The scores (alright ones) of readers of bitter pill have demanded: Who is this guy, and what does he look like!? Sure I may seem sexy and masculine from my writings, but the people (or...um...person) have demanded a real glimpse of the bitter behind the so called pill:

?

Two days of network hell...I would vomit, but the ulcer burned a hole through my stomach...Thanks Onvoy, you have a reached another level of Suck.

I was looking at another "my.sumpthin'.com" site today, and it struck me that the concept of "my" is a bit of a dichotomy in the world of the Internet. A phenomenon that has grown around the concepts of exchanging ideas and sharing information has now brought to life the idea of personalization. This is "my" etrade and "my" yahoo. A favorite of "mine" is mycereal.com. Welcome to "my" hell...

Since we got the Tivo, I have watched Law and Order more than any person should have a right to. It is like we subscribed to the Law and Order channel. We watch nothing else. My girlfriend loves the show, and whenever we sit down at the tube, she says, "lets watch a Law and Order" (seeing as it is on A&E at least twice a day, there is always at least three of them cued up at any given time on the Tivo). I say, "I'm sick of that damn show", but I give in, and in two minutes I am completely sucked into the story. I find myself uttering to my girlfriend, "I love this damn show...", and we watch the whole episode in enjoyment.

Some might say it's the little things.

I used to work with two friends who also enjoyed "the" Law and Order. My lame and ever annoying line went, "It's great, first you get the law, and then you get the order..."

Set up SquirrelMail on our mail server this weekend...very cool. There is a demo if you wish to check it out:

SM Demo

Received a Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD yesterday in the mail. We watched it last night, and I still laughed out load. When I was a kid my next door neighbor had it on LP, and we would listen to it over and over for hours. You'd think I would be sick of it by now.

So I ate lunch at a little place down the road from here called Andy's Tap. Andy's has all the charm of a 1977 suburban basement/rec room, including the cheesy art, and the wrought iron light fixtures. The sweet smell of cigarettes and grease reminds me of my late Grandmother.

Every New years as a kid, the whole family from my fathers side would come to our faux oak paneled basement for the evening. My mom would disable the fire alarms, because the haze of smoke would set them off. I have fond memories of being just short enough to walk below the haze...cough cough...Can't seem get the image of Pall Mall kings and Johnny Walker out of my head...Not suprizingly, most of the people on my father's side have long since passed away.

I have been working on a new software project. A jukebox of sorts. An mp3 server for the home. Working on this project, and other projects (like this servlet blog thang your reading now), makes me realize how much I enjoy working on my own software projects, and what a drag developing business solutions can be. I have never been much of a tow the business line kind of guy, but over the last few years I have become more of a 9 to 5 kind of person...uggh. The thought of quitting enthrals me, and this has got to mean something. Time for a change?

Nothing worse than apathy...

Bill Clinton pardons Pattie Hearst. A lot of people felt he should of pardoned Leonard Peltier. If he wanted, he could of let a serial killer go free.

Presidents like to exercise their pardoning power in their final days as president. Kind of like stealing a bunch of office supplies on your last day at work. You've always wanted to do it, but were afraid you'd get fired. So long stink town...oh, and I pardoned Charles Manson...:)

and so we have ourselves a new President...

As time goes on I become more and more cynical. I am becoming disconnected from main stream politics. There was a time I would have considered myself a Democrat, but as I get older I am realizing the fact that politics are a struggle for power and money, and not a struggle for people and progress. Is it possible for a smart decent person, with only the protection and prosperity of the people as their agenda, to gain power in some of the highest offices in the nation when the political arena is swarming with power hungry people and powerful and wealthy special interests. It seems highly unlikely. I would have to argue that only a shark can swim in shark infested waters. Can we have a fair system when the world is filled with greed and corruption?

The roar of the masses may be farts.

I was out having dinner with some friends last night, and there was a woman playing and singing great old songs on the piano. What a great job. It got me thinking about my job as a Software Developer, and how isolating and really meaningless it can be. I add no joy to peoples' lives in what I do. I add no real value to the world around me. I write programs that update bits in a database, or populate data structures that are used to create pull down menus. This woman, in her simple job, gave us all pleasure and made our night more enjoyable. I doubt anyone looks at a web form and smiles, and feels better about themselves and the world because of it. I build applications for corporations so that they can try and up their quarterly earnings. I guess what I am really saying is, I dislike working for corporations. I enjoy software development, I just don't enjoy the companies I do it for.

In the end, you are the company you keep...or um...companies...

I have decided that the roads and highways of the United States have become a cold war, an arms race of sorts. It seems everyone is striving for road dominance with the largest, highest, most gas guzzling automobile possible. What happened to the energy and air conserving vehicles of the past. It seems that the offensive luxury mega ride of the 70s, put to rest by the energy crises, has been reborn in our more modern and humongous SUVs.

I work with a hoard of SUV owners who drive upwards to 40 miles a day in these compact car crippling behemoths. Screw energy conservation, and to hell with global warming. I need the biggest stick on the road, so I can swing it with all my god given American individualist fervor at the rest of the smaller and less gas consuming vehicles. This is manifest destiny at its finest. We have been given divine providence by god to drive our mud huppin', gas beer bonging, high beam blaring, massive, overindulgent, luxury vehicle disguised as all terrane automobiles throughout the Americas.

Canyonaro

For a kid who spent every Saturday watching Kung Fu movies, this was a dream...and even if you don't like Kung Fu movies, a must see.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

I have been playing around with some super 8 film stuff. You gotta love the web for stuff like this. More info about super 8 you could not need.

Lots of cool short super 8 films published as well. This is my favorite:

    Portrait of Greg

(1998. 5 min. black and white. video.) 16mm and hand-processed Super 8 transferred to video. Edited using Avid MC Xpress.Greg calls this one "an ad for the philosophy department at UC Berkeley." I call it an experimental documentary on a living legend.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal." - Martin Luther King

So here I am at techies.com. One of the few survivors of the last round of layoffs. We had an all company meeting this Monday, and I have to say, I am having a hard time feeling any kind of motivation or loyalty at my job. It is a strange thing to be at a company where 200 people just got "down sized", and the upper management is trying to hype you up the go the last yard...uggg...

This is weird and kinda sad....techies has become the Jerry Springer show of the internet.

This is an interesting phenomenon. Once, not too long ago, small dot coms could pull cash off of the VC money tree like it was Christmas every fiscal quarter while purging money like a bulimic at a pie eating contest. But now, companies are treading water, and finding new and interesting ways to generate funding. I await my new blogger.com mouse pad and mug with anticipation.

I saw Chris Rock on Late Night with Conan O'Brian, and I quote, "It is the apocalypse, the worlds best golfer is black, and the worlds best rapper is white."...and dot coms are soliciting funding on their web sites. It is truly a weird and crazy world.

Dear Mr. Bush. by Mikhail Gorbachev.

I have decided to do a flip on new years resolutions. Since all my resolutions seem to fail, I have decided to go in the opposite directions. I vow to drink more, oversleep often, never exercise, take up new and exciting drug addictions and up my masturbatory frequency from 5 to 10 times a day. One can only hope I have the will to keep it up.

Happy 2001