Archives For words

a passion for words

September 8, 2003 — Leave a comment

i love words, i love the form, i love the structure of them. i`ve been a voracious reader, well, since i learned to read. my first book was tootles the taxi. as i understand it, i got it when i was about 1. i learned to read it, then i ate it. cover to cover.

that would become my modus opernadi with reading. i spent my childhood in the company of books. when i left the primary school system, i donated all the books i`d collected to the school library. i used to lead expeditions from school to the public library. my mother encouraged this in me, i knew on the 23rd of every month there would be a book for me.

as i grew older other things caught my attention, but i always came back to the books and scrabble. i`m an average scrabble player now, i used to be better, when i played regularly.

i`m not a fan of the traditional classics, i have read dickens and the like, but i cut my teeth on stephen king and issac asimov, clarke. i was introduced rushdie, allende and marquez recently and i am richer for it.

i`ll read almost anything. i`ve tried bodice rippers, but they do nothing for me and i will finish a book no matter how much i hate it. there are books that i`ve wanted to fling across the room in frustration at how poorly it was written.

i enjoy etymology, the root of the words and language fascinate me, it`s allowed me a basic reading ability of german.

my books are most important and prized possession. when i left trinidad, the only things i took with me, were 4 boxes of books. vic now has them, for she shares my love of the printed word. since i`ve been back here i`ve managed to collect another boxful of books.

reading and words are my shields and my weapons. they`ve help make me what i am.

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things to do today

August 18, 2003 — Leave a comment

finish making prints for presentation

build powerpoint template

build powerpoint document

burn cds with presentation

pick up dry cleaning

pick up pants from tailor

buy shoes[scrapped]

do laundry[not fucking happening at this point, dirty jeans it is.]

wash hair[that will get done at the hotel]

pick mother up from airport[arranged]

properly clean shoes if buying shoe is unsuccessful[arranged]

pack

i forsee there not being enough hours in this day, still i`m rather looking forward to all of this, i`m already in the office, the printer is still chugging away. the presentation document isn`t done yet and i`m trying to leave early to get some of my shit done. and all of this running around via public transportation. joy. [the public transport is the part that suck ass, badly with teeth]

i`ll be back during the day with updates.

the question is, why is this so much fun, when the culmination of these events is spending two whole days with the brainless wonder. oh joy, in a two hour period yesterday, she called like 14 times. and she had been here for three hours. but i`ve started stocking up on the movies, i got two from PT, i have a batch of futurama episodes on my machine, i have the years of rice and salt to finish. all in all, a couple days worth of avoidance right there. hopefully the per diem will allow for me not to have to take me meal with her and i`ll be fine.

ok, time to get cracking on that to do list.

* edit, it`s 6:05pm, and i just got the text for the ppt and proposal document. wish me luck.

** update 11:30pm, last of the proposals printing, hopefully i can go home and get 3 hours fucking sleep at least

i is the first letter in the words:

inconspicuous, inane, idiot, immediate, irate, insecure, insure, irritate, impale, inure, implode, intuition, incident, inappropriate, idiocy, impure, inkling, ingest, ibis, ibex, impulse, ionise, ionosphere, iconoclast, incoherent, impede, inject, infect, insane, idle…

i`ll stop there. feel free to add to the list. [come on, it`s fun, try it, you`ll like it.]

running on joy

July 15, 2003 — Leave a comment

i am physically exhausted, i feel like i could sleep another 16 hours, but mentally my mind appears to be firing on all cylinders. i got up this morning and finished up a lot of the work that was kicking my ass, if i wasn’t going to be out of the office all of next week, i’d stay home today and work. that and fact that i have stuff that can’t be telecommuted – production meeting, images to send out to scan. besides i think one of the reasons i’m able to work now, is that there are no distractions, everyone is still in bed. i need to find a space where i can work uninterrupted at least til thursday, which is pretty much the last day i have to get this stuff out with changes. somehow, i don’t see my sleep situation getting any better.

i should be getting ready for work but here are your tuesday memes:

this or that tuesday [cartoon edition]:

1. Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck? bugs
2. Tom or Jerry? jerry
3. Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck? gad, neither
4. Rocky & Bullwinkle or Boris & Natasha? boris & natasha
5. Road Runner or Wile E. Coyote? road runner
6. Sylvester or Tweety?tweety
7. Popeye or Bluto? popeye, but only because i must
8. South Park or The Simpsons?south park
9. Jetsons or Flintstones?jetsons
10. And finally, the eternal question asked by all good Scooby-Doo fans: Velma or  Daphne?duh, velma

well so much for memes, only one is currently up, maybe i’ll be back later with more, time to get to work.

i was putting together a corporate profile for my boss today and looking at some of the stuff that was produced before i signed on board and even the corporate profile template when i realised what i disliked about most of the work that was going into the profile. i loathed the type faces. not just the choice of type face, the usage of it too. the poor kerning, worse leading. it makes what could be a perfectly ok job, look horrendous.

and i’ve realised that it’s not just the work that we’re producing it’s a lot of the stuff i’m seeing in the newspaper. there are a couple people here that know anything about typography and i could pull their stuff out of the paper with one closed. i’m not bragging but my design style is based on type, it’s what i live for. lots of white space, good typography, a stunning visual and interesting use of colour. i love doing one colour work and i love working with interesting type faces. not necessarily modern [a lot of the new stuff is illegible and worse doesn’t have kerning pairs and… nevermind… i was getting way to technical]

my first real job in this industry was in a traditional printery, before the days of digital imaging, when Photoshop was still an ILM tool. i had a kerning knife, and i’d have to scrape the letters. i guess this is where my appreciation of type comes in. i’ve never had any formal training, although if i can find £12,000 for the next two years, i’d try to get into central st. martin’s in london. they have a MFA, that’s open to people like me without formal training but experience and one of the pathways is typography.

the money, it’s always the money. speaking of which i should be working, i just paused, cause i couldn’t see straight from exhaustion. i’m going to get back to it.

