presentation one is wrapped, that leaves two and three which are my babies and i`ve been working pretty solidly on two, the actual presentation is tomorrow. i`ve worked late the last two nighta and by the time i get home i`m physically drained and pretty much collapse into bed.
it`s not a bad feeling, i come home feeling that i`ve done something worthwhile, i`m proud of my work, how it looks, what i`m doing, what i`m contributing. it`s a satisfied exhaustion. the kind where wake in the morning fresh with new ideas.
i however am not looking forward to facing the shower this morning, i haven`t had hot water in my apartment since the weekend. saturday and sunday were no problem, just bathe in the heat of the day, but since monday, the overnight temperatures have been dropping and it`s like showering with ice cubes.
i`ve also been carefully threading the line between persistent and annoying with the embassy in regards to my packet, you would think three years in to the new millennium it still wouldn`t take about eight weeks plus for a packet to get from one end of the caribbean to another.
with my immigration status still up in the air it would be wise to temper what i say in a public forum.
well temperance has never been one of my strong suits. there are a number of things that are occurring around me and for the sake of being with vic, i`ve held my peace, strangely it`s something non-immigration related that`s set me off this morning.
it was the simple act of verifying my email to be able to post. it wasn`t a big deal, i did and i was done, but i kept thinking, if we keep accepting that it`s not a big deal and let it slide, where does it stop.
the prospect of being fingerprinted and photographed upon my eventually arrival into the us, infuriates me to say the least. in the process of this application, i`ve been photographed too many times to mention and fingerprinted twice and you know what, it`s not fun.
i`m also a conspiracy theorist and cynic of the highest order, i ponder what`s being done with all of this information, where it`s being stored, who has access to it and for how long. i`m sure there are a couple people here on js who would say fuck you, stay where you belong you immigrant, my response to that is i belong at vic`s side.
we`ve jumped through the hoops and it`s gotten us this far but i would rather be dead and alone than mindlessly give up my right to think and form my own opinions, all in the name of security.
i believe the inexorable slide has already begun and every time we say it`s not a big deal, we slide a little closer to the crushing embrace of big brother.
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immigration, government
it`s been a long day, bear with me. it was highly productive today, but i`ve been going nonstop all day.
in typical anal retentive fashion, i followed up on my jamaican citizenship application which entailed two trips to the passport office. i then spent the rest of the day work on layouts for the presentation on thursday. then met about the layouts thus far and decided the main thrust wasn`t exactly on target, so it`s sort of back to the drawing board and some of the pictures have to change. it`s not as random as it sounds and it`s for the greater good, so i have no problems with it.
i finally realised i was doing myself no good and came home, this is where the freak part came in, i`m a huge james bond fan and amc is having a marathon all this week. by the time i came home i only caught the end of you only live twice, but i`m hearing this piece of music and thinking why the hell does it sound so familiar.
anal retentive me, goes digging through the mp3 collection, i know this piece of music, i know this piece of music, as the end credits roll i hear another piece of music i know.
getting quite frustrated, i turn to my true research tool, google and to assuage my curiosity, i learned the following things
1. the end credit music was sung by nancy sinatra [which i knew] and the horn and instrumental portion were sampled by robbie williams for millennium, listen here
2. john barry [who scored a lot of the bond flicks] recycled the theme music from on her majesty`s secret service as incidental music in you only live twice and the reason i recognised it, because was the propellerheads [who are huge bond fans apparently] and the have a version of OHMSS on their album, which i love.
that album also features a track with shirley bassey and the piece of music that features in the lobby sequence of the original matrix.
this has been geeking with keifel. thank you and good night.
