Today's Lesson

You should never try to be irreplaceable, or even appear to be so. It makes fools resentful of you, and wise men anxious to prove you wrong. This is a common failing in the technical savant. A lesson which even I had to learn the hard way some years ago. I hope I can teach this lesson to someone on my team without being forced to prove him wrong.

There's a new service I'm planning to offer. Let me run it by y'all here, so I can get your feedback. Initially, it'll only be offered in India, but if I see a market for it anywhere else, I might franchise it. For a fee, I'm willing to take on other people's bad karma. Well, not me me, you understand, I'll just transfer it to some homeless person or something. My clients would be able to commit sins and not have any karmic load to worry about. Now for how you can help...

1. Do you believe in karma? If no, skip to 4.
2. Would you be willing to pay for the aforementioned service? If no, skip to 4.
3. How much?
4. Would you be willing to receive someone else's karmic load?

Email me the answers to today's NecroPoll if you're so inclined. Thanks!

Tom and Jerry at it again... I can't be bothered with them right now, so no further comments, besides still wishing they'd both just blow themselves up and get it over with so the rest of the world can mourn and go on...

The Free Movie (VHS format) cubicle was replenished slightly today. Nothing all that good, but, hey, free movies!!! Just thought I'd share...

While channel surfing this weekend, in a moment of boredom, I got the Discovery Channel. They were broadcasting a show on the Venezuelan llanos, or plains. I tuned in when they were showing how piranhas reduce a carcass to bones and a few shreds of skin. Of course, the animal didn't start out as a carcass. LOL They also showed a man with heavy scarring on his face. He'd fallen into the river as a child, and for whatever reason had been bleeding, a fat lip, or a bloody nose. Cool scars.

I remember going to a finca in the Colombian llanos where caribes, the Colombian name for piranhas, are to be found. We stuck a knife into a chiguiro's (a rodent the size of a small pig, called a Capybara in English, I believe) throat and threw it into the river. It was as if the river was boiling. The animal literally disappeared, the fish burrowing into him and eating him from the inside out within 10 minutes. I wish I'd had a camcorder. I guess we'll just have to go back with a camcorder and do it again...

You are Marvin the Martian!

You love conquering worlds and things that go kaboom. You have control over lots of amazing technology, but you use it mainly for evil purposes. Take the What Looney Tunes Character are You? Quiz!

Permission granted to anyone who wants to link to my blog. That just to prove that things aren't so complicated.

I do hope the Russian Tea Room opens its doors again soon. In the meantime, I wonder if they'd rent or sell me the big, acrylic bear thingie they used as an aquarium...

The dark side... It's so enticing... So alluring... So beautiful...

Everyone is always going on about what fucked up places big cities are, and how mean and ornery big city folks are... And what nice and peaceful places small towns are, and how wonderful their inhabitants are. Let's leave it to the fauna to judge... True story time...

Raleigh has squirrels. You (actually I) couldn't get less than 5 yards from them before they'd bolt towards the nearest tree. They're very nervous things.

NYC has squirrels. You (again, actually I, and I know cause I did this yesterday) can actually walk up to one and stroke it's silly little head. Try and have whatever the little buggers eat available, as they'll mope if you don't give them anything.

And the moral of this story is that rednecks must have sexually abused the poor, little critters for centuries in order to make them so skittish. And that's plain sick!

Have you ever wondered what sort of summer camp Islamic Fundamentalists send their kids off to?

Walking up Kissena Blvd., yesterday afternoon, I noticed something. I'd seen it before, of course, and any regular stroller of Main St., Flushing has also seen it, no need to go one block over to Kissena if you're not so inclined. I'm speaking of the oriental penchant for hanging brown, dessicated, ancient, dead ducks and other assorted fowl in their front windows. If anybody belonging to that ethnic persuasion happens to read this, can you please drop me a quick email? Among my major questions:

1. What're they for? I mean, despite the fact that they're only seen in restaurants, I certainly wouldn't eat that. And as a FYI, I've eaten snakes, insects, monkeys, dogs and many other animals. I have no phobias regarding which animals are part of the human food chain, and I've eaten duck many, many times. It's just that brown, dessicated and ancient are not descriptions I'd like applied to what I eat.

