dar_han

  Another week has passed and a lot of things happened.




    First, a tropical storm almost took us by surprise. The foul weather should have been one huge warning sign, but we thought it was the remains of the previous storm, which had just grazed us and brought nothing more than rain. Well, by the time we learned that we were actually going to be hit by another storm, the thing had already landed on the West Coast and was only 200 miles from us. Thankfully, it weakened pretty fast and was once again turned away by the mountains nearby. So we got nothing but rain. A lot of rain. It has rained almost all week and another downpour has started just as I'm typing this.



    On the political side, things are getting tense again. The H.A.T.'s greatest ally (Col. Khadafi) has had to give up the reins of the African Union to the president of Malawi, a member of the SADC (hence, one of the most vocal opponents of the current regime). As you can guess, the H.A.T. is scrambling to limit the damage to their credibility but hey, it was about time "The Guide" and his support for coup-generated governments went away. Now we've heard rumors that, as a start, Malagasy airlines would be prevented from entering SADC airspace. A bit of a problem for Air Madagascar since, see, we're literally surrounded by SADC countries. Not to mention Air Mad's very lucrative flights to South Africa and Mauritius will have to stop. It's almost pathetic to see Rajoelina fly to France regularly to ask for more help from the only country that almost openly supports him.

    Another big problem with the current regime is that they have more and more difficulty trying to pretend they still have some kind of control over the army. Soldiers are now literally roaming the land, doing whatever they like. The government has promised a 15% pay rise but then the actual rise is just 14% due to clerical error? No sooner said than done: armed soldiers surround the Ministry of Finances, and a few hours later the missing 1% is paid. Drunk soldier got involved in a bar brawl, lost his temper, machine gunned the other patrons and as a result got beaten to death by the survivors? No sooner said than done, two truckloads of soldiers come into the neighborhood, beat up everyone they meet, randomly arrest a few dozen people and impose a strict curfew on the surroundings. Opponents of the regime are gathering on a public place to pray for the country? The army gleefully comes and teargasses them without restriction, nevermind that there's a frickin' elementary school downwind from the gathering. And meanwhile, guess what? They forget to take care of the actual banditry. So now we've got civilian militias forming to protect the small towns because the army and police are too busy having fun with their newfound importance and their Weapons of “Mass Power-Addiction.”

    Then we've got the collapse of teh economy around here. Since the U.S.A. kicked us out of the AGOA as promised, we've got several thousand more jobless people on our hands. Trade with the SADC countries is literally dying, and local production rots where it stands because the distribution infrastructure is mostly down. Remember when I said that cooking oil and most dairy products had become luxuries last year? Well, sugar and flour are about to join the club, with a sudden 50% price rise on both in the last weeks. As you can guess, the middle class is quickly going down in numbers while the lower class is more numerous than ever.

    Speaking of that, as the good african-needs-white-master that he is, Rajoelina was sooooo proud of having been interviewed on a French TV channel, he asked his private TV (an the state TV) to show that continuously for several days. What's funny is that he never realized how the interviewer's questions were all condescending comments. See, in French we call barbed comments “piques,” which basically means a needle. Well, the interview contained so many “piques” directed at Rajoelina, it could have been called a nice acupuncture session. I mean, Rajoelina was sincerely smiling when the newsman ended the interview with “This was Andry Rajoelina, de facto leader of Madagascar, a country of which 72% of the population currently lives under the poverty threshold.” Mind if I call Rajoelina the perfect candidate for an urgent brain transplant?



    On another subject, two of my former classmates called me — separately — to offer me a job. The first one wants me to appear on TV in person (something I have a phobia of, in case I never said it) basically so I can teach the art of 3D graphics to the uneducated masses. The second guy wants me to help him mount a company that would produce realistic pictures and animations of buildings out of technical plans that would be given to him. I'll be honest, the first proposition is a definite big no (despite Grandma and the extended family calling me stupid for refusing the celebrity brought by a TV appearance). The second proposition is okay enough... provided that my friend is serious enough. So far, I have a very mixed opinion...

