St.Jerome in the wilderness

Am I the Lion or the Tamer?
Am I the Tamer Lion or the less tame Lion?

6 weeks into 48 weeks of treatment, thats one eigtht!

Yes the goons, they were listened to on radio by my parents and 2 eldest brothers before television in new zealand, the beatles, or me. The NZBC; New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation played them more or less continually in an ever-shifting weekly slot for years, later joined by (not replaced by! this was Soviet era NZ) the radio show of the hitch-hikers guide to the universe (the funniest format it was ever presented in - the books are good but all the movie & TV show are poo). One Christmas when we were still a family of 4 with me as the youngest... or was there a baby? someone was given a book of the goon show scripts, it may have been one of the best gifts ever, I still remember a line: Eccles! how dare you get up after I've tucked you in and beaten you unconscious for the night?

Oh well, I should have kept up with my cohort professionally. I work with children who reminisce about transformers and turtles. Never heard of Gilligan most of them! Or at least I will work with them on tuesday when I go back to work for two four-day weeks.

Stayed up all yesterday with no naps, aiming to do the same today. Feeling better but thats partly because my last injection was six days ago, sadly this means that my next one is tomorrow so I'm concerned how that will be (2 down, 46 to go). Generally the side effects get worse over the first 10 weeks and you start to perk up after then (about the time your hair starts falling out). They gave me a box of condoms because any babies I make while I'm on this stuff have a high chance of birth defects, funny in its way - I'd need a prosthetic implant to raise a smile. My skin is drying out and getting rashy, the nurse recommended a really good soothing lotion that works well, the receipt from the chemist added insult - "Hand relief $12.50" - ha! not even!

Other things have been fun, got my kid's wee half brother staying for a week, was able to introduce a new generation the the joys of 'the Goodies', does anyone remember the goodies? or am I just too old? I'm reading the Mole People, its a slightly overblown and thickly padded study of the communities that live in the tunnels below New York city.

Still here.

My New Medicines

Me and my virus (hep C) have got on pretty well ever since meeting on the pointy end of a bad decision in the 80's but when I did the math recently it turned out I can more or less double my life expectancy by giving it a spot of medication.

So now I give myself:
Weekly jabs to muzzle the virus,
Twice daily pills to boost my immune system,

Mild painkillers several times daily for body aches,
Sleeping pill at night for restlessness,

Anti depressants in the morning to prevent those pesky crying jags in the supermarket.

Unfortunately none of the above mentioned prevented me sending an email intended for a colleague about a client TO the client. Work is being good. I'm on leave.

langorous

More Phone

Hold the line

ok then shadow-hunters

and this one

The naked abandon

the frolic

the naked abandon

lates

So different yet the same!

Go ahead, make my lunch.

rub-a-dub

short range forecast

Now this picture would seem to be the life. Its very cold here.

reFloored

I think this is genuine. I'm more & more suspicious of antique stuff that seems to cater to 21stC tastes.

My nephew gets me! Got his family to give me a bb handgun for my birthday!

Foured

Floored

Sir Walter Scott

& still more harry & elanor

moreSNIT

Fricken heck, life, its all still crushingly linea but becoming dotted, one foot after the other. Today was a day off so I drove the sprog to school & went back to bed for an hour. Got up & went to my sister-in-laws parents place to fix the sealant in their luxury bathroom that they had installed at unbelievable expense two years ago. Let myself in and got on with it, took ages about it, cutting out all the brown bits with a razor blade. I probably only used a teaspoon of sealant exactly where it was needed with absolutely no mess or damage. Mrs came home as I was leaving and thanked me. She had irked me earlier by asking me to do it but adding breezily that if I didn't get around to it she was sure her son-in-law (my bro) could do it when they get back from london (anything I can do he could do). Went to see my pa and found to my delight that my other brother (I have several) had been around earlier and taken him out for his shopping & haircut. Went to town for mundane stuff, almost brought a jumper but didn't. Picked up the sprog & her mate from school & took them to the mall & gave them money for afternoon tea. Took them home, they watched a horror dvd while I cleaned up and made cooked, took them to town where they are now, according to the texts) sitting drinking hot choc in a cafe, it was nice, at one point we were singing;'teenagers scare the living shit outta me'. Home now watching tv on friday night. Its a wonderful life.

fnit

My ex is trying to matchmake me with her best friend. Not really that into it but haven't had sex for months.

