March 5, 2003

my posters came today!!!!! YAAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!

Posters you say, what posters, I know of no steeenking posters!

Only the best type of posters! The Limited Edition "Participate in Your Own Manipulation" Poster

Aparently they came while I was visiting some weirdos in the USA, but I only found them today, as some dastardly dastard hid them behind a large potted plant.

Anyways e2, I just wanted to share the news, and to all those who have not got posters, I say Nyah Nyah Nyah!

Davidian's Engagement Log: Entry 2:

Today, I came a step closer to the deed. Today, I purchased a ring. 40 point, marquisse cut. Good clarity, excellent cut. And quite a bargain too. The place I bought it from, Long's Jewellers, in Burlington, Massachusetts, gave me the hook up. Mad props out to them.

I walked into the store nervous, and off my game. I was not going looking this time, I was shopping to buy. One of the men working there told me to sit in front of one of their wide display cases, and that I'd be helped soon. I was intimidated as soon as I walked in to the store. Sitting me down infront of a three diamond ring, with a 7 carat center stone, totalling $31,000 did not help my nerves. For those that don't know, 7 carats is about from the knuckle of your thumb to the tip. A rather large black man, the kind you'd not want to fuck with, had to come over because it was pulled out of the case.

Everyone working there was real nice. I learned a valuable lesson. Mention your connections right away. I was shown stones out of my price range. I didn't think I would be able to find something that would not end up bankrupting me, like I sucked at Monopoly. I told the man helping me that my father was coming.

"Where from?" He asked.

"The Lahey Clinic, he works there."

Long tangent short, my father operated on another of the staff there, who was helping two middle-aged women off to my left at the time. I got the hook up. As I said earlier, I ended up getting a 40 point stone. There are 100 points to a carat, so this stone is just under half a carat. Unfortunatly, the band was made of white gold, and that did me no good. Men, remember, when you buy a woman jewelry to stick to the same color, silver/platinum/white gold, or yellow gold. Otherwise, she can't wear all the pieces together due to rules of something called fashion.

I'm going back there tomorrow after classes to pick it up. They are changing the stone over to a yellow-gold ring so it works with all the other jewelry I bought for my girl. I'm still planning on giving my girl the ring over break. The ring is beautiful, I cannot wait to slip it on her finger. Less than two weeks...

Previous --- Next

My departure from Horseheads is not something that I look back on with great personal pride. In fact, I would say that it was the culmination of what would turn out to be the low point of my life. My girlfriend had just left me for my ex-girlfriend, there was some, um, tension with certain elements of said girlfriend’s family, and I was so poor that I couldn't eat regularly. Even if I wasn't willing to admit it to myself at the time, leaving that damn town was the best thing I could have done.

I moved to Cortland, spent a few months drinking it off, and haven't thought much about that time since. Except for today, standing on the train, staring at this kid that looked eerily like my ex-girlfriend's sister's ex-boyfriend. I know, it doesn't sound like a terrifying moment. But to me, it brought back a lot of shit that I'd rather not think about.

He got off at the Western stop, and with a closer view it became apparent that it wasn't who I thought it was. No one is ever who I think it is in this damn town. I was glad. The last thing that I want to do is run into someone that I knew in a former life.

"5th March 2003

Housing Benefit Agency
Vale of the White Horse
Abingdon
Oxon

Dear All,

Thank you so much for everything you have done for us. If it hadn’t been for the diligent way in which you did not pay my husband’s housing benefit, we would not last night have been the proud recipients of an eviction order. And in the same week as he’s started a new job, too! It just goes to show how much help the Labour government is prepared to give people in order to keep them on benefits.

Special thanks go to our landlord, who, despite having been informed that the overdue payments were about to be made, still went to all the effort of applying to the Courts for an eviction order. Thanks also for sparing us the trouble of giving us any warning. It would only have made us worry unnecessarily, after all.