    My problem with all that is that... well, see, remember when I said I wanted to get away from jobs involving graphics? I'd call that one heck of a timing; two graphics job offers in less than three days...



    This being a rather stressful period, it was expected that I get my share of nightmares again. This week, I can count at least three that I remembered: one involved fleeing from a nazi esclavagist (!!!) and failing because the escape boat sank into a river filled with alligators, the second one involved a scenario like that of District 9 but with robots, and the last one involved being put on a mission to kill all the students in a campus. Ugh. Well, a nice change at least is that I remember at least two nice dreams involving worksinreallife... No, not that kind of dream. Yeah, I got some of those too, but heh... these ones were rather nice, having far more effect on my morale than my...erm... well. Anyway, I always woke up from these with a big grin and a sigh (you know, when you realize it as still just a dream...)



    And now for the puppy news: he's fine now, more or less. The vet gave us tonics to give him, and he's already quite playful. His pointy teeth seem to have found an affinity for our toes, too, not to mention we still don't know how to teach him to choose one place for his droppings instead of leaving them everywhere... We're still undecided on how to call him, though the choice has boiled down to two names: Spot, or Blotch. Mom prefers the second option, which already made worksinreallife have fun with “the puppy who shares a name with a famous furry erotica artist duet.” Hey, whaddayathink, of course I didn't tell Mom and Nick about that other Blotch!

( Anyway, have some photos! )

I'm just out of watching 2012. A good film overall, I enjoyed the effects. I also got a few laughs here and there, particularly at how, in the climax, everyone forgot about poor Tamara while she was drowning... (Also, apparently Madagascar escaped destruction... yay us?)

Oh, and Nick just told me that another TV channel is showing Saw VI. Which gave another round of giggles, as I first wondered out lout who in their right mind would call a movie "Saucisse" (sausage) XD

Another week has passed. And the first thing I have to say is... that puppy from last week, someone stole him right from our courtyard. And sadly, that means we'll never see him again... I can tell you, it ruined the day (and the two next ones) for the whole family...

Mom found another puppy though... Yeah, I know it sounds like we're just replacing the last unfortunate one. We're literally saving this one's life though. He's from a litter of seven, in a home that already had seven adult dogs (six males and one female - whoever thought of that proportion?). So basically this puppy was given to us as a weak, dirty, hungry and rather scared little thing. Grandma made things worse, too. When she went to fetch him, she decided to treat him like one of those near-feral cats people around here like to trade. That means she put him inside a basket that was then sealed tight. After over an hour in there, you can guess the pup's state worsened a lot. We got him yesterday and, well, all the time since then has been spent trying to nurse him back to health. He's still weak and fearful now, but he's definitely more alive and playful than he was yesterday, not to mention clean and well-fed.

I'd like to put photos of this one puppy here, but I think I'll wait until we get to name him instead. Anyway, he's cute, or as I'd put it: "awwwwww!-inspiring." Mom has even decided that, for this one, we won't risk another theft, and so she's lifted her rule about no dogs being allowed inside the house... even if it means we'll have to get used to some (smelly) cleaning duty XD

What else this week? Oh yeah, got to see District 9 at last. Good movie overall, though I'm not a fan of bittersweet endings like that one... TV's showing 2012 tonight, so that's one more movie to take out of the "gotta watch" list.

Speaking of that, I hate how TVs here, when they show a movie once, well, they show it a good four dozen times over the next weeks. Sometimes even a few hundred times over the next months. I swear, if I get to watch one more Tinkerbell or another The Transporter movie, I'll snap.

