News

Good morning.
I’m working really hard to get MT installed, but my technical lameness is really showing, while I try to do it. :/
I have all the old GM entries, but I still can’t get GM to run properly, and rebuild the files.
I tell ya what…I really hate computers these days. The time and effort that I’m having to put into this crap really isn’t worth it right now, and I’m this close to just saying “screw it”. I’ll work on this for about one more week, and if I can’t make any real progress, we’re just going to have to accept blogger without comments, no soapbox, and no gallery, until at least after the first of the year. There’s nothing as lovely as holiday stress compounded with website stress. Just ask my poor family.
In other, better, news, this afternoon, I’m taking Anne and the boys to see Patrick Stewart read “A Christmas Carol”.

Peace?

Yesterday, I wrote something about Peace, and I made an offhand comment about how everyone wants Peace, except the military/industrial complex.
I didn’t think much of it, since I’m always making stupid, throw away remarks, in conversation and in my writings.
Well, I got this email, and it’s made me think about it a bit more deeply:

Interesting comment on your website:
“Of course everyone wants peace (except the military/industrial complex, but I digress).”
As an officer of 14 years in the Air Force, I would suggest to you that anyone who’s been shot at in a conflict, or faced the potential for that, is pretty disposed toward wanting peace. It’s not just a hypothetical concept for us, it’s our work environment.
I notice that you consider talking to William Shatner as a first step toward peace. Good for you. I think people need to be a hell of a lot nicer to each other, perhaps more so to strangers because that’s more unexpected and may have a longer positive effect. But that seems to be as far as you want to go. Let me point out to you some of the things that I, a member of the military/industrial complex, have done for peace:
– 4 years pulling 24-hour shifts in an ICBM launch control center during the final years of the Cold War
– another 4 years at the Air Force Academy, teaching cadets about how the military works in concert with (and, preferably, defers to) diplomatic, economic, and informational means of national influence
– deploying to Macedonia, being forced to wear civilian clothes and have a bodyguard due to terrorist threats, so I can help them develop a military that works under the control of a democratically-elected government, rather than a military that IS the government
– returning to Macedonia and donning a baby-blue beret as a UN peacekeeper so a war in neighboring countries wouldn’t spread into a nation that was just starting to make it
– sewing a NATO patch to my uniform and deploying to Bosnia to keep the locals from killing each other long enough to get their economy started so they might see the benefits of peace over war
– parking myself in a little cubicle in Alabama for 2 years developing plans for responding to terrorism, plans the existence of which I had hoped would deter a terrorist from attacking
– attending funerals at Arlington Cemetery for my former Academy students who have died in the line of duty
– serving as an active member of the ACLU chapter in every state where I’ve been assigned and working with youth-oriented support groups
I’ve given up a lot to do that. I’ve lived in places I didn’t necessarily want to live. I’ve taken on responsibilities most people won’t accept (when you were 23, were YOU prepared to accept a job where you might have to kill millions of people? I didn’t particularly want to do it, but somebody had to be prepared to, thanks to the threats to this country). I’ve had to keep quiet about my religious beliefs…I’ve accepted less pay than my peers from college. And yeah, I’ve been shot at.
And a lot of people in uniform have done a hell of a lot more than me.
I applaud your efforts to be nicer to people. But feel free to get down off your high horse and quit making generalizations about people of whom you know nothing. Contrary to what Charlton Heston, Barbra Streisand, or Rush Limbaugh may think, a career in the entertainment industry may give you a “bully pulpit” but it doesn’t make you an expert on public policy.
Just my $.02 worth. Feel free to tell me to go [fark] myself.

Well, far from telling this writer to go fark himself, I have to apologize, and clarify.
I have always supported the members of the military, who are in the field, sometimes getting shot at, whether I agree with the war, or not. Regardless of how I feel about it, leaders are going to fight wars, and people are going to be involved in those wars. I think that I can support the men and women in the armed forces, without supporting Bush and Company.
Matter of fact, I so support the men and women in our armed forces, it really pisses me off when I see a president using them in ways that I think are inappropriate. But, this writer is correct. Being in the public eye does not make me an expert on any policies, at all…I told him in an email that I was just a guy, with a webpage, who talks about stuff that’s on his mind. I never meant to be on a high horse (when I’m on a high horse, I’ll make sure you know), and my generalizations were in the spirit of humor. I mean, all people who generalize are idiots, right?
So, consider this another step in letting Peace begin with me. If my comment yesterday offended anyone, please accept my deepest and most humble apologies, and please read it again, focusing on the larger message.
And let’s not forget that there are people, like this writer, who are, right now, 11 days before Xmas, far from their families, and nowhere near a Dr. Demento CD and a fireplace.
I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

