Tuesday May 1, 2001
Seems like another one of those days were you work yur ass off and get absolutely nothing constructive done...
Lots of stuff going on around the world though... mostly pinheads rioting to celebrate May Day... what sort of turn of mind would tell a person that dressing up like a corncob and reading a diatribe about biologically engineered foods would cause any sane person to say to themselves;
"Well I'll be darned Frankenfood is bad... that corncob just said so... hey! Where can I get one of those corncob suits"
What a bunch of loonies... even if they, by some awesome stretch of the imagination, are nurturing a grain of truth in their ravings how is rioting going to accomplish anything beyond driving away anyone who might possibly be sane enough to help them... Nelson Mandela's quiet wisdom and persistence accomplished more
good for humanity in an afternoon than the army of loonies rioting around the world will ever accomplish... Successful riots, get you martyrs, and a stronger government capable of suppressing the next riot, more laws and meaner police... ask China, Russia, Bosnia...
I wrote to my friend in England... talking about movies...
Do you remember French movie called "Mr. Hulots Holliday", staring Jaques Tati, I remember sitting with my dad watching that silly thing... I was about 10 or 11, I was totally unmoved and he damn near died laughing... he was laughing so hard he could hardly breathe... I found it in a rental place last year and watched it again... by the end I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe... wept a little too... movies get to me sometimes
When My dad died in 1984 the whole family was standing around the bed, a priest from the Episcopal Church was there reading the "Prayer for the dying", as he finished the prayer, dad died... like the prayer gave him permission to let go... it was as though it had been scripted. I said good-bye to him and that was that... his death had been so long coming it was a welcomed relief, almost a joyous occasion, he had suffered so long. He was a serious athlete and in terrific shape, when he came home from a sales trip he would grab a baseball and our mitts and say "Want to play some 'toss'? and we would go outside and throw the ball around for a while... it took the cancer a long time to put him down. I loved my dad a lot but I didn't cry for him then... A movie called "Field of Dreams" came out in 1989 and I watched it on video a year or so later... there is a scene near the end where Ray Liota, turns to Kevin Cosner and says "Would you
like to play 'toss'?" It was completely unexpected and hit me hard, way down in my soul... I cried like a baby for about an hour...
Wednesday May 2, 2001
...Today was total chaos... well it was pretty chaotic... anyway... it was more chaotic than usual... I wasn't feeling real chipper and the kids were more demanding than usual... I was getting seriously grouchy so I am going to bed early...
Thursday May 3, 2001
...I was swapping emails with a small group of folks on AOL who used to use the bulletin board at the Chicago Tribune, they have been heaving zingers at one another for years... I was invited to join in... and I tried... but I was/am about 3 beats behind... I have no history with them so... there I was Rudolph trying to join in all their reindeer games... and generally feeling like an aspiring jerk... the gibberish (here) was part of that... I never sent it to her... too incoherent... I enjoy an intellectual tussle, I like to express my opinion and get feed-back... it wasn't happening... it was like hurling water-balloons... I could almost hear them go splat. Oh well...
This is also the first group I have encountered that is entirely AOL afflicted... (sorry, cheap shot)... it makes for an interesting challenge.
They were talking about an article they had read on AOL, it's first time that I have been unable to access an article that I know is on the net , an aspect of AOL's empire building I hadn't considered till now... I am sure the article ("AOL News: Study Finds More Girls Going to Jail" ) is available elsewhere but I wasn't able to find it... (It was on Yahoo the next morning)
My first ISP was AOL...after inquiring about why I couldn't send or receive an e-mail from my boss who was on one of the local ISP’s...I actually had a AOL Tech Support guy tell me condescendingly... "...we have 20 Million subscribers, you don't need to leave the network to find someone to communicate with." I canceled my subscription the next day. Boy... did he miss the point... There is the Exclusive AOL network, the Exclusive Prodigy Network, the Exclusive Earthlink Network and the not quite as exclusive CompuServe network... and then there is the rest of the Internet... most of the other ISPs' are proud of their services and go out of their way to urge people to come visit and play around... AOL, Prodigy, Earthlink and CompuServe and a few others seem to be under the impression that being exclusive, as opposed to inclusive is the way to go... I think they are really blowing it... To my mind the
Internet is like the Phone Industry was 100 years ago... calling direct outside your local network was impossible, the call needed to be sent through a switchboard to travel from town to town or from company to company... Eventually the government stepped in and forced the companies to share their facilities and forced them to allow direct communication... it will happen on the Internet too... it's time for the "Turf Wars" to end. I noticed AOL is loosening up a bit on access to IM, they even have an icon for ICQ...(they probably bought it)... and they are circumventing the proprietary HTML code they use within their network so that their subscribers can communicate with the outside world and visa-versa without resorting to "Plain Text".
