alec baldwin campaining for paul wellstone in minnesota. you know, it's appropriate that alec baldwin campaign for a man who broke his promise to only serve two terms in the senate. a wife-beater pulling for a liar. it all works out.

the film 'dracula' began production today in 1930, starring bela lugosi. lugosi became so famous because of the role that he was buried in his cape when he died in 1956. this movie gave us the modern image of count dracula: black cape, big, scary castle, great manners. for a real scary, scary image of vampires, check out Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, a silent flick that scared the bejesus out of me. it was made in 1922.

i'm in one of those moods again. this happens about once a month or so: i fantasize about living the kind of life where kelli and i go to the market and haggle over the price of the fresh vegetables, where i have a job at which i produce something i can hold in my hands that is unique and will outlast me, where we don't have to own a car, where our lives are lived by the sun and darkness is meant for lovemaking, sleeping and laughing with friends. it saddens me to think that there is really no place in this country where we can live that life. we could live in manhattan or maybe chicago or san francisco and begin to approximate that sort of existence, but it's so damn expensive that our lives would either be very poor or we would be owned by our jobs. i have grown to become the 21st-century man: i work in an IT position, i feel naked without my cell phone and i can't live without high-speed internet access. what happened? it feels like i woke up one day and 'pow!', the future was here. the thing is, i LIKE the gadgets and the constant bombardment from countless information sources. i can't imagine what life was like before. and yet, i know that i am missing out on the bigger picture of what life is supposed to be.

there were protests today in washington over a g7 meeting. the story is full of quotes from these people (who supports them financially, by the way? hmmmmm...) who talk about a ‘police state’ and ‘heavy handidness’. only at the end of the story does it mention that the protestors did not have a permit, something that is required in any city in the nation. by the way, here’s what some of them looked like. put your clothes back on, ya freaks. i’m not wild about a global economy, either; i believe it promotes terrible labor conditions in third world countries and actually encourages the growth of dictatorships through economic consolidation. but these people are anarchists, which goes waaaaayyyyy too far in the other direction.


algore presses home the argument that the bush admin. knew about 9/11 in advance. oh, ok, al. hey, gore, why don’t we go bomb an aspirin factory in the sudan to take the country’s mind off the fact that you’re a waste of oxygen and a habitual liar? once again: please, please run in 2004. oh, please.


the battle between p2p networks and the recording industry is heating up. those clowns in the riaa have no idea that they have awoken a sleeping giant. hacking is going to go to a whole new level because of this. believe it.

today in 1946, two researchers from the university of pennsylvania announced that they were going to seek a patent on a new-fangled device called an electronic computer. the university later asked them to surrender their patent to the school and the two resigned in protest. the patent was eventually overturned, thus allowing all sorts of people to become richer than god.

i am a big fan of john dvorak, a columnist for pc magazine. he has a great column about technology and stupidity in america. i don't agree with his conclusion, but he makes some very good points. this is my favorite:


"The problem is getting worse. My column in the previous issue discussed the stupidity we witness at airports, where 10-year-old Mormon girls are examined for explosives. And I already mentioned the restrictions placed on cell phones in airplanes. There is no evidence that mobile phones interfere with communications. This just amplifies an atmosphere of utter stupidity and senseless rules that makes us all dumber. Logic, common sense, and science are shoved aside in favor of mysterious edicts derived from fear, lack of knowledge, New Age mumbo-jumbo, and superstition. Welcome to America, 2002."


by the way, this also applies to you second-hand smoke whackos out there. do your homework.

i am watching the last installment of ken burn's pbs documentary 'the civil war'. i knew that it was running, but something always seemed to be going on, so i couldn't tune in until tonight. it's a great thing to listen to, not necessarily to watch. burns rounded up the best voices of our times to read letters, newspaper articles, memoirs, etc. in order to capture the mood. the thought of a destructive war on american soil is depressing, and some of the facts are shady at best. but i love good, solid voices. i am envious of men like james earl jones, morgan freeman and the like who have that 'command presence' about them.


on the eve of the south's surrender, general lee conferred with his remaining generals. he asked them what the country (the confederacy) would think of him if he didn't fight on. one of his generals said, 'the country be damned. there is no country. to these men, you are the country.' lee wrote to grant the next day asking for a meeting to surrender. it seemed so much simpler then: the fighting stopped and everyone went home.

