ANT'S RANTS - Droppings from the Webmaster's Desk

2002-01-05T14:54:00.000-05:00

Welcome one and all to 2002! I felt, personally, that the New Year's celebration this year lacked something...perhaps it was the fact that this year comes after the two most anticipated years in centuries...but this year it was just another New Year, you know? Now that 2000 and 2001 have passed, there's no longer the rampant apocalypse fever, no "Y2K2" bug to fear, and we're obviously all still here...oh well...I apologize for my long absense from the site...after October gave up the ghost to November, I found myself an engaged man...and the holidays were thus a busy time...time for her to show of the ring and for me to hear "Congrats...I guess," the stereotypical male response to a male that is engaged. Well, THAT fever has died down a bit now, and I seek a return to my pursuits as usual...that means pushing myself to write fiction more and more, which has been my desire for years...I am finally at the point in my life where I feel that I am comfortable with my abilities and have finally started doing what most successful writers seem to say when they talk about the important factors of being a successful writer: writing every day. Which means I have a conflict between my creative goals and my interest in returning to work on this site so that the site will be a living thing again instead of the Internet equivalent of a hibernating bear...every month I get a handfull of encouraging emails or posts from people who have seen and like the site...only a handfull, but what a satisfying handfull it is to get even just a trickle of people that want to talk and think openly with you and like what you are doing...some seek to just say thanks but others seem to want a community to occur, some 'Net neighborhood where we can talk about what's on our minds with regards to the world and how philosophy fits in...like the creator of the Virtual Agora, Graeme Houston, who I met online over the holidays. So I feel happy that the rough times the site had with saboteurs was worth this peaceful trickle. I want to keep the site up and keep it as fresh as I can, but I may not have the time to make it as dynamic as it could be...but hopefully you'll all forgive me. I'm going to be busy chasing dreams. Thanks for all the support, hope 2002 started off right and gets better for you, and I'll see you out there...

2001-10-31T09:40:00.000-05:00

Full Moon to Occur on Halloween
By CORALIE CARLSON, AP Writer

For the first time in 46 years, this year's Halloween ghosts and goblins can trick or treat by the light of a full moon. They won't get another chance until 2020, astronomers said.

Wednesday night's full moon will look like an orange jack-o-lantern rising from the east at dusk, said Jack Horkheimer, executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium.

It will appear orange at the horizon because it is seen through denser layers of the earth's atmosphere. Adding to the effect, the moon's tilt at this time of the year makes the "man in the moon'' particularly visible.

Some astronomers believe jack-o-lantern carving was inspired by the rising, orange October moon, said Horkheimer, writer and host of PBS's nationally syndicated Star Gazer series for 25 years.

To make the superstitious even more jittery, a constellation associated with the some end-of-the-world beliefs will also be at the top of Wednesday night's sky.

The Seven Sisters constellation, which looks like a small cluster of grapes, has long been a signal for the time of year to honor the dead - such as All Saints Day, Nov. 1.

According to myth, the Seven Sisters constellation is at its highest point in the sky during a great calamity, possibly the biblical flood or the sinking of Atlantis. The Aztecs and Mayans believed it would be overhead at midnight on the night the world comes to an end, Horkheimer said.

The Seven Sisters and the full moon will both be directly overhead at midnight, he said.

"It's just very nifty because it will be a very bright full moon and when it's up high like that, it will just flood the landscape with a lovely bright light,'' said Horkheimer.

Technically, the moment the moon will be at its fullest is 12:41 a.m. EST Thursday, but the moon will look virtually full when trick or treaters are out in force late Wednesday.

2001-10-31T09:08:00.000-05:00

www.halloweenmovies.com

I tell ya, nothing beats the original Halloween...that creepy music, the escape of Michael Myers from the insane asylum in the rain...the paranoid doctor whose fear of Michael you can feel oozing out of him...but the rest of the movies really dropped in quality after the first one...I really thought the Halloween movie that sucked the most was the one where some evil people were selling kids these masks that would kill the person wearing it and make bugs and other nasty things come out of their eyes and mouths when they watched a certain show. I think that was Halloween three...ugh...

2001-10-31T08:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween, Samhain, or whatever you call it. This is my favorite holiday, in my favorite time of year, in my favorite month...also the month I was born...the month that really ushers in Autumn...when there are skies like today, overcast but with hints of orange and red from the hidden sun...cold and blustery...and the smell of burning wood and leaves stings your sinuses...when curling up with a good collection of tales from Poe or Lovecraft or your favorite horror scribe is that much more potent...when watching a classic like the original Night of the Living Dead or the first Halloween is that much more harrowing...I should be reporting in at times during the day just to offer up some scary links or some such thing...unfortunately Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year (obviously), so I am of course at work...but the Halloween spirit is strong, and it will have it's way...

2001-10-16T14:50:00.000-04:00

I was talking to my Dad the other day about all manner of things. Anyone that knows my Dad will tell you that he can be rather
perceptive while at the same time make the most bizarre and even rediculous statements (someone just told me that that sounds familiar..."like father like son, as they say"...). Anyway, our discussion meandered through territory such as the current "war on
terrorism," not to mention the roots of anti-American feelings, and the founding of America in the first place (my father, the proud
Italian immigrant that he is, repeatedly remarking on Chris Columbus' heritage and protesting against my claims that all Columbus
"discovered" in the Americas was slavery, or more specifically a new batch of slaves). The conversation somehow drifted into the
topic of stem cell research and its accompanying controversy, and he began ranting about how the earth is overpopulated as it is,
stop worrying about those damn stem cells and just use them for research and/or destroy them. For the most part I agreed with him.
I said to him something to this effect: "I feel that, at this point in time, we as a race don't really have the luxury of turning all those
cells into more human beings, due to overpopulation. And we won't have that luxury until we can successfully put people on other
planets in stable colonies." To which he added something about how we shouldn't use criminals to colonize other planets like the
English used convicts to pave the way into Australia, since they could, for instance, (and he says this with dead seriousness) revolt
and drop big rocks on us from the moon.

Uh...

Like I said, he can lead you down a totally logical path and then drop a bomb like that on you. It's hilarious and frustrating at the same
time.

Anyway, I proceeded to attempt an explanation of how, according to science as we now accept it, his idea about the rock bombs from
the moon wouldn't work quite the way he thinks they would. I think I got through to him just a bit...

So what is the point of this story? Well, today I found the following article online:

Humans Doomed Without Space Colonies?
LONDON (Reuters) - The human race is likely to be wiped out by a doomsday virus before this millennium is out unless it starts to colonize space, top British scientist Stephen Hawking warned Tuesday.

Hawking's comments came as the United States teetered on the brink of panic over possible germ warfare after anthrax-laced letters were delivered in the capital Washington and the states of New York, Nevada and Florida.

``I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet,'' Hawking told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Hawking, Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University in England, said Armageddon threatened not in the form of a Cold War-style nuclear holocaust but could arrive in a more insidious and invisible form.

``In the long term, I am more worried about biology. Nuclear weapons need large facilities, but genetic engineering can be done in a small lab. You can't regulate every lab in the world,'' he said.

Investigators have not pinned down who is behind the U.S. anthrax attacks, but fears are growing they could be retaliation for U.S. military strikes against Afghanistan (news - web sites), which followed last month's suicide attacks on New York and Washington.

Hawking, a leading theoretical physicists who hit the best-seller lists with his book ``A Brief History of Time,'' said the chances of humanity pulling through looked good.

``I am an optimist. We will reach out to the stars,'' he said.

A Star Trek-style ``warp drive'' might be one way to relieve the tedium of lengthy journeys between stars in spacecraft traveling below the speed of light, Hawking said.

Hmm, I would have sworn that good old Hawking would have said that we'll be using black holes or something like that to traverse the
universe...oh well. In related news, there is this great series on TLC now called "Hyperspace" hosted by Sam Neill. It's a three-part mini-
series that explores how life began on earth, and how the earth will be destroyed when the sun dies, and how we might go about our
movement to the stars. I saw the first two episodes...not bad at all.

2001-10-08T15:01:00.000-04:00

The US counterstrike has begun (with the help of Britain). The Afghanis are counting bodies, just like us (though no where near as many). Does that make things better? Not so sure. But it makes us feel better. Vengeance is always appealing, isn't it? A video tape of bin Laden praising the attacks on the WTC surfaced over the past couple of days. At first there were reports that the video included a statement from bin Laden admitting that he was behind the attacks. Now the media is saying that he did NOT claim responsibility, but he sure does give a lot of praise to the people who did the deeds. But most people I know see this as being just as bad (if not worse) than an admission of responsibility on his part.

I sincerely hope that the rumors of covert strikes by elite groups of soldiers are true. I think we should really try our best to assassinate bin Laden (and Mullah Mohammed Omar, plus the other Taliban leaders) and keep the widespread bombing to a minimum. I mean, we out-tech those bastards by dozens of years. It couldn't be that hard to find these guys, could it?

2001-09-28T11:39:00.000-04:00

I'm back after about a week of grueling work. I am training to take over for my boss when she goes out on maternity leave. Anyway, I wanted to post some links to some stories that really caught my attention:

Pakistan Clerics Hold Crucial Afghan Talks

By Tahir Ikram and Steve Holland

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A delegation of Pakistani Muslim clerics arrived in Afghanistan on Friday to try to persuade the ruling Taliban to hand over Saudi-born radical Osama bin Laden and head off a likely U.S. military strike.

