Tuesday, May 31, 2005
HOOORAY!!!!!!!!
I just saw a TV commericial that a movie is being made of Fantastic Four, actually it has already been made! I Can't wait and OMG tomorrow is going to be JUNE where did this year go?
The Spirit of the Great Heart
Today has been quite the day. I woke up to drizzly weather, what else is new. I was truly shocked that I didn't get a call from my boss about not having to go to work because it was wet and gross. I show up to the site and no one is there. I just think maybe I missed them, however, he shows up and cancels. I go home to having a sleep where I wake up hurting I've slept so hard. Then I get up and have lunch, and fall back to sleep. I also tripped randomly 3 times today, just a scary lost my balance type thing. My sister says first of all that she's worried I may have a brain tumour. I'll keep you guys updated.
Anyway, I listened to Johnny Clegg and Savuka on my iPod while I was walking the dogs and realized some things. One of the songs is called, Searching for the Spirit of the Great Heart and I think that is what I am looking for. My friend's mother and I were talking about Native Americans beliefs in God. The call it the Higher Spirit and don't see it as in the Spirit is not in the form of human beings. What I am getting at is that I fear that I need to go to Africa. I feel like something is waiting for me. I just hope I go to South Africa or Namibia. Now I need to go to bed so I don't have some weird shock tomorrow .
THats it
Okay this is a weird blog but when am I not weird?
Anyway, I listened to Johnny Clegg and Savuka on my iPod while I was walking the dogs and realized some things. One of the songs is called, Searching for the Spirit of the Great Heart and I think that is what I am looking for. My friend's mother and I were talking about Native Americans beliefs in God. The call it the Higher Spirit and don't see it as in the Spirit is not in the form of human beings. What I am getting at is that I fear that I need to go to Africa. I feel like something is waiting for me. I just hope I go to South Africa or Namibia. Now I need to go to bed so I don't have some weird shock tomorrow .
THats it
Okay this is a weird blog but when am I not weird?
Monday, May 30, 2005
Flags, Flags, FLAGS!!!
I've the choice between two television programs to watch right now. Either the movie HULK or a Discovery Channel documentary on the Hajj, the Muslim pilgremage that everyone in Islam is technically supposed to make. I can happily say I am watching the Hajj pilgrimage!!! One of the "featured muslims" is a guy from Middelborough England. Thats the North of England, pretty close to the Scottish border - so to the average ear, his dialect is incomprehensable. Subtitles abound...weird, because he is speaking perfect English. I wonder if the Welsh get subtitles from the Texan or Lousianan accent?
Anyway according to the title, I think if I see another flag I will go crazy. I think I counted 25 flags on the short 15 minute ride home from work. I remember when I graduated from Kindergarten, we all had to read facts about the stars and stripes. My fact was, The Flag should NOT be flown outside in BAD weather. I don't know if any of you have noticed, but all we have been having in the north east is bad weather, yet the battallian of red white and blue was flapping away all along the coast. I even saw some stone lions that gaurd the driveway of some very rich owners. They were out in their finest red white and blues. I wonder if their owners realized they both looked like they were wearing the Hijab, the scarf/flag was positioned just so... with a smirk I drove away slightly happier. I'm glad I can make myself happy over things like that.
Hello my name is Ian and I am an NPR addict. I don't know what it is but I just find their voices so calming and they have good stories on it...except for today. All they played was My country tis of thee and the star spangled banner. I think if I hear another note from either of those songs I WILL SCREAM. Why are we allowed to be patriotic and the Germans are not? I completely disagree with the fact that it has come to this point in this country that if you are not a conservative christian with a text book set of morals you are un patriotic. That is not true! I LOVE THIS COUNTRY. Yes I said it, I do love this country. The sweet chewing gum sound of our accents and sometimes utter innocence is something I love. I love the fact that as a whole we have been able to live inside a country without major disturbances amonst ourselves for almost 150 years. However, the mullahs ensconced in Washington are not of the same opinion. But aren't they just as conservative?
