Happy Death to 2010!

Drat! Foiled again! (pronounced Britishly) My nefarious plan to explode upon a miniscule percentage of the American public, bloggage such as had never before been seen, along with the exit of 2010, goes out with a whimper. I had assumed that my computer had a dead power supply and, since it was under warranty, took it back to Rent-A-Center to be resurrected. A week later he is returned and not merely revived, but has had a total wiping of memory, a process they called reseating the memory module. Having a born again computer is cool except that you have to teach him everything from scratch all over again, cuz he don’t know de ja vu. (I have met a few born again Christians with similar problems.)

Abiword, which is my beloved [free] word processor, is reinstalled and running fine, though of course his memory files evaporated into the cyber as well, so it’s back to blogging 101.

I had feared for a while there, that I might have to spend the rest of the year and some of next devoid of quality television programming, but no less a light than that bastion of American intellectualism, the CW, has come through, providing a mind stimulating program about lawyers. But wait! THESE layers are hotties wearing teeny little cheerleader outfits! So who cares if they may not know a salt from a battery. Naturally, the show is called Hellcats. Gimme a ‘G’, gimme a ‘u’, gimme a ‘i’... well. Ahh, the ancients would be proud. Er...actually I think they would be embarrassed at our Puritanical prudishness. Have you SEEN the x-rated art on the walls and floors of Pompeii? And they even had teh gayz too! So, I passed on the Hellcats to watch Keith and Rachel...who never showed up. I feel so rejected!

So anyhoo, I will return next year (I’m fairly confident of that now) and hope to post some blogs of educational value. Remember, I will try to post blogs only on Friendburst, Myspace and Blogger. Meanwhile, gonna try embedding a video and see if that works.

Remember the “futuristic” stuff starts tomorrow.

TRB

DEATH

DEATH

sun shines brilliantly through gleaming, shortening icicle
killing it softly in its beams
a conspiracy of painfully, exquisitely beautiful,
active, sparkling death
making a mockery of
drab, pathetic life.

Temy R. Beal 12/27/10

RATS!

We sometimes hear about how bad a place or situation was when it includes roaches. Someone may have been in a jail or prison that had roaches running around or may have had a bad experience with a motel, restaurant, etc., that involved various buggage. To me these people live in a different world. Oh sure, I have seen nice places which are bug and rodent free, at least as far as I can tell, and have even managed to live in a few such places in the past. No more...fellow travelers are the norm here, even if they sometimes travel through your dinner plate or across your face when you're trying to sleep. The buggage, that is. The rodentry, well, that's a little much.

We have at least two of them now who have decided to allow us to share their home. Sometimes the house is quiet and you can hear a clattering going on in the kitchen...sounds like someone is about to cook supper. So far they have not been that useful. Both my mom and dad told me when I was little that I was chicken-hearted. I didn't think so, only that I was smarter and more cautious than most, when it came to people, and that the suffering of animals did bother me. Still, sometimes conflict simply cannot be avoided. So, I got the trap. Managed to avoid having snapped fingers and loaded it with peanut butter. Set the hair trigger and placed it on the floor between the fridge and a wall, in the major rodent highway.

A while later, during an episode of House, we heard a loud SNAP! in the kitchen. Melinda went to look and announced there was a victim. We decided to wait till morning, when one of us would deal with the enemy soldier. Morning came and I gingerly poked at the trap...something seemed odd. It was upside down, and somehow tangled in the old grate that used to be on the bottom of some fridge. When I finally got a good look at the trap, it was empty. No victim. No blood. Not only empty but...taken apart! The wire trigger for the trap had been removed from where one end was anchored. It's not usable now. No peanut butter either.

Later, in the night, I awoke to find either him or his friend staring at me. I know rodents are smart, they learn. I wonder what the lesson was...? Why was he staring at me? What...it shouldda been cheese!? We finally got the new free cell phone from Safelink. If I find a tiny irate eviction notice on my pillow I will call the landlady. If I find a rat head in my bed I will call 911.

TRB

Dementia and Learning

A few days ago I found a video of a debate between an atheist and a theist. I decided to watch it because the name of the atheist was familiar to me and I don't see him a great deal. It was Peter Singer. It seemed odd though, there was an older man giving an atheist argument, and that was followed by a theist named Hare, and there was continual mention of Peter Singer, though I still had not seen him. I missed the name of the first older man. Finally it was time for Peter Singer to come to the mic and I nearly fell off the couch because it was the same older guy who had been on at the beginning. Say what!? It seems there must be TWO guys named Peter Singer! Now, I'm curious so I Google Peter Singer. All the links I get point to this same guy, an older man, born in Australia, a professor, etc. But where's the other one? The Peter Singer I have in mind, I can kind of picture him in my head, he is younger than this guy, probably is not Australian, and has long curly hair. I know I have read at least one book he wrote but the name of the book refuses to show itself.

It begins to dawn on me that maybe the guy I'm thinking of possibly is not Peter Singer. I know it has to be at least a similar name though, otherwise I would not have thought of him upon hearing 'Peter Singer'. It's driving me nuts, I have to figure this out! I message Blair on Facebook and explain the problem and ask if he knows who I'm thinking of. He responds with a perfectly reasonable suggestion, Victor Stenger, but I check and no, that ain't him. I even go to Amazon and start checking authors to see if I see the name. I know I will recognize it when I see it. Nothing. *sigh* It's aggravating as hell but what can I do, it will show up eventually. I went on to other things online and suddenly I have stumbled upon the guy I was thinking of! There it is, the name that would not reveal itself within my fevered brain. Stephen Pinker! Finally, I can satisfactorily associate the correct name with the mental image I have of a guy with curly hair. Singer, Pinker, those sound similar, right? Stephen, Peter? Well, maybe... is it "just" natural memory quality lessoning with age. Does it have anything to do really with any actual dementia? How could I know?

I won't assume that it is the beginnings of dementia yet. Many years back I read Stephen King's The Stand. Maybe a year and a half or two later I came across an old paperback in a box I was looking through. I started reading and was enthralled by this book and surprised that I had somehow overlooked it before. I was nearly three hundred pages in before I realized...I have read this before! Of course! I know Captain Trips and the walking dude, Randall Flagg. I don't think I've noticeably? deteriorated much since then, so maybe it's isolated incidents. But there was the other thing...

