Ranty Insanity
Jan. 5th, 2004 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clayhornikOk. Experiment in something. 1K words, once a week. It's poorly organized this time out. It was partially written at a bus stop, on a bus, and in a bar. I've taken a couple of days to post it, primarily due to doubts about... content, language, hell, politics- lack there of, and whininess.
I need to get over some of my self imposed restrictions and I need to develop a discipline in my writing.
**
So here goes: Mindless Blithering #1
I'm sitting at a bus stop on Little Creek road; it's surrounded by cigarette butts, their numbers best expressed in powers of ten.
The only food I've eaten today was at an Arby's. Yes, I'm very aware of BSE, and I don't really care. Roast Beef & cheddar sandwich with curly fries and a coke. Protein. Carbs. Starches. Sugars. Caffeine. The perfect nutritional supplement really.
I'm not sure what's going on, if anything, but I've seen several police cars pass by in either direction in the past few minutes. I suppose I'll see what ever it is on the eleven o'clock news.
Getting out is nice, it's good for me. First of all, it's probably the closest thing to a perfect day I've seen in a while, so I took the bus up to Trilogy Shop and picked up the first collected volume of Transmetropolitan. I've found my Muse. Warren Ellis and Hunter S. Thompson have show me there's a way to properly harness the anger, bile and resentment that builds up working retail. The only problem is I have to get out to make it work. Out of my apartment. Out of The Mall. Out of Downtown.
Downtown, despite the occasional blips of homelessness, is not the real world. The MacArthur Center is a hermetically sealed bubble where there's no room for the poor or unfortunate. But Norfolk's got plenty of both. That's the thing about the bus: it's for people who have either chosen not to have a car, or can't afford one. As such, it runs through neighborhoods filed with people who use it, that is, the less ritzy zones of Norfolk. Small wonder there's no Larchmont bus, the closest it comes it down Hampton Blvd, the road the separates the rich from the richer in Larchmont, surrounded by water on the east and west, Old Dominion University on the south west side and recent anti poverty surgical strikes on the east side of Hampton.
To hell with anything south of 39th st.
Back through my old turf again. How many years has it been, Tidewater and Lafayette? I still have some of the Omni's I picked up at the Tinee Giant. On the bus on a daily basis.
Don't think I went through shoe leather quite as quick back then as I do now.
Fare is still the same, though they've abandoned the "extend-a-fare" system they used to have, a prepaid return trip for just seventy five cents more. That was back when HRT used to be TRT, before they started truncating the routes, getting rid of the less profitable routes going through the less "popular" neighbourhoods.
Broken water main? The street's damp. Wasn't damp on the trip up.
The busdriver must be running late, she's going fast through a tight neighbourhood, families on porches, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. T-shirts weather. Shorts weather. There's a fellow one seat behind me across the aisle wearing shorts. In January.
Freaky weather. Earthquakes. Richmond, LA, Iran. WTF's going on?
Never mind disease. BSE. SARS. HIV.
Happy Fucking New Year everybody.
I've decided to do at least one thousand word column each week, and the way the world is going I've got plenty of stuff to work with. I'm not going to be anyone's but my own conscience and fuck if I have a hard enough time with that. I guess a better way to phrase it is it's my attempt to make sense of all the things going on. Maybe reading non-fiction wasn't a completely brilliant idea. After reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I started reading "Deadly Feasts." Add that to the BSE BS that's going down, you'd have to be either a moron or a cynic to eat at Arbees. For the record, I'm not a moron.
Poor Hardees. Helluva time to start an Angus beef promotion.
--
Back in Downtown, back in the Mall, back in Kincaids. Someone's sitting in my seat. IN. MY. SEAT.
I figure the biggest problem writing this thing will be reigning in my propensity for the word ‘fuck'. As in some fucker's sitting in my fucking seat. It's doubtful I'll ever actually use the word in it's original context. I can't remember the last time I actually used it in it's original context.
--
Drinking Chartreuse. Just a glass. Have to meet some people at a place called the Metro,in Dominion Towers. Haven't been to the Towers since we held a Cthulhu Crusade Revival out on the berth on the river. With Melissa. Haven't had any reason to. Til now. Being the petty person I am, I'm still slightly grumpy about getting an Christmas card with my name misspelled on it. The sender's birthday is today, so I've been invited to stop by for a drink. Lovely.
Still thinking about the bus ride. It's not like Norfolk has a halfway decent transportation system. The NET, electrical bus system is pretty nice, but once again the Downtown dynamic is at work. Something nice for the pats, something crappy for the proles.