In Indonesia, meanwhile, about 4,000 protesters marched in the capital of the predominantly Muslim nation condemning the United States. Some threatened to round up Americans and take them to the airport to be expelled.

The tension just keeps on mounting. This article struck me with how it displays the escalation of what is going on with this whole mess right now. Then there is this article:

Report: U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. special forces have been in Afghanistan for two weeks searching for Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the airborne assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, USA Today reported on Friday.

2001-09-21T10:30:00.000-04:00

Presidential Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People - September 20, 2001

I will freely and readily admit that I was not one of George W. Bush's biggest fans when he was elected President. But he is starting to make a good impression on me with his actions and words (scripted as they may be) in light of the attacks. Call me a sucker, but I actually am starting to admire that beady-eyed fellow in the White House.

2001-09-19T13:01:00.000-04:00

Another one other thing...check out Think Peace. I'm sure that Sgt. Hartman from "Full Metal Jacket" would whole-heartedly disagree with everything they have to say at Think Peace. As far as the Sgt. Hartman site is concerned...well, it is indeed eyebrow-raising...to say the least.

2001-09-19T12:44:00.000-04:00

One other thing...I thought that this was uplifting:

Web Site Collects $58 Million for Attack Aid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Web site sponsored by several U.S. technology giants has collected nearly $58 million in donations to help recovery efforts from last week's attacks in New York and Washington.

The Web site, American Liberty Partnership, said it has raised $57.7 million for nearly 30 charitable groups including the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and the New York State World Trade Center Relief Fund.

The donations received from public and business groups will be used to help in the rebuilding efforts, and assist charitable organizations offering medical and financial assistance to the survivors.

The site also provides updates on how the relief effort is progressing and what the next steps in the process are.

The partners of the American Liberty Project include: Amazon.com, AOL Time Warner, Cisco Systems, eBay, Microsoft, and Yahoo!

Donations can be made at www.libertyunites.org.

2001-09-19T12:39:00.000-04:00

Hey out there. My company got hit pretty bad yesterday by the latest worm or virus or whatever. Oh yeah, the Nimda worm...right. Whatever. Anyway, they are on lockdown here as far as the Web is concerned, so we are not really supposed to be online unless its business. But I just had to log something today on the worm.

So, what about the idea that this worm is just another attack from the terrorists that hit the WTC? Interesting and scary thought. But I think that most people are doubting the technological capabilities of the attackers.

I don't think we should underestimate them, in light of the fact that some (if not all) of the terrorists on the hijacked planes had been in the US for years, learning how to fly planes and such, with no signs of terrorist leanings (is it just another rumor, or was at least one of these guys actually born here?). In any case, these guys were the classic sleeper agents. So what's to say that there aren't other sleepers in America that are sending out viruses? Hitting us from all sides, including our precious Internet?

Well, like I said earlier, I can't be online at work for long, so I gotta get going. In the meantime, I think you should check out these other blogs here and here.

2001-09-18T13:18:00.000-04:00

Hi all. Just wanted to check in with a comment on something I read today. A Reuters article I read online said that Fidel Castro condemned the attacks on us and offered Cuban medical aid. Very interesting indeed...it was a bit uplifting as well. Not sure if it should be, but it is. I mean, is Castro REALLY serious? We'll see...but the whole "putting aside differences in the light of a greater evil" aspect of the whole thing struck me...

Anyway, life and work plod on, and my workload grows...so I cannot really work as much as I want to on the site, including this blog. I will try this weekend to do some site revamping in light of the attacks, and try to catch up on events. I hope to reopen the forum sometime soon, in the hopes that it will not be abused. We'll see about that as well...

2001-09-17T14:37:00.000-04:00

Disturbing clips from a Reuters story by Alan Elsner, National Correspondent:

...A Reuters/Zogby poll found 71 percent of American voters were ready to see the United States go to war against countries which ``harbor or aid terrorists'' even if it meant suffering substantial U.S. casualties; 21 percent were opposed.

The White House has vowed retaliation by a ``mighty giant'' for last Tuesday's attacks in which 19 men hijacked four commercial planes, crashing two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after a struggle between passengers and the hijackers.

President Bush (news - web sites) has said Islamic militant Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) was the prime suspect. The Saudi-born multimillionaire is believed to be based in Afghanistan (news - web sites) under the protection of the radical Islamic Taliban government.

SCUD MISSILES MOVED

In Afghanistan, Taliban rulers moved a large arsenal of weapons including Russian Scud missiles to positions near the border with Pakistan, as tens of thousands of people fearing a U.S. attack fled several major cities and headed for the borders with Pakistan and Iran.

As part of its strategy, the White House is considering lifting an executive order banning U.S. involvement in overseas assassinations. Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) said the CIA (news - web sites) may once again be allowed to recruit agents to conduct ``the mean, nasty, dirty, dangerous business'' of spying on extremists.

While Washington rattled its saber, Pakistan sent a delegation to Afghanistan to press the ruling Taliban to hand over bin Laden.

Speaking as the delegation arrived in Afghanistan, Pakistan's Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said Taliban leaders should consider the consequences of not cooperating with the U.S. hunt for bin Laden.

``The delegation is motivating and advising (Taliban leader) Mullah Omar and the Taliban leadership that they should consider the pros and cons of not cooperating with America and others on matters of terrorism because if Afghanistan does not do the logical, balanced attitude in this regard it will be a problem for Afghanistan and its people,'' he said.

As Bush rallied a global coalition for war against the ''barbarians'' who staged the attacks, the president heard encouraging sounds of support from European allies but also heard some notes of caution.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, pointing the finger at bin Laden and saying he must be stopped, made a grim comparison. ``For many people of my generation or older this is perhaps potentially the most frightening situation since the Cuban missile crisis in the early 1960s,'' he told BBC radio...

I need to brush up my Revelations, folks, but I am pretty sure that my buddy Jay, who is very Protestant, is flipping his lid at what is going on. All of the armaments allegedly being lined up must be scaring the heck outta him right now. I am sure he's looking for the Second Coming...and I'm not talking about the poem, either...

2001-09-17T14:21:00.000-04:00

Take a look at the DEBKAfile, an online news source that is running a ton of stories on what is happening as a result of the 9/11 attack. They are claiming numerous things, such as CIA and FBI special units taking up positions along the Pakistani-Afghan border and that we already have troops on the scene. Interesting to say the least...if reliable and accurate, it could be a good source of news directly from the "front lines" since they claim to have sources in the world's hot spots...we'll see...it looks like the site's creators are not associated with the Israeli press or any press at all, for that matter...a slogan at the top of the page claims "We Start Where the Media Stops"...

Thanks to Uncle B (aka Do Dirty) for the link.

2001-09-17T12:57:00.000-04:00

Still reeling almost a week later...aren't we all? Anyway, last week I reached a state of shock and rage so deep I felt frozen...I still feel that way...I couldn't bring myself to write about the attack anymore...I could barely read the newspapers or watch the whole thing on TV...not due to callousness but due to overload...I think everyone in America feels this way, though...I guess in any situation like this, there is only a certain amount of tragedy one can process until everything goes numb...until the anger burns it off for a while...but the numbness always seems to come back...

I have Muslim friends that I met in college...they are getting some nasty remarks and looks from people on the streets here...and I find it embarrassing that people are harboring such feelings towards innocent people...my friends were born in America, not in a Middle Eastern country...they are citizens of this country...but I know that won't matter to some idiots here, the idiots that continually earn us the "Ugly American" moniker...and I wish that people would remember that a camera's lens is only so wide and thus can only catch so much...I wish that people would remember that there are people in the Middle East that are not celebrating our tragedy, that are not dancing in the streets at our pain...there are people over there just trying to go about their lives just like us...they have nothing to do with what their governments or the terrorists of the same nationality are doing...they are the people not captured by the camera's eye, which is far from all-seeing no matter what we have been led to believe...like I always say, there are assholes of every color, and they are the ones that spoil things for the rest of us...it's the assholes, not every single person within an ethnicity, that cause trouble...

so question the footage you see, people...it ain't the whole story...

and don't let the assholes out of your sight...

2001-09-12T11:10:00.000-04:00

NASA said today that the smoke from the destruction of the buildings in the WTC complex could be seen from space...an intelligence satellite spotted it. What the hell...? I look at the images of the streets of New York over and over, and it looks like images from some foreign country, scenes from some war-torn place like Boznia or Gaza or whatever...but not America! God, is that what they wanted to do, in their jealousy? Turn our streets into replicas of their own...damn...

2001-09-12T10:53:00.000-04:00

NATO Says U.S. Can Count on Support

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - America's NATO allies declared Tuesday that the United States can count on their support in an intensified war against terrorism - a battle ``all civilized nations must win.''

The alliance issued the declaration during an emergency meeting called after airborne attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

``Our deepest sympathy lies with the victims, their families and all Americans,'' the alliance's governing North Atlantic Council said. ``The NATO nations unanimously condemn these barbaric acts committed against a NATO member state.''

It said the ``mindless slaughter of so many innocent civilians is an unacceptable act of violence without precedent in the modern era.''

The attacks, NATO said, ``underscored the urgency of intensifying the battle against terrorism, a battle that the NATO countries - indeed all civilized nations - must win.''

