Snapshot of a Turkish Prison

Darrell knew his time was limited. There were four sealed envelopes laying on the table in front of him, and one would unlock his future. He took the first one in the palm of this hand. He slide the letter opener through the top left corner as a bead of sticky high salt content sweat landed on his knuckle. He'd been waiting for this moment since his first encounter with his Turkish prison cellmate twenty years ago that September. There had been rumors among the prisoners that Darrel was in the joint for smuggling office supplies into Uzbekistan out of fear that the Uzbeks might learn to read and write with Bic mechanical pencils and Ampad notebooks. This was of course a decoy by his boss "Mr. Cameron" who had arranged for his incarceration as a chance to finish writing his book called "Treatise on the theorems of Leo Strauss". The book would actually be collection of Baha'i poetry posing as a book about Leo Strauss. Darrel's roommate, Simon, was in prison for knocking his nephew's house down with a backhoe, but had recently resorted to establishing an organization for retired fighting dog's in Eastern Europe. Simon's day consisted of waking up at 6:00 to go work out in the gym, followed by a fruit smoothie at 7:00. After that he reviewed show times at the local cinemark 14 in Izmir.

Crazy employee and customer relations

So, a couple of days ago, I was at Wendy's eating a sour cream and chive potato when the lady cleaning tables walked up to me and said "My fiance couldn't recognize my voice on the phone". I didn't know what to say so I just turned to her and smiled saying "oh...that's great". She responded with "he said I'm becoming a big girl now. hahahahahahahaha."

It was after this that I thought about what I'd have done if I was in her situation. If my job was to clean tables all day long, I'd totally switch things up and say stuff to people like that just to keep myself from screaming out of boredom.

Bruce's miraculous recovery from Mono

So I have finally overcome my illness which has made me forget about posting anything on here for awhile. I started going to school again a few weeks ago and eventually got back into the swing of things to suddenly realize that I was almost done with the semester and that my trip to Jordan is about to commence. So it's time to start up the Bruce in Jordan blog again. You should go over to bruce-in-jordan.blogspot.com to: a) read about his last trip to Jordan in 2006, and b) read up on his forthcoming journey. I say that because I don't have much else to say.

Why Mono Sucks

So I've had Mono for over a month now and it is probably one of the most annoying things to ever happen to me. It isn't that bad, just really annoying. At random times I will just happen to get really tired out of nowhere and be really upset about it because it means I will just be getting farther and farther behind in school. Besides the occasional fevers, sore throats, and coughs, the worst part of mono though is trying to figure out how sick you really are. I'm never really quite sure because you keep going in and out of felling good and bad. It doesn't help though when you keep getting all sorts of conflicting advice about Mono. For example, I went to the doctor last week because I thought I was getting an ear infection. I didn't have an ear infection, but the doctor told me "I'm surprised you still have mono symptoms. Usually you would be doing a lot better by now as it would be going into remission". Then on the other hand, I'm being told stuff like "you should probably drop out of school for the semester because it takes months to get over". Just the other day, Trevor told me that it takes a year to get over mono. My mom, who also had mono in college, says the same kinds of things. I did some research on the internet and also got conflict results. So I'm not really sure what is going to happen.

Klaus Nomi

I keep wishing I had been alive to be part of 80's Pop culture. This longing was renewed recently by the discovery of the 80's new wave sensation Klaus Nomi. Klaus, a classically trained opera singer from Germany, moved to New York right around the time when New Wave was taking off. His music spanned the genres of Pop, Disco, New Wave, Performance Art, and Cabaret. So pretty much he comes on to the scene in the late 80's, his music isn't excepted very well in the United States, so he moves to Europe where they love him, and he dies like a year later from AIDS (he was one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS or as it was called at the time, "Gay Cancer"). He was kind of forgotten until recently when a documentary called "the Nomi Song" was made about his life. I got the documentary off of Netflix and have been totally infatuated with him since.

I think the thing about Klaus Nomi that I find so intriguing is that since his career was so short and obscure, nobody else has really copied his style. Although it is 25 years old, it is still unique.

Here is a sampling:


Klaus Nomi- Simple Man





Klaus Nomi- The Nomi Song





Klaus Nomi- Lightning Strikes




Klaus Nomi- Total Eclipse



After the Fall


The Cold Song

Pornography Awareness Week!

So I was invited to celebrate Pornography Awareness week on Facebook. I was disappointed to learn that it is "be aware of pornography because its bad" instead of a "be aware of all the different varieties of porn you can download off the internt" kind of thing: (http://www.strengthenthefamily.net/white_ribbon_week.php). So I'm all for keeping pornography away from kids, but who ever planned this did such a detestable job that it will probably make kids want to go out and look at pornography more. Check out some of the awesome activites for schools:



How can I (or my school) celebrate Pornography Awareness Week?