2. How did they die? Some of them actually have a rictus bespeaking unmentionable horrors frozen into their beaks... Are they a warning to other ducks, not to invade the restaurant?

3. You folks know how to prepare duck. I know this. I've eaten duck in Chinese, Korean and Thai establishments. Did the owners of the places on Kissena and Main flunk Duck Preparation 101?

4. Will it make my schlong harder and longer? I've read in magazines that eating parts of tigers and other endangered species is done in Asia for those exact reasons. Is this something like that? I mean, I could understand that. I've seen people eat weirder things for some supposed penile benefit.

In advance, thanks for any replies.

"Dudes! Get out of the way!" *guy can be seen waving his hand to one side frantically* "No, really!!! Get out of the way! I mean it! This isn't part of the show!!!!! Ah, screw you all then, I'll just eject. See if I care..."

I'm determined that the next language I master will be Portuguese. For a number of reasons... For one, I plan on residing in Brazil at some point in the future, and I abhor not knowing the language spoken where I live (and now you all know why I don't live in Flushing, Queens anymore, I don't want to learn Korean just yet). The problem with Portuguese is that it's just enough like Spanish (which I do speak) to confuse the hell out of me. I end up speaking in Portañol when I try, and while it will get the message across, it also brands me as a non native speaker and I've always known that in the masquerade, it is good not to stand out...

I've been learning/practicing Portuguese lately by reading a blog written almost wholly in it, and by having a friend explain any terms I didn't understand... But my friend is now in the process of relocating, so isn't around. I miss my friend... I miss my lessons... Oh, well... Guess I'll just continue practicing my Quenya in the meantime... lol

The latest entry in the "I'm too stupid to live, but that must be someone else's fault, so give me money" sweepstakes.

There was a time, not too long ago, when I averaged a book every two days. Before anybody asks, I meant reading one every two days. I no longer have the leisure time for this. I count myself lucky if I read a book every two weeks these days. I've now gotten a firm grip on my new job, so I'm slowly starting to work less, or rather, work more intelligently. There are major issues outstanding here, but I have come up with a roadmap to get us through the perils and pitfalls, and out the other side into outsourcing nirvana... If all goes well, of course, and it rarely does. Still, my wa is better than it was a month and a half ago, when I would've cheerfully slit someone's throat if they but looked askance at me. That's how tense I was at my old job. Only now do I fully realize that. Only now do I see how lucky a couple of people are, that they're still alive and breathing over there in Raleigh... lol

Anyway, I hope to get my leisure time back soon. It would really suck, and make a couple of people piss in glee, if now that I have free books (damn, I love bringing that subject up every week), I won't have the time to read them... ;)

This looks to be a fun group to invite to your barbecues!

Ever wonder how many children are abused by priests every hour? Get the statistics...

I know... But, hey, it could've been! LOL

I misunderstood the nature of someone's business today. It could've proven embarrassing. Thankfully, she wasn't all that cute so I didn't commit a faux pas... And, anyway, Data Whorehousing did strike me as a notion before its time...

I've received several emails asking how one goes about acquiring a familiar spirit... Familiar spirits are quite useful to have. They will warn you of events in your future that you should be aware of, so they serve as a sort of prophetic PDA. They can also be given tasks, which they will perform in a very literal and mindless manner. Those of you who have conversed with me, or corresponded, will know that I delight in being literal, and many choose their words carefully around me if they wish to get useful information back. Now you know why. Setting a task to a familiar without taking great care in the wording of it is dangerous, to say the least. So one acquires a good grasp of proper semantics, and learns to use it always, just in case.

Standard disclaimer: You do this, it's your ass, don't come to me with complaints later, I'll just laugh at you.

Without further ado, here's how to create a familiar. Complaints aside, should anyone follow the procedure, email me your results.

