Nowadays, every person I see I tell that I'm going to South America, in the hopes that they'll have something to tell me about it. Today when I was picking up fiberoptic cabling, the guy there told me about one of his other customers who spends half the year in Brazil… Then I bumped into someone else I know (the person who's sold me my last four portable computers) who just got back from an extended trip in Peru — so I'll be stopping by to pick his brain as well. So far, every first-hand story I've heard is universally glowing… Whereas most of the second-hand stories are terrifying — leading me to believe they're largely tainted with some sort of first-world prejudice.
Well, I've just eaten some crappy but cheap sushi, so I'm all charged up:
Well, I've got an update to do… Image update… I've just started on it, so I figure I'll have it uploaded by morning. Worst case tomorrow afternoon. If the cover of BME changes, you'll know it's there. While I'm doing that, I'll listen to Nectarine and remember the old days. If I had more time I'd love to be in the demoscene again. Although I have to admit it's not as cool as it used to be… While you can certainly make some pretty stuff on a 1GHz machine with an OpenGL board, it just doesn't have to zen of writing tight assembly code to make a 386 do things it just shouldn't be able to do.
OK, so UPS came back (maybe they're not so bad) and I got a present from ManWoman! Wow! Thank you!!! (Which reminds me, BMEshop will have the Gentle Swastika in stock very soon).
Jesus Penis by ManWoman '99
(Sub-incision on the Phallus of Longing)
OK, I know that a lot of people are going to get mad at me about this, and that's fine.
Right now most of America hates Timothy McVeigh and seems releived that his execution has finally happened (if you didn't place it chronologically, it's been six years!). Anyway, if I understand the way America works at least a little, I strongly believe that come a hundred years from now, McVeigh will be remembered not as a villain, but as one of America's great patriots and heros, and quite likely as one of the catalysts in making Americans really aware of the civil war that it's silently fighting. It's probably hard to see that right now for most Americans because it's so close to home. For most people that entirely eliminates any possibility of objectivity.
But try and put it into context — think of modern history's respected revolutionaries and extreme political activists. It's difficult not to see the similarities — what's the difference? Their actions didn't happen on American soil? It's not as if most of them weren't also engaged in terrorist attacks against their own equally corrupt governments. America is built around the concept that goverment sometimes needs to be responded to by military action on the part of it's population. Yes, it sucks that innocent people were killed, no one denies that — but if America had done exactly this on foreign soil, there'd be no questions asked. Well, enough of that… want a pizza?
That is, assuming he's not a CIA patsy… Ah, what do I know about all this anyway, I live in Canada where we blindly trust our government… Hey, we were even OK letting Britain hold on to our constitution until 1982.
Of course I'm already getting IM's saying stuff like “Put yourself in the shoes of a father who had 2 children blown up. There are other ways to fight wars then death.” Hate to break it to you, but war sucks. Children die in wars, civilians die in wars. It's an unavoidable fact. Put yourself in the shoes of the 76 people — including children — savagely murdered by the US government at Waco. You can cry about it all you want, but America is at war, and people will continue to die on local soil for quite some time.
For fuck's sake! How many Japanese children has America killed? And all you can do is gloat patriotically about movies like Pearl Harbor?
AN ITEM BMESHOP WILL NOT SELL YOU… We have a lot of items that are reserved only for very special, very experienced clients, including items like this injectable general anesthetic. Don't ask me for it — if you don't know what you're doing with it, you'll be up on charges of murder. |
First of all — another reason I hate UPS: They came by this morning, didn't bother to ring my doorbell, and left a note. So, I call up to just pick it up at the depot, and it turns out they don't even have one in the downtown core. I have to leave a note tonight explaining to the guy how the doorbell works I guess…
On to my near untimely death. I sleep in a loft bed, so I have a pair of mid-sized (but still very heavy) Paradigm speakers mounted on the walls. Overall my walls are solid, but they are quite old. I walked through the side doorway to the bedroom (a door I don't normally use)… I take one step forward and all of a sudden there's a HUGE crash and the speaker tears off the wall. If I'd been a few inches back my skull would be caved in right now… Luckily it is not. The speaker is still working fine. I think I'll just put it on top of my bookshelf this time!
Goddamn, why aren't I in bed… You know, if every IAM member contributed about $300, we could buy that island cash up front. Timeshare on a tropical island anyone? Well, either way, I'm going to bed now. If the sun comes up before I get in my coffin, who knows what might happen.
