Keptquisling’s Weblog

My mom just bought an HP mini, and while this little laptop isn’t the full-featured beast mine is, it booted up Windows just fine, and should probably be able to handle a number of last generation games. Not that I would put any on it mind you, it isn’t mine after all. A bit of good news to be had this week, my sister replied and it seems they’re now at Hong Kong waiting for a flight to Spain, and after a little sight-see will be flying back to the country next month. It was quite a close call, they could have easily been one of the many ships the Somali pirates hijacked this month, following the death of some of their comrades by the Americans. So much stuff going on in my life right now, but I can’t write about anything. I hate having my hands tied like this.

I want what will break me. I want the pain you will bring. I will let go of the life that you will destroy, and I will give you everything. Even when I would want to stop, your kiss will suck my will away. I won’t forget my wounds, I won’t forget my present, but I won’t ignore what I could have with you.

Somali pirates have hijacked a tugboat in the Gulf of Aden with 16 crew members on board – 10 of them Italians.” At least it isn’t as unnerving as the last headline about a Danish supply vessel that was hijacked a few days ago. My sister’s on a Maersk ship in Kenya, my country has the naval power of a duck, so we’re a little worried. She’s on a really big cargo ship though, a prize that big would be as big a headline as the Saudi tanker Sirius Star. It’ll be 30 days more till we hear from her from email, hopefully she’s just cruising along and everything’s ok. I hope no new headlines crop up for the next few days.

Captain escapes, pirates killed, U.S. official says

Seems like an update’s in order. Navy seals apparently rescued the captive US ship captain, and killed three pirates. I hope my sister’s ship is well into China by now, far from any possible reprisals from those pirates. We’ll all probably have a long talk about ever letting her board a ship again when she gets back.

Last night I dreamt of my family having lunch together at some Chinese restaurant, the ones left in this country anyway. Then we went home and spent some time with my grand mother who died last year. She seemed quite happy in the dream, as old people are when they have their kids around.

About five hours later, my mom called and asked if I could go to some get together with my only remaining brother in the country, and guess what? It was set at some Chinese restaurant. A few hours chatting, my brother decides to go visit my grandmother’s grave after lunch, my mom decided to come with them. I declined to go just so to change the outcome of the scene a bit.

I’ll be honest, this isn’t the first time I’ve had dreams about things that were about to happen a few hours to a day before they occurred. I had more of them back in high- school, but hadn’t had any for a few years now. I’d like to chalk this up to coincidence, shove it under a rug so to speak, but then again, I can talk about whatever I want here, so I’ll leave this at that for now.

Pushing the gas pedal down, shifting into 2^nd gear, then quickly flicking it back to 3^rd, a car approaching a steep turn looses its grip, then glides sideways into the curve. Carefully gauging how much gas is needed to keep the car from careening into the wall, he releases the gas pedal, and keeps the other foot over the brake, ready, in case he’ll need it. The drift is done perfectly and he exits out of the corner at full speed. A ship is seen on the horizon, mast first, coming closer into view. A hairpin turn is at that spot, and it’s the last area of the track where a player can claim first place. Instead of slowing down for the turn, he shifts the gear back to 2^nd, a little longer than for the earlier curve, flicks it back to 3^rd, hopefully sliding into the bend to within the correct exit position. Unfortunately the car spins out, hits several guide cones launching them into the sky, then crashes into the wall.

An odd man introduces himself watching from the sidelines, “hey that was pretty good, not many people can play the game like that these days, I’m John, care for a race?” Immediately apparent a few turns into the race, that the guy was pretty good. A rubber-band system in the game prevents the lead player from leaving the pack, so while he was outclassed, he always had John within view. The game was made that way so that newer players wouldn’t feel too discouraged eating someone’s dust. More people stopped at the sidelines watching the match, some studying how John tackled the turns, others just there to watch someone finish the game. Approaching the hairpin turn again, he lets go of the gas pedal a little longer to prevent spinning out like the last time, and successfully made the turn, not that it would matter this time, he was still 3 seconds behind John at the finish line.

After the game, John yanked out a folder from his bag, it had the name of an organization on it. It also had a name of a person at top. It’s one of those names that’s not too familiar, but is heard often enough that people will vaguely recognize that it’s a person of some significance from some time ago. It also happened to be the name of his grandfather, of course John wouldn’t know that he was apparently speaking with his “boss’s” grandson.