Category Archives: LiveJournal Imports

To Be Young, Gifted and Black

This week marks the passing of two great women. Nina Simone, who was known and loved throughout the world as a jazz singer and (more importantly) civil rights activist, and the less-known Anita Borg, a computer scientist who was one of the first people to recognize the digital divide, and work to ensure that emerging technologies don’t further stratify the underprivileged.

Their social awareness and willingness to act against explicit and implicit discrimination made the world a better place, and they will be missed.

More Dreams…

In my dreams, I know only grey skies and the taste of asphalt.

Through a maze of back alleys and scorched fields I try for freedom, the smell of burning cities drives me as much as what will happen when they find me.

Raven’s Skeleton, my totem, is here. We are bleached white and broken, we are bound.

Virtual Avenger speaks!

Matt Haughey ruminates on becoming an online dinosaur.

I’ve been online for most of my life, and so many of my first usernames were OS-dictated. bg414, jp0579, those kinds of things. Even when choosing my own username became possible (and later, when the eight-character limit was raised) I tended to keep things simple. I had one or two handles that I used regularly, but I never used my real name.

Only recently have I dropped the wall that I kept between my online life and my personal life (years of h/p/a/c/v BBSing taught me to never let any information follow you back to where you sleep), and I relate to a lot of the sentiments expressed in Matt’s journal.

Signing things as ‘Twiin’ just feels a bit more silly every day.

A Chill Wind

More Tim Robbins – A Transcript of Robbins’ Speech to the National Press Club:

“In the 19 months since 9-11, we have seen our democracy compromised by fear and hatred. Basic inalienable rights, due process, the sanctity of the home have been quickly compromised in a climate of fear. A unified American public has grown bitterly divided, and a world population that had profound sympathy and support for us has grown contemptuous and distrustful, viewing us as we once viewed the Soviet Union, as a rogue state. “

Long live the ’69 Mets

Tim Robbins vs. the Baseball Hall of Fame:

“I wish you had, in your letter, saved me the rhetoric and talked honestly about your ties to the Bush and Reagan Administrations. You are using what power you have to infringe upon my rights to free speech and by taking this action hope to intimidate the millions of others that disagree with our president. In doing so, you expose yourself as a tool, blinded by partisanship and ambition. You invoke patriotism and use words like freedom in an attempt to intimidate and bully.”

American War Crimes, first in a series.

Think of the children: “I think they thought we wouldn’t shoot kids. But we showed them we don’t care.”

Cluster bombing for fun and profit: “Described as “a horror,” two nights of U.S. bombing produced babies cut in half, dozens of severed bodies, and scattered limbs. The victims were farmers and their families. There were no Iraqi artillery, Republican guard troops or military installations within miles.”

hmm….

An Open Letter to My Insurance Company:

Dear Company,

This is Jairus. You may remember me from a claim I filed over two months ago. As you may recall, I injured my leg while I was at work, and although I am not seeking workman’s comp related damages for this claim, I had asked for coverage under the ‘Short Term Disability’ coverage that I have with your organization.

This is taking some time. In the interests of resolving this situation quickly, allow me explain my situation to you.

As you may know, I earn twelve dollars an hour. After deductions for EI, CPP, taxes, insurance premiums, and various other costs, I receive an average of twelve hundred dollars take-home pay. I don’t know if you are familiar with the costs of living in Ottawa, but this income rate puts me beneath the poverty line, meaning I live month to month, or am ‘poor’. Having been without pay for over two months, therefore, is a problem to me. Not having any money would be my first problem, most of my other problems follow directly from that.

I cannot afford to take a cab to my doctor’s for continued monitoring of my injury. I cannot afford to purchase a leg brace which I have been prescribed by said doctor for treatment of my injury. Food supplies are reaching critical levels, and most of the food I own I cannot eat due to a pressing dental surgery need, for which I have no money. I am receiving threatening notices from my utility companies in a variety of colours which state in no uncertain terms that I must remit hundreds of dollars. This, although quite threatening indeed, is overshadowed by the fact that I owe my landlord a sum that is orders of magnitude larger, which if left unresolved will eliminate any need for paying future utilities, as I will not have a house to live in.

In short, this knee injury is ruining my life. If this pattern continues, it is not unreasonable to expect that I will eventually end up homeless, without the ability to receive the medical attention I require to recover fully.

The fear of a chain of events of this nature is what led me to purchase insurance coverage, some many months ago. In the event that I was unable to work, I thought to myself, an insurance policy will take care of my immediate financial needs, while allowing me to take care of my injury, so that I am able to return to work.

Listen.

This cannot be allowed to continue. Every day that you stall for more information, hoping that my claim is frivolous or without grounds, hoping that I’ll tire of endless calls, faxes, forms, and touch-tone telephone prompts, my chances of permanent damage rise to approach certainty. Perhaps worse, every day that passes is another day where I lose access to critical resources, and accrue unreasonable and unnecessary debt.

This has to end. Soon.

…

I hear my bones grinding, the sound of dead wood escaping my skin. My reflection isn’t who I think I am, eyeballs looking out from grey, boney sockets, and a week’s worth of growth when I swear I shaved yesterday.

Seven in the morning, and another night without sleep.

Not pretty at all

5000 people marched in Ottawa on Saturday, while more than a quarter of that
number were arrested in San Francisco during a peace rally.

