For the new year I make a sincere commitment to be resolute in my determination to make more resolutions. This I have resolved.

humanist

1. of or pertaining to a philosophy asserting human dignity and man's people's capacity for fulfillment through reason and scientific method and often rejecting religion.
2. One who is concerned with the interests and welfare of humans.
3. pertaining to or concerned with the humanities.
4. marked by humanistic values and devotion to human welfare.
5. respect and humanistic regard for all members of our species [syn: human-centered, humanistic, humanitarian];

These were in my mailbox on Wed. No mail, no x-mas cards, no flyers, Just seven CDs from AOL. The odd thing is that two of them were for AOL 8.0 and the other five were for 9.0.

I think this proves, without a doubt, that there really is a Santa Claus.

Gina and I stand at Jay Street waiting for the F train:

Gina: I'm gonna peace out the yahoo mail, yo.

Mark: what?

Gina: I'm gonna peace out yahoo.

Mark: come again?

Gina: I'm gonna p-e-a-c-e o-u-t y-a-h-o-o mail.

Mark: I don't get ya?

Gina: I'm going to s-t-o-p u-s-i-n-g yahoo email in favor of the thunderbird email client (you big dumb cracker).

Mark: email?

I'm movin' on, and they're looking for someone to fill my sysadmin position:

Are you a great sys admin? Are you looking for a new job to start the new year off right?

Kinja Super Best Hyper Media job opening.

Realizing, of course, that the two readers here have no sysadmin experience (I'm looking at you ma), but I told them I'd post the link.

...and goeth into debt buying players of DVDs, and sweaters, and old spice...

Ultimately 65% of all of the 'teachers' punished the 'learners' to the maximum 450 volts. No subject stopped before reaching 300 volts!

The Milgram Experiment, A lesson in depravity, peer pressure, and the power of authority

General:

1. A journal of observations, thoughts, and experiences expressed on the web in written and/or graphical form.
2. A term who's coiner should be drawn and quartered over the hot ashes of so many derelict x86 computers.

Personal:

1. A journal of observations, thoughts, and experiences expressed in written and/or graphical form on AltText.com in the few moments that I feel I have time enough to think something through and add value to public discourse.
2. A creative outlet wherein I can vent, rant, and generally blow off steam (be it good or bad) about current events and happenings in the world.
3. A constant source of stress for me; and of disappointment for my audience.

...the idea that bad writing is no excuse for no writing. Any job worth doing is worth doing poorly (rather than not at all), to quote Laura.

- nick

[Weblog] is a Sanskrit word that means "noble or awakened heart." Just as butter is inherent in milk and oil is inherenet in a sesame seed, the soft spot of [a weblog] is inherent in you and me. It is equated, in part, with our ability to love. No matter how committed we are to unkindness, selfishness, or greed, the genuine heart of [a weblog] cannot be lost. It is here in all that lives, never marred and completely whole.

It is said that in difficult times, it is only [a weblog] that heals. When inspiration has become hidden, when we feel ready to give up, this is the time when healing can be found in the tenderness of pain itself. [A weblog] is also equated, in part, with compassion -- our ability to feel the pain that we share with others. Without realizing it we continually shield ourselves from this pain because it scare us. Based on a deep fear of being hurt, we erect protective walls made out of strategies, opinions, prejudices, and emotions. Yet just as a jewel that has been buried in the earth for a million years is not discolored or harmed, in the same way the [weblog] is not affected by all the ways we try to protect ourselves from it. The jewel can be brought out into the light at any time, and it will glow as brilliantly as if nothing ever happened.

This tenderness for life, [a weblog], awakens when we no longer shield ourselves from the vunerability of our condition, from the basic fragility of existence. It awakens through kinship with the suffering of others. We train in the [weblog] practices in order to become so open that we can take the pain of the world in, let it touch our hearts, and turn it into compassion.

