Friday
ANOTHER GIRL, November 24, 1967[UNIT: CONICS]I didn’t expect to be so welcomed and taken care of in a new place, especially by strangers. I did what I came here to do. I jumped ship from Liverpool to America to see the man who abandoned my mother and I when I was just a wee bun in the oven. I browsed for a Wesley Huber via army records in the archive at the library. As I said, it led me to a Princeton U address. I had it in my head that he was some kind of Einstein, and automatically assumed he was some big-shot ivy-league professor now, but that’s foolish of me. I see the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. It turns out that he’s just a working stiff like meself. It was okay though. I told him how I felt growing up without a permanent father and he tells me how he’s grown into a man without knowing he’s had a neglected son. I threw a couple of impulse insults at him, blaming him for being alone, but generally I knew I still loved him. Why did I come all the way here to do just that? Merely to let us know that both of us exist.
In no particular rush to go back to shipyard work and English pubs, I stuck around for a while. Like I mentioned, the hospitality and newfound warmth had to come from somewhere. His name was Max Carrigan. He looked pretty clean cut, but who knows, he could’ve murdered his granny with a hammer. We were cruising around the roads for a bit before we picked up his sister. I was well aware I had Molly in Liverpool, but there was just something about her— about Lucy. She was as radiant as a diamond with her sky blue eyes. They invited me over as a humbled guest for Thanksgiving, a holiday we Brits don’t have back home. It was sort of like a new life, it was. It was very different and rich with family members who spent their time passing the stuffing from one end of a table to another. The Carrigans argued about politics and education, but most importantly they made a huge debacle in regards to Max’s current status at Princeton. As they predicted, he was just getting by, having fun playing golf around campus and so on. They pestered him with questions complaining about tuition fees and what he intends to do for the rest of his life. Typically Max was annoyed and in his defence asked, "Why is it always about what will I do? Why isn’t the issue who I am? It’s not what you do that defines who you are but rather who you are that defines what you do."
Honestly, I myself have never had to ask these questions before and then they call upon me. The only reaction I get is intensified silence. "Surely, it’s not what you do…but how you do it."
Since it’s just me and me mum, my education itself is rarely a topic of conversation. My only job was to make sure that food made it to the table.
Feeling intolerable about the Thanksgiving dinner, Max and Lucy took me bowling as a treat on them. Ten-pin to be precise. It wasn’t the most romantic place as it typically would be, but it was enough to realize I had fallen for someone new. Really, Molly I am remorseful for having it happen, but there was nothing I could do. Honestly,
I Should’ve Known Better.
Since it was such a heated topic at the dinner table, Lucy teased me throughout the night and was curious whether or not the English education differed. I insisted that it wouldn’t make a difference, but I guess there was nothing that stopped Lucy from trying.
She spent a couple of minutes thinking of something to stump me with, as I did nothing else but watch her. That’s what people do,
It’s Only Love.
I was told that the arrangement of the ten bowling pins formed a parabola. The division between the carpet and the wooden floor is the x-axis. The pins were placed in four rows where the number of pins in each row was equal to the number of the row. The central and only pin in the first row acted as the vertex that lied directly on the y-axis. The distance from the vertext to a focus point in the fourth row was 4. The focus point on the fourth row was situated at (0, 8). Lucy handed me paper and demanded an equation and the sketch of the graph. She found that the question was too easy so she told me to justify whether or not the parabola passed through the point (4, 5).She was satisfied with my answer, but then she challenged me to hit the pins that I spent so much time drawing on paper.
It was later that night that Max asked me to move with him to New York. But what was the rush? I was starting to like it here, especially with her here and all. I guess I made it boldly obvious that I had a thing for his little sister as he automatically became defensive.
MAX: She has a boyfriend, you know. He’s just stationed in the war right now. His name is Daniel.It’s okay…I have a girlfriend. Her name was Molly.Labels: DEV question, journal entry, Jude's Drafting Table
strawstrawstrawberry. 9:38 PM
It's been a long time since I've written, but this is what happened. Max and I took a strenuous drive across the country in order to get to the Big Apple. Where to next? It’s really hard not knowing what your next move is; it’s
A Hard Day’s Night. With a couple hundred bucks in our pockets, we bought an issue of
Rap Magazine and we saw an ad for an apartment in the Soho village, which was hardly a place to be cheap up front. Max saw it differently and managed to persuade the landlady Sadie with a two-week advance.