A few other things about cartoons I've seen:

• The villain in that kid's cartoon follows the stereotype of the greedy evil hook-nosed jew so much, even I feel offended despite not even having any jewish acquaintance.
• When translations turn bad: that 1940's american cartoon had a character called "Minnie Hot-Cha." Racy enough already, but they translated that into "Minnie Haute-Chatte" for the french version. Oh Gawd... "High Pussy" ????
• I don't wanna know how that dinosaur-based pokémon rip-off is called. Watching barely five minutes of it nearly made me puke (cliché characters, cliché monsters, cliché plot, cliché bad science, cliché horrible 2D animation... in short, cliché rip-off)

We seem to have a big problem about a tiny thing... The puppy seems to have vanished between 6:30am (when Mom checked on him) and 9am (when I checked on him) this morning. I suspect theft, but nobody really knows. I knew letting him sleep on the balcony was not a good idea...

Well, this week's main event happened barely two hours ago: one of Nick's friends gave us a puppy. Or sold us, I have no idea, I didn't hear anything about any money involved. He's a mutt, like 99.9% of the dogs here, which might explain the lack of interest >.<

I also hope the same "flaw" won't make our parents instantly dislike him, since Mom initially wanted a small dog, terrier-style.

Anyway, he's sleeping on the balcony now. I really need to brush up on puppies — do they really sleep as much? They say he's old enough that he's been weaned already, but he's only four inches tall at best and he's slept all the time he's been here, minus a few minutes of trying to playfully hunt down my sandals. Gah, I haven't had a puppy in the house since Sacy fourteen years ago (I was abroad when Ran Tan Plan was a puppy). I totally forgot how to take care of one!!! (ah yeah, and we'll need a name for him, too)

( Okay, enough talking, have some photos. )

There are no particular events to report this week, besides that the job-hunting was quite fruitless. Not like I could do much anyway, there were teargassing parties again downtown. What is it with Malagasy law enforcers and their tendency to display prisoners on TV the same way a hunter displays his latest quarry? They literally stop in the way to their car, let the journalists take photos in every angle possible, then add a few layers by asking the prisoners to say their name on live TV, all the while insulting them quite openly!

Ah yeah, another BIG source of worry: apparently the government might be planning a devaluation around here. Nice way to make us twice as poor while not actually not lowering the amount we do own. One US dollar is close to 2,000 ariary now, when it was around 1,000 ariary ten years ago. I heard they were planning to make the new change rate closer to 4,000 ariary per dollar. Wheep-do-wee, that'll sure help the many of us who don't live off exporting goods!

So, what's been going on this week? Mainly, rain. A tropical perturbation formed nearby and gave us a cloudy/windy weather for six days, with no more than a couple of rain-less hours per day. Nick would love the weather if he wasn't sick as a horse. I'd like the weather if getting my laundry done didn't rely on direct sunlight and dry air.

The other notable thing in my life is that I missed a solar eclipse again. I missed the 1999 one because my uncle decided to leave Paris a few days before (vacation in Southern France - I fell ill and got caught in a very damaging storm. Unforgettable holidays!) I missed the 2001 eclipse on account of not having been in Madagascar at the time. And now, I missed the 2009 one because no one told me it would be visible from here until it was over! Yeah, it was just a partial eclipse seen from here, but still... And the lunar eclipse in two weeks won't be visible from here either (it'll happen in daytime, alas)

And, yesterday, I made some fresh, natural, home-made passionfruit juice. A whole gallon of it, actually. And I made a joke about it: "I put a little of myself in there. Two drops of blood, to be more precise." Ah yes, there was an accident involving a sharp knife and one of my fingers, but nothing serious. The knife was so sharp, the cut was extremely clean and almost painless. And the juice tasted good.

Now for a funny, yet scary tale about how danegrously crazy our current "government" is becoming:

---

For several weeks now (if not months) a pirate radio has been emitting in Antananarivo. An anti-government one, of course. So they decided to make a show of trying to shut it down. They publicly announced that the emitter had been located in former president Ravalomanana's family house in Faravohitra.

They got truckloads of soldiers there, accompanying the bailiff who was supposed to oversee the search. Ravalomanana's lawyer came, too. First mistake: they frickin' forgot the warrant. Oops! That mistake took about two hours to correct, while the army surrounded the house to prevent any "escape."