The statement added: ``At this critical moment, the United States can rely on its 18 allies in NATO and Europe for assistance and support...Our message to the people of the United States is that we are with you.''

Of the attackers, NATO said: ``Our message to those who perpetrated these unspeakable crimes is equally clear: you will not get away with it.''

We damn well better get support from the rest of the world. How about a little help in OUR time of need? We help everyone else, after all...

2001-09-12T10:46:00.000-04:00

Bin Laden a Prime Suspect in Attacks
By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - From the outset, the culprit seemed obvious. Who else but Osama bin Laden had the means, the organization and the fanaticism required to pull off the terrorist acts at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?

And indeed, by late afternoon Tuesday, the Bush administration confirmed that bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organization were prime suspects.

He is widely regarded as the world's most dangerous man. He is thought to have been behind the twin bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998 that claimed the lives of 224 people, including 12 Americans.

Those numbers pale alongside the anticipated toll from Tuesday's attacks on symbols of American commercial and military might.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said FBI and intelligence officials told him the attacks were ``well-planned over a number of years, planned by real pros and experts. ... Their belief is, at least initially, that this looks like Osama bin Laden's signature.''

Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., asked whether bin Laden's group is the likely perpetrator, said, ``I don't know if there's any other organization that had the capability to carry out such a coordinated series of attacks.''

Bin Laden's obsessive anti-Americanism has never been in doubt. ``I'm fighting so I can die a martyr and go to heaven to meet God. Our fight now is against the Americans,'' bin Laden was once quoted as saying.

He has declared all U.S. citizens to be legitimate targets of attack. CIA Director George Tenet has said bin Laden has demonstrated a capability to plan ``multiple attacks with little or no warning.''

His road to international pariah status has been helped along by his strong organizational skills and a warchest inherited from the family construction company.

Born in Saudi Arabia in 1957, bin Laden drew inspiration from Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979. He had dreams of similar revolts in other Muslim countries.

Less than a year later, the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan provided another turning point. He despised the notion of people he considered to be infidels controlling a Muslim country and joined forces with the Afghan resistance.

Ironically, this commitment put him on the same side as the United States, which shared bin Laden's contempt for the Soviets and spent millions trying to liberate Afghanistan from them.

The Afghanistan experience enabled bin Laden and the many followers he recruited to hone the skills they needed for future struggles once the Soviets were evicted in early 1989.

His disdain for the monarchy in his Saudi homeland turned into outright opposition in 1990 when the kingdom invited hundreds of thousands of American and other foreign troops into the country after the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.

Saudi Arabia was betraying the faith by accepting help from western infidels, bin Laden believed, and he set about to drive the United States from the Middle East.

He lived a nomadic existence for several years, having been deported by a number of Islamic countries before finding a haven in Afghanistan. President Bush said Tuesday the United States ``will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.''

Operating from damp caves infested with scorpions and rats, he plotted against the world's only superpower. Aside from the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa, he also is believed by U.S. officials to be responsible for the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center and last year's bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.

He has proved to be an elusive target. President Clinton was so eager to liquidate bin Laden that he ordered more than 70 sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles at his hideaway in Afghanistan in 1998. All fell wide of the mark. A $5 million FBI bounty on his head has yet to produce results. And despite two rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions, the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan refuse to turn him in.

We helped Afghanistan oust the Soviets, and look how we are repaid. Nice countries get the shaft as usual.

2001-09-12T10:34:00.000-04:00

Powell Says U.S. to Respond as if 'This Is War'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were an act of war and promised the United States would respond ``as if it is a war.''

Interviewed on ABC's ``Good Morning America,'' Powell said: ``The American people have a clear understanding that this is a war. That's the way they see it. You can't see it any other way, whether legally that is correct or not.''

Asked if he personally regarded it that way, Powell responded, ``I do.

``We've got to respond as if it is a war. We've got to respond with the sense that it isn't going to be resolved with a single counterattack against one individual. It's going to be a long-term conflict.''

Damn straight, Colin. Now you need to convince the President to feel the same way AND to act on those feelings. And we don't need any infantry to go in, just launch some missles and add our strength to the anti-Taliban forces that are attacking Kabul. We should be supporting them anyway. I'm all for us supporting political destabilization in countries that harbor terrorists, how about you guys? Let's send in some bombers and drop enough firepower to turn the ground in Afghanistan to glass.

2001-09-12T10:02:00.000-04:00

U.S. Searches for Perpetrators, Survivors
World Leaders React to Attack

By Alan Elsner, National Correspondent

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans awoke in a state of controlled fury on Wednesday, as emergency workers dug desperately for survivors in New York and intelligence agencies searched for those behind the worst attack on the nation since Pearl Harbor.

2001-09-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

Five Suspects Identified in NYC Attack

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Authorities in Massachusetts have identified five Arab men as suspects in Tuesday's attack on New York City and have seized a rental car containing Arabic-language flight training manuals at Logan International Airport, a source told the Boston Herald newspaper.

Two of the men were brothers whose passports were traced to the United Arab Emirates, the unidentified source told the Herald. One of the men was a trained pilot, the paper reported on its Web site on Wednesday.

The paper said investigators suspect the two brothers were aboard hijacked United Airlines flight 175, which pilot union officials said was one of the aircraft that crashed into the World Trade Center.

Flight UA 175 left from Boston en route to Los Angeles with 56 passengers on board. American Airlines flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles crashed into the other World Trade Center tower. Another aircraft hit the Pentagon (news - web sites) and a fourth aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania.

At least two other suspects flew to Logan on Tuesday from Portland, Maine, where authorities believe they had traveled after crossing over from Canada recently, the Herald reported.

Authorities were informed about the rental car by a civilian who got into a fight with several Arab men as they were parking their car, the paper reported.

That's it, pick up the trail, guys...and lead us right to the source so we know where to drop the bombs.

2001-09-12T09:18:00.000-04:00

Taliban Foes Claim Attack Against Kabul

ISTANBUL, Sept. 12 (Wednesday) -- When explosions reverberated across the capital of Afghanistan early today, the obvious conclusion was that the United States was making good on President Bush's vow to hold accountable the people responsible for Tuesday's devastating terrorist attacks in the United States.

But despite the apparent logic, the Pentagon quickly denied that the United States was behind any explosions in Kabul -- especially a missile strike, as initially suggested by CNN. Later in the day, however, the anti-Taliban opposition claimed responsibility for the blasts.

"Two of our helicopter gunships took part in this operation," Bismillah Khan, a top commander of the anti-Taliban force, told the Reuters news agency.

He said opposition forces also fired medium-range Russian-built missiles at the airport. Explosions, punctuated by Taliban anti-aircraft fire, lasted for almost 10 minutes.

"We had to do something to stop their attacks and that was the only way," Khan said on a satellite phone from a location north of Kabul.

Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? That we should be recruiting these guys to help us strike back? These guys can be our inside people in this whole mess. Go here, here, and here for some information on the Taliban. The Taliban supposedly has its own Web site at www.afghan-ie.com, but I can't get to it right now. The site is down. This site is the closest I can get to it.

In the meantime, Blogger is getting harder and harder to post on, so I think that I'll try again later...for now I'll be reading the papers I picked up and trying to get a handle on all the information out there today. Talk to you later...

ACS

2001-09-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

For those that want to help out in the face of the terrorist attacks yesterday, go here and here.

2001-09-11T16:53:00.000-04:00

The Pearl Harbor of my generation happened today. I had the chance to watch some of it on the television, and I felt like I was watching a movie instead of the news. Maybe a Jerry Bruckheimer flick or the sequel to Independance Day, but certainly not reality. But we are taught in this country to feel as though we are impervious, invincible. It's shocking to have the truth displayed to us in such a terrible way. We were no more ready for this attack as we were for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Two hijacked planes smash into the World Trade Center towers and cause them to collapse. There is footage of people running from a huge cloud of dust that roils around corners and turns everything black. Footage from a man that was just on the news showed him only a few blocks away from one of the towers as it fell.

Another plane crashed into the Pentagon. Still another plane crashed near Pittsburgh, with people claiming everything from another attempted kamikaze attack to a rumor that the plane would not identify itself and was shot down by us. Why don't we know the whole story? How can things be this confused? Are we that unprepared?

A car bomb exploded near the Capitol building. What the hell is going on here?

I watched the second tower collapse live, in front of my eyes. People here at work were wailing and crying or staring in shocked silence. Again, there were comments on how surreal it all was...or rather, how movie-like the images were...like I said, we're taught that things like that don't happen here.

There is talk of returning to the Cold War practice of constant patrolling of our airspace by jets and bombers...but how can they protect us from threats within airliners?

Osama bin Laden and the Taliban? Why have then been allowed to linger as long as they have on this planet? How can they waltz into airports with the means to hijack planes? Ceramic guns like Glocks? Whoever it is means business, coordinating an attack aimed at our political and economic hearts.

I hear the people around me calling for blood, for vengeance...I hear them talking about bomb shelters and conventional warfare versus "that other kind of warfare"...the big one...will we be having air raid drills next?

Disjointed mentally and emotionally today, as is the rest of the country...where do we go from here? Talk to you soon...

