another photo of this fish

it figures with my life that, rare as it is in adults, every four years or so i get caught by a bout of ear infections. yummy!

my left ear hates me.

this one i've had for almost a whole week, & it's maddening. really, i feel sort of unhinged, between the headaches, the vertigo, & the fact that it feels like somebody (who would do this, i don't know) is piercing my eardrum with a hot needle. midweek the Invisible Hurting Things made a diplomatic visit to my right ear too, but thankfully they dealt with whatever business they had there & retreated.
really i thought i was almost all better yesterday. but this morning...ayyyyyyyy!
this is me rolling around on the floor. utterly futile of course, nothing really to be done, except swallow my amoxicillin when the prescription is finally filled, sleep on hot compresses, & er...pierce a garlic clove & let the juice drip in my ear?
this seems to be one of those things where no one's sure what can be done, so everything from scripts to home remedies comes out of the medicine cabinet.

i haven't even gone swimming or anything to justify this.

last time this happened, in the summer of 2002, it got so bad i resorted to those papery ear candle things--i.e. you stick one end in your ear, & set the other end on fire, cross your fingers & hope it...does something, anyway.
i think it worked at the time...in an idiotic, vaguely amused, little-bit terrified sorta way. there's a photo somewhere...if i can find it i'll share, it's pretty hysterical. look, ma, i'm on fire!

story of my life, really.
sigh.

hopefully i'll still be able to go to DC this weekend, since i was really looking forward to it--albeit without paychecks since i am utterly incapable of commuting to work to pick them up. i have troubles enough as it is on the highway without adding vertigo to the mix.

okay, enough moaning...thank you for listening, Dr. Fish.

now bring me wild sweet orange tea & a hot shower!

half-nekkid fish

happy half-nekkid thursday!
from the same series as last week's.
posted it here because the tourist is full of band shots & it didn't, you know, fit.

flowery fish

Irises, Vincent Van Gogh.

aha! spring has finally sprung! i must go picnic now!
& it's Van Gogh's birthday again, so yay for that too.

creepy tourist fish

see i told you she was creepy

mysfit's edit: please let me know if you have any suggestions for the pic - thx

a little note from mysfit's desk

after a reprieve, my muse came back from vacation and got mad at me for not even attempting a chaos journal in it's absence. so if you feel like it, follow your fish to the chaos journals to see what my muse made me do.

today's fish

on this date in 1912 the first Japanese cherry blossom trees were planted in Washington D.C. as a gift from Tokyo. the National Cherry Blossom Festival (oooh! didn't know we had one of those) goes on all this week & next in the capital--oddly enough, i'll be there next weekend, so mayhap i'll return with photos of floral festitivities.

at any rate, there are some lovely photographs floating around because of it.

also on this date, in 1980, one week after i was born, & near enough to my house to be seen even if i was too young to remember it, Mt. St. Helens became active again after 123 years & started venting steam.
(though it really started on my birthday proper--an earthquake on March 20th.)

smoke & flowers people. smoke & flowers.

a fish like monet

for an excessive amount of money, you can spend the weekend pretending you're Claude Monet.

seriously.


"Londres, le Parlement, effet de soleil dans le brouillard."

that's all for now; this fish has to go to work.

mysfit's random fish #231

if wishes were fishes
                           we'd all live underwater

V fish

"A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having."

went to see V for Vendetta on Tuesday...i'm not going to reveal much except that it's well worth watching by anyone who's got a thing for freedom from censorship & the rights of an individual. plus it's a comic book movie.


(a crowd of Vs)

i will however be dropping a few quotes here & there:

"Who are you? "
"Who? Who is but the form following the function of what. And what I am is a man in a mask."
"I can see that."
"Of course you can. I am not questioning your powers of observation. I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. "

as someone who's got a giant oil copy of The Burning of the House of Lords in her library, this movie absolutely struck a chord with me.
besides, there's nothing like the 1812 Overture for blowing things up to. i mean, just listen to it & tell me it doesn't make you rambunctious.