The full effect, of course, could never be achieved without the excellent Mr Blunkett’s Home Office, so credit is due to them. Thanks to them holding both our passports since December of last year, we don’t have to worry about small things like getting a new place to live, since no one will let us a property without photo id anyway.

Thank you for helping make me, a lowly foreigner, a homeless person in your great country. Finally I understand why asylum seekers are knocking down the door trying to get in and exploit the benefits system. Thank you all, thank you again and again.

Yours,

Marina Strinkovsky"

I went up to New Hampshire recently. I think it's a lonely place sometimes; when you're used to suburban life even a hundred yards of distance seems like a lot. It's very quiet.

So I was feeling lonely up in New Hampshire, though there were hundreds of people close by. I was near a frozen lake, so I walked out onto the lake - I could hear my own footsteps. It was cold, but the sun was just breaking through the clouds, so New Hampshire thawed a bit. I could see small children running around the lake, while some teenagers lay on their backs and presumably talked - I was too far away to tell.

Be patient

Somehow it feels better feeling lonely when you really are alone. I stood in the middle of the lake and thought. I thought about my lack of a girlfriend, my lack of friends. I blamed myself. I think I was hoping for some catharsis or something - I'm not sure whether I was simply believing in the notion of a good cry or I had seen too many movies. I looked at the mountains far off in the distance; purple giants with rings of gray hair. I saw the heat of my breath condense into white clouds. Puff..puff...puff...It was beautiful; and I thought to myself,

"The moment of epiphany, wherein the incredible beauty of the environment will comfort my aching soul!"

I felt like a fool as I stood there, waiting but not receiving. I felt like I had stepped on the proverbial flaming bag of poo.

Ebb....and flow

So I wandered back to my cabin, and the crest of my emotion was slowly absorbed back into myself. I cooled down...I still felt lonely, but not so much. I found a group of my friends, and we talked.

Today's Headlines

US News

First Rhode Island Fire Lawsuits Filed
The first two cases in what will likely become hundreds of wrongful death lawsuits have been filed as a result of the fire at The Station, a nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The state Superior Court estimates the total liability claims to exceed $1 billion, and has selected a "point person" to manage the multiple lawsuits. Named in the suits are the brothers who owned the club, the city of West Warwick, the town's fire inspector, the manufacturer of the pyrotechnics used in the show of the band Great White, and the band's manager. The band members themselves were not named in the suits.

Brooklyn Mosque Investigated For Ties To al Qaeda
Worsippers at the al Farouq mosque in Brooklyn, New York helped raise more than a million dollars for al Qaeda, according to US prosecutors who have charged a cleric with providing material support to a terrorist network. Sheik Mohammed Al Hasan Al-Moayad, who is being held in Germany, told an FBI informant that he supplied $20 million, recruits and weapons to Osama bin Laden in the years before the September 11, 2001|9/11] attacks, and that most of the resources came from contributors within the United States.

Supreme Court Upholds Laws
In separate cases this morning, the United States Supreme Court upheld California's "Three Strikes You're Out" law, saying that it did not violate the 8th Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and also upheld Alaska and Connecticut versions of "Megan's Law," which requires public registration of prior sex offenders. Both decisions come from a court which has made it a goal to increase public safety and keep repeat criminals behind bars.

International News

Suicide Bomber Kills 15 In Israel
A suicide bomber blew himself up aboard a crowded bus in Haifa, Israel this morning, which killed 15 and injured dozens. "Once again the bestial hand of Palestinian terrorism has struck at the heart of Israel," said Mark Sofer, a Foreign Ministry spokesman. In response, Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat condemned "any attack that is targeting civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli, also adding "We reject the Israel government finger-pointing that the Palestinian Authority is responsible."

UN Antiwar Faction Meets in Paris
The foreign ministers of France, Russia and Germany were today discussing their drive against war on Iraq at a hastily arranged summit in Paris. The summit is seen as a further sign that the UN divide on Iraq is hardening. France and Russia, which both hold veto power in the UN security council, have been joined by Germany in pushing for the UN weapons inspectors to be given more time and powers to rid Iraq peacefully of any banned weapons.

