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JamesSavik

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  1. JamesSavik

    Holidaze

    By JamesSavik,

    Thanksgiving to New Years sucks.
     
    It's the time of year for drooling sentimentality that makes me want to slap the shit out of low brow yokels humming Jingle-bells.
     
    I want to murder those bell ringing f**kers at the mall and set them on fire.
     
    Why do I hate the holidays? It's the time of year when your're supposed to get together with old friends. Have a drink or ten, party, make a jackass of yourself- all the stuff I used to be so good at and enjoyed immensly.
     
    What if all your old friends are dead? What if you watched them all die one by one in the eighties and early ninties?
     
    I'm at a weird age for a gay man in my part of the country. I'm sorta like the last of the Mohicans. All the other gay men, or at least the ones with the guts to be out, my age are either long gone or long dead.
     
    That'll f**K you up. You start wondering why you survived when so many others died. How did I get lucky? Or are the lucky ones already gone?
     
    What did I do for Christmas? I looked up the squares of my old friends on the AIDS quilt. I probably would have cried but I think my pain receptors are burned out. I no longer have to do drugs to avoid feeling anything.
  2. JamesSavik
    It'll get better..
     
    Oh really? How is that supposed to happen? When you've seen dream after dream go up in smoke. Everything you care about is gone. Everyone you care about is dead. How is it f-ing supposed to get any better.
     
    Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem...
     
    A temporary problem? I've had to fight every f-ing day of my whole life for the right to exist. How is that a temporary problem.
     
    You've got so much to live for..
     
    You can f-ing have it.
     
    Life is sacred...
     
    That's a joke. There are places on the planet that will have you shot and charge your family for the bullet. America is more subtle about destroying life but its the same game.
     
    You hurt your loved ones...
     
    You mean the parasites that suck the life out of you?
     
     
    In the end what is there left to hang onto? Love? Hope? Those things are dust and ashes. What do you hold onto in the dark of a sleepless night when everything is gone?
     
    Hate and Rage. The rage for revenge. The hope of causing pain and misery to your mortal enemies. The chance to live to piss on their graves. The possibility that through guile and treachery one day you'll get to see the look in their eyes when you put the blade between their ribs and twist it.
     
    That's enough for now.
  3. JamesSavik
    Yep. That's right. You are going to miss him.
     
     
    Fat chance.
     
     
    You will miss him. Just give it time.
     
     
    I sincerely doubt it but you are welcome to try to defend King George.
     
    Oh no- I'm not going to try to defend him. In many ways his generally incoherent style of public speaking made him one of the most ineffective presidents in living memory because he simply failed to explain his policies.
     
     
    Don't you mean the worst in history?
     
    No. I'm older than most of you and remember Jimmy Carter. I'm better versed in history than most of you too and I remember some real losers that have occupied the White House like Grant, Coolidge, Buchanan and Andrew Johnson.
     
    I said ineffective. Not worst. Bush's problem with communication made him an easy target. He tried to speak plainly but this backfired on him terribly. His style of speaking and his propensity to verbally stumble were easily misunderstood, taken out of context and generally made the man look like an idiot. For instance- his use of with us or against us in regard to the War on Terror was a particularly bad choice of words making some friendly countries feel like they had to take sides and lead directly to poor relations with traditional allies.
     
     
    Well he was an idiot.
     
    Bush got his undergraduate degree at Yale, his law degree at UT and his MBA at Harvard. He is no idiot. Over and over his political rivals have failed to take him seriously and he defeated a string of democratic notables- Ann Richards, Al Gore and John Kerry.
     
     
    OK genius. Why are we going to miss him?
     
    First- Bush's actions were always a product of his beliefs and/or ideology. He did not fly "trial balloons" or consult focus groups and see which way the wind was blowing. He made the decision, popular or unpopular, took the heat for it and did not make excuses.
     
    Second- For years democrats have blamed everything on Bush from bad weather to bad luck. His style of refusing to get into bare-knuckle partisan brawls and simply refusing to acknowledge charges that he considered ridiculous made it look like the man was hiding from his critics. Now we are about to have an administration which will be held accountable for nothing.
     
    Third- What Bush has done in Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest of the world is to protect America's interests. Period. If you think the economy is screwed-up now, consider carefully what would have happened if Bush had failed to answer the challenge of Al Qaeda. Had Hussien stayed in power, how long would it have taken for him to cause even more trouble in the Gulf? Of course the Chinese, Russians and French didn't like it. They were getting rich and America was getting screwed. Bush's actions in Iraq have reset the table and if we play our cards right, we'll be sitting at the head of that table if the new administration does not squander the opportunity.
     
     
    But he lied...
     
    Oh horsesh*t. By 2003 when we started Operation Kick Saddam's Ass II, Saddam had pissed off half the world and was bribing the other half. So many people wanted him dead that he never slept in the same place twice. The Kuwaiti's had a price on his head. The Iranians had a price on his head. That sort of thing happens when you start two wars of aggression and kill a million people.
     
    Did Bush lie about weapons of mass destruction? He had people telling him everything from Saddam was rearming to Saddam was becoming a pussycat. He had to use his best judgment. Judging from Saddam's past history and the way Iraq was playing pussyfoot with inspectors- the smart money was on there being fire behind all the smoke.
     
     
    OK. But he fu-bared the economy...
     
    As a republican and a believer in free markets, Bush believed that the way to allow the economy to grow was to get out of its way and let it grow.
     
    The problems in the economy came from governmental meddling in the lending markets which occurred in a prior administration and high level cooperate malfeasance. Could regulation have avoided these problems? Probably not and you can bet that regulations would cause more problems than it would solve.
     
     
    If he was so good why does everybody hate him?
     
    He wasn't that good. He was unapologetic plain vanilla pro American moderate republican who didn't like partisan bickering and put his foot in his mouth at the worst possible moment.
     
    Not everyone hates him.
     
     
    OK: if he was so great, why did things seem to suck while he was in office?
     
    Bush's presidency was very much a product of the times. No President has ever had to cope with the complexity of the world situation that George W. Bush stepped into when he was sworn in Feb. 2001.
     
    Twenty years after, the world is a very chaotic place in the wake of the Cold War. Allies and alliances are changing out of national and economic interests, the rise of the European Union, China and even India's emergence as a regional power, petro-politics, terrorism, rouge states like Iraq, Iran, North Korea: you have to consider it a success to keep the whole thing from exploding- or at least controlling most of the explosions that did occur.
     
    The majority of Bush's Presidency is mired in the Middle East because the problems festering there had been ignored for far too long.
     
    You can count on chaos because that's the world that we live in.
     
     
    What do you mean we're going to miss him?
     
    For years it has been something of a national excuse to blame Bush for whatever goes wrong. Now- for better or worse, the Presidency, house and the senate are solidly in the hands of the democrats. The buck stops there. It is in their hands- now lets see them take responsibility for it and defend the national interests of the country without surrender.
     