the t.v. show 'knight rider' premiered today in 1982. my god, twenty years. i watched that show with the ferocity of a wolf. interesting thing about it: at the beginning of the show, the female mechanic that worked on kitt, the car, would install some new tool, like an underwater flamethrower. lo and behold, they would have to use it on that episode. then that piece of equipment would never be used again. i would love to watch the reruns now to see how '80s' they are, like the 'a-team'. oh well.

i tried to give up coffee about two weeks ago. as i sit here with a steaming cup, i realize that it would have been easier to give up eating or breathing.


two completely unrelated things happened last night that sent me on one of those ‘memory trails’ i seem to get lost on sometimes. the first was my realization that monday was the first day of fall. for most of my life, the seasons meant very little to me. there was school and summer. after that, there was the navy year-round. it was not until after i moved back here from dallas that i really began to appreciate the weather of this area. the nights are cool now and the days are in the high 70’s. the sky is crisp and blue and the stars are a little brighter at night. i have lived in orlando, charleston, sc and dallas and none of them have a real fall season. it makes me glad to live in the midwest.


the second thing that struck me was a caller who called into ‘loveline’ (yes, i listen---i can only pick up two stations at work) talking about how he felt like he was going to throw up every time he was around his girlfriend. for most of us, age takes care of that kind of nervousness. love changes from a thing of infatuation to something more meaningful that is defined by loyalty, trust, friendship and a certain level of comfort that can be found with no one else.


these two events made me realize that all the great love affairs in my life began in the fall. i say ‘great’ because some of them were, well, sub-par. but the ones that taught me the most about love and life all began as the weather got cold. and every one of them happened here. it’s been a long, long time since i have been on a first date, but i remember feeling nervous like that loveline caller as i knocked on doors and stumbled my way through conversations.


that nervousness would later manifest itself in nuclear power school, when every test put my career on the line and the f***king instructors talked about flunking out as a fate worse than death. being kicked out of the nuclear power program and going to the ‘regular’ navy was the worst thing that could happen to a nuc sailor and i bought the whole idea without a second thought because it was drilled into us over and over again. guys who had flunked out were talked about like they were dead, or not worthy of being alive. it was all bulls**t, because the regular navy ended up being full of smart, dedicated guys, too. it was full of pompous idiots as well, but that was everywhere.


wow, i can really change gears, eh?

nancy reagan will be on 60 minutes II discussing her husband's condition tommorrow night. it saddens me to think of such a great man suffering with the loss of his memories. it makes me not want to live to be that old. i know how that sounds, but what kind of quality of life does this man have now?


i've been trying to think of a term lately, a term to describe the current state of our rapant consumerism and pop culture. today, as i was trying to wake up, it hit me: we no longer have modesty. clothing, music, big trucks, sex...it all points towards a lack of modesty in our society. we have become wildly prosperous (which is a good thing), but we have lost touch with modesty. my parents are old enough to remember the great depression and world war two. in another twenty years, there will be no one left who remembers these things. my generation will be in the 50's and looking at retirement. our children, never exposed to modesty, will be running the world. what will that world look like when there is no one who has ever known restraint?

i am now too far behind to finish the screenplay by oct. 2. i would have to write more than 20 pages a day, which is just too damn much.


i had my review today at work. it was exemplary, as i expected (no reason for it not to be), but i found out some rather distrubing things about the future. it's nothing i will go into here and it may not come to pass, but i will definitely be updating my resume.

oh, the hyprocrisy of the left. miguel estrada, who is up for nomination to the u.s. court of appeals in washington, d.c., has been waiting for his hearing before the u.s. senate for over 15 months. why the delay? racism from the left. they are afraid that, two or more years from now, g.w. will have the opportunity to nominate him for the supreme court, the first hispanic ever nominated for the post. and god forbid the dems not be the first to nominate a hispanic. but now, he's finally getting his hearing. we get the leadership we deserve, i suppose.

algore railing against a war with iraq. oh, such the expert, that one. please, algore, please run in 2004. the world will be shown an entirely new definition of landslide. i love how he's propped up now as some kind of elder statesman. no one in the media mentions the fact that he flunked out of divinity school, owns a farm that raises tobacco (a mortal sin among liberals) and lost tennessee, his 'home' state, in 2000. oh, and his son makes the bush daughters look like maryknoll nuns.