Anyway according to the title, I think if I see another flag I will go crazy. I think I counted 25 flags on the short 15 minute ride home from work. I remember when I graduated from Kindergarten, we all had to read facts about the stars and stripes. My fact was, The Flag should NOT be flown outside in BAD weather. I don't know if any of you have noticed, but all we have been having in the north east is bad weather, yet the battallian of red white and blue was flapping away all along the coast. I even saw some stone lions that gaurd the driveway of some very rich owners. They were out in their finest red white and blues. I wonder if their owners realized they both looked like they were wearing the Hijab, the scarf/flag was positioned just so... with a smirk I drove away slightly happier. I'm glad I can make myself happy over things like that.
Hello my name is Ian and I am an NPR addict. I don't know what it is but I just find their voices so calming and they have good stories on it...except for today. All they played was My country tis of thee and the star spangled banner. I think if I hear another note from either of those songs I WILL SCREAM. Why are we allowed to be patriotic and the Germans are not? I completely disagree with the fact that it has come to this point in this country that if you are not a conservative christian with a text book set of morals you are un patriotic. That is not true! I LOVE THIS COUNTRY. Yes I said it, I do love this country. The sweet chewing gum sound of our accents and sometimes utter innocence is something I love. I love the fact that as a whole we have been able to live inside a country without major disturbances amonst ourselves for almost 150 years. However, the mullahs ensconced in Washington are not of the same opinion. But aren't they just as conservative?
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Graduation, Abschluss, Graduacion
So here is my blog entry for graduation like I promised. I've just gotten overwhelmingly tired now, don't really understand why. However, I've promised a blog entry concerning graduation so that I will provide "ya'll" with. Well maybe I shouldn't because I just said ya'll and should be in bed. My Gott why am I so tired? I feel like I got hit in the face with something... oh wait, that was the paint can! Joking alright so here's graduation (I wanted to add Dutch and Afrikaans to the header but the online dictionary I found had no entry under the English word graduation. Interesting)
On the day I was supposed to get Paint Training 101 in Manchester, NH, not England, I went to MA with Rene. I took the bus down to Waterbury in CT so I could meet up with my friend Annemarie on my way to graduation. I had to get a copy of my thesis - I thought that would be a good idea since I was supposed to present the damn thing in less than a week's time. So I pondered the reason why all bus stations in this icountry are fucking dives and tucked in to a wonderful meal of arroz, carne, frijoles, y platanos fritos at AM's house. But I'm not going to bore you all with details of the entire week. Basically I traveled through NH, MA, CT to Brookly and then met my fearless partner in crime Tohannash at Penn Station and traveled to the big city of Southampton Long Island. Man it was fun! Tohs and I ended up talking with her mother about the stupidity and unfairness of the white man to the Native American until about 3 in the morning. The town of Southampton wants to screw the Shinnecock Natives over right now so if anyone cares to look them up on google and support them in their fight for sovereignty, it would be much appreciated.
Saturday was the ceremony for Friends World. It started out as an unusual but lovely day nonetheless. I saw people who I had not seen in years and loved it. My friend Wren was there and I finally realised how much I missed alot of these people. My class (those that started with me and ended up graduating last weekend, 4 years on) was 10 people. A whole third of the class! There were two people there who I didn't want to see AT ALL. Fernando Vega and Aimee Webb. I don't care if they come across this blog because after what they did that weekend the little respect I had for them diminished even further. Both of them were supposed to present in front of me. I didn't want to, but I decided not to change my time of presentation because I was told I was put there to close of the LAST graduation ceremonies of Southampton College with a bang. I think I did. But I had seen Meg, a person from the England Center, so I went to say hi. I turned to go say hi to those two, Fernando and Aimee, and they were walking away. Later that day Fernando plucked up the courage to talk to me and I made sure to sound as confident as possible to him with my goals and plans in life so his WHAT IS ART? presentation would come across as the shit it was. :O( I just got really pissed because those fuckers forced their own issues onto my head when it was them who had the problems in the first place.