As far as I can understand, there's a new terrorist cult calling itself the Fallen Schlong that is supposed to be a threat to all civilization... Then again, it's been a long day, I might be reading it wrong...

Apparently, a hitherto wholly unknown type of centipede has been found in Central Park. First time it's been catalogued ever. In the whole world. And it was found in Central Park. Way to go NYC!!!

This sparks a glimmer of hope within me, that just as a hitherto unknown species of centipede was found in Central Park, so too might I discover a hitherto unknown sexual position if I but look hard enough...

Part I

A relatively long time ago, in a not so far away land, people were ruled by a puppet regime. A regime that kowtowed to the wishes of the neighboring country's government, and worst of all, to the wishes and demands of the neighboring country's crimelords.

One man attempted, from without the boundaries of this land, to overthrow the puppet regime. That landed him in a heap of trouble. Along the way, some other freedom fighters joined this man, most notably a dear, old friend who is no longer with us (who was an Argentine and a doctor, for those who want clues). After much travails, the small group of freedom fighters defeated the corrupt army of the puppet regime which outnumbered them greatly. How did they produce this marvel? All (or rather most) of the population was downtrodden and abused by the puppet regime, and they had no opportunities and few if any rights. So they hid the freedom fighters. They gave them aid. Clothed and fed them. Warned them of government army movements. And so on.

The freedom fighters took over the government, and tried to get recognition from the neighboring country's govt. Not from the crimelords, though, those were thrown out if they hadn't fled already. Predictably enough, the new govt wasn't recognized as a valid one. Not only that, trade was suspended hoping that since the small country wasn't self-sufficient, the new govt would quickly fold. Which, of course, threw the nascent regime straight into the arms of the neighboring country's political enemies.

Part II

That, of course, is the history of Cuba from the 50s and onwards. Today, we still insist of punishing the Cuban people for standing up for their own rights when no one else gave a fig. And the only reason we continue to punish them is to safeguard votes from what used to be the upper class of Cuba before the successful revolution. The same upper class that toadied to any demand that would allow them to get more money/power even if it was always at the expense of their countrymen. Good to see that they haven't lost their touch during their exile. But slowly, we are realizing the injustice we perpetrated on Cuba, and our own fault in turning them Communist. All the documentation from the revolution shows that both Castro and Guevara were leary of getting in bed with the Russians, but were forced to it by the USA's policies.

Trust the Shrub to promise to veto a law which would alienate his brother's Cuban votes.

Last but not least, and for the sake of honesty, all that I said before is verifiable. My apparent altruism, on the other hand, may justifiably be questioned. Just like the Shrub's. You see, I'd love to be able to get good Cuban cigars without being guilty of a crime. And I do get them. In fact, I have some in my car right now. But it is illegal for me to have them. That is stupid. I abhor stupidity. Free my cigars!!!! I'd also like to go to Cuba without having to fly someplace else first.

I think that once IT (Information Technology) stuff bores me, which is still 20 or so years away, I'll dedicate the following half a century to something in the life sciences, or maybe even medicine. It's been centuries since I practiced medicine. I've been told that phenomenal advances have been made.

I still remember, from my first try at medicine, how vivisections fascinated me... Ah, to recapture old times!

It looks like the Canadian Mounties (RCMP) are looking for a child molester suspected of being in the area. *trying to keep a straight face, failing miserably*

From a 5/17/2002 post in the blog I linked to yesterday:

The Symbiots used to freak us out pretty badly. It was a retarded gentleman and his nephew - or, as we feared, his "nephew". They did have IDs with the same last name, but it was a pretty common one and we were worried we had some kind of chickenhawk situation on our hands and didn't know what to do about it. The nephew was too young to go downstairs (it wasn't ridiculously creepy - he was maybe 18 or 19) but was caught down there with the uncle and rousted several times.

