Confused Thoughts, Pleasurable Experiences

My plan was to write a screenplay, one page per day. The quality should not matter too much, can always edit it later. I want my screenplay to be a family drama, with experiences drawn from my own life. This would be my first screenplay. For now it is just a forum for me to share some thoughts, which I usually don't do nowadays.

[pleasantconfusion]

Aussiebum part deux

Quick update on my importing of swimwear to Bangladesh incident; turns out I can simply give a smaller amount of cash to my driver and bribe the customs people. Problem solved! Well then there was a fitting issue and ended up sending 80% of the stuff back, but that's another story.

[pleasantconfusion]

Getting a package in to Bangladesh

So apparently that is easier said than done in this sometimes frustratingly dormant country. I have a package coming from Australia with various famous underwear and Speedos (boys, can you guess?) and since Wednesday I've talked to at least 10 different people in 2 different courier companies trying to find out what I should do next. So what is wrong?

Apparently you have to pay a ridiculous amount of duty and VAT tax on mens swimwear to be imported into this Muslim country (they don't want their population to walk around in Speedos perhaps for some untold reason?) and the package is held at customs until every single thaka has been paid. So I got an email from a colleague at office on Wednesday, it was from the shipping department. It said I had a package from Aussiebum (hope they don't look up the website) waiting to be collected at the airport. Fed Ex was stupid enough to send it to my company address (I only wrote "Puls" to not leave the company column blank when making the order, I guess being the biggest buyer of garments in the country makes a courier sit up straight at hearing the slightest likeliness of the word Puls) so she sent me an email with the Air Way Bill with all the info, including what products are in it. Of course she CC:ed the head of shipping, great.

So I didn't reply the woman within the standard window of 2 hours for replying any email (I had no idea about this rule and I'm pretty sure I just made it up) so she came straight to my desk with the papers printed out to have a little talk about it. At this point I neither liked Fed Ex nor my office's shipping department. Obviously I told her it was a personal package and she doesn't need to worry about it. Especially the 45 000 Thaka customs fee they demanded in the email! That is around 580 USD, much more than the total value of the package itself and obviously some attempt from DHL (yeah, it wasn't even my actual courier Fed Ex that sent it, extremely strange) to take out some extra money from a corporate account. Perhaps the Head of that Account hadn't had a nice dinner out with his wife in Dhaka for a couple of months and felt like taking an opportunity. In either case I was not about to pay 45 000 Thaka for some sexy Speedos that I already paid quite a big amount for.

So that's when my little calling spree started. I began with calling DHL since those were the ones that sent the Air Way Bill to my company, for some unknown reason. Perhaps the Fed Ex guy was slamming his face with a hamburger. Long story short, 5 phone calls later I was calling a mobile phone to some person at Fed Ex's Gulshan office in Dhaka. Someone who could barely speak English (its Fed Ex, really?!) picked up the phone and I tried to explain. "Oh no, the papers has been sent to Puls, your company already". Why the hell did you send them to my company in the first place? Someone turned off their last remaining brain cells while making that decision. So after another one or two phone calls (obviously I couldn't get too much out of the non-English guy) I finally talked to a semi-Englishist that explained that I could simply come over to their office early in the morning with the paper that had been sent to my office together with a mere 6000 Thaka customs fee (I guess no fancy dinner for the Choudhurys this weekend) to unlock my goods. So I sent my driver, which I have grown way too accustomed to having, the next morning to get it sorted. Of course he didn’t have the right paper and I needed to call back to Fed Ex to see what was going on. Right now, at this moment, they are apparently on the way to my company's address (after convincing them it is not closed on Fridays, I would be the source to know) to pick up the actually needed papers (sent 2 days ago) to deliver to my personal address. Now that's what I call service! It will probably never happen but it sounded nice over the phone. So right now I am waiting for my papers. It doesn't matter too much if I get them today or tomorrow since of course the customs clearance office is closed on Friday and Saturday. UPDATE: the Fed Ex guys have actually picked them up at my office and I am awaiting the documents right now. It would be amazing if I actually have them in my hand tonight. Not because I need them but because I made them run around like bunnies.