2001-08-24T11:13:00.000-04:00

Today I am working on shining for the higher ups here in my particular corner of Corporate America. Hard at work means little wordage from me on the site during the weekday AMs. I know you're so heartbroken about that...

Anyway, so as not to be totally devoid of thought tidbits on this blog, I ask you to ponder the concepts involved with a burgeoning branch of science: nanotechnology. Go here and here for some data, then think about it. I hope to talk about it here...eventually...that's what they made weekends for, I guess.

2001-08-22T10:56:00.000-04:00

Damn, getting back into the swing of things with the site is easier said than done right now. The new job is taking up a lot of time and energy, people. It's very challenging, to say the least. New jargon to learn, new responsibilites to take on, new procedures to grasp, new people to work with every day...

And, the proverbial little bird came to me recently to give me the first faint whisperings of dirt on the company: the bird chirpped about the dreaded "salary freeze" (I'm familiar with THAT concept from my ex-ex-employer, the Big F, from whence the little ants that bugged my site not long ago originated...nasty place that makes employees into nasty people, as was seen on the Forum and in the Guestbook here)...the birg sang about the infrequent (yearly) performance reviews as well...the bird was shocked to hear that the topic of the process of promotion here was not yet revealed to me...I have wanted to ask but I felt my first few weeks on the job were not the proper time...but perhaps I have changed my tune on that feeling...

Anyway, suffice to say that the job is taking up my reserves right now, so the site is just a trickling stream and not a raging river...oh well...I hope to change that soon enough...but for now I have a meeting about the latest advertising "slick" concerning the company, so I have to run...talk to you later (there's a topic I've wanted to touch on recently)...

2001-08-17T16:37:00.000-04:00

I have gone out of the Land of Milk and Honey that we call Unemployment back into the bondage of the Working World. I officially ended my personal stint as a tick on the ass of America on the 14th of August, when I became a proposal writer for a rather successful software reseller in scenic Pennsylvania. Not a bad gig at all. I am still disturbed by the ratio of resumes sent to interviews acquired that I experienced during my jobhunt. Maybe there are too many people with BAs in English and 3 years of experience in the area looking for work as well. Maybe I just suck. But all that is behind me now...

It is Friday afternoon of the first week of my employment here, and I decided to break my fast as far as the site and this blog are concerned. I am not feeling all that philosophical lately...being broke can make one jaded and rather narrow minded ("Must make money" is a soul-draining mantra, people). But as I get back into the world of the working, I'll find my interest growing again. I am now contemplating a rehash of the site, and perhaps a relocation to a new URL. Not sure yet. I also want to go about spreading the word of PS a bit differently...spreading the word in the way I should have done it the first time around: going to philosophy groups online, that sort of thing...but no regrets. Gotta learn somehow, right?

In the end, it wasn't really the dire need to find a job that caused me to walk away from the site...it was mostly the recurring wave of bad attention from people I used to know at a former job that convinced me it was time to walk away for a while (I'm sure you've read the story by now in the Forum or in the What's New section of the site). It was almost a permanent vacation, actually. But I love the Web, and I really want to have a site that I can express myself through, get in touch with people, and add to the general garden of cyberspace...some would say that my site is the manure in that garden, but what the heck...I make the grass grow, make the flowers bloom...I am wandering mentally...this first week back to work has reintroduced me to the excitement and brain-fogging effect of a Friday afternoon at work...

Anyway, before I blather on anymore, I want to say welcome back to the site. Please feel free to yell at me. I need it. It'll keep me awake...and all you people out there that have kept my stats showing me unique visitors at somewhat respectable levels, keep coming back. I hope to have some new things to show you...

ACS

2001-06-29T13:37:00.000-04:00

I know that I have not made any additions to this blog in some time, but I was busy since last Friday dealing with a pesky vestigial organ. You guessed it, yers trooly no longer has his appendix. Turns out that it was going bad for about, oh, TWO MONTHS, and my quack doctor did not realize it. Anyway, last Friday I woke up with the worst stomach pains I have ever had and I threw up about three times before crawling to the phone to call my girlfriend. She got out of work to drive me to the nearest hospital, which incidentally is literally a three minute drive (in mid-morning traffic) from our place. I then sat for about 15 minutes in the emergency room waiting area, writhing in agony, waiting...waiting...waiting...until finally they took me back to the main emergency room area. So I was there from about 11 AM to sometime in the eight o'clock hour before they finally figured out that it was my appendix. About to burst. I hadn't had an operation since I was 5 years old. It was such a surreal experience, going down in an elevator to the operating area of the hospital...the elevator opened onto a silent expanse of yellow-tiled corridors that were freezing cold. They wheeled me into an equally frigid operating theater with soft jazz playing in the background...the doctors greeted each other jovially as they put me on heart monitors and all other sorts of contraptions...and then they told me that they were putting me to sleep...and there was no fading from consciousness...it was like turning off a light switch...the next thing I knew I was in the recovery room with a hole in my stomach and a body full of drugs. They shot me up with demerol (why do they have to give them in the ass?!) for about a day and a half. Anyway, a week later there is just some soreness and some stiffness to deal with...I was only able to really sit down and concentrate enough to write this today. Surgery changes one's perspective on life...it makes one really confront human frailty and mortality...even routine surgery like mine. It makes you that much more conscious of your body, and makes you want to improve your treatment of it. Next I think I need to get all of my wisdom teeth out at one time...that should be just as fun as this episode.

2001-06-18T23:50:00.000-04:00

Here's some statistics sent to me by a friend. They pertain to what has been a recurring discussion topic on my site's forum: guns. Just wanted to offer this for consideration:

Number of physicians in the US = 700,000
Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year = 120,000
Accidental deaths per physician = 0.171
(U.S. Dept. of Health &Human Services)

Number of gun owners in the US = 80,000,000
Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups)= 1,500
Accidental deaths per gun owner = 0.0000188
(U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms)

Therefore, doctors are approximately 9,000 times
more dangerous than gun owners.

2001-06-18T10:02:00.000-04:00

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY, UNIVAC!

UNIVAC Celebrates 50th Anniversary

UNIVAC, the Granddaddy of the Commercial Computer, Turns 50

By JOANN LOVIGLIO Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- For two of the men who worked on UNIVAC, the world's first commercial computer, the idea that their legacy would spawn a revolution didn't occur to them at the time.

James McGarvey, 77, of Oreland, one of the original team members, said workers didn't realize the impact their work would have -- or that they would be viewed as high-tech pioneers.

``I don't think anybody had any idea where we were going to go with computers,'' he said, then laughed. ``It was by accident; we were looking for work and we found it -- for $40 a week.''

Fifty years later, computers are ubiquitous, but nowhere near the size -- nor the price -- of UNIVAC.

UNIVAC, which cost between $1 million and $1.5 million to build, weighed eight tons and was powered by vacuum tubes instead of microprocessors. It helped crunch numbers for the Census Bureau, call a presidential election (correctly no less) and made complicated equations easier to solve.

Today, the same work is done on desktop PCs, but UNIVAC changed the way computers were viewed and, ultimately, used.

``The meaning of the word 'computer' changed,'' said Ron Smith, director of operating systems development for Unisys Corp., the contemporary corporate descendent of the company that developed the Universal Automatic Computer, otherwise known as UNIVAC.

``Before then, computers were people who sat in an office with pencils and paper and adding machines and did calculations.''

Of course computers today are used for much more than adding and subtracting. E-mailing, the latest news and sports scores and even Internet gambling can all be found online, easily accessible because of the computing revolution.

UNIVAC became a household word after the 1952 presidential election, when it correctly predicted Dwight D. Eisenhower's landslide electoral victory over Adlai E. Stevenson -- well before the news wires had declared a winner, said Jeffrey R. Yost, a technology historian at the University of Minnesota.

``UNIVAC was a marvel of its time,'' said Leo Daiuto, corporate vice president, and vice president and general manager, product development and technology. ``Directly or indirectly, our invention of UNIVAC led to a whole new industry and a new way of life for all of us. Today, we're still inventing bigger, faster, more cost-effective enterprise computers.''

Daiuto admitted that the ``many benefits of the computer age have been accompanied by a number of transaction-based annoyances -- all unimagined 50 years ago. As the company that started it all, Unisys feels it only fitting that it mark this historic anniversary with an apology for those inconveniences.''

2001-06-17T16:54:00.000-04:00

I've recovered a bit from my haze of frustrated anger at the 76ers defeat just enough to talk about them...briefly. There. I've talked about it. Now, back to my job: finding a job. Should hear about the outcome of my first few interviews of last week sometime in the upcoming week. Keep your limbs crossed.

2001-06-13T11:50:00.000-04:00

Just back from the first interview of the week. Very promising. I never had someone ask me for so many samples of my work! I gave the HR person stuff from my newspaper days, my days as an editor writing about the tech industry, and my most recent PR/Marketing gig. I didn't realize how big my portfolio was until this layoff hit me. I'm kinda proud of myself. I've been out of college for three years now, and I have gotten a fair amount of work experience. I hope to get a job before I have to start collecting unemployment. I haven't even gotten my severance pay yet! Going into the whole jobhunt again, I was worried by talk of the sagging economy. Now I see that the economy IS a concern to companies, but they are still looking for people. The woman that interviewed me today said that they take great pains to not lay people off, so they are very careful about the positions they decide to fill. She said they don't hire someone for a position if they think that position will be gone in a year or so. That way they don't lay people off. Sounds a bit too good to be true, but I trusted her. Oh well, two more interviews to go! Lemme tell ya, it is damn hot out there today. Wow! Thank God for air conditioning! Me in my new suit on a day like this is trouble! Tonight, I get to relax. Unless the Sixers lose again. Ugh, don't let me think about it.