-Peter, excerpted from Comfortable with Uncertainty -- 108 Teachings, by Pema Chodron

a web diary about the farm - Maryellen

emotional connection, even though it's in cyberspace, a sense of community, shared sentiment, the occasional intellectual challenge and good writing.

- skim

Jason posted an excerpt from an interview in Mother Jones with Tony Kushner. This got my dander up a bit, and it has been a point that has been made by many in the media recently. Here is the excerpt:

There are a lot of politically active young people, but I feel that we've misled them. I have great admiration for the essayists and writers on the left, but the left decided at some point that government couldn't get it what it wanted. As a result, it's a movement of endless complaint and of a one-sided reading of American history, which misses the important point: Constitutional democracy has created astonishing and apparently irreversible social progress. All we're interested in is talking about when government doesn't work.

I think it is a valid argument to claim that things have gotten better over the past two centuries. Progress has been made. This fact cannot, and should not be avoided. However, this simple fact does not discount that there are injustices in the world or that there are people in power who corrupt and are corrupted. The fact that things are better does not negate the problems that still exist. Because black people can vote does not nullify racism in this country, and the fact that woman can serve in the army does not nullify sexism. To turn away from the injustices in our society and state that "All we're interested in is talking about when government doesn't work" is a simplistic and dismissive attitude. Is the idea of a successful society based on the principle that things are good enough? Do we turn a blind eye because things are better then they were fifty years ago? Is this not analogous to the idea that medical care has improved over the past hundred years, but all people want to talk about is incurable cancer.

We should be proud of the accomplishments of our past. However, democracy and freedom are not a product of complacency or ambivalence. It is the people who stood up against public opinion to fight for what they believe is right, who pushed against the inertia of the status quo that allows us to live in one of the greatest democracies in the world. Progress is not achieved by mulling over the accomplishments of the past and ignoring the problems of the present and the future. We must be mindful of the issues of our times, and to imply that there are none, or that discussing them is "a movement of endless complaint" is foolishness at best.

weblogs as altruistic forms of communication, or self indulgent, egocentric word masturbation, I don't really believe either of those things. I do think they contain elements of both, as we as human beings contain those elements, or you do any way...I mean I don't...I'm perfect.

The work of self-centered, self-obsessed children of the dot-com era, in an effort to make themselves 'known' in the context of an insulated, self-referential online community, which represents one of the smallest and most privileged segments of society.

cold and frightened -via scribbling

Four teenage boys walk down 5th Street toward 6th Avenue. The first boy is talking and waving his hands.

Boy One: Did you see the size of that dogs asshole yo!?

He holds his hand up and wraps his thumb around his index finger to create a circle the size of a quarter, trying to demonstrate the circumfrence of a larger than normal dog sphincter.

Boy Two: What the fuck are you looking at a dogs asshole for?

Boy One: (ignoring Boy Two) That shit was like twice the size of a regular dog

He is now holding up his finger circle at half the size

Boy Two: Don't you go sizen' up my asshole motherfucker

They all laugh, and Boy Two fakes a punch at Boy One who jukes left and starts hopping around in a boxing stance...

1. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
2. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
3. Of, relating to, or characteristic of liberalism.

1. A political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority.

I'm wide awake
I'm wide awake
Wide awake
I'm not sleeping
Oh, no, no, no

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.

- Flannery O'Connor

Definition of weblog?: Passes the time at 5:30 in the morning.

do not commit code
until that shit compiles, yo
else digit you lose

Lady finger, dipped in moonlight, writing 'What for?' across the morning sky. Sunlight splatters, dawn with answer, darkness shrugs and bids the day goodbye.

Speeding arrow, sharp and narrow, What a lot of fleeting matters you have spurned. Several seasons with their treasons, Wrap the babe in scarlet colors, call it your own.

- St. Stephen

"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid." - Wolfgang von Goethe

transfer at Jamaica

Lost Halloween photo of the girls.....