After getting the paperwork right, the soldiers finally rushed in and searched the house, I would say, with the finest comb they could find. The result? No emitter. And it turns out the house hadn't even been used in months, since these men came out of there wearing more dust and spider webs than a horror movie monster.

Humiliated on live TV, they tried to save face by pretending that the emitter had indeed been there, but "it was probably evacuated through an underground escape route" while the lawyer stalled the search by asking for a warrant. That mysterious escape route, of course, hasn't been found yet and is being actively searched for.

Ha, ha, ha, guys. Nice one, that. Except that the house, like the whole frickin' Faravohitra district, is built on a huge granitic monolith. Hear that guys? GRANITE. The only way we know in this country to breach granite involves dynamite, so underground escape routes? I don't think so.

---

Last thing, with my finances now reaching into the "deepest shades of red" alert, I think I'll need to go back to job-hunting soon after all. Break's over, I guess.

Wee, time for my weekly report! And it's... not that good, really.

As expected, Mom literally kicked me out on monday so I could toss a resume to some job she found. The short version is, that didn't go well. Job's uninteresting, pay's almost laughable, and commute involves going through at least three of the city's "traffic black spots." Icing on the cake, there was some ruckus on that day, quite near the place I was visiting. Protesters, army, teargassing, you get the picture. I luckily avoided trouble but it still meant busses were nowhere to be found and half my trip home had to be done on foot, under the rain. Whoop-dee-woop.

I finally managed to get Mom to leave me alone with job-hunting for a while though. That involved... a quite noisy argument. Man, am I a bundle of nerves...

In other news, my country is sinking more and more. The US government expelled us from the AGOA, which basically means about forty five thousand people are going to be out of a job REAL soon. And instead of taking that as a clue, our frickin' stupid "government" persists that this is the will of the people and "nobody will sway us from the hard road ahead of us." So yeah, welcome to Africa, guys.

Last thing: we get international news from French TV channels here. So we've got that nice little situation where news are all about snow, snow, snow, snow, strikes in France, snow (and did we mention snow?) while around here... well... temperatures barely if ever go below 25°C (that's 77F for you Americans) and go as high as 30°C (86F) on a regular basis. And, mind you, that's the highlands. Temperatures down by the West Coast are higher, around 30°C/86F at night and 38°C/100F at noon. I'm sure a lot of Northern Hemisphere inhabitants would like to swap right now, eh?

Ugh, as expected Mom is pushing hard again for me to get back into the job-hunting business. Gimme a break, will ya? That End-of-year Big Surprise literally KO'ed me. I'm stressed enough as it is and worksinreallife's not being around until god knows when means that I don't exactly have anyone to rely on for emotional support around here. So here, please give me a few days... please.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

... or... well, happier than mine anyway. Because, see, a few hours before the year ended, I lost my newly acquired job. How, why? Simple enough: I went to work, got told that I didn't fit their expectations (too unexperienced in video editing — where does that fit in the job description for 3D graphist?) and got sent home. With pay, at least (16 days at $5 per day), and the reassurance that I'm welcome to come back to work with them as soon as I get more experienced in that field.

Heh, dropping my morale and self-esteem into the deepest mine shaft but at least providing it with a parachute, right? Well, update the count then: two jobs lost in a month, three in a year, five in two years. Though this is a first: for once, my losing a job has to do with my skills or rather lack thereof.

For the rest of the (loooong) last day of 2009, I spent a lot of time thinking. Why do I keep trying to get jobs as a graphist? That's all I've done in the past four years and a half. Yeah, it helped me build some (now greatly reduced) savings, but it also got me burnt out in what I always used to like doing for fun: drawing. So not only I get stressed at work, I can't even find back the joy of drawing anymore. Quite the nightmare when you consider that meanwhile, picture ideas keep popping in my mind at the rate of at least five times a week.

