The bright side of a Moon
My new favorite music to run to:
The Blues Brothers original soundtrack.
Elwood Blues: It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.
Jake Blues: Hit it!
Formerly my “traditional road trip starting music”.
They use the word “disambiguation” on the front page of the English version of the Wikipedia.
The word links to an article explaining how and when to disambiguate.
If Rite-Aid advertises something as “2 for 99 cents”, you really have to buy two of them to get the sale price. They won’t let you have one for 48.5 cents.
Drowning is a powerful metaphor. Humans seem to have an affinity for water even though we are not, by nature, aquatic (crackpot evolutionary theories aside). Most settlements are near running water, supposedly for practical reasons of transport or hydration, but, face it, we love to play in the water. We adore the sound of rushing water. We love the glint of sunlight on waves and ripples. We bathe, sometimes for the simple joy of feeling wet all over.
So when someone tells you that they are drowning, it stirs a strong response, doesn’t it? Even if it’s a metaphor, like they are drowning in work, or drowning in sorrow, It immediately brings a superposition of images and concepts, calls to mind feelings of sinking, of suffocation, of thrashing about, feeling resistance but unable to grab anything solid or secure. The colors that spring to mind are deceptive and therefore ironic: instead of the universal danger signal of warm firey reds or oranges, it’s cool blues and greens, peaceful, calming, encouraging relaxation and acceptance even as life escapes from the body in silver bubbles of air and the lungs fill with cold and possibly salty liquid.
Sinking, not rising. We associate rising with flying, and with heaven, and with birds and freedom. But sinking is normally connected to the earth, to both cold clay and the burning pain of hell. A sink is where we empty out containers, wash our hands of dirt and filth. A sink’s center is a drain, where the flow takes what is deposited and whisks it away. We sink money into a project, usually a bad or failed project that has become a colossal waste of time. Likewise, we sink into the sea, drowning amidst water, the stuff of life.
If someone is drowning, it requires a specific set of skills or tools to rescue them. Rescue is not something everyone can attempt. Despite our universal love of playing in water, not everyone can swim; and not everyone can swim strongly enough to support both themselves and a panicked friend. We have special jobs for those who have trained for just such a rescue, and because of their training and the specialized, romantic nature of their occupations, they seem to be among the most beautiful people around. Lifeguards, we call them, their sole purpose that of rescue, a specific kind of rescue that only someone who has overestimated their own abilities requires.
If someone is drowning but a heroic trained guardian of life is not available and our own skills are insufficient to provide rescue by ourselves, sometimes we can avail ourselves of the tools of rescue. Almost every tool associated with drowning rescue has life as its prefix. Life preserver, lifeline, life jacket. Here, often, we find the angry reds and oranges again inverted in meaning, becoming life-giving, life restoring. We toss out the tools, but the drowning victim must still reach out and take what is offered and make use of it, before it all balances again and the would-be rescuer and the would-rather-not-be-drowner can again meet in the middle, balance restored.
I have 4 Gmail accounts to give away. They’re not doing me much good.
One per person to the next 4 people to reply to this post or contact me…
I’ll need your name and a valid email address.
Walking around downtown, I see so many people with iPods that it isn’t funny. At lunchtime, with the sidewalks crowded with lunchtime folk lunching on their lunchtime, I see at least one or two of the tell-tale white earbuds snaking out of a backpack or pocket.
Most of these people wear all black. Just sayin’. I wonder if it’s because black is cool, or because of the commercials?
Many of these people have a cool scarf of some kind. Also, just sayin’.
I did, however, see this one guy the other day (neither wearing black nor did he have a cool scarf) with the thin white cables snaking out of his hand. It’s so easy to spot people, they stand out. It’s not like I’m looking for them or anything. Really.
At any rate, as he approached, I could see that the white cables plugged into a cheap, blue-and-silver portable CD player.
Hmmm. What do you call it when someone poses as a poseur?
The moon last night looked like it was melting in space, so bright and silver-gray but through the high thin clouds that appeared to be steam streaming from it…
What I’m reading lately:
“All The President’s Men” by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.