Here are some suggestions:
Elementary Schools:

* Magician show: Brad Barton, 801-791-9017, brad@bradbartonspeaks.com, BradBartonSpeaks.com; Brad's research-based programs equip youth to make positive choices. Brad will use his magic tricks to demonstrate how pornography is not "the real thing" -- you have to be in charge of what you allow in your head.
* Brite Music has a tape and music, "Protect Their Minds." The Sing-Along Activity Book has pictures that, with permission, could be duplicated and colored. Call 1-800-458-2748
* Assembly: Utilize the object lesson ideas found in "Guarding What Goes Into Our Children's Minds"
* Distribute the "Crash and Tell" Sheet
* Have a coloring contest. Download our White Ribbon Week coloring page.
* Take Safety information to parents i.e. "Don't talk to strangers" - tie into Internet safety
* Borrow grocery shopping bags. Guide children to decorate them or label them "PORN NO", "KEEP MINDS CLEAN" or appropriate pictures. Return the bags to the grocery store to use as they bag groceries.
* Send "Prevention Plan: A Parent's Guide" home.
* Send "20 Internet Safety Tips" home.
* Display posters in classrooms, or send copies home to parents.



Junior High and High Schools:

* Have something the students can do each day of the week, i.e.
o Have a headband day (white head bands) "Band against Pornography"
o Tie day (everyone wears weird ties) - Don't let bad pictures tie you up.
o Sock porn - (Students wear mismatched socks) - "Sock" (hit) pornography.
o Sneakers day - Don't let porn sneak up on you.
o Bandaids - Cover those things that will hurt you.
o Caution Headbands - wear headbands with yellow caution signs on them
o Airhead Candy - "Don't be an airhead - Stay away from porn"
o On Garbage cans put signs: "We CAN keep our minds clean" or the "Garbage In-Garbage Out" sign.
o Yell competition at lunchtime!
* Magician show: Brad Barton, 801-791-9017, brad@bradbartonspeaks.com, BradBartonSpeaks.com; Brad's research-based programs equip youth to make positive choices. Brad will use his magic tricks to demonstrate how pornography is not "the real thing" -- you have to be in charge of what you allow in your head.
* Paper Bag decoration - Return the paper bags to the store. Theme: "Keeping our community clean."
* Create a puzzle out of poster board: "We each need to do our part in keeping our Community clean."
* Have a "White Ribbon School of the Year"
* "Crash & Tell" - Tailgate party - crash the car White Ribbon Run for Fun.
* Have a White Ribbon Run for Fun
* "Slam Dunk - Don't look at that junk." Basketball contest at a game.
* Work with businesses - give customers wearing white ribbons a soda or discount.
* Poster contest: "Take flight - Remember white"
* Utilize health classes to get out information from the book To Strengthen the Family by JoAnn Hamilton
* Take the "Did You Know" sheet to every student in every homeroom class. At lunch sign a poster as a pledge to stay away from pornography.
* Have a question and answer session about pornography at the cafeteria during lunch.

Poetry from 10th grade Bruce

I found this poem that I wrote in 10th grade today. I was really into Allen Ginsberg at the time and you can tell that my poem is heavly influenced by the poem "Howl". I was also really mad at a lot of different things at the time, most notably people putting up giant letters on the side of mountains to represent schools' sport teams. It needs a lot of revision, but here is the original form:



