What happened to my quiet time?

I can’t think in the mornings. To start out with, I am not a morning person. It is odd because since the time change Sunday, I’ve been waking up at 4:30, what would have been 5:30, which is earlier than I normally got up anyway.

The upside is that I can usually get to work early for some morning OT. The down side is that I start to drag long before lunch hour.

When we first moved to this new building, those of us who started at 7:30 had a very quiet office to work in. It was a peaceful start to get a jump on a productive day. Now it is a loud, noisy, bustling place at 7:30 am. It is annoying, distracting, and makes it impossible to get a good jumpstart on the day.

It doesn’t help that all the new people ever hired to replace anyone or to build up the numbers in the unit to deal with increasing business have all wanted to start at 7:30. So 8:00 people left and were replaced with 7:30 people. This doesn’t help the afternoon when we need coverage for the last half hour of the day. The newest hire wasn’t given a choice.

This is why I try to get to work extra early, so I can get my quiet time back. I need that peace to get my brain in gear before the distractions start, if I don’t then the distractions keep me from working as I want to. I find myself staring at the monitors trying to find that place of stillness and peace and balance from whence all effectiveness flows.

The unit next to us now is a recovery unit who are on the phones nearly as often as my unit. The problem is that most of them get to work even earlier than us. Some mornings they are working in silence and other mornings they are loud and boisterous. This means that even if I get to work early I can’t find my peaceful, quiet, time that gives me that edge the remainder of the day.

It doesn’t help that we are now using a TPA that is so bad that half of our complaint calls are all about them and 100% of the calls about the TPA are complaint calls. It is so stressful anymore that I dread opening a file and seeing the name that indicates the file went to the TPA. It’s enough that I’m contemplating job hunting and I really don’t want to do that. I’m finally making a decent wage and I don’t want to have to start over again at a starting wage.

If only I had my peace and quiet in the mornings once again and maybe I would have my equilibrium in place before the day started. But maybe even that would no longer help. I don’t rightly know anymore. I just have to take it one day at a time.

H is for Horror and Halloween – Tell Me Something

Tell Me Something is a 1999/2000 Korean Thriller.  (The double year is because every site says 1999 except IMDB which says 2000.  This is not the first time I have come across the duality of dates with Korean films.)

The basic plot is that bodies are being found with parts belonging to more than one person.  They have been dismembered and organs removed with great precision and skill and anatomical knowledge.  The third body is the first that enables the police to start ID’ing the bodies.  His ‘next of kin’ is an artist who is a bit shocked to discover that she knew ALL the men.  They were all former lovers of hers.

The movie itself is very dark. Many scenes are night scenes.  Day scenes are often shot in dark buildings or on cloudy days or with lighting to make the day look like it might have been cloudy.

While in color, the movie has a black and white feel as the men are almost always in black suits and the women in black slacks with white tops.  So during the night shots, this gives the impression that the men are just disembodied heads and hands.

This makes sense, stylistically, because the major theme in this movie is objectification.  Though the course of the movie, we find out that the woman,Chae Su-Yeon,  was the daughter of a famous artist.  As she was growing up, her father was obsessed with her in very inappropriate way and used her as a model for much of his art. One boyfriend had cameras installed to get images of her.  Even the police spend a lot of time viewing her through surveillance cameras.

Suspicion has been cast on her fourth boyfriend, of whom she is already tired, and she is attacked after they release.  A search of his place finds cameras hidden behind artwork and body parts in the refrigerator.  Su-yeon flees to the small family home her father keeps.  Although he has been missing for 5 years.

There is a lot of action in this movie even thought it is very quiet and the violence all occurs off-screen.  No one is frantically racing around the screen.  Dialogue is limited and to the point.  Many shots are of people sitting at desks.  But this is by no means a slow movie.  It is just very different from Hollywood fare.

We find out that Su-yeon’s friend is a doctor, a woman.  She has had several suicide attempts in the past and another one now.  But the police never get to see or speak to her because the friend keeps them away.  The fourth boyfriend is found dead and suspicion falls on the missing father.  They think he is stalking Su-yeon. She has had several suicide attempts in the past.  Detective Cho, who is trying to keeps her safe, is believed to be targeted because of his growing closeness to her as she is sent to stay with him so he can better protect her.  The relationship remains chaste.

He himself is on thin ground with the department.  He has just returned from work after a suspense for an investigation.  His mother had died after a long illness and it was thought he had been accepting bribes in order to pay for her medical care.

The relationship between Su-yeon and her doctor friend is important.  The fact that her father has been missing for 5 years is as well.  The movie is grisly, but I was able to get through it as once you really look at it, it looks somewhat fake.  But that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is a good movie and worth viewing.

So I won’t give anything else away.  Some people thought there was a twist at the end.  I don’t view it that way.  Though it may get a little confusing. There are many theories out there on what really happened.  The straight forward one I guessed at the beginning still fit with the ending.  So it will be more fun for you to watch it yourself and make up your mind.

Like most Korean films I’ve seen, not everything is clearly explained and you remain wondering a bit about what had really happened.  This one was actually clearer than most.  And perhaps that is why my initial reaction to it proved to be the correct one.  Or maybe I’m finally getting the hang of Korean movies.  But I think it is the former because it was filmed with the idea of marketing it in the West.

It is in subtitles.  Which turns some people off.   I would say, give it a try anyway.

