Our condolences go out to our sister sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, and to the whole of the House of Windsor on this sad, sad day. We will keep mourning for a fitting period of time, as well as send an emissary to the funeral ceremony.

It looks like humanity's collective guilt for having let the Holocaust happen is starting to wear thin. I've been saying it for years and it looks like more and more people are starting to see it: Israel took advantage of humanity's guilty feelings to oppress the Palestinians with nary an outcry from anyone except the Arabs. Furthermore, anyone daring to disagree with Israel's policy was automatically branded an Anti-semite. One can't help but feel that Israel learned a lot at Hitler's knee. Will they ever be ashamed about this? I doubt it...

Well. A Good Friday to you all.

I saw the Pope on CNN today, that was about the most grotesque sight I've laid eyes upon in the past month. He looks, at best, like some weird wind-up doll, at worst, like a sick Jedi Yoda.

On a brighter note, it looks like the Israelis and the Palestinians are finally gearing up to wipe themselves off the face of the Earth.

There is an air of suspense in today's world. A sense akin to the human race being poised, at the edge of some radical and fundamental change, which will either destroy us or bring us closer to our heritage. That would explain all the madness, the barbary, the chaos... It it the normal flux right before a quantum leap. It is the labor pains, right before the babe being birthed crosses the threshold, producing an orgasm as deep as it is painful.

Let us hope, in the case I mention, and continuing the analogy, that the mother survives...

America is to be forever revered for having produced one of the most spectacular artforms known to mankind. Let other continents squabble over who created the first painting, or the first musical piece or the world's first female orgasm (actually, that would've been me, and the continent no longer exists, but I digress). America can reign supreme knowing that the pinnacle of human achievement in the Arts was gestated on our shores.

Gentlemen, I give you America's most wonderful artistic contribution to mankind: The Sublime Artform.

Damn! I won a t-shirt in a contest for writing the caption to a comic! First time I've won a t-shirt outside of a strip joint....

Historically, civilization has always been laid low by the dirty, unschooled rabble. Rome led the good fight for a long time, but finally succumbed from within and without to the barbarian hordes. Of what use that Rome was more advanced? Once decadence sets in, the end soon follows, like an unwelcome guest bringing pestilence to the homestead. We have more intelligence and more tools than Rome before us, but the barbarian hordes are within and without our borders, howling against the light, and we are just awakening to that fact. Can we turn back the tide? It will be an interesting thing to witness, whether civilization will for once triumph over the (mentally and physically) unwashed. Ignorance is strong, and bears diverse weapons, not the least of which is the fact that they need not follow our rules.

And not all of our enemies wear turbans... Every one of us who is ignorant, who refuses to learn having the possibility to do so, who cares not for the searching out of solutions... That one is a worse enemy than a suicidal airplane hijacker, and far more common, too...

America, I will root for you, and will sit in your camp! Betray not my faith...

A spell is a construct exactly identical in structure to a computer program. The Universe is a machine whose handbook we have lost. Spells are programs designed so that when executed, they cause the machine to produce a desired result. As such, the program must be compatible with the Universe's OS (operating system, like Windows, for those of you technologically challenged; like Linux, for the rest of you). Its language must be capable of being interpreted by the OS and it must not violate any of the protective mechanisms the OS has in place, unless, of course, one has the appropriate root password in order to bypass these failsafes. That is why waving your arms about and speaking random mumbo jumbo will only cause you to receive stares, similar to typing random letters on a computer and hitting enter. On the computer, you might get lucky, and actually type out a valid command. Of course, it's likely to be something that screws up your hard drive or worse. This can happen with a spell, too, as some people throughout history have found, much to their chagrin, just before having their heads bitten off by a minor demon.

What then, you ask, of Gods, demons, angels, spirits, elementals and the like? That, too, is explainable within my model. These are high level programs running over the OS which are capable, when properly invoked, of facilitating an operation. Suppose, on a computer, you wished to tabulate a series of numbers, manipulate them, and generate a report. If you had the knowledge, you could write a program in, say, C++, and achieve what you require after a tedious amount of programming, testing and debugging. Or, you can invoke Excel, which will allow you to quickly enter your numbers, and provides you with built in functions that will manipulate them in the way you require. Makes sense, doesn't it?

What are we, then? Ah... We are self-replicating, resource consuming, unauthorized programs. In other words, humanity is exactly alike an ingenious computer virus run amok. This just proves that whoever the Universe's owner is, He's too stupid to buy a good antivirus.

Think of what a boon practical time travel would be, for the aspiring serial killer. Those of us who are not totally psychotic are very, very careful, and thus don't see as much action as we'd like. Now, imagine that we had practical time travel and that the cosmos is fundamentally unchangable. That is, that what is written down as history cannot be changed. Think of it... We could research serial rapes and murders where no one was ever charged or captured. Armed with this information, we could then go back into the past and enjoy ourselves. Knowing full well where the victim will be at a certain moment, and how much free quality time we'd have available. In fact, reading up on Jack the Ripper, his modus operandi is eerily close to mine...

