03. Tings Nov 03

(5:31 am Nov 03, 2005)

Junkanoo.

Junkanoo - Energy.

Junkanoo - Power.

Junkanoo - Creativity.

Junkanoo - Freedom.

Junkanoo - Confidence.

Junkanoo - Strength.

Junkanoo - Resourcefulness.

Junkanoo - Persistence.

Junkanoo - Purpose.

Junkanoo - Achievement.

Junkanoo - Success.

Junkanoo - Valley Boys.

Junkanoo - Saxons.

Junkanoo - Roots.

Junkanoo - One Family.

Junkanoo - Scrap Gangs.

Junkanoo - Rhythm.

Junkanoo - Beat.

And so we come to Bruno. Sitting in his car with his notebook plugged into the receptacle (also know as (or should we say once know as) as cigarette lighter) his wifi card spitting bits into the aether. He was working on his 2005 Nano Novel. He had xchat fired up and was joined to #bslug on freenode and to the nano channel #nanowrimo on goodchatting. #bslug was quite at this time of morning, but #nanowrimo was cooking already. Forty five people joined and text scrolling up the screen faster than he could hope to keep track of and write at the same time.

The words were coming out well this morning, a little slower than he would like, but no major blocks at this time. Abiword was doing its usual fine job of recording his thoughts and leo was keeping the whole book, and the notes and ideas that went into making it, well organized. Firefox was sitting minimized, waiting to be called into use to quickly hit google and look up any needed information. Sitting underneath the whole was his trusty Debian. His Linux. His Gnu/Linux if you will. This jewel of an operating system. And so much more.

Bruno thought of the GPL and smiled. His thoughts drifted to the Creative Commons and their BY-SA license and he smiled again.

Gotta get back to the novel. Gotta remember not to use google too much this year as well. Last year, the searching had put a serious damper on his words per minute figure.

(5:53 am Nov 03, 2005)

He was just getting going again when the need for tea hit him. Got to take a break to grab a cup. He sat his computer on the car seat and closed the lid. He dashed into a nearby place and ordered a cup of hot tea to go.

(6:09 am Nov 03, 2005)

Well, what was that all about? You would think they had to dig the well to get the water to make the tea. Or perhaps plant the tea bushes and wait for maturity? Who knows. Words per minute were heading south and if he was not careful, Bruno could start losing his groove. Focus. Let the fingers fly.

He wrote for a while longer and then saved his work and opened up a new document to make some notes for his interview with one of the local papers. It seems that the girl he had rescued yesterday was someone famous and that word of his exploits had gotten around and everyone wanted an interview.

Bruno didn't grant too many interviews these days. At one time he had relished the publicity because he figured it could help the cause of live music. These days, he didn't like giving others an exclusive copyright on his words. He preferred to keep his own copyrights on his own words and to release most of them under a copyleft license.

(6:25 am Nov 03, 2005)

Clifton.

What can we say? We have already had a passing introduction to Clifton, but I am sure many of you will need more information before we are done wit dese tings.

Clifton Pier. A place of caves and cliffs. A place of ocean swells and coral reefs that invite filmmakers and photographers. A place for thrill seekers and fishermen. A place for lovers. A place for bats and guano. A pirates staircase. A power plant. A brewery. A place where oil tankers dock and unload. And spill. A place for scuba divers.

A place of historical significance. A battleground.

And sometimes, a dangerous place.

A place that Bruddah Bing and Bruddah Boom called home.

(6:35 am Nov 03, 2005)

A place that they were reluctantly making plans to leave.

What the had witnessed yesterday had unsettled them and caused them a restless and sleepless night. In their world view, things like that just should not happen. When they awoke this morning from a troubled doze, they looked into each other's eyes and they knew. There was no discussion needed. They just knew.

And so they were going over plans to set the situation right. To track down Cang and XXIII and to free XXIII at all costs. And to deprogram him if necessary. The alternative did not bear contemplating.

(6:41 am Nov 03, 2005)

Cang and XXIII woke up on a smack boat headed for Spanish Wells.

(6:42 am Nov 03, 2005)

Jelli rolled out of bed. He had a passing thought of starting the day off with some hot corn bread but decided to head down to the Wind once again for some steamed bologna and grits with some johnny cake and some tea.

He was hoping he would run into Bruno again. He had something he wanted to go over with him. It was funny how you could make a friend and then go for so many years without seeing them and on meeting them again pick right up where you left off. Sure, there were things to catch up on, but the friendship seemed to be able to endure the gap. Then again, it could just be Bruno. Time seemed to do strange things around him.

Sometimes it seemed to run fast and sometimes it seemed to run slow. That wasn't too much of a problem. Sometimes it seemed to run backwards. That could really warp the mind and cause strange feelings.

When Jelli walked into the Wind, Bruno was already there, sitting at a table in the back by the coolers and typing away madly. Funny thing about Bruno. If you listened while he typed, there was an almost musical rhythm produced by the striking of the keys. If you weren't careful, it could lull you into a state of not quite full consciousness.

