Crystal Butterflies

January 29, 2010

The opening few lines from the "Crystal Butterflies" novel. A twisted story about intertwining destinies.....

*******************************************

“It isn’t really there at all. Whatever you think you see, it is just your mind’s way of dealing with the shift when we went down the hole.” Her hair is shaved in the standard spacer crew cut showing her natural blonde coloring through the white-frosted tips. Her green eyes stare at the sole occupant of the compartment who gazes at the darkened ceiling.
Turning, he looks at her, starting from her feet then moving quickly up her body to her head. She radiates military from her standard five foot six height, whip-iron muscular build along with her standard tan-colored flight uniform with the name Adele stenciled across her left breast pocket in block lettering. The duty uniform shows no decoration except for the gold braid insignia on her collar marking her as a lieutenant in the armed forces. Her deck boots are so highly polished, the reflection of the overhead lighting glares off. Even the buttons on her pants and shirt have a high gloss to their brass finish.
While not the most beautiful woman, she can be very easily seen as quite attractive, although I would never consider her my type. She has been too busy thinking of only the military as the beginning, middle and end of her life. It will take her a little time to figure out she is not married to the military and they sure aren’t married to only her. I guess, everybody has their own ideas of what the perfect life will be.
The man locks his gaze on her green eyes.
“Excuse me Lieutenant Adele. It seems I was lost in momentary reflection of present and past circumstances. Aside from my attention, you said something wasn’t here.” A smile pulls at the corners of his mouth showing a perfect set of teeth beneath his dark brown eyes. “I am hoping you are not referring to some necessary piece of our ship. It would strike me as such a pity to have traveled all this way to try and find the Absolution only to find we have forgotten to pack a spare tire. Or perhaps a piece of rope to pull us out of the hole we seem to have fallen into.”

Modern Transit from London pt 2

January 27, 2010

I actually take the train to work every day. This means I spend over an hour everyday on the train coming and going from work on average twenty-five days a month. Yes, I said twenty five days a month. I work in hospitality specifically Food and Beverage. This means for the uneducated, I work on the days you normally have off and am up before the sun thinks about peeking out and leave work after all of you stumble out of the restaurant, bar or back to your hotel room for the evening and we get done cleaning up the mess ready to see you again the next day.
As I was stating before my rant, I take the trains all the time, at all hours and through all types of weather. (This is England, all types of weather normally occurs within the space of a day.) There are certain things baffling about the modern English rail system. I am not complaining too much about how ticket prices are tied to indexed inflation plus three percent for the next year. I won't even bitch about how the trains stop running before midnight. Don't drink and drive, but if you take the train to a friends or heaven forbid a bar in a different town with friends, you are screwed if you leave after eleven thirty. Nope, not even a complaint about an information system that fails to work properly all the time. "We regret to inform that due to a fault, no real time information can be displayed" Great, so is it coming or not?
Every May and December, the train times will switch by around three minutes. The 5:42 am train leaving Reading going to London will depart on May 16th at 5:39 am. In the first week or so of December, the train will now depart at 5:42 am until May 16th or so when it changes back. All following trains for the day will follow this three minute change. The blindingly obvious reason these train times are in effect are of course leaf fall. "What?" you may ask. At least I asked myself, so I sought out more information. Due to the possibility of heavy leaf fall which would cause the trains to not have the ability to get grip on the rails, they reschedule the trains to run later to allow them to clear the lines.
But most of the leaves fall before the end of November and the train that does the cleaning of the rails runs late in the evening and into the night. (Of course, not past midnight.) Secondly, the rail lines are supposed to be kept clear of overhanging trees and bushes by the maintenance company Network Rail. Nevermind, they are the ones in charge of making sure the rail line improvements are done on time and on budget. So I will give you the overhanging trees ad bushes.
I have the personal belief, the bosses of the company just wanted to sleep an extra few minutes during December through May. Nobody from the trains will confirm this of course. Besides if you had the opportunity to sleep an extra three minutes at four thirty in the morning, wouldn't you? Why not blame it on the leaves which fell a month ago. . .