Can somebody tell me when all this political correctness bullshit happened? Do people think they're born with a guarantee never to be offended so long as they live (and a bit more, for their family's peace of mind), so help me God? What utter nonsense. If I decide to call a latino a spic, a jew a kike or a negro a nigger, there's an easy solution to that. Do not associate with me if you don't like it. Do not, under any circumstances, invite me over for Thanksgiving. Punch me out, if you think you can take me. But what's this about lawsuits and stuff like that happening? Have we all gone mad?

Hypocrisy is rampant, just because you can't say it doesn't mean you're not thinking it. Valid issues are not even considered simply because they're not PC. People, wake up! We are not all equal to each other! We've never been, never will be! We might have equal rights, yes... But from there to pretending we're all equal is lunacy. Everytime I read an article saying that this or that line of research has lost its funding, because it wasn't PC, I feel like screaming in despair. How long must this last?

I grow restless... Either I will find something to entertain myself, or something entertaining will find me... LOL Which will it be? The suspense will end up killing someone...

Knowledge is freedom. Knowledge is power. Since the beginning of mankind, a person with a thirst for knowledge, and creativity, has always been able to get by. Usually, get by very well, to boot. I've seen this proven again and again. Aside from the occasional unlucky turn of the wheel, a person with a modicum of knowledge and get up and go will never lack the means to live in a comfortable fashion. The current type of government doesn't matter, nor the state of the economy. Yet a great many people, the majority, in fact, simply lack the will to learn, to make something of themselves. It is as if they like living badly, never having enough to cover their basic needs. I've not been able to make sense of this. Even in a society brimming with as many opportunities as the American one, many choose to live in poverty. Is this something hardwired into our makeup as human beings? That there must always be an elite? Even when the field is more or less even?

Strange...

There is a sort of inertia acting on all large groups of people. The ruling class, normally made up of around 0.00000001% of a population, is always able to tyrannize the rest, their subjects. It is irrelevant whether the ruling class was elected, born into power, or assumed it in any of a number of very inventive ways. History clearly shows us that it would have been frightfully easy to overthrow a madman, or a despot, at the beginning of his reign, with a minimum of chaos and loss of life, yet it almost never happens. A Hitler, a Stalin, a McCarthy, any of these, and other examples you might care to bring up, could have been easily eliminated with but a single bullet, or knife or whatever. Yet nobody did it, at least, not effectively. Clearly, this crowd inertia is an evolutionary mechanism designed to keep our numbers low, so as not to exceed the available resources in our environment. Every now and then, a madman must arise and plunge first his country, then the world, into nightmare.

According to my calculations, this should be happening again... about.... NOW!

Having money is great, in my opinion. But I've always wondered, why do people continue to do all in their power to get more and more, especially when they've already made enough to last them for several lifetimes? In my case, it's understandable. I have lifetimes galore to look forward to. But a normal person, whose life expectancy will be 100, at best, why won't he be satisfied with a hundred million dollars, or a billion, or whatever it takes to satisfy his whims? Some of these billionaires, no matter how much they spend satisfying personal desires, not buying companies out or something, they can only be drawing on the interest on their capital, right? So why not stop trying to amass more money and just enjoy?

Well... Interesting day... I called the Vatican first thing in the morning, figuring if somebody had God's phone number, it'd be them. As luck would have it, they did. Predictably, I got a voice mail system when I called, but I did leave a message. You'll all be interested to know that it's a 1-800 number, which I thought very kind of God to set up, but the best part was yet to come. I got a menu system with all the Gods listed, as well as several minor demons and angels. Since my beef was with Yahweh, I hit 777# and left my message.

The awesome part is that the big guy actually called me back. I explained about yesterday's religious beggar and He was outraged. I gave Him the beggar's name and address, He said He'd take care of it, but that if I wanted to try out my curse, that He certainly wouldn't mind. And, as I had thought, He confirmed that He hadn't authorized anyone to ask for money in His name. Anyone at all. He stated that what with all the stuff the Vatican's been hoarding, from pillaging during the Crusades, donations, real estate acquired cheaply and now skyrocketed to Heaven and back, why would He need more moolah?

I thought you'd all be interested, and He told me He wouldn't mind if I shared this with you. And don't ask me for the 1-800 number, He also asked me, quite kindly, not to give that out, and that He'd call JP first thing in the morning and ask him to deny its existence from now on. Said He was way too busy to be on the phone with you all.

The gall of some people... Who the Hell invented the idea that God wants money given to this or that Church? If God wanted them to have money, you'd figure He'd wave his metaphysical arms around and shower them with crisp hundred dollar bills at any time, right? Or the head priest would buy a lotto ticket and win it every week. But no. These morons will accost a person trying to convince them of the validity of this God compared to all the others, and that the particular God's Grace is to be had by surrendering one's money to them.

At least thieves have the decency to skulk in the shadows, for the most. Still, one must take advantage of the circumstances that life presents. I'll test out a hideously nasty curse I thought up on this Godly beggar, in that way, he'll serve a useful purpose at long last. The results of my little experiment will be posted here for the edification of all.

What about chocolate covered manhole covers?

