the photo op
fiction
edward w pritchard
For his wife's birthday the President of the United States decided to surprise her with a photo of the 100,000 most important celebrities alive in the year 2010 and naturally he wanted the picture taken at the Hollywood bowl. Embarrassingly the plans were in progress before one of the Presidents staff informed him the bowl would only seat 17,500. Rather than move the photo op the President reluctantly agreed to cut the number of celebrities invited.
Of course arguments and posturing followed of who would be the most important living celebrities. A furor followed and national interest and normal business was pleasantly forgotten as the claws came out among the famous to have their picture taken at the Hollywood bowl.
Should a musician who had made one great song in 1954 be asked to the event? How about a baseball player who pitched one perfect game in 1965? What about a famous evangelist who had retired without scandal? How about a politician who hadn't written a book?
Eventually categories of fame and fortune and stardom were devised and in good time the 17,500 celebrities were gathered and the picture was taken.
Sadly because of pressing concerns the President was unable to make it to the photo op. His wife was Ok with that because she never really liked the picture as the smiles seemed a little contrived.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
ten year sentence- finale
ten year sentence- finale
fiction
edward w pritchard
note see willie tucker's blues June blog
To Sharon Evans
Seven Stories West Apt #78
9782 Michigan Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 009009876
Dear Ms. Evans:
We regret to inform you of the death of your friend patriot and space explorer William Tucker on the moon Europa, a satellite of Jupiter. Willie was doing top secret work and was killed in volcanic activity caused by a storm on nearby Jupiter.
Please accept your countries sympathies and gratitude as you mourn his passing.
Enclosed is the proceeds of Mr. Tucker's life insurance proceeds of which you are the sole beneficiary. Mr.Tucker's personal effects should arrive for you from Europa in about six months.
You can be proud of Willie, Ms. Evans for the work he was involved in is critical to future space exploration and as his section head we will miss Willie's willingness to do what it took to get the job done here on Europa.
Solace and Peace be with you,
Antonio Craventz
section head
Europa exploration unit 24
END
fiction
edward w pritchard
note see willie tucker's blues June blog
To Sharon Evans
Seven Stories West Apt #78
9782 Michigan Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 009009876
Dear Ms. Evans:
We regret to inform you of the death of your friend patriot and space explorer William Tucker on the moon Europa, a satellite of Jupiter. Willie was doing top secret work and was killed in volcanic activity caused by a storm on nearby Jupiter.
Please accept your countries sympathies and gratitude as you mourn his passing.
Enclosed is the proceeds of Mr. Tucker's life insurance proceeds of which you are the sole beneficiary. Mr.Tucker's personal effects should arrive for you from Europa in about six months.
You can be proud of Willie, Ms. Evans for the work he was involved in is critical to future space exploration and as his section head we will miss Willie's willingness to do what it took to get the job done here on Europa.
Solace and Peace be with you,
Antonio Craventz
section head
Europa exploration unit 24
END
ten year sentence part 8
ten year sentence part 8
fiction
edward w pritchard
There is no water on Europa as far as I can see. Still we toil on digging the tunnels to divert water from the source to the base camp, should water ever be found. Money is flowing in from the earth because of the IPO's. Over 15 trillion dollars have been raised. We dig and plan for the water to support the large colonies and the investors bid up and up the IPO's based on water that may not exist. The work is excruciating and very dangerous. Europa is unstable geologically and there have been several deaths.
It was a minor quake that killed my three friends of the crew of the India team. All were killed a few weeks ago when a shaft collapsed. I was on the surface driving a debris removal vehicle and was injured but after twenty five stitches I am fine. My friends are gone however and now I am stuck alone on Europa and have been reassigned to the Italian crew.
I have started to write and sing the blues again in my bunk on my day off. I think Europa is worse than Io, if that's possible. Sometimes I remember how Lalia looked in that leotard. Shuim and Poj are gone too of course. An interesting phenomena about Europa is that my harmonica has a very soulful echo when I play the blues here. It's probably because of the winds caused by the gravitational irregularities because of proximity to Jupiter.
fiction
edward w pritchard
There is no water on Europa as far as I can see. Still we toil on digging the tunnels to divert water from the source to the base camp, should water ever be found. Money is flowing in from the earth because of the IPO's. Over 15 trillion dollars have been raised. We dig and plan for the water to support the large colonies and the investors bid up and up the IPO's based on water that may not exist. The work is excruciating and very dangerous. Europa is unstable geologically and there have been several deaths.
