taking fire

In Amurka, there are companies called ‘credit bureaus’. They keep track of your borrowing habits – not very accurately, mind you – and make up a number to say how financially irresponsible you are.

They operate an exceptionally closed scheme. Trying to talk to a human at one of these places is nigh-impossible without making some kind of offering; usually pumping them with cash for access to your details. Your details basically consists of a number, but they dress it up with exotic branding nonsense along the lines of the CreditPeep 5000 CashSpunker Plus. I’ve spent a month or so pissing around with arch-cockhandles Experian, and convincing them that some other guy with a similar name is not me, and can they please take all his nefarious dealings off my record, thank you very much.

Long story short, that’s now done. If you need to deal with credit bureaus, I can offer some effective voodoo.

Just when I thought all the form-fiddling was done, Amex call to say they’re not 100% convinced of my identity, and could I please fuck off down to the Social Security building and get a note proving my social security number. Well of course, nothing would give me greater pleasure.

If you’re thinking dealing with the Social Security (SS for short – YOU SEE?) would be a patience-mangling, Kafkaesque nightmare, you’d be totally correct and would in fact win a biscuit.

The downtown building squats massive and intimidating. It has FEDERAL BUILDING spackled all over it and cops everywhere. There are 15 entrances and only one is the right one for you, and you have to know what the department name is, exactly and without using synonyms or cheating. You have to negotiate with guards who speak only rudimentary dolphin. Once I found the right entrance I gained 2,300 experience points.

Once in the door you are welcomed with a warm and friendly metal detector scan and body-furtling.

There are 50 floors. Your correct floor is listed in Greek using a 6-point font on a tea-tray stapled to the wall behind a pillar in the lobby.

Once you find the right room, things look more familiar – clerks behind bulletproof glass, people waiting. You dither slightly trying to figure out the waiting system, before a security guard with a table of forms waves you over. He appears to be first-generation Namibian and has only the vaguest idea of what is going on around him. He delivers his opener with all the twinkling intelligence of a poached egg:

IN WHAT BOAR YOU LEAVE?

Sorry?

IN WHAT BOAR… YOU LEAVE?

[Long pause while my brain executes intense pattern matching algorithm]
Are you asking me… where I live?

YES

Ah, Manhattan.

PRESS 1 ON MACHINE

A ticket! Result.
Next, a long wait; expected. Then, called to the desk! I have rehearsed what I will say. The lady is short and first-generation Chinese. I get the first word in:

Hello, so to be clear I already have a social security card [brandish my card] – I’m just looking for -

YOU NEED APPLICATION FORM!

Whoa.
Sorry, for what?

YOU NEED APPLICATION FORM!

But I already have a card, here -

YOU NEED FORM! TALK TO GUARD!

I need a form to speak to you?
[There is a pause]
[People in the waiting room have gone quiet, amused by the exchange and my desperately clear enunciation]
[Clerk looks for the fifth time at the card I am holding against the glass, and in the cold lonely void a lightbulb illuminates]

AH YOU HAVE NUMBER! YOU NEED LETTER!

Normally you go up to clerks on the assumption they know more than you do, cap in hand. I instead walked out full of dismayed sympathy, but relief at accomplishing the mission.

The frustration in dealing with these muppets reminded me of the constant satirising unleashed by Douglas Adams on this topic, both in his books and also in the 80s text adventure game Bureaucracy. Actually the AI in that game surpassed most of the humanoids I dealt with this week.

P.S. the post title is from the Vic Reeves’ Big Night Out classic, here preserved on your intertrout.

P.P.S. So I don’t forget, my social security number is [WPRESS exception in db.getHandle() - too many connections]

This image gives us an idea of our small place in the (known) universe.

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After nearly eight years of blogging there are inevitably a few gems buried in the archives of taking fire. In an effort to revisit past glories I’ve added voting buttons to each entry.

If a new post tickles you, or particularly if you find something old that deserves more attention, hit the Vote button to bump up the magic number.

Over time I’ll add better ways to get at the top voted entries – for now there’s a rough list on the sidebar. Happy voting.

UPDATE: I ended up blowing this away after the sidebar was taking ages to load – terrible bit of SQL. Happy googling!

Last Friday it was a lovely day, so I took the vanguard for a ride up through Times Square and beyond. I stopped at the ruby ‘bleachers’ to test out this fancy panorama app for the iPhone.

Pull on your Java pants, take a sip of coffee and hit the ‘read more’ link to see what Times Square looked like last weekend, standing proudly atop the crimson stair. It should scroll lefty/right and a wee bit up/down too.
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Exactly three years ago I woke up at Caitlin’s place in Bushwick – it was the would I like to live in New York? trip – and scribbled down an idea. I finally finished it up now. That is a pretty shocking work rate.

It’s on the joy of damage and it’s called dear sis. On Firefox it’s pretty clear what to do; with IE (ugh) or Safari or Chrome you have to be more curious.

I do think there’s a metric ton you can do with words on screen that’s impossible on paper. For the most part it’s unexploited.

Rejoice! The NY Asian Film Festival comes around again. A quick history so far:

• 2006 (while visiting Caitlin) had the life-changing Funky Forest, the solid Linda! x 3 and the supremely-titled Oh! My Zombie Mermaid.
• 2007 I was in London, so getting to the venues was problematic.
• 2008 was memorable for the devastating sweetness of the Tokyo… films (where I won the signed poster), and Tarantino mucking about in Sukiyaki Western Django (where I won the water pistol, later to be fuelled with bourbon).

After hacking through the schedule superlatives I’ve booked tickets for these shows, so feel free to ping me if you’d like to come along:

• 20th Century Boys (part 1 on June 21, part 2 on July 4)
• The Warlords (23rd)
• Yoroi: Samurai Zombie (26th)
• Five Deadly Venoms (28th)
• Hard Revenge Milly (30th)
• The Magic Hour (July 1st)
• Love Exposure (3rd)

Phew. Then after that it’s the Revisiting Tarkosvky series at the Lincoln Center. A good time for cinema.

Who’s been to Japan? Recommend me some unmissable things to do or places to go. I’m going there tomorrow for 2 weeks, will be going to all the big cities.

Controversially I didn’t reflexively log into LotRO this morning and instead did something vaguely creative. Over on the joy of damage I posted an actual short story that I done wrote. One caveat: I put it together it a long time ago*. I won’t say too much other than that – I think (hope) it’s still pretty readable.

Notice it’s a couple of thousand words so I’d get a cup of tea first. It’s called The Doll’s House.

* like, in the 90s. I know!

A few weeks ago it was actually sunny for the first time in months, if still a bit crispy and cold. With glee I took the board out and recorded myself failing for educational purposes. It turned out to be an interesting wee clip so I youtubed it for your amusement.

I won’t embed it here, it’s better to go and watch it in proper HD glory, ideally in full screen.

I can now say with some enthusiasm that video editing is bananas fun. Making subtitles is a total pain in the arse, however.

Enjoy!