{...some more funny/sad comments on the Symbiots I snipped to get you all to go read it...}

I served the Symbiots several times and, though nobody at the store agrees with me, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't a sexual relationship. I'm even pretty sure that they really were uncle and nephew. I think they had somehow discovered that they were both gay and formed an interesting team - separately, they couldn't get porn, but together they were unstoppable.

I'm telling you... That seems to be one hell of a Video Store to work at. I'd even consider switching jobs, except that I prefer high paying, intellectually challenging ones to low paying, but get to watch the sickos and misfits ones. lol

I signed the lease on what will be my new house for the next year. Hopefully, I will find a suitable place to buy within the next 12 months. Appropriately enough, I found out that the Post Office will not deliver to my door. They will, though, provide me with a free P.O. Box at the Post Office itself. I couldn't help but wonder... Are they on to me? Do they do this to everyone? Why two sort of cute yet almost sinister chicks working at the Post Office? Where are all the children? Why are all the people (except for the Post Office chicks) so furry? I wouldn't have been fazed if Vincent Price himself had welcomed me into the new place... LOL

This is about the funniest blog (or whatever it's supposed to be) that I've read in a while... 5 stars!

I think the die is cast. As regards Pennsylvania (PA), I mean. I'm sorry (actually, I'm not, but it sure does sound polite) if I offend any New Jersey natives, but your state sucks. Big time. I don't mind working in NJ, but I'll be double dipped in shit and topped with a maraschino if I consent to live there. I am a living anachronism, so I always prefer to live in the boonies. I'm also enough of a bon vivant that I must be near a major city, too. PA will put me an hour's drive further from NYC than I already was (about 2.5 hours all told), but it's about as backwards and boonies as I could hope for.

True story time: Yesterday I went into a liquor store somewhere in PA. I found what I wanted, namely a bottle of Laphroaig (that, in and of itself, is bottled bliss), paid for it (after being endearingly id'd) and registered the amount on my Palm Pilot (a Vx). A passably well dressed man in his late 20s, behind me in line for the cash register, said, 'Wow... What is that, some sort of miniature computer?'

That's the sort of backwards place I need, where they don't even recognize a Palm Pilot from 3 years ago... And the fishing looks to be awesome all year round...

About 5 or 6 years ago, I was teaching first semester Computer Class to a bunch of misfits majoring in Business Administration, Marketing and Publicity, in a university back in Colombia. The owners of the university absconded with a lot of money owed to their employees, suppliers and banks, but that's another story. I got paid, so I didn't really care. So... My classroom had about 20 PCs, and was in a newly constructed part of the building, not all that finished. Some of the walls were raw brick, no plaster or paint on them yet. One of these walls sported a couple of small iron rods, arranged in what, with a great deal of imagination, might have been considered a cross. Stretching it some more, it might have even been said that it was an inverted cross. Really stretching it... I had a reputation among the students and a few of the more susceptible teachers, all mostly of the female persuasion, of being, let us say, allied with the Dark Side. There was another teacher there who carried about a ton of amulets, all kinds, around his neck (this was Colombia, remember) and believed (or pretended to) in a lot of weird things, religion, certainly, and also Santería, Brujería (White) and in general, any and all superstitions available at the time. I think he was putting on an act, for the most, and he was a very funny person. Anyway... Talking with some of my students, he casually mentioned that those two rods on the wall in my classroom were an inverted cross. One which I had placed there during a Black Mass, after conveniently having awesome sex and slitting the throat of some girl who was never seen again (obviously, if I had slit her throat). Students being students, they decided to remove the cross...

The two rods were actually crosspieces holding a steel cable in place, which in turn was holding up one of the new walls until the proper structure could be built to support it. Luckily, nobody was standing in the path of all the falling masonry. I still remember everybody's expression when they were explaining their actions to the Director and the other top guys. And how my apparently superstitious friend was blue in the face laughing at how stupid they all were... It still brings a smile to my face every time I recall it. For some reason, the whole thing popped into my mind a few minutes ago. I wonder what became of my amulet carrying friend? I'll have to investigate that. Due to an ever increasing workload, I had to abandon teaching a year or so after the incident I just chronicled, and I lost touch with everyone there...

