I know some fears are straight out irrational, and I myself have not had any issues with large crowds except perhaps breathing in germs and feelings of disgust, but now, after many years of day dreaming to become a J-pop sensation- I think I’ll put that one on hold. I know things like the following are rare, but it does place a spotlight on the “could” and “might” happen scenarios that could paralyze a “prone to paranoia” mind. (I’ve opted to leave the photos out in respect to the victims)

Man stabs shoppers in Tokyo street, killing seven

By David Dolan

TOKYO (Reuters) – A man who said he was tired of life went on a stabbing rampage on Sunday in a crowded Tokyo shopping street, killing seven people and wounding a dozen others.

The man drove a rental truck into a crowd of pedestrians at lunchtime and then walked down the street knifing passers-by in Akihabara district, known for its discount electronics and maid cafes.

“I came to Akihabara to kill people,” Kyodo news agency quoted the attacker as telling police. “I am tired of the world. Anyone was OK. I came alone.”

A Tokyo police spokesman said at least seven people had been killed and 12 wounded.

“The man jumped on top of a man he had hit with his vehicle and stabbed him with a knife many times,” Kyodo quoted a 19-year-old witness as saying. “Walking toward Akihabara Station, he slashed nearby people at random.”

The dead were six men aged 19 to 74 and a 21-year-old woman, the news agency said.
Continue reading Killing spree brings on agoraphobia

By Michael Stott

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev blamed “aggressive” United States policies on Saturday for the global financial crisis and said Moscow’s growing economic muscle could be part of the solution.

“Failure by the biggest financial firms in the world to adequately take risk into account, coupled with the aggressive financial policies of the biggest economy in the world, have led not only to corporate losses,” Medvedev told Russia’s main annual event for international investors in St Petersburg.

“Most people on the planet have become poorer.”

The Kremlin leader said investment by cash-rich Russian companies abroad, promotion of Moscow as a major financial centre and use of the ruble as a reserve currency were part of the answer.

These could help solve problems created by what he said was a gap between the United States’ leading global economic role and “its true capabilities”.

Continue reading Russia blames U.S. for global financial crisis

I know I need to change my name. Chic? When’s the last time I did or wore anything chic or even looked at anything chic? Due to recent events, perhaps it can be like Tiny Tim- “Oh look, she calls herself ghic (geek) chic because she’s NOT! Ha ha ha I get it!”

And Ghic (pronouced geek of course) is needing to go in the dumpster as well. No geek here. I’ve pretty much given up my hopes of getting a new cell phone because I was greeted on the way to work the other morning with the newest in gas prices. $4.17 (feel my pain here and check out other areas- I live on the West Coast). So now I’m looking at tin cans and string. Currently I have a couple Flavorite cans but I’m hoping if our economy improves I can upgrade to Campbell’s. Now to figure out how to get the string stretched over to MA so I can call Ben/Jenn (the original Bennifer).

UGH! It’s seriously getting bad! The slaughter at work continues and a friend was dead on the other day when he turned to me on break and pointed out, “You know morale at work SUCKS when everyone is complaining that they weren’t laid off.” The shiny good-bye package where we can do resume’s online for a few weeks, save gas and actually afford to buy groceries at a place that isn’t filled with discontinued foods. Food that you KNOW made it to third world countries through missionaries and were returned back to the states and now in my cupboards. Each time you shop there they boast how much you’ve saved “You just saved thirty bucks!” Like it’s supposed to make you feel better that you didn’t pay full price for complete crap. The odd thing is- that store has the largest supply of wine I’ve ever seen and it’s right near the check out area. Basically you leave your dignity at the door when you go in, buy 2 weeks of groceries for 25.00 (and worth every penny- I think it’s so you aren’t cursing as bad when you’re up all night with food poisoning “I guess it’s okay, it’s only .50 down the drain.”) but the wine… Once you’re finished buying all the tripe (literally), you have to grab a bottle of wine to deal with how pathetic your life has become.

ACK! I have noticed a conspiracy though. I used to think that poverty stricken people in my area spent their money on Twinkies and Ding Dongs. Not true. The crap food has such a high sodium content and I think they make it that way so the starving people look overly fed. I seriously eat one small meal a day and I look as if I’ve gained fifty pounds since I’ve had to shop there.

I’d just off myself to save money but no one would be able to go to my funeral because they can’t afford fuel to get there… and trust me, I’d know! Some weird otherwordly thing would happen and I’d wind up stuck over my funeral site wondering where the hell everyone was.

I think I need to watch another fluffy French film.