We then moved to the gym and heard a couple people talking to us. I like Tami Farber who graduated in 1999 (proudly on the ten year plan) and she was a member of the class that Marla Ruczika was in. For those of you who don't know she is the founder of the NGO CIVIC who died in Iraq on April 16. In my opinion the choice of having Tami as our "commencement speaker" was a brilliant idea. She graduates/survived Friends World (not many of us do that!) and now works at the UN for Humanitarian goals. She was in Malawi and has been through the program so could really tell us what to expect. We may not have had a traditional academic program, but we now have one hell of a resume and now who we are. This kind of goes along with my last blog. Is life just a journey of knowing who we are?
Sunday showed me that we are the outsiders. Friend's World has not been resident on Southampton College for 3 years now - at least the student body of it. So most people who were graduating on Sunday really had no idea who we were. :) But we had our cute sashes, world is your classroom cliche sprayed across and made the most noise throughout the ceremony. Steve Kroft was the Southies' commencement speaker and he was excellent too. I'm a little partial to Friend's World though. I just wanted to express my thanks somehow to the college and how much it has helped me. HOpefully it won't go under... phew I made it out.
Sleepy time
On the day I was supposed to get Paint Training 101 in Manchester, NH, not England, I went to MA with Rene. I took the bus down to Waterbury in CT so I could meet up with my friend Annemarie on my way to graduation. I had to get a copy of my thesis - I thought that would be a good idea since I was supposed to present the damn thing in less than a week's time. So I pondered the reason why all bus stations in this icountry are fucking dives and tucked in to a wonderful meal of arroz, carne, frijoles, y platanos fritos at AM's house. But I'm not going to bore you all with details of the entire week. Basically I traveled through NH, MA, CT to Brookly and then met my fearless partner in crime Tohannash at Penn Station and traveled to the big city of Southampton Long Island. Man it was fun! Tohs and I ended up talking with her mother about the stupidity and unfairness of the white man to the Native American until about 3 in the morning. The town of Southampton wants to screw the Shinnecock Natives over right now so if anyone cares to look them up on google and support them in their fight for sovereignty, it would be much appreciated.
Saturday was the ceremony for Friends World. It started out as an unusual but lovely day nonetheless. I saw people who I had not seen in years and loved it. My friend Wren was there and I finally realised how much I missed alot of these people. My class (those that started with me and ended up graduating last weekend, 4 years on) was 10 people. A whole third of the class! There were two people there who I didn't want to see AT ALL. Fernando Vega and Aimee Webb. I don't care if they come across this blog because after what they did that weekend the little respect I had for them diminished even further. Both of them were supposed to present in front of me. I didn't want to, but I decided not to change my time of presentation because I was told I was put there to close of the LAST graduation ceremonies of Southampton College with a bang. I think I did. But I had seen Meg, a person from the England Center, so I went to say hi. I turned to go say hi to those two, Fernando and Aimee, and they were walking away. Later that day Fernando plucked up the courage to talk to me and I made sure to sound as confident as possible to him with my goals and plans in life so his WHAT IS ART? presentation would come across as the shit it was. :O( I just got really pissed because those fuckers forced their own issues onto my head when it was them who had the problems in the first place.
We then moved to the gym and heard a couple people talking to us. I like Tami Farber who graduated in 1999 (proudly on the ten year plan) and she was a member of the class that Marla Ruczika was in. For those of you who don't know she is the founder of the NGO CIVIC who died in Iraq on April 16. In my opinion the choice of having Tami as our "commencement speaker" was a brilliant idea. She graduates/survived Friends World (not many of us do that!) and now works at the UN for Humanitarian goals. She was in Malawi and has been through the program so could really tell us what to expect. We may not have had a traditional academic program, but we now have one hell of a resume and now who we are. This kind of goes along with my last blog. Is life just a journey of knowing who we are?
Sunday showed me that we are the outsiders. Friend's World has not been resident on Southampton College for 3 years now - at least the student body of it. So most people who were graduating on Sunday really had no idea who we were. :) But we had our cute sashes, world is your classroom cliche sprayed across and made the most noise throughout the ceremony. Steve Kroft was the Southies' commencement speaker and he was excellent too. I'm a little partial to Friend's World though. I just wanted to express my thanks somehow to the college and how much it has helped me. HOpefully it won't go under... phew I made it out.
