I Ain't Afraid of No Daleks

It's after 3pm, and I have to eat something--'cos if I don't, I'll be famished by the time I get home after 9pm, and often I'm too knackered to cook anything special, so I think I'd better eat something now, even tho' I don't feel much like it.

Think I'll haul my meal out of the freezer/cupboard and nuke it in the microwave: lemon-pepper grilled fish filets, mixed veggies (broccolli, corn, string beans), and Uncle Ben's microwavable four cheese rice. sounds like a plan, ey?

Someone gave me a free skirt that someone had given her, that didn't fit. It's nice, and quite welcome, as I only own one skirt, a burgundy plaid that I got from the Salvation Army a while back, and it's really too warm for summer wear (and, a tad tight in the waist). This skirt given me today, is perfect. I'm very picky about skirts, I like them to be a certain length (long). I don't wear skirts or dresses very often--mainly because I have only two pairs of ladies shoes (that aren't boots or trainers), and generally only one pair of stockings and/or tights. Kind of puts a crimp on my wardrobe choices, that. Oh, and no, no makeup at the moment, either.

It's a nice skirt though, Susan Graver--whom I think used to be big on one of those home shopping channels, years ago. It's black with a moderate print of tulips on it. The nice thing is, that black with different colours of tulips, leave me quite a few choices as to what sort of top to wear.

Am trying to decide whether to wear that tonight, or my denim dress. It's hot out, and will likely be close and stifling in the office, so we'll see. With our new client arriving, we're back to office attire instead of jeans, on the weekdays. Not necessiarly a bad thing, as I think the casual dress started making people too relaxed and causing discipline issues.

I've been following Gormley's One and Other installation in Trafalgar Square, on and off. Both through the Sky Arts website, the online newspapers and various blogs.

I'm still of two very distinct and seperate minds, about this, though; If it's making us think, if it's making us see and feel, then perhaps it's art. If it's only coming down to a water-cooler moment, or a sarcastic Tweet...then, I'm not so sure.

I mean, it's like trying to debate whether an article would belong in the Times, or at the bottom of your cat's litterbox, I suppose. Not to demean the 4th Plinth project.

It makes me puzzle sometimes, is watching someone doing nothing but shifting about the top of a plinth, dressed head-to-toe in black robes, art? Is this person making me pause and think? Or just simply dull?

I ask myself continually, is someone morris dancing in an empty square at 4am, art? What is he representing? What is his purpose? Yes--when you look at it that way, perhaps this very much is art.

But, when all you do is look at these people and go, "look at that idiot in the daft costume, jingling his bells and hopping around on that plinth at 4am," is that actually still art? Is that reflecting the world around us? Is representing modern Britain? Or, are the homeless people sleeping near the square a better commentary on life in Great Britain, today?

Why don't they stick a homeless man or woman up there, or an unemployed person, or a drunken yob, an immigrant from Poland or a teenage mum? Why not one of the Royals, a footballer, an MP, a celebrity, or a reality show contestant?

Why not have a reporter from the Times or the Sun up there, writing a report on One and Other?

Write on one side of the paper only, please.

Good news for us liberals: The republicans are quickly losing what they have left of the hispanic vote.

In the hearings to deny or confirm our latest Supreme Court judge, republicans are beating something the woman said, basically to a pulpy, bloody death: the phrase "wise latino."

Apparently the rethugs (republican thugs) can only find this to browbeat the nominee with...over, and over, and over, and over again.

Not very intelligent, are they? All they are doing by harping on it, is making hispanics roll their eyes and wish the republicans would just zip it. No one is listening to them, thank God....well, just those automaton droolers that will listen to anything republicans say, just as the Nazi's listened to everything Hitler said.

What are the republican thugges AFRAID of, anyway?

Race. That's what it's about, race. Not politics. Not worries over future court rulings. It's about race and gender. She's hispanic AND a woman. Oh God.

First, they get a black president, now we have a potential judge of the highest court in the nation, who is both Latino AND female? Oh dear. What is the white trash world of these stupid bigoted little pricks coming to?

Next you know, the government will be encouraging colleges to hire more thinking liberals! OMG. This country might fall apart, if people actually start thinking for themselves! An educated and open-minded America? We can't have that!