"This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V. "

coolness, yes? alliteration is sexy.

this movie convinces me of a few things:
1) see aforemention comments on the 1812.
2) the Wachowski brothers can in fact still make exciting movies, in spite of the Matrix debacle. really, they must have restrained themselves, the action is very very well done. the only trademark-y matrix-y fight scenes involve the trails a knife makes as it slices the air...
3) Hugo Weaving should do more voice work. tell me he wouldn't rock the world of anime voiceovers. like Patrick Stewart.
4) Natalie Portman (in spite of the Star Wars debacle--why does it always have to be "in spite of"?) is a phenomenal actress. the fact that her performance in this flick doesn't ever get campy or over-the-top is proof of that.



besides, she reminds me of Audrey Hepburn.


(natalie)

(audrey)

bukowski fish

Trapped
(Charles Bukowski)

don't undress my love
you might find a mannequin:
don't undress the mannequin
you might find
my love.
she's long ago
forgotten me.
she's trying on a new
hat
and looks more the
coquette
than ever.
she is a
child
and a mannequin
and death.
I can't hate
that.
she didn't do
anything
unusual.
I only wanted her
to.

mysfit's random fish of the day #17C

extreme order and extreme chaos look exactly alike

fish on a line

the following line has been revolving around in my head for days now, & doesn't seem to want to attach to anything whatsoever. i just don't know what to do with it.
so i'm giving it to you.
go fish.


"the figure of Death on chicken wings in his Baron Saturday hat..."


see what i mean? anyone?

special flashback fish

when i came back from St. Augustine full of piratical enthusiasm i asked me mum if she had any photos of me from way back at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disney World. there were none of these, but she did turn up these two gems out of the archives, & i had to share.


me with a monkey, a long time ago.


me in the rigging of the Golden Hind, circa 1990.

as a special spring bonus, the last of the Florida photos are finally up on the tourist, after an occasional tangent or two.

cheers!

it's spring!

the vernal equinox is at 1:26 p.m. ET, to be exact, & in this northern hemisphere that means spring.

whatever the weather may be trying to tell you.


& i got a fancy green umbrella for my birthday.

ps: as a special birthday request i ask that mysfit turn this photo into an anime screenshot for me...

a birthday fish

happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you
happy birthday dear jennsee
happy birthday to you

so i was going to talk about how the above song was copywrited in the 1930's and how i may be sued for using it - but i gotta make this quick because bloggie hates me today and besides you've gotta have money for them to take it - right? right?

from Wikipedia:

The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" was written by American sisters Patty and Mildred Hill in 1893 when they were school teachers in Louisville, Kentucky. The verse was originally intended as a classroom greeting entitled "Good Morning to All". The version as we know it was copyrighted in 1935 by the Summy Company as an arrangement by Preston Ware Orem, and is scheduled to expire in 2030. This was the first copyrighted version to include the lyrics. The company holding the copyright was purchased by Warner Chappell in 1990 for $15 Million dollars, with the value of Happy Birthday estimated at $5 Million. [1] While the current copyright status of the song is unclear, Warner claims that unauthorized public performances of the song are technically illegal unless royalties are paid to them. It is not completely certain who wrote the lyrics to "Happy Birthday to You."

In the movie The Corporation, the copyright issue itself is cited as an example demonstrating that a corporation is theoretically a psychopath if considered a living person.

but dear jennsee, i wish you all the happiness that this day can bring (and with oldben around - that could be bunches...)

begone snakes! it's time to drink!

Here's to a long life and a merry one.
A quick death and an easy one.
A pretty girl and an honest one.
A cold pint-- and another one!


proxy celebrates by the wearin' of the green.

me in the theatre alley drinking irish coffee.
a photo by mysfit from st. pat's day 2004.

& i'll be posting some photos from last year's st. pat's parade on the tourist, for good measure. now join with me in jigging about to irish tunes all day, & later in the banging of mugs on tables & the like.

Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!

a last note of florida

penny & the ume

flying north late afternoon
interstate 4 skirts Daytona
& its armies of chrome
she had her eyes out the windows
& needed to stop
excited cries in the backseat
"stop!"
passing plum trees in a stranger's yard
she wants to leap
the highway barriers
& lines of traffic
to steal Japanese plums
from the roadside
& this morning
of this last day
in the state of sunshine
they are here,
nestled between shade
& long leaves
plums hiding for the perfect moment
unripe but full of promise
& fuzzy with portents.

the fish in florida

arrrrr! avast! a weekend with pirates.

aye, the sunshine state...
the travel gods gave us beautiful weather, the perfect start to spring: to escape the last-ditch efforts of winter. i hope. so it seems, anyway, although there are rumors of one more winter weekend.

the more-or-less official reason for the visit to St. Augustine was to participate in Searles' Raid, when English pirates sacked the Spanish town in 1668. Arrrr!
as a result the Spanish alotted funds to the colony to built a massive stone fort, the Castillo de San Marcos, & the city was never taken again.

a dear old friend of ours moved down south a couple years ago & took up more or less permanent residence in the Pirate Haus Inn, painting murals, griddling pirate pancakes, & generally having a grand old time in much warmer temperatures that New Jersey allows. come now, let's all envy her together.

steps up to the Pirate Haus.

oldben & i decided to be tourists rather than pirates, because it was an all-day thing & there was so much to see & walk to & drink. ales! wines! ostriches! stone & seashell forts on the bay! the Mission of Nombre de Dios with its giant cross! the antique shops & overgrown Victorians! the street musicians! all those re-enactors wandering the streets! peg-leg pirates & the sea cook! peacocks & children! palm trees & musket smoke & mannequins! the Fountain of Youth (which, er, we didn't actually pay to see, unless it was the same fountain the ostrich was hanging out at.)

& in a quiet moment on Saturday night in the Backstreets Cafe, i met the Pacmaster.
i sat down at the arcade table to play a little Ms. Pacman, & i'm no novice (i had the hiscore in a laundromat once in the bright year of 1998.) the gentleman already there, a quiet scruffy sort, graciously invited me to play with him...& about 20 minutes later, it was finally my turn.
this guy was good. turns out the hiscore on that machine was his, & he was a master of the joystick. but he wasn't at all arrogant or snide, just very zen-like in his ability to control that wee yellow dot with a bow, & keeping up a conversational running commentary on the nature of Patterns & Attention & Enthusiasm. really. i swear.
he was the Pacmaster.

i love the whole idea of a glimpse into the past, costumes & accents & historic weaponry. the opportunity to see skinned squirrels & a flayed gator. the realization that little children's clothes have only really changed in the past century. the pirate raid itself was EXTREMELY LOUD. have you ever really stood close to a man firing a musket? an experience unto itself. follow the gunshots & there be pirates. i was taken captive twice, which perhaps explains why i failed to photographically capture my friends running down the crowded pedestrian mall tossing smoke bombs for cover. ah well, i already knew my journalistic skills need some serious honing.
i was even asked once for "mercy!" I've never been mistaken for a pirate before. arrrrr!

& in the spirit of things, & because we were (obviously) in the mood for it again, we watched Pirates of the Caribbean this week. really bad eggs!
pirate photos are going to continue going up on the tourist until i have none left.
this could be the spring of the pirate much as the summer of 2003 was the summer of the pirate...& maybe the summer too, what with Dead Man's Chest showing up in July...

& if nothing else, i have my pirate cereal to keep me in the spirit of the thing.

it comes with marshmallow hats.

fatalistic fish

Ozymandias
By Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1817

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

sleep well my fishies and

dream of large sandcastles.

love,

mysfit

Arrrrrrr. Damn bloggie for not letting me edit any posts. keep hanging from the rigging, little fishies, i promise pirate tale eventually...

IT'S SNOWING!!

(just wanted to share - sorry gotta go make snow angels now...)

these are not the pirates you're looking for...

every morning i wake up & wish i was somewhere else.

still working on the images & tales of St. Augustine, but along the same lines...

