Inspiration Point

Recently i've come across some personally and generally inspiring/motivational writing:

The first piece being one of the short stories from David Eagelman's collection called Sum: Tales from the afterlives, a book that has some truly inventive and inciteful philosophies to indulge the mind in, well worth a read or a purchase from only three pounds :)

Subjunctive

In the afterlife you are judged not against other people, but against yourself. Specifically, you are judged against what you could have been. So the afterworld is much like the present world, but it now includes all the yous that could have been. In an elevator you might meet more successful versions of yourself, perhaps the you that chose to leave your hometown three years earlier, or the you who happened to board an airplane next to a company president who then hired you. as you meet theses yous, you experience a pride of the sort you feel for a successful cousin: although the accomplishments don't directly belong to you, it somehow feels close.

But soon you fall victim to intimidation. These yous are not really you, they are better than you. They made smarter choices, worked harder, invested the extra effort into pushing on closed doors. These doors eventually broke open for them and allowed their lives to splash out in colorful new directions. Such success cannot be explained away by a better genetic hand; instead, they played your cards better. In their parallel lives, they made better decisions, avoided moral lapses, did not give up on love so easily. They worked harder than you did to correct their mistakes and apologized more often.

Eventually you cannot stand hanging around these better yous. You discover you've never felt more competitive with anyone in your life.

You try to mingle with the lesser yous, but it doesn't assuage sting.In truth, you have little sympathy for these less significant yous and more than a little haughtiness about their indolence. "If you had quit watching TV and gotten off the couch you wouldn't be in this situation," you tell them, when you bother to interact with them at all.

But the better yous are always in your face in the afterlife. In the bookstore you'll see one of them arm in arm with the affectionate woman whom you let slip away. Another you is browsing the shelves, running his fingers over the book he actually finished writing. And look at this one jogging past outside: he's got a much better body than yours, thanks to a consistency at the gym that you never kept up.

Eventually you sink into defensive posture, seeking reasons why you would not want to be so well behaved and virtuous in any case. You grudgingly befriend some of the lesser yous and go drinking with them. Even at the bar you see the better yous, buying rounds for their friends, celebrating their latest good choice.

And thus your punishment is cleverly and automatically regulated in the afterlife: the more you fall short of your potential, the more of these annoying selves you are forced to deal with.

Copyright goes to the author. No Copyright infringement intended.

The piece is more personal and comes from my late grandmothers collection of poems.

Christopher John Michael (My Grandson)

Christopher John Michael, babe of "89"

I hope your days will always be fine

Bright eyes shining, resolute and true

Ready, willing and able

My wishes to you

Schoolboy of the nineties there's hope to your life

Exciting roads to follow dreams to pursue

May it be inspiring, may it all come true

But be wary don't let danger threaten

To thine ownself be true

Which job will you hold, which road will you choose?

Steeplejack, Writer, Lawyer who knows?

But whatever you do, whatever the score

Be honest, have courage

You cannot do more

The twenty - first century will come and go

You will be here to say "Hello, greetings and Best Wishes"

We all want to say and with good luck we will keep wars at bay

With all our resources, a better world to live in

A vision to fulfil.

Margaret Tsoukatos

I was ever so proud when I found this poem I hope some day I can write a suitable reply to the amazing woman that wrote this. Gran you give me hope,inspiration and a power - rest in piece.

Fashion + Perversity

Have just finished my first book of the Summer, Fashion + Perversity by Fred Vermorel, about the life and times of Miss Vivienne Westwood (1950s-1995) by one of her brothers oldest friends.

It is split into three different chapters the first is a collection of anecdotes and interviews that people around Westwood or Westwood herself has divulged about her upbringing, her relationship with Malcom Mcalaren, the infamous SEX boutique, the SEX PISTOLS and much more. Though you do come from it feeling slightly shortchanged as there are so many nuggets and stories told and not enough detail that most of it feels quite throwaway. Bit and pieces stuck together like a mood board vaguely flowing together but never giving much clarity to the bigger picture. This is also reflected in the structure of the chapter with timelines obscured by the juxtaposition of Viennes's childhood and the odd relationship between Malcom and Vivienne. (M+V)

The Second Chapter however is rather different the author this time speaks from his own experience giving us a good few stories about M+V, as well as going into the authors life and the circumstances which surrounded the art scene, punk movement and French Riots of the 1970s. Though it feels a bit like he got the advance from the publisher to talk about M+V and really wanted to write his own autobiography seeing as this takes up most of the pages. Don't get me wrong there is some interesting parts to this indulgence if only for his reference points, it just never gets exciting as you hope it would be, only wavering on the sidelines.