It was a minor quake that killed my three friends of the crew of the India team. All were killed a few weeks ago when a shaft collapsed. I was on the surface driving a debris removal vehicle and was injured but after twenty five stitches I am fine. My friends are gone however and now I am stuck alone on Europa and have been reassigned to the Italian crew.
I have started to write and sing the blues again in my bunk on my day off. I think Europa is worse than Io, if that's possible. Sometimes I remember how Lalia looked in that leotard. Shuim and Poj are gone too of course. An interesting phenomena about Europa is that my harmonica has a very soulful echo when I play the blues here. It's probably because of the winds caused by the gravitational irregularities because of proximity to Jupiter.
ten year sentence part 7
ten year sentence part 7
fiction
edward w pritchard
The team is intact and in a few hours we will be landing on Europa. The company enticed Lalie to come to Europa by making her project head of our section. Shuim was told if he spends three months helping set things up on Europa he will get the remainder of his ten years as accelerated credit. He jumped at that, his chance to get out of the hell of Io, and get back to earth. Once we got on the ship however, Shuim is having forebodings that we will all die on Europa. I continue to have the dreams about the volcano at Pompeii in 79AD back on earth. However, we all have got a huge raise and Lalie calls the water project on Europa the most important engineering project since the Roman aqueducts. That's an interesting choice of imagery given my dreams of Pompeii.
end part 7
fiction
edward w pritchard
The team is intact and in a few hours we will be landing on Europa. The company enticed Lalie to come to Europa by making her project head of our section. Shuim was told if he spends three months helping set things up on Europa he will get the remainder of his ten years as accelerated credit. He jumped at that, his chance to get out of the hell of Io, and get back to earth. Once we got on the ship however, Shuim is having forebodings that we will all die on Europa. I continue to have the dreams about the volcano at Pompeii in 79AD back on earth. However, we all have got a huge raise and Lalie calls the water project on Europa the most important engineering project since the Roman aqueducts. That's an interesting choice of imagery given my dreams of Pompeii.
end part 7
ten year sentence part 6
ten year sentence part 6
fiction
edward w pritchard
There is no confirmed water yet on Io. Io is the trial run for later projects on Europa which is going to be more expensive by a multiple of 100 to excavate and lay the pipes and set the reservoir. The work we do on Io is training for the Europa project, training in the similar weird relationship that the moons of Jupiter have with the gravity of the gigantic planet, which causes the thermal tides and volcanic activity. Our team has been approached to go to Europa. I will go of course for the more money as will Poj. Lalie might go, depending on the project description, and Shuim says he will not go to Europa under no circumstances. Shuim says Europa is more unstable than Io, he expects any projects there to be blown apart by volcanic activity. However, as Poj says, the futures markets on earth value the potential for water on Europa at 30 times what it is on Io, and that's where the money is going. Unless I want to go back to excavating rocks again at the home base here, I am going to Europa.
end part 6
fiction
edward w pritchard
There is no confirmed water yet on Io. Io is the trial run for later projects on Europa which is going to be more expensive by a multiple of 100 to excavate and lay the pipes and set the reservoir. The work we do on Io is training for the Europa project, training in the similar weird relationship that the moons of Jupiter have with the gravity of the gigantic planet, which causes the thermal tides and volcanic activity. Our team has been approached to go to Europa. I will go of course for the more money as will Poj. Lalie might go, depending on the project description, and Shuim says he will not go to Europa under no circumstances. Shuim says Europa is more unstable than Io, he expects any projects there to be blown apart by volcanic activity. However, as Poj says, the futures markets on earth value the potential for water on Europa at 30 times what it is on Io, and that's where the money is going. Unless I want to go back to excavating rocks again at the home base here, I am going to Europa.
end part 6
ten year sentence part 5
ten year sentence part 5
fiction
edward w pritchard
I have been having lucid reoccurring dreams about Pompeii back on earth and how Mount Vesuvius destroyed the towns around the volcano in 79AD. I think the dreams our prophetic. They had aqueducts back in Roman Italy that supported life in waterless places and allowed Pompeii and the other towns around the bay of Neapolis to grow to large populations. The dreams started after Poj introduced me to speculating on the water futures here. There is an incredible amount of money to be made and information about water prospects here is very valuable. Of course its illegal for us workers to trade on inside information, but many do including Poj. The dreams i am having are, I think, my internal conflict caused by the money to be made versus following the rules.