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today, had he lived, george orwell would have been 100. in honour of this auspicious event, here a bunch of links culled from metafilter:

a passage from india

a seer’s blind spots

the two georges, orwell and bush

official website (i think)

general orwell resources

1984 online:
the book
the movie
the commercial
the reality?

and finally an infinite loop

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i’d forgotten how energetic i felt after a nap on a sunday afternoon. although, it still doesn’t mean i’m leaving my house.
tonight is the final night of izahvaps (a showcase of local talent). i should go, it’s family, but it’s cold and rainy and i don’t feel like travelling anywhere. there is the complete lack of interest in the local poetry scene, i’ve heard most of them all at one point or another and i think i’m just completely fed up of the scene. it’s same set of people, blowing hot air up each others asses.

i really should be more charitable but ass kissing has never been one of my strong points. actually my thought to mouth filter, never seemed to work well. i’ve learned to bite it back as it’s about to come out. there was a point to this but i forget, so on to other things. metafilter is back up, woo hoo.

the morning news guide to urban etiquette: ny(very, very funny) and the much tamer tube guide

in praise of fuck (a nice op-ed piece)

which helps me segue right back in to my attempts to filter what comes out of my mouth. i’m of the school that there is no bad language, just inappropriate language. that said and done, there i don’t use in the presence of children. good, now that we’ve established the ground rules… as with everything else there is a time and place for everything, i try not to burst out in epithets in the office, but the stupidity level i deal with everyday is guaranteed a could of muttered ‘fucks’.
i’ve also be told that my extensive vocabulary precludes the need for me to use any inappropriate language, but there are time when nothing in my vocabulary beats a ‘motherfucker’. i’ve removed ‘cunt’ from my list of abusive language, it’s a beautiful word, to describe a beautiful body part and it’s also a powerful word, in and out of the bedroom. oh dear, i’ve managed to get this back around to sex again.

i don’t have a one track mind, i swear. going to watch a charmed rerun, be back later.

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I HAVE THE POWER

June 21, 2003 — Leave a comment

well, i went to the office and picked up my power adaptor, so now i don’t have to worry about the machine running out of juice in the middle of doing something. this morning i had to take a trek to st. james to get doubles, it’s been a while – doubles truly the breakfast of champions.

the sun is still blisteringly hot, haven’t had much rain so far for the weekend, i’m waiting to see how this becomes my fault in the monday production meeting. the hp is out and i don’t have a copy yet. there are on sale here, but if i shell out the cash to buy one today, i’m going to be destitute again, so i think i’ll wait til i get paid this week.

last night i continued this great book of short stories called the book of ifs and buts (i can’t remember the author at the moment) but the stories are all about immigrants and immigration and well written and captivating. read til i fell asleep.

anyway i’m hot and sticky in more ways than one, so i’m going to grab a shower and wash my hair, be back later.

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a day like today

June 13, 2003 — Leave a comment

after a day like today we need good news and humour:

got this off of masterofmice’s blog:

Assmosis – The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss.
Blamestorming – Sitting around in a group discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible.
Seagull Manager – A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, shits over everything and then leaves.
Salmon day – The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.
Chainsaw consultant – An outside expert brought in to reduce the employee head count, leaving the brass with clean hands.
CLM – Career Limiting Move – Used among microserfs to describe ill-advised activity. Trashing your boss while he or she is within earshot is a serious CLM.
Adminisphere – The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
Dilberted – To be exploited and oppressed by your boss. Derived from the experiences of Dilbert, the geek-in-hell comic strip character. “I’ve been dilberted again. The old man revised the specs for the fourth time this week.”
Flight Risk – Used to describe employees who are suspected of planning to leave the company or department soon.
404 – Someone who’s clueless. From the World Wide Web error message “404 Not Found,” meaning that the requested document could not be located. “Don’t bother asking him . . . he’s 404, man.”
Generica – Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, subdivisions. Used as in “We were so lost in generica that I forgot what city we were in.”
Ohnosecond – That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you’ve just made a BIG mistake.
Percussive Maintenance – The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
Umfriend – A sexual relation of dubious standing or a concealed intimate relationship, as in “This is Dyan, my … um … friend.”

the evil overlord list (basic rules for world domination) and if you’re not bright enough to realise you have to scroll down, you’re not cut out to be an evil genius.

the 25 dumbest moments in gaming

and finally the always entertaining week in sex

reclaiming `cunt`

June 12, 2003 — Leave a comment

i’m back from the wilds of valencia (eastern trinidad) we only saw one quarry today. oddly, in light of what is being done, the quarry was beautiful, proof that mother nature even at her worst is a stunner. it was nice to be out of the office all day, we could have gone back but decided against it. i came home instead and i’ve been catching up on my reading… 

seems a sad day for gentlemen 

gregory peck whose role as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird won him the Academy Award for Best Actor; and ranking earlier this month as “the greatest hero in 100 years of film history” by the American Film Institute; passed away at age 87. 

and veteran journalist david brinkley also died today at the age 82 

in more upbeat news… 

official string theory website (geeks of the world, UNITE!) 

the 50 worst company names, kind of puerile, but it’s been a long day, cut me some slack. 

another best list (you make the call) the 50 best magazines 

and finally your moment of zen