The Third Chapter is most disappointing it is a collection of random annecdotes through1960's-1995 when he interviewed various people from the Vivienne Westwood team as they were to bring their 'Les femmes ne connaissent pas toute leur coquetterie' (Women do not know all their coquettishness.) collection to Paris for their annual catwalk show. It offers the sort of anecdotes a person tells you when they have run out of anything to say, a nothingness which is neither insightful or particularly interesting, just a bit pointless.

Though for its flaws I would recommend this book for its humorous first two chapters, to flick through but never to read the entirety as it never gives anything but a fleeting glance of Westwood or her partner. This is not a definitive guide but a appetizer for its interesting subject matter.

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P.s. The author is now apparently a University Lecturer and has produced videos that are owned by Saaitchi, written many different books mostly about media and fandom. Not sure i can believe it. There is hope for me afterall :)

Gym Day- Relaxation is the Enemy

Been to the Gym for the first time in years and it was actually quite fun.

So being my Dad's regular Gym he gave me a tour of all the equipment:

The Treadmills
The Bikes
The Cross-trainers
Rowing machines, Weights, Floor mats exercise balls BLAH BLAH BALAH BLAH GYM GYM GENERIC GYM STUFF BLAHBLAHBLAH
and then he showed me possibly the most bizarre piece of equipment:

The Vibration Plate exercise machine

somewhere between:

A Lazy man's exercise/masturbation device

AND

when you try to balance on something and then after a while of trying to keep yourself steady you fall off and possibly break a bone or two.

Firstly you pick a vibration intensity, then a time, half min - 2min and then do some sort of press-up position (below) trying to keep yourself on it without a. falling off b. vibrating yourself into a gas substance c. trying to keep face when the vibrations are causing you so much pain, and as the main reason to being in a gym is to look manly,and never ever to feel the burn when you have previously been told that it was easy by your 64 year old father (boy was he lying)


Besides that it was quite fun the sauna, shower room (or from now on The Room where you hardly breath) and the jacuzzi were a bit of a let down but they did their bit alright i suppose.

Besides the Gym i failed to do what i planned to do today i.e. get a job through plastering my CV other Nottingham shire, as my printer doesn't work and my Parents one had run out of ink so decided to print it in brilliant PINK just to make sure my employers had a forewarning of the Gay presenting his infectious CV. Though have printed 20 today after buying a 40ish pound ink cartridge and WILL be distributed to ALL GOOD RETAILERS by the end of the next day.

Another development today was my realization that I need to do things my brain cannot be idle it has too many things to say and do. This may seem slightly arrogant like I'm declaring I'm a complete boffin or that in the Gym my instructor drilled it into me like an army major that i must blunk up cus I'm not a man i'm a Pussy (My instructor was actually really nice). No I realize I often over think things and this can make me paranoid and useless, a theory before a practice - pointless. So i really need to keep myself busy that is why for the first time in ages i've actually updated this blog two days in a row. GO ME:)

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Still reading:
Fashion + Perversity: A Life of Vivienne Westwood and the sixties laid bare by Fred Vermorel
It's quite fun so far but maybe too many incomplete stories due to it being based on anecdotes and scraps of information- Anyway i'll give a better review when i've finished.

writing FAIL

I would like to write as fast as i could think, coding my thoughts into language at a quicker process, think of the right words without having to pause for ages trying to think what THAT WORD that fits perfectly into this gap is. Perfectly explain Queer Theory to bigots. Explain my conceptual ideas that often i can't even begin to explain.

It is clear that i need to continue to push myself in talking and reading so that my vocab keeps being topped up and these words aren't seen as collections of characters put together to form 'words' which are used in conjunction with phonemes in speech to create language. They are a tool for expression and i must grasp this with passion test myself and continue to grow.

Book attempting to read: Foucault's The History of Sexuality 1:The will to knowledge
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V for Vendetta

I finished this book a week ago and have an urge to read it again. I first heard about it through the Wachowski brothers film by the same name in 2005. I loved the shear gritty yet playful touch used with such current issues of fear, terrorism and authoritarian regimes. Written in the 80's it still hasn't lost any of its excitement or power through the years, but if you want to read it make sure you don't watch the film first as the film is quite true to the book with a few additions and edits. I really love it and can't wait to read Watchmen which is also by Alan Moore (story writer). I'm getting into my comic book at the moment i suppose cus i miss the childishness the artwork and ease of it all + there being some amazing stories out there.

Next book MAUS by Art Spiegelman
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