I'm a sucker for things either being universal or infinitely particular.

With people that means that I attribute behavior to things that are either essential to understand or impossible to understand.

Some things are impossible to understand because their motivation must stem from many different directions that I wont know about.

Other things can be understood by simple empathy.

Either way, everyone has valid reasons for being the way they are.

This is quite possibly lazy thinking.

FOUR

snit

I must be in a bad mood. Just back from visiting the Exed-friend. Everything is so stunningly ordinary. I shaved my head 2 days ago, look quite tidy, they loved it at work. XXX enough self-pity; wallowing is a trap. There is so very much good about my life. I still think better lonely than in a bad relationship (remembering that all relationships are bad sometimes), better have a crap job than no job. I'll never get the hang of this

high street pharmacy porn

Love this shot. Post-war Readers-wives, the smut of home darkrooms where still-lifes of fruit bowls & stolid portraits of elderly aunts were manufactured as a ruse to disguise the urge to make his artifact. In this case it seems highly cooperative, she's having a ball, thats not always the case. In any case its got an immediacy & intimacy that digital media can only fax.

squeak!

This chick wasn't this skinny on purpose - it was not the fashion in those days. The photographer I'm sure set out to recruit a malnourished -looking girl to compliment the deathly statue. The wee thing must have been too sick or poor to have any more flesh.

girls in hats

the woman on the left looks so very angry. I wonder how she comes to be posing as shes so obviously unhappy about it. I suspect its not simply money, if it was she would look falsely compliant. Unless its a kinky camera-club perv from the 40s with a thing for angry women. I'm worried, sooner or later the internet will run out of good vintage porn - its a finite resource. More & more fakery is turning up too.

Just watched 'VIVA ZAPATA'. Something of an unsung goodie of a marlon brando & elias kazan movie. A John Stienbeck screenplay with a young brando, who rides a horse, in alarming mexican make-up. Hard to follow but great hats & facial hair. & anthony quinn

more eleanor & harry

Its like they can photograph anything. She becomes it, he photographs it.

Another Harry Callahan photo of his beloved Elanor. A rare example of a photographer staying with his muse over time. He photographed her forever & always.
^
This is a list of relationships we need single- word names for:
Child's other parent - Kident.
Former partner with things are good - Exed friend.
Former partner I hate - hmmmm, don't know, poopiehead i guess.
Partner's child - Parthild.
Former partner's new partner - Ex-in-law
there are more, our poor old language can't keep up.

victory

He son retold the story of Lee Miller in the wreckage, with the soot from Dachau ovens on her boots, finding hitlers personal bathroom with hot water still running. They posed the photograph on the ledge of the bath,& the statue on the dresser. She wiped her boots on the bathmat and had a hot soak. Her son claims this as the moment of victory. Must be true - I saw it on tv.

Bubbles, I want you to work.

staying up late just coz tomorrow is an 'RDO', this stands for rostered day off, although its meaningless as it could as easily stand for rostered day on. I'm 6 wks into my new easy job that pays the same as my old difficult job but has unpredictable shifts. I used to have to be tough and use discretion but now I just need to be smarmy - this is more fun as people say even sillier things. I do get sick of talking though, people bleating. Mostly I work with women who have a fairly pugnacious approach to dealing with the public, I try to do more of a "conversation with Smaug" thing. I've always done crap jobs - hate working, no work ethic at all. We could ALL (globally) live much better than we do. Its not about resources or work.

Five go mad in . . .

Come along now. . .

This is Charge Nurse Mortimer my assistant, responsible for pre-admission assessments of patients to Dr Barker's Custodial Vibrosylum for female sufferers of hysteria & pelvic inflammation. Nurse Mortimer is, in every sense, the gatekeeper of my select little treatment centre for wayward women. She travels in her coach from house to house on the referral of local doctors who have exhausted more mainstream vulvular massage therapies.
I think this is an Imogen Cunningham photo.