Pope Urges World To Avoid Major Conflict
Early this Ash Wednesday morning, Pope John Paul II led the world's Catholics in a peace-focused prayer that urged world leaders to make every effort to spare humanity what he called "a dramatic conflict" in Iraq. "Everyone has to knowingly assume their responsibility and make a common effort to spare humanity another dramatic conflict," he said. The Pope strongly opposes military action in Iraq and is seen by the antiwar protest as a leader in their mission.

Business

Dollar Hits Four Year Low Against Euro
In early trading Wednesday, the United States dollar weakened to $1.11 against the euro, the lowest point since 1999. This weakening was inspired by comments by Treasury Secretary John Snow, who said that he was "not particularly concerned" about the fall of the dollar since the G7 meetings on February 21, 2003. A Treasury spokesman put a better face on the situation by saying that Snow still supported a strong dollar, but economists believe the dollar will continue to be weak in the coming months.

Nestle Merger Blocked
The FTC voted yesterday to block a merger between Nestle, makers of Häagen-Dazs, and Dreyer's, makers of Edy's, Godiva, Dreamery, and Starbucks ice creams. The FTC stated that the merger would "raise prices and reduce choice for consumers." This merger would leave only two companies in the high-end ice cream business, Nestle and Unilever, who makes the Breyer's and Ben and Jerry's brands.

Supreme Court To Rule On Web Pornography Business
The US Supreme Court will hear arguments today on whether or not libraries should be required to filter out porn on their internet-connected computers. This case plans to test the constitutionality of the Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000, which has been quite damaging to the online pornography industry.

Science & Technology

Windows Longhorn Leaked Again
A new build of Longhorn, Microsoft's follow up to Windows XP, has leaked. The new build is said to feature significantly increased stability, but does not yet feature the new WinFS file system, promoted as a major part of Longhorn. The new build does, however, have a significant amount of cosmetic additions, including a task-based 3D user interface.

Columbia Being Reassembled
In a hangar in Cape Canaveral, Florida, 300 NASA engineers and technicians are undergoing the painful task of reconstructing the fallen space shuttle, hoping to determine from the process what exactly went wrong in the shuttle disaster earlier this year. Many families and friends of victims of the shuttle disaster have turned the hangar into a shrine, covering the outer walls of the hangar with decorations, notes, and other memorials.

UN Warns Of Future Water Crises
The UN World Water Assessment Programme today released a report indicating a very dark picture for the world's water supply. The report indicated that the world's water shortage will mean that hunger will exist as a global problem for at least another thirty years, and that the average water supply per person will decrease by 33% over the next twenty years.

Health

Aspirin Reduces Mouth and Throat Cancer Risk
Researchers at the Institute of Pharmalogical Research in Milan, Italy released a report stating that people who take aspirin at least once a week for five years or more have their risk of mouth and throat cancer reduced greatly. The study indicated a 68% reduction in the cases of mouth and throat cancer in those who took aspirin weekly as compared to those who did not take aspirin at all.

Contraceptive Sponge Returns To Market
The Today Sponge, a doughnut-shaped contraceptive popular in the early 1990s but discontinued in 1995, has returned to the market, offering women another choice for birth control. The device was discontinued after its original manufacturer declined to make necessary repairs at its lone manufacturing plant; the rights to the device were purchased late last year by Allendale Pharmaceuticals, who are reintroducing the device in Canada and soon in the United States.

Sports

Two Year Ban Key Part of Anti-Doping Code
FIFA stated this morning that a mandatory two year sanction for doping is the centerpiece of the new anti-doping rules being adopted by a number of sports organizations worldwide. The bylaws allow for each organization to decide how to enforce the rule, but requires each membership organization to enforce the rule in some way. This allows the member groups a degree of autonomy on how to handle doping issues specific to their sport.