These are the samme arseholes that refuse to ban assault weapons, because the legislation MIGHT include ONE type of hunting rifle. First--who the hell needs to hunt with an assault weapon--if you're that bad of a hunter, maybe you should stick to ten-pin bowling, yeah? Secondly, these pricks have no qualms about slaughtering prairie dogs or wolves--and, the murdering of innocent school children and family members...which what the assault weapons ban is meant for!

ESTABLISHED FACT: many assault weapons sold and traded at US gun shows, ultimately wind up in the hands of terrorists.

Why do these so-called "patriotic" Americans support the sale and use of assault weapons? Because they're mindless, selfish, shallow, infantile little dickheads, that's why!

"I believe I can fly..."

"When my owner told me to hang around, he wasn't kidding!"

"Five, four, three, two, one....ready or not, here I come!"

"The farmer wants to turn me into hamburger, so I'm hiding in this tree."

When I read the headline, "Obama tells young people to surpass their role models," I snorted so hard, that I almost blew my coffee I was sipping, out of my nose.

Truth to tell, most of the young people in my office, admire rapper/gangsters (if they're a guy), Ozzy Osbourne, or ho's or Britney Spears/Paris Hilton.

So, basically, Obama is telling the guys to be even better rapper/gangstas or doped up rockers, and the girls to be even more slutty or blonde and dizzy?

Oh God. We're really in trouble, now.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

1. Was 2006 a good year for you?

No, it was one of the darkest, most lonely, most personally shattering years of my life, actually.

2. What was your favorite moment(s) of the year 1980?

Oh, a lot going on, then, so hard to choose: my first (and only) horse show, coming face to face with a bull elk, meeting two TV celebrites, watching--and hearing the Perseid meteor shower over my head, Standing in a stream, literally straddling the Contenental Divide (the demaracation point where rivers either flow east or west, in the USA)...jeez, how could I choose?

3. What was your least favorite moment(s) of the 1987..and favorite moment of 1988?

I was working 6 days a week, as secretary/receptionist for a muffler shop in the city, about 15 miles from my home, and my car broke down--meant leaving home at 6.30am to catch a coach into the city, working 10am to sometimes as late as 7pm, and catching the 11pm coach home. It was 10 to 15 below zero F, and if you think walking a quarter mile in sub-zero F temps, at half-past six in the morning, and having to take two buses and a tractor (OK, kidding about the tractor), to work, and then cool your heels in some mangy bus station for a few hours, waiting for a bus--think again. It was educational though, sitting among the nutters and the drug mules late at night.

1988 is a no-brainer. I got to sit in Dr Who's car, Bessie, and to touch a "real" Tardis console (prop), in the traveling Dr Who USA exhibit. One of the definate highlights of my entire lifetime.

4. What did you do in 2003 that you’d never done before?

Finally graduated from a college, at the tender age of 43.

5. What were you driving in 1984?

Erm-I just got my license the year before, so probably either my 1967 AMC Rambler (the one with no power anything, no radio and a manual choke), or my mum's Ford Escort hatchback.

6. Where were you working in 1990?

Well, part of the year, I was still working for a telephone directory publisher, then I was offered the job in the stable--well, dream come true, so I went from a copy department non-sales telephone rep, to a stablehand.

7. Where were you in 1995?

Not a great year, for me. Through circumstances beyond my control, I was homeless for a month, living in deplorable conditions in the dead of winter--third worst year of my life. I lived with my godmother for a bit, and roomed with someone also, before I found an affordable govt. subsizied apartment in a rural mountain town up here in the Adirondacks, and my mum moved in with me--her social worker was pushing for her to go into pensioner's care, cos' mum was starting to have a hard time getting about, so as soon as I gave over the rent deposit, mum moved in with me.

8. Where will you be when this year ends?

With luck, not here where I live now, but I have no clue. I have no faith in tomorrow, I creep forth in my petty pace from day to day, as it were.

9. What were you doing in 1979?

Graduating high school, taking riding lessons, rambling with our dogs, swimming at the lake up the road, working at a riding stable and also cooking at the local bowling alley, starting college (unsucessfully) in the autumn.

