JamesSavik

I'm 150 miles north of New Orleans. The hurricane is expected to be on top of us here in Jackson by tomorrow afternoon at Cat 3 strength. Katrina is some 400 miles wide affecting everything from Destin, FL to Innercoastal city, LA- and of course ALL of Mississippi's gulf coast. The whole state is shut down. No school or work until at least Tuesday, probably longer. This may be the worst hurricane ever to hit the US. Here in Jackson as of about 2:00am local we're just beginning to see rain. Wind has been increasing steadily since 10pm. The emergency management people have ordered that all mobile homes and wooden structures south of I-20 be evacuated by 10:00am latest. This is a brick house and we're riding it out. There is the potential for utility disruptions so you may not hear from me for a while but don't worry. Hurricanes kick the crap out of us regulary and we know what to do. -JS

I am off that foul medication. I now have $80 worth of crap to flush. I'm guessing it wasn't supposed to do that. It wasn't really a rampage. More of a...yeah, I guess you'd call it a rampage. That crap really brought out the delinquent in me. Sad part is, I haven't had so much fun in years. Nobody got arrested so we'll just keep this to ourselves.

Yup. The Beast is way off his leash. Woof! Due to a change in the medication that they dart me with everyday to keep me from eating the tourist, the Beast is in a MaNiC state. Usually this isn't such a bad thing until he gets arrested. Damn cops have no bloody sense of humor. OK, so I spray painted the mayor is a putz in hunter's orange on city hall. It's true. What's the deal? So I took some liberties with the virtues of the young men in our village. I DID. Now they won't stop calling me. So I hacked a porn DVD into our Cable TV's downlink station. At least it was good porn, and it was damn sure better than their programming. WTF is everybody so upset for and why do I need a lawyer? I make this place a hell of a lot more interesting just by being here. Leash-law my @ss!

I had a bad burrito at Sal's Thursday afternoon. I knew that a Xanex and mushroom burrito didn't sound like such a good idea but what the hell- anything with con quesa sauce on it is wonderful. But I digress. This magical burrito opened my eyes to the true way. The one way. The one true way that only hallucinating people of vision can see: Pirates! The decline of Pirates are responsible for the decline of modern civilization. It's true! Pirates are the Master's tools of entropy spreading their particular brand of chaos across the world. That chaos has a ripple effect that keeps the destructive energy of other systems in check. Since pirates have been on a steady decline since the 1800s and are now reaching critical lows, the world is being afflicted with war, disease, global warming at a terrifying escalating rate. Therefore, it is imperative that we train and equip a new generation of Pirates or the world will ultimately be destroyed. The will and knowledge of our great Lord and Master-- the Flying Spaghetti Monster, be done. RaMen! Church of the Holy Flying Spaghetti Monster

I don't need a program or astrology to tell that I'm 100% compatable with Ryan Phillipe.

I am a long time X-men fan and Beast is sort of a role model for myself- big and dangerous but smart and gentle.

And Yes- you read that right- a gradual student. I got a Computer Scieence degree in 1986. It is pre-Internet so it needs a serious booster shot. I'm taking Network Systems, C++ and Web design. Seems I'll be busy for a while and might learn something useful. It's kinda fun going back to school at my age. All the kids treated me with the utmost respect thinking that I may be taching one of their classes.

I'm in the middle of a collaborative project called Collision. It's a round-robin mystery and it runs at a bunch of sites. Collaborations are difficult unless you set up some ground rules and stick with them. If you would like, I can email you some insider documents that we used with our project to help keep the wheels from flying off.

Anybody listen to Bright Eyes? I saw a snippet of them on Logo late at night while I was changing channels. What I heard sounded OK, kinda weak compaired to what I usually listen to. I like some metal edge/power in my music so that I can turn it up and drive away the Baptist when they encroach on my territory. _________________________________________________________ A long time ago some idiot revivalist came to our school encouraging us to bring our albums (off of a list) to his crusade so that he could burn them. You can guess who was on his list. Kiss, Black Sabbath, the usual suspects. When I saw Rush, Pink Floyd, Yes, and Kansas on his list, I asked him why and he couldn't give me a straight answer. It was clear that he had never heard of the groups and didn't know what the hell he was talking about. I got sent to the office for arguing with him about it. Seems you're not supposed to disagree with a preacher- especially when he's outrageously and embarrassingly full of sh*t.

I'm not exactly "new" but... I discovered Comicality's "My Only Escape" on deBeagle and came here for more of his stuff.

Feed the cat cause there's no peace while he's hungry! Sometimes I wonder if he's really a cat or a fuzzy pig.

Which is which?

Sorry but I think that the answer is clear as mud. Yes and no. Yes- I think that it would sell better than expected. No- part of the appeal of online fiction is that it is free and anonymous. People that would NEVER, EVER buy a copy of the Advocate at their local Barnes&Nobles or Borders can and do access it on the net so that they can read without outing themselves. Another thing that would cause a LOT of contreversy is the age of the characters in some of the stories. The good Reverund Wildmon would pop a gasket. It's not that teenagers NEVER have sex. Our society has been so in denial of it for so long that it might come as a rude but necessary shock. Why is it that every time the teenage pregnancy numbers come out, everyone is so shocked?

I like the dark. Dark for dark business. Besides, if the sun hits me just right, I collapse into a pile of ashes... Whups, I've said too much. If some nut that calls himself van Helsing asks, I wasn't here.

Happy birthday Julian- Hummm... another Leo. RRRROOOAAARRR! -JS

I hate coffee, am deathly allergic to eggs and am not at all fond of carrots.

I'm going back to school this fall. I got a Computer Science degree in '86 P. I. (Pre-Internet). Now I'm going back to recharge. So if you see a geezer in class this fall, don't laugh (please).

Tom Clancy has a whole lot of fans and I'm curious: of the four Clancy novels made into feature films, who made the best Jack Ryan? It's hard to bet against Harrison Ford but Alec Baldwin and Ben Affleck were both pretty good.

Here's my QAF question: Who is Hunter and has he done anything else?

Guys- You are writing, not doing calculus. No points are deducted if you fail to show your work. When I write, I create a list of characters, make a few notes about them and do a rough outline. Nothing fancy and nothing that I would even remotely call organization. Very few writers write by formula, and those that do look formulaic. Writing gets it written. Thinking about it too hard only makes makes you tense. I think that getting your ideas out on paper (or saved to a document file) is the important part. Once you have it, editing, fine tuning, expansion or retraction are possible. You can even say screw it and start from scratch. If it is stuck in your head, all it will do is give you a headache. To borrow from Nike, "Just write it!" -JS

Well, there's an upside to everything I suppose.

Update: Well here's the news. Good news first: It's treatable and we caught it early. Bad news: I've got glaucoma. Conclusion: I'm not fond of optomologist. They tell me things that I don't want to hear and they poke me in the eyes.

Dave & Chris- Greif sucks and like it or not you're in it. I won't go own with the psyco-babble about it's stages and what not but the numbness that you describe is very typical. As this is your first loss to death, it's important that you learn to deal with it because as you get older, it is inevitable that you will lose other people that are dear to you. You can cope with it and go on or stuff the feelings and leave yourself with an emotional timebomb inside. Take a look at the info on this site. I think you'll find it useful. Link>>Good Greif You have my sincere condolences, JS