"My life would have been different if only... I'D GONE TO ART SCHOOL".

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Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on September 8, 2014 at 8:19pm

Shellie-- do you look at the other 'My Life's...' that I post daily, or are you just focussing on this one?

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on September 8, 2014 at 8:16pm

Bonsoir, more on...

v) In the UK you would have been entitled to Legal Aid to pursue your ex for the money that the judge said he should pay you. This Aid is made available to all low income litigants, and doesn't cost them anything. It involves, I think, lawyers working not quite pro bono, but for fees determined and paid by by the equivalent of the Justice Department. Lawyers take on cases such as yours, get payed by the Government, and do not take any percentage of the money that they succeed in recovering for a plaintiff. The more I hear of your travails, the more convinced I am that you are living in the wrong country.But...

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on September 8, 2014 at 12:03pm

Bonjour!

Shouldn't you be out on the ice? Nice photo! Do you play ice hockey?

The guy who taught me to skate in Canada did -- he weighed about 270 lbs, and it really hurt when he hit me as I only weighed about150 lbs (then!)

I've been mountain biking, but it was foggy at dawn and I got a bit lost. Then crashed. Then got home safely.

i) now I understand your historical point. Thanks for the references. Public Enemey is, I think, the easiest one, to chase up as my son has something by them.

?) I got into a big fight with a University a while back that wanted to record a series of lectures I was giving. i opposed this as I could never deliver the same lecture twice, and it was misleading to record a single version of it as it would not necessarily be the best version. "Ah, but the students would rather have something than nothing.." "Yeah, well tell them to come to the lectures and participate, trhen we'll all have a good time." etc

v) doubly screwed, if you don't mind me saying so. Once by the health system, twice by the legal system. And I was led to believe that the US was a country of hope and opportunity? Medicine here in Europe is basically a service and run on a not-for-profit basis. In fact it generally makes a loss, but the money is recouped via taxes. And taxes can be high. At what stage when I was living in the Netherlands, I was paying tax at 60% -- if I'd been in the UK it would have been only 40%. BUT in Holland the schools and health service were excellent, whilst in England they were often bad -- and people spent a lot of money to buy a good eductaion for their kids and expensive private medicare. My one-time-university-buddy-now-ICT-millionaire pays something like $30,000/year to educate each of his two sons (at a not very good school). The big medical issue at the moment is generic drugs.

As for the legal system, well it sounds disastrous. Your situation wouldn't be like that in Europe, as the courts would enforce a judicial order and there would be various charity groups to help you. At the extreme, the courts could order your ex's employee to deduct money from his salary, and pay it to the government who would forward it to you.

viii) take a walk on a sunny day on one of the nice boulevards in Marseilles, drink a pastis and eat some tapas, and you won't be disappointed. Just stay out of the ghettoes. 5and don't discuss Northern African or Middle Eastern afafirs)

ix) there was a Dutch footballer (soccer player) who went to an English club on a $125,000+/week 4-year contract. As soon as he arrived the manager who bought him was sacked. The new manager didn't like the Dutch guy, and tried to transfer him out. He wouldn't go, arguing that he had a contract (and he'd bought a house, moved his family, put his kids in school, etc) that he would honour, even if the club wasn't happy. He became something like 4th choice in his favoured position, and played about 90 minutes football (always as a substitute) over the 4 year period. I did a calculation once, and reckoned that every time he kicked the ball  during those years it cost the club over $200,000! He retired after the 4 years were up, and went into management -- with reasonable success, and a lot of money!

No go and practgice your turns and stuff. Au revoir

Comment by Shellie Lewis | moved 2020! on September 8, 2014 at 6:33am

Hello Hello!

i) That was not about the historical origins of rap. That was the historical origins of black culture in distress being reflected in rap. Rap and hip hop run a gamut of styles and messages so it's not just negative. Go check out Queen Latifah, Sister Souljah, Macklemore. I don't know a lot of rap albums but Fear of a Black Planet by Public Enemy was a big cross hit that a lot of people heard. It made me understand a lot of the problems people have in the black community.  

?) Yeah, that's the problem with videos: they are not interactive. You can't ask them questions. Visual learners do better with videos. Kinesthetic learners need to do something physically.