Bankers, MPs and followin the Money

January 23, 2010

Well, it seems the big complaint of most people across both the USA, the UK and several other countries is how the bankers have stolen millions of pounds/dollars or other such denomination in their greed for bonuses. The politicians are now attempting to curtail money paid to the upper echelon of the bankers. A one time tax n bonuses or breaking up banks so they "aren't too large to fail."
We as Americans complain about the state of our government. The US Supreme Court recently ruled spending by corporations and PACs is actually legal in elections. Reporters in England are saying how this will make a hotly contested and "dirty" election even worse. This from a country who decries American ignorance about the world but most then most people here can't tell you where Florida, New York and California are in relation to one another.
The elected British officials work under the title of M.P. (Not to be confused with the military police of American military fame.) It seems the MPs have been having the fun with their paychecks and seem to act very surprised and flabbergasted when some in the public decried their spending habits.
It seems the British government made use of their own ability to write laws even better for themselves than their compatriots in the US did. Imagine this senario for a moment.
You are elected to the British Parliament. You now have the ability to purchase a house near London to use as your residence when you are in session. All interest payments on the loans will be paid for by the government. (Read the taxpayers and yes, I am one. Being a non-EU, I pay the one of the highest tax rates and can't even vote these silly buggers out.) The government will then pay all "reasonable" expenses incurred to furnish, renovate and provide upkeep on the properties. The MP were allowed to declare which place would be their primary residence.
When one of the newspapers leaked the story of how the MPs were claiming for items such as resurfacing a tennis court, an island on a pond for the ducks or even paying family members tens of thousands of pounds to do the laundry, people became slightly angry with the politicians. There was to be a grand inquiry into all claims made. Any that were not completely in line were to be refunded back to the government. Mps were embarrassed as the Home Secretary paid back money for her husband's porn channel at their house. Others claimed interest on house loans which had been paid off for years. (This of course was a simple accounting error. Yeah right!) One had renovated the house claimed the money for the loan then sold the house and kept the money tax free because he classed it now as his primary residence. He subsequently bought another house from his brother and was in the process of renovating it after declaring his original house was now his primary residence.
This continued for a few weeks as more information came to light. MPs were even taped complaining about how the poor people couldn't possibly understand how hard it is to actually be an MP and they should actually get more benefits.
Several members of parliament who admitted they were deeply in the wrong said they would not stand in the next election. They would humbly serve out the remains of their terms and quietly retire. Something fishy? Well of course there was. Any MP who served out their term would be given their full pay for the cycle, they would receive their retirement package and be given a golden handshake the one time payment of about 65,000GBP for their service to the country. It seems at least in this country, there is a reason why it is difficult to find an honest person in politics. Did I mention, you don't actually pick the person running. The leaders of the parties does that for you and you are voting for the party to represent you.
A big thank you goes to our Founding Fathers. The US may be flawed and we may fight about our politics, but at least they are ours even if the big money gets spent by PACs and corporations. . .

Rules and why

January 21, 2010

It is an easy a way distinguish a midwestern American from an English person. Ask a simple question about whether something can be accomplished and even if you can't hear the difference between the accents, the reply will always give away the answer. Maybe it is the rules the English surround themselves with resulting in the term of "nanny state." I was reading a newspaper article and came across a story about following the letter of the law over common sense. Where I feel most midwesterners would simply understand the intent of the law and move beyond the letter of the law, here as is common, the letter of the law is important.
Just before Christmas, a mother called in to report an abscence for her young son from school. Giving the reason, the mother felt it would be a reasonable request that her nine year old son be given time off. The son returns to school the following week without comment. The next week, the mother again phones into the school explaining her son's abscence from school for the next week. All seems to be all right with the school.
The week before the Christmas break the school holds its party for the students who have had perfect attendence. The mother is told her son is not allowed to attend the school function because of his poor attendence record. The boy obviously is distraught, his mother is upset. Mother calls school to repeat the reasons for the boy's abscence. The lady from the school explains the school has set the policy to cut down on abscences and no exceptions could be made. The boy can't go to the party.
Ask most English people if a task is do-able and they will give you a list of why you can't do it or accomplish it. This I think generally comes down to an aversion to change. Ask most midwesterners about a task and the response I always got was "Why can't you do it?" A question versus a statement. Seems funny such a little thing.
Oh, the mother and her boy. The first abscence was on account of his father dying and the mother trying to deal with the boy's grief. The second week of abscence? That was for the funeral. When the school was contacted about it, the head of the school explained the abscences had been cut down because of the idea of a party for students who hadn't missed any school. In this case, the mother had talked to the wrong person apparently. Makes one wonder if the mother was talking to the school secretary and assistant to the head of the school and it was the wrong person, who should she have talked to. The boy didn't get to go to the party and the school kept its reasons why he couldn't.

