confusion

Wesley Autrey jumped in front of an oncoming subway train in New York. To help someone else who had fallen in. Both were uninjured after the train passed over them –with a few centimeters to spare. Amid all the awards and checks from famous people and big companies, amid the rush to be photographed with the hero, the hero reminded everyone of a simple sentiment, oft forgotten: “You see somebody in distress, you help out.” [reuters.com]

As refreshing as it is to see a everyman as a hero it is just as disgusting to watch the feeding frenzy. To see Donald Trump, Mayor Bloomberg, The Walt Disney Co, and others line up for the photo op, rushing to share the spotlight for a few moments to get some good press. If Wesley Autrey is a shinning example of humanity, deserving of praise, then all the others crowding into the photos are the greedy heart of capitalism that deserves to be shunned. I don’t begrudge Autrey the money they give him, but I despise their reasons for giving. But Capitalism works on greed and maybe others will be more likely to help an unfortunate soul now that they think they might get paid for it. Heroes don’t ask for payment but maybe Nietzsche was right?

The preparations are almost done.

The invitations have been sent.

I’m ready.

I’ve always wanted to be married. I’m not sure why. I guess it’s a societal norm that I absorbed at some point. Maybe it’s because I want kids and when I was growing up the kids who did not have two married parents were ‘different.’ Of course this was the hight of the divorce culture in the US: the mid-80’s. For whatever reason I have thought of marriage several times over the years. I was never really ready but I knew I wanted to be married. Last December I decided I had someone I wanted to hang on to for the rest of my life.

It’s been a year since I gave away a rock and now the final days are ticking away before the wedding. I’m excited an nervous. I don’t expect anything material to change in my live once Candice and I are married but hopefully our love will continue to grow and we will become closer over the many years.

Life is a long journey, I’ve come from Charlottesville to London and now to Singapore. Along the way I have met many friends and loves and it is not without much thought that I now enter into marriage. From now the journey is no longer mine but ours, mine and Candice’s, and I look forward to all the future has to offer us and a long journey.

Every society on earth has some form of marriage I believe and it must server some deep rooted biological and psychological need and it is great that it also such a great joy. Though nothing material will change in my life when I say the words and sign the paper but I expect that in a very real sense everything will change. I can’t wait.

In the last few days before our wedding I won’t be bothered to record my life here but before I sign off for the next few weeks or month I wanted to say here, for everyone that I am ready, that I am in love and that I look forward to waking up next to my wife everyday for the rest of my life and to get lost in her eyes, in her smile and in her laugh.

I love you Babe.

Via S██████’s Livejournal [livejournal.com] I just read the best description of Singapore ever. Don’t let the fact that it was published in 1993 dissuade you from reading it: other then the to newspaper articles referenced being from ’93 the article could have been written yesterday.

Here’s a sample:

Singapore is a relentlessly G-rated experience, micromanaged by a state that has the look and feel of a very large corporation. If IBM had ever bothered to actually possess a physical country, that country might have had a lot in common with Singapore. There’s a certain white-shirted constraint, an absolute humorlessness in the way Singapore Ltd. operates; conformity here is the prime directive, and the fuzzier brands of creativity are in extremely short supply.

And better…

The local papers, including one curiously denatured tabloid, New Paper, are essentially organs of the state, instruments of only the most desirable propagation. This ceaseless boosterism, in the service of order, health, prosperity, and the Singaporean way, quickly induces a species of low-key Orwellian dread. (The feeling that Big Brother is coming at you from behind a happy face does nothing to alleviate this.) It would be possible, certainly, to live in Singapore and remain largely in touch with what was happening elsewhere. Only certain tonalities would be muted, or tuned out entirely, if possible. . . .

I have a feeling this issue of Wired was not on sale in Singapore and thought some things have changed (you can get Cosmo here now. You can even watch bar-top dancing in some pubs) most of this article is very applicable to life here in Singapore.

Most interesting is this article actually pre-dates the Micheal Fay incident!

Read on: Disneyland with the Death Penalty [Wired.com].