You might remember I mentioned we didn't have hot water in the bathroom. We always did before. Because the bathroom is a long way from the water heater, it takes a while for hot water to get there, so you have to let it run till it gets hot. I know this, I've lived here for years. I would let the water run, I let it run once for over 15 minutes and it still never got even warm back there, much less hot. But Melinda informed me that she had no problem having hot water in there!? Turned out I had forgotten which way you push the faucet for hot. Heh.

There was an incident in which Norton charged me for renewal of their software on my computer. Apparently I had installed it last December and authorized automatic renewal. And forgot. I was stunned to learn I HAD Norton on here...I've been using AVG. Anyway, Norton deducted $70 from my account for that. I lacked about 37 cents having enough, which triggered an insufficient funds fee from the bank for about $29. I got on the phone to Norton and got them to cancel that and refund my $70. It isn't there yet but should be in a day or so. The $29 is out the window. There are two bills left to pay, phone and power, which will total about $250. When I get my $70 back I will have about $160. Obviously one won't get paid. Five months left on paying for the computer at Rent-a-Center. Being without two computers is not an option...may as well get on with the suicide in such a circumstance. Melinda is really perturbed about not having the burial insurance. That's $60. I tell her I have to be more concerned with what is here and now than what might be then and there. It could possibly be thirty years or more before either of us kick off. I truly don't care, even slightly, what happens to my body, or hers, for that matter, when we are dead. But having "insufficient funds" prompts such arguments...while our extremely socialist President capitulates with corporate Republicans to make certain millionaires and billionaires have a few thousand more. It's the land of the free over heah, yanno.

I like learning. Everything from atoms to zygotes holds some interest for me though, now at least, I tend to be more drawn to philosophies for in-depth study. I find philosophy aggravating as hell too, because I like to ask a question and get an answer asap and get on with it, though I'm still not certain of what it is I'm getting on with. It gets really tedious to ask questions and think of a particular thing from every conceivable angle. If you are not used to doing that and you start, you may be amazed at how many possible angles there even are. Endlessly asking questions to which I never have any answers would be a kind of hell to me. But I cannot abide simply slapping an answer on for the sake of having an answer either. I feel compelled to keep pushing until I either decide an answer on this one is simply not yet available or until I find one about which I can say, "Yeah, this is right." Perhaps such a thing inevitably leads to something that at least sounds haughty and arrogant. If I find such an answer, it's a little like discovering gold (or something that actually does have great intrinsic value), and I want to tell my friends...if only you will just dig RIGHT HERE, it's down there, I tell ya! And if they dig there and then look at me like I must be insane because they found nothing besides old corroded plumbing pipes and clay... *sigh*

I wonder if Plato ever thought like that about his Forms? I sure understand how he could arrive at his conclusions...but I don't buy them. I'm currently nearing the end of a course called Death with Shelly Kagan, a wonderfully animated little feller, lol. I don't agree with all the conclusions professor Kagan reaches in the course, but I consider him an excellent teacher for such a course. The last lecture in the series is on the morality of suicide. I don't plan any yet, but well... in the last printed interview John Lennon ever gave he said he didn't have any interest in being a dead hero. Three days later he was (according to many fans).

Socrates was under the delusion that the hemlock was not The End for him, that it was merely the opening of a doorway into another life. Would he have been as jovial about the whole thing if he really understood the truth? Would you?

Places you can learn stuff:

Academic Earth
Seventeen different universities, from Berkeley to Yale. list of subjects.

Forum Topic associated with NPR.

Google Talks

Open Culture

Open University

TED

TRB

I See A Darkness

Anyone who has ever experienced genuine depression knows the feeling. To some it is as a darkness, clouding the mind. It calls to MY mind, the voice of Johnny Cash singing I See A Darkness. I've spent the last couple of days...nights actually, watching lectures from Stanford and Yale on philosophy, political philosophy, neurology and the workings of the brain; watching various documentaries; keeping an eye on the news headlines which continually renew in my Google sidebar on my desktop.

The darkness I see comes in two forms; one is purely personal and subjective inside my head, and the other is a kind of philosophical darkness which hangs like a thunderhead over the affairs of humans. Unfortunately, the latter can too often affect the former. One of the videos I watched about the brain is called controlling the brain with light. If you watch this one, note at about the halfway point (it's only about 18 minutes), that it is possible to use fiber optic light to control a brain, in this case a mouse brain, and you can make him turn left. Presumably, you can also make him turn right if the light is repositioned, but a world of people turned politically "right" too great a horror to contemplate. At the end the inevitable note of caution is mentioned about who will control the technology and for what purposes...what technological advance has never been abused or used for evil purposes?

Not having access to the technology of fiber optics and the ability to insert it into my brain, I had to make do with subjecting myself to daylight, and to a brief bout of strenuous physical activity in order to, hopefully, stimulate the electrochemistry to improve the mood...results are mixed. As to the external sources of darkness, one is the rather astounding things mentioned in this Pat Condell video in which he mentions, get this, one does NOT have to be a citizen of Sweden in order to hold high political office in Sweden. I had to look that one up. "Immigrants resident for three years in Sweden have the right to vote and run for office in local elections." Source. I'm not sure if the mere fact of residing there for three years automatically "naturalizes" a person into being a citizen, but that whole thing sounds fishy to me.

Most of us recognize that there always has been, and always will be, propaganda in politics. Do we not? Do we think OUR country is better than that? Well, our leaders are not. Too often, such talk is dismissed as "conspiracy theories", and there are certainly plenty of those, some of them dumb as rocks. That doesn't change the fact that most people who have great political power do not think any law at all applies to them. The following is part 1 of 9 (please watch them all if you care and can) of a Bill Moyers program which aired on PBS in 1987. Yes, it's a bit dated, and much of it deals with the Iran-Contra Affair, which most younger people probably know nothing about. Still, Moyers is not a name that comes to mind in "conspiracy theories", and the program shows documented evidence of the fact that every president from 1945 onward, has looked into the TV camera and directly and blatantly lied to the population about the various wars and other secretive machinations; Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan... and there is no reason to think that anything has improved in that vein since Reagan. After all, we didn't even have the Department of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, or being forcibly subjected to visual and/or physical sexual assault in order to fly on a plane then.