After months of settling in, we met a bunch of exciting people like Jojo, a soulful guitarist looking for work, we discover that Sadie is also an aspiring singer who is getting by. Jojo tells me and Max that the only reason why she let him stay there is because she needed a guitarist and fast. It was only just recently that an opportunity came her way. A renowned music producer in New York has come just to see her act. She only has a week to find a place most appropriate to hold her gig and she’s asked for my help specifically since I sort of majored in architecture and art. Who knows; helping Sadie may bring some good karma in return so of course I was the man for the job.
Just around the corner was
The Round Pub, which I felt was most suitable since it wasn’t a drag to move the equipment into and had a sort of vibe about the place. On the contrary, I spoke with the owner of the pub. He negotiated affordable rates, just as long as we could work around a slight problem. The majority of the space inside the pub is used for bartending and customer seating. Sadie needs space for the members of her band, the Po Boys and the equipment as well. It can’t be cramped or the band can’t play comfortably. But they can’t take up too much space as they can’t afford to rid additional seating. She wonders if she has enough room or if she has to lose a part of the speaker system crucial for the band to be heard. She had to make a huge choice that day.
Sadie's stage manager specified that the space they would take up would be equivalent to the sector tan (α + β). α and β aren't directly given but sin α = 12/15, cos β = 12/13 , given that cos α > 0 and sin β > 0. On the other hand, the pub owner says that the maximum area he could give the band was 100 m2. Using the information above, find the area Sadie's band would require if the radius of the room was 2 metres.
It turns out we did have the right amount of room for the band to play— and play they did. The people were all snug and Sadie and the Po Boys rocked out. The night was amazing and a huge success. As for the good karma returning my way? Lucy decided it was time to visit me and Max before her first year of college started. Lucky me.Labels: DEV question, journal entry, Jude's Drafting Table
strawstrawstrawberry. 9:29 PM
As a brother, Max told her that she could do better than me. I wasn’t quite sure if he was joking or not. But that’s the way it is,
And I Love Her. He was probably just upset when Luce gave him that letter at the diner a week ago. People were throwing all kinds of suggestions at him: contract some fatal disease, pretend you were a different sexual orientation, eat beets to make his urine appear red or even eat cotton balls so a shadow will show up in an x-ray.
We all tried to get his mind off of it, but nothing can relieve that stress. Nothing changes the fact that he had to show up for his date with Uncle Sam.
After reporting to an induction center for the draft, Max was more than willing to do anything it takes to avoid the situation. He tried to do everything we suggested but it didn’t work. He only saw two options that remained: incarceration or Canada. One of the mates suggested Montreal specifically.
Learn French or Die. As a last resort he moved to Montreal. Before he left, he told me to take care of Lucy and that he didn’t mean what he said before. It was relieving to have his approval.
He flew to Montreal and got a job as a taxi driver. When he wasn’t working he wrote letters to everyone here in NYC. It hadn’t even been a full two weeks yet and I decided to drive Sadie’s car over. I thought New York was different. Montreal had a different feeling; it was less hectic and not everyone was hunting you down. The revolution was not as bad as it was down south but people were still aware of what was happening. I spent a couple of days with him and told him how different it was so far. Lucy missed him, Sadie missed his teasing but he had no choice. All he did was watch the sunrises. What got him so interested in sunsets in the first place were the old almanacs scattered around the once-abandoned suite. He didn't really do much but read them.
The latest sunrise was on Dec. 22 at 9:15 AM. According to the almanac, the earliest sunrise occurred on the 22nd of June at 3:15 AM. The sunrise times on other dates can be predicted using a sinusoidal equation.
(a) Write two equations for the described function above; one using cosine and the other using sine.
(b) Sketch the graph for the sinusoidal function described in the problem.
(c) Use one of the equations in (a) to predict the time of sunrise on September 7.
(d) What is the average sunrise time throughout the year?I suggested him to come back…just for a little while. The drafting centers passed through the apartment the other day hunting for Max and he wasn’t there. What would make them come by again? He wasn’t there the first time.
So yeah, we came back. Everyone was happy but still, they couldn’t help being scared. I honestly don’t know why I suggested this…when we had a night on the town, we got caught. Why couldn’t we just wait? It was my entire fault. Now he has to report in two weeks or else they’ll put him in jail for sure. No escape. I even think they had someone watch him. It all happened so fast.