10. What songs were you listening to, in 1975?

Wow, That was a long time ago! At 14/15 as I recall, I was listening to Top 40 pop/rock, John Denver, Folk music, bluegrass and disco.

11. What happened to you in 2005?

Mum died 14th Nov. exactly 3 months before her 80th birthday, I had to drop out of my four-year college one year shy of earning my BA, the heater/water boiler broke in my mobile home--one the same week my mum died, the other in December, I couldn't find a job anywhere to save my life (and my home), I spent my very first (but not last) ever Thanksgiving and Christmas alone. In other words, 2005 was crap.

12. Did you go anywhere in 2001?

Yes, I went overseas for the first time, with my international studies class, to a two-week seminar on water at a college in the northern Netherlands, followed by two days R & R, at the end of that time, in Iceland.

13. Who was the best new person you met in 2008?

That I met personally? My farm lady friend.

14. What was your favorite month of 2002?

Oh, probably April. I was awarded my first-ever scholarship, and, I got only my second academic excellence award (in theater, so don't be impressed), in my entire life (the first was for history in 76), and, got accepted into Phi Theata Kappa (national honours society for 2 year colleges)...all three in the same month. Best month of my life, to be sure.

15. Did you travel outside of the US in 1988?

No, not until 2001.

16. How many different states did you travel to in 1996?

Exactly none. Like now, back then, I didn't have a car.

17. Did anything special happpen in 1997?

I was Lady of the Fair for the county fair--choosen by entering your hat for the best floral design for a ladies hat. It was the first and only time I'd ever tried my hand at designing a ladies hat...it was wide brimed midnight blue straw, and I added a baby blue lace band, and slate blue silk roses and dried white baby's breath flowers. I finished it off with a pin at the side, of the head of a vintage-style lady wearing a blue 1920's type hat. I won $25 dollars, and a purple championship ribbon, and got to wear my hat with a special sash around me, while riding in a convertable in a parade down main street, waving at people, and, I got to meet Mary Lou (Vanderbilt) Whitney (sort of like meeting the equivilent of one of the Royals, I suppose).

18. What month from 1976 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Well, I guess there's two days, both in November. Cant remember exact dates of course. But I got to see my idol, John Denver sing live at Madison Square Garden, and, shortly thereafter, got to go to the National Horse Show at the same location. Very cool.

It was also my first time to see Times Square, visit the famous Macys and Gimbels departmnt stores, see St. Peter's Cathedral, and to ride in a carriage in Central Park. It was a dual birthday/Christmas present from my mum. A month to truly remember and cherish.

19. What was your biggest achievement of this year so far?

Not being homeless? I haven't really acheived anything, in quite a few years now--other than I'm still alive, I suppose that's something...and, that's fine.

20. What was your biggest failure of 1999?

Well, in hindsight, I got tired of going nowhere, working dead-end jobs and/or being forced to live on benefits, so I applied to go to college full-time. I wish I hadn't. I am better off intellectually and philosopically, but when it comes to financial security, I'm screwed. I'm deeper in debt, and at a bigger dead-end now, with a 2 year degree (plus credits for 4 years), then with just my high school diploma back before 1999--it's a bit mad, but it's too true, I'm afraid. I loved college, don't get me wrong, It changed my life in so many ways--but...realistically speaking, I should have just stayed home, kept doing volunteer work, and collected benefits--I'd be a lot more better off today, very likely.

I just found out, while browsing another website, that here in the states, Age of Kings is now available on DVD. Hoo-ray! Something I'm definately going to save up for!

What is Age of Kings? Not the latest video game, but a 1960 BBC production of Shakespeare's "History" plays.

I never saw it, but...around 1983--coincidentally, the same year I discovered Dr Who--I was browsing though a used bookshop in downtown Albany, NY, when I found this old paperback book.

It was titled "An Age of Kings," and contained the plays that were done for the BBC production--with some excellent synopsis introductions, before the beginning of each of the plays.

Through this, I read part of Henry V, but all of Richard II. I adored Richard II. It moved me in a way that no other Shakespearean play had ever moved me before. For the first time, I read what the story was about, so I could get beyond the sometimes unfathomable language, and into the story, the charactres, the setting...the version of Richard II in the Age of Kings took me in and showed me a new world, I felt the pain of Bolingbroke and the other characters, deeply enough to cry during the exile scene. And that's saying something, 'cos I'm not a person who normally gets weepy reading a book or watching a film--not to say that I never do, but I suspect it's much rarer for me, than many women my age. But, I had recently been virtually exiled myself, from land that I held very dear to my heart, so perhaps my tears weren't such a stretch.