    Furthermore- since we can no longer blame Bush and the media won't allow you to blame Obama, you'll just have to blame yourself for whatever goes wrong in your life.
  4. JamesSavik
    Most of you were children when Clinton ran the country with trial balloons and focus groups.
     
    You probably remember Bill Clinton as a guy who played the sax on MTV, liked to get hummers from interns, got in trouble for getting spoo on a blue dress and was married to that horrible b*tch senator from New York. The same one who was just thrown under the democratic primary bus by the failed President Elect Barry O'bumble.
     
    You are probably too young to remember how Clinton betrayed gay voters not once but twice.
     
    Clinton got a lot of support from the gay community and he had to give us something but what would it be. It couldn't be anything of substance. Gay issues were too unpopular and would come back to bite him. It was simply too politically loaded to allow gays to serve openly in the military so Clinton did the most nothing that he could get away with: that's how we got Don't Ask and Don't Tell. He did this in the early weeks of of his first term so that it would give voters plenty of time to forget about it. It has really not changed the culture of the military because they still ask and if you don't tell the truth they call it perjury, hang a felony on your ass and a dishonorable discharge.
     
    Clinton's second betrayal of his gay supporters was signing the DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) which makes passing gay marriage/civil unions, nearly impossible, even more difficult.
     
    What you don't remember is how democrats operate when they are in power. Screw what they said that they were going to do- everybody knows that democrats lie to get elected and the media lets them get away with a wink and a nod.
     
    Democrats do what is popular. Whenever a democratic president is about to make a decision, the staff conducts focus groups and leaks various versions of the plan to the media called trial balloons. The decision is based on not what is right or best for the country, not on the basis of core beliefs or ideology but what is popular.
     
    Yes- that's right. Democrats are constantly running for office. They will always do what is popular because to democrats what is good for the country is for democrats to stay in power. You will never see a democrat take a tough stand on an unpopular issue.
     
    Democrats are political yes men: they will always tell you what you want to hear. They will tell you that they will lower taxes. They will tell their special interest group voting blocks that they are going to get whatever it is that they want. THEY WILL ONLY DELIVER ON THESE PROMISES IF IT IS POPULAR, PRINCIPLE BE DAMNED.
     
    That is why we will be betrayed by the new, failed Obama Presidency. Gay Rights issues are never popular.
     
    Here is how it is going to play out: we will be told that they (congress & the administration) are too busy with the economy to get to gay rights. It'll be put off and put off. Then we'll be told that the administration will make it a priority in the second term. If indeed he wins a second term, the democratic party will put pressure on him to leave it alone because we'll be facing a close election in 2016 and gay rights is never popular.
     
    We might get another little symbolic nothing like don't ask, don't tell but you can forget about all of those campaign promises.
     
    Ain't gonna happen. Not now. Not next term. Not as long as democrats are chasing popularity and their next election.
  5. JamesSavik

    Evil

    By JamesSavik,

    Why fight it.
     
    I'm evil. I'm a bastard. Your suffering makes me laugh.
     
    I stomp the brains out of puppies and kittens. I push old ladies into traffic.
     
    I think starvation in Eithopia is a hoot because there is no food there and the f-ing idiots hang around waiting for it to show up.
     
    I like wars because they test my latest technologies and the lame f-kers don' survive.
     
    I say nuke the f-ing whales. What did they ever do for anybody?
     
    I eat beef and punch vegatarians because they are wide gaping pussies.
     
    I slap preists because they molest little kids.
     
    I slap nuns because... they just bother me.
     
    I like cold steel because it cuts the worthless and weak in half.
     
    I like smart bombs because nothing is more useless than an explosion that doesn't kill people or break things.
     
    I like cluster bombs because they are real crowd pleasers.
     
    I like the classics: although its out of fashion, we really should bring back napalm because it sticks to kids.
     
    I like hard radiation because those who aren't used to it puke like little girls on a rowboat in a hurricane.
     
    I like mass executions cuz the tailgate parties are the bomb.
     
    I like bio-warfare agents because they kill mass numbers and leave their wealth in tact.
     
    I like Joe McCarthy because shaking down rich hollywood sh*theads never gets old.
     
    I like Israel because nobody kills ragheads better and makes it look easier.
     
    I like South America because if they hate somebody down there, they just shoot them in the f-ing head and call it a day.
     
    I like Russia because they kill their dissidents or send them to Siberia instead of giving them talk shows.
     
    I like France because they are some of the most ruthless f_ckers that have ever walked the planet and everybody thinks that they are civilized.
     
    I like Germany because everybody thinks they are green passificists and they have the most lethal tank on the planet.
     
    I like the British because they know how to kill people and break things, stop for tea and then give 'em some more.
     
    I like Sam Kinison because he's the funniest guy in hell.
     
    Joe Stalin and Adolph Hitler were pansies compared to me.
     
    I want to destroy your world, ruin your economy, shatter your dreams and make YOU cry.
     
    I'm a republican bastard who is going to find a way to get rich, not pay President Osama's taxes and shit on your politically correct world.
  6. JamesSavik

    Library Data

    By JamesSavik,

    S S N "Martin Greenberg, Tom Clancy" Action 0425173534 2000
    The Gulf (Dan Lenson Novels) David Poyer Action 0312050968 1990
    Clear and Present Danger Tom Clancy Action 0399134409 1989
    Debt of Honor (Jack Ryan Novels) Tom Clancy Action 0425147584 1995
    Executive Orders Tom Clancy Action 0399142185 1996
    Red Storm Rising Tom Clancy Action 0399131493 1986
    The Bear and the Dragon Tom Clancy Action 2000
    The Teeth Of The Tiger (Jack Ryan Novels) Tom Clancy Action 0425197409 2004
    Without Remorse Tom Clancy Action 0425143325 1994
     
     
    Modern Man in Search of a Soul (Harvest Book) C. G. Jung Arcania 0156612062 1955
    Astrology Arcania 1865155128 2007
     