Now, can you count how many finished drawings I did this year? Four. Frickin' four, and absolutely none in the last six months... and I used to draw at least one every week not so long ago! It gets even worse knowing that, looking at those four pictures, I'm dissatisfied in them. I mean, yeah, I like how they came out, but they still look like I could have done a far better job on them (especially wolfbrothersong and redstar918's picture — thanks for giving me that occasion, guys, it means more to me than you can think, but in the end I still feel like I gave you something far below the quality I wanted to give)

Now, what do I know how to do besides drawing? Writing (or at least, passable fiction writing — or so I hope!). Getting interested in the workings of languages. Memorizing lots of scientific facts. I also read and criticize a lot.

What stops me from finding a job in these? Let's see. Writing and reading are also hobbies to me. I could get burnt out on that too, which I'm not exactly sure I'd like to happen. Not to mention how I write as fast as an armless cripple, and how writing here tends to be as financially profitable as selling pork in Saudi Arabia anyway. What about languages and scientific things? Well... useless. Pretty much. And did I mention I have no diploma on these? If I found a job offer in that domain, the chances of my application looking better than most are pretty low.

Dad suggested that I work freelance. A good idea I guess, but here comes the problem: working freelance requires a lot of managing skills, which I cruelly lack. No kidding. I don't have the resourcefulness of my cousin Angelo or my former coworker Feno. Nor do I have the contacts they have — my social status as the quiet lonely guy works against me on this one.

I know, that's a lot of whining. But I should be allowed to, right? 2009 for me ended with the loss of a job and a lonely night at home with no one to talk to (oh, and thank you, Ma-TV, for broadcasting a movie about a girl dying of cancer. It certainly raised the morale of a lot of viewers). Then 2010 began with self-doubt plenty in my mind and the realization that my native country is slowly but certainly turning into a police state. "Happy new year guys, did you see the truck full of armed soldiers? Festive, ain't it? And the political atmosphere — 'Shut up or get locked up,' how fun!"

Well, this had better be a year full of welcome surprises. One where I can finally consider moving in with worksinreallife, or if not, at least one that brings me closer to that goal (instead of farther as 2008 and 2009 definitely did). One without too much political trouble sinking the country even more into the garbage pit it fell into (Too late!). One spent living and preparing for the future instead of just surviving and living by the day.

Hmm... I guess I should stop the whining. I should make the list of people I'm glad I've had. In no particular order:

• wolfbrothersong and redstar918 for being friendly and for providing me the perfect picture of what I want my future to be.
  


• worksinreallife for being the one I see with me in that picture. I wanted to write everything I feel about you here but that can't be expressed in words I guess, so I'll just go the easy way and say: thank you for letting me be your other half, even if distance still prevents me from expressing that the way I'd want. As of today, that's 923 days of separation we'll need to catch up on, Hon ;-)
  


• shark_008 — that's been, what, six years that we've known each other? And you still haven't done anything to make me want to stop calling you a friend. Never say again that you're a bad person who pushes everyone away — I'm proof enough that you're not.
  


• ziabandito555 — one "thank you" for each page you've written that I've liked reading would probably overload LiveJournal's servers pretty fast ^_^
  


• altivo and Quinn, for your encouragements and for talking to a guy (more or less) half your age as an equal. Makes me feel distinguished, you know? ;-)
  


• notveryathletic for always being the playful pup in your comments (this was brought to you by meep!).
  


• amonomega for that one picture, and, I'll be honest, skg_yae31313 for giving me the desire to have it done to begin with.
  


• My family here for a lot of things I probably forgot, ungrateful as I am.
  


• My family abroad for the support (Despite the shortness of that sentence, it means a lot).
  


• Anyone else I might have forgotten who thinks they deserve thanks from me — don't hesitate to speak up, please!

Last thing before I finish: today I went to the inauguration ceremony of a house in Dad's family. The short version is that this is the second time in a week that I attend mass and the second time I get served a lunch that fills me to the brim. Both surely are bad for my health, though I did appreciate the second part (BUUUUUUURP!!!)