A letter to a mountain
by Bruce Call

Dear pure mother earth mountain,

Why is your peak tattooed by the mark of the foul creators of capitalism and greed that where once feared by the supernatural hipster groveling for a chance to kiss at the opiate of the masses while contemplating minimalism in which all were conformed by an explosion of uranium and hydrogen sucked in by a pleasures wink of the eye at the great Iranian leaders who looked skyward at neptune thru the beating glare of my mother in the Idaho state mental institution where she is reading people magazine and sipping watered down gruel that was specially made to blind the mentally unfit out of existence.
They smothered their large tattoo's of collegiate athletic warfare on your skin like a traditionalist in a crude form of effigy smoothers cold red paint upon the robes of the false priesthood in disagreement of telling a joke about two peanuts that walk into a bar and were assaulted.
Selfish are the great grandmothers of Milwaukee when cheering for an end to the satanic wars of american big business claiming that the tradition of democracy must be forced upon everyone to ensure international tranquility while this is only a temporary cover used as a shadow of their lust from which their desires including being possessed with the curse of worldly possessions silently devours their soul like carbon monoxide quietly kills the unsuspecting.
Selfless the tradition of the mighty ax that goes against animals who have been desecrated and domesticated as slaves to the human race’s intestines from which their fleshes are still torn about by the juices of the stomach and from which an animals flesh was devoured before to create those juices and brake up the flesh to feed the human machine of the mind which feeds knowledge of things that were not conceivable to the great grand mothers of Milwaukee unless the animal flesh had been cut by the mighty ax as the human race has continued this ritual of carnivorous feasting as they have since the creation of man.
Behold a pale horse that looks at a great ball of fire in the sky which is followed by the devout followers of a cult conceived by a japanese corporation to hold a grudge against daily focus skills alliterated by the supreme court janitor who owns a computer hacking franchise which was latter purchased by a commune of metrosexual fascist’s who like to bake pies and contemplate how to dominate the pure mother earth by decorating it in velvet and satan. I can’t comprehend that! I just can’t comprehend that!
Fine, lash out against the opponents of Mtv who disagree with showing images of pornographic priestess’s and pimp daddies soaking them self's in sin and being advertised as a common practice for the the vulnerable youth to grasp and defile them self's in consumer lust from which Madness and revenge that will then be seen as an alternative to kissing a stone which was used to sacrifice the Ho Chi Minh of bigamy to the greatly feared gods of an ancient religion which only twenty three people in uganda still practice after thousands of years since visitors from neptune came and turned them into thinking, breathing, living, cheating, lying, and urinating humans who came from ignorant primates that were filled with the knowledge of technology, science, and intellect by paranormal beings which later made in possible for a Belorussian man named kozar mezin to write a persuasive letter to a lady in Virginia named miss ann claiming that he was the son of a prince in nigeria who was assassinated and left twelve million dollars that the prince wanted to deposit into miss ann’s american bank account which convinced miss ann to give kozar her social security, bank account, and credit card numbers while greedily contemplating how much of the 12 million she was going to take in were in the contrary Kozar transferred all her money into a swiss bank account that somehow was latter wired to a Cuban Military official who used the money to pay for the lawsuit against his son who is a pop sensation in Brazil named Guppy the magic boy!
Bigoted mother earth haters pivoted against Jehovah’s witness’s and others, proclaiming that they are the only ones who know how tap into the fictitious problems of man and use them to turn these problems into a tool of consumer lust which led MTV to defile the youth of the nation into a generation of fornicating, drinking, tweaking, Tylenol popping whanna be hard core EMO wrist sliters who pretend to act “themsevle” to try to fit in to the crowds consumed in the masses.
Filthy the tummy tum tree in wamp-le-vile that radiates a rear form of cancer that only people who drink an obscure uzbek tea get due to the highly toxic leafs used from a farm which was once once irrigated by the dried up aral sea which was then used as a nuclear testing ground by the soviets over 50 years ago which now contaminates villagers who are filling up with chemicals that will effect their DNA and get passed down through their genetics for generation after generation while ultra right wing political commentator ann coulter is still encouraging ignorant white trash americans to pollute, rape, and disembowel the pure mother earth to the pits of hell because “god gave this earth to us and we can do what ever the devil we want with it because we have the freedom to make all the money we can and no one’s gonna tell us what to bloody do with our earth”.
Clean the boy begging for money next to the market next to the chemists next to the baker next to the car park next to the slaughter house next to the evil brutal corporate sponsor next to viscous lies of communication and the paramilitary girl scouts of america who were ripped of by jingles the talking hamster whose owner is addicted to infedamines who he buys from his brother who didn’t like the george forman grill that was sent as an arbor day present by you! I can’t comprehend that! I just can’t comprehend that!

Sincerely,
ME

P.S. Sorry about the postage. First class was just to expensive. And Second class didn’t work because I needed five cents to buy a thrifty nickel. I hope you weren’t offended by third class.

I have Mono

So my life has sucked a lot lately. I've been really tired and getting behind in school. So I went to the doctor last week where they did some blood tests. On Monday, they called me around 4:30 and left a message that said "call us back. So I call back at 5:00 and they're are closed. I didn't worry much about it and even went to a tumbling gym which was pretty awesome that night. Afterwards I went to a friends house and watched the Bourne Ultimatum and Arrested Development episodes until 3 am. I wake up the next morning and feel awful. I call the doctors office back and they inform me that I have Mono. That therefore means that I made myself much worse of by going to the gym and staying up that late. In fact it could have been life threatening because the spleen can rupture when you have mono and are too physically active. So I'm not sure what to do with my life right now. I'm way behind in school and need to take time off to rest and get better so that I can be over Mono before I leave for Jordan in April.

Jan Terri

So I came across a bunch of music videos by a lady named Jan Terry. She was a limo driver in Chicago who was trying to jump start her singing career by handing out VHS copies of these videos. If you want the whole story read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Terri


"Get Down Goblin"



"Journey to Mars!"



"Losing You Tonight"



"Rock and Roll Santa"



"Little Brother"



"Baby Blues"

I haven't written for the last few days

As the title probably told you, I've been out of commission for the last couple of days. I'm getting sick and have had some traumatic moments as well. My new apartment situation has kind of turned into a disaster and I'm already behind in school. So that is that.