All I want are my sexy little Speedos as soon as possible; I guess that is a bit easier said than done in this country.

[pleasantconfusion]

Whatever happened to MH370?

I'm frantically following the disappearance of this Malaysian flight. One because it is always the no. 1 top story on every news site in the world right now and two because I have been on the same flight myself. And it was one of the worst flights of my life.

So what could have happened during this mysterious voyage? Most likely a "catastrophic failure" in mid-air cast the plane into quick oblivion. The plane was probably not distressed by a terrorist attack but it cannot be ruled out. Maybe the plane was hijacked and the passengers are currently in a religious boot camp preparing themselves for a kamikaze mission. Probably not though. Hopefully the pilot is just playing a prank on his stressed out asshole boss.

In any case how could a plane just disappear? Did it lose a wing? Did it crash into a flying saucer? Did it encounter an ancient species of giant birds? When the Air France a few years back crashed into the atlantic it took authorities a couple of years to find its black box holding many answers to its disapperance. What they found out was that the pilots were sleep deprived and, apparently, they were flying the plane in a precise opposite way you should fly a plane in during a storm. When I was on the MH 370 flight around 9 years back we were also flying threw a storm. The scariest flights are when the turbulence not only bounces the plane up and down laterally but pushes the plane side to side at the same time vertically. It creates a unique feeling of fear as though the pilots completely have lost control of forcing the direction of the plane. When this happens, or at least during this flight, the captains asks even the crew to sit down and belt up (this is the only flight I've been on where the pilot asks this). That does not help you put your mind at ease. In the end let's just say I was extremely grateful to once again touch solid ground once stepping off the plane.

So did the same thing happened this weekend? Did MH370 fly through a storm but something catastrophic happened that couldn't even let the pilot say "excuse me, we are going down"? Please Malaysia, find the black box asap because the world need answers, 1.5 to 2 mil people fly each day in the US alone. But then again, we also quickly forget and ina day or two everything will be business as usual. Except for the Malaysian Airlines stock listing which has plunged to an all-time low after this dramatic incident.

In other news Cathay Pacific's profits rose by 200% compared to a year ago, that is no joke. I have only flown with this airline once but its one of the best I can think of. For now I will stay away from Malaysian Airlines. And oh, I am flying with a domestic Bangladeshi airline to Bangkok next month, I pray for a good flight.

[pleasantconfusion]

Synopsis - The Story of A Lost Brother (Preliminary Title)

En historia om en familj i den nya världen. En familj som är präglad i svensk medelklass, en riktig Svensson, som kastas in i ett nytt och främmande internationellt liv. Familjens yngste son tappar bort sig i ett hav av konflikterande värderingar medans resten av familjen förblindas av det nya livets bekvämligheter. När familjen återgår till sitt svenska liv har allt förändrats och familjen splittras över tryck från vardagslivet och oroande beteenden av sina medlemmar. En fantasibild av familjen krossas och måste gå in i en verklighet ingen vill förklarogöra. En utav sönerna tar an sig ansvaret att försöka ställa familjen till rätta då han slumpmässigt åker hem efter en lång period frånvarande från familjen. Kommer han lyckas att återupprätta familjen? Kommer fantasi om en glad familj bli verklighet? Kommer familjen att lyckas omvärdera allt dem står för? Lista på karaktärer:

Protagonist - minsta brodern - vilsen och lätt påverkad av ny omgivning - ingen ledning och utanförskap Biroll - egocentriska mellanbrodern - tog till nya miljön, lämna familjen bakom men kom tillbaka Biroll - pojkvännen till mellanbrodern - påverkade mellanbroderns tänk och personlighet - såg en annan bild utanför familjen Antagonist - föräldrarna - vilsna och äventyrslustna - sätter personliga viljor framför familjens välfärd men menar ändå familjen väl Antagonist - mamman - äventyrslusten självupptagande mamma som menar gott mot familjen. blir sjuk efter återkomsten hem Antagonist - pappan - vilsen själ som alltid ställer upp för familjen men som tar personliga mål framförallt men blir vilsen på väg mot ett sjävuppfyllande liv Biroll - största brodern - tog sig till nya miljön men lämna familjen bakom Biroll - adopterade systern - styrde upp en ny familjedynamik och ökade maktkampen i familjen - frustration och ilskan når sin topp

