Yet More Fun With IMs

What I Saw:

What It Said:
Somebody: 8-}
Somebody: good dy?
Me: you don’t say
Somebody: i don’t?
Somebody: ok, i won’t
Me: aww, i bet you say that to all the guys
Somebody: what? that i won’t say????
Me: hey now, let’s not be too hasty
Somebody: give us another 10 years or so, at this pace…
Me: i don’t think we’re allowed to do that in this country, are we?
Somebody: let’s go somewhere else then
Me: well, okay, but i think we’ll need extra lube for that
Somebody: use olive oil
Me: oh my… you sure?
Somebody: sure i’m sure
Somebody: works, every time
Me: well i never!
Somebody: when Kirby G4 won’t do the job…
Somebody: http://news.messages.yahoo.com/…
Me: hmm, am i over 18? over 18 what?
Somebody: ouch…
Me: ohhhhh… well, in that case, i suppose so
Somebody: whewh!
Me: now that’s a low blow!
Somebody: i am short…
Me: no, i didn’t call you names. you started it
Somebody: just try it

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(Or, what’s in a name?)

A California couple thought that “nonbeliever” was too negative when it came to describing their religious views. Their desire for a constructive term led them to “brights” and this definition: People who have a natural world view. [full story]

All my life I had assumed that intellectual inquiry was a respected practice in America, that it was our hallmark and the primary impetus behind our rapid progress and distinguished world standing. Deeply enamored with that assumption, I would have thought that a project such as The Brights would be a silly, superfluous exercise in pompous glorification of an already esteemed social group, namely “most of us.” But as of late I’ve been divorced of that notion: whereas fundamentalist Muslims throughout the world (and incidentally, fundamentalist Christians within our own borders) decry America’s moral lawlessness (as a bad thing) to anyone who will hear, among Europeans the US is commonly understood to be as “deeply religious” (as a bad thing) and ideologically repressed as Wahabist Saudi Arabia, but with more highways (I think). Back home, Gallup reports that only a tiny percentage of Americans declare themselves to be non-religious, and even fewer claim the label “agnostic” or “atheist.” In fact, any number of cutting-edge scientists out there are quite ready to cover their areas of uncertainty under a religious blanket. Heck, even I did that for a while. (But I got better.) So the “most of us” I had assumed before are, in fact, very few of “us.” In this light (no pun intended!), then, Richard Dawkins’s hope doesn’t seem so weird. But, is nomenclature so important? And if it is, is bright the right word for the job? Or is it too gay?

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So here’s the deal: the market for print/web designers and junior-engineers-not-wanting-to-build-bombs in Tampa Bay looks even worse now than it did two years ago when I last looked. I have a few bucks saved up that will just about cover the bills for another month and then after that I’ll be at the mercy of government handouts. (Yes, that government. So I’m not exactly hopeful.) It has long been known to me that there is exactly one way to have money in your pocket (make more money than you spend), and that there are exactly two ways of achieving that (either increase your income or reduce your expenses). Until I score a job (ie, increase my income) I am faced with cutting back, waaay back. So beginning next month I’ll be scaling back operations (this month was paid for before the ax fell): dropping the cable-tv and high-speed connection, dropping (all but unused) web hosting for uaioe, losing my ever-precious Netflix, and replacing my current, bare-bones POTS landline telephone service for a lo-flo cellphone dealie. (Yes, I know mobiles melt your brain, but not if you use a headset. I hope.) That means, among other things, that this here weblog/website will perforce be moving to a .Mac-hosted scheme ($99/year vs. $20/month), and so will my e-mail address. While all that sounds rather dramatic and downer-ish, in fact it should result in benefits to you, the home viewer. You see, .Mac simplifies a variety of webpage maintenance chores, most interestingly for me the creation and display of photo and other media collections, and lord knows I have a few of those to show. As it appears there’s no way to interface Blogger with .Mac for the purposes of publishing a blog, and since .Mac doesn’t let you do much in the way of server-side scripting (ie, no Moveable Type, Greymatter etc.), it seems I will be left with no choice but to publish ariel :: annotated manually, which likely means, fewer updates. Yes, even fewer than now. Sorry! Desperate times, desperate measures. Capite?

