Employee evaluations the other tortures of modern life and Barbaro.

Well it is employee evaluation days here at the job. I was spoiled in an earlier life – the first long term job I had didn’t have this yearly torture session. But here, as at most places, you need a paper trail for everything (is he any good, yes here is the form to prove it) so here we are.

It’s like living inside a Dilbert Strip – I have to say what my strengths are, where I can improve and why is it I can not bend steel with my mind. Well that last one isn’t right but hell it feels like.

I utterly hate this kind of stuff – of course my low self esteem makes me feel that I’m not doing anything right – which hasn’t been the case – well once in a while yes but even then my failures weren’t as bad as I wanted them to be (it’s one of the wonderful things about low self esteem – if things aren’t going bad enough – you just do things to make then bad – it’s a wonderful thing really.)

Just once I’d like to have the nerve to write something like “perfect in everyway – not a man but a god come down from high Olympus to do the filing”. Of course I would have to have the winning lottery ticket in my pocket when I did that.

Saw a relativity obscure Japanese monster Movie Gappa – one of the few not made by Toho or the Gammera people – but there isn’t much to say about it – it’s kinda dull really. The plot is lifted from Gorgo (which isn’t that much of a surprise there aren’t many things you can really do with a rubber monster so the plots get recycled all the time) where an expedition to a yet another south seas island finds the egg which then hatches and turns out to contain a young goofy looking monster. This they take with them to Japan. Later the parent monsters (mom and dad in this case) break out of their island cave and go off in search of their child (in the process killing most of the islanders).

The film has the standard evil (or in this case short sighted) rich guy who figures to make a fortune off of the beast, It has the usual annoying kid – actually this time – two annoying kids – one the daughter of the rich guy who wants a “new mommy” and keeps on talking about it which causes the rich guy a lot of discomfort – one assumes the wife is dead and there wasn’t a messy divorce of some kind – but we never find out and for all we know rich guy could be responsible in some way – car crash whatever. The other annoying brat is a native on the island, he like everybody else on the island warns the expedition (paid for by the rich guy to stock his new amusement park in Japan with tropical things) not to mess with the island god Gappa.

You know just once just once I’d like the leader of the expedition to actually say “you know we’d better leave well enough alone – last time we didn’t a monster ate all my men” when told about an angry Island god – Granted there is there is the problem of making a movie with that in it, and having the monsters smash up cities which is what we have come to see anyway but I’d like to see that someday. (Learned essay on what the heck the desire to watch monsters smash buildings means is for some other time).

In the end the parents are re-united with their offspring and all are happy – except for the thousands dead and dying in the rubble that is what’s left of a good part of Tokyo and the soldiers who died in a useless effort to kill the damn beasts. Somehow that is never brought up in one of these films. You think they might but nooo. Spoil the mood.

Speaking of mood spoilers W has issued a new order that says, in effect, every policy announced by government agencies (health, civil rights, safety, etc.) must be approved by a White house political appointee before it is released. You know they had a system like that in the Soviet Union where each bureau and government office had a political commissar a party member who made sure that the bureau toed the Soviet line of the moment. Considering how little contact this crew has with real life you have to worry.

“From now on all people under six feet tall are six feet tall”

And you have to worry about the continual saber rattling at Iran. The last thing we need now is a war with Iran, which means, in this foul day and age; it’s the first thing we are going to get.

I don’t know why the neo-cons are so gung ho on this – Iran is not Iraq which by the time we invaded was a vastly weakened country without a friend in the world, Iran has good relations with china (which wants its old) a fully functional air force and like real soldiers and just enough ship killing missiles to make the Persian gulf into a sea of flame – esp. if they hit a full tanker or two.

With so many uncertain results, the neo-cons lust for more explosions and their certainty about the results (considering their track record) has to give one pause.

Yesterday Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was put down after a long struggle with the broken leg he suffered at the preakness – I know my god-daughter who is very into horses these days (she’s 13) is upset. And I am too – I , like a lot of people, wanted him to pull through. Thoroughbreds, for all their size and strength have surprisingly delicate legs – which during the stress of a race can shatter – it happened to Ruffian many years ago – (In that case they put her down right on the track ) and there isn’t a lot of blood supply to the legs so they just don’t heal quickly from a break – if at all. If you keep the horse still (which you have to do to let the bones heal) the other legs can develop infections which is what happened to Barbaro (I’m taking what I can from the news – I’m not an expert on horses) and eventually the owners decided that he was going to be in too much pain to go on.

Some folks have commented on how, with the nightmare in Iraq killing not only our guys but men women and children, hunger and want in America making a strong comeback and all the other problems we face why, folks had such compassion for a horse raised by people who after all were using him to make money. It seems a bit hypocritical on our parts they say, we get weepy at the pets abandoned in New Orleans but spare few thoughts to the people.

Well guilty – but what grabs us is the innocence of animals, they didn’t make the choices that got them in the mess they are in. Animals just are and we respond to that, in a very deep way – it’s a reminder of our connections and at the same time distance from the rest of nature. Barbaro didn’t choose to be a race horse people made him one. And we feel for that as well. Overly sentimental probably but it’s human.

Peace, Love, and they’re off