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

polyGeek 1999, letters, london, riot, wto

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

polyGeek 1999, letters, london, matrix, movie review

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.

polyGeek 1999, bath england, letters

March 11, 1999

Hi there,

I just returned from a four-day excursion to London. If you have been good, i.e. sending me emails, then you will get a post card, eventually.

I could tell you all about it but that would ruin the fun of seeing and reading about it on my webpage - I promise to work hard and try to finish it this week. Fortunately Franca has lots of essays to write so maybe I won’t be too distracted. Unfortunately, for both of us, just one stray pheromone from her is enough to send me into a frenzy of Caligulean proportions.

I should mention that it very entertaining to go for a few weeks without checking the news and then come to find out that the U.S. is at war. Oh well, it is probably spring cleaning time at the Pentagon. Most people just have a garage sale but the U.S. takes the Homer Simpson approach by throwing it over the fence and into the neighbor’s yard. The only difference is that instead of garbage it’s bombs and instead of a fence it’s the Atlantic Ocean.

I hope everyone enjoyed the most recent Christianized pagan holiday.

Best wishes for love and happiness to all, idano

polyGeek 1999, letters, london

February 12, 1999

Hello all,

For those of you who are not up to speed on the weather in Wales we have had some snow, about 6 inches worth. This is a once a decade type snow storm here. They usually only get a few inches every other year. (True to form the forecasters missed it again.) The Student Village, where I live, was a madhouse. Of course many of the British students have never seen this much snow but many of the Greeks seem to have never seen snow at all. Imagine groups of 50 - 100 students engaged in snowball fights. These groups would then start fighting each other until someone realized that it was a lot easier to hit their roommate ten-feet away than someone they don’t know fifty-feet away. A pitched snowball fight would quickly turn into a mêlée. For about two hours in the evening Hendrefoilan Student Village resembled Kossovo. While there were a few students using the snow to build most used it in a playful, yet inherently violent manner. As Arnold said in ‘Terminator 2′, “It’s in [our] nature to destroy each other.” Major bummer isn’t it?

The next day I went with my housemate Franca, and two of her friends who are visiting this week, on a hike. About halfway there the bus got stuck so we had to walk about four miles to the coast - under tree covered paths as the snow melted off. We then walked about three miles along the coast, where I had the experience of walking on a snow-covered beach, and then a couple miles back to the road where we caught a bus back to the village.

idano

polyGeek 1999, franca, letters, snow, swansea

January 21, 1999

Hello all,

Yesterday was the best birthday of my life. I got up at 11am - early for me. I had a PnJ sandwich and mocha for breakfast - thank you Margaret. I made it down to Tracy’s by noon. She wouldn’t tell me what her plans were for the day only that she hoped there would be good weather so that we could go for a walk. I asked her if partly cloudy with a 10k breeze from the west and 8 degrees Celsius would be suitable. She affirmed but said it was unlikely this time of year. I told her that I had a few favors I could cash in and would see what I could do. Guess what the weather was? Exactly what I had ordered. (I rule!)

Anyway, we walked along the beach down to the marina and then made our way up to the Quadrant. The Swansea Theater is located there and she had reserved tickets to see a Pantomime of Cinderella.

(For my American friends who are unfamiliar with pantomimes: they are children’s plays but they have a great deal of adult humor and the main female role is played by a man - in this case it was Cindy’s sisters who were played by men. Cindy was played by a buxom blond named Melinda Messenger. She uttered but few lines but played her role to the uttermost. I can only say that I was titillated by the seat I had on the railing of the upper balcony because the view was utterly astonishing. It was as if I were standing atop the peak of some majestic mountain gazing into the ample valley below. (I’m done now. I’m sure you get the point now, or points as the case may be.) There is lots of audience participation during the show. For instance when someone on the stage says, “Oh yes it is.” Then the whole audience says, “Oh no it isn’t.” They do this in every play at least a few times. They also have lines for the adults to laugh at. For instance someone refereed to Cindy as, “a peasant girl with no obvious means of support.” Or, at the Prince’s ball one of the sisters said, while fanning herself, “Are your balls always this hot and sweaty?” Remember this is a show for children though I would estimate that at least half the audience was over 65.)

After the pantomime Tracy took me to dinner at a Mexican food restaurant - there are no Olive Gardens in the UK. I had a chicken enchilada and nachos. We walked back to her place where she gave me my presents: two books of poetry and to assuage my yearnings for absence of my favorite aforementioned restaurant she gave me a bottle of virgin olive oil and a jar of olives - which I’m eating right now. (God I miss the salt-sour taste of olives - and don’t go getting Freudian on me here.) To top it all off she had wine and black-cherry cheesecake for me.

Love to all, dano

polyGeek 1999, birthday, letters, pantomime, swansea