Question: If the US Constitution says that Congress has the power to declare war (and it does, in Article 1, Sec. 8), then why has the US been in so many wars? Do you know how many times Congress has declared war? Five times. The last time we had legitimate cause to be in a war was World War II. It is an understandable and legitimate that we decry our alleged leaders repeatedly getting the nation into illegal wars. But, does it occur to us that there could not be any war - at least not yet - except for the grunts on the ground. Why do they do it? Why do they totally abdicate any sense of personal integrity and moral responsibility. Dubya said that torture was legal because the lawyers said so. So... a war is legal if only the president says so?

Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) states that a soldier is required to "...obey any lawful general order or regulation" Do you doubt there would be an immediate Congressional declaration of war if any other nation attacked us? If Congress has not declared any war, then how is it a legal order, even from the Commander In Chief, the President, to go fight? Fight for what? Does anyone care at all?

I suggest you read Orwell's 1984 (it's free online), with particular attention to the notion of perpetual war.

This? Oh, I just really like the song and video...

TRB

On Justice

The following is a tiny microcosm of what is wrong with the world of humans. We begin with a photo. This is an approximation of what one ounce of marijuana looks like.


picture source

In most areas of the US, the mere possession, especially of this much, of marijuana can land you in prison. The following is taken from what seems to be an advertisement page for a law firm in Pennsylvania. This statute presumably pertains to PA law:

780-113(a)(31): (a) The following acts and the causing thereof within the Commonwealth are hereby prohibited: (31) Notwithstanding other subsections of this section, (i) the possession of a small amount of marihuana only for personal use; (ii) the possession of a small amount of marihuana with the intent to distribute it but not to sell it; or (iii) the distribution of a small amount of marihuana but not for sale. For purposes of this subsection, thirty (30) grams of marihuana or eight (8) grams of hashish shall be considered a small amount of marihuana.

Even a simple possession of a small amount of marijuana charge can result in a prison sentence, a 6 month driver's license suspension and criminal record that make it very difficult to find employment. Source.

Let us contrast this alleged crime to another.

"In one astonishing incident in October 2009 the then vice-president, Ahmad Zia Massoud, was stopped and questioned in Dubai when he flew into the emirate with $52m in cash, according to one diplomatic report. Massoud, the younger brother of the legendary anti-Soviet resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, was detained by officials from the US and the United Arab Emirates trying to stop money laundering, it says. However, the vice-president was allowed to go on his way without explaining where the money came from. Source.

This is - kinda - what $52 million in cash would be like.

It is quit likely that if you are found in possession of even a "small amount" of marijuana, you will go to jail, possibly to prison for years.

One of the stories about Massoud stated that it was the DEA, the same people who ostensibly will be upset by your possessing marijuana, who stopped Massoud and found his $52 million in cash. Massoud did not go to prison because he was not found guilty because there was no court case because there was no arrest because...? "the vice-president was allowed to go on his way without explaining where the money came from" or, presumably, where it was going or why and he certainly didn't give it up.

"Injustice alone can shake down the pillars of the skies, and restore the reign of Chaos and Night." --HORACE MANN, A Few Thoughts for a Young Man

to which I would add, what chance then of survival, hath a mere empire?

TRB

Living in the La-la

It's part of a plot, a conspiracy, to see that I don't blog on anything of substance. Or maybe it's just cuz I be scatterbreained. Been blogging - if you could call it that - about blogging. Starting to sound suspiciously like a guy who wandered off into the desert talking to himself and the voices in his head. Also, I'm drawn, it seems. Like an ex-lover, I was caught sneaking back in the side window of Spazz. Yeah, the tiny blog as crap and there are other problems, but there are still friends there...I still get more comments on a blog there than anywhere else. I am NOT an attention whore, dammit, I just like conversation ariiight! Well. Maybe for now we can have a bit of sharing...I'll try having multiple for a while...the Sister Wives of blogging.

Here's a try at blogging about something besides blogging. It may not be surprising that there is no large newspaper on the planet which does not carry US political news. So it is with ArabNews, based in Riyadh. One of their stories is Republicans vow to block all Senate bills. Yeah, we'll get back to that. Lest ye forget you are reading an ARAB newspaper though, one of the side articles is about how there were 11 women in a four by four vehicle being driven by a woman and it wrecked and five of the women were killed. The second commentor on the story opines, "I think this is a sign that women driving in the Kingdom shall be forbidden." Laaaa, laaaa, la, la-la, la.

Now, about them Pubbies. American politics, like all other kinds, has been full of lies, deceits, personal attacks, etc., at least since George Washington. I am not "an historian" by any stretch in the academic sense. But I have studied a little. It seemed there was a period in there where Democrats and Republicans in general, though their outlook and basic values were different, were actually willing to work together to some degree in the governance of the country. Since sometime before the election of Obama, that has changed. For a little while there, for the first time in my life, I was actually seriously wondering whether George Bush would really step down after his term ended. Before then, that was not even a thought, it was a given certainty, as sure as sunrise.

We are definitely in a very bizarre period in American history now, especially political history. Like everyone else who has lived through historic periods, we have no idea how it will play out, what will happen over the next 3-4 years. But I have never seen a time in which one political side in America publicly announces that its sole agenda, aside from lavishing as much unearned wealth as possible on the rich at the expense of the poor, is to see that the current president is not re-elected.

"In a speech at the Heritage Foundation, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) didn't yield an inch on his position that the main job of congressional Republican leadership is to prevent President Obama's re-election." Source. There has long been a gap between the haves and have nots, but now we are watching our political system in America devolve into an actual class war, headed perhaps, for a caste system similar to that in India. But it gets weirder still...

Virtually everyone, including his political adversaries, say Barack Obama is a highly intelligent man. He is certainly erudite and eloquent in his public speeches. At the same time, though, most "pundits" on the left, and even a few on the right, are scratching their heads in bewilderment at Obama's reactions - or lack of reactions - to those strange positions stated by Republicans. No matter how many and how often prominent Republicans publicly state flat out that they have no intention whatever of working with him on his political agendas, that there will absolutely be NO compromise - on anything - Obama continually talks of bipartisanism. It has reached the point that some are beginning to watch Obama very closely, to see if he starts to emit smoke and sparks during a speech from the cognitive dissonance generated between reality and what he is saying. Is he somehow a Stepford Wife (they have their own organization, yanno) to Republicans, or what? The Manchurian Candidate designated to preside over the transition from country to empire? Laaaa, laaaa, la, la-la, la.