I'm such a damn hypocrite. I like my cushy life. I'm not going to give it up. So who the hell am I to gripe about class inequality? Hell, I'm three steps away from endorsing fascism. Get the trains (and buses) running on time, make me a cog in the big machine, and put the cops into snazzy uniforms. Complete abdication of personal responsibility, give control to the state. Really, we're not too far from it. Personal phones and onstar that can pinpoint you via satellite. Marked books in libraries that put their readers on a special list. Who know's what else.
Evil uncle Bill and M$, they've no longer supporting their old software, despite the fact that it's still viable to a degree. But really, the only people who will be affected are the ones who can't afford to upgrade, either their hardware or software. Annnnnnnnnd once again it all comes down to the Benjamins.
That's it. I've hit my goal.
Not sure why I've been indenting as I've been writing; LiveJournal doesn't recognize indenting in the version I use. Guess you get what you pay for.
--
Back from Metro to Kincaids. Dawn's singing tonight. I think it's probably the only place in town where the piano player includes a Leonard Cohen song in their repertoire. Contrast with: Music videos on the Metro. Music videos. For goodness sake some vacuous dimwit remade "Don't You Want Me." Reinterpretation is ok. Look at Johnny Cash and Hurt. Or the Dixie Chicks and Landslide. But WHY OH WHY did someone need to remake "Don't you want me?". And the people there... apparently there was a (former) coke dealing pervert dentist. Yeah. Really. Can't make this shit up. Not ‘zactically the company I want to find myself in.
Not anymore, anyway. Once upon a time, I'd find it amusing. Now, it's just... sad.
I turned down the company of my co-worker Andie for this. I think I'll let it be an epilogue to my knowing the fellow who invited me out.
--
Have to work tomorrow, fifth Sunday in a row. IF I'm off next week, I'm treating myself to brunch at Kincaids. Like I need the pounds. Treated myself to bread pudding at Kincaids tonight. Today, all I've eaten, Arby's and Kincaids pear bread pudding. I eat so damn healthy sometimes.
Wouldn't give it up for the world.
--
Lunch with my grandfather sometime next week. We're not exactly estranged, but I realize I'm not the best grandson in the world. Should be filled with lots of lovely uncomfortable pauses, unless I ask him about his time in the navy, which then he'll regale me with stories of life during WWII. Fascinating glimpse at a life, a world, we've ever so cleverly left behind. Heck, if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have know the Murmansk is a Russian naval port. Honest. I couldn't seem to wrap my head around the geography. Felt rather silly since all I could remember was Vladivostok
The more you know...
Damn. Dawn's doing her third Pink Floyd song. Ummm Something from Darkside of the Moon.. Comfortably Numb. Wish You Were Here. She's got a great voice and the acoustics are pretty good.
I need to get over some of my self imposed restrictions and I need to develop a discipline in my writing.
**
So here goes: Mindless Blithering #1
I'm sitting at a bus stop on Little Creek road; it's surrounded by cigarette butts, their numbers best expressed in powers of ten.
The only food I've eaten today was at an Arby's. Yes, I'm very aware of BSE, and I don't really care. Roast Beef & cheddar sandwich with curly fries and a coke. Protein. Carbs. Starches. Sugars. Caffeine. The perfect nutritional supplement really.
I'm not sure what's going on, if anything, but I've seen several police cars pass by in either direction in the past few minutes. I suppose I'll see what ever it is on the eleven o'clock news.
Getting out is nice, it's good for me. First of all, it's probably the closest thing to a perfect day I've seen in a while, so I took the bus up to Trilogy Shop and picked up the first collected volume of Transmetropolitan. I've found my Muse. Warren Ellis and Hunter S. Thompson have show me there's a way to properly harness the anger, bile and resentment that builds up working retail. The only problem is I have to get out to make it work. Out of my apartment. Out of The Mall. Out of Downtown.
Downtown, despite the occasional blips of homelessness, is not the real world. The MacArthur Center is a hermetically sealed bubble where there's no room for the poor or unfortunate. But Norfolk's got plenty of both. That's the thing about the bus: it's for people who have either chosen not to have a car, or can't afford one. As such, it runs through neighborhoods filed with people who use it, that is, the less ritzy zones of Norfolk. Small wonder there's no Larchmont bus, the closest it comes it down Hampton Blvd, the road the separates the rich from the richer in Larchmont, surrounded by water on the east and west, Old Dominion University on the south west side and recent anti poverty surgical strikes on the east side of Hampton.
To hell with anything south of 39th st.
Back through my old turf again. How many years has it been, Tidewater and Lafayette? I still have some of the Omni's I picked up at the Tinee Giant. On the bus on a daily basis.