Modern Transit from London pt 1

January 19, 2010

It seems we all understand the need to leave a little bit of extra time when we are traveling. Whether by car (gotta hope the traffic is light), train (hopefully they are running close to schedule) or even airplane (crap, gotta get through the airport), we understand delay may be inevitable. It seems reasonable, we are human traveling with other humans in machines humans built. Errors and delays will always creep in.
It seems in this country, the mode of public transport commonly used is the rail system. Oh, it is a joy to behold, riding in comfort across the miles without the cramped space of an airline seat. No other drivers the road to bother you. Oh, what a joy.
I have since discovered what should be a crowning jewel in the English transportation system has a few minor flaws. All right, they might be considered minor to people from modern countries in say Botswana or Outer Mongolia.
The British and French have the ability to construct a tunnel under the English Channel linking their two countries. Years of planning, years of construction and I can even remember when the symbolic joining of the tunnels. Flash photography, lots of smiling individuals. It is great as they run the high speed trains through the Chunnel, London to Paris as quick as you like.
Ooops, this year shortly before Christmas, they ran into a minor snag. After ten plus years, first one then several trains broke down in the tunnel. People are told to stay on the trains for their own safety. Five hours later, they are still sitting under the Channel in trains that don't work. Eventually the train are pulled from under the Channel and the passengers are freed. Of course, all other scheduled services are stopped indefinitely until they can find out what has cause this mass problem. Massive pile ups of traffic and passengers at the various stations. Oh well, the people who were trapped on the trains were given a refund, another ticket and a hundred pounds in compensation.
What evil mastermind is behind the stopping of the entire Eurostar and Euro Tunnel services? It must have been some great and dastardly deed perpetrated by the enemy of humanity! After several days, Eurostar announced they had discovered the problem. It seems the trains designed to run above the ground from London until Dover, then dip under the channel until they reach Calais and reemerge onto the surface on their way to Paris were undone by "fluffy snow." Apparently they have never encountered or dreamed of the situation where the "evil fluffy snow" could get into the electrical system and short out the entire train. Actually multiple trains were brought to their knees and trapped. It took several days before the engineers could patch the trains enough to ensure the "dastardly, evil fluffy snow" could not cripple them again.
Thankfully, I flew to Warsaw for Christmas, but that is another story.

Slight Flurries leading to accumulation of stupidity

January 15, 2010

It may strike any sane person as a slightly odd situation. A front page newspaper article involving a small front end loader, the local council and a guy trying to do snow removal. This however sums up the situation in large parts of England over the past week. Being an island in the northern Atlantic, you would think England and its people would be well suited to dealing with all sorts of weather. I would learn the hard way once again how wrong a person can be.
The English weather service predicted a heavy snowfall for large parts of England. The warning is stated by the Met office website as "light flurries leading in some areas to accumulations" This warning had been going out for days. At around five o'clock Tuesday afternoon, the first flurries began to make their descent to the ground along with several million of their friends. Growing up in Minnesota, I know when a heavy snow is coming down. This was a heavy snow with nice big fat flakes coming down at a quick pace.
Leaving work at nine thirty, I would catch the 9:37pm train to go back to Reading. Now this train ride should take thirty minutes and pass through Ascot, Wokingham and even a town called Early. Nope, I can't even make stuff like these town names up.
At the stop in Ascot, the guard on the train walks through to tell all the passengers they are holding the train in Ascot until they can decide what they should do. Apparently, the people who run the trains could not decide whether the train should terminate in Ascot or continue its run to Reading and wouldn't tell the train crew until they made the decision.
Fifteen minutes later, they made the decision to push on to the next station. Crawling along at about ten miles an hour, the train would reach Reading just shy of midnight.
The next morning, England wakes up to four inches of snow on the ground and in some places up to eight inches with more falling slowly. The rapid response to the situation? Schools and airports close, buses and trains are cancelled, shops shut. The local councils begin to tackle to problem with roads. In Reading, a city of 100,000 plus, they proceed to salt the main roads only. Secondary roads are unimportant and will be left as is. Four trucks would take care of the "gritting" the entire city.
Well the chaos would continue for days as more scattered snow showers dropped dustings across the town and country. The councils would be forced to cut their salting efforts by twenty five percent as the supplies began to run low. Then they cut the efforts to fifty percent as they had only enough stocks to last for another two days.
Now a question you may ask, is what does this have to do with the man and his digger?
A man who's brother owned an excavation company borrowed one of the loaders and proceeded to dig out the school where his children went. Asking no money, the good samaratian then dug out another nearby school. He proceeded to clear the road he was living on and helped to dig out his neighbors. His neighbors were exalting their good samariatian as he would not accept any payment for his efforts. He stated he was simply tying to help out.
While he was about digging out his neighbors a local official from the city council stopped him and told him he must desist from his efforts. If he continued, he would face a hefty fine. Asking the reason, the city council member told him he might "damage the road." Remember this is one of the roads the city decided was going to be left because they have insufficient salt to actually "grit" the road.
The city council published a statement a few days later which states, "While we appreciate people trying to help with the situation, they should only do so after contacting the offices on 08........" Wait, those offices were closed because they couldn't make it in because of the snowfall.
A week and half later and temperatures have been above freezing with rain showers. The snow has gone and the country of England pats itself on the back for how well they handled the crisis. Rail got back on line after a week, airports only closed for a few days and people emptying groccery stores in panic buying because they feared they would run out of essentials.
Yep, flurries of stupidity.

Middle of the beginning

January 09, 2010

Beginnings are such funny things to me. It seems no matter where you start a story, there is always something that proceeds it which is central to the story you wish to tell. Maybe it was the way I was brought up and how I was taught to tell the stories. It may be a regional thing. Quite honestly, I doubt I will ever solve this question.
So to bring you up to speed in a quick hurry, I will skip the beginning, gloss over a bunch of stuff and drop you right into the middle of the beginning where you will have no idea what exactly I am talking about. Confused? Don't worry, most of the fun is trying to get there.