     
    Hubble Atlas of Galaxies (Carnegie Institution of Washington. Publication) Allan Sandage Astronomy 0872796299 1984
    B stars with and without emission lines (Monograph series on nonthermal phenomena in stellar atmospheres) Anne Barbara Underhill Astronomy 1982
    "The Milky Way, 5th ed (Harvard Books on Astronomy)" Bart J. Bok Astronomy 0674575032 1981
    An Introduction to Radio Astronomy "Bernard F. Burke, Francis Graham-Smith" Astronomy 1996
    Flight to Mercury "Bruce Murray, Eric Burgess" Astronomy 0231039964 1977
    Active Galactic Nuclei (Cambridge Astrophysics) "C. Hazard, Simon Mitton" Astronomy 0521224942 1979
    Cataclysmic Variable Stars - How and Why they Vary (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration) Coel Hellier Astronomy 1852332115 2001
    Protostars and Planets II (Space Science Series) D. C. Black Astronomy 0816509506 1985
    Satellites of the Outer Planets: Worlds in Their Own Right David A. Rothery Astronomy 0198542909 1992
    "Uranus: The Planet, Rings and Satellites (Ellis Horwood Library of Space Science and Space Technology)" Ellis D. Miner Astronomy 0139468803 1990
    Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics (Saunders Golden Sunburst Series) "Elske V. Smith, Michael Zeilik, Stephen A. Gregory" Astronomy 0030316979 1992
    Far Encounter: The Neptune System Eric Burgess Astronomy 0231074123 1992
    "Pioneer: First to Jupiter, Saturn, and Beyond" Eric Burgess Astronomy 1980
    Astronomy in Depth Gerald North Astronomy 1852335807 2002
    Universe & CD-Rom "III William J. Kaufmann, Roger Freedman" Astronomy 0716746476 2001
    "Stars: Their Birth, Life, and Death" Iosif S. Shklovskii Astronomy 0716700247 1978
    The Milky Way As a Galaxy "Ivan R. King, Gerard Gilmore, Pieter C. Van Der Kruit" Astronomy 0935702628 1990
    "Cosmic Clouds: Birth, Death, and Recycling in the Galaxy (""Scientific American"" Library)" James B. Kaler Astronomy 0716750759 1997
    Extreme Stars James B. Kaler Astronomy 2001
    Stars and their Spectra: An Introduction to the Spectral Sequence James B. Kaler Astronomy 0521304946 1989
    The Hundred Greatest Stars James B. Kaler Astronomy 0387954368 2002
    Galactic Astronomy (Princeton Series in Astrophysics) "James Binney, Michael Merrifield" Astronomy 0691025657 1998
    How To Use An Astronomical Telescope James Muirden Astronomy 0671664042 1988
    The Cambridge Atlas of Astronomy "Jean Audouze, Guy Israel" Astronomy 0521363608 1988
    "Astronomical Spectroscopy: An Introduction to the Atomic and Molecular Physics of Astronomical Spectra (Imperial College Press Advanced Physics Trends, Vol. 2)" Jonathan Tennyson Astronomy 1860945295 2005
    The Space-Age Solar System Joseph F. Baugher Astronomy 0471850349 1987
    Spectroscopy: The Key to the Stars: Reading the Lines in Stellar Spectra (Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series) Keith Robinson Astronomy 0387367861 2007
    Messier's Nebulae and Star Clusters (Practical Astronomy Handbooks) Kenneth Glyn Jones Astronomy 0521370795 1991
    The Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems (Space Telescope Science Institute Symposium Series) "L. Danly, H. A. Weaver" Astronomy 1989
    The Constellations Lloyd Motz Astronomy 0385176007 1988
    Structure and Evolution of the Stars Martin Schwarzschild Astronomy 0486614794 1977
    The Classification of Stars "Mercedes Jaschek, Carlos Jaschek" Astronomy 0521389968 1990
    "Observing Variable Stars, Novae, and Supernovae" "Nick James, Gerald North" Astronomy 0521820472 2004
    Atlas of the Solar System Patrick Moore Astronomy 0517001926 1990
    End in Fire: The Supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud Paul Murdin Astronomy 0521374952 1990
    Galaxies (Harvard Books on Astronomy) Paul W. Hodge Astronomy 0674340655 1986
    Nearby Galaxies Catalog R. Brent Tully Astronomy 0521352991 1988
    "Chemistry of Atmospheres: An Introduction to the Chemistry of the Atmospheres of Earth, the Planets, and Their Satellites (Oxford Science Publications)" Richard P. Wayne Astronomy 0198555717 1991
    "Burnham's Celestial Handbook, Volume 1, Rev. Edition" Robert Burnham Astronomy 0486240630 1978
    "Burnham's Celestial Handbook -- An Observer's Guide to the Universe Beyond the Solar System, Volume 2, Chamaeleon through Orion, Revised and Enlarged Edition" Robert Burnham Jr. Astronomy 0486240649 1978
    Burnhams Celestial Handbook Volume 3 Robert Burnham Jr. Astronomy 0486240657 1978
    Galaxies: Structures and Evolution Roger John Tayler Astronomy 0521367107 1993
    "100 Billion Suns: The Birth, Life, and Death of the Stars" Rudolf Kippenhahn Astronomy 0465052630 1983
    Galactic Dynamics (Princeton Series in Astrophysics) "Scott Tremaine, James Binney" Astronomy 0691084459 1988
    Pulsar Astronomy (Cambridge Astrophysics Series No. 16) "Sir Francis Graham-Smith, Andrew Lyne" Astronomy 0521326818 1990
    Solar System Evolution Stuart Ross Taylor Astronomy 0521372127 1992
    Supernovae and Stellar Wind in the Interstellar Medium (Translation Series) Tatjana A. Lozinskaya Astronomy 0883186594 1991
    The Solar System (Astronomy and Astrophysics Library) "Th
  7. JamesSavik

    Don't ask...

    By JamesSavik,

    Years ago when I first started to paid with real money (not the monopoly money I had been getting), I discovered that I owed Uncle Sam $1100 on tax day.
     
    My boss was being a raging bitch.
     
    Three printers and the main router decided to go tits up all at once.
     
    My order for laser printer toner cartridges came back, again, because it wasn't formatted properly.
     
    I had 10 minutes to deal with my bank to get the money for Uncle Sam. It took 40 minutes. Bankers are like that.
     
    About 3:30 in the afternoon I get the beginnings of a cold.
     
    At four we have a thunderstorm that strikes one of our buildings rendering it deaf, dumb and blind.
     
    To make matters worse, my truck started making that noise that costs $600 to fix now or $1400 to fix later.
     
    When I finally get home after 10:00, I sit down in my chair and my cat Booger hops in my lap.
     
    I say, "Booger old pal, I had one hellva day."
     
    He sat listening to me complain with the kind of interest that cats show when humans are babbling about something that the human thinks is important.
     
    I make the mistake of ending my monologue with, "Oh crap, what else could go wrong?"
     
    Booger made a dreadful sound, "HU-RUFF" and hurled a monster hairball in my lap.
     
    Now I know.
     
    Ever since then I have made a point to never asked what else could go wrong. Trust me on this. You don't want to know.
  8. JamesSavik

    Work, work, work

    By JamesSavik,

    Busy, busy, busy
     
    A few weeks ago I got a call from a headhunter who was looking for field engineers in my area for a big project.
     
    Well I did one site which turned out to be an audition and was offered a contract.
     
    Long story short- I got a contract with a major national bank to do network upgrades for Mississippi branches and it looks like I'm going to be super busy at least through November.
     
