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PHOENIX, AZ, USA - 8 December, 2004: Okay, maybe just a little of the minutiae:
9 December, 2004: I've developed a new theory about the "success" of this column. I've come to believe that the reason so m any readers come to this Glass House is two-fold:
- It's been raining here. That has added a new wrinkle to my tobacco salvaging operations (a.k.a. "the Butt Run".) It's necessary to find fatter butts, when I can, so that I can dry the tobacco on aluminum foil in the oven.
- We knew the turkey wouldn't last forever.
I figured, this week, that cave people must have discovered bread long before they figured out how to domesticate the other animals around them. That meant that if I had flour (which I do) and salt (got more the last time I had money) all I needed to do was add water to make some form of bread. It worked!
After a couple of rough experiments, where what came out of the oven resembled crackers more than biscuits, I was able to make little dough nuggets that had the soft texture of cookies and stopped tearing my mouth apart.
- My skin. Well, you know, Luv, that I've had this problem of hives when under a lot of stress and anxiety. Things must be going great because my face is just a minefield. Between the pimples, blackheads and general growth, shaving -- the part I do shave around the beard -- has become a blood sport.
I hate to be my usual Biercian self here but, from today's perspective, I have to believe it's the first group of Loyal Readers who have it most spot-on rather than the second. As I've said many times before, bad things do happen to good people. Sometimes, despite hope, faith, good effort and innocence, you still get ground under the wheels of the oncoming train, the cruise missile does land in your living room, the vampire does clamp his fangs into your jugular vein.
- The ghoulish fascination that everyone has with WATCHING A TRAIN WRECK. As horrible as the gore is, some people can't take their eyes away from it, and;
- The misplaced hope that this is another of those universal survivor tales and that, after long-suffering, salvation and/or redemption will accrue.
That is why I have taken the rather sanguine attitude, exhibited at the opening of the previous journal entry, that some of you have lamented to me privately. What else can I do? I have given it another herculean shot and all I have gotten for the effort is more chaff, more false hopes, more godawful rotten breaks. Welcome to Life in Hell.
Everyone has a request. The jocular response goes, "Yeah, and people in Hell want ice water."
Matt Groening, that brilliant fellow behind the television satire "The Simpsons," also used to do a cartoon called "Life in Hell." It featured two guys, who looked identical and each wore a fez, who made various comments on the state of existence. They did it from the same kind of distance that I lamented myself taking two editions ago when looking at my own plight.
Upon reflection, I have to accept that when you find yourself relegated to Hell, you must needs take a certain detached stance or you will find yourself simply crying all the time. Nobody wants that. It's undignified. So, instead, you must either make jokes or take a less demonstrative form of detachment, no? That is what I do, even here, my darling.
Thomas de Zengotita, in the December issue of Harper's magazine, ["Attack of the Superzeroes" - Sorry, Harper's doesn't feature on their Web site at this writing. - RA] makes the case that many of the most popular manifestations on the Internet, certainly blogs, the once all-the-rage rant sites and most definitely memoiristic columns like this one, are all very self-conscious forms of performance art. In a larger argument about why it is impossible to have authentic heroes in a mediated society like our own, he asserts that part of the reason for the explosive growth of features like this one is that all we spectators have become -- to some degree -- the stars in our little performances.
I've long accepted, and asserted as much here, that what I do in this Glass House is a performance. I have consciously taken all the skills and tricks of both my journalistic and other writing experience and put them to use as part of this presentation since its inception. What you get, raw as much of some of the confessional material is here, is nonetheless mediated and therefore -- in one sense -- artifice. That is what writers do.
Take it one step further and, while accepting also that what I present here is evidently my personal version of the truth of my experience, you and I must also acknowledge that you don't get every single detail of that experience. Again, it is mediated. I don't take you to the lavatory with me.
Part of that performance, and in keeping with the vision I have for this column, are features like "News to Rod" which take you away from my personal experience and the train wreck per se while also providing you with the currents in the Zeitgeist that inform my thinking. Less navel-gazing more social critique.
So, back to the bifurcated nature of this column, it is just as likely that one day it -- along with the magazine -- will simply cease to be updated. In fact, that is a much more likely result than that I shall suddenly have my "ship come in." You need to face that, my love, as I have. Which inevitably leads to the conclusion that much of your fascination with this column and my obsession with continuing it, has everything to do with the train wreck and almost nothing to do with sympathy, on your side, or hope of salvation or redemption on my own.
Tough stuff, I know, but a logical and self-evident conclusion ...
NEWS TO ROD
ITEM ONE: It should come as no surprise to longtime Readers that I subscribe to the Human Rights Watch newsletter. Thus, as we move into this Season when the focus (we claim) is on children and their hopes, I am distressed that I only read more bad news about the children of Brazil.The crisis, and that is what it has been for a decade or longer now, of the street children and subsequently incarcerated children in this large South American country has never received the attention it deserves. Brazil's President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, announced a new action plan for his country's children last year that included major reform of conditions in juvenile detention centers. Thus far, NOTHING has happened. Evidence, this latest press release and report from Human Rights Watch. Please take a moment to read it and drop a line to the Brazilian government with me.