Many wonder whether Obama is biding his time, waiting for some strategic moment to spring something on the Pubbies, maybe planning a Clintonesque rebirth. I dunno, but it's hard to imagine what he might spring and time is running out. I think it will be fascinating indeed if January 2013 has us in an America any of us would recognize. I have no doubt at all that the coming year will be much worse for average Americans than the previous year, certainly by any financial measure. (See, I can think positively!)

Just in time for Christmas... NO! You unemployed bums may NOT have any more money! Two million more of you can just eat cake...er worms, er whatever. Unless... pssst, over here. Say, you got that killer instinct? I got sumpin fer ya... each one of these babies cost between $25K and $30K. It can shoot a grenade up to half a mile, but not just ANY grenade, one that has a microchip in it so
"if a group of insurgents is hiding behind a wall, a soldier can program one of the XM25's rounds to detonate a few feet past the wall to shower the insurgents with lethal fragmentation from behind." Source. We gotz a gun we can point at their front and it will shoot 'em in the ass!Howzat fer some cool-as-shit boy's toys, eh? fah-la-la-la-lah, lah, lah, lah lah. Let us bray for peace in deed.

TRB

About Blogging

I just posted a new blog at Myspace. Here's another. I was finally able to get the password changed and get back in. As far as I can tell, there has still been no change to my profile page. I did not "upgrade" it to either 2.0 or 3.0, so my html programming with the scroll boxes, etc., is still there. You might let me know if it shows up for you. The blogs are a different question. The text area is tiny (only about 4 inches), there is zero ability to customize. Apparently the ability to reply individually to comments is back, but there is probably still a length limit. That ability to reply to a comment left for you, then to reply to that, etc., is what creates conversation and that's what creates friendship. It's because of this that I have moved to Friendburst This has been described by some as Myspace 1.0 and 2.0, with some Facebook thrown in, and it uses the Wordpress blogging platform. That's what allows the comments to comment, etc. Here's a look at my friendburst blogs.

Having a Picasso-esque blog is fine as long as the blogger intended that. But I suspect Leonardo would be highly pissed if Picasso Picassoed up the Mona Lisa. That seems like what happened at the Spazz. Obviously, no one in charge at Myspace recently has had any interest in even trying to satisfy real bloggers. I suspect it will fade away completely at least as a place for bloggers. Those of you still hanging on there, you really should pick somewhere else to go if you really want to continue blogging and hold on to at least a few of your friends...you can also find new ones too, yanno; some who haven't heard yer rant yet, lol.

One of my favorite places for blogging is blogspot; several friends have found me there. But that conversational element in the comments is not there. That is, for sure, one of the places though, that I will always post. There is a permanent link section at my blogger blog that has links to all the other places I post, which some may like better. Then there is myboomerplace. This is a sample of my myboomerplace blog. I don't really know why I like Xanga... I just try to post a copy of my blogs there. Like this one. For you folk at Facebook, who might get notices of my blog postings, I will try hard to not post more than one notice...otherwise, please just ignore any duplicates.

So... my for sure blog is always at blogger, I will try to develop both Myboomerplace and especially Friendburst - because of the conversational element in the comments. Y'all come on over and pick one and let's get our little clicks back together...meet new friends...continue bitching about the price of gas and saving the world one blog at a time.

A political note

I LOVE wikileaks. I have two complaints at this point; 1) There should be a hundred more like them, 2) the "leaks" should be of a much more substantial nature...tell the "real" secrets, that matter much more than snide or catty remarks by diplomats about other diplomats. The most important reason I have for this position is that I consider myself a patriot. I love my country. I would love to see my country known globally as a beacon of moral virtue. This is not rocket science. If you don't want other people knowing about something "bad" you said about someone else...then don't say such things. If you have nothing good and truthful to say, then keep silent. Most of what I have heard "exposed" in these leaks are things most everyone already knew anyway. It's surprising that Saudi Arabia would encourage the US to bomb Iran and stop their nuclear ambitions? Not hardly. Karzai is a paranoid character? HA!, no shit Sherlock. Just say what you mean and mean what you say. This is the way to take the moral high ground. This is the way to build honest trust. Alas, the result of wiki will likely be a clamping down on information; heightened secrecy; a lot more people than Karzai being paranoid. Guilt breeds a lot of paranoia.

TRB

Just Stuff 11/29/10

I have an actual blog that I wrote, but have been unable to post. The technical problems are within me, not the computer or web sites. There is a feeling that I sometimes get, which is very hard to describe. In some ways it may be a kind or degree of depression, in others an odd sort of near-paralysis, a deep sluggishness, like trying to get somewhere slogging through waist-deep molasses. It's a bit like having some trash in your gas lines, making your car spit and sputter, rather than running smoothly. Consider this the trash. Funny though, some might consider this the blog and what follows the trash. *sigh* I feel like I am being dragged from poor, which was perfectly adequate, back toward poverty...which is not. It feels a little like a metaphorical death by a thousand cuts. I'm starting to wonder, just how metaphorical. Things continue to go wrong, no one of them, so far, of a genuine emergency nature. But collectively...

The microwave died some time back, but luckily we still had a little money left, so we replaced it. Melinda feels VERY strongly about not letting go of the burial insurance...so, for now, that is off the table again. We have been able to reduce the power bill by about $30 from last month. Whether that holds will depend largely on how cold it gets, and so how much we have to run the electric heater. We were able to redo the "bundle" deal with AT&T and reduce that bill by maybe $20. Netflix suddenly increased the rate, but only by $1 so it won't make much difference. The whole thing is still less than $10, so it's not a biggie in our cost/benefit analysis.

The fan in the living room has now died. Another cut...small, but still a cut. I need that for both air circulation and for the "white noise" of the droning motor to drown out other sounds like a dripping faucet, wheezing breathing, creaks and pops of the walls, sound of heartbeat. There is no money to replace it. There is no choice but to endure the other sounds. Suddenly the car speedometer only works intermittently. Another cut...small, but still a cut. No way to fix that.
For some unknown reason we have no hot water in the bathroom. It's a small thing...added to the collection. It's another bit of psychological drain. Luckily we still have hot water in the kitchen. Yes, that's the landlady's problem, but when your rent is $200, you don't make complaints except for the truly intolerable things. We are almost out of cigarettes again...and four more days till money. Most would reasonably say this is a good thing. To choose to stop smoking, and successfully do it, is a good thing. To be unable to smoke because you cannot get a cigarette is not at all a good thing. Whatever physical benefits may accrue as far as there not being smoke and all those chemicals in your body are much more than offset by the psychological damage; humiliation, building anger.