Peace

I saw this sticker today. It said, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”
My first cynical thought was, “well, duh. everyone wants peace.”
But, as the night wore on, I got to thinking about that. Of course everyone wants peace (except the military/industrial complex, but I digress). How can I make peace begin with me?
Well, I did some puzzling on that, and here’s what I came up with: letting peace begin with me is pretty easy. IT begins with me when I say, “Thank you,” to someone. It begins with me when I let a car in front of me in rush hour traffic. It begins with me when I take a chance talking to WFS. Peace can begin with all of us, and, cumulatively, we can and will make a difference.
Think about it.
Think back to the last time someone you didn’t know did something nice to you. That good feeling stayed with you for hours, maybe even days, didn’t it? You can’t help but spread that feeling to the people around you, and they to those around them, and so on.
I got all bent out of shape about the person who put me on all those mailing lists. I got really angry. I’m pretty sure that whomever did it is coming here to see what I’ll do about it, and I played right into his hands.
So, I’ll let peace begin with me. Fark it. There’s worse things in the world than this.

Watery Fowls

Boy, what a day. If you live in Los Angeles, I hope you got to see the AMAZING sunset we had tonight. Ryan took pictures from the car while we were driving home, and as soon as I fix the gallery, I’ll put them up.
We got our Xmas tree last night. I’m so torn about that…on the one hand, I totally hate the idea of killing a tree and putting it in the house for a few weeks…but on the other hand, it’s such a long-standing family tradition, and, especially after the loss of my Aunt Val, I’ve realized how important traditions are to me.
Example: I listen to this guy, Dennis Prager, on the radio here in LA from time to time. Dennis is very conservative, but he’s not a jackass conservative reactionary like Rush or Sean Hannity, who’s recently been thrust upon us here. Dennis is very honest, and amazingly smart. He’s also not one of these idiots who toes the line no matter what. He talks about issues of morality, without succumbing to demagoguery and hyperbole. (Jesus, I feel like I’m writing an essay here. Score me an extra 3 points for big, important-sounding words). Suffice (there I go again) to say that, even though I’m pretty out there on the Left, I can listen to Dennis, and, although I disagree with him often, I always think a second time.
So, today, on his show, Dennis was talking about the importance of tradition in human existence. He was talking about the difference between having a day off, and having a day where we engage in some sort of tradition. It’s the difference, to me, between not going to work and drinking beer, and finding a Veteran to thank, on Veteran’s Day.
So, tradition is very important to me, and this recently came up, at my mom and dad’s house.
The whole family was there, and we were talking about Xmas dinner. My brother was pulling for this German potato salad that we have eaten since we were kids, but never as a holiday meal…I mean, getting together at mom and dad’s for Melted Salad is just awesome, but I was really not into it for our Xmas dinner meal. I wanted to have the traditional turkey, candied yams, mashed potatoes and stuffing, punkin pie, and the whole thing…and I was getting a lot of resistance from the rest of the family about it, until I explained to my mom how important it was to me that we have what we’ve always had, because it wouldn’t feel like Xmas to me otherwise, and, eventually, they all came around.
What I didn’t realize, until I was listening to Dennis this morning (while stuck in traffic on the Four-Oh-Farking-Five-Freeway-Farking-Farking-Farking), was just how important that tradition has become to me.
This is my 5th Xmas with Anne and the kids, and we’ve really established our own traditions, and tonight we’ll have the mashed potatoes and turkey meatloaf, then we’ll build a big old fire in the fireplace, while we drink egg nog and hot apple cider, and decorate our tree, while listening to Dr. Demento’s Greatest Xmas CD.
Bring on the Jingle Dogs, dammit!

Score one for the good guys

Charges to Be Dropped Against Russian Computer Programmer
The Associated Press
Published: Dec 13, 2001
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – Charges will be dropped against a Russian computer programmer accused of violating copyrights on software made by Adobe Systems Inc. in exchange for his testimony in the trial of his company, a spokeswoman for the programmer said Thursday.
Dmitry Sklyarov, 27, had been charged in the first criminal prosecution under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Sklyarov and his employer, ElcomSoft Co. Ltd. of Moscow, were charged with releasing a program that let readers disable restrictions on Adobe’s electronic-book software. The program is legal in Russia.
Sklyarov was arrested after speaking at a hacking convention in Las Vegas on July 16. He lives with his wife and two children in an apartment in San Mateo and was working on a doctorate in computer science.
AP-ES-12-13-01 1602EST