yesterday, hidden amoung the smoke and mirrors of the faux bombs in London, Congress voted to extended the Patriot Act. all under the guise of keeping `us` safe.
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i have a birthday coming up in about a month, give or take a couple of days and i realised that this is going to put me in the closing end of the `youth` demographic. not that i hold much store in these things but it get me thinking.
vic and i have done our part for the population explosion, me more so that her. we don`t have any pets and every week debate whether after we clear up our debt if we want to buy a house or continue renting.
the boychick is more than likely to go to college in about eight years, that would put us in our early 40s and want to travel. so the constant dilemma is, do we buy a house and where, or do we just squirrel the money away we would have spent on a house for us to travel when and where we feel like.
we like nashvegas, but housing prices here are skyrocketing and unless we get in on the cusp of `the next big thing` neighbourhood, i don`t think we can afford to live here. that begs the question, where do we move too and when do we move and can we get our house rented when we`re ready to travel? how will we pay our mortgage? do the questions never end?
are we slackers? i mean, we don`t own a home and don`t seem desirous of doing so, we`re struggling valiantly to be a one car household and the only vestige of being part of the demographic is the debt which we`re not actually increasing but not necessarily eliminating completely at the moment. should we have more ambition? vic is following her life`s dream and i`m supporting her and i`m content, do we need to be more ambitious?
i`ve always know that Trinidadians were copy cats but the incident in Port of Spain yesterday is incredibly saddening for me. not necessarily because i thought that Trinidad was immune to terrorism, i mean we`ve had armed insurrection before. we`re generally laid back as a people but there`s always been a breaking point.
but there are marked differences between insurrection, terrorism and a prank gone throughly awry. and from all indications it appears that yesterday`s… i don`t even have words for it, in Port of Spain may have been a prank that went heniously wrong. there is no rhyme or reason for it. compounding this are the idiots that are crying wolf and wasting the resources of the minimally trained police and emergency services by calling in bomb threats.
this is not a slight to many of the people who choose to protect and serve in Trinidad, but the percentage of people who join the police and armed forces out of a desire to make a difference as opposed to not having any other options and seeing an opportunity for a steady paycheque and get off on the power trip are slim.
the fact that one of my daughters was in Port of Spain less than three blocks away still has my stomach in knots. some of it is fear but most of it a bubbling rage that someone would dare to put my child in danger for what is most likely a prank. i understand that there are people injured and thankfully no one is dead; yet. but i`m mostly blind to that because this is my child.
i`m trying to keep my rage and my cynicism in check at the same time. vic pointed out to me this morning we have more friends in London than we do in Nashville and thankfully all of them have reported in or i have gotten word from mutual friends that they`re ok. there is an advantage to knowing some artist types, they don`t generally get out of bed before noon.
London is our town. ideally, if money were no object and we could move tomorrow we would, we love London and to see it shellshocked and torn apart is incredibly distressing. i`ve been in all the stations that were attacked, i`ve been in the tube sitting for minutes wondering why the trains aren`t moving and i empathise and sympathise with those with friends and families still unaccounted for or lost. i`m upset that this has happened to my `adopted` city but my major question is not so much the `why` but the `how`.
has the security gotten so lax in the four years since i was last in London?
vic and i have been listening to Neil Gaiman`s American Gods for about a week now. i had heard more of it before i convinced her to listen and now we`re listening to the last six hours of the unabridged version that i downloaded during a free audible trial.
i`d read the book before, but listening to it, is lending some more nuance to the tale. it`s also got me thinking, especially in light of the political and religious climate here, in this country and in this town. in the store there is a standing joke among those of us that work on a Sunday; find the Lord, lose all good sense and manners.
the worst behaved people that we have in the store are always on Sundays. it`s amazing how badly all these people in their Sunday best behave and how steeped they are in their belief that they have the right to talk to you however they feel like. this isn`t a rare occurrence, the store has been open four Sundays, i`ve worked three of them and without fail there is at least one person, still dressed for church and comes in and abuses us. and that is primary reason i loathe organised religion; the people.
every time my shift ends at the store i find myself more than a little surprised that it`s over. i`ve never really considered myself a people person but i spend at least 20 hours every week interacting with people, answering questions and giving them the best advice i can and at the end of the day i feel good about it. but i digress.
i think Nashville has more square footage allocated to churches than there is office space, this might be an exaggeration, but i doubt it. drive along any major thoroughfare and there is at least two churches per block or a strip mall. it`s all about what you worship, isn`t it? and all of them, churches and malls are massive erections screaming for attention. and i wonder where is the humility and couldn`t the money spent on building these gaudy displays be better served in helping those in need.
