Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: Patricia Sheley on February 13, 2011, 05:48:56 pm
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On a related thread: keep off bikes - they hate people and are like the bumble bee: dynamically unsound. Don't you know that left to their own devices they fall over?
Rob C
Oh dear Rob...the point is , don't be on it when it does, and seriously, even common ancients like your humble friend can easily set them aright...sit your butt down back to near side (be sure you've extended stand first) grab a good solid fistful of the brake handpart of handle bar with your right hand, grab the back of seat rail with your left and ever so slowly walk it upward with your back against the engine side seat area step by step with your knees bent...as you approach upright take care not to let the adrenilene of the moment spike...easily you can push it over to the other side ...keep handle bar cranked to your hip with your right hand and carefully allow it to settle onto the stand...everyone I've shown the method is astounded how easy it really is...and my bike is large (Road King Classic, an oldie but goodie) Also re: ferries...I try to make most ferry trips with the bike, much less expensive...have learned to head below quickly to fetch a spot as close to center on inside as possible , tie it down in previously mentioned cranked position and hope for good passing...inside means much less salt spray to clean off chrome...
I've been noticing you stepping away from the adventurous side lately...you cannot become too old or infirm to find an excuse against the celebration of another day!...You need a good hang gliding flight or bungie jump to shake you out of preoccupation with the deteriorization of the world as you knew it...celebrate the life around you now...every day wasted is one you will regret having let slip by later...all this noted with love and best wishes for an interesting gentleman...now get crackin'!
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Patricia, That's all well and good when you're ten, as you are. It becomes more difficult as you get older.
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Rob,
It is OK to check that the bungie cord is in good condition and securely fastened at both ends before you jump.
Pat,
Your advice to Rob reminds me of my high school days as manager of the ski team (I was on it because I liked cross-country skiing, but was too inept for downhill, slalom, or jumping). I watched many a beginner take his first jump off the ski jump. Naturally, some of them landed a bit ungracefully. I then offered wise advice about jumping technique (all learned from watching both good and bad jumpers), and persuaded many guys to get back up and try it again.
What I never told any of them is that to this day I've never been off a ski jump myself. Nor have I bunjee-jumped or hang-glided. ;D
Eric
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Patricia, That's all well and good when you're ten, as you are. It becomes more difficult as you get older.
Now this is enlightening! Somewhere along the way I rolled over 99999.9! I hadn't realized...yet out of the corners of my eyes always another surprise...or at bare minimum entrances to the next dreams.
and Fred, Lindbergh still a young German! The sensuality you see in his work..watch HIS mouth and HIS eyes as he works...he tastes, he savours ..his work drips with the taste of salty lips and amour et la dolce vita...one of my favorite professors was a Bahaus german, M. Peter Piening...my education exploded once he got me to step just ahead of my fears...as you say the age..only we inflict it on ourselves...but we can choose life while we we have yet a breath remaining...
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1. It is OK to check that the bungie cord is in good condition and securely fastened at both ends before you jump.
2. What I never told any of them is that to this day I've never been off a ski jump myself. Nor have I bunjee-jumped or hang-glided. ;D
Eric
1. Not only okay, but the first thing one should do -and keep on doing - right until the moment for jumping has safely passed and you can retire gracefully. The only suicide route I'd take would be the bullet. The reason is simple: anything else would give me the time within which I'd be sure to change my mind. The last time I was near a ski was when my wife was eight months gone with our first child. We were driving from Glasgow up to Perthshire where a relative lived, and the intention was to stay the weekend and go to Glenshee for a short crack at the white (of my eyes, probably). Anyway, a few minutes north of Perth city we were confronted by a curve at the apex of which sat a parked truck beside a cottage. It was a right-hand bend. I was going slowly because of the packed snow and ice, but when I tried to turn right I overcooked it and started to lose the back; I then over-corrected, ending up facing the way I'd come, but lying on my side, my temporarily large wife on my head.
The truck people ran out, opened the door and lifted my wife out of the car and led her to the cottage for a cup of tea. I was left inside to remove myself as best I might. Anyway, one rear side window popped out, unbroken, and I did manage to turn my prized Motorola aerial into an inverted L. But she went full-term without complications, thank God. I've hated snow on roads, and feared it, ever since.