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samples, robbie williams, propellerheads
The TELEVISION was a great invention, no doubt. But today how much of your life is spent watching it? How many kids sit in front of it and stay for hours refusing to go outside for play but yet seem to be getting fatter? Are we as a nation just couch potatoes? What role does the TV play in your home? What kind of example do you set for your children in regards to the T.V.?
if you couldn`t tell from the subject, this is a subject that is a constant source of ire for me. the habit of sitting children in front of the television is reprehensible and tantamount to abuse.
my daughters watch television but they are also the sort of children who will sit out on the porch engrossed in a good book or be out in the yard exploring. my older daughter has exams this year and is pretty much on a tight schedule.
last year when i realised that i was encouraging my daughter waste her afternoons away in front of the television, we instituted tv time. cut back to specific hours a week, found other things to do. i would be laying on the bed reading and she would come in with her book and lie next to me and we would spend the evening reading.
there`s television i watch regularly, stuff i like, but having the tv on for the sake of having it on, i don`t think so. i realised this weekend, that apart from watching er on thursday night and futurama and family guy before i go to bed, my television is generally off, i found myself wondering why was i paying for cable.
television is not the be all and end all of my life, the internet is.
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television, internet
this has been knocking about JS today after a fashion, all courtesy jazzchic.
the list is based on user votes, some of the choices below 100 are quite interesting. i`ve highlighted all the ones i`ve seen and yes, i`m a movie buff.
1 Godfather, The (1972)
2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)
3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974)
4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003)
5 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002)
6 Casablanca (1942)
7 Schindler`s List (1993)
8 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001)
9 Shichinin no samurai [Seven Samurai] (1954)
10 Star Wars (1977)
11 Citizen Kane (1941)
12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo`s Nest (1975)
13 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
14 Rear Window (1954)
15 Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
16 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
17 Memento (2000)
18 Usual Suspects, The (1995)
19 Pulp Fiction (1994)
20 North by Northwest (1959)
21 Fabuleux destin d`Amélie Poulain, Le [Amélie] (2001)
22 12 Angry Men (1957)
23 Psycho (1960)
24 Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
25 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il [The Good, The Bad & The Ugly] (1966)
26 Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)
27 It`s a Wonderful Life (1946)
28 Goodfellas (1990)
29 American Beauty (1999)
30 Vertigo (1958)
31 Sunset Blvd. (1950)
32 Matrix, The (1999)
33 Pianist, The (2002)
34 Apocalypse Now (1979)
35 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
36 Some Like It Hot (1959)
37 C`era una volta il West [Once upon a time in the West] (1968)
38 Taxi Driver (1976)
39 Third Man, The (1949)
40 Paths of Glory (1957)
41 Fight Club (1999)
42 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi [Spirited Away] (2001)
43 Boot, Das (1981)
44 Double Indemnity (1944)
45 L.A. Confidential (1997)
46 Chinatown (1974)
47 Singin` in the Rain (1952)
48 Maltese Falcon, The (1941)
49 Requiem for a Dream (2000)
50 M (1931)
51 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)
52 All About Eve (1950)
53 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
54 Se7en (1995)
55 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
56 Cidade de Deus [City of God] (2002)
57 Raging Bull (1980)
58 Rashômon (1950)
59 Wizard of Oz, The (1939)
60 Sting, The (1973)
61 Alien (1979)
62 American History X (1998)
63 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
64 Léon (1994)
65 Vita è bella, La [Life is Beautiful] (1997)
66 Touch of Evil (1958)
67 Manchurian Candidate, The (1962)
68 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
69 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)
70 Wo hu cang long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] (2000)
71 Great Escape, The (1963)
72 Clockwork Orange, A (1971)
73 Reservoir Dogs (1992)
74 Amadeus (1984)
75 Annie Hall (1977)
76 Ran (1985)
77 Jaws (1975)
78 Modern Times (1936)
79 On the Waterfront (1954)
80 Braveheart (1995)
81 High Noon (1952)
82 Apartment, The (1960)
83 Fargo (1996)
84 Sixth Sense, The (1999)
85 Aliens (1986)
86 Shining, The (1980)
87 Strangers on a Train (1951)
88 Blade Runner (1982)
89 Metropolis (1927)
90 Duck Soup (1933)
91 Donnie Darko (2001)
92 Finding Nemo (2003)
93 General, The (1927)
94 Princess Bride, The (1987)
95 Toy Story 2 (1999)
96 City Lights (1931)
97 Lola rennt [Run Lola Run] (1998)
98 Great Dictator, The (1940)
99 Notorious (1946)
100 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
i`m an avid reader. the power of words on the page fascinates me. actually the power of the word in any form. i`m a great fan of the oral traditional as well, although that`s an art form that`s slowly dying. i guess this could be the next form of story telling but that might just be really ambitious.
