Thursday, September 18, 2008
Email from The Wicked Witch of the West
An ex-boss of mine intercepted email intended for a colleague...
Garrett Walsh has sent you a message.
Date: 9/18/2008
Subject: Susan left?
Wow? Did Christine finally drive her off? Whenever I think of Christine I hear that Wicked Witch of the West theme from the Wizard of Oz playing. =) How's EEC bub? G7
Subject: RE: Susan left?Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:54:21 -0500From: CConwell@
To: garry_seven@Hi Garrett,
Jeff also left due to major health issues so I get his emails, so I got to see your true colors first hand. For the record, Jeff was a big advocate of us letting you go, so before you judge, you may want to consider that you don't have all the facts.
Best of luck to you regardless.
Regards,
Christine Conwell
I'm sorry to hear that Christine! Jeff is a genuinely good guy. I'm sure he's already feeling better not working for you. He was always transparent with me about leaving. I recall his exact words..."you don't want to work for her." Surprised he stayed this long under your, um, "broomstick" leadership.
There's that song again.
Best wishes.
Most Cordially,Garrett Walsh
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The Keen Art of Texan Hiberni-Kaner
Thursday, January 24, 2008
The Brick Through the Plateglass Window
In the films in particular, James Bond is capable of one-handed flawless execution at ridiculous distances with a seemingly never-ending amount of spare magazines. If you watch the films, you'll see each of the 7 actors who have played James Bond has a different grip. In my opinion, Lazenby and Connery use the most convincing grip. This is no doubt legacy from their military service. Connery had served in the Royal Navy and Lazenby served in the Australian SAS, an outstanding commando unit. I think Brosnan and Moore displayed the worst grips throughout. I don't know what to attribute that to because Moore served his national service in the Royal Arms Service Corp? Anyway, I can site specific examples of both actors limp-wristing, trigger pulling, and using that feeble 'left hand under wrist' support move that does nothing for practical targeting and would send a stray bullet flying dangerously more erratically than intended.
Some of the drawbacks of a PPK:
Limited rate of fire, 7 rounds, with magazine changes feeble at best.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Janitor PTE LTD
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Praise to Jim Ignatowski!
I knew I was back in Singapore when I hopped into the cab. I greeted him in Chinese to throw him off and to leave him with the impression that I spoke some modicum of Mandarin. I then told him EXACTLY how to get to Raffles Deli from my flat (street by street, no jams!).
As soon as we got within eyeshot of Raffles he immediately has "amnASIA" and proceeds to head the other way. I jumped his shit so fast he didn't know what hit him. My Texas Cannonball was out of the barrell and rocketing towards the Great Wall of China! I barked the directions again and told him to listen to his customer! He was huffing and puffing at the traffic light once I got him back on track but fuck him. It's MY ride and I'm driving no matter WHO is at the wheel!
Singapore Cab Ride 101:
You never ever never ever HAVE to tip them. I only tip them when they do an outstanding job.
70% of cabbies in Singapore are Chinese so leveraging their language, no matter how non-Asian you will sound, is empowering. 20% are Arabic and most are very service oriented, moreso than Asians. The rest are usually Indian, and other than the body odor, fairly amicable.
It's important to note that I give every cabbie equal opportunity to comply with my uber-sense of direction. I have a degree in Geography and 99% of the time I'm a human compass. More often then not I've got a photographically recorded mental picture of the map in my head and there's just no arguing with me.
I do start out with standard greetings in either English or Chinese. I address the older fellows respectfully as 'Uncle'. Int turn, I expect a good cabbie to call me 'Boss' out of mutual respect.
The younger cabbies are more aggressive and will get you there faster. They want to get you there fast! They know if they make good time, throw in a little conversation (or shut the hell up), and show you that they're working then there is the high likelihood of a tip. I think older cabbies aren't used to a tip so they're not going to even try for it. Complacency doesn't reward the dinosaurs.
And if you let them, they will run you straight into a traffic jam! I'm not kidding, this erks me more than anything. They will just drive straight into a traffic jam and wait...no lane changing...no lets get my customer out of this...no lets duck down a side street and backtrack...they just do the "do-te-do-te-do' [channelling Goofy from Disney], ooops, there's a traffic jam, guess we'll just sit here and run up a tab" thing. That's when you have to step in immediately and take control!!
There endeth the lesson, but not the stories so stay tuned!
It's funny, if I ever show up to meet The Man From Snowy River and I don't have my customary 'Cab Story' ready for John then he usually asks checks to see what Pod People have stolen my carcass. He just expects me to have tangoed with them on the way and John knows that when it comes to cabbies...I LEAD! =)
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Easy there Rider...easy...