I guess I shouldn’t gripe *just* yet:
City  Effective Date Price in USD
Regular/Gallon
Nation City Price
UK TEESIDE $5.64
HONG KONG HONG KONG $5.62
UK MILFORD HAVEN $5.56
UK READING $5.56
UK NORWICH $5.54
GERMANY FRANKFURT $5.29
DENMARK COPENHAGEN $5.08
NORWAY STAVANGER $5.07
NORWAY OSLO $4.93
ITALY ROME $4.86
TURKEY ISTANBUL $4.85
PORTUGAL LISBON $4.80
KOREA SEOUL $4.71
SWITZERLAND GENEVA $4.56
KOREA KOJE/OKPO $4.53
AUSTRIA VIENNA $4.50
CROATIA ZAGREB $4.32
JAPAN TOKYO $3.84
AUSTRALIA SYDNEY $2.63
CAMBODIA PHNOM PENH $2.57
TAIWAN TAIPEI $2.47
GEORGIA TBILISI $2.31
LAOS VIENTIANE $1.66
THAILAND BANGKOK $1.60
CHINA TIANJIN $1.54
CHINA SHANGHAI $1.48
RUSSIA MOSCOW $1.45
KAZAKHSTAN ALMATY $1.36
KAZAKHSTAN ATYRAU $1.35
TAJIKISTAN DUSHANBE $1.32
AZERBAIJAN BAKU $1.15
VENEZUELA CARACAS $0.14 <-I want to move there

I was about to head off to sleep. In fact I was standing in my bathroom after brushing my teeth and I began to put moisturizer on my face. I was looking at my self while being in a million thoughts and then my fresh cat wound caught my eye. A startled cat and exposed flesh do not mix well (ouch). Near the cat marks I saw an old “love” scar that caused me to smirk at myself and then strangely my television reanimated and the theme to the film “Paris, Je T’Aime” began to play and I found myself here.

I don’t know what I want to write. A film that hit upon a myriad of scenarios all in exposing various loves within Paris including a lonely woman at the end who just loved Paris. One of the things she said rang true to my current state. In Paris she had a moment when she realized how far away she was and all of a sudden she became both overwhelmed with sorrow that she had no partner to share her experience with… and yet she also felt for the first time alive. She fell in love with Paris and Paris fell in love with her. I recall that feeling in NYC.

After spending an evening wondering what I’m doing, what I’m going to do and what is ahead for me and mine- I surfed through the net for a bit and found a lot of other females in my similar situation. Overwhelmed with work and finances with one source of income while you feel you should be at home with your special needs child. It sucks. And then it flashed on the screen that a woman who has a special needs child will either get a divorce or never marry. I’m okay with that. I mean I accept it. I pulled up memories of all my adventurous relationships. Some wild, some romantic, some just plain old cozy my heart beat a little bit faster. It was nice.

I know my journey here is ending soon. I feel it within my core. Maybe all the odds will change once I leave this soil… once I figure out how to leave this soil and continue my life in another landscape with new faces and experiences.

Until then, my collection of memories assist in giving me strength to build new ones and they warm me when I’m stationed behind these walls and going to and from a job that merely “is”. My beautiful boy is fast asleep in his room and I caught myself smiling additionally as I took the boxing gloves he loves to fall asleep with and placed them back on his wall. I used to scoff at memories because they were faded and will cease to exist once you do- but I was wrong.

I was watching a comedy show the other night and he joked about being okay with gas prices going up- should they reach the THREE DOLLAR MARK (that was enough to cause tummy pains). One of the benefits of high gas prices- less drive by shootings. Yes that caused me to chuckle- and then I was sent back to the tummy pains of hearing 3 dollars a gallon being apocalyptic.

It’s over four dollars a gallon!?!?! By freaking out about this, a year from now will I go back down memory lane, read this post and laugh at myself for being stressed out at gas being a mere (slightly over) four dollars a gallon? “Oh what a silly girl I was. Now with gas at a hundred dollars a gallon, I miss last week when it was only slightly over four dollars a gallon.”

I think this is one of the first summers where I have no plans or actual means to hop on the block buster bandwagon of summer must see flicks. I keep getting relationship yearnings when I think about it, “Damn I miss dating, I didn’t have to pay for anything.” …well except for gas and it was still under the two dollar mark.

There’s one movie that I’m GLAD I’ll miss, and I would have avoided it regardless: Sex in the City. Am I the only female who finds the group of women completely annoying and moronic? I have a fantasy of Sex in the City meets Final Destination. The clique of girls are walking down the sidewalk and a LARGE piece of glass is being moved over head- the cables break and SPLAT!

As for the show’s popularity? There are certain shows when the writing compliments the actor. You know the humor is an extension of the person playing the character- it fits. Sex in the City I see a cast of mindless, superficial, phony, hard to watch middle aged women who want to hold on to the twenty something mind frame- and most things that come out of their mouths do not fit whatsoever. They aren’t clever, they aren’t witty- the writers obviously wanted their material out there and you SO can see the puppeting. In fact, I think they should make it into a puppet show. Change the look of the characters, turn into a Team America kind of look and THEN I’ll watch. Clever writing is being wasted and it hurts me.

Other shows for the record that are hyped and I can’t stand…
Desperate Housewives
Lost
Dancing with the Stars- in fact anything that has “with the stars” in it. It reminds me of the painful to watch variety shows of the 70′s (yes I was a baby when those were aired, but it still gave me nightmares.)

I would like to see “Catapulting the Stars” though. That’d be kind of cool.

http://astore.amazon.com/egeek-20/