Yeah, the book about the Watergate break-in and all that that entailed.
Because everything old is new again…
After that: “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis. Just a silly little story about the (fictional (at the time)) rise of fascism in America. It was actually written in the 1930s, before Hitler’s agenda and atrocities became well-known. Should be entertaining…
I just love dealing with gianormous corporations.
Well, technically, I don’t deal with the corporations. Despite the fact that corporations have legal status as persons (psychotic persons, but persons nonetheless), what I, like the rest of y’all, deal with is the paid minions of the corporations.
I’ve been in the process of paying off my credit cards, and I had some questions about one in particular. It was one of the earliest cards I got, several years ago, when I realized that my years of not having credit had actually put me at a disadvantage. So, because a person with no credit history is worse off than someone with a bad credit history (take my word for this one), the interest rate and annual fee were fairly large and I wanted to negotiate with them to reduce both of those items.
My current balance is just $8.06, which is the interest accrued on last month’s balance, which I had just paid off. So, I had a simple question, to wit: since there’s a “grace period” of 25 days on new purchases before a finance charge begins accruing, does that grace period also apply to a balance that is entirely finance charge?
Basically, when is the “grace period” observed if we’re not talking about “purchases”? I could read in the contract that there is no grace period on things like cash advances or balance transfers, but it never specifically mentioned, y’know, finance charge.
So, time to contact the minions.
Since this bank has online banking, and by the time the question occurred to me it was after business hours, I decided to shoot them an email. Seemed simple enough. I made two attempts. So far I’ve received two responses. Here they are, edited slightly to remove all remaining accountability:
Response #1
From “Corporate Bank Customer Confuser”
Subject Re: Billing Questions (KMM19842426V5662L0KM)
Date Thu, January 20, 2005 3:08 am
To “Brian Moon”
Dear Brian Moon,
Thank you for your inquiry dated 1/19/2005.
Calculating when your payment is due each month is fairly simple. Your account billing cycle closes on or around the 19th of each month. Household Bank allows at least 20 days from the end of your previous billing cycle for you to make your payment due without penalty. Your current due date will be approximately 02/13/2005.
You are important to us and we appreciate your business.
Sincerely,
EmailMonkey
Corporate Bank Customer Confuser
Response #2
From “Corporate Bank Customer Confuser”
Subject Re: Billing Questions (KMM19842431V5687L0KM)
Date Fri, January 21, 2005 3:08 am
To “Brian Moon”
Dear Brian Moon,
We understand your concern regarding this matter.
Please be advised, finance charges on purchases will be assessed using the Average Daily Balance method during any billing period in which the previously billed balance was not paid in full by the due date. To obtain the average daily balance, take the beginning balance on your account each day, add any new purchases, previous days periodic finance charges, late charges, overlimit fees, and other administrative charges, subtracting any payments and credits. All of the daily balances for the billing cycle are then added together and divided by the total number of days in the billing cycle to obtain the Average Daily Balance. The Average Daily Balance is used in conjunction with your annual percentage rate to determine the monthly finance charge.
You are important to us and we appreciate your business.
Sincerely,
Corporo-Droid
Corporate Bank Customer Confuser
Now, read those carefully. The information in them is correct information. The English is proper and grammatically correct (OK, one typo that I see but it’s not a big deal).
But do they ever actually answer my question?
Ummm… no.
Does anyone think that they actually, y’know, comprehended the question in question?
Ummm… probably not.
*sigh*
As some kind of karmic payment (that I don’t really believe in) for my inadvertently linking a Blues Traveler song yesterday to some spam- and spyware-infested site, today I couldn’t stop hearing Blues Traveler songs wherever I went. In the mall, in the restaurant where I had lunch, in the doctor’s office waiting for the nurse to come in… Sometimes the actual songs, twice a bastardized Muzak version denuded of all percussion and depth and stripped of lyrics.
So eventually I gave in, pulled out the iPod, and dialed up some more Blues Traveler. Might as well seep in it if karma is going to club me over the head with it.