Tiger Woods Appears On Target For Grand Slam Run
After winning his second of three tournaments this weekend after returning from December knee surgery, Tiger Woods' outlook for the upcoming year is bright. After complaining of severe pain throughout 2002 while winning two majors, Woods is now pain-free and is exhibiting a more mature version of his dominating golf style.

Entertainment

Christina Aguilera To Model For Versace
Christina Aguilera, with her recent raunchy attire and look, has been named the new face of the Versace label in america. "It's just so great. I've got this ad campaign coming up with Donatella and Versace, so I'm very excited and this is a whole new world for me, so that's very exciting," Aguilera said. Donatella Versace claims that her latest clothing lines are inspired by Aguilera's change in direction.

Toby Keith Leads Country Music Awards Nominations
On the strength of his 9/11-inspired Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American) and his hit album Unleashed, country singer Toby Keith picked up eight nominations for the upcoming Academy of Country Music awards, to be aired on May 21, 2003. Other multiple nominees include Alan Jackson, The Dixie Chicks, Trick Pony, Kenny Chesney, and Willie Nelson.

And Now, Some Typical Daylog Fare

I just found out that Toby Keith was nominated for eight Academy of Country Music awards for his recent album, which features the hit Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American). The lyrics to this song sound like an Ed Anger column in the Weekly World News. Here's some lyrical excerpts:

The eagle will fly
And there's gonna be Hell
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell!
It's gonna feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you...
Brought to you courtesy of the Red, White and Blue!

Oh, Justice will be served and the battle will rage
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage
You'll be sorry that you messed with the US of A
'Cuz we'll put a boot in your ass
It's the American way.

Yes, these are verbatim quotes from the song itself. Rather than actually logically thinking the situation through, the song encourages exactly what the Bush administration seems to be doing: using our military might to impose our will throughout the world.

Freedom is unquestionably a "good thing," and I'm proud to be a part of a state where people can say what they want and worship whatever they choose. However, going into combat situations in other nations forcing them to follow this doctrine is wrong. Different people have different views.

The idea that the United States has to help those who want freedom is also deeply flawed. When America fought for its independence, we only got support from France (and weakly from Spain) and this was due to more or less outright bribery in terms of offering insanely lucrative trade deals to them. No one jumped into our war because it was the "right thing to do."

A "boot in the ass" "courtesy of the red, white and blue"? Congratulations, Toby Keith; you've managed to not only sound ignorant, but send out a message that violence is acceptable as a immediate reaction to a much deeper problem. Your record company is guilty, too; by promoting this music and demonstrating support for this message, it gives our government the idea that such actions are acceptable.

Lent Diary, Day 1

In my daylog for February 19, 2003, I outlined my plan for a challenging Lenten discipline: no food or water during daylight hours. Visit that daylog for more details.

As the lunch break passes on my first day of this fasting, I realize now that it will be more difficult than I originally believed. My throat is dry and I am hungry.

My plan is to walk home in the evening using a circuitous route, and spend the time thinking about why I am taking on this challenge. What does it really mean?

But more than anything,
I am THIRSTY!

We live in a beautifull catbox.

Asamoth made a brief appearance in the catbox on the evening of 5 March (UK time) under the user name as asaback. His appearance in new writeups was even briefer. He posted one writeup, which accused an old editor (someone who hasn't even logged into E2 for over 5 months) of vendettas against him, perpetrated by using multiple logins to downvote his writeups and of making insulting softlinks.

I have no idea if this particular editor was in fact using multiple logins, and I suspect that Asamoth really doesn't either. Certainly he didn't supply any proof. And who has the time to level up lots of logins? Perhaps he should entertain the possibility that he got lots of downvotes because lots of people downvoted him.

His assertion that this particular person was the source of all the insulting softlinking is even more presumptuous. Softlinks are anonymous so how would he know? And frankly, if the editor in question is long gone, why complain again?