There are lots and lots of new people coming to Io. Prices are skyrocketing and my salary is not keeping up with price increases here. The other crew members have been subsidizing me. They buy lots of the food we eat which is very expensive because they try to have non processed items, extremely difficult in space, even just back on the earth's moon. I haven't been saving money having forgotten about Sharon more or less. I had a date of sorts with Lalie. She read to me from the Upandishads in ancient hindu and then translated into English, and I wrote a blues song about it. She says that intelligence of the type she has is common but I have a talent for originality which is uncoventional. She wore blue jeans and a sweat shirt on our date and I think I like her better in that than in her colorful clothes, but thats too close to call.
Work here is awful. It's cut throat and the regulations cannot be met collectively but individually now and then someone has to take a fall to maintain the illusion of order and stability. The water project is generating an incredible amount of speculative interest back on earth. There are lots of Wall Street business types looking around while we work in the field. Some guys from the commodity exchanges in Chicago gave me some pizza from home when they learned I was from Chicago. Man that was good. I was offered $250 for a slice at the poker game but I shared it with our crew instead and ate the other whole piece myself.
These dreams about Roman Pompeii are interesting. I think I am intuiting things I have never heard of or read. Pompeii according to my dreams was a hot bed of business speculation and corruption just before the erruption in 79AD. I see in my dreams things in Pompeii that are similar to here. The water project and the aqueducts are parellels and the erruption of the volcano and the suffering it caused might have a prophetic interpetation here.
Poj has been smuggling information back to earth in the programming about the water projects that he compiles for the company. Apparently the water project is so valuable because we are the prototype for all future space stations and some intangible value from each future project throughout the solar system must be factored into our possible outcomes. I have a lot to learn and I have been skipping sleep and reading and studying to educate myself. Skipping sleep also cuts down on the dreams which are quite disturbing.
end part 5
fiction
edward w pritchard
I have been having lucid reoccurring dreams about Pompeii back on earth and how Mount Vesuvius destroyed the towns around the volcano in 79AD. I think the dreams our prophetic. They had aqueducts back in Roman Italy that supported life in waterless places and allowed Pompeii and the other towns around the bay of Neapolis to grow to large populations. The dreams started after Poj introduced me to speculating on the water futures here. There is an incredible amount of money to be made and information about water prospects here is very valuable. Of course its illegal for us workers to trade on inside information, but many do including Poj. The dreams i am having are, I think, my internal conflict caused by the money to be made versus following the rules.
There are lots and lots of new people coming to Io. Prices are skyrocketing and my salary is not keeping up with price increases here. The other crew members have been subsidizing me. They buy lots of the food we eat which is very expensive because they try to have non processed items, extremely difficult in space, even just back on the earth's moon. I haven't been saving money having forgotten about Sharon more or less. I had a date of sorts with Lalie. She read to me from the Upandishads in ancient hindu and then translated into English, and I wrote a blues song about it. She says that intelligence of the type she has is common but I have a talent for originality which is uncoventional. She wore blue jeans and a sweat shirt on our date and I think I like her better in that than in her colorful clothes, but thats too close to call.
Work here is awful. It's cut throat and the regulations cannot be met collectively but individually now and then someone has to take a fall to maintain the illusion of order and stability. The water project is generating an incredible amount of speculative interest back on earth. There are lots of Wall Street business types looking around while we work in the field. Some guys from the commodity exchanges in Chicago gave me some pizza from home when they learned I was from Chicago. Man that was good. I was offered $250 for a slice at the poker game but I shared it with our crew instead and ate the other whole piece myself.
These dreams about Roman Pompeii are interesting. I think I am intuiting things I have never heard of or read. Pompeii according to my dreams was a hot bed of business speculation and corruption just before the erruption in 79AD. I see in my dreams things in Pompeii that are similar to here. The water project and the aqueducts are parellels and the erruption of the volcano and the suffering it caused might have a prophetic interpetation here.
Poj has been smuggling information back to earth in the programming about the water projects that he compiles for the company. Apparently the water project is so valuable because we are the prototype for all future space stations and some intangible value from each future project throughout the solar system must be factored into our possible outcomes. I have a lot to learn and I have been skipping sleep and reading and studying to educate myself. Skipping sleep also cuts down on the dreams which are quite disturbing.
end part 5
ten year sentence part 4
ten year sentence part 4
fiction
edward w pritchard
Every 50 miles on the water line there is a respite station. I have been filling in and training with a crew from India. Countries on earth each have a small portion of the water line assigned to them to dig and maintain. The nationalities are fiercely jingoistic and it was a miracle that me as an American was accepted on the four man team from India. We were in the respite area having a drink and a Scottish team was making sexual remarks against Lalie one of the team and I lost my temper and threatened them. Those guys are intimidating, they play rugby back at the Station on the cement floors where I worked before and they are always lifting weights. Fighting is very expensive here if you are caught but it was more like the posturing that animals do. Sometimes I don't think first and I won the crew from India's respect and they ask me to be on the team. They are the intellectuals of the crews and I am a little lost with their conversations but they look out for me now that I am one of them.