2. And that's one of the reasons I have little faith in photographic education; it is only theory and the real stuff is painfully seat-of-the-pants. As Cooter says, you have to know what to do when the wings fall off. And nobody can teach you that. But, on the other hand, everybody has to start somewhere.
Rob C
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I've been noticing you stepping away from the adventurous side lately...you cannot become too old or infirm to find an excuse against the celebration of another day!...You need a good hang gliding flight or bungie jump to shake you out of preoccupation with the deteriorization of the world as you knew it...celebrate the life around you now...every day wasted is one you will regret having let slip by later...all this noted with love and best wishes for an interesting gentleman...now get crackin'!
But Patricia, I do celebrate each new day, but only in summer. Winter in the Med is not fun. The buildings are usually not insulated and you warm the trees and flowerpots as much as yourself, which isn't a lot because the electricity supply never manages to reach what you thought you'd contracted to buy: in winter too many fires and in summer too many aircons. The wood fire burns well and heats much better, but it has a hell of an appetite. A neighbour brought some wood over yesterday that either he or the gardener had chopped; today I appreciate why: the stuff is fireproof, generosity had nothing to do with it, and I now have to handle the bulk!
Getting cracking is sound advice, but that depends on the same weather fronts, and there is the same seasonal difficuly: you never really know whether anywhere will be open to sell you lunch, and getting away from my own dismal culinary efforts or the too-familiar locals I frequent is not helped if I need to consider packing something made at home! This isn't just chat: I remember clearly shooting brochures for Winter Sunshine holidays in the Med. I can't remember how long it's been since the place I live in was open for winter tourism. I suppose the tourists eventually just got wise to the reality, which is that the sun can be fantastic until around 4pm and then it's like the Arctic shutting down on you, but without the heating to suit.
Another thing is the increasingly high cost of living here. Was a time that two could dine out very well indeed for 3,000 pesetas, around fifteen pounds sterling. The last time my daughter was out here, I took her to lunch with friends to what used to be one of our favourite restaurants in Alcudia and the bill was €150. We were a party of four, only one bottle of normal wine was bought and we only had a main course and a coffee; had we gone the full bit, it would have doubled. This is nonsensical during a depression and in a place that's just a tourist resort. No wonder so many places can't open in winter; but they then try to make enough during the season and so the thing powers on, ever up the hill. Couple that with zero interest from savings, and life looks more bleak by the day!
I would dread living in Barcelona, and Fred can tell you about Madrid. Certainly there is far much more to do there, but at what price! I guess it's just part of being retired during an economic flat spot... spot? ... more like the end of the world we knew!
;-)
Rob C
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Totally agree. Spain has been living above his real medium, speculate, easy and fast money on bricks and concrete but Spain is far from being Germany, France or England in terms of economical structures. The cost of living in Madrid is on the highest in the world if you consider the RPC (the salaries are very low). In short, a sort of 2nd world country wanting to play the first world too fast, like Greece. Now everybody is trapped.
You have entire cities in Madrid of 200 000 souls, completly empty, gohst towns as the result of the speculation.
And the worst, it seems that they do not want to see the sad reality and have not learned yet the lesson.
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No mention of Ireland as yet in this rather gloomy thread and surely we are as worthy of note as any other basket case economy in Europe.
Did the Irish live beyond their means? Most certainly yes but they were remorselessly reminded by the banks and their friends in government that this was not the case and so they should keep on spending and borrowing to their hearts content. The bubble was unburstable, the wheel unstoppable went the refrain and with no credence or publicity given to the naysayers this view went virtually unopposed until the bubble evaporated and the wheel disintegrated under the weight of the hubris placed upon it. So we are now expected to applaud the generosity of Europe and the IMF as we bail out the Banks after their reckless stupidity in throwing money around, a point made by the Socialist MEP Joe Higgens in the European Parliament, much to the alarm and disgust of the resident lords and masters. He was, it is worth noting, loudly cheered by the right wing press back home for doing so.
It is not just in retirement that people find themselves squeezed. I shall be losing my day job in March along with 30 others. Another factory in town is closing at about the same time throwing 94 more souls on to the 'labour market' (as if we are mere items of a commodity), a small town the size of Tipperary simply cannot take this without collapsing further in upon itself. Politicians seem oblivious to the situation, two canvassers called this morning from the main opposition party and could suggest no ideas about what their colleagues were planning to do about the lack of employment and indeed there are no ideas or plans or even the notion that there is a crisis amongst the governing classes.
