Ian On The Red Dot

A good series of blog posts to understand rails routing.

Recently, I started following the TV series Life starring Damian Lewis of ‘Band of Brothers’ fame. Like any good TV series, this one is choke-full of memorable quotes.

There was a scene in Episode 3 of Season 2 ‘ The Business Of Miracles’, where Charlie Crews was questioning a suspect, which really hit me. The suspect was an activist against animal abuse.

To paraphrase what Charlie said, basically, a person becomes an activist for one of two reasons:

1. They had earlier perpetuated some crime.
2. They had witnessed some crime.

I know, with regards to a social issue that I want to be more involved in, where I stand.

On another note, the way Charlie wants to get back with his wife, even though she had divorced him when he was convicted, adds a sweet romantic undertone to the series.

I love Quantum of Solace. Not just because Olga Kurylenko is smoking hot (refer below). Not just because the movie was action packed.

I love the movie because it was a beautifully made movie that chronicled the end of the birth of the James Bond that we first knew through Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.

Watch the clip below before I answer the question, “Why was it snowing at the end of the James Bond movie?’.

When watching this movie, one should appreciate it as the second part of a story arc that started with Casino Royale. There is a certain symmetry between the way Casino Royale begins and how Quantum of Solace ends.

In Casino Royale, we see the first two kills that Bond makes; two kills that are part of his initiation before he qualifies as a ‘double O’. The first kill was a difficult messy one to complete. The second much easier. Too easy in fact. And the rest of the next two movies show how quickly Bond has transitioned into a merciless free-wheeling killing machine albeit one driven by emotion, until of course the penultimate scene of Quantum of Solace.

In this scene, Bond waits patiently in the dark, like he did in the beginning scene of Casino Royale, for his target to enter the apartment. This time though, he doesn’t kill his prey. Which is a nice way to complete the development of Bond as a spy.

To show he could be a ‘double O’, he had to kill. To stay as a ‘double O’, he had to show restrain. The mirroring of both scenes serving as bookends to the story was beautiful.

The last scene really clinched the deal for me.

“Coming in from the cold” is a popular phrase used when talking about spies. A novel that used a variation of this phrase is “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” written by John Le Carre.

Usually, a spy would come in from the cold at the end of the career; the spy leaves his self-imposed physical and emotional isolation and rejoins society in a meaningful manner – the spy comes home.

At the end of Quantum of Solace, as Bond walks away from M, he drops Vesper’s necklace, thus severing all emotional ties with his past, killing (or maybe storing) away the remnants of the Bond who could love and thus who could be hurt or used. Bond walks away, as the ruthless emotionless misogynistic spy that we see in the earlier films, into the harsh cold night.

Trivia about the clip above: Notice how as the elevator goes up, and we get a shot of the floor numbers incrementing. The shot shows the number incrementing until six before cutting away to a shot of the soon to be killed section chief walking along a corridor.

Cowboy Caleb wrote the below about this site:

Singaporean Lady Prostitutes Herself On Blog – you’re overpriced, you stupid skank.

Which makes me wonder – why the vitriolic comment.

At first, I thought Cowboy Caleb was not happy with the service, but having followed Cowboy Caleb’s blog, I don’t think he is that sort of guy (i.e he isn’t the kind that needs to pay for sex / if he wanted it, he gets it for free, he is that cool) plus he is married so he confirm won’t indulge in such stuff.

So, I’m thinking it is just moral indignation.

Then why the indignation with the lady who is enterprising enough to use a blog to promote her social escort services.

Sure, these supposed social escort services are more often than not a big ‘nudge-nudge-wink-wink-we-really-know-what-it-is-all-about’ prelude to the really good stuff. So? But who really knows anyway…I’m not rich enough to pay that sort of prices.

Then I decided to do a little Googling, and found this site.

It would seem the average price is around $250 an hour on that site. Wait, let’s look at other sites.

This site is charging way more for their girls. And if you have any doubts about the nature of these services, look at the URL – ‘ons_rates.html’. In case you are wondering, ‘ONS’ is the abbreviation for ‘one night stand’. This site charges $1500 for an hour. WTF.

