Seattleites rock.
I was crossing East John Street along Broadway this afternoon along with a dozen or so other pedestrians, when a stray car proceeded to impudently cut into the crosswalk. We weren't having it.
No, there was uniform dismay, and then indignation. Though the driver looked to be an older gentleman and his wife, an older lady behind me started laying it on them. She wasn't having it: "Get the hell out of the crosswalk!...learn how to drive, asshole!" And as an exclamation point, as he strolled by, one of a punk-attired trio of young folks coming from the other side of the street gave the offending vehicle a good kick in the rear. The driver then hit the brakes and in his annoyance turned in his seat to see what the heck was going on. But the older lady pedestrian gave a parting jeer, and the rest of us peds kept strolling on by, satisfied in our solidarity: Seattle-Ped-Solidarity!! Rah!
- d.g.w. 12/31/07
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Les Petite Problemmes du Vie
Ok. A lot of crummy stuff is going on and I desperately need to write it out, if only to get my mind around everything that I need to deal with:
1) Most urgently, I need $160, and probably $320, to pay my rent.
I pay rent weekly and it's due each Friday. I was expecting a money order from mom for last Friday's, and it never came. The day of, I kept calling and calling and when I finally got ahold of her it was 5:00 and she was having a birthday dinner with Sarah and Jesse, and told me she'd call back when she was through. I tried to stop her and say that I really couldn't wait, but it was apparently really loud where they were, and she hung up.
I had left to go help Laura with her move, and when I got back at 9 that night, the lock on my door had been changed! Ya. They were serious, evidently, when they said rent is due on fridays. I caught the building manager at the last minute before he left, and he indicated that I'd be able to get my stuff out at some point (he didn't say, but I assume Monday - tomorrow).
Ideally I would arrive with money in hand so to convince the manager to let me back in. I guess I have today to figure out how to do that.
2) I cannot register for winter quarter - which begins next Tuesday Jan. 8 - until I have signed off on some payment arrangement.
Everything could be solved if only my dad would pay back the loan from fall quarter. He has promised as much on at least three different occasions. But as he is impossible to reach, I have absolutely no indication that he will pay, much less within the next seven days. So unless I can somehow come up with $2500 cash before January 6, I probably won't be attending the UW this quarter. I'm going to have to beg mom and nana to help me - that's probably what it's going to come down to. Sad, because I know they don't have money to spare. At least mom definitely doesn't. I would promise to pay them back at some point in the future, but realistically I have no idea when that would be possible. I'm unemployed, and even when employed I have so many other expenses (rent, probation/court fees, college books, etc., etc.) that I'd have to pay them in installments.
Well, anyway, to return to the point: my father is a fucking bitch. I strongly suspect that someone is filtering his emails for him, but even if, it's impossible that he wouldn't be aware of it. So he's just as guilty. In fact he is more so, as he probably feels irreproachable since someone else is actively doing the deed. And as if he's helpless to do anything - ya right. Well, I'm impressed with his compartmentalizing abilities, that he's able to feel perfectly fine playing with his son's life like this, only to call up six months later and act like everything is hunky-dory. And I have to act likewise so as not to upset him and lose contact and his financial help altogether. All I know is that when I become financially secure and don't need to kiss his ass just to get money - if that ever happens, I'm going to pay him a visit and tell him and his psychotic wife off, once and for all.
3) I'm struggling with depression.
I know a good part of it is S.A.D. - seasonal-affective disorder. Seattle winters always hit people hard in that area. Yesterday, I slept from about 6 p.m. basically all the way through until 12 noon today. And that has not been unusual for me, lately.
I really have a hard time socializing and even engaging in conversation these days. I made it through Christmas: I spent the entire day with Laura and her fam, and the night before with the Hagopian-Ludwigs in Fremont. It went as well as could be expected, but since then I've just been stuck in a rut. I admit it's mostly situational: I'm unemployed, under financial duress, and on the verge of homelessness. So perhaps a little depression is only natural. Whatever. I wish life would be easier. I fuckin' wish that I had money, for christ's sake. That's another thing. On the job front, I've been declined so so many times based on background checks. I mentioned in a prior entry about being recruited for a contract/temp job with the Gates Foundation - that fell through solely because I couldn't pass a background check. Constant rejection like that takes its toll, I suppose.
