Author: Paul In The Buff

Chief mischief maker at Living In The Buff Studio. A project turned, movement, turned cause to find fulfillment within and without.
Pride - And my Views in Buffalo Rising

Weigh-In Wednesday – Walking The Line

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No, the Red Party isn’t our local communists. Let’s be honest, most communists are only called communists because that’s how the conservative right wants to define anyone with socially altruistic ideals, and demonize them for it.  This Red Party is about  raising funds for local organizations that provide services to underrepresented populations in Buffalo, specifically women in situations that may prevent them from being able to afford, or procure sanitary products when necessary. This is actually a major problem for many populations, whether the women are members of refugee groups that make it to America with little more than the clothes on their back, homeless women trying to get by, or women escaping domestic violence relying on the help of others to figure out where to go next.

It is a serious social issue, and for women in these situations, it is a matter of healthcare, and dignity. 

Screen Capture from the movie Breathe

Weigh-In Wednesday – Staying Steady

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I feel more empathy for the families of our fallen. No one has a child with the hopes that they lose that child at a young age in a meaningless war. I spent more time on Memorial day remembering war is something we should have evolved away from eons ago, but resource ownership still dominates our societies, and the common people are the pawns of the wealthy. We still allow ideologies to control our societies, instead of focusing on what is best for humanity, and our planet. Oh yeah, and it’s all pretty meaningless if we destroy the livability of our planet, yet a lot of you keep voting for war-mongering, religion-bent, science-denying sociopaths based on stupid ideological platforms. That is a war that will eventually kill more people than you can even consider… 

Maybe the best way to remember those who sacrificed their lives for our “nation” would be to learn the lessons we should have learned from those wars in the first place, and work at making our nation a better place, instead of what we’re doing now… otherwise, what did they sacrifice for?

Shaving a Bit Close to the Bone

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When you’re at that age, so few people have the ability communicate such complex feelings; the dark, and dismal thoughts that you know won’t result in understanding, but a trip to the doctor, or worse. People only hear what they want to hear. You’re supposed to do what you’re told. You don’t often get options, and these days, what you get are a diagnosis, a label, and drugs. We understand more but everything is a diagnosis, and the end goal is to make everyone a “productive member of society” rather than a healthy person, who is right with him or herself. Suicide prevention is so often pasting a list of phone numbers on social media, when what people really need is empathy, listening, better healthcare, a hopeful future, love, and to know that they are important enough to others to get their time, their patience, and their best efforts at understanding each other. We’re told to take better care of ourselves: get a gym membership, eat healthier, drink 64-ounces of water every day! But no where in our society do we get told, you’re emotionally exhausted? Take a day off and nap, read a book, and talk to your friends – it’s ok! Feeling like you’re going to have a mental breakdown? Take time for yourself, and do something enjoyable. Focus on you, and what you need, not your job, or kids, or bills… it’s ok!

Living In The Buff Ten Year Anniversary!!!!!!

Weigh-In Wednesday – Banning the Bans

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Religions just need to piss off from this planet entirely. I really don’t care what loopy fables you want to believe, what invisible being you want to worship, or what book you read it all from. You’re delusional. Delusions shouldn’t influence legislation, or even society. They should be treated like a disease, and eradicated as quickly as possible for the over-all health of our society.

We don’t need abortion bans. We need delusional thinking bans.

Weigh-In Wednesday: Still Recovering

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It’s the end of an era. I bought that house in 2008 (the process started in the autumn of 2007) , and moved in shortly thereafter. It was a house, a meeting place, a home, an office, and a photography studio. With my technology business, we helped dozens of local businesses on their path to success, and modernization. We worked multi-million dollar projects for an international medical manufacturer, hosted technician training for their contractors, developed wireless network assessment calibration , and reporting techniques, and policies, software R&D for their products, and customer support, all while implementing their solutions at hundreds of hospitals across North America, and Australia. I hosted monthly networking meetings for over four years to bring Buffalo businesses, entrepreneurs, and clients together.  I designed creative photography concepts, and hosted collaborative photography sessions involving photographers, models, and other artists. That house saw fund raisers that raised thousands for organizations like the SPCA, Family Justice Center, and Buffalo Animal Shelter. I hosted marketing events for Xerox, and other local businesses. It saw mimosa Sundays, and New Year’s Day gatherings for friends. It hosted meetings for 48-Hour Film projects, and outdoor movie nights on the back deck. I raised chickens, and gardens, and provided a place for my kids to explore, be artistic, play games, and have fun. It gave a home to friends who needed a place to land, and most recently, Rika, who also needed a place to land. It experienced joy, and happiness. It experienced sorrow, and heartbreak…

The Start of Something, The End of Something

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Like being attached to life-saving technology while your broken body decays, and atrophies. Your feeble heart, straining to pump lumps of coagulating blood through hardened, narrowed arteries. All signs that you want to move on, but some inhuman compulsion to not give up this life, and the need for profiteering corporations to bilk every last penny out of you before you die, forces you to stay beyond your stay. Your family crying over your decay, and demise, clinging to the physical part of all that is left, rather than celebrating who you were to them.  Not remembering what you gave to them, and all of the things you shared; the plans fulfilled, and lived out with abandon of concern. The faith they had in what you provided, and who you were. Instead, they mourn their loss, watching you hanging on, forced to struggle, instead of allowing you to pass with dignity. Instead of embracing everything they gained through your existence, they feel pain over everything you’ve ceased to be.

Weigh-In Wednesday – Things To Be Said

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Insurance companies by nature are about as close as you can get to organized crime syndicates, and you having to deal with them is made compulsory by the government. They collect your money, endlessly. And then when you need them, they’ll find ANY reason they can come up with to not do what they promised, and cover your costs.

More Movie Fun

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Check this out! Last September I got to be an extra in a Lifetime movie named Staged Killer –  these movies are either Merry Christmas or Murder Characters. There’s no in between. But even as an extra I got some quality face-time with the camera. Enough that I’m even in the trailer six times!  Two are pretty obvious. See if you can find the others.  Heck, let’s make it a contest! Find me, and list the times I’m on screen, I’ll figure out a cool prize for the person who gives me the right answer first!