Never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity. As spiregrain remarked a day or two earlier: "It's like a martial art. The system is such that by the time you are able to do serious damage, you don't want to."

21:26 ac_hyper oh wow...Asamoth speaks?
21:28 Caliban Wait, I heard about that guy. Isn't he the guy who deleted a bunch of his nodes?
21:29 StrawberryFrog blinks. Wasn't there an asamoth node here a sec ago?
21:29 mirv Yep, he's the one who gave us the term "pulling an asamoth".
21:31 asaback it is i
21:31 ac_hyper Interesting stuff...ghosts and skeletons from the dark days of E2, before my time.
21:32 tdent i don't know why it should have been instanuked - why should we hear only the official POV on issues Asamothic?
21:33 asaback because i really shook things up here perhaps
21:33 QXZ turns the ego knob down a notch or two
21:34 StrawberryFrog asa: still flattering yourself I see
21:34 asaback but that tells me all i need to know about any possible return. bu-bye
21:34 Tlachtga doesn't sound like you shook anything up--sounds more like a dumb idea. Still, yeah, why nuke it.
21:35 Eco Dag nab it! I look away for two seconds, and stuff happens.
21:35 Caliban is impressed. No, really.
21:35 StrawberryFrog asa: it's about the nodes. the data in the 'base. All else is a sideshow

21:58 ac_hyper Why can't somebody cool like zhaus return?
22:01 Eco AC_Hyper: I suspect that if zhaus ever had returned, substantially fewer people would now think of him, her, or them as cool.
22:02 Jet-Poop But hey, all you more recent users, that's the kind of rhetoric and bile that used to be very common around here once upon a time. Losing Asamoth (among others) improved the quality of this site about a billion percent.

... because the site was being sullied by XXX (and other editors of her ilk) who was so unethical as to create several alternative accounts in order to vote up her own woefully pathetic nodes. XXX used to link nasty node names to people's writeups whom she hated. All anonymously, of course, weasel. ... Despite the fact that I protested these and other injustices ... quit dramatically in order to undermine XXX and her cunning commie coterie"
- asaback

I'm sure you could find out who XXX is if you try, I don't care, I just don't want to be party to slander.

In the catbox he claimed that he really shook things up here when he pulled an Asamoth. He wishes. If it's not quality nodes, it's just a sideshow, and not the main event. I think of all the new noders who have shaken things up since then by the quality of their content, as the bar slowly inches upwards. Contribute, correct or spectate, don't pee in the pot.

Take your lumps and node. Move on. If you can't handle criticism without it being an evil plot, then you won't fit in here. Some of the writeups that you treasure will turn out, in the eyes of the discerning audience, to be turds. I don't believe in artists that pander relentlessly to the lowest common denominator, but I don't believe in the isolated genius delivering a singular vision from his ivory tower with no feedback either. George Lucas has no feedback these days, that's why his creative output is so shite. I believe in a dialogue of internal and external criticism.

One Iceowl, one CatherineB is worth 100 carping Asamoths.

Asamoth's paranoid paragraphs prove that he can't let go, and if he has anything to contribute he's hiding it well. His rant was instanuked. It didn't deserve to stay – how would it benefit a naïve reader in a year or two's time, someone using E2 as a encyclopaedia?

Instanuking however smacks of censorship though; as if there was something to hide. I would have left it around "marked for destruction" for a while. Honestly, Asamoth was his own worst enemy in that text.

RalphyK made an appearance in the catbox even later that evening. I haven't seen him in the flesh or online in a while, and I was pleased to see him. The next morning I saw a message from an editor asking me to tone it down, as I had used (++) and fuzzle in rapid succession. I was a bit nonplussed. Why is this an issue? I thought the fuzzle-wars were long over. It's just self-expression, not politics. Sheesh. Catbox etiquette seems to vary depending on which timezone is most active online.

If you have to wash out your dirty laundry, make a daylog.