It further occurs to me that maybe I should just try to sell everything, donate, pack up, or throw away what I can’t sell (I do keep around a lot of crap that wouldn’t look out of place in a dumpster), and go visit friends abroad with the money I would no longer be spending on rent and utilities. I’d be taking along my trusty Apple Powerbook G3 with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Inside™, the as-of-yet unpurchased cellphone, and a sheaf of resumes because, you never know. Maybe even a toothbrush, too. I figure I could at least enjoy time abroad that I would otherwise spend here ensconced and fretting over my pitiful existence. It might not hurt to shop my resume while away, either: maybe market conditions for my ilk are better out there and I’ll hit paydirt someplace far, far from here. On first blush that sounds like all sorts of fun (the travel part, not the selling and moving-out part) but already I see a fatal flaw to my plan: in the spirit of BushCo, I too lack an “exit strategy.” I will want to stop and find a job and new housing eventually, once the market (hopefully) picks up closer to the Holidays, or even as late as Spring 2004. But how?

Now here comes the interactive part: I need you to tell me, first, if I’m completely nuts with this plan. (Unemployment makes you think strange things, I’ll admit.) Point out shortcomings. Suggest alternatives. Just keep in mind that the suburban American dream is not my idea of happiness. I could also use advice on:

• a better way to blog to .Mac, other than via manual entry, or to someplace else — either free webhost, or bloghost, something like that;
• who’s your favorite US-friendly cellphone provider, and why — I’ve only been leaning towards T-Mobile because of their support of GSM networks (standard in Europe and pretty much everywhere else but here) and Bluetooth phones (makes it easier to program, keep your phone list up to snuff and lets you control your laptop’s MP3 player remotely) but acknowledge their coverage maps in US look skimpy;
• knowledge of wi-fi hotspots in your area (preferrably free, of course) because, who knows, I may end up in your neck of the woods at some point and I will surely want to blog about it;
• what to see out there in the great US of A. I have a couple destinations in mind but I will have about two months’ worth of wander-time to fill (I think) once I’ve outstayed my welcome at various friends’ places throughout;
• heck, if you know of any design or web-monkey (or pool-boy for Carmen Electra) jobs in your town, how about sharing with the rest of the class?

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Call me old-fahsioned, but I think I’ll keep my regular, wired phone just a little longer: Mobiles make you “senile”!

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It’s September 11, 2003. In two years,

• The Bush Administration has managed to alienate just about every decent country in the world except UK, Australia, Poland and Spain.
• Al Qaida has not been eradicated as a terror threat. Its spiritual leader, Osama Bin Laden, remains at large, alive and well, and protected by some of the very people “liberated” by US intervention in Afghanistan.
• Afghanistan has been bombed back to near anarchy thanks to US intervention. Conflict continues to rage, unabated and underreported by US media interests.
• Iraq has been bombed back to near anarchy thanks to US intervention. A baseless, aimless, drawn-out war continues to rage there despite major combat being pronounced “over,” back in May, 2003.
• Not a smidgeon of Weapons of Mass Destruction, the ostensible rationale for starting said war with Iraq, has been recovered. US and UK “evidence” of said WMD presented to the UN and the world is shown to have been all but fabricated.
• Saddam Hussein, former ruler of Iraq, and many of his top aides continue to be unaccounted for and may be assumed to be alive and well, likely under the protection of some of the very same people “liberated” by US intervention in Iraq.
• American civil liberties have been seriously curtailed through the enactment of laws ostensibly devised to find terrorists. Hundreds of citizens and immigrants continue to be detained in secret without being accused of anything.
• The largest budget surplus in US history has been turned into the largest budget deficit in US history.
• The wealthy of America were granted a handsome tax cut that bleeds even more money out of the economy and forces authorities at the federal and state level to compensate for the shortfall by reducing funds to programs and services that benefit the rest of us.
• The US economy continues to falter with no sign of relief. The Administration’s greatest effort on behalf of the economy has focused in setting up press conferences assuring those in attendance that “the economy is fine.” In the meantime the US labor market continues to shrink at an unabated pace.
• Enron and MCI/Worldcom executives, major culprits in depressing the economy to its current state and to blame for the ruin of hundreds of thousands of working-class americans, continue to run free and unprosecuted.

Happy anniversary!

(For sources and more yummy badness, read The Wage Slave Journal: George W. Bush Scorecard of Evil)