I have already vowed that we will NOT have such a problem next month. We will have cigarettes, no matter what. Plus, we will need other things Food Stamps cannot buy, such as paper products, laundry products, dog food, gas for the car, money to pay what medicare doesn't cover on my meds, etc. One more week... now maybe I can get the blog out.

TRB

Just Stuff

Remember the old spiritual song Swing Low, Sweet Chariot? What's swinging low in modern times seems to be the buckets for scooping up all the wealth from those who have the least in order to cushion the lives of the rich. There's this trend, you see, globally, to apply reverse Robin Hood ethics. Now it's Ireland which is applying "austerity measures", but not to worry, this doesn't apply to corporations, only the rabble... people who want things like minimum wages, health care, etc. Ireland corporate tax rate.

Speaking of health care, didja see what Arizona's new plan about that is? Seems to be basically, "if they get sick, fuggum, let 'em die". Jan Brewer says the state has to save money...naturally it's all Obama's fault. Keith Olberman tells you about Jan Brewer's real "death panels". Tex Shelters has a good letter to Jan.

It is true that some people, formerly rich became...eh, less so, for being just plain stupid. Here's a classic example... an Aston Martin... really? I had to look up the story again just to spell that right. But between now and May, millions more Americans will run out of unemployment benefits, through no fault of their own, unless Congress passes another extension. Will that happen? How many extensions can there be? How many Americans have to be below the poverty line and destitute before something Really Big happens? Too bad Wall Street bankers don't jump out windows any more.

Some take it as good sign that former House Majority Leader Tom Delay was found guilty of money laundering, etc. It's off to San Quentin for him! Riiiight. Wait for the sentencing. Sentencing? Well, at least he was convicted...but that was only for money crimes. Genocidal mass murder? No biggie. Some make a lot of the fact that Dubya continues his lies about Iraq in his new book, and even the Mayor of London insinuates that Dubya might get arrested if he comes there. There have been calls for the arrest of Bush/Cheney at least since 2003. Heh...amazing how they never seem to get that such things happen only in the fantasies of folk who have a moral sense.

It ain't just Dubya though. You should read about Obama's Wars. As far as these wars are concerned it is truly irrelevant who is in the White House. Whoever that person is, they MUST follow the plan...or they will be removed. Now it's Obama...before him, Dubya, before him, Clinton, before him, the elder Bush. Same repertoire, different players.

TRB

Black Friday

Black Friday, eh? Not really black here, but dark enough you can't see very well inside without a light at ten am. As for that other meaning of "being in the black", I doubt we'll get there unless we drive into a tar pit somewhere.

I had an appointment with my heart doc Wednesday morning. I was told his office was no longer where I have been going in the doctor's park section next to the hospital, but he now had his office in what used to be a Winn Dixie before it went out of business. I was quite excited and planned to check and see if they still had the frozen food isle...perhaps for storage of implantable organs. Turned out he had moved his office into the same building with my other doc, and several others. It was a Winn Dixie, but at least 5 years ago, so it officially counts as ancient history in America. Nothing changed as far as doc instructions, meds, etc., though the billing office was harassing about money. Said I must pay something every month or risk having it turned over to collections. HA! Like this something that would worry me...I moved out of that world many years ago.

Looks like I'm going to have to drop the burial insurance coverage. Since I truly don't give a rodent's anal orifice what happens to me after I'm dead, that is, in Wall Street lingo, no longer financially viable. It's the before dead part I care more about. That's $60 a month we can use for cigarettes. Those are far more beneficial to both of us in the here and now...mostly for the purpose of staving off early death due to physical assault brought on by deprivation. Had to beg for money at the Thanksgiving meeting in order to get some. Won't do that again. Some folks say having no burial insurance would leave "the family" with problems after you die. No. It doesn't. Arrange things so that no living person is responsible for any debts of a dead person. If there is no money for a casket, funeral, plot, etc., you just let whatever local government has jurisdiction over that, deal with it however they normally do. They won't leave a stiff in your house very long at all. They will either bury it or burn it somewhere.

Someone wrote a blog about a very small town in Michigan and how half the people there were related to them and they knew most of the rest. I lived in a similar tiny town called Ariton, Alabama. A rich local family had something called Christmas City, which was a seasonal holiday attraction, with the lights and shops, etc. Christmas City actually was bigger than Ariton...had more business, and people too, at least between Thanksgiving and New Years. Ariton has no red light, just a couple of flashing caution lights. It had a bank branch but it went out of business. One gas station, unless you counted the pumps in front of the ancient hardware store. I lived there for about ten years or so. I actually learned the name of the neighbor on one side...his house wall was only about 20 feet from ours. I didn't seek him out, but was out in the yard one day and he called me over and wanted to chat a bit.

The folks who lived straight across the driveway on the other side of us...I never knew anything about them except they mostly kept to themselves, which I greatly appreciated. They had an obnoxious kid or two who would often fire up the 4-wheelers they got one Christmas, and ruin any chance of continuing to sleep.

I knew the postmaster's name was Debra, because one year, she went all civic minded on us and orchestrated a production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof from local talent. It played in what was once the Universal Universalist church, long since abandoned by church folk...they had new multi-million dollars churches outside of town, the Baptists and the Methodists, anyway. Apparently the Universalist ideas had gone long before we came to town. I did enjoy the play though and, had a spark of hope, there for a while, that something might come of it...but nothing ever did.

I suppose the community relations tone was set shortly after we moved there, when my wife at the time, answered the door to find someone taking up donations for floral arrangements for a town resident who had recently died. Philis was pissed and aghast! Can't you see we are poor as dirt, and how amazingly stupid and inconsiderate of you to be asking for money for DEAD PEOPLE, of all things! Who bought her flowers BEFORE she died!? Why the hell should anyone buy flowers for her now, she won't know a thing about it! Why aren't you taking donations to fill the local food pantry!? Far as I know they never visited again. Maybe just as well Philis never tried for a career in diplomacy...she never was very good with lies. Far as I know, no one from Ariton brought her any flowers either, before or after she died.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of this blog, I just thought it was cool weirdly...
He had a camera installed in the back of his head. For the easily amused, here is a link to the countdown to the time when we, supposedly will see what he's been missing. 3rdi.