i have to say my favourite form of writing is the short story. it`s writing in it`s purest form, well in my humble opinion. some of the true masters include stephen king, philip k. dick, roald dahl, jeffery archer and isaac asmiov.
all of this preamble is to share some isaac asimov`s short fiction. i found them via metafilter. asimov enjoyed word play in his short fiction and all of these are puns.
As is well known, in this thirtieth century of ours, space travel is fearfully dull and time-consuming. In search of diversion, many crew members defy the quarantine restrictions and pick up pets from the various habitable worlds they explore.
Jim Sloane had a rockette, which he called Teddy. It just sat there, looking like a rock, but sometimes It lifted a lower edge and sucked in powdered sugar. That was all it ate. No one ever saw it move, but every once in a while, it wasn`t quite where people thought it was. There was a theory that it moved when no one was looking.
Bob Laverty had a heli-worm he called Dolly. It was green and carried on photosynthesis. Sometimes it moved to get into better light and when it did so it coiled its wormlike body and inched along very slowly like a turning helix.
One day, Jim Sloane challenged Bob Laverty to a race. ” My Teddy,” he said, “can beat your Dolly.”
“Your Teddy,” scoffed Laverty, “doesn`t move.” “Bet!” said Sloane.
The whole crew got into the act. Even the captain risked half a credit. Everyone bet on Dolly. At least she moved.
Jim Sloane covered it all. He had been saving his salary through three trips and he put every millicredit of it on Teddy.
The race started at one end of the grand salon. At the other end, a heap of sugar had been placed for Teddy and a spotlight for Dolly. Dolly formed a coil at once and began to spiral its way very slowly toward the light. The watching crew cheered it on.
Teddy just sat there without budging.
“Sugar, Teddy, Sugar,” said Sloane, pointing. Teddy did not move. It looked more like a rock than ever, but Sloane did not seem concerned.
Finally, when Dolly had spiraled halfway across the salon, Jim Sloane said casually to his rockette, “if you don`t get out there, Teddy, I`m going to get a hammer and chip you into pebbles.”
That was when people first discovered that rockettes could read minds. That was also when people first discovered that rockettes could teleport.
Sloane had no sooner made his threat when Teddy simply disappeared from his place and reappeared on top of the sugar.
Sloane won, of course, and he counted his winnings slowly and luxuriously.
Laverty said bitterly, “You knew the damn thing could teleport.”
“No, I didn`t,” said Sloane, “but I knew he would win. it was a sure thing.”
“How come?”
“It`s an old saying everyone knows, `Sloane`s Teddy wins the race.` ”
It was extremely unusual for a Foy to be dying on earth. They were the highest social class on their planet (which had a name that was pronounced-as nearly as earthly throats could make the sounds_Sortibackenstrete) and were virtually immortal.
Every Foy, of course, came to a voluntary death eventually, and this one had given up because of an ill-starred love affair, if you can call it a love affair where five individuals, in order to reproduce, must indulge in a yearlong mental contact. Apparently, the Foy had not fit into the contact after several months of trying, and it had broken his heart-or hearts, for he had five.
All Foys had five large hearts and there was speculation that it was this that made them virtually immortal. Maude Briscoe, earth`s most renowned surgeon, wanted those hearts. “It can`t be just their number and size, Ray,” she said to her chief assistant. “It has to be something physiological or biochemical. I must have them.”