allison janney just won an emmy for work on 'west wing'. for some reason, i am mesmerized by her, and i think it might be her eyes. she has this very graceful way about when she walks (she's very tall). anyway, it's not a sexual thing. i don't know.

today in 1945, general george patton granted an interview that probably hastened the end of his career. after world war two, the allies who occupied germany set out removing all nazis from their positions in government. patton claimed that he did not understand all this "denazification business". in his mind, these men were needed to run the government in germany while the country was rebuilt. he compared it to fighting between republicans and democrats. you just have wonder what he was thinking there. patton later died from injuries received in a car wreck in germany in december, 1945.

i love euphamisms. well, really most of them make me sick, but they are entertaining nonetheless. the latest is an ad i heard on npr for the local volvo dealer. their used cars belong to what it called 'the premium sector', meaning 'if you drive a chevy, please go somewhere else, you ignorant hick.' maybe it's just me.

i don't think i can get a screenplay done in time. the format alone is daunting, much less plugging dialogue where none currently exists. i don't know.

once a month, michael medved hosts a conspiracy theory-themed show. people call in with crazy, crazy theories that medved then refutes. the big theory now: g.w. knew about 9/11 beforehand but did nothing because the BIG OIL companies wanted to build a pipeline through afghanistan. there WERE plans to build a pipeline, but the plans were scrapped after the taliban came to power. these whackos amaze me. if you don't like BIG OIL, stop driving and start riding your bike, asshat.

i found out that there is going to be a second season of project greenlight. for the uninitiated, project greenlight is an hbo, matt damon and ben affleck deal in which one lucky writer/director got to see his screenplay made into a low-budget flick. this year is different in that the screenwriter and director will not be the same person.

so anyway, i am going to turn 'driving the circle' into a screenplay. the problem is, i only have until midnight on october 2nd to get it finished and e-mailed to the proper people. so, needless to say, all my free time until then is going to be spent cranking out this thing. i know my chances are slim, but i'll get nothing if i submit nothing. however, you, my dear reader, are going to suffer for my efforts: there will be very little posting until then. i will try to drop by once a day, but no diatribes such as yesterdays. i apologize, but i know you'll understand. i'm off.

i have been thinking a great deal about the nature of god. i guess it comes from working nights: i’m alone, everything around me is dark, and the only noise i hear is the radio and the printers. under these circumstances, my mind wanders and i begin to ponder the big questions. i have come to a conclusion concerning god, and it’s pretty cynical. i don’t like this conclusion; i would prefer to believe in the god and the church i knew as a child. but all things must come to an end, and, in many ways, i have come to the end of my faith.

if you have a pet in your home, stop and take a look at it. it’s pretty stupid, compared to you, but it knows it’s place in the world pretty well. it eats, sleeps, and maybe plays or hunts or reproduces. but if you look into those empty eyes, you know one thing for sure: your pet has no idea that he’s going to die one day. he will live until the day he gets sick, and then he will either run and hide or tell you about it so you can have him put to sleep. but we humans have been cursed with the awareness of our impending doom. every minute that goes by brings us one minute closer to assuming room temperature. scary? you bet. it scares the f*ck out of me to think about death. and i know that i am not alone in my fear.

at one time, man was like the animals: he lived, hunted, reproduced and one day, laid down and didn’t get up any more. the men around him buried him (because he didn’t move, he attracted bugs and began to stink up the cave) and went on about their lives. but somewhere in time, someone became aware of the inevitability of death for everyone. and soon thereafter, religion was born.

at first, humans worshipped inanimate objects: big rocks and trees and the stars. these things were imposing and, therefore, must have possessed enormous power, even the power to ward off death. after all, it was incomprehensible that man could just blink out of existence like a camp fire. there had to be a way to prolong our existence, even without our bodies to carry us around. and thus was born the afterlife, the place in which all our needs would be met and we would never die.

as you can imagine, it probably didn’t take long for someone to realize the incredible power that can be derived from religion. the power to deny the afterlife to someone is the ultimate bargaining tool; better yet, threaten them with an afterlife that includes unfathomable amounts of pain and suffering. offer them a path away from damnation, and they will follow you to the ends of the earth. people who disagreed with the dominant religion in any society had to be destroyed or at least discredited; after all, what would happen if no one believed? there would be anarchy and, most importantly, the religious leaders and kings who claimed divine birthright would have to get real jobs.