TRB

Thanksgiving

There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant. There is truth in the old saw about ignorance being bliss. Yet, one cannot unring a bell. Once the silence has been shattered by the clanging, the echos resound forever...or until Alzheimer's. Prepare for a cacophony.

There are many things for which I'm thankful, and I have no problem saying so...even directly to the people to whom and for whom I am thankful. But this alleged holiday, like all the others, really pisses me off. How do I detest thee (with apologies to Ms. Browning), let me count the ways;

The first way is that this, like most other things in history, is based on total lies all the way up and down, from the non-existent being most people supposedly "give thanks" to (instead of the actual people who did the work), to the other mythologies surrounding the origin of the holiday. Maybe it's a flaw, a personality quirk, a form of illness...I just don't really like lies. You know that "holiday" is a shortened form of Holy Day, right? What is supposed to be "Holy" about this day? You can begin your study of the origins of Thanksgiving at wikipedia. Is it "Holy" because of the theft of lands from natives...because of the slaughter of natives? Here is more about it.

In the US, the two most vile of these so-called holidays, in my perception, is this one and Christmas. Aside from all the lies, what makes it even worse, to me, are the expectations that have evolved over time. Expectations of behavior, of traditions, of acts that might otherwise be good, being reduced to mindless religious and social ritual; get the gifts, wrap the the gifts, cook hugely unnecessary amounts of food, and of course, the greatest ritual of all, spend the money...even if you don't have any. The meeting of family...why these times as opposed to other times? What is all that great about meeting with family anyway? For many people, family simply means a bunch of people with whom you sometimes socialize, but whom you would otherwise never wish to associate, were it not for a familial connection. For others, these are the saddest of times, stark reminders of their loneliness and vulnerability. Some make a spectacle of giving to the "less fortunate" at these times...and they can starve the rest of the year and live under cardboard boxes, in the sewers, and very few ever care. Of course most don't truly care at these times either, it is rather, opportunities for a bit of pageantry and martyrdom...perhaps to secure a bit more funding for the group.

Mark Twain's 70th birthday fell on Thanksgiving in 1905. He said;

"The original reason for a Thanksgiving Day has long ago ceased to exist—the Indians have long ago been comprehensively and satisfactorily exterminated and the account closed with Heaven, with the thanks due." Source.

Personally, I am thankful for and to my wife who loves me and takes care of me. Thankful for and to friends online and off, who treat me well, and with whom I can share laughs, information and ideas. I am thankful that I have adequate food (because of SNAP), shelter from the elements, etc. I wish I could be thankful for living in a world in which humans did not war against each other; a world in which a single murder...or death from starvation or lack of health care, would be cause for global alarm and sadness...a world in which no one ever died except by choice. No one is more of a transhumanist than I, no one would more like to live forever in good health and comfort and happiness, and would love the same for all others who want it.

Knowing that no such world can ever be possible unless or until the animal programming of humans is replaced with better things, I have only the balm of eternal oblivion for which to be truly and ultimately thankful. I think it very sad that so few people seem able to grasp such a simple and fundamental reality. Many wise people do... Mr. Twain said:
"I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit."

Isaac Asimov said:

"Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism." — Isaac Asimov, "On Religiosity".

And Albert Einstein said:

"The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."

Perhaps we would do well to not take current events so seriously...they are both eternal and temporary...
"The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer mind their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching." — Assyrian Stone Tablet, c.2800BCE

Soon it will be 2012 and even now, perhaps the Koreans are preparing a nice toasty end for us all. Until our particular door to that eternal realm opens, we do have laughter. I would hope we use it more.

"Q: What do a coffin and a condom have in common?

A: They're both filled with stiffs — except one's coming and one's going."

Oh yeah...I'm also thankful I can sit on the couch in me drawers and attend Harvard.

TRB

Death quotes

Two-Dollar Bill

"I got a hot-rod Ford and a two-dollar bill
And I know a spot right over the hill." Hank Williams

I don't have a Ford, hot-rod or otherwise. We have a Dodge Neon. I HAD a two-dollar bill. Been in my wallet for at least a year. One reason I kept it, aside from it being a two-dollar bill, was that it said 1976 on it...the year my dad died. Added another dollar in change to it and sent Melinda down the road to the gas station to get a pack of cigarettes. The last pack we are likely to have for the foreseeable future. This causes me much anger and depression. Not smoking is a good thing for your health. Choosing to stop smoking and then doing it is cool. Being forced to not smoke because you have no ability get any cigarettes is not cool. It is to be imprisoned as a slave.

Before this we had some money. We could have bought bottles and bottles of booze, cases of beer. Melinda had a problem with alcohol and she chose to stop drinking totally. I like an occasional rum and cola but I chose to not drink so that she would not see it and smell it; to make it maybe a little less hard for her to deal with. Choosing is good. Choosing is the act of a free person with options.

Lloyd Blankfein is the current CEO of Goldman Sach Group, Inc. He's a little pissed that he got only $9 million in bonuses. That's understandable, when you remember that he is the guy who made the (in)famous comment about bankers doing "God's work". Also, it is a drastic hit for him since he got $67.9 million for 2007. Can you imagine how horrible it would have been if he got no bonus at all and had to squeak by with only his base salary...of $600K!? Poor guy. The stock is up at Sachs though, going for $154.16 per share on Friday. Source. Some asswipe left a comment on the site telling those of us who don't like this we should "work for it". Perhaps there will be blood. JPMorgan Chase is not doing as well though...their stock on Friday was only $39.41 per share. Geez...they may be on Food Stamps soon. No, wait...they ARE Food Stamps.

I was checking on how you check your food stamp balance online. I googled that and expected to get a link to food stamps or snap dot gov or something like that. The actual link is http://www.ebtaccount.jpmorgan.com/ Don't see anything about government in there any where, do you? ABC News says we have "one in four Americans now enrolled in one of the 15 federal feeding programs. Forty-two million people currently receive monthly benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as food stamps. That's up by 10 million from a year ago." "Federal feeding programs"!? What are we, livestock!? Does it make you wonder...how long will owners keep livestock that doesn't do anything but eat? Soylent green, anyone?