Had the weirdest dream this morning. What I thought other people considered a nightmare, but a friend I commented it with was adamant in saying that she wouldn't consider it a nightmare. Anyway...

I was happy throughout, for whatever weird reason (Yeah, I know I'm weird). I was at the beach, swimming in deep water. Suddenly, I could touch the bottom easily, without going under, you understand. The water was disappearing, to the point where it was ankle deep. When I looked up, I could see the Moon, and it was really big. The implication (and how scientific of my mind to be that rational even when in the grip of Morpheus) was that the moon was falling, and that had caused the weirdness with the water. Tides and all that. And I could see that the moon had an atmosphere of sorts now, clouds or mists, presumably stolen from our own atmosphere. And I was overjoyed throughout. Watching everyone scream and panic... LOL (see above where I acknowledge I'm weird)

And that was more or less it...

I remember a word of power one of my teachers gave me a long time ago... That is, I remember the occasion. The word, through disuse, has slipped out of my mind. Today, in between work related activities, I've been probing at that memory trying to see if it can be recovered. It was a pretty useful word of power, too, and I have need of it right now. I'd reached a point where I thought I remembered more or less how it sounded. I then stood up to stretch my legs, walked towards the window of my office, and absentmindedly started trying out the different possibilities to see if hearing it out loud would help...

To make a long story short... The Fire Dept. just finished putting out my boss's car, and while I still don't recall the word I was trying to remember, this new one I discovered is pretty nifty, too...

A new physics discovery will make one of my favorite 'neat ideas from a novel' come true. In LOTR, there's a part where Galadriel gives Sam, I think, a vial with condensed starlight to guide him through the darkness to come... Condensed starlight! I'd love to have a vial of that to muck around with... What would it taste like? Can I smear it all over my privates? Talk about having a light saber! Stuff like that...

Anyway, some physicists are working laboriously to make my dreams come true....

I'm not really into that sort of stuff, but for those among my readers who enjoy looking at shaved pussies, this link is for you...

Final Solution to Israeli-Palestine Problem

Well now... The other day I argued that the only solution to the Israeli - Palestinian conflict was to force them both out of the so called Holy Land, and transplant them to some place else. That begged the question... Who's going to take them in? Serendipity does exist! This has come to my attention... We could divide it 50-50 between Israel and Palestine, and it would also be a Solomonic solution to the present conflict over it! Comments are welcome...

I'm a sentimental fool... I've always loved flowers... Certain flowers, anyway...

I've discovered the numerological basis for determining the winner of the FIFA World Soccer Cup:

Brasil won its last World Cup (prior to this year's) in 1994, before that, they won the 1970 World Cup.
Add 1970 plus 1994, you get 3964.

Argentina won its last World Cup in 1986, before that, they won the 1978 World Cup.
Add 1978 plus 1986, you get 3964.

Germany won its last World Cup in 1990, before that, they won the 1974 World Cup.
Add 1974 plus 1990, you get 3964.

Using this simple, yet effective method, we can see that the winner of the 2002 FIFA World Soccer Cup had to be the same team that won the 1962 version.
(Subtract 2002 from 3964 to get 1962).
The 1962 FIFA World Soccer Cup champion was none other than Brazil.

But the USA also has reason to rejoice, as we will surely win the FIFA World Soccer Cup to be held in the year 3964.
(0 + 3964 = 3964).

USA Champion!! USA Champion!!

Well, I thought it'd be fitting if I were the one to bring this to your attention... Click here and find out how long you have left... LOL

Apparently, and I haven't dug into it yet to absolutely verify it, Big Brother is on the warpath again. With something called Palladium, no less. I actually applaud these efforts, if they're for real. The more Microsoft and other infobullies insist on locking down users and stifling competition and other freedoms, the sooner people will realize that there are alternatives out there. And hey, in most cases, they're better and cheaper than the crappy products that Microsoft has turned into the standard for everyone.