In Baghdad, “Salam Pax” (a pseudonym composed of the Arabic and Latin
words for peace) writes:

23/3
8:30pm (day4)
we start counting the hours from the moment one of the news channels report
that the B52s have left their airfield. It takes them around 6 hours to get
to Iraq. On the first day of the bombing it worked precisely. Yesterday we were
a bit surprised that after 6 hours bombs didn’t start falling. The attacks
on Baghdad were much less than two days ago. We found out today in the news
that the city of Tikrit got the hell bombed out of it. To day the B52s took
off at 3pm, on half an hour we will know whether it is Baghdad tonight or another
city. Karbala was also hit last night.
Today’s (and last night’s) shock attacks didn’t come from
airplanes but rather from the airwaves. The images Al-jazeera is broadcasting
are beyond any description.

[Presidential Documents]
[Page 12565-12568]
[DOCID:fr14mr03-106]

Executive Order 13289–Establishing the Global War on Terrorism Medals

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the
laws of the United States of America, including my authority as Commander in
Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. There is hereby
established the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal with suitable appurtenances.
Except as limited in section 3 of this order, and under uniform regulations
to be prescribed by the Secretaries of the military departments and approved
by the Secretary of Defense, or under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary
of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating
as a service in the Navy, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal shall
be awarded to members of the Armed Forces of the United States who serve or
have served in military expeditions to combat terrorism, as defined by such
regulations, on or after September 11, 2001, and before a terminal date to be
prescribed by the Secretary of Defense.

(Presidential Sig.)B

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Pre 9/11, the Taliban were officially invited to Houston, stayed in a five-star
hotel and were chauffeured in corporate minibuses. The Taliban representatives
“were amazed” by the luxurious homes of Texan oil barons, and invited
to dinner at the palatial home of Martin Miller, a vice-president of Unocal.

America gives aid to the Taliban, praising its draconic anti-drug laws. This
is, until the Taliban refuse to build an oil pipeline that best serves the needs
of America.

Unocal exec John Maresca
to the House: “… we have made it clear that construction of our proposed
pipeline cannot begin until a recognized government is in place that has the
confidence of governments, lenders and our company.”

(2,792 WTC Workers, 3400 Afghani civilians and one regime change later)

Bush:
“Peace will be achieved by helping Afghanistan develop its own stable government.
Peace will be achieved by helping Afghanistan train and develop its own national
army. And peace will be achieved through an education system for boys and girls
that works.”

BBC: “Afghanistan
hopes to strike a deal later this month to build a $2bn pipeline through the
country to take gas from energy-rich Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India.
Afghan interim ruler Hamid Karzai is to hold talks with his Pakistani and Turkmenistan
counterparts later this month on Afghanistan’s biggest foreign investment project,
said Mohammad Alim Razim, minister for Mines and Industries told Reuters […]
Mr Razim said US energy company Unocal was the “lead company” among
those that would build the pipeline, which would bring 30bn cubic meters of
Turkmen gas to market annually.”

The news is silent as to how quality of life for the average Afghani has improved.
But we know it’ll work in Iraq this time. We only have the interests of the
Iraqi public in mind.

American Propaganda Leaflet: “Do not destroy oil wells.”

The Washington Times: Halliburton awarded contract for proposed ‘rehabilitation’ of Iraqi oil resources. Former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney unavailable for comment.

Something softer

Hair between my fingers, I screamed to make the noise stop to just make it quiet in my head, if only for an instant.

She couldn’t hear me this time; she was crying, she had to be crying, the way I am, with how I deal with these things. I don’t know how she could know me and not cry.

I can’t tell how long I’ve been like this. Months? Years? Everything turns blue when I try to remember. Nothing makes any sense, nothing tells me what I need to know, what I need to do to just turn it off.

Two hundred miles away, I was the one being wronged.

…

I’ve never been able to express how strongly I feel about her, and so I shy away from the attempt for fear of misrepresenting myself. By doing so, I misrepresent her.

How I feel can only be expressed in the space between words.

…

I walked with five thousand angry people to protest the war on Iraq, but it was an impotent anger. As a Canadian, there’s no real target for me to direct my rage, no culpable authority to subvert.

I watched Iraqi mothers and Israeli citizens alike scream at the American embassy, but the five RCMP officers that were there to keep the peace and take photographs made it difficult to maintain any sense of imminent threat; just five tired men working crowd control, and an empty grey monolith with the American eagle on the door.

Sleep or Übersleep?

The Uberman’s Sleep Schedule is a method of scheduling your waking hours so that you jump almost immediately to stage 5 (REM) unconsciousness when you fall asleep, allowing you to function up to twenty-two hours a day.

In essence, the technique involves a series of twenty-minute power naps throughout the day to allow your brain to get the necessary amount of REM sleep. Leonardo Da Vinci used this technique to great success throughout his life, as did Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and many others.

The drawback is that large periods of uninterrupted activity are nearly impossible, as your body becomes very reliant on rest periods every four or five hours. If you miss a nap, you’ll be exhausted for a day. If you oversleep, you’ll be exhausted for two.

I used this technique myself for about nine months, during which time I was energetic, social, healthy, and frighteningly productive. Not to mention, I didn’t experience any sleep apnea or nightmares, both of which I normally suffer from.

I was, however, very high for the first week.

French Fries?

A comparison of French and American school cafeteria offerings:

French: Iceberg lettuce with radishes and vinaigrette, grilled fish with lemon, stewed carrots, emmental cheese, apple tart.
American: Zweigel’s™ hot dog on a roll with tater tots .

French: Potato salad, filet of fish with creamed celery, sauteed lima beans, yogurt, fruit.
American: Stuffed crust cheese and pepperoni pizza.

“The dirty fact about American school lunches is that they are a dumping ground for surplus and substandard beef, chicken and dairy products. Many of these foods cannot be served fresh because they would be too dangerous to eat. This is especially true for ground meat, which is at times so contaminated with bacteria that it would not be legal to sell it in a supermarket. “