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02-03-2016 I used to deliver drugs from a pharmacy as a part-time job in college. The store was located in the original downtown, the type of infrastructure I like, stores close to the street, etc. Anyway, almost all of the places I delivered to were seedy old hotels that rented out by the week or month. Once beautiful, but now ill-kept because money had moved to the suburbs.The occupants of these rooms were normally pensioners down to their last dime. Many times they were bed-ridden, blind, deaf, incontinent. Often I would make my way up some decrepit and squeaky stairs, dimly lit by one bare light bulb, to find the floor, then down the floor to what usually was a propped open door leading into their room. I learned to hold my breath before going in, the odor would knock you back and make you want to vomit, because often the person had not left the bed for a week or more. Coins for the medication would be thrown on the floor and I had to collect them all to make sure I could cover the cost of the prescription at the end of the day with the pharmacist. It was a test to see if I could hold my breath longer than the time it took to scramble around on the floor. I would leave the bag on the side table next to the bed and usually couldn't help but glance at the person lying there. Vacant eyes, thin skin, usually covered by a threadbare blanket and the only light what seeped through the dirty blinds on the window, if the room had one. I could usually hear rats in the walls and cockroaches investigating my entry into their domain. Old age, yeah, I'm thinking not. The sad thing is that, at least here in Texas, it is both discouraged to commit suicide, illegal to help someone do it, and no doctor or nurse will aid you. If you fail at whatever you have the courage to try in your decrepit state, you are left a vegetable, knowing you now have absolutely no control over how long you will suffer. Life, it isn't rainbows and lollipops, that is for damn sure. |
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02-03-2016
The occupants of these rooms were normally pensioners down to their last dime. Many times they were bed-ridden, blind, deaf, incontinent. Often I would make my way up some decrepit and squeaky stairs, dimly lit by one bare light bulb, to find the floor, then down the floor to what usually was a propped open door leading into their room. For some reason reminded me of this great, depressive-reslistic movie called Detachment. Have you seen it? About this teacher. Very well made. Horrible things you're describing. Not often do we see this side of life: not heroic, not especially tragic, not special, but mundane and quiet wasting away disgracefully, portrayed in movies aimed for wider audiences. Because that'd be being a pessimist and calling attention to thw 'wrong' side of life. |
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02-03-2016 I haven't seen it, trailer looks interesting. I taught at a university, inner city junior college, and several high schools, and have a fondness for series and movies about high school. I love pre-WWII architecture, old wooden desks, double sash windows, woodwork and stone architecture, which this doesn't have, but I heard music that sounded like Explosions in the Sky, which has an interesting sound that I have heard before. I'll see about giving this some time.I may have recommended it before, but Up the Down Staircase is probably my favorite school movie. It reminds me of my junior high school before we moved to the country which is now city. If you haven't seen it, it is a good way to pass some time get a glimpse of what things were like just a tad before my time in high school here in the states in the inner city. Sandy Dennis does an interesting job in her role as English teacher, and from my experience this movie gives the best glance at the depressing and stressful environment the poor, overworked professional has to endure, like no other. The trailer doesn't really give the complete feel of the movie nor the sad subplot(s). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_e4DfjkUeg |
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02-03-2016 Knowing that we currently add the population of TWO cities the size of my hometown of over one million people EVERY WEEK to the planet, here is a 3 minute scene that pretty much sums up where we are headed, one of my faves from my namesake…notice the religious bent from the leader which prevents them from solving the problem (hopefully I haven't posted this before, can't remember things anymore).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdsbuJfMpr0 |
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04-03-2016
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hopefully I haven't posted this before, can't remember things anymore Actually, you did: http://uriupina.com/philosophy-psychology/serious-quotes-short-story (bottom of the page) Your point is still valid. I'm just too fastidious for my own good. It's like when my friend was getting married for the second time and the minister asked, "do you promise to love, honour and cherish... yadda, yadda... until death do you part?" Take careful note boys and girls. When your friend says, "I do", with joyful tears in his eyes, do not under any circumstance mutter under your breath, "you said that the last time as well", because the acoustics in these churches are fucking amazing. |
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06-03-2016 Marriage is a whole 'nother can of worms. I saw so many people when I was growing up who declared eternal love, then redefine it to suit their pending divorce or separation. I saw that people don't really mean what they say, it's all BS, and not to trust anyone much because of it. Completely disingenuous, I don't take people seriously any more. But they all want to feel loved and taken care of, so they lie to others and to themselves as long as it is convenient.Maybe because I am just in a certain mood, but a little while back I happened across these two news casts of people in a fire, two different events, and the ladies they interviewed reminded me of my mom's acquaintances from her hometown in Galveston, TX. Sometimes they were absolutely hilarious to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGxwbhkDjZM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD2j6UNngHw |
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