so there i am with god and religion. is he a total fabrication? maybe, maybe not. we will never know. the only thing i can say in his favor is that all modern religions are monotheistic and we have moved away from worshipping things we can see. of course, we also understand what trees and stars really are, so we don’t assign them magical properties. we have created a supreme being who can never be seen or known but must be believed in. this is faith, i suppose, and it is most certainly blind.

i do not want to harp on true believers. i have a great deal of respect for anyone who truly adheres to the tenants of their religion. i have little room or patience, however, for those who feel they have the truth cornered because of a book that has been re-written about 15 times over 20 centuries. have you ever stopped to imagine what kind of religion the jesuits could’ve started in south america in the 1700’s with a few spider-man comic books? ponder that for a while.

sorry no history stuff over the past couple days. i haven't been myself lately and i'm not sure why. i think of things to write about, but, by the time i get home in the morning, i am in no mood to put it on paper. i haven't been working on the book either, which always puts me in a funk. i get such a rush out of finishing a chapter, or even a good page. i can't really explain it, but it's as if i am not happy unless i'm creating something.


prediction about iraq: when we go (and we will, eventually), the u.s. will grab a chunk of the country in the no-fly zone and use it as a base of operations. just a guess.

rosie folds her magazine. now, if rosie would fold herself up and disappear, we would all be better off.

25 reasons not to vote for a democrat

operation market garden was begun today in 1944. the idea was to airdrop a force of several divisions behind german lines in the netherlands, link up with advancing land forces, and enter germany ahead of schedule. but the germans were waiting. the british lost an entire division (8,000 men) and the entire force had to retreat. this lame-brained scheme was cooked up by field marshal bernard montgomery and winston churchill, who fancied himself an arm-chair military genius. interestingly enough, the airdrop on this day was larger than the airdrop before d-day on june 6, 1944. but history has forgotten.

sorry for the delay. as i was saying, i believe that women have the right to wear anything that is legal. however, there are unseen consequences that i don't believe many young women understand. first, you are looked at as a piece of meat if you dress provocatively. not just by jerks or perverts; men are men and we are all attracted to a scantily-clad female form (you gay guys out there know what i mean; a cutie translates regardless of your sexual preference). many young girls go out to club, meet a guy, have a short relationship, realize he's a jerk (or not what she's looking for) and then come away being bitter towards men. of course, honey---he was first attracted to your chest or your rear end; do you think he wanted to discuss your sociology degree? you got what you were looking for: a guy who liked your look. and that's ALL he liked.


this is what i mean about the objectification of women. women will dress to attract a man and then wonder why all guys are a**holes. real men, the kind of men you want to father your children, are hard to find. when you go fishing, you will attract anything that can grab the bait.


so anyway, i have lost the steam i had earlier for this tirade, but i think you understand my point. of course, the media does not help. all women are supposed to be a) hot b) good mothers c)career women and d)nymphomaniacs. you will NEVER, EVER find all four, in the same way a man will never be great-looking, smart, kind, loving and a fabulous lover. we just don't exist. end of rant. thank you.

more on the objectification of women by society (and by women themselves). let me preface my comments by saying that a) i'm a man, and not a great-looking man, so you can say that i have no basis for my comments and b) i have an automatic bias against left-wing hollywood and the entertainment industry in general because it perpetuates sexual and racial stereotypes. onward and upward.


women have made great strides in the last fifty years or so in regards to equality. many people would contribute it to the natural progression of our society; some would say that the feminist movement foisted these changes upon us. either way, i believe we can agree that most of this change was needed and has contributed positively to our culture.

there is, however, a startling change taking place in the way the media and other public outlets view women. we can start by looking at fashion: low, low, jeans, belly shirts, shape-enhancing bras and tattoos just to name a few of the things that are now in vogue among among the thin, young and beautiful. of course, women (and men) have the right to wear anything they want as long as it is legal. but i must run for right now. stay tuned.

sorry no post yesterday. i had to buy and install a new cable modem here at casa dattilo, which involved an hour on hold to get the new mac address registered with our service provider. all is well now, and a little faster.


heard an interesting quote from jeanine garafaolo (excuse the spelling) today: 'women contribute to their own objectification'. wow. think about that, and i'll comment more on it tomorrow.