Burt Lancaster as the Crimson Pirate

caught most of The Crimson Pirate on one of the 8 billion movie channels yesterday evening, & had to share. it swashes, it buckles, it's in technicolor. it's slapstick, it's over-the-top, & the pirate captain clicks his heels. there's a doctor with vials of explosive liquid in a submarine, there's a mute pirate sidekick who gets airsick in the hot air balloon, & Christopher Lee says very little at all.

after all, there's nothing like pirates in drag.

linkety fish

i feel i should mention that the tourist (that is, yours truly) is up on the Self-Portrait Day main page.
which was nice of them, i thought.

& the St. Augustine photos are slowly going up...

before this fish loses its funny...

ooooh, look:

i got shot by dick cheney.

(most amusing: the phrase "millionaire starving artist".)

want to get peppered by a shotgun too?

numb fish

this fishie has returned from the southern climes, & is very grateful that spring is peeking its still-weak sunshiney nose around the corner, because though my hot water has become hot again (hallelujah!), the ring of sunburn around my neck (who knew you could get sunburned when it was cool enough to wear long sleeves? well, i knew, but i forgot) has thus far prevented me from enjoying it, & as a result of whatever those brilliant technicians did, we have no heat whatever in this apartment, & my fingers are too numb to type in any tales of St. Augustine & its pirate hordes.
it's warmer outside than inside, & once my landlord comes home & i beat down his door (still full of piratical enthusiasm, me) i will be making my way to a park or some such.

stay tuned for tales of the 16th century & more, little fishies...same fish time, same fish channel...

a rose for jennsee...

...who is down with the crocodiles right now and may not see it for a while.

(note from mysfit: this is jennsee's photograph - all i did was edit out the background)

love,
mysfit

prehistoric fish

i'm supposed to be editing down a letter that became way too big for its britches, but i couldn't resist sharing this tasty scientific fish:

the T-Rex is no longer the biggest, nastiest carnivore on the cretaceous block. the mighty Spinosaurus (who comes up with these names, 6-year-olds?) kicks his tyrannical tail.

spinosaurus.

but most amusing to me is this scientific "fact" of the lengthiest known dinosaur:

Argentinasaurus.

at 120 feet & 100 tons,
"fear factor" listed as "get out of my way."

my fish is having a bad week

my fish is...
a) not sick.
b) refusing to admit to any kind of ill feeling.
c) hates being at work but does not get any paid sick days.
d) all of the above.

my fish is...
probably swimming in the half-inch of standing water that mysteriously appeared in my basement between 8 and 9p.m. last night.

my fish can't wait until that woman is out of my house.

my fish didn't mind swimming in the water, not even really spending an hour mopping up water. what my fish minded was one of fishy's roommates panicking even though the water had stopped gushing from wherever it came from and another talking about how the housing management company should put us up at another property or grant us compensation. they both left for the night.

my fish thinks i smell a little funny because i couldn't take a shower this morning.
my fish slept strangely because we also couldn't use the toilets last night.

my fish is...
at least partly grounded in the real world and just hopes that the housing company actually gets it taken care of quickly and doesn't try to screw us by charging water damage to our security deposit.

my fish just spilled coffee up my sleeve.
my fish just wants to go back to sleep.

my fish is...
a little pissed off. After choosing a school, being accepted to said school and setting up all the financial aid for the school, my fish found out the program that i signed up for is not offered at nights.

my fish feels like it has been deceived to up enrollment rates.
my fish doesn't like feeling like a statistic.

my fish has been bitching a lot to the few wonderful little fishies who swim up this way and is thankful to have this outlet.

my fish loves you for reading.

e e fish for mysfit

from the magical mind of e e cummings:

VI.

but mr can you maybe listen there's
me &
some people
and others please
don'tconfuse.Some
people

's future is toothsome like
(they got
pockets full may take a littl
e nibble now And then
bite)candy

others
fly,their;puLLing:bright
futures
against the deep sky in

May mine's tou
ching this crump
led cap mumble some
thing to oh no
body will
(can you give
a)listen to
who may

you

be
any
how?
down
to
smoking
found
Butts