Quantum Physics states that the arrow of time is bi-directional. That there is no reason why cause has to precede event. Nevertheless, we have never witnessed time flowing backwards.The explanation is simple: Our senses are not able to detect the flow of time except when it flows forward. I suspect this may have been an evolutionary adaptation as intelligence developed. Its purpose was to keep us sane. Only a sentient being is able to imagine its own demise, and just that act of imagination has been enough to plunge some people into the darkest of depressions, even into full blown insanity. What, then, if we could actually see the future, by perceiving time flowing backwards?

What about non-sentient beings? Animals? Well, it is a documented fact that animals act strangely before an earthquake. This has been explained away with several wild hypotheses, ranging from tremors so mild as to be undetectable to instrumentation (but apparent to animals) up to the liberation of underground gases. The real answer is obvious. Animals can sense time as it flows backwards, and so have a bit of advance warning.

What, then, about effect preceding cause? That happens as well, and some of us have a recollection of it, too. How many times have we reread a favorite book, or revisited a familiar place, only to perceive subtle changes, unexplainable completely as they are categorically an intrinsic part of the book, or place, and are thus not of a recent nature? Can we explain every occurrence as faulty memory? Are we to believe that we not only forgot the true state of things, but then manufactured a plausible replacement for it? And furthermore, proceeded then to completely scrub the memory from our neurons so that upon seeing reality we do not even remotely remember it, but continue to be confused as to the change? Please... Let us judiciously use Occam's Razor...

Useless knowledge is an oxymoron. All knowledge is useful, under the appropriate circumstances. It disconcerts me to see how science dismisses, without any attempt at experimentation, certain belief systems simply because they do not fit into the standard model. Sir Isaac Newton, best known for his ennunciation of the law of gravity, was also very interested in magick, as anyone with an interest in history should know. His writings on magick are as brilliant as his scientific theories, yet the former are unknown except to a few specialized collectors. What a terrible shame...

Has anyone ever seen a Chinese funeral? Neither have I. And then we have this 'mystery' meat in the Chow Fan, whose origin nobody has been able to discover, either... Hmmm... Is Chow Fan Chinese for Rest In Peace? For years I had an office in a building overlooking the back yard of a Chinese restaurant. When I started working there, I'd go to the corridor to smoke and had a perfect view. There were at least 5 children usually playing in it. None more than 8 years old. A couple of years later, only 3 were left. A year later when I left, there were none. I keep in touch with the people who work there, and they haven't seen the little tykes for 3 years now.

God, they were delicious!

Corporations, by their very nature, are as doomed as empires. They start out, usually, as one great man's idea. In rare cases, more than one great man is involved. Starting as nothing, they blossom and prosper due to the greatness of the man and the idea. Then, of course, as growth occurs, the great man has the need to bring others in, others who share his idea and are willing to work at it. Then, sooner or later, like a cancerous cell, a moron slips in. An isolated moron is relatively harmless (Yes, Andrew L., I was thinking about you here). The problem is that morons recognize this and, like the cancerous cell, metastasize by bringing in a cohort of their peers. The great men, and their idea, are soon outnumbered, often forced out, maybe killed in a plane accident. Soon the corporation is moving at a deceiving pace, even flourishing for a time, on plain inertia, like a man walking while being consumed by the cancer eating at his insides. At this point, the slightest infection, the most trifling injury, will speed our dead man walking to his grave.

These final days are a sad thing to witness, much as a still functioning neuron within our analogous dying person must feel as the end draws near. Unlike our hapless neuron, though, I'll just get a job someplace else.

Well, as you can see, I never wrote 'more in the morning'. I was just too bored to do anything, so just browsed the web, or worse, worked, most of the time. The word for today was upheaval. As in everybody's trying to cover their asses and be unperceived. Shakedown in the company, and about time, although my feeling is it's too little, too late.

On the upside, I finally got my hands on a good translation of Le Mystère des Cathédrales, somehow distributed in English as Fulcanelli-Master Alchemist. This book is a detailed handbook on Alchemy by one of the few modern Masters of the Science. It is a fascinating read, and I had been looking for a copy for decades, as I want to re-read it and continue a path I put off, upon a time. I would have gotten it earlier had they been kind enough to give it a title even somewhat resembling the original one. Good luck finding one, Amazon took a couple of months to find me a copy. In it, Fulcanelli shows us how the symbolism in the architecture of famous Cathedrals and other old edifices contains hints and instructions regarding alchemy, for he who understands what he sees. This book is a rare gem amongst the tons of dross put out by others on alchemy.

Well. I'm sorry I abandoned this for a few days. I took some desperately needed R&R time in NYC. I was slowly but surely going mad at work, and for everyone's welfare I needed out of there. I had a great time, mainly booze, and some re-visiting of old haunts. And for once I received good news from the office. One of the head guys, and by that I mean both a top manager and at least a runner-up for Most Incompetent, was moved out of his role, and is now reporting to a person who, a day before, was one of his direct reports. Hopefully things will change for the better, but I don't hold out much hope. Not with the people who've been running the show still being mostly there... More in the morning...