Concerning the Forum, I am going to let things cool down a bit for a while, at least til I get a job. I was thinking about keeping the post password, and just giving it to people that mail me and ask for it, or just give it to the people that I am meeting in the discussion groups I have been checking out. I am sure the little ants that have been swarming over my site, the dreaded ex-coworkers with a mysterious grudge and way too much free time, will try to find a way in. I am sure that they are trying this very moment. Oh well. Things will work themselves out.

I apologize about the lack of philosophical rants lately. All the mental resources are going into the jobhunt and into my writing for the magazine I started with some buddies in college, called the Iconoclast. We have all been interrupted by life, but after a long hiatus I think we are going to finally get another issue out soon. The Web site is in need of some housekeeping too. But we will be back in print soon enough. I am also working on my fiction writing. So you can see that the my site has a lot of competition for my time as of late! Sorry about that. I'll try to get back into the saddle soon enough! Later on!

ACS

2001-06-11T18:17:00.000-04:00

Greetings from the realm of the unemployed. What news, you ask? Well, other than the rage I feel at the 76ers for loosing game three of the NBA finals and the job interview I have on Wednesday with a fairly reputable firm, there is the EXECUTION OF TIMOTHY MCVEIGH! DUM DUM DUM DUUUUUUH! I think that there are going to be many more McVeighs in our future, unfortunately. The self-righteous are always out there, ready to strike on behalf of powerful forces, from God to the government to whatever else they can think of...for more on McVeigh's end, keep reading:

Oklahoma City Bomber McVeigh Dies Unrepentant
By Arthur Spiegelman

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (Reuters) - Silent, unrepentant and staring into a television camera that beamed his execution back to the city he devastated, Timothy McVeigh was put to death on Monday for the bombing that killed 168 people in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. The man who committed the worst act of terrorism on American soil said nothing to mitigate or explain his actions but he did leave behind a defiant written testament using someone else's words and ideas.

In neat script, under the title ``Final Written Statement of Timothy McVeigh'', he wrote in longhand a copy of the famous 19th Century poem, ``Invictus,'' in which crippled poet William Ernest Henley declares, ``I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.'' The poem's title means ``undefeated'' in Latin. Henley was 26 years old when he wrote that poem and McVeigh was 26 years old when he bombed the Alfred P. Murrah federal building.

Richard Burr, one of his lawyers, said McVeigh died by lethal injection with no regrets about what he had set out to do -- attack a building crammed with workers for a federal government he deemed oppressive. Another McVeigh attorney, Robert Nigh Jr., said, ``To the victims, I say I am sorry I could not get Tim to say words of reconciliation.''

But McVeigh, who was raised a Catholic, might have asked for forgiveness in private. A Justice Department spokeswoman said he received last rites of the Catholic Church shortly before his execution. A Catholic churchwoman in Terra Haute said she understood he received a sacrament reserved for those seeking a blessing as they near death in which he could have asked for forgiveness.

McVeigh had described his execution -- the first federal execution in 38 years -- as a state-assisted suicide and he was a willing partner. He was cordial when warden Harley Lappin spent a half hour with him describing how he would die. He was cooperative when guards strapped him to a gurney and wrapped him so tight in a white sheet that he looked like a mummy.

The Gulf War veteran, who believed he was on a military mission to strike at the heart of the U.S. government, tried to look every witness to his execution in the eye. There were four rooms of witnesses and only one that McVeigh could not see through because of tinted glass -- that room was reserved for the victims and their families, although they could see him.

McVeigh then lay on the gurney staring straight up -- at a camera which was beaming his execution back to an auditorium in Oklahoma City where 232 victims or family members were watching. He seemed to stare straight at them.

HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED

In Oklahoma City, Karen Jones, the wife of a bombing victim, said, ``He got what he wanted. He was laying there glaring right at us.''

Larry Whicher, the brother of a bombing victim, said: ``It was a totally defiant stare, that if he had the chance he would do it all over again. There was no remorse -- none whatsoever.''

``We feel at peace now,'' said Claudia Denny, whose two children were severely injured but survived the April 19, 1995, blast that killed 168 people, including 19 children.

``McVeigh is a coward and a lowdown bastard. Somebody tried to take my life, they deserve to burn in hell,'' said Raymond Washburn, who was at his concession stand in the Alfred P. Murrah building when McVeigh detonated the bomb.

McVeigh died at 7:14 a.m. local time (8:14 a.m. EDT/1214 GMT), about 10 minutes after the execution began. Witnesses said he died with his eyes open and that after he drew his last breath, his skin turned flush yellow.

Said CBS newsman Byron Pitts, a witness: ``There was no sign of suffering, no sign of discomfort, no sign of fear.

President Bush, who leaves later on Monday on a European tour where he is expected to encounter strong opposition to the death penalty, said: ``The victims of the Oklahoma City bombing have been given not vengeance but justice.

``Today every living person who was hurt by the evil done in Oklahoma City can rest in the knowledge that there has been a reckoning.''

CONDEMNED IN EUROPE

The execution was condemned in Europe, where opposition to the death penalty outweighed abhorrence at McVeigh's crime. European critics of capital punishment called it a barbaric, blood-thirsty way of making McVeigh pay for his crime.

In London, Amnesty International said the execution was a triumph of vengeance over justice.

The human rights group said it deeply regretted what it called a failure of human rights leadership in the highest levels of government in the United States. ``By executing the first federal death row prisoner in nearly four decades, the USA has allowed vengeance to triumph over justice and distanced itself yet further from the aspirations of the international community,'' an Amnesty statement said.

But for many Americans, McVeigh's execution was final justice to avenge a vicious attack on innocent men, women and children. Some of the victims and their families hoped it would bring closure to a painful chapter of U.S. history.

For some Americans, questions still remain about the attack on the steel and glass Murrah building. Prime among those questions is whether McVeigh acted alone or whether there are still conspirators at large. McVeigh, 33, insisted he acted virtually alone.

McVeigh's lawyers, who also witnessed the execution, had said in advance his body would be cremated but the location where his ashes will be stored has not been disclosed.

Only a few dozen protesters stood in the fields outside the prison to register their feelings. The death penalty opponents stood in silent vigil while death penalty supporters chanted ''Die McVeigh. Die!'' and ``This is for Oklahoma City!'' at the time of his scheduled execution.

McVeigh did not admit to the bombing during the 1997 trial in Denver, where he was convicted of killing eight federal officers who died in the blast. But he confessed in interviews with two reporters for the Buffalo News after the trial, saying he acted alone out of rage prompted by the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian cult compound in Waco, Texas, in which nearly 90 people are believed to have died.

In a book ``American Terrorist'' by the Buffalo News reporters, Dan Herbeck and Lou Michel, McVeigh said he regretted the ``collateral damage'' that came with the deaths of 19 children at a day care center inside the federal building when he drove a truck bomb up its entrance.

The closest McVeigh came to an expression of remorse was in letters to the Buffalo News in which he said: ``I am sorry these people had to lose their lives, but that's the nature of the beast. It's understood going in what the human toll will be.''

His execution was originally scheduled for May 16 but was delayed by the revelation that 4,000 pages of FBI documents had not been turned over to McVeigh's lawyers before his 1997 trial, as they should have been. McVeigh dropped his appeals after losing in two levels of federal courts.

2001-06-07T12:45:00.000-04:00

Despite all the dirty press attacking the 76ers going into game one of the playoffs, they walked into the Laker's house last night and told them to sit down! Allen "David" Iverson put the proverbial rock between the eyes of Shaquille "Goliath" O'Neal! What a great game. I have never enjoyed a game of basketball that much! If you are so inclined or if you missed the game, read about the highlights here! And go here to read up on the last time the '6ers and the Lakers met in the playoffs.

2001-06-05T13:05:00.000-04:00

On a lighter note, the 76ers DID finally beat the Bucks and are now on their way to the playoffs with the Lakers! It's David (Iverson) versus Goliath (Shaq)!

2001-06-05T11:32:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of "rantage" for the past few days. Went on a wilderness vacation this past weekend. And, well, I was also laid off on Friday last. Yep. So suffice to say that I am looking for a new yob. That is how I will be spending the majority of my days for the time being. Oh well, no more work T1 line to benefit from! That's the way it goes in America when the company lies to you about their financial fecundity when they hire you. I didn't know until about two months into the job that the company was about $50-$70 million in debt!

The HR person at the job was trying to cheer me up that day I got laid off. She said "Hey! I was laid off once right before the summertime, too! And I just took the whole summer off by taking unemployment!"

Good for you, sweetheart. Good for you. For me, though, I needs a job. Soon. I got a big severance package and unemployment to lean on for now, but I don't want to do that forever. Not even for more than a month. So I expect to be gainfully employed by the Fourth of July. I'm not really happy to think that I will be one of the many to sponge from unemployment. I guess if I used it every year for 26 weeks like some people then it would REALLY be sponging. But I still feel shitty for thinking of using it even for a few weeks. Anyway, I gotta go hit Monster and all that, so not too much going on in the rant department for now. I don't even want to waste my time on a unemployment rant that goes into the economy and unscrupulous bosses and all that. Talk to you soon, hopefully with good news.