Sleepy time
Two days and counting...maybe
So I've finally started work. Its been a long process of waiting as many of you may know. I've been up here about a month now and unfortunately worked only about 20 hours. Oh well, its been an experience. My uncle has been generous and let me use his car for the next two weeks. I'm going to be super spoiled by the end of the those two weeks and by the time I have to give the car back, I'm not going to want to ride my bike any more. I don't think that will happen though. God I hope not. So anyway, we are painting the trim, running boards, casements et al of a house about the size of 3 double decker buses parked end to end in the next town down the seacoast - Northampton. I love this part of the country, cause you can go from my neck of the woods (nice, obviously well off, but the houses aren't obnoxiously large) to the seedy revelry of Hampton Beach (down there it is like Blackpool meets Coney Island meets Its a Small World Ride) to the mansions in the fields of heather slightly inland. All of this takes place on a 13 mile stretch of coast! Pretty impressive I think.
Anthony, he's my boss, brought his Sharpei today and she is a doll. She entertained the kids of the house, played with the cutest 5 month old Golden, kicked its butt!, and got really scared when the thunder came rolling in. I hope she becomes our mascot. It will be fun to have her around. I began to think something was wrong though when seagulls came over the tops of the trees. When they are that far inland, something must be wrong.
I wanted to include something about last night in this blog entry because what happened was really surreal/scary. I say scary because I don't really know where it came from and I say surreal because I never thought I would be having that kind of time with my extended family. Overall I had a blast but the night just came out of nowhere and I really think those are the best nights, the ones that are only planned about 10 minutes before they actually start. :O)
Anyway, we tried our grill and for some reason could not get it started. So off to the Beach Club err...Surf Club down the beach to make dinner and as it turns out have fun. We had a really good dinner, ate 4 pounds of meat and stayed until closing. Why do I have a habit of doing that? But the reason we stayed so long is Lauren, Pete, Ed and I had such good conversations. I mean it all kept moving and I honestly felt that we all actually had an interest in what was being said. That doesn't happen very often. At the Surf Club though, they have two taps at the bar - Munich Spaten, and Red Hook Brew. Unfortunately, they didn't have any Spaten (wonderful Oktoberfest Beer) so I drank the Red Hook. No one is behind the bar, so members are allowed to pull their own pints. That could be very dangerous.... :) But yours truly is an angel. :)
Another thing I want to talk about is a book I'm reading. it's Martha B. Hopkins' Second Chances and it is billed as a Travel Narrative of Southern Africa. I am reading it as prep reading for Peace Corps. Unfortunately, it does not have much to do with Southern Africa. She spent 5 months in SA and 1 month in Namibia suppossedly. I do understand that she needs to express her thoughts and see them firsthand on paper. Hell, that is just what I did for my senior presentation for Friend's World. However, I think she could have done a better job with it because she is a bit condecending with the younger people in her story. Many times her facts or spelling is just wrong. Swaziland does not border Tanzania, but Mozambique, it is not Transkai but Transkei. Am I just being too padantic or is it a worthy feeling? Do we all try and justify our existance and force it upon other people to get acceptance or have them help us make sense of it all?
Thats it.
Oh wait it isn't, I went for a walk with the dogs and the cook from the Surf Club asked whether or not my family was coming back tonight, I guess we are popular!
Anthony, he's my boss, brought his Sharpei today and she is a doll. She entertained the kids of the house, played with the cutest 5 month old Golden, kicked its butt!, and got really scared when the thunder came rolling in. I hope she becomes our mascot. It will be fun to have her around. I began to think something was wrong though when seagulls came over the tops of the trees. When they are that far inland, something must be wrong.