APOLOGY: Last week, I attempted to link you to a New York Newsday opinion piece on new Homeland Security Tsar-designate Bernard Kerik but failed to get the link right. My apologies. So here's an overview of some New York City sentiment from the Village Voice that will help.
12 December, 2004: You know by now that, as of Friday night, we don't have Bernie Kerik to kick around in this space anymore. You can read the New York Times post mortem here: "Kerik's Position Was Untenable, Bush Aide Says". [Registration required.]
I'm only a bit surprised that they didn't give more play to his alleged skimming while running the Riker's Island commissary or his ties to Arizona's Taser, Inc. $6.2 million (USD) is nothing to sneeze at for being a flak.
When Bernie was nominated, as a former Manhattan resident, all I could do was wag my head. Like a lot of New Yorkers, I have little good to say about the guy. That he's a Giuliani crony meant different things to me than some people. I was there. I remember what it was like during that mayor's tenure. I remember that Amadou Diallo was shot during Sir Rudy's watch and that the mayor insisted on supporting the police, his reflexive response no matter what the abuses.
Good riddance.
ITEM TWO: The Big Event of the week, from this quarter, was seeing U. S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld actually take questions from America's uniformed troops in a forum in Kuwait. Mr. Rumsfeld was originally scheduled to go to Iraq but plans were changed. Instead he met troops forty miles south of that embattled country. (No, Victoria, there are not any security concerns about Iraq these days. That's why the elections will go on as scheduled.)
We learn from our Link Partners over at The Raw Story that a reporter actually coached one of the troops asking a question at this session. You can follow the link provided to read a copy of that reporter's e-mail to his colleagues. For once an embed worked out. You gottah love it!
ITEM THREE: The Blogosphere & Its Discontents Departmen t - One thing you can look forward to in the coming year, Dear Surfer, is a lot more intensity in the sniping that goes on between your First Tier Bloggers and the Mouthpiece Media (MM). This is to be expected as the Blogsphere continues to grow and certain of these Bloggers become more popular and financially viable. (See Wonkette.)
They (the MM, the Bloggers) are ultimately competing for the same eyeballs. So are we here at Your World's Magazine. We've been fortunate, in one way of thinking, because as a Second (maybe even Third, ahem!) Tier Web presence, we remain under the radar screen of most the attack dogs of both the neocons and the MM. The week that G21 gets a million page views is the week that our advertisers will finally be able to send us a check for more than eighty-three cents (our average weekly ad revenue from your generous click-throughs.)
The indications are already out there that the First Tier Blogs and the MM are sharpening their knives for a major throw-down. Fasten your seat belts, Luvs.
A small, independent and outspoken magazine like this one can't reach you every week without the support and patronage of its readership. As our way of thanking those who have committed to keep your World's Magazine here on your desktop through their generous donations, we feature their names and cities here in our Roll of Honor.
SUSTAINING PATRONS
CHERYL HILL NATION,
West Fairlee, VT, USADARHL STULTZ,
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Sebastopol, CA, USATIMOTHY MEADOWS,
Anaheim, CA, USA
Supporting PatronsBARBARA ATWELL,
Berkeley, CA, USA
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Houston, TX, USA
IAN CRYSTAL, Ph. D,
New Orleans, LA, USA
LARS KEFFERSTAN,
New York, NY, USA
MEREDITH TUPPER,
Tampa, FL, USA
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New York, NY, USAWe encourage you to add your name to this Roll of Honor. GENERATOR 21 cannot continue and thrive without your support. Thanks in advance.
To support G21, please send checks or money orders to:
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Please make all remittances payable to Rod Amis. Again, thanks.
MORE FROM ROD'S PHOTO ALBUM
10 December, 2004: Well, I've gotten in more pics this week, which I'll share with you here, my little loves.
The first two come from that woman in Vermont.
They're from a city on the Chinese/Russian border, in China, that celebrates each winter with an ice carving festival. I found these images breath-taking and enchanting and hope you will, too. I especially loved the shot taken from the Great Wall.
READERSHIP POLL: IT'S ONE OF OUR LONGEST RUNNING TRADITIONS. Yes, once again this year we ask for your nominations for the Bottom Ten People of 2004. Who made the world a worse place to live this year? Whose actions could we have done without? Send us your nominees for the Scum of the Earth.
DEADLINE: 31 December, 2004. The Losers will be featured in our first edition of 2005. Thanks in advance!
After that, my friend in DC, the inveterate jokester, sent me this view of a Swiss toilet that uses one-way mirrors as walls. I like use of technology that stretches our perceptions this way.
His e-mail ended with the question, "Would you use one of these?"
The G21 Christmas Wish List
One or more Iomega 100 Mg. Zip disks (Macintosh compatible) so that Rod's computer can off-store files and gain more disk space
- Food (This category does always include chocolate.)