And the last words: Lackadaisy Cats. Viktor and Mordecai, so attractive in their own way but so irresistible when put together. The way they bicker like an old couple, the way they resent each other after their separation... Am I bad to imagine that they were probably more than just friends but never acknowledged it? And Zib. Just, Zib. A scrawny concentré of sarcasm that still looks handsome. And Sedgewick... Well, I'll be the devil here and just say that every single appearance of him in the comic so far has made him appear hotter and hotter... especially during the boat promenade >:]

Okay, this should have been posted yesterday (that's a few hours ago for you Americans) but I couldn't connect because I spent all day at a wedding. Left home at 8:30am, came home only at around 10pm. I also realized how little value Malagasy people give to civil marriage. They don't even call it marriage in everyday's language -- they call it "registration." Most of the time, if you've been legally but not religiously married, people will not consider you married. The churches even have a name for that: tokantrano maso, which roughly translates to "household in name only."

But hey, I'm digressing. I forgot to tell how this week began in a half-bad way. So on Sunday Mom and I went shopping at a once-every-two-months trade fair. I bought three shirts for me there, plus one shirt and a pair of jeans for Nick. Mom and I also bought ourselves USB drives. Here begins trouble. I should have been more careful, because both are severely defective, to the point that they're unusable. And of course, by the time we realized that, the fair had ended and we discovered that the receipt held no seller's name. So that's... almost $15 thrown out the window for nothing, ugh. Well, at least the clothes are nice (I love me new black shirts!) Also, apparently my new keyboard lacks the key for < and >. That'll cause me a few problems while IMing XD

As for my job... still okay so far. Mom has started noticing my work on TV and has favorably commented on it for now. One thing about the co-workers though, we're supposed to have something close to a familial atmosphere at work. They know I'm not married yet. Somehow they translated that as "single." I wonder how long it'll be before I have to correct them on that. And how long before I accidentally correct one of them about me not having a "Lady" but a "Sir"... Well, we'll see.

Aaand now that I've summarized my week, on to telling the tale of yesterday's wedding.

The summary goes like this:
- 7am, wake up, get showered (that's far more difficult than it sounds -- in five words: buckets and manual water heaters) and then get dressed. I realize that my seven-years-old tux from my days at the ISPM still fits me like a charm and still feels comfortable. A good start so far.
- 8:30am, leave home.
- 9:15am, arrive at church, meet Grandma's cousins. Ah yeah, the groom is the eldest son of one of Grandma's cousins. He and I have the same first name, which will cause much confusion to me later whenever people want to address him.
- 9:30am, religious ceremony begins. Thankfully it goes faster than what I was used to, because apparently this is only one of five marriages the priest needs to perform in this chirch today. I also realize that this is probably the first time in 2009 (and a good part of 2008) that I set foot in a church again.
- 10:30am, Religious ceremony is over. After a few photos in the courtyard, we have to leave so the second marriage can happen. The wedding party is meant to happen in a hotel a few miles out of town, on the road leading to the airport.
- 11:30am, Sweet gawd, nice hotel. Looks like a fortress built in the middle of a wild garden with a nice view on rice paddies. I quip at how the hotel's name translates to "The Highlands" and yet ever since we've entered the front gates there's been nothing but stairs leading down from the road.
- 11:45am, Snack time in the hotel's garden! Meatballs, spring rolls, sweet pork on the salty side, lukums, baklavas and gulab jambus on the (very) sweet side.
- 12:15pm, Party time! Lunch begins...
- 8:45pm... Lunch friggin' finally ends (!!!) Time to go home.
- around 10:00pm, Home at last. Apparently I forgot to close one tap in the morning (when water was unavailable) and when water returned it leaked into Dad's kitchen. Oops. At least he closed the general counter so water didn't run all day.