the 'star-spangled banner' was composed today in 1814 by francis scott key while he was witnessing the british bombardment of fort mchenry in maryland. the lyrics were later put to the tune of a british drinking song, 'to anacreon in heaven'. no one got around to making it the official national anthem until 1931. i don't know why they didn't choose 'america the beautiful' since it's easier to sing and doesn't have a second verse no one remembers. but then again, they didn't ask me.

an article detailing some of the mistakes made by media outlets during the 'terror scare' yesterday in florida. it is my belief that the 24-hour news cycle is the worst that could ever have happened to television news. in the early days, the only news available on t.v. was the light fluff served up during breakfast and the evening news. now, there are more all-news channels on our cable service than i can count. this is a good thing in that it has become easier to stay informed; however, it has led to a serious vulture mentality among members of television crews nation-wide.


it also amazes me how many people will run out of their homes to talk to camera crews, especially when a child has been abducted. it is very important to give out statistics on the child and his/her possible kidnapper. it is not necessary to find every neighbor in a ten-mile radius and get them to give a testimonial about how wonderful the victim's family is. of course they're wonderful----who in their right mind would criticize them under those conditions? but there's the earnest, good-looking reporter/reporterette asking questions like, "do you think the family is giving their all looking for the their daughter?"....."actually, no, jane, i think they're going to do some lines, go to a club downtown and then kick back the rest of the night. they'll have a full day tommorrow to get started."

today in 1977, general motors introduced its first diesel automobiles, the olds 88 and 98. as a former ads-certified diesel mechanic, i can say with clarity that this was the worst move gm ever made. the engines, a re-worked 8-cylinder gasoline engine, we unreliable and emissions were a joke.


one thing about diesel engines, though: environmentalists write them off as black-smoke belching monsters, but a modern diesel engine is every bit as clean as a gasoline engine. the germans (rudolph diesel was german, after all) have several diesel engines that could serve as models for fuel-efficiency and low emissions. however, that old reputation has been hard to overcome.

today in 1994, a guy named marc andreessen unveiled this weird piece of software called a browser that allowed everyday people to use something called the world wide web that ran on a backbone called the internet. it's only been eight years. how will our world look in another ten?

w. explains it all to the united nations. i have never been prouder of our president and prouder to be an american. it amazes me that the media continues to portray clinton as a misunderstood genius and g.w. as a dolt. history will set this straight, but no in our lifetimes.

another beautiful sunrise this morning. it was one of those mornings here when it's just cold enough to need the heater in the truck, as sure sign that fall is on the way. the sky was so clear when i left work that there was clear line of deliniation between light and dark. wow.

it’s been one year. since i work in the evening, i watched t.v. non-stop that day, always thinking that it seemed incredibly surreal. we have become so used to seeing realistic special effects in films that the images themselves did not shock me; it was having the personal knowledge that people i know and love were near the towers and the pentagon that morning. otherwise, it would have been too large to wrap my mind around.


let’s not refer to this as a tragedy. tragedy is a hurricane or an earthquake or a famine. this was an attack, brought on by people who, because of their perverted interpretation of a religion, wish to see us all dead. they attacked two symbols of american power, and would've attacked a third had not heroes intervened. this tells me that these people understand the america that is, but they do not understand the idea of our nation.


let’s break it down: the world trade center, an enormous symbol of american economic power located in the center of new york city, referred to by many as the ‘capitol of the world’, and the pentagon, center of american military might. we don’t know for sure where the fourth plane was going, but speculation and interrogations point to the capitol building in washington, home of our bicameral legislature.


so why these targets? because they represent the military and the economic might of the united states. and that, my friends, is all these people understand: force and money. they know nothing of the american experiment, where we became one of the first nations in the history of man to be ruled only by the consent of the governed. they are not aware of this because they have never known the freedoms that democracy can bring. they see america only as big business and britney spears.


unfortunately, many americans only see this as well. they can not separate democracy from capitalism. to them, this nation is all about business, and what’s good for business is good for the nation. they do not understand that capitalism, while essential to the success of our nation, is something like a camp fire: let it grow out of control and it’ll burn the whole place down. remember, china allows capitalists a great deal of freedom in their communist system.


but i digress.


