Last updated 6-28-2022
Fame (fame) makes a man think things over...
Well, I had a brush with small-time fame. After entering the Sexiest Geek Alive contest on a whim about six weeks ago, I promptly forgot about it. I mean, I never thought I actually had a chance... Then, three weeks ago, I realized that a significant number of visitors to my site were coming from the contest site, and so I learned that I was in the running for the May online contest, the winner of which would go to San Jose with the other online and pageant winners for the finals. I was suddenly contacted by a writer with the Newark Star-Ledger, one of New Jersey's largest newspapers, who was putting together a story on the contest and the entrants from Jersey, and he informed me that, according to his sources, I stood a very good chance of going to the finals! I was flabbergasted, needless to say. We spoke for a while on the phone, and he sent a photographer to my workplace the next day. Everything seemed to be going really well, though I learned a few days later that I had not won the online contest after all and was therefore out of the race. Nonetheless, the writer told me the article would be printed the following Monday. Well, Monday came, and no article. :\ Upon inquiry, I was informed that the paper's editorial staff had decided to pull the article, since none of the Jersey entrants were going to the finals after all. So, that was that. "I coulda been a contender..."
For how many more months am I going to have to write about the violence in the Middle East, and in Macedonia, and in Chechnya? Despite my sympathies for many of the parties involved in these situations, it's shameful that so many people need die because two sides are unwilling to enter into tough, painful negotiations. And if every movement, every organization, every people that feels it's being wronged decides to take up arms against its perceived oppressors... well, need I remind my fellow Americans of Tim McVeigh? Yes, the United States was forged by colonists beating back a bloated and tyrannical empire, but I bet many of the Bolsheviks considered their goals in forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to be as lofty and liberating. If every group that claims unjust treatment at the hands of its federal government secedes, we will be faced with a world of a thousand nations, and it will be even more difficult for the world body to agree on anything than it is now. And no, that doesn't mean I'm a member of the Illuminati... ;)
Speaking of the People of the Light, I've seen "Tomb Raider" twice in the past five days. I wasn't expecting to see it the second time, but I'd enjoyed it enough the first time to have no problems watching it again.
I'm ecstatic that the Serbian government pushed Milosevic into the hands of the war crimes tribunal before the procedure got tangled up in red tape, which was sure to happen had they delayed a single day. However, I hope this doesn't result in the collapse of Yugoslavia's reformist government, or even of the Yugoslav federation. There are obviously still a lot of Slobo's cronies in both Serbia and Montenegro, and there are a great many people who are convinced that the tribunal is anti-Serb. Kostunica needs to hold his people and his nation together now, as does Trajkovski in Macedonia, or the Balkans could explode far more severely than in the past.
Two executions in a week. The United States under the leadership of President Dubya is obviously determined to show the rest of the world how Neanderthally tough we are. Why must America continue to flaunt its brutal stance in the face of civilization? And then Congress gets pissy that the U.S. has lost its seat on the United Nations' human rights commission. Communist China still executes its citizens, too...
WARNING: rant ahead. When the hell are you people going to learn how to use (or not use) apostrophes?!? I've raged against misspellings in the past (and believe me, there's still a lot of them around, too), but lately I'm seeing more and more apostrophes where they have no business being. A plural word does not need an apostrophe, unless you're trying to show possession; i.e., "We've got car's for sale" is incorrect, but "All the cars' steering wheels had been torn off" is fine. I'm getting increasingly annoyed with the pathetic state of literacy in this country. It's definitely a symptom of darker days ahead...
One last comment before I depart for sandier pastures (namely, Ocean City, Maryland): Systems Administrator Appreciation Day is coming, on Friday, July 27th. Gifts are not necessary, but appreciation would be such a nice change of pace... ;) - A
Last updated 6-28-2022