Have you ever suddenly remembered something which you had absolutely forgotten? Forgotten so absolutely you didn't even recall there was something which you had forgotten? And not just any memory, but a vitally important one? A memory which explodes into your mind, practically causing pain at how vivid it is? Making you wonder, 'how could I have forgotten this?!?!?!?!?'

Well, it happens all the time to me. And it's happening more often now.

The sad thing is, this site makes more sense than the real one. On a happier note, every day brings us closer to the end of his term. And, in his defense, lamebrained, ignorant and obtuse though he may be, I shudder when I think how much worse off we would have been this past year had someone like Gore been at the helm. Still, I also have to wonder how much better off we'd be with someone who wasn't, to put it in a politically correct way, as intellectually challenged.

Contacts. Who do you know. Who owes you. Who'll stick his/her neck out for you. It all comes down to that in today's world. Those of us who have a good network of people in the right places will have a smoother road to travel than those forced to do things on their own. Works both ways, of course. One must be prepared to reciprocate when asked to. The secret of success, then, is judging which requests should be honored and which ignored, because, when all's said and done, the day has but 24 hours. There will come a point in time, if you network well, when you just can't satisfy every single request. Sure, you can farm some of them out. You delegate. Even then, the sheer amount of useless morons out there requires discernment. The need to understand whom to ignore and when. Which contacts are valuable, which will be valuable and which have outlived their usefulness. Build value by cultivating those contacts which will give the most bang for your buck.

Make sure, though, regardless of the perceived present or future value, that if you can oblige someone without going out of your way, you do so. You never know when it will be to your lasting advantage to cash in one of these free chips that life endows us with. As I have just found out. Happily so, too... *weg*

Mondays are such a drag... We all know that we don't live up to our potential. Even someone like myself knows that. Sure, there are days when we excel, when we outdo ourselves... Days, as I like to say, when we make the Gods Themselves envious. No one can have a day like that on a Monday. The best one can hope for on a Monday is to breeze through, tough it out, soon it'll be Tuesday...

I hate validating a cliché, but today I found the most wonderful sleepy little town stuck up in the mountains in Pennsylvania, with a perfect fishing river a stone's throw away. One of those sleepy little towns where nothing ever happens and where even when people start disappearing nobody'll do anything about it cause they all still believe in hex signs, werewolves and what not. It's also within an acceptable driving distance from my day job... I've already started the leasing process on a house there. Eventually, if the locals don't try to burn me at the stake, I'll see about getting enough land thereabouts to build something fit to live in for an extended stretch. The only drawback is that going into NYC for the day will be out of the question. Visits into NYC must perforce be for a weekend or more, else the drive just won't be worth it. Although... Must check the trains, maybe that'll offer reasonable transit time without the wear and tear on car and 'mancer...

At the hotel where I'm staying... Dozens of Hindus, all with what look to be 6 to 10 year old kids...

After a little bit of eavesdropping I discovered they've all gathered here in New Jersey to hold a ceremony where all these little tykes are to be wed. Venerable custom in India, to wed the kids while they're still kids so they don't argue about it. Even though I've devoted considerable time studying Hindu ways and I understand what they were doing, all through the night my sick mind would just display slideshow after slideshow of all those little kids getting it on... LOL

Sluggy Freelance is slowly recovering the sheer oomph it used to have before. It sort of went downhill for a while, but it looks like Pete's back on track...

And to top off a perfect day, Ozzfest in Raleigh on the 24th of July has been cancelled. That means I no longer have to be upset over the fact that I had awesome seats and I really wanted to be there and I absolutely wasn't going to be able to.

I just went to my Totally Free and Absolutely New and Mostly Unpublished Book Source and found a complete gem. Its title is "In the Devil's Snare - The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692" by Mary Beth Norton. To be published, it says, on the 8th of October, 2002. And I get to read it now. And I get to keep the book without paying for it. And I didn't do anything illegal, it's allowed and encouraged. And yes, I know I already mentioned I could get free books now, and I know most of my readers are still outraged at that. I just wanted to rub it in some more...

