MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents"
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MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents" |
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Baltimore - 31 October, 1999 - This is one of those weeks when --- beginning this page at approximately 8:00 p.m. of our newly-reinstituted Eastern Standard Time --- I must ask myself if I am getting too old for this business. I took half an hour of the day off to go for a walk. The rest of time, sansshort breaks to pace, I have been sitting here.It would be quite enough if I didn't write for other Web publications daily, too. But producing copy, editing and translating the work of other writers and designing the pages eats hours of my life. Some weeks I do it with excitement and great joy, but some weeks I realize that I am an old man in a young man's game.
I would gladly trade some time with a book, sitting on the grass in a park, or doing absolutely nothing for the hours weekly production of this site demand. A break, after nearly ten years in general, and almost five on the Web, would be nice...
But then there is my damnable obsessiveness!
Here's an example: This week I allowed my part-time assistant to do a good portion of the graphics work in Photoshop that I would normally do completely myself. I did not tell him, but I am such a stickler for the "look and feel" here that I was disappointed with the results. (I know, I know, a good boss would explain the short-comings and I shall.) So I came to this deadline gritting my back teeth just a little. IF I had had the originals, instead of his final products, I would probably have taken another hour or so to re-do the work. And that is typical of how hard "letting go" and delegating to others can be with your baby.
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.
Meanwhile KEVIN CAREY will be here in B'more for a conference this week. His visit affords me yet another rare opportunity to meet one of the writers of The World's Magazine face-to-face (f2f) rather than exclusively via e-mail. As always, I have some trepidations.
The World's Magazine: g21.net
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I also know there is much Kevin and I can discuss. I do look forward to it.
Our arrangement amuses me. I was recommended to the Belvedere Hotel here where they have a restaurant called The Owl Bar. The amusement springs from the fact that the restaurant is called a "bar." The "official" bar of the Belvedere is located on the thirteenth floor (yes! the 13th Floor --- how typical of "Charm City.")
This latter detail could create confusion. Kevin knows that we are to meet at The Owl Bar, but --- before I reconnoitered the Belvedere --- I was under the mistaken impression that it was on the 13th Floor. Oops! Still, I'm sure everything will work out....
After reading Kevin Carey's DAY ONE submission for this week, I'm certain we'll have a lively conversation. The first thing I must do is castigate him for identifying me and the G21 with the Black Helicopter/Blue Beret movement of the United Nations to take over the world in their godless fashion!
What was he thinking?
Secular Humanist haters are already assembling below my apartment on the street. The heat from the torches has raised the temperature up here 10%.
ABOUT THIS ISSUE: This is another edition I recommend to you without qualification.
JENNIFER BLUE's newest CultureCast installment is wicked in its satirical slant on the prevalent neo-liberal Puritanism rampant here in the United States.
RASTISLAV DURMAN's report from Central Europe in G21 EUROPE calls this last week's political developments to task, and questions how we view "the news."
And music lovers will find a moveable feast of new excitement in this week's POWERSSOUND entry from BOB POWERS.
LIFE OF ROD: I was "that close" to going to back to Austin, Tejas, after over 20 years, for Thanksgiving. I still have lots of friends and former-coworkers there I was planning to re-visit.
But, come on! I'm a hermit by nature. I have more work than any one man deserves to keep me occupied... And then, time produces history and drama which I'm not sure I'm comfortable approaching anymore. Especially when it's not really my own...
So, I demur yet again from human contact and engaging the lives of other people. I like getting the stories with the cushion of safe distance.
I used to be considered a loyal and inveterate letter writer Back In the Day when I still used snail mail. I loved receiving letters, too. One of my favorite correspondents was my friend Terry Terrian, who now lives in Santa Rosa, CA.
When he was still in Austin, and I was in Healdsburg, CA, I used to look forward to his outrageously humorous letters with anticipation. This week I got a Deja Vufrom that time. I'll close this PubNote by sharing an e-mail he sent me about a proposed trip back to Europe next summer:
See I think we should --- first of all ---get our hands on a couple of credit cards (not our own) and when we are in London pick up a couple of motorcycles, either rent or buy. It dosen't matter 'cause we aren't going to use our real names. No way!Then haul ass to France in a hurry, just hang out long enough to charm a couple of lonely widow womenout of their shorts and a couple million Francs to boot!
It won't take too long believe me! And that's good cause: we will need to make relatively good time across the continent. (It may be that you will actually have to get married a time or twowhile we sojurn in Frogland, but nevair fear,no-one will realize your true identity except por moi(we will spread the story that you are a wealthy Ethiopian/Kenyan aristocrat with beaucoup plantations,har-har).
At this point it might be a good thing to ship our bikes by rail to Prague --- while we make a detour to Amsterdam and our Lebanese/Rastafarian Bud connection.
Rather than wasting our time getting loaded however, we will be making money when I trade some primo Bud for the Saturday nite specials that I will have picked up in S.F.for $25.00 each and I will trade each one for the equivilent of $400.00 in Bud. Pretty cool huh?
I know of the Rasta connection through my friend in Berlin from Wales, Gareth.The Rasta man runs his coffee shop/smoke house as some kind of front for the Russian mafia but we won't have to deal with those guy's at all, IF we play it smart and quick. Most of the Mafia are square business if you are square with them, but I've heard it said by several thieves in the recent past that ther just is no honor among thieves these days -so it is just better to get rid of the merchandise fast or else -fuck it! - on to Berlin and have Gareth move the stuff!
We can take in the sights and then on to Prague to pick up the bikes and some good poontang --- then off to Slovenia and Bosnia.
The reefer we score in Berlin will be worth $50.00 a gram by the time we get to Sarajevo and we will be REAL aristocracy by then.
It may be that you will have to stay at this Mafia safe house for a few days while in Berlin till I complete the deal-making --- but Not To Worry! --- I won't forget youand when it's over I'm sure you will not only make some new friends, but it will be an enriching experience you will long remember. I guess I'll close for now. Can't wait to go!
REMEMBER: Tell every single one of your friends about this Web site. Me mother thanks you, me father thanks you, me advertisers thank you.
Thanks for coming back this week."Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching..."
Rod
This is another Web site made on a Macintosh.
EDITORIAL CORRECTIONS: Where else would I make a mistake but on this page, my own? We ran the phrase "the hazards of getting ina..." for the entire week. "ina" should have read "in." G21 apologizes for the error.
ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was also a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services.
Rod is now a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he writes on web design and development issues every Thursday. He is principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviews technology issues five days a week. His opinions on the Info Age began appearing on MethodFive's HYPER technology newsletter in March.
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