So this year and probably more to come will be all about survival. One daughter looking for work and another hopefully entering university on a grant which at best is insufficient and is under further threat from the austerity that we are assured is necessary to ensure that the captains of commerce are not discomforted by the their failures of the past. We are lucky though, we are only a small family, others are much larger and the problems are multiplied.
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Russ, you are the example of the opposite of your sentence: you still have a lot of passion and reasons. I do not think age is involved but certain circunstances. I understand Rob, bloody hell, I understand him so well even if we are from different generation. But I found the Patricia words encouraging and appropriate for any age, could take them for me as well. A nice post.
Well, I certainly have no intention of going gently into that good night, Fred, but if you do a bungee jump at 80 you may find that only part of you is still there on the upstroke.
Honestly Russ, Haven't you met young people, somtimes very young who have given-up? I met people of 30 who are 80 in their minds, and you are not 80 in your mind (I mean by that what generaly is the tonic) but much younger.
Look at Peter Lindberg, as Rob said, he is still there, it still bloody works. When he shoots despite his age he is like a salvage hunter. The other day we did a shooting in a studio with other mediums and there was this 30 Y.O guy who was just standing in front of the talent, completly desanimated, without sign of being alive. My 60 Y.O boss came just behind and did magic, models where hypnotized and he ended alone in the plateau everybody watching him. I was filming at that moment and I got all the material. If I do a retrospective one day I'll use those shots.
I think some life circunstances more than age have a lot to do, for everybody.
I often meet people who have given up, especially down here in Florida where I spend the winter in a "retirement" community. But it strikes me that an awful lot of the difference is DNA. You pretty much are what you inherit. On the other hand, ten years ago I was doing 200 miles a week on my road bike and that may have something to do with staying away from that good night. Since then development down here has turned the roads into a steady stream of dump trucks or I'd probably still be doing at least a few miles.
So, Rob, listen to Patricia and get back on that bike.
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I think you are largely right, Justin, but the problem/cause, in my eyes, is not necessarily confined to banks and governments. As I see it, the trouble is that people have become accustomed to having everything 'now' and the art of saving has vanished from the psyche. If anything, I'd go back to the introduction of the hire-purchase idea as being the principal culprit - just that it's taken a while for its chicks to come home to mama and roost.
The flaw with it is this: spending what you hope to earn tomorrow depends on you still being employed at the same or greater pay tomorrow. And life isn't always so obliging, and when it becomes a cumulative event...
And what can governments do? Create even more meaningless jobs than they all do? And how do you finance that - by crippling the business that's still working? Frankly, the only way out I can see is for the UK to accept that charity begins at home, withdraw all its foreign financial 'gifts' to the less developed world; stop immigration of non-economically beneficial people from any country, European Union or otherwise; cut back very seriously on unemployment benefits where people are physically capable of work and make it a condition that to get benefits, good ones, they do whatever labour is demanded of them. Dirty streets? Plenty of layabouts hanging around the street corners or sitting in the pubs - get them out there with brooms. Here in Mallorca every little square is replete with its resident north Africans doing nothing. Why? Because they were allowed in to do the jobs that the locals would not, would rather collect benefit than do. The motorways have now been built, the bonanza gone, but the migrants remain. That's all wrong and unsustainable - we saw it in Britain after the war with the crowds from Jamaica, India, Pakistan, Africa etc. flooding in. Parts of Glasgow that were, once, beyond my financial dreams in which to live are now filled with Asians - nobody else will live there. But who dare speak the reality for fear of being branded this, that or the other sort of politically incorrect scoundrel? That's an emotional penalty that has suited the agenda of every left-wing government since I can remember. Why would it change a thing? It's now the bedrock of its vote. So no, without drastic and unpopular measures, taken soon, nothing will get fixed, only fudged. But who to do it? The as crazy extreme parties on the far right? God, I hope not; that would be just another season of madness as the one we have just lived through, with all those well-educated politicians feathering their nests whilst the opportunity lasted, only this time it would be the skinheads. At least with the current lot in power, many are already well off and, hopefully, not as easily tempted. But who knows? Not I.