    I won't be around as much as I usually am and some of my projects are going to have to wait.
  9. JamesSavik
    Led Zeppelin
     
    Widely regarded as the first heavy-metal band, Led Zeppelin was called the heaviest band of all times and the biggest band of the 70s by Rolling Stone Magazine. Led Zeppelin has had over 300 million records sales worldwide and all of their albums have made it to Billboard magazine's Top Ten. They are ranked number one on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.
     
    Led Zeppelin formed out of the dissolution of the old super-group the Yardbirds. Jimmy Page had been playing bass for them since 1966. The Yardbirds gradually disintegrated due to burnout but they still had contractual obligations to tour. Jimmy Page formed the New Yardbirds around himself and the old Yardbirds drummer. Robert Plant was eventually tapped as lead singer, John Bonham replaced the old Yardbirds drummer and John Paul Jones tried out and became the interim groups bassist. The New Yardbirds were formed and finished off the required touring schedule. Everyone could see that this was no mere scratch band and a special chemistry was evolving.
     
    The origin of the band's naming, has become almost legendary. Keith Moon and John Entwistle suggested that a possible supergroup containing themselves, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck would go down like a lead zeppelin, a term Entwistle used to describe a bad gig. The group deliberately dropped the 'a' in Lead at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant, to prevent "thick Americans" from pronouncing it as "leed". 1
     
    Their manager Peter Grant signed a $200K deal with Atlantic Records sight unseen in Oct. 1968 and Led Zeppelin was born. They began touring almost immediately in the US and the UK befor their first album had even been pressed.
     
     
    Released in Jan. 1969, their first self titled album Led Zeppelin became a pivitol album in the creation of heavy metal.
     

     
    Good Times Bad Times
     
    Dazed and Confused
     
     
     
    Led Zeppelin II established Led Zeppelin as no mere flash in the pan and as a genuine super-group. It was even more successful than their first album hittin #1 in both the US and the UK.
     

     
    Whole Lotta of Love
     

     
     
     
    Led Zeppelin III was a departure from the hard driving metal sound of their first two albums. The electric was replaced by acoustic and the blues influence was replaced by folk. Only in this case Led Zeppeling pulled it off beautifully with another trans-Atlantic #1 hit.
     

     
    Immigrant Song
     
    Since I've Been Loving You
     
     
     
    Led Zeppelin IV or "the Runes Album" is a classic album by anyones definition.
     

     
    Black Dog
     

     
    Stairway To Heaven
     
     
     
    ____________________________________________________________________________
     
    1- Wikipedia, Led Zeppelin
  10. JamesSavik
    The good people working with the Spitzer space telescope have made a huge discovery. Spitzer sees in a number of bands of the infrared spectra some of which have never been possible to explore before. Our atmosphere absorbs a large chunk of the infrared spectra- specifically microwaves.
     
    Spitzers position high above our atmosphere allows it to see and explore things that human eyes simply can not and have only now begun to have the ability to explore.
     
    Our understanding of our own home galaxy is tenuous at best. From inside the galaxy, it is difficult to tell the shape and for of the galaxy as it would appear from the outside. We've known for some time that our galaxy is a spiral. We can see the spiral arms with optical astronomy.
     
    For many years when astronomers have looked for a model of our galaxy, they would very likely cite M31 or the Andromeda galaxy.

     
    Andromeda is a big, well behaved spiral galaxy relatively close and easily observable from earth.
     
    The discovery that is probably going to boot Andromeda's place in the textbooks is the Milky Way's Bar. A galactic bar is a feature found in young spiral galaxies and is thought to be caused by instability caused by uneven mass distribution. As a barred spiral ages, this feature slowly disappears and the spiral begings to look more like our old friend the Andromeda galaxy.
     

     
    This is our new vision of the galaxy and our new found bar.
     
    So what is our new galactic model? Here's NGC 1300 which will probably replace Andromeda as the galaxy that most looks like the Milky Way as we now understand it.
     

  11. JamesSavik
    In August 1966 Revolver which debuted at #1 and stayed there for 7 weeks.
     

     
    Eleanor Rigby
     
    Good Day Sunshine
     
     
     
    In June 1966 the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which debuted at #1 for 27 weeks.
     

     
    Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With A Little Help From My Friends
     

     
    When I'm 64
     
     
     
     
    The White Album was released in Nov. 1968 and marked the start of the Beatles psychedelic phase with tracks like Helter-Skelter and Revolution #9 and While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
     

     
     
    Back in the USSR
     
    Dear Prudence
     
    While My Guitar Gently Weeps
     
    Helter-Skelter
     
    Revolution #1
     
     
     
    Yellow Submarine was released in Jan. 1969 but only made it to #3 on the charts.
     

     
    Yellow Submarine
     
    All You Need is Love
     
     
     
     
    Abbey Road was released in Sep. 1969 and was #1 for 17 weeks.
     

     
    Come Together
     
    Here Comes the Sun
     
    She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
     
     
     
    The last of the Beatles albums was Let It Be released in April 1970.
     

     
    Let It Be
     
    Get Back
     
     
     
    ____________________________________________________________________
     
     
    The Beatles have numerous compilations but two of the Best are the so often called the Red and Blue Albums.
     
    The "Red" Album was a compilation of the biggest hits from 1963-66.

     
    The "Blue" Album is a compilation of the biggest hits from 1967-70.

  12. JamesSavik
    The Beatles
     
    The Beatles first formed in Liverpool, England ~1957 by a quartet of school chums. At first they were the Quarrymen, then the Johnny and the Moondogs" and finally the Beatles in honor of Buddy Holley and the Crickets. Primarily consisting of John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals) and Ringo Starr (drums, vocals) throughout their career, The Beatles are recognized for leading the mid-1960s musical "British Invasion" into the United States.
     
    The Beatles played clubs in England and on the continent from 1960-62 when they finally got a record contract. Their first two singles were Love Me Do and Please, Please Me- both of which blew up into number one hits in both the UK and the US. From there, thier career went into afterburners and everthing they touched went triple platinum.
     
    The Beatles first full length album was released in March 1963: Please, Please Me went to 1 for 30 weeks in the US and the UK.
     

     
    I Saw Her Standing There
     
    Please Please Me
     
    Twist and Shout
     
     
     
    Their second album was With the Beatles released in Nov. 1963. Please, Please Me was number 1 on the US/UK charts for 21 weeks.
     

     
    All My Loving
     
    Please Mr. Postman
     
     
    In 1974 the Beatles released A Hard Days Night which went #1 on the UK/US charts for 21 weeks.
     

     
    A Hard Days Night
     
    Can't Buy Me Love
     
     
     
    Beatles for Sale was released in Dec. 1964 and hit #1 for 11 weeks.
     

     
    Eight Days A Week
     
    I'm a Loser
     
     
    Help! was released in Aug. 1965 and went to #1 for 11 weeks.
     

     

     
    Ticket to Ride
     
     
     
    Rubber Soul was released in Dec. 1965 and went to #1 for 8 weeks.
     