I have been fantasizing about Lalie. She wears a lot of flowing clothes very brightly colored. Her family on earth is very wealthy and she is here just for one year. She is a management trainee of sorts and is spending the six months on the water line so she can apply the techniques to other planets and moons in the solar system.
When we were changing into our suits to work outside on the line, Lalie changed in front of me wearing only a leotard. I can't get that image out of my mind. Shuim one of the other members of our team says its the effect on my nervous system of the winds, which are very strong. I think it's just I haven't seen many women in the last twenty six months. The few women of the assertive management types of females here don't interest me. Lalie talks very softly, and is intelligent and ladylike. She gave me two plums for helping her. They are priceless here. I enjoyed them and later found out they were grown on the last transport from earth hydroponically in an experiment to later produce food on the moons of Saturn, which is Lalie's next assignment.
Shuim has been teaching me Chinese karate. He used to be a psychological examiner before he cracked up one day and now is finishing out his ten year term working on the water crew. He is extremely bright and we are now friends although I call him Schopenhauer like the philosopher from earth because of his pessimism. He calls Io hell. He is coaching me on how to pass my next psychological exam. He says life is an illusion and I am just adapting to my environment here by having odd thoughts. Shuim says when he arrived here nine years ago fifty percent of the crews went home because of the volcanic activity which exacerbated the effect of the rocks on the emotions and intellect and the winds on the nervous system. He said he had some bizarre dreams for years after the volcano's stopped. Now he just wants to finish his ten years.
The fourth member of the team from India is Poj. He is a gambler and we have went to some of the games at the respite stations together. More on that later.
end part 4
fiction
edward w pritchard
Every 50 miles on the water line there is a respite station. I have been filling in and training with a crew from India. Countries on earth each have a small portion of the water line assigned to them to dig and maintain. The nationalities are fiercely jingoistic and it was a miracle that me as an American was accepted on the four man team from India. We were in the respite area having a drink and a Scottish team was making sexual remarks against Lalie one of the team and I lost my temper and threatened them. Those guys are intimidating, they play rugby back at the Station on the cement floors where I worked before and they are always lifting weights. Fighting is very expensive here if you are caught but it was more like the posturing that animals do. Sometimes I don't think first and I won the crew from India's respect and they ask me to be on the team. They are the intellectuals of the crews and I am a little lost with their conversations but they look out for me now that I am one of them.
I have been fantasizing about Lalie. She wears a lot of flowing clothes very brightly colored. Her family on earth is very wealthy and she is here just for one year. She is a management trainee of sorts and is spending the six months on the water line so she can apply the techniques to other planets and moons in the solar system.
When we were changing into our suits to work outside on the line, Lalie changed in front of me wearing only a leotard. I can't get that image out of my mind. Shuim one of the other members of our team says its the effect on my nervous system of the winds, which are very strong. I think it's just I haven't seen many women in the last twenty six months. The few women of the assertive management types of females here don't interest me. Lalie talks very softly, and is intelligent and ladylike. She gave me two plums for helping her. They are priceless here. I enjoyed them and later found out they were grown on the last transport from earth hydroponically in an experiment to later produce food on the moons of Saturn, which is Lalie's next assignment.
Shuim has been teaching me Chinese karate. He used to be a psychological examiner before he cracked up one day and now is finishing out his ten year term working on the water crew. He is extremely bright and we are now friends although I call him Schopenhauer like the philosopher from earth because of his pessimism. He calls Io hell. He is coaching me on how to pass my next psychological exam. He says life is an illusion and I am just adapting to my environment here by having odd thoughts. Shuim says when he arrived here nine years ago fifty percent of the crews went home because of the volcanic activity which exacerbated the effect of the rocks on the emotions and intellect and the winds on the nervous system. He said he had some bizarre dreams for years after the volcano's stopped. Now he just wants to finish his ten years.
The fourth member of the team from India is Poj. He is a gambler and we have went to some of the games at the respite stations together. More on that later.
end part 4
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