Comment by Shellie Lewis | moved 2020! on September 8, 2014 at 6:33am

v) The for-profit design of USA healthcare, the fact that it is all totally profit driven, has mostly destroyed any sane system in the USA. President Obama has tried to help what is a terrible disaster and has made some progress. The healthcare companies want ever increasing profits. The choice for people is be sick and die, or pay money! Healthcare is a product here not a right. Medical pharmacy drugs are advertised on television and in magazines non-stop like any other product. The drug manufacturers can afford to buy a tremendous amount of constant advertising. Also, a judge awarded me $58,000 in damages from my ex husband but he just ran away whenever I found him. I would have to pay to find him and pay to drag him into court to sue him for the money a judge ordered him to pay me. I cannot afford to pay to enforce the law because that would be many hundreds to thousands of dollars, and it is free for him to run away, so I will never see any of the money from the judge's order. I'm too poor to enforce the judge's orders. I tried for over four years to find a legal charity to help me but they do not care about a woman without children. The USA division between civil court and criminal court makes it legal for him to defy the judge's orders. Police do not enforce civil court issues. The judge does have the power to order my ex into court to account for defying his orders. I wrote a letter asking the judge to summon my ex to account for his actions but the judge ignored my letter. My ex can put his money and assets in the name of a girlfriend or future wife even if I was able to force him into court and force payments. I'm basically screwed. The judge's orders only exist on paper.    

viii) Oh, that's sad. :( I want to picture Marseille as beautiful and pleasant.

ix) My boyfriend feels we should not hate Huet too much. If he got millions of dollars for a contract, my boyfriend feels that's not Huet's fault as much as the team's fault. I think accepting over $5.6 Million a year for four years of not playing for a team is greedy. I guess a contract is a contract!

The new skates are really strange because the blades are much, much shorter and the boot is really light! I got a feel for them a little more after the first hour of skating. I'm going to have to work harder to get used to a proper fit and how to move with them. I am hoping I can manage to turn better because my forwards to backwards turns are terrible. Adult beginner is no hit, no check and a lot of the time no touch. Most of the time, I'm skating in full equipment: knee and shin guards, elbows, shoulder and chest protector, pants, gloves and helmet with a cage mask. The equipment is heavy and covers a lot. I have a mouthguard now for my teeth. The collar on the black under shirt is Kevlar. It also helps to learn how to dodge! A few times I got knocked down I maybe should have gotten out of the way. It's harder because men are mostly bigger, stronger and faster than me.

Comment by Shellie Lewis | moved 2020! on September 8, 2014 at 5:43am

Oh yes, Canada and Chicago both have brutal winters! :P It takes a lot just to get through them year after year. 

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on September 7, 2014 at 8:29pm

Bonsoir!

i) whatever its hitsorical origins, rap music seems to be to be very misoygenous -- racist, sexist, violent, pornographic, etc; I guess I'm just too old and too culturally different to understand it -- let alone appreciate it.

ii) the Medicine Shields remind me of Dream Catchers. I used one of the latter on the cover of a self-published book I wrote a few years ago.

?) I have trouble with online tutorials. i need someone to show me how to do things, and, especially, how not to do things. Suus sent me lots of links for French knitting/Punnekins, but I never got beyond stage 3 of about 20 stages. Then someone showed me how to do it, and it was OK then.

v) military veterans in the Uk -- 'the men', rather than 'the officers' -- are supposed to get priority in all sorts of things including healthcare, post combat treatment (mental & phsical) and assisted housing. But I read about lots of times when what is promised isn't delivered.

viii) Marseilles in the south of France is supposed to be as bad as some of the worse US cities -- drugs, the mafia, corruption, gang shootings & muders, prostitution, etc...and that's just the Mayor and the city councillors.

ix) OK, I will duff Huet up for you. I must admit that I've never heard of him, but I don't follow French ice hockey. I don't think there are any pro teams in this region.

v) that's exactly the difference between a good European and the US health systems. It would have been impossible for your ex to get charged these costs in the countries that I know anything about -- the UK, the Netherland, France & Denmark. ALL those costs would have been met. I hope you got some of the money back in a divorce settlement. My artist friend (who is as poor as a church mouse) was taken into hospital today for a head scan (she has been having bad headaches for weeks) and will stay there for a few days. She won't have to pay anything for her bed, treatment, scans, etc.

