during one of the days i was home sick i started and finished Nick Hornby`s Songbook which reads like the linear notes to a rather eclectic mix tape. it got me thinking about my own musical tastes and how music affects my life.
i can`t function without music; there is music playing when i go to sleep at night and it`s what wakes me in the morning. i listen to it in the car, while i`m working, even as i type this there is something playing.
i`m willing to give anything a listen once. i like classical, particularly stuff that builds and i love the marriage of classical and rock.
i`ll finish this later.
Hunter Stockton Thompson is dead. of a self inflicted gunshot wound, no less. god damn it.
the nice thing about bed rest is you get to catch up on your reading in the last two days i`ve devoured Nick Hornby`s Songbook; which has inspired tomorrow`s post and Hunter S. Thompson`s Hey Rube from which this gem was found:
Politics is the Art of Controlling your Environment
That is one of the key things I learned in these years, and I learned it the hard way. Anybody who thinks that “it doesn`t matter who`s President” has never been Drafted and sent off to fight and die in a vicious, stupid War on the other side of the World–or been beaten and gassed by the Police for trespassing on public property–or been hounded by the IRS for purely political reasons–or locked up in the Cook County Jail with a broken nose and no phone access and twelve perverts wanting to stomp your ass in the shower. That is when it matters who is President or Governor or Police Chief. That is when you will wish you had voted.
sorry there are no links for those of you that are so inclined but i`m really not up to it at the moment, if you`re really interested you can find it yourself.
it`s official, i have the flu. i went to the dr yesterday and scared the crap out of the triage nurse with 103.1 fever. so it`s bed rest and medication for me for the rest of the week.
as part of my change of status application to the USCIS i had to do a medical, not at a doctor of my choosing, but at an authorised `Civil Surgeon`.
i called the help line on Friday to get the list of doctors i could go see and this is where it started to get surreal. for my zip code there are only three of these civil surgeons and one of them is actually an hour`s drive away. that was just out of the question, so i decided to try my luck with the two in my immediate vicinity.
i called one office and started to make an appointment, but thought it would be prudent to check the cost first. it`s a good thing i don`t have heart problems, the cost of the medical was more than the cost of filing the paperwork. the second doctor wasn`t much better but it was less, but there was a reason for that, i had to go somewhere else to get an x-ray which was another charge.
now what`s criminal about this is that this isn`t the soul source of income for either of these doctors. and if they find anything wrong with you all they are supposed to do is recommend you to your regular physician for corrective measures.
as for the medical itself i`m still livid. i spent more time driving to and from the appointment and getting x-rayed. i get there ready to pay and am told, we don`t take credit/debit cards, so i have to go find and ATM take out an obscene amount of cash and bring it back. when i return a nurse takes my blood pressure; which for some reason is high, go figure and draw a vial of blood to be tested; but not before i am forced to sign a document stating that if i test positive for HIV, i`ll give them another $100 for mandatory retesting. the incompetent nurse then jabs me in a way that has my upper arm numb for the rest of the afternoon and sends me in to the exam room, where the doctor; and i use the term loosely; spends more time making idle chit-chat that conducting an exam. this is no lie, if the exam lasted 90 seconds i would be surprised. do you know the pre-exam the nurse or intern gives you when you go to a doctor for the first time; check for pupil response, check your throat, feel your abdomen, your breath sounds and have you cough? that was it. how many hundreds of dollars for an exam that could have been done by a nurse practitioner.
what the fuck? that`s criminal and they can get away with it because they are sanctioned by the USCIS, there is no way to opt out of the medical. these people are worse than the vultures that traffic people across the borders, at least you know what kind of lowlife you`re dealing with there. these people are hiding behind sanction and recognition and robbing you blind.
did i mention that if i don`t get an appointment for an interview within a year, i`m going to have to go through this process again. nice scam they got going there isn`t it? and the odds of my getting an interview in a year, not fucking likely. below is the processing time for Memphis office where my application will be processed.