One might say it's my own fault, on the other hand, it's not my fault that society discriminates against those with an imperfect past. It's not Seattle. I think Seattle is the best place I could be, frankly. People here are tolerant, civilized, and there really are a lot of job opportunities. It's the west. People come here from all over the country to start their lives, or to start their lives over. But Seattle is America and America has its flaws; its idiosyncracies; and in this country, fate doesn't always treat kindly those with limited resources. There are a lot of pitfalls out there when you lack money and family support. Not to say I don't have family support, or that I am not grateful for that which I do have. But I lack a cohesive family that comes together to figure out how best to help someone in need. Or if I did, those days have since past.
That is one thing that those who possess it take for granted - a strong family. There is no replacement for it and I think nothing is more effective in ensuring that one has a successful and happy life. Those who are able, like my sister, join so to speak, a new family, and that can suffice. But that takes years and is obviously not easy or even possible. I dare say it is easier for a female, anyhow.
1) Most urgently, I need $160, and probably $320, to pay my rent.
I pay rent weekly and it's due each Friday. I was expecting a money order from mom for last Friday's, and it never came. The day of, I kept calling and calling and when I finally got ahold of her it was 5:00 and she was having a birthday dinner with Sarah and Jesse, and told me she'd call back when she was through. I tried to stop her and say that I really couldn't wait, but it was apparently really loud where they were, and she hung up.
I had left to go help Laura with her move, and when I got back at 9 that night, the lock on my door had been changed! Ya. They were serious, evidently, when they said rent is due on fridays. I caught the building manager at the last minute before he left, and he indicated that I'd be able to get my stuff out at some point (he didn't say, but I assume Monday - tomorrow).
Ideally I would arrive with money in hand so to convince the manager to let me back in. I guess I have today to figure out how to do that.
2) I cannot register for winter quarter - which begins next Tuesday Jan. 8 - until I have signed off on some payment arrangement.
Everything could be solved if only my dad would pay back the loan from fall quarter. He has promised as much on at least three different occasions. But as he is impossible to reach, I have absolutely no indication that he will pay, much less within the next seven days. So unless I can somehow come up with $2500 cash before January 6, I probably won't be attending the UW this quarter. I'm going to have to beg mom and nana to help me - that's probably what it's going to come down to. Sad, because I know they don't have money to spare. At least mom definitely doesn't. I would promise to pay them back at some point in the future, but realistically I have no idea when that would be possible. I'm unemployed, and even when employed I have so many other expenses (rent, probation/court fees, college books, etc., etc.) that I'd have to pay them in installments.
Well, anyway, to return to the point: my father is a fucking bitch. I strongly suspect that someone is filtering his emails for him, but even if, it's impossible that he wouldn't be aware of it. So he's just as guilty. In fact he is more so, as he probably feels irreproachable since someone else is actively doing the deed. And as if he's helpless to do anything - ya right. Well, I'm impressed with his compartmentalizing abilities, that he's able to feel perfectly fine playing with his son's life like this, only to call up six months later and act like everything is hunky-dory. And I have to act likewise so as not to upset him and lose contact and his financial help altogether. All I know is that when I become financially secure and don't need to kiss his ass just to get money - if that ever happens, I'm going to pay him a visit and tell him and his psychotic wife off, once and for all.
3) I'm struggling with depression.
I know a good part of it is S.A.D. - seasonal-affective disorder. Seattle winters always hit people hard in that area. Yesterday, I slept from about 6 p.m. basically all the way through until 12 noon today. And that has not been unusual for me, lately.
I really have a hard time socializing and even engaging in conversation these days. I made it through Christmas: I spent the entire day with Laura and her fam, and the night before with the Hagopian-Ludwigs in Fremont. It went as well as could be expected, but since then I've just been stuck in a rut. I admit it's mostly situational: I'm unemployed, under financial duress, and on the verge of homelessness. So perhaps a little depression is only natural. Whatever. I wish life would be easier. I fuckin' wish that I had money, for christ's sake. That's another thing. On the job front, I've been declined so so many times based on background checks. I mentioned in a prior entry about being recruited for a contract/temp job with the Gates Foundation - that fell through solely because I couldn't pass a background check. Constant rejection like that takes its toll, I suppose.