I treasured Age of Kings, and that old paperback, published when I was quite literally merely an infant, graced my various bookshelves for some 20 years, until it literally fell apart and became unreadable. I won't say that it turned me into a Shakespearean scholar, but it did give me a love for the great bard's works.

I didn't truly appreciate the magical words and stories of Shakespeare, before the book came into my hands. I got lost in the archaic language so badly, that except for Twelfth Night, I basically never finished any of his works, 'cos I was overwhelmed, and felt as much an infant reading Hamlet in 1981, as I was when the films were made...yes, trying to slog through Hamlet at 21 years of age, without any prior knowledge of Shakespeare, I may add--(except for an impromtu viewing--with no study or introduction by our teacher-- with my English class, of Romeo and Juliet at the cinema during high school), I felt that I was way too far out of my depth.

I read Richard II twice, by the way. To this day, it's one of my favourite "serious" plays of all time, next to Mourning Becomes Electra.

I knew that the book was based on a BBC television series, made during my birth year (it said so on the cover, as I recall), but I never thought I'd ever have the opportunity to view it.

So, I'm going to try and save some money and buy myself this, sometime in the next year.

This was the paperback:

Whereas my city has earmarked Obama's economic stimulus funds to go towards "testing" a green-friendly bus (though not on providing better and/or more adequate bus service for the city's elderly, disabled and working poor), fifty miles to the south, New York's capital city of Albany, is doing something much more "humane" with their funds--feeding the working poor, elderly, disabled and unemployed.

Local food pantries--privately run non-profit food distribution centres, run by charities out of churches, social/community service groups, Salvation Army, etc.--distribute limited quanities of food to the poor, roughly once a month, to once every few months, per household. The needy generally get 2 to 5 days of food donated to them. Some of these agencies also distribute free day-old bread and baked goods, free for the taking whenever available.

As a recipient of these programmes in the past, I can attest what a true godsend these people--whom mostly are volunteers--are to those that are left with little or no food to eat. It's easier than you think, to go hungry in the USA; even if you are working full-time, and/or 6 or 7 days a week, if you are working for low wages, with high cost of living expenses, it's not a pretty picture. One can work one's bum off, quite literally every day of the week, and still come home to an empty kitchen, at the end of your workday. That's not a fun way to live, let me tell you!

So, I have a deep appreciaton of the pantries. Sure, there's always going to be deadbeats and greedy guts, who grab up the food, when they don't actually need it--- but there are twice as many that really are hungry, so it all evens out in the end.

Anyway, Albany is using its stimulus money--combined with a private donation of $15,000 from a local dairy/convenient shop chain, to issue "milk cards" to people at various food cupboards. The milk cards are basically gift vouchers, which can be taken to the convenient shop, and exchanged for either a gallon, or half-gallon, of milk.

If you think this isn't a godsend, think again; milk is expensive, as is bread and most other things, now. If you go into a shop with a fiver, chances are you MIGHT get a loaf of bread and a dozen eggs...chances are, you may not be able to purchase a quart of milk, as well. You may well have to choose which of these three items to put back: bread, eggs or milk. If you think I'm exaggerating, or that this is an isolated choice...no. It happens every single day. I've lived it, I've known people who've lived it, and I've seen others in the shops--more and more and more, of late, dithering over whether to buy item A, or Item B. Eggs or butter? Bread or milk? peanut butter or cold cereal? No, it's not a fun way to live.

Actually, if I ever did win that big lottery drawing (not that I actually play), I probably would either donate to a food pantry, or even set up one myself.

Hopefully now, thanks to the federal stimulus check, the compassion of local politicians and the private donation, at least a few people in New York's Upper Hudson Valley, will have one less hard choice to make...and, since the milk being purchased with the funds, is locally produced and being bought local shops, it not helps the poor, but New York's dairy farmers and the local economy! Win-win-win, all the way around! Now that's a moooving tribute to common sense!