I noticed on the rainy ride this AM that Americans do the beach differently. It looked like the Indians, and I don't mean the Redskins, were having a beach party complete with DJ, mini-soccer game (called FutSal here), tandoori grilling (think BBQ), and a shitload of people for a rainy day! This was about the closest to an American-style beach venture that you will see here except that the Indians don't do bikinis and they don't kiss in public (remember when Clooney kissed the Bollywood honey and got their ire?). The Asians, probably Malaysians or Vietnamese/Laotian, basically move all of their crap from their HDB flat (barrio) onto the beach complete with whatever shit is stewing in a pot 24/7, lines of clothing in varying degreess of freshness and stages of dry/wet, and bedding. It's looks like they're moving in and staying for days with lots of guests coming and going from their commandeered or, possibly, government subsidized, park bench. Ahh...the population lobotomy continues.
I needed a little shot of Texas or America or something non-Singaporean/Asian today. It was raining all day and the prospect of finding a suitable TV program to keep me from creatively taking my own life was dim. Shows like 'Gags' which is a french candid-camera, fuck with the viewer kind of show and really bad Anime were running like a Jerry Lewis MD Marathon all day. My exit was imminent.
I've been DYING to go to the Handle Bar since having gone to the one in Manila last month! It's the coolest dive bar/biker bar piece of Americana in Southeast Asia, hands-down, bar none. The one in Singapore is somehow loosely affiliated with the one in Manila, but the one in Manila is a little 'ruddier' as an Aussie would say. I've been chompin' at the bit for some kind of motorcyle outlet here beyond Japanese 250cc jobbies which are everywhere. I was ready for some V-twin Milwaukee thunder and the Handle Bar would be my outlet!
Thankfully, my keen sense of direction, which I attribute to my seemingly useless degree in Geography, delivered me safely into the arms of the only other piece of Americana here besides the American Club, the US Embassy, and the Hard Rock Cafe. Upon entering, it became blatantly apparent the Americans do a couple of things right. If immitation is the sincerest form of flattery then we should be thankful that everyone around this planet emulates us on 4 things...Rock N Roll, V-twin motorcycles, Handguns, and Guitars my friend! Everyone wants to do these things better than us but fear should be the last thing on your mind my friends...they could NEVER do it justice! We have a corner on the market in these 4 areas, I assure you!
Despite the obvious Asian staff, for 3-4 hours I forgot I was in a foreign land. I drank Budweiser, wore steel-toed boots & a Cult concert t-shirt, read about V-Twin custom bobber choppers, listened to the Allman Brothers, AC/DC, & other classic rock and roll, saw lots of biker chicks (only on the walls in pictures damn it!), ate a fucking cheeseburger that was cooked to perfection (hard to get here, medium means raw), and otherwise was an American for the afternoon. I hadn't been one in a while and I'll tell you why in a later blog about Identity crisis and my new accent.
The Handle Bar is a piece of biker heaven on a rock in Southeast Asia...an outpost of truly American innovation rivaled by nothing else on this planet. It is T-shirts that no mother would let a son wear, bike parts everywhere, tires & frames & seats made into bar stools, guitars made into chairs, a pool table begging to eat my SG dollars, Screaming Eagles, hot biker chicks posing in HD bike ads, tattoos, and most of all pictures of friends and patrons. Hopefully I will be in some of those pics soon. Because this, my friends, felt like home to me. At least some simblance of a temporary home that is.
I vividly pictured all my friends around...I could see Arthur doing a johnny-on-the-spot napkin rendering of SVP throwing a "Tarrant County Electra-Glide" on some unsuspecting mamacita...Scotty wearing an entirely inappropriate (read expensive) shirt to intentionally spite/slight the patrons while throwing an imaginary drum stick in the air and chugging a longneck upside down as the stick gracefully returns to his free hand...Lee trying to score some weed on an island where drug dealing means death...Kenon banging his bald noggin on the variety of shit hanging from the ceilings since he's the tallest human ever...John Cox (AKA Heavy C) supporting the bar with a heroic tab while complaining that the bartender, Hop Sing, doesn't use a 5-Mississippi count...I could see both Sasha and Denise hating it so I loved it...Brannon B leading a rollicking a capella rendition of the Shinedown's "I Dare You" which he uses to amuse the muses...Danny whipping out a new tale of how he bought, sold, burned down, built back up, bought back, and then sold the Handle Bar twice for a profit to the Sultan of Brunei just because...and Brent (who was born with a cue-stick for an appendage) beating the ever-loving shit out of the bikers one by one, dollar by dollar. I could choreograph every conversation, activity, and adventure in my mind. Thanks for joining me today gents. You were all there and you didn't even know it!
I admit it, I missed home. It was the first time in roughly 2 months. I opened my phone and looked at the datebook...the 19th never looked so far away. The Handle Bar made me miss home, God love it! Was it the escapism of biker culture, the 1%'er identity, fearless American sense of the bar? Was it the Dallasite, Adair's, Cosmo's, Reno's, and Vickery all wrapped into one that brought a little bit of home to me? Or was it the shear vacancy of close friends in my life thus far that made me miss home? I submit that it was all of these things.