Don't think I went through shoe leather quite as quick back then as I do now.
Fare is still the same, though they've abandoned the "extend-a-fare" system they used to have, a prepaid return trip for just seventy five cents more. That was back when HRT used to be TRT, before they started truncating the routes, getting rid of the less profitable routes going through the less "popular" neighbourhoods.
Broken water main? The street's damp. Wasn't damp on the trip up.
The busdriver must be running late, she's going fast through a tight neighbourhood, families on porches, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. T-shirts weather. Shorts weather. There's a fellow one seat behind me across the aisle wearing shorts. In January.
Freaky weather. Earthquakes. Richmond, LA, Iran. WTF's going on?
Never mind disease. BSE. SARS. HIV.
Happy Fucking New Year everybody.
I've decided to do at least one thousand word column each week, and the way the world is going I've got plenty of stuff to work with. I'm not going to be anyone's but my own conscience and fuck if I have a hard enough time with that. I guess a better way to phrase it is it's my attempt to make sense of all the things going on. Maybe reading non-fiction wasn't a completely brilliant idea. After reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I started reading "Deadly Feasts." Add that to the BSE BS that's going down, you'd have to be either a moron or a cynic to eat at Arbees. For the record, I'm not a moron.
Poor Hardees. Helluva time to start an Angus beef promotion.
--
Back in Downtown, back in the Mall, back in Kincaids. Someone's sitting in my seat. IN. MY. SEAT.
I figure the biggest problem writing this thing will be reigning in my propensity for the word ‘fuck'. As in some fucker's sitting in my fucking seat. It's doubtful I'll ever actually use the word in it's original context. I can't remember the last time I actually used it in it's original context.
--
Drinking Chartreuse. Just a glass. Have to meet some people at a place called the Metro,in Dominion Towers. Haven't been to the Towers since we held a Cthulhu Crusade Revival out on the berth on the river. With Melissa. Haven't had any reason to. Til now. Being the petty person I am, I'm still slightly grumpy about getting an Christmas card with my name misspelled on it. The sender's birthday is today, so I've been invited to stop by for a drink. Lovely.
Still thinking about the bus ride. It's not like Norfolk has a halfway decent transportation system. The NET, electrical bus system is pretty nice, but once again the Downtown dynamic is at work. Something nice for the pats, something crappy for the proles.
I'm such a damn hypocrite. I like my cushy life. I'm not going to give it up. So who the hell am I to gripe about class inequality? Hell, I'm three steps away from endorsing fascism. Get the trains (and buses) running on time, make me a cog in the big machine, and put the cops into snazzy uniforms. Complete abdication of personal responsibility, give control to the state. Really, we're not too far from it. Personal phones and onstar that can pinpoint you via satellite. Marked books in libraries that put their readers on a special list. Who know's what else.
Evil uncle Bill and M$, they've no longer supporting their old software, despite the fact that it's still viable to a degree. But really, the only people who will be affected are the ones who can't afford to upgrade, either their hardware or software. Annnnnnnnnd once again it all comes down to the Benjamins.
That's it. I've hit my goal.
Not sure why I've been indenting as I've been writing; LiveJournal doesn't recognize indenting in the version I use. Guess you get what you pay for.
--
Back from Metro to Kincaids. Dawn's singing tonight. I think it's probably the only place in town where the piano player includes a Leonard Cohen song in their repertoire. Contrast with: Music videos on the Metro.
Not anymore, anyway. Once upon a time, I'd find it amusing. Now, it's just... sad.
I turned down the company of my co-worker Andie for this. I think I'll let it be an epilogue to my knowing the fellow who invited me out.
--
Have to work tomorrow, fifth Sunday in a row. IF I'm off next week, I'm treating myself to brunch at Kincaids. Like I need the pounds. Treated myself to bread pudding at Kincaids tonight. Today, all I've eaten, Arby's and Kincaids pear bread pudding. I eat so damn healthy sometimes.
Wouldn't give it up for the world.
--
Lunch with my grandfather sometime next week. We're not exactly estranged, but I realize I'm not the best grandson in the world. Should be filled with lots of lovely uncomfortable pauses, unless I ask him about his time in the navy, which then he'll regale me with stories of life during WWII. Fascinating glimpse at a life, a world, we've ever so cleverly left behind. Heck, if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have know the Murmansk is a Russian naval port. Honest. I couldn't seem to wrap my head around the geography. Felt rather silly since all I could remember was Vladivostok
The more you know...
Damn. Dawn's doing her third Pink Floyd song. Ummm Something from Darkside of the Moon.. Comfortably Numb. Wish You Were Here. She's got a great voice and the acoustics are pretty good.