I-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status June 30, 2002
the date in bold is the date from which applications are currently being processed. you do the math.
the winners of the World Press Photo of the Year have been announced
Indian photographer Arko Datta of Reuters is the winner of this year’s World Press Photo of the Year award.
His picture of an Indian woman mourning a relative killed in the Asian tsunami was taken in Tamil Nadu on 28 December.
Kathy Ryan, photo editor for the New York Times Magazine and one of the competition`s judges, described Datta`s image as “graphic, historical and starkly emotional”.
Here we present a selection of the winning entries.
from the BBC
i got paid today and for one brief shining moment it looked like we would have something left over for us to treat ourselves. that moment soon passed but not entirely.
we`re actually pretty good financially this week but there are some blips on the horizon, starting with the USCIS required medical this afternoon and then a colposcopy for vic later this month; neither of which are covered by health insurance. well mine isn`t and vic only has major medical now.
we also need to make a major grocery run, we`re out of a lot of basic stuff. plus, what happens when your wife works in a book store and you`re both book lovers? you buy lots of books. well you take lots of book and try to make sure the account is paid off. we`ve been pretty good about not abusing the account and the discount so far, but i went on a bit of spree this week and ordered three book and picked up another three in the store. slowly but surely my amazon wishlist is getting whittled down. this week i got Nick Hornby`s Songbook, the Jon Stewart America book and the new Hunter S. Thompson; Hey Rube, still on order is From Hell, Erotique Noire and The Mammoth book of Sex Diaries. that i think is our entertainment/treat budget right there.
at least we have an entertainment/treat budget right?
also out the door was the tax return. which i`m very proud of myself for. i e-filed this morning and should get a response in the next 24-48 hours ensuring that i`ve done everything correctly and this should be the only year with all the specific complications like declaring foreign income. hopefully all the returns forward should be simpler.
in the intricacies of my mind the fact that Year of the Cock and Lent began on the same day is mildly amusing. my mind works in strange ways.
while i was showering this morning i had a draft for this brilliant treatise that was going to tie the penis and lent together and as i sit here, my mind is a complete and utter blank. inspiration is fickle at best.
i`m going to take this opportunity to express my shock and my continued presence in JS top ten especially as i`m not as high i`m going to get. being #3 today is an anomaly cause by the googlebots. i`m grateful for the new readers, especially those that have taken the time to back track through the almost two years of my ramblings. and thank you to the regular readers who continue to put up with me even when i don`t have a point, like today.
PS:
for trini`s jonesing for that taste of carnival, BBC Radio 1 xtra, has The Alternative Concept available to listen to as a real audio stream in the carnival section.
the radio stations here in Nashvegas that advertise the night`s upcoming sitcoms with these little sound bites. based on the little snippets and the canned laughter, it`s a wonder anyone watches television at all. but then my sense of humour is considered dark and obscure in some circles and downright evil in others.
today is the beginning of the lenten season and even though i don`t make new year`s resolutions, the lapsed Catholic in me seems determined to continue the tradition of giving something up for lent. i can`t remember what i gave up for lent last year, or if it was one of those good intentions that got lost in the midst of the migration.
it`s hard to believe that it`s been almost a year since i got here, time flies when you`re having fun. i`ve been going over the paperwork for our next pitched battle with the USCIS; the status change; and i realised that once we submit this application i can leave the country and return with problems. which lifts a heavy burden from my mind. with that in mind i`ve been trying to price fares for a jaunt home; so i can see my girls, the boy chick can meet and charm his extended family; but the fares are ridiculous. the cheapest fare i found for Christmas has us changing planes three times and cost $635 each. you could buy a car for that. i can always magic cheap fares for everyone but somehow it never works for me, but we`ll see how things develop for the rest of this year.