     
    Baby You Can Drive My Car
     
    Norwegian Wood
     
    Michelle
  13. JamesSavik
    A long time ago on a beach far away, Jim Morrison and Ray Mansarek met. What followed was one of those spontaneous reactions that is only possible when the chemistry and times are right. The Doors are Jim Morrison(singer), Ray Mansarek(keyboards), Robbie Kreiger(guitar) and John Densmore(drums).
     

     
    The Doors emerged from the LA club scene with their breakout album the Doors in 1967. Their debut album had two number ones, was the #2 album of the year and is listed on everyones list of Classic albums. it took the country by storm.
     

     
    Touch Me
     

     
     
    Riding the wave, the Doors released their Second album Strange Days in late 1967. It became a gold album and contained a number of now classic and often covered Doors tracks.
     

     
    People are Strange
     
    When the Musics Over
     
     
    Waiting for the Sun was their third album released in 1968. While it was a critical success, Jim magnum opus the Celebration of the Lizard just didn't come off right. Don't tell the fans that. With hits like Hello, I love you, and Five to One the Doors only solidified their position as some writers said, "the only band worth listening too."
     

     

     

     

     
     
    The Doors 4th album the Soft Parade met with controversy among fans and critics due to its inclusion of brass and string instrument arrangements, as opposed to the more rock and blues roots. Most of the songs on the Soft Parade were written by Robbie Kreiger as Morrison was busy putting the finishing touches on two books of poetry. Many people missed the Doors parody of Camp Meetings and/or Evangelical Christianity in this album but it's funny as hell.
     

     
    Tell All the People
     
    the Soft Parade
     
     
    The 1970 release of Morrison Hotel marked a return to blues/acid-rock sound that Doors fans had come to love. The strategy worked though none of the singles on the album were a big hits, the album established the band as a favorite of critics.
     

     
    Roadhouse Blues
     
    Indian Summer
     
     
    LA Woman was the last Doors album released with Jim Morrison before his death in July 1971. The album's style is arguably the most hard rock blues-like of the band's albums- and arguably their best album.
     

     

     
    Been Down So Long
     
    LA Woman
     

     
    ____________________________________________________________________________
     

     
    Jim Morrison 1943 - 1971
     
     
     
    If you liked this profile of the Doors, let me know and I'll do more profiles on classic bands. Now I'm gonna go drive fast, smoke and listen to some loud, angry rock. Peace y'all.
  14. JamesSavik
    As you might imagine, those of us that live here in the South have a rather unique way of saying things. I decided to save some authentic 70s Southern Slang with the assistance of the good folks at the urban dictionary. I'm doing my part to perserve a rich but vanishing heiratage that most yuppies have forgotten now because they were too f**ked up at the time to remember them. You know- the same retarded hypocritical assholes who declared war on drugs and probably still have bong tar stains on their old albums.
     
    Without further comment, A 70s Flashback
     
    organ-spasm 15 thumbs up, 6 thumbs down
     
    A mind-blowing, earth-shaking orgasm so intense that you never forget it. It must be something of a religious experience as most people shout, "Oh God, Oh God, Oh God!".
     
    Holy crap Jessie can give great head. That was an organ-spasm I'll never forget.
     
     
    try-sexual 20 thumbs up, 11 thumbs down
     
    A young guy that is such a horn dog that he will try most anything sexual.
     
    My buddy Shawn is a try-sexual: he f**ked his girlfrind Mandy and her fag-hag buddy Travis.
     
     
    leg hound 17 thumbs up, 1 thumbs down
     
    1. a male dog the humps your leg
    2. a young man with a powerful sex drive that will f**K anybody, anything, anytime, anywhere.
     
    1. What could be more awkward than meeting your girlfriends parents with their damned leg hound humping and nutting on your shin.
     
    2. Jesus Shawn! I can understand f**king a fag-hag like Jamie but did you have to f**K her buddy Travis too?
     
     
    lunker 19 thumbs up, 3 thumbs down
     
    An enormous turd left in an unflushed toilet.
     
    Oh my Gawd Shawn? Did you leave this lunker in the toilet? It's got to be at least 17 inches.
     
     
    mall troll 14 thumbs up 0 thumbs down
     
    Fat 40ish closet queens, possibly a republican congressman or TV evangalist, who hang out in malls trying to pick up boys and young men.
     
    In a vice sweep last week, the police arrested a dozen mall trolls including a preacher, city councleman and a man waiting while his family bought back to school clothes at Sears
     
     
    hobby homo 13 thumbs up 0 thumbs down
     
    A man who is not gay per see and is apparently heterosexual for all intents and purposes but occassionally enjoys sex with other men.
     
    Sam is a hobby homo. He likes pussy but says that gay guys give much better head.
     
     
    queer as a football bat 11 up, 1 down
     
    Describes a flamboyant homosexuals manner and dress. Origin: 70's slang, South Eastern US.
     
    Oh Jeff is queer as a football bat but he's so nice most people don't care.
     
     
     
    Brought to you by the Seventies Preservation Society. If you were at the party, you probably can't remember it but you still have the herpes to remind you.
  15. JamesSavik

    I'm tired

    By JamesSavik,

    Today I finished up a rather big project that I've been working on.
     
    In the front of the house are two Azalea beds that have been there since the sixties. The Bushes are large but scraggly and unhealthy because the soil under them is worn out.
     
    My job: dig up the bushes, replant them. Dig up the old beds and clean out the roots. Remove some of the dirt. Test the soil and figure out what it needs. Add: sand, top soil, peat moss, humas, etc. Till it up. Put the plastic border down. Smooth out the dirt in the new beds, put landscape cloth down. Cut holes, plant new bushes. Put down pine bark mulch, some azalea food and water them in.
     
    It all sounds so easy when you put it that way.
     
    Just try digging up some forty year old bushes and see how much fun it is.
     
    Oy! Am I going to be sore tomorrow.
  16. JamesSavik
    Windows XP is a wonder. It has thousands of files and a registry that turns mere mortals into jelly should they attempt to play with it.
     
    As fancy as it is, Xp users can run into a lot of headaches. Viruses, worms and spyware (Oh my. ) are a sad fact of intenet life and anyone that has suffered their wrath won't soon forget it.
     
    A feature of XP that many people either forget about or have never hear of is called Safe Mode. When you boot the system hit the F8 key and windows will load with a minimal set of drivers and allow you to unscrew whatever is screwed up. Tthe things that makes safe mode so appealing for diagnostics is that very few processes are loaded into memory and to interfere with things like virus/spware detection and removal or defragging the hard drive.
     
    Safe Mode comes in several variations. First is Safe Mode with Networking which would give you web access if networking is actually working. The next layer of Safe Mode has no networking turned on and is 100% isolated so that you can clean up whatever mess you have on your hands without exposing a flakey PC to the wild, wild web. Last is Safe Mode with only a command line. Thar be dragons here so if you don't know what you are doing, leave this one alone.
     