2001-05-30T12:07:00.000-04:00

SEOUL, South Korea - An army helicopter installing a sculpture atop a bridge smashed into the structure and plunged into Seoul's Han River on Tuesday, killing all three soldiers on board.

The CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter was installing a torch-shaped sculpture on the bridge's central tower Tuesday when its rotors hit the sculpture and the tower.

The helicopter snapped in two. One half fell onto the bridge span and burst into flames, while the other half fell into the river.

"We have discovered two bodies, and have confirmed that the pilot's body is trapped in the helicopter which sank to the river bottom,'' said Han Young-hun, an army spokesman.

No other casualties were reported. The bridge had been closed during the installation work.

The dead were identified as pilot Chun Hong-yop, co-pilot Nam In-ho and Sgt. 1st Class Kim Woo-soo.

Army scuba divers were working to recover the wreckage.

The Han River divides Seoul into two parts, and about two dozen bridges cross the river.

Did anyone see footage of the crash? It was like watching a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. All I could do was sit there in terror and watch dumbfounded. It was such a cinematic thing. Those were my mind's first reactions. Is that callous, the reaction of a desensitized American? THAT thought is even scarier. I'd like to think that I am not desensitized or jaded, but to a degree my mind has been trained, perhaps, to think of things in terms of film imagery. Maybe it's nothing, but I was ashamed of myself for thinking how this would be a cool scene in a movie. It was definitly an instance of morbid fascination.

2001-05-29T09:15:00.000-04:00

I hate it when Tuesday feels like Monday. I really do. I am tired from too much sleep and too much party. Oh woe is me, right? I bet you feel so sorry for me, don't you? Heh, well, suffice to say I have a ton of work today. The old job is quite dreary today. I sit in an office with no windows, and I can't see the beautiful day that is going on outside today. Maybe that is a blessing, actually. Seeing what I am missing might make me feel worse. Just a boring workday, right? Damn, I can't wait to get outside again.Okay, to spare you some more babble, I'll end this entry now. Talk to you later once I perk up.

2001-05-26T11:03:00.000-04:00

Hallelujah! BlogSpot is BACK! Good job, people at Blogger! Just wanted to say thanks for not losing my blog entries! You're the greatest! Anyway, there was another rash of anonymous verbal attacks on my site's forum these past couple days. It was some of the same people from my old job. I never did anything to them. When I first put my site up, I sent out an email to friends and family and even old and new coworkers. Well, the old coworkers, some of them anyway, just decided to mess with me. Don't really know why. I consider myself a nice guy. I never abused my power with regards to anyone at the old job. But sometimes there's people that just like to play jokes on people when they are assured of anonymity. This is especially true over the Internet. This is part of the phenomenon I call "Virtual Courage". It covers harassing someone over the Internet, via chat, Guestbook, message board, etc. It covers anything someone says or does anonymously over the Internet that one usually would not say or do in a face-to-face situation. Before the Internet, the same thing was (and still is) done over the virtual environment of the telephone. Well, I fought them the first time and I decided to be peaceful this time. And then I decided to just ignore them. I tried passionate rebuttal the first time and this time I tried a more neutral approach. But I realized that the best thing to do would be to stop arguing at all and just ignore them, like you would ignore a high school bully's teasings across a classroom. I won't leave their posts up. If I keep arguing with them, the argument will never stop. So it's time to stop. I hope they get the message. One can never tell with some people.

2001-05-25T08:11:00.000-04:00

Okay, it is Friday and Blogger's Blogspot is STILL out of commission. Sheesh. I gotta get my blog set up on my site using FTP. The only thing is, I gotta start paying for extended service from Freeservers, my Web host. Damn! Come on, Blogger, you guys said you would have a new server by last night!!! Oh well, I can wait.

2001-05-24T16:09:00.000-04:00

HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY BOB DYLAN!!!

2001-05-24T09:07:00.000-04:00

Well, I am writing this while Blogger's Blogspot is STILL down, but they have assured all of us Blogspotters that they are moving to a new server. We should be back up any day now. I'll keep posting, in the meantime.

Ah, the wonderous diversity and infinite possibilities of the Internet! You have to take a look at the LNSEMSF site. What does that stand for? Why, the Leonard Nemoy Should Eat More Salsa Foundation! Go take a look.

2001-05-23T12:19:00.000-04:00

Been having some trouble today accessing my Blogger account. What is your problem, Blogger? Can't handle the pressure? All those many happy Bloggers blogging away, burning out your hardware? Sorry to hear it. Please don't lose any of my blogs!

Not much on the mind today. The sun is expected to come out today. We'll see about that.

The Sixers took game one of their series against the Bucks. I hope that a Philadelphia team will win a championship before I die. One can only hope. But then there's the Lakers to consider, and that big bastard Shak or however you spell his damned name. He's a funny-looking guy, ain't he? Kinda cross-eyed. I just don't want him to crush us, that's all. He could step on Iverson's head without having to lift his leg too much.

2001-05-22T14:26:00.000-04:00

I have a headache. Damn computer monitor. I actually saw the sun today for a minute. I looked up and there were rays of light, believe it or not. South Jersey sunshine...nothing like it. Heh. I was just listening to Tom Wait's cover of "Jersey Girl". Not bad. Someone once described Wait's voice as "whiskey-soaked". I like that. That's a good way to describe the raspy sound that comes out of him. He's something of an acquired musical taste. He was also Renfield in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. He was great. "MAW-STAH! You promised ME eternal life! But you give it to the pretty woman!" Heh, he cracks me up.

2001-05-22T10:49:00.000-04:00

Right. To anyone who is either falsely or truly upset at my being "tired of hearing about cancer", I say this: who isn't? I am tired of hearing about it because it is a depressing subject. Because it seems to be on the rise. Because we can't seem to do anything about it no matter how hard we try. It is a scary subject, and it has been draining me with its persistant media presence. Because some of my relatives have died from it or have suffered from it. I was not just brushing off the subject: "Oh, Buffy, I am so dreadfully TIRED of this cancer business taking up such valuable commercial time?" It should be the "American Symbol" because America's population is the most cancer-ridden in the world. Perhaps that's the price of first place. I am tired of hearing about cancer because it gets me as down as the next person to even hear the word. I was trying to alleviate my own cancer angst. Gimme a break with the false outrage. And sorry if I caused the real stuff. I'm grumpy.

2001-05-22T09:26:00.000-04:00

Hindus to Be Required to Wear Label
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's Taliban rulers - already isolated by their harsh brand of Islam and poor treatment of women - announced plans to make Hindus wear an identity label on their clothing to distinguish them from Muslims.

The hardline Taliban regime that controls 95 percent of this poor Central Asian state plans to enforce the edict soon, Mohammed Wali, religious police minister, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. An exact date was not set, he said.

The law will also make it mandatory for Hindu women to veil themselves - just like Muslim women of Afghanistan, Wali said.

Shades of a certain WWII Axis power that was fond of putting six-pointed stars on people, anyone? The cycle continues. History is ignored and then repeated. The same old shit. What a great day this is shaping up to be, eh?

2001-05-22T08:30:00.000-04:00

Cancer. I am tired, tired, TIRED of hearing about cancer. Cancer this and cancer that. Everybody has cancer. Suzanne Sommers has cancer. Eddie Van Halen has cancer. My girlfriend's friend's boyfriend's mom has cancer. Fucking cancer. What is it with cancer in America? It should be our national symbol, for fuck's sake. The American Curse. I think everybody talking about cancer also causes cancer. Mind over matter, and all that jazz.

Sorry. I guess I'm just feeling the effects of constant rain and no sunshine. Ugh. Gimme a break over here. I can't take it on days like this. Shouldn't have been listening to Tom Waits on the way to work. Work. Blargh! Take this job and shove it! Maybe I'll write again later when I am more coherent.

2001-05-21T15:21:00.000-04:00

I like my horoscope for today:

"It's the perfect day to let yourself go into high creative mode today, due to the positive sextile between Moon and Jupiter. Let go, and drift off into a whole other world! Escape your present reality and explore your fantasies through any sort of artistic endeavor. Dream as big as your mind will allow. There is no limit to the things that can be realized on a day like this. Push your limits and test your boundaries. You may be able to soar much higher than you think."

Very pertinent to my life right now. I have been putting off and putting off my writing. Fiction writing, I mean. Stuff like short stories, the ideas I have for short stories that are bugging me to write them. I have been procrastinating for years now, and putting out the occasional tale. But I really cannot read anything anymore without getting frustrated because I am not writing. It's getting to the point that I cannot finish reading a short story written by someone else without getting restless. So maybe this horoscope is another little cosmic nudge. Hmmm...