these are the sort of thoughts that i have that make me a `bad` person but i can live with myself.
is their publicity.
i was having a conversation this weekend with a judge and he asked me what i did and i flippantly replied that i packaged lies for a living and he replied that it was better than being a lawyer. even lawyers are believing their own bad press.
the only reason that advertising is ahead of the legal profession in terms of respectability is that part of advertising is PR, basically they market the industry better.
advertising is about manipulation, nothing is real.
at my first ad agency job in Trinidad we had one of those multinational fast food chains and a photo shoot of the product would take about half a day. and involved product from at least three different outlets, fake fries, fake ice, Styrofoam and toothpicks; basically the fake fries would be surround by a number of hand picked fries, the bottom of the fry packet, would have a block of Styrofoam with toothpicks upon which the real fries were mounted — bigger looking and fuller bags of fries. after the shoot there would be at least another quarter of a day working on the photos taking out blemishes and making stuff look better. same for models.
i`m not a lawyer, i have no idea what goes on in law offices everyday, but i do know advertising, been doing it for 13 years and i`m good at it, but i also don`t believe the hype. i was cynical enough to believe that i was doing the world a favour. i believe George Orwell said it best: \”Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.\”
i did a lot driving this weekend in TN; Nashville – Kingston, Kingston – Memphis, Memphis – Nashville, pretty much one side of the state to other and then back to the middle. i managed to make incredibly good time and avoided getting any speeding tickets following some fairly simple rules.
1. don`t be the rabbit; stay with the pack, especially if everyone else is not in the passing lane. you also don`t want to be at the head of the pack in the passing lane because you`ll be the first to get tagged. conversely you don`t want to be at the back of a bunch of speeders either because you`ll be likely the first one to get pulled over.
2. stay within 9 mph of the posted speed limit. you`re less likely to get a ticket if you`re going less than 10 mph over the speed limit. if the traffic is moving at a consistent pace and you`re less likely to be singled out.
3. pay attention to the trucks; i have never seen a truck get a speeding ticket; if you have, i stand corrected. the trucks usually know where the traps are and their driving indicates it.
4. try to be inconspicuous. if you`re driving anything brightly coloured with a spoiler, a two door coupe, any model sports car; you are conspicuous. you can`t help what you drive, but even in the pack, you car stands out and you`ll be the most likely to get pulled over.
5. in Tn, at least, not all cop cars look it. the THP has a number of vehicles not limited to black SUVs that you don`t notice until the lights start flashing.
6. holidays are open season. on holidays and holiday weekends, local and state police tend to be out in force.
what worked for me, may not work for you. be careful and pay attention on the roads.
it that time of year; school is out and the mommies are out in force per the schedules of the children and they are a joy to behold. as i`ve said before i find the mothers that populate Nashvegas far easier on the eye than the university students. and this is the time of year these women shine. out come the shorts and the sleeveless tops and the minis and little dresses. it`s a joy to behold.
it`s not about nakedness for these women, it`s about what`s comfortable. i`m yet to see a piece of ass floss. i may be alone here but i don`t think you have to be naked or nearly naked to be sexy. there is a lot to be said for the sexiness of discovery. there is no tease or anticipation with the ass crack and/or the pudenda on display.
i`m not advocating that women be covered from head to foot, i`m just saying the current fashion trend towards excessive nakedness is unappealing to me.
Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:
`(c) Waiver-
`(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary`s sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.
`(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court, administrative agency, or other entity shall have jurisdiction–
`(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1); or
`(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.`.
REAL ID Act of 2005
be afraid, be very afraid. there are three versions of this bill and all of them contain this same provision.
there seems to be a common misconception that being alone is a bad thing. i`m not saying that you don`t need to interact with people but this marketing ideal that unless you have a life partner or in a committed relationship you`re less of a person. being single is not a crime and if more people would take the time to enjoy being on their own there would be a lot less heartbreak.
we are so conditioned to seek out a relationship, we seemed to have lost the ability to enjoy and appreciate being on our own. i was a serial monogamist; for close to a decade i went from one long term relationship straight into another. all those relationships were fine but at no point did i stop to deal with the shit i was carrying from one to another.
it took a while but i realised that you don`t need a relationship to make you happy actually, to the contrary, if you`re not happy with yourself then all your relationships are doomed to failure from day one. we`ve gotten so caught up in trying to find someone one who makes us happy that we seemed to have forgotten that we need to be responsible for our own happiness too.
we need to learn to enjoy our own company; be comfortable in our own skin as it were; be content with and by ourselves and then we can truly appreciate the happiness being with someone else brings.
and for anyone wondering, vic and i are not having problems, it`s just a thought that has been occurring to me based on conversations i`ve been having.