I just saw something that always surprises, disgusts and saddens me. The two chinks in my armor, and I do try to supress them, with mixed success, are really young kids and really old folks. Both extremes in the human condition probably affect me because they are and quite possibly will remain forever beyond my ken. Anyway...

I just saw (while at a supermarket sending some money via Western Union) a very old and poor (judging by her outfit) lady carrying some of the cheapest, less nutritious and lowest quality food you can imagine, investing at least 10 bucks in instant win and other assorted lotto type games. She looked to have one foot in the grave already, so I just have to wonder what she expects to do with the jackpot in the infinitesimal chance she ever wins it. I also figure this wasn't a one time thing, the old bat probably has a 10 bucks a day habit going on there. 10 bucks a day which'd probably keep her nourished if applied to food. And no one gives a damn...

Now this is absolutely awesome... It's guaranteed to make other candid cameramen think twice before ever filming a cop during his daily workout routine!

The funny thing is, if this had happened in any other country, we'd be up in arms over the threat to democracy and patting ourselves on the back that in our country, we do have freedom of speech... Ha!

I was going to say something about this but was then overcome marveling at it...

Amulet fixed. Necromancer tired. And satisfied. Very.

Could a VR (Virtual Reality) environment be built so real that the participants could be fooled into thinking it was the real thing? I know, not a new concept, it's the basis of the Matrix and countless other movies/books, but trust me, I've been pondering the possibility for way longer. And take it a step further, could a bot (AI (Artificial Intelligence) enabled program) be built so complex that it did not know it was a bot? Once we reach that level of complexity, does it matter that the environment and the inhabitants are not 'physically' real?

Returning to Occam's Razor, wouldn't that be a simpler explanation for the Universe than all the Big Bang, extra-dimensional, superstring, religious and other assorted theories? It would match the facts, and it would explain so much of the weirdness, too!

I had forgotten how good it felt to be doing something you like and are good at. I had forgotten job satisfaction existed. I'm glad I got out of the iNTensely mad account I was on before. It was a great place to work at, until mid 2000, that is... In retrospect, I should've gotten out of there way earlier. Isn't hindsight a bitch?

There is nothing quite so refreshing as a good run in the morning. Especially when you have a few bulls running after you...



Only a Spaniard would insist on labeling this as fun and persist in repeating it year after year...

It was brought to my attention that someone had released, on CD, a very good set of recordings of Aleister Crowley, titled 666. I acquired the CD some time ago, and only recently actually listened to it. Weird. I hadn't expected to hear his voice again, ever. Brings back many memories of times long gone. Nostalgia attack!!! I've been listening to Papa Al while I'm driving for the past 2 days and weird happenings and coincidences have started to coalesce into an almost sentient force following me around. It seems Papa Al's words, even recorded, still have lots of mojo. So I'll stop listening to it for a while, until I can set some locks around it. Shouldn't happen to everyone who listens to it, it's just that I keep a lot of free floating energy about me, and Al's words are enough to focus some of that.

For those wishing to follow the True Path, or to investigate on where Aleister was coming from, this CD offers a rare chance to actually listen to him.

Moral dilemma. If someone's just begging to be conned, asking for it, so to speak, would it violate my mores to take advantage of the situation? If I don't, someone else will... LOL

Hell, I know the answer to that, don't need to ask... Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ;)

Slowly but surely, Americans are losing what little life we had to begin with. More and more, we are content to be spectators instead of participants. Shows like Survivor and its myriad clones are based on the most ridiculous premise I have ever had the misfortune to see. Yet the ratings prove that albeight ridiculous, it is also a valid one. Only in a society grown soft and stay-at-home could such shows achieve high ratings.

'ware, America... In this world, those who are not doers must, perforce, watch others do. And history has proven that those who are creative, take risks and are not afraid of getting dirt under their fingernails will always supplant the stodgy, sedentary, set-in-their-ways ones...