i am cynic because of the career choice, or did i choose my career because i`m a cynic? either way i`ve been trying to choke back the bile that has been rising since i saw the Anheuser-Busch commercial on Sunday. i have nothing against the soldiers that are serving in Iraq.
what i do have a problem with is a company so morally bankrupt they would commission and run and ad `thanking` them. that ad wasn`t about thanking the soldiers, if you really wanted to thank them you`d take the money spent on producing and running that ad and send it to the people on the front lines in lieu of the missing combat pay. if you really wanted to thank them you`d use your lobbyist to pressure congress into bringing them home now or making sure they`re properly equipped and paid and have benefits when they return home.
and for the millions of people that thought that was the best ad of the Superbowl; that`s your fucking guilt talking. you`re guilty because you believed the lie in the first place and you`re guilty because you didn`t have the guts to say it was wrong and try to put a stop to it and you`re fucking guilty because when they come home like the vets of the last two wars and they`re sick, you don`t want to see them or have to foot the bill for their care.
spare me the fucking greed and guilt. the ad was a trite, nasty attempt by a company and nation to feel better about the morass of ineptitude, underhandedness and moral bankruptcy that the war in Iraq and this administration are prime examples of.
i watched the Superbowl last night, not because the game interested me so much; i come from a country where rugby is played, which is a much more intense game; but this is supposed to be the mecca of television advertising.
although i`m not a big fan of the sport, i live in a town with a team; granted it had one of the worst records this season; and like i`ve said before reading Hunter S. Thompson has given me a greater appreciation for what`s going on and i don`t live in a hole, so i know the teams that played and some of the background, so i watched last night.
an interesting aside, although the sport seems kind of silly in comparison to rugby, i am a fan of movies about it. good, bad or indifferent, if there`s been a football movie, i`ve seen it; Rudy, Knute Rockne, Varsity Blues, North Dallas 440, Any Given Sunday; and i`m probably going to watch Friday Night Lights and the Longest Yard remake as well. there is no explanation for it, i`m addicted to them.
i was really hoping the Eagles would win last night so i wouldn`t have to hear everyone blather on about the Patriots dynasty and how Tom Brady played so well even though his grandmother died. what is it about US sports and this whole crock of shit about players and their family? they are overpaid entertainers, if Tom Brady was so concerned about his family and his dead grandmother he would have been with them. it may seem harsh, but it`s the truth; any job in the world you get bereavement time, he`s been to the Superbowl before. which is more important; his family or the game? spare me the maudlin bullshit, he chose to stay and play and shouldn`t be pitied or credited for doing so.
while i`m in full on rant mode; what a fucking, crappy half time show. Paul McCartney should stay home and enjoy his fucking money. the half time show was a snoozefest, as were the ads. there were two ads that stuck out during that whole `safe`, stale, Superbowl and they were the Ameritrade ads and now they have to apologise for the cat ad. what a crock of fucking shit. i don`t know why i`m surprised; the whole tone of the Superbowl was one of acquiescence to the people who think they know what`s best for the rest of us. heaven forbid that it looks like a cat was harmed; the point of the ad was that you shouldn`t be quick to judge what you see.
and now a segue into the other portion of the title; the taxes. we finally received our last document for us to do our taxes so i thought i`d take a stab at it on Saturday night using the online version of TurboTax; i`ve had more fun at the dentist; three hours later and owing the IRS money, i stopped. on Sunday i resumed the fight and realised that in order for us to file jointly i would have declare the pittance that i made in Jamaica last year on our taxes; another three hours later i was done with a tiny sum that will allow us to pay for the next set of USCIS paperwork and put away a little; if i did everything correctly. i`m hoping to hook up with CSG at some point today to have her double check my entries and then file. as with all other bureaucracies, the idea is to make filling out the paperwork by mere mortals as difficult as possible. i`m a fairly intelligent man, i can follow instructions and preparing this return was one of the most convoluted things i`ve ever done and having dealt with the USCIS, that`s saying a lot.