    You don't have to do anything very fancy to a windows box to create a software conflict, a condition where two or more programs are competing for the same resources. Windows is supposed to guard against this problem but it does happen. Usually systems that develop this problem have been used for a while, have lots of programs loaded. The system begins to slow down, lock-up for no apparent reason or have start-up or shut-down hang-ups (system boots or shuts down very slowly).
     
    Another friend to windows users is the Windows Task Manager or the little box you get when you hit control-alt-delete. When you have symptoms like unexpected lockups and startup/shutdown hangups, take a careful look at Windows Task Manager. You will be able to see how much memory and CPU time that all of the various programs (processes) that running on your computer actually use. If either CPU or memory usage VERY LARGE compaired to outher programs, that may well be your problem. Try killing it and see how your system behaves with out it.
     
    Another sign of trouble under Task Manager is too many processes are running at once. This could mean that spyware is loading up and running
     
    Don't worry. In windows, there is usually a dozen programs to do most anything. If you have to throw one out for behaving badly, chances are you can find another one that is better and will play nice with your operating system and other programs.
     
    OK- Here's a menu for a pretty good diagnostic session. If you do this about once a month, you'll save yourself a lot of greif.
     

    Reboot system, hit F8 while system is loading and come up in SAFE mode
    Run your anti-virus program
    Run your anti-spyware program
    Run CCcleaner [free utility that eliminates temporary and junk files)
    Run a registry checkup program to clean up and optimize your registry.
    Empty your Trash folder.
    Run defrag on your primary (usually C:) drive partition.
    Reboot your system to standard Windows.

     
    In my next entry I will list some programs and links to both free and commercial software + the pros and cons of freeware vs commercial software.
  17. JamesSavik

    We are D-EVO!

    By JamesSavik,

    OK we've all seen this picture but George's ears make chimp jokes passe'.
     
    Let's take a look at the major candidates and other in the news side by side with their closest biological relatives...
     

     
    Here is Phred Phelps and a baboon. Can you tell which is which?
     

     
    Here is Phred again and an baboon... which looks more evil?
  18. JamesSavik

    In Defense of Hate

    By JamesSavik,

    Hate has a bad rap. For generations the Christian church have sought to discourage it. Lately it has become politically incorrect.
     
    Hate is one of the most basic and powerful emotions. It's also one of the most honest if you understand where it comes from.
     
    In studying apes, our closest biological relatives, they have two basic emotions: yikes and goody. All the rest of their emotional states are somewhere in between. Goody we can all understand. It's the reaction to spending time with our mate, sex, our favorite food, physical comfort, etc.
     
    Yikes is a response to a threat- either real or perceived. It is how apes respond to something that is unfamiliar or not understood. It evokes in apes a fight or flight reaction. Apes will either run from or confront something that frightens them. So we have Yikes changing into Anger. Does this sound at all familiar?
     
    Human emotion is a lot more complex than apes. Apes don't know how to lie. Humans are adept at dishonesty- so much so that they often end up lying to themselves. What has happening in society is that social pressure is discouraging people from showing or voicing hate. On the surface this sounds like a good thing and I suppose that it is. Those that openly preach hate are viewed with suspicion and disgust.
     
    The problem is that that hate doesn't really go away. It is internalized and carried around, political correctness be damned. It comes out in small doses while looking at employment applications, performance reviews, and a thousand other little ways where internalized hate can replace judgment.
     
    Is this really better? I don't know. When we hear a hate preacher like Phelps, Hucklebee or Dobson carrying on like a baboon, at least its honest and we know where we stand-- even if we won't turn our back on them. Where things get really dangerous is when that internalized hate is concealed behind a smile and a warm handshake.
     
    To me it is easier when the haters rave. You can protect yourself from the danger that you see. I takes a politically correct bigot that professes to love everybody to really hurt you.
     
    IMHO: let the haters hate. I'll buy them t-shirts. It's never the snake that you see that bites you. It's always the snake in the grass.
  19. JamesSavik
    Does it seem like no one wants to win in November? There may be something to that.
     
    The United States faces a perfect economic storm which has the potential to cause economic problems the likes of which haven't been seen since the 1930's. These twenty domestic and foreign policy problems will give the new resident of the White House many sleepless nights.
     
     
    Item 1: 100/barrel oil- The US economy is based on cheap oil and can not sustain 100/barrel oil prices without causing inflation or a devaluation of the dollar. Thanks to our popularity in the oil producing countries of the world, oil prices are unlikely to go anywhere but up in the foreseeable future.
     
    Item 2: Iraq & Afghanistan- The occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan is a very expensive undertaking which wears out tanks, helicopters and troops. It also creates difficulties in keeping the US military ready to respond to a crisis at a moments notice and an acute manpower shortage. These open-ended military operations are black holes which absorb as much money as the federal government has and adds greatly to the budget deficit.
     
    Item 3: sub-prime mortgage financial crisis- Is exploding in the face of the lending industry and causing defaults, repossessions, foreclosures and bankruptcies all over the country. It is also causing real estate prices in some markets to plummet which is causing erosion in local tax bases. As of Jan 2008 Banks have posted ~130 Billion in losses and bankruptcies of industry heavyweights Ameriquest, AHM, New Century Financial and a half dozen more.
     
    Item 4: War on Terror- Unlike the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the budget for the War on Terror is black. No one knows how much is being spent on proxy wars and mercenaries in the Third World.
     
    Item 5: Service Economy- the US has moved from a manufacturing economy to an service economy. As a result, the US manufacturing sector has shrunk and a number a strategically important items (electronics, equipment) can only be acquired from abroad. If Taiwan collapsed, the US Navy would have to stop using AEGIS radars because key components are manufactured there.
     
    Item 6: The Rise of China- As an economic entity, China is the 1000 pound gorilla. With near limitless manpower, new and modern factories China's star is rising. Not only is China a production power. It has a new and huge middle class. While still communist in name, China is in fact a capitalist enterprise with government support and involvement in key industries.
     
    Item 7: Pakistani Polka- Will Pakistan fall and be taken over by Muslim extremist or will the military stay in power. The stakes are high: to the winner goes the custody of the Islamic bomb.
     
    Item 8: Chavez & Crew- Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has made a great deal of political hay in South America by twisting the tail of the United States. With billions of dollars of oil revenue, Chavez has built himself a powerful military, political comfort at home and influence abroad. How will he use his new found power?
     
    Item 9: Putin's New Cold War- America bashing has always been popular in Russia and Putin has decided to jump on the bandwagon after working closely with the US and President Bush early in his term. Is this for domestic consumption or does it indicate a more fundamental change in Russia's foreign policy?
     
