June 19, 1999

A funny thing happened yesterday while eating lunch at McDonalds with Franca - though it wasn’t funny at the time. First I must give you a bit of background.

Some people believe that the industrialized nations of Western Europe and America are taking advantage of the third world nations by loaning them money and making them pay it back. They would like for the well-to-do nations to forgive the debt and let them start over. In fact Italy has done just that. It forgave all the debts that third world countries owe to it. Why they did so I’m uncertain. It could have been out of kindness but I suspect that there were other reasons - aren’t there always? Here in Britain they decided to have a march through the banking area. While Franca was in the library I went on a photo expedition. I was unaware of this march until I arrived in the banking district. While a bunch of drug-takin’, job-needin’, welfare-livin’, uneducated, tattooed, middle-class wana-bees were blocking traffic and being a general nuisance to the eyes, ears and noses of decent workin’ people I was taking pictures of the splendid architecture of the area - pictures will be coming soon.

So, I went back to the library to collect Franca for lunch. Off we went to McDonalds. While we were downstairs looking at the pictures I had taken earlier we heard some banging and crashing coming from upstairs. One of the employees came over and told us to put the computer away and come with them into the back. “What’s going on,” I asked? “You know about the riot, right?” “You mean the march?” “It was a march. Now it’s a riot and their coming in.” Into the back we went. All of the employees took off their uniforms so that they wouldn’t be identified and therefore singled out in case there was violence. In the end all the rioters did was crash in the front windows, destroy the computers and cash registers - though they didn’t get any money - and make a mess. I told one of the cops that they should give the rioters a tear-gas enema. That elicited a chuckle and a nod.

That was our adventure of the day. Hopefully today will be a little quieter. Tomorrow we are going to the Science Museum which is rated as one of the best in the world and Friday after next we are going to see the “Power of Myth” show. It is put on by Lucas Arts and covers the mythological influences of the Arthurian legends, Wagner, etc in the Star Wars movies. It is only showing in Europe and it is just luck that I happen to be here in London while it is showing.

Hopefully I will be on American soil sometime the 3rd of July.

Ciao, dan

June 17, 1999

I had very high expectations of “The Matrix” so I was destined to be disappointed. I guess it was about 70% the movie I hoped it would be. One major area where the movie fell apart was with the motivation, which is common with SciFi. Why should the computers keep us around? Heat was the reason they gave in the movie but that is totally implausible. There are many other animals that would make a far greater power supply and not cost nearly as much overhead and most importantly be no threat to rebel. Basically, you don’t keep the most dangerous animal on earth alive just to harness its power. Also, what is the point of having a Matrix? Why not just leave the humans in a sort of coma all their lives?

It would be cheap of me to criticize without having a solution. Simple, the computers have in inferiority complex - don’t they always? They can do everything mankind can do a thousand-fold better but for one thing: that ineffable quality that makes mankind what it is - the ability to leap beyond logic. (We like to think that we can leap beyond logic but maybe it is more like falling so short as to come up with novel solutions to problems.) So, the reason the computers are keeping us around is to define that quality that we have and they lack. Perhaps they hope to produce a human that they can somehow join with, add to their matrix, to give them that missing component. This would explain why they keep humans around and why there is a messiah.

Btw, Franca liked it and would like to see it again just to get everything. One thing that she commented on, that I certainly agree with her about, is that the enunciation of the characters was, for the most part, perfect. It is hard for her to keep up sometimes with movies because of the language. Many actors don’t pay close attention to how they say their lines and the directors let it slip. I think it is attributable to the directors that they pay close attention to details.

Ciao for now, dan

June 11, 1999

Friends, family, countrymen . . .

Sometime around 9am Saturday the twelfth of June - tomorrow in now-time - Franca and I will walk out the front door of house sixty nine. It isn’t odd that we will be the lasts ones out. We are staying until the last day the dorms are open so that we may spend as much time together as possible. It is however odd that I should be the last one out for if you recall back in February I was planning to cut my stay in Swansea short and travel around Europe. I would say something about ‘the best laid plans’ but for fear of the obvious pun.

Franca and I have just returned from a short two day excursion to see the Roman Ruins of Bath England and then a very short trip - one and a half hours - to see Salisbury Cathedral. Bath was a resort city back when the Romans ruled southern England. I’m sure everyone knows about the Romans predilection for baths. Actually the Romans had a predilection for laziness. They were however masters at getting other people to do work for them. You can imagine that the Romans in England were a little put off by the weather. (I should tell you that the contemporary Romans - Italians - are still put off by the weather here in Briton.) When they discovered hot springs, or more likely discovered that the Celts had discovered hot springs, they evicted/plundered the area and built a bathhouse over the spring just like back home. When the Romans vacated the area the bathhouse fell into such disrepair as to become completely covered by earth. It wasn’t until sometime in the 1800s - I think - that they were rediscovered. Since then the city has adopted ancient Roman architecture for most of the city. Consequently a certain Italian filly I’m aquatinted with could almost picture herself back at home. She said that Bath most closely resembles Venice.

The main purpose in going to Salisbury was to see the cathedral and Stonehenge. Unfortunately, do to a miscalculation in bus schedules we only had an hour and a half to visit Salisbury. That was just enough time to take a rush tour of the cathedral but not nearly enough time to make it out to Stonehenge and back. Franca and I plan to take a day trip in the next few weeks to come back and see that most popular Druid clock.

“So, what’s up now?” you ask? I’ll tell you. On Saturday Franca and I will be going to London where we will be for about two weeks. She is doing her final thesis on the Irish Revolution and the House of Parliament in London has many books and documents that she needs to study. I will spend most of the days wandering around, writing, programming, taking photos and keeping my eyes open for job opportunities but I don’t have very high expectations. We will have four of five days before Franca flies back to Italy so we would like to go to Edinburgh. Afterward I will probably be headed back to the States - Oklahoma to be exact - around the 4-6th of July.

For the next few weeks in London I will have to visit cyber-cafés to do email. I don’t know how regular I will be so please be patient, or don’t be - it’s up to you.

The next email contains a few pictures I took in Bath. I hope you like them.

Love and happiness to all, Dan

Btw, even if there the Romans hadn’t left ruins of their bathing facilities Bath would still be appositely named do to the taste of its tap water.