Well, my doc said I would not be eligible for a heart transplant as long as I was smoking. Okay, so since I can't smoke and since I got approved for Medicaid in addition to the Medicare, maybe I'll get on a list for a new heart. Maybe if I had one of those I wouldn't be disabled any more...maybe then I... wait. Oh no, no, no, I ain't going to work till I got a guarantee I get at least my base salary of $600K a year.

TRB

Information Age

The Information Age. Many people say that is where we are now. Ok. How 'bout this...in some cases there is a lot of information going on...but no actual attempt to help. Most recent case in point. Bill Nye the Science Guy collapses at a talk he was giving at USC. Eventually, "paramedics and safety officers responded", but no students sitting in the audience made any attempt to help him or find out what was wrong. Instead there was a second by second account - several different ones, actually - being Tweeted. Source.

Here's something...in the US, if there are plans to build a 15-story hotel, there are truckloads of information about it involved, from blueprints to building permits to insurance coverage, maybe a feasability study, and after many months, someone may actually break ground to start building. With luck, in maybe a couple of years you might see a completed hotel. These people put up a 15-story hotel in 6 days. A "a soundproofed, thermal-insulated structure reportedly built to withstand a magnitude 9 earthquake", building. SIX DAYS, start to finish. If anyone wonders why China will very soon overtake the US and all other nations as far as actually DOING things instead of having information about doing things...this is why. Source.

Information is cool...vital...absolutely necessary. But until/unless someone uses the information at some point to DO something, all the information in the universe isn't worth a fart in the wind.

By the way, does anyone other than Shelli read these things any more? Just checking. Does anyone know of an equivalent of kudos over here....anything at all to say I was here?

TRB

Confusion (a poem)

To be both Davids and the Goyim
To be both David and Goliath
To be both Mighty Lion and Hairless Vole
To be both Supernova and Black Hole

To see as Goya and David
Be euphoric and yet to bleed
A nihilist and yet to breed
The only point to smoke a joint.

TRB

RE: Myspace

Most of us who used to be loyal Myspace users, who used to really enjoy being able to blog there, have been forced to move on to a more blogger-friendly site. I tried everything I knew to try to stay at Myspace. I even created an entirely new Myspace site from scratch with a different sign-in email to see if I could accommodate myself to the new Myspace 3.0 which would presumably be automatic on any new site. My heart leaped for a moment when I saw the "customize blog" button pop up, but then it went away. It seems to me that Myspace, if it continues to exist at all, has essentially committed suicide as a blogging site. Now I find that I cannot log into EITHER my old site I've had for years OR the brand new site I just made. It is now the situation that, for me, Myspace is utterly dead, whether I would want it or not. Therefore, I hope all my Myspace friends who are interested in continuing to be part of a blogging community that includes me, will come to Facebook where, even though we cannot blog there, we can post workable links to our blogs we have at Wordpress or Blogger, etc.

The only thing I don't like so far about Blogger is that there is no button for replies to individual comments, but I suppose we can't have everything. I am pleased to see that, when last I checked, we have 83 members in the Myspace bloggers group on Facebook. This group, by the way, was created by our friend Shelli (aka black rose heart). Y'all come join!

TRB

Music and a Movie

This is just to share some stuff I recently found. It's the weekend....wait, no that ain't what I found; just saying it might be a good time for some music and a movie. But first, something completely irrelevant to the rest of the blog...

Ever thought about living in the sewer in a big city? In some ways, some folk find it safer than living on the ground. Check out the photo at this link. These folks have a real bedroom...you just have to have everything elevated a little (including a walkway) in order to avoid the water. 1,000 People Live in Las Vegas Sewer.

Speaking of elevated... remember the Homeland Security Threat Level color code thingy? Maybe you thought that went away. Nah, they just don't put it on TV much any more. You can always check what the level is at the DHS site. Today the regular threat level is "elevated" or yellow. Except for Air traffic, which is "high" or orange. Homeland Security Advisory. Feel better now?

Hat tip to The Perplexed Observer for posting the following video. It's Steve Martin and group singing "Atheists Don't Have No Songs". Funny, irreverent, and excellent singing.



But I wish to point out that many of we atheists DO have songs, and some of them are the same songs Christians have. THIS atheist loves many of the old time Gospel songs and spirituals...I like this one from Johnny Cash... "God's Gonna Cut You Down". Of course I love nearly everything from Johnny Cash, but as far as songs like this go, and aside from the aesthetic liking of the music, I can entertain it as true in a metaphorical sense. "God" won't cut you down, but life or nature damn sure will. How many faces do you know in this video?





I think "Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies" is also one of the prettiest songs I know of. In one sense I think it has more meaning to me as an atheist than to a believer because, besides the beauty of the melody and harmony, I can feel the poignant sadness of the futile hope it talks about.



The following is a movie titled Alexandra's Project. Guy comes home from work to find the wife and kids are absent but have left him a Happy Birthday video. He's really enjoying it until...the gun shows up... I really enjoyed it and not just because of the full frontal nudity. (^.^) I understood the message too. Guys? Do you get it? Hope you enjoy.



TRB

Personal Update

Looking forward to 9:30 am tomorrow (Friday). According to the caseworker, that's when the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card should be loaded with the "food stamps"...you know they don't actually use "stamps" anymore, right? Actually, it's not really called the food stamp program any more either. It's now SNAP, as in "Oh, snap!" Either that or it stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. For folks like us who have VERY little income (or anything else really), this is terrific, in that it means we can have reasonably good food we would not otherwise have. After paying rent, utilities, computer payment, insurance, etc., it will still be a challenge to find a way to get the non-edible items that you can't buy with the EBT card. Toilet paper is considered a necessity for most Americans (even rednecks) even if you don't eat it.