“I don`t know if we can manage that,” said Ray Johnson. “I`ve been speaking to him earnestly, trying to overcome the Foy taboo against
dismemberment after death. I`ve had to lie to him, Maude.” “Lie?” “I told him that after death, there would be a dirge sung for him by
the world-famous choir led by Harold J. Gassenbaum. I told him that, by earthly belief, this would mean that his astral essence would be instantaneously wafted back, through hyperspace, to his home planet of Sortib-what`s-it`s-name–provided he would sign a release allowing you, Maude, to have his hearts for scientific investigation.”
“Don`t tell me he believed that.”
“Well, you know this modern attitude about accepting the myths and beliefs of intelligent aliens. It wouldn`t have been polite for him not to believe me. Besides, the Foys have a profound admiration for earthly science and I think this one is a little flattered that we should want his hearts. He promised to consider the suggestion and I hope he decides soon because he can`t live more than another, day or so, and we must have his permission by interstellar law, and the hearts must be fresh-Ah, his signal.”
Ray Johnson moved in with smooth and noiseless speed. “Yes?” he whispered, unobtrusively turning on the holographic recording device in case the Foy wished to grant permission.
The Foy`s large, gnarled, rather tree like body lay motionless on the bed. His bulging eyes palpitated-all five of them-as they rose, each on its stalk, and turned toward Ray. The Foy`s voice had a strange tone and the lipless edges of his open round mouth did not move, but the words formed perfectly. His eyes were making the Foyan gestures of assent as he said, “Give my big hearts to Maude, Ray. Dismember me for Harold`s choir. Tell all the Foys on Sortibackenstretethat I will soon be there.”
Monty Stein, in the year 3047, committed quite a heist and made off with quite a tidy sum. He was eventually caught, and the judge sentenced him to seven years imprisonment. However, the night before his impending incarceration, he calmly set his time machine for seven years and one day, and stepped through.
When he emerged in 3054, there was quite an uproar. Prosecution maintained that Monty Stein never actually served the sentence, since effectively no time passed for him. Defense stated that the effect was basically the same, since he lost seven years of living in society, or something to that effect. Both sides called each other names (as lawyers are wont to do).
Eventually, Stein was set free. Some say that the judge succumbed to peer pressure; others said that he simply couldn`t resist the temptation. For his decision, in full, was: … “A niche in time saves Stein.”
i`m also going to take this opportunity to repost what i believe to be the greatest short story ever written, the author is unknown, but has been attributed to the likes of somerset maugham and reproduced as a preface to a couple of short story collections :
death speaks
There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.
I will go to Samarra and there death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse and the servant mounted it and dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
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short stories, issac asimov, death speaks
keifel is my given name. it doesn`t mean anything, my mother came across a variation in a book she was reading, modified it and gave it to me with a plethora of middle names. which we wont get into, yet.
the root is germanic and properly pronounced like the tower Eiffel with soft `k`. however i didn`t find this out until i was almost 15. up until then, it was pronounced like `kiefer` [as in sutherland] but with an `l`, it also rhymed with gieffel, which if you don`t know was one half of the co-operative duo from sesame street, who got the nectarines.
i remember this because, as bad as we are as adults, no one tops meanness in children and teenagers. i think they pretty much have the market cornered. note to parents and would be parents, never ever give you child a name that can easily be made fun of, the trauma is irrevocable.
with this trauma firmly under my belt by the time i was ready to graduate high school i had dropped my given first name and had adopted my second name, anthony, particularly the diminutive, tony and with the rising popularity of tony! toni! tone!, i was, for a brief moment, not the butt of many jokes, at least about my name.
fast forward a couple of years and i`m older and somewhat wiser, equipped with the proper pronunciation of my name, an umlaut and a modicum of self confidence, i`ve grown into my name.
i`ve gotten older still and hopefully a little wiser as well, i`m at the stage where i`m proud of my name, it`s who i am, part of my character. even with the repeated and oft times phonetic spelling to ensure people get it right when i`m speaking on the phone and still having things turn up with all types of variations, it`s mine and i wouldn`t change it for the world.
