Worlds in Transition
Oct 21 - Nov 1
I was running a video digital photo business as well as computer services, offering system backups to companies in the building. The building was a modern two-story building with large glass windows. Yet I put no tapes in the backups, oh well. Then, I got involved with mortgages through an office on the second floor. There was little supervision in that office. At one point I thought I heard somebody machine gunning existing managers {off-screen}, possibly as part of a video game.
I became involved with a larger company that was even worse. There was a nagging problem which I suspected was both of moral turpitude and criminally negligent but would be addressed over a weekend meeting. I went for a drive with the others. We headed east along a wide boulevard that passed the fourth largest Hindu temple in the world. We went too far and found ourselves in the ocean. The car was a convertible, we swam to the dock we had driven off of. I was pulled to safety and made demands to become a national media correspondent. I claimed to have important information which I really didn't have...
Dec 1
That company was taken over. We continued to get our salaries with nothing to do. I wanted to leave early. We were instructed to sell house-wares. I claimed to be more interested in selling big-ticket machinery type products, but actually I didn't want to sell anything. The house-wares or knickknacks etc. seemed ridiculous but when I tried to joke about it the others were stern. A woman claimed her sales already totaled 40% of her salary. I tried to explain that 40% gross probably amounted to 5% net leaving her salary very vulnerable, as was her job. There was much traveling around.
Nov 7 or Dec 7?
A neighbor from across the street had a complaint or plea, she came into my bedroom in the South Plainfield bi-level I had rented. It concerned convening a meeting in her underpants, though this was Madam President. Her entourage was outside. Her mood changed and I was dismissed and contemplated an argument for propriety's sake but walked downstairs becoming resentful. Within minutes I was joined by Mme President in a leather dress. There was an interruption, I returned to my room. The next morning there was brilliant sunshine and a crisp day. I had lost one of two priceless books hidden under the fold of a blanket. I felt mildly violated that someone had stolen it, yet satisfied that I still had the other. Was it handmade first edition of art and poetry? But later I went to a wing of the building where I was becoming familiar with new secure equipment which can transform existing records. This could also be done over a phone modem. There was a large crisis meeting and a call came in. Madam President wanted to take the phone call in the bathroom. I objected as I needed to hear the contents of the conversation and did not yet have my own secure phone. Many officials milled about. The crisis was about some people missing from Mardi Gras in New Orleans, though there was no flood there. Mme President was very nervous, I dismissed the crisis: People are always missing from Mardi Gras. The crisis meeting broke up. Later a line of cars waited our next move, I sent them away.
Dec 18
I reminisced at the Junior Sergeant’s Club to a guest, a Colonel’s daughter, who was an art student at McBride:
“Oh, the movies I've made: ... there was 'El Carlota' the film I made with Eastwood and McQueen. I made it with my head sticking up out of the canvas of a truck going up a mountain in a war zone. It may have been about the civil-war in Spain during the ‘30s or it may have been about something else. Then there was 'Cavalry Detachment' about a lost troop of American dragoons on the frontier in the 1820s. I made in my first apartment which had very little furniture. Somewhere in between I made 'Easy Money' a bizarre Western. I think it was begun at a bar table at Monkey Mountain and finished while sleeping, or prancing around. They were interesting films and cost nothing to produce...”
Jan 3
The new Republicans were campaigning on the platform of ‘Guns & Control.’ I recognized the candidate for Congress as a business person making less money every year. “I like guns, but how will more of them help?” I asked ... Noises came from the motel bedroom behind us. I investigated: In a dark room a man lay on a bed sobbing. “I know I shouldn’t second guess my self...”
May 22
In between assignments I sat in a bar and fell into conversation with a person carrying a Bible:
“I believe in God the omniscient; Moses and Jesus were among his prophets.” I told him. -- “Buddha and Muhammad too?” -- “Possibly, but the people always get it wrong; otherwise they wouldn’t be people... I have my spiritual side, true, but then I spend time making up vulgar expressions like “butt-ass-ocks,” and say it several different ways until it makes me laugh. The truth, if you need to know, these things occurred to me while driving to a shoe store...”
End Note:
In the past nobody wanted anything Psychiatric on their records. But today being crazy is so much more acceptable, like an alternative life-style. The word among veterans and contractors is that psychiatric determinations have good benefits and may provide some cover as far as ‘extenuating circumstances,’ or even a ‘pre-existing condition’ for a future insanity plea. Besides, people are inherently illogical anyway, that’s why our memories and electronic synapses are moving onto the Internet.