For both my wife and I, this has been the norm in general all our lives and for almost everyone else we have ever personally known. Amazingly neither of us are either black or hispanic or any other "minority" group...unless you count the poor as a mino...nah, they are a huge majority now. Well, we could be (and are, at least one minority - atheists:). You might say maybe that's due to lack of education...the food stamps, not the atheists, except she has a high school diploma (I only got a GED). On the other hand, when we were in the Food Stamp (that's what it really is, regardless of its name) office, there were clearly poor folk in there. You could tell by their dress - if that's not considered "elitism". That is, they were dressed like we were...old, raggedy jeans and t-shirt type clothes (though a couple of black guys dressed poorly also had $100 sneakers on). With a couple of interesting exceptions. I noticed one white lady and one black lady who were both dressed in finery (by our standards). Looked like they might be insurance executives or something.

The rich white lady (and who could possibly dress like that if they were not rich?), was telling another woman (notice how "lady" only applies to the rich ones - the others are women) about one of her relatives who was working at a menial job in the local KIA plant, even though he has a Master's Degree, because that's the only job he could find. The conversation went on and I learned about a piece of property they were buying for $17K (she actually said "K"), and about how their other property was decreasing in value...then I had to shake my head and look around to remember we were in a food stamp office. What the HELL was such a person doing in here!? Well, I can understand if somehow she doesn't have any income but it seems fishy to me that they somehow have thousands of dollars to buy property but can't buy their own food, and I can't buy a can of soda at the moment.

Turned out the case worker said I'm also eligible for Medicaid now, in addition to Medicare. So far I can't see how that's any help to me. It might well pay some of the doctor bills, but that ain't helping ME cuz I wasn't paying them anyway. It's helping the docs, so I won't complain too much. But since we will now get both food stamps and I get Medicaid, I am supposed to be eligible for a free cell phone from Uncle too. Never could afford one before. I am definitely NOT a talker type person, but I will generally take anything I can get that is free and useful. I figger if I fall over there is a chance I can get 911 dialed before I go out, which might help me live a bit longer.

Lot's of folks really hate the idea that some might think "the world owes them a living", but I say, damn strait it owes me a living, and a damn good one too! By "world" I mean of course, the human society. Just like it owes the same to every human everywhere, who will partake of it. Most like to rag on the poor about that, but things like Social Security are available to everyone, no matter how many millions they may have, and I think such folk are parasites. Totally support "means testing" for all government assistance programs. If you got plenty of means, use yer own damn means and leave the rest for those who do need it.

I got a little depressed there for a while, not so much to do with the poverty; I'm used to that. But, about Myspace going to hell without even the requisite handbasket, and even about Keith Olbermann being suspended. Not that he is of any particular importance to me, but the notion that a company - any company - can dictate to any employee what they can and cannot do with their own money on their own time...sounds fascist as hell to me. I think we would be well advised to remember that it doesn't HAVE to be government directly who can stamp out freedoms.

There's a TV commercial running locally now for some sort of financial advisor thing and the guy asks something about where do you see yourself in five years...I almost smacked a guy who was interviewing me for a job once for asking me that question. I was indignant enough at the very idea of being interviewed before they told me whether I had a job or not, but asking that question struck nearly all my "stupid detector" nerves. From his point of view, it was a very reasonable and standard question. From his point of view my confused appearance and stammering for an answer showed him I was not qualified for the job. From my point of view, it's dumb as a sack of dog turds to ask anyone where they "see" themselves in five years. The truth is, no one has a clue where or even whether they will be in five years. *sigh* ok, blood pressure up, so that rant done.

Okay, I'll hush now.

TRB

　

　

My Last Blog

Sometimes I do wonder which one that will be. For any who knew or remember Tim Rambo, as far as I know, this was his. What will yours be? Being fully cognizant of the fact that any one I write could be my last, perhaps I tend to be overly serious in most of them. Or, maybe that's just my nature. Anyway, of course I hope this isn't really my last, but I suspect it is the last I will do at Myspace, and I intend to also post this one at Blogger and Xanga.

It REALLY pisses me off to have change forced upon me...but it is a thing that inevitably happens to most of us from time to time. The latest round of "improvements" to Myspace constitute the last straw for me. I can no longer customize my blog. I like the plain black background. Aside from liking the aesthetics of color print on black, it seems to suggest to me the contents are coming from (maybe going into) that same infinite void of non-existence from which we all sprang and to which we all return.

Perhaps the worst change of Myspace is that the length of reader comments is limited. I want to read all you want to write, so this cannot stand. Although I have sites at several places and have blogged at least once at nearly all of them (see links list below), I have decided on two possible places where I will blog. Those are Blogger and Xanga. There seems to be some strange bug somewhere, maybe in my computer, which causes me to have to go through the whole process of requesting a new password every single time I go back to Wordpress, even though I have my computer set properly for accepting the cookies. That is not acceptable. Moosehammer, Tex Shelters and Shelli have good blogs there (of the people I know about in my little circle).

As far as I can tell so far, both Blogger (TPO is there) and Xanga (Barbara "Lady B" is there) allow me to have my black background, easily connect to Facebook, where many of my friends from Myspace have gone even though FB has no blogging capacity aside from those ridiculous "notes". It does seem that FB is one of the best places for exchanging quick comments and videos. I kind of think of FB as a giant Lobby or "mingling room" in which we all can comment, share a brief message or video, and an actual blogging site more of a meeting room in which only those interested in hearing the speaker and a little commenting gather. I even tried creating my own blog site from scratch but I'm not good enough with HTML and CSS to do that and include archives, comments, etc. As of now, I plan to copy all blogs I do both to Blogger and Xanga, and I hope to come back to Myspace and post a link for those who want to stay there and would like to read my stuff. The blog format or platform is different there than Myspace, so writing and saving in a word processor will be different. Myspace just took whatever HTML I wrote into the original blog, the other places require a different way of writing them. Now even Myspace no longer takes my HTML.

I do not plan to close down any site but obviously it is impossible to blog at so many different places. In one sense, it seems most of our "community" at Myspace has scattered. Hopefully most of us can at least use FB to maintain contact. I made a whole new site at Blogger and at Xanga. If you already "followed" me at Blogger, please come to the new one and do so there. I hope you will come to these at least to read and comment, perhaps to do your own blog there too. I hope to have a personal update blog shortly. See ya there?

TRB

　

My site at:

　

 EONS

 AARP

 Xanga

 Myspace

 Thoughts

 Blogger

 Atheist Nexus

 Facebook

 Tripod links page

(I'm building a whole new personal site there from scratch which I hope to share soon.)