The remarks I could do are that first, I'm glad I enjoyed the thing because what I've eaten in that party alone would have been enough to feed me lunches for over two months. Also, the hotel's dancers... Man are they talented. They're all cute too. Yes, the girls were cute... but I'd be lying if I said I paid no attention to the guys. Especially when they put on tight jeans and sleeveless fitting shirts for the modern dances... Yummy. All of them had body builds that took nice advantage of the close-fitting clothing. If the definition of "eye candy" is that you're seeing something you like despite the show not being directed at you, then I died of "eye hyperglycemia" just by watching at these guys. ;-)

( And now... Photos galore!!! )

Well, I just got back from work... Yes, it's a first for me to work on saturdays, I haven't done that since I've left school in mid-2005. So far, this job proves to be okay. Atmosphere's nice enough (for now), commute times are far more manageable than before (about half an hour, though 2 bus lines) and I have the statisfaction of seeing the results of my work on TV every morning...
The pay, well, let's say that this month being still a tryout for my skills, I'll only be paid as much as my first full-time job did. If I perform well enough though, that amount will permanently double as soon as next month (for those wondering, that'll be $300 US per month, about fifty bucks more than the highest wages I've ever earned so far)
The hours... erm, a bit unusual for me. It's about 50 hours spread on six days each week... I've never worked beyond an average of 40 weeks hours before... if you don't count that Catholic school over ten years ago. Hope it won't be too much of a problem in the long run though.

On other news... My Grandma became a great-grandmother this week, for the first time. My cousin Carine did indeed give birth to a small girl. Too bad I probably won't see her for a few more months (years?) as she was born in France. Oh well, I'll just have to be careful about being the target of continuous insinuations that I should have been a father before she became a mother, and should rectify that soon.

Last thing, summer is in full swing now, meaning that I regularly expend my clothes faster than our laundry system can clean them. My "heat-allergy" is striking again, too. You know, when the top of my feet itch so much, I can't keep scratching them until they're close to bleeding and then the pain comes almost as a relief as it drowns the itching... ugh.

Hmm? What else... oh well, I guess it's all for now.

Until I find a way to get a steady internet access again, I'll have to be online only on sunday mornings, starting 10am (GMT+3) and for two to four hours max. I do connect for a short time on saturdays though, to download the week's e-mails and post on LJ.

Well, some of you might have noticed that I've been offline for over 10 days now. The short explanation is that I seem to be out of a job again. Technically the company still exists, I'm still a member of it... but let's be honest. The last four months or so had been a bad instance of "work but little to no pay." Since last week, it's switched to "stay at home, there isn't even work anymore." They all say it's temporary, but heh... I'm sick tired of being only one of two to work my ass off to save a company that doesn't seem to want to live. I mean, if you're gonna make me work for months for a client, you'd better make sure they pay at the end, right? Apparently not.

Not that I'm bitter, heh. I haven't received more than 25 dollars in income this year. This is the third time in 12 months I see a job crashing in flames around me (fourth time in 15 months and fifth in 24 months, in case you're curious). Ever since my last paycheck back in Nov. 2008, I've been living off my savings, which are now only a third as large as they were back then. I guess that means I have a little more than six months to find a paying job again (unless something bad happens to my parents' jobs, in which case that delay will be much shorter)

In short, this has been a bad year. No income, unstable jobs, dwindling savings, near-zero artistic productivity, fluctuating mood, not to mention the country around me still suffering the aftermath of a coup d'état... Wish I could say I could look forward to seeing worksinreallife soon, but no. Barring either of us suddenly stumbling on large amounts of money, that's not happening whithin the next several months (at best!). Instead I'm struggling just to keep some form contact, to avoid losing probably the main reason why I haven't just given up yet.

P.S.: worksinreallife asked me if I could afford to get online without a job. The answer is: yes, for now. Seeing that I don't need to go to work on the other side of the city anymore, I can free enough money from my transportation budget to buy maybe two to four hours online each week. Not much, but I survived with the same amount between January and June after all. Except, I had twice more money back then.

I wish I could make money with some commisions too, but heh, even if I hadn't been in one hell of an artistic block, even if I could find eager (and reliable!) commissioners, it seems I'm not rich enough to afford money transfers to this crappy country anyway (ooooh, the irony, the freakin' irony!!!)...