- Cigarettes (My brand is American Spirit Non-filters)
- A new battery for Victoria (the Edtior's computer) so that we can be mobile again
- A bottle of Glenlivet Scotch
- Capitalization of the magazine so that this danged (Thanks, Tom Hart!) place can hire its hard-working Editor
- A new pair of comfortable shoes.
ROD ON APPLE COMPUTER
As Loyal Readers know, I've been a long-time Mac addict and booster of Apple Computer. It got me into trouble occasionally back when I was technology columnist. In fact, I was the only columnist and, later, manager in the company who ordered a Macintosh when the company offered to spring for a traveling machine. This Web site moved from its (proud) "Made on a Mac" logo to the "Think Different" emblem (Yes, it still links to the Apple Computer Web site) which has graced this page for years now.
Watching the "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" this past Friday, I was chuffed to see one of my predictions from the tech column days be vindicated. I said, when Steve Jobs returned to the helm of Apple Computer and immediately declared to the faithful that Apple Computer was not about being the Windoze killer and not in any conflict with Microsoft Corporation -- to outrage and boos -- that Apple Computer's new strategy was to be the Sony of the 21st Century. I think the iMac, applications like iTunes, iMovie, etc. and the raging successful iPod bear my prediction out. I think Sony is worried today because the iPod is the biggest portable music accessory on the planet. The iPod is now the Walkman of the 21st Century.
It feels wonderful when you're proven right.
FEED THE HUNGRY. You can help someone else in this world and IT WON'T COST YOU A DIME. If you simply remember to drop by The Hunger Site every day that you surf and click a simple button ONE LESS PERSON WILL GO HUNGRY. The food is distributed by the United Nations World Food Programme and paid for through the sponsorship of companies that care. Do your part.
11 December, 2004: TODAY IS ANOTHER RED LETTER DAY in Life of Rod. No sooner had I finished reading and editing RAHEEM's Christmas Story for this edition than in the mail arrived a holiday card and donation from one of you Loyal Readers. As though to confirm the message of the article, the handwritten inscription in the card read:Rod,Peace, something I pray for every day, was the theme of the card, as well. It featured a graphic of children of variety backgrounds playing together in the snow ...Congratulations on surviving another year! We need your wit and wi sdom around during these insane times. Peace, Meredith"
I dashed out and bought more coffee (I had just run out,) and rice, jalapenos, carrots, onions, peanuts, bath soap and toothpaste. I thanked the Unknown God and the Universe and providence for making this beautiful day a bit nicer. It is a beautiful day here in Phoenix today. The temperature is actually close to eighty degrees Fahrenheit, there is not a cloud in the sky. For the first time in three weekends it is not raining here. People are out and about celebrating the break from the unusual inclement weather here. It has been cold and rainy for so many weeks that we'd almost forgotten we live in the desert.
Now that I am back from the shopping, I have brewed a quick tankard of coffee -- Café Bustelo: Todtado y molido para el gusto Hispano! (They claim to be the #1 selling Cuban coffee in the U.S.) -- and am ready to take on producing this new edition with vengeance.
12 December, 2004: I have tried to keep "positive" and not thinking about the swords of Damocles that hover above my head. I have focused on the work of this magazine, making contacts in my field (writing, journalism,) sending out queries right and left, believing that I shall get some "Cosmic Nudge" that will avert that crash and burn that seems coming right for me in time for Christmas.Doug is leaving town at the first of the year, so I have to find a means of swinging this apartment and its attendant bills on my own. The rent isn't paid and my landlady expects it this week, while I have no clue what I'll get paid from my Day Job tutoring -- but know it won't be much or enough -- and school's about to go out-of-session, which means no new classes until after the first of the year. I've applied for public assistance vis food but can't bring myself to go beyond that. Just can't. I want to believe that there's a job out there waiting for me. So I keep dropping off and sending out resumés ...
But I'll tell you something, Darlin': hard as I try to laugh, it still feels a lot like life in Hell to me.
Thanks for coming back this week.
THINGS I PRAY FOR THIS WEEK
1. A more reliable and remunerative job.
2. Respite from constant worry.
3. Keeping my apartment.
"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching ... "
Love,
Rod
Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS magazine, which appeared both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, reaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.
In 2002, he worked as Assistant to the General Manager of a Big Easy company that does restaurants and nightclubs. He did stints as the Resident Philosopher at three separate gin mills in that city in the French Quarter and the Marigny, earning his stripes during two successive Mardi Gras seasons. Oh yeah, Rod's had Day Jobs working construction. Mostly renovations of old New Orleans structures, houses and a bar. Sometimes he designs Web sites for other people so that he can get his creative juices flowing the way he can't at a staid publication like this one. And he's been the instructor in Editing for Internet Publications at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Yugoslavia. Our Resident Philosopher is now looking for creative ways of re-inventing himself in the Valley of the Sun. He currently teaches a distance-learning courses in Reading and Math to at-risk students online. In his spare time, he chases women in the manner that a fly pursues a spider.
He continues to be committed to integrity, chastity and a dose of humility.
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