The white clock on the wall seemed slower than reality itself, the ticking was more like a thudding sound , like falling from the top of a mountain with the wind blowing in the air and nobody around to give a damn whether your alive and breathing. Eugene a recent addition to the company, tormented him for fun or so it seemed,  he had more experience in this job and was hired as a Senior, which he liked to flaunt in Vladimir’s face.  Vladimir was a junior who started work two months before Eugene, he was lucky to find the job, unemployment was his usual role in life for the past year or so.

Good for nothing clients phoning day after bloody day asking stupid questions got on Vladimir’s nerves. He could understand why war was happening around the world, people are just too retarded to get on with each other and don’t treat each other with the respect due.  At least this is what Vladimir thought, he did not have much faith in the human race.

Clients use to call in and expect instant magic to the ridiculous problems they were having with their computers, nobody ever thought to blame Microsoft for making a pile of shit. It would be unfair to label them all the same, some of clients were really nice, after what happened with his wife , he was thinking of asking one of the sexy sounding secretaries out for a date, he had nothing too lose,accept his job , it would easily  lead  to redundancy, affairs with clients was not part of his work contract.

He started to have fantasy’s of walking around with one of clients, he heard her quiet soothing voice only one hour ago, he pictured a fine looking brunette with brown eyes. Just as he was holding her hands, Eugene bellowed

what are you doing ? I have a lot of work to do, Robert is coming back on Tuesday

Vladimir sliced back

I am dealing with Scarlet’s internet problem, calm yourself down

The conversation ended there to Vladimir’s delight.

The remainder of the day snoozed by, nobody said anything to anyone accept to clients on the phone.

At home Vladimir wrapped his lisps around a slice of salmon that was grilled, it was the best moment of the day for him, dead fish don’t complain.  He sipped a cup of steaming coffee and spend the rest of the night reading Sherlock Holmes on the white leather sofa.

Sun was out behind the white fluffy clouds, it did not really change Vladimir’s expectations for the rest of the day, nevertheless he got ready and drove his car  to work.

His boss walked into the office five minutes after he had arrived and asked him to come to the meeting room for a chat.

He walked out of the room with a pain in his face, not a physical pain but an emotional pain. Out of work  yet again, a cheating wife, what was left in life for him ? Death will likely be many decades away…….

The conifer tree in front of her bedroom that was on the second floor of a newly built block of flats was hitting her window, giving the impression that the day was not going to be very hot. How nature can rapidly change. If only humans could change too for the better. After hearing enough of the wind blowing, Salomėja got out of bed as there was no use lying in bed hearing the window being attacked. She emptied the kettle of yesterday’s water and filled the kettle with new water before getting Alanas, their black cat some water. The female cat purred almost silently when her bowl was filled to the top. Her fur was a bit unruffled, the neighbours male cat kept her company last night.

After the usual preparations of the day were made, Salomėja and Algis decided to stay at the sandy beach. This was when without knowing, the sun started to become more aggressive. The water at the beach displayed the identical colour as the celestial sphere, a graceful view, that eased the couples daily stresses. They took turns in entering the water, each also brought along a book to read. While walking to buy delicious vanilla ice-cream, instantly a  burning sensation started to be felt on her body. After finishing up their ice-creams, they spent 20 minutes in search of an open chemist, when one was finally found , she was confronted with so many different brands to choose from. After deciding to choose a brand selling a family size bottle she cued up to pay, the sales assistant told her that she was entitled to another bottle for free, she smiled at him and said she was happy with just one bottle. The assistant expressed a look of surprise ( as if to say, why are you not taking advantage of a free bottle? ) while handing over the receipt. The remainder of the day lingered on pleasantly.

During the rest of the day, I felt pretty hopeless as many of the problems that piled up I found a struggle to solve. I even kept the nice college who took the call from me earlier from attending a client on time, he arrived several hours late.

I am not sure if I should feel so despondent, I am being paid peanuts for being a Junior Support Analyst, and told about a “a training package will be put in place” … its meaningless dribble .. I have heard my boss discussing quite openly behind my back to a client how he is hiring “temps” to get by or he is thinking about what to do with me.

Whatever that’s  the reality of life, its possible to  climb high mountains and breath and wonder at the sky that’s suddenly closer  or  fall into very deep black holes covered in smelly manure, wondering in desperation what life really has worth living for .