Händelseförlopp: 1, Början av flytten utomlands - kastad in i en annan värld

2, Flashbacks till en simpel uppväxt 3, Förstår familjen, dess values och hur snabbt den påverkas av miljön och omgivningen

4, Internationalisering 5, Minsta brodern börjar experimentera 6, Mellanbrodern hittar pojkvän 7, Föräldrarna hittar ursäkter och sätter upp en fantiserad bild av familjen och verkligheten 8, Kastad tillbaka till gammal, vilsen och inte ledd miljö 9, Adopterar syster som kommer förändra allt 10, Brodern tappar fart och är helt vilse 11, Familjen utspridd och alla lever en fantasiverklighet 12, Mellanbrodern hamnar i situation hemma hos familjen - börjar påverka familjen från ett annat perspektiv (mycket     från sitt ex) 13, Ett stöd i familjen - omarbeta familjedynamiken 14, Katastrof - minsta brodern börjar med droger 15, Ett drastikt event påbörjar en process mot en ny miljö och familjedynamik byggd av ett nytt perspektiv 16, Motgångar igen

17, Battle 18, En ny familjedynamik - togetherness - positivitet

A story about a family in the new world. A family that is rooted in the Swedish middle class, a real Svensson family, which is thrown into a new and unfamiliar international life. The family's youngest son is lost in a sea of conflicting values while the rest of the family is blinded by the new comforts in their lives. When the family returns to its life in Sweden everything has changed and it splits over the pressure from everyday life and the disturbing behaviors of its members. A fantasy depiction of the family is crushed and a new reality is emerged that noone wants to realize. One of the sons takes on the responsibility to try and lead the family on the right path after randomly returning home after a long period of absence from the family. Will he succeed in restoring the dynamics of the family? Will the fantasy of a happy family become a reality? Will the family members successfully re-evaluate everything they stand for?

List of Characters:

Protagonist - the youngest brother - lost and easily influenced by the new environment - no management and exclusion Supporting Actor - egocentric middle brother - took in new environment, leaving the family behind but came back Supporting Actor - the boyfriend to the middle brother - influenced the brother's thinking and personality - saw another picture outside the family Antagonist - the parents - perplexed and adventurous - putting personal desires in front of family welfare, but nonetheless means the family well Antagonist - the mother - adventerous and self-absorbing mother who meands well to the family. becomes ill after returning home Antagonist - the father - lost soul who is always there for family but takes personal goals above all, gets lost on the way to a selffulfilling life Supporting Actor - oldest brother - made it in the new environment but left his family behind Supporting Actor - adopted sister - started a new family dynamic and increased power struggle in the family - frustration and anger reaches its peak List of events:

1, Moving abroad - thrown into a different world

2, Flashbacks to a simple upbringing

3, Understanding of the family, its values and how quickly it is challenged by the environment around it 4, Internationalization

5, The youngest brother starts to experiment

6, The middle brother finds a boyfriend

7, The parents find excuses and puts up a fantasy picture of the family and reality

8, Thrown back into the old - lost and mislead environment

9, Adopted sister will change everything

10, Youngest brother loses speed and is completely lost

11, Family is spread and everyone lives in a fantasy

12, The middle brother returns to the family - starts to have an impact on the family from a different perspective (much learnt from his ex)

13, A support to the family - reorganize the family dynamics

14, Catastrophe - youngest brother starts taking drugs

15, A drastic event starts a process towards a new environment and family dynamic built ona new perspective

16, Challenge

17, Battle

18, A new family dynamic - togetherness - positivity

[pleasantconfusion]

Synopsis Coming Soon

This blog is made for my progress on writing my first screenplay. Its a bit personal but I feel that best writing comes from personal experiences. This blog, and screenplay, will be written in Swedish and English simultaneously, although the primary language of it will be Swedish with subsequent English translation. This is my attempt to write a screenplay with feedback, sort of a open-sourced type thing. Any feedback would be much appreciated! Cheerio(s)!