    Item 10: Relations With Old Europe- For many years the United States could count on Europe as some of its strongest allies. Now those same governments view the US with suspicion and fear and have large and vocal Anti-American political groups. How will this play out and what will it mean over the next decade?
     
    Item 11: Arab & Israeli Animosity- Simmering tensions in the Middle East can boil over at any time. Although there hasn't been a full scale Arab-Israeli War since the 70s, there were large scale engagements between Israeli-Hezbollah last summer. Anytime tensions blow up here, oil prices go up and the world holds its breath.
     
    Item 12: Iran & Hezbollah- It seems probable that Iran has its hands inside Iraq. They are well known to operate through proxies like Hezbollah. Although it seems improbable now that Iran is a nuclear power, Iran is still a large, powerful and rich adversary that appears to be remarkably well led and trained (in comparison to their Arab neighbors). Will Iran force a confrontation or, God forbid, a war in Iraq or the Gulf?
     
    Item 13: Africa- Always a humanitarian crisis, the US has aways managed to stay out of Africa with the sorry exception of Somalia. Will the US continue to stay out or will a Darfor or Rwandan type crisis draw us in?
     
    Item 14: Immigration- After 9/11 and the creation of the Office of Homeland Security, the US is still loosing the battle against illegal immigration and neither party appears to have the political will to address the problem.
     
    Item 15: Terrorism- The US has not been hit by terrorists since 9/11 however, the current administration has spared no opportunity to enrage practical every govt, political party, religious group and cub scout troop in the world. How long can we keep it up and what will be the consequences next time?
     
    Item 16: North Korea- NK's stock as a bad actor has fallen since they did an underground nuclear test which experts the world over judged to be a "fizzle". However- North Korea still stands as a power threat to our allies, South Korea and Japan. Will Kim Jong-Il continue to capitalize on tensions and events in other parts of the world? Most likely, however, her ability to really harm South Korea drops every year as NK's technology ages and South Korea's advances.
     
    Item 17: Battle Fatigue- the US military has been conducting operations non-stop since... before I can even remember. This has put a critical strain on the military: their tanks, ships, planes and even people are just plain wearing out. Unless billions are put in the pipeline, it will soon become difficult to maintain the current operational tempo on the opposite side of the globe.
     
    Item 18: Environment & International Cooperation- the US rejected the Kyoto accords to fight global warming but remains under pressure from friends, allies and many citizens to do something. The new administration is going to have to decide exactly what and what part American businesses will play and how much it will cost them.
     
    Item 19: States on the Skids- In the 80s, Reagen decided to give back to states the responsibility for a number of programs and services. Now many US states are in serious economic trouble that could trigger record hikes in state and local taxes.
     
    Item 20: Infrastructure- the maintenance of the buildings, bridges, sewers, subways which make up the national infrastructure have been handed over to states who can ill afford it. This years collapse of the Mississippi River Bridge in Minnesota is a wake up call that the national infrastructure can not be ignored forever without serious consequences.
  20. JamesSavik
    Q: What was the last thing to go through Pakistani oppisition leader Benazir Bhutto's mind when she was killed by a suicide bomber?
     
    A: Her hubcaps.
     

     
    A man was riding in the back of his limousine when he saw a man eating grass by the roadside. He ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.
    "Why are you eating grass?" he asked the man.
     
    "I don't have any money for food," the poor man replied.
     
    "Oh, please come to my house!"
     
    "But sir, I have a wife and four children..."
     
    "Bring them along!" the rich man said.
     
    They all climbed into the limo. Once underway, the poor fellow said, "Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us in."
     
    The rich man replied, "No, you don't understand. The grass at my house is over three feet tall!"
     
     

     
     
    Two frat boys on a weekend fishing cruise are blown way out to sea and their boat is crippled.
     
    They are stuck out there for days and run out of food and water.
     
    After a week of being stranded out there, a friendly Genie comes by and grants the two frat brothers 1 wish.
     
    Instantly one of the guys said, "I wish this ocean was really beer."
     
    POOF. Done. The Genie disapeers.
     
    His frat brother looks at him in disgust and says, "I guess you know that now we're going to have to piss in the boat."
     

  21. JamesSavik

    US vs Canada

    By JamesSavik,

    Head to head, the US can't stand on the same field as Canada.
     
    For health care, human rights, progressive vision, a population that understands and supports the value of diversity and dismisses religious fanatics and bigotry: Canada has it all over the US.
     
    This is one match the US had better sleaze its way out of of they'll be reminded what an embarrassment that they really are: the spoiled wretched weak children of strong parents who deserved better: trading freedom for fear, looting the wealth of generations yet to come and allowing the nation to slip into a neo-feudalism that is in fact no better than the third-world warlords that we can't defeat with state of the art firepower.
     
    Now the 2008 election is upon us and what wretched excuses for humanity do the two parties offer us? Queen Hillery? Obama? Huckleberry hound- the Nazi dog from Arkansas who would have sent us all to concentration camps? John "I crashed my plane" McCain? Fred "Law & Order" Thomas?
     
    Pardon my French but Jesus! These clowns couldn't come up with a single working brain if both parties worked together. We have traded the voting booth for a suicide machine.
     
    It is time to move. The bloated caucus of America is dying of dementia and it's time to get out before the whole shit house collapses upon us.
  22. JamesSavik
    When AIDS first appeared, here in Mississippi peoples attitudes were, like every social trend, it won't come here for another twenty years. Unfortunately for a lost generation, they were dead wrong. People started dying in 85. By 1990 the numbers were actually alarming.
     
    In 82 & 83, the HIV virus hadn't even been isolated yet. It acted like a virus but science had never dealt with a retro-virus before. CDC nor anyone else in the medical community knew enough about HIV/AIDS to state anything definitive about it. It appeared to be a virus. It appeared to be sexually transmitted. It appeared to have a long incubation period before the immune system collapsed. It appeared that those who were infected were contagious from four to ten years before before they got sick.
     
    However- at the time no one actually had the smoking gun. Various entities had pieces of the puzzle but bureaucratic rivalries and wrangling by Nobel prize hungry scientists kept many of these institutions from working together or even sharing data. No one in the various health bureaucracies would risk their reputation by making recommendations or issuing guidelines.
     
    In 1984 I worked with an all volunteer team at the University of Southern Mississippi to create a mathematical model of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The results were frightening. Given a geometric growth rate and an average seven year contagious latency period, our model showed that by the 1990s, infections with HIV/AIDS would be in the 10's of millions in the United States alone. We had difficulty publishing our findings. Many journals wanted nothing to do with AIDS, some commented that it was alarmist while others accused us of fear mongering. I left USM in June of 1984 and the results were finally published by a European Infectious Diseases Journal in early 1985.
     
    Worse yet, opportunists like Pat Robinson and Jerry Falwell were preaching that HIV/AIDS was the righteous wrath of an angry God inflicted on homosexuals who had no one to blame but themselves.
     