Why is every single major route, highway, expressway in NYC under construction always? You'd think they'd finish sooner or later, wouldn't you? NYC should have a permanent UNDER CONSTRUCTION sign in place and one would then know to detour around the city if one wanted to get somewhere within a reasonable amount of time. Exasperating... It's going to be inconvenient because of the NYC neighborhood I usually frequent, but I think I'm going to have to start parking the necrocar in NJ, taking a PATH train into the city, and the normal MTA subway into Queens. Traffic jams bore me more than being without a car...

God damn it! My special amulet broke during my household move!!!! I've had that for 3 centuries. It took a very complicated spell, requiring me to bang 30 virgins...

Oh... Wait... Hold on... Amulet broken = good! I get to do that again... Dang, wish I'd thought of breaking it sooner...

Well. Seeing RUSH live after oh so long was a blast. Worth the stupid drive. They've still got it, those guys. And Neil Pert is without a doubt the greatest living drummer. Damn...

"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" said the Necromancer, popping out a watch from an unsuspecting bystander's pocket and looking at it...

I was planning on leaving here 3 effing hours ago!!!! So, word of warning, folks in NJ and surrounding states. My car will be the one growing faster than usual in your rearview mirror. You need to get out of my way. Quickly. Okay? To confirm that it was me, once you get out of the way and I pass you (and I will), you'll see a Darwin Fish stuck on the trunk lid, and a bumper sticker with a bat (thanks, E). You'll be able to tell the grandchildren someday that I was following you, caught up to you, and didn't kill you. Trust me, that's memorable...

Building a new team out of the shambles left by a bad manager is an experience every candidate to a managerial role should go through. Still, it's a very rewarding experience, too, when one knows what needs to be done in order to revive and nurture the poor, little ones's confidence and abilities.

I begin to despair, nevertheless, of ever regaining my image as an ally of Shiva (and Kali, Blessed Lady Kali!) when I spend so much time advancing Vishnu's work...

When people raise an awful stink about this sort of thing, I just have to take a deep breath and say:

Yeah, we're sorry we accidentally bombed your wedding, guys, but you gotta admit, all this would never have happened if you hadn't intentionally rammed airplanes into our buildings.

In other words, hey, it sucks to be you...

Sometimes you can prevent accidents by stopping drunk people...

And then, at other times, the bastards just get away from the authorities and cause accidents!

Evil is the opposite of good, right? Wrong. Evil is, in its best definition, anything that goes against what you believe in, or prevents you from attaining your goals. Say I firmly believe that my God has appeared to me in the form of a Burning Bush (you think I'm making this up? An astounding number of people actually believe that this happened! Weird, I know) and gave me a short treatise on right and wrong. Regardless of the silly nature of some of the bullets in Burning Bush's powerpoint presentation, or their redundancy one against another, anyone who goes against these rules I would have to consider evil. You coveted your neighbor's ass? Evil homo... And so on.

There is no Good, therefore. And, of course, no Evil. There are only people and circumstances that are for or against a particular cause. And the cause's followers will consider as evil anything that hinders them, or tries to.

Having made that clear and set the stage, I'll get to a point. Not the point, but a point, nevertheless... Before anyone starts calling this dumb skank evil... Leaving your kids locked in a car on a hot day isn't evil. It's just totally stupid and deserving of the death penalty. What sort of education do these people receive, anyway? It doesn't take a lot of smarts to know that sweltering heat + limited oxygen = suffocation. And there's a couple of cases a year, just from my memory of reading the articles. You'd think people would learn.

A very good friend (and that does narrow the field down to about 4 suspects) emailed me a short while ago. He's been unhappy in his job (a clerical one) for a while. He told me he'd submitted a portfolio of his drawings to Disney, and was waiting to hear back from them. I couldn't help but be shocked on behalf of all the parents out there. That just might be the end of civilized cartoon life as we know it. My friend has a really twisted outlook. The least that'll happen is that Mickey will get it on (at last) with Minnie...

On a light note, if there's anything more amusing today than this, I want it found and shot now...