Of course that isn’t an invitation, more an exclamation. Shit. The sentence ended and so did all inspiration. I’m sitting here eyes squinted heavily over a keyboard that is otherwise far too close to my Friday night face blurred with music and lights and taxi cab rides. I bloody well hope the spell checker works.

Curse you Turning Leaf. Curse every last drop of your blood red vine. Oh but you tasted so good. Like a sweet sin stolen in the forbidden hours of a night that we’ll take to the end of time. A seemingly endless flow of joy that will doubtless feel like a deserted parking lot when empty.

Fuck me, I’m drunk!

Having so many websites I do get a lot of email from people all over the world. I’ve been writing ‘Meanwhile‘ since 1997 and have a website since about 1996. Search for ‘Simon Jones‘ in Google and of the 21,100,000 instances it finds I am usually second or third in the listings.

Most emails I get are in connection to one of my sites. Point and Click America is a very popular site due to it No2 listing in Google when one searches for ‘Pictures of America.’

Last week I had a girl email me and request pictures of me shirtless. She claimed she’d seen some in a newspaper and confessed to finding me “a bit of a dish” and this was the reason she “had to” ask. I emailed her back and told her that as far as I was aware I hadn’t been photographed shirtless for a while, and if I had it was unlikely that a national paper would have been interested in any such pictures anyway. Turns out that she was actually looking for pictures of the England cricket player called Simon Jones.

Today I had a declaration of undying love from Claire. I read the email (below) and racked my brains for any Claires who may have made my acquaintance. I can’t remember any and I’m pretty sure if some girl was in love with me I’d know. Or at least you’d hope so wouldn’t you. I emailed her back and simply said “I hope you find your Simon, Claire. I guess we’ll never know.

Below is the result of your feedback form on Point and Click America. It was submitted by
Claire (pussinboots1011@hotmail.com) on Friday, September 30, 2005 at 13:36:32
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Message: i now know that simon jones is the love of my life and I’ve lost him! I’m searching the internet to try and find him i don’t think that you are the right simon jones but you are simon jones and i have to try. if your the right one, you will know who i am and i would love it if you replied, if your not sorry to have bothered you and best of luck for the rest of your life x

Found the site via: Search engine

From: United Kingdom

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REMOTE_HOST: hostd.ssha.co.uk
REMOTE_ADDR: 193.129.184.173
HTTP_USER_AGENT: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)

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All my websites

I just got done watching ‘Angels in America.’ A TV mini-series/movie starring Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, Myril Steep and a few others. I rented the two DVD set the other day which in effect are two very long films. Very long and very intense films.

The review on Amazon says; “God has abandoned Heaven. It’s 1985: the Reagans are in the White House and Death swings the scythe of AIDS. In Manhattan, Prior Walton tells Lou, his lover of four years, he’s ill; Lou bolts. As disease and loneliness ravage Prior, guilt invades Lou. Joe Pitt, an attorney who is Mormon and Republican, is pushed by right-wing fixer Roy Cohn toward a job at the Justice Department. Both Pitt and Cohn are in the closet: Pitt out of shame and religious turmoil, Cohn to preserve his power and access. Pitt’s wife Harper is strung out on Valium, aching to escape a sexless marriage. An angel invites Prior to be a prophet in death. Pitt’s mother and Belize, a close friend, help Prior choose.”

My friend Karen would claim this as yet more evidence that I love depressing movies (and TV). She says that because I am usually so ‘happy-go-lucky’ I watch films and TV with overly depressing or deep under currents in order to inject some kind of sadness into my life to get emotional balance. She pointed out to me once that all of my favorite films have similar hallmarks. Those are (in no particular order) music by Thomas Newman, death/loss, and a narration. She even pointed out that my favorite TV series (Six Feet Under) has two of those traits.