2001-05-21T14:50:00.000-04:00

I am trying to listen to the new Tool album here at work, but I can't seem to get any peace today. My bosses are the worst. Well, it's not only my bosses bugging me, it's people that have been here for a long time and are higher up in the department. These "higher ups" have no real authority over me, since they are not my immediate supervisors. But I have way too many chiefs here at my work. I have three people that can pull me in all directions, walk into my office and say "Drop what you're doing and do this now." Then there is this fat man who is an older higher up. No boss of mine. He just walks into my office and asks for things, like today he asked for a permanent marker. No "hello", no "how are you", or even an "excuse me." Just "do you have a permanent marker?" When I said no, he just glared at me and walked away. Asshole. My immediate supervisor is Lorna, a great lady. But just above her is this other woman, a real headcase. She has this nervous energy about her that is so hard to tolerate. She also has something of an attitude, and she is sickeningly sweet in that way that makes you realize that she really isn't nice but just tries to come off as such. I hate her. Then there is the head of the department. He used to be a nice guy, but nowadays he's just this nightmare stalking the hallways, always looking depressed and humorless. He used to be funny, but I guess the stresses of corporate life have drained him of his humanity. I am really pissed at this job. I am not used to being a peon again, even after about seven months of being here. By the time I left my last job, I was pretty high up in my former company's ranks. I got respect and gave it. And now I get no respect. Call me Rodney Dangerfield.

About the new Tool album, from what I can hear so far in this shitty listening environment, I personally think it sounds great. One of my buddies had me worried last night, cause he got it before me and said it sucked. He even let me borrow his copy to listen to it. Anytime someone lets you borrow an album just after they bought it means that either they are your really good friend or that they really hate the album (maybe a combination of the two is possible, but I know my buddy, and I think he really hates it). Anyway, I think he's going to see if it grows on him. He said last night that he thought I'd really like it, though. I guess cause I am a little more liberal and a lot more weird than he is...

2001-05-21T14:10:00.000-04:00

It's a shitty rainy Monday in my part of the world today. My pinky on my left hand has an ingrown nail or something like a nastier version of the classic hangnail, and it is annoying me to no end. every time I hit an "A" or an "S", it stings. I know, life sucks, right? Enough of my bitching, I want to talk about former Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha and Mumia Abu Jamal.

I have gotten some flak for liking Rage and Zack. To those of you out there that have nagged someone for listening to Rage, this is for you, I guess:

See, I can't always relate to their lyrics and sentiments, just like I don't always relate to my friends and family. That's life (at least my life, but does ANYONE out there ALWAYS relate to or agree with the people in their lives?). I would like to think of myself as someone who thinks before blindly following the rules, and someone who speaks out against things if I am upset about them. But I really don't advocate violent responses to the things that irk me. So I don't throw Molotov cocktails at the local police headquarters when I hear that they beat the shit out of some guy, just because Rage might say I should do so. Does Rage even really WANT me to do that? Just because I like to listen to Rage and even quote them and even like what they have to say sometimes, I don't think that means I have to conform to some pseudo-anarchist behavioral pattern. And no, I am not going to go marching in protest of "the unfair trial that the Man subjected Mumia to", either. But some of his Zach's turns of phrase fulfill my appreciation of poetry. Some appeal to my ideas about freedom and the Constitution. Sometimes he appeals to my own personal philosophies. But I don't have to do all of the things they talk about in their songs in order to listen to them and like their music. And anyway, I think a lot of their music tells stories more than attempting to preach to listeners to get active and violent toward those that oppress.

I like Rage's music because of their beats, their grooves. I like some of the "poetic" ways that Zack writes and sings. I like some of the sentiments he espouses about America and the human condition. I guess I can't relate to being a downtrodden minority because I was born into white suburbia. Even lower middle class is still better than a lot of other people have it in this country. So I can't relate to Zack on that level, but I can listen to him talk about what it is like to be poor, overlooked, and generally disliked for skin color. Though there have been times when I related because I have been out of money. So I guess the poor part hit home sometimes.

Do I worry about whether or not Rage "sold out" or that they are "corporate rock"? Not really. Although I can see the point of those who aregue for those beliefs. I can see how sometimes you can see the rebelliousness of youth as another part of the "conformity machine", thus the evil "system" brings the rebels under its wing, so that one really isn't rebelling against society, but merely fulfilling the expected "rebellious" behavior of a certain age bracket (15-21? who knows). In the end, the message of any artist (writer, singer, poet, whatever) can be taken and made new by each individual reader. So even if Rage is some money hungry bunch of fakes that really don't believe in what they create music about, the beauty of art is in the mind of the listener. The mind of the listener can take something that even the artist disbelieves and make it meaningful. I really don't think that Rage has sold out to the degree that they don't believe in their message. I am not sure if Zack or the rest have ever personally thrown Molotov cocktails or participated in riots or whatever. But whatever, I dig their jams, listen to what they have to say, agree with some of it, like some of it, sometimes find an echo of my beliefs in it, sometimes find myself inspired by it, and sometimes find myself turned off by it. THIS IS THE WAY OF LIFE, whether disagreeing with an old friend over abortion or disagreeing with a favored band because they won't shut up about some guy in prison.

About Mumia, I think that I am just like a lot of other people in America when I say "What do we REALLY know about the case"? Personally, I don't know enough about the case to make a judgement. I think a lot of people in similar ignorance HAVE made personal judgements about it. Some people are related to cops and want to see a cop killer take a ride on Old Sparky. Some people hate cops and the established law of the land and think they are corrupt and want to free Mumia and probably a host of other people in prison. I think a lot of people, as usual, have made a lot of biased judgements about this case. I won't go either way. I think that human beings have a really hard time being objective, and that law, like all other human endeavors, is plagued by this human flaw. We cannot truly escape the subjective nature of humanity. So that is why innocent people sometimes go to jail: because in the end, sometimes the facts are overshadowed by the beliefs of the people. Is Mumia guilty or innocent? Again, I don't know. I guess I could do some research on the trial and see for myself, and really get into the case. But I have not interest. I guess I am lazy. But I think that even if I got all the "facts" from the trial, they would be tainted with bias anyway. Whatever. But I don't need to make a decision because I like what Zack and Rage do most of the time. I don't need to believe what they believe. Could Zack and the rest just be up in arms because they see another black man in peril and just want to stand up for him because of his color? Sure. But how do I know? How does anybody not intimate with the actual trial proceedings know?

I like it when Zack says "silence can be violence sorta like a slit wrist" because it pertains to my belief that people should not be afraid to speak their minds to the world and say "This is what I believe." I like it when Zack says "make your move and plead the fifth cause ya can't plead the first" because it is, to me, an interesting truth that we cannot plead the first in this country, to the best of my knowledge, thus raising some concerns regarding freedom of speech and the rest of our Bill of Rights. I like the phrase because to me, it is poetic in some way. I don't agree that I should go out and commit a crime in the name of rebellion or freedom or whatever because freedom of speech is not working for me so I have to go commit a crime to get my point across, thus needing to go to trial if I am caught, where I might have to "plead the fifth" and not incriminate myself. And guess what, even IF Zack did intend to motivate people to do the latter, I don't have to do it and I can still listen to his music and enjoy it for my own reasons. Wonder of wonders.

About the latest team up of Zack and Chuck D. and others with Mumia on his latest album, who cares? Let Zack do what he wants to do. As far as I am concerned, what does that have to do with what I get from his music? The creator of a piece of work is NOT the piece of work. The piece of work is NOT the creator. The individual's interpritation of a work of art does not have to conform to the interpritation of the artist. That's freedom. There's a tenet concerning poetry and perhaps writing in general that states that the speaker of a poem/story is NOT necessarily the author. So that is why Stephen King can write from the point of view of killers and monsters without having to hack his family to pieces while they sleep. A friend of mine wrote a poem in college from the point of view of a guy whose whole life was going to strip bars and then going home to jerk off to the thought of the girls he has seen. This friend of mine intended the poem to be a lampooning of that sort of man. But here he came to find that many of his fellow English majors had come to see him, the writer, as a misogynist. These people, many of them claiming to be open-minded writers/poets/literature lovers seemingly forgot the simple, supposedly well-know rule of SPEAKER DOES NOT EQUAL AUTHOR, and branded my friend as an asshole. They were narrow minded fools. So what about Zack? Is he really a rioting anarchist that seeks an army of rock-tossing, rebellious, looting, rioting followers? Could there be another option? Think about it.

2001-05-18T15:25:00.000-04:00

Alas, I am a modern twenty-something attempting to clean up his credit history. Yes, I am just one of many that is afflicted by that boogeyman, BAAAAAAD CREEEEEDIIIIIIT! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! So today I am wrasslin' with the vast bureacratic machine that is TransUnion. I love how the reps of the debt collection agencies treat me. Like the biggest turd in the bowl (bowel?). Like they do not have or never had bad credit. I wonder if you have to have perfect credit to work for a collection agency, like the people that work at the Gap have to wear Gap clothing. Some people on the other end of the phone are actually very nice and very helpful. But some make you feel like a criminal. Some make you feel like you took money from THEM and have not paid them back. I felt like yelling at some woman over the phone today, to remind her that she wasn't the credit card company that I owed money. Some people, I tell ya.

2001-05-18T10:56:00.000-04:00

“Anger is a gift.” – Zack De Le Rocha

It seems like many of the college-educated people I meet seem to equate being philosophical with emotional neutrality. Is this belief a remnant of Greek Stoicism? A product of the rationalism espoused by the Age of Reason? A combination of these factors and others?

