Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

Today I plan on doing another image update, and then I have to deal with the TT — it's developed a horrible spring noise upon gear changes, a crack has appeared in the windshield, and yesterday on the highway, the rear left tire tore off after detreading itself. I was talking to Ryan about him getting himself a car (since importing his from LA would be expensive and difficult). The “obvious” thing to do is to buy a new car, since presumably it will be trouble free. My experience has been the opposite. A new car costs far more, breaks just as often, gets worse mileage, and when it does break, costs five times as much to fix.

If you have $35k to spend, you could buy a new car for $28k, spend $5k to insure it over the first three years, and another $2k on repairs and maintenance. If at the end of those three years, your well maintained car is now worth $14k, so you've lost $21k over that timeperiod that you'll never get back. Alternately, you could buy a decent used car for $8k. Then you could go and buy a second decent used car for $8k. You could insure them both for $2k for the first three years, and spend about $5k on repairs and maintenance, leaving you with $12k in your pocket. At the end of the timeperiod, you could resell your cars for $4k each, with a resultant loss of $15k over the timeperiod (and for that $15k you get TWO cars, not ONE)… Those are just quick made up numbers, but you get my point I think.

Public opinion, even in the mainstream is starting to sway, with newspaper articles even in the big papers calling the “war on terrorism” a fraud. It's one thing with an Afghan source claims that, but when these articles start getting printed in British papers, then maybe it means the war will end, simply for PR reasons.

Bombing managed to take out three more villages… and the Red Cross is obviously not too happy either. The thing about the Red Cross is that they're the closest thing to a neutral agency in Afghanstan — they have civil relations with both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. Destroying the Red Cross buildings may well not be an accident — the US Defense Departments says they were “deliberately targeted” (but in error) — as it is an effective way to drag on the war. White House chief of staff Andrew Card says, “US operations are proceeding as we planned them“.

I've mentioned before that this is not a war that can be fought under modern rules. The military might of the US simply doesn't give an advantage… When you're fighting in villages that might as well be two thousand years old villages and in caves and mountain passes in the freezing cold, against an enemy armed with swords and axes, you can throw every modern rule out the window. Of course, when you accept the war is going to last 50 years, I'm sure their sheer financial might can eventually kill everyone.

PS. Bin Laden looks a LOT like Jesus, don't you think? I don't know if that's a coincidence, or if it makes him a messiah, or if it makes him the anti-Christ, but… weird!

PPS. The wayback machine is cool You can read the May 31st, 1997 edition of BME and all sorts of other neat stuff!

PPPS. Sure sucks to live in San Francisco, the CIA's testing ground.

I took out the questions that don't apply to me and ones that I've answered a couple times on previous polls (and one that I thought was dumb). If you want the full set, grab it from earlier in the chain (saram to rebekah to mil0).

what's your favorite body jewelry material? Wood.

what piercings do you have, if any? At this point I have only my earlobes.

if you had to get rid of ALL of them but one what one would you leave? Easy question since I've already done that.

what's a good name for a cat? Frank.

do you have tattoos? how many hours of work have you had? I have probably around a hundred hours of tattooing, but that's a total guess.

if you could have — one.. ANY..(even beyond the bounds of possibility) modification– done without cost that would heal up very very nicely in a short amount of time what would it be? I'd take a second set of opposable arms, or, if my brain could handle it, a second set of arms.

is iam getting trendy? I don't think so.

have you contributed to any iam contests? I think just the best weapon contest, although I did send lowphat some prizes for his best ass contest.

have you hosted any contests? Nope.

do you have pets? Sort of, I let the strays in the house and we have a little puppy.

do you drink coffee? Far more than I should. If I could cut a drug out of my life, coffee is one I don't need. While I'm at it, I should dump the sugar addiction too.

would you ever stretch/scalpel/punch anything really really large (liiike.. more than 1/2″) besides your ears? Probably not.

is this a fun survey or are you just filling it out because you have nothing better to do? I've got a lot of better things to do. I'm not sure if I can come up with a good reason to be filling this out.

what is the largest gauge you will go with your ears (or are you already there)? I'm at around 2″, and I doubt I'll stretch much bigger. They've been big now for approaching ten years.

are glow in the dark stars still neat? They are on boxer shorts.

if you could paint your house any color(s) and you wouldn't come into any kind of conflict with it, what colors? It's a myth that colors conflict — that's largely a false human notion.

do you like balconies or do they creep you out? Balconies are great.

ever been to iowa? Isn't that a moon of one of the Jovian planets?

do you drool when you sleep? Depends on what put me to sleep I guess.

if you could have any inlay, design, or carving in a pair of free plugs what would it be? Wil made me a real nice set of BME plugs.

if you had a 4ga labret would you buy the expensive labret stud (risk gum erosion) or use a plug (have a harmless o-ring on the back)? I had a 4ga labret and wore jewelry I made myself. I never had any erosion, but I took it out because I couldn't reasonably justify keeping it.

if there was a fire in your house would you risk your life to find your pet(s) and save them? A long time ago, there was a fire at my grandfather's house in Alberta. After making sure my grandmother was out, he rushed back in to the burning house to try and save my aunt. He was not able to find her, and he burned until he was dead and ceased to exist. My aunt was visiting a friend that night it turned out. I suspect my pets would not have difficulty getting out, plus, within the year, I hope to be living in a fireproof rammed earth home.

what do you think about straight edge? As long as it doesn't encroach on my right to enjoy drugs, I have no problem with someone being straight edge. I am concerned that some people treat it as a set of blind rules rather than a philosophy of responsible living, but if it's not my problem… it's not my problem!

what time did you wake up today? About 8:30.

what time will you probably go to bed? Probably about 2 or 3.

and most importantly.. what are you going to be for halloween? I'm not sure… I heard something about a Legend of the Overfiend party.