Angels in America was an odd movie/series. It was edgy and quite thought provoking. It won’t rate as one of my favorites, but I certainly enjoyed it. Of all my DVD’s there are few ‘brain in nuteral’ movies, and those that do fit into that catagory are most likely gifts bought on various birthdays and Christmas’s. Just glancing at the collection I wonder what picture someone might get of me. They are:

American Beauty
The Shawshank Redemption
Cast Away
Road to Perdition
Sleepers
The Life of David Gale
The Italian Job (original from the 60’s)
Finding Forrester
Palookaville
High Fidelity
Meet Joe Black
Indecent Proposal
Basic Instinct
Training Day
Lost in Translation
Bounce
Donnie Darko
Titanic
Alfie
Last Orders
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
Good Will Hunting
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Blow
American History X
Waking Life
The Thomas Crown Affair
21 Grams
Mystic River
When Harry Met Sally
Vanilla Sky
Oceans Eleven
Enemy of the State
The Sixth Sense
Twelve Monkeys
Midnight Cowboy
On Golden Pond
The Matrix
Contact Eyes Wide Shut
A Perfect Murder
Momento
Magnolia
Wild Things
Baraka
The Beach
The Legend of Bagger Vance
The Village
Awakenings
Forest Gump
Catch me if you can

Okay, there are some wild cards in there of course. Like ‘Wild Things’ for one. But a few of those were dirt cheap ex rental copies. I watched Wild Things the other day and wondered why did I buy this? In fact, looking at the list there I think I need to box a few of them up and either take them to the charity shop down the road or try to flog them on eBay. But actually the eBay idea is a waste of time. Like I’m going to go to that effort just for a few quid (slang word for Pounds, as in UK currency).

I was in borders this afternoon looking through magazines and stuff, I ended up picking up an American edition of TIME magazine. I flicked through it and came to a photgraphic essay of Katrina. The pictures were utterly shocking. More so than any others I have seen. I know that Katrina is out of the news cycle now, and that many of you Houston folk are feeling pretty happy that Rita spared you, but I hope you don’t mind if I use this little space just to show you some of these pictures. From a photographers view point, these are really well shot pictures. They are arresting, and this is America!

As the Gulf Coast of America counts the cost of two hurricanes it’s worth remembering that while Hurricanes Katrina and Rita may have grabbed the headlines across the world, America is far from being alone in counting the cost of natures fury.

Just days before Katrina caused so much devastation in New Orleans and surrounding areas, Romania, Germany, Austria and Switzerland were hit by the worst floods ever known in that part of the world. Vast areas were under water, highways became Amazon like rivers and huge mud-slides destroyed hundreds of homes. Insurers say the economic cost of the flood in Switzerland alone could be 1bn Swiss Francs. Though interestingly such is Americas media saturation, one could be forgiven for not even knowing about the floods in Europe.

It would seem that 2005 has seen some of the worst weather related disasters in recent years. The recent floods in Europe and Southern India, as well as the hurricanes in America and Typhoons in Japan have lead some people to ask why it is we are experiencing such extreme weather patterns.

Global warming has already been named as the prime suspect. More and more evidence is would seem to prove that freak weather events are increasing both in number and intensity due to the excessive burning of coal, oil and gas, and also intensive agriculture and forest clear-cutting. Scientists have long warned that failure to act now will simply increase the instances of freak weather events and global climate change and if we look at what happened only in America in the last few weeks, this would seem to be a chilling prediction of what may lie ahead.

But will the recent freak weather events change the way we live our lives and cause us to look at the question of our individual responsibilities in regards to these environmental issues? Like all of us, Jan Kowalzig from Friends of the Earth was moved by the human tragedy that unfolded in America, but he called for President Bush to look again at the question of global warming.

“President Bush must rethink his stance on global warming. In the face of mounting evidence of rapid climate change the US President has so far downplayed the scale of the problem and refused to take action to tackle it. His Administration has worked tirelessly to derail international agreements on climate change and sought to put narrow US economic interests above global climatic stability. The price to pay is too high, as we learned from this disaster, which is a taste of what we will have to live with if we continue to pollute the atmosphere.” Said Kowalzig.