I wanted to include something about last night in this blog entry because what happened was really surreal/scary. I say scary because I don't really know where it came from and I say surreal because I never thought I would be having that kind of time with my extended family. Overall I had a blast but the night just came out of nowhere and I really think those are the best nights, the ones that are only planned about 10 minutes before they actually start. :O)
Anyway, we tried our grill and for some reason could not get it started. So off to the Beach Club err...Surf Club down the beach to make dinner and as it turns out have fun. We had a really good dinner, ate 4 pounds of meat and stayed until closing. Why do I have a habit of doing that? But the reason we stayed so long is Lauren, Pete, Ed and I had such good conversations. I mean it all kept moving and I honestly felt that we all actually had an interest in what was being said. That doesn't happen very often. At the Surf Club though, they have two taps at the bar - Munich Spaten, and Red Hook Brew. Unfortunately, they didn't have any Spaten (wonderful Oktoberfest Beer) so I drank the Red Hook. No one is behind the bar, so members are allowed to pull their own pints. That could be very dangerous.... :) But yours truly is an angel. :)
Another thing I want to talk about is a book I'm reading. it's Martha B. Hopkins' Second Chances and it is billed as a Travel Narrative of Southern Africa. I am reading it as prep reading for Peace Corps. Unfortunately, it does not have much to do with Southern Africa. She spent 5 months in SA and 1 month in Namibia suppossedly. I do understand that she needs to express her thoughts and see them firsthand on paper. Hell, that is just what I did for my senior presentation for Friend's World. However, I think she could have done a better job with it because she is a bit condecending with the younger people in her story. Many times her facts or spelling is just wrong. Swaziland does not border Tanzania, but Mozambique, it is not Transkai but Transkei. Am I just being too padantic or is it a worthy feeling? Do we all try and justify our existance and force it upon other people to get acceptance or have them help us make sense of it all?
Thats it.
Oh wait it isn't, I went for a walk with the dogs and the cook from the Surf Club asked whether or not my family was coming back tonight, I guess we are popular!
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
The hatches are battened...
My god I wish I could record what is happening outside right now and share it with you all. I 've come back to New Hampshire and of course the weather is PURE CRAP! I spent 20 minutes outside on the deck yesterday trying to tie down the deck furniture so it would not fly away into the white wall of water that is the Atlantic Ocean. I wasn't even out there 20 minutes I think and I got soaked through and through. Many of you may know that my job this summer is painting houses, yeah right that is going to happen. I don't think one siding of a house will get painted this summer. What got me yesterday was that I was talking to a friend of mine from London who is living in Idaho now and got royally pissed off. She was there in Middleton Idaho with 70 degree weather and walking around in a tee shirt and shorts. I was out there in blinding rain, its coming down in sheets and the tempurature wind chill gets down to 35 degrees. MENSCH its FUCKING MAY!!!!!! I'm going to put in a graduation blog tomorrow. I still have to fathom how it affected me because it sure as hell did. Another thing about this house, I feel like it is jiving to the music of the storm right now. UPstairs it is literally shifting a couple inches. I didn't think houses should do that. Another thing is that I noticed the house wasn't heating up as it did last week before I went to graduation. I noticed when I started a fire tonight that the flew was wide open! Oh well, I've had a roaring fire going all night it works well.
Anywho, I just bought three things on Borders.com, which is actually Amazon nowadays. I bought a Bette Midler CD, a book by Nadine Gordimer (my fav author who happens to be a Saffa.) and a book by Che Guevara. It is actually THE book that the movie Motorcycle Diaries are based upon. I thought it would be good research material for my time in Africa. Who knows? Maybe we will get a Walkabout Diary from yours truly during his time in Africa.
Oh yeah I have one more thing to talk about. Today while I was cleaning the house (since it is so rainy I feel like a domestic here) I was plugged into my iPod and starting singing at the top of my voice. I haven't done that in so long and guess what, it felt GOOD. I felt like I had found myself again. I'm on my way.
Thats it.
PS. 26.5.2005 would have been my mom's 59th bday so anyone who reads this, keep her and my dad in your thoughts.
Anywho, I just bought three things on Borders.com, which is actually Amazon nowadays. I bought a Bette Midler CD, a book by Nadine Gordimer (my fav author who happens to be a Saffa.) and a book by Che Guevara. It is actually THE book that the movie Motorcycle Diaries are based upon. I thought it would be good research material for my time in Africa. Who knows? Maybe we will get a Walkabout Diary from yours truly during his time in Africa.