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names
Why do you think we are quick to believe something negative about someone before we accept/believe something positive? Even when its obvious that someone has done something positive like lose weight there is always someone who assumes you starved or had plastic surgery they have to attach something NEGATIVE to your good news. Why are we so drawn to negative stories and bad luck? Do you think this is the reason bad news sells?
we`ve become a generation of cynics. we`ve had our trust betrayed so many times by our leaders and exemplars [insert variety here] that we tend to believe the worst.
the media only provides what we want to see. on an individual level we still believe in the milk of human kindness, somewhat but to the mob that milk has long since curdled.
and the mob rules, we tend to accept whatever is present to us as gospel. we need to learn to think and ask questions. most of the time when you stop to ask you realise that the cynicism isn`t warranted, except in the case of politics and religion. there is always a hidden agenda.
in the course of my readings here and other blogs, i get a sense of general loathing of most of the practitioners of the medical profession, i find this more than a little strange.
i guess it`s the difference in health care. i`ve had the same doctor for as long as i can remember. she`s seen me grow from a toddler, through being too embarrassed to be undressed in front of her as a teenage, to threatening to put me on medication for hypertension if i didn`t slow down as a young adult.
i wasn`t a sickly child, i was fairly healthy except i was allergic to the simplest things [eggs, milk, fish] which has a propensity to show up on my skin. so apart from my regular gp, i did see a variety of skin specialists. even today when i get stress the first place that reacts is my skin.
through my teenage years i was anaemic, prompting daily consumption of guiness and milk. to this day guiness is still medicinal connotations to me. that was the other thing about my doctor, even now, she goes out of her way to either medicate you from her samples, generics or alternative treatments.
as i got older and started working, my visits got less regular. basically i had to be sick to show up on her door step and even then it was sick and dying. in my second or third year at my first advertising gig, i was working twenty hour days, partially because of the two projects we generally had between september and december and mostly because my first marriage was falling apart and it was easier for me to immerse myself in my job.
after the second project was completed i passed out in the office. i mean fainted dead away, so forcibly i was taken to the doctor`s. she did the usual work up until she got to the blood pressure, apparently my pressure was so high, by all rights i was supposed to be dead.
now hypertension runs in my family, both sides at least two generations, so my doctor looks at me and says, `you have two options, i can medicate you for this and you`ll start now and never come off or you can go home for a week, do absolutely nothing, read, sleep, come back and see me in a week and we`ll take your pressure again and work from there.` i took the week off then, since then my blood pressure has been on the low to normal side.
when we realised i was getting carpal tunnel syndrome, she gave me my options, drugs and eventual surgery or i could try acupuncture, i tried it and i`m sold.
i`ve tried other doctors because getting to see my doctor is a whole day effort, you make an appointment and theoretically you can see the doctor sometime on the same day. your appointment is never on time because the elderly and children have priority. and because of the kind of doctor she is, it`s not a wham bam thank you ma`am kind of visit, you don`t generally get out in under 40 minutes.
i suppose i should go for a check up before i leave the caribbean
caribbean zen. when i was a child my mother used to tell me what is for me, can`t be unfor me and for years i puzzled over that.
age brings wisdom and the older i get the calmer i get. hard to believe based on some of my outbursts here, but i`ve calmed down significantly. it`s easier for me to step back, take a breath and find a new direction towards my goal.
at the beginning of the year, i told vic that i sensed it would be a good year for us and we`re progressing, i guess this our time, i was reading vic`s post last night and i shouldn`t be surprised how in tune we are.
neither of us is expecting perfection, there is going to be some adjustment, there are going to be challenges, we`re not going to be shiny, happy people everyday. and i can live with that, we can live with that. that`s what being a couple is about facing your challenges together, support for each other and not going to bed angry.
we`ve gotten this far, through all manner of trials, the next steps, we`ll have each other and that`s all we`re asking for.
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zen