so, what have we accomplished in this past year? we have routed the taliban, which is an incredibly positive development. we are about to ouster saddam hussein, something that should have happened in 1991. from there, no one knows for sure. the war on terrorism will, in my opinion, become a permanent fixture for probably a generation. eventually, although it is politically incorrect to say so, radical islam, and maybe islam itself, will have to be wiped off the planet. never has one religion held so many people in chains for so long. right now, israel is the only democracy in the middle east. i am now of the belief that no muslim country is capable of being a free nation without first abandoning the basic ideas of islam. the jihad has one goal: world enslavement disguised as religious adherence.


so, perhaps we have reached the point of armageddon, the final battle between good and evil. everyone old enough to clearly remember the cold war assumed that the u.s. and the soviets faced the ultimate east/west battle. on reflection, though, our differences were politically based and, as we see in russia now, easily abandoned in the face of economic doom. islam forces upon its adherents a cultural shift towards oppression and slaughter of the infidel. there can be no clearer difference than the ideological difference between the west and the middle east. this war, this war on terrorism, will ultimately decide the fate of the world as we know it.

an open letter to our european 'allies' (with the exception of tony blair) from yours truly:


tommorrow, our president is going to address the united nations, a body that many of us here in the united states see as a foolish waste of money, resources and talent. in his speech, mr. bush will try to make you realize how truly dangerous saddam hussein is. you will be told (as if you don't already know) that he is working on 'weapons of mass destruction', a tidy little euphamism that refers to nuclear and biological weapons too horrible to contemplate. and you, being the leaders of europe, will turn a deaf ear.


and why not? after all, you have only fought two devestating wars on your continent in the last century. you clearly understand how well diplomacy works in the face of tyranny---just look at how well you handled hitler and mussolini during the years leading up to world war two, a war that could have been avoided completely had you possessed any resolve at all. and now, you are on the cusp of making the mistakes of your fathers and grandfathers: pursuing peace at any price.


you can call comparing hussein to hitler ridiculous and inaccurate, and you would be correct: hitler never had access to a black market dealing in plutonium and anthrax. hussein has the potential to be more dangerous than hitler ever dreamed of being. why? because hussein has no concern for the iraqi people. hitler at least had the foresight to mask his atrocities behind the pursuit of a greater germany. hussein is a street thug in a nice suit with enough cash to buy himself into the nuclear club if left alone.


and so, europe, you can sit in judgement of the ugly americans from your socialist throne. we can and will face iraq alone if need be, and we will be victorious. your right to socialism and arrogance has been bought and paid for by the blood of young americans in two wars, and we will do the same for the iraqi people. so sleep tight, europe: america will take care of business.

and so the debate on iraq continues. the debate seems to center on a) whether or not saddam supports al-qaeda and b) whether or not he is working on nukes. let's be precise about this: he is a menace. i don't care if he supports terrorism right now or not. people make the argument that he is a secular, not religious, dictator and, therefore, would himself be a target of al-qaeda. i don't care. he would deal with the devil if it meant that he could strike at us. deal with it now, or deal with it in a generation.

read this. bitch. f**king bitch. jill stewart is a prime example of someone who lives in small, small world full of cynical, spoiled children who believe as she does. therefore, they represent the world. of course, she lives in l.a.---no surprise there. wait....STUPID f**cking bitch.

italy surrendered to the allies on sept. 8, 1943. germany then invaded the country and fought the allies there until 1945. the italian campaign was, in many ways, worse than the campaign in northern europe but you rarely hear anything about it. italy is where bob dole was injured so badly.

interesting thought this evening: did it ever occur to anyone that the entire muslim world went from the 14th to the 20th century in less than one generation? before the discovery of oil in the middle east, almost the entire muslim world was nomadic. this explains a great deal, if you stop and allow yourself to look at it honestly. i'm going to concentrate most of my writings this week around 9/11, so, if that's not something you want to read anymore about, take a week off from the dattblog. no hard feelings.

to quote red, i guess i just miss my friend. you know, on the weekends, i have to take nyquil to sleep. did i tell you that? i have to take it because my body wants to stay up because that's what we do now five days a week, my body and me. it sure as hell puts me under, but it also makes me feel pretty drunk. i guess i'm a lightweight. i think i'm drunk right now, but i'm going to post this anyway, because it should all be about honesty and openness. right? ok.