Labels: DEV question, journal entry, Jude's Drafting Table
strawstrawstrawberry. 8:42 PM
I remember the day when Prudence first entered the apartment.
She Came Through The Bathroom Window. She took Max’s place as a roomie for a while, but things got weird when Lucy got here. So she had a talk with Sadie about it and the sweet person Sadie was, generously gave her a room for a while. Prudence on the other hand didn’t take it too well. She despised being so dependent on everyone. She told me and Luce the story about how she wound up in New York City in the first place after hitchhiking from Ohio. She dropped out of high school and moved in with her boyfriend who later abused her and nearly stole everything.
All Prudence had now was the $750 she invested in the bank. The teller said that the money she invested earned interest at the rate of 9%, compounded continuously. How long will it take for the investment to triple? Quadruple?Of course all she had wasn’t quite enough to make it on her own, but that’s why she had us; her friends. She locked herself in the closet and we did nothing but try to make her day. We also went down to see what the commotion was all about. It was the peace march against the war. The man on the megaphone was Paco. Sure, he was doing it for a great cause, but I had a hunch about this guy. Unfortunately, Lucy was so captivated by his movement. She went to their offices and decided to become a part of their revolution. I wasn’t comfortable with it, but I can only do so much.
On the brighter side of the day, Sadie invited us to a gala that promoted a book by Doctor Robert.
I Am The Walrus it was called.
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.That’s all I remember, really. I remember the night in flashes. First we’re at some party for a book and now we’re in some field watching a circus that Prudence was in. Where were we? Dr. Robert abandoned us for California and didn’t have the courtesy to bring us back to New York. But I’ll say one thing. That was some dream. Psychedelic…Water…Grass…Floating.
Labels: DEV question, journal entry, Jude's Drafting Table
strawstrawstrawberry. 8:33 PM
I felt so distant from everything and everyone. I haven’t talked to Lucy in days and Max is off fighting for his life in ‘nam. I’ve almost forgotten about Liverpool. I haven’t been taking the time to write to me mum and old girlfriend now, because I’m so pre-occupied with taking care of Lucy, and trying to help everyone else solve their problems. I haven’t really taken time for myself lately.
People told me it wasn’t my fault that Max got caught and drafted, but it was me who brought him back here. If he didn’t come back, he wouldn’t have gone to war. I honestly don’t know what to believe now. Lucy is being radicalized and brainwashed by Paco, and I have a stronger opinion of him than I do of this whole immoral war. With all this running through my mind, it’s hard for me to get a real job.
It just came back to me that Sadie and Jojo needed a logo for their record company they were going to hatch up. The only inspiration I can afford right now though comes from the groceries. Celery…no, they seem one-dimensionally green. Eggs are too bland. The strawberries catch my eye. They’re red. Red much like the fury that lies in my emotion. As much as I’d like to change the world I live in now, I can’t— Not in America. Don’t get me wrong. I like it here. Although I’m not really here, you know, without a visa I don’t officially exist. It’s exhilarating in a way; it’s like a weird kind of freedom. And the last thing I’d want to do is anger the government that has the power to send me back to where I came from. I’ve grown more here as a person and these strawberries have grown into my muse. Again, they’re red, big and juicy and that is enough for me to paint a vision for a logo.
Soldiers are trained to stand in formation, row by row and are forced to stay there. To be honest, I think they’re held into place by pins. Call this a piece that yells for symbolism, where strawberries, metaphorically speaking, are people.
For this art piece, strawberries were pinned to the wall. On the first row, six out of the eleven strawberries had a yellow pin that supported them in place. The rest of them were held up by green pins. Five of these eleven strawberries had the crown of leaves that grew on top.
(a) In how many different ways could the strawberries be arranged if the leaved strawberries remained together?(b) If the eleven strawberries from the original batch were placed into a separate container, what is the probability of getting first a leafless berry with a green pin followed by a leaved strawberry with a yellow pin, given that the first strawberry wasn't replaced.?Although I saw that the pinned strawberries were really deep, I don’t think it’s appropriate and happy. What else could I muster up? I might as well crush the leftovers and use them as paint. Maybe a strawberry could be a heart. Like I said, it was big, red and juicy. Forgive my lack of better words, but what more was there to say? I really just wish everything was over.Labels: DEV question, journal entry, Jude's Drafting Table
strawstrawstrawberry. 7:47 PM
