Saturday, October 18, 2003
Last night I received the following letter that I'd like to share here:
Dear friends of Jeff Edgarian:
I found your emails on Jeff's (Genjuro's) IAM account, you are his friends. I am his brother Tristan. I am sorry to inform you all that my dear brother passed away 15 October 2003. He was struck by an SUV while riding his motorcycle back home from school. They police informed us his death was instant. He was twenty one years old.
You are all invited to attend his funeral on 11:30 am Monday, 20 October, at Forest Lawn Glendale in the Church of the Recessional.
I am aware and accepting of his bod mod lifestyle. I love him unconditionally and respect how spiritual the mod experiences were to him. He was such a strong creative unique and brilliant person. Of all the people in my life he means the most to me.
You are free to present yourselves as you are, despite the fact that this funeral is going to be dominated by OLD COUNTRY Armenians who barely know english, let alone have an understanding of American youth. Both Jeff and I were a bit ostracized for our lifestyles so any support I can have from you on that day is much appreciated.
Thank you and best wishes,
Tristan Edgarian
Friends of Jeff's wanting to attend the funeral can contact YoYo for directions and more information. As Johann writes,
He was one of the first few people I spoke to on BME. First we started talking about bowling. I was suprised to find someone that bowled and so we started talking even more. Then we had video games in common and building computers. He was amazing in everything we spoke about excelling in everything he knew. I always had great conversations with him, funny and serious. I'm trying to wrap this up the best I can, but I know I cannot even scratch the surface in only describing to you all the amazingness that is Jeff.
Finally, I wanted to also share what Sque3z had to say,
He was a good kid. Almost too good. I loved this guy for who he was and what he stood for. He was an avid collector of body modifications and loved the industry and his friends too. We took him up for his first and last suspension on Sunday Oct. 12th, just 4 days before his death. Now he is partaking in all the suspension he can get his hands on!! "He will be missed and Jeff, I will supply the hooks next time!!!"
So I'm still trying to come up with a good BME/extreme shirt, and as the clock starts ticking, there's also the 2003 contributor shirts for the leaderboard folks — while it's clear that first place for image submissions is way out of reach, there's definitely still room to get in the top 50, and there's definitely also room to compete on the experiences list.
It will probably be the same as last year where there are a couple back designs and people on the lists can choose their favorite, with the front being determined by the ranking.
Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, the deputy undersecretary for intelligence who I quoted earlier today, is a real barrel of laughs. My favorite quote so far from him is when he was referring to a battle in Somalia againt a Muslim leader, and explaining why he'd come out the winner:
"I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol."
Aren't you glad these are the dudes that are in control of the most heavily armed nation on Earth?
PS. Happy Birthday
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Over ten years ago now my father and I and a small group of programmers developed a software suite called SciFAX which did fax automation using stand-alone Canon fax machines. While it was very cool and revolutionary software, it was almost immediately made obsolete by the rapid and unexpected proliferation of fax-capable modem cards.
The thing that creates the entry title of “odd” is that if I enter it into a search engine, I find tons and tons of current applications which are designed to interface with it. I wonder… do they also read ENIAC punchcards?
I mean, it's cool, and maybe flattering that the product hasn't left the computer world's strange pseudoconsciousness, but it's really rather strange as well. I wonder how much obsolete code is still being kept alive? When it comes to applications that handle multiple formats, I'm sure that the developers have no idea — they just buy a conversion library from someone in order to be backwards compatible (ever notice most graphics tools can still read a PCX?)… The question is, will SciFAX still be supported in three hundred years?
Part of me thinks “yes”.
Thursday, October 16, 2003
The full article from which below quotes from a US military serviceman were taken can be read here:
I saw over 30 of the men I had to keep safe die, and over 100 get wounded and not come back. We were attacked at least 20 times [and] were losing at least five men a day to injuries and there was at least one of our unit killed every twenty four hours.
I had one guy tell me all he wanted was to see his little daughter; she was born three days after the war started. He died in the sand holding my hand and crying because his daughter would never know him. Tell me that's fucking right.
Where was George Bush when this kid was gasping for air and spitting his blood on foreign soil? That asshole went AWOL and never showed up for duty and then he has the nerve to take us into two different wars that will be going on for years.
That nice huge cut they made to Veterans Benefits ... now I cannot get PTSD counseling or many medical benefits I used to take for granted. I knew I would have the benefits because I was laying my life down for my country. What happens when someone like me has been through enormous battle stress and combat fatigue and then comes home to no counseling? I'll tell you what is going to happen, he will either kill himself or take a bunch of people with him.
I can tell you I will never forget the screams of the wounded or orphaned kids, or the wailing of the parents who lost their kids. The Iraqis and most Muslims have a very vocal way of mourning the dead by lamenting and wailing for the dead. There is no mistaking a mother or father crying out in pain for the loss of a child. Sometimes after a bombing raid or an artillery attack you could hear hundreds of people wiling and weeping.
Let me tell you about the cluster bomb raid we saw wipe out a whole bunch of little kids. It looked like they had already lost their parents and were trying to salvage food from a destroyed Iraqi convoy by the side of the road we were on. We could see the body parts flying up into the air after the bombs hit. It was terrible and we could not do a damn thing but watch it happen and scream into the radio at the dumb shit pilot that was dropping the bombs. All we found was bits and pieces of little kids and here and there an arm or leg you could still identify.
It's just like Nam was in the beginning. I was twelve when my dad got back and I'll never forget the pain and agony he lived with the rest of his life. If I could I would go back in the past a few months, I would go AWOL or turn conscientious objector on them, but it's too late for that now. Wake up America! Your sons and daughters are dying for nothing! This war is not about freedom or stopping terrorism. Bring us home now! We are dying for oil and corporate greed!