Do the buses arrive on time?  Do you think they are enough buses in your area? were simply omitted, there was not even space for a comment.

I wonder what the whole point was ? why does the public transport need all of those addresses? it could not possibly be for further surveillance?

I have been working on a mixture of 1st to 3rd line helpdesk support, troubleshooting windows problems. Little solutions from finding out how to organise emails in outlook to search for large emails through to setting up windows 2003 servers with exchange.

I would much rather work with Linux or any unix-like operating system. The colleagues I work with are great, the opposite could be possible where I work on the software I enjoy but the colleagues are hard to get on with. Work is a compromise for the majority of people in the world.

Meatloaf’s  Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell… and Crash Test Dummies  God Shuffled His Feet became a itch that I needed to attend immediately. The enthusiasm was transient and after a few songs, I turned the album off. Back in 1993 I could listen to those two albums on repeat for hours.

I use to not be able to function in entirety without video games, I remember Street Fighter II on the super Nintendo,  unremittingly using Ryu or any of the 8 possible players against a friend I know longer unfortunately see. I scarcely ever play video games now.

I wondered into my brothers room and remarked on the above to him and was reassured that Street Fighter is still made on newer game consoles. My immediate reaction was one of cynicism, how can they still make such ancient and simple games so exciting and yet appeal to a younger generation of gamers?  The same Capcom logo appeared after the game was turned on, I instantly thought my brother was teasing me by candidly putting on the old game but that was not the path.

Street Fighter IV on the Xbox 360 has very similar music to the version I fondly remember, the choice of the same 8 players is still available with some new personalities to choose from. To my surprise the game is still 2d, well almost , before the fighters challenge each other, the camera swings around the venue in definitely non-2d graphics. The special moves are also still possible in pretty much the same button combination.

I don’t foresee myself looking back at the moment at any other hobbies I had almost two decades ago….

Abdul-Wahab, a well-to-do farmer and son of an eminent Tunisian historian and writer, sheltered 24 people from two Jewish families on his farm after he overheard a Nazi officer planning to rape one of the women, Boukris’s mother. He shielded them from harm by keeping them on his estate. He even intervened when a drunken German soldier threatened to kill one of the girls, shouting: “I know that you are Jews and I am going to kill you tonight!”

Like Schindler in occupied Poland, Abdul-Wahab protected those under his charge by remaining close to the German occupiers, often wining and dining them at parties.

Would this be encouraging for improving relations between Israel and Palestinians if Israel did honour Khaled? One would hope so but I cannot see this happening. After all they are two completely different issues. The first is for Israel to accept the history of jews saved outside the state,  the latter is to accept history of the Palestinians inside its own state. It is easier to accept what one has kindly received than what one has brutally given.

wolke9 or cloud 9

Untapped condition

This is a consoling and laughable comedy in which a married sexagenarian falls in love with a septuagenarian customer.

The Squeamish sex scenes that followed almost made me want to end this film, I persisted and was gratified by the humour that pervaded throughout the film. The film looks honestly at the affairs of the mature and reflects good heartily .
I am not aware of any other film coming to grips with what may once appear as a taboo subject.

Chekhovskie motivy or Chekhov’s Motifs

Astoundingly honest

It may be Tuesday or Friday in my family home that voices are raised and exchanged over the days continuous misfortunes. At a family table in Russia a dark humoured exaggeration of this is played out wonderfully, the hopelessness expressed unafraid. The scene is recreated as if one has had enough but at the same moment one is going to stay still and endure life as it is. The camera moves to a ballerina on television as a smart pause in mayhem.

Later on in the film people are laughing and babbling to each other inside a uncommunicative Orthodox church reminiscent of my childhood days at synagogue when me, my brothers and others wanted the religious service to be immediately finished, as if we should not have bothered going in the first place. The litany in the film is depicted almost in its entirety when a moment outside someone utters
If you need money, you get married quietly at a registry, not in a church.
to highlight the insignificance of marriage for money.

Back to the family home, the father and son re-establish a once friendly relationship, a magic lure that consistently becomes a fact in my family.
Shot in High contrast black and white, adds a layer of warmth and sadness to the characters.