Yes French food is cheap(ish) here; But it's impossible to get a good US-type hamburger (or was when i was eating meat and wanted to eat a good burger). French wine is also cheap. I can buy good local wine from the wine producers Cooperative for about €0.75/bottle.

Yippee! I'm going to get a squid!

Now, don't fall over and break a bone or anything when you go ice skating tomorrow...or, amongst other things, you'll rack up more horrendous medical bills. I will go cycling at dawn, and try not to fall off.

Happy skating!

Comment by Valentine Mark Herman on September 7, 2014 at 2:01pm

Ice skates now, comments on the rest later:

I bought ice skates in Ottawa in the winter of 1969 -- and still have them.

At the time I had few possibilities to get through the most miserable (climate-wise) winter of my life:

 * ice-skate for free on the Riddr canal

 * ski in the mountains -- but I couldn't afford skis and all the associated equipment, couldn't ski (rather important that), and had no way to get to the mountains

 * sit at home and drink lots of beer and watch Bobby Orr et al

I am still recovering from that winter -- perhaps that is why I now live in the South of France.

Comment by Shellie Lewis | moved 2020! on September 7, 2014 at 8:01am

I got new hockey skates today! My boyfriend's skates fell apart and we went to a big hockey store that was having a sale. We both left with new skates, so I'm really excited to try them out. His old skates were so old, they ripped apart. Mine were purchased second-hand online and never had a good fit. Chicago romance: buying new hockey skates together. ♥ Tomorrow we are going to the park district ice rink and I am trying these:

I'm so happy! :D 

i) Responses: a) It is what comedian and author Patton Oswalt (who played a certain French Rat) named Internet ETAWAF: Everything that ever was, available forever. ETAWAF is the internet. ☺ b) Don't blame rap and hip hop music for offensive lyrics; it's not the music that is at fault, it is black culture that is still in extreme distress from oppression that goes back in an unbroken line to the days of slavery. You have to remember a substantial portion of what became the USA today came out of one of the world history's most brutal forms of slavery.

 

ii) The cassette mobiles remind me of Native American art. ☺ These are Medicine Shields:

 

I like free online tutorial videos. These are free knitting lessons: KnittingHelp.com.

 

v) In the USA, veterans are usually poor or working class so if they have no better care paid for on their own health care plan, they go through the VA (Veterans Administration) system of government care which is a separate entity that is in distress right now. It seems under-staffed, disorganized and there is always a battle for the VA to get funds from the government. 

Comment by Shellie Lewis | moved 2020! on September 7, 2014 at 7:56am

viii) In a heavily urban environment like a major city, different gangs and mafia murder each other and innocent people to gain or maintain territory for drug sales. It is this endless cycled of violence. Albeit, things are even worse in places like Juarez, Mexico or certain areas of Central and South America.

 

ix) If you come across Cristobal Huet in France, please kick him in the ankle and tell him that is forwarded from Chicago. He was a high ranked prospect that tanked and kept his rich contract from the Blackhawks, earning over $15 Million in the four years he did not play for the team. He was failing and was taken off the team roster but he still collected on his contract those years he did not play for Chicago. I just checked online and Huet has been on a career downturn from the NHL professional level all the way down to the B level in Switzerland.

 

 v) That makes more sense. Wow, that is amazing. I would be so happy to pay off $500 for that level of care. My husband (now ex) tried to kill himself and it was really bloody. The ambulance, hospital and after-care bills even with having health insurance hit over $30,000 in uncovered medical debt from that one event. I paid everything I had in savings and retirement and then went bankrupt. If I did not go through bankruptcy, they would have harassed me forever and sued me for each section of the bill. That is how it is in America, you get sick or suffer a major medical tragedy: you could lose all your money, you could lose everything you worked for your whole life. Even worse, French food is very expensive here. You get to eat it all the time! ;D

 

I mailed you a giant squid and some things. I got your postcard, thank you! 

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