macs are the work of satan. you read it here first. i knew that new os would damn us all to hell. get your hands off me, you damn dirty ape!!!

oh, by the way...i had the same problem with the aix server last night, only worse. thanks, mr. bossman.

reese is going to receive a $15 million check for the sequel to 'legally blonde'. reese.........have i told you that ryan phillipe is gay? i know he his. he HAS to be. you don't understand.

how much would you pay to hear o.j. confess?

ann coulter knocks 'em dead. again. wow.

i need to throw down some smack about my manager. as some of you know, i work completely alone and at night. normally, my only contact with my department manager is via e-mail or voice mail, and i have no problem with that, except for the fact that it's a pretty bad way to manage someone. how about a phone call every once in a while at 11 or so saying something like 'hey, matt how's it hangin'?' but i can live with it.


here's the problem: he's 57 or so and no longer gives a rat's ass what happens. all he seems to care about is his harley and riding. that's all well and good, but for god's sake, just retire, man! i had a serious problem this week with one of our ibm aix servers (calling all nerds) and it was something i had never seen before. i left him not one, but two messages on the subject. his solution? leave the operations manual out for me! good job....i didn't know where it was, numbnuts! that answered all my questions! DID IT EVER OCCUR TO YOU THAT I MAY HAVE LOOKED THERE BEFORE I CALLED YOU? but i digress.


end result: the problem is still not fixed, and i don't know what else to try. i know that, when i go to work tonight, there will be some lame ass message telling me to try something i have already tried. what burns my ass is that it will be something that i have TOLD him i already tried but that he has forgotten. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DUDE....you're getting out of hand.

i haven't written on the book since last thursday, which makes it over a week. that's one thing about doing this that makes me crazy: once i start, i get very depressed if i don't write every day.


according to howard stern, jenna jameson and britney spears may be having an affair. i almost drove off the road when i heard that. wait...........what were we talking about?


i have found another local pt boat guy. he is mentioned in two of the books i have read. he was 36 in 1943, which would make him about 100 now if he's still alive. by the way, 36 was ancient among pt boat sailors.


president mckinley was shot today in 1901. he lived for a while, but eventually died of his wounds. his assassin was electrocuted less than two months later. no o.j. trial there.

nerdy, but funny. this guy linked to someone else's page instead of using his own pictures on ebay. the guy he linked to found out and changed the picture....brilliant!

the world tribune claims that there are 100,000 american troops within striking distance of iraq. supposedly, they could move with a week’s notice. where the hell are all these guys? i know they’re not in saudi arabia.


there's a beautiful sunrise here this morning. it's one of those mornings we get in september sometimes: about 60 and perfectly clear. when i left work, the eastern sky was just starting to get light, but i could still see stars to the west. the moon, rising late, was just visible on the eastern horizon. on mornings like this, it seems cruel to me that human beings are aware of the fact that we are only granted so many of these days. it also makes me so small to think that this process was going on long before human beings were here to see it. our cat is in one of our bedroom windows almost every morning when i get home. the windows face east and i always wonder if she sees beauty in the sunrise.

i'm watching 'west wing' and seeing the guy who used to play the father on 'good times' play a full admiral fretting over having someone killed. oh, as if! how many people do you think this nation has killed in the name of freedom and democracy? how many just since september 11? our government does horrible things in the name of us. it has always been this way.


the concept of instant nostalgia has been bothering me lately----but i'll have to come back to it. hang in there.

and so the weekend in big d has come to an end. i had a very good time, made some new friends, but didn't get to spend as much time with everyone as i would like. that seems to be the case will all my visits but, this time, the problem was exacerbated by the fact that everyone was at different places on lake texoma.


but i really made an ass of myself on sunday night. i won't go into details here, but i dredged up a very old subject with someone who was not expecting it. not only was i wrong to bring it up, but the person involved didn't even remember the incident. i was very, very, inebriated, but that does not excuse the remark or the behaviour. i felt it was still a sore spot with this person when, in fact, i had confused the entire issue in the first place. i try to be honorable, but sometimes i fail so miserably that i would've been better off keeping my mouth shut. welcome to my life.


i haven't written on the book since thursday. that's almost a week. completely unacceptable. i mean, the thing is never going to be published, but it's a discipline of sorts to make myself write every day. the more i do it, the easier it becomes to form thoughts on paper (or screen, i suppose)