5/22/98
Ok, I have to say something about all this school violence. I find the recent rash of school violence (shootings) to be one of the most horendous trends of late. It is abhorable that we all sit around and shake our heads when something like this happens. A kid brings a gun to school and starts shooting at people once in a country is an unfortunate trajedy; twice, it becomes a problem; three times it becomes a severe crisis; more than three time it becomes a travesty and an epidemic in our society. Everyone wants to find who is to blame for these deplorable acts. Pardon my French, but who gives a fuck about how the kid was abused, ridiculed, rebuffed by the opposite sex, the problem is that the kid(s) did it and the entire country has allowed it to happen!!!! In America, we accept a level of violence that almost no other socitey on Earth would tolerate for one second. What is it going to take for all of us to be introspective about how we are co-dependents in this mess. Our society is not some nebulous blob that no one person takes responsibility for, rather it is the sum of the responsibility that all of us share. You can sit on your fat ass and blame parents, the media, easy access to guns, education, a rough childhood, sociatal conditions, or some other factor that I'm sure has contributed in some manner, or you can stand up and start figuring out how we can prevent such terrible things from happening again. Who knows, next time it might be your kid's school or your alma mater. One of the things I *do* know is that now is not the time to be walking on eggshells!

5/12/98
Well, I ran across a copy of the Unabomber's Manifesto that I've had for a couple of years.  Rather than tossing it out, I decided that I'd try to read as much of it as possible.  The more I read and learn about the Unabomber (Ted Kaczynsky), the more I am intrigued by him.  He is such an absolute nut!  He's brilliant, but is definately a few peanuts short of a PayDay bar (if ya know what I mean).  Not that I think he is incapable of understanding the gravity of what he did, nor that he shouldn't be punished for his dispicable acts.  It's just that he thinks in a very unique way.  In this case, different is bad, but genius is also seen as being different in a lot of ways.  In his manifesto, the Unabomber can make some incredibly insightful and astute observations, then in the next sentence can make an utterly idiodic statement.  The thing is that I can totally understand where he is coming from at times, and then at other times I am asking myself "what the f@%*#&k!!!!"  See for yourself.  His complete manifesto can be found atHot Wired's complete copy of "The Unabomber's Manifesto" It's interresting reading, but can also be very disturbing.  I just think that he is a fascinating case study.

2/8/98
One of things that I a grooving on these days is the TV show "Pop-Up Videos" on VH-1. I don't really know why I like it much, but it's one of the few tv shows these days that I get totally glued to. It's like I can't do anything else when it's on. Definately one of the most engrossing shows on. If you don't know what it is, it can be summarized by saying that they are normal music videos with bubbles of infomation that pop-up throughout the video. The topics fo the bubbles range from gossip, to behind the scenes scoops, to comments about what's going on in the video, to just plain random references. Maybe it's my unquenchable thirst for insignificum, but I really dig on all of the pointless data that they spew. It's almost like a quasi-mature Beavis and Butthead show. Well, if you want, check out their parent company's homepage at Spin The Bottle Inc.