Oh yeah I have one more thing to talk about. Today while I was cleaning the house (since it is so rainy I feel like a domestic here) I was plugged into my iPod and starting singing at the top of my voice. I haven't done that in so long and guess what, it felt GOOD. I felt like I had found myself again. I'm on my way.
Thats it.
PS. 26.5.2005 would have been my mom's 59th bday so anyone who reads this, keep her and my dad in your thoughts.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
The midnight ride of Paul Revere
The other night I decided to go out with some people I met on market square to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was a brilliant film. They kept very faithful to the book. I reccommend everyone to see it.
Anyway, I had to ride five miles in the dark because everyone lived in Dover or Portsmouth and I live in Rye now, five miles south of Portsmouth. It wasn't that far or that scary of an experience but every person who I passed who was out walking his dog looked at me as if I had six heads. I felt I should just stir things up in this white bread coastal community by shouting a 21st Century updated version of the New England call "The Arabs are Coming the Arabs are coming!" But then I may have gotten arrested.
I'm in a very sarcastic mood right now because I am watching Ab Fab. They have a mother's day marathon on BBC America! Its abolutely brill sweetie darling. I know I talk about television in almost every blog entry, but I watch alot of it. But my old next door neighbor is coming for a visit this tuesday. I have lots planned for her.
Just a note about my lost blog, I think silence is golden now. I've noticed with my family here in NH that we can just sit in silence reading books or watching some TV. Sometimes much more can be said with out saying anything at all.
More soon
Anyway, I had to ride five miles in the dark because everyone lived in Dover or Portsmouth and I live in Rye now, five miles south of Portsmouth. It wasn't that far or that scary of an experience but every person who I passed who was out walking his dog looked at me as if I had six heads. I felt I should just stir things up in this white bread coastal community by shouting a 21st Century updated version of the New England call "The Arabs are Coming the Arabs are coming!" But then I may have gotten arrested.
I'm in a very sarcastic mood right now because I am watching Ab Fab. They have a mother's day marathon on BBC America! Its abolutely brill sweetie darling. I know I talk about television in almost every blog entry, but I watch alot of it. But my old next door neighbor is coming for a visit this tuesday. I have lots planned for her.
Just a note about my lost blog, I think silence is golden now. I've noticed with my family here in NH that we can just sit in silence reading books or watching some TV. Sometimes much more can be said with out saying anything at all.
More soon
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Ugh
That is how I feel today. I'm sitting in NH, just talked to my brother and got my whole ideas for travelling back and forth to NY for graduation shot to hell. It wasn't his fault though, the car is old and I haven't seen it in almost a year so I really have no idea. I just had all these good ideas of fun road trips to and from LIU. But we will see what can be done. I'm not going to let that get me down. I'm not going to let anything get me down because I just have accomplished an amazing feat of graduating college.
I'm sure all of you have heard about my trip to the dentist yesterday. I realised that I had no insurance after the fact. They say I have a cavity, a filling needs replaced, and a crown needs to be redone. To the grand total of $1500. NO THANKS! I've got to go tomorrow to get my xrays and just leave. I hope that Peace Corps wont stop me from going. I'll get insurance as soon as I am with them. Oh god I need to get outside into the sun. This is driving me batty, my lacadasical existance here in Rye. I wish, no I don't wish anything, I have a job, it is just starting on the 15th and I am out of my mind here because I can't get motivated.
More soon
I'm sure all of you have heard about my trip to the dentist yesterday. I realised that I had no insurance after the fact. They say I have a cavity, a filling needs replaced, and a crown needs to be redone. To the grand total of $1500. NO THANKS! I've got to go tomorrow to get my xrays and just leave. I hope that Peace Corps wont stop me from going. I'll get insurance as soon as I am with them. Oh god I need to get outside into the sun. This is driving me batty, my lacadasical existance here in Rye. I wish, no I don't wish anything, I have a job, it is just starting on the 15th and I am out of my mind here because I can't get motivated.
More soon
Sunday, May 01, 2005
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