Jelli needed to remain fully conscious for what he wanted to go over with Bruno this morning and decided to stay that way with a combination of loud and boisterous talk and caffeine .

(7:04 am Nov 03, 2005)

(7:48 pm Nov 03, 2005)

Jelli pulled his whaler in to the dock and eased back on the throttle as Bruno jumped from the bow with a line in hand. It was late. to be getting back in. They should have been back hours ago.

They had headed out from the Wind after breakfast and headed out in the whaler. Jelli had taken her out through the narrows and then behind Spruce Cay and over to the North side of Rose. They had done some spearing out around Green Cay and Iron Bound Rock before heading in to McTaggert's beach and roasting their fish on an open fire built in a hole dug in the sand and fueled by dead casuarina branches gathered up in a few minutes.

Sand.

Yes, sand in the islands was something special. Bruno loved it. He loved looking at it. Photographing it. Digging in it. Lying on it. Playing on it. Making things with it. It was very versatile. It came in multiple colours and in various sizes from very fine to coarse. Bruno was fondest of the white and pink beaches.

While Jelli cleaned the fish and started grilling them, Bruno had broken out some conchs and cleaned them down at the water's edge. Sand was a great help in this endeavour. It was extremely useful in getting the slime away.

After a late lunch, they had messed about a bit more on the beach before heading out an messing about a bit more in the boat. It was during the second round of messing about that the trouble had started.

The prop go tangled up in something and everything fell apart. It had taken hours to untangle and chop away the mess. In the end, it turned out to be a net made of Blue Nylon Thread.

Now I know what you are thinking here.

You are thinking that it must be the net that Bruddah Bing and Bruddah Boom had made.

Nope. It was a completely different net. I know, I know, it is hard to believe, but I must ask you to try extra hard to suspend your disbelief for me on this one.

Anyway, after the had cleared the prop, the engine wouldn't start. Jelli tried some not so gentle persuasion on the thing, but it was finally Bruno who had coaxed it into life. Well, some semblance of life at least. It would not put out enough power to get the whaler up on a plane. It wouldn't even get them going very fast in a displacement sort of way.

Anyway, they finally limped into the harbour and were now going to hook the boat up to the hoist and drop her on her trailer. About now, you may be wondering what the name of this whaler was and I will tell you. It was named Cay Dreams. Jelli had bought it years and years ago from a girl named Linda Pinder. He had kept it in good condition and had changed the engine once about ten years back.

He had liked Linda but she had moved away and he had lost track of her. He always remembered a verse she had told him someone had written for her in her teenage years.

Linda Pinder,
your beauty's fire,
my soul's a cinder.

Jelli liked how that felt on the tongue.

Perhaps he and Bruno could do something with it.

(8:19 pm Nov 03, 2005)

Coral.

You got hard corals and you got soft corals. You got brain coral and you got fire coral. You got fire coral and you got trouble. Trust me on this one.

Bruno was suffering its effects now. Sometime during the day, he had wondered into a fire coral without realizing it until it was too late.

And by then it was too late.

Take my advice. Learn what fire coral looks like and stay away from it.

Jelli wanted to take Bruno out to dinner but Bruno said he was in too much pain and that he had to get back to writing his book and so Jelli dropped him off and headed out for a quick bite to eat.

He grabbed a snack from a chicken shack and wolfed it down with a pepsi and then headed out to a local club that had opened up recently where you could hear live music playing. Bruno had started affecting him again already.

Bruno drove back to his room and ordered in a pizza. He went on line to browse around a bit and fool around in the nano forums while waiting for the food to show up. His plan was to finish eating and soak in a hot tub for a while before getting down to writing for the night. He hoped he could stay awake long enough to get our his daily quote. It had been a long day and he was beat. He really should not have gone out in the boat today, but Jelli was an old friend and it had been enjoyable despite all the mishaps.

(8:35 pm Nov 03, 2005)

Bruno fell asleep and dreamed sweet dreams of West End Girls. Dreamed of East End Knights and honeyed twirls. Then the pizza delivery guy woke him up pounding on the door and shouting pizza.

Enough wasting time. Bruno paid the delivery guy and carefully locked the door. He sat at the dinette table and ate his dinner and then went back to his laptop. He minimized firefox and then fired up leo and abiword.

Soon, he was lost in the process of creation. The process of bringing forth words from deep within. Sometimes dragging them out kicking and screaming, sometimes rushing to keep up as they gushed out in great torrents, faster than he could type.

He was really starting to get into his story now and was finding himself grinning in places. Sometimes, he even heard himself chuckle. Yes, this year had possibilities.

(8:47 pm Nov 03, 2005)

He wrote for a little longer and passed his word goal for the day. It was good that he had done so much in the morning before going out with Jelli. After passing the goal, he switched from cranking out the words to planning a bit for the upcoming days. Both in terms of writing and in terms of his live music promotional efforts.

He woke up the next morning with his head on the table and leo staring him in the face.