One might say it's my own fault, on the other hand, it's not my fault that society discriminates against those with an imperfect past. It's not Seattle. I think Seattle is the best place I could be, frankly. People here are tolerant, civilized, and there really are a lot of job opportunities. It's the west. People come here from all over the country to start their lives, or to start their lives over. But Seattle is America and America has its flaws; its idiosyncracies; and in this country, fate doesn't always treat kindly those with limited resources. There are a lot of pitfalls out there when you lack money and family support. Not to say I don't have family support, or that I am not grateful for that which I do have. But I lack a cohesive family that comes together to figure out how best to help someone in need. Or if I did, those days have since past.
That is one thing that those who possess it take for granted - a strong family. There is no replacement for it and I think nothing is more effective in ensuring that one has a successful and happy life. Those who are able, like my sister, join so to speak, a new family, and that can suffice. But that takes years and is obviously not easy or even possible. I dare say it is easier for a female, anyhow.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
My Maryland Visit, Charles Ross's "One-Man Star Wars"
I just returned early Sunday morning from my trip to visit mom and nana in Maryland. A very nice visit - I think that one week was a perfect amount of time. There wasn't a whole lot going on and we focused on a few projects: one, organizing and cleaning my room, which mom plans to make into a guest room. It has a nice, albeit creaky, wooden bed frame that grandpa had decades ago brought back from Denmark; and a nice desk and dresser to match. My window looks out over the backyard, level with the branches of several tall trees, over a path that runs through a grassy park.
We also did quite a lot of shopping, mostly for clothes for myself. Mom and nana were both very generous. Nana bought me a new pair of shoes that I picked out: a pair of shiny black Nike Air Forces from the mall. Mom ordered me some fleece slipper/scuffs from L.L. Bean. On Friday, the day before my retour par avion, we shopped for Christmas gifts and I got Laura some earrings and super-soft socks.
We also took in a one-act, one-man play at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in D.C.: "The One-Man Star Wars". The actor, Canadian Charles Ross (who bore a striking resemblance to a young Mark Hammil) did all three of the original movies back-to-back, with only a few-second water break between each. It was pretty crazy.
We made ticket reservations online ($28 each) and the whole time until I saw it I was pondering just how this guy would go about such an act. As it happened, he skipped all but the major, memorable scenes and characters. He sang-slash-hummed the music to begin separate scenes, but overall his attempt at mimicking John Williams' score was rather dismal.
Basically, he excelled at some characters and muddled through, or avoided others. He was great at C3P0 and R2D2: he had 3P0's stuffy, prissy accent, and stiff-limbed walk down-pat. For the two robots' journey through the Tattooinne desert after escaping Leia’s ship, Ross mimed almost perfectly R2's beeps and whistles, during their little exchange before they decide to part ways. The Luke Skywalker portrayal was fantastic, replete with Luke's boyish whine; and Ross was able to extract the humor out of Luke’s later afflicted, self-righteous heroism. He got a ton of laughs from the audience on Luke's behalf – maybe partly because they do in fact look alike. But Ross couldn't really do Han Solo or Princess Leia (he made her sound kind of like a gay man), but I suppose we can cut him some slack for taking on such a task! It really was amazing.
The little running jokes throughout were great, too: about Luke's whininess and the supposed pathetic acting career of actor Hammil. Also, Ross extracted some clever humor from the love triangle between Luke, Leia, and Han. And then, of course, the familial relationship between Luke, Leia, and Darth Vader/Annakin Skywalker.
Actually, after the first act, when the lights dimmed and Ross went to the back of the stage and chugged a water bottle, the audience clapped and it looked as though that was all. But after probably 10 seconds, he came back for Episode V/Empire Strikes Back. I couldn't believe that he went through the trilogy as rapidly and tirelessly as he did. Pretty awesome. In addition to the music, he even mimed those gargantuan AT-AT walkers on Hoth, and the smaller AT-ST walkers in the battle for Endor. He acted out the following: Luke's destruction by tripping, of the walker with his snow speeder's cable gun; and the Ewoks' crushing the AT-ST walker's "skull" with the two swinging logs, as well as the log roll booby-trap that tripped another one.