My only complaint is that I never got the title.  I don’t know why it is called Tell Me Something.  I suppose, because I was watching parts of it through the pass-through window between the kitchen and living room as I was making dinner, I might have missed a line.  Maybe the title is just a line from the movie.  I don’t know.  Maybe the Korean words that mean Tell Me Something have more interpretations or nuances that the selected English translation.

 

Random Things. That’s all I got Today.

Because it is has nothing to do with anything….

Hunger Games, the book.  about 374 pages.  About 4 hours.  Maybe 4 hours and 15 minutes.  Easy.  Fast.  I remember how all these people said they spend one entire day reading it.  It just isn’t that long and complex.  The writing is very straight forward and simple.  Events are very fast paced.  You have no idea that in reality, it covers several weeks. 

Some channel was playing the Mummy movie remakes over the weekend.  I always felt sorry for the Mummy.  Okay, they did find a really good looking actor to play him, so that helped make him a bit sympathetic.   But it was really that all he did was done out of love.  It wasn’t even a selfish love.  Because he so totally loved her that he would do ANYTHING for her, even if it was of questionable ethics.  But she wasn’t worth it.  When push came to shove, she was more concerned about saving herself than helping the one that loved her so much that he gave everything of himself for her.  In the end, he realizes that his great love and great sacrifice was thrown back into his face and he let’s go of the person trying to save him and takes death in the realization of what he had done for someone who was so selfish.

My birthday was yesterday and I kinda wish that I had chosen to take my floating holiday today.  I don’t feel like much today.  It’s too pretty out.  It would have been a great day to go to the gardens and have a picnic someplace.  But I decided to save it and go to work instead.  I have a free birthday meal at Red Robin but I don’t feel like it yet.  I better before the end of the month.

I want noodles for dinner but I don’t want to go out of my way to the Vietnamese place.  I might go down to Pana88, a new pan-asian place close to work, and get their giant bowl of ramen noodles to take for dinner when I run off to my gaming group tonight.  Or maybe I’ll just stay there and eat.  That way I don’t have to try to kill as much time after work. 

My new meds are making me sleepy.  I’m trying to get used to them.  So I may be very sleepy at  the game tonight.  My warrior may be a little un-energetic.  I need energy.  The doctor told me to take them before bed.  But one is a twice daily, so I have to take it once in the morning as well. 

My supervisor got back from her week vacation.  She brought back a bag of my kryptonite for each of us.  Salt Water Taffy.  I live this stuff.  I have a fair amount of the black ones.  I love the black licorice taffy.  That and Banana are probably my favorite.  I got very little chocolate taffy.  I wanted more only for the purpose of trading it for more of the black licorice. 

I brought almonds for a tasty and healthy snack.  They are only healthy if I eat the right amount.  I have to make sure I stop.  I love nuts.  Except walnuts.  I hate walnuts.  The Squirrels can have them. Foamy can take over the world and keep the walnuts.  I like foamy.  Illwill press is great stuff.  Lovley cartoons, if you are slightly misanthropic.  I am, so I apreciate them. 

 I’m very upset with the judge in Utah that ordered a girl’s hair to be chopped off in the courtroom as an option to lowering her community service.  When I was 6, my mom had my aunt cut my hair short. It so traumatized me that I couldn’t get my hair cut short for years. Even with a trip, I would literally freak out at seeing the hair falling from my head. So maybe the child was traumatized. But small kids cut each other’s hair all the time. I don’t know a parent that hasn’t come into the room one day to find the kids with the scizzors either cutting their own hair or a siblings hair.

Sure is was wrong for a couple of young teens to cut a toddlers pony tail off. But NO judge should ever have the right to order a parent to chop of a kid’s hair in the court room. That goes way beyond reasonable autority for a judge. On top of it, he allowed the other older girl involved to be taken to a salon to have her hair professionally cut and returned to the courtroom to determine if it was acceptable to him or not. 

This gives us another case where cutting another persons hair with malicious intent is an assault. But punishing an assault with an assault is not justice. It’s revenge. And judges are suppose to be above revenge.

As for Tennessee’s ‘no holding hands’ law, they over look a common theme in areas with high pregnancy rates. Boredom. Many kids are complaining of boredom. They are becoming sexually active because it is something to do. Start creating more diverse activities and activity centers for teens, not kids, not adults, not ‘family friendly’ but specifically for teens and you would be amazed at the reduction in teen pregnancy. Or maybe not amazed because it won’t stop all of them, but it will give them something else to go than having sex because there is nothing else interesting to do.

Morning Out of Time

It was a very strange morning today. I left for work and wondered if my clocks were wrong. But there area a lot of clocks. They couldn’t ALL be wrong?

The parking lot was full of all the usual cars. The usual cars for the evening. It was like no one went to work today.

I know it is Tuesday. I had a weekend and I worked yesterday. It was game night on top of everything. So I know it was a Monday last night. That means Tuesday is today. Unless someone forgot to tell me the calendar was changed.

Given that it looked like no one in the entire apartment complex went to work today, there was a great deal of traffic. I don’t know where they were all going but when I got to work the parking garage was unusually empty as well.

As far as I know, there isn’t a new holiday that happens on Tuesday. It isn’t July yet. But the 4th is on a Wednesday. So why is it so empty?

And things are very quiet today. And slow. The whole day feels odd. I just hope is doesn’t drag this much all day. Maybe I should go run an errand at lunch. To cut up the day. Or not. I have my happy tea and my happy book and my happy Pomegranate Greek yogurt.

It’s been over an hour and I swear, it still feels like this day is somehow happening out of time. It’s an odd odd morning.