The stereotypical Western vision of disciples of Zen, for example, conjures up images of the stoic person, displaying no emotion in the face of all things. I am not so sure that this is so accurate a picture. I agree that the tenets of most Eastern philosophies center around balance, but I don’t think we were meant to suppress or ignore emotion. I DO believe that we can maintain strict control over the emotions, and not let them rule us. To suppress emotion brings on stagnation of the self (Freud by way of the East, you ask?). Supression of emotion can lead to inaction. Inactivity in Eastern thought is a prime evil. The Yin and Yang, for example, is not really about perfect stasis. The two forces interact dynamically, swirling around each other, both exerting equal force.

I consider emotion the instinct of humanity. Whether you believe that we evolved from the primates (and thus emotion is the remnant of animal instinct in us, and that it predates human consciousness/self-awareness) or that we were spontaneously created by a God or Gods (and that emotion was given to us as a blessing or a curse or both), or whether you believe in a combination of these two ideas, you cannot deny the power of emotion. After all, there WERE warrior monks in Asia that, I’m sure, got VERY emotional when fighting. But did they suppress their emotions? They more likely controlled it, channeled it, using it as energy in a fight. But that’s my interpretation.

I do not believe that the term “philosophical” is or should be synonymous with being “stoic.” In SOME philosophies, this may be the case. But I believe that it is perfectly natural to express emotion, and it is perfectly possible to be philosophical and emotional. The emotions give us a powerful means to accomplish things in life. For example, when my Web site was being plagued by some unknown person or persons that were attacking me via my Guestbook and Forum, I obviously got very angry. I credit my anger with the eventual flushing out of the person/persons responsible (turns out this unknown element, who I thought at first might be some strangers, turned out to be a person or more probably PERSONS that I used to work with). My anger drove me to find out the truth.

Now, concerning the tough guys out there sporting any of the variations of the “NO FEAR” decals on their cars/clothes. A man named Gavin De Becker wrote a book called “The Gift of Fear” a few years back. De Becker says that “victims of violent behavior usually feel a sense of fear before any threat or violence takes place. They may distrust the fear, or it may impel them to some action that saves their lives.” He believes that “we can all learn to recognize these signals of the ‘universal code of violence,’ and use them as tools to help us survive.” His book teaches “how to identify the warning signals of a potential attacker and recommends strategies for dealing with the problem before it becomes life threatening.”

As far as I am concerned, I believe the adage that states that we cannot know something without its opposite. So without fear, there is no courage. Courage is overcoming fear, not the absence of fear.

2001-05-17T10:53:00.000-04:00

So did everyone hear about the rash of "Monkey Man" attacks in New Delhi? If so, what do you think? Is it just attacks made by the monkeys that have been overrunning the city for months? Is it a bunch of masked pranksters? Is it actually a strange half-human, half-monkey hybrid? Or is it an outlandish advertising ploy dreamt up by Tim Burton's lackeys to spread the news about his upcoming remake of the "Planet of the Apes"? The mystery goes on...

2001-05-16T15:38:00.000-04:00

One of my old high school chums just asked his girlfriend to marry him. He sent me an e-mail today that kinda got me up in arms, philosophically speaking. In the e-mail, he lamented the stereotypes of marriage. Specifically, he asked questions like: "Why is it that men mourn so the loss of their buddies? Why do people laugh and say your life is now in her hands and you will do as you please? Why do people automatically assume that a wedding is a woman's affair?"

He went on to say: "I have heard a whole lot of, 'The extent of your involvement in the wedding is to say I DO and open the checkbook' and 'It is HER special day, something she has waited her whole life for'.

He then asked: "Can't it be HIS special day too, something HE has been looking forward to? Why can't this tradition of the man being the shadow and the woman being the star change?"

To which I responded:

First, what does marriage have to do with "loss of buddies"? NOTHING, if you don't want it to be. Marriage means a family, which indeed does eat up a lot of one's time in life. But fuck, man, us creative assholes should be able to figure out how to slip our buds into our married lives. Going to a game/concert/play/party/whatever with the wife? Invite the buds when appropriate (make sure it's not a "date" with the wife). Having a barbeque? Invite the buds. Having a birthday party for the wife/kids? Invite the buds. Having any kind of party. Invite the buds. Have nothing to do but sit around and watch TV on a weekend night (perish the thought!)? Invite the buds. Make your buds friends with your wife/kids/relatives. Dude, there are so many ways. Indeed, marriage is another way in life to (re)discover who your true buds are! Your true buds will not judge you, will not make snap decisions about you/your girl/you with your girl/your new life with your girl/whatever. They will call you and want to hang out. They will understand when you don't hang out. They won't STEREOTYPE you!

Why do people laugh and say stupid shit like "your life is now in her hands"? EGO. Big, foolish Western male macho egos that are endlessly recreated by some segment of the population to create a twisted order, an order that seperates male and female into rediculous, fabricated dichotomies. Daddy taught little Timmy that marriage is an emasculation of the male, cause that's what Daddy's Daddy taught him, and on and on...Timmy had a bad experience with a marriage, so Timmy immediately assumes that ALL marriage is bad news. Poor weak human will and minds, and HUGE EGOS, assuming that one's experience is the experience of all other people. BEWARE COMMON SENSE AND RULES OF THUMB AND GENERALLY ACCEPTED KNOWLEDGE. Common sense is bullshit when it comes to "rules" of life. What if I told you that it is common sense that blacks and Latinos are subhuman and worthless, and that marriage is an evil institution dreampt up by women and women-whipped men, used to subjugate the male will? What would you say to me? Make your own rules in life. That is the essence of free will. That is what keeps life from stagnating. Fuck the rules and the general wisdom of the masses. Screw what our fathers tell us, what society at large tries to tell us. But remember that some common sense is okay, like changing your oil every 3000 or so miles or not placing your nuts over an open flame. Ouch.

People who say "The extent of your involvement in the wedding is to say I DO and open the checkbook" are insecure or jealous or...well, other things. The wedding day can and should be "his special day" too!

Again, marriage does not have to be conformity. If you do it your way, by your own terms, then it is your way and not the way of the masses. Fuck the rules. That means accepting how others get married. Someone wants to date for two years, be engaged for one, and then get married is fine. Someone that wants to date for a year, be engaged for one, and then get married is fine. Someone who wants to date for six months, be engaged for a week, and get married is fine. The only reason that the "tradition" of "the man being the shadow and the woman being the star" doesn't change is because people are IDIOTS! Plain and simple. People are afraid to think for themselves, and they only adopt stereotypes to make life easier by reducing the need to think. So if you and your fiance feel that your marriage is a shining day for both man and woman, then that is what it is! Anyone that comes to you and starts vomiting the bullshit about you being "whipped" after marriage or says shit like "Oops, there goes your sex life!" is a non-thinking, puss-infested, brain-dead conformist zombie ASSHOLE!

Just thought I'd share. Hey, it DOES have something to do with a paradigm, after all.

2001-05-15T15:22:00.000-04:00

This is my Blog. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.

A lot of people seem very enamoured of this Blogger thing. I couldn't ignore the thing any longer, there was so much hubub. Friends talked about it. Other Web sites talked about it. I saw numerous sites using it. So what the heck, I said to myself, I'll take a looksee. I WAS looking for a way to easily post my rants to my site, after all. There are things I want to rant about without putting them in the Forum, and sometimes I don't want to mess around with the HTML editor that my host, Freeservers, offers. It's a good little HTML editor, don't get me wrong, but that code gives me vertigo sometimes. Anyway, this here's the first entry for my "Blog", I guess that's what it's called. Nothing really to rant about...oh, maybe there is:

Web sites. I see so many cool Web sites out there. Sometimes they make me cringe and look at the old PS site and say, "Wow, I have a 4-cylinder and that's a V8!" I know, I say that I am trying to prove that the old maxim concerning how the message can transcend the medium applies to the Internet, but sometimes one gets weak.

But then I look at some of the truly Minimalist sites out there, and I am glad my site isn't like them. Some people seem to have this idea that cyberculture is synonymous with Spartan Web sites. I don't jive with that, I guess. To each their own. I'm just bitter, I guess, since some of the poeple that have tried to really disrupt my site are most likely some of the self-styled "Internet Elite", running "bleeding edge" (or whatever the jargon is) Minimalist sites and feeling all puffed up so much that they think they have the right to put down a site that doesn't conform. They have some good ideas, but not too much tolerance. I can hear the "digerati's" little hearts whispering: "HOORAY! A whole new world to generate prejudice!" Yeah, one where all the downtrodden computer geeks can dish out the disdain they are fed by those that tread on them in the Real World. Hear my sarcasm: Wow, the Internet is a great place, such a utopia, nothing like the real world. Right.

In the end, I am damn proud of where Paradigm Shifts is now. I know that there may be major site layout changes as time passes, and it may look nothing like it does now someday. But I like a big, loud site...not that PS is all that loud right now (is it?!)...I don't want to succumb to the trend of bare sites with that affected detachment spawned by "cool youth"...the Internet is a young medium in two ways: its public incarnation has only really been around since 1994, and young people find a haven there. But there's just as much of the urge to conform to the "cool" (dope? slammin? fresh? insert currently popular adjective here) in Cyberspace as there is in the real world. I guess that makes me kinda depressed, as a sometime target of the Internet elite. That's all for now. I hope anyone who reads these "Blogs" feels free to comment in the Forum or the Guestbook. Talk to you later...

ACS