    Culturally AIDS could not have happened at a worse time. The sexual liberation of the sixties came full circle in the seventies. Gay people were more accepted than at anytime before. Record numbers of people were leaving the closet with no intention of ever going back. Part of that liberation was a permissiveness about sex that by todays standards is shocking. Every big city (and even some smaller ones) had gay bars, caf
  23. JamesSavik

    The New People

    By JamesSavik,

    The New People
     

    Introduction
     
    Hello,
    My name is John Doe,
    All that I as is 10 digits,
    Filed away in a data bank,
    Ten cold digits tell my story,
    Alpha plus is my rank.

    Promise and wonder fill our brave new world,
    Of high technology and analysis,
    No new thoughts are born,
    They are all out worn,
    So we stop thinking and cease to exist.
     
    All we are is what we have seen,
    The latest propaganda to have been:
    A socialist insecurity number,
    A ticket to the big match,
    A big screen color TV.
    A good Sunday ritual,
    A membership in the party,
    In good standing with the moral majority.
     

    The Suburbians
     
    Welcome back my friends to a show that's sure to end,
    A festival of fools,
    A continuium of complacency.
     
    Fighting for the almighty buck,
    With cunning or just plain luck,
    Chasing checks to the bank,
    It's the money that decides your rank.
     
    What is it that we try so hard to buy,
    Something called the American Dream?
    Has become just another a twisted lie,
    We tell ourselves to still desperations silent scream?
     
    Whatever became of our brave new world?
    It's really something for the few,
    All of it's promise has withered and died,
    Killed by accountants in dark gray suites,
    Bureaucrats oh so civilized,
    That see the world through blinded eyes.
     
    Is this purgatory or just the suburbs?
    Where the edges are all smoothed over,
    A velvet limbo before the void:
    Within this rosy wallpaper exist the numbered people,
    Living in a world of pooly written television scripts,
    With plastic lovers and young republican minds.
     

    Rats Racing
     
    Fat cats, mall rats, old bats in expensive hats,
    Kids in cars, jocks in bars, wanna be movie stars,
    Dead heads, red heads, hot lovin newly weds,
    Old men, young skin, trying out a brand new sin,
    Cops in cars, sushi bars, hippies with old guitars,
    Chinese, Japanese, anime sluts on their knees,
    Avenue, Revenue, a river place with a view,
    Young punks, old drunks, opportunistic political skunks,
    Stylish hills, favorite pills, summer time standing still,
    Alley cats, spoiled brats, the morbidly fat,
    Network news, nightly blues, trailer trash in Italian shoes,
    Big wheels, fast deals, corporate licenses to steal,
    Bright lights, urban blight, sneaker inspired fire fights,
    Liquor stores, cheap whores, serial killers keeping score,
    Money madness, chemical gladness, suicidal sadness,
    Fast thrills, utility bills, toxic chemical spills,
    Crack dealers, soul stealers, carnival fire-eaters,
    Garbage men in Pierre Cardin dancing in the winter wind,
    Acid dreams, obscure scenes, cars passing in between,
    Rebellious fire, hot desire, the world at the end of a wire,
    Insane dreams, dying scenes, traffics timeless screams,
    Compassion, out of fashion, feelings in traction,
    Depression, recession, endless mindnumbing concessions,
    Out of breath, wish for death, lose yourself in regret
    No time to catch your wind, before it starts all over again.
     
    True or false, fact or fiction, insane contradictions,
    Run the race, keep the pace or fall flat upon your face,
    Frantic action, dissatisfaction, reflection and reaction,
    Lose to win and win to lose,
    No one gets to choose.
     

    A Day in Suburbia
     
    The plant down the street had an accident with nuclear fission,
    Something is wrong with the Pinto's transmission,
    There's a documentry on the tube about Viet-nam,
    There's a letter in the mail from Billy Graham.
     
    I don't care for spiritual awakening,
    It's just another drug that people are taking,
    That makes the load easier to bear,
    So they mow their lawns and cut their hair.
     
    There is a big meeting of the P.T.A.
    They want to ban books that make kids gay,
    They gather at the river to burn their intellect,
    So that dangerous ideas won't infect.
     
    What is it so dangerous to learn,
    That they would rather see burn?
    Could it be that people might see,
    That it is possible to think and be free?
     

    Suburbian Daddy
     
    Jews, junkies, mental flunkies,
    Fags, and all sorts of freaks,
    Every day they get more spunky,
    They even walk the streets.
     
    Geeks and freaks and fags and drags,
    Is this really modern progress?
    Not that I could give a damn,
    As long as I am a success.
     
    Every day I retreat to the
  24. JamesSavik
    What makes a good Systems Administrator?
     
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
     
    A deep streak of Masochism, very little life and the ability to wake up nice and cheery at 2am to a panicked phone call from an idiot user who has just done something stupid that is going to cost you two weeks work.
     
    At least a BS in Computer Science. With all the BS in this game, you'll need at least that much.
     
    Experience. Of course you can't get a job until you've got experience so the mere existence of systems administrators is a logical impossibility since the first one has never been hired.
     
    The patience of Job (for eventually you will wish to curse God and die).
     
    A good sense of humor - Lest the job should drive you into the SERIAL KILLER business.
     
    Good Communications Skills - So that you can tell a user tactfully and diplomatically that if he (or she) ever does anything as stupid as that again, that you are personally going to choke the living shit out of them.
     
    Good Vendor Interaction Skills - So that you can bribe your service vendors technicians so that they will actually do/perform services as advertised, on time.
     
    Good Networking Skills - So that you actually know that your multi-million dollar network is down and the users aren't just complaining because they haven't got the skills, training or a clue as to how to USE it.
     
    Salesmanship - So that you can get management to actually support your installation with needed capital for necessary training, software, hardware and diagnostic tools rather than tell you : THAT IS WHAT WE PAY YOU TO DO.
     
    A Severe Mental Disorder - So that you do not immediately recognize that the position of Systems Administrator is roughly equilvalent to wearing a "KICK ME, I'm Stupid" T-Shirt.
     
    A Secondary Job Skill - So that when you eventually BURN OUT, you won't starve. You want extra pickle on that?
     
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    As an experienced Systems Administrator, I consider these eleven attributes to essential to a competent SA. But since SA's are only a theoretical possibility (see Above), I myself can not possibly exist, nor can this news group, its corresponding members nor the Internet itself. So this entire discussion is a delusion -a logical paradox which can only exist in the Twilight Zone.
     
    NURSE! GET MY MEDICATION.... I'm having another one of those DAMNED FITS..
  25. JamesSavik
    The Four Cats of the Apocalypse are on the lose!
     

    Catastrophe
     

    Cataclysm
     

    Catty-whumpus
     

    Catatonic
     
     
    Unlike the four horsemen, these guys might pass you by for some milk, tuna, yarn or a nice spot to nap.
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