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" |
| MY GLASS HOUSE | THE PREVIOUS EVENT | THE NEXT EVENT | THE WRITERS/GUIDELINES | |
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Baltimore - 14 November, 1999 - Welcome to my sand box, my analyst's couch, my casting couch, the little place in the magazine where Rod comes out to play.Yes, I have given the "Publisher's Note/DON'T READ ME FIRST!" page the Deep Six. I did that page for almost five years here on the Web and, frankly, I've decided that it was like a straight-jacket. It seemed redundant and out-of-place for me to talk about the magazine and what you would find in the newest weekly edition when the magazine does quite well at speaking for itself.
How interested were you in the internal workings of what went on here? NOT.
You want to know what's here? Go to the freakin' Table of Contents, why don't you? Right?
Besides, from talking to some our Loyal Readers, it was clear that most people came to that page to find out what was going on with me. You skimmed what I had to say about the magazine and rushed down to the latest dish on my life.
I live in a Glass House on the Web and always have. So today I accept it. I embrace it.
You will find some remnants from the old "Publisher's Notes" page here for a while because I have to ease myself out of that format. Give me time...
Besides, come LRs were gaining an uncanny ability not to see things right in front of them on a page.
Here's an example: I would always get a chuckle when someone who had just sent me an e-mail about the cover design, or some comment I had made at DON'T READ ME FIRST would then send me an e-mail recommending that I visit THE HUNGER SITE. DUH!"Wow, man, thanks for taking the time to tell me about this great feature of the Web...."
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.
Kevin, my part-time Assistant, and I get great yucks from events like that one.
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Event # 192: Give for What You Take
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He's settling into this routine and ocassionally joins me in a good laugh.
He has even adjusted well, and respectfully, to his first experience of my cyclical depressions. He knows now to telephone later if he drops by at the appointed time and my shutters are still closed. He knows to keep quiet when I am tapping away at some piece for deadline. And he has gotten adroit at reading when I might be willing to talk, look at a Web page he is reviewing as part of our research, or has a question about some software some company or other wants me to help them flack. It's been three months since he came to help me organize my life.
He shares jokes with me about how his girlfriend, Elizabeth, has set a minimum limit to the hours he should work here and how she is disappointed when I decline her invitations to come over to eat. It's okay. Guy-talk of the kind that is non-threatening and takes me away from my own preoccupations.
The latest topic has been my hassle with the United States State Department.
They have requested that I send them additional documents proving that I am indeed a real person. This is part and parcel, of course, of my being so far outside of the "normal" demographic. (A "Blank" as they called those characaters on the television program "Max Headroom.") The longer I live here on the Web, the less details of "normal" life I have to show for myself. So, in the best case scenario, the State Department wants me to prove that I did not spring from the head of Zeus, or from under a cabbage leaf, during the last year.
In the worst case scenario, they are screwing with me for what I have published this year about the war in Serbia. But let's not be paranoid. I don't believe my government would begrudge me the right to go to Belgrade and get a first-hand look at things... I'm a journalist. That's what journalists do.
What can you expect from this new page of mine? Any and everything I'm thinking about (outside of the box of my life as technology writer, Web publisher, yatta-yatta-yatta) at the time.
You can expect me to be personal and not professional. You can even expect me to be embarrassingly self-revelatory. I should have done this years ago.
Need-To-Know Basis
This was something which came across my desktop last week that I believe you Need To Know:Rod,
Next week is National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, November 14-20. For more information you can contact Julie Miles, director of NSCAHH National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness --NSCAH@aol.com or 800-664-8647x3324
As part of the week long series of events, students at several campuses around the country will be screening the documentary feature Taylor's Campaign (Narrated by Martin Sheen, Directed by Richard Cohen, Produced by Amy Ziering Kofman and Richard Cohen). For more information about how Taylor's Campaign or how to obtain a copy please log on to http://www.richardcohenfilms.com or keep reading.
Taylor's Campaign tells the story of a world of unforgettable, hardworking people living in cardboard lean-tos in Santa Monica, California. When new laws jeopardize their civil rights, a destitute former truck driver named Ron Taylor runs for city council as a voice for tolerance.
"Taylor's Campaign stands as the best documentary on homelessness in this era. It is an impressive work at the intersection of documentary filmmaking and social research, and an invaluable resource for teaching about poverty." Leon Anderson, Associate Professor at Ohio State University Co-author of DOWN ON THEIR LUCK
"Quiet, heartfelt... Taylor's Campaign is about civilized society's attempt to criminalize homelessness to the point where the people on the streets are no longer human beings." Joe Baltake, SACRAMENTO BEE
"Excellent documentary" Kevin Thomas, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
"Lively, compassionate...illuminating" David Sterritt, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
"THE GRAPES OF WRATH FOR TODAY" Terry Messman, STREET SPIRIT, Berkeley, CA
"Engrossing and funny... all the complexities surrounding homelessness emerge, often delivered with poignant and heartbreaking subtlety" Matthew Leising, Synapse, UCSF Medical School
"Fascinating...Because of its examination of the rights of all individuals, this film is highly recommended for all collections." Kellie Flynn, LIBRARY JOURNAL, Cook Memorial Public Library, Libertyville, Ohio
"Best film treatment of homelessness. Moving, fascinating, troubling" Howard Zinn, author of A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
"Taylor's Campaign challenges belief systems, beliefs about what is American, what is human and why we are here. It gives voice to the voiceless, to those whose basic rights have been stripped." Kym Meyer, Executive Director
National Association of Social Workers, Utah ChapterTaylor's Campaign can be ordered from Richard Cohen Films.
$125 colleges, academic libraries, businesses $ 39 public libraries, high schools Add $6 for shipping and handling. Tax in Ca.
Send your check or money order to
Richard Cohen Films,
Post Office Box 1012,
Venice, CA 90294-1012
rbc24@earthlink.net
(310)395-3549Things That Bother Me This Week
- Those idyits at Macy's.com sent me a robe with an "anti-theft" plastic attachment which I can't remove without ripping the fabric. When I call their Customer Care number I get an out-sourced group of fools who tell me a different story about how this problem is being handled every time. It's been three weeks of this garbage now and I'm cheesed off!
- Oh wow, I'm approaching ANOTHERHoliday Season without even a semblance of a Significant Other. Man, does that make me feel Special.
- Let's see now, I am living in Baltimore instead of Manhattan.... Wait a minute! Run that by me again. I'm living in Baltimore instead of Manhattan.... Yeah, B'more is cheap. AND?
- It's really tough to become a person in "the real world" again once you've moved to Cyberspace, huh?
- Wasn't there a FICTION writer in here somewhere, before there was a journalist and an editor? Correct me if I'm wrong.
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: The link to LONDON CALLING! on the cover page was incorrect for 24 hours last week. What a Dufus! Rod apologizes for the Acute Finger Failure.
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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