Factory closures. Welcome to the Clyde. But you can't blame any government for that - only the market rates. When others do the same job cheaper, and better in some cases, who would buy at higher cost? And what good did it do the other countries? Each, in turn, lost out to yet another lower value economy that replaced it - ships - think France, Germany, Korea, Japan.. they have all been at the top and then lost the crown. Oil tankers lie in mothballs; navies are vanishing and today even the Air Force is laying off learner pilots. Four million pounds to train one!
No wonder some of us despair.
Rob C
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Why Rob, you sound like a conservative. How can that be? Artists are supposed to be liberals.
But It's not time to despair. It's time to attack. And it looks as if conservatives are starting to attack all over the world. If this keeps up, though the struggle may be painful the result may be a Western civilization able to survive a while longer.
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On the subject of bikes and age, can I suggest a look at this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vksdBSVAM6g (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vksdBSVAM6g)
I can't really add anything else...
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On the subject of bikes and age, can I suggest a look at this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vksdBSVAM6g (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vksdBSVAM6g)
I can't really add anything else...
No need to; I bought a new car for no other real reason.
But it doesn't bring anyone back. Your heart stays broken.
Rob C
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Why Rob, you sound like a conservative. How can that be? Artists are supposed to be liberals.
But It's not time to despair. It's time to attack. And it looks as if conservatives are starting to attack all over the world. If this keeps up, though the struggle may be painful the result may be a Western civilization able to survive a while longer.
Wot! Me Conservative? Does it show?
Rob C
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... it looks as if conservatives are starting to attack all over the world. If this keeps up, though the struggle may be painful the result may be a Western civilization able to survive a while longer.
You mean the very same conservatives, whose eight years in power significantly contributed to today's mess, will now pull us out of it?
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Slobodan, Those weren't conservatives. Those were Republicans. Furthermore the Republicans only controlled the Congress for four of those years. Many of the new folks who are in there now are about to play a whole new ball game. Come 2012 it'll be a whole new ballgame across the board.
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Tricky one for me Rob as I am technically an immigrant here in Ireland even though I am in the process of swapping my drivers licence over to an Irish one, which will make me feel slightly more native at least. Still, if the government offered to repay the not insubstantial amount I brought to the country then I could force myself to consider sunnier climes I guess.
I'm not at all sure that I can go along with the argument that government has no role in protecting employment, why else should we bother with such organisations if they wash their hands of any responsibility to provide a stable and prosperous society in which to live? Mankind has no doubt been working in collectives (not in the Soviet sense, but as groups of individuals) since we stood on our hind legs and as part of the deal we have no doubt always looked to our leaders to provide work or find us the next mammoth for dinner.
True, other seed may now be better at catching hairy beasts of various types but should our tribal elders just shrug their shoulders and expect us to live on berries and grass? Surely better must be expected of them especially as they are still keeping the prize joints of what little is caught for themselves. Even the blessed Margaret fought for Japanese car Plants in the UK as the decrepit reptiles of Longbridge and Cowley gasped their last, although of course this was never admitted at the time.
Now, returning to my other passion, bikes. Should the situation allow I have plans to visit Spain at some point on my beloved Daytona and would be delighted if you would allow me to introduce you to the joy of biking should I find myself in your area, for it is said that four wheels move the body but two transport the soul.
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Slobodan, Those weren't conservatives. Those were Republicans. Furthermore the Republicans only controlled the Congress for four of those years. Many of the new folks who are in there now are about to play a whole new ball game. Come 2012 it'll be a whole new ballgame across the board.
Russ, even if I would accept the logic that Republicans are not conservatives, it is Republicans who are back in power, not some mythical "conservatives". And if by "true conservatives" (or in your terms "new folks") you mean Tea Party, they are still far from being a majority among Republicans (and hopefully will stay so). So, the bottom line is that more or less the same people who brought us the mess are back in power.
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Our hearts pound for those we lately loved, and intenser days..waiting, wishing dreaming...one more whisper . one melodious note issuing forth from that place and time our hard hearted moments were without fail softened in the smile and laughter nourished moments/life we shared...that old saw,"better to have loved and lost" when in seclusion and low light months is of little comfort as we struggle with our loss and joys so seemingly remote...there are so many that did not know her..did not share the air you breathed...that life , that love, that purest memory is yours ...let the memory of her delight , her vision, be your guide through these defeating times...hear her voice, celebrate her smile...that love's heart has not stopped beating...you were blessed...she was blessed...not a worn out man if that memory stays...I wish you warmth and tenderness...you are built of what you shared, love held and kept...
