out SAMO. I’ve been pondering the New and the Old Testament quite a bit in the past several days. I balance out lively debates which contrasted a loving benevolent creator of all life against one with many proscriptions for being among a chosen set who are favored. Ultimately I think we need to make peace with death and its place in life…
As a funny and sad side note I have been listening to a Christian radio station exclusively while out on deliveries lately. Perhaps this is because January is a depressing time of year, or perhaps it is other reasons, but I’ve noted the alarming number of people who have called in to the station mentioning the anniversary of the death of their spouse or a major medical event with a loved one in the past 2-3 years. One mentioned her husband’s inexplicable stroke at 28 years old two years ago and how she felt he was saved by prayer. That’s beautiful but I couldn’t help but wonder if he was jabbed..
Might have been jabbed (that was my first thought), but nevertheless "saved by prayer." God is good. And merciful.
So please tell me yall can now safely emigrate?
The process is still ongoing either way...
I'm sorry to hear about your husband being denied like that.
I'm with you... your first thoughts on politics... I never partook until 2020 as well. Glad I was able to live 46yrs without b/c the last 5 have been exhausting. As they designed. Happy to have found your inspirational writings here. Thank you 😊
Super-duper post, Amy. Prayers up. So much mind-bending stuff. Cool colonnaded cabana. Thomas Merton is a great read. Immigration issues are a huge mess. First Black Senator reminds me how some say the parties switched policy positions over the years. All that tells me is parties are unstable.
Trump singling out antisemitism seems puzzling. I thought DEI taught us that equal protection is every individual’s right. He needs the pro-Israel camp on his side, and I want to assume he isn’t Fauci-caliber evil (I contend he never mandated the vax), so that EO seems tactical, like Stargate. Surely he has dirt on BP like he has on big tech. Aimed the right direction, their money, infrastructure, and brain trust is raw MAGA material. Throwing everybody a bone makes them happy, and now they owe him or he owns them.
Have you looked into getting proof of vaccinations?
Viva la revolucion! Of the heart 💙
And thanks for the pizza ride tip 🍕🤣 🍕
~~ j ~~