Of course, as people come to terms with the devastation wreaked by the recent hurricanes in America, the question of global warming and our reliance on fossil fuel is certainly the last thing on the minds of those affected. Bringing this issue to the table now may indeed be seen as insensitive and badly timed. But when exactly is it a good time for us to question the damage that we all continue to inflict on not only the environment but also the future?

As something like a million people have fled the Houston and Gulf Coast areas of Texas, Hurricane Rita can already claim one record; she has been the cause of some of the biggest traffic jams in the world ever! The highways system around Americas fourth largest city simply aren’t designed for this mass Texadus. Authorities having been working around the clock to try and open inbound lanes to outbound traffic and Governor Rick Perry says that as slow as traffic is people should not turn back.

Jessica Lewis writes on her Xanga. “We slept from about 9:30pm till 2:30am, woke up, packed up, and got the hizell out. As I drove out of Kingwood Drive and entered the 59 feeder, there were cars EVERYWHERE. Stopped on the highway.”

Karen Salazar also reported the gridlock. “The traffic on the beltway going north, one of the evacuation routes, was inching along at 4 mph. I can walk that fast. Also, there is not enough gasoline in or around this city to keep your car going for such an ordeal – most stations that I saw yesterday were already out of gas.”

But as the city braces itself for 150mph winds and possibly the worst storm it’s ever seen, by no means has everyone evacuated. News media sources were already reporting that gas stations and supermarkets were running out of supplies as early as Wednesday ahead of the storm that’s predicted to hit late Friday.

On her Xanga Sommer writes. “We were gonna head out of town, but we couldn’t get a hotel or a motel anywhere closer than Lufkin. then we were gonna head to College Station and stay with some of my sisters friends…then I went to get gas this morning and there was none.”

Many though have deliberately decided to stay on and ride out the storm. “Our house is pretty much a fortress; if you shut out the lights you can’t see your hand in front of your face. I think that we are as prepared as we can be” Reports Jude Caldwell as her husband, Matt, defiantly sprays “Rita Sucks” on the boards that now cover their windows and doors.

Posting pictures on her Xanga blog yesterday Jude says that the experience feels surreal. “I’m at the point now where I don’t even want to watch TV to see where the storm is heading. Right now when you walk outside the sun is shining and the sky is perfectly blue. It is a beautiful day!”

Shae Cottar also decided to ride out the storm at his in-laws. But they may well now have additional people staying with them after guests from a dinner party failed to go more than ten miles in six hours after leaving the party due to the traffic gridlock. But when Shae and his brother in law went out to get some extra supplies they were greeted by an alarming scene near a closed Wal-mart store on highway 290.

“500+ evacuees that were stranded. Each with cars, babies, no food, no water, and no gas. I couldn’t believe it. They were all stuck at the gas station waiting on gas that was not going to come. I found a police officer who had a truck and had been filling the back end of it up all day with water and bringing it out to the growing masses. He was near tears. He’d been at it since 5AM and said, “This is the most depressing thing I’ve ever seen.” Writes Shae on his blog.

The BBC has reported that National Guard trucks are taking badly-needed fuel to petrol stations and stranded motorists around Houston. But one eyewitness told of how people were abandoning their cars and possessions when their vehicles ran out of petrol on the motorway.

Evacuating an area this size is fraught with logistical difficulties and other problems, such as the bus fire this morning which has claimed the lives of 24 senior citizens who were being taken to safety on interstate 45. But despite this, according to Texas state officials the slow evacuation is still “on schedule.”

The category 4 hurricane is due to make landfall later today at which point all anyone can do is sit tight and wait for it to pass. The stories of hurricane Rita may only yet be beginning, lets all hope they’re not as bad as some might fear.

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Jessica Lewis’s blog
Sommer’s blog
Karen Salazar’s blog
Jude Caldwell’s blog
Shae Cottar’s blog