Look once more at the sunlight in the bike clip...it was not the sun...but the ongoing celebration of those loves...living in a stony basement alone your life full would have meant such loss not felt...I have no right to say, but hoped to cheer you in these days...
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Russ, even if I would accept the logic that Republicans are not conservatives, it is Republicans who are back in power, not some mythical "conservatives". And if by "true conservatives" (or in your terms "new folks") you mean Tea Party, they are still far from being a majority among Republicans (and hopefully will stay so). So, the bottom line is that more or less the same people who brought us the mess are back in power.
Slobodan, No kidding? Unless I'm mistaken the Senate and Presidency are still held by liberal Dems. Fact is, some Republicans are conservatives, others are far from it. Was George W a conservative? Not by any sane measure. In any case I'm dropping out of this exchange now. I'd be delighted to discuss politics somewhere else, and I do it all the time with a very fine and knowledgeable liberal friend, but I'd like to stick with photography on this forum. I have a lot of respect for your photography, by the way, but it looks as if we could debate politics all day without coming to agreement.
Best regards,
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Aside from the whinging and politics, you guys are lucky. I haven't been able to do any significant shooting, much less anything else for the last half year due to some damned illness. It's hard to shoot street when just walking is a problem.
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No mention of Ireland as yet in this rather gloomy thread and surely we are as worthy of note as any other basket case economy in Europe.
Don't panic! I hear that Sir Bob Geldof is planning a concert in Ethiopia to raise funds for the Irish - hang in there! ;)
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Patricia
Yes, there is no doubt that the mind mirrors gloom outside the window. There is also no doubt that life is filled with opportunity should one seek it out. And there lies the root of many problems: initiative falls away with greyness. Summer presents an entirely different mental panorama - just being outside the four walls cheers one up no end.
Alone. Well no, I don't really think I feel that way; I do not even feel abandoned, which some have suggested I might, because things happened before she died that demonstrated that even at the end of her life she was more concerned with how I would fare on my own, than of herself. The one thing I never had to doubt was love. And that's probably the hardest bit to take: that someone could care so much and then be gone, physically if never in spirit and legacy of everything else that I now share with me, myself and I.
I look out of the french windows and see the signature of all the green finger magic she wove; I see there also the decay that I seem to be unable to delay or cancel out in any effective way: some empty pots where there would be seasonal flowers; terrace furniture for which she made the cushions; tablecloths for outside lie unused on the shelf, even those for indoors are unused and, horror of horrors, snacks on the sofa are become commonplace as are the crumbs and now a single olive oil stain from an errant piece of sardine-on-toast. I can hardly believe what I've just confessed: sar-effin'-dines! Out of a tin, when the real deal awaits in any fish shop.
Justin
I accept your expat position as pretty much a reflection of my own, with the difference that after a hopeless attempt to work within the local economy, I retreated to the previous status quo and did what was available from outside the country.
So, I justify my continued presence as being a total plus to the economy, in that everything I spend comes from outside and gets injected (too fast!) here. To compete with the local people is not a good idea – I would have objected to anyone else coming into my little corner of the Glasgow-that-was and trying to steal my clients as I expect the folks here must feel about the many bar owners from abroad, even though many of them fail to realise just what they have attempted to undertake and then vanish, leaving unpaid bills behind them.
But I can not agree about the rôle of government: I feel the less it does the better, and as far as ensuring work for the citizens, that is the job of the individual to organize for himself. Real, valid work comes from one source: the need for a product or service, and that can occupy the time of a single person or, should he/she need the input, provide employment for others, too. But the flaw that seems to have crept into the mind of many is that this ‘employment’ has some statutory right to exist. No, it only exists as long as somebody needs the employee. And that, basically, is it. Tough, but real life. It’s up to the individual to create work for himself or be so valued for his attributes that others beat a path to his doorway bearing offers of employment.
In the end, the fit and able useless have only themselves to blame for their predicament.