[/rant mode off]

Number of times it rained since the beginning of the season: at least a dozen.
Number of times it rained while I was outside sans umbrella: at least three.

Number of times I brought an umbrella in case it started raining: at least a dozen.
Number of times it actually rained that day: zero. GUH.

I currently have loud music playing on my headphones because next room is a class about "what is love" according to ultra-conservative christian people. It's... painful.

Ah, would it have hurt someone to tell me that the cook was sick and thus couldn't provide lunch?

'Cause you know, I totally have lots of money available anytime, and restaurants abound in this neighborhood [/sarcasm]

Yeah, so it's over 2:30pm again and I haven't eaten anything besides that pair of half-sized menakely I had for breakfast. At least I had enough humor to mention yesterday's lunch being "over 26 hours late now," HAH!

Right now though, with nothing to do, nothing to eat and nobody to interact with anyway, I'm debating about packing up three hours early rather than wait for someone to "solve the problem."

Hungry makes me angry >.

So most of you only show up once in a while, fine.

So we're all paid per percentage of profits, less fine when said profits wouldn't feed a man for a month (and we're over a dozen, remember)

So one of you quit today, what the heck, I'll end up picking most of his work now.

But please, I'm the only one who's always here working, I'm the one who bothers coming everyday despite living at the other side of the city, I'm the one who lives off his savings rather than his spouse... just don't push it as far as forgetting to have lunch served when you're all away.

After years of trying to put a name on an annoying thing I've had for years. Well, there it is, I have a combination of tinnitus and hyperacusis.

My symptoms? A constant buzzing/hissing sound in my ears, all the time (though the intensity can vary). Then there's my hypersensibility to high-pitched noises people would overlook or else wouldn't hear at all.

Example 1: I can sometimes tell that the TV is on from a room away, even with the sound cut off. I feel something halfway between a buzz and a pressure in my ears around most TV sets.

Example 2: Back in France I couldn't put a foot inside the Val d'Europe mall without feeling discomfort leading to pain in my ears. No one else around me could hear the buzzing sound I was complaining about, I even got nicknamed Joan of Arc because I apparently heard things no one else did. But the buzzing and pain disappeared every time I stepped out of the mall, so I know it wasn't mere imagination.

Example 3: I just can't stand nightclubs and most parties. My ears kill me.

To lighten the mood after a really "meh" week, I surfed a bit and got on Bash.org. So here are the lessons I learnt there:

You don't know the true usefulness of capital letters until you have to write a phrase like "I had to help my uncle Jack off a horse."

"I broke my G-String while fingering a minor" actually refers to an accident while trying to play Knock on Heaven's Door on a guitar.

If you've dumped a guy for another, do not attempt to piss off your ex by sending him pics of you and your new boyfriend in bed. Because, you know, your ex might now your parents' e-mail address.

Before bragging that your penis is so big, "it goes all the way from A to Z," please check the actual distance between A and Z on a keyboard (works for both QWERTY and AZERTY!)

If your teacher says in class that sperm is sweet, please do not attempt to correct him unless you're ready to deal with the implications on your part.

IRC is just multiplayer notepad.

If you're in a library, please do not attempt to move all the Bibles to the fiction section (no matter how attractive the idea might appear)

If you're getting paid soon, please beware of the typo: the "L" key is very close to the "P" one.

Right click is one thing every basic PC can do that only some Mac can.

If the wacky kind of Christian try to "save" you, just tell them you pressed Ctrl+S a few steps back so it's no big deal.

Your sister catches you jacking off, you're a pervert. You later stumble on her masturbating... you're still the pervert.

"Mixed martial arts... basically grown men dry-humping in missionary position."

Please do not mention "How did they make Padme's stomach still look big after the twins' birth?" and "Yoda went into hiding" in the same context. EVER. (Brain bleach anyone?)

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

Next time you're having a bad day, think of this... You're a siamese twin, your brother is gay and you're not. But you only got one arsehole.