There were, of course, some glaring abscences - Rancor in Jabba's palace, for example, but mostly with Ross's acting it was just a matter of emphasis. And since he excelled at some characters and scenes more than others, it worked out pretty well.
When he was finally done, after a little over an hour of non-stop running around stage reducing George Lucas's creations to a fast-forward, human puppet-show, he left stage and then returned to bow and chat briefly with the audience. He explained that he has a similar act for the Lord of the Rings movie - but that he had been issued a warning from the movie people to cease doing it. So he gave everyone just a taste, by doing his Gollum impression. It was excellent, very accurate - and hilarious!
- d.g.w. 12/19/07
We also did quite a lot of shopping, mostly for clothes for myself. Mom and nana were both very generous. Nana bought me a new pair of shoes that I picked out: a pair of shiny black Nike Air Forces from the mall. Mom ordered me some fleece slipper/scuffs from L.L. Bean. On Friday, the day before my retour par avion, we shopped for Christmas gifts and I got Laura some earrings and super-soft socks.
We also took in a one-act, one-man play at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in D.C.: "The One-Man Star Wars". The actor, Canadian Charles Ross (who bore a striking resemblance to a young Mark Hammil) did all three of the original movies back-to-back, with only a few-second water break between each. It was pretty crazy.
We made ticket reservations online ($28 each) and the whole time until I saw it I was pondering just how this guy would go about such an act. As it happened, he skipped all but the major, memorable scenes and characters. He sang-slash-hummed the music to begin separate scenes, but overall his attempt at mimicking John Williams' score was rather dismal.
Basically, he excelled at some characters and muddled through, or avoided others. He was great at C3P0 and R2D2: he had 3P0's stuffy, prissy accent, and stiff-limbed walk down-pat. For the two robots' journey through the Tattooinne desert after escaping Leia’s ship, Ross mimed almost perfectly R2's beeps and whistles, during their little exchange before they decide to part ways. The Luke Skywalker portrayal was fantastic, replete with Luke's boyish whine; and Ross was able to extract the humor out of Luke’s later afflicted, self-righteous heroism. He got a ton of laughs from the audience on Luke's behalf – maybe partly because they do in fact look alike. But Ross couldn't really do Han Solo or Princess Leia (he made her sound kind of like a gay man), but I suppose we can cut him some slack for taking on such a task! It really was amazing.
The little running jokes throughout were great, too: about Luke's whininess and the supposed pathetic acting career of actor Hammil. Also, Ross extracted some clever humor from the love triangle between Luke, Leia, and Han. And then, of course, the familial relationship between Luke, Leia, and Darth Vader/Annakin Skywalker.
Actually, after the first act, when the lights dimmed and Ross went to the back of the stage and chugged a water bottle, the audience clapped and it looked as though that was all. But after probably 10 seconds, he came back for Episode V/Empire Strikes Back. I couldn't believe that he went through the trilogy as rapidly and tirelessly as he did. Pretty awesome. In addition to the music, he even mimed those gargantuan AT-AT walkers on Hoth, and the smaller AT-ST walkers in the battle for Endor. He acted out the following: Luke's destruction by tripping, of the walker with his snow speeder's cable gun; and the Ewoks' crushing the AT-ST walker's "skull" with the two swinging logs, as well as the log roll booby-trap that tripped another one.
There were, of course, some glaring abscences - Rancor in Jabba's palace, for example, but mostly with Ross's acting it was just a matter of emphasis. And since he excelled at some characters and scenes more than others, it worked out pretty well.
When he was finally done, after a little over an hour of non-stop running around stage reducing George Lucas's creations to a fast-forward, human puppet-show, he left stage and then returned to bow and chat briefly with the audience. He explained that he has a similar act for the Lord of the Rings movie - but that he had been issued a warning from the movie people to cease doing it. So he gave everyone just a taste, by doing his Gollum impression. It was excellent, very accurate - and hilarious!
- d.g.w. 12/19/07
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