I decided to check one more site, and I hit the sweet spot. The services for these girls are also higher than babyvincy’s. But check out the girls being offered, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you will find babyvincy. Guess what, she charges $800 on this site.

What does that mean?

It means someone else is probably getting a cut of $300 from babyvincy’s work.

What’s worse I wonder – a gal using her body to get ahead in life (at least in monetary terms) or someone who uses a gal’s body to get ahead in life?

If there was a hell, who will get tortured by Lucifer himself and who will be given to Hitler to toy around with?

Anyway, back to the original question – what’s wrong with prostituting yourself?

No seriously, what’s wrong? We live in a world where women are being used to sell something else for money. Think about it.

Have you been to the legendary car showroom where the female salesperson would let you check the car engine, positioning herself well enough across the front so that you can also check out the ‘mountains and valley’?

You don’t know about the showroom? Shows you ain’t rich enough to shop for cars there. Go ask your old rich uncles. They’ll probably know.

Or did you hear the one about the private banker who had to sleep with her client just to meet her quota?

Nope?

Hey, you ain’t rich enough to be sold private banking products.

What’s my point?

We live in a world where we use women. Simple as that. We use their physical attractiveness. We use their bodies. Sometimes, we disguise it as advertising. Sometimes, as marketing. Sometimes, as relationship marketing.

Sure, not all salespeople do that. Sure, not all women find it within themselves to be used like that.

So, what’s my point again.

The product is different. That’s all. Still same strategy.

When you look at a gal like babyvincy, don’t get upset that you’ll looking at a ‘cheap whore’ cos frankly she isn’t. She is just an enterprising young woman who is cutting out the middle man and selling the product that people (or rather men) really want to buy.

I came across a variation of this quote today,

No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.

which triggered my memory of this scene:

and it reminded me of this bad-ass officer that probably saved my life in national service.

This OC was one legendary ‘fucker’. He was strict. He was abusive. He was tough. There was an exercise we were on when he dislocated his shoulder. He finished the whole exercise before going for any proper medical treatment. He made us do a lot of crazy shit during exercises.

And most importantly, he was a fucking tough disciplinarian. And that probably saved my life.

We were in Australia when the accident happened. Just before the accident, my armor vehicle had made a roadside stop for some administrative purposes. The ramp for the vehicle was down and my section mates and me had our helmets off. We were eating our combat rations and were slacking off.

As we were about to move off, with the ramp being brought up, the officer’s vehicle pulled up behind us and he got off the vehicle. We saw him before he could see us without our helmets. My section mate said something to this effect, “FUCK…OC is here. Better wear helmet before he fuck us.”

We were that scared of him.

Anyway, here’s the thing. While against safety protocol, soldiers sometimes get complacent and take off their helmets in the vehicle, even when it is moving, for a little physical comfort. We would have done the same thing that day if we hadn’t seen the OC and weren’t so afraid of him as a strict disciplinarian.

Not too long after we put on our helmets, we collided with another armored vehicle. Everything inside the vehicle flew. A lot of shit hit our heads. A lot of heavy sharp shit.

But we were safe. We were protected because we had worn our helmets.

Reading up on Patton and some of his quotes, I am reminded of what it means to be tough on people you are supposed to care for. Sometimes, you do others a disservice by being soft on them.

Some quotes about the importance of discipline:

It is absurd to believe that soldiers who cannot be made to wear the proper uniform can be induced to move forward in battle. Officers who fail to perform their duty by correcting small violations and in enforcing proper conduct are incapable of leading.

You cannot be disciplined in great things and indiscipline in small things. Brave undisciplined men have no chance against the discipline and valour of other men. Have you ever seen a few policemen handle a crowd?

All men are timid on entering any fight. Whether it is the first or the last fight, all of us are timid. Cowards are those who let their timidity get the better of their manhood.

If you can’t get them to salute when they should salute and wear the clothes you tell them to wear, how are you going to get them to die for their country?

Reg Braithwaite is using GitHub as a blogging platform. It’s an interesting idea in a non-gimmicky way.