AOL and the others will change when their subscribers demand to share features and access with friends who are not on AOL... AOL's response now is to tell their subscribers that they will have to get their friends to leave the service they currently have and join AOL... the problem for AOL being, people who have been on the Net with regular ISP's wouldn't put up with AOL's Big Brother - we know what you need - we know what's good for you - we will protect you from yourself, BS.
I am going to try to figure out a way to get that motorcycle... I need a couple more adventures before I croak. Realistically speaking I can plan on about 10 more good years... I hope... longevity is not a positive genetic attribute in my family... average age recently appears to be about 68... 10 years... there is a lot I want to get done...
Autumn and I had a good day today... the more I am around her the more I want to be around her... she is so oblivious to her condition... I want to prolong the intrusion of reality as long as possible... she is such a happy little imp...
I took Mike to "Open House" at his school... I met his art teacher... the Art Classroom is pretty awesome... they are working on Medieval themes now... the room is full of catapults, castles, armor, period dresses... pretty cool... Wish I had seen clay, paint, brushes and stuff... guess the budget doesn't cover stuff like that...
Just finished a small glass of Merlot... not to my liking, seems too thin... making me drowsy...
Friday May 4, 2001
On May 4, 1970, Ohio
National Guardsmen opened fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University,
killing four students and wounding nine others.
Christy was gone all day, she had to give a talk at DCFS in the morning and in the afternoon she was at a class...she brought home pizza for us...
The girls went out and played horseshoes... Calie is pretty good for a 10 year old, Cindy was so excited when Calie got a ringer... she actually got three ringers... Cindy was so proud of her sister... I wish Calie could find a way to be proud of Cindy...
Mike worked on his track for about 45 minutes... looking pretty good...
Had another blow up with Mike tonight... Hard to explain why I got so mad...but I'll try... We talked earlier about Mike going over to B's house... I said... No, not unless I talk to his Mom first... the last time I took him over there (over a year ago) I got a call from his irate Mom that asked me why I had dropped off Mike when there was no one there to supervise them but a 14 year old girl. I had been told that his mother was there... Brian lied to Mike and/or Mike lied to me...
After I had said "No" about going over to B's house Mike brought me the phone and said "Here, talk to his parents" I said "Hi"... the Dad said "Hello" I said "The boys want to get together at your house tomorrow" Mike said "No, tonight!" he hadn't told me he wanted me to drive him over there tonight... I hate being set up and blindsided... I told the dad "I'm sorry, I need to talk to my son and find out what's going on"... he said "So do I".... Now, this "Friend" ripped off his GameBoy last year and still hasn't given it back, he lied and stole and called Mike names... "But he's changed dad!" Jeese... Mike is such a babe in the woods... clueless... guys like B don't wake up one day and smell the roses... the kid is trouble... I have met him and ... well hell, here I go passing judgment... damn... I dislike that kid instinctively... I
also dislike the idea that Mike wants to be around him because he has a
"Quad" ...
Autumn stopped calling me Da' a while back... now she calls me Daa--Dee... she owns me... I think she may even know it
Saturday May 5, 2001
Autumn had another seizure this afternoon... it was a little more involved than I am used to... she was up and walking around an hour later, but she was weak... she fell asleep on my chest while I was watching the race... We got the results back from her blood test last Wednesday and the test shows the Phenobarbital level is fine... we need to get in and see the Neurologist again... there have been too many seizures lately...
I spent $19.95 to watch a Motorcycle race on Pay-per-view... Usually you get to see a couple heat races and the final... this was the whole show, 125's and 250's 6 heat races and two finals... worth every penny (to me)... especially considering it would have cost about 250 bucks to see it live in Las Vegas... It was a very good race...
Mike is at his "friend" Brian's house... he is spending the night... I am not happy about this.
Sunday May 6, 2001
This is the first cartoon that I have laughed out loud at in a while... sometimes when these cartoons strike close to home it really cracks me up.
Christy has an IEP to attend in Orange, Ca (Down two and a half hours south of here, they live a few blocks from Knott's Berry Farm) tomorrow. The IEP is for a member of the Foster Family that raised Autumn till she was three. They asked that Christy come down and give her some support in getting some services for another one of their kids... There is no way Christy can get there on time unless she goes down this evening and rents a room... she is going to take Autumn and Christian with her... should be an interesting adventure. I found out today that they made reservations for her and they are paying for the room... (Christy doesn't know that yet)... they are real nice folks.
Calie wants to go to the park...
Park didn't work out... Christy, Christian and Autumn left about 1300, I took the girls down to Don Cuco's Restaurant (next time I will buy them Happy Meals, they left the entrée on the plate and ate french fries ) and then I took them to the video place and told them they could rent any two movies ( I rented two too) worked out pretty good, I watched a couple movies in peace and relative quiet and so did they... except for the water fight and the name calling incident it was a pretty tranquil afternoon... Incidentally, I watched The Negotiator, Samuel L. Jackson and Keven Spacey... a very good movie...