So what’s for government to do? Provide and ensure public safety, keep the nation protected from external (or internal) threat; provide the framework, the legal system within which people can live their lives in peace without fear of nightfall and unlit streets; look after the needs of the sick if they can’t manage for themselves, provide the means to raise public funds to ensure all of that and, perhaps most of all, allow and encourage the freedom to express views on any topic at all. And to do all of this with the minimum of public employees and the fewest governmental organisations possible. Anything beyond that is probably fine-tuning or even intrusion. In other words, less is more.
Bikes
My son had a scrambles bike whilst he lived here for a short while, I rode it once or twice, having had a licence for many years, but didn’t really take to the vulnerability of being on it. It isn’t about the self, it’s about the other guy in the car or truck or bus: he doesn’t know you exist unless you have a Harley, when he knows you are around, even if you are actually on another street around the corner. In a post-apocalyptic situation, yes, if I could figure out how to get the gas station stuff to work.
Rob C
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Don't panic! I hear that Sir Bob Geldof is planning a concert in Ethiopia to raise funds for the Irish - hang in there! ;)
Now that post cheered me up!
Rob C
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Now that post cheered me up!
Rob C
My work here is done. :)
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Aside from the whinging and politics, you guys are lucky. I haven't been able to do any significant shooting, much less anything else for the last half year due to some damned illness. It's hard to shoot street when just walking is a problem.
I didn't now you were hampered - your work looks so free.
I wish you a good recovery.
Rob C
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Yes, there is no doubt that the mind mirrors gloom outside the window. There is also no doubt that life is filled with opportunity should one seek it out. And there lies the root of many problems: initiative falls away with greyness. Summer presents an entirely different mental panorama - just being outside the four walls cheers one up no end.
Alone. Well no, I don't really think I feel that way; I do not even feel abandoned, which some have suggested I might, because things happened before she died that demonstrated that even at the end of her life she was more concerned with how I would fare on my own, than of herself. The one thing I never had to doubt was love. And that's probably the hardest bit to take: that someone could care so much and then be gone, physically if never in spirit and legacy of everything else that I now share with me, myself and I.
I look out of the french windows and see the signature of all the green finger magic she wove; I see there also the decay that I seem to be unable to delay or cancel out in any effective way: some empty pots where there would be seasonal flowers; terrace furniture for which she made the cushions; tablecloths for outside lie unused on the shelf, even those for indoors are unused and, horror of horrors, snacks on the sofa are become commonplace as are the crumbs and now a single olive oil stain from an errant piece of sardine-on-toast. I can hardly believe what I've just confessed: sar-effin'-dines! Out of a tin, when the real deal awaits in any fish shop.
Rob C
Rob..., those three paragraphs have the making of a delicious intimate memoir (which could easily become part of a series, and would do well supported by beautifully toned B&W's of those flower pots, and sardine oil etc..., Ill bet you could come up with some real beauties from within and maybe outside in the cold and screaming Mistral...I don't know, I just feel the germination of a quite nice piece of writing/photography lurking with you there ... (and personally, tinned sardines and mackeral from once floushing Port Clyde always travelled in my pack...instant health/stronger bones.....it does not shame me to say I miss these canneries and the amazing watermen ,wives and families they supported) I hope you find a sheltered spot (not through glass,) to get a bit of sun on skin/face/arms to recharge your batteries...we're almost over the hump now...hang in there!
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... there is no doubt that the mind mirrors gloom outside the window. There is also no doubt that life is filled with opportunity should one seek it out. And there lies the root of many problems: initiative falls away with greyness. Summer presents an entirely different mental panorama - just being outside the four walls cheers one up no end...
Ah, Rob, what you just so poetically described is known, sadly enough (pun intended), as SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), also known as "winter depression" or "winter blues". The best remedy they say, especially for photographers, is to install full-spectrum, daylight-balanced strong lamps throughout the house. Think of it as a perfect white-balance compliment to window light and flash. ;)
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Patricia
Memoirs. I used to wish that my mother would sit right down and write her memoirs, but she never did: spent her time with Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury set on her mind and in her hands. She would enter a world of her own with never the time to put on paper anything about herself. And there was so much she could have written - in at least three languages. Another waste.
But that happens all the time, I guess, and we end up with the crap in the movies or on tv instad of the more interesting reality.
Slobodan
In the same vein: I'm sure your own life would be interesting reading. SAD is too true; hits several people I know, my bro